rtS' ,- /iv J'Ji ^i,t \£ 3 1924 074 297 098 In compliance with current copyright law, Ridley's Book Bindery, Inc. produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39, 48-1984 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 1991 H\ Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924074297098 > O O r- r- ro O m AN HISTORICAL SKETCH State Normal College AT ALBANY, N. Y. HISTORY OF ITS GRADUATES FOR FIFTY YEARS 1844— 1894 PUBLISHED BY BRANDOW PRINTING COMPANY ALBANY, N. Y. p M M HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE STATE NORMAL COLLEGE Albany, N. Y. covering a period of fifty years IS early as 1795 ^^e legislature of the state of New York passed a law establishing comrfion schools throughout the state, and from that time until the present the interests of education have received prominent atten- tion. The subject of better trained teachers was often discussed, and in 1826 Governor De Witt Clinton, in his annual message, recommended that there be established a seminary for the education of teachers in the useful branches of knowledge. No decisive steps, however, were taken until May 7, 1844, when the legislature passed an act for the establishment of a normal school in the county of Albany. The same act appropriated a sum of money for its support and placed the entire supervision and government in the hands of the superintendent of common schools and the regents of the uni- versity. The following executive committee was at once appointed : Col. Samuel Young, Rev. Dr. Alonzo Potter, Hon. Gideon Hawley, Francis Dwight and Rev. Dr. Wm. H. Campbell. June I, 1844, the committee met for the first time and organized with Colonel Young as chairman and Francis Dwight as secretary. Hon. Gideon Hawley was appointed a committee to confer with the common council of Albany with reference to a proper building for the service of the school, the same to be supplied by the city. In the following August the mayor and recorder of Albany pro- posed on behalf of the city that the latter lease the depot building on State street and Maiden lane, recently vacated by the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company, and that the city furnish five hundred dollars to help put it into proper condition for school purposes and place it at the service of the school for a period of five years. The proposition was accepted. Arrangements were rapidly completed and it was decided to open the first term December 18, 1844. It was agreed that tuition should be free; books should be furnished to the pupils without charge; that the male pupils should receive one dollar per week and the female pupils one dollar and a quarter per week to help pay their board. On December 18 the school opened under most favorable circumstances, David Perkins 4 Historical Sketch of the Page, of Newburyport, Mass., having been engaged on the recom- mendation of Horace Mann as the first principal. Twenty-nine pupils were in attendance and before the term closed the number was more than one hundred. A janitor was appointed, but was kept only one term, students being afterward appointed and paid for doing the work. During the early history of the school the number of pupils was limited to two from each assembly district, or twice the number of members of assembly. In 1846 the Experimental school was established with William F. Phelps at its head. Thus entered upon its existenct the first Normal school of the state, whose graduates now number about four thousand. On January i, 1848, the school sustained an irreparable loss in the death of its principal, David P. Page. He died at the early age of thirty-seven, but left an impression upon the world which is not yet effaced. His book, " Page's Theory and Practice of Teach- ing," is widely known and read even yet. As a man and as a teacher no words of praise can do him justice. In him the instinct for knowledge and the desire for imparting it to others was suffi- ciently strong to overpower all obstacles and to carry him to the highest eminence in his profession. His life was early sacrificed in the cause he loved so well, and the Normal school firmly established was the result. January 12, 1848, George R. Perkins, LL. D., professor of mathe- matics from the organization of the school, was appointed principal. He at once undertook the task of securing a new site and building. The vacant lot in the rear of the old State Hall on the corner of State and Lodge streets, was selected and in April, 1848, the legislature granted an appropriation of $r5,ooo for the new build- ing; $10,000 more was appropriated before its completion. July 31, 1849, the new building was first used. The school had now a permanent home and it was believed that henceforth no question would arise as to the necessary appropriation for its support. Principal George R. Perkins, LL. D., resigned July 8, 1852, to take charge, as mathematician, of the calculations to be made in the process of consolidating the various lines of railroad between Albany and Buffalo, to form the N. Y. C. R. R. He had charge of building the Dudley Observatory. He became deputy state engineer and surveyor. He was, January 30, 1862, unanimously elected regent of the university. His death occurred in 1876 at New Hartford, Conn. Samuel B. Woolworth, LL.D., was elected principal September 20, 1852. He had been many years in charge of the Homer, N.Y., Academy, in which he had made a reputation known and acknowl- edged throughout the state. He was a potential factor in the school for twenty-eight years, for when he resigned, February i, 1856, it was to become secretary of the board of regents and so a member of the executive committee in charge of the school. He thus remained the most active man in its management until his lamented death in i88o. David H. Cochran, A.M., Ph.D., was elected principal February I, 1856. Formerly principal at Fredonia, N. Y., he came to State Normal College 5 the Normal school in 1854 as teacher of the natural sciences. Dr. Cochran brought to his new position all the energy, all the graces and all the influences that had made his preceding career a marked success, that made his administration here a marked suc- cess. In his conduct of this school he was aided by a faculty mostly of his own selection. For eight years Dr. Cochran made the school a power for good. He was invited to the presidency of the Polytechnic Institute and resigned from the Normal school September 19, 1864, and with great reluctance and many words of praise the executive committee accepted his resignation. Oliver Arey, A.M., was elected principal December 2, 1864. Prof?s Arey had made the Buffalo Central school celebrated and, in creating it, had built up his own reputation. He remained in charge of the Normal school until January 31, 1867. In accepting his resignation the executive committee expressed to him their appreciation of the fidelity with which he had discharged his duties and the assurance of their best wishes for his future. Joseph Alden, D.D., LL. D., was elected president April 24, 1867 He had spent a long life as an educator and writer on educational subjects. He had been a professor in Williams college and presi- dent of Jefferson college. He gave abundantly to the school of the fruits of his long training and rich experience. He elevated mental training and intellectual development. He was wise and sagacious in selecting men and women for the work they could do. For fifteen years he directed the affairs of the school. Wise, earnest, faithful — when he resigned and insisted that his resignation be accepted, the executive committee had not words to express their regret at their loss and of praise for him who had done so much for the school. His resignation closed fifteen years of continuous service in the institution as its head. His death occurred in 1885 at New York. Edward P. Waterbury, Ph.D., LL. D., a member of the executive committee, was elected president of the school June 22, 1882. For the first time in its history the head of the school was one of its own graduates. Dr. Waterbury spent the earlier part of his life as a teacher and then for fourteen years preceding his election as president was connected with the Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Company. It was during his presidency and largely through his efforts that the present building was secured. The executive com- mittee applied to the legislature in 1883 for a small appropriation to make repairs upon the school building in Lodge street. The finance committee of the senate having this application under consideration deemed it wise to make an examination of the build- ing, which two of their number personally inspected. They became convinced that it was entirely unfit for the purposes of the school, and at no distant day it would become dangerous. The outcome was an act passed .by the legislature May 29, 1883, appropriating $125,000, or so much of that sum as might be necessary, for the erection of a new State Normal School building in the city of Albany and for the purchase of a site for the same. The present site on Willett street was chosen and a building, well equipped and 6 Historical Sketch of the modern in all its appointments, was erected. The school entered its new home in September, 1885. Dr. Waterbury was not long permitted to enjoy the result of his labor, for he was stricken with disease and died August 28, 1889. He was admirably fitted by learning, experience and executive ability for the position he filled. October 29, 1889, William J. Milne, Ph.D., LL.D., the eighth president of the school, entered upon his duties. Dr. Milne has been all his life engaged in the profession of teaching. He came to Albany from Geneseo, N. Y., where in 1871 he organized the State Normal and Training school and for eighteen years remained at its head. Within one year from the time he accepted the presi- dency of the Albany Normal school the institution became chartered as a Normal college and started upon a new career. "The design of the college is to give instruction in the science and art of teach- ing. It is a purely professional institution, consequently nothing is studied or taught in it which does not bear directly upon the business of teaching. The courses of instruction include philosophy of education, history of education, systems of education, school economy, methods of teaching and such other subjects as are immediately related to the professional work of the teacher." The following abstract from annual reports made to the legisla- ture at the time the charter was changed, shows the purpose of the institution from its organization to the present as a training school for teachers : The legislature of the state of New York on May 7, 1844, passed an act for the establishment of a normal school in the county of Albany. The same act appropriated a sum of money for its support and prescribed with definiteness the character and scope of the work to be done in it. The act required that the funds be expended in providing the students in attendance with instruc- tion in the science of education and the art of teaching, together with sufficient practice in the work of teaching children to indicate their fitness to become instructors of the young. It was expected, also, that the graduates of the Normal school would become teachers in the common schools of the state. From the beginning the instruc- tion given in the school was chiefly academic in its character. The teachers were chosen because of their superiority as scholars rather than for their acquaintance with the most modern or most rational methods of instruction. The circulars issued by the school clearly show that the work of the instruct- ors during the first years of its existence was largely the same as was done in the academies and high schools of the state, notwithstanding that the statute authorizing the establishment of the school by implication forbade the study of any subjects not bearing directly upon the science and art of teaching. The amount of attention paid to methods of teaching a part of the work of the school steadily increased until, during the decade just past, every student who graduated from the school received some instruction in the proper methods of teaching the subjects he pursued. The conditions of admission to the school were so low, however, that students of very meagre attainments in scholarship were permitted to enter the classes and necessarily, therefore, a large part of the time and energy of the teachers was spent in teaching the subjects usually taught in the union schools, academies and high schools. The executive committee which had charge of the Normal school became convinced that the efficiency of the institution could be increased very much by restricting the instruction to that which was contemplated by the legisla- ture at the time of the establishment of the school, and it was decided, there- fore, that at the beginning of the fall term in the year i8qo a change in the conditions of admission should be made which would in a brief time make the work purely professional. Although there is a necessity at the present time for State Normal College 7 normal schools where instruction may be given in the ordinary subjects of the public schools, the committee was thoroughly convinced that there was no need for such an institution in the city of Albany ; and they accordingly decided that after February, 1892, the school should devote itself to giving instruction solely in philosophy of education, methods of teaching and such other matters as bear directly and immediately upon the work of a teacher. It was also determined to extend the work in methods of teaching so as to cover all the subjects usually taught in our public schools and to broaden the course by more extended study of the philosophy and history of education. Aside from the fact that there was an urgent demand for such a course, it seemed necessary, in order to keep pace with the progressive spirit of the times, that the teachers should be trained to do any work in any school. While much had been done to render the instruction of little children philo- sophical and rational, there was no institution anywhere which offered students the privilege of fitting themselves to present the subjects studied by boys and girls who had passed beyond the elementary grades. Good and wise and effective methods had been devised to interest and inspire the youngest pupils, but nothing had been done to provide for the proper training of teach- ers for advanced work ; and the committee, recognizing the imperative need of such a course, decided to enlarge the scope of the instruction and provide opportunities such that teachers might be prepared to give instruction in any subject usually taught in the public schools, and thus save the children from the evils of the gross empiricism to which they had hitherto been subjected. Another consideration also led to the adoption of the advanced course of methods of teaching. It was, perhaps, expected at the time when the Normal school was established that its graduates would return to the district schools and spend years in teaching in them. Such a result was never accomplished, however. The talent and training of the students who completed the course at the Normal school commanded larger remuneration than the district schools could generally afford to offer and, consequently, a comparatively small number of the graduates of the Normal school ever found their way into the district schools of the state. The committee recognized the impossibility of ever supplying the demand of the district schools, because the number of graduates each year is so small as to furnish but a slight percentage of the rural schools with teachers, and they knew also the futility of contending with the universal law of supply and demand by attempting to keep teachers of broad scholarship, special aptness for their work and thorough professional training at work in the district schools. It was plainly recognized that the district schools must secure their teachers largely from the union schools, academies and high schools and it was deemed the part of wisdom and economy to offer a course of study here which would prepare our graduates to become the teachers and trainers of those persons in the union schools, academies and high schools who are to become the instructors of the young in the small or sparsely settled communi- ties. Persons who would be competent to assume charge of that responsible work must be thorough masters of the subjects to be taught before they enter upon the study of the methods of teaching the subjects, consequently exten- sive attainments in scliolarship were prescribed as a requirement for admission and a complete and practical professional training and skill prescribed for graduation. The course outlined by the committee covered so much more than any course in any similar institution that it was deemed but proper that the students who completed it successfully should be granted some honor beyond the diploma which licenses them to teach in the public schools of the state and, therefore, application was made to the board of regents of the univer- sity of the state of New York for permission to grant the pedagogical degrees of Bachelor of Pedagogy, Master of Pedagogy and Doctor of Pedagogy. The regents at once recognized the unusual importance of the scheme proposed and on March 13, i8go, empowered the committee to grant the pedagogical degrees referred to and changed the corporate name to The New York State Normal College. The State Normal college is, therefore, established upon a strictly profes- sional basis. Theoretical instruction in methods of teaching history and 8 Historical Sketch of the philosophy of education and. whatever else may make a teacher more useful and more successful as an instructor and disciplinarian, will be supplemented by practical experience gained in instructing and managing pupils in the class room. Subjects as such will not be taught in the college, but the entire talent and energy of the instructors will be utilized in producing teachers who are thoroughly informed regarding the most approved methods of instruction, the philosophical basis upon which the methods rest, the development of the educational systems of the world, and who have been trained in a rational way to secure the best possible results in the school room. The first class to complete any of the courses of instruction in the college was graduated in June, 1891, and at that time several students who were graduates of literary colleges in this and other states received the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy ; but the college was not restricted to purely professional work until after February, 1892, because those who entered the Normal school previous to the change in the character of the institution were allowed to complete the course they began with the hope and expectation that they might finish it. The number of applicants for admission to the college is very encouraging. It was to be expected that there would be a large reduction in the number of the students, inasmuch as the lowest requirements for admission now are as high as were formerly required for graduation and yet, from the cordial support already received, it is confidently believed that within a few terms the number of students in attendance will not be materially less than formerly. The number of graduates will, however, be larger than formerly and the qualification of the graduates higher, as regards both methods of teaching and general scholarship, so that the returns to the state will be very much greater than ever before. Thus far only a few college graduates have availed themselves of the special opportunities offered to them here, but it is believed that much larger numbers will attend as soon as the kind of instruction that is given and its value to teachers come to be generally understood. Many college students suppose that the work done in the Normal college is only a review of the subjects taught in secondary schools, but as soon as it becomes known that our teaching is of a different kind and of a character which will be of the utmost value to them if they are to become teachers, a large number will come to the college for the training and the instruction which are given. As has been already intimated the most important part of a course in the Normal college is the practice which the students have in applying the methods which they have learned in managing pupils. Certainly no one ought to be licensed to teach for life who does not possess in a reasonable degree the ability to control a school, even if his scholarship is comprehensive and his knowledge of methods accurate, for he can not become a successful teacher unless he is able to secure prompt and cheerful obedience to all proper commands. Nor will any amount of observation of the work and ability of others qualify him to command success himself. He must actually do the work of a teacher, not witness it, in order that he may become proficient and that his teachers may discover whether he is worthy of receiving a diploma or not. The change in the scheme and scope of the instruction given at the Normal college from that which was formerly given at the Normal school will materi- ally increase the number of graduates, consequently it is absolutely necessary that much greater facilities for practice in teaching be provided. The present building does not afford and never has afforded anything like adequate accommodations for a suitable school of practice and now that there is a considerable mcrease in the number of student-teachers the space in the present building for such a school is utterly inadequate. There is urgent need also of rooms where students may have proper physical training and where they may have instruction in the preparation of apparatus and the mounting of specimens in natural history. Until such accommodations are provided the college must be seriously embarrassed in the execution of its plans, consequently the executive com- mittee strenuously urges the erection of a suitable building to provide for these imperative needs. State Normal College CIRCULAR OF THE STATE NORMAL COLLEGE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE IN CHARGE OF THE COLLEGE Hon. CHARLES R. SKINNER, LL.D., Chairman, Watertown SAMUEL B. WARD, M.D., Ph.D., Secretary and Treasttrer, Albany MARCUS T. HUN, A.M., . . Albany CHARLES L. PRUYN, A.M., . . Albany WILLIAM BAYARD VAN RENSSELAER, A.M., Albany FACULTY WILLIAM J. MILNE, Ph.D., LL.D., President, Professor of Philosop?iy of Education and School Economy. ALBERT N. HUSTED, A.M., Professor of Mathematics. WILLIAM V. JONES, A.M., Principal of High School Departtnent (Model School), Professor of Gertnan. LEONARD WOODS RICHARDSON, A.M., Professor of Ancient Languages. EDWARD