Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice School Memorabilia of the Tri-Counties Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction for PA - 1889

Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction Pennsylvania -  Annual School Report E. E. Higbee - State Superintendent of Public Instruction D. C. Thomas - Principal of Mansfield Normal School Year: 1889 Book Purchased  for Site Presentation by: Joyce M. Tice Retyped for Tri-Counties by Sheri Graves Tri-County Genealogy & History Sites Home Page How to Use This Site Warning & Disclaimer Souvenir School Booklets No Unauthorized Commercial Use Say Hello to Joyce  See Also 1902 Superintendent's Reports

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D. C. Thomas, Principal

Since our last report we have made extensive improvements on our buildings and grounds. The increased attendance made it necessary to enlarge our buildings and add to the number of recitation rooms. The south Hall, which has stood the wear and tear of more than a quarter of a century, has been enlarged and thoroughly repaired at a cost of twenty thousand dollars. This work is completed and the building is a beautiful and imposing structure.

We have been able to secure and maintain each year better results in the professional work of the school. Students come to us with better preparation and more maturity than in previous years. The tendency seems to be not to come and go at short intervals for a number of years, but to come prepared to enter the junior course and remain two years or until graduation. We, therefore, do not have a large attendance one term and a small attendance the next. Students stay long enough to imbibe the true spirit of our institution, and its influence is thus impressed upon the character of our graduates.

We have great faith in thorough class-room drill, with daily recitations where the student is required to make thorough preparation—and where the teacher can estimate the daily progress and impart additional information, but we have little confidence in the idea that “a normal school is a continuous institute.” We believe that good old-fashioned hard study is the surest and safest road to success for the student, and that where everything is made easy and where the methods are so refined that nothing is left but the refinement we shall have at the end of their course very poor students and very indifferent work.

We continue to make physical culture a prominent feature of our school. Special teachers are employed, who give their attention to the training and development of our students. The ladies are taught to exercise in light gymnastics and the gentlemen are drilled in military tactics. Students are carefully examined and their exercised are systematically directed. We have succeeded in awakening thought on this subject on the part of the students, and in this way we are doing them an incalcuable good. They need no urging, but take very kindly and enthusiastically to the work, and they fully realize that the brawn should be kept up to the demands of the brain.