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All pupils, on their admission, will be required to sign a declaration of intention to teach in the schools of this State, as follows:

We the subscribers, do hereby declare that it is our intention to devote ourselves to the business of teaching in the Schools of this State, and that our object in resorting to this Normal School is the better to prepare ourselves for the discharge of this important duty.

Members of the B class are further required to sign an agreement to attend the Normal School two terms before teaching in the schools of this State. These terms need not be consecutive.

All candidates for admission must pass a thorough examination in the following studies, viz: Reading, Spelling, Penmanship, Elementary Grammar, Local Geography, and Arithmetic through Compound Numbers and Vulgar Fractions. Students may enter an advanced class by passing an examination in all the preceding studies of the course.

Examinations for admission will be held on the Monday previous to the opening of each term, commencing at 9 A. M., at which time all persons desiring to be members of the school during the ensuing term, are required to be present.

Attendance and Expenses.

Applicants for admission are not received for less than an entire term, nor after its commencement, unless they have been detained by sickness or actual service as teachers.

Those desiring to enter the school are required to present themselves for examination one day before the opening of the term.

Every student pays two dollars at the beginning of the summer term, and three dollars at the beginning of the winter term, as an entrance fee.

Board and rooms can be obtained in the city at reasonable rates.

Many students hire rooms and furnish their own board, thus reducing their entire expenses; but students of different sexes, who are members of different families, will not be permitted to occupy rooms in the same house.

The school has a small, though well selected library, to which its members have access.

The books are intended mainly for reference, as the regular studies of the course give little time for general reading.

Terms and Vacations.

The terms of the Normal School commence, respectively, on the second Tuesday of April, and the first Tuesday of October, and continue, the former sixteeen weeks, and the latter twenty-four weeks.

A vacation of three weeks follows the winter term, and one of nine weeks the summer term. The exercises of the school are suspended during the winter holidays.'

The last week of each term is devoted to the public examination of classes. The regular exercises of graduation take place at the close of the winter term, on the third Tuesday of March.

THE EXPERIMENTAL DEPARTMENT.

The Board of Education, in establishing the Model or Experimental School, had in view two prominent objects, viz: to give to advanced classes in the Normal School, practice in actual teaching, and to furnish a course of study preparatory to the regular course.

To attain the first object, each student in every E class is required to take charge of one daily recitation throughout an entire term, under a system of careful supervision and weekly reports. It is found that teachers who have been disciplined by several years training in the Normal department, are well qualified for the work of instruction in the Model School. The greater number of classes, however, are instructed by thorough and competent teachers, who are regularly employed for the purpose, or by members of the Normal School Faculty.

COURSE OF STUDY.

Previous to 1863, the course of study embraced the ordinary branches taught in Normal Schools, with professional instruction illustrating the method of teaching the elementary English branches; lectures on different topics relating to education, the organization and management of schools; and practice in teaching in the Model School.

In 1863, the Board of Education made some modifications in both the Normal and Model Departments, so that the programme of instruction in the Normal School was made to comprise two courses of study, and the Model or Experimental School was graded in four distinct Departments. The course of study pursued in the Normal School is as follows:

Normal Training Course.

First Term.-A Class.

1. Concrete Arithmetic; Mental and Practical Arithmetic.

2. Object Lessons in Geography; Synthetical Geography and Map Drawing. 3. Drawing of Lines, Plane and Solid Geometrical Figures and Leaf Forms. 4. Reading, Spelling by object lessons, Penmanship, Composition by object lessons, Elementary Philosophy.

Second Term.-B Class.

1. Higher Arithmetic, Method of Teaching Arithmetic.

2. Synthetical Grammar, Composition.

3. Drawing of Fruits, Flowers and Animals.

4. Elocution, Vocal Music, with method of Teaching it.

Third Term.-C Class.

1. Analytical Grammar, with method of Teaching.

2. Physical Geography, with method of Teaching.

3. Object Lessons in Common Things, Colors, Geometrical Figures, Botany, Zoology and Properties of Bodies. Lectures on Primary Teaching. 4. Attendance and Practice in Experimental School.

The Higher Normal Course.

