Life in the 1880's
Teacher Education and the Normal School Movement In Indiana Timothy Crumrin Though many felt that teachers were born, not made, the Midwest was also home to a coterie of progressive educators who believed in teaching pedagogy (the art and science of teaching). This idea led to the growth of "Normal," or teacher education, schools and colleges. In Indiana, the "official" normal school was Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute. ISNS was founded in 1865, but did not open its door until 1870. Other, private normal schools such as Central Indiana Normal School in Ladoga and Central Indiana Normal College in Danville also existed. Normal schools sprouted across the nation between 1870 to 1890. Normal schools rose upon the tide of thought that believed teaching was a "science" which could be taught and learned just as any other science. This was diametrically opposite the view held by many who felt teaching was an inborn faculty or talent, or that no formal teacher training was necessary. Many who esposed this view were precisely those who pushed young, untrained teachers, unprepared for their daunting, into country schoolrooms. Even the Superintendent of Iowa Schools did not think teacher training indispensable to classroom success, but instead pointed to what he considered the four primary characteristics needed to teach: knowledge of subject, uprightness of character, a desire to improve, and common sense. Untrained teachers and their quality (or lack thereof), though, were the major complaint issued against rural schools by the "educational establishment." One Wisconsin school committee claimed that "poor teachers.... are the bane of the rural school." Officials at ISNS saw teacher education as a "logical necessity." These differing views notwithstanding, it is obvious that there was often a wide gulf between the quality of education offered rural students and their city cousins. | |
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