and to literature. The elements of good reading are few and simple, and these can be attended to as incidents. If special practice in elocution is desired, the teacher can make use of the work of Professor MUNROE. Each pupil will show by his voice and manner whether he appreciates what he is reading. The cultivation of natural and proper tones, the adaptation of manner to the style, as in narrative or descriptive prose, and in humorous, pathetic or dramatic verse, will come naturally under the skillful teacher's care.

There can not be too much reading of good authors. No one ever became an elegant or even a correct writer by following the precepts of grammarians, or the prim examples of literary Pharisees, any more than he could learn to swim by practicing the motions upon a table. A knowledge of the structure of our language and the natural relations of its parts, the power of using appropriate imagery, the nice discrimination between apparent synonyms, and the easy, fluent motion in which thought rolls on, can only be acquired by long and intimate acquaintance with the works in which these traits are exemplified.

Experience has proven that even young pupils take up these courses of reading in literature as well as in science with avidity. In schools where they have been introduced no exercises are so eagerly anticipated or so thoroughly enjoyed.

We take great pains to make classical students appreciate the simple majesty of HOMER, the elegance of VIRGIL, the sublimity of the Greek tragedians, and the vigor and brilliancy of HORACE. But the body of English literature, as it exists, contains more of grandeur and beauty, more of pathos and wit, more of humor (a quality in some respects peculiar to our race), more of fervid oratory, and more of noble history, than the stores of the classic languages combined. I am a strenuous advocate for classical education, but I maintain that a boy who feels the greatness of BURKE and of WEBSTER is more apt to acknowledge the power of the Oration on the Crown, and of that for the poet ARCHIAS. He who has been thrilled by the sublimity of MILTON will grow enthusiastic over the pages of VIRGIL and DANTE; and when the vast world of SHAKESPEARE'S thought has been opened before his vision, he will see more clearly what is immortal in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Our own literature must be considered as the best part of our history, and the just basis of our national pride. It may be said to have commenced within the memory of men now living; for the venerable BRYANT is the earliest of our great poets, and IRVING, COOPER and CHANNING were the first of our classical prose writers. In less than fifty years we have produced works in all departments of human thought which the world will not let die, and which our mother country is becoming proud to own and adopt. Let us see to it that our youth are taught properly to appreciate these treasures, and, for that end, let us endeavor to appreciate them more fully ourselves.

The Department adjourned.

WILLIAM P. HESTON, Secretary.

MISS D. A. LATHROP, President.

NORMAL DEPARTMENT.

FIRST DAY.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 6th, 1872.

THE Department was called to order at three o'clock P.M., by its President, C. C. ROUNDS, of Maine, who briefly stated that the object of the work before it, for the sessions, was the consideration of questions of general and national importance, and expressed the wish that the discussions might be as free as possible, for the purpose of bringing out the knowledge acquired by the different members in their experience.

The Secretary of the Section being absent, WARREN T. COPELAND, of Cambridge, Mass., was chosen Secretary pro tem.

A paper was read by J. C. GREENOUGH, Principal of State Normal School, Providence, R. I., upon

THE PROPER WORK OF NORMAL SCHOOLS.

No question touching the progress of popular education is of greater importance than "What is the proper work of a normal school?"

Costly buildings, beautiful furniture, convenient apparatus, good text-books, may aid, but our teachers make our schools.

Normal schools are expected to take the lead both in preparing teachers and in improving methods of instruction. They are important sources of professional enthusiasm, and method without enthusiasm is but the rail-track without the locomotive.

The object of our normal schools is to prepare the teachers of our common schools for their work. We evidently need schools of higher grade to prepare teachers for colleges and for other higher institutions of learning, but our existing normal schools are to meet the wants of our common and elementary schools. The instruction furnished in a normal school must depend in part upon the acquirements and discipline of those admitted, and the time they are to give to professional instruction. It is useless to determine what things should be, and then attempt to proceed as if they were really as they should be.

Every normal school gathers its pupils mainly from its own locality; hence, it is impracticable to fix conditions of admission or a course of study which shall be the same for every school.

The qualifications requisite for admission in any locality should be below the average qualifications required by examining boards of those who are allowed

to teach. Otherwise, there will be a strong tendency to enter upon the work of teaching without the specific preparation gained in a professional school. The condition of the schools which the graduates are to teach should also modify the instruction received during their course of preparation. A superintendent of schools in one of our southern states recently remarked, in one of our educational meetings, that there was nothing to be done in grading the public schools in his section, since all were of the primary grade. In such communities, the training of teachers must have special reference to elementary teaching. But in New England, and elsewhere throughout our land, normal schools should give especial attention to preparation for elementary teaching. I hold that the first and the greatest work that can be accomplished by most of our normal schools is to make good primary-school teachers. I will refer to some

of the arguments which may be urged in support of this position.

1. Elementary instruction is especially defective in our schools, and we justly look to normal schools to work a reform.

2. It is a general custom to introduce teachers to schools of higher grade through the teaching of a primary school. However weighty the arguments for putting teachers of the ripest talent in charge of primary schools, for promoting in an order the reverse of the grades, and for graduating pay according to such promotion, the fact remains that a good proportion of those who teach begin in the primary grade.

3. The teaching that a child receives during his earlier years is the most important. The methods, the habits, and the enthusiasm, gained in schools of lower grade go far in determining a pupil's success in schools of higher grade. The motto of HESIOD, “The beginning is half of the whole," here obtains.

4. All the children in our schools must have elementary instruction. The majority of pupils, in many communities, leave school before fairly entering upon a grammar-school course of study. A very small proportion in any of our cities or towns ever complete a high-school course.

