Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice Schools of the Tri-Counties Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction for PA - 1902

Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction Pennsylvania - 69th Annual School Report Nathan C. Shaeffer - State Superintendent of Public Instruction Andrew Thomas Smith - Princiapal, Mansfield Normal School Year: 1902 Book Purchased  for Site Presentation by: Joyce M. Tice Retyped for Tri-Counties by Sheri Graves Tri-County Genealogy & History Sites Home Page How to Use This Site Warning & Disclaimer Souvenir School Booklets No Unauthorized Commercial Use Say Hello to Joyce  See Also - 1889 Superintendent's Reports

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Andrew Thomas Smith, Principal.

I have the honor to submit to you at this time the report of the Normal School of the Fifth District for the past year. Much encouragement is found in the fact that, along practically every line, we can note substantial progress. The enrollment for the past year was 650; of these, 138 were in the model school, and 512 in the Normal School. As an evidence of what the school is doing to encourage advanced learning in this community, we report thirty-one post graduates in attendance here during the past year, besides the representatives we have in a very large number of colleges throughout the land.

That our best effort is not all spent upon the advanced classes is seen by the following statement of one of our recent examiners: “Your classes were much better prepared this year than two years ago. There is no doubt that the work is stronger and better correlated. I never saw anything like the evenness of the class and the unanimity of the board.”

During the coming year, Prof. Hamlin E. Cogswell, now of Syracuse, N.Y. will return to the charge of music in the Normal School. Under his able direction, made even more valuable now than formerly because of his years of active service in the public schools, we shall use every means in our power to encourage those who show suitable talent, to fit themselves as special teachers of public school music.

In compliance with the request of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, I add herewith a statement of the plan of conducting our model school and an opinion of its merits.

Beginning with the fall term of 1899, our model school was opened to such children of the town as might elect to attend it. The limit was fixed at 100 children, and almost immediately the requests ran beyond the limit. The next year our borough school directors voted us a small fee, to cover running expenses, for such children as might choose the model school rather than the borough school. The limit was fixed by them at 100 children; again the requests exceeded the limit and a few more were admitted. The same thing was true during the past year. These facts are stated to show the local popularity of the model school. During the past three years not one child, having enrolled in the model school, has withdrawn to the town school.

For the year 1902-3, the school directors have agreed to give us all the children of the first six grades—perhaps the seventh grade also—and to educate those of the higher grades in their own school. This is an outgrowth of the immediate past, in which their lower grades, as well as those of our model school, were each small, thus entailing a large expense without rendering the work in any sense better than it could be made with a smaller money outlay. This plan will give us about 150 children, for whom the town directors pay tallies. Besides this number, we shall have a pay kindergarten, which will probably number twenty-five children.

Some disadvantage is likely to be felt in the fact of our not having the higher grade pupils for our seniors to work with; on the other hand, having six grades, each about as large as the average rural school of this community, will at once appear as a great improvement over the former condition of small groups. Practically all of the philosophy of instructing can be worked out in the first six school years, while the problems of discipline are likely to be sufficiently varied for an apprenticeship because they will be carried through the age of thirteen years.

Other practice teachers work at least forty-five minutes per day, in the model school, during practically the entire year. A very small, but irregular, portion of this is sent in observation. Their work is directed and criticised by two critic teachers, who arrange the general scheme, pass upon the practice teacher’s detailed plan, and supervise its execution; but who do not teach in any department with regularity. Vocal music, drawing and gymnastics are supervised by the specialists in those arts in the Normal School.

Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

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