page_title: Normal school
section_title: 1863 - Kansas State Normal Schools, Kansas
hierarchical_section_title: Normal school / North and South America / United States / 1863 - Kansas State Normal Schools, Kansas
caption_attribution_description: English: Ellen Plumb and Mary J. Watson, first graduating class at the Kansas State Normal School (now Emporia State University)
context_page_description: A normal school is an institution created to train high school graduates to be teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. Most such schools, where they still exist, are now denominated "teacher-training colleges" or "teachers' colleges" and may be organized as part of a comprehensive university. Normal schools in the United States and Canada trained teachers for primary schools, while in continental Europe, the equivalent colleges educated teachers for primary, secondary and tertiary schools.
  In 1685, St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, founded what is generally considered the first normal school, the École Normale, in Reims, Champagne, France. The term "normal" herein refers to the goal of these institutions to instill and reinforce particular norms within students. "Norms" included historical behavioral norms of the time, as well as norms that reinforced targeted societal values, ideologies and dominant narratives in the form of curriculum.
  The first public normal school in the United States was founded in Concord, Vermont, by Samuel Read Hall in 1823 to train teachers.
context_section_description: In 1863, the Kansas Legislature passed an act to establish the Kansas State Normal Schools, starting with the first in Emporia, Kansas, which eventually became Emporia State University Teachers College. From 1870 through 1876, Leavenworth Normal School operated in Leavenworth, Kansas and from 1874 through 1876 Concordia Normal School operated in Concordia, Kansas, but the "miscellaneous appropriations bill of 1876" caused Leavenworth and Concordia to close and consolidated operations at the Emporia location. Other normal schools were opened in Kansas including in 1902 the Western Branch of the Kansas Normal in Hays, Kansas, eventually becoming Fort Hays State University. In 1904, a branch in Pittsburg, Kansas was opened as the Manual Training Auxiliary School, which eventually became Pittsburg State University.
caption: First graduating class at the Kansas State Normal School, 1867
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