V. NORMAL AND MODEL SCHOOLS OF UPPER CANADA.

AT TORONTO.

L. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT.

THE earliest presentation of the necessity of special provision for the training of teachers in a public system of elementary schools in this Province, was made by Dr. Charles Duncombe, in a "Report to the Parliament of Upper Canada, in February, 1836," as chairman of a Commission appointed in the House of Assembly in 1835. In this report, he urges, that "schools for the education of teachers should be immediately established and supported out of a fund to be permanently appropriated for this purpose." In a bill for a public act, appended to the Report, provision is made "for the support of four schools for the education and qualification of teachers-three for males, and one for females." The bill provides for an experimental garden attached, to one or more district schools in each town, for the use of the teacher, and the profit and instruction of the pupils. To strengthen the conclusions of the Report, and the provisions of the bill, the author appends in full, "the Report of a Committee of the Regents of the University of New York on the Education of Common School Teachers," drawn up by John A. Dix, in 1835, then Superintendent of Schools; also extracts from a Report of Alexander A. Everett, as Chairman of the Committee on Education in the House of Representatives in Massachusetts, on the same subject, to which was appended a communication by Dr. Julius, of Prussia, on the Teachers' Seminaries of that country. The Report with its voluminous Appendix was widely circulated, but no immediate legislative action followed on account of the political agitations of the province.

In 1840, a committee consisting of Rev. Dr. McCaul, Rev. H. J. Grasett, and S. B. Harrison, appointed by Sir George Arthur, Lieutenant Governor, to inquire into the state and improvement of education, recommended the establishment of Normal and Model Schools, as well as of School Libraries.

In 1841, a system of common schools was adopted by the Parliament of United Canada, with an annual grant of £200,000 for its support, in which permission was given for the establishment of Normal, and county and city Model Schools; and the Deputy Superintendent for Canada West in 1843, in his report to the Chief Superintendent, remarks that "Normal Schools are eagerly sought after to qualify teachers for their arduous and important duties."

In December, 1843, a separate school Act passed for Upper Canada, in

which the contingency of a Normal School was provided for. This Act was superseded by another in 1844, under which the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, D. D., was appointed Superintendent, who in 1846, submitted a Report on a System of Public Elementary Instruction for Upper Canada,”—which is the foundation of the excellent system now in operation. In this report, Dr. Ryerson remarks: "There can not be good schools without good teachers; nor can there be, as a general rule, good teachers, any more than good mechanics, or lawyers, or physicians, unless persons are trained for the profession. It is now universally admitted that Seminaries for the training of teachers are absolutely necessary for an efficient system of public instruction-nay, as an integral part, as the vital principle of it." These positions are fortified by the opinions and arguments of Guizot, Cousin, Bache, Stowe, and Mann, and the experience of France, Prussia, Holland, and several of the United States.

After ten years of agitation, the public mind was now ripe for liberal action, and in June, 1846, the annual sum of £1,500 was granted in support of a Normal School.

II. THE NORMAL SCHOOL FOR UPPER CANADA

The Normal School for Upper Canada, was opened in the Government House, Toronto, on the 1st of November, 1847-under an appropriation, by the Legislature of $6,000 for furnishing suitable buildings, and an annual grant of an equal amount for the support of the school. The school having proved entirely successful and outgrown its accommodation, the Legislature in 1850 and 1852 appropriated $100,000 for new and enlarged premises and suitable equipments, with an annual grant of $10,000 for its expenses.

The institution consists of a normal school and two model schools (one each for boys and girls;) the normal school is the school of instruction by lecture, the model school the school of instruction by practice. The one hundred and fifty students in the former are teachers-in-training, whose ages vary from sixteen or eighteen to thirty, while the hundred and fifty pupils in each of the latter are children between the ages of five and sixteen years. In the normal school, the teachers-in-training are instructed in the principles of education and the best methods of communicating knowledge to the youth placed under their care-are "taught how to teach;" in the model schools they are taught to give practical effect to those instructions by teachers previously trained in the normal school, and under the direction of the head master. The model schools are designed, both by the system of instruction pursued and general arrangement, to be the model for all the public schools in Upper Canada.

The principal general regulations for admission of the students to the normal school are as follows:

I. No male student shall be admitted under eighteen years of age, or a female student under the age of sixteen years. 1. Those admitted must produce a certificate of good moral character, dated within at least

three months of its presentation, and signed by the clergyman or minister of the religious persuasion with which they are connected. 2. They must be able, for entrance into the junior division, to read with ease and fluency; parse a common prose sentence according to any recognized authority; write legibly, readily, and correctly; give the definitions of geography; have a general knowledge of the relative position of the principal countries with their capitals, the oceans, seas, rivers, and islands of the world; be acquainted with the fundamental rules of arithmetic, common or vulgar fractions, and simple proportion. They must sign a declaration of their intention to devote themselves to the profession of school-teaching, and state that their object in coming to the normal school is to qualify themselves better for the important duties of that profession.

