of the University of California Form L I Edpca Library- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. fttf VtTlS T059 1959 SUBJECT TO FINE A IF NOT RETURNED TO EDUCATION LIBRARY Form L9-100m-9,'52(A3105)444 DR. E. A. SHELDON. THE COBTEIBUTIOlSr FHE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES BY ANDREW PHILLIP HOLLIS BOSTON, U.S.A. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 1898 COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY D. C. HEATH & Co. TTPOQKAPHT BY C. J. PETERS A SON, BOSTON. H. M. PLIMPTON A CO., PRINTERS A BINDERS, NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A. -Ubrary \\ > 1 13 PREFACE. THE matter contained in these pages was originally projected as a thesis for a degree in the Department of 1 Pedagogy of the University of Wisconsin. Upon the suggestion of friends the work has been enlarged with the hope that it may prove of some value to a future history of American pedagogy. Incidentally it is a small tribute to the life of a man whom to know was an education. Many have assisted in its preparation, and the writer takes this opportunity of making the following acknowl- edgments : - To the late Dr. E. A. Sheldon for access to many original sources possessed only by him, many of which were prepared at great sacrifice of time especially for this work, and for constant inspiration and encourage- ment extending over a term of years of helpful associa- tion. To Dr. J. W. Stearns (Director of the School of Edu- cation, University of Wisconsin), Professor Earl Barnes, and his wife Mrs. Mary Sheldon Barnes, for careful read- ing of the manuscript and fruitful suggestions. To Professor Wm. Phelps of St. Paul, Superin- iii IV PREFACE. tendent L. H. Jones of Cleveland, Professor M. V. O'Shea (Professor of the Science and Art of Teaching in the University of Wisconsin), Colonel F. W. Parker of the Chicago Normal School, Mrs. Mary Howe Smith Pratt of Gill, Mass., Professor William M. Aber, and his wife Mrs. Mary Ailing Aber, for very detailed and helpful contributions. To Professor I. B. Poucher, Professor Charles S. Sheldon, Professor Amos W. Farnham, and other mem- bers of the faculty of the Oswego Normal School, for substantial assistance. . To Hon. Charles R. Skinner, New York, for permission to use extended extracts from his address at Oswego. To D. Appleton and Co. and E. L. Kellogg & Co. of New York for kind permission to use cuts furnished by them. To the publishers D. C. Heath & Co. of Boston for courtesies extended. To many teachers, Oswego graduates, and others, for cheerful replies to letters of inquiry. Since Chapter V. was written, Principal F. B. Pal- mer of the Fredonia (N. Y.) State Normal School, has pointed out to me that the Fredonia Normal School was reported by the superintendent of public instruc- tion of the State of New York as having a kinder- garten in connection with its training department a year earlier than Oswego. The priority given to Oswego was based on two letters received from Dr. Sheldon, and on the fact that both schools are listed in the Re- PREFACE. port of the United States Commissioner of Education as having kindergartens for the first time in 1881. The tables in the Appendices do not lay claim to absolute accuracy ; but they were compiled with some care, and will not be without value as evidence for some of the statements made in the text. A. P. HOLLIS. MADISON, Wis., December, 1897. CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE iii CHAPTER I. AMERICAN PEDAGOGY PREVIOUS TO THE OSWEGO MOVE- MENT 5 CHAPTER II. OSWEGO'S INNOVATION 15 CHAPTER III. THE SPREAD OF THE OSWEGO IDEA 26 CHAPTER IV. APPLICATION OF THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS . 39 CHAPTER V. LATER MOVEMENTS AT OSWEGO 76 CHAPTER VI. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT 80 CHAPTER VII. EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES 112 MEMORIAL ADDRESSES AND RESOLUTIONS 131 APPENDICES 153 vii THE OSWEGO 1TOKMAL SCHOOL. CHAPTER I. AMERICAN PEDAGOGY PREVIOUS TO THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. THE important place in the history of American ped- agogy to which the Oswego Normal School, founded by Dr. E. A. Sheldon, is entitled, rests upon its claim to be the first institution to introduce in a practical and noteworthy manner the Pestalozzian principles of in- struction into the American common school. In order to understand the significance of the Oswego move- ment in its relations to pedagogical forms already ex- isting, it will be serviceable to take a short survey of the development of American pedagogy previous to 1860, the year when the Oswego teachers first received Instruction in Pestalozzian principles. One of the first things to be seen from such a survey is, that while the Pestalozzian principles had long been heard of and talked of in different sections of this country, they had taken no hold upon American schools. At the generous invitation of William Mc- Clure, an American who paid a visit to Pestalozzi's b THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. school, Joseph Neef, one of Pestalozzi's co-workers, came to this country, and attempted to introduce the master's ideas in a private school in Philadelphia ; and as early as 1809 Neef published a book entitled, Sketch of a Plan and Method of .Education. But after a few years of struggle the enterprise failed. From that time on, men like William C. Woodbridge, Horace Mann, William E. Russell, Henry Barnard, Charles Brooks, and Calvin Stowe, some of whom had visited the Prussian schools at various times, through press and platform, urged reform of existing methods, and the adoption of systems of instruction more or less in accord with Prussian ideals. 1 Educational journals like the American Journal of Education, Annals of Educa- tion, and the Massachusetts Common School Journal, frequently published accounts of the work being done in European schools which had adopted the Pestalozzian methods; and yet the evidence shows that up to 1860 Pestalozzian principles in America remained largely a matter of lectures and books among the initiated few. To the rank and file of the teachers of the land, Pesta- lozzi was but a name, or an eccentric personality. "Not- withstanding the diffusion of the principles of Object Teaching in this country during that period," says Mr. Calkins, in an address upon the History of Object Teach- 1 For accounts of these reformers and others, see Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea in the United States, by Professor J. P. Gordy, Bureau of Education, 1891. See also Analytical Index to Barnard's American Journal of Educa- tion, issued by Bureau of Education, 1892. PREVIOUS AMERICAN PEDAGOGY. 7 ing, " its practice died out through the want of teachers trained in the system and its methods" l A second important observation to be noted is, that at this time (1860) the Normal School had become the highest and most promising expression of pedagogical thought in America. The monitorial system of Lan- caster's had run its course. Before the establishment of the first American Normal School at Lexington, Mass., in 1839, it had ceased to exist. It failed be- cause it assumed that students could teach well with- out a special preparation for teaching. The Normal School succeeded because it assumed nothing, took no risks ; for each student-teacher must not only be con- siderably ahead of those he expected to teach, but must demonstrate that he could teach before he left its halls. It marked nothing less than the inevitable victory of science over chance. The discussions aroused by the monitorial system all over the country were of great value in interesting the people in methods of element- ary education, and its very failure pointed out the way to success. The teachers' classes in academies had been tried and found wanting. Those classes had attained espe- cial prominence in New York, where from 1827 to 1844 they were the chief means provided in New York State for the training of teachers. They never gave satis- 1 " History of Object Teaching," an address delivered by N. A. Calkins in 1861. Published in Barnard's American Journal of Education, vol. xii., p. 639. 8 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. faction ; and Horace Mann, appreciating his own Mas- sachusetts Normal Schools, well expressed the chief objection to them. "So far as the plan is concerned, the striking point of dissimilarity is, that in New York the teachers' department is grafted upon an Academy ; it is not the principal but an incidental object of the institution ; it is not primary, but secondary ; it does not command the entire and undivided attention of the instructors, but shares that attention with the general objects for which the Academy was founded." I Many of the teachers' classes were discontinued in 1844, with the establishment of the Albany Normal, from which time they have ceased to occupy so promi- nent a part in the training of teachers. 2 The decline of these two sturdy institutions left the field clear for the Normal School. The first Normal School in America possessed the advantage of having good models. Its type had existed from the beginning of the century in Prussia, and it thus came to us no un- fledged birdling ; it needed only judicious adaptations to American soil to demonstrate its fitness to survive. It started out with every distinctive feature of the mod- ern Normal School, embracing: 1 Quoted from Horace Mann by Professor J. P. Qordy in Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea. 2 In 1889 a law was passed in New York which transformed the train- ing-classes in academies from the control of the Regents of the Univer- sity to that of the superintendent. This was done to unify the professional work of the schools, the training-classes being classed as elementary training-schools, leading up to the Normal Schools proper. See Report of Superintendent Draper for 1890, p. 22. See Gordy's Rise and Growth, etc., p. 39. PREVIOUS AMERICAN PEDAGOGY. 9 (1.) A department of Academic Instruction, (2.) Theory of Teaching, (3.) School of Practice. The Academic department always remained a strong one ; the department of Theory of Teaching made seri- ous efforts to impart correct methods for teaching a wide range of subjects. Unfortunately for the early development of .a definite and systematic pedagogy, no detailed and personal knowledge of the great improve- ments which Prussia had made in her methods of teaching guided those attempts of our Normal School pioneers ; and consequently the methods given were frequently but crude applications of principles of mental growth, only vaguely conceived and not philosophically system- atized. 1 No mention is made in available accounts of 1 In referring to the establishment of the New Britain (Conn.) Nor- mal School, Hon. David N. Camp, State Superintendent of Instruction, said in his report for 1860: " When the Normal School was organized . . . only two States, Mas- sachusetts and New York had established Normal Schools. No well- defined principles of organization or methods of instruction and training had been published, as adapted to the schools of this country." A few years later, while in attendance at a convention of educators held at Oswego, Hon. David Camp told the convention that he had visited schools in all of the Eastern States, also in the principal cities from Maine to Missouri. He had also visited schools in Canada, and in all he had sought for something good to take back to his own State; " "but" he added, "during all of those visits, I have never found the principles of education so simplified and systematized crystallized as it were as in the schools of the city of Oswego. I came here to learn ; and I shall go back to New England, and tell with gladness what my eyes have seen and my ears heard." Barnard's American Journal of Education, vol. xii., p. 646. 10 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. these early Normal Schools of any distinct and radical advance on existing methods. Object- teaching as a general method, resting on universal and fundamental laws of mental life, was certainly not worked out in the early NormJal Schools. The third department the School of Practice, or Model School maintained a checkered existence ; indeed, the one at Lexington after a time suffered a serious decline. As a rule, how- ever, the model school was considered an essential piece of apparatus for a Normal School, but its possibilities were not appreciated. The classes were sometimes ab- surdly small; and before 1860 no Normal School had a model school containing all the grades of the public schools, and approaching in numbers a system of city schools ; 1 and so the opportunities for training in execu- tive force, in discipline, and in planning for the exigen- cies of a city school,, were often denied the student teachers. The second Normal School to be established in Amer- ica was opened at Barre, Mass., in the autumn of 1839. It led an uneventful career, with the exception that at one time it apparently came near being the pioneer in introducing object-teaching into the schools; for we are told in an address delivered by Hon. J. W. Dickinson, that " The Westfield 2 Normal School was the first to 1 The Model School of the New Britain Normal, over which the enlightened Dr. Henry Barnard had presided, contained, in 1860, 500 children, and was divided into four grades. 2 The Barre Normal School was moved to Westfield in 1841. PREVIOUS AMERICAN PEDAGOGY. 11 show that all branches of learning may be taught by the same objective method." Unfortunately this valuable phase of the work at Westfield attracted little general attention ; and it remained for another Normal School in another State, at a considerably later date, to demon- strate on an important scale the great value of object- teaching in common-school branches. The third Normal School was that established at Bridge water in 1840. A girls' Normal School was es- tablished in Philadelphia in 1844. In New York the Albany Normal was established in the same year. Dur- ing the fifties, Normal Schools were established in New Britain, Conn., Boston, Mass., Ypsilanti, Mich., Normal, 111., St. Louis, Mo., Salem, Mass., Trenton, N. J., and Millersville, Penn. Some of these schools were not exclusively Normal Schools, but were conducted in connection with high schools. Such were the Boston Normal at Boston, the Girls' Normal School at Philadelphia, and the St. Louis Normal School at St. Louis, Mo. Such were also a Training-Class at Syracuse, 1 New York, a State Normal School and High School at Charleston, S. C., and a Girls' High and Normal School in the same city. At New Orleans there was a State and city Normal School. These Southern schools lived exceedingly precarious lives, and could scarcely be expected to develop foreign 1 Started in 1855, according to Report of U. S. Com. of Ed. for 1889. For dates of others mentioned, see p. 962 of same report. 12 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. pedagogical theories. There were three private Nor- mal Schools in Ohio, which seem to have lived a very quiet life. In Iowa a normal department was main- tained at the State University. It thus appears that up to 1860 there were some ten regular State Normal Schools in different parts of the country, and perhaps an equal number which had as- sumed the name, if not all the functions, of a Normal School. It is thus evident that the people had become convinced of the need for special training for teachers ; and though during the nineteen years succeeding the establishment of the first Normal School, only ten had been established and maintained by the States of the Union, still the experiments with Normal Schools had not proven failures ; and the substantial advantages they had furnished their graduates over untrained teachers were sufficient to lead educators to look to the Normal Schools for the more radical and far-reaching improve- ments which the great body of the common schools were still sadly in need of. The professional work in these early schools was very rudimentary. But a few good text-books of Theory of Teaching existed ; the best of them, Page's Theory of Teaching, did not appear until 1847. Hall's Lectures on School Keeping (1829), Abbott's Teacher (1833), and Emerson's School and the Schoolmaster, were among those most frequently used. None of these books, how- ever, had been the result of a close acquaintance with the new education in Prussia and Switzerland ; and most PROFESSOR HERMANN KRUSI. PREVIOUS AMERICAN PEDAGOGY. 13 of them were general treatises upon school-keeping in all of its phases, especially the moral and disciplinary, precluding any detailed development of pedagogical principles or any systematic treatment of methods in specified subjects. Of more value to the investigating few, but of little interest to the toiling many, were such descriptive sketches of European methods as Professor Stowe's European Educational Institutes (1836), Dr. Julius' Outline of the Prussian System (1835), and Pub- lic Instruction in Prussia, Key and Biddle (1836). Dr. Henry Barnard was continuously trying to popular- ize these methods in his admirable journal. All of these articles did good service in letting us know that such things were doing, and in creating a desire in some circles to know more concerning the elaborate efforts of the old world teachers. They labored under the disadvantage of being too abstract to reach the average teacher. What was needed was a practical teacher versed in the methods at first hand, who could put the actual work in operation before the eyes and ears of the common school teacher. Such a teacher did not succeed in accomplishing this until the opening of the Oswego School. The soil was being prepared in other ways for a rev- olution. Teachers' Institutes and Associations, both State and National, had become popular and useful means of spreading pedagogical interest and knowledge in nearly all of the States. The American Institute of Instruction was organized 14 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. as early as 1830 ; and for many years it was the prin- cipal focus of the progressive ideas of the country, and more especially of New England. Such men as Northend, Mann, Page, and Kriisi made its meetings the Mecca of thinking teachers. The National Educa- tional Association had just been organized (1858), and a few years later became an important instrument in aiding the almost universal adoption of the Oswego methods. There were numerous educational journals, the best of which have already been mentioned. Such, then, were the most obvious features in Ameri- can pedagogy at the time of the founding of the Os- wego School : the monitorial system had flourished and fallen ; the training-class idea in academies, as an equiv- alent of Normal School training, had been abandoned ; and the Normal Schools held the field, as the most promising exponents of professional training for teach- ers. They had not, however, during the nineteen years of their existence, effected any striking changes in the great body of the American common schools ; but their influence, combined with other forces such as the educa- tional associations and accounts of Prussian schools and schoolmasters, had made the time ripe for a popular reform in education which in a few short years swept through the common schools and the Normal Schools of the land. How this reform began will be traced in the next chapter. CHAPTER II. OSWEGO'S INNOVATION. " THE history of the Normal School at Oswego, N.Y., constitutes an important chapter, not only in the history of the training of teachers, but in the history of the public schools of this country." So writes Professor Gordy in his Rise and Gf-rowth of the Normal School Idea in the United States. Referring to the Oswego Normal School, Dr. A. D. Mayo said in an address delivered before its alumni in 1886, "It was reserved for New York, always the broadest and most catholic of the older States, to take up the work so well begun, and establish the final type of the American State Normal and City Training- SchooL" How was it that the Oswego Normal School, with ten State Normal Schools already established in this country, some of them having twenty years the start, came to be the type of the American Normal School, came to be regarded as the " Mother of Normal Schools " ? The answer to this question involves a rehearsal of some features of Oswego's history. At the first read- ing of the early history of the Oswego schools, one is 15 16 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. tempted to draw parallels between the lives of the founder of American Pestalozzianism and Pestalozzi himself. But upon reading further, especially of the steady and systematic evolution of the Oswego schools, one sees that parallels are devices too unyielding for purposes of history or biography. In one respect, how- ever, the life of Dr. E. A. Sheldon was fundamentally parallel with that of Pestalozzi they both loved chil- dren, which means that they were both endowed with sympathetic insight into what G. Stanley Hall would call the content of the child-mind. They were both philanthropists. The reader has only to recall Pesta- lozzi's school for poor children at Neuhof, and more especially the orphan school at Stanz, and compare it with Mr. Sheldon's first "ragged school ... of one hundred and twenty wild Irish boys and girls of all ages, from five to twenty-one," to observe this simi- larity. " As my father went to his work of a morning, his warm-hearted Irish children trooped about him, seizing him by the fingers or by the coat-tails, wherever they could best catch hold, to the great amusement of the store-keepers and the passers-by." l This was surely thoroughly Pestalozzian in spirit. But in most other respects the two men were widely different. The young philanthropist at Oswego had spent three years at college, and possessed a sturdy common sense and 1 Biographical sketch of E. A. Sheldon, by Mrs. Mary Sheldon Barnes, in Historical Sketches of the First Quarter Century of the Oswego Normal School. OSWEGO'S INNOVATION. 17 executive force, the lack of which in Pestalozzi was the despair of his associates and patrons alike. The story of the development of the Oswego schools under Dr. Sheldon's guidance, from the " ragged school " of 1848 to the schools which made Oswego "a sort of Mecca for educators from nearly every loyal State," 1 has been well told by Professor Wm. M. Aber in the Popular Science Monthly for May, 1893. "As a superintendent of schools he (Mr. Sheldon) might have ended his days. ... As machines for securing from the pupils the learning memoriter of so many pages per day, and from the teachers, recitation, hearing, marking, and reporting, his schools were emi- nently successful. Teachers, pupils, and patrons neither knew nor desired anything better; but that sympathy with childhood which had led Mr. Sheldon into this work was not satisfied with these poor results. Five years of growing dissatisfaction with the current range of subjects and methods of instruction had culminated in a determination to prepare some books and charts for himself, when a visit to Toronto revealed the object of his search. He saw there in the National Museum, though not used in their own schools, collections of ap- pliances employed abroad, notably in the Home and Colonial Training-School in London. Evidently the seed sown by this school had not found in Toronto so good a soil as in the mind of this Yankee schoolmaster. From this visit he returned with the delight of a dis- 1 Barnard's American Journal of Education, 1865. 