REPORT.

Your Committee, appointed with especial reference to the ex-
amination of the subject of the foundation of a Normal or Train-
ing School, for the instruction and preparation of teachers for the
various Primary Schools and Academies throughout the State,
and the appointment of a General Superintendent of Public
Schools, in connection with St. John's College, beg leave to re-
port that they have given the most careful consideration to the
subject, and have availed themselves of every source of informa-
tion within their reach, and most respectfully to offer, for your
consideration, the following result of their labors.

In order that the whole matter may be laid before you in as
connected and clear a manner as possible, we propose to reduce
what we have to say on the subject, to the following distinct
heads.

The first point in natural order, is the necessity for such a
Training School for Teachers in our Public Schools. It is very
certain that without competent teachers, the best meant and most
wisely devised plans for general education, will serve no useful
end. The most, liberal endowments, the most admirably con-
structed and judiciously located buildings, the most carefully
selected books, will all utterly fail of their purpose, without the
well trained teacher to give life and power to the whole. If the
whole of education consisted in sharpening the intellectual powers,
the preparing men for a contest for wealth, the training them for
a successful competition for the honors of the world, it would be
a matter of the highest moment, that the trainer be well fitted for
his task, be able fully to understand, and faithfully to execute
his mission. But since the cultivation of the affections, the nur-
ture of truthfulness, patience, self restraint, purity and human
sympathy, are essential elements of all true education, we cannot
find language strong enough to express the importance of the