II. Upon these conditions, candidates for school-teaching will be admitted to the advantages of the institution without any charge, either for tuition, the use of the library, or for the books which they may be required to use in the school.

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III. Teachers-in-training must board and lodge in the city, in such houses and under such regulations as are approved of by the council of public instruction.

IV. A sum at the rate of one dollar per week (payable at the end of the session,) will be allowed to each teacher-in-training who, at the end of the first or second session, shall be entitled to either a first or second class provincial certificate; but no teacher-in-training shall be entitled to receive aid for a period exceeding one session, and no resident of Toronto shall be entitled to receive aid.

V. The continuance in the school of the teachers-in-training is conditional upon their diligence, progress, and observance of the general regulations prescribed. Each session to be concluded by an examination conducted by means of written questions and answers.

Course of Instruction for Second Class Certificate in Junior Division. ENGLISH.-Read prose with correct emphasis, intelligence, and inflection of

voice.

Rules of Spelling (spelling-book superseded.)

General principles of the philosophy of Grammar.

Analyze and parse any prose sentence.

Principal Greek and Latin Roots, Prefixes and Affixes.

Prose Composition on any simple subject, with correct punctuation, &c.
WRITING. To write a bold rapid running hand.

GEOGRAPHY.-The relative positions of all the countries of the world, with their principal cities and physical features; the Islands; Hodgins' Geography of Canada; Mathematical and Physical Geography, as taught in Sullivan's "Geography Generalized."

HISTORY.-General History of the World, from the Creation to the present time, as sketched in fifth book of lessons.

Chronological Chart.

ART OF TEACHING.-The general principles of the science of Education— General plan of School organization-Practice of teaching as exemplified in Junior divisions of the Model School.

MUSIC.-Hullah's System.
BOOK-KEEPING.-The Rudiments.

ARITHMETIC AND MENSURATION.-Notation, Numeration, Fundamental Rules in different scales of Notation, Greatest Common Measure. Least Common Multiple, Prime Numbers, Fractions, (Vulgar and Decimal,) Proportion (Simple and Compound,) Practice, Percentage (including Simple Interest, Insurance, Brokerage, &c.,) Square and Cube Roots, Mensuration of Surfaces, and Mental Arithmetic.

ALGEBRA.-Definitions, Addition, Substraction, Multiplication and Division. Use of Brackets, Decomposition of Trinomials, Resolution into Factors, Involution, Square of Multinomials, Expansion of (a + b)n, Evolution, Greatest Common Measure, Least Common Multiple, Fractions, Interpretation of Symbols .0, a,

0 ∞, and Simple Equations.

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NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.-Properties of Matter, Statics, Hydrostatics, Dy. namics, and Hydrodynamics, Human Philosophy.

Course of Instruction for Ordinary First Class Certificate in Senior Division.

ENGLISH.-Read Poetry and Oratorical Addresses with fluency and expres sion-Principles of Reading-Science of Language-General Grammar-Analysis and Parsing of Sentences in Prose and Verse-Changes of construction. Structure of Propositions and Sentences. Etymology-Changes effected in Roots.

Correct letter-writing, as regards Composition and mechanical arrangement. Composition on any given subject.

History of the Origin and Literature of the English Language.

GEOGRAPHY.-Use of the Globes (Keith)-Geography of England, Ireland, Scotland, and the United States-British Colonies (Hodgins) Rudiments of Physical Geography-(Somerville)-Structure of the Crust of the Earth. HISTORY.-Histories of England and Canada.

Philosophy of History.

ART OF TEACHING. The science of Education applied to the Teaching of Common Schools-Methods of teaching the different branches-Practice thereof with Senior division, Model School-Organization of Central Schools-Dimen sions and structure of School-houses-Furniture and Apparatus.

MUSIC.-Hullah's System.

DRAWING.-Facility in making perspective outline sketches of common objects. BOOK-KEEPING.-Single and Double Entry.

ARITHMETIC AND MENSURATION.-Review past subjects of Junior Division— Discount, Fellowship, Barter, Equation of Payments, Profit and Loss, Alliga tion, Compound Interest, Annuities, Position, Progression, Logarithms and Applications, Intellectual Arithmetic, Mensuration of Surfaces and Solids.

