This course is intended to give pupils that broad culture indispensable to the highest success in schools of any grade, but especially to fit them for service as teachers in high schools. The studies are so arranged that graduates from the shorter course may complete the four years’ course in two additional years. The following statistics and extract are from the Public Document of the Board of Education for 1893. NORMAL SCHOOLS. +-------------------+----------------------------------+ | | STATISTICS FOR THE YEAR 1891-92. | | +----------------+-----------------+ | | Number | Number | | | of Students. | of Graduates. | +-------------------+----------------+-----------------+ | Bridgewater | 262 | 67 | | Framingham | 159 | 50 | | Salem | 260 | 77 | | Westfield | 147 | 33 | | Worcester | 181 | 36 | | Normal Art School | 215 | 24 | | +----------------+-----------------+ | | 1,224 | 287 | +-------------------+----------------+-----------------+ “There are now in the Commonwealth six State Normal Schools, established for the purpose of training teachers to teach in the public schools. The Normal Schools are now well provided with the means of communicating professional instruction. “As a knowledge of the principles and method of teaching seems to be one thing, and skill in the application of principles quite another, it is necessary that ample opportunity be given in the training schools connected with the Normal Schools for practice in teaching by the normal students as they study the principles. Such practice, if systematically and intelligently conducted during the course of instruction, will prepare the normal graduate to enter upon the practice of his profession with the advantages of experience. “If the standard for admission to the Normal Schools be raised, as the Board of Education now contemplates, they will be relieved of a large amount of academical work now required, and of many candidates whose limited knowledge and capacity for acquiring it make them improper subjects for professional training. “The time has come when a professional training should be considered a requisite for teaching in the public schools of the Commonwealth.” Framingham, the first State Normal School in the United States, was first located at Lexington, where it was opened July 3rd, 1839, with three students. In 1852 the school was removed to Framingham. It admits women students only, who reside in the boarding halls attached to the school. “The design of the school is to give: 1. “A review of the studies taught in the public schools.