“Students will be appointed to the Normal Schools by the Superintendent, upon the recommendation of superintendents and school commissioners. These officers will be relied upon to properly represent to possible candidates the needs of the public schools for well-qualified teachers, and the necessity of professional and technical training on the part of all who intend to teach. No students can be admitted who have not already acquired a substantial elementary education. This can be gained in all of the ordinary schools, and the professional training schools cannot be properly taxed with work which the common schools can perform as well. Through the quality of the work performed, through the attainments and the professional spirit and purpose of graduates, rather than through mere multiplicity of numbers, can the Normal Schools best promote the educational interests of the State. There is room and welcome in the Normal Schools for the graduates of the elementary and secondary schools, and even for those who have made substantial advancement in the elementary course without technical graduation, provided that they give promise of becoming successful teachers, and possess the desire to become such; but there is no room for students who have laid no real foundation for professional training, and who have no well-determined purpose about the matter and no fair conception of the responsibilities and obligations of a teacher’s occupation. “Appointments will ordinarily follow recommendations, but students will be admitted or retained in Normal Schools only when they show scholarship and other qualities in justification of the appointment. “The following form of recommendation will be used, and will be supplied from the department or from any of the schools upon application. When filled out it should be mailed to the Superintendent, and when approved it will be by him sent direct to the school. No student can be appointed who is not fully sixteen years of age. TO THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION:-- I hereby recommend of in the County of aged years, as possessing the health, scholarship, mental ability and moral character requisite for an appointment to the State Normal and Training School at _School Commissioner_ _District of the County of_ Or, _Superintendent City of_ _Dated._ “Students duly appointed, and presenting the diplomas of colleges, universities, high schools, academies or academic departments of union schools, State Certificates or Commissioner’s Certificates, granted under the uniform examination system, and still in force, showing a standing of seventy-five per cent. in arithmetic, grammar and geography, may be admitted at any time and without examination. “Students duly appointed, but unable to present either of the above-named evidences of proficiency, may be admitted at the opening of each term upon duly passing an entrance examination to be held at the school.