Part 7 (1/2)
When Massachusetts was settled there were no truly popular institutions in the world, for there was really no belief in popular rights And why should those be encouraged to think who have no right to act? The principle that every man is to take a part in the affairs of the cos seems to be the foundation of the doctrine that every man should be educated to think for hieneral education are the natural results of the principles of huuish the people and political systeeable and changing, but institutions are inflexible; therefore these latter often outlast the ideas in which they originated, or the ideasin other bodies or forms
Institutions are the visible forms of ideas, but they are useful only while those ideas are living in the minds of men If an institution is suffered to remain after the idea has passed away, it e people Such are monastic establishland, as an institution of religion and government, to all classes of dissenters; such arein Europe, and so idea, froence is necessary to popular virtue and liberty This idea she has expressed in various ways; the end it proht by various es, corammar schools, academies, and at last the Normal School
The _institution_ only of the Normal School is new; the _idea_ is old
The Normal system is but a better expression of an idea partially concealed, but nevertheless to be found in the college, grammar school and academy of our fathers Nor have we accepted the institution so readily froe of its results in other countries, as from its manifest fitness to urate a new idea, but only to clothe an old one again, so that it ence and virtue
And this is our duty to-day
The proprieties of this occasion would have been better observed, had his excellency, Governor Washburn, found it convenient to deliver the address, which, at a late ree aware of the nature and extent of his public duties, and can, therefore, appreciate the necessity which demands relief from some of them
Massachusetts has founded four Normal Schools, and at the close of the present century she may not have established as many more, for she now satisfies the just demands of every section of her territory, and presents the benefits of this syste we here set apart, and the schoolinaugurate to the service of learning, are to be regarded as the coinal plan of the state, and any future extension will depend upon the success of the Norenerations of reat faith that the Normal system, in itself and in its connections, will realize the cherished idea of our whole history; and if so, it will be extended until every school is supplied with a Noreneral interest; but to the city of Salem, and the county of Essex, it is specially i established in other parts of the state; but some compensation is now to be made to you, in the experience and ient labor sheds light upon the path of the laborer, and, though the direct benefits of this systees from the experience of similar institutions in other places will now inure to you
The city of Saleenerously contributed a suer even than that appropriated by the state itself This bounty determined the location of the school, but determined it fortunately for all concerned
Salem is one of the central points of the state; and in this respect no other town in the vicinity, however well situated, is a competitor
Pupils may reside at their homes in Newburyport, Lynn, Lawrence, Haverhill, Gloucester and Lowell, or at any intermediate place, and enjoy the benefit of daily instruction within these walls This is a great privilege for parents and pupils; and it could not have been so well secured at any other point Here, also, pupils and teachers may avail themselves of the libraries, literary institutions and cabinets of this ancient and prosperous town These are no coes
We are wiser and better for the presence of great nuh we may never knohat they contain We see how much perseverance and labor have accomplished, and are sensible that what has been reat libraries, we realize how the works of the aotten, while we cannot fail to be impressed with the value of the truth, that the only labor which brings a certain reward is that perforent and refined centre of an intelligent and prosperous population; and we y, as to attribute to it the united advantages of city and country, without a large share of the privations of the one, or the vices of the other Of the four Normal Schools, this is, unquestionably, the s We, therefore, ask for the concurrence of the public in the judgment which has established it in this city If it shall be the fortune of the government to assemble a body of instructors qualified for their stations, there will then rees should not be fully enjoyed
The Nor, and only because it is an auxiliary to the common schools can it be deee take young h schools, and furnish them with additional aids for the business of life; but the Normal School is truly the helper of the common schools It receives its pupils from them, fits these pupils for teachers, and sends them back to superintend where a few months before they were scholars The Normal Schools are sustained by the common schools; and these latter, in return, draw their best nutriment from the former This institution stands with the common school; it is as truly popular, as really democratic in a just sense, and its claim for support rests upon the same foundation
In Massachusetts we have abandoned the idea, never, I think, general, that instruction in the art of teaching is unnecessary
The Normal School is, with us, a necessity; for it furnishes that tuition which neither the coe can These institutions were once better adapted to this service than now There has been a continual increase of academic studies, until it has become necessary to establish institutions for special purposes; and of these the Normal School is one Its object is definite The _true_ Nor; and, in this respect, it must be confessed we have failed, sadly failed, to realize the ideal of the system It is not a substitute for the coh ree the public, have been inclined thus to treat it There should be no instruction in the departh or low, except what is incidental to the one so far in the wrong course as to suggest that not only the coiven in the languages and the higher reat a departure this would be from the just idea of the Normal School Yet circuovernh never in theory, from the true system
It so happens that much tiht to be thoroughly mastered by the pupil before he enters the Norins to acquire the art of teaching what he has not himself learned
Such is the state of our schools that we are obliged to accept as pupils those who are not qualified, in a literary point of view, for the post of teachers By sending better teachers into the public schools, you will effectually aid in the removal of this difficulty The Norh school, acadee
Nor do we ask for any sys to those institutions He is no friend of education, in its proper signification, who patronizes solects all others We have no se which can be considered useless, and he only is a true friend who aids and encourages any and all as he has opportunity
What is popularly known as learning is to be acquired in the coe, as heretofore The Nor and arith and arithmetic So of all the ele a subject cannot be acquired without at the sae of the subject itself, the pupil will always leave the Norrounded than ever before in the ele It is not, however, to be expected that complete success will be realized here more than elsewhere; yet it is well to elevate the standard of ader part of the exercises may be devoted to the le should be perpetual and in the right direction First, elevate your common schools so that the education therehere If the Normal School and the public schools shall each and all do their duty, candidates for admission will be so well qualified in the branches required, that the art of teaching will be the only art taught here When this is the case, the tier number of persons may be annually qualified for the station of teachers
Next, let the committees and others interested in education make special efforts to fill the chairs of your hall with young women of promise, who are likely to devote themselves to the profession It is, however, iainst one fate that happens to all, or nearly all, the young woraduated at our Normal Schools But this remark is not made publicly, lest some anxious ones avail themselves of your bounty as a means to an end not contemplated by the state
The house you have erected is not so much dedicated to the school as to the public; the institution here set up is not sowomen who may become pupils, as for the benefit of the public which they represent The appeal is, therefore, to the public to furnish such pupils, in number and character, that this institution may soon and successfully enter upon the work for which it is properly designed
But the character and value of this school depend on the quality of its teachers hly instructed, not only in the branches taught, but in the art of teaching theht to have attained much that the pupil is yet to learn; if he has not, he cannot utter words of encourageh to knohat is contained in the text-book; the pupil should know that, at least; the teacher should know a great deal more A person is not qualified for the office of teacher when he has ht to instruct others until he has mastered the subject
Text-books help us a little on the road of learning; but, by and by, whatever our pursuit or profession, we leave them behind, or else content ourselves with a subordinate position Practical men have made book-farmers the subject of ridicule; and there is some propriety in this; for he is not a , out of and beyond the books which treat of it