School for the
Teachers
AliThe founding of Michigan State Normal School is an important piece to Michigan history. Mentioned above, it was the sixth normal school in the United States, and when it was founded, Michigan was only in the teen’s year of being a state. Michigan State Normal College is very important to the structure of the educational system today in Michigan. Although there are some differences, there are also similarities tied to the curriculum of the future teachers which are similar to today’s curriculum. Michigan State Normal School has greatly impacted the educational system in Michigan. quam varius adipiscing
Article by: Kayla Zyngier
The curriculum also has some differences but yet some similarities. When Michigan State Normal College was first opened, they had four professors , they were Adonijah Strong Welch, Principal and Professor of Greek and Latin Languages; Abigail C. Rogers, Preceptress and Teacher of Botany and Belles-Lettres; Orson Jackson, Professor on Intellectual Philosophy; J.M.B. Sill, Teacher of English Grammar and Elocution (Leadership and Governance at EMU, 1). Although the number of professors has greatly increased, the subject criteria are still the same, but how did these professors know how to train future teachers? Before the first normal school was opened in the United States, Dr. C. E. Sow published a plan of the ideal curriculum of a normal school. This plan provided structure in subject areas which are the study of education as a science, teaching as a correlated art, the study of the mind in a philosophical form, the study of children and the childhood, study of educational history, importance of physical development, moral and religious structure and lastly intellectual culture. Schools however were authorized but not required to follow these guidelines but we can see from the required classes teachers need to take today, those guidelines were enforced.
Eastern Michigan University
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