Bridgewater State University - Alpha Yearbook (Bridgewater, MA)

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The Normal School movement in America began with a group of dedicated men who appealed to the people and to the Legislature through the press and other means of public ad- dress, urging the establishment of a State Board of Education and of Normal Schools for the better training of teachers for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. After twelve years of persistent effort, an act of the Legisla- ture establishing the Board of Education was signed by Gover- nor Edward Everett on April 20, 1837, The Board at its first meeting elected Horace Mann, Secretary and immediately made plans to hold conventions in every county for the discussion of public education. jl i In March, 1838, Edmund Dwight of Boston, a member of the Board, offered to furnish $10,000 to be expended under the direction of the Board, for qualifying teachers for our common schools if the Legislature would match the amount for the same purpose. On April 19, 1838, the Legislature placed at the disposal of the Board $20,000 for the establish- ment of schools for the education of teachers as an experiment for three years. Plymouth County was the first to petition the Board for the location of the school in the Old Colony district. The Board voted to establish a Normal School in Plymouth County as soon as suitable building, fixtures, and furniture, and the means of carrying on the school, exclusive of the compensation of teachers, shall be provided and placed under the control of the Board. Six months later, in December of 1838, it was voted to establish two other Normal Schools at Lexington and Barre. A convention was called at Hanover, Massachusetts, on Sep- tember 4, 1838, to spark the idea of teacher training on the local level. It was well attended and included such supporters as John Quincy Adams, Horace Matui, and Daniel Webster. A resolution was introduced to raise in the several towns of Plymouth County another matching sum of $10,000 for the erection of a school. At meetings held in various towns, a total of $8,000 was pledged with individual citizens pledging $2,000 if the school were established in their town. The competition for the site was among Bridgewater, Ply- mouth and Middleborough. At a public hearing on March 26, 1840, the decision was to locate the School in Bridgewater; the Normal School at Bridgewater opened its doors in the Old Town Hall on September 9, 1840, to a class of 21 ladies and 7 gentlemen. As the Normal School experiment continued, the idea of providing permanent buildings for the schools took root with some 30 or 40 supporters of popular education. Meeting with Horace Mann in the winter of 1844, this group petitioned the Legislature for a sum of $5,000 to be placed at the hands of the Board of Education for the purpose of providing proper accomodations for the Normal Schools. On March 10, 1845, the Legislature appropriated the sum of $5,000 for the permanent founding of teacher training schools with the stipulation that a matching sum be provided by the towns concerned. Plymouth pledged the amount required and made strenuous efforts to have the school relocated there. The citizens of Bridgewater were also willing to comply with the conditions and thought that since the school had been estab- lished experimentally at Bridgewater, that it would now con- tinue indefinitely. After some deliberation, the Board of Education voted on May 28, 1845, to erect a permanent Normal School building at Bridgewater; and more than a year later, on August 19, 1846, the first State Normal School building in America was dedi- cated at Bridgewater. .

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