W. WETMORE, A.M., Professor of the Natural Sciences. SAMUEL B. BELDING, Professor of Vocal Music. Miss KATE STONEMAN, Teacher of Drawing and Penmanship. Miss MARY A. McCLELLAND, Teacher of English Grammar and History. Mrs. MARGARET SULLIVAN MOONEY, Teacher of Elocution, Rhetoric and English Literature. Miss E. HELEN HANNAHS, A.M., Ph.D., Teacher of Psychology and French. Miss CLARA M. RUSSELL, Eletnentary Methods and Criticism. Miss M. HARRIET BISHOP, Elementary Methods and Criticism. Miss EDITH BODLEY, Secretary. JAMES ROBERT WHITE, Pd.B., Principal of Grammar Department {Model School). Historical Sketch of the Miss ANNA E. PIERCE, Principal of Primary Department {Model School). Miss IDA M. ISDELL, Principal of the Kiiidergarteii. Miss HELEN L. SEWELL, Assistant in the Kindergarten. Miss ANNA E. HUSTED, Pd.B., Assistant in High School Department. Miss ELIZA D. PAYNTAR, Assistajit in Model School. Miss AURELIA HYDE, Assistant in Model School. COURSES OF INSTRUCTION ENGLISH COURSE ADMISSION Those who seek admission to this course must be at least seventeen years of age, and greater maturity is desirable. Candidates for admission must pass satisfactory examinations upon the following subjects: Arithmetic, Algebra through quadratics. Plane Geometry, Grammar, Rhetoric, English Literature, Political and Physical Geography, American History, General History, Botany, Physiology, Zoology, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Geology, Book-keeping, Civil Government and Ele- mentary Drawing. Those who present the following evidences of proficiency will be admitted without examination, viz. : State certificates, diplomas from colleges, universi- ties, the regents, normal schools, high schools, academies and academic departments of union schools, provided they cover the subjects prescribed for examination in the preceding paragraph, but pass-cards in advanced arithmetic and advanced grammar will be required in addition to the attain- ments certified by the regents' or other academic diplomas. Statements from principals of schools, setting forth the superior qualifications of candidates in advanced arithmetic and advanced grammar will be received as evidences of proficiency and will exempt applicants from examination in those subjects. Examinations for entrance will be held at the college at the beginning of each term. It is not necessary that all the examinations be passed at one time ; they may be distributed through two years, if the candidate prefers. Admission to the college can not, however, be granted until the examinations are successfully completed. A knowledge of Latin or Modern Languages may be substituted for other subjects prescribed for entrance, but it can not be allowed for any subjects except those commonly called advanced studies. State Normal College ii COURSE OF STUDY FIRST YEAR — FIRST TERM Psycliology. Philosophy of Education. Methods of teaching the following subjects: Number. Geography. Composition. Vocal Music. Arithmetic. Grammar. Reading. Daily discussion of Educational Themes. Essays upon Educational Subjects. Preparation of Devices for Teaching. SECOND TERM Methods of teaching the following subjects: Algebra. Physics. Botany (Elementary). Object Lessons. Geometry. History. Zoology (Elementary). Civil Government. Drawing. Physiology. Penmanship. Daily discussion of Educational Themes. Essays upon Educational Subjects. Preparation of Apparatus and Specimens. SECOND YEAR — FIRST TERM Methods of teaching the following subjects: Chemistry. Book-keeping. Mineralogy. Rhetoric. Solid Geometry. Physical Geography. Geology. English Literature. Botany. Zofilogy. Physiology. Familiar Science. Astronomy. Daily Discussion of Educational Themes. Essays upon Educational Subjects. Preparation of Apparatus and Specimens. SECOND TERM School Economy. History of Education. Sanitary Science. Elocution. Kindergarten Methods. Physical Culture. School Law. Methods of teaching Political Economy. Teaching in Model School. Those who complete the above course successfully will receive a diploma, which will be a license to teach in the public schools of the state for life. No degree will be conferred upon graduates from this course. CLASSICAL COURSE ADMISSION Those who desire admission to this course must be at least seventeen years of age, but no one will be graduated from the course who is not at least twenty years of age. Candidates for admission must pass satisfactory examinations upon all the subjects required for entrance to the English course, and in addition thereto Solid Geometr)'; Plane Trigonometry; Caesar, three books; Cicero, six ora- tions; Virgil's .iS^neid, six books; Latin Prose Composition; Xenophon's Anabasis, three books; Homer's Iliad, three books; and Greek Prose Compo- sition. Instead of the requirements in Greek the candidates may offer a two-years' course in French or German. Those who present the following evidences of proficiency will be admitted without examination, viz. : Diplomas from colleges, universities, the regents, normal schools, high schools, academies and the academic departments of union schools, provided they cover the subjects prescribed for examination in the preceding paragraph, but pass-cardS in advanced arithmetic and ad- 12 Historical Sketch of the vanced grammar will be required in addition to the attainments certified by the regents' or other academic diplomas. Statements from principals of schools, setting forth the superior qualifications of candidates in advanced arithmetic and advanced grammar will be received as evidences of proficiency and will exempt applicants from examinations in those subjects. The regents eighty-count diploma admits without conditions. Examinations for entrance will be held at the college at the beginning of each term. It is not necessary that all the examinations be passed at one time; they may be distributed through two years, if the candidate prefers. Admission to the college can not, however, be granted until the examinations are successfully completed. COURSE OF STUDY FIRST YEAR — FIRST TERM Psychology. Philosophy of Education. Methods of teaching the following subjects : Number. Geography. Composition. Vocal Music. Arithmetic. Grammar. Reading. Daily discussion of Educational Themes. Essays upon Educational Subjects. Preparation of Devices for Teaching. SECOND term Methods of teaching the following subjects: Algebra. Physics. Botany (Elementary). Object Lessons. Geometry. History. Zoology (Elementary). Latin. Drawing. Physiology (Elementary). Daily discussion of Educational Themes. Essays upon Educational Subjects. Preparation of Specimens and Apparatus. SECOND YEAR — FIRST TERM Methods of teaching the following subjects: Chemistry. Mineralogy. Rhetoric. English Literature. Physical Geography. Geology. Solid Geometry. Astronomy. Zoology. Physiology. Greek or French or German. Daily discussion of Educational Themes. Essays upon Educational Subjects. Preparation of Specimens and Apparatus. SECOND TERM School Economy. History of Education. Sanitary Science. Elocution. Kindergarten Methods. Physical Culture. School Law. Jlethods of Teaching Political Economy. Teaching in Model School. Those who complete the Classical Course successfully will receive diplomas licensing them to teach in the public schools of the state for life, and the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy will also be conferred upon them. SUPPLEMENTARY COURSE FIRST TERM Carpenter, Mental Physiology. Bain, Mental Science. Spencer, Education. Bain, Education as a Science. Hickok, Moral Science. Rousseau, Emile. Compayre, Elements of Psychology. Radestock, Habit in Education. Fro^i5«/, The Education of Man. Mc Arthur, Education in Relation to Stanley, Life of Dr. Arnold. Manual Industry. Mahaffy, Old Greek Education. Fitch, Lectures on Teaching. Discussion of current Educational Themes. State Normal College 13 SECOND TERM Guimps, Life of Pestalozzi. Bowne, Introduction to Psychological Payne, Contribution to Educational Theory. Science. Brown on Art. Rosenkranz, Philosophy of Educa- Jevons Principles of Science. tion. Whewell, History of the Inductive Wz'nc/iell, Doctrine of Evolution. Sciences. Hill, True order of Studies. Quick, Educational Reformers. Parsons, Systems of Education. Browning', History of Educational Kle7nm, European Schools. Theories. Rosmini, Method in Education. School Supervision. Schools for Professional Training. Discussion of current Educational Themes. A Thesis. Graduates from the English Course will receive the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy upon their completing the Supplementary Course. Graduates from the Classical Course will receive the degree of Master of Pedagogy upon their completing the Supplementary Course. Those only who have completed either the English or the Classical Course in the College can pursue the Supplementary Course and receive the peda- gogical degrees. COURSE FOR COLLEGE GRADUATES Many graduates from literary colleges are of the opinion that the instruction given in the Normal college consists simply of a review of the subjects taught in our secondary schools and they, consequently, feel that a year spent in such work will be of little value to them, not to say unnecessary, but in fact the instruction given is of a very different kind from that, and it is of a character which will prove of the utmost value to them in the profession of teaching. A person who has completed a course at a college often deems himself qualified to teach and the conviction is even more general that tact in manag- ing pupils combined with good scholarship is all that is necessary to attain the highest success in the profession. Such ideas are obstructive of the best results in teaching and the prevalence of them often prevents the best scholars and those who have the greatest natural endowments from seeking to learn the principles of their profession and the best way of applying them. If college graduates, who have excellent attainments in scholarship and natural aptitude for teaching, would acquaint themselves with modern methods of teaching, and the established principles and the generally accepted theories of education, and if they should become skillful in applying them practically in the schoolroom, they would advance rapidly to the front rank in the profession. Graduates of colleges and universities will be allowed to select (with the approval of the faculty) from the curriculum of study a course which may be completed in one year. Upon their completing it successfully and showing their ability to instruct and manage pupils properly they will receive diplomas which will be licenses to teach and the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy will also be conferred upon them. SPECIAL COURSE It is often the case that persons who have been teaching for several years realize very keenly the need of professional training, but they feel that they can not spend the time necessary to complete a full course, nor can they afford 14 Historical Sketch of the the expense which such a course would entail. The special course is offered to such, in order that they may gain a l^nowledge of the philosophy of educa- tion and acquire a' reasonable degree of familiarity with modern methods of teaching. The demand for teachers of experience in the management of schools, who have skill in employing rational methods of instruction, is very great and the opportunity offered to such candidates by the college for equip- ping themselves to do the best work will, it is believed, enable mature and competent instructors to obtain a good knowledge of the philosophy and history of education and to improve their methods of teaching, so that they will materially increase their salaries and obtain more desirable positions than they have held hitherto. The basis for a successful application of the principles of education to methods of teaching is broad and accurate scholarship, consequently, none who have not studied what are ordinarily termed the higher subjects in our high schools and who have not scholarly tastes and habits will be allowed to pursue this course. Persons who have at least the scholarship required for admission to the English course, and who have a first grade teacher's certificate, and who bring testimonials from school commissioners, boards of education or superintend- ents of schools, to show that they have taught successfully for three years or more, will be allowed to complete a special course in one year. If they succeed in doing the work of the course in a satisfactory manner they will be granted a diploma which will also be a license to teach for life in the public schools of the state. This course will include substantially the subjects prescribed in the first and last terms of the English course. ELECTIVE COURSES Persons of maturity who have had large and successful experience in teach- ing, but who have not the attainments in scholarship required for admission into the regular courses, and those that have the qualifications for entrance who wish to pursue elective courses, will be permitted to enter the college and pursue such courses as the faculty may approve, but they will not be granted diplomas, nor will degrees be conferred upon them. COURSE FOR KINDERGARTNERS ADMISSION Applicants must be at least eighteen years of age. They must be graduates from some high school, academy, academic department of a union school or other higher institution of learning that they may be mentally fitted to com- prehend and apply understandingly the truths underlying the Frobel system.. They should have a natural love for children, so that they may enter into childish joys and sorrows in a sympathetic manner. They should have the consciousness of a high moral purpose and a love for nature ; they should also possess good health, industry and a cheerful and contented disposition. They should be able to play the piano and have a true ear and voice for singing. Those who desire to enter this course must have good scholarship and the ability to understand and appreciate the principles upon which the kinder- garten system is based. Fondness for children is very desirable and intellect- State Normal College 15 ual ability is absolutely necessary to attain success. Young people who have the idea that kindergarten work means simply amusement will find that they are in error, for only those who are earnest students and who have natural aptitude for such work can hope to secure a diploma, which certifies to their ability to take charge of a kindergarten. Course of Instruction This will include lessons on the use of the following articles and occupations in developing the child's mind: Ball, Sphere, Cube and Cylinder, Blocks, Tablets, Slats, Sticks, Rings and Peas-work; Pricking, Sewing, Drawing, Lacing, Weaving, Paper-cutting and Paper-folding. Systematic instruction will be given upon the principles and philosophy of training which underlie the kindergarten idea. Lessons on the care of chil- dren and on story-telling will also occupy the attention of the students during a part of the course. Instruction in the Normal system of music will be given, so that the kinder- gartners may be able to teach the rudiments of vocal music to children. Lessons in physical culture and kindergarten music and games will form a part of the course. Lessons in Botany and Natural History will be given, with methods of presenting them to little children. Instruction in Free-hand Drawing and in Modeling in clay will be given during the year. Students will be required to prepare pattern books of Weaving, Sewing, Pricking, Paper-folding and Paper-cutting, and they will be expected to invent new forms for themselves in accordance with the principles underlying all the work. Students will be required to observe for a time the work done in the kinder- garten, from nine until twelve. They will afterwards write out their observa- tions and submit them to the class for approval and criticism. As soon as the students are qualified to enter upon the work of instruction they will be given practical work with the children. A course of reading prescribed, including such books as Autobiography of Frobel, Reminiscences of Frobel, Education of Man, Emile, Leonard and Gertrude, Baldwin's Psychology and other works upon education. Frequent essays upon the various phases of the instruction and training of children and abstracts of the books read are required. A diploma will be given at the end of one year to those who complete the course satisfactorily; but it will not be a license to teach in the schools of the state. Those who desire to enter the course for kindergartners must present themselves at the beginning of the school year in September, because only one training class will be organized during the year. Only a limited number of kindergartners can be trained in the college, consequently application for appointments should be made as early as possible. KINDERGARTEN ASSOCIATION The city of Albany has a large number of earnest and enthusiastic kinder- gartners. They have frequent meetings for the purpose of discussing ques- tions pertaining to their special work and they have sustained, at a large 1 6 Historical Sketch of the expense, courses of lectures by the best kindergarten experts in America The students in attendance at the Normal college are allowed the privilege of attending these lectures and of getting the inspiration that comes from meeting with and hearing those who have devoted themselves to the work of training the young. During the past two years courses of lectures have been given by the follow- ing eminent kindergartners and specialists : Mrs. Lucretia Willard Treat, . . . Grand Rapids, Mich. Miss Sara E. Wiltsie, Mrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin-Riggs, Miss Lucy Wheelock, Dr. W. E. Sheldon, Miss Emilie Poulsson, Miss Angeline Brooks, Miss Amalie Hofer, Miss Frances Newton, . Prof. E. W. Wetmore, Prof. H. P. Warren, Prof. J. H. Gilbert, Boston, Mass. New York City. Boston, Mass. Boston, Mass. Boston, Mass. New York City. Chicago, 111. Chicago, 111. Albany, N. Y. Albany, N. Y. Albany, N. Y. Prof. A. Onderdonk, Albany, N. Y. MODEL SCHOOL A model school is organized and maintained that students may have an opportunity for observing the successful application of the methods of teach- ing and that they may have an opportunity to display their knowledge of the subjects taught and their skill in teaching and managing pupils. The school has four departments: Kindergarten, Primary, Grammar and High school. The courses of study cover the subjects necessary for prepara- tion for business, for college or for entering the Normal college. It is designed to make the school what its name signifies, a model which graduates may follow advantageously in methods of teaching and in discipline. The teaching in this school is done chiefly by pupil teachers, though model lessons are given from time to time by the teachers in charge, so that those who are preparing to teach may have illustrations to guide them in the appli- cation of the principles underlying education. THE NORMAL SCHOOL COMPANY IN THE WAR Capt. Professor Albert N. Husted has kindly prepared the follow- ing record of the services of the Normal School Company: When, in July, 1862, the Union forces were defeated in the "seven days' battle" before Richmond and there came up from the capital of the nation a new call for men — soldiers to drive back the rebellious invaders — the young men of the State Normal school felt that it was time for them to shoulder their muskets and do what they could to save the land they loved and preserve the insti- tutions for which their fathers fought. Professors Kimball and Husted, of the faculty, volunteered to go with and lead them. With the graduates and students of the school as a nucleus they commenced recruiting and, on the 2Sth of September, their com- pany of one hundred true, brave, earnest men were "mustered into I JijIiJ-ti, I :juJ r" 1 ^ i/i CO fl -(^ T ^ O CD cn c ro C State Normal College 25 has seen the principles on which it was estabHshed spread far and wide. Twelve similar institutions are now established in the State, and all are doing excellent work. The Albany Normal College is doubly honored by being the first training school for teachers in our public school system. All honor to the State Normal College and its worthy president, its splendid corps of teachers, and its bright array of pupils whose proudest privilege in after life will be to call it their Alma Mater. * * * ADDRESS BY HON. ABRAM B. WEAVER Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen : Sincerity constrains me to say that an appeal to my 'personal friendship, more than anything else, has brought me here to join in this celebration. It is a friendship established many years ago with a promising young professor in the State Normal School at Brock- port. It grew and matured in later years, when my friend was prin- cipal of the State Normal School at Geneseo. It has survived a long separation and much inattention, but not indifference, on my part, and has recently been refreshed by kind words from that same friend, now president of the State Normal College here at Albany. In his cordial letter of invitation he persuaded me that, with all my short- comings, he would be pleased to see me, and so I have come to see him and his college, and his students and the small proportion of his other friends that this great hall can hold. This is the first public exercise connected with this institution that I have attended since it was removed from its old home down town, to its present abode in the commodious edifice on the top of the hill. How suggestive the location of its new home on the top of the hill ! How significant of its growth, its achievements and its high rank among similar institutions! — in every sense on the top of the hill. And when it was changed from a Normal School to a Normal Col- lege and a president was needed, what action could have been more appropriate and more propitious than to invite him whose qualifica- tions had been so fully tested and demonstrated here and elsewhere, to remain and fill out the import of that new name and give it prac- tical meaning? This school has been uniformly fortunate in the distinguished edu- cators who have served as its principals — Page, Perkins, Wool- worth, Cochran, Arey, Alden, Waterbury and Milne. They were men of high personal character and thorough scholarship. They were devoted to their duties. They loved their work and put their hearts as well as their brains into it. They were strong men, able to impress their own good qualities upon their pupils, and thus they sent out to the schools of the State and to the people whom they truly served, their own power, through the teachers whom they trained. In what I may say about this institution I mean no disparagement to any of our State Normal