STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, BRIDGEWATER. ALBERT G. BOYDEN, PRINCIPAL. INSTRUCTORS. ALBERT GARDNER BOYDEN, A.M., Educational Study of Man, including the Study of the Body, the Mind, Science and Art of Teaching, School Organization, School Government, School Laws of Massachusetts and History of Education; ARTHUR CLARKE BOYDEN, A.M., Vice-principal, Natural Science, History and Civil Polity; FRANnz Heinrich Kirmayer, Ph D., Latin, Greek, French, German; WILLIAM DUNHAM JACKSON, Physical Science, Mathematics, English Literature; FRANK FULLER MURDOCK, Geography, Physiology and Hygiene, Physical Training; HARLAN PAGE SHAW, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Industrial Laboratory; FRANK ELLIS GURNEY, Classics, Astronomy; ISABELLA SARA HORNE, Vocal Culture and Reading; CLARA COFFIN PRINCE, Vocal Music, Algebra, Geometry; FANNY AMANDA COMSTOCK, Arithmetic, Rhetoric, Botany; EMILY CURTIS FISHER,* Mildred Lee HUNTER, Elementary English, Grammar, Geometry; ELIZABETH HELEN PERRY, Drawing; LILLIE EVELINE MERRITT, Assistant in Drawing; BESSIE LOUISE BARNES, Assistant Instructor in Physical Training; Model School, Lillian AndeRSON HICKS, Principal, MARTha May Burnell, Mary FAIRBANKS BOSWORTH, MARTHA WILLIAMS ALDEN, MARY LUCINDA WALLACE, SARAH WHEATON TURNER, ALICE VICTORIA WINSLOW, FLORA MAY STUART; Kindergarten, ANNE MORGAN WELLS, FRANCES PLYMPTON KEYES. The fifty-sixth year of the school has been one of continued prosperity. The school began its fifty-fifth year in September, 1894, with the largest entering class in its history, and with the largest enrolment of students. Notwithstanding the business depression of the past year, the number in the entering class for September, 1895, and the enrolment have been only four less than in the preceding year. There has been no change of teachers in the normal department and only one change in the training school. Miss Abbie S. Beals, teacher of the third grade, resigned in March, and Miss Sarah W. Turner was appointed her successor. The teachers in both departments have done their work with great fidelity and earnestness. • Away on leave of absence. The training school, which is in the normal school building, is the public school of the central district of the town, with pupils from several of the other districts. It numbers 362 pupils, including two classes in the kindergarten, four primary and five grammar grades. Each room has a regular teacher, who is responsible for good work by her pupils. The normal students are eager for observation and practice, and derive very great benefit from this school. They observe for a time, serve as assistants in all the different subjects, and then are given full charge of some parts of the work; as far as possible, they are placed in the conditions of the regular teacher. The calls for graduates of the school continue to be more than can be supplied. Many of the last graduating class, which was a large one, were engaged to teach before they graduated, and very few were unemployed at the end of the summer vacation. The school rarely passes a day without visitors, parents, teachers, superintendents and others, who come to observe its work and study its method of training and equipment. Teachers often stay from one to four weeks for this purpose. During last spring correspondence was had with the governor of the State of Coahuila, Mexico, in which he asked for the admission of five young men, graduates from the normal school of that State, to take the two years' course in this school. He said: "We have observed with great interest the rapid growth and prosperity of your country, and believe this is due to the better public education of your people. We desire to send these young men to you that they may be better fitted to teach in our State. After examining many catalogues, we have selected your school for this purpose." They entered Bridgewater in September, accompanied by Prof. Andrés Osuna, one of the instructors in their normal school, who also takes a two years' course in the school. The appropriation made by the Legislature of 1895 has been expended for the purposes for which it was granted. A field two acres in area just across the street from the school lot has been purchased, in one corner of which a brick steam laundry has been built. The remainder of the field is used for athletic sports and also as a playground for the children of the training school. A new residence hall, named Tillinghast Hall, in honor of the first principal of the school, has been built upon the school lot. It is a beautiful building, built of brick, with marble trimmings, including thirty-seven rooms, well furnished, two single beds in a room, with bath and toilet rooms, heated by steam, lighted by electric lamps and thoroughly ventilated. Normal Hall, which was built in 1869 and enlarged in 1873, has been greatly improved by the removal of the laundry from the basement, the enlargement of the cooking department and the dining room, and the conversion of six rooms and the corridor on the first floor of the east wing into one large reception room. The school now has three residence halls: Normal Hall, including sixty-three residence rooms, the office, family rooms, reception rooms, hospital, dining room and work rooms; Woodward Hall, including sixteen residence rooms; and Tillinghast Hall, including thirty-six residence rooms, and a parlor, to accommodate teachers and students. One wing of Normal Hall is occupied by the young men. The special needs of the school at the present time are the following 1. The renewal of the plumbing of Normal Hall, which has been in use since its erection. 2. Hard pine floors in the rooms on the ladies' side of Normal Hall, to take the place of carpets. 3. Painting the plastered walls and ceilings of the school building, which have been in use five years without any paint. 4. Painting the plastered walls and ceilings of Tillinghast Hall. 5. Iron and plaster partitions in the attic of the school building, which is three hundred and ten feet in length, without any dividing walls, for protection in case of fire. The statistics of the school for the year ending Aug. 31, 1896, are as follows: Number of students for the year, 252, 49 men, 203 women; number in the entering class, 114, 12 men, 102 women; number of graduates for the year, 90, -20 men, 70 women; number receiving certificates for special courses, 4. The whole number of students who have been members of the school is 4,227,-1,207 men, 3,020 women. The number who have |