18 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. coverer of a new world, laden with charts, books, balls, cards, pictures of animals, building blocks, cocoons, cotton balls, samples of grain, and specimens of pottery and glass. In 1859 a new course for the primary schools was introduced at Oswego, in which lessons on form, color, size, weight, animals, plants, the human body, and moral instruction were prominent. But his teachers knew little about the subject-matter of such lessons, and less about methods of teaching them. The super- intendent was forced to become the teacher and trainer of his teachers. Without training himself, he sadly felt the inadequacy of his instructions, and determined to try to obtain a training-teacher." But to whom should he turn ? Here, again, the same love for direct contact with the original, which led the young superintendent to discard books and words for things and ideas in his revised course of study, now led him to reject all second- ary sources to be found in this country, and to apply at once to the fountain-head of the Pestalozzian system. Pestalozzi himself had been dead for thirty-seven years ; but through his Toronto visit Dr. Sheldon learned of a flourishing institution established in London by Dr. Mayo, a friend and pupil of Pestalozzi's, and in which the Swiss reformer's methods had already received suc- cessful adaptation to English schools. 1 An illustration of the contagion of Dr. Sheldon's enthusiasm, as well 1 For a full account of this interesting institution, see Barnard's American Journal of Education, vol. ix., pp. 429-487. OSWEGO'S INNOVATION. 19 as of the love and confidence of his teachers, is the way in which he secured the finances to induce such a teacher to bring the new methods direct to this country. The Board of the Oswego Schools had magnanimously consented to the employment of such a teacher on con- dition of its not costing the city a single cent. Where- upon a number of the teachers gave up for one year half their salaries, and this, too, when their salaries ranged from only $300 to $500, and the new methods would increase rather than diminish the demands made upon each teacher's time and skill. This power to win and to hold the love and the confidence of his teachers and students has remained one great secret of Dr. Shel- don's success during the forty-nine years of his ministry in the cause of education. By this action of the teachers, Dr. Sheldon was en- abled to procure from the London institution the ser- vices of a woman of rare insight and pedagogical experience, Miss M. E. M. Jones. She was joined soon afterwards by Herman Kriisi, who had already taught and lectured in this country several years, and whose father had been one of Pestalozzi's most trusted helpers at Yverdun. A few years later Henry Barnard referred to Professor Kriisi as the man " who has stood nearer to the fountain-head of these methods, the personal teach- ings of Pestalozzi, than any living teacher among us." This prompt action of Dr. Sheldon's was Oswego 's In- novation. Now began a series of experiments in objec- tive teaching which soon attracted the attention of the 20 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. foremost educators of the country, and which undoubt- edly determined the subsequent character of elementary education in America, while at the same time they fur- nished to the Normal Schools concrete and definite realizations of principles which had long been the sub- ject of abstract discussion, or which at most had re- ceived but local and tentative applications. Professor Aber well says in his paper previously quoted : - "These new ideas were discussed by schoolmen be- fore New York State had a Normal School ; and the school at Albany was founded and began the teaching of educational theories before the Oswego school was even thought of. What Dr. Sheldon did was to focus all these floating ideas on actual practice, and work out a systematic and rational expression of these theories for the daily work of the schoolroom, to do what other men were dreaming about." That the work thus started at Oswego was a real innovation, there is abundant evidence to show ; and many educators are united in ascribing to the Oswego School the credit of having first successfully introduced Pestalozzian principles into our common schools, and of having furnished the model organization of professional work after which nearly all Normal Schools, State and city, established since 1860, have been patterned. It is not the object of this sketch to attempt an ex- position of the Oswego methods. 1 That has long ago 1 For clear expositions of the Oswego Methods, see Superintendent Sheldon's Reports of the Board of Education of the Oswego schools for OSWEGO'S INNOVATION. 21 been rendered unnecessary. Not only has that been done in numerous books and pamphlets, but they can be witnessed doubtless in the reader's own city schools. Pestalozzian methods have been so widely taught in various normal and training-schools throughout the land, and so widely adopted in the common schools of all the States, that they have long since ceased to bear the name " Oswego Methods," which was so commonly applied to them twenty-five years ago. They may still be witnessed along their original lines at the State Nor- mal and Training-School at Oswego, N.Y., though here they are constantly undergoing modification and exten- sion as the experience of their originator has accumu- lated, and the sciences of Psychology and Pedagogy have advanced. It will be sufficient, before leaving this chapter, to exhibit in a few quotations how generally and how cheerfully Oswego's priority is acknowledged. Professor Gordy has made the most detailed study of Normal School History in the United States that has appeared in this country. His opinion of Oswego's place in the history of American pedagogy is quoted at the head of this chapter, as is also that of the emi- nent lecturer and writer upon educational subjects, Dr. A. D. Mayo. Farther along, Professor Gordy says of Dr. Shel- the ten years beginning in 1859; also his address on Object Teaching before the National Educational Association, published in Barnard's American Journal of Education, vol. xiv. (1864), p. 93; also Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea, chap, iv., Professor ,T. P. Gordy. Other sources are mentioned in bibliography at close of this work. 22 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. don's first course of study based upon Pestalozzian prin- ciples : - " I regret very much that the limits within which I am obliged to confine myself make it impossible for me to present this course of study without abbreviation. Marking as it does an epoch in the history of the public schools of this country, it well deserves the careful attention of those who are interested in our educa- tional history." And again on another page, " The Normal School at Oswego certainly made some impor- tant advances. The objective method of teaching the method which brings the mind of the pupil into direct contact with facts, and thus seeks to stimulate it to the proper kind of activity first received its complete illustration in the practice school of this institution." Dr. Boone declares, in his History of Education in the United States, that, "Miss Jones . . . shares with Superintendent Sheldon the credit of having systematically established the principle of object- teaching in this country." Professor S. S. Greene of Brown University, the well- known writer of text-books, in making a report on the Oswego Methods for a committee of educators in 1861, said for the committee, - " The examinations which it had been their privilege to wit- ness during the past week have impressed them with the convic- tion, that we are on the eve of a great and important revolution in the education of our country." OSWEGO'S INNOVATION. 23 Professor M. V. O'Shea of the University of Buffalo, 1 Buffalo, N.Y., expressed himself in a recent letter as follows : " I have no hesitation in saying that the Oswego Normal School has had a greater beneficial influence upon elementary education than any other institution in the country." N. A. Calkins, author of Primary Object Lessons, in an address on The History of Object-Teaching, delivered in 1862, before an educational convention held at Os- wego, after words of commendation of the work he saw at Oswego, said, " Such were the efforts for the first systematic introduction of Object-Teaching into the United States ; and the honor of this achievement is due to the city of Oswego, her earnest su- perintendent, E. A. Sheldon, Esq., arid her progressive Board of Education. ... To any one who may desire to see the prac- tical operations of Object-Teaching, and the best system of elementary instruction to be found in this country, let me say, make a visit to Oswego." Dr. W. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, thus expressed himself on the occasion of Oswego's quarter centennial anniversary : " I went on a pilgrimage to the shrine at Oswego, and saw some of the best work done there by Dr. Sheldon and Miss Cooper that I had ever seen." 2 1 Now of the University of Wisconsin (School of Education). 2 Quoted by Mrs. Delia Lathrop Williams in a paper on "The In- fluence of the Oswego State Normal School in the West." Published in 24 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. And so also A. J. Rickoff, late superintendent of the schools at Cleveland, Ohio : - " In response to your request that I state what I know of the influence of the Oswego Normal School, I have to say that to it we owe the immediate impulse and the direction of the reform methods of instruction which is now in progress in the schools of the United States." The following generous expression from Colonel F. W. Parker speaks for itself : DEAR SIR, In answer to your circular of Dec. 21, allow me to say that in my experience as a teacher, Superintendent of Schools, and Prin- cipal of the Chicago Normal School, I place the Oswego Normal School as first in its influence upon the education of this country. . . . Oswego, too, occupies the place of a pioneer in the new education ; it had the honor to begin object-teaching in 1861, and from crude beginnings has steadily worked onward and upward to better things. There are other normal schools which have had a great influence upon education, but I must place the influence of the Oswego Normal School as first among them all. Its principal, Dr. E. A. Sheldon, is a saint in all that pertains to the development of human souls. Very truly yours, FRANCIS W. PARKER. In barest outline, the innovation at Oswego in its earliest stage may be conveniently separated into five as- pects, first, the great emphasis placed upon the study of the mental life of the children ; second, the detailed Historical Sketches of the Oswego State Normal and Training-School (1887). OSWEGO'S INNOVATION. 25 and elaborate applications made of Pestalozzian prin- ciples throughout the separate subjects of an extended course of study ; third, the elevation of the model school into its rank as an indispensable laboratory for teachers and students-in-training and its expansion into a com- plete graded city school system ; fourth, the great im- portance given to Nature Study ; fifth, the zeal for the propagation of the new methods, which early caused it to assume the function of a national Normal School. This last point will be discussed in the next chapter, under the head of The Spread of the Oswego Idea. CHAPTER III. THE SPREAD OP THE OSWEGO IDEA. THE Oswego Training-School formally opened in May, 1861. In that year most of its pupils were the teachers of the Oswego schools. Before the close of the year Superintendent Sheldon had become convinced that now without doubt he had made no mistake in placing his hope for the emancipation of his school-children in the Pestalozzian disciples. The new methods proved them- selves to be based upon laws of the human mind which were as deep and as broad as the human race ; they were thus, except in minor particulars, independent of local environment, were as completely applicable to the American as to the German mind, to the children of Boston as to those of Oswego. Teachers, children, and parents rejoiced at what they saw. The innovation meant a good deal more than a substitution of object lessons for text-books ; it meant a complete change of front of the schoolmaster to the child. The child was no longer regarded as a refractory little animal to be forced into the harness, fit or misfit ; nor were his little members of body and mind brought by weary months of relentless pressure to fill out the casts prepared from aforetime by the elders ; on the contrary, the school- 26 THE SPREAD OF THE OSWEGO IDEA. 27 master became the learner, following and guiding the happy child by turns, adapting his own stiff nature to childhood's freedom, to its curious wonder at Nature's secrets, to its love of play, and demand for unconven- tional exercise. The parents testified at the end of the jear that the children no longer dreaded school, they could not be kept from it. It was the dawn of child- hood's day in America. The kindergarten after this found easy admission into the hearts of the American public. It was not altogether a new idea. Dr. Sheldon and his associates longed to see these changes working their beneficent results throughout the schools of our country. With this end in view, in December, 1861, he sent invitations to a number of prominent educators in various parts of the country to come and see for themselves the work doing at Oswego, that the teachers of the country might have an authori- tative judgment concerning the new system. A num- ber of the gentlemen invited accepted the invitation, among whom were Professor Wm. F. Phelps, principal of the State Normal School at Trenton, N. J. ; David N. Camp, Superintendent of Schools in Connecticut, and principal of the State Normal School ; D. H. Coch- rane, principal of the State Normal School at Albany, N. Y. ; Miss L. E. Ketchem, Superintendent of the School of Practice in the State Normal School at Bloomington, 111. These educators spent three days in listening to the exercises in the Oswego Schools. Professor Phelps was appointed chairman of a special 28 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. committee to prepare the report. This report was exhaustive and discriminating, and it constitutes a most important document in the history of Ameri- can pedagogy. It was the first noteworthy instru- ment in the spread of the Oswego Idea. Its hearty commendations represented the views of scholars from widely different sections of the country, and reached the attention of many whom the annual reports of Dr. Sheldon had not reached. A closing extract from the report will show the nature of its conclusions : 1. That the principles of that system are philosophical and sound ; that they are founded in, and are in harmony with, the nature of man, and hence are best adapted to secure to him such an education as will conduce in the highest degree to his welfare and happiness, present and future. 2. That the particular methods of instruction presented in the exercises before us, as illustrative of these principles, merit and receive our hearty approbation, subject to such modification as experience and the characteristics of our people may determine to be wise and expedient. Resolved, That this system of primary instruction, which sub- stitutes in great measure the teachers for the book, demands in its instructors varied knowledge and thorough culture ; and that at- tempts to introduce it by those who do not clearly comprehend its principles, and who have not been trained in its methods, can only result in failure. 1 1 For a full copy of this report, which gives detailed accounts of many of the object lessons, see Barnard's American Journal of Education, voL xii. (1862), p. 605. THE SPREAD OF THE OSWEGO IDEA. 29 Some of the letters received by Dr. Sheldon from some of the gentlemen who could not attend the con- vention throw so much light upon the state of educa- tion at the time, and the way in which the new methods were received, that I may be pardoned for inserting one or two. Notice how cogently Hon. J. D. Philbrick, then Superintendent of Schools of Boston, states the reasons for the former failures attending attempts at teaching Pes- talozzian principles in this country. He wrote in part : - " I entertain a high appreciation of the value of the Pestaloz- zian principles of primary education which have been so success- fully introduced into the schools of your city from the Training- School in London, by your efficient Superintendent, Dr. E. A. Sheldon. I regard the proposed exhibition in Oswego as highly important, inasmuch as it will doubtless afford a better opportu- nity than has ever hitherto been enjoyed in this country, of witness- ing the results of instruction on the Pestalozzian plan of developing the faculties by means of lessons on objects, animals, plants, form, size, number, color, place, and drawing, together with various phys- ical exercises. I shall look for the report of the able committee on the subject with much interest. This movement will also be useful in directing the attention of educators more especially to the defects of primary education, which are more grave, more numerous, and more difficult to remedy, than those of any other department. " I sympathize with those who are endeavoring to diffuse more just views among the people respecting the nature and objects of elementary education, and I would give them my co-operation and support. Still, I feel that the greatest instrumentality for the improvement of primary education, and that on which we must mainly rely, is the professional training of teachers. Our theories may be sound, but they cannot work out themselves. 30 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. The Pestalozzian principles have long been familiar to the leading educators in this country ; and yet they have made little progress in our primary schools, for the want of teachers competent to apply them in practice. Not but that the teachers are well educated ; but they have not had the advantages of a professional training-school, so that they undertake their work with every preparation but that most of all needed. " It is upwards of thirty years since efforts were made to engraft the Pestalozzian principles upon the Boston system of primary instruction. Josiah Holbrook, A. B. Alcott, Professor William Russell, Joseph Ingraham, and others labored earnestly in the cause. Jtf*the Journal of Education, edited by Professor Russell, and published in Boston in 1829, we find some of the ablest arti- cles on the subject. Holbrook's apparatus and specimens of natural history were placed in some of our primary schools ; and indeed, at that time, and for a considerable period afterwards, a cabinet was considered an indispensable part of a primary school apparatus. But after a time the Object-Teaching died out, be- cause the teachers were not trained in the system. In our recent efforts to revive the system to some extent, I find that where the teacher is not interested in it, the results are far from satisfactory. But the same is true, indeed, with every branch. " With the best wishes for the success of your exhibition, I am, sir, Yours most truly, JOHN D. PHILBRICK." Similar letters l of interest and commendation were received from Dr. Henry Barnard, Hon. B. G. Northrop 1 A number of these letters are printed in Superintendent Sheldon's Ninth Annual Report to the Board of Education of Oswego. These re- ports are a mine of information regarding the new methods. They contain many full reports of lessons given, examinations conducted, and clear and detailed discussions of the Pestalozzian principles and their adap- THE SPREAD OF THE OSWEGO IDEA. 31 of Massachusetts, and other gentlemen prominent in educational affairs in different parts of the country. Dr. Sheldon wrote in his report for 1862 : " During the past year hundreds of letters have been received from every portion of the country, many of them of the most flattering character, showing a deep interest in these methods of instruction. It is evidently taking a deep hold of the educational mind of this country." Students not living in Oswego were admitted to the Training-School at its inception ; and in the following year one finds two of the graduating-class hailing from Massachusetts, two from Connecticut, one from Ver- mont, two from Michigan, and others from different parts of New York State. There were twenty-three in this second graduating-class; nineteen of these taught outside of Oswego ; seventeen of the nineteen in other States, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Kansas, Georgia, Mississippi, and Ohio. As will he shown far- ther along, this steady stream of migration of Oswego graduates into the States, especially the Western States, continued unabated for a series of years and constitutes the most important means by which Oswego ideas spread throughout the country in what seems an incred- ibly short space of time. The demand which thus called for recruits to go east and west on missions of peace, tations to American schools. But they are getting scarce, and it is to be hoped they will not be allowed to go out of print. 32 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. speaks most eloquently of the great interest the Ameri- can people took in the improvement of their common schools at a time when the imperative demand for re- cruits in another army, whose mission was grim war, made neglect of education a natural and pardonable thing. Before following this migration with any detail, how- ever, it will not be out of place to notice an episode which shows that the path of the reformer is seldom without its thorns, but which also shows that truth in the end only gains wider recognition by encountering opposition. 