REPORT
OF THE
SUPERINTENDENT
OF
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
(Henry C. Morrison)
BEING THE
FIFTY-NINTH REPORT UPON THE PUBLIC
SCHOOLS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
___________________
CONCORD.
1916.
(P. 194)
CHAPTER X.
CONDITION OF THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS.
(Note: Where comments relate only to Plymouth, they have been omitted.)
(P. 198)
KEENE
Buildings.
The buildings are all new and in good repair. The following is the list:
1. Fiske Hall, large dormitory and boarding house. New, in excellent condition, providing rooms for about 100 students and dining-room and kitchen facilities for 250. (The west wing has been added.)
2. Parker Hall, recitation Hall. New, well equipped and well adapted to its purpose. It will be adequate for its purpose for the coming biennium. After that, a practical arts building will be needed.
3. Administration building and library. This is the old Governor Hale mansion House. It has been remodeled and provides an excellent administration building and library.
(P. 199)
4. Heating plant. New, modern, adequate and efficient in all respects.
5. Director’s residence. This is a fine old mansion house which had been modernized when acquired by the state, is in good repair, and furnishes a dignified and worthy residence for the director of the school.
6. Penelope house. A frame cottage located on the grounds when acquired by the state. It is fitted up as a practice household for domestic arts and as such serves a useful purpose. It has little value as a building.
7. Greenhouse. This is a structure which was acquired with the Hale property. It is in good repair and serves the needs of instruction in nature, gardening and elementary agriculture….
8. Two old stables. These structures belonged to the two estates which were acquired for the normal school in 1909.. They are in good repair and serve occasional uses. In the interest of the general comeliness of the institution, they should be removed at an early date.
Financial.
The statement made for Plymouth will stand also for Keene. (The finances of the school are well managed, the book-keeping is modern and complete, and regular monthly reports are submitted to the several members of the board of trustees, showing the financial condition at the end of each month. – p. 197.) Not only is the book-keeping and general accounting and reporting good, but the financial affairs of the school have been handled with prudence and competency.
Instruction.
In general, there has been a marked improvement since the last biennium report was written The problem of organization, however, is still formidable and organization in a school system is a slow process, in the nature of things.
(P. 200)
The management of the school, including the director and his major assistants, is earnest and progress is steady.
Instruction in the theory and practice of teaching is founded upon the… conception… that… the content is limited to such principles as find application in the daily life of the room-teacher and which may be exemplified in the practice schools. In practice, the teaching has been in some respects excellent and in others weak….
The practice teaching has been well organized and is steadily improving in organization. In this connection, it should be remembered that the normal school now utilizes the entire elementary school system of the city of Keene for practical purposes, giving it one of the largest practice fields in the country. But this makes the problem of efficient organization of teaching difficult.
The effective administration of the school system as a school system in a city of 10,000 is not a small matter, but this system must be administered as a city system constantly utilized for practice purposes. The student teachers have each been tried out in actual teaching for eighteen weeks prior to graduation….
(P. 201)
It has been necessary to take a city system of schools and many of its teachers with it, to organize it for practice purposes, simultaneously to train veteran teachers for these purposes, and at the same time to reorganize it to keep pace with recent progress….
The school buildings turned over to the normal school by the school district of Keene have been placed in good condition by the school board. Whatever changes might be made calculated to bring the buildings up to modern standards of sanitation these changes have been made.
In fact the cordial and helpful cooperation of the school board of Keene, and the evident sympathy and confidence of the people of one of our most intelligent communities, are in themselves witnesses to the essentially wholesome and useful condition of the institution.
Discipline and Student Welfare.
The discipline of the normal school proper is not strict. This is not to be understood as a statement that it is lax. There is no organized student government as at Plymouth, but the disciplinary conception is one which might be referred to as “informal self-government.” That is to say, it proceeds on the theory that the student body is composed of individuals old enough to be trusted to conduct themselves with entire propriety. The theory is entirely defensible, provided it is correlated with a government which sends a student promptly home for infractions of propriety.
(P. 202)
The plan has not invariably worked well during the biennium. There have been no serious disorders, but the conduct of the students has not always been entirely above criticism.
The foregoing is written in the belief that we ought to make a sharp distinction between normal schools and institutions for general education. In the latter, it is entirely defensible to retain a student inclined to levity or waywardness because the institution itself may very probably save the student from untoward ways. A normal school on the other hand is concerned with the process of training teachers of children, and quite as much with the selecting fit material as training.
The normal school ought to have its eyes fixed primarily upon the welfare of the pupils of these prospective teachers, and only in a secondary degree upon the personal welfare of its students. For this reason, if a girl, who will be teaching in the public schools in two years , shows little inclination for her work and much inclination for a general good time, she should be sent home forthwith. Experience amply shows that this type of girl, if retained in the normal school, is not to be trusted after she has been graduated and has been placed in charge of a school.
The students at Keene are most comfortably housed in a beautiful home, and are furnished with wholesome and nutritious food well cooled.
