CHAPTER XXVI. NORMAL TRAINING SEMINARY. WHAT is a Normal Seminary? What is the Normal System? are questions frequently asked. In regard to the latter we answer, there is no such general designation as NORMAL SYSTEM, as every institution of this nature may have a particular system of its own. NORMAL is derived from norma, a rule. The norma of our Institution, therefore, is "The Training System,' for the extension and promotion of which it was originally established. The term Normal, although signifying conducted on a rule, has been generally applied to institutions for the training of schoolmasters. We have only to ascertain the standard or rule of any Normal school or seminary, therefore, in order to know the principles and system on which persons may be trained in it. In this institution, it is for the training of the habits of the child as a moral, intellectual, and physical being; and the institution, as a whole, was the first model in the United Kingdom, of a Normal Seminary for training school masters. Normal Seminaries have long existed in Prussia, under legislative influence and endowments. The institution in Glasgow was founded in ignorance of the Prussian plans, or the particular mode of communication, if any, which they present, and was founded with a view to establish a natural system of intellectual communication and moral training, based on the only unalterable standard of morals, more particularly suited for large towns, and to extend the system by training persons to practise it. A normal seminary may give its students instruction in the various elementary branches, or it may confine its attention exclusively to the mode or system of communication, or it may do both of these; or it may add, as in our case, moral training; including the cultivation, not merely of the intellectual, but of the whole powers of the child. In the institution here, instruction is given to the students, but the chief and primary object is, the mode of communication and moral training. A model school and a normal seminary differ in this respect, that the former is a mere exhibition of a particular system, whereas the latter is a training to the practice of it. I may see a system in operation in a model school, just as I might see a lady hem a frill; but the witnessing of this will not enable me to follow her example, until cloth and needle are placed in my hands, and I actually learn to do it practically. But although a model school is not a normal school, yet every normal seminary must possess one or more model schools. I must see the system in operation. I must have it explained to me by suitable trainers. I must endeavour to put it in practice under experienced superintendents; and I must have the model to which to aspire, and children at the same time to work upon; the lack of any of which means must leave me imperfectly trained. In this, as in every other art, the theory may be understood, and the practice not at all. A man may know what he should teach, and yet may be very incapable, from want of practice, to communicate his knowledge to others, especially to the young, or to form in those under his care, those habits of the importance of which he may be fully convinced. In Chapter II. we have stated the distinctive features of a normal seminary and a normal college; the former as being an institution for training persons to conduct schools according to a particular system of communication; and the latter for giving instruction in different branches of knowledge,. before entering the normal or practical department of the institution.* These two departments are perfectly distinct, and yet may be united in one establishment. The college department would not be necessary in a normal school, but from the fact that many persons desirous of becoming schoolmasters, from a previously too limited or imperfect education, and being ignorant, to a great extent, of certain branches that ought to be taught in elementary schools, must, without such a department, give up the idea of following that profession. Till very lately, the attention of the students in our seminary was confined to the practical or normal department, and imperfectly educated persons were not enrolled as normal students, until they had received instruction under tutors in private preparatory classes. Now, however, since Government has offered an annual premium to students whose amount of elementary knowledge entitles them to a certificate, after passing the inspector's examination, fully one-half of the time and attention during the present twelvemonths' course, is taken up with direct instructions, instead of training, to the great injury of the practical or normal department, and, of course, the efficiency of the particular system, for the promotion of which the seminary was originally established. * Although there were no college department, or direct and separate instruction for the normal students, it must be borne in mind, that in practising the system with the children of the model schools, not only does the student necessarily add very considerably to the amount of his already acquired knowledge, but he relays all his former stock in his own mind, in a clearer and more systematic manner. The more extensive his attainments may be, the better of course at all times; but it would be no small benefit to society, were every schoolmaster enabled, as he may be, by a course of twelve months' training in a Normal Seminary, to bring up every pupil even to his own standard, whatever that may be, which, without a proper system of communication, even the most highly educated masters do not and cannot accomplish. A THREE YEARS' COURSE FOR STUDENTS. If the arrangement of uniting instruction and training be continued in the same institution-and for many years we fear it must be so, seeing the slow progress that improvements are making throughout the country in English elementary and grammar schools-then THREE YEARS at the least ought to be the minimum course, viz., two years in the preparatory college classes, and one year exclusively confined to the practical or normal department. Want of funds from private sources, or from the public purse, prevents this arrangement being gone into, except to a very limited extent, at the present moment; but we must keep our eyes open to the fact, that until such an extended course be adopted, we shall have an imperfectly taught and trained staff of teachers and trainers for the youth of our country. At present five-sixths of all the normal or training schools and colleges which have been established during the last twelve or fifteen years, do little more than teach the students different branches of education, and completely throw into the shade, except by an occasional lecture, their practical preparation for the important work of communication and moral training, which was the original object of normal institutions in this country, and without which all the theoretical knowledge that the students may acquire, will not enable them to communicate it, in a natural and efficient manner, to the pupils who may be eventually placed under their charge. There is another reason why the college and normal departments should follow each other, and not be combined in one twelvemonths' course. Most of the normal institutions that pursue the training system, endeavour to cram instruction and practical training within this limited period. This is highly inexpedient and ruinous to both departments. One or other of the objects at least must be injured, and which of the two is the more likely to suffer is by no means difficult to foresee. Young men, generally, are vastly more fond of acquiring knowledge, particularly of the classics and mathematics, than they are of being expert in the practical and less popular work of intellectual and moral training. They prefer being taught those branches partly as personal accomplishments, and partly because through their medium they hope more readily to secure a high government certificate, entitling them to a certain annual sum for life as schoolmasters, should they pass the examination of Her Majesty's inspector. We find, therefore, that students generally during this combined course of twelve months, while they are all alive in passing to these classes for instruction, under the tutors, are comparatively dull and inactive when called upon to engage in what appears against their inclination, viz., practising the natural system of communication and moral training in the covered and uncovered school-rooms, under the different master-trainers, and the rector. These are the feelings of the students generally, during the first ten or eleven months of the prescribed course of twelve months, but whenever, in our institution at least, they begin practically to feel their own increased power in conducting a training lesson, which the system naturally affords, then, when it is nearly too late, they set about with energy what ought to have called forth their most ardent attention from the first day they entered the institution, and then confess that they are only beginning to see its beauty and power. We would, therefore, take the liberty of recommending that, until schools generally be vastly improved in the quality of education, the college uniformly precede the practical department of our normal institutions, and that the two courses embrace a period of at least three years, and that a public grant be provided, whereby students of respectability and worth, whose private pecuniary means are generally very limited, may be assisted, during the two years' preparatory course, and the twelve or more months of their undivided |