1 Dr. H. B. Wilbur little thought, when, in a meeting of the New York State Teachers' Association held at Rochester in 1863, he denounced the Oswego novelties, that his name was to designate, in the history of the Oswego Idea, one of the chief agents in securing a, na- tional official indorsement still more complete and fas- reaching than the school had yet received. And yet such was the game fate played him ; for the next year at the meeting of the National Educational Association, upon his delivering a similar invective, that body ap- pointed a committee of distinguished educators to make a thorough examination of the system which could in- spire such spirited censure. On the committee were Professor S. S. Greene, Professor in Brown University; 1 Oswego System of Instruction, by Dr. H. B. Wilbur, before the National Educational Association. Published in Barnard's American Journal of Education, vol. xv. (1865), p. 189. THE SPREAD OF THE OSWEGO IDEA. 33 J. L. Pickard, Superintendent of Chicago schools ; J. D. Philbrick, Superintendent of Boston schools ; David N. Camp, State Superintendent of schools in Connecticut ; R. Edwards, President of the State Normal School, Normal, 111. ; C. L. Pennell, St. Louis, Mo. ; and Barnas Sears, D.D., of Providence, R.I. On behalf of the com- mittee, Professor Greene spent a week at Oswego, and in 1865 read a notable report before the Harrisburg meeting of the Association, which was published by the Association in a pamphlet of thirty-one pages. It is to be reckoned as the second great document in the history of the new education in this country. It was listened to, of course, by educational leaders from all sections of the country. The report is fundamental and philosoph- ical, and forms a remarkably clear exposition of the mental facts upon which the new education is based. It was the proper antidote for the kind of destructive criticism indulged in by Dr. Wilbur. The committee set before itself three problems : 1. What place do external objects hold in the acqui- sition of knowledge ? . Are they the exclusive source of our knowledge ? 2. So far as our knowledge is obtained from external objects as .a source, how far can any educational pro- cesses facilitate the acquisition of it? 3. Are the measures adopted at Oswego in accord- ance with the general principles resulting from these inquiries ? The nature of the first two questions necessitated a 34 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. large part of the report being given over to philosophi- cal discussion concerning the validity of the Pestalozzian principles. This discussion performed the important service of scattering those metaphysical doubts which arise naturally when a new system of thought is pre- sented to the mind. It also gave primary methods a more dignified aspect, because they were now seen by educators at large to be based on thoroughly sound philosophical principles, and to be advocated by men of unquestioned standing in the educational world. Two extracts from the report must suffice to show its nature. " Let us now commence at the period when it is proper for a child to enter school. What is to engross his atten- tion now ? In any system of teaching, all concede that one of his first employments should be to learn the new language, the language of printed symbols, addressed not to the ear, but to the eye. And here commence the most divergent paths. The more common method is to drop entirely all that has hitherto occupied the child's attention, present him with the alphabet, point out the letters, and bid him echo their names in response to the teacher's voice. By far the greatest portion of his time is passed in a species of confinement and inactivity which ill comports with his former restless habits. Usually occupied in his school-work but twice, and then for a few moments only, during each session, he advances from necessity slowly ; and this imprisonment becomes irksome and offensive. To one who is not blinded by THE SPREAD OF THE OSWEGO IDEA. 35 this custom, which has the sanction of a remote antiq- uity, the inquiry naturally forces itself upon his atten- tion, Is all this necessary? Must the child because he is learning a new language forget the old ? May he not be allowed to speak at times, even in school, and utter the vital thoughts that once filled his mind with delight? May he not have some occupation that shall not only satisfy the restless activities of his nature, but also shall gratify his earnest desire for knowledge? Must he be made to feel that the new language of printed letters has no relation to the old? Does he reach the goal of his school-work, as too often seems the case, when he can pronounce words by looking at their printed forms ? Why not recognize in the printed word the same vital connection between the word and the thought as before? Why not follow the dictates of a sound philosophy, the simple suggestions of com- mon sense, and recognize the fact that the child comes fresh from the school of Nature, where actual scenes and real objects have engrossed his whole attention, and have been the source of all that have made his life so happy ? If so, then why not let him draw freely from this source, while learning to read, nay, as far as pos- sible, make the very act of learning to read tributary to the same end, and at the earliest possible time make it appear that the new acquisition is but a delightful ally of his present power to speak? This transition from his free and happy life at home to the confine- ment of the schoolroom will be less painful to him, and 36 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. at the same time it will be apparent that the school is not a place to check, but to encourage, investigation. " Such inquiries as these have occupied the minds of intelligent educators who have ventured to question the wisdom of past methods. And they have led to the in- troduction of objects familiar and interesting. " We come now to the final question : Does the plan pursued at Oswego conform to these general principles ? " We answer unhesitatingly in the main it does." The report then goes on to describe at length the Oswego system as applied in the Oswego graded schools and in the six grades of the Practice School. It denom- inates the system of criticisms by special critic-teachers, the Observation-lessons and reports, as obviously supe- rior to that of any other for Normal training. The report is discriminating, and does not hesitate to point out occa- sional weaknesses, but after doing so concludes : - " These, however, at most were but spots on the face of the sun. The whole plan was admirable in theory and practice." 1 The vindication was complete. The report was given wide circulation; and from this time on the Oswego teachers and graduates found themselves, in response to many demands, enthusiastic propagandists of the new impulse, especially in the Western States. This impulse took on definite form in at least three directions. The 1 Very full and representative extracts are made from this report in Gordy's Rise and Growth of Normal Schools, Bureau of Education, Cir- cular No. 8, 1891. THE SPREAD OF THE OSWEGO IDEA. 37 first was the radical change in (1) subject-matter, (2) methods, (3) and spirit, which occurred in the instruction given in elementary schools. In regard to subject-matter, in the place of the narrow gauged " three R's," Oswego put a curriculum, embracing the " three R's " it is true, but containing besides the wealth of work with Nature, the study of plants, animals, soil, minerals, the air we breathe and the water we drink, the color exercises and form studies, the manual training and physical culture, which form the main features of the progressive public schools all over the land to-day. The objective method in all of these subjects took the place of humdrum text- book drill ; and lessons were presented so as to secure the child's spontaneous interest, and allow for his spon- taneous expression. Every step taken was carefully gauged to childhood's nature. The teacher tried to see things through the child's eyes ; the centre of gravity in the \yorld of instruction was transferred from the teacher's personality to that of the child's ; so not only the subject-matter, but the method and spirit, of all ele- mentary instruction was vitally changed for the better in all schools touched by Oswego influence. The second noteworthy phase of Oswego influence was its effect in recasting the plan of organization and methods taught in the existing State Normal Schools. What were vague and transient experiments now be- came a settled and fortified system ; the great thing dis- covered here was, that there was something to teach in the line of rational methods, something distinctively 38 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. devolving upon Normal-school men to work out. The practice-schools now became indispensable laboratories ; the plan of surrendering separate rooms and classes to the complete control of the teachers-in-training ; of con- stant private and class-criticism of her work in the clear light of definite principles ; the organization of the for- mal-school curriculum so as to make the last year dis- tinctly professional, the first part of it given up to discussions of educational theory and history, the last part to teaching in the school of practice ; this revivify- ing of old forms by new infusions into the then existing Normal Schools was Oswego's work for the Normal Schools of America. The new State Normals, which followed so quickly and so thickly in the wake of the Oswego demonstration, were all formed on the Oswego plan, and, as will be shown later, by Oswego graduates. The third distinctive result of Oswego influence was the establishment of City Normal and Training-Schools in many cities of the country, on the Oswego plan, by Oswego graduates. The way in which these important results were brought about will form the subject of the next chapter. MATILDA S. COOPER (Mrs. I. B. Poucher). CHAPTER IV. APPLICATION OP THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. IT is impracticable to trace separately the lines of Oswego influence mentioned at the close of the last chapter. They were stated individually for the sake of clearness, but in practice the three phases went together and produced the change in form and spirit of instruc- tion known as the Oswego System. To some extent, however, the effect of the new methods upon the Nor- mal Schools of the country lends itself to separate treatment. Counting all schools bearing the name "Normal," we may say that there were some twenty Normal Schools in this country in 1860, of which only about one-half that number deserved that distinctive title. During the next decade this number was in- creased to nearly one hundred, 1 as against the twenty established during the two decades preceding 1860 ; and these latter were, moreover, in much greater per- centage, bona fide Normal Schools. Eighteen of these bona fide Normal Schools were set up west of the Alle- 1 One hundred and fourteen are reported in Commissioner's Report for 1871. Several of these, however, were departments in other schools, and some few others were short-lived, private enterprises. 39 40 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. ghanies, 1 eleven being State Normal Schools and seven public, city Normal and Training-Schools. Five of these were in the cities of Davenport (Iowa), Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Cincinnati, and Dayton. These, it will be shown, were with scarcely an exception organized by Oswego graduates. In 1895 it was estimated that the number of Normal Schools of all classes had increased to three hundred and fifty-six, one hundred and fifty -five of them being public Normal Schools, while the number of gradu- ates from all institutions offering training-courses for teachers was estimated at twelve thousand. 2 Moreover, the Normal idea has at last won recognition from the universities and colleges ; and in 1895 six thousand, four hundred and two students were taking pedagogical training in one hundred universities and colleges. It is evident that among these numerous centres of pedagogical progress, no one institution could maintain the somewhat exclusive supremacy that Oswego en- joyed during its first two decades. It will be the pur- pose of this chapter to show to some extent the basis upon which that supremacy rested, by exhibiting the influence of Oswego upon the Normal Schools of the country so far as that influence can be traced in the di- rect work of Oswego graduates in these schools. It is unfortunate for such attempts to trace influence that we must confine ourselves to this direct method. 1 Historical Sketches, p. 66. 2 U. S. Commissioner of Education. Report for 1891-95. THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 41 The indirect effects elude our search. It would be very interesting to show how many schools had been modified, how many ideals changed, how many impulses started, by individuals and groups of individuals merely having read of Oswego's work through the various re- ports published concerning it, or from having heard ad- dresses from Oswego graduates and teachers who were in popular demand as platform speakers in many State and national gatherings of teachers. A very good example of this indirect influence is the change which school textbooks have undergone in the last thirty years in the direction of the Oswego reforms. For not only have Oswego graduates themselves done their share of producing better text-books, but men who were never in direct contact with the Oswego methods have furnished books in response to the demands created by those methods. But it is manifestly a hopeless task to trace any of these indirect influences. Such intangible im- pulses lose themselves in the host of influences that operate in the educational world ; for while it will be clear that to Oswego is due the honor of giving a defi- nite start and momentum to these impulses in this country, it is doubtless true that the air was full of the spirit of reform ; and a decisive movement having once started, there were, of course, men and women who en- tered into the new truths independently of any con- scious Oswego influence. Confining ourselves then, as we must for purposes of demonstration, to the direct work of Oswego graduates 42 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. p in the Normal School, we find first, that the New York State Normal Schools were very promptly and effec- tively brought into line by Oswego's graduates. An Act passed in 1866, formally making the Oswego institution a State Normal School, 1 provided for six Normal Schools. In a paper 2 read at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Oswego Normal School (18), Professor Kriisi reported that: - " The Fredonia (N.Y.) State Normal and Training-School at one time took nearly its entire corps of teachers from Oswego, Dr. Armstrong, the principal, having been teacher here (Oswego Normal). The State Normal and Training-Schools of Brockport, Potsdam, Genesee, Buffalo, Cortland, and New Paltz, have been organized on the same plan, and each has employed one or more graduates of the Oswego School as teachers of methods and for general training-work. The Oswego school may justly claim the credit, which is cheerfully accorded to her on every hand, of hav- ing laid the foundation and paved the way for the establishment of all the newer Normal and Training-Schools of the State." Another authority 3 indorses and broadens this claim in the following words : - " All the State Normal Schools excepting the one at Albany * 1 The Oswego school became virtually a State Normal School in March, 1863, when the Legislature passed an Act appropriating $3,000 for its support. 3 "History of the (Oswego) Normal School," by Herman Kriisi, pub- lished in Historical Sketches of the State Normal and Training-School, Oswego, N.Y. 8 Professor J. P. Gordy, in Rise and Growth of Normal Schools. 4 In a foot-note Professor Gordy added that the Albany Normal School was then (1890) about to incorporate the Oswego plan into its profes- sional work. THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NOKMAL SCHOOLS. 43 have been organized on the Oswego plan. Normal College in New York City was organized on the same plan with Oswego graduates to do the work in methods and criticism . . . and Oswego graduates were invited to organize training-schools in Rochester, Syracuse, and Malone, N. Y." Dr. A. D. Mayo, in a classic address delivered at Os- wego in 1886, said : " But outside your own limits, your work has been greatly magnified in New York. Half a dozen new State schools have been established since the day when I used to drop into the first Normal in Albany ; and all these have been organized according to your plan and largely set in motion by your graduates. If I am rightly informed, your vigorous institute system is working on the same lines ; while the great city Normal Schools of New York and Brooklyn, with numerous local training-schools and the summer assemblies at Chautauqua and elsewhere are all but rep- etitions and applications of the new primary education inaugu- rated here twenty-five years ago. In saying this, I would do full justice to the many celebrated teachers of New York who have never been connected with these institutions. But whatever may be claimed concerning priority of thought, we must certainly look to Oswego as the earliest and most successful embodiment of this great movement, which in a quarter of a century has revolution- ized the primary instruction of the country." In 1867 Dr. Sheldon was offered the principalship of the Albany Normal, and in the same year the charge of the Pedagogical Department in the University of Mis- souri, but declined because he feared to jeopardize the growing interests of the school which was to be the monument of his life's work, and of which he has been the honored head for thirty-six years. 44 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. There is abundant evidence at hand to show that this process which went on so efficiently in the Normal Schools of New York State was operative in like manner in many other States, east and west. New England, the birth- place of the Normal School and of nearly all other phases of educational progress in this country, was not too proud to be taught by its original western neighbor. At the time of Oswego's birth, New England was the fortunate possessor of five Normal Schools, four in Mass- achusetts and one in Connecticut. Most of these insti- tutions were pioneers in the cause of special training for teachers. To the measure of success they achieved was due the successful transplanting from Prussia of the Normal School idea in this country. The high char- acter of their work brought dignity to the profession, and the superior quality of the work done by the teach- ers they sent out all over New England demonstrated to the friends of education that there was a profitable realm namely, theory and practice of teaching which was yet to be worked for its best fruits. These early Normal Schools mapped out the territory, made some earnest explorations around its edges with now and then a dash into the interior, frequently exhibiting, Co- lumbus-like, before the eyes of a delighted populace speci- men-treasures from the great unknown wealth within. Thus, all of them forced a higher scholarship upon New England teachers, indeed, one of their graduates who joined the pilgrimage to the Oswego Mecca in 1862 has recently expressed to me her utter surprise at finding THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 45 teachers taking part in the Oswego work who could boast only of a common school education. 1 These New England Normals did pioneer work also in the important matter of co-education, for they ad- mitted women at the outset to all the privileges of the schools, and demonstrated the peculiar value of woman in the education of children. The failings of the New England Normal have al- ready been pointed out in the first chapter of this sketch. When all is said, it remains that these schools were conservatives, and contented themselves with perfecting a pedagogy which rested upon principles, many of them true enough, but still fragmentary, unorganized, and indissolubly linked to conventional applications. That New England in time saw this, the following extract from Dr. Mayo's address on " The Normal School in America," will show. After paying a deserved tribute to the pioneer work of the New England Normal, he continued: 1 Relative to the scholarship required by Oswego of its students, this statement is found on p. 73 of Circular No. 8, issued hy the Bureau of Education : " At the outset, as we have seen, the school was organized as a strictly professional school. Candidates for admission were required to have pursued a course of study equal in thoroughness and extent to that pur- sued in the best high schools of the State. But the faculty of Oswego soon discovered that the knowledge of such students was not sufficiently thorough, or at least that a sufficient number of pupils, with a suffi- ciently thorough preparation, could not be found to fill the school on that plan. Accordingly, in 1865, it was decided to add a course of study in the English branches to the more strictly professional work. In 1867 the ancient and modern languages were added." 46 THE OSWEGO NOKMAL SCHOOL. "But there was yet a great step forward to be taken. The spirit of the college and academy still brooded over the New Normal School. Its leading teachers were college graduates, and still believed with a mighty faith in the efficacy of exclusive lec- turing and class-room instruction. Their pupils were generally very young people, with only the crude knowledge gained in the country schools ; and two years seemed quite too short a time to stack them with useful knowledge, and give them an outfit in methods and rules for their coming work. Hence with few excep- tions the practice-school was ignored, and at best, a system of class-recitation, with occasional observation of school-work and lesson-giving used in its place. The senseless objection of ignorant parents, and stubborn opposition of jealous schoolmasters, often prevented the attempt to secure a great public school for observa- tion and practice under experts. . " This has turned out the one serious defect of the New England State Normal. . . . For this reason a few years of good primary school-keeping in Quincy Mass., by that eminent genius for pri- mary instruction, Colonel Parker, ten years ago, so amazed certain eminent scholars and publicists of that locality, that the work was widely heralded as a discovery, and the ' Quincy System,' was elaborately written up throughthe land." l " I shall not soon forget my first visit to the Boston Train ing- School of fifteen years ago, where one of the most accomplished 1 Professor "William F. Phelps, late principal of the Winona, Minn., State Normal School, in a recent letter, called my attention to the fact that twelve years before Colonel Parker did his excellent work at Quincy, the "Winona School was doing similar work from Oswego models. The fact that quite elaborate "Nature Studies" constituted the basis of the expressive work at Oswego from the very beginning will be clearly seen by reference to Dr. Sheldon's Reports to the Board of Education at Os~ wego, from 1859 to 1869. The Report of the Committee of educators made in 1861, and the one received by the National Educational Association (1865), give special notice to the Nature work done at Oswego. THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 47 t of your graduates, after many days, had compelled the attention of the most self-contained body of public school men in America. Out of that beautiful school has been developed a great deal more than we Yankees are accustomed to pass to the credit of New York. There is no portion of the country now more thoroughly alive with primary and common school reform than the more pro- gressive part of New England ; and the best thing that can be said of Oswego is, that she is only too glad to gather in all these later fruits, with no offensive claims to her own service in the planting-time of twenty years ago." The Oswego graduate to whom Dr. Mayo refers above was Miss Jennie Stickney (now Mrs. John A. Lansing), of whose work Professor Gordy writes : " Miss Jennie Stickney, a graduate of the Salem (Mass.) State Normal School, after completing the course at Oswego, was em- ployed by the Boston Board to organize a city training-school on the plan of the Oswego School, and train their teachers in the new methods. She was for many years the principal of this school, until it grew into the present city Normal School, with Dr. Larkin Dunton at its head." Professor Gordy cites also the well-known Worcester, Mass., Normal as a New England development from the work of Oswego graduates. He says, " Miss Rebecca Jones, a lady of large experience, came from Worcester, Mass., to Oswego, and immediately after graduation was invited by the Worcester School Board to organize a training-school in that city on the Oswego plan, which has developed into the present State Normal School of national reputation, with Mr. Russell as principal." He also records the fact that a city training-school was 48 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. t organized in Lewiston, Me., by another Oswego gradu- ate, Miss Pond. The training-school at Portland, Me., also was organized by an Oswego graduate. Miss Stickney is more widely known through her text-books in Language and Reading than through her work at the Boston Normal. 