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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.

The State Board of Education has now no legal duties except the care of the State Normal School, and the con'racts for the District Library books. The Agricultural College, formerly under the care of this Board, has been transferred to the State Board of Agriculture.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

This institution is still pursuing a course of unabated prosperity and usefulness. The number of students in attendance the past year was as follows, viz:

In the Normal Department,....

In Model School,....

407

86

The Board of Instruction consists of eight male and three female teachers. Their departments and salaries are as

follows:

A. S. Welch, A. M., Principal, salary $1,500. DepartmentProfessional Instruction.

J. M. B. Sill, Principal of Experimental Department, salary $1,000. Department-English Grammar and Analysis.

Albert Miller, salary, $1,000. Department-Modern Languages.

P. P. Mayhew, A. M., salary $1,000. Department-Natural Sciences.

Joseph F. Carey, A. M., salary $1,000. Department-Latin and Greek Languages.

E. M. Foote, salary $1,000. Department-Vocal Music and Reading.

E. L. Ripley, A. M., salary $1,000. Department-Mathematics.

Frederick H. Pease, not salaried. Department-Instrumental Music.

Mrs. A. D. Aldrich, Preceptress, salary $650. DepartmentBotany and Mathematics.

Miss Susan G. Tyler, salary $450. Teacher in Experimental Department.

Miss Ellen A. Hurlbut, salary $450. Taacher of Latin and English Grammar.

The following statement from the last published catalogue and circular will exhibit the character and work of the School:

"The Michigan State Normal School was opened, under an Act of the Legislature, in April, 1853, and has, consequently, been in operation nearly ten years. During this period it has steadily pursued the objects for which it was established, and attained the following results:

1. It has sent out in the aggregate 110 graduates, very many of whom are now employod as teachers in our union schools, and in primary schools of the better class.

2. It has furnished, annually, during the last six years, more than one hundred teachers for the primary schools of Michigan. These teachers have been unusually successful, and such new methods of instruction as they have introduced have been received with general favor.

3. It has aided the cause of primary education in the State, by submitting various methods of elementary instruction to the test of actual trial in the experimental department.

4. It has held, every autumn, a Teachers' Institute of four weeks, for the purpose of giving primary teachers throughout the State an opportunity to review the common branches of study, and to receive such professional drill as will prepare them for the winter schools.

Besides these regular means of accomplishing the work assigned by its founders, the Normal School has contributed, inci

dentally, through other channels of influence, to the greater excellence of the primary schools.

Several members of its Board of Instruction are regularly employed as lecturers in the State Teachers' Institutes, held during the Spring and Fall vacations by the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The School itself has served, to some extent, as an agency for securing to school officers who desire it, competent teachers for vacant schools.

Finally, the graduates of this institution, now employed in many prominent schools, are imparting to future teachers the maxims and methods which they have learned here, and thus lending their aid to hasten the time when school-room management and instruction throughout the State shall be uniform, systematic and efficient.

CONDITIONS OF ADMISSION.

The ages at which applicants may be admitted to the Normal School proper, are, for gentlemen, eighteen, and for ladies,

sixteen years.

It is, however, in the discretion of the Principal to suspend the rule in favor of applicants under the required ages, if they manifest sufficient maturity of mind or advancement in study.

Those intending to finish the course before teaching are also received at an earlier age.

All pupils, on their admission, will be required to sign a declaration of intention to teach in the schools of this State, as follows:

We, the subscribers, do hereby declare that it is our intention to devote ourselves to the business of teaching in the schools of this State, and that our object in resorting to this Normal School is the better to prepare ourselves for the discharge of this important duty.

Members of the B class are further required to sign an agreement to attend the Normal School two terms before teaching in the schools of this State. These terms need not be consecutive.

All candidates for admission must pass a thorough examination in the following studies, viz: Reading, Spelling, Penmanship, Elementary Grammar, Local Geography, and Arithmetic through Compound Numbers and Vulgar Fractions. Students may enter an advanced class by passing an examination in all the preceding studies of the course.

Examinations for admission will be held on the Monday previous to the opening of each term, commencing at 9 A. M., at which time all persons desiring to be members of the school during the ensuing term, are required to be present.

COURSE OF STUDY.

The Course of Study pursued in the Normal School is as follows: Arithmetic, (Elementary, Mental and Written ;) Geogra phy, (Local and Descriptive ;) Grammar, (Synthetical;) Spell. ing, Reading, Penmanship and Drawing; Advanced Arithmetic; Grammar, (Analytical ;) Physical Geography; Elocution; Vocal Music; Algebra; Natural Philosophy; Botany; Latin and Greek, (for young men ;) Latin and French or German, (for ladies ;) Geometry; Geology; Intellectual Philosophy; Trigonometry; Chemistry.

The professional instruction given in the Normal School embraces, substantially, the following topics:

Methods of teaching Spelling and Reading;

Methods of teaching Arithmetic, Geography and Grammar; Lectures on School-room Duties;

Lectures on Object Lessons and Primary Education;

Lectures on means of teaching the virtues;

Practice in teaching in the Model School;

Methods in Chemistry; Lectures on the Philosophy of Education.

ATTENDANCE AND EXPENSES.

Applicants for admission are not received for less than an entire term, nor after its commencement, unless they have been detained by sickness or actual service as teachers.

No matters of business or pleasure can form an admissible excuse for absence from any exercise of the school.

Pupils should come prepared to attend every recitation of the term.

Those desiring to enter the school are required to present themselves for examination one day before the opening of the term.

Every student pays two dollars at the beginning of the summer term, and three dollars at the beginning of the winter term, as an entrance fee.

Board and rooms can be obtained in the city at reasonable rates.

Many students hire rooms and furnish their own board, thus reducing their entire expenses to fifty dollars a year; but students of different sexes, who are member of different families, will not be permitted to occupy rooms in the same house.

The school has a small, though well selected library, to which its members have access.

The books are intended mainly for reference, as the regular studies of the course have little time for general reading.

TERMS AND VACATIONS.

The terms of the Normal School commence, respectively, on the second Tuesday of April, and the first Tuesday of October, and continue, the former sixteen weeks, and the latter twentyfour weeks.

A vacation of three weeks follows the winter term, and one of nine weeks the summer term. The exercises of the school are suspended during the winter holidays.

The last week of each term is devoted to the public examina nation of classes.

The regular exercises of graduation take place at the close of the winter term, on the third Tuesday of March.

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