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‘eaching of elementary algebra and geometry, and a better course in science, history, 
and literature. The introduction of another language besides English would conduce 
greatly to the teaching of our own language, and would result, in the hands of a compe- 
tent teacher, in a gain rather than a loss of time. Instruction in the elements of algebra 
and geometry would enable us to accomplish in an easy way, with a great saving of 
time, much of what our schools now try to do so illogically, and. with so much difficulty 
and waste of time, in the instruction given in arithmetic. Threads of science, history, 
and literature, taught in the right way, could be extended through the course of eight 
years, in suitable proportions, so as to provide a better course in every respect, whether 
to prepare the pupil for the continuance of his work in the high-school and onwards. or 
for the ordinary purposes of life. 
To enable the elementary schools to do this work we must have teachers qualified to 
do it, and it is my purpose in occupying a little of your time this morning to call your 
attention to these facts, and to suggest that the normal schools of the country can be of 
the greatest service in helping to correct this serious defect in our educational system. 
[f the normal schools would receive no students except those holding the degree of 
i“ A. B.” from a well-recognized college, and would require these to engage in profes- 
sional training for two years, or for at least one year, would this not be of great help in 
remedying the defect I have mentioned ? Normal schools should recognize the fact that 
sur teachers very generally need a much more extended and thorough culture in the 
ans taught in a good college than they need a knowledge of the history and science 
of education. 
Dr. J. M. Harper, Inspector of Superior Schools, Province of Quebec, Canada : 
David Stowe, of Scotland, was the founder of the training system. In the normal 
school which he established, at Dundas Vale, Glasgow, I received normal training. 
I'his institution has attained to high renown under the present management of Dr. 
Ross. as one of the best organized practicing schools in the world. The influence of 
Stowe found its way from Old Scotland to New Scotland, for it was one of his students, 
the Rev. Dr. Forrester, who established in Nova Scotia the first normal school in the 
maritime provinces of Canada, a school in which the speaker had held a position for a 
time in the practicing departments. 
In connection with the difficulty of procuring a sufficient number of teachers when 
she course of training is prolonged and expensive, I may state that the process of train- 
‘ng in the old country begins with an apprenticeship of three, four, or five years in a 
graded school and ends with two years in a normal school. After such a process the 
it pedagogic consciousness” has been so far developed in the man who has passed 
shrough the course, that there seems to be nothing for him except to become a teacher 
for life. The length of training is long, the remuneration is contemptibly small, and 
yet there seems to be no lack of candidates when a situation of a hundred pounds or so 
is advertised. The secret of the matter, no doubt, lies in the remuneration which the 
teacher receives from the moment he enters upon his novitiate. The normal school is 
3 means to an end ; its own condition or organization is not the end, and consequently 
28 an institution it should not be judged by its own condition. The end of the normal 
school is the supplying of our schools with properly trained teachers, and if it fails to 
provide such teachers for all the schools in a state, a province, a city, or district, it fails 
in its function. No school system in reaching out toward the highest success will ever 
some near it, unless provision be made for the training of teachers for all grades of 
work. The optional system may boast of its finely equipped normal school and its pro- 
gramme of studies and exercises, but if it fails to meet the necessity for trained teachers 
for all our schools it is inadeauate. it fails in its most important function. 
Miss E. P. Hueres, Principal of the Cambridge Training College for Teachers, 
England: The special aim of our training-college at Cambridge is to provide profes- 
sional training for university graduates. They receive their general education elsewhere, 
aud come to us merely for professional preparation. 
One of the special characteristics of our college is that we have no practicing school 
of our own, but practice in fourteen schools in Cambridge. I do not believe at all in the 
ordinary practicing school, where the ideas of the principal of the training-school are 
carried “out, and where the students do not come in contact with different ideas and 
aatural and normal conditions. When a principle is propounded in the lecture-room it 
s desirable that the students should have to apply it under many and varied conditions. 
My own students teach in schools of all kinds—public as well as private; boys, girls, and 
mixed. The schools vary from a preparatory school for Eton and Rugby for the sons 
of university professors, ete., to a ragged school in the poor part of the town. I hold