Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-06-14
New Series, Vol. 20, No. "a.
The proprietors stuck to their work

The prOprietOrs stuck to their worl
through evil as well as through good re
port; and held up the hands of the teach
ers from the beginning till they had t,
put off their armor The last one, Jan,
D. McNeely, died within the curren
year, in the SUth year of her age. Eacl
one OF these paid toward this expert
ment fol the improvement of the public
schools, either directly or indirectly
more than Sl0,000-two of them a great
deal more.
The chief obstacle to the accomplish,
ment Of the thoroughly professional
work at which they aimed, consisted in
the impossibility of securing, controlling
and maintaining, without legislative CO.
operation, model practice school
City normals are not, and cannot be-
criterion for a school for the training
of teachers for ungraded, mixed country
schools. In graded city schools the class
es in each department are few. The
number in each class is always sufficient
to excite interest, to enable the teacher
to awaken animation and emulation.
The supreme government is with the
superintendent, and the teacher in each
room is always relieved from the respon-
sibility of grading and classifying and
governing. If she be wide awake and
thoroughly drilled in the academic stud
les that belong to her room, she is safe
This is not picture of the lot and the
labor of the country teacher.
There are thousands - perhaps ten
thousand schools in the single State of
Ohio, which do not average the year
round twenty pupils each. These are of
all ages and sizes and grades. They
have to be divided into perhaps ten
classes. 1t requires even kindergarten
Ingenuity to awaken an interest, and
get up any enthusiasm in such classes.
The whole responsibility of classifying
and governing devOlves upon the teach
er. All of this and more she has to bear
unaided, and most likely without the
countenance and encouragement of a
single one of the officers, or the parents.
Then follow dozen recitations in, per-
haps, as many different studies; and she
goes home at night sad and discouraged
and weary, because she has had no pro-
fesSional training for her work; and with
her it must be all hap-haZard. She pass
es restless night and goes back in the
morning to try again, until she finally
wears herself into some habits which will
make the work easier for herself, wheth-
er it will be any better for the children
or not. This is not fancy sketch. This
is true picture of thousands of schools
and of thousands of teachers, doing the
very best they can, to whom we must
pay and do pay millions of money every
year for their services in the country
district schools.
The only possible remedy which these
devoted and benevolent women were
able to devise, with all their toll and ex-
penSe, was in the establishment of per-
feet model practice schools, under the
absolute control of teachers who are
adopts in the work, and who shall have
the power to call to the platform, as Of
ten as may be necessary, the advanced
aoTd them he All afSbb8ffe Sbb8ffeffPyp ffPyprt1fRRtu to RRa
and practice his methods. A normal
school for the training of teachers for the
country districts, without this profess
iOnal department in good working order
all the time, is misnomer. All of this
was plain to the proprietors of Hopedale
school thirty years ago.
They struggled long and hard to Sc
cure their ideal. They erected at their
own expense a model practice school
building, sufficient for one hundred chill |
1ren, with glass partitions to afford the
necessary observation, and supplied it
with all necessary furniture and apparG-
tus. The Board of Education consented
to the occupancy of this building for q
few years on condition of a joint control
and joint expense. But the partner
ship finally became unsatisfactory, and
unmanageable. The want of absolute |
control, and the want of sufficient funds
to pay perfect teacher, were insur-
difficulties. By economical
the academical department |
could be made self-supporting; but
the proprietors, after expending so
much in building, fitting up and fur
nishing one of the most beautiful school
in Ohio, sufficient for one hum
1red and fifty normal school pupils, did
not feel justified in incurring an addi-
tional perpetual drain of, perhaps $25OO
4 year for the sake of securing the abso-
ute control of the practice school, a.
though they regarded that as indispen-
sable to the perfection of their work.
They made several appeals to the Leg
stature to tide them over this difficulty,
but to no purpose. They even proposed
TO deed the entire property to the State,
80 as to open the way for the passage of
4 general law, in order to secure this OBJ
ect; but all failed The Legislature of
Ohio seems to have no sympathy with
normal schools.
There was now no recourse but to
make the elementary academical work
IS thorough as possible, and fall back
upon the plan of delivering lectures upon
Theory and Practice" Nobody sup
poses that any other business in life
ean be learned by listening to lectures
upon the way to do it.
The good fortune, however, that for
many years has attended the proprietors
IN their selection of teachers for both the
and professional departments
mas, in the face of all the hlndrance7,
made Hopedale Normal College an in
for good to the public
schools, second to no other institution
n the State.
The one of those public spirited wom
IN who lived longest to witness and to
enjoy the fruit of her labor, and to i'm
press her character and influence upon
he school and the community, passed
luietly and peacefully to rest on the 10th
If April last, satisfied that with all the
lindrances and defects it was, perhaps,
he very best appropriation she could
nave made of the time and money she
devoted to it.
Ohio will surely yet have a Legislature
hat will be willing to second the enter
Prise of such women for the benefit of
he country district schools.
THE Mills bill has become the finest