The Principal of the Latin High School of Boston, in a letter written 1846, says,—

"There is no institution so truly republican as such a school as this. While we, the present teachers, were undergraduates of the school, the rich sent their sons to the school because it was the best that could be found. They ascertained that it was not a source of contamination, but that their boys learned here to compare themselves with others, and to feel the necessity of something more that mere wealth to gain consideration. At that time, poor men sent their sons hither because they knew that they here would get that education which they could afford to give them in no other way. They gained too by intercourse with their wealthier mates a polish of exterior manners, and an intellectual turn of mind which their friends could appreciate and perceive, although they could not tell what it was that had been acquired. Oftentimes also the poor boy would take the lead of his more pampered classmate, and take the honors of the school.

In a class lately belonging to the school were two boys, one the son of a man of extreme wealth, whose property cannot be less than $500,000; and the other the son of an Irish laborer employed by the city at a dollar a day to sweep the streets. The latter boy was the better scholar."

The Principal of the English High School in a letter writes,"The school under my charge is pricipally composed of what are called the middling classes of our city. At present, about one third of my pupils are sons of merchants; the remaining two thirds are sons of professional men, mechanics and others. Some of our best scholars are sons of coopers, lamplighters, and day laborers. A few years ago, he who ranked, the last year of his course, as our third scholar, was the son of a lamplighter, and worked three nights per week, during his whole course, to save his father the expense of books, &c., while at school. This year my second (if not the first,) scholar, is a cooper's son. We have several sons of clergymen of distinction and lawyers of eminence. Indeed, the school is a perfect example of the poor and the rich, meeting on common ground and on terms quite democratic."

The Principal of the High School for girls in Newburyport, writes, "The Female High School was established by the town of Newburyport nearly three years since, under great opposition. It was the desire of its principal advocates to make it such a school, in respect to the course of instruction, and facilities for acquiring knowledge, and laying the foundation for usefulness, as should so successfully compete with our best private schools, as to supersede their necessity."

"A few days after we were organized, a gentleman came into the schoolroom to make some inquiries respecting the classes of society most fully represented amongst us. I was totally unable to give him the desired information, and judging from the appearance of the individuals of my charge, I could form' no idea as to who were the children of poor parents, or of those in better circumstances. I mentioned the names of the parents of several, which I had just taken, and, amongst others, of two young ladies of seventeen or eighteen years of age, who, at that moment, it being recess, were walking down the room, with their arms closely entwined about each other's necks. The first of the two,' said the gentleman, 'is a daughter of one of our first merchants, the other has a father worse than none, who obtains a livelihood from one of the lowest and most questionable occupations, and is himself most degraded' These two young ladies were classmates for more than two years, and very nearly equal in scholarship. The friendship they have formed, I am confident no circumstances of station in life can ever impair.

"We have had in our number many from the best families, in all respects, in the place. They sit side by side, they recite, and they associate most freely with those of the humblest parentage, whose widowed mothers, perhaps, toil day after day, at a wash-tub, without fear of contamination, or, as I honestly believe, a thought of the differences which exist. I have, at present, both extremes under my charge-the child of affluence and the child of low parentage and deep poverty. As my arrangements of pupils in divisions, &c. are, most of them, alphabetical, it often happens that the two extremes are brought together. This never causes a murmur, or look of dislike.

A member of the School Committee of Worcester, Mass., writes: "Our High School is exceedingly popular with all classes, and in the schoolrooms and on the play-grounds, the children of the richest and poorest mingle with perfect equality. No assumption,-no jealousy are seen among them. I have been charmed with this republican and Christian character of the school. I have seen the children of parents whose wealth was estimated by hundreds of thousands, in the same school-room with children (and those last among the best scholars of their class) whose parents have been assisted year after year by individual charity. The manners, habits, and moral sentiments of this school are as pure and high as in any academy, or female seminary of the same grade in the commonwealth.