ALGEBRA.-Review past subjects of Junior Division, Indices, Surds, Quadratic Equations, Indeterminate Equations, Arithmetical, Geometrical and Harmonical Progression, Ratio, Proportion, Variation, Permutations, Combinations, Binomial Theorem, Notation, Decimals, Interest, &c., Properties of Numbers, Continued Fractions, Exponential Theorem, Logarithms, Algebraic Series, Cubic and Biquadratic Equations.

EUCLID.-Books III, IV, VI and Definitions of Book V., Exercises on Six Books (Potts.)

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.-Heat, Light, Electricity, Galvanism, Magnetism, Optics and Acoustics, Vegetable Physiology, General View of Geology.

CHEMISTRY.-Constitution of Matter, Chemical Nomenclature, Symbols, Laws of Combination, Chemical Affinity, Crystallization, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Carbon, Sulphur Phosphorus, Chlorine, Calcium, Aluminum, Silicon, Potassium, Sodium, Iodine, Manganese, Magnesium, Iron, Lead, Fluorine and their princi pal compounds, Nature of Soils, of Organic Bodies, Germination of the Seed, Development of the Plant, Source of Carbon, Hydrogen and Nitrogen, &c., in Plants, Products of Vegetable growth, Woody Fibre, Gum Starch, Sugar, Gluten, &c., Cultivation of Plants, Composition and Formations of Soils, Mineral Constituents of Plants, Action of Manures, &c.

Additional Qualifications for honor First Class Provincial Certificate.

I. Each candidate to have held an ordinary First Class 'Certificate for one year.

II. To give evidence of having been a successful teacher.

III. To stand an examination in the following subjects, in addition to those necessary for an ordinary First Class Certificate, viz. :

1. English History and Literature.

2. Canadian History and Geography.

3. Outlines of Ancient and Modern History and Geography.

4. Latin Grammar; and Books IV, V, and VI, of Cæsar's Commentaries. 5. Outlines of Geography and Astronomy.

6. Science of Teaching, School Organization, Management, &c.

7, Logic, and Mental and Moral Philosophy (Whately and Stewart.)
8. Algebra-General Theory of Equations, Imaginary Quantities.
9. Euclid-Books XI and XII.

0. Trigonometry, as far as Solution of Plane Triangles (Colenso.)

11. Inorganic Chemistry (Gregory's Hand-Book.)

12. The principles of Book-Keeping, Music, and Drawing.

III. SUPERANNUATED OR WORN OUT TEACHERS' FUND.

The Legislature in 1854, established a Fund in aid of superannuated and worn out Common School Teachers, by appropriating £4,000 a year for this purpose.

Regulations adopted by the Council of Public Instruction, April 28, 1854. Every teacher engaged in teaching since 1854, in order to be entitled, when he shall have become superannuated, to share in this fund, must contribute towards it at the rate of five dollars per annum, commencing with 1854, and at the rate of four dollars per annum for the current year; and no teacher now engaged in teaching shall be entitled to share in this fund who shall not thus contribute to it annually. But the amount of the annual subscriptions for the years during which such teacher may have taught before the first day of January, 1854, and for which he may hereafter claim as a superannuated teacher, may be deducted from the first year's pension to which such teacher may be entitled. 2. Should any teacher, having a wife and children, subscribe to this fund, and die without deriving any benefit from it, the amount of his subscriptions, and whatever may accumulate thereon, shall be paid to his widow or children, as soon as satisfactory proofs of his decease, and the relationship of the claimant or claimants to him, shall have been adduced.

3. No teacher shall be eligible to receive a pension from this fund who shali not have been disabled from further service while teaching a Common School, or who shall not have been worn out in the work of a Common School Teacher. 4. All applications, according to the prescribed form, accompanied by the requisite certificates and proofs, must be made before the first of April, in order to entitle the applicants to share in the fund for such year.

5. In case the fund shall at any time not be sufficient to pay the several claimants the highest sum permitted by law, the fund shall be equitably divided among the several claimants, according to their respective periods of service.

6. The amounts of all subscriptions to this fund, and of any unexpended balances of Legislative Grants made to it, may be invested, from time to time, under the direction of this Council; and the interest accruing thereon shall be expended in aid of Superannuated Teachers of Common Schools in Upper Canada, according to these regulations. All annual subscriptions to this fund must be made before the end of the year for which they are intended; and all7. Communications and Subscriptions in connection with this fund, must be made to the Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada. (Subscriptions to be sent in as early in the year as possible.