INSTRUCTION OF COMMON SCHOOL TEACHERS IN THE ACADEMIES OF NEW YORK.

[By ALBERT B. WATKINS, Assistant Secretary of the Regents.]

The idea of a special education and training for teachers had taken root in Germany in the sixteenth century, and not long afterward had borne fruit in schools established for this purpose. The history of these teachers' semmaries, as they were called, was undonbtedly known to the men whose duty it was to lay the foundations of our educational system, for in his annual message to the Legislature in 1826, Gov. De Witt Clinton recommends the establishment of "a seminary for the education of teachers in those useful branches of knowledge which are proper to engraft on elementary attainments."1

The importance of providing means for the preparation of Common School teachers was a favorite theme with Governor De Witt Clinton. In his message of 1819, he said:

"The most durable impressions are derived from the first stages of education; ignorant and vicious preceptors, and injudicious and ill-arranged systems of educa

In the report of the Literature Committee of the Senate, to which this portion of the message had been referred, prepared by John C. Spencer, is found the following: "But in the view which the committee have taken, our great reliance for nurseries of teachers must be placed in our Colleges and Academies. In connection with these the committee admit that the establishment of a separate institution for the sole purpose of preparing teachers would be a most valuable auxiliary." The committee, however, did not recommend the adoption of the latter suggestion at that time, as other measures of a more pressing nature would involve as much expense as ought to be incurred, and evidently at this time the sentiment was common that the Academies were the proper instrumentalities through which. suitable teachers should be provided.

In 1821, in their annual report to the Legislature, the Board of Regents in speaking of the Academies, had said that "it is to these seminaries that we must look for a supply of teachers for the common schools;" and in their annual report in 1823 they say that the distribution of the funds under their direction to the Academies subject to their visitation "ensures a supply of competent teachers for the common schools." No legislative action had yet been taken toward giving aid and encouragement to this essential department of education, although the attention of the executive and legislative departments of the State had been turned in this direction, and the question difficult of solution then as now, as to how an adequate supply of competent teachers for the common schools could be secured, perplexed the minds of the prominent educational men of the State, and not infrequently formed the subject of discussion in the educational committees of Senate and Assembly. In 1827 a bill was reported from the literature committee of the Senate, and April 13 of that year became a law, entitled "An act to provide permanent funds for the annual appropriation to Common Schools, to increase the Literature Fund, and to

tion must have a most pernicious influence upon the habits, manners, morals and minds of our youth, and vitiate their conduct through life."

In 1820 he used the tollowing language:

"The education of youth is an important trust, and an honorable vocation, but it is often committed to unskillful hands. Liberal encouragement ought to be dispensed for increasing the number of competent teachers.”

In 1825 he again urged this subject as one of first importance to the State. Various authorities upon the history of Normal School Education of earlier date are cited in the " Report on Education in Europe," by A. D. BACHE, chap. ix, pp. 323-361.

F. B. H.

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promote the education of teachers." Although the title of the act leads us to expect in the act itself some specific aid to be provided for the education of teachers, no further mention of this subject is made, but the increase in the Literature Fund provided for by this law, and the change made in the basis upon which this fund was to be distributed in requiring scholarship in higher branches of education than before, it was evidently thought, would act directly in promoting the education of teachers. The report of the legislative committee, which accompanied the bill, expressly states that their object in thus increasing the fund is "to promote the education of young men in those studies which will prepare them for the business of instruction which it is hoped may be accomplished to some extent by offering inducements to the trustees of Academies to educate pupils of that description. * Competent teachers of Common Schools must be provided; the Academies of the State furnish the means of making that provision." In view of the fact that the Academies were called upon to furnish, and were furnishing at this time, a large number and probably the great majority of teachers for the Common Schools, and considering also the advance in standard of scholarship required of the Academies by the law of 1827, the Regents, in 1828, say: "The Academies have become, in the opinion of the Regents, what it has always been desirable they should be, fit Seminaries for imparting instruction in the higher branches of English education, and especially for qualifying teachers of Common Schools." And the same year the Superintendent of Common Schools (Hon. Azariah C. Flagg, Secretary of State), said: "If the required information to fit a person for teaching can be obtained in the Academies, sound policy and good economy are in favor of relying upon them for the training of teachers." The annual report of the Superintendent to the Legislature of 1831 reviews the various plans proposed, and recommends the Academies located in different parts of the State as the proper agencies to be employed in this important work.

Public sentiment as well as official opinion was silently exerting its influence in favor of action which should recognize under due form and sanction of law the organized instruction of teachers in those things which pertain exclusively to their calling, and the actual work which the Academics were doing, as shown by their official reports to the Board of Regents, enforced in a practical manner

Chap. 228, Laws of 1827.

which could not be gainsaid the necessity for recognition of this work by the State. Thus we find in the returns of Academies to the Board in 1831, Canandaigua and St. Lawrence Academies report the "Principles of Teaching" among the studies pursued by classes, and St. Lawrence Academy, with evident and justifiable pride, reports "more than eighty district school teachers furnished by this Academy during the year." In the reports of 1832, we find that Lowville and Oxford Academies are added to the number of those instructing classes in the "Principles of Teaching;" the report of that year from Canandaigua also stating that fifty teachers had been furnished by that institution during the last two years; and that from Lowville stating that it had furnished twenty teachers during the last year; while the report of 1834 shows that the Rochester High School had added itself to the small but steadily increasing number of schools who were the pioneers of pedagogical work in this country.

The Board of Regents, in their annual reports to the Legislature, had, from time to time, as we have seen, referred to the Academies as the natural agency for the supply of qualified teachers for the common schools, but the reports made to the Board by the Academies above mentioned indicate that the preparation of teachers was fast becoming a distinctive work and would very soon probably demand special facilities for its accomplishment. In the annual report of the Board for 1832 this subject is ably presented, and its view of the field is so broad that it is deemed proper to quote in full what is said in regard to this matter. After referring to the very satisfactory condition of the Common Schools as shown by the annual report of the State Superintendent, and observing that the school system was "as near perfection, perhaps, with a single exception, as it can be." the report proceeds as follows:

"But there is one topic (the exception above adverted to) connected both with our Common Schools and Academies, which the Regents deem it proper to present to the Legislature; and it was with a view to introduce and give force to the remarks, which they consider due to the occasion, that they referred to the condition of the former. However complete in other respects the system may be, it is manifest that a sufficient supply of competent teachers is indispensable to its efficacy. The truth of this position is too obvious to be disputed; but there has been a contrariety of opinion with regard to the best mode of providing them. With some it has been a favorite theory to provide further education at the public expense by the institution of a State Seminary with branches in the several senatorial districts. This plan does not differ materially from that