THE IDEAL NORMAL SCHOOL. 453 
1s the Girls’ High and Normal School, whose main object was the education of the 
women teachers of the city. It contained a scholastic and a professional course. These 
two departments are now to be separated, and the work done in two different institutions 
under separate control, one to be a girls’ high-school, and the other a girls’ normal 
school. The high-school is to contaiu three courses of study—a general course, a classi- 
sal course, and a business course. Pupils who desire to become teachers will take 
three years of the general course, and then pass into the normal school and have a two 
years’ course in pedagogy. This course in pedagogy will be strictly professional. Con- 
nected with the normal school will be a school of observation and a school of practice 
in which the art of teaching is to be learned. 
The above remarks belong to the first part of the normal school problem—that of 
organization. A few words will also be added in respect to the course of professional 
instruction. The course of instruction should be based on the idea that teaching is a 
science and an art. The science of teaching is based on a correct conception of the 
teacher’s will. First, the pupil has certain powers which are to be understood by the 
teacher and unfolded in the work of education. The work of unfolding these powers 
has been called culture, and the entire subject may be embraced under the head of 
Methods of Culture. Second, this work of culture is accomplished by the agency of 
tnowledge, consisting of the arts and sciences. This knowledge has a certain relation 
to the mind ; its branches have relative values in education ; there are best methods 
of bringing it in proper relation to the mind—all of which may be embraced under the 
head of Methods of Instruction. This work of culture and instruction is to be done in 
a school, and this school is to be provided, organized, governed, etc.—all of which may 
properly be included under the head of School Economy. Then there is the History of 
Education, as of every other subject, and the Philosophy of Education, which embraces 
shose broad and general principles of education that lie at the basis of educational 
growth and development. The science of teaching, it is thus seen, may be embraced 
ander five distinct heads: (1) Methods of Culture. (2) Methods of Instruction. (3) 
School Economy. (4) History of Education. (5) The Philosophy of Education. 
Under methods of culture the entire nature of man should be studied and the best 
methods of unfolding his powers presented. It should include physical culture, intel- 
tectual culture, sesthetic culture, ethical culture, etc. The basis of physical culture is 
educational physiology ; the basis of intellectual, sesthetic, and ethical culture is edu- 
cational psychology. This psychology should embrace introspective, observational, 
experimental, and physiological psychology—indeed, every fact and principle that pertains 
co the development of the mental or spiritual nature of man. Under methods of instruc- 
tion the nature of the different branches of knowledge is to be discussed—their origin 
and development, their relation to the various faculties of the mind, their educational 
value, and the principies and methods of teaching them. Under school economy 
should be discussed school-buildings, school organization, school employments, school 
government, school authorities, etc. The history of education and the philosophy of 
education should embrace as much of the respective subjects as the character of the 
students and the grade of the school will admit. In addition to these formally stated 
branches there should be original reading and investigation on the part of the students 
ndependent of the text-book or the lectures of the classroom. 
The art of teaching is to be learned in two ways, by observation and by practice. There 
should therefore be connected with every normal school two distinct elementary schools— 
a school of observation and a school of practice. The school of observation should be 
aught by expert teachers, the most skillful and artistic that can be secured. All the 
most approved methods in all the different grades should be employed in this school 
‘hat it may represent the most advanced educational thought and practice of the day. 
The pupils of the normal schools, as soon as they are ready, should spend a certain time