We have noticed some things that should be regarded in providing professional instruction for teachers. The laws of mental activity and development should mainly determine the work of a normal school. Teachers have to do with mind. They must understand the human mind, know the appropriate means to be used in its development, and be able to employ those means skillfully.

We speak of the human mind, using names that denote its three modes of manifestation, viz., intellect, sensibilities, will. Every faculty is developed by its own activity occasioned by the use of appropriate means. The activity of the sensibilities and of the will primarily depends upon the activity of the intellect; hence, the teacher's work pertains more immediately to the development of the intellect. The intuitive faculty, the memory, the imagination, the powers by which we generalize and reason, in fact, all other intellectual faculties, are primarily dependent for their activity and development upon the activity of the presentative powers,-those by which we have sensations and perceptions. The materials employed by the other faculties are, for the most part, obtained through the activity of these powers. Upon the

proper development of the presentative powers, and upon the facts gained through their activity, all subsequent acquisition and development largely depend. Therefore, the first duty of the teacher is to secure the activity of the presentative powers of the child by presenting to his mind appropriate objects and in a proper manner. It is the work of the primary teacher so to direct the observation of the child as to lead him to acquire facts important as the sources and the occasions of subsequent knowledge, and valuable as means of mental development. During his earlier school years, the pupil should have lessons on forms, on colors, on numbers, on the measurement of weights, of length, of surfaces and of solids; lessons on the qualities of bodies and of substances should be given; also, lessons on plants, on minerals, and on animals. Preparatory to the study of geography, lessons should be given upon portions of the earth within the sphere of the pupil's observation. Lessons in drawing, and in both oral and written language, should accompany other lessons. Drawing intensifies observation, while it supplements and aids verbal expression. Vocal music and vocal culture should find a place in the course of study of schools of every grade. As the formation of character is the most important work of every teacher, lessons on manners and morals should be given as the conduct of pupils or the objects of study furnish occasions.

But my limits forbid me to outline, even, a course of elementary study; much less to delineate the advanced studies of a grammar or a high school.

The teacher of an elementary course needs to understand clearly just what relation every part of the elementary course holds to the subsequent course of study. He should be no wanderer in the suburbs of science, but from her towers perceive clearly her avenues of approach. The teacher must see the beginning from the end. He must know what facts are occasions of a knowledge of principles, in every department of his elementary teaching, that he may not, as is too often the case, waste time and but confuse the pupil's mind by teaching useless facts. The teacher must also know in what way to present the facts in order that the pupil may have real knowledge and that mental activity which is the source of mental power.

It is evident, then, that success in elementary teaching requires on the part of the teacher a general knowledge, at least, of the sciences to which the facts that make up the elementary course are introductory. The Germans are wise in putting the work of primary instruction into the hands of those who have been liberally educated as well as specially trained for their work.

We will now consider the question, "In what way shall the pupils of a normal school gain the needed knowledge?" I answer, "In the way in which their own pupils are to gain knowledge." Those who are to teach must acquaint themselves with methods of study, in order to direct others in study. Modes of teaching usually determine modes of study.

Teaching is a means of guiding others in study. Modes of teaching may be grouped into three general classes, each including many specific modes.

1. A text-book containing statements of facts, or principles, or both, with or without explanation, is put into the hands of pupils. They study words in order to gain ideas, and in order to reproduce the statements literally or in substance. In this method, the author of the text-book is the teacher. Some

branches may be taught in this way, if the pupil forms in his own mind, as he proceeds, the ideas of which the words of the text-book are signs. The danger is that pupils will memorize words which are to them unmeaning signs. When the object of study can not itself be brought within the sphere of the pupil's consciousness, as in history, for instance, this method of study is allowable.

2. The teacher states to his pupils that which they are to know. This is lecturing. It is telling rather than teaching, though it is often called oral teaching to distinguish it from teaching by text-book alone. The best form of lecturing is that in which the lecturer fixes the attention of the pupils upon the object of study, and then gives expression to the ideas naturally excited by it. Teaching by lectures is not a mode generally adapted to the wants of pupils in an elementary course.

3. The teacher fixes the attention of the pupils upon that which is to be studied, whether material or immaterial, and leads them to state their own ideas in their own language. The statements of the pupils enable the teacher to know whether they have gained correct ideas. In connection with this teaching, the teacher corrects the language of the pupils, thus securing exact and correct language as well as correct ideas. After the lesson has been taught in this way, the pupils are required to prepare for recitation by restudy of the subject or object in the topical order in which they first studied it under the direction of the teacher.

Modes of recitation fall into divisions similar to those of teaching.

1. Pupils may reproduce in reply to questions, or under topics, the statements or the substance of the statements learned from their text-books.

2. Pupils may recite by stating in their own language, and in the order of assigned topics, what they have learned under the direction of the teacher, by their own study.

3. Each pupil may recite by teaching in the same topical order in which the subject or object was first presented to the class by the teacher.

Recitation by actual teaching is the mode which should be practiced by the pupils of a normal school. Other modes may be occasionally adopted, but preparation for teaching comes by actually teaching. The knowledge to be used may be gained in different ways, but professional skill comes by professional drill.

I am aware that it is held in some quarters that professional training may be gained by listening to lectures and observing correct teaching; but neither the accuracy required in military evolutions nor the skill required in teaching comes by observation alone. And the art of teaching, as taught in a normal school, should be something more than an imitative art.

Normal pupils should be so trained that in every step of their teaching they will look through and beyond their specific work to the mind of the pupil. A sound, practical mental philosophy should be taught in every normal school, not so much in the abstract as in its illustrations and applications in every department.

There are positive hindrances in many communities to the maintenance of