£52 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. ; 
a great system of popular education, but grew up spontaneously to meet a public 
Jemand. They were not imposed upon the people by the state, but were established 
largely by the people themselves. Many of them were for a long time mere private 
‘nstitutions started by some progressive and enthusiastic teacher, and demonstrating by 
‘heir success their right to existence and state support. Gradually a public sentiment 
was created in their favor, and by action of State legislatures they became an integral 
part of the public school system of the various States. Only in some of the newer 
States were they made an essential part of the State system from the beginning. 
Originating in such a way, it is clear that there must be great diversity in their 
organization and course of instruction. One peculiarity of most of them is that they 
are not strictly training-schools, but have two courses of study, a scholastic and a pro- 
cessional course. The scholastic course gives instruction in the different branches of 
study like an academy or seminary. Only in their professional course are they essen- 
tially different from these other institutions. This feature of a scholastic course has been 
3 basis of criticism of the American normal schools. The ideal normal school, it was 
said, is a school in which professional training alone is given. An ideal normal school 
should not possess a course of instruction in the arts and sciences ; a knowledge of 
chese should be acquired in the academy or college. The instruction in a normal 
school should be exclusively professional ; it should include only the science and art of 
eaching. 
Judged by this standard, our State normal schools are not ideal schools ; nearly all of 
them give instruction in the branches as well as in methods of teaching. But this was 
3 necessity of their origin. They were established to meet an immediate want of popu- 
lar education, That want was teachers of our common schools, teaching a few months 
n the year at from twenty dollars to thirty dollars a month. Young men trained in 
academy or college were not willing to go to a normal school and spend a year or two 
.n learning how to teach a public school with such remuneration in view. Hence the 
only way to obtain young people prepared in the branches of study as well as in 
methods was to teach these branches in the normal school. A so-called academic 
or scholastic course was thus a necessity in our normal schools as first established. 
And even to-day, with increased remuneration, the normal schools of the country could 
aot depend on students trained in academy or college. And I go further and say that 
aeither the academy nor college gives that training in the elementary branches needed 
by a teacher of the public school, and it would be outside of their legitimate purposes 
to do so. Besides, the graduates of these higher institutions aspire to something that 
pays better than teaching in a common country school. So that whatever may be said 
about the ideal normal school giving only professional instruction, the fact remains 
that to fit teachers for the common schools of the country, the normal schools are com- 
pelled to give academic instruction in the branches. While it might be well to have in 
each State a higher institution known as a normal university or college of pedagogy, 
where college graduates and other young men and women with advanced scholastic 
preparation could be prepared for the higher educational positions, yet the great mass 
of the teachers of our public schools must be trained in normal schools organized as at 
present with a scholastic as well as a professional course. That these schools should be 
under state control, and be thus an integral part of our public school system, is too 
avident to need argument. 
There is one place, however, where the so-called ideal normal school is possible in 
‘his country, and that is in our large cities, where the entire work of public education 
is under the control of one organization. Here a properly conducted high-school 
can prepare its pupils in the scholastic branches so that when they enter the normal 
school the instruction may be exclusively professional. Such a system I am now organ- 
zing in Philadelphia. There has been in this city for many vears an institution known