ing in the model school under supervision is an important exercise in the 73 cases in which the model school is found. Observation of the teaching of others, accompanied by a written report thereof, is a very common form of exercise. In the institutions known as training schools, this practical work in all its phases is carried out much more fully than in the ordinary normal school. More effort is put forth to secure in the student's mind a mastery of educational principles. More continuous and thorough practice, under intelligent supervision, is insisted upon, and as a consequence, more dexterity and practical skill in the work of teaching is imparted to them. I am not aware that the kindergarten has been connected directly with any normal school.

The normal school has on the whole attained a noble success in the United States. To use a less forcible expression for this fact would be an excessive affectation of a misplaced moderation. Some of the evidences of this success have been indicated. They are found in the multiplication of the schools, in the demand for the services of the teachers educated in them. They are also found in the introduction of normal departments into colleges, academies, and seminaries. They are found in the confidence with which the public regard the schools generally. They are found in the genuine and substantial progress in education which they have done so much to promote. To ignore this great fact, much more to deny it, would be not only unpolitic but unjust.

But the normal school has made its mistakes. That result was inevitable. Such a vast increase of power and public support might well be expected to turn the heads of its friends. The name came to be a mighty one to conjure with. And it has been used in recommendation of methods and enterprises that have no merit of their own. In this name the most absurd and unreasonable promises have been put forth, the most astounding philosophy has been taught. There have been loud boasting and very loud advertising, to "split the ears of the groundlings." But it hath only "made the judicious grieve." Mistakes have also been made by the enthusiastic and inexperienced of the pupils, who have rushed in where angels fear to tread," and have thought themselves possessed of knowledge or power that real life has largely discounted. There has been crudeness, and in some cases superficiality. But with men and women in earnest, willing to work, willing to be taught, these are evils that time always cures, and do not therefore call for much in the way of animadversion. The fine enthusiasm generated in the normal school, although it may not always be accurate in discriminating, is nevertheless an invaluable attribute, and far be the day that cools its fervor.

So much for the past and the present. What of the future? What sort of institution is the coming normal school to be? What sort of thing ought it to be? I am painfully conscious of inability to answer the latter question, to say nothing of the former. Who can tell precisely what the normal school of the future ought to be? Who, in 1776 could have dictated wisely and well the best type of such an institution for the last quarter of our nation's first century? Shall we have only profes sional instruction in the good time coming? Will the normal professor find his pupils thoroughly conversant with the positive knowledge they

need, and will it be his blessed function only to discuss ways of arousing attention, awakening motives, adjusting this well-mastered knowledge in such way as to make it productive in the teacher's hands, and germinative in the pupil's mind? For the immediate future there is a way worthy, it would seem, of trial. It is the faithful doing of what the hour seems to demand. Let the normal school as it now is be conscientiously utilized. Let the teaching of science or literature, or what not, be done with a careful heed to the wants of the minds taught. Let a careful induction be made of all the phases presented by the work. Let the facts thus learned be compared. Let the results be expressed in general statements. Let these statements be laid aside, not published while they are green, and let them be fairly tested time and again. And when the hair is gray, and the sounds of the pedagogic battle have died away in the distance, in the mental repose of mature age, let such of the "principles" as have stood the repeated ordeals be laid before an anxious world. And unless the man who has come to exactly the opposite conclusion from you after similar waiting and labors, should get the public ear, you may stand some chance of being quoted as an educational authority. In other words, let us be slow in rushing into generalities. Let us have a serene, abiding faith in patient work, in candor, in the beneficent influence of time, and in human progress. For myself I have the fullest faith in the future of the normal school. I believe it will continue to improve from year to year and from decade to decade. I believe that a time is coming when it will be stripped of its inconsistencies, and will nobly illustrate the grand effect of the growth of ideas among a free people. As yet we have not fully lived out the ideal of the true normal school. For the attributes of this institution, like the scenes of a great epic, cannot be written out until the soul has passed through the requisite experiences. And for a result like this, the experience of no single man will suffice. The nation itself must pass through it. One day there will be gathered in the ripened fruit of all this labor and thought, and we shall have a normal school worthy of this great republic, for it will be the product of the life of the republic.

I know that many important questions must be decided in the course of this progress, and that the discussion of these is entirely appropriate to this Convention. But that discussion cannot be entered upon in a paper so short as this ought to be. And it is therefore intentionally left to the gentlemen who will offer remarks in connection with this topic. But I cannot close, Mr. President, without asking your indulgence in a word or two upon the character of the early laborers in this normalschool field. In our devotion to institutions, we sometimes forget the power of personal character and influence. I believe there has gone with this enterprise of training teachers from year to year, down the decades, something of the spirit of the men who launched it. Some of those men we know well. Their names live in the literature of the country. They are the men who wrote reports, addressed conventions, appeared before legislatures, and were before the world the representatives of the normal schools.

But there was another group, whose memory we ought not to let die.

