On July 3, 1839, in Lexington, Massachusetts, Cyrus Peirce opened the first state normal school in America, and three students showed up. That room is the ancestor of every education school in the country. The episode traces the invention of teacher training from La Salle's seminary in Reims and Prussian models to Samuel Read Hall's Vermont school and Horace Mann's campaign.
Who's who
- Jean-Baptiste de La SalleCanon of Reims who opened a training house for schoolmasters in 1685
- Victor CousinFrench philosopher whose report on Prussian schools influenced American reformers
- Calvin Ellis StoweOhio professor whose 1837 report on European schooling reached Ohio districts
- Charles BrooksMassachusetts minister who campaigned for Prussian-style teacher seminaries
- Samuel Read HallVermont schoolmaster who opened a teacher-training school in 1823
- Horace Mann+4 more episodesFirst secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
- Edmund DwightBoston industrialist who offered $10,000 for normal schools
- Cyrus Peirce+1 more episodeFirst principal of the Lexington normal school
Where it happens
- Lexington, MassachusettsSite of the first state normal school, 1839
- Reims, FranceLa Salle's 1685 training house for schoolmasters
- Concord Corner, VermontHall's 1823 teacher-training school
- Normal, Illinois+1 more episodeTown that took its name from Illinois State Normal University
Timeline
- 1685La Salle opens a training house for country schoolmasters at Reims
- March 1823Samuel Read Hall opens a teacher-training school in Vermont
- Spring 1838Edmund Dwight offers $10,000 if the legislature matches it
- July 3, 1839First state normal school opens in Lexington with three students
- March 1840Massachusetts House votes down a proposal to abolish the Board and normal schools
- 1849-1862Normal schools spread to Connecticut, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, and California
Still debated
La Salle's Reims house is called the first normal school only retrospectively, and rival claimants exist. Historians also stress that Massachusetts normal schools were short-course and inspired by, not copied from, Prussian seminaries, and Hall's credit for inventing the blackboard is folklore.
