No. 14.

LEGISLATURE, 1850.

REPORT of the Board of Education.

OFFICE OF SUP'T PUBLIC INSTRUCTION,

To the Legislature:

February 1, 1850.

The Secretary of the Board of Education, in pursuance of the act to establish a State Normal School, has the honor to transmit to the Legislature a preliminary report of the said Board.

The act referred to, provides that a State Normal School be established, the exclusive purposes of which shall be the instruction of persons, both male and female, in the art of teaching, and in all the various branches that pertain to a good common school education; also to give instruction in the mechanic arts and in the arts of husbandry and agricultural chemistry, in the fundamental laws of the United States, and in what regards the rights and duties of citizens.

It is further provided in said act that the Board shall procure a site and erect buildings thereon suitable for said institution, in or near some village in the State where it can most conveniently be done, and where, in their judgment, it will most subserve the best interests of the State.

For the purpose of defraying the expenses of the erection and completion of the buildings proposed by section 6 of the act, and for the purchase of the necessary books and apparatus for the said institution, and for various other incidental expenses of said school, there was appropriated ten sections of salt spring lands.

For the purpose of paying the Principal of the school, and his assistants, the Board, immediately after their appointment, were authorized to locate fifteen sections of said lands, and the same was to be denominated the Normal School Endowment Fund. The Board were also authorized to locate the ten sections referred to, which was to be denominated the Normal School Building Fund; and were required to give due notice to the Commissioner of the State Land Office that they had located said land, and file in his office a proper description of the same.

By an act, supplementary to the act referred to, approved March 31, 1849, the ten sections appropriated as the Building Fund, was reserved from sale at the State Land Office, and made subject to appraisal, at the minimum price established, as provided by law, or to be so provided in regard to other salt spring lands, and warrants drawn by the Auditor General, in pursuance of the certificate of the President of the Board of Education, countersigned by the Governor, were made alone receivable for said ten sections. It is provided further, that no such certificate shall be issued until work shall be done or services rendered, or buildings erected for the Normal School under the direction of the Board of Education, entitling the appli cant to such certificate, according to a contract or agreement with said Board for that purpose, or for services and expenses of the Board or some member thereof, in connection with the selection of the site, or the erection of the Normal School buildings.

By the provisions of the said supplementary act, the fifteen sections appropriated for the Normal School Endowment Fund, remain subject to sale at the State Land Office, as is now or shall be hereafter provided by law, and the principal shall be and remain a perpetual fund for the use of said school; the instalments of principal paid by the purchasers, to be paid into the State Treasury and the interest thereon from the time of its receipt, or from the time of the preceding computation of interest, as the same may be, is to be computed by the Auditor General and State Treasurer at the close of each fiscal year, at the rate of six per cent. per annum, and together with all interest paid by purchasers of any portion of the fifteen sections, is to be passed to the credit of the Normal School Interest Fund, to be drawn therefrom upon the warrant of the Auditor General, issued in pursuance of a certificate of the Board of Education or their

President and Secretary, that the money is due and payable to the Principal of the Normal School, or his assistants, or to the members of the Board.

The services and expenses of the Board, after the erection of the necessary buildings and the exhaustion of the ten sections appropriated for building purposes, are to be paid out of the interest fund, in the same manner, as near as may be, as is provided in regard to moneys drawn for the payment of the principal and other teachers.

The above embrace the main provisions of the act creating a Normal School and the act supplementary thereto, excepting such as relate to the establishment and government of the school and other regulations connected with its management. This latter branch of duties devolving upon the Board, embrace considerations connected with the nature, character and history of Normal Schools, and a due regard for the establishment of such an institution in our own state, upon a basis which will ensure to it a reputation and success worthy of its liberal endowment, has seemed to render it essential that every means of information, in reference to the subject, should be collected and embodied for the use and guidance of the Board, for presentation to the Legislature, and for spreading before the people such knowledge and information as will secure the highest degree of appreciation of the objects embraced in the establishment of such an institution. Normal Schools in this country may be as yet considered an experiment. The theory of such institutions-not yet reduced to certainty by successful practice, in this country, is, however, recognized as being based upon principles which will ultimately ensure the benefits anticipated by those who are most familiar with their history and operations. The end proposed in the establishment of these institutions, "the education of teachers;" the design of a school where the intellectual power, the aptitude to teach; the moral qualities and susceptibilities of those who aspire to the important calling of instructing our youth, can be fully ascertained, cultivated, improved and developed, is appreciated by all; and as the most durable impressions of life are derived from the first stages of an education, the importance of laying the foundation for securing the rising generation of the youth of the state from injudicous and ill arranged systems, or the precepts, manners and habits of ignorant and vicious preceptors, has been deemed an object of no

small responsibility upon the part of the Board. This portion of their work, relating to the permanent foundation of a system for the government and management of an institution devoted to this purpose, it has been deemed vitally important to base upon all the experience which could be afforded by a full knowledge of similar institutions in this and other countries. The Board, therefore, during the past season, made arrangements to avail themselves of the extensive personal knowledge of the Hon. Henry Barnard, of Connecticut, who has devoted some ten years of his life in collecting information in connection with Normal Schools, and who has personally visited the institutions on the other side of the Atlantic and in our own land. The information to be thus furnished, has not yet come to hand. In the event of its reception in due season, the Board, conceiving it to be an object of the deepest interest and solicitude to the citizens of our state, will ask leave to present a further report in connection therewith, embracing suggestions which cannot be obtained short of a personal visitation at the various places, connected with the adaptation of the systems of other countries, to the circumstances of our own State. Such report, it is contemplated, will embrace I.-An account of the history and organization of the best Normal Schools in this country and in Europe, Under this head will be cmbraced:

1. The State Normal Schools of Massachusetts.

3. The Normal School in the city of Philadelphia.

4. The Provincial Normal School of Upper Canada, at Toronto.

II.-Normal Schools in Prussia-General history and legal regu. lations respecting.

IV-Normal Schools in France-History and regulations respecting.

4. Brothers of Christian Doctrine at Paris.

V.-Normal Schools in Switzerland-Notices of Fellenberg and Pestalozzi..

1. Normal School at Dresden.

VII.-Normal Schools in Wurtemberg.

1. Plan of instruction in Normal School at Esslinger.

VIII-Normal Schools in Great Britain-History of.

1. Normal School of Board of National Education at Dublin.

In accordance with section 2 of said act, there was appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, three members of the Board, viz: Rev. Samuel Newbury for the term of three years, Samuel Barstow for two years, and Randolph Manning for one year; the Lieut. Governor and Superintendent of Public Instruction being members by virtue of their offices, the latter being made Secretary of the Board, and required to keep an exact and detailed account of their doings, and communicate to the Legislature such reports as are required in the act.

The Board organized and held their first meeting in the month of May last, at the city of Detroit, and appointed Samuel Newbury President. Provision was made for carrying the law into ef fect, by the location of lands granted for the purposes mentioned therein; and the President was directed to discharge the duties enjoined upon him, in visiting various places of importance in the State, by receiving donations and obtaining propositions for the estab