Algebra, Geometry, Natural Philosophy, Botany, Chemistry; Latin and Greek (for young men), Latin and German or French (for young ladies), Intellectual Philosophy and Vocal Music, Lectures on the numerous topics embraced under the Laws of Development, the Philosophy of Instruction, and the Organization and Management of Graded Schools.

COURSE OF STUDY IN EXPERIMENTAL DEPARTMENT.
Primary Department.

First Grade. Facts in Natural Science; Primary Colors; Botany-Trees, Shrubs, Bushes, Vines, Flowers, Grains, Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts, Seeds; Physiology-Human Body; Natural Philosophy-Air, Water, Rain, Snow, Hail, Vapor, Steam, Dew, Fog, Cloud, Sun, Moon, Stars; Mathematics-Counting by Objects, Time Table, Drawing Straight Lines; Language—Words, Things before Names, Moral Stories, Concert Verses, Gymnastics and Singing.

Second Grade. Botany Continued-Simple Leaf Forms and Flower Forms; Trees and Wood; Zoology-Animal, Mammals; 1, Two Handed; 2, Four Handed; 3, Flesh-Eating; 4, Cud-Chewing; 5, Thick-Skinned; 6, Gnawers; Color, Form, Size, Habits, Food, Uses and Speed of Domestic Animals; Natural Philosophy-Color, Scale of Tints and Shades of Primary Simple Properties of Matter; Mathematics-Counting by Objects, Addition, Long Measure by Objects, Drawing Angles and Plane Figures; Language-Webb's Primary Reader, Sounds of Vowels, Combination with Consonants, Moral Stories, Concert Verses, Maxims, &c., Singing and Gymnastics.

Third Grade. Botany Continued-Leaf and Flower Forms, Compound Leaves, Parts of the Flower, Root Forms; Zoology-Birds-1, Flesh-Eaters, 2, Perchers; 3, Climbers; 4, Scratchers; 5, Waders; 6, Swimmers; Natural Philosophy-Simple Experiments, Secondary Colors; Mathematics-Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division Tables by Objects, Analysis of Numbers, Drawing Plane Figures, Table of Miscellaneous Things; Language-Webb's First Reader finished, Spelling by Sound, Concert Verses, Singing.

Intermediate.

First Grade. Robinson's Rudiments to Fractions; Natural Philosophy by Objects; Second Reader, 45 pages; Spelling and Definitions; Elementary Geography begun; Singing.

Second Grade. Robinson's Rudiments finished; Swift's Natural Philosophy entire; Geography continued; Second Reader; Spelling and Definitions.

Third Grade. Davies' Arithmetic to Decimals; Wood's Object Lessons; Botany, Elementary Geography finished; Third Reader, Spelling, Singing, &c. Grammar School.

First Grade. Sill's Synthesis, Davies' Arithmetic continued, Fourth Reader, Spelling, Composition, Declamation, Penmanship, Book-keeping, Drawing, Vocal Music, Physical Geography.

Second Grade.

.

Analysis, Arithmetic finished, Zoology, Reading, Spelling, Composition, Declamation, Penmanship, Book-keeping, Vocal Music, Physical Geography.

Third Grade.

History, Entomology, Algrebra begun, Latin or German,

Composition, Map Drawing, with Geography.

High School.

First Grade. Algebra finished, Latin, German or French, Botany (summer term), Physical Geography.

Second Grade. Physiology and Astronomy, Geometry begun, Latin, German or French, Composition.

Third Grade. Chemistry, Geometry, Rhetoric, Latin, German or French.

There are Teachers' Classes connected with many of the Union schools and academies of Michigan, in which teachers are educated for the schools in the vicinity of these institutions.

RESULTS.

The whole number of graduates from the organization of the school until 1867, was 192, of whom 82 per cent. had taught one year or more, 74 per cent. two years or more, and 63 per cent. most of the time since graduating. The average length of time those had taught who graduated before 1863, and were teaching in 1866, was eight years. Forty-seven per cent. of the graduates were still teaching in 1866. The State Board of Education, in one of their last reports, say:

66 The Normal School continues in its course of eminent usefulness and success. The value of this school to the State cannot be easily estimated. Besides all it accomplishes in the matter of training teachers for the public schools, the good it does by the exhibition it affords of a school almost perfect in its organization and work, and the general stimulation it lends to the general study of educational science and art are producing marked and valuable results throughout our entire school system."

