STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, WORCESTER.

E. HARLOW RUSSELL, PRINCIPAL.

INSTRUCTORS.

E. HARLOW RUSSELL, Principles of Education, Theory and Art of Teaching, Hygiene, Reading, Physical Exercises; HENRY W. BROWN, Psychology, English Grammar and Literature, German; CHARLES F. ADAMS, Arithmetic, Geometry, Geography, Geology, Physics, News; Miss REBECCA JONES, Elementary Methods, Supervision of Apprentices, Sewing; Miss ELLEN M. HASKELL, History, Civil Government English, Reading, History of Education: Miss JULIET PORTER (Librarian), Physiology, Geography, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry; Miss HELEN F. MARSH, Music, Drawing; Miss ARABELLA H. TUcker, Botany, English Grammar, Penmanship, Gymnastics; Mrs. MARION J. SUMNER, Choral Singing; Miss E. LOUISE RICHARDS, Kindergartner; Miss OLIVE RUSSELL, Assistant Kindergartner; THADDEUS L. BOLTON, Assistant in Psychology.

IN GENERAL.

The visitors of this school report with satisfaction its continued prosperity and usefulness. Its aim, steadily pursued from the first, is to broaden the culture and refine the character of its students, to train them to habits of self-improvement and of investigation and experiment, and to imbue them with love of children and of teaching; seeking mainly to furnish them with the sound and enduring principles of their art, and only secondarily with set methods of presenting particular subjects to classes, recognizing that such methods are means, not ends, and are provisional, not final. It is to this policy that the visitors attribute the fact that the graduates have proved so adaptable and acceptable as teachers in many schools of widely different character. They appear to have been taught and to have learned that the teacher exists for the school, not the school for the teacher.

THE HIGHER STANDARD OF ADMISSION.

It would seem that the higher standard of admission recently established by the Board, so far from operating to lessen the number of applicants, has had in a marked degree the contrary effect, as shown by the increased numbers in the last two classes, the largest with one exception in the history of the school. It now looks as if a certain small but very desirable class of students, namely, those who were formerly deterred from coming to the normal school on account of the low standard of preparation required, were hereafter to be secured, to the manifest advantage of the school as a whole; while, on the other hand, it is a great relief to be disburdened of those whose immaturity and slender acquirements rendered them unfit for anything like a professional course of study and training.

A PRIMARY CLASS.

While the system of "apprenticeship," by which our students gain most of their practical acquaintance with the instruction and management of real schools, has always seemed to the visitors a satisfactory and economical method of practice for this school, the excellent results that have appeared from the children's class, or kindergarten, recently established here for purposes of observation and experimentation, have convinced us that the school would be materially strengthened and benefited by enlarging the opportunities for such observation so as to include a primary class, say of twenty-five to thirty children, between five and seven years of age, in which might be exemplified, as already in the existing kindergarten, the best ways of teaching and managing children of this age. This class would not be for practice, which the students now have in their six months' apprenticeship, but for the necessary observation and illustration preparatory to such practice as apprentices. The visitors will therefore ask permission of the Board to include in their estimates for the coming year the moderate sum necessary to establish such a class and to provide a competent teacher therefor.

AN ADDITIONAL BUILDING.

The need is beginning to be strongly felt in this school of an additional building to serve as a gymnasium and for other

minor uses. At present the exercises in gymnastics have to take place in the main hall, or schoolroom, which is so encumbered with desks and other furniture as to be wholly unsuitable for such a purpose. Although the students here, coming for the most part daily from their homes, obviously stand less in need of systematic bodily exercise than those in the boarding schools, yet their preparation for teaching ought properly to include regular physical training, such as can be had to the best advantage only in a well-appointed gymnasium.

As pointed out in our last report, a new building could be erected at comparatively small cost, and it would serve several useful purposes besides that above mentioned, and would place this school more nearly on a level with those that have lately been so amply provided for in this respect.

VARIOUS MATTERS.

