The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-07-10

The report of the Legislative Com
mittee on the condition of the State
Normal school was sent to Governor
John Walter Smith on Monday. The
committee is composed of Messrs.
Straus, Watts, Biggs and Kerr and
was appointed by the request of Mr..
Finzel, of Garrett. last winter during
the session of the Legislature. As a
matter of public interest we give the
following synopsis of their findings;
The report is a severe arraignment
of the conduct of the Normal School
both by the State Board of Education
and the principal and faculty. The
methods of both are severely criti-
cised The report covers 100 pages of
typewriter matter.
The report embraces thorough in
vestigation of the subject of normal
education in its various branches and
subjects, the organization, manage
ment and curriculum of the Maryland
State Normal School.
The committee has examined a
large number of witnesses, including
all the members of the faculty OF the
school and leading school examiners
and officials from various parts of the
State. Besides this it has inspected
the buildings and classrooms of the
Normal School, its library, laborator-
les and other accommodations; has
visited the classes and examined a
great many of the examination papers
assigned to the respective classes and
the answers of members of each class
to such examinations.
A careful investigation was also
made by the committee of the organ
ization and administration Of normal
schools in the United States. The re-
port is comprehensive and thorough.
Every feature of the school has been
fully explored. The investigation
covers the plan of the school, its
standard of admission, its curriculum,
the proceedings of the faculty, the de-
gree of care and supervision exercised
over it by the State Board of Educa-
ton, which is, by law, its Board OF
Trustees; the finances, discipline and
especially the pedagogic features of
the school. Upon all of these points
1, ,+ ie q Vro mont nf
the school.
The indictment made against it by
the committee embraces counts upon
all the points mentioned. The main
charge in the report is that the Nor
NAL School is not normal school at
all; that it is not performing the func-
tions of normal education, as pre-
scribed by the statute and as estab-
lished by the usage of normal schools
elsewhere. 1t points out that the
school is not fulfilling the purposes for
which it was created. This is shown
at length by the inferior standard OF
education in the institution and the
comparatively elementary scope and
character of its curriculum, by its
want of training or practice school
and department OF the science of
education and pedagogics.
The report says that the school has
been so characterized by many mem
bers of its faculty and by virtually all
of the examiners who have testified
before the committee.
The report then discusses extern
siyely the scope and functions of a
training or practice school for the
pupils of normal school; this sub
ject is extensively treated and it is
shown that the failure of the Mary
land Normal School to embrace a
training or practice school deprives it
of the character of a normal institu-
ton. The want of a department in
the science of pedagogics, including
courses in the philosophy and psychol-
ogy of education. the art of school
government and discipline and child
study is next pointed out. The re-
port then, on this point, continues as
follows:
In the light of the facts above set
forth-namely, that the State Normal
School as now administered and con-
Quoted has
First-No training or practice
school.
Second-A school, nominally for
observation, but in reality worthless
in that respect.
Third-No department in the sci
ence of education, including
(a) The psychology of education.
(b) The philosophy of education.
(c) The history of education.
(d) Child-study, and
(e) The art of governing classes; but