1 These text-books have enjoyed a wide and well-merited popularity, and are all excellent examples of one way in which the Oswego principles have become disseminated throughout the land. A new State Normal School has just been opened at Hyannis, Mass. ; and Mr. W. A. Baldwin, an Oswego graduate, has been called upon to become its principal, and to organize it upon the Oswego plan. An Oswego graduate is teaching in the Springfield Training-school at North Adams. 1 The Boston Normal was one of the first of the new type of City Normal and Training-schools set afoot in various parts of the country by Oswego graduates. A recent editorial in an educational magazine throws considerable light upon the origin and the need of the City Training- School : " One of the decided superiorities of the New York public school sys- tem was the new departure in methods of instruction at the Oswego State Normal School, some five and twenty years ago. And perhaps the most valuable feature was the organization of the City Training-School for teachers. At that date the State Normal Schools everywhere were thronged with pupils, largely from the rural districts and villages, whose academic preparation was of the most elementary sort. The emphasis of instruction was of necessity on the academic side, and thousands of these graduates went forth with a scholarship inferior to that of the higher grammar-grades in the schools of every considerable City. It was largely because of this lack of reliable scholarship that the training in Pedagogy in the State Normal was so ineffective ; for until one knows what to teach, a method is practically of little importance. Even so late as 1860, only one State Normal School in Massachusetts had a prac- THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 49 Miss Sarah J. Walter, for many years the able head of the School of Practice at Oswego, is now at the head of a similar department in the Normal School at Wil- limantic, Conn. An Oswego graduate is also at work in the New Britain Normal School. The State Normal School at Trenton N. J., one of the best of those founded before the Oswego Normal, was one of the first to investigate the new methods. Its able principal was Professor Wm. F. Phelps, whose report of the work at Oswego has been already referred to. After his visit, Professor Phelps immediately sent one of his teachers to Oswego to learn the new system. Of the changes effected by this one teacher upon her return, Professor Phelps writes : - " One of the most striking and valuable features of this exper- iment was its suggestiveness. It was an ' eye opener ' ; and it at tice department; and ten years previous not half-a-dozen teachers in the schools of the city of Springfield were graduates of the neighboring State Normal at Westport. President Sheldon of Oswego, followed by the New York State Normals, made it possible that the improved meth- ods of instruction should be successfully worked in the larger cities of the Middle and Western States by his admirable organization of the city training-school especially for primary teachers; of which every pupil should be a graduate of the city high school or its equivalent, and for at least one year be under the training of expert teachers, with a large section of the public schools set apart for a practice department. " New England with characteristic independence very slowly followed this lead. In several large towns, what was called a training-school was simply a group of high-school graduates, set to teach in a large building on half pay, under a master who was expected to give such professional instruction and guidance as possible to his worn-out subor- dinates." Education, November, 1896. 50 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. once set other teachers to thinking and studying, and the influ- ence of this one partially trained teacher extended far beyond the limits of her own room, to the school at large, and to the public schools of the town. . . . This experiment, imperfect as it was, led to lasting improvement. The new ideas, once finding a lodg- ment, were found to remain, and to grow in influence and power ; and the Normal School at Trenton to-day is in the front rank of institutions of its class in respect to its character, courses, and methods of instruction, and this is largely due to the impetus given it at that time." In Pennsylvania, Professor Gordy states that Os- wego graduates were invited to organize Training- Schools at Philadelphia and at Reading. The new West was quickly responsive to the new methods. It was young, unconventional, little tram- melled by old traditions. It was settled by men who grasped opportunities. It had a consciousness that it could buy the best things the East could furnish. It was growing ambitious to possess a literature and an art. It was sensitive to remarks made about its educa- tion. It would have teachers as good as the best, methods as modern as its own life, methods that were practical, real, and would yield quick results. These characteristics were inherent in the Oswego methods ; and the West adopted them in good, hearty, Western fashion. Says Dr. Mayo : - " But I am inclined to think no one influence during the past generation has been so potent in the Western common school- room as the Oswego Normal. While whole sections of the older THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 51 States have been occupied in nailing Normal sign-boards on country academies of the old-time sort, the Western States, with the single exception of Ohio, have established one of the most effective systems of State Normal Schools and Institutes in the country. Ohio has perhaps led in the number and importance of her city Normal Schools, which, with the one exception of the admirable school at St. Louis, have led all American cities in the training of teachers. Every Normal School, as far as I know, State or city, between Pittsburg and San Francisco, has been or- ganized on the Oswego plan ; and hundreds of her graduates have been at work in them since 1865." 1 It is very desirable that the particulars upon which such generalizations are based be exhibited to the reader, and this can conveniently be done by tracing the labors of Oswego graduates in the Normal Schools of the West by States. The opinions of competent eye-witnesses of this peaceful revolution will also prove of some value in helping us to gain a correct idea of what was accom- plished. Miss Amanda Funnelle was graduated from the class of '62. She taught two years in the training-school at Oswego, which position she left to take charge of the model primary department in the State Normal School at Albany, N.Y., the oldest of the New York Normal Schools. At the end of three years this position was given up that she might introduce the new methods in the City Training-School at Indianapolis, then just organized. From here Miss Funnelle was called to 1 " The Normal School in America," by A. D. Mayo, in Historical Sketches qf*the State Normal and Training-school at Oswego, 1886. 52 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. become the teacher of methods of primary instruction in the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute. Here Miss Funnelle put in eleven years of work. Sub- sequently she added Detroit, Mich., to her itinerary, where she held the position of principal teacher of the Detroit normal- and training-class, having for her assis- tant the Miss Scott who has lately done such original work in the City Training-School of Detroit. The In- diana Normal Schools in which Miss Funnelle labored have sent out hundreds of graduates, who have thus taken the Oswego methods into every section of the State. President Smart of Purdue University thus re- ports the results of his observation of Oswego influence in Indiana : - " I am very glad to give you my opinion concerning the influ- ence of the Oswego Normal School upon the educational interests of Indiana. I have had several Oswego graduates working under my immediate supervision for a number of years, and during my term of office as State Superintendent of Indiana I observed the work of many others. Oswego graduates have been employed in some of our large cities as superintendents of training-schools, and as teachers in other departments, and as instructors in our State Normal School. I am free to say that to the influence of no class of teachers are we so much indebted as to those who have come to us from Oswego. Those who are acquainted with the work and influence of the City Training-School of Indianap- olis, of the City Training-School of Fort Wayne, and of the work of the training-teachers in the State Normal School, will, I am sure, indorse this statement." 1 1 Quoted by Mrs. Delia Lathrop Williams, in an article on " The Influence of the Oswego State Normal School in the West," contained in Historical Sketches of the State Normal School at Oswego* THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 53 The unusual compliments bestowed by Dr. Rice on the Indianapolis schools on his recent trip of investiga- tion have their foundation in the good work done by Miss Funnelle in the training-school of that city, and ably continued by Superintendent L. H. Jones, an Oswego graduate, now superintendent of the schools of Cleveland, Ohio. 1 Mr. Jones was graduated from Oswego yi 1870, and immediately responded to the Western call in accepting a position in the State Normal School at Terre Haute, Ind. At the end of a year's work in the Normal at Terre Haute, Mr. Jones spent one year in the Indian- apolis High School, and the next eight years as princi- pal of the Normal Training-School at Indianapolis. The subsequent ten years were occupied as superintendent of the schools of Indianapolis, in which position his work attracted national attention. For many years he has been a force in the National Educational Associa- tion, and was a member of the famous Committee of Fifteen. Last year Superintendent Jones was chosen president of the Department of Superintendence. It is easy to see how through the work of such men and women Oswego ideas grew into dominant forces, and her methods became common property in the Western States. No State has been more thoroughly saturated with the Oswego innovations than Ohio. The chief educa- tional centres of Ohio to-day are those in which Oswego 1 Forum, December, 1892. 54 THE OSWEGO NORM AT. SCHOOL. influence early became the controlling element. Miss Sarah Duganne, an Oswego graduate of the class of '64, accepted the principalship of the Cincinnati Training- School. In 1886 it had sent out eight hundred and twenty young women imbued with the Oswego spirit, who have honeycombed the schools of Ohio. The Day- ton Normal School placed at its head a woman trained in Oswego principles at the Cincinnati Normal, and be- tween the years 1869 and 1885 it had sent forth one hundred and ninety-nine young women to join forces with the eight hundred and twenty from the Cincinnati Normal. Cleveland has a flourishing training-school as a result of the general movement set afoot by Oswego graduates. During its first ten years it sent out more than five hundred teachers. The able superintendent of the Cleveland schools is an Oswego graduate. San- dusky organized a training-school on the Oswego plan, and the training-school at Columbus was started with an Oswego graduate at its head. Dr. E. E. White, one of the foremost educators of the last quarter century, thus speaks of Oswego influ- ence in Ohio and Indiana : - "I take pleasure in bearing testimony to the fact that this school exerted in its early history marked influence on primary instruction in Ohio and Indiana, a more effective influence than all the other Normal Schools in the country." 1 Quoted by Mrs. Delia Lathrop Williams in her paper in Historical Sketches of the State Normal and Training-School, Oswego, N.Y. THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 55 And Dr. Hancock, " a man thoroughly conversant with the history of every public-school movement in the Mis- sissippi Valley," says : - " I am sure the Institute of 1867 in Cincinnati, in which those eminent teachers and Oswegoans, Dr. Armstrong, Professor Kriisi, Miss Seaver, Miss Cooper, and Mrs. Mary Howe Smith took part, marked an era in the schools of that city. They presented the business of teaching in a light in which it had not been seen be- fore by the large body of teachers there assembled. The spirit infused into this body by this new education was the main cause of the establishment of the city Normal School, with Miss Sarah Duganne, an Oswego graduate, at its head. She was followed by Miss Delia A. Lathrop, another Oswego graduate, who, with the assistance of four other graduates of Oswego, carried forward the work for seven years. Here was begun the great fight between dynamic and mechanic instruction, a fight that has been going on ever since with somewhat varying success, but on the whole with a sure gain of territory by the first of these belligerent parties." Mrs. Mary Howe Smith (Pratt), mentioned in the quotation above, informs me that institutes similar to the one at Cincinnati were held for a succession of years in various parts of Ohio and Indiana, and aroused immense enthusiasm, resulting in an immediate increase in the number of applicants from Ohio and Indiana for admis- sion to the Oswego school. Mrs. Smith was in great demand for her clear expositions of the Oswego methods, and her aid was solicited by Professor Guyot of Prince- ton to apply the Pestalozzian principles to his well- known series of geography text-books. Oswego methods early secured a foothold in Iowa. 56 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. A Normal department had been a prominent feature of the University of Iowa since 1857. The Report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1867-t>8 calls attention to the fact that Oswego graduates had reached that department. In the same volume we are told of a City Training-School in one of the cities of the State, that the " instruction is similar to that given in the Elementary Training-course at Oswego." Of Ottumwa, Iowa, the same report says, " The superin- tendent was successful in obtaining a competent and experienced teacher, and the training-school was opened in the autumn of '67. Miss Pride, the training-teacher secured, was a graduate of the Normal Training-School at Oswego, N.Y." In 1862 an Oswego graduate, Miss Mary V. Lee, known as Dr. Lee to all Oswego people, in company with Mrs. Mary E. McGonegal, opened the Davenport, Iowa, Training-School for teachers, under the general direction of Superintendent Kissell. Dr. Lee was one of the strongest personalities connected with the spread of the Oswego movement ; and her work in Iowa, as elsewhere, was full of life and suggcstiveness, and created a profound impression in that section. Professor H. H. Seeley, president of the Iowa State Normal School at Cedar Falls, writes me that twenty- four years ago he was a student in the department of didactics at the State University, in which the teacher of methods was an Oswego graduate. " I therefore ob- tained from her," says he, "more or less of the first information and scientific conception of methods and plans in elementary education." THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 57 " You can set Minnesota down as a Normal State ac- cording to the standard established at Oswego." These few words of Professor William F. Phelps tell the story of Oswego's remarkable achievement in Minnesota. The Winona, Minn., Normal School, originally pro- jected in 1860, was not put on a working basis until 1864, when President Phelps of the Trenton Normal School, and chairman of the Committee of Educators at Oswego in 1861, was invited to become its president. This he did in radical fashion. His plan was to make it over completely, according to the plans he had just witnessed at Oswego. Accordingly he filled the faculty immediately with Oswego graduates, or teachers in- structed in the training-schools established by Oswego graduates. In the spring of 1865 he called Dr. Lee from her Davenport work to become his first assistant at Winona. Of her work here he speaks as follows : " Miss Lee was admirably equipped, both by nature and train- ing, for her responsible position. She had been very successful at Davenport, and had turned out many excellent disciples of the Oswego dispensation ; and as the institution at Winona enlarged I secured several other ladies from the Davenport school, . . . all of whom were well fitted to illustrate the ideas of the new education ; and the result was, that \ve had a second edition of Oswego transplanted to the new State of Minnesota." The Winona Normal was the first in the State, and set the standard for the other four since established. Professor Phelps writes that there are Oswego gradu- 58 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. ates in all the Normals, and that they have been there from the beginning. The training-departments of the Mankato and St. Cloud Normals were put in charge of Oswego graduates. Of the normal schools in Minne- sota, Professor Phelps concludes, " They owe their strength and usefulness to the development of the methods taught at Oswego, and the public schools are reap- ing the benefits." Michigan was one of the first States to yield to the persuasiveness of the Oswego methods ; for the first grad- uating class of the Oswego Normal (in 1862) sent two of its best teachers to its schools, Miss Kate Davis who went to East Saginaw, developed its Training- School, and has worked chiefly in Training-Schools since, and Miss Amanda Funnelle, whose work in the Detroit Training-School has already been mentioned. Since then the alumni record shows, that, with one ex- ception, every year for twenty-five years has furnished one or more graduates to the schools in various parts of the State, including the Training-School at Grand Rapids. At present Miss Anna B. Herrig, an Oswego graduate, is the efficient Superintendent of the Depart- ment of Practice in the newly established Central Mich- igan State Normal School. Michigan's sister State, Wisconsin, at a later period incorporated Oswego methods in some of its principal educational institutions. Of one way in which this was accomplished, Professor William F. Phelps writes : THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 59 "In 1876 I was called to preside over one of the Wisconsin Normal Schools. The new methods had not then any foothold in that conservative State. In making changes in the teaching force, I drew upon Oswego for those progressive elements needed to work a reform in the school and its antiquated notions and practices. The effect of the introduction of those teachers was revolutionary ; but it introduced many salutary changes and im- provements, that have not been lost upon the Normal School system of that Commonwealth." Wisconsin now has seven State Normal Schools or- ganized on the Oswego plan, and doing work of which any State might be proud. Miss Margaret W. Morley, author of those charming books, Songs of Life and Seed Babies, and a former teacher at Oswego, has done some especially good work at the Milwaukee Normal School ; so did also Miss Eleanor Worthington, another Oswego graduate. An item in the History of Education in Wisconsin, edited by Dr. J. W. Stearns, shows that Mrs. Anna Randall (Diehl) of Oswego was employed in the first faculties of both the Whitewater and Platteville Normals (1868) as teacher of reading and elocution. Training departments are still being organized by Oswego graduates in these Northwestern States. A recent letter from President Beadle of the new State Normal School at Madison, S. Dak., gives in substance the following data : The school was organized in 1883, and proceeded with a faculty few in numbers till the fall of 1887, when the force was enlarged, and the following graduates from Oswego were appointed : 60 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. M. ADELAIDE HOLTON, Principal of Training-School. Theory and Practice of Teaching ANNIE KLINGENSMITH, Drawing, Critic Teacher in Training-School In 1889 was added from Oswego, CLARA HOLTON, Critic Teacher, Vocal Music. In 1890, HARRIET EASTABROOKS, Critic Teacher. In 1892, ANNA B. HERRIG, Principal of Training-School, Methods Critic. EMMA E. ROWE (MRS. GRANT SMITH), Critic. The next year both these ladies resigned, and the fol- lowing teachers from Oswego supplied their places : - BERNICE M. WRIGHT, Principal of Training-School. NELLIE COLLINS, Primary Critic. BURGESS SHANK, Drawing. Botany, Zoology, Physiology. Miss Wright (now Mrs. Shank) and Mr. Shank are now studying in Jena, Germany. " Oswego has therefore," says President Beadle, " directly and greatly influenced the whole life and work of the school in train- ing teachers and graduates, one hundred and fifty of whom are now THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 61 teaching with great success in this State, a few of them in other States." This school furnishes a good example of the way in which most of our Western Normal Schools have devel- oped their professional work. In Illinois the work of Oswego teachers has been quite generally distributed among the public schools of the State. Among the Normal Schools it has been most notable in Colonel Parker's school at Chicago, formerly the Cook County Normal. A member of Oswego's second graduating-class (1863) taught seven years in the Cook County Normal. Since then Colonel Parker has freely employed Oswego teachers. 