East Stroudsburg University - Stroud Yearbook (East Stroudsburg, PA)

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F 1--X I ......,,iX -XX ff fy Xf A THE AUDITORIUM Fft

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DUCATION in Monroe County has undergone many changes and has encountered many difficulties. The first schools were privately owned institutions. When the state took over the schools, a great step was taken to bring our educational system to a high level of efficiency. State Normal Schools were not entirely state controlled institutions. They became state schools on the basis of a contract to maintain state courses of instruction for the preparation of teachers and to share with trustees, appointed by the state, the administration of these schools. To Reverend Chandler Oakes, pastor of the East Stroudsburg Presbyterian church, was given the distinction of being the founder of the East Stroudsburg State Normal School. By persuading a number of business and professional men of the community to invest money in a stock company to found the school, he saw his dream realized. To this money was added the donationof a tract of land covering a little more than eleven acres.. This tract became the original campus of the school. The corner stone of the first building was laid in Iuly, 1892 and the school was opened September 4, 1893. The student enrollment at the first term was three hundred and twenty and by Spring, the number had increased to four hundred and eighty-five. Fourteen

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H HE curriculum in the early Normal Schools Was largely academic in its Af' content because most of the students came from districts which lacked Qing the benefits of secondary education. The first course of study at the East Stroudsburg Normal School was organized on the basis that two years of study were required for the completion of its requirements. Because the school was new and not opened until the Fall term, a special board was appointed to examine applicants for entrance at the opening of the school. Promotions from one grade to another were made at the end of the year by the State Board of Examiners. The first graduating class, seventy-four in number, left the school in 1894. A year later, two elective courses were added to the regular curriculum, post-graduate and science courses. There was also a special course for the degree of Master of Pedagogy. In 1896 a special department of Manual Train- ing was formed and, in the same year, C. A. Houghton was added to the faculty as physical director. In 1912 the curriculum Was organized to present a four-year course. Graduates of first-class high schools were admitted to the third year class. Sixteen