The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1906-06-06
NORMAL Department
Advocated for Establishment at
s. w. La. Industrial lnSti.
tute. DIR. Stephens Asks
the Support of News
papers.

DR.. Stephens has mailed the
following letter to the neWspa-
pers of Southwest Louisiana:
You will have noted in my BIZ
ennial report to the Governor and
the General Assembly that l re-
quest in addition to other
amounts for this Institute dur
ing the next two years a Sutfl-
Gent increase in funds for main
tenance to admit of the estab-
lishment of a course of study
for the training of teachers.
I took this step advisedly and
NOT until | had consulted many
prominent educators in the State.
including State Supt. Aswcll,
Pres. Boyd, Pres. Caldwell. PrOfs.
Bennett, Keeny, Harris and 9th
ers. and without exception these
gentlemen expressed cordial ap-
prOval of the plan, most OF them
ever deeming it a positive neces-
sity because the State needs 700
teachers a year and has to import
nearly 600 of these or else accept
unframed teachers.
It will be a very simple thing
to add such a curse of study to
those we now have in the Insti-
tute. 1t is not as if we proposed
to establish a new institution.
Every member of the Faculty we
now have will be a teacher OF
those students who take the
course for the training OF teach
ers. All we need for the course
is one strong Professor OF Peda-
gogy and two or three teachers
to have charge of the classes OF
little children who form the
model school-where the pupil
teachers will have their opportu-
nifty for practice teaching" dur
ing a short period each day.
Such a step will be directly
in line with the original purpose
of this Institute, which is to give
practical education and so far as
possible enable young men and
women to be self-supporting
when they leave here. A very
large number of those who have
come here, or have applied to
come. have desired to become
teachers-but we have not as yet
received a sufficient maintenance
fund to admit of our providing
this course of study-withOut
sacrificing some. of the other
courses that were regarded as
necessary at the outset. We
now ask for a sufficient increase
of maintenance for this purpose,
however, and if it be granted, we
will establish the course ut once.
We are fully authorized to do so
under the law creating the Insti-
tute Act 1862 of 1893)-and are
even expressly required to give
Kindergarten instruction, but
have been unable tOdOsO as yetfOr
the reason stated above.
I feel sure that this recon-
mendation will meet with the
hearty approval of all the people
of Southwest Louisiana. Favor
able action upon it by the Cen
eral Assembly would mean a
great addition to your only State
institution-that is, in Southwest
Louisiana; it would afford in
creased facilities for the training
of teachers and also for all other
forms of education IN our Sec
ton.
Southwest Louisiana is en-
titled to the consideration asked
for. She pays one-third of all
the taxes of the State outside of
New Orleans; she has the largest
percentage of illiteracy in the
State, and therefore the greatest
need of schools and school teach
ers; she has never had any ap-
preparations of State funds be-
fore the establishing of this
school: Shreveport, Ruston.
Natchitoches, Alexandria. Baton
Rouge. Jackson. New Orleans
and other places have for decades
received large portions of public
money for their schools and hos.
pitfalls and asylums, but South
west Louisiana nothing till 1900;
and even then it was not until
the little town and nariSh of a.