1 Profes- sor H. H. Straight 2 and his wife, Mrs. Emma Dicker- man Straight, whose work in Nature Studies at Oswego was most original, were picked out from the Oswego faculty by Professor Parker's discerning eye. Professor Parker calls them pioneers in the teaching of elementary science to little children. The following Oswego graduates, also, were captured by Colonel Parker : Mr. George Fitz, now a professor at Harvard; Mrs. Mary Alling-Aber, author of An Experiment in Educa- tion; Miss Eleanor Worthington and Dr. Marie Mergler. Miss Emily J. Rice, an Oswego graduate, is teaching 1 See Colonel Parker's estimate of the influence of the Oswego Normal School at the close of Chap. II. 2 Professor Straight was for a time Vice-principal of the Cook County Normal. 62 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. at present in Colonel Parker's school. He has recently pronounced her " one of the best teachers of history and literature in the country." Oswego graduates have also labored in the State Normal School at Normal, 111., and in the training- school at Oak Park. Chicago is now the headquarters of the Western Alumni Association of Oswego graduates. Evidence is not wanting that Missouri early learned of Oswego's work. At the laying of the corner-stone of the Warrensburg Normal, Professor D. H. Crut- tenden of the Oswego Normal delivered one of the addresses. Reference to the alumni record will show that a number of Oswego graduates have taught at this Normal school. Between 1872 and 1875 Professor Straight and his wife, one an Oswego graduate, the other a member of its faculty soon after, were members of the faculty of this institution, then under the prin- cipalship of James Johannot. President Osborne writes me that at the present time the mathematical depart- ment of the Warrensburg Normal is in charge of Pro^ fessor George H. Howe, an Oswego graduate ; and a recent addition to the faculty is Professor A. W. Nor- ton, formerly in charge of the Practice Department at Oswego, but more recently principal of the State Nor- mal at Peru, Nebraska. Several Oswego graduates have been identified with the Kirksville Normal, among whom was Professor Charles S. Sheldon, who held for a number of years the THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 63 chair of Natural Science, and is now doing similar work in his father's school at Oswego. Nebraska has but one State Normal School, organized in 1867. Its professional work was established on the Oswego plan, 1 and Oswego graduates have from time to time been called upon to work in that department; prominent among these was Miss Margaret K. Smith, who held the chair of School of Economy and Methods there. Three years ago the principalship of the institu- tion was conferred upon a former teacher at Oswego, Professor A. W. Norton, and its professional work was put in charge of Miss Anna B. Herrig, an Oswego graduate; the Kindergarten Department and the De- partment of Science were also put under the guidance of Oswego graduates. In Kansas, in 1868, Oswego methods were intro- duced into the Leavenworth Schools by Oswego gradu- ates. A Normal School w r as established on the Oswego plan, and for six years sent out graduates imbued with the Oswego spirit into different parts of the State. An Oswego graduate taught for eleven years in the State University of Kansas, at Lawrence. Out in New Mexico, a Normal course was established in the University of Mexico by an Oswego graduate. Replies I have recently received show that as far west as Oregon, Oswego graduates are in charge of the Training-Department in the State Normal School at 1 Circular of Information, No. 8, 1891, p. 75, U. S- Bureau of Educa- tion. 64 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Monmouth. In the new State of Washington an Os- wego graduate is in charge of the Training-Depart- ment of the State Normal at Cheney; and the vice- president of the school is an Oswego graduate. He was recently tendered the principalship of the school, but declined. I am also informed, that, failing to find Normal Schools in Montana and Utah, Oswego gradu- ates have invaded the State universities of those States. Oswego influence in California is most strikingly manifested in the novel work of Earl Barnes, class of '84, and Mary Sheldon Barnes, class of '69, both pro- fessors in Leland Stanford, Jr., University. Professor Barnes, because of his valuable contributions to scien- tific child study, has been ranked next to Stanley Hall, the foremost investigator in our country in his chosen field. Mrs. Barnes is a daughter of Dr. Sheldon, and became generally known first through her Studies in Greneral History, 1 in many respects the most original text-book of the last quarter century, in which the scientific method as applied to the teaching of the sciences at Oswego has found a singularly complete and successful application. Since then, Mrs. Barnes has issued an American history 1 on the same plan, which has met with a remarkable success considering the hard thinking which the method requires of young minds. Both Mrs. Barnes and Professor Earl Barnes are frequent contributors to educational literature. 1 D. C. Heath & Co., Boston. THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 65 Other Oswego graduates have done good work for the State Normal School of San Jose. ""IF thus seems reasonably certain that Oswego influ- ence upon the Normal Schools of practically every Western State and Territory has been both direct and powerful. In nearly all the cases cited, Oswego gradu- ates themselves have superintended the introduction of the new system in the Normal Schools; in other cases these schools have invariably formed the type for the later Normal Schools which the good work of the earlier ones called into existence. At the South, for a long time after the war, the feel- ing between the two sections, which had kept the North and South separate years before the war, confined the work of Oswego graduates almost entirely to the schools for the freedmen. The Pestalozzian methods were pe- culiarly adapted to the awakening mind of a race which had been forced for centuries to derive its ideas from the concrete, a race from whom books and most forms of abstract thinking had been rigorously removed. "From the concrete to the abstract," was equivalent here to that other Pestalozzian maxim, "From the known to the unknown." The isolated and private character of many of the schools for the negro at the South has made it a difficult task to get detailed ac- counts of Oswego's influence upon this section of our country. In the decade succeeding the war these schools were, with minor exceptions, either completely 66 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. ignored and isolated by the great body of the Southern whites, or more or less actively opposed; a condition of affairs which made the spread of Oswego methods to the white schools almost an impossibility. But in the schools for colored youth the new methods accom- plished most gratifying results, notably at Avery Nor- mal Institute, Charleston, S.C., and Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga. Professor Amos W. Farnham, now principal of the Department of Practice at the Oswego Normal, was the first to break the way into the South with any con- siderable momentum. He was employed in 1875 as principal of the Avery Normal Institute. He associated with him three Oswego teachers. The professional work was thoroughly organized on the Oswego plan ; and Na- ture Study and Industrial Work, from the start essen- tial features of the Oswego philosophy, here received especial prominence. The graduates of this school were instrumental in spreading the practical features of the new education in many sections of the State among their own people. Four years later Professor Farnham began a similar work at Atlanta University, the leading school in Geor- gia for the higher education of the colored people. Here, again, nature work and industrial education assumed great prominence in the scheme of pedagogy. Evi- dence of the high character of the nature work done here is the book, Development Lessons, by Mr. DeGraff and Miss M. K. Smith, an Oswego graduate. "The THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 67 lessons on insects which that book contains are a tran- script of work done in Atlanta University by M. K. Smith, class of January '83. She also gave in that institution the Development Lessons on Form and Plants, and the plant illustrations which the book contains were engraved from drawings made by Miss Smith's pupils." 1 In Charleston and Atlanta, at this period, Professor Farnham reports that their Normal departments were visited by the prominent teachers of the white schools and members of the school boards. "It is plain to be seen," says he, "in localities where good work is done for colored youth, that the whites of those localities increased their efforts for the education of the white youth. And the more progressive patrons of white schools are on the qui vive that their children's school privileges shall not be inferior to those of colored chil- dren in their midst." After remaining at Atlanta three years, Professor Farnham was called to organize the Normal department of Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C. At the end of two years, Professor Farnham declined an offer to take charge of the department of Nature Study in the Cook County Normal, that he might continue the effec- tive itinerant missionary work he was doing at the South ; accordingly the next two years were spent in organizing the American Missionary Association's school at Selma, Ala. Professor Farnham's latest work was the establishment of the Orange Park Normal School, 1 Paper by Professor Farnham in " Historical Sketches." 68 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL in Orange Park, Fla., a school novel in more than one respect, and one which has lately provoked more atten- tion from the Florida State Superintendent of Educa- tion, the Florida Legislature, and the press at large, than any other school in Florida. In 1884 an Oswego graduate, Miss E. D. Santley, became principal of Beach Institute at Savannah, Ga., and successfully applied the Oswego methods in that in- stitution. Spelman Seminary, the largest girls' school in the South, perhaps in the country (it had nine hundred girls a few years ago), has for some time placed its Teach- ers' Training Department under Oswego influence. Early in the '80's Miss Anna Baldwin, an Oswego graduate, carried forward the work in the famous Hamp- ton Normal and Agricultural Institute. Other Oswego teachers have followed her from time to time, one of whom, Miss Susan Showers, has since done a note- worthy work at the new Calhoun School in Lowndes County, Ala. Oswego teachers have worked in Fisk University at Nashville, Tenn., in Tougaloo University at Tougaloo, Miss., in Clarksdale, Miss., Augusta, Ga., and the colored schools at Baltimore. An observant writer on Southern education has said : " The Southern negro, in some respects, has been more fortu- nate than his white brethren. At Hampton, Va., is established one of the best training-schools in the South, which has sent forth great numbers of effective teachers for the colored children. The < Colleges ' and < Universities,' perhaps a score in number, THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 69 that have been established by Northern missions, made the mis- take, at first, of pitching the key too high, and leaving out of account the mighty factor of heredity in dealing with their pupils. It has been largely owing to the graduates of our Northern Nor- mal Schools, who have been employed as teachers, that this cleri- cal and collegiate mistake has been gradually overcome. The gift of Slater has now enabled nearly all of them to inaugurate industrial training. Thus organized, these ' universities ' for the colored people are really in some respects the most original schools in our country, and are destined to become a mighty power in the uplift of the American colored citizen." The limited scope and practical character of these new Normal departments soon proved them to be the very thing needed in the colored schools. The crying necessity for educated teachers for the emancipated race was so apparent to all, that Normal departments needed to waste no time in arguing their case or overcoming scholastic prejudices. They formed an easy transition from the hyper-classical curricula of which Dr. Mayo complains, to the shorter, more immediately useful Eng- lish courses in the " colleges " and " universities." At the present day they are justly the most popular courses in all colored schools engaged in the higher studies. In 1895 eight hundred and forty-four students were graduated from Normal courses in these institutions, while one hundred and eighty-six were graduated from collegiate courses. Many of these Normal courses in the colored schools make considerable provision for in- dustrial training, either in the shape of a nearly parallel industrial course, or of so many hours per week in the Normal course proper. 70 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. All classes of the schools of the South to-day share the benefits of the new education. Not only is the prej- udice against Northern Normal trained teachers in white schools fast disappearing, but every Southern State has its own system of Normal Schools for both races. In these newer Normal Schools at the South, Oswego influence is mostly secondary; that is, the Northern teachers who have aided in this new awakening at the South have themselves been educated in the Normal Schools so generally established, as shown in the first part of this chapter, under Oswego influences. Oswego graduates introduced the Oswego Methods in the Train- ing-School at Washington, D.C., in the seventies. From the work of Oswego graduates in the Normal Schools of the country, which it has been the purpose of this chapter to exhibit, it is not difficult to realize the tre- mendous influence which Oswego has exerted, through the Normal Schools alone, upon the common schools of the land. Every year these Normal Schools send out thousands of teachers who have learned the new educa- tion in schools whose professional work was organized by Oswego graduates. These teachers can be found in nearly every city and town of the country, in public schools, private schools, and Kindergartens. The revolution has been complete. The days of the reign of the alphabet, the blue-back speller, the dreary rules, the narrow gauged curriculum, the impenetrable text-book, the sunless, tradition-bound schoolroom and THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 71 SCHOOLMASTER, are happily at an end. The new era of light and love and freedom is the heritage of every American boy and girl. All honor to Pestalozzi, to Dr. Sheldon, and to the American educators, who were so ready to see the good and adopt it. Oswego is a school with a past. It also has a pres- ent. Semi-annually it is sending out graduates with still better equipment than that possessed by those of the first decade ; and wherever they go, their influence is still noticeable for professional zeal and pedagogical skill. A complete census of Oswego graduates now at work in our schools would scarcely pay for the work involved, for it would reveal nothing new. However, some replies recently received to letters of inquiry sent into a number of States will not be without value as evidence. It will of course be recognized that the many excellent Normal Schools in all the States now render the migration of Oswego graduates from New York State exceptional rather than the rule. To trace Oswego graduates throughout New York State would be an endless task. They are to be found in all grades of public schools in all sections of the State. There are about seventy teachers in the public schools of Oswego, all but two or three of whom are Oswego graduates. A goodly number may be found in the schools of Yonkers, Ilion, Albany, New York, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Syracuse, and other cities and vil- lages of the State. In Buffalo Mr. C. N. Millard, '90, is the popular superintendent of all the Grammar 72 THE OSWEGO NOKMAL SCHOOL. Grades of the city. Other Oswego graduates may be found there as principals of schools, in the high school, Buffalo Seminary, and on the faculty of the Buffalo Normal School. The Brooklyn Training-School employs Oswego gradu- ates as teachers of methods and critics. A large num- ber are teaching in the Brooklyn city schools, eight are teaching in the Froebel Academy (founded by an Os- wego graduate), and several are members of the faculty of Adelphi College. The Teachers' Training class in Syracuse is in charge of an Oswego graduate ; others are teaching in the high school and grammar schools of the city. Long Island has become remarkably partial to Oswego graduates. One of their number informs me that nearly all the teachers at Sayville, Greenport, Islip, Patchogue, Bay Shore, and Northport are Oswego graduates ; they are also at work on Staten Island and in Long Island City. Indeed, some years ago Long Island supported a flour- ishing Oswego alumni association. Recently it has be- come merged in the New York State Alumni Association of Oswego graduates. Several of the best private schools in New York State select their teaching force largely from among Oswego graduates. Instances are the Misses Masters' Ladies' School at Dobb's Ferry, the Albany Academy, and Emma Willard School at Troy, and the German Academy, Hoboken. In the neighboring State of New Jersey a number of graduates are at work in Paterson, at large salaries ; THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 73 others at Hasbrouck Institute, Jersey City, and East Orange. New England still keeps in touch with Oswego graduates. The schools at Brookline, Mass., among the best in the country, are permeated with the influ- ence of Oswego graduates. The late superintendent of the Andover Schools (more recently of the schools of Danvers and Belmont) and a number of his assistants are Oswego graduates. Oswego graduates are teaching in North Adams, Shelburne Falls, Springfield, and other places in Massachusetts. They are in Bridge- port, Stamford, and other places in Connecticut. A number are in Burlington, Vt., and several are in smaller towns of that State. Oswego graduates are at work in the public schools of nearly all of the cities of the Great West. Oswego influence, however, as has been shown, was most strongly felt in the West in the State and city Normal Schools, which now furnish the supply of teachers for the city schools. The Oswego methods have extended beyond the limits of the United States into foreign countries. Canada, where Dr. Sheldon received his first definite suggestions, has from time to time welcomed Oswego graduates to her schools ; and the Canada Board of Education has sent delegates to observe the Oswego work. South of us, in our sister republic, Mexico, an Oswego graduate has been working for fifteen years. South America has employed Oswego graduates, or 74 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. teachers taught by Oswego graduates, quite extensively in some of its States, notably the Argentine Republic. Professor Wm. F. Phelps, who has called the Winona Normal the " second edition of Oswego," was chiefly instrumental in the exodus, and thus refers to it: " As an example of the secondary influence of Oswego, let me state that in the early '70's there was a call from the Argentine Republic for teachers of the modern type for the Normal schools of that country. One of my graduates, Miss S. E. Wade, was sent there, and was given a commanding position in the Nor- mal School at Parana, where she remained for four years. Her work was so satisfactory that others were called for ; and Miss Frances E. Allen of the Winona School was commissioned, and stayed there for five years or more. The work of these ladies was so acceptable that others still were demanded ; and I was glad to be instrumental in sending some fifteen or twenty in all. Many of them are still there, among them Miss Armstrong of Oswego, and others whose names I cannot now recall. These ladies have wrought a wonderful change in the schools and in the ideas of the people. They have practically shaped the public school policy of that country. I think there were some six or eight Normal Schools supported by the provincial and national government." An Oswego graduate has taught also at Bogota, State of Colombia. Japan is not unacquainted with Oswego methods. Mr. Hideo Takamine, who was graduated from Oswego in 1877, was appointed by the Department of Education in Japan, director of the Higher Normal School at Tokio, a position he filled for nine years. An official THE OSWEGO IDEA IN NORMAL SCHOOLS. 75 in the department informs me that Mr. Takamine " rendered good service to the advancement of general education in Japan." In 1887 Mrs. Emma Dickerman Straight, class of '71, whose work in Nebraska, Missouri, and the Cook County Normal has already been mentioned, went to Tokio, where she taught for a number of years in the Higher Normal School. 1 Miss Harriet S. Ailing, of the class of '83, is at present teaching in that country. A few years ago a Japanese lady spent several months at Oswego in observation. Oswego propagandists have played a large part in the remarkable development which elementary educa- tion has undergone in Hawaii. Since 1872 a number of Oswego graduates have been called to the distant islands, and several are now teaching there. In 1895 two Hawaiian young men were graduated from the Oswego Normal. They were sent there by a wealthy gentleman in that country, and have now returned as teachers to their native islands. 1 For the relation of this school to the other Normal Schools of Japan, see article on "The Educational System of Japan." Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education for 1890-91, vol. i. CHAPTER V. LATER MOVEMENTS AT OSWEGO. OSWEGO was the first State Normal School in the United States to offer a definite course in the Kinder- garten methods. Its Kindergarten course was estab- lished in 1881. The rooms were large, beautifully decorated and equipped at the start with all the Kin- dergarten necessities that good taste could suggest. The Kindergarten is free to the children of the city, and is exceedingly popular, mothers having to secure places for their children a year ahead. The music, the pic- tures, the warm colors, the merry games, the busy work, and happy faces of delighted children make these rooms an attractive feature for visitors. After the es- taj)lishment of this department, Oswego graduates had the privilege of watching under skilled direction the unfolding of childhood's buds, from the tots of four years of age in the Kindergarten, through the primary, intermediate, and grammar grades to the high school. The unity of life and the succession of its stages are thus subject to organized observation, and afford con- crete and certain data for the working out of methods adapted to those various changes in the child's evolu- tion. 76 LATER MOVEMENTS AT OSWEGO. 