I mean the men who actually did the work. I mean the men, among others, who in Massachusetts undertook on a small pittance of money, and in buildings most unfit, to make the normal schools models of excellence. I mean the men who under circumstances so unfavorable, undertook to achieve a success so wonderful as to convert a generation of unbelievers in the enterprise into ardent supporters thereof. Undertook, did I say? They did it! Finding the material resources so deficient, they resolved that they would throw into the work all the more of high mental and moral force,-all the more man.

These normal schools were brought into being by men of power, and of culture. Fine abilities, thorough and extended scholarship, indomitable industry, a glowing enthusiasm, and an unruffled moral courage— these were the qualities that gave the movement success. Some of these men, though possessing many elements of greatness, are at present little known by their names. But they are known by the fruits of their deeds. They were content to labor and left the talking to others. Among these are NICHOLAS TILLINGHAST, of Bridgewater, Mass., CYRUS PEIRCE, of West Newton, in the same State, and DAVID P. PAGE, of Albany, N. Y. These were men of no ordinary mould. They belonged to no rings. They were condidates for no office. Of scheming and worldly policy they knew absolutely nothing. They worked for a high end only. They were men of inexorable truthfulness, too. Hard workers they were. Indeed, their industry was excessive. But their position seemed to demand more work than men ought to do. In their day the normal school was an experiment, and an experiment conducted under very unfavorable circumstances. Funds for it were very meagerly doled out. Tradition was against it. Many cultivated men were hostile to it. It was an innovation-the introduction of a new agency into the educational field— and the graduates of colleges, for the most part, saw no necessity for any such new agency. The battle was a severe one. At the start the odds were terribly against the two or three normal schools then in the country. But these men wrought as if for dear life. And it was for life-for the life of the idea of normal training. Everybody knows the result, though few know the cost, in labor, of the victory that has been won. Nor must we forget the character of that labor. It was not such work as politicians do. It was not the nature of button-holing or wielding influence," or bringing "forces to bear" upon men. Nothing of this. It was work in the study and in the schoolroom. It was unwearied labor to make the Normal School worthy. There was no effort at show. In the classes of these men there was little to dazzle or impress a committee of legislators. But all was thorough. All was painstaking, all was upon honor.

Of course the result was that the normal school became a permanent thing. When men put their lives thus into any worthy enterprise, there is the best reason to hope for success. These men have passed away. But their work remains with us. And the 24,000 students of normal schools in the United States constitute a monument to their heroism grander even than the noble cathedral that reminds men of the genius of Wren.

The Association received an invitation from the teachers of Baltimore tendering a boat ride to Fair Haven. On motion of W. A. BELL the Association unanimously accepted the invitation.

The chairman of the committee on nominations, D. B. HAGAR reported the following list of officers:

COUNSELLORS AT LARGE.

On motion, the report of the committee on nominations was accepted. A motion to adjourn was withdrawn to allow Major JAMES S. ROLLINS of Missouri to address the Association.

Adjourned to meet at 9 o'clock, Wednesday, A. M.

WEDNESDAY MORNING, JULY 12th, 1876.

The Association met at 9 o'clock, President PHELPS in the chair. The meeting was opened with prayer.

The President announced that the time had arrived for miscellaneous and unfinished business. On motion of J. BALDWIN, of Missouri, the following committee on teachers was appointed: J. BALDWIN, Mo., Z. RICHARDS, D. C., J. B. MALLON, Ga., W. E. CROSBY, Iowa, C. C. ROUNDS, Me. On motion of Dr. C. K. NELSON, of St. John's College, Annapolis, the following resolution was adopted.

Resolved, That a Committee of seven members of the National Teachers' Association be appointed by the President to proceed at once to Washington, and to use their best endeavors in behalf of the National Bureau of Education which is now under consideration by Committees of both Houses of the Congress of the United States.

DR. SHIRAS argued at length the necessity for the action implied in the above resolution.

DR. HENDERSON, of Kentucky, called up his amendment for the abolition of the sections and the transaction of all business in general session. Mr. HENDERSON Spoke at length in support of his amendment.

DR. TAPPAN, of Ohio, spoke against the amendment and moved that it be laid on the table. Carried.

MAJOR ROLLINS, of Missouri, offered the following resolutions concerning public lands:

Resolved, that it is the sense of this convention, that the proceeds of the sales of all the public lands belonging to the United States in the future be appropriated amongst the several States, in the proportion of their Federal representation in the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, for the education of all the children of the different States, and in such proportion for Common Schools, Normal Schools, and Higher Educational Institutions formed by the General Government which shall be deemed most expedient and just by Congress, and making such concessions in the distribution to the various States, on the score of illiteracy for a limited term of years, as may be necessary to place the children of all the States on an equitable footing, provided, however, that in the passage of any law by Congress, the right of pre-emption and the homestead are to be sacredly observed.

Resolved, That a commitee of one from each State and Territory represented in this Convention, be appointed by the President to memorialize Congress upon the subject.

The above resolutions were referred to the committee on resolutions.

DR. W. T. HARRIS, of Missouri, in behalf of a committee presented the following report on

A COURSE OF STUDY FROM PRIMARY SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY. The undersigned, appointed a committee to report a Course of Study for all grades of Schools, from the Primary School to the University, beg leave to submit herewith the results of their deliberations on this important theme.