Millersville University - Touchstone Yearbook (Millersville, PA)

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19 3 1 • • • T II E T O I C II S T O N E render important aid in advancing the great cause of popular education. The above is quoted from the first catalogue and circular of the Lancaster County Normal School, giving the precise reasons for its existence and way in which it was made possible through the good will and foresight of the citizens of Millcrsville. These people sow the possibilities; they were aware of the fact that a Training School for Teachers was necessary as a part of the progressive ideals for mass cduca-lion. To the present citizens of Millers villc and their forefathers belongs the credit of establishing and maintaining what now is one of the outstanding State Teachers Colleges in Pennsylvania. Very little has been published concerning the history of the school, hut information can he gleaned from the old catalogues dating from the beginning of the school in 1854 to the present. These catalogues, it is interesting to note, are buried in the college vault for safe keeping and are as sacred to the authorities of the school us would he the original copy of the Declaration of Independence. In the first catalogue, published in 1855, is printed the Valedictory Address given by D. G. Tres-sler at the first Normal School Commencement. Here we learn something new under the sun. 'I'lie length of the address prohibits its reproduction “in to-to hut the first two paragraphs give an idea of its character: “Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Teachers: “It is with great diffidence that 1 appear before you under the present circumstances. My Daniel Fackler Ml, Joy, Pa. selection for the honorable task you have imposed upon me, was as unexpected as it is undeserved. Many of my fellow-students and co-lahorers have both more experience and ability; and it is with sincere regret, on my part, that one of these was not chosen. Nevertheless, as your partiality has conferred the honor upon me, I will endeavor to say a few words in accordance with your wishes. First, however, accept my hearty thanks for the unmerited kindness. “In the discharge of the duty which I have been appointed, 1 find myself without precedent. and compelled to strike out an independent course. I have been present at College Commencements and listened to College Valedictories; I have heard of such things as High School and Academy Valedictories; hut Normal School Valedictory is, “a new thing under the sun in the State of Pennsylvania. The very name, “Normal School, is yet strange to our cars. It sounds like an exotic word, and so it is. Hut exotics may he naturalized, and so shall this word he and the things which it represents. The schoolboy looks puzzled now at the mere mention of it; the sober citizen asks inquiringly, “What docs it mean?” The school director listens silently and mutters, “Another new thing, I suppose? The masses are pronouncing it over and over again to sec how it sounds; hut soon it will he the watchword, thrilling the ranks of the noble army of educationalists, echoing along all the branches of the common schools, and floating in broad letters upon the banner under which we Melvin R. Forry Hanover, Pa. Nineteen

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T II E T O I C II S T O N E I : I A REVIEW OF MILLERSVILI.E S FIRST EIGHTY YEARS By Harold Zarfoss LANCASTER County Normal School, established in the Spring of 1854, was the first Normal School in Pennsylvania to he recognized by I he state. After a thorough inspection by the State Superintendent of Schools and other outstanding notables in the field of education it was officially recognized as a State Normal School, December 2. 1859. “This Institution is emphatically tho outgrowth of the present increased interest in education, especially in education by common schools. During the Summer of 1854, a number of the citizens of Millersville, and its vicinity, desiring a more liberal education for their children than that furnished by the common schools of the neighborhood, erected a building for the purpose of establishing a school which they proposed to denominate the Millersville Academy. In the Spring of 1855, learning that the County Superintendent desired a suitable building in which to hold, for the space of three months, a Teachers’ Institute, the Trusteesoffcred their buildings gratuitous- Nancy E. Eby Paradise, Pa. ly, for the purpose, promising to supply any want of hoarding accommodations by private hospitality. “The Institute opened on April 17, and, during the term there was an attendance of 135 regular Students. The results were of a satisfactory nature and pointed so clearly to a want of permanent institutions of like character, that the Trustees resolved to treble the size of their buildings and establish a regular Normal School. “By the 5th of November the new buildings were ready for the reception of students. The experiment was successful and the number of students proved that the projectors of the school had not miscalculated its necessity. “During the term, the number of students increased to over two hundred; nearly all of whom either are teachers or arc preparing to teach. “It is admitted, among educational men, that Normal Schools arc necessary to perfect our system of education. A high standard of qualifications may he adopted by county Superintendents, hut without some source from which to obtain better teachers it involves the disagreeable necessity of causing many schools to remain untaught. The peculiar object of the Lancaster County Normal School is to offer the opportunity of careful training in teaching, and, thereby, elevate that profession and furnish common schools with well-qualified teachers. Its interest and those of common schools arc closely connected, ami, we hope to send forth teachers, who in honoring us, will . Wilbur Eshleman Millersville, Pa. Eighteen

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John W. Fox Lebanon, Pa. T II K I O V : II S T O N V. March. Pennsylvania perhaps has not the honor of being the first State to conceive it: hut the good old Dutch County of the State which has given a demonstration of its practicability and utility. The little village of Millcrsvillc has the proud honor of being a pioneer and a prime leader in the Normal School movement in this State.” The reader may wonder how much the students were charged to attend this Normal School during its early existence. The school year was divided into two cfpial sessions, the first session beginning on the first Monday in April and continuing for twenty-two weeks, the second session beginning on the second Monday in October, and also continuing for twenty-two weeks. The students had three weeks of Spring vacation und five weeks vacation in the Fall. The charge for tuition in the common or higher Knglish branches was $7.50 for a quarter of eleven weeks.Studentswereeompelled to pay for all extras, such as language, music, etc. laitin, Greek, German and French cost $2.50 each. A course in oil painting was given at $6.00 extra: drawing ami penmanship $3.00; music lessons on the piano $8.00; use of the instrument,$.00. Hoard was $2.00 a week. Light and washing. $.25. How many students today would approve of this required Classical Course as copied from the 1858 catalogue? “This course is designed to prepare teachers for Classical High Schools. To he admitted to the Freshman Class, a student must possess a thorough knowledge of Geography. Knglish, Grammar. Ruth C. Fox Palmyra. Pa. 19 3 1 Arithmetic, Elements of Algebra. History of thcUnited States, Latin und Greek Grammar, Caesar (two hooks). Virgil (four hooks of the Acncid), Greek Reader, and two hooks of the Anabasis. The fol-I o w i n g are the studies of the several classes: Frksiimf.n First Term Anabasis Sallust and Ovid Higher Algebra Rhetoric Second Term Iliad Livy Geometry I Five Hooks) Zoology or Hotanv Sophomores First Term Memoruhilia Cicero Geometry Completed General History Second Term Herodotus Horace Trigonometry ami Surveying Chemistry Juniors First Term Select Plays of Sophocles Juvenal Conic Selections and Analytical Geometry Geology Second Term Select Plays of Euripedes Tacitus Astronomy Differential and Integral Calculus Twenty