"To the improvements of our public schools, which has been going steadily forward since 1825, does this town owe more of its prosperity, its large accession of families from abroad, especially of industrious and skillful mechanics, than to all other causes combined. As a mere investment of capital, men of wealth everywhere cannot do better with a portion of their property than to build elegant and attractive school-houses, and open in them free schools of the highest order of instruction. They will then see gathering around them men, it may be, of small means, but of practical skill, and moral and industrious habits; that class of families who feel that one of the great ends of life is to educate their children well."

A correspondent from Brattleboro', Vt., writes:

"In the same school-room, seated side by side, according to age and attainments, are eighty children, representing all classes and conditions in society. The lad or miss, whose father pays a school tax of thirty-five dollars, by the side of another whose expense of instruction is five cents per annum. They play cordially and happily on the same grounds, and pursue the same studiesthe former frequently incited by the native superiority and practical good sense of the latter. While the contact corrects the factitious gentility and false ideas of superiority in the one, it encourages cleanliness and good breeding in the other."

The history of the High School in Providence is the history of almost every similar institution.

"The High School was the only feature of our system which encountered much opposition. When first proposed, its bearings on the schools below, and in various ways on the cause of education in the city, was not clearly seen. It was opposed because it was "aristocratic," "because it was unconstitutional to tax property for a city college," "because it would educate children above working for their support," "because a poor boy or girl would never be seen in it"-and for all such contradictory reasons. Before it became a part of the system, the question of its adoption, or rejection, was submitted directly to the people, who passed in its favor by a vote of two thirds of all the legal voters of the city. Even after this expression of popular vote in its favor, and after the building for its accommodation was erected, there was a considerable minority who circulated a petition to the City Council against its going into operation. But the school was opened, and now it would be as easy to strike out the whole or any other feature of the system as this. Its influence in giving stimulus and steadiness to the workings of the lower grade of schools,—in giving thoroughness and expansion to the whole course of instruction,-in assisting to train teachers for our city and country schools,-and in bringing together the older and more advanced pupils, of either sex, from families of every profession, occupation and location in the city, many of whom, but for the opportunities of this school, would enter on the business and duties of life with an imperfect education-has demonstrated its own usefulness as a part of the system, and has converted its opponents into friends."

Testimony of the same character might be adduced from Philadelphia, Lowell, New Orleans, and every place where a school of this grade has been established.

The growth and influence of a Public High School, when liberally sustained, is admirably illustrated in the history of the Central High School of Philadelphia.

NORMAL SCHOOLS, OR TEACHERS' SEMINARIES.

By a Normalt School, or Teachers' Seminary, is meant an institution for the training of young men and young women who aim to be teachers, to a thorough and practical knowledge of the duties of the school-room, and to the best modes of reaching the heart and intellect, and of developing and building up the whole character of a child. It aims to do for the young and inexperienced teacher, all that the direction and example of the master-workman, and all that the experience of the workshop do for the young mechanic-all that the naval and military schools do for those who lead in any capacity in the army or navy-all that the law school, or the medical school, or the theological seminary do for the professions of law, medicine, or theology. In every department of mechanical, artistic, or professional labor, the highest skill is attained only after long and appropriate training under wise superintendence; and the Normal School aims to impart this previous training by providing a thorough course of instruction, under competent teachers, with reference to teaching the same things to others. This course of instruction involves the whole art of teaching-a knowledge of human nature, and of a child's nature in particular-of the human mind, and especially of a child's mind, and of the order in which its several faculties should be called into exercise; of the best motives by which good habits of study can be cultivated in the young; of the arrangement and classification of scholars, and of the best means and appliances for securing obedience and order, and keeping alive an interest in the daily exercises of the school. And this art of teaching must be illustrated and exemplified by those who are to apply it, in a model school. The idea of such a school is not a mere speculation of ardent benevolence-it is an existing reality in this country as well as in Europe.

The first school specially destined for educating and training teachers in the principles and practice of their profession, was instituted by the Abbé de La Salle, while Canon of the Cathedral at Rheims, in 1681, and was perfected into the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, in 1684.