NORMAL SCHOOLS IN IOWA.

NORMAL DEPARTMENT IN STATE UNIVERSITY.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT.

IN 1849, while Iowa was a territory, a law was enacted, establishing three Normal Schools, one at Andrews, Jackson County, one at Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, and the third at Mt. Pleasant, Henry County. There was an appropriation of five hundred dollars per annum to each, to be paid from the income of the University fund, which at that time scarcely had more than a nominal existence. Buildings were erected and schools opened at Andrews and Oskaloosa, but they failed to receive the expected assistance from the University fund. The schools languished, died, and in 1855, the appropriation was withdrawn. No effort has since been

made to revive them.

On the admission of Iowa into the Union, Congress donated seventy-two sections of land to aid in the establishment of a State University. The law under which the University was subsequently organized, contained a provision that it should annually educate fifty common school teachers; in subsequent acts, this was changed so as to require merely a Normal Department, which is now the law.

The Normal, in common with other departments of the University, opened on the third Wednesday of September, 1855. During the first year, the Normal Department was under the care and instruction of J. Van Valkenburg, Esq., and during that year, there were about seventy different students in attendance; many of whom, however, were quite young and elementary, giving it more the character of a primary, than of a professional school.

In June, 1856, D. Franklin Wells was appointed Mr. Valkenburg's successor, and in September, assumed control of the department. All students not prepared to enter upon a professional course for want of age or attainments, were excluded. After applying this sifting process, only three students were left who entered on the first day of the term. The number gradually increased, and by the close of the year reached forty. The first class of five graduated June, 1858.

From 1858 to 1860, all the departments of the University were closed except the Normal. For several years it had its own corps of teachers, and was for all practical purposes a Normal School. Those are considered the most successful years of the Normal department. After 1860, the classes of this department were gradually combined with classes in the University when pursuing the same study.

From 1858 to 1864 inclusive, the Normal department included more

than half of the students in the University. In the latter year, the Normal students numbered 257. In the same year, the first year of the Normal course was transferred to the Preparatory department, which changed the relative numbers.

From its organization to 1867, upwards of 1,000 teachers received a full or partial course of study and training in the Normal department.

In 1866, after ten years of service, Mr. Wells retired from control of this department, and in 1867, Prof. S. N. Fellows was elected to the place. In the spring of 1857, a Model School was opened in connection with the department, which was continued until 1866, when it was abolished. It was always very successful, and for the last two years of its existence had two departments and two permanent teachers, one of whom was from the Oswego Training School. In 1865 and '66, the attendance was 190.

The suspension of the Model School, in the opinion of the ablest educators of the State, very seriously impaired the usefulness of the Normal department. Practical training in the art of teaching and governing a school, is considered indispensable to the highest efficiency of Normal instruction in Iowa.

ADMISSION OF STUDENTS.

The requirements for admission, are, that young men must have attained the age of seventeen years, and young ladies that of fifteen years, and all must sustain a satisfactory examination in Reading, Writing, Orthography, English Grammar, Geography, and Practical Arithmetic through fractions. All students are required, on their admission, to give a declaration of their intention to engage in the business of teaching, as follows:

"We, the undersigned, hereby declare that it is our intention to engage in the business of teaching in the schools of Iowa, and that our object in resorting to the Normal Department of the State University, is the better to prepare ourselves for the discharge of this important duty."

Two students from each county, when recommended by the County Superintendent, are received free of charge. Others will be received upon the payment of the incidental fee of five dollars per term.

COURSE OF STUDY.

The course of study includes the common and higher branches of liberal English education, together with lectures on the theory and practice of teaching, method of instruction and graded schools, an examination of the school system of Iowa, and preparation and practice in the use of object lessons.

The members of this department, when pursuing studies taught in other departments of the University, are combined with the classes in those departments. They also share all the advantages of the library, cabinet and apparatus, which are enjoyed by students of the classical and scientific courses.

The following general courses of lectures are open to students in the Normal Department:

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