Chapter III.

PURPOSE, NUMBER, AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SERVICES OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS.

Normal schools exist for the State, not for the students.-To a student of American normal schools the first broad questions which arise concern the purposes of these schools, the number of schools maintained in each State, and the geographical distribution of the services of the schools within a State. These three items are intimately related. An excellent expression of the relationship is contained in the following quotation from the report of State Supt. Morrison, of New Hampshire, for 1911-12, page 151. After discussing the possible location for new normal schools in the State, he says:

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It will perhaps be recognized that the foregoing discussion is all based upon the theory that normal schools exist for the State and not the reverse. They are not established primarily to afford opportunities to young women who aspire to teach, but rather for the purpose of furnishing trained teachers for the common schools. Their establishment becomes purely a matter of finding ways in which they can serve this purpose to the best and most economical effect. No community has any claim upon the State for the location of a new school within its limits. Every school should be so located as to provide the best prospect of enabling a section of the State to educate and train its own teachers. Almost the same statement occurs in the report of Commissioner Snedden, of Massachusetts, who says (1912-13, p. 74):

The normal schools do not exist for the sake of the young people whom they educate; they were organized for the purpose of training teachers for the public schools. Their further development must be controlled by considerations as to what will prove the most effective and most economic means of training an adequate supply of teachers for the Commonwealth as a whole.

This standard applies in settling all normal-school issues.-It might seem to some readers unnecessary to reiterate the point of view expressed in these two quotations, but, as a matter of fact, in almost every State it is necessary to keep constantly in mind this idea of securing the most effective and economic means of training teachers for the whole State, in order to combat local influences and ambitions and to avoid the waste of State funds.

Determining the location for new normal schools; four factors.There are many instances of normal schools which have been un

fortunately located, owing to lack of foresight or to the temporary strength of local political influences, and these unfortunate locations are not infrequently referred to and discussed by State authorities who take an objective view of the needs of the whole State. Among the most important considerations in locating most normal schools are the following: (1) Each one should be so located as to serve a welldefined area of population. (2) It should be centrally located in the area, which usually should have a radius of about 50 miles from the normal school as a center. (3) It should be located in the most convenient railroad center in this area. (4) It should be located in a town large enough to provide more than adequate practice-teaching facilities for any number of teachers that the area might need at any time in the future.

Balancing of these factors usually needed.-Needless to say, not all these conditions could be completely satisfied in locating every normal school. Number 2 must often be violated when there is a large metropolitan area located on the edge of a State. In, such a case, however, the location of the school on the edge of the area is usually compensated for by the fact that the city is an excellent railroad

center.

Unfortunate location of normal schools in small towns.-All these conditions have been violated in the establishment of some normal schools. In fact, it is not uncommon in normal-school catalogues to find idealized descriptions of the location of the school in question in a small town far from the distractions and temptations of city life. While this monastic seclusion may have some obvious advantages, the disadvantages of such a location for a school that is to serve a large area of the State most economically and effectively are of much greater importance. Sometimes a State normal school which is supposed to serve a large, well-populated area is located in a town of only 2,000 to 5,000 population on a single railroad, when only a few miles away is a city of over 20,000 located on several railroads.

Critical study of normal-school zones of New Hampshire.—An excellent discussion of the above conditions as they determine the location of new normal schools in a single State-New Hampshireis found in Supt. Morrison's report for 1911-12, pages 141-151. The accompanying map shows the two zones from which the two existing normal schools draw most of their students.

Poor location of the Plymouth school.-The long irregular zone running up along certain railroad lines in the middle of the map is inadequately served by the Plymouth Normal School, as shown in the following quotation (p. 144):

In connection with Plymouth, it should be said that the school can not possibly fully serve the zone from which it now draws students. Twenty per cent

of the Plymouth enrollment at present comes from the city of Manchester alone. The zone contains five cities, three of them the largest, in order, in the State, besides a number of large towns, something like two-fifths of the entire population of the State. Now, Plymouth is up to its maximum enrollment. No amount of building or physical enlargement of the school can provide model and practice schools, which are the vitals of successful normal-school work. The trustees at present limit the enrollment to 150. But even this is much too large for the most effective work.

Better location of the Keene school.-On the other hand, the normal school at Keene, N. H., is better located to serve its constituency. The contrast with the poor location of Plymouth is brought out in the following quotation (p. 146):

The Keene zone, as will be seen, is much more normal in type-that is, it approaches more nearly the character of a circle with a school at its center. As a result, its work for the State will probably always be more intensive. I mean by that that it will tend to have some students from every town in its territory. This zone requires annually about 90 teachers without previous experience. We can without any great exercise of the imagination see the school providing this number annually. Hence we can safely say that it is merely a question of time when a section of the State southwest of a line drawn between Nashua and Claremont can provide itself with teaching forces composed exclusively of trained teachers.

The Keene school can train an enrollment of 480 as easily and as well as Plymouth can train an enrollment of 150. There is model and practice material enough there for the purpose. An enrollment of 250 students under training would suffice for the needs of that section of the State.

Description of location of a well-located normal school.-In compiling this bulletin an attempt was made to secure from the president of a well-located normal school the data to fill in the blanks in the following. The data were not forthcoming, however. In lieu of them, the paragraph is printed with blank spaces which any normal-school president can fill in for his school and ascertain if the story which the paragraph then tells is satisfactory from the standpoint of the possibilities of the school rendering large service:

An example of a

(well or poorly) located normal school is the one at (1) The zone which it serves contains a population of and needs approximately new teachers for town schools and new teachers for rural schools annually. (2) The town is -centrally located in the area, as will be seen from the accompanying map. The average radius from the town to the edge of its normal-school area is approximately — miles. (3) steam and electric railroads place the city in direct communication with parts of the area. (4) The city has thousand children in its public schools, which assures adequate (or inadequate) practice facilities for years to come.

Number of normal schools in a State. Each section must train its own teachers. Closely related to the geographical distribution of the services of State normal schools is the number maintained by a given State. Logically, since the purpose of the State normal schools is to