Schools; nor do I mean to make any 26 Semi-Centennial Jubilee direct comparisons. Having been charged with the official responsi- bihty of organizing six of the early eight, I have a personal pride and gratification in their prosperity. All of them have served the public as well, perhaps, as the local conditions by which some of them are surrounded would permit, and all of them have my hearty good will and congratulations. There is one important thing, however, which all our Normal Schools and Normal Colleges together have not yet accomplished, and that is to place their graduates in the public schools of the rural districts. But that is not their fault. How to do it, is just as much of a problem to-day as it ever was, and I see no solution of it, except to take more money from other sources and carry it over the hills to j)overty comers, and leave it there to attract good teachers to come and earn it. But there are some characteristics about this school that are pecu- liar to itself and which naturally suggest themselves at this time. It was the parent school, the pioneer school, the trial school upon the success of which the enlargement of the system depended. Has it been successful? Has it fulfilled the purpose for which it was estab- lished? Do we celebrate an empty name or substantial achieve- ments? Look at its progeny. The whole State is dotted over with Normal Schools, thirteen in number, including the local Normal College in the city of New York, every one of which is an eloquent argument, and all of them together are conclusive proof that this school was founded in wisdom and has been managed with great fidelity and success. Another distinctive quality is a certain unmistakable soundness of the instruction here given, which has ever had the ring of real worth. No shams or counterfeits have been tolerated. No noise has been made to attract attention. No cunning devices have been used to cheat the public. The recognized rule has been that honest work intelligently applied by teachers and students would win deserved and enduring success, and it has won it. And that is the true rule to-day everywhere. There is no patent process to produce sound scholarship while you wait and hear some educational quack chant his own praises. Education is not an operation performed upon a subject, but is chiefly the result of the student's own effort Methods may be changed and, perhaps, improved, facilities may be multiplied, teachers may be more intelligent and more helpful, but yet, per- sistent personal application and hard work are indispensable. Right here I offer a word of admonition on my own account, without asking anyone else to share the responsibility. My warning is this — ^There is danger in that word work. It contains the elements of dire disaster as well as of brilliant triumphs. It may be abused, and often is abused in our schools, by the hurry and worry and the wear of indiscriminate forcing processes. Boys and girls are physically wrecked, right in the school-room, before they even enter the race of life for which they are being trained. This is plainly wrong and should be restrained. I concede that the average scholar will not do his best without State Normal College 27 some urging and that the teacher is, to some extent, a taskmaster; but that is no justification for breaking down the student by over- workj by crowding him beyond endurance. That is not doing his best, but the very worst. For myself, if compelled to choose, I would rather have a sound body and a sound mind with little schooling, at sixteen years of age, than be the best educated young invalid who ever tottered out of a school-house under the weight of his spectacles. School officers are authorized by law to incur the expense of hoist- ing our national flag over our school-houses, to teach the scholars a lesson in patriotism, and it is well. It might be well also to dis- play inside the school-room, in full view of teachers and school officers, the motto, " Make haste slowly," in order to conserve the health and strength of the young patriots so that they may be spared to live under that flag and be able, if ■ necessary, to defend it. The limit of time permits me to mention only one other estimable characteristic of this school, and that is the special attention it has given to the English language and literature. For this, I profoundly honor it because I am persuaded that those subjects do not receive the thorough and extended study which they deserve in our public schools, colleges and universities. I would not discourage the study of Latin and Greek and the modern European languages, if one has time and taste for them. There is great advantage to be derived from it if more important things are not neglected for that purpose. I have given enough time and study to them myself to qualify a person of ordinary ability for one of the learned professions, and I cannot say that I regret it. But the English language can be studied successfully and profit- ably as it stands by itself, without going back to its sources in other tongues. That ripe scholar and veteran teacher. Dr. Alden, when principal of this school, used to say that he could develop and disci- pline the minds of his students as well bv studying the English classics as he could by studying Latin and Greek. Besides, it is our language and should have a judicious preference over all others. It is ours by adoption, ours by conquest, ours by inheritance. It is ours by a title that reaches far back beyond Eng- land to the German tribes from which England herself largely derived the germs of her language and of her constitution. It is a language which,. like the people who use it, is taking possession of the earth. It is the language of our laws, the language of our homes, the language of our schools, and we should take great care and great pride in teaching and learning and using it correctly. It is a much finer accomplishment and a much more worthy distinction to read and write and speak this, our own tongue, with precision, ele- gance and power, than to prattle a little genteel, feeble, faulty French. I plead for purer and better English and more of it. I must not omit to express the great pleasure it affords me to meet, on this occasion, so many of my successors in the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. I feel like congratulating them, even at this late day, upon their several administrations. With their known qualifications and their obvious advantages at the out- 28 Semi-Centennial Jubilee set, iheir success was quite natural and logical, and was, therefore, to be expected — they were my successors. The pathway of learning ever leads up the hill, and possibly some future celebration of this institution may yet be held on the top of the Helderbergs. ADDRESS BY HON. NEIL GILMOUR Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen . Said an Irishman the other day to a friend, "Arrah, where will you find a modem building that has lasted as long as the ould wans?" This institution, whose semi-centennial we are gladly celebrating, is revered, healthy and strong. It has lasted, and will last, a blessing both to those receiving instruction within its walls, and to all with whom its graduates may associate, and will continue to send forth streams of knowledge and rays of light not only into all quar- ters of our State, but they will penetrate into regions beyond. Why was this institution established? The law under which it was created says, among other things, " for the instruction and practice of teachers of common schools in the science of education and the art of teaching." When I was a lad at school, there was a very prevalent idea that anybody could teach. In my day it seemed that the way to get the teacher's thought into the boy was through the rod, or by some other physical method. I got my share of it, and to-night I stand here with grateful remembrance of my old teacher, knowing full well that if he did not in any degree make my mind grow, he at least by his cudgeling gave me a grand, healthy body. You remem- ber the story of the trustee asking the young man about to be hired whether he " teached the earth was round or fiat," the answer thereto being, " I am not particular, I'll teach it any way you want.'' That day is past. This institution was established and is maintained by the State for the express purpose of teaching young men and women how to teach. Far be it from me to say or even think that there are no excel- lent teachers who have never seen a Normal School. Aye, there are many of them; but if these same teachers in youth had been taught "the trade," to-day they would be still better mechanics than they now are. Our State maintains a splendid system of education. In studying the history of nations, we find they perish not because of debt. If such were the case, that fast-anchored isle on the other side of the Atlantic long ago would have been cut from her moorings, and no longer be a power among the nations of the earth, as she is to-day. No — immorality is the cause of the downfall of peoples " 111 fares the land, to hastenitiji; ills a prey. Where wealth accumulates and men decay.'' and the best antidote has been found in the education of the masses — the development of the physical, the mental and the moral ; State Normal College 29 and if we educate our youth in this way, this country will always be able to say, as Robert Burns, in his Cotter's Saturday Night, said of his beloved Scotland: " Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, A virtuous populace may rise the while And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved Isle."' When Socrates returned from the battle of Potidaea, where he had bravely fought, being surrounded by the friends of the soldiers in the field and questioned as to how they fared, turning them aside with short answers, he in turn asked: " What of the boys? Who of them give promise of becoming go^od citizens?" So is it the duty of everyone to watch the coming generation about to take our places. What promise do they give of a bright future? How well are they being prepared to assume the duties of those to-day active in their discharge, but who must soon cease their labors? A teacher correcting a little boy for some slight offense growled at him, " What are you good for? " The little fellow, with righteous indignation, replied, " Sir, they make men out of boys like me." And, 'tis education that does it, education of the right kind, the development of the physical, the mental and the moral. A story is told of a chaplain in a legislative body quoting in his sermon, " An honest man's the noblest work of God," but looking around his audience, he exclaimed : " My brethren, I fear it is a long time since the Lord had such a job here." If the chaplain was right, those men lacked one of the essentials of a complete education. ^Vhen I take up a college magazine and find only one article devoted to education, all the rest treating of the physical, I cannot help but think that institution is developing the body at the expense of the mind. Let us see to it, so far as in our power lies, that education be not alone of the one, but that the youth in all his capacities shall be developed. In the great work of making good citizens, this institution of learning has long held a prominent place. She has had some of the best teachers in the country, and has had a line of distinguished principals, of whom last, but not least, is our genial and able Milne. Coming at an early age from his native Scotland, he long ago learned ' ' Life is like the prickly nettle ; Touch it softly and it stings you for your pains ; Grasp it with a hand of mettle, And it soft as silk remains." And, acting thereon, to-day he is one of the very best men in edu- cational work, and the earnest prayer goes up from all that he may be long spared to guide the destinies of this great Normal College. To-night, my friends, as we stand on this educational height and look over the proud history of this school for the past fifty years, so with the eye of faith can we look forward to many more years of good work and great usefulness, and fervently do we unite in saying, " Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces." 3° Semi-Centennial Jubilee ADDRESS BY HON. ANSON J. UPSON, D. D., LL. D. Chancellor of the University of the State of New York Mr. Superintendetit and Ladies and Gentlemen : The politicians of our day, when they wish to destroy the force -of an argument drawn from the political experience of the past, cry out with a sneer, " Oh, all that is ancient history. It is past and gone. It is only history, the dead past and. not the living present,"' " Let the dead past bury its dead." They tell us the argument from historical experience has no vital, vigorous, energizing force. We who are assembled here to-night in such large numbers, Mr. Chairman, imply at least by our attendance that we have no sneer for " ancient history." Rather we believe that Thomas Carlyle sounds for us the key-note of the inauguration of this semi-centen- nial celebration, when he declares that history is " a warfare against oblivion." We are here to wage that fight to-night ; to write a chap- ter in the history of this Normal College. We are here to rescue, if we may, from the possibility of oblivion your precious examples. We are here to renew our knowledge of your former patrons, your prin- cipals, your instructors, your graduates. We are here to wage a successful warfare against the oblivion with which the passage of fifty years might destroy the record of this school. We are here to do this, because we believe that here the historical argument has yet a vital, vigorous, energizing force. The history of this New York State Normal College contains in itself a living argument in favor of the kind of education it exemplifiies. Imagine, if you can, the condition of a country where occasions like this are never celebrated; where the work that has been done by benefactors and teachers, like yours in this College, is never remembered; where the useful lives that graduates like yours have lived are never named, but are forever lost in oblivion! We can hardly imagine such a country; such a people would pay the pen- alty of their ungrateful indifference and selfish stupidity by a speedy return to hopeless savagery. Thanks to the industry and loyalty of the late President Waterbury and his coadjutors and successors, we yet know something of the names and deeds that should be recalled gratefully at this time. New and useful institutions seldom or never spring to life suddenly. The existence of a new institution seldom can be attributed to the invention and labor of a single man. As a great individual reputation is built up by many deeds of usefulness, or valor, or patriotism, or self-sacrifice; so a great institution embodies in itself the results of the thought of many minds, and sometimes the self-sacrifice of many lives. "The normal idea that teachers should be instructed in the art of teaching; that they should be taught not only how to acquire knowledge, but how to impart it, existed in the State of New York long before Nonnal Schools were established on this continent." The idea was here. But it did not take on substance and form and become an established fact, until it had more than one advo- State Normal College 31 cate. No single hand raised this structure. DeWitt Clinton in three messages urged the establishment of a seminary for the educa- tion of teachers. John C. Spencer reported a bill in the senate of this State for its establishment. The citizens of Rochester, in large numbers, enthusiastically petitioned for it. William Learned Marcy, that sagacious statesman; John Adams Dix, distinguished for his wide reading and high culture and interest in education, as well as for his ability and patriotism; William Henry Seward, whose interest in the common schools was characteristic of his public life in this State; Bishop Alonzo Potter, that genius for administra- tion, as great or a greater teacher than he was a bishop ; and above all and through all, Francis Dwight, a Massachusetts boy and a Harvard graduate, who dying too early at thirty-seven, killed him- self by the over-work for education which he gave to this State; all these, Clinton, Spencer, Marcy, Dix, Seward, Potter, Dwight, com- bined in giving their great influence to this great undertaking. But even this powerful combination would have accomplished but little without the active, effective agency of a single mind. Such a one was Calvin T. Hulburd, whose name should be mentioned with special honor here and now. Mr. Hulburd was a member of the New York assembly of 1843, from the county of St. Lawrence, chair- man of the committee on education of the assembly for that year. He felt deeply the responsibility of his position, regarding it as no sinecure. By study and observation making himself competent to sustain his position, he introduced an elaborate report, accom- panied by a bill. With the aid of Michael Hoffman, of Herkimer county, this bill became a law on the 7th of May, 1844. Thus was established this Normal School, but only for a period of five years. The founders Had only faith enough to try this experiment. Most of them lived long enough to see their experiment become a decided success. We would honor these founders. On this occasion, they deserve our gratitude and praise. But we would honor even more the teachers whom they appointed, without whom their foundation would have been a failure. On occasions like this, I am sometimes pained to notice that teachers are forgotten, while founders are honored. Founders, who give their names and their influence and their money, are remembered, while teachers, who give their lives, are unnoticed. Let both founders and instructors share our remem- brance and our praise. Your first principal, David Perkins Page, was, like Horace Mann, in the teachers' glorious work, an enthusiast A New Hampshire boy, with diiificulty persuading his father to allow him to attend the neighboring academy to fit himself for teaching, he began his life- work at eighteen and ended his work at thirty-seven. He gave but the last four years of that short life to your service. Yet they were his best years. Such was the enthusiasm of his labor here that those who knew his work the best declared his death to be " a public calamity." It was the efficient enthusiasm of David Page that raised this Normal College out of a doubtful experiment when he 32 Semi-Centennial Jubilee began, into an accomplished fact, when he ended his work. This institution, for fifty years, has been conducted mainly on the plans which that courageous young man invented. His volume on "The Theory and Practice of Teaching" is still an authoritative treatise. His brilliant addresses throughout this State aroused a new enthu- siasm for his professional work. I have often heard him speak. The light of genius shone in his eyes. "He being dead yet speaketh." George Roberts Perkins, the successor of Mr. Page, was one of the teachers of my boyhood. During most of his life, I knew him well. Pie was a teacher of mathematics at Clinton and Utica, and for four years in this school, and principal here for four years longer. He was the author of many mathematical text-books, and in his day he was, perhaps, the most accomplished mathematician in this State. There are those, you know, who maintain that the study of mathe- matics is actually deleterious. They assert that mathematical study unfits a man or woman for the practical work of life; because the reasoning employed in mathematics is not that used in daily life, being demonstrative and not probable or moral. The life of George Roberts Perkins has the destructive force of a stubborn fact to contra- dict this theory. A mathematician, he was pre-eminently a practical man; a civil engineer, the superintendent of the construction of the Dudley Observatory, aiding by his calculations in the consolidation of the separate railways between Albany and Buffalo, an efficient Regent of the University, he died a rich man having made a fortune in real estate. This practical mathematician was just the man to be the successful successor of the enthusiast Page. He did excellent prac- tical work as principal, among other things superintending the erec- tion of the new home for the school on Lodge street. He had his troubles. He made a mistake when he tried to teach Indian young men and women how to teach. He had twenty-six Indians in the school, but only one girl was graduated. The failure was not his fault, nor that of his assistants. By a law of the State, he was com- pelled to try. Samuel Buel Woolworth, a graduate of Hamilton College, the successor of Dr. Perkins in 1852, brought to this Normal School, from Onondaga valley and from Homer, New York, the knowl- edge and experience of a teacher of twenty-eight years. He had made teaching the business of his life. And among the lessons in education that he had learned before he came to Albany was the pre-eminent importance of classification in the organization of a large school. Before his time in most of the academies of this State, perhaps, necessarily, the work of the teachers was interchangeable. In the Cortland Academy, at Homer, he had insisted upon what seems to us now to be axiomatic — a thorough and fixed division of labor, appointing teachers who each devoted his whole time to a sin- gle department, he himself, as principal, supervising all. His success in this arrangement was so marked that he gained a public confi- dence which he brought with him to this city. " Under his influence a reorganization of this school was effected, the departments of DAVID P. PAGE 1844-1S43 State Normal College 23 instruction were made more distinct and teachers of liberal culture, acknowledged ability, and successful experience were secured for each department" Legislative hostility had been aroused against the school, but before Dr. Woolworth resigned, in 1855, such had been the effect of his wisdom, sagacity and varied knowledge of men and things, that the confidence of the public had been completely restored. We remember Dr. Woolworth as the laborious, capable and acceptable secretary of the Regents of the University; but as prin- cipal of this school he did enough to secure for himself a lasting remembrance. As he was my dear friend for many years, you will permit me here to repeat the words which I wrote at his death. The lapse of fourteen years has only increased my conviction of their unqualified truth. " Faithful in duty, with broad views of educa- tional administration, suggestive, sagacious, energetic and public- spirited, he greatly promoted the advancement of academic and col- legiate education in this State; we would cherish affectionately the memory of his useful and honored life and would imitate his unosten- tatious and