Illinois State Normal University - Index Yearbook (Normal, IL)

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E132 Elnhrx Page Twenty EDMUND -I. ,lAMEs My recollection of the work of the Normal School extends perhaps over as wide a range of work and as many years as that of almost any other man who was ever connected with the insti- tution. It was in the spring of 1863 that I remember following my mother about as she went from one class room to another,listening to the recitations, in order to determine for herself whether this was a school to which she desired to send her children. The ex- amination was so satisfactory to her that my father purchased a small farm a mile and a half east and north of the Normal School building, diagonally across from the little red school house, just east of the Central road, and a little over a mile north of the Alton. It was in the spring of the year 1867 that I entered the Nor- mal School, first in the grammar school department, which at that time was conducted by john NV. Cook as principal. He remained only one term after I entered the grammar school and was followed in the autumn of 1867 by joseph Carter. The school under Principal Cook had been located in the village school house, as an arrangement had been made between the vil- lage and the Normal School by which the public schools of the former were to be considered as the training school of the latter. The arrangement was not fully satisfactory to either party, and the connection was dissolved in the autumn of 367 when the Model School was located on the hrst floor of the Normal School build- ing, in the northeast corner. After completing the course of this department, I entered the high school department, located on the same iioor in the north- west corner of the building, in September, 1869. I was for one year in this school under the tuition of Wfilliam L. Pillsbury, a graduate of Harvard, an earnest, sincere, and well trained and successful teacher. Here also for one year I enjoyed the tuition of Miss Horton, a rare woman for any time, and any country, especially rare for those days, in the accuracy of her classical scholarship, in her wide knowledge of subsidiary subjects, in her conscientiousness and faithfulness as a teacher. Miss Horton remained only one year and was succeeded as principal of the school by IC. XV. Coy, who had been principal of the Peoria High School. lf. XV. Coy was a graduate of Brown, and a devoted admirer of IIarvard, and he first turned my at- tention in a very definitive and hnal way toward Harvard as the institution which I intended to enter upon graduation from the high school. For two years I pursued my studies in the classics under Mr. C'oy's tuition, graduating from the high school in 1873.

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Page Nineteen Qihp Hjuhpx Cirxs. A. Meal vnnv To the old members of the Normal School this fifty years' his- tory suggests interesting reminiscences and equally interesting problems for the future. It is now more than forty years since l was first a pupil in the Model School and in the light of present conditions and facilities those days sometimes seem even more than forty years removed. In later years as I have studied and taught in other institu- tions the old Normal with its prevailing spirit and modes of work has heen a standard with which to measure up the substantial worth of later schools and educational movements. There was undoubtedly in the old Normal of thirty or forty years ago a powerful and formative spirit, which shaped up the lives of many young people and produced wide-reaching and benefi- cent results. The later enlargement of studies and interests has somewhat modified this spirit but we may trust that it has not weakened its energy and educative efifect. In comparison with other institutions which I have known, it has long seemed to me that the Normal as I knew it, was among the very strongest of them all. Aside from the changes which have taken place in the Normal curriculum itself, I think, the closer adjustment of the Normal in recent times to the high schools on the one side and to the colleges and universities on the other is of fundamental value. At present the Normal is becoming an indispensable link in our great educational system, recruiting itself from the best mate- rials of the public school system, and sending its well-trained, progressive youth of both sexes forward to still greater achiev- ments in the higher schools, and then returning them as well qualified scholars and trained teachers to the elementary schools again. The future of Normal School effort thus broadens out with still greater opportunities and responsibilities and, like a growing plant, a historical school, as it grows older, roots itself deeply in our whole society. The future therefore of the Normal will be greater than its past, proud as we may be of that record. OT. DICKEY T13MPLEToN As I Index my name in the souvenir of the fiftieth anniversary of the I.S.N.U., I am reminded that it has been on the books of my alma 7llClfCl' as a debtor for thirty-nine of these fifty years. - My first impressions were of stern professors and strange faces, but the stereopticon of time has changed the reception room into a Hall of Fame, and the strange faces of forty years ago re- appear from year to year in the dissolving views of the Alumni meetings, wearing the smile of recognition which won't come Off 77 o

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Page Twenty'-one Uhr Z1 uhm: I returned as principal of the high school in September, 18749, resigning my position on aeeouut of ill health at Christmas time, 1883. Since that time my connection with the Normal University has been one of affection and love, rather than active participation in its work, though I am glad to have made my little contribution at one time or another toward advancing the interests of the school. 1 I had, at the time, and have preserved during all these years, a sincere affection for the men and women under whose influence and under whose tuition I was privileged to be. Cook, Carter. l'illsbury, Miss Ilorton, Coy, are names that have endeared to me everything connected with that institution. I had, of course, in addition many other teachers, particularly while I was a student in the grammar school and in the first year in the high school, and while there were some misunderstandings between me and some of 1ny teachers, I only hope that they eher- ish, so far as they are alive, the same kindly feelings towards my- self, as I have ever entertained toward them. Even when Mr. C ook threatened to cowhide me and llllr. Carter nearly shook the life out of me I felt that they had to a certain extent, justice on their side, though I did not altogether approve of the expression which they gave to it. I have seen many schools in many countries, and on the whole I have never seen one which I should have preferred to the grammar and higher departments of the Illinois Normal School as a place to spend six years of my life. I believe they did for me as much as any school could have done. Of course as one grows older, if he is in the educational current, he comes to look upon many things which were done in his youth as perhaps a trifle old-fashioned and yet the essence of education remains the same. Nothing is so important as honest, clean work, and per- sistent insistence upon doing one's school work in the proper way. Among the teachers who influenced me aside from those whom I have mentioned, in a way for which I have always been grateful, I should certainly mention Thomas Metcalf, a man whose very presence was a powerful admonition to live up to the very best that one was capable of, and whose careful enunciation and pronunciation were of marked influence in improving the speech of the entire school. Mrs. Haynie for many years was a guide, philosopher, and friend for every student who entered her classes, and her personal interest in and friendship for me was of great importance. Dr. Hewett, Dr. Edwards, and the many pupil teachers under whose tuition I came-they are all held in grateful memory. It is a grand old school and every alumnus may feel proud of having been connected with it. EDMUND I. JAMES.