There should be no instruction in the
departments of learning, high or low, except what is incidental to the
main business of the institution; yet some have gone so far in the wrong
course as to suggest that not only the common branches should be
studied, but that tuition should be given in the languages and the
higher mathematics. A little reflection will satisfy us how great a
departure this would be from the just idea of the Normal School. Yet
circumstances, rather than public sentiment, have compelled the
government to depart in practice, though never in theory, from the true
system.
It so happens that much time is occupied in instruction in those
branches which ought to be thoroughly mastered by the pupil before he
enters the Normal School,--that is, before he begins to acquire the art
of teaching what he has not himself learned.
Such is the state of our schools that we are obliged to accept as pupils
those who are not qualified, in a literary point of view, for the post
of teachers. By sending better teachers into the public schools, you
will effectually aid in the removal of this difficulty. The Normal
School is, then, no substitute for the high school, academy, or college.
Nor do we ask for any sympathy or aid which properly belongs to those
institutions. He is no friend of education, in its proper signification,
who patronizes some one institution, and neglects all others.
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