beneficent example." Many here present who were instructed by Joseph Alden and Edward Payson Waterbury can estimate far more correctly than I the value of the services of these, the last of the principals of this school, whom death has taken from us. I knew them both; Alden, sensitive, impulsive, positive, impatient of contradiction, energetic, industrious, honest to the core, having a kindly spirit, an idolater of the poet Bryant, a contemner of the poet Tennyson, a voluminous writer, a clear thinker, with a college record as professor and president for thirty-two years; he gave the last fifteen years of his life to you. As a teacher, he felt his influence over his scholars and made them feel his influence over them. He died at the advanced age of eighty-eight How I wish the dear, old man could have heard the other day the testimony of one of his most successful pupils when he said to me: "As a scholar in the Normal School, I appreciated the teaching of Dr. Alden fai less than I should, or than I now do. Every year my estimate of its value increases." No higher tribute can be paid to us as teachers than such words from our mature scholars. Many an instructor, under trial in his professional life, can appeal confidently from the undergraduates to the alumni. The monument to Edward Payson Waterbury is the beautiful building on its superb site which your college now occupies. We have the authority of his intimate friend, Dr. David Murray, for saying that " in a special manner and to an unusual degree that build- ing as it stands was due to him." Another monument to the indus- try, the zeal, the perseverance, the loyalty of Dr. Waterbury is the remarkable historical sketch and complete catalogue for forty years of your institution, of which, if I am not misinformed, he was the laborious author. Yet when your college building burns or when it crumbles, or when his catalogue is no longer extant, the influence of his teaching will survive. As long as the immortal life of Dr. 34 Semi-Centennial Jubilee Waterbury's " old boys " in the Albany Academy continues, as long as the young teachers whom he taught in this college exist, so long will his kindness, his courage, his manliness, his alert life, his inspiration as a teacher live in the memory and in the character and in the influence of his scholars. Death has consecrated these five of your principals; Page, Perkins, Woolworth, Alden and Waterbury. We may properly speak of them for they are already enrolled among the immortals. Two of your former principals still live. One of these two, I count among my jewels as a college professor. Of your honored and successful president, he will permit me to say that he has already carried on the good work which his predecessors initiated in their spirit and with the same success that they in their time achieved. Mr. Superintendent and Ladies and Gentlemen: In saying what I have about the founders and the principals of this Normal College, I am not unmindful of the many useful teachers, men and women, some of them eminent professors who have given and now give to you the best service of their lives in the faculty of this institution. I am not forgetful either of the illustrious record of your company of one hundred brave and earnest men, who in 1862, led by Professors Kimball and Husted, were mustered into the ser- vice of the United States for three years or the war, and who partici- pated in seventeen engagements ; besides the seventy-nine others who served with rank from brigadier to private. And what a record of usefulness, often unostentatious and unnoticed, do the pages of your catalogue present! With what remarkable fidelity have the great majority of your graduates kept the declaration which they made when they entered this College: " It is our intention to devote our- selves to teaching in the schools of the State." I am not forgetful of all these additional claims of this College to our attention and interest. But to none of them have I any per- sonal right to call your attention. Nulla pars fiii. Only the courtesy of your president permits me to represent officially on this occa- sion the Regents of the University, and to express to you the cordial interest of the Board in this College and in all that appertains to it. In its organization, by its charter, the school was placed under the supervision of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Regents of the University, by whom a committee of five persons were to be appointed and have been appointed from time to time, for fifty years, as an executive committee for the care, management and government of its affairs. To this committee, composed of some of the leading citizens of this State and largely of some of the best citizens of Albany, who have given you their valuable services during all these fifty years, a debt is due which can never be paid. The Regents congratulate themselves and congratulate you at this time, that this School has become more and more a professional school, a true Normal College, where instruction is given in the science and art of teaching, where teachers are taught how to teach. I am sure that the authorities of this institution agree with me when I say that we would have this such a teachers' college as can furnish State Normal College 35 professional facilities not to be obtained in ordinary high schools, academies or colleges. We desire that this institution shall do for college graduates and other persons of equivalent attainments who intend to become teachers in high schools and colleges what the Normal Schools of the past have done for persons of less extensive attainments who intended to become teachers in elementary schools. I believe that the teachers' profession itself demands this higher pro- fessional training. The Regents would unite earnestly with your accomplished president and the authorities of this College in main- taining at least one real Normal College in this State; a college which shall rank as a professional school side by side with our best law and medical and theological schools and, perhaps, surpass them all. We do not believe that normal . instruction is a " delusion and a snare." As I have read the design of the College, as set forth in its recent annual circular, I have sympathized with every word of it; and I tell no news when I say that the design of the circular is real- ized in the College. Please accept, Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen, my thanks for your courteous patience in listening to my words ; and permit me through you to express to the authorities of this College the cordial congratulation of the Regents of the University, with expressions of our most sincere good will. ADDRESS BY HON. OREN E. WILSON Ladies a7id Gentlemen : I congratulate you on the semi-centennial of the State Normal College. I congratulate you because of the sentiment this anniver- sary represents, because of the principle it emphasizes, because of the success it stands for. Fifty years of honorable and helpful progress is something to be proud of in any field of life and labor. In the field of education, it is at once a glory and a triumph. Popular education is the basis of American character; it is the uplifting element in American life. Of higher education — the aim of the college and the university — ^thoughtful Americans may hon- estly hold differing views: for some may urge, while others may question, its practical utility for those whose sphere is to be action, and whose aim is to be business success. But none will ques- tion the value of popular education; for knowledge is power, and power, rightly directed, makes a people intelHgent, self-helpful, ambi- tious and prosperous. No praise, then, can be too great, no appreciation too strong, which is accorded those whose life work is the educating of American youth into well-furnished and clear-thinking American men and women. That, for fifty years, has been the aim and object of the New York State Normal College. In its half-century of existence, what a host of workers for good it has trained and molded! What an army of devoted men and 3^ Semi-Centennial Jubilee women it has sent out, to put into practice the precepts it has taught! 1 yield to them a tribute of respect, of admiration and praise. And, speaking for the city, in which the institution that has thus shaped and finished them, has its home, I know that I voice the sentiment of our citizens, when I congratulate the Normal College on its fifty years of honorable existence and successful work. We are proud of it. We are grateful to it. We rejoice that we are per- mitted to witness its fiftieth anniversary day, and we prophesy for it a future of practical effort, of progressive results, of honorable achievement and of unbounded success. COMMEMORATIVE POEM By Amelia Daley Alden, Class of '68 New York State Normal School and College, 1844-1894 Day unto day, night unto night, And lo, a century's flight ! Swift following one by one Their course around the circle of the sun. The years become the past, the resonant key Of the far future's full- toned harmony. For each from man's endeavor To tune his nature to eternal law Doth one pure vibrant tone of sweetness draw, Reverberating ever Through all the ages in His ear who heard The morning stars rejoicing at his word. Man is a poor musician puzzling o'er A palimpsest beneath whose modern score The notes of some grand symphony, half erased. Show blurred through characters but lately traced. And when he would interpret 'tis by chance He finds a chord ; all else is dissonance. Or if unwittingly His groping fingers touch the tonic key, In feeble minor set Seems human life, all longing and regret. Yet to the saddest key does one glad chord belong: God strikes the dominant and man is strong. Not always may we hear That chord of heaven sounding sweet and clear Above the world, for self and circumstance Make dull the spirit ; but there comes an hour When, pausing on our way to rest, perchance We know its voice of power. Oh, be it heard by us who hither come. Seeking our common home. The children of one mother fair and sweet. Who set our youthful feet State Normal College 37 In paths of honor, bidding us be true To heaven and duty, and the task to do That lay before us, steadfast to the end, Unswerved alike by enemy or friend ! See how she wears her crown of fifty years ! Upon her face appears No trace of time, no line that grief hath wrought; Her eyes are bright with truth — Starlike the)' beam as on our happy youth ; Her brow is beautiful with lofty thought. It seems but yesterday Since from her side we proudly went away, Bearing the scroll she gave. Serene in youth, in youth's high hope secure Of strength to struggle, patience to endure, And power to conquer even the mighty grave. We said a blithe good-morrow To our companions, knowing not what sorrow Or joy stood waiting silent by the way, To succor or to slay ; What snare was for us spread ; What foe in ambush waited for our tread ; What quiet path through sunshine winding fair Led swiftly to despair ; What shining angel by the dangerous track Lingered to turn our heedless footsteps back. Or, panoplied in lightnings of the Lord, Warn us from evil with his fiery sword. A noble ministry Was ours — to help the flower of youth unfold Its perfect beauty, ope the mines of gold In childhood's heart, 'mid dust of poverty To seek God's jewels hidden, trampled down, But fit to grace a crown. Thus by a common band Of purpose holden, working hand to hand. Real though unknown companions by the way, To bind our hearts as one A silvery thread of service have we spun, Friends of long years and friends of yesterday. Now we return ; the subtle years have wrought Their spell with us and taught, By things withheld as well as things attained, To measure what is lost by what is gained, To find in seeming failure victory, In death eternity. O dear companions, teachers, pupils, friends ! With joy of meeting blends A yearning thought of them that come no more. For whom the noiseless door Of life has opened. Yet be tears unshed ; We know them living, though we call them dead. 3^ Semi-Centennial Jubilee The soul that knows no guile, In honor stainless, scornful of a wile. That can not cherish memory of a wrong. Brave for the trembling, for the feeble strong. In friendship steadfast, wise in sympathy. And full of charity — Though earth were all, this soul in other lives Eternally survives. Ye who are with us still. Our living teachers, words are feeble things With which to speak the grateful thoughts that fill Our hearts to-day ; the springs Of love lie deep and touch the fount of tears. God give you many years ! O Alma Mater, linking them that sleep With them that wake, we keep Thy honor dear, thy past and future one. Oh, be thy future greater than thy past, Striking unto the last The dominant with God in unison ! THE WATCHWORD OF PROGRESS. By Daniel S. Gregory, D.D., LL.D., Class Graduated October 3, 1S50 We all recognize instinct as the guide of the animal in its activi- ties; reason, of man; omniscient prescience, of God. With Brown- ing we salute progress, always dependent upon reason, as " Man's distinctive mark alone; Not God's and not the beasts' ; God is, they are ; Man partly is and partly hopes to be." And so, as marking successive stages in human life, social or national, we naturally look upon these centennial and semi-centen- nial gatherings and celebrations, that have come to be so common, as having a substantial reason in human progress, as well as a formal reason in the drift of the centuries. The great movement of Provi- dence, considered as a whole, may be regarded as made up of cycles of progress that associate themselves with successive cycles of time. This has had familiar illustration in the history of the Christian church, in which many of the ablest teachers have associated each of the centuries with some great phase of life or experience. The first century is the Seculum Apostolicum (the Apostolic Age) ; the second, the Seculum Gnosficum (the Age of Gnosticism) ; the ninth, the Seculum Obscuricm (the Dark Age) ; the tenth, the Seculum Tenebri- cosum (the Age of Intense Darkness) ; the eleventh, the Seculum Hildebrandicum (the Age of Hildebrand and the world-wide estab- lishment of the Papal Power); the thirteenth, the Secuhnn Scholasti- cum (the Age of Scholasticism) ; the fifteenth, the Seculum Reforma- tum (the Age of Reformation) State Normal College 39 The fact that stands out most prominently in every such survey and naming of historical periods is, that the great forces of progress in human history and civilization are to be found in ideas. Ideas, ideal elements, ideal forces — rather than spears and swords, needle- guns and rifled cannon — have made human history, and made it by rousing man and making character and inspiring and nerving man- hood. And to read history aright, we need to understand that there are, as De Quiticey puts it, two classes of ideas ; ideas of knowl- edge and ideas of power — the one kind transient and powerless, the other abiding and power-giving. Similarly, Professor Lazarus, in his " Ideas of History," distinguishes ideas as ideas of perception or apprehension, or those that merely represent or reflect reality; and ideas of formation, or those that lay hold on human motive forces and furnish types and ideals for men and races. The formative ideas are the chief impelling powers of history. They are originated and grow up in men through the action of mental processes. They are the products of the constructive faculty, directed toward perfection. They appear as the ideals of beauty, goodness and religion. They operate in a threefold way: First. They help to perfect the personality of those in whom they originate, thus raising certain capable individuals above the con- trol of merely natural wants and the ordinary level of human life, and making them leaders, " the guides of their own age and pro- phets of better ages to come." Secondly. They show their power in the ideal works and the original inventions of these individuals. Thirdly. They reach their final and fullest expression in the social, legal, political and religious arrangements and institutions,, through which they perpetuate and propagate themselves, and only through connection with which the vast majority of mankind are able to live in any measure in ideas, and so to be taken up into and inspired with the true life. These formative ideas, therefore, constitute the capital factor in the development of man and history, and the movements of the ages can only be understood in the light of them. Now it goes with the simple saying that the cycles of educational progress are marked and determined by such formative ideas. The time allotted me does not permit a survey of human progress in edu- cational ideas. The names of Comenius, Pestalozzi and their suc- cessors will suggest to you lines of thought that you can follow out for yourselves. I am here to-day to help you to catch, if may be, the watchword for the progress of the coming half century that opens with these exercises, and to help you to do something, if may be, toward setting the pace to that progress. I take it for granted, that every true Normal is intent on progress and upon deciding how it is to be attained. With us who have gathered here from the four quarters of the globe, in gratitude and devotion to the mother of us all, the vital question is: What is to be the formative idea in the progress of the coming fifty years? I think that you will agree with me that 4° Semi-Centennial Jubilee it can be ascertained and understood in the light alone of the forma- tive idea of the past fifty years. " Normal " was the watchword of fifty years ago, and " the normal idea/' first embodied for us in that gi-and teacher and grander man, David Perkins Page, has shaped the cycle now closed, the cycle of the Normal School. Education in the State of New York was chaos to begin with; that idea, embodied first in the Normal School, has gone far toward transforming the chaos that then existed in educational methods into a cosmos. In my boyhood, that famous book of the opening of the century, " The Columbian Orator," gave a vivid picture of the old-time peda- gogue. In a most fascinating dialogue between Master Ignoramus, the applicant teacher, and the school examiners, his attainments in mathematics and the sciences were exhibited. " Have you been through arithmetic?" was one of the questions. "I have been so fur that I thought I could see through," was the answer. " I have been as fur as division." " What is the shape of the earth ?" was a question in science. " It is flat," was the answer. " Oh, no, science tells us that the world is round and turns round every day!" replied an examiner. " Well, if it's round, and turns round every day, why hasn't Deacon Smith's mill-pond got oversot and all the water spilled out long ago?" was the triumphant response of Master Ignor- amus. And that only slightly caricatures some of the men who came in the autumn, from the ditch and the plow, to " mend our pens," " set our copies," " do our sums " and wield the birch for our moral development and improvement, in the old red school-house of my early boyhood. Even so late as 1859, that distinguished writer on education, Henry Barnard, in an introduction to a " History of Education," wrote of our country, from Madison, Wisconsin: " Nowhere among civilized nations is the business of education pursued with such utter lack of system, such complete, unsympathiz- ing, independent, self-dependent, isolation of effort — though yet with a fervor, devotion, energy and natural capacity almost equally unrivaled." There was manifestly pressing need of the introduction and embodiment in training schools of the new idea, that the work of education should be done in the normal way and that teachers should be trained to do it so. The normal idea embraced various essential elements of progress that have exerted a powerful influence not only upon this State, but upon the whole country. It assumed, first, that there is a standard of education to be decided by the nature and needs of the mind, by the characteristics and progress of science, and by the requirements of the age and civi- lization — a norm by which all true education is to be decided and tested. It further assumed that there must be method in education — and that a natural and rational method — in imparting knowledge, and in training and disciplining faculty. It assumed finally that organization, and that right, complete and effective, must be added State Normal College 41 to norm and natural method in order to the accompHshment of the best and complete results. The half century has brought much of improvement. The prin- ciples that David Perkins Page embodied in his " Theory and Prac- tice of Teaching," to furnish inspiration to teachers at the opening of the period, have grown into the science of pedagogics, a systematic study that with its various branches is sufficient to constitute a sepa- rate discipline in some of our universities. Master Ignoramus no longer applies for a place in our city and village schools. In fact, with his old-fashioned birch, his intuitional arithmetic and his flat and stationary earth, he has been ruled out of the remotest schools in the backwoods districts of our Empire State. But very much yet remains to be done. As in the history of civi- lization in general, so in education, there is always, first, a period of assemblage for the gathering of the rough elements or material to be organized; then, a period of tentative organization; and finally, a period of development. We may, perhaps, look upon ourselves in thid Empire State, as having come to the close of the second period. We are entering upon the third. In the tentative organization of educational elements and forces in the progress toward this phase, extreme, incomplete and irrational methods have naturally, and too often, asserted and assumed control. Various tendencies of the times have encouraged such results. The drift of the half century toward the exclusive methods of phy- sical science — due to the extraordinary development of the natural sciences, and the myriad bread-and-butter and money-making appli- cations based upon them — has tended to turn the public mind away from the infinite superiority of manhood to money; and the minds of educators from the need of broad and profound views of the nature of mind with which education fundamentally deals and of the quali- ties of manhood whose elevation is education's chief aim and supreme end. It has diverted the attention of our leaders from the grander subjects of history and literature, as embodying and presenting the achievement and thought of man, the greatest creature in God's uni- verse ; from the mental sciences, as dealing with the nature of man and with the mind to be educated; and