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7 and navy of the nation, the Normal School will accomplish for public instruction in Maryland. Tuition and the use of text books will be furnished free of charge. In addition to this it is desirable that some plan be adopted to aid meri- torious young men and women to pay their board while preparing them- selves for their work. This might be done by a loan, to be repaid in instalments from their salaries when engaged as teachers in the Schools. At the meeting of the State Board, December 27, I was directed to rent suitable rooms for the school, and to arrange for immediate work. This has been done. The apartments procured are not well adapted to the purpose, but such is the scarcity of buildings of every description in the City of Baltimore, that it may be considered fortunate that we have been even partially successful. It is hoped that the City Council at its next session will decide to co-operate with the State Board, and hasten the thorough organization of the Normal School, which will be of incalcu- able benefit to the Schools of the City as well as of the Counties. The first session will commence January 15, 1866, of which notice has been given by advertisement in the leading journals of Baltimore and of each County. REPORT OF PROF. NEWELL. In compliance with an order of the State Board of Education, I visited, in the months of November and December, the principal Normal Schools of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Connecti- cut. My object was to ascertain, by personal observation and inquiry, the history and organization of these Schools; their methods of instruc- tion and government; the difficulties they have mot with, and the results they have attained. It is now about forty years since some bold thinkers in the Eastern States began to preach a new and startling doctrine respecting Educa- tion :—that a person requires special training to make him a good teacher, just as a man needs special training in order to become a good lawyer, a good physician, or a good mechanic. This truth, so obvious and so important, met with such a reception as the world generally accords to great and simple truths, when first presented. Some derided it as a truism, some branded it as false; many accepted it in theory and re- jected it in practice. Fourteen years afterwards, in the year 1839, the State of Massachusetts, urged by one of her private dozens who offered to defray half the expense, set on foot, aa an experiment, three Schools for the training of teachers. These were the pioneer Normal Schools of the United States. Five years afterward, the example thus set by Massachusetts was followed by New York. A State Normal School was established by Connecticut in 1849, by Michigan in 1850, by Rhode Island in 1852,by New Jersey in 1855, by Illinois in 1857, by Pennsylvania and Minnesota in 1859, by Wisconsin in 1862, and by Maine in 1863. Of the thirteen original States, Maryland is the seventh that has engaged in this enterprise, and in point of time she is not far behind gome of her sisters. |
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Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1866
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