77 Since 1881 one hundred and thirty-two students have availed themselves of this generous provision,- and they are now doing efficient work in various sections of our country. In 1888 nine Normal Schools had added a Kinder- garten course to their other courses. Oswego started out originally as a purely profes- sional training-school, requiring a certain academic scholarship as a condition of entrance. This plan was early found to be impracticable, because of the character of academic work which was presented, as well as the small number of pupils possessing the required schol- arship. As soon as it became evident that the train- ing-school must give the ntatter as well as the method, Oswego added (in 1865) to its one-year professional course two English courses, one requiring two years, the other three. In 1867 a four-years' classical course was added. The last year of these various courses was devoted exclusively to professional work. In 1890 Dr. Sheldon decided to discontinue the teaching of the ancient and modern languages, and to use the time and money formerly given to such teach- ing to post-graduate courses, providing academical and professional training in more advanced English and scientific studies. The advanced professional course for those preparing themselves for the positions of critic and training-teachers in other Normal Schools has thus far served a very useful purpose. Graduates from this course are in demand among Normal Schools. Gradu- 78 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. ates of marked ability are invited by the faculty to take this course. In 1892 the two-years' elementary course was dropped in all of the State Normal Schools of New York. From the start the Manual-Training Idea learning by doing had been a cardinal principle underlying Os- wego methods ; and clay modelling, the making of ele- mentary scientific apparatus, and the various forms of handiwork now familiar in primary schools, occupied a considerable portion of the time of the student-teacher. Gradually facilities for this work grew until now the Oswego school has two large and well-equipped man- ual-training work-shops, one for the four hundred children forming the practice school, the other for the Normal students proper. The standard jokes on woman's difficulties in driving nails and handling saws would fall rather flat among Oswego girls. The heavier machinery of both shops is run by steam-engines of suitable power. The allied department of mechanical drawing is ex- ceptionally well manned and equipped. Happy are the children taught in the practice-classes at Oswego. They get the benefit constantly of the newest and best devel- opments in educational method. They were the first to experience the joy of emancipation from books and for- mulas into the inviting life of bird and rock and smil- ing flower ; and many natures here, formerly repressed because of a diffident speech and stumbling perceptions of spellingbook-inconsistencies and arithmetic puzzles, LATER MOVEMENTS AT OSWEGO. 79 rejoiced to find the industrious hand as expressive in its way as the tongue, and to find every growing tree and breathing animal an avenue to the knowledge which spellingbook and arithmetic kept so far away. In this practice-school the first American history that brought them face to face with original sources, and gave them the privilege of constructing their own philosophy of his- tory, saw the light. To them came the first sunny con- tact with the Kindergarten as related to the whole plan of Normal School work ; and with them, as I write, prob- lems are daily being worked out, which being based on their own natures and the constitution of the world about them, will shorten and make more attractive, more accessible, the roads leading to the temple of Truth. 1 Fortunate also the 1900 and more teachers who have entered its portals to study life, to follow all stages of its development, and to intelligently shape the body of knowledge into forms fitted to these stages, so as to get it with minimum waste of effort into eager minds ; but better than all to have received the benediction, the in- spiration, of the life of the man who for thirty-six years remained its faithful head. 1 See An Outline of Nature Study and History and Literature, (1896), School of Practice of the Oswego Normal and Training School. CHAPTER VI. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. DR. E. A. SHELDON. No adequate understanding of the spirit and the methods of Oswego's development can be had, except we put before us, in somewhat clearer light than could be done in the preceding pages, the lives of some of the men and women who have made it what it is. Dr. Sheldon was born in October, 1823, of New Eng- land parents, on a farm in Genesee County, N.Y. His first school-days were spent at- an unattractive district school, his own feeling for which may be easily gathered from his remark that he had " gone to school to an ash- heap." Fortunately for his pedagogical development, a wide-awake college-bred man opened an academy at the nearest town, and initiated him at seventeen into the mysteries of Greek and Latin, algebra and geometry. Four years later he entered Hamilton College, purpos- ing at the end of his college-course to study law. Ill health forced him to leave college at the close of his junior year. While at college he was spoken of by his instructors as " a young man of intelligence, ability, the firmest integrity, and a warm heart,"- qualities which exhibited the bent of his nature, and led him to 80 PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 81 interest himself in the philanthropic experiment which he began at Oswego, where during the interim he had gone to learn the nursery business. The misery and poverty of the city slums were a revelation to the young man. With him to recognize a condition was to seek for a practical remedy. He went among the tenement houses, making a record of the things he saw, and with this for a text succeeded in getting friends to form an " Orphan and Free School Association," which soon secured a school, but found difficulties in getting the right teacher. The enterprise was on the point of being abandoned Mr. Sheldon was just then about to enter the Auburn Theological Seminary, but gave up his am- bitions to save the orphan school from failure. The story of what developed from here on has been sym- pathetically told by his daughter, Mrs. Mary Sheldon Barnes. " When asked what salary he wanted, he said, ' It will cost me about two hundred and seventy-five dollars a year to live, and this is all I want.' They gave him three hundred dollars, and my father entered what afterward proved his chosen career. "Behold, then, in the early winter of 1848 and 1849, the young schoolmaster before his first school. Utterly without experience, almost without a plan, he stands face to face with one hundred and twenty 'wild Irish boys and girls of all ages, from five to twenty-one,' utterly rude and untrained. Yet, he says, they gave him * no trouble.' If they engaged in a free fight, it was 82 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. from ignorance of the proprieties of time and place, not from any desire to be ugly ; if some boys became rest- less, they were sent out to race around the block and see who could be back first. They were called to order by rapping on the stovepipe ; they were held in order and kept to their work by the genuine love he bore to them. I have not been able to find that any case of discipline occurred in this rough ' ragged school.' As my father went to his work of a morning, his warm- hearted Irish children trooped about him, seizing him by the fingers or the coat-tails, wherever they could best catch hold, to the great amusement of the storekeepers and the passers-by. Saturday morning he spent in pas- toral work, that is, in visiting his pupils at home, and in seeing that they were not suffering for the neces- saries of life. This was the hardest day of his week ; and the young schoolmaster usually found himself ex- hausted by noon, so great was the draft made on his sympathies by ignorance, sickness, incompetence, and misfortune. " The work could not stop here in my father's mind ; and from this beginning . . . sprang in time the organ- ization of free and graded schools in Oswego, and the establishment of the orphan asylum." These developments did not occur without struggle. In 1849 Mr. Sheldon married Miss Frances A. B. Stiles, and in 1850 opened a private school. This venture did not prove a success ; and he applied for and obtained the position of superintendent of schools in Syracuse, PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 83 N.Y. In the two years of his stay he consolidated and graded the elementary schools, and began a collection of books which formed the nucleus of the present valu- able Central Library in Syracuse. He published the first annual report ever made to the city schools, and laid the plans for what is now one of the finest high schools in the State. In 1853 he returned to Oswego, this time to thoroughly organize a system of graded free schools for that city. An evidence of his watchfulness and independence are the arithmetic ungraded schools and the unclassified school, which were inserted into the system to meet the wants of the sailor boys, idle from December to April, and of the irregular laboring poor who could not adapt themselves to the graded system. This was in 1859. Since then similar schools have been found indispensable auxiliaries to the public-school sys- tem of many cities. Dr. Sheldon's progressive work with the Oswego schools, resulting finally in the Oswego Normal and Training-School, has been described in former pages. The great exertions which he put forth to develop the Oswego Normal School, and to gain a wide recognition for the Oswego methods, would have borne down a man of a less vigorous constitution. " But these years of labor," says Mrs. Sheldon Barnes, "were, however, also years of honor and recognition. It is almost startling to see how instantly the educa- tional leaders of the day acknowledged the superiority of Oswego methods and ideas. In 1862 my father was elected superintendent of the schools in Troy; but he 84 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. resigned the honor, although the place was more impor- tant and central, and the salary larger by some hundreds than that he then received, for the simple but sufficient reason that he felt that the work in Oswego was not yet ripe for an independent life. The books on methods not only stirred up teachers throughout our own country, but had a good sale in England itself ; while the fame of the Oswego schools brought to the modest home by the lake many an educational pilgrim of distinction." In 1867 Dr. Sheldon refused the offer of the principal- ship of the Albany Normal and of the Department of Pedagogy in the University of Missouri for the same conscientious reasons which persuaded him to reject the Troy position. Sacrifices of this nature were not always appreciated, even by the citizens of Oswego. Apart from the opposition Dr. Sheldon had to face, led by Dr. Wilbur, the most serious and keenly felt was that in- stituted by those for whom he had spent his labors, the people of Oswego themselves. He was accused of teaching cruelty to the children in the lessons on in- sects ; he was dubbed " Pope " because of his great influence with the Board of Education; and now in 1872 the attack was made all along the line on the whole scheme of Pestalozzian instruction. The Board failing to yield to the wishes of the reactionists, the fight was transferred from it to the public press and local poli- tics. Several newspaper extracts preserved by Mrs. Sheldon Barnes will serve to show the spirit of some of these attacks. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 85 " The Pestalozzian propagandists are just now filling the Press with interminably long and dreary articles on the ' great under- lying principles ' of the ' objective methods of teaching.' . . . At the election in May the people will have something to say about a system by which they have been humbugged out of large sums of money and an incalculable amount of time." " The tax-payers of Oswego will see to it that their schools shall be run in the interests of sound, practical education, and not . . . to build fortunes of book-publishing rings and Pestalozzian mono- maniacs." " We have yet to find a person not directly interested in the profits of 'the system' who does not agree with us that read- ing, writing, English grammar, arithmetic, and geography and those branches only should be taught in the public shools at public expense." Three years before this onslaught Dr. Sheldon had resigned his place as superintendent of the Oswego schools that he might give his whole time to the Nor- mal School. Thus the attack was not personally against him as superintendent; but he felt it none the less keenly as being directed against the reform which he initiated, and which was his life. The reactionists gained the day, and for several years the old regime of the text-book and the narrow gauged cheerless curricu- lum attempted to take the place of the subjects and methods characteristic of the New Education. The high school was abolished. The change only served to bring into stronger relief the real merits of the objective studies. For many years Oswego methods and Oswego graduates have held possession of the Oswego public 86 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. schools. To-day the city superintendent is an Oswego graduate, as are all but two or three of the seventy or more teachers under his direction. In 1880 the long years of toil brought on poor health, and Dr. Sheldon offered to resign as principal of the Normal School. The Board would not listen to it, granted him a year or two of rest, and insisted upon continuing his salary. The faculty divided his work among themselves. These evidences of the real feeling of the people toward him materially aided his recovery. In 1881 he reassumed his principalship with the old-time vigor. That year he made the kindergarten an organic part of the train- ing furnished by the Normal School. In 1869 Hamil- ton College conferred upon him the degree of A.M., and in 1875 the Regents of the University of New York added Ph.D. The contribution which the Oswego Normal has made to American pedagogy is certainly a sufficient work for any one life ; yet Dr. Sheldon was not oblivious to edu- cational questions especially in his native State which did not distinctly concern the Oswego school. For many years Dr. Sheldon earnestly though pa- tiently labored to secure the abolishment of the double- headed system of educational control in New York State. The difference which has often existed between the Board of Regents of the State and the Department of Public Instruction has long made this a desirable con- summation. In 1874 Dr. Sheldon secured the co-ope- ration of the normal-school principals of the State, who PRINCIPAL ISAAC B. ROUGHER (Successor to Dr. E. A. Sheldon). PEKSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 87 sent him and Dr. M. Me Vicar to Albany to accomplish if possible a unification of all the educational interests of the State. Dr. Sheldon made an address, which has been published, outlining his plan for unification, before the Association of School Commissioners and Superinten- dents of the State. The plan was simple, and approved by the Board of Regents itself, the State superinten- dent, and a conference of prominent educators of the State. Notwithstanding all of this indorsement the bill was killed by purely political influences. Dr. Sheldon, nothing daunted, made another attempt at the time of Mr. Draper's election to the office of State Superinten- dent, but failed to secure his co-operation. His last effort was made before the recent constitutional conven- tion of the State, but political forces again conspired to repress a measure which nearly every one conceded to be good and worthy of adoption. With his accustomed optimism, however, Dr. Sheldon said recently : " Great good, however, has grown out of the movement. It has tended to bring together and relate the educational work of the State, and effect a good state of feeling between the educational men belonging to the two de- partments. In this way a great gain has been made, and so I feel that my work has not been altogether vain." Another movement inaugurated by Dr. Sheldon has shown more tangible results. In 1888 Dr. Sheldon read a plea before the Regents' Convocation at Albany for the establishment of a system of elementary training- 88 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. schools as the lowest grade of a system of professional State schools, of which the then eleven regular Normal Schools would be the next higher grade, and a thorough- going university school of pedagogy would complete the series. The Association of Academic Principals ap- pointed a committee, of which Dr. Sheldon was chair- man, to report on elementary training-schools. The result of this effort was, that the teachers' classes, which were in the academies under the direction of the Board of Regents, were put in the control of the Department of Public Instruction, and they are now making steady improvement with promise of greater things. The other aim of Dr. Sheldon's that of limiting the work of Normal Schools to professional work with subjects distinctively below college grade, leaving the pedagogical instruction of college students to the peda- gogical departments in the universities does not meet with favor on the part of the normal-school men of the State, since the plan would necessitate a giving up on their part of some academic features in their present courses with which they do not like to part. The uni- versities, however, favor the notion, and the present State superintendent indorses it. It is very probable that Cornell will soon organize such a department. To recount the various addresses made by Dr. Shel- don before educational bodies, State and national, and papers written for different occasions, would transcend the limits of this sketch. In another place a list of some of these which have been printed are given, to- PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 89 gether with his books on object teaching. His Manual of Elementary Instruction and Lessons on Objects were the first books in this country which were the results of practical and successful application of Pestalozzian principles, and were of great value as practical guides to those interested in applying the work of the great Swiss reformer. Shortly after their publication, Hon. Henry Barnard, then United States Commissioner of Education, wrote of them, in connection with others which followed : " In looking over the Manual of Object Teaching, Lessons on Objects, Primary Object Lessons, Oral Lessons on Social Science, Outlines of a System of Object Teaching, Child's Book of Nature, Model Lessons, etc., published within the last two years, we are more than ever satisfied that the world moves. At the recent Buffalo meeting of the National Edu- cational' Association, Dr. Sheldon, who had read an address, was recognized as the Nestor of the profession ; an opinion which was but a re-expression of that voiced by the World's Fair officials at Chicago, who made him the president of the Department of Professional Train- ing of Teachers, probably the highest honor that could come to him in his chosen field. At the close of the Fair they capped the climax by awarding his school the Medal of Honor and Diploma for its long and useful career under one principal. 1 As a man Dr. Sheldon was universally loved. Those 1 See foot-note on next page. 90 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. who sometimes opposed him in policy praised him in life. Even the warm enemies of early days now acknowledge themselves his warm admirers ; and with the open book of his long life record before them, critics of former days see the mistakes of their own interpretation, and the absolute purity of his motives. Dr. Sheldon's char- acter was a singular combination of simplicity and of strength. Innate nobleness and kindness gleamed from every feature of his fine gray head. I know of no student of his now living who did not regard him as a personal friend, and none whom he did not delight to call "children of my household." His beautiful home by the shore of Lake Ontario, now no longer graced by the presence of his devoted wife, but recently deceased, was always wide open to his students ; and the trees he loved are now fragrant with hallowed memories of his generosity. This account of Dr. Sheldon's life had scarcely been completed when the sad news flashed across the country of his death. Aug. 5 I received his last suggestions re- garding this work ; and on Aug. 28 his great soul, even The words of the award are as follows : FOR EXCELLENCE OF EQUIPMENT, METHOD, WORK, AND WIDE USEFULNESS THROUGHOUT ITS LONG HISTORY UNDER ONE PRINCIPAL. FOR EXCELLENCE OF EDUCA- TIONAL METHODS AND LITERATURE AS EVIDENCED BT THEIR USE IN THE UNITED STATES. In his report for the Bureau of Education in 1893, Dr. Eaton gave the Oswego exhibit first place among the normal schools of New York, and emphasized the work it had done in bringing the Pestalozzian prin- ciples and methods to America. