The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-03-09

do well enough without that depart
ment. But the normal department is
different thing. Close that and we
would have no public training institu-
ton for teachers. The normal depart
ment has been for SC. many years a dis
tinctive feature of the University that
it has become an integral part OF it.
But ii is claimed that ''the normal de-
partment of the University is not doing
much good, and might as well be sus-
pended for a time. for the reason that
students so into it with insufficient
groundwork in the rudiments TO make
a special training to be teachers of any
real service to them; that such stu
dents would be far better in the grades
or high schools of the cities two or
three years until their grasp of elemen-
tary education became less infirm. The
claim is, in fact, that we are not yet
ready for a normal course that will
yield much practical good
That must have originated with
some one who is not acquainted fully
with the facts. The normal depart
ment has been doing a great deal of
good. 1t has prepared a large number
of young men and women for the posi-
ton of teachers in the public schools
They have thus learned to be efficient,
systematic and practical pedagogues
The benefits of this to the territory
must therefore be considerable, and
they can easily be understood. 1t is
better to train home talent than to be
compelled to import it.
1t is a mistake to say that the nor
NAL students enter the University with
insufficient groundwork in the rudi-
ments.' The examination required of
normal students is, we understand, on
a par with that demanded in the best
normal institutions in the various
states. There are four instructors in
the normal department of the Univer-
|sity of Utah who graduated from some
of the best normal training schools in
the country; to-wit. that at Oswego,
New York, and that of Cook county
in Chicago. They are reported as stat
ing that the requirements of normal
students here are as high as there
The courses of study. too are equiva-
lent to those of eastern establishments
of similar character The students
are as far advanced when they grad
uate here as if they had graduated
there. DR.. MiIlspaugh, it is alleged,
has admitted that the normal gradu-
ates Of the University are among his
best teachers in this city, and that they
compare favorably with graduates from
normal institutions in the east
Thus it will be seen that the points
we have quoted from our neigbor are
not well taken. And that we really are
now ready for a normal course that
will yield much practical good,' has
been demonstrated almost beyond ques-
ton by practical experience. The reas-
ons advanced, therefore, for dispensing
with the normal department are, like
the proposed shrunken appropriation,
entirely insufficient
If the normal department is contin-
ued, as in our opinion it ought to be,
the preparatory department might as
well go on as not. The same professors
that conduct the normal can instruct
the preparatory, and the saving in dis
pensing with the latter would be only
the salary Of one preceptor.
The two hundred normal students
who receive training to become teach
ers are needed for our district schools,
and it would be very poor policy and
also false economy, in our opinion, to
stop that beneficial adjunct to the Uni
versity. Utah is trying to revive the
establishment and support of home in
dustries. Is it not just as wise to pro-
duce our own school teachers as to raise
our own food and make our own cloth
ing? Why should we import pedagog-
ues when we can train them from
among our own people at home?
For the support of the normal de-
partment for the next two years let
that additional $4,000 be appropriated,
and then leave it to the Board of Reg
ents whether the preparatory depart
ment shall be continued Do not de-
stroy the normal department and do
not force the University to close its
doors against everybody.