Book Description

Excerpt from First Quarto-Centennial History of the State Normal and Training School, Potsdam, N. Y., 1869-1894 The rapid progress of the Normal idea in America, is worthy of especial mention when contrasted with the slow development of the same idea in the Old World. In less than a quarter of a century after the first agitation of the question in this country, the first Normal school in America was Opened in 1839 at Lexington, Mass, (now Framingham, Mass.) with Mr. Cyrus Peirce, the Arnold of America, at the head. Without doubt the establish ment of professional schools in Europe, especially the Prussian system, had much to do with accelerating the work in America, but great credit should be given these early pioneers who with feeble beginnings, and with meager appointments, were able to give such impetus to the work in the New World, for the evidence seems conclusive that the originators of the movement in America, Mr. Olmstead Mr. Hall Mr. Gal landet and others, conceived the idea from their own observations of the needs of their schools. In 1834 Rev. Charles Brooks (hingham, Mass.) after thorough ly acquainting himself with the Prussian system resolved to do something about State Normal Schools. To the untiring labors of this man, more than any other agency, is probably due the particular form of Normal school training in this country, viz: that the true function of the Normal school consists in pedagogical instruction. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.