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 91 according to his own dying wish, went to be with Christ, to live the larger life. He died in accord with his oft- expressed desire, with the harness on. The beginning of his thirty-seventh year as principal of the Oswego Normal and Training-School was but a few days off, and he was in the midst of preparation for it. The night before he died he discussed school affairs with a member of the Department of Education, and it is said that but forty-five minutes before his death he was conversing with a young man who called to see him about school matters. The immediate cause of death was heart disease. The end came suddenly, but did not find him unprepared. There was scarcely an hour's warning, but Dr. Sheldon recognized it at once. There were pres- ent with him then his son, Professor Charles S. Sheldon, and wife, and Dr. Sheldon's sister, Miss Dorliska E. Sheldon. Mr. Charles Sheldon, in a letter just received, has lifted the curtain of that hallowed death chamber. It discloses the great end of a great soul. Mr. Sheldon writes : " A few moments before his death, while his lungs were filling, and we all felt that the next breath might be his last, a heavenly radiance lighting his face, he whispered, ' With mother,' then, a moment later, 'with mother and Christ.' His own life had been so bound up in hers [his wife's] that when he was left alone, after she had passed away, he seemed to be leading a life of waiting. Within about five minutes after these last words, he passed peace- fully away." Dr. Sheldon is survived by five children : Mrs. Mary 92 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Sheldon Barnes, formerly of Leland Stanford Univer- sity, now in Europe ; Professor Charles Stiles Sheldon of the Oswego Normal School ; Mrs. Frances Elizabeth Ailing of Chicago; Mrs. Anna Bradford Howe, and Mrs. Laura Austin Inman, both of Indianapolis, Ind. An only sister, Miss Dorliska Elizabeth Sheldon, made her home with her illustrious brother during the last twelve years. When the news got out the morning Dr. Sheldon died, the city that had known him half a century seemed stunned. The editor of the Oswego Daily Palladium wrote : " The city of Oswego is in the midst of a profound sorrow to- day. One who was enshrined in the hearts of all its people, from the humblest to the proudest, from the highest to the lowest, is no more. No man in all this community was ever more beloved than Dr. Sheldon. No announcement could have brought a ruder shock than that which told of his sudden death this morning. In the presence of a grief that touches every heart, the editorial pen falters." The Oswego Daily Times called his " life so blameless and akin to worth and goodness that evil seemed no part of his pure and exceptional nature. All knew him, all loved him, and all will mourn his departure with a unanimity and depth of feeling that is or could be the tribute of but few. Beyond the immediate neighbor- hood of his daily rounds and toil he will be missed and mourned, as well by the thousands who in the past have come within the sphere of his personal influence, and PERSONALITIES IK THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 93 carried away with them to distant parts to every State in the Union, and to lands even beyond the seas the inspiration of that influence, whose fruit always was and will be the enlightenment and advancement of humanity.. His loss to the educational forces, not of the State alone, nor yet of the whole country, but generally throughout the world, cannot easily be repaired, a field in which few have labored longer, more assiduously, or achieved more valuable and marked results." The way in which Dr. Sheldon's character had pen- etrated every portion of the community is signally shown in an incident stated at the funeral by the Rev. Mr. Wills : - " You will pardon this, I know. A woman in the common walks of life paused the morning of the doctor's death in front of the school ; and seeing there the evidences of mourning, and hav- ing ascertained the cause, there upon the corner of the street she bowed her head and wept copiously and audibly." The funeral was a great demonstration of Dr. Shel- don's hold upon Oswego and the educational life of the State. One nearly full-paged account opened as fol- lows : " The vast throng, representing all classes and conditions of life, which filled Grace Church yesterday afternoon indicated plainer than words the esteem and love in which Dr. Edward A. Sheldon, late principal of the Oswego State Normal and Train- ing-School was held by the citizens of Oswego. Xo such out- pouring has been seen here" in years." 94 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Floral tributes came from the Department of Educa- tion, the local teachers, and his own faculty. The same account states that " a large number of the city officials, including members of the Common Council, Department of Education, Department of Works, De- partment of Charity . . . occupied seats in the church, as did two hundred school-teachers. Among the distinguished educators present were State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Charles R. Skinner of Albany ; Dr. James M. Cassidy, Principal of the Buffalo State Normal School ; Dr. T. B. Stowell, Principal of Potsdam State Normal School; Dr. Mc- Vicker, formerly Principal of Potsdam Normal, and a warm personal friend of Dr. Sheldon. Dr. Sheldon's death called forth appreciative notices from the press at large, and letters and telegrams of sympathy poured in upon the stricken sister and chil- dren from all parts of the country. Among them was this telegram from Colonel Parker of the Chicago Nor- mal : - " Regret exceedingly that I cannot be present at the last sad rites. I have loved Dr. Sheldon for many years. This divine spirit will live and grow forever in the hearts of a free people. While we shall miss him and deeply mourn his loss, let us thank God for a long and glorious life filled with righteousness. FRANCIS "W. PARKER." The Local Board of the Oswego State Normal and Training-School held a special meeting the Saturday PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 95 after Dr. Sheldon's death to pay tributes to his mem- ory. Two of its members, Hon. Theodore Irwin and Mr. Gilbert Mollison, were members of the original Board, organized by Dr. Sheldon twenty-seven years before. Addresses were made by the above-mentioned gentlemen; and suitable resolutions were drawn by a committee composed of Judge J. C. Churchill, Hon. Theodore Irwin, and Hon. A. S. Page. The addresses and resolutions were published in the Oswego papers, and expressed in eloquent words the great services Dr. Sheldon had rendered to the city, the State, and the nation. The Oswego Teachers' Association held a memorial session on Saturday, Oct. 2, at which strong addresses were made by men and women who had been associated with Dr. Sheldon in his educational labors. Professor C. W. Richards, principal of the Oswego High School, presided. The addresses made by Hon. George B. Sloan and Professor Amos W. Farnham were published in the daily papers. The tributes which have attracted the widest atten- tion were read at a memorial exercise held in Normal Hall, Oswego, Thursday evening, Oct. 21. The following addresses were delivered at that time : The Life and Character of Dr. Sheldon. PROFESSOR I. B. POUCHER. Dr. Sheldon as We Knew Him. Miss SERITA L. STEWART. 96 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Dr. Sheldon's Influence on Education in New York. HON. C. R. SKINNER, LL.D. State Supt. of Public Instruction. The Place of Dr. Sheldon in the Educational World. LEWIS H. JONES, A.M. Supt. of Schools, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Sheldon and the Church. REV. DAVID WILLS, JB. The scholarly addresses of Hon. C. R. Skinner and Superintend- ent L. H. Jones are given at length in the next chapter, as is also an extended extract from the address of Professor Poucher, the nearly life-long associate and present successor of Dr. Sheldon. SOME ASSOCIATES OF DR. SHELDON. Some reference has already been made to Professor Hermann Kriisi, who, with Miss M. E. M. Jones of Eng- land, brought the Pestalozzian torch from the Old World to the New. Hermann Kriisi was a Pestalozzian by birth, having been born in Yverdon, Switzerland, the place of Pestalozzi's famous school. His father, who was a teacher in Pestalozzi's school, subsequently established a normal school at Gais ; and in this school Hermann received his early education, supplementing it later by studies in Dresden and Berlin during the years 1835 to 1838. For a time he assisted his father at Gais; but on the death of the latter accepted a position in Dr. Mayo's School, Cheam, near London. Subsequently he became a teacher in the Home and Colonial School, London, where he arranged his famous courses in inven- tive drawing, a work which was soon introduced into PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 97 America. It was considerably elaborated at Oswego, and became for many years the most popular series of drawing-books in the country. At the invitation of Professor Wm. Russell, in 1852 he came to America to work in Professor Russell's pri- vate normal school at Lancaster, Mass. ; and it was here he wrote his valuable book on perspective. As regular lecturer before the Massachusetts State institutes he became associated with his distinguished countrymen, Agassiz and Guyot, and other prominent educators. Professor Kriisi's lectures in several States, and publi- cations on drawing, were revelations to the people at large of the real value of drawing in the schools. In 1857 he became a teacher in the Trenton (N.J.) State Normal School; from here he received his call to Oswego, and here at Oswego he remained for twenty- five years a faithful and efficient exponent of his noted fellow-countryman, Pestalozzi. His first work at Os- 1 "' wego was straight to the point. It was the adaptation of the Pestalozzian principles to the work in number, form, and drawing in the Oswego schools. Professor Kriisi applied his inventive system to the teaching of geometry and philosophy, which were taught without books, guiding himself by the reason and inven- tive skill of his students. While at Oswego Professor Kriisi published his Life of Pestalozzi, which enjoyed a wide sale, and for many years was the only life of Pestalozzi accessible to English readers. Professor Kriisi's work is thus a most important factor 98 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. in the development of Pestalozzian principles on this continent ; especially can his personality never be effaced from Oswego history. His manner of presentation was clear and logical, but withal charmingly frank, and a genial humor constantly played about the topic of the hour. After a short visit to the old home, Professor Kriisi is again in America, enjoying the rest his eminent labors have doubly earned for him. Miss Matilda S. Cooper (now Mrs. I. B. Poucher) was graduated from the Albany Normal in 1856. She was immediately employed in the Oswego schools, and on the organization of the city training-school was appointed one of the critic teachers, an appointment which illustrates one valuable characteristic of Dr Shel- don's ; namely, the power to recognize a true teacher. The fact that she remained identified with the Oswego Normal School twenty-five years illustrates another and perhaps rarer power of Dr. Sheldon's ; namely, the ability to hold on to the true teacher. So also her husband, Professor Poucher, has put, with the excep- tion of some short absences, forty-nine years of his life into the Oswego schools. Professor Kriisi, we have just seen, remained at his post twenty-five years ; and Dr. Lee, of whom we shall speak later, was re- tained until her death, eighteen years. The training Miss Cooper had received, combined with direct and conclusive habits of thought, enabled her to take vigorous hold on the new principles, and make them yield clearly formulated logical results. Of PERSONALITIES IN THE OS WE GO MOVEMENT. 99 Miss Cooper's work Professor Aber wrote a few years ago: " To the careful and unremitting drill of her method and prac- tice-school work is largely due the fact that the Oswego Normal School has turned out so large a product of successful teachers as compared with her production of mere talkers and essay writers. No one else deserves so much credit for this as Miss Cooper. The maxims, The idea before the word, The concrete before the abstract, One step at a time, Never tell the child what he can find out for himself, were constantly applied by her as the plumb-line and try-square to test all work. Her method of inculcating prin- ciples and teaching the art of questioning was philosophical." To which Dr. Sheldon adds in response to an in- quiry: - " Mr. and Mrs. Poucher have been with us from the time of the organization of the school, and perhaps know better than any other persons now living its source and development." Professor Isaac B. Poucher, Dr. Sheldon's successor, has had a long and honorable share in Oswego's growth. He was graduated from the Albany Normal in 1847, and the next year began his career in Oswego in what was known as the " red schoolhouse." The fashion in the color of schoolhouses must have changed soon after that, for his next school-teaching was done in the " yellow schoolhouse." From here Professor Poucher was promoted to the principalship of the Oswego Academy, which occupied the site of the present high school. In 1852 the 100 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. young professor decided to exchange his profession for that of medicine, and to that end resigned his principal- ship, and matriculated in the medical department of the University of New York. At the close of the first six months' course of lectures Mr. Poucher resumed his former work at the academy, purposing to return to New York in October. But fate ruled otherwise ; for agreeing temporarily to take the place of a sick teacher, upon the death of the teacher Professor Poucher was prevailed upon to continue his work, and in 1855 was installed in a new school building as associate principal with Mr. Douglass. In 1859 he was called upon to christen another new school building ; and here he was allowed to remain until Dr. Sheldon selected him, in 18G7, for principal of the Oswego Normal Practice School, and instructor in mathematics. Professor Poucher proved himself in his element in the chair of mathematics, and made his department one of the strongest in the normal school. He applied the Pesta- lozzian principles to mathematical instruction along the lines marked out by Professor Kriisi, dispensing with text-books in both algebra and geometry, work- ing out with the student independently and with rigid logic his own text-book. Students of his always speak of the convincing clearness with which he developed a line of mathematical reasoning. His syllabus of arith- metic is a good example of this. In 1885 Professor Poucher was appointed Collector of United States Customs at the port of Oswego, but on PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 101 leaving that position resumed his old work in the nor- mal school. Professor Poucher was always very popular with the normal students, and his general pedagogical as well as business ability made him equally respected in the faculty. Dr. Sheldon and the Board soon came to rely upon him in times of emergency ; and during a two years' absence of Dr. Sheldon, Professor Poucher was installed acting principal. His recent unanimous appointment by the Local Board of the Oswego Normal School as Dr. Sheldon's successor, and its immediate approval by the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion, was not entirely unexpected, and has been received with universal satisfaction by the alumni and students of the Oswego Normal School. In 1858 Professor Poucher married Miss Katharine L. Allen, by whom he had three children, W. Allen, Katharine M., and Lucy Augusta. W. Allen Poucher has been Special Deputy Collector of Customs of the District of Oswego, N.Y. Miss Katharine M. Poucher is now Mrs. E. W. McColm of Columbus, Ohio. Miss Lucy Augusta Poucher is now Mrs. Albert E. Nettleton of Syracuse, N.Y. Professor Poucher's wife died in December, 1881. In 1890 Professor Poucher married Miss M. S. Cooper, and thus very fittingly brought together two lives that had long been engaged in a common work for the institution of which he has just now become the honored head. Dr. Mary V. Lee was one of the most original, posi- 102 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. tive, and at the same time charming personalities connected with the Oswego Movement. She was graduated in 1860 from the New Britain (Conn.) Nor- mal School, and in the spring of 1862 was selected by State Superintendent Camp to go to Oswego to learn the Pestalozzian methods. In the fall of the same year, in company with Mrs. Mary E. McGonegal, she opened the Davenport (Iowa) Training-School for teachers, under the direction of Superintendent Kissel. "In the spring of 1865 she became Professor W. F. Phelps's first assistant in the normal school of Winona, Minn. While in Minnesota she often attended institutes and Sunday-school conventions, where she gave lessons. These lessons led to a memorable summer spent with the great preacher D. L. Moody, who brought her to Illinois that she might give before bodies of Sunday- school teachers lessons taught in accord with Pesta- lozzian principles." At Winona Dr. Lee wrote a gram- mar based upon Pestalozzian methods, published as Lee and Hadley's G-rammar. In 1874 she was gradu- ated from the Medical Department of Michigan Univer- sity, and immediately became the teacher of physiology at her alma mater, the Oswego Normal School, "prac- tising medicine as school duties would permit." In 1880 she went abroad with Miss Mary D. Sheldon, spending two years in visiting in Great Britain and on the Continent. The last year she was an "out student" at Cambridge University, devoting her time to physi- ology and biology. Upon her return to America she DR. MARY V. LEE. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 103 resumed the teaching of Physiology, and worked out rational methods of teaching zoology, botany, the human body, and reading. About this time Dr. Lee became convinced of the merits of the Delsarte system of physi- cal culture, and successfully introduced it at Oswego. She died at her post in the summer of 1892, having been a teacher at Oswego eighteen years. Such in bare outline is the record of a life remarkable alike for its strong convictions and its openness to truth. Her thought and its expression were strikingly direct and original, and her audiences were never bored by dull speaking. This characteristic brought her in fre- quent demand as a public speaker upon educational and other topics which won her sympathies ; for Dr. Lee was many sided in her interests, leaning especially to those which she believed made for righteousness in individual and national character. She gave up a lucrative prac- tice in medicine, and rejected many tempting offers, it is said, that she might annually have the opportunity of impressing those who were to be the instructors of youth with the importance of maintaining pure bodies, free from the tyranny of fashion, of drink, and of narcotics. Dr. Lee possessed the kindest of hearts, and was prodi- gal of time and affection to those in need, as hun- dreds of Oswego students would gladly testify. Her memory is most fittingly kept green at Oswego by the Dr. Lee Memorial Fund, which provides aid to worthy students and occasional lectures to the whole student body. 104 THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL. Professor H. H. Straight deserves a place in Oswego history for his philosophical work with the natural sciences, accomplished first at Oswego, and later at the Cook County Normal. He left Oberlin a young theo- logical student somewhat experienced in teaching, to be- come the principal of the State Normal School at Peru, Neb. Reversing the course proclaimed by the poet, instead of nature's leading him to nature's God, his study of God had led him to nature ; and at Peru he resigned the principalship that he might devote himself to the problem of working out rational methods for teaching science in the chair of natural science and psychology in that institution. Shortly after this Pro- fessor Straight went to school to Agassiz, who straight- way became his controlling inspiration. In 1875 he accompanied Professor N. S. Shaler of Harvard, and the State geologist of North Carolina, in several geological expeditions. The following two years were spent in special study at Cornell and Harvard. In 1878 he accepted the chair of natural sciences in the Oswego Normal School. Here he planned the excellent sys- tem of laboratories with which the Oswego Normal is equipped, and here he proved conclusively the practica- bility of experimental work in large classes. At Oswego Professor Straight's pedagogical insight gave him the entire charge of the practice school, and later he taught classes in history and philosophy of education. This range of work enabled him to see beyond the boun- daries of the natural sciences, and to perceive clearly, PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 105 what the schools are but beginning to recognize through Herbart's pedagogy, that nature is a unity, and all sub- jects of study have vital relations with one another. His work at Oswego in this line was several years in advance of the Herbartian wave in this country. Pro- fessor Straight, was a popular lecturer, and frequently gave courses of lectures at Martha's Vineyard ; Froebel Academy, Brooklyn ; Summer School of Science, Salem, Mass. ; and other places. His work in the Cook County Normal may be judged by the opinion of Colonel Parker, who said that the most perfect primary teaching he has ever seen was done under the direction of Professor Straight. Profes- sor Straight's legacy must be the direct inspirations he gave to his pupils at the various centres where his influ- ence was felt. But a small portion of his actual work found its way into print. He did not care for fame or money. He died Nov. 17, 1886. His wife, Mrs. Emma Dickerman Straight, shared her husband's pedagogical zeal and skill, having taught with marked success in the Nebraska State Normal School, the Oswego Normal, the Cook County Normal, and in the schools of Tokio, Japan. She died in 1890. There are many others whose work in the perfecting and spread of the Oswego methods deserves fuller treat- ment, but of whom only brief mention can be made here. The general method and spirit of Miss Cooper's work in the method and practice department at Oswego was admirably retained in the superior work of Miss S. J. 106 THE OSWEGO NOKMAL SCHOOL. Walter, who was connected with the Oswego practice schools for nearly twenty-five years, and from 1881 to 1894 was the efficient principal of the consolidated practice schools. She is at present occupying a similar position in the State Normal School at Willimantic, Conn., and has recently published her latest thought upon arithmetic teaching, a line of work which she de- veloped with great clearness and force in the Oswego practice schools. In recent years Miss Margaret K. Smith of the class of '83 has done some important work in the later devel- opments of the psychological side of Pestalozzi's work, especially through Herbart. Upon her graduation Miss Smith taught a while at Atlanta University. The book published from the results of her work here has already been mentioned. 1 Later Miss Smith was called to take the chair of school of economy and methods in the State Normal at Peru, Neb. In 1885 she went to Germany to study systems of pedagogy. Two years later she became teacher of psychology at the Oswego institution. In 1892, at the solicitation of Dr. William Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, Miss Smith translated Herbart's Psychology into English for the International Educational Series, of which Dr. Harris is the editor. It was the first English translation of that important work, and contributed its share to the present interest in Herbart in this country. Miss Smith has also translated a work on industrial education for 1 De Graff and Smith's Development Lvssouts. PROFESSOR EARL BARNES. PERSONALITIES IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 107 the D. C. Heath Publishing Company ; and she was also one of the translators of Lang's Apperception, published by the same fin a. Miss Smith has done her share of writing for the nagazines, and contributes book reviews to the School Review published at Chicago University. At present she i.