from philosophy which deals with the ultimate principles underlying all knowledge and action and all education. Behold, to-day, as a result, man and the universe are widely looked upon as the product of matter and motion; religion as an evolution of belief in ghosts; psychology as a mere branch of physical science, "the psychology of the scalpel; and our practical philosophy has largely become, in the phrase of Carlyle — ^the philos- ophy of dirt." The old training of the mere mechanical memory — which pre- supposed no more than animal brain in either teacher or pupil — gave way to the training of the powers of perception and observation and of the simpler processes of thinking, notably the mathematical processes, and to the doing by rule and testing by rule — all of which was so far apparently great gain; but in many cases the over- 42 Semi-Centennial Jubilee shadowing influence of rule and method has unquestionably tended to mechanism, rather than to freedom of thought, while the over- mastering necessity for organization has resulted in as many cases in increase of machinery, rather than in free and well-ordered rational action. In short, our formative principle, as it has been understood and embodied, has shown itself too narrow and too narrowing, and, there- fore, as needing to be supplemented and broadened by some new principle that shall infuse into it life and inspiration. It has been of great value, confessedly, as a stepping-stone to something higher, if there be something higher to come ; but if there be nothing higher forthcoming, it promises to open the way out into a universe that is to be simply an infinite tread-mill, on which teachers and taught will alike grow weary and falter and faint and fall by the way, and civilization die of the cramming process. It goes without saying, that the new principle that is to supplement the old — or, rather, which is to be the further development of the old — must have in it a vital and vitalizing influence and must call out in men a power that never wearies and an activity that never becomes drudgery, and must direct effort along a line of movement that can never become a tread-mill to the soul. That new formative principle — ^that may well mark the transition from Normal School to Norrrial College — may be found in the crea- tive or constructive method. That, as I hope to show, is a principle that will not only justify a new departure, but will also greatly widen and illumine the educational horizon and correspondingly elevate the educational platform. I would not be understood as yielding to any one in my estimate of the importance of the moral and religious element in education; but here we are dealing only with the intellectual element. Looking upon things exclusively from that point of view, however much pro- gress may have been made in the theory and practice of education, the education of the present age is still sadly at fault, inasmuch as it neither recognizes nor attempts to develop and train the supreme intellectual faculty of construction, and inasmuch as it ignores the creative or constructive idea. Now that creative or constructive idea is what I desire to propose as the watchword of progress for the Normal College in the coming fifty years; as the normal idea has been of the progress of the Normal School in the last fifty years. In the brief discussion possible at this time I can only state the points that I desire to make in presenting the constructive idea, and barely suggest the lines of their unfolding. The points that I desire to make are as follows: I. The constructive or creative faculty is the supreme intellectual faculty, and it has been practically ignored. II. The creative or constructive idea based upon it furnishes the vitalizing and formative idea needed to lift educational work to its proper plane and to make it a delight rather than a drudgery, a development rather than a cram. State Normal College 43 III. The creative or constructive method should be consciously and intelligently adopted as the method of the Normal College and Normal teacher for the coming half century. I. The constructive, or creative, or system-making faculty, the supreme intellectual faculty, has been practically ignored in past work of education, yet I venture to affirm : 1st. That there is such a faculty, and that it is supreme in the intellectual sphere. Though you will not find it in its place in the books of psychology, any proper inspection of the facts of man's intellectual furnishing will show you that it is in its proper place in the human mind. We all recognize in mind, intellect and sensibility and will. Now the governing idea of the intellect, to confine ourselves to that, is knowledge, as the governing ideas of the sensibility and will, are feel- ing and endeavor or action. Pyschologists are substantially agreed that there are three fundamental forms of intellectual activity in know- ing; first, that exercised in the acquisition of simple knowledges; sec- ondly, that exercised in the conservation of knowledges ; thirdly, that exercised in the comparison or elaboration of knowledges in thought. The first of these activities is accounted for by an acquisitive or presentative or cognitive faculty — including under it the powers of internal perception (consciousness), of external perception (sense), and concomitant perception (intuition in the strict sense) ; the second, by memory or a representative or conservative faculty — including under it the powers of retention, reproduction, reimaging (imagination in the lower sense), and recognition; the third, by a faculty of relations, or a thought, elaborative, or comparative, faculty — including the powers of conception, judgment, and reason- ing. The claim here made is that the pyschologists generally have failed to recognize and put into its right place a fourth form of intel- lectual activity — the highest and most important of all — its activity in gathering up, grouping and compacting the results of all the other powers — the knowledges and thoughts — in systems. This fourth form of intellectual activity is that which is exercised in build- ing the Principias and Iliads, the Oration on the Crown and the locomotive engine, and should be accounted for by a creative or constructive faculty. Man acquires knowledge, — he has a cognitive faculty; he keeps knowledges for use as occasion may require — he has a conservative faculty ; he elaborates knowledges in the processes of comparison or thought — he has a thought or comparative faculty — that is the natural system so far. Are we justified in adding to these a sys- tem-making or constructive faculty? Now psychology — which is simply the science of human nature on its mental side — deals with facts, and is, therefore, an inductive science. The inductive method requires, first, the exact observation of the facts in the case, in order that the investigator may know what thev really are; secondly, the correct interpretation of the observed facts, embracing the apprehension of their precise meaning, their 44 Semi-Centennial Jubilee careful classification, and their rational explanation by referring them to the forces or faculties that produce them. Now, observe how some of the thinkers have treated the facts of intellectual creation or construction. Sir William Hamilton calls attention to the fact that philosophers have divided the imagination into two — ^what they call the reproductive and the productive. He then proceeds to explain away the productive or creative element, for which he has no place in his system. Noah Porter, who among psychologists has taken what is per- haps the most systematic view of what Hamilton calls the product- ive imagination, treats of construction or creative work under "imagination" as a phase of the "representative power;" and he, too, like Hamilton, explains it away, declaring that "its creative function is rendered possible by the union of the thinking power with the imaging power." In this connection he distinguishes what he styles the poetic, the philosophic, the ethical and the religious imagination. But after he has used the imaging and the thought powers to the utmost in accounting for the facts of constructive or creative work, he unconsciously finds an unexplained residuum of the highest rational activity — in grouping, molding and fusing facts and truths into system — vastly more important than all that he has accounted for, and which must be scientifically explained by an ade- quate power of construction. The unquestionable existence of this residuum leads President Porter to add to the elements that belong, according to his analysis, to the thought faculty, a chapter of two pages in length, on " Scientific Arrangement," or " System," which has no place in his system of the human intellect, and no place in his book, except as a protest against his own scientific analysis and induction, and a proof of its incompleteness. Professor Alexander Bain, in his " Senses and Intellect," has furnished, perhaps, the most distinct recognition of the facts, the process and the faculty of construction. He emphasizes " construct- iveness in science," " practical construction " and " fine art construc- tion " or " imagination ; " but, unfortunately, after full recognition of whathe terms " imagination, creation, constructiveness, origination," he explains them all away, practically after the manner of Hamilton and Porter, by referring them all to "constructive association," which does its work by the ordinary principles of representation, as connected with memory. Nevertheless he is right in placing them at the summit of the powers of intellect as the only proper and ade- quate explanation of what must be admitted to be the highest facts of intellectual activity. 2d. Assuming then, that the facts compel us to recognize such a faculty, its nature may be brought out and its general defini- tion arrived at by a brief inspection and statement of the elements that enter into the correct conception of the work of construction. The constructive process involves, first, an intelligent grouping of facts and truths. The ancients inclined to look upon creative or constructive work as too much the result of a sort of divine mad- State Normal College 45 ness. The Greek sometimes brought the afflatus of the poet and the prophet and the ravings of the madman together, as if of common origin. The modern tendency has been to put all the higher work of construction under the imaging power, or the reproductive imagination, and thus to connect it very closely with the phantasies of opium-eating, of intoxication or of semi-lunacy. The very men- tion of genius makes the average man think of the vagaries of Poe and De Quincey and Chatterton and Byron and Shelley. The com- mon mind would make creative work blind work, imagination in the lower sense. But the power, if it is to be judged scientifically, by its products, must be, in all its forms, intelligent and rational, and not unintelligent and irrational — in short, it must be the highest possible power of the intelligence, requiring an acuteness and a com- prehensiveness of vision quite beyond the range of all ordinary forms of thought. The constructive process involves, secondly, as its most important element, the organization of the materials of fact and truth, intelli- gently grouped together, into systems according to definite laws. This is not mere composition, however intelligent, but combination into an organic whole of thought. In poetry this is the work of the esemplastic power, of Coleridge, by which the soul fuses the mass of beautiful material into the organized and complete art product It is not a mere chance array of facts and truths; there is a definite law that governs in the construction of every such system. The organizing law of scientific system renders it impossible that there should be more than one correct system from one point of view. So art criticism assumes a law of procedure in accprdance with which every genuine production of art must be fashioned. Hence emerges the general definition, as follows: The constructive power is that faculty of the intellect by which man gathers up his knowledges gained by the lower intellectual powers, and groups and organizes them, according to definite laws, into systems constituting his highest thoughts. The three fundamental phases of idea — the true, beautiful and good, recognized from the days of Plato — give the forms and laws of the constructive faculty. Man intellectual interprets the universe and constructs and interprets systems from these three points of view. Confining attention to his own creations, he may fashion systems of truth, or scientific systems; systems of the beautiful, or aesthetic or artistic systems; and systems of the good, or practical systems. These three forms of construction require three corres- ponding forms of the power — the powers of scientific, artistic and practical construction. I can do nothing more than give the roughest and baldest state- ment of what I mean by each of these powers. Scientific construction or constructiveness may be defined as the power of the constructive faculty by which the man groups and organizes his knowledges, whether of objects or relations, as truth, in systems according to the law of thetrue. It is also the power by which man interprets truth as embodied in scientific systems and the 46 Semi-Centennial Jubilee systems of nature. Truth furnishes at once the point of view and the condition of all scientific construction. Aesthetic or artistic construction may be defined as the power of the constructive faculty by which man groups and organizes his knowledges, as embodying or manifesting beauty, in systems accord- ing to the law of the beautiful. It is also the power by which man interprets and appreciates beauty as embodied in aesthetic systems, whether artificial or in nature. The point of view, conditions and laws of procedure, in artistic construction, are determined by beauty. Practical construction may be defined as the power of the con- structive faculty by which man groups and organizes his knowledges, as good, or as means to ends, in systems according to the law of the good, or of adaptation of means to ends. The good gives shape to all practical construction — to inventions, plans of action and of life. Practical constructiveness views all its material, whether of ideas or of forces, in its relation to some form of the good or as means to some beneficent, wise or righteous end, centering in the experience of sentient, rational or moral beings. These are clearly the fundamental forms of intellectual construc- tion and in them I present you with the unrecognized power — ^the lost power — in our psychological system and in our educational system — or, if you please, the development out of the old. The relation of its training to a complete intellectual culture, of the high- est order, is self-evidently that of the one great and all essential ele- ment. Such culture without it is an absolute impossibility — an absurdity as patent as physical flight without wings, or breathing without air, or development without the spark of life and inspiration. It is the only power that can save us from the infinite cram and wastefulness and drudgery of the methods at present so largely in vogue, and give to hard study, in the future, any chance for exist- ence in our higher schools in the competition with the often more intellectual pursuits of foot ball and base ball and boating. II. The creative or constructive idea, which I give you as the watchword of the coming education, as the new vitalizing and forma- tive idea, if the coming education is to be at the fore of the world, is based upon this supreme intellectual faculty of construction. 1st. We are met, upon the threshold of our inquiry, by the old objection that the creative or constructive power is not cultivable. It is the gift of nature to the favored few. It comes out into full power and accomplishes its tasks without training or in spite of training, as by a divine impulse. That, you know, is the stock objection that Lord ^lacaulav urged against logical and rhetorical training in forming the orator and the literary men. It is the old classical notion that the poet, the orator, in short, anybody of distinction, must be born and not made or trained. The objection is equally valid against any and all train- ing. Perhaps John Ruskin presents it more efifectively, when he dis- tinguishes between " composition, the work of the fancv, and the true imagination associative, the grandest mechanical power that the State Normal College 47 human intelligence possesses." "This operation of mind," he writes, " so far as I can see, is absolutely inexplicable." And, again, " imagination is neither to be taught, nor by any efforts to be attained, nor by any acuteness of discernment dissected or analyzed." To all of which it may be replied, first, that the main assumptions of Ruskin are not strictly true; since he has himself given sufficient dissection and analysis of imagination for all practical purposes, and since the experience of multitudes of the men of the highest genius, from Aristotle, Aeschylus and Demosthenes to Bacon, Mil- ton and Gladstone, shows the marvellous power of intelligent train- ing and exercise in its unfolding; and, secondly, if the assumptions of Ruskin were true, the work of composition is still the appropriate preparation for the higher work, and brings out the higher power where it exists; so that training in that is, therefore, practically the development of the higher power. The sum of the matter is that there are, no doubt, special endowments bestowed upon individ- uals, so that it would be arrant folly to assume that all men are bom, not only free, but equal in all their powers, especially the creative; while at the same time it holds that all men of normal make and calibre have, in some measure, the apprehension and appreciation of things true, beautiful and good, and of these in system. If the germ is to be developed in any case, it must be dealt with in accord- ance with the universal law of exercise. That law is, that the development of any intelligent power — whether highest or lowest — depends on its exercise ; while its best development depends upon its intelligent, systematic and abundant exercise. Nor is there any valid ground for the common view, that the ages of genius, the creative ages, have, as it were, dropped right down out of heaven, and have, therefore, had no firm rooting in that which is natural in this world. They have rather been rooted in human nature and the circumstances of the age, and have sprung up, under the always presiding and controlling Providence, by the direct exercise and development of what belongs to human nature. This will appear from a glance at the creative ages in modern Eng- lish history. The sixteenth century was an age of surpassing poetic genius, because it had the grandest possible training in artistic con- struction. The printing press had thrown the supreme thought, the best literature of all the world — ^the early English, Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Teutonic — into the English mind; and the entire intellectual power of the age was called perforce to the task of appre- hending, grasping and putting it all into available form. England became the artistic workshop of the world, with two hundred poets working away as for life, and produced libraries of poetry and poetry so-called, of every conceivable form and quality, from the " Faery Queen," of Spenser, and the tragedies of Shakespeare, to the " Poly- olbion," of Drayton. From the opening of the seventeenth century onward was an age of scientific construction in England. The print- ing press had thrown into the mind of the intelligent masses the vast stores of scientific fact and truth which literary explorers had brought back from the libraries of the centuries ; voyagers by ship from all the 48 Semi-Centennial Jubilee nations of the earth, and investigators, by telescope, from the wide reaches of the universe; and the age groaned under the long, slow intellectual effort to apprehend these treasures and grasp and explain and systematize and make them available for mankind. It was an age to call forth Bacon, Newton and Boyle and all the giants greater and less; for England was one grand scientific workshop. From the closing half of the eighteenth century the age has been one of practical construction. In settling, civilizing, governing, molding, developing and bringing together into unity one-fourth or one-third of the liabitable globe with its inhabitants, tasks, as vast in their variety and compass as those thrown upon English minds by the inherited literary and scientific stores in previous centuries, have fallen to the hands of the English-speaking peoples of this age. The English lands have been the inventive workshop of the world, out of which, by the mightly hosts of inventors and practical men, great and small, have come all the wonders of modern intercourse and of this modern material civilization. It would appear, there- fore, from this rapid generalization, that the creative genius of the English race has not come down by special miracle out of heaven, but has been developed, by the largest possible and most varied exercise, out of the constructive germ in the Englishman; and that the form it has taken on has been determined by the special kind of constructive task to which the centuries have summoned it. All of which proves the constructive power cultivable. It need not be proved that there has been no general conscious aim in modem education, to develop the constructive power in any of its forms. The existence of the faculty has not been distinctly recognized; and how should it find place in the systems of education? As a consequence the power has been called forth only by providential impulses, com- ing fitfully (to all human appearance), now in one form and now in another, and leaving each of the different periods with an incom- plete and one-sided development. In this omission of an essential element may, perhaps, be found one reason for the unpractical results of the educational work, especially in the colleges and higher schools, of which business men complain. They object that it does not give men the power to see things in their connection and sys- tem, and to grasp and handle things and forces as means in com- passing industrial, intellectual or moral ends. In the estimation of many broad-minded men, it is a standing disgrace to our higher schools, that they turn out men practically helpless and unfit for accomplishment and production along any of the lines of effort, sci- entific, artistic and practical. May not this be the reason also, that the young men turn from study to athletics, to relieve the mono- tony and find something worth getting or doing? These thoughts may have served to lay bare the great defect in present educational methods, that needs to be remedied, if men are to be trained for the highest intellectual work. Manifestly the onh- common-sense way of remedying the defect is by incorporating "a training in the "creative method" in all the work of our higher GEORGE R. PERKINS 1S4S-1S52 State Normal College 49 schools. Adequate provision ought, assuredly, to be made for the development of the supreme intellectual faculty in all its three forms. That there is no insuperable obstacle in the way of this.