Now You See It, Now You Don't!
TellzAll's subject for August is Normal Schools
Prior to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there were very few formal requirements in place for someone who wanted to become a teacher in the United States. Most teachers graduated from the equivalent of the eighth grade and, as high schools became more common, held a high school diploma. From one school district to the next, expectations for teachers varied significantly. Unlike today, teachers rarely went to college for additional training and were not taught how to teach others. As a result, the quality of teaching fluctuated from one school to the next.
In the decades that followed the American Civil War, states became more and more interested in regulating education standards. State legislatures began to pass laws that determined what requirements were necessary to earn a high school diploma, as well as eventually requiring children under a certain age to attend school. Legislatures also created new requirements for teachers, in order to improve the quality of educational instruction. States began to charter teacher training schools, known as normal schools, in order to obtain this goal.
The first normal school in the United States was in Massachusetts and opened in 1839, while the first one west of the Appalachian Mountains was the Michigan State Normal School, which opened in 1853. Most were founded in the second half of the 1800s. Students who trained at these schools usually went on to teach in primary schools in the state in which the normal school was located. The schools provided two years of educational training to their prospective teachers.
Many other countries also had normal schools—in fact, normal schools had their origins in Europe, where countries like France, the Netherlands, and Prussia had begun around 1700. Eventually, countries in Latin America also opened their own normal schools.
Today, very few countries still have normal schools. In the United States, normal schools evolved into four-year colleges and universities. Throughout the twentieth century, educational standards for American teachers continued to improve. As a result, states required teachers to have at least a Bachelor of Arts degree, and sometimes a Master's degree, in order to teach in public schools. The normal schools changed with the times and eventually began offering courses in subjects other than education, making them appealing other types of students as well. Many smaller state colleges and universities got their start as normal schools.