-? at work in psychology and history in the University o: ? Gottingen, Germany. Mention has al-eady been made in these pages of the work of Earl Bames, '84, and Mary Sheldon Barnes, '69. The following account of Professor Earl Barnes is taken from an educational journal: " Earl Barnes, professor of education in the Leland Stanford Jr. University, was bom near Oswego, N.Y., in 1861. He was educated in the common country and village schools, and gradu- ated from the advanced course in the Oswego Normal School as president of his class in 1884. Meantime he had had two years' experience in teaching country and village schools. After gradu- ating from Oswego he taught J!or two years in a German academy at Hoboken, N.J., and then entered Cornell University as a special student in American history. While a student in Cornell Uni- versity he went abroad with h/s wife, Mary Sheldon Barnes, author of Sheldon's series of histories, and spent a year gather- ing historical materials for President Andrew D. "White, and study- ing in the University of Zurich. After his return to Cornell, and while still an undergraduate, he was tendered the professorship of European history in Indiana State Un iversity. While teach- ing in Indiana he took his A. B. degree wiith the class of 1890. The year after he was given leave of absence, and spent the year in Cornell University doing postgraduate work, taking his A. M. degree at the end of the year. 108 THE OSWEGO NOKMAL SCHOOL. " When the Leland Stanford Jr. University was established in California, Mr. Barnes was one of the original .fifteen men selected by Dr. Jordan to begin the work in that insti; utJou ; and the de- partment of education which he has built up .here is now one of the most nourishing in the United States. During the last three years Mr. Barnes has become generally known through his stud- ies on children, though his strongest work is along the lines of the history of civilization." / Shortly after her graduation, Miss Sheldon entered Michigan University, taking largely scientiiic studies. She graduated here in 1874. And now, to use Miss Sheldon's original words, she was " greatly disappointed at being invited to return to Oswejgo to teach Latin, Greek, botany, and history, instead of a range of sciences ; revenges herself by applying scientific meth- ods to history ; becomes interested in her revenge, and projects a book, ' O ,that mine enemy would write a book ! ' determines to devote herself to completing this idea." In 1876 she accepted- the chair of history at Wellesley College, and in 1880 entered Cambridge University, England, to sti\dy modern history under Professor J. II, Seeley. In 1882 Miss Sheldon became the teacher of history and literature at Oswego, where she finally worked out and published Studies in G-eneral History (D. C. Heath., "Boston), which, notwithstanding its radical departure's from conventional school histories, and the difficult miture of the work it demands of stu- dents as opposed to the time-honored memory work, still enjoys an increasing popularity, and was the pio- MRS. MARY SHKLDON BARNES. PEKSONALITU 2S IN THE OSWEGO MOVEMENT. 109 neer in a growin.g movement which is already influen- cing both the w'riting and teaching of history in this country. Since her marriage to Mr. Earl Barnes in 1884, Mrs. Barries has studied at Cornell University, and spent a year ^abroad in collecting material for Pres- ident White. In 181*1 she published Studies in Ameri- can History along' lines similar to those followed in her earlier text-book.' She is now assistant professor of history at Leland Stanford, where her husband is pro- fessor of education. 1 Miss Mary R. Ailing, class of '69 (now Mrs. Mary R. Alling-Aber), has bad a varied and useful pedagogical career, principally in normal schools. In 1870 she was principal of the practice department of the city Normal and Training-School, Cincinnati, Ohio. For three years subsequently she taught in the Oswego Normal. In 1875 she spent a year on the faculty of the Cook County Normal School* under Professor Par- ker. In 1880 she taught in the State Normal School at Providence, R.I. ; and the next three years were spent as principal of the primary department of Miss Shaw's school, Boston. It was m connection with this school that Miss Ailing conducted an experiment in education which attracted considerable attention. An account of it can be found in the preface to her book, The Chil- dren's Own Work, and o 1 if i ll j^^ 1< a i oo sj -"S S S 113 0^3"*) i!/l 1! ? ! S! PI! 1! Q i| X 9 ]l 13^ "^ ^1* ^^^ M ^ tl3 fl ** s 1 M HS^s. 'N* W W M 02 2o^ ^-2 So 60 ^ 1 -2>^ ^ ^ *O>* Oo"gW gc ||||||||| ll^lllll^ || ^Illliiliiliiliilill^il j-gJifSo o M H t> BQ SO ^ H 3 3 : = : : 156 APPENDIX B. | i ; I 1 1 S ' 00 I i # 6 o 6 M 3 *" 4 43 (^ a F* g * * ^ m ffi *** 3 S { s -,- fl fl - S g o S O 2 s | o S B B ' B "a 1C 6 'Si 5 d d d 5 K O e. g ^ S 03 Q Q P of . 1 1 1 S r-3 . .j m w AUTHOR. Sheldon Sheldon "S 'w : 2 : 2 :3 S| : 2oB 9 1 /. B ai s a Sheldon- Sheldon- Sheldon- Sheldon- Barnes, E? ? T; c8 H o5 c8 c3 S W W BB B B % ^ a S S ~ w . , S> 00 (3 , pa , 2 O >2 s * | 13 o! 1 j= o 5 s S B rn S q g c 3 H D o i c il ^e 1 | OS j3 1 WORK. The School of Practice as a Publi Address before the New England Ass< falo. nnwai Reports to Board of Edu< wego Schools, from 1853 to 1869 hilosophy and History of Educati ourse in Inventive Drawing, and . estalozzi : His Life and Work. ritsi's Free Hand and Industr, Course. ext-books on Geography. Oral Instruction : It's Philosophy J Address before the New England As dianapolis. he Oswego Normal School. Article in The Forum, tudies in General History, with Te ual. '.udies in American History, wil Manual. The Teaching of Local History." Article In The Edinburgh Review, 189! '.udies in Historical Method. Children's Theology." Address at Educational Congress, Wo : "1 ft, ft, iq &s s H OQ OQ : OQ C APPENDIX B. 157 rH . rH " rH i rH rH rH 00 rH o So rH O 1 t Oi OO OO d a 8 & . . . . . . . . . 1 -2" . . . e. 6 6 , . . . . . s "S . U O a - tS ' <% * 02 t> o 5 1 e / ie Stickney, ie Stickney, B a o 1 *j ^3 rC ^3 bJD bo be 2~* '3 "3 +3 *" *" O2 02 02 1 aret Morley, aret Morley, ^ ^ A 'S ! ? te 81.- " Studies in Education." Magazine. Series of Language Books. Language Books. Reading Books. Manuals for Bartholomew's Prim " Politics in the Schools." Atlantic Monthly, 1897. Text-book in Arithmetic. Lee and Hadley's Grammar. Syllabi in Physiology and Zodlogi PAMPHLETS : TF^a< W r e IFani, and //ow o Ge Industrial Education. Guides to Laboratory Teaching. Syllabus of Work in Arithmetic Song' o/ JU/e. Seed Babies. "An Experiment in Moral Traini Popular Science Monthly, May, 1891, "The Teaching of Number," In The Illinois Teacher. Revisions in Manuals of the K\ Course. Translation of Herbart's Psycholo 1 Report of Special Commit* 2 With Professor Sboeinak< 158 APPENDIX B. 1 CO s %% . . 3 fe ** Q 1 2 l-H i-l 1 1 00 00 8 6 6 O O . M' =y ^ - g ES 6 j ^ ^ 5 6 3 3 o ts "S ^ > A .2" B * M '5 4> O K .-. K W . s i ' ' * " S"o fe d Q ^ S N -O o! S 1 ^ S ft ft c5 W O s 0} J -g .s S S 02 (4^ a P= ^ a Griffin, 1 0! d a K c5 rt '3 rt 1 05 > O f '5 HJ ac 4> P J3 "* O 5| *' ~ 8 S^ <5 M I s O O ^ 1 2 i-i ?> k 3 ^ e _, 2 ^ ^j a jS s a.'g g ~0 C *^ 2 ^ o 9 ~ o -| ? > 1 ^ . (S PS "E s* ^ 6 *> ci S S g> WOBK. Development Lessons. Translation of Seidel's Industn Portions of Lange's Appercepti The Oswego Method of Teachin " The Oswego Normal School Work among Freedmen." Paper in Historical Sketches. Topical Geography. Teacher's Guide to the Word-( card Method. Common Sense Method of Teac Reading. Primary Department in Sundi (Editor). Iowa School Journal. Text-book in Arithmetic. Article on " Child Study." TVie Forum, May, 1894. ^ln Experiment in Education. Syllabus of Arithmetic. "2 o> APPENDIX C. 159 APPENDIX C. Bibliography of Chief Sources. -'ANNUAL REPORTS OF UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS OF EDUCATION. c BARNARD'S AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. For particular references see foot-notes to chapters. * RISE AND GROWTH OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL IDEA. By Prof. J. P. GORDY, Bureau of Education, Circular No. 8, 1891. BOONE'S EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. (Chapter on " Preparation of Teachers," p. 137.) Appleton (New York), 1889. V ANNUAL REPORTS OF SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION, Massachusetts. ^THE EVOLUTION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. G. H. MARTIN. Appleton (New York). ^JTHE NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA. Paper by A. D. MAYO in " Historical Sketches of the Oswego State Normal and Training School," 1887. HISTORY OF OBJECT TEACHING. Paper by N. A. CALKINS, published in Barnard 's American Journal Of Education, vol. xii., p. 633. THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. / Article by Prof. WILLIAM M. ABER in Popular Science Monthly, May, 1893. ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF OSWEGO, N. Y., FROM 1854 TO 1868. ANNUAL CIRCULARS OF THE OSWEGO NORMAL SCHOOL, AND REPORTS OF ALUMNI MEETINGS. HISTORY OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL. Paper by HERMANN KRUSI jn "Historical Sketches of the Oswego State Normal and Training School." 160 APPENDIX C. EDITORIAL in Education for November, 1896. ANNUAL PROCEEDINGS OF NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. .REPORT ON OBJECT TEACHING. Made by Prof. S. S. GREENE before the New England Association at Harrisburg, Pa., 1865. YEAR-BOOK OF EDUCATION, 1878. KIDDLE-SCHEM. E. Steiger (New York). HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN WISCONSIN. Dr. J. W. STEARNS. 1893. ADVERTISEMENTS EDUCATION. 133 An Introduction to Herbart's Science and Practice of Education. Translated from the German of HERBART by MR. and MRS. FELKIN. With an introduction by OSCAR BROWNING. Cloth. 207 pages. Retail price, $1.00. NOT a few have become discouraged in their efforts to understand Herbart's teaching by reason of the somewhat difficult form in which it has been presented. Felkin's Introduction affords the proper method of approach, and clears the way for a correct appreciation of the nature and importance of the great doctrines of Herbart. The book is not " elementary," except in the sense that signifies dealing with elemental facts. Its scope includes chapters on Psychology, Ethics, Practical Pedagogy, Character, Government, and Discipline. The materials have been gathered largely from Herbart's Umriss Padagogischer Vorlesungen and his Umriss der Allgemeinen Pdda- " The object of the book is to answer a question which many stu- dents of education are now asking : Who is Herbart ? and what did he and his followers teach? It answers this question better than any other account of the Herbartian method hitherto published in Eng- lish." From Mr. Brownings Introduction. Child Observations. By the STUDENTS OF THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, Worcester, Mass. FIRST SERIES: Imitation and Allied Activities. With an Introduction by Principal E. H. Russell. Cloth. 300 pages. Retail price, $1 .50. THIS is believed to be by far the largest collection of facts of child- life ever given to the public. It exhibits, by more than twelve hundred instances carefully observed and succinctly recorded, the operation of the faculty or instinct of imitation in children, covering the period between the first and fifteenth years of life. The records are arranged progressively in groups according to the ages of the chil- dren observed, and show in an interesting way, by concrete examples, the growth and development of this fundamental activity of childhood from year to year. Psychologists, teachers, parents, and all students and lovers of chil- dren, will find here a rich store of material for their study and enter- tainment. 124 EDUCATION. Compayre's History of Pedagogy. Translated and Edited by W. H. PAYNE, Chancellor of the University of Nash- ville and President of the Peabody Normal College; with Introduction, Notes, References, and an Index. Cloth. 618 pages. Retail price, $1.75. Special price for class use. IN one volume of moderate size the reader will find an interesting^ instructive, and comprehensive account of all the greater move- ments in the history of human thought as it bears on education. The great need of the teacher is breadth of view, and an adequate survey of the whole field of educational activity, and these wholesome and necessary endowments can come only from a study of the history of education. For this high purpose it is safe to say that there is no other book in any language which has the excellences of Compayre''s History of Pedagogy. W. T. Harris, U. S. Com'r of Edu- cation, Washington ; It is indispensable among histories of education. G. Stanley Hall, Pres. of Clark Univ., Worcester, Mass. : It is the best and most comprehensive universal history of education in English. The translator has added valuable notes. Irwin Shepard, Pres. of State Nor- mal School, Winona,Minn.: We adopted immediately upon its publication, and are now using it with great satisfaction in a class of sixty members. Through the aid of this book, the subject has assumed a new interest and importance to all our teachers and students. Gabriel Campayre, Chambres des Deputes, Paris: Votre traduction me carait excellente et je vous remercie des soins que vous y avez mis. J'ai grand olaisir a me relire dans votre langue, d'autant que vous n'avez rien ndgiige pour 1'impression mateiielle. J. W. Stearns, Prof, of the Science and Art of Teaching, Univ. of Wis. : It will, I believe, serve to increase interest in the history of educational thought and ex- perience, an end greatly to be desired. M. A. Newell, late Supt. of Educa- tion, Baltimore, Md.: It is a very valuable addition to our pedagogic literature ; it is as brief as the breadth of the subject would allow, and is comprehensive and philo- sophical. The notes and index added by Professor Payne very much increase the value of the work. E. H. Russell, Prin. of State Normal School, Worcester, Mass.: I say unhesi- tatingly that it is a very valuable edition to the list of first-rat^ books for teachers I have put it into the hands of our senior class, and have recommended it to our graduates. N. M. Butler, Professor of Philoso- phy, Columbia Coll.,N. Y.: It should be in the hands of every teacher, every normal- school student, and on the list of every " reading circle." I predict for the book the greatest success, for it deserves it. E. E. Higbee, late Stale Supt.of Pub- lic Instruction, Harrisburg, Pen*. : I hope it may be introduced into all the nor- mal schools of this State, and give a dig- nified impetus to studies of such character so much needed and so valuable. EDUCATION. 125 Comfayre's Lectures on Pedagogy. Translated and Edited by W. H. PAYNE, Chancellor of the University of Nash, ville and President of the Peabody Normal College. Cloth. 500 pages. Retail price, #1.75. Special price for class use. THIS is a companion volume to the author's HISTORY OF PEDA- GOGY and is characterized by the qualities that are so conspic- uous in the earlier volume ; it is comprehensive, clear, accurate, and is written with rare critical insight. To have an original and superior mind elaborate a systematic theory of education out of the best his- toric material accessible, and present as its complement a revised series of methods, would be thought an invaluable service to the teaching profession, but this is precisely what M. Compayre has done in this charming volume. It is the most original and satisfac- tory manual for teachers that has ever appeared in English. Jas. MacAlister, Pres. of Drexel Fnst., Philadelphia, Pa. : I have known the book ever since it appeared, and re- gard it as the best work in existence on the Theory and Practice of Education. Thomas J. Morgan, recently Prin. State Normal School, Providence, R. I. : It seems to me the best book on the sub- ject which has yet been published in America. H. B. Twitmeyer, Coll. of Northern III., Dakota, III. : It is the best r6sum6 I have ever seen on the study and practice of teaching. Richard Edwards. Ex-Suft. Public Instruction, Springfield, III. : I value the book very highly indeed, and think it will have great effect in uplifting the profes- sion of teachers in this country. W. W. Parsons, Pres. Ind. State Normal School; I pronounce it an excel- lent popular treatise on the Science of Education. I consider it a valuable addi- tion to our professional literature. Christian Union : Especially in- genious is the chapter upon the education of the attention ; that, too, upon the cul- ture of the memory is of great practical value. We should like to put this work into the hands of every instructor, whether parent or teacher. Psychology Applied to Education. By GABRIEL COMPAYRE. Translated by WM. H. PAYNE, Chancellor of the University of Nashville. Cloth. 225 pages. Retail price, 90 cents. IN the statement of doctrine and application, this manual is profound without being obscure, and simple without being commonplace. There are thousands of teachers who have neither the taste nor the leisure to master the details of educational science, nor even to read the pro founder treatises, but who are anxious to find a rational basis for their art ; for such there is no book that can be commended so highly. I 4 o EDUCATION. The Early Training of Children. BY MRS. FRANK MALLESON, England. Cloth. 127 pages. Retail price, 75 cents. AN invaluable guide to mothers, to kindergartners and to primary teachers. The topics treated are : Infant Life ; Nursery Management; The Employment and Occupation of Children; Train- ing in Reverence, in Truth, in Obedience, and in the other Cardinal Virtues; and finally, the best system of Rewards and Punishments, And every suggestion is practical. Every line tells. No question is treated without a full recognition of the difficulties involved, and no measure recommended which has not stood the test of actual trial, and is not based on sound educational principles. No one can read the book without sharing the author's earnestness and faith. With these " Notes" and Miss Peabody's Lectures to Kindergart- tttrs, the most inexperienced mother or teacher may be " doubly armed." Comenius' s The School of Infancy. An essay on the education of youth during the first six. years. Edited, with an introduction, notes, and a bibliography of the Comenian literature, by WILL S. MONROE. Cloth. 116 pages. Portrait. Retail price, 1.00. THE celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Comenius has given great impetus to his fame. A man who could decline the presidency of Harvard College, who was invited by Parliament to visit England and remodel her schools, and whose advice was sought by several Continental powers, is entitled to a hear- ing even in these days. Thus far his " School of Infancy," which is in some respects his greatest book, and is at least the most practical and modern in spirit, has been but little known. In it he advocates sense- training, anticipates modern child-study and the kindergarten, cham- pions nature-study and naturalness in method, provides for systematic physical training, and declares that education is a universal right, that knowledge should be fitted to action, and that the school should pre- pare for life. The genial Quick says of it : " ' The School of Infancy ' has not had anything like the circulation it deserves." The book contains a portrait of Comenius, an introduction, notes, and full bibliog- raphy of the Comenian literature ; and at the end of each chapter cross-references to the standard literature of primary education. EDUCATION. 139 The Studenfs Froebel. By WILLIAM H. HERFORD, late member of the Universities of Bonn, Berlin, and Zurich. Cloth. 128 pages. Retail price, 75 cents. '"THE purpose of this little book, as stated by the editor in his preface, 1 is to give young people, who are seriously preparing themselves to become teachers, a brief yet full account of Froebel's Theory of Education ; his practice or plans of method is reserved for a second part. This book is adapted from Froebel's Education of Humanity (Die Erziehung der Menschheit}, published in 1826. The editor has tried to give what is Froebel's own in English as close as possible to the very words of his author. The book, in addition to an Introduc- tion treating of the subject in general, has chapters on The Nursling, The Child, The Boy, and The School, and summaries of the teachings. The Psychology of Childhood. By FREDERICK TRACY, Lecturer in Philosophy in the University of Toronto, with Introduction by President G. STANLEY HALL of Clark University. Cloth. 183 pages. Retail price, 90 cents. THE author has in this work undertaken to present as concisely, yet as completely, as possible, the results of the systematic study of children, and has included everything of importance that can be found. Some of its special features are thus summarized : (i) It is the first general treatise, covering the whole field of child psychology. (2) It aims to contain a complete summary, up to date, of all work done in this field. (3) The work contains a large amount of material, the re- sults of the author's own observations on children as well as those of perhaps a score of very reliable observers. (4) The subject of child- language has been gone into with especial thoroughness, from an en- tirely new and original standpoint, and with very gratifying results. (5) A very exhaustive bibliography, containing, it is believed, every- thing of value that has ever been written on this subject, is appended. J. Clark Murray, Prof, of Philo- sophy, McGill University, Montreal, Ca- nada: In English we have certainly no original work on the psychology of child hood to compare with it, and even among translations from German and French there is none which shows such a mastery of the whole subject. Earl Barnes, Department of Edu- cation, Leland Stanford Jr. University, Cal. : No book has come from the press during the past year which I have been so glad to see as this one. For All of us who are carrying on courses in the psychol- ogy of children it will prove an invaluable aid. ELEMENTARY SCIENCE. Bailey's Grammar SChOOl PhysiCS. A series of inductive lewom in the elements of the science. 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HEATH & CO., Publishers, Boston, New York, Chicago UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. QUARTER LOA JAM 1 1977 I QUARTER LOAN ECEIVED 4AR9 '82. APR 1PM SYCH LIB. APR I 3 LlfeRARY | -* JAN 12 1981 RECEIVED JAN 1 2 '8 1-10 AM tD/PSYCH LIB. Form L9 10m-7,'73(R1966s8) 3,59 977 UCLA-ED/PSYCH Library LB 1921 08H7 L 005 605 950 4 A 001 1 003 763 SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA., LIBRARY, UDS ANGELES, CALIF.