has spoken so well, that we beg leave to incorporate into our re-
port what he has said.

It has been objected that a Normal School and a College would
interfere with each other, and we are pointed to the Northern
States and to Europe, where Normal Schools are established sep-
arately from colleges, in support of the objection. In the
Northern States, this arises in a great measure from the fact, that
ladies are trained for the post of teachers, who have no access to
the High Schools and Colleges, founded for the education of young
men only; and on this account, as also in Philadelphia, Normal
Schools serve at the same time as a sort of High School or Col-
lege for young ladies. Another reason why Normal Schools are
usually kept distinct from Colleges, arises from the nature of the
country where they were first started, and whence they spread
over the rest of the civilized world.

Normal Schools for the education of Common School Teach-
ers, first originated in Germany, where they were adapted to the
wants of the people. From Germany they spread to Switzer-
land, France, Holland and England, and finally to America. The
original plan of these Institutions was generally retained, but it
was variously developed in different countries. It has been usu-
ally the case that when the importance of establishing Normal
Schools was felt in a country, competent men were sent out to
inspect such Institutions as they existed in other countries, and
from the experience thus gained, Normal Schools would be es-
tablished at home. So also from this country, Horace Mann and
Professor Bache, and more lately, Hon. Mr. Barnard, traveled in
Europe, for the purpose of examining the system of instruction
prevailing in its countries, and among other things of enquiring
into the workings of the Normal Schools. The Prussian schools
were usually found to be those most highly developed, and the
Prussian Normal Schools also were more particularly described.

Now, in Prussia, as in Germany, in general, Normal Schools
are seminaries for the education of teachers for their Common
Schools, which are of an entirely different character from the
Common and Primary Schools in America. In Germany, and
more or less, all over Europe, schools are divided into two sepa-
rate, and almost antagonistical bodies. In the southern part of
Germany, the one are called the Latin, and the other the German
School. In the German Schools, for which teachers are prepared
in the Normal Schools, there is little more taught beside the na-
tive tongue or the German branches, and the only thing in which
the Prussian Common Schools excel, is a careful training in the
native branches and in the rudiments of mathematics. The Ger-
man Common Schools are for the peasants in the country, and for
the poorer classes in the cities. A child enters them at the age
of seven or eight years, and leaves them at the age of fourteen.
They have no accomodation for scholars after they have passed

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