Pittsburg State University - Kanza Yearbook (Pittsburg, KS)

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In 1903, when a State Manual Training Normal School at Pittsburg was proposed, it appeared that Kansas had had a state system of schooling for over 40 years, and that it was maintaining three state schools for teacher training. None of these institutions offered courses in manual training, and a definite lack of teachers in that field was felt. The bill providing for the establishment of an Auxiliary Manual Training School, a branch of the State Normal School at Em- poria, was passed in February, 1903, and in September of that same year, school was opened at Pittsburg with 54 students and five faculty members. “In order that none should be handicapped in procuring this education which the legislature has provided, the requirements for admission are very broad and liberal.” Any student who had graduated from the eighth grade of the common better, and who presented satisfactory character references, was to be admitted to the Normal School without examination. During the years 1905-1908 construction was begun on an administration building. While Principal R. S. Russ was debat- ing the question in the State House, he was jokingly fined a barrel of apples, so the school celebrated its first “Apple Day,” now an annual event, on March 8, 1905. The attempt to become an independent school resulted in the dismissal of Mr. Russ, the first principal, but the school continued in its steady growth. The ground- work had been laid, the path begun. In 1913 the long-awaited independence was granted and the name of the school became “Kansas State Manual Training Nor- mal School of Pittsburg.” schools or district schools of any county in the state with a grade of 80 per cent or Page 5