A considerable number, however, have to be roomed in rented rooms in the city, finding their meals at Fiske Hall. This is due to the fact that the increase of the student body has outrun the provision of rooms in the dormitories. It is an undesirable condition for it discriminates against part of the student body in favor of others. It leads to ill health among young women who room at a distance from the place where they eat their meals. Provision for more room should be made by completing the dormitory plan of the school at once.
Needs
There is needed at once an additional dormitory to be located as predetermined on the south side of the grounds, facing Fiske Hall and completing a quadrangle with Fiske Hall, Parker Hall, and the large greenhouse forming the other sides.
(P. 203)
This dormitory should accommodate 125 students, dining facilities being already provided for in Fiske Hall. The trustees have caused plans to be prepared for this building and will recommend the appropriation of $125,000 for the erection of the same.
The new building and the existing dormitory will accommodate 225 students. From 25 to 50 students will always live at home either in Keene or in nearby towns. Consequently, the new dormitory should complete the school so far as its housing problem is concerned. The school will go to a maximum enrollment of 250 to 300 students, which should be its limit. By that time, one or two additional schools to provide for the east side and northern end of the state should be well under way.
By 1919, provision should be made for an additional recitation hall, to cost in the vicinity of #30,000.
Beyond that we can foresee the need of but one other building, to wit, a gymnasium.
REORGANIZATION OF PROGRAM OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS
In this day of rapid development, the programs of most educational institutions need reorganizing about once in five years. The last program of the normal schools was adopted in 1911. The academic year 1916-‘17 begins with a new program which keeps pace with the demands of an advancing civilization and corrects defects discovered by experience with the old.
The trustees have also added a third year of instruction especially to provide training for teachers in the new junior high schools.
The content of the new program is here outlined. (The original was a landscape table.)
(P. 204)
1. Psychology and pedagogy
Theory - General educational psychology
Psychology of primary subjects
Psychological tests
Adolescent psychology, 3rd year
Practice - Classroom observation
Practice teaching
Methodology of elementary school subjects
Practice teaching and methodology of algebra and geometry, el.
science, literature and three of the following: music, agriculture,
drawing, domestic arts, manual arts, Latin, French.
II. School Management
Theory - Brief course in school law
Organization of school; use of program, timetable, incentives,
prizes, privileges; habits and routine; work, fatigue and interest;
testing and marking; grading and promotion; attendance work;
school records; sanitation.
Practice - Practice in school management
Conferences and criticism
(P. 205)
III. Physical Education
Theory - The physical nature and development of the child
Plays and games
Folk dancing
Corrective gymnastics
Practice - Observation, study, measurements, and practice in the
practice schools
IV. Industrial and Fine Arts
Theory - Educational meaning and relations
Practice - Practice teaching
V. Educational Sociology
Theory - Dependent, defective and delinquent classes and corrective
laws and institutions,
Race, history and social conditions of race elements of N.H. population
Social justification of different subjects in program
Practice - Study and observation in practice schools
Theses
VI. Academic Studies
Theory- The directors will ascertain preliminary education of different matriculants and assign as need to:
Practice - Nature study
Domestic arts
Manual training First two years
Drawing
Music
Elementary science
and Third year
Agriculture (elective)
(P. 206)
Theory and practice are to be carried on nearly simultaneously. Each class will be divided into two or more divisions. Each division will begin with practice for three months, followed by theory for three months, followed by practice for three months.
The first year will be devoted largely to academic work. and to observation with conferences and theses.
GOVERNMENT
The government of the state normal schools is vested in a Board of Trustees consisting of the Governor and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, ex-officio, and five members appointed by the Governor and Council for terms of five years each. During the biennium the board has consisted of:
His Excellency Samuel D. Felker, July 16, 1914, to January, 1915
His Excellency Rolland H. Spaulding, January, 1915, to July 15, 1916.
Henry C. Morrison, July 16, 1914, to July 15, 1916
James H. Fassett, July 16, 1914, to July 15, 1916
Frank H. Foster, July 16, 1914, to July 15, 1916
(P. 208)
George H. Whitcher, July 16, 1914, to July 15, 1916
True L. Norris, July 16, 1914, to July 15, 1916
Charles W. Vaughan, July 16, 1914, to July 15, 1916
TERMS OF ADMISSION AND GRADUATION
Students are admitted to the regular two-year course who are graduates of first-class secondary schools approved as such by this office, or of equivalent institutions.
Students are admitted in September only.
Students who have fulfilled the requirements of the several courses are granted the diploma of the school.
(P. 210)
COMMENCEMENT AND CLOSE OF SESSIONS
Keene.
1914-15 September 9. Opening of First Term.
December 17 to January 3. Christmas Vacation.
February 23. End of First Term.
March 1. Opening of Second Term.
April 23 (noon) to May 1. Spring Vacation.
June 17. Commencement.
July 8 to August 12. Summer Term
1915-16 September 14. Opening of First Term.
December 17 to January 3. Christmas Vacation.
January 28. End of First Term.
January 31. Opening of Second Term.
February 19 to February 28. Spring Vacation.
June 15. Commencement.
July 10 to August 18. Summer Term