-is evident- from the fact, already presented, that each of these powers has its defi- nite laws. The main practical hinderances will probably be found in the general prejudice in favor of the traditional method; in the mul- titude of subjects crammed into the school curriculum; and in the narrowness or incapacity of many of those set to do or to control the work of education. In fine, the objection to the introduction of the constructive idea, carried out to the full, would keep men forever savages or idiots, in keeping them always down to nature. Let us be rational and reco^ize the truth, that genius must be bom in a man, but it takes trainmg or education of the right kind to bring it to the best devel- opment. And let us accept also that other truth, that, there is a spark of genius in every normal human soul ; and that if it does not in some limited way flame out and up, it is because we, with our educational wet-blankets, proceed straightway to quench it. 2d. But not only is the creative or constructive power cultivable, but — ^what is vastly more important — I think it can be demon- strated that through its cultivation alone can the highest success be attained in cultivating the lower intellectual powers and in fitting man to accomplish something worth his while in the world. Accomplishment — not knowledge, nor feeling, merely — is the goaJ for man. His rationality consists supremely in his being capable of setting before himself ends of action and intelligently pursuing them. Knowledge may aid him in finding or fixing upon ends and in planning to attain them; feeling may furnish him powerful spring's of action, powerful impulses toward these ends; but these are only accessory and subordinate to accomplishment Man knows and feels in order that he may be a doer, maker, constructor, builder; and he becomes the normal and ideal man, only as he sub- ordinates knowledge and feeling to this higher aim and manhood. God has made him to be the lower, only in order that he may become the higher. From the intellectual side he is super-eminently a con- structive being. Confining our thought to the intellectual life and activity, it is patent, therefore, that the constructive power, when given its normal place, subsidizes or takes up into itself all the other intellectual powers and activities. But something more and better is true, and that is that the con- structive power alone, when properly developed and trained, never wearies and never fossilizes; and that it alone can keep any and every other form of intellectual effort from becoming a weariness and a drudgery, and the one who uses these powers from becoming a drudge and a fossil. Memory — the power that has so long been made the main dependence in education — ^wearies when used mechanically and sim- ply for the sake of gathering up so much treasure, whether for the sake of having it or of reciting it. The honor man in one of our great institutions, once put the thing patly for me on this wise : " I 5° Semi-Centennial Jubilee passed through the four years of hard drudgery. The professors poured in and poured in knowledge, on the whole range of subjects in the curriculum ; and when I came to the end of the course, they asked me to pour it out, and I poured it all out, and it staid out." He was disgusted with it all, and done with it all forever. And he was the honor man! And the great, if not the only, lesson learned in college, by many a generous young man, is the lesson of learning something for to-day and hastening to forget it over night; just as the business man learns the same lesson with less trouble and pain by reading his daily paper. And so nine-tenths of a student's life •s often wasted, and worse than wasted; for all such knowledge is rubbish — mechanically gained, mechanically held, if held at all, and mechanically lost in the end — because there are no connecting links and no unifying principle in it all. And the longer a man drudges his memory in that way the more mechanical becomes the process and the more a machine and the more worthless a machine becomes the man. God never intended us to be such drudges and spend- thrifts. How dififerent everything becomes when one is trained to gather his knowledges in system and for the ends of construction or of accomplishment! Each fact and truth has at once its own place and acquires a lasting value; the mechanical memory gives place to the philosophical; memory ceases to be a drudge and becomes the willing and glad servitor of reason and life and enlarging manhood ; and each system of facts and truths, little or great, takes care of itself and is ready to become part of a greater system and unity. As a remarkably brilliant young man once said to me : " I don't have to remember a subject when properly presented in its con- structed system and relations, or when I have so studied it; when- ever my attention is called to it, it thinks itself over again ; it remem- bers itself." And so in all spheres the constructive faculty trans- figures memory. In the effort to get away from the drudgery of memory, we have attempted in these later years to throw the burden upon the powers of perception. But perception like memory is finite — almost infi- nitely limited — and like memory it wearies. And then the animals can beat us in keenness of sense-perception — ^the eagle, the pointer and the rest of them outranging us in vision, smell, hearing, taste and touch. Besides, your specialist in perception gets so narrow in his devotion to the specks and the pin-points of his little bailiwick, that he becomes blind and deaf and dumb to all the rest of the great universe of God. And even if he take and ply the microscope and the telescope and the spectroscope and the scalpel and all the rest, in the pursuit of facts — the end of it all is to add a wearier burden to the memory already drudged to death. And so every living fountain in the man dries up, and he becomes in the end a fossil or the semblance of a machine. He becomes the victim of useless and deadly knowledge — the victim of cram again. Now let the constructive power take this power of perception into its service, setting to it ends for accomplishment, planning for State Normal College 51 the rational gathering of materials for use in gaining these ends, and training it to bind all its acquirements together into systems of fact and truth, small or great, that will take care of themselves, while they become accessions of power for new and further progress and iichievement; let this be done, and the perceptive powers are regene- rated and transfigured, and have wings unwearying as the eagle's given to them. Of late some have turned to the higher, thought-powers to escape the drudgery and the mechanical results; but with little better out- come. The ordinary faculties of conception, judgment and reason- ing are finite — infinitely narrow breadthwise. Notably limited and limiting do they become when used for themselves alone, and with- out any outlook toward the larger purposes of life and accomplish- ment. Groups of conceptions, strings of judgments, lines of rea- soning are little worth so long as they are simply conceptions, judg- ments and reasonings standing alone, or simply groups, strings and lines by themselves. The processes of thought by which they are reached become a weariness to the flesh, and the results mere lumber and dead weight to crush out the exhausted memory. John Stuart Mill is, perhaps, a fair illustration of the utmost that can be achieved along that course — and of him one of the ablest English thinkers has justly said that he never enunciated a false statement for which he did not, in his own writings, furnish a refutation. The most wooden of all wooden things is wooden logic; the dryest and deadest of all human machines is the man enamored of logic for its own sake. But let the constructive power take the logical powers in hand; let it wield the inductive and deductive methods in the interests of system, in science or philosophy, or shape the wealth of aesthetic materials into the artistic creations of art and literature, or make application of ascertained facts, truths and principles in practical systems of invention and building; and let it direct the gathering of all the material, true, beautiful and good, for these higher ends, and then exhausted memory will ceaselessly renew its youth and remem- ber without trying to remember, and the jaded powers of perception will receive new inspiration and perpetual impulse and will lay eager and effortless grasp on all the world of pertinent facts, and the processes of thought will take to them exhaustless and irrepressible wings, and move spontaneously and joyfully along all systematic and logical lines; and the whole man will become a resistless power in effort and achievement and a builder with the eternal for eternity. Now, although it must be admitted that this supreme power has been left practically without conscious recognition, and consequently without intelligent training in the past cycles, it must be admitted, with thankfulness, that like every other God-given endowment of the soul it has often and widely forced unconscious recognition. So true is this, that I have been accustomed to measure the success of educators by the. extent to which they have unconsciously laid hold of this hidden source of power and availed themselves of it in their work. I would be willing to leave any intelligent and successful 52 Semi-Centennial Jubilee teacher to test his own work by it, assured that he would find in it the true test and measure of his success. III. And now I want to appeal to you, who, with rnyself, have represented the normal idea in the Normal School, for this past half century, to aid those now in charge here in giving the constructive or creative method its rightful place in the Normal College, at this opening of the second half century of our beloved Alma Mater. I am sure that the time is fully ripe for it. More than ten years ago Professor Felix Adler gave, in the Princeton Review, a glimpse of "A New Experiment in Education," in the application of the " creative method " in the Workingman's School and Free Kinder- garten of New York. I took occasion to call attention in one of our great reviews, to that article, and to say that I looked upon this "move- ment as one of the indications of a new departure, of which, unless some of the signs of the times fail, the coming generation will hear much more than the present generation. The experiment referred to may be somewhat halting and only half coherent, as was the case with the original Pestalozzian movement; but the educational con- sciousness will doubtless clear up more and more, until the ' creative method,' in its full sense, finds its place, where it belongs, as the supreme thing in intellectual training." When I wrote that I had for years been making use of that method in its wider sense and application, while investigating and formulating its principles. The observation and experience of all the years since I left these halls — gained in public school and academic work, in the subsequent collegiate and seminary courses, in the years of an active ministry, and fn the chairs of professor and president in college and university work — have made the conviction absolute that the young are glad to be trained to set before themselves and to accomplish some rational and complete task — glad to be makers and builders, and ever ready to respond to new and larger demands upon their constructive faculty along any of its lines. I feel quite certain "(that I know that they want to grasp things in system, scientific, artistic or practical, and that in this way their acquirements are made to think themselves over again — in fact, to remember and retain them- selves. When, four years ago, after five years of enforced retire- ment from intellectual work, I returned to it again, I turned aside under the pressure of this conviction to a work before practically unattempted — the work of systematizing human knowledge within the covers of a great dictionary, so that any one who wishes to know the system of things and of knowledge may find there a guide to it, prepared with the aid of the latest light of science, literature, art and philosophy. Professor Shaler, of Harvard University, when I told him of the plan, said to me : " If you carry that plan out ever so imperfectly, the results will be immeasurably in advance of anything that has here- tofore been done." That has been substantially the response of every one who has turned attention to the matter. And now let me say that I have spoken thus freely of this part of my work in devotion to a great idea, in order that I may further State Normal College S3 say that I come to-day gratefully to lay that part of my work at the feet of this Alma Mater, because here I received the inspiration and impulse that have led up to it. My own experience, begun forty- four years ago when I left these normal halls, has in all these years been demonstrating to me that the creative method is after all involved in the true and complete normal idea; only our idea regard- ing the true norm needed to be broadened and completed. What is required now is the full recognition of this new phase of our formative idea and the introduction of intelligent and systematic training in accordance with it. To the task of aiding educators in doing this, I hope, if Providence spares my life and opens the way, to devote my remaining days. Now the rational method of training the constructive faculty is the same as that of training any other power. It is by intelligently, systematically and abundantly exercising that power. The exercise must be intelligent; for this infinite beating about the bush in the dark and for nothing is worse than useless — it is positively harmful. The teacher must know the power and its possibilities and laws, and direct his work accordingly. It must be systematic; for only by system can the maximum of results be reached with the minimum of effort. The procedure must be from the simple to the complex, from lower part to higher part, until the whole field is intelligently compassed; and that completeness must be the goal clearly in view from the beginning. It must be abundant, taking in the whole work and period of education. The bee, building his cell by instinct, reaches perfection unconsciously on the first trial; man, building by reason, must make progress through many attempts and failures, and approximate perfection only as the result of innumerable repetitions. Moreover, the creative method must proceed in the usual two- fold rational way: First, by direction of the pupil in studying the constructions of others as constructions ; secondly, by training him to construct for himself — ^and it must push both these educative pro- cesses along the three lines of scientific, artistic and practical system. The starting point in this training is in the study of the construc- tions of others as constructions. This should always be accompanied with constant exercises in construction. Just here is where much of our educational work — especially in our higher institutions — utterly fails. There is an infinite difference between the critical, microscopic and painful study that characterizes the present methods, in which there is nothing educative in any high sense, and the large- minded study of constructions, as such, that is required, if the results are to be educative. Let me suggest — rather than present — an illustration of what I mean by an example drawn from one of the three great forms of system. A poem is an artistic system and should be studied, if at all, as an artistic construction. Especially should the masterpieces of the great poets be so studied. Such study requires a knowledge of the principles of artistic construction, and of the canons of artistic criti- 54 Semi-Centennial Jubilee cism based upon them. It requires a knowledge of the nature, kinds, principles and laws of poetry, and an appreciation of them. It requires a knowledge of the nature, environment, development and character of the individual poet studied — say of Homer or of Shakes- peare or of Milton or of Tennyson. But what really happens by the present method? The boy studies the Iliad, for example. He ordinarily gets out of it a little mediocre Greek mythology and lexicography, a little indifferent Greek ety- mology, a modicum of halting Greek prosody, and an infinitesimal amount of superficial Greek syntax; but absolutely nothing of Epic poetry, nothing of Greek inspiration and genius, nothing of Homer, nothing of the Iliad. Just a little parsing and a little analysis, and a mass of useless lumber — that is all. The same is true of Shakespeare. We have long lists of editions of his plays prepared for the schools on just this plan — or rather this no plan — the study of which in all cases has the same outcome. Now suppose we take one of Shakespeare's plays — say Julius Caesar — and see how it should be studied constructively. Let the teacher begin with helping the pupil to gain for himself an idea of the nature and laws of dramatic poetry, and of tragedy in particular, including the fact that any example of such tragedy always has some one action that constitutes its organic or organizing idea, by means of which all its thoughts and facts are organized into a complete whole. Then let him read and re-read the poem until he has, with the teacher's suggestive help, found its organic idea " the Death Struggle of the old Roman Republicanism." That will give the key to every act in the play. Let him use that key. As usual he will find two stages in the action as a whole: First, the conspiracy for the murder of Caesar; secondly, the military death-struggle. Proceeding in his study, he will find in act I, the Inception of the Conspiracy to destroy Caesar; in act II, The Organization of the Conspiracy; in act III, The Execution of the Conspiracy and Death of Caesar, and the scattering of the hostile elements after Antony has prepared by his oration over the dead Caesar for the whirlwind of reaction. Act IV will give the gathering of the Military Forces of the Death-struggle by the opposing leaders ; and act V, the Death-struggle itself and the Death of Republicanism at Philippi. Returning again to act I — The Inception of the Conspiracy — let them trace the progress of Shakespeare in his consummate art as scene after scene, each an essential part of the whole, is wrought into that act. He will see how the thoughts and facts fall into place; how every sound of drum, every shout, every shadow or train pass- ing across the scene, takes its place as part of the unique whole into which only the master mind of Shakespeare could organize it. Let him, in this way, study all the acts and scenes in the light of the organic idea of the play until it stands out before his mental vision in its unity and completeness. Then, and not till then, will the student be prepared to grasp and State Normal College 55 master the dramatic and philological facts, and the facts of rhetorical and poetic form, and to lay hold of them in such a way that they will not weigh down his memory and confuse his judgment and exhaust his patience and disgust his soul with the ghosts of pettiness and worthlessness. The following of the master mind and hand of Shakespeare, in this constructive fashion, through one drama, will make him eager for like work with his other great dramas, and with the productions of other leading authors, and will be worth more to him educationally than would be the study of all the English courses of all the colleges, in the old hum-drum and dead-and-alive way. Besides getting something of Shakespeare, and something worth while about the drama itself and the drama in general, he would be able to get vastly more of the grammatical, philological, historical and other details, and to get these in such a way that he would not need to make a weary and fruitless efifort to remember them, for they would remember themselves, springing freshly and vividly into place again as the mind reverted to the play. Then there should be carried along with all this the constant training in literary construction in every form. But upon this I cannot dwell. Had I time, I would like to illustrate the constructive method in its application to scientific system — showing how a specific science, such as psychology, should be studied; and how the training in direct scientific construction should be carried on along with it. And I would like to do the same with practical system — taking some great sermon or oration constructed to gain some specific end — as the Sermon on the Mount, or Demosthenes' Oration on the Crown, or some invention, as the locomotive engine — and tracing the mar- shaling and relations of all the parts as means to the end proposed by the constructor. But I must leave them with you with the sug- gestion only, trusting to your catching my larger meaning. In conclusion, let me urge upon your attention the fact that a weighty responsibility rests upon our Normal Schools and Normal Colleges, in this matter of educational method; especially upon this Normal College as one of the earliest and most influential of them all, and one with a most marked history. You train the teachers who take charge of the child-soul at its most plastic stage. If you fail, how great, how absolute, the failure ! Everything fails with you ! The man who undertakes the culture of his own spirit by the process of blundering into development and power, will in the end find that to be a slow, discouraging and costly, not to say impossible, way. Nor is it any better when one submits himself to a like process under the misdirection of others, even though they bear the name of educa- tors and the process be dignified with the name of education. Who does not heartily endorse John Ruskin's indignant protest against the futilities of all such so-called education? On this subject he says: " The human soul, in youth, is not a machine of which you can polish the cogs with any kelp or brickdust near at hand ; and having got it into working order, and good, empty, oiled serviceableness, start your immortal locomotive, at twenty-five years old or thirty. 