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Page 11 text:
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The Century that is Past: 100 Years of Service The act of 1865 of the General Assembly of Maryland providing a uniform system of free public schools for the State of Maryland and authorizing the establishment of a normal college for the training of public school teachers was the culmination of repeated demands over a period of forty-five years for better trained teachers and better educational facilities for the state. The act made it necessary for the State Board of Education to organize a state normal school. This school opened on January 15, 1866, in a building known as Red Men ' s Hall at 24 N. Paca Street, Baltimore, Maryland. There were eleven students present on the opening day — all of them but one from Baltimore City — and four faculty members — the principal and teachers of drawing, music, and calisthenics. The accomodations were extremely meager and in- appropriate, for they consisted only of one large hall, seventy by twenty-eight feet, and two small ante-rooms which did double duty as cloak and recitation rooms. M.A. Newell, in his first report to the State Department of Education, December 31, 1866, said: Such a number (One hundred anticipated before the close of the school year) can be seated comfortably in our hall, but they cannot be taught as efficiently as if we had access to three or four quiet and well-arranged classrooms. A model school, to be used primarily as a training center for the prospective teachers, was located in a rented house on Broadway, more than two miles away — a very serious inconvenience when there had to be daily communication between the two buildings. But the faculty and students accepted the discomforts and inconveniences and looked forward to better days. By the close of the year, June 8, 1866, there were forty-eight students on roll, one third of them from the counties; and there were sixteen graduates at the first commencement, four of them receiving diplomas as teachers of the grammar schools and twelve as teachers of the primary schools. Miss Sarah E. Richmond, beloved and honored for over half a century by teachers in the state, was one of these graduates. The diplomas were presented by Dr. Libertus Van Bokkelen, D.D., then State Superin- tendent of Education. In September 1866, three new members were added to the faculty: Miss Sarah E. Richmond became the vice- principal; Mrs. Mary Borgman was appointed principal of the Girls ' Model School and director of practice teach- ing; and Dr. A. Snowden Piggot became professor of the natural sciences. Before the Christmas holidays of ' 66 the enrollment had risen from forty-eight to seventy- one, and Professor Newell correctly prophesied that it would reach almost the one hundred mark by spring. The school closed with ninety-one pupils on roll. Professor Newell ' s annual reports to the state Depart- ment of Education, which are incorporated in the published reports of that body and may be read in the Maryland Room at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, are full of interesting and important facts about the growth of the school from year to year, the steady increase in enroll- ment, the changes and additions to the curricula, the additions to the faculty, and the plans for the future. But more than this they are a revelation of the ability and genius of the man himself, a nd of his enthusiasm and broad, genuine interest in public education. At the beginning in the Normal School there were two courses of instruction: an Academic Course for the preparatory and junior classes, and a Professional Course for the advanced students. In the former, there was a rapid review of such elementary subjects as spelling, reading, handwriting, arithmetic, geography, grammar, and history; and at first seniors studied (in addition to professional subjects) algebra, geometry, rhetoric, English literature, and the natural sciences. In the latter — the Professional Course — were included the following subjects: (1) a history of public schools and popular education; (2) the philosophy of mind; (3) teaching as an art; (4) methods of instruction; (5) classification, government, and dis- cipline; (6) the School Law of Maryland. Entrance re- quirements were flexible, and necessarily had to be so, since the standards of the district schools from which the Normal School drew its students varied. Prof. Newell ' s wisdom and his practical common sense are demonstrated no better anywhere than in this matter of admission of students. He felt that while it was desirable to have entrance requirements it would defeat the very purpose for which the Normal School was established to insist upon them too rigidly. If the district schools had done their best, then the Normal School must accept what they sent and do its best. Prof. Newell felt that as the teachers trained at the Normal School went back into the public school system, the standards would gradually be raised, and entrance requirements standards to the professional school would automatically be improved also. He looked forward, of course, to the time when the school would be able to devote itself exclusively to professional training and would discontinue the review courses. There were three sessi ons — a fall session which ran from the opening of school in September to Christmas holidays; a winter session from the holidays to spring; and a summer session (of the preparatory class only), beginning in April and ending in June. Prof. Newell was greatly disturbed by the living ac- comodations of the boarding students. He recognized the human needs of the students and he wanted a perman- ent building erected for them where they could feel at home. During the first years, students were placed in boarding homes at from S3. 00 to S5.00 a week, where they studied amid the distractions of a common family sitting room, with resulting handicaps in their studies. Prof. Newell felt that students away from home needed the sympathy and understanding which tljeir teachers could give them. So along with the agitation for better ac- commodations for the school he began agitation for dormi- tory accomodations for the students from the countries.
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Page 12 text:
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suggesting the practicability of a cooperative house under the supervision of the school where an experienced matron would be put in charge and the students could form one family, with proper facilities for reading and studying, and with appropriate and wholesome recreation. He suggested that at the rate of $3.50 a week the establishment could be self-supporting, provided the state paid the rent for the house. In addition to his recognition of such physical needs as those just described. Prof. Newell reveals in these annual reports his sound understanding of the educational needs of the state, his plans for their realization, and the energy with which he pursued goals he set up. All kinds of educational problems — the need for enlarging the op- portunities of the Model School as a practice center for teachers in training; the progressive dev elopment of the curriculum, with more emphasis gradually on the pro- fessional curriculum and less on the academic; in-service training of teachers throughout the state through a series of teachers ' institutes; the dearth of young men at the Normal School (and some what might now be considered quaint and interesting reflections on the preponderance of women in teaching); the urgency of larger appropria- tions both for the expansion of opportunities at the Normal School and for the improvement of the public school system of the state; teachers ' salaries; the raising of professional standards — all these problems and more are discussed in the annual reports which Prof. Newell made as principal of the Normal School even after he also became State Superintendent of Education. McFadden Alexander Newell Principal, 1866-1890
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