New-York tribune., 1898-01-23
NORNAL SCHOOL SCHEMES.

When n county seat or a country town wants
an appropriation and sees no other way 10 get
il a discovery Is made that hundreds OF young
people needed as teachers in our public schools
have no opportunity to secure the necessary
training and that the good Of the State requires
the erection of some handsome buildings in the
immediate neighborhood Of the village in ques-
ton and the establishment of an institution
which will make the local grocers and butchers
happy through many long years. II is always
lust one moro that is needed. Last year 1t was
Jamaica. Now it is Lyons or Geneva Next
year II will he nobody knows what. And so
unless halt is called the appropriations VIII go
on until the State will be dotted with normal
schools, one to every county or perhaps every
Assembly district and the country oyerrun with
people unable to earn livelihood at anything
but teaching, and having nobody TO teach but
one another.
There are already twelve normal schools in
the State, not counting any of the several in
stltutions for the training Of teachers in Brook
lyn and Manhattan, and four Of them have been
established since 1885, They are widcly scat
tered and no community is unrcasonably dis
tant from one. More pupils graduated from
them now than can readily find empoymelt in
the schools OF the State, and any addition 10 the
normal school plant simply means an assump-
ton by the State Of new share in the work of
general secondary education under the guisc of
training teachers. The normal school is looked
upon in most rural communities as an academy
supported by the State and thus relieving the
inhabitants Of the burden Of maintaining high
school by taxation or an institute by private
enterprise The believers in the old academies
which were once so popular and prosperous in
almost every good sized town held the normal
schools responsible for their decay. Doubtless
1t was case of survival Of the fttest, and yet
there are some who hold that the academies
would have developed to meet modern educa-
tional needs, and that they lost support not so
much because Of inferiority as because those
who sought secondary education with no idea
Of teaching could get it practically from the
public treasury without having to support a
school Of their own. However that may be- the
fact remains that the normal schools of to-day
are college preparatory schools and young wom-
ems semlnaries only in less degree than they
are teachers training schools. The competition
with private and local institutions may be dis
regarded. If they are hurt it Is their own look
out, SO long as the general good is promoted
The question Of policy in thus embarking the
State upon a system OF high school keeping
cannot, however, be So easily passed over. Par
ticularly is this true when the Controller is rails
ing the alarm over the extravaganza OF govern
ment.
Lyons, which appears to have the stronger pull
for the proposed appropriation is only about
forty miles from Brockport where there is now
n normal school, and they are OH the same rail
road line 1t Is accessible to Geneseo and Oswe.
20 where are other normals and Buffalo is only
little further off. Geneva is not much worse
off than Lyons In normal accommodations.
Prosperous academies exist in several towns OF
both Wayne and Ontario counties, which ought
= be more prosperous and corrcspondingly
more excellent If the real demand for secondary
education in that region Is so great rs TO re-
uuire n State institution to supply IT. Certainly
no more teachers are needed Superintendent
Skinner is reported to dsapprove of the scheme,
but 1t Is also reported that Governor Black
favors It. This is much to be doubted The
Governor recently took occasion TO crltcisc the
expensive palaces built by the State. ostensi-
lily for public purposes. really to fatter the
loo al pride of favored towns. The spirit
would naturally object to using the money of
the State at a time when general expenses are
So enormous and when great outlay for canal
improvements Is in prospect, for building up
n new institution for the benefit Of any com.
mrnity Let IL cut off some unnecessary COM
missions and reduce the budget to reasonable
limits before starting any new enterprises.