5^ Semi-Centennial Jubilee express from the Strait Gate, on the Narrow Road. The whole period of youth is one essentially of formation, edification, instruc- tion. I use the words with their weight in them ; intaking of stores, establishment in vital habits, hopes and faiths. There is not an hour of it but is trembling with destinies, — not a moment of which, once past, the appointed work can ever be done again, or the neglected blow struck on the cold iron. Take your vase of Venice glass out of the furnace and strew chafif over it in its transparent heat and recover that to its clearness and rubied glory when the north wind has blown up.on it; but do not think to strew chafiE over the child fresh from God's presence, and to bring the heavenly colors back to him — at least in this world." But more than this, — you who represent this institution in its present form and with its present aim are in a new position in the world of education. You know that a legitimate and natural change of name properly carries with it a corresponding change of function or of nature. Jacob became Israel; Simon Jona became Peter. So the Normal School has become the Normal College. That has lifted it to a new vantage ground, from which you must do a larger work than you have heretofore done, in shaping the educational methods and setting the pace to educational progress. You are now to reach the so-called higher education, by training teachers for the colleges and universities. There is urgent need for that training. In our so-called higher institutions — while there are glorious exceptions — the average professor is as innocent of educational method as a baby is of metaphysics. You will need to make him over; — perhaps to take him to pieces and then make him over! But, if you can but catch the inspiration of the grand position into which the first great providential cycle has wheeled you, and lay hold of the constructive idea with which to reach and shape the minds of those who are to be our college professors for the providential cycle upon which we are now just entering, the next jubilee of this institution — to which our children, not ourselves, will come — will witness a transformation in the college, in the nation and in the world, too marvelous for belief. The thing demanded of us all, in the opening cycle, is that we shall be builders and help men to become builders, in the higher spheres of education. If we prove to be normal builders — building the complete manhood and womanhood, physical, mental, moral and spiritual — in our systems of science, aesthetics and practics, holding fast to the true norm of God's world and God's word, — the result will be a real higher education worthy of the name, a truly exalted type of civilization in place of all this material glare and show and sham, and a genuinely grand evangelical Christianity with its divinely inspired self-sacrifice; — and as the end of all, the preservation and reconstruction of society and the world — now threatening to go to pieces and to go down under the baleful influence of an aonostic anarchism that acknowledges no authoritative norm anywhere in thought, in politics, in morals, or in religion — by bringing them SAMUFil. B. WOOLWORTH i3=;2-iS^6 State Normal College 57 into perfect conformity with the divine and eternal standard of the universe. EDUCATION AND REFORMATION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENTS By Charles W. Manchester, '75 The Education and Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents is one of the first subjects attracting the attention of philanthropists and legislators in our land. As recently as 1817 the subject was mooted by the foremost citizens, who subsequently — and within a very few years afterwards — gave it organic form as one deserving careful study. Previous to 1825, no provision was made for delinquent k'hildren, however tender in years. All were herded with the adult criminal; and, of course, made worse by the association. Less than seventy- five years ago, the first institution for such children in our country was established. That was in New York city in 1825. Now we find similar institutions in various States from Maine to California. Since the subject is attracting and deserving such general attention, it is very important that right plans be adopted for carrying forward such work. The inmates of most reformatory institutions are committed by magistrates and charged with some offense, from the indefinite term " disorderly " to grand larceny or burglary, while some of the inmates of other institutions are given up to the authorities of such institu- tions by their parents. It is supposed that all inmates of such places are there because of offenses committed, but this supposition is not true in all cases; for, not infrequently, the parents desirous of escap- ing the responsiblity, care and expense of providing for the child, will prefer some charge and ask for his commitment. It is evident, then, that a number of the inmates are more sinned against than sinning, that the fault in many cases, lies with the parent, who does not consider the disgrace that clings to the child in after life, but does consider the advantages — superior to any home training that would be given — and all at the expense of city or State. But the majority — largely from improper home training and supervision — are committed because they deserve to be, because their habits of life are wrong, and because repeated offenses against law and order, which may have culminated in some very serious offense, show the need of reformatory influences and training. These children generally come from the lower classes of society where the lack of love and pleasant surroundings that characterize attractive homes, cause them to seek congenial or kindred associa- tions elsewhere. They are generally close observers, with little or no knowledge of books, but a better knowledge of human nature than that of many adults. When committed to an institution, their needs are varied and S8 Semi-Centennial Jubilee pressing. Unrestrained liberty to say and do as they pleased, to go and come without proper parental supervision have characterized the majority of their lives, and hence, they are warped by evil habits, and the work of education and reformation is by no means easy. One of the very first ideas dominant in the minds of those directing the affairs of such institutions should be to give the inmates such training and education as will fit them for lives of honesty and use- fulness. Book learning alone is not enough, for learning, without good principles, more effectually arms a rascal for the accomplish- ment of evil. A wise man has said, " To educate the mind of a bad man without correcting his morals, is to put a sword into the hands of a maniac." The philosopher John Locke wrote, " If virtue and a well-tempered soul be not got and settled so as to keep out ill and vicious habits, languages and science, and all the other accomplish- ments of education, will be to no purpose but to make the worse or more dangerous man." There must be the potent influence of godly lives everywhere coming in contact with the misguided ones, in order to lift them up to higher planes of living, in order to make them better and reform their characters or lives. Coming from homes of worthless, shiftless, or perhaps, drunken parents; or it may be honest, hard-working, deserving parents, who are unable to give their children that home training and proper supervision they would like to, one of the first needs to be met is regularity of life. From early morn till they retire at night, there should be system in every- thing they are called upon to do, — a particular time for rising, bath- ing, eating, playing, working and studying. This regularity will soon show a marked improvement in the physical well-being, the eye will brighten, the step become more elastic; and, where uniformly kind and just treatment — supplemented by intelligence and good judgment — prevails, the feeling of loneliness will soon wear away, and the dogged defiant expression will give place to one of pleasant- ness and contentment. In such a condition, they will be ready and willing to obey, and to receive the benefits the institution was orga- nized to bestow. Of course many of the children must perform the routine work of the place, but the most menial labor will be beneficial, principally, in forming habits of industry. Cleaning, gardening, baking, tailoring, shoemaking and printing for the boys ; and washing, ironing, mend- ing, and the practical work in well-ordered families, for the girls, form a basis to which may be added different trades — practical in their nature — which will enable the children to secure employment on their discharge. In fact, unless in special cases and for good reasons, none should be discharged — either to their parents or indentured to others — until employment is guaranteed ; for, if per- mitted to return to their former haunts of wickedness, or homes of idleness and evil companions without regular employment, and not trained to some branch of manual labor or trade, they will have derived but little, if any, benefit from their stay in the institution. They will fall an easy prey to the many temptations besetting their pathway, and then justice will not be tempered with so much mercy State Normal College 59 as before, if beyond a certain age a home more penal in its nature will care for them. The work of the school-room must form an essential and much needed part of the training of children during their stay in the refor- matory, and the work there should be of the most practical kind. It is seldom that one is received with much knowledge of the common English branches — as many as twenty-five per cent, without ability to read or write — hence the work of the schools must needs be pri- mary in its character. The need or necessity for superior teaching in the primary departments of all schools is being recognized and emphasized by voice and pen to-day as never before. This need is being supplied by the numerous normal and training schools, led by our alma mater in this State. In order to be a truly successful teacher in a reformatory institution, there must be linked with this normal school training, persistent and painstaking effort, unlimited patience and tireless energy, with love for the work and a lively faith in Him whose promises never fail. Because the children remain in the institution, on an average of only about eighteen months, reading, spelling, penmanship and arithmetic are the studies which must necessarily receive the most attention; yet there are other branches which must be taught, and as imperatively needed, as those named. They need to know them- selves and to possess a knowledge of the laws governing their bodies. Their minds are blank concerning physiology and hygiene, and it is very important that this class of children, especially, becomes acquainted with — not only the organs of the living body — but their needs or how to keep them healthy. , Education in this line will not be complete until the requirements of the law, in this and most of the States of the Union, are met, by teaching these subjects with reference to the efTects of alcohol, tobacco and kindred poisons on the various organs of the body. These children come from homes and associations where these stimulants and narcotics are used, and many of them are victims to evil habits in this line. Wise teaching, then, is needed to counteract the hereditary taint, bad influences and bad practices before commit- ment. The time was, and not long ago, when the mind was trained regardless of the requirements of the body. The vital connection between the mind and body — which was ignored with a persistency little short of criminality — is being recognized, and the physical well-being assured as well as mental. Blessings on the head of woman, through whose instrumentality, untiring efforts and influence, principally, thirty-six States, the District of Columbia and all the territories require physiology and hygiene, with reference to the influence of stimulants and narcotics on the human system, to be taught in all their public schools. If properly taught to all the young, the coming generation will see far less liquor sold, without the necessity for more stringent legislation in this direction, and the reformatory institutions with fewer numbers, for the liquor traffic is a prolific source of juvenile delinquency. 6o Semi-Centennial Jubilee The history of our country, and especially civil government, should be taught the children; for a very large proportion are of foreign birth or direct descendants of foreigners, and their need in this line is great, and should be met in order to make intelligent and patriotic citizens, and thus make more secure and give perpetuity to our republic and her institutions. In connection with all the instruction given, whether in workshop or school-room, in all their play, in short, during their entire stay in the reformatory, the idea of proper discipline should not be lost sight of. Without prompt obedience and good order, but little, compara- tively, can be done that will be of permanent value. All should be subject to military training as soon as they enter the place. _ This will prove the most prompt and effective way of establishing obedience and order. It will prove of the greatest value in con- nection with every department of the institution, and cause the slouching gait and bent form to disappear and give place to the manly, erect bearing of the soldier. While the military training will be of the greatest value in maintaining proper discipHne, it will not be sufficient to meet the needs of a large institution. There should be a grade system, with a permanent record kept, measuring the moral improvement of all during their stay, and all should know that their record must measure up to a certain standard in conduct and studies before discharge. But these systems are not sufficient to meet the needs of all cases. Where hundreds of the worst ele- ments of society are congregated, they must be made aware of the fact that as they could not violate law with impunity outside, much less can they do so inside of a reformatory institution; and that the penalty for the breaking of rules, or for conduct however gross or heinous, will be sufficiently severe to meet the needs of the occasion. If morbid sentimentalism prevails, and beautiful theories that cannot wisely or safely be put in practice, gain favor, then will be realized the oft repeated history of the sons of Eli. Let wise and good men and women be placed in charge, and let them be encouraged in their work, unhindered, so long as wisdom and goodness are manifest in their administration. And not merely at the heads of institutions or departments, but in every position from superintendent to the most menial employe, let there be intelli- gent men and women, with at least a good common school educa- tion, possessed of sound judgment, big-hearted, with love and zeal for the work, not actuated principally by a desire for gain, or from sordid motives, but fired with the Pauline spirit of love and good- will; then, with that unity and harmony that characterize conse- crated Christianity, the grandest results await their labors. Said a superintendent of a large city institution when approached by one with an excellent and experienced candidate for a position, " Sir, he is just the man I need for the work here; but unfortunately I have not the power to appoint. You will have to go to the com- missioners of charities. They send men to me totally unacquainted with and unfit for the duties of their positions, and months of blun- State Normal College 6i derings and disorders occur before they become of use in the work." In order to produce the best results special training is needed in every walk of life — the work of educating and reforming juvenile delinquents not excepted; and because of the necessity for, and the existence of so many reformatory institutions, there should be a department in some of our normal schools for the special training of those who desire to devote themselves to the work. Then will authorities know where to turn for intelligent assistants, well acquainted with the theories, lacking only in experience, but fully alive to the needs of the situation; and then will institutions he properly equipped for the work of education and reform. With insti- tutions thus provided on the one hand, and the State watching and protecting with untiring, jealous interest on the other hand — suffer- ing no political party to interfere only to make better; and per- mitting no particular church to enter with rites, ceremonies and creed peculiar to itself, bringing discord and confusion in its train, then will the grandest results follow from the God-given work, and none but honest, law-abiding, intelligent, patriotic citizens be sent out into the world. OLD SCHOOLS AND NEW By Sherman Williams, '71 I am to speak on the topic, " Old Schools and New." It is said that a text rarely furnishes a clue as to what the sermon will be, so I may, under the above title, speak of schools of theology, or states- manship, or journalism, or literature, or learning, or any other phase of human activity. But I imagine the real question is broader than any or all of these. All those changes in the various phases of life's work that we dominate the " new school " of thought, owe their existence to a common cause. The " new school " found its birth in the invention of the art of printing. Knowledge then became, as never before, a cumulative force. It then became possible for one to profit by the experience of many who had gone before him. The growth of human knowledge and the wisdom which comes from human experience, has grown with ever increasing rapidity since the invention of printing. The introduction of the newspaper has greatly aided this by furnishing a medium for the ready interchange of thought. The telegraph and the telephone have done much toward making all mankind neighbors. Each morning we learn what of general interest transpired the day before, the whole wide world over. The newspapers, the magazines, the dictionaries, the encyclopaedias, the public libraries, the almost endless ways in which the invention of the art of printing has been made use of, have so increased the sum of human knowledge that he who has lived the last third of a century has seen more material progress than all those who have lived before 'him. This alone would have revolutionized modern life, but there has been a greater change. Men have come to know 62 Semi-Centennial Jubilee each other, and therefore to respect, to love and to pity. Never before have mankind known each other so well. Never before has man had so great a regard for his fellow man. Never before was so much money spent for the general welfare, for missions, for hos- pitals, for asylums, for schools, for public libraries. Never before has human life been so highly regarded. Never before has woman been so esteemed. Only a short time ago and she was little better treated than domestic animals. Not long since poverty was treated as though virtually a crime. It is only very recently that the unfortu- nate, the insane, the feeble-minded, the crippled, have been at all duly cared for. Man is developing a new sense which for want of a name we may call sympathy for mankind in general. Altruism is growing rapidly. Men of large wealth are very generally coming to regard themselves as trustees of their fortunes and to consider care- fully how they can use them so as to do the most good. So gener- ally is this true that a man of great wealth who does nothing for the public good is generally execrated. It begins to look as though the meek would inherit the earth. By means of what the printing press has done, aided by the telegraph and telephone, we have come to know the history and the .lives of all mankind; through travel, aided by the railway and steamship, we have come to know men them- selves the world over. With this knowledge has come respect, regard, sympathy. We have in a large measure come to recognize the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. We are told that familiarity breeds contempt, but this is true only of things that are contemptible. Familiarity leads to knowledge of each, other, to an understanding of conditions and motives, to respect or sympathy or pity, as the case may be. What we call the new school of, this or that, is due to this changed condition of affairs, which in turn is due to knowing each other better. While this or that man may have furthered the cause, no one can say that any man or set of men brought about the changed con- dition of affairs. The " new school " in education is often said to be due to Pesta- lozzi, Frobel and others. Far be it from me to deny these men the great credit due them, but the changes in the condition of the world made them possible, and these changes were the outcome of the labors of great numbers, some known, more unknown, extending over a long period of time. The times called for these men and the call was answered. A little earlier in the world's history and they would have produced no effect; a little later and they would have been commonplace. The " new education," so-called, is often sup- posed to mean new methods and devices. This is a mistake. The methods may be used in any school, old or new. The devices and methods are those that fit the user. The " new education " means a new spirit. What shall we demand of it? Better scholars? More learned men? Yes, if you please, but more than this, we must regard ideas more than words, acts more than theories, character more than dogma. State Normal College 63 BENEFITS TO THE TEACHER OF PROFESSIONAL STUDY By William M. Giffin, '73 Teaching is a profession in the highest and noblest sense; there- fore when a teacher has taken the time and trouble to prepare him- self for this work, that should be the end of it, and then there is no reason why he should be subjected every few months to petty exami- nations in order to retain his position. When a teacher has once received a certificate of any kind that is trustworthy, showing that so far as scholarship is concerned he is in every way competent to teach, the only thing left for him to prove, is that he is possessed of the requisite amount of professional knowl- edge, and with it, good common sense to put into practice what he knows; and also to show that he is not too lazy or too conceited to keep up a continued study of the best writers on his profession. As well might a la^vyer endeavor to practice law with no knowl- edge of the statute laws of his State ; or a doctor to practice medicine with ho knowledge of physiology, as for a teacher to teach with no knowledge of the mind he is trying to develop. " O, woe to those who trample on the mind. That deathless thing ! They know not what they