Miss Juliet Porter, a teacher long in continuous service here, has asked for and obtained a year's leave of absence for rest and travel, and the school has been fortunate in obtaining as a substitute Miss Anna P. Smith, a graduate of the school in 1880, and an accomplished and experienced teacher. No other changes have occurred in the teaching staff.

At the instance of Mrs. Wells, the senior classes in this and the Framingham schools, accompanied by some of their teachers, have exchanged friendly visits of a day each during the past year, with evident pleasure and advantage. It was pleasant to see how naturally their common pursuits and ideals. drew them into personal acquaintance and sympathy; and the occasion was not lost if it served, as no doubt it did, to heighten their mutual respect.

The anniversary address in June was given by our newly appointed secretary, Hon. Frank A. Hill, and was a most interesting and scholarly exposition of the appropriate theme, "Philosophy to the Teacher's Rescue."

STATISTICS.

1. Number of normal students first (fall) term, 160; second (spring) term, 186; whole number for the year, 213.

2. Numbers in entering classes: in September, 1893, 50; in February, 1894, 25; total, 75.

3. Average age of pupils admitted in September, 1893, 18 years, 6 months; in February, 1894, 18 years, 3 months.

4. Residences of pupils admitted: Worcester County, 72; Plymouth County, 1; Connecticut, 1; New Hampshire, 1; total, 75.

5. Occupations of pupils' parents: mechanics, 28; merchants, 13; laborers, 10; farmers, 4; contractors, 3; engineers, 3; manufacturers, 2; overseers, 2; salesmen, 2; clerk, 1; coachman, 1; railroad conductor, 1; mail carrier, 1; draughtsman, 1; physician, 1; stablekeeper, 1; surveyor, 1; total, 75.

6. Numbers in graduating classes: in January, 1894, 19; in June, 1894, 19; total, 38..

7. Average age of graduates: in January, 1894, 22 years; in June, 1894, 22 years, 1 month.

8. Library reference books reported last year, 3,414; volumes added this year, 264; total, 3,678. Text-books reported last year, 4,844; volumes added this year, 246; total, 5,090. Whole number of volumes in the library, 8,768.

E. B. STODDARD,

A. P. STONE,

Board of Visitors.

STATE NORMAL ART SCHOOL.

GEORGE H. BARTLETT, PRINCIPAL.

INSTRUCTORS.

Mr. GEORGE H. BARTLETT, Freehand Drawing, Historic Ornament, Design and Modelling the Figure; Mr. ALBERT H. MUNSELL, Drawing and Painting from the Antique Figure and Life Model, Anatomy; Mr. E. W. HAMILTON, Drawing and Painting from the Antique Figure and Life Model; Miss M. A. BAILEY, Drawing and Painting from the Antique Figure and Life Model; Mr. A. K. CROSS, Freehand and Instrumental Drawing; Miss M. LOUISE FIELD, Pyschology, Principles and Methods of Teaching, History of Education, Drawing in the Public Schools, Public School Class; Miss W. N. DRANGER, Assistant in the Public School Class; Mr. GEORGE JEPSON, Mechanical Drawing; Mr. HENRY D. KENDALL, Building Construction, Architectural Design; Miss ANNIE E. BLAKE, Modelling in Clay and Casting; Mr. JOHN L. FRISBEE, Ship Draughting; Miss Deristhe L. HOYT, Historic Schools of Painting.

The development of the fine arts is not yet recognized in America as the sole object of a State school; on the other hand, no far-seeing teacher nor ambitious pupil can afford to wholly separate the fine arts from applied industrial art. In recognition, therefore, of the peculiar functions of an art school, the one in Boston has constantly striven to equip its pupils with a knowledge of the best methods to be applied by them as teachers or supervisors of drawing, and to promote and combine the various tendencies in art and industrial art education into a harmonious course of instruction.

With such aims before us, it was deemed wise this year to make it obligatory upon each instructor in the school to embody more direct normal teaching in his or her department. Strictly speaking, this has always been done, the difference lying now in the prominence given by each teacher to normal work. We were enabled to place such emphasis upon it because last year we had adopted measures which had led to a fuller study of the