In 1697, Augustus Herman Franké founded, in connection with his orphan school at Halle, a teacher's class composed of poor students, who assisted him certain hours in the day in his schools, in return for their board and instruction. Out of these, he selected, about the year 1704, twelve, who exhibited the right basis of piety, knowledge, and aptness to teach, and constituted them his "Seminarium Præceptorum" or Teachers Seminary. These pupils received separate instruction for two years, and acquired a due degree of practical skill, in the classes of the same general establishment. Teachers thus trained, and hundreds of others, who resorted to Halle, to profit by the organization and spirit of the schools of Franké, disseminated a knowledge of better methods of school organization and instruction throughout Europe, in the course of the next half century.

In 1735, the first regular seminary for teachers in Prussia was

established in Pomerania, and the second at Berlin, in 1748, by Hecker, a pupil of Franke. By a royal ordinance in 1752, Frederic 2d enjoined that all vacancies in the country schools on the crown lands, in certain sections of his kingdom, should be supplied by pupils from Hecker's Seminary. The King at the same time allowed an annual stipend for the support of twelve alumni of this establishment, a number which in 1788 was raised to sixty. In 1773, the chools established at Rekahn, in Brandenburg, became the model schools to which young men resorted from every part of Germany to be trained in the principles and practice of primary instruction. Prior to 1800, there were but .six of these institutions in Prussia. But it is the pride and glory of this monarchy, that in periods of the greatest national distress and disaster, when the armies of France were desolating her fields, occupying her citadels, and diverting her revenues, the great work of improving her schools was never lost sight of. The establishment of teachers' seminaries still went forward; that at Konigsburg in 1809, at Branersburg in 1810, and at Breslau in 1812. But not content with establishing these seminaries at home, the most promising young teachers were sent into other countries to acquire a knowledge of all improvements in the science and art of education.

Normal Schools were introduced into Hanover in 1757; into Austria in 1767; into Switzerland in 1805; into France in 1808; into Holland in 1816; into Belgium in 1843, and into England in 1842.

In Prussia and most of the German States, there are now enough of these institutions to supply the demand for teachers in the public schools. Saxony, with a population less than that of the State of New York, supports five Normal Schools, and Saxe-Weimar, with a population less than that of Connecticut, supports two. Prussia, with a population of fourteen millions, has at this time forty-nine seminaries, in which there are nearly three thousand teachers. At the end of three years after leaving the seminary, the young teachers return for a re-examination.

In Great Britain, after years of strenuous effort on the part of the friends of popular education, the importance of Normal Schools as the chief means for improving the qualifications of teachers, has been recognized by the Government. The Training School at Chelsea, (called St. Mark's College,) under the management of the National Society, the Normal and Model School of the British and Foreign School Society, the Battersea Training School, and the Model School of the Infant School Society in England, the Model School of the National Board for Ireland, the Normal Schools at Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, are all aided out of the annual parliamentary grant for education.

In this country, the claims of these institutions were first distinctly presented by Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, of Hartford, Conn., in 1825, and by James G. Carter, of Lancaster, Mass., in a series of essays on the subject, and by William Russell, of Boston, in the Journal of Education for 1826. One fact is certain, the improvement of schools in every country has followed hand in hand with the establishment, multiplication, and improvement of Normal Schools.

PLANS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS NORMAL

SCHOOL-HOUSES.

THE following plans and descriptions are copied from the "Tenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education," with the permission of the Hon. Horace Mann, by whose indefatigable labors these institutions were founded, seconded as his efforts were by the munificent donation of the sum of ten thousand dollars, from the Hon. Edmund Dwight, of Boston.

These buildings were erected partly out of the contribution of $5000, subscribed originally by the friends of Mr. Mann, as a testimony of their esteem for his public services, and, at his suggestion, invested in this way-thus convering these edifices into the monuments of their generosity, and of his selfifice.

This edifice is constructed of wood, and is sixty-four feet by forty-two, and two stories in height. The upper story is divided into a principal school room, forty-one feet by forty, and two recitation-rooms ench twenty feet by twelve, and is designed for the N. mai School. The lower story is titted us for a Model School.