do, Nor what they deal with. Man, percnance may bind The flower his step hath bruised ; or light anew The torch he quenches ; or to music wind Again the lyre-string from his touch that flew ; But for the soul, O, tremble and beware To lay rude hands upon God's mysteries there ! " A non-professional teacher — that is one who has no scientific knowledge of the human being's mind — has no business to be the disciplinarian of children. Such teachers are too impatient, too thoughtless, too unsympathetic to deal with children. If they have to do with none but bright, goody-goody boys and girls they will do well. If a child comes under their care who has any physical deformity, they are kind enough and will not admit of any ridicule; perhaps they will even be patient with a lame boy because of his limping; and if his arm be broken will not scold because he cannot do his writing lesson. Yet, on the other hand, a poor little fellow who has a deformity of mind receives no help or sympathy from them; they only know that he is dull, hard to learn, difficult to interest in his work. It may be the child inherits a bad temper, or, perhaps, a nervous- ness that causes him to be at all times in motion. He may have inherited a suspicious nature, selfishness, in fact, many of the things that are bad and may be inherited. Now, how does the non-profes- sional teacher look at such children? He looks upon them as being in his way for several reasons; first, perhaps — they will keep the class average down on examination day or hurt the order when company is present. Such teachers never stop to think that if it 64 Semi-Centennial Jubilee were not for just such boys and girls there would be no need of them as teachers. This is just the class of pupils that gives us our positions. Any old quack of a doctor can prescribe for a case of temporary indigestion, but where a genuine case of dyspepsia takes hold of the patient, the quack hacks away at him till he (the patient), is ready to end his life to get rid of his sufferings. When, on the other hand, the professional doctor takes hold of him, studies his symptoms, reads up on the disease, he soon has his patient well. So with the quack teacher when dealing with the mental dyspepsia. He hacks away at the child,' calls him a dunce, tells him he is bad, finds fault with him, pesters him, in short makes his school life too hot for him until finally " school " and " prison " become synony- mous terms to him. While the professional teacher studies such children, reads up on them, realizes he has a chronic case on his hands which will not yield at once to his skill, works away, day after day, Icnowing that the educating of this child does not mean the learning of rules in grammar, or of descriptions of rivers, or in the working of problems. These are all right in their places, but the patient must first be made ready for them; and, though at the end of the term, the child may not know "A" from " X " he has been far more benefited and more highly educated than others who have mastered the whole alphabet, and when the dull or bad boy once begins convalescing he will out-strip the others so rapidly and leave them so far behind as to cause them to forget they were ever in the same class with him; and best of all is he owes his growth to his patient teacher. And, now, dear reader, to which class of teachers do you wish to belong? To which class do you think Prof. James B. Richards belonged?* Think you, my friends, that Prof. Richards had a knowledge of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Seneca and Pesta- lozzi? Did he go at his work blindly? Had he not a definite pur- pose in his teachings? Could he by any chance have accomplished his grand, noble work? And is it not fair to conclude that any who fail or do but fairly good work may trace their failure back to the want of a knowledge of the principles as laid down by the old Greek and Roman philosophers? Are they not all, if not independent stu- dents, inclined to do the same thing, viz. : Confine themselves mainly to the imitating of their teachers ? Why did your teacher and your teacher's teacher call out some twenty or thirty pupils at a time and have them toe the mark while they pronounced some fifty or sixty words for the pupils to spell orally? Was it not because they had not the opportunity, or had failed to embrace it, of becoming acquainted with principles and methods of teaching? Is it any wonder that their teaching was mechanical, soulless, devoid of high aims? Is it at all surprising that they exercised very little, if any, influence upon the development * See paper read by him at the Twelfth Annual Session of the Conference of Charities and Correction, held in Washington, D. C, June, 1885, in which is given an account of the boy Sylvanus. L DAVID H. COCHRANE 1S56-1S64 State Normal College 65 of intelligence and character in pupils? There was no individuality in their work and hence they could not develop any individuality in their pupils. And inasmuch as they were unable to contribute to the growth of correct principles in the profession, they were rather an impediment to the progress of the profession. Perhaps they had not the time for the study of the profession. Now stop a moment and think how very weak, how absurd such a reason is. They had the assurance to ask for a position to do a work which they had not the time to learn. Think, ladies, of your paying a dressmaker two dollars a day to experiment on your new dress till she learn to make one. I say paying a dressmaker for all she must do to make herself a dress- maker is to present herself and ask for a position as such; or she may have been through a dressmaking training class and tread the sewing machine while some one stood by to help her guide the work and in this way have become an expert in the art, and needs no more study but practice only; how many will hire her? " Well," you say, " what about such men as Washington, Jeffer- son, Webster, Clay and hundreds of others, who became so great and were pupils in the old-time school?" The teachers of such pupils deserve but little credit. Such boys will learn if shut up in a room by themselves ; though you should bind them hand and foot yet will they gain knowledge. The teacher who deserves credit is he who awakens the sleepy mind; he who reaches that which all others have failed to reach. He it is that, like the sculptor who had finished his masterpiece, may clasp his hands and with joy exclaim, " This is my handiwork ! " "Well," says another, "I know of teachers who do not study their profession and do a grand, good work." How do you know? let me ask. " Why! look at their results." What are they? "A class average of over ninety per cent ! " Ah, yes, but I saw an answer to that in the " New York School Journal." " Examinations, as ordin- arily conducted, do not give the result of good teaching, because they are based upon the supposition that knowledge is everything. A cross, selfish, and even brutal teacher may make a good text- book scholar. They may know a wonderful number of facts in history and geography; they may be quick in mathematical calcu- lations and excellent in the languages, and yet with all this they may send their pupils out into the world fit only to become Wall street sharpers, boodle, vicious and tricky politicians. They will, probably, get money, live in palaces, drive fast horses and be among the ' suc- cessful' men of the world. But are these things the measures of their success? By no means. Just such men pulled Rome down, and just such men will cause the ruin of our country when it falls. The imparting of knowledge is of minor importance. We are running wild over strength of body and mind, and neglecting the culture of the soul. "There are some who will say this is 'nonsense,' 'preaching' and all that. It is not nonsense, and if it is preaching, the more of it 6'6 Semi-Centennial Jubilee the better. We want some earthquake that will shake a few of these fundamental truths into the inner consciousness of thousands of teachers who are wild over facts. They are everlastingly asking 'Who?' 'What?' 'When?' 'How?' This is the beginning, middle and end of all their teaching. If they find a pupil who can tell the name of Queen Victoria's great grandmother or conjugate the Greek irregular verbs and give Cicero's idiomatic expressions, they at once pronounce him ' excellent.' Special results stand at the end of all their ideas of school work." Of course, there always have been and always will be hundreds and hundreds of hard-working, untiring, conscientious, progressive, enthusiastic teachers at work, and it gives me unbounded pleasure to know that the Albany State Normal College is not behind any of her sisters in this respect. But, oh! how our honorable profession has been made to suffer by the thoughtless, incompetent, money- loving, one-sided, narrow-minded, covetous old sinners who have passed themselves off as representative members of it. One of the worst things that can happen to a school is to have teachers who can do what passes for good work, but who are either too lazy to read or too stingy to pay for professional books. " Why," say they, " I do not find anything new in them." No, of course you do not, and why? Because that noble, God- loving, high-minded teacher, who taught you years ago, was a reader; and you put into practice what you learned of her, without knowing it. But you will not instill your pupils as she instilled you, for her success came from the heart while yours come only from the head. The great trouble with teachers who do not study their profession and the laws of the mind is, that they make tug-boats of themselves and pull and puff and tug away at their pupils, pulling them through the waves against the tide, when, had they known more of the laws of the mind, were they in love with the work, they would have seen how unnecessary all this was ; and instead of taking the place of the tug would have taken the place of the rudder and simply guided their pupils in the right direction to help themselves through. We sometimes complain that we are too poorly compensated for our work. If there are hundreds and hundreds of teachers who are underpaid there are thousands and thousands who are overpaid. Many a teacher is receiving good pay this very moment who is not worth his salt as a teacher. Whose fault is it? Yours, my friend, and mine and every teacher's in the country, if we do nothing to raise the standard of the profession. Listen to the opinions of some of the greatest school men that have ever lived. South says: " He that governs well, leads the blind, but he that teaches gives him eyes; and it is glorious to be a sub-worker to grace in freeing it from some of the inconveniences of original sin." " What considerate man," says Edward Everett, " can enter a State Normal College 67 school and not reflect with awe that it is a seminary where immortal minds are training for eternity." "The teacher has the consciousness of being engaged in a useful and honorable calling. My pen is too feeble to attempt to portray the usefulness of the faithful teacher," is the language of David Page. " The true teacher of to-day is not only molding the lives of chil- dren who are to become the men and women of the immediate future, but in doing this he is also influencing the intelligence, character and progress of generations yet unborn," are the closing words of Orcutt. Said the late Mr. Fletcher: "The intellectual faculties can never be exercised thoroughly but by men of sound logical training — perfect in the art of teaching." Says Chas. Northend : " To take the child of to-day in all his ignorance, weakness, exposed to evil influences and temptations on every hand and lead him on through the devious and dangerous paths of childhood and youth and finally place him upon the battlefield of life, a true-hearted and intelligent being, richly furnished with those traits and qualities which will nerve and strengthen him to ' act well his part in life ' — to do all this — is the high privilege and duty of the teacher; and is it not a noble and godlike work?" The following are the words of the lamented Dr. Channing: ■" There is no office higher than that of a teacher of youth, for there is nothing on earth so precious as the mind, soul and character of the child." What is the best course of reading for teachers? is 'the question we are often asked to answer. We are reminded of the man who asked his physician, " Doctor, what isthe bestmedicinefor a patient?" The doctor's answer was : " My dear fellow, that all depends upon the nature of the patient's disease." And thus we answer our ques- tion. It all depends on the condition of the reader. I. Is he a Normal School graduate with his little sheep-skin testifying to his undoubted competency as a teacher? Or is he a college graduate and because of this fact, inclined to feel that his degree makes him better than his fellow-companions? Then we advise him to read Pope's " Essay on Man; " Sprague's " Curiosity; " Dickens' " David Copperfield;" Thackeray's "Vanity Fair;" Shakes- pere's "Hamlet;" Whittier's "Snow Bound;" Cooper's "Spy;" Irving's " Life of Washington ; " Lamb's " Elia ; " Dr. Samuel John- son's " Vanity of Human Wfshes," in order that he may learn that the degree does not make the man, and, therefore, there is much hard work before him if he would not be forgotten as soon as he is dead, for certain it is, that no degree brought these men their fame. Do not for a moment think I mean in the slightest manner to depreciate our Normal School or College graduates. That is not my purpose. I simply say that if any teachers have this disease of seif-conceit, then I prescribe the above reading. There are those who, we think, are over-jealous of their Normal School and College honors and are inclined to frown down any seeming infringement. 68 Semi-Centennial Jubilee Let us look at the advancement of two teachers, A and B who each receive an appointment in first-year classes. In A's school there are four changes during the first year and each change promotes A a step higher by virtue of his being in line of promotion. In B's school there is but one vacancy, which is in the fourth- year class, and B has shown such consummate skill that he is pro- moted at once from the first-year class to the fourth year. These two teachers, at the end of the year, have received the title of vice- principal; one Dy a certain understood law or usage, the other by his skill well used. To which shall we give most credit? Again, let us look at two boys who start together in life. At six- teen one enters West Point, the other enters an office as law clerk. Time passes — A graduates from West Point as a lieutenant, B is admitted to the bar. Then a war breaks out; A goes in as a colonel, B as a private. A is soon made a general, B a captain. At the end of a year B, by careful study of his manual, by unflinching courage and great will-power, has made himself so well-felt in the army that he becomes a colonel. At the close of the war they both come home as generals. To whom shall we give credit? My Normal brother and bachelor friend, in receiving your degree you have simply placed yourself in competition with those who have not had your advantages. See to ^t they do not carry off the honors, and if they do, generously take them by the hand and give them your hearty congratulations. Surely Oxford did not belittle herself by conferring the degree of " doctor " on such men as Franklin and Johnson. Did they rather not confer an honor on Oxford by accepting? 2. Is he not a graduate of any institution and in consequence of this, inclined to the blues, and oftentimes feels like giving up all together; then my advice is that instead of taking the writings of these men that he take their lives and read them until he becomes ashamed of his blues and finds himself once more fit to compete with the world. Surely no one had harder trials to contend with than most of the men in our list. They conquered; and what has by man been done can by man be done again. 3. If he be a cool, matter-of-fact, worldly man, and is teaching for the money he can get out of it, with no regard for the influence he may have on his pupils, thinking his only duty is to put in five hours a day hearing lessons, I advise, by all means, that he make the Bible his principal book until he becomes aware of his awful mistake. 4. If he has to contend with trials and tribulations and to meet difficulties which he thinks have never fallen to the lot of any other man and hence that there is no encouragment for him, I advise him to read David Page, in whom he will find a kind, faithful, sympa- thetic friend, who will instil him with new hope and a determination to overcome all obstacles; who will inspire him with a love for his profession and cause him to lose sight of the almighty dollar, to wait with patience till he passes to his final reward, which will go with him through eternity. State Normal College 69 5. If he is one who thinks that children are to be treated like automatons, to be wound up with the key of nonsensical defini- tions and run down at his will, or if he has the idea that children can learn only when stuck up in their several seats like so many wooden posts, I advise that he read Pestalozzi's " Leonard and Ger- trude," where he will find that children can learn just as much and be a thousand times happier if allowed to be what God intended them to be, simply little children who can be made to love their teacher, their school and their several tasks. 6. Is he inclined to be a sceptic and to scofi at the idea of teach- ing's being either an art or science, I advise him to read White's " Elements of Pedagogy," in which he will find well-known and fixed principles in teaching, which, if he violate, will make his task a monotonous routine, that in turn will bring him to a premature grave and which will also do an injury to his pupils that can never be undone. 1. Is he one who stands before his class the personification of an encyclopedia, airing himself from morning till night, day after day, explaining every detail, I advise him to read Payne's "Lectures on EducatioUj" where he will find, I think, to his satisfaction that he is robbing the children of all development of mind, which, for illustra- tion, we will represent as a canal boat, when, to finish the figure, we must assign him to the place of the mule, pulling the boat along instead of taking the place he should, of the captain at the rudder and after guiding tlje boat in the right direction, leaving it to take care of itself. 8. Is he one who has been feeding his pupils on dry husks for the past ten years, giving him each subject in an unrelated, isolated and uninteresting manner and does he desire to see how beautifully one subject may help another, if only corelated, I advise him to read Parker's "Talks on Pedagogy," where he will find ear after ear filled with the bright, sparkling, well-developed and thoroughly digestible " Col," which, after a few meals, will so change him, that his pupils will not recognize him as the old dry cob of a few weeks before. 9. Is he one who .thinks there is no system to the Kindergarten and that it is only fooling away time, I advise him to read Hail- man's " Primary Methods and Kindergarten Instruction," where he will discover that there is a methodical, systematic, economical and efficient use of the occupations described therein which will success- fully guard him against the evils of random, unsystematic and too- common " busy work." 10. Is he one who has not read the history of the profession, fearing it would prove dull and unintersting, I advise him to read Hailman, Quick, Fitch or Compayne's " History of Pedagogy," where he will find (if not too thoroughly steeped in cheap novels, as to be lost to all decent reading), chapter after chapter that will hold him spell-bound from beginning to end. If unable to read but one of these let it, by all means, be Quick's " Education of 7° Semi-Centennial Jubilee Reforms," written by one whose whole soul was in the work and who has done much to raise the standard of our profession. 11. If he be fond of deserts and desire now and then a real relish, then I advise that he keep always before him "The Report of the Committee of Ten," which he will find full to overflowing of good, sound common sense that will make him so happj he will go through his daily work as light-hearted as a child. 12. Is he one who wishes to know how to manage children in their early life, i. e., school life, and desires good, sound psycho- logical common sense for the reason given, let him read Currie's "Early Education," a book that is full of thought and wise sug- gestions for young teachers; a book that every teacher should have, and especially every primary teacher, even though she borrow the money with which to buy it. 13. Is he one who has no faith in science teaching in the com- mon schools and who thinks that it has no place in the educating of the young and does he desire to have proven to him how utterly wrong are his arguments, how absolutely necessary to the child's health his good citizenship, in short, to his complete being is this science study, I advise that he read Herbert Spencer on Education, where he will find the question discussed in a logical, comprehen- sive, conclusive manner, so much so, that I doubt his being able to lay down the book till every page has been read. Surely he can- not begin the chapter on " Moral Education " and stop till he has read every word. A chapter that should be read by every teacher as often as once a term. 14. Has he but a limited knowledge of the mind he is trying to develop and does he desire to realize how much easier, more attract- ive and scientific he can do his work with such knowledge, I advise him to read Sulley's " Outline of Psychology " or Murray's " Hand- book of Psychology," in either of which he will learn that there are well-known and fixed principles which should govern all teaching and teachers in their work. Two books, the reading of which will not only make him a better teacher, but a better man in every respect. I have often asked myself of what use is all this to me as a teacher? What can I do better for having had this course? What effect will it have on my teachers, my pupils and myself? Will my learning that Socrates went through the street bare-footed teaching for no compensation, be of any service to me in my work? On first thought I was inclined to answer without hesitation " No," but, stop a moment! thought I. Did not so wise and so good a man have a purpose in all this? Is it not necessary for leaders to be extremists? Can they not, by being extreme, cause their disciples, and even their opponents, to adopt . a " happy medium?" Yes, Socrates, I learn my lesson. I see your wisdom and though I do not follow