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WHERE TEACHERS ARE MADE

State Normal School at Peru an Institution of Remakrable Excellence.

Keeping Pace With the Times, It Now Ranks With Any of Its Kind in the Country.

Present Liberal Policy is Proving a Success Attendance is Growing Yearly-Class Now About to Finish.

A week of notable closing execises, attended by thousands, and the contemplated departure form Omaha of two carloads of the alumni calls attention to the State Normal school- that beautiflly situated academy at Peru Nebraska may be montonous in scenery, and uncertain in climate in some portions, but at Peru, lying in the southern part of the state, it is as beautiful as a king's pleasure ground. Peru used ot be a river town, but it awke one morning to find that it had been jilled by the Missouri, and has been able to console itself only by lying so far from that river that is turgid water, einding below the serlling and wooded hills, turns into silver and enchants the eye. There has been some complain because the State Normal school was "dropped away in the corner of the state," but the surroundings are in reality so remarkably attractive that the school is becomeing a favorite on that account

Within the last two years the standard of the school has been raised very considerably. Up to that time the policy with which it was conducted was conservative int he extreme, and it is a melancholy fact that a few years ago an applicant for a position as teacher in a country school was first accepted on his merits, and then refused whne a diploma was presented from the State Normal school. The memebers of the board had never heard of the institution although they lived but thirty miles west of it. But with the coming of Prof A. W. Norton to the presidency, the school has not only been actually raised as an institution of learning, but it is rapidly beocming celebrated.

HAVE RETURNED TO SCHOOL

This has been the result of a liberal policy of an original method of teaching and the large public spiritedness which has taken Prof Norton into nearly every county of this state lecturing, addressing techer's insitutes and talking to school in educational matters. In this particular Prof Norton and Chancellor Canfield have much resembled each other in their activites A condiserable number of the present pupils of the Normal school are young men and women who have held positions as techers, but who, on hearing Prof Norton have decided to return to school and more fully equip themselves for their responsible work It is a fact, that so materially has this important institution been raised in its value and credit during the last two years, that young teachers leaving it have been able to secure positions immediately for excellent schools, at salraies from $900 to $1200 some of these positions being outside of the state.

In spite of hard times and the need that many young persons who would have chosen a teacher's career have had to work at some hing bringing an immediate income, the attendacne has grown considerably. In 1891 the whole number in attendance was 458 pupils, in 1894 it was 555 The graduates in the elementary deparments number In 1894 they were thity -four in 1891 the graduates from the raining school were ninety-five in 1894 they were 182

WORK OF TWENTY YEARS

The development of the school and the sate can ne infeered from the fact that during the twenty odd years of existence of the school previous to 1893 the number of graduates was 188, while during the years of 1803-4-5- it has been 101. This is the case, not withstanding the fact that the pursuit of thirty-sci studeis is a requirement now for a diploma, while previously but twenty-seven studies were required Moreover, the amount of work along certain lines had been increased During the last year two booksmore of Virgil have been read than previously the work in chemistry and phsucs has been more than doubled, and the work in physology has been nearly doubled All this is the result of a vivid and vital personality at the at the head of the school The State Normal has felt the same acceleration from its head that the university has from the management of Chancellor Canfield Militarism has shwon itslef in a moderate and commendable way, and there are tow companies of cadets, who drill enthusiatically under the tuition of a university student, who has a talent for drilling and who received instruction at Lincoln from the officer detailed for the purpose. The cadets are only partly uniformed, but will be fully costumed next year The college has a paper, the Courler, which is brisk and interesting and typographically good. There are now four societies in the schoo, tow of which have been recently formed These societies are the Junior, the Wellingtonian, the Everett and the Philomathean Under the proper guidance and suggestion these societies have ceased to be organizations for amusement, and have become literary societies, following a systematic course of study, each making its section and pursuing it through the year: and at the "open sessions" giving the school the cream of its work.

BOASTS SOME ATHLETES.

The school is, unfortunately without a gymnasium, though it boasts of a sprinter who can run 100 yards, standing start, in 10 3/4 seconds. Field day is not neglected though that has also been introduced within the last two years, and the program includes some exciting and novel numbers. Being a co-educational institution in the full sense of the word, the young women are not neglected even in the field day program, but participate with a noble disregard of the traditions o f sex

The school apperas to very well equipped in laboratory, as so observatory and in class rooms The buildings would stand some repairing. They bear silent witness to the fact that the appropriations for the school have not always been as large as the necessities demand Standing, as the buildings do, surrounded by sixty acres of beautiful groves, it is easy to forget alll such deficiencies however, in rejoicing in the beauty of the surroundings. What influences such beauty may have upon the minds and spirits of those who are to becomes the instructors of the children of Nebraska the psychologist may determine. Certainly the institution is the most fortuantely placed of any in the state There are give buildings, all staunch and good These buuildings include a dormitroy for the girls and an ordinary at which the yong women and faculty may board

BOARD OF DIRECTORS.

The institution is managed by a board, which, at the present writing, consists of the state superintendent, the state treasureer. Hon Chirch Howe, Hon Wilson E Majors, Hon. B. E. B. Kennedy, Hon. J. A. West and Hon. J. T. Spencer. Mr. Church Howe holds his term but two days longer and leaves behind him term but two days longer and leaves behind him the record of a generous and large adminstration, so far as it lay in high power to secure it.

The school has gained the reputation of late of being conductedupon a pecullar method. To a casual observer it would seem that the method strongly resembles that of the university. Cerainly, insomuch as the pupils control themselves, as all police are absolutely upon honor, there is a strong resemblance Insomuch, too, as the formation of character is considered as of as much importance as the gaining of knowledge, there is a resemblance. To acquire power, strength for good is, according to Prof. Norton, a true education. It is, in a sense, the idea which the great European educators who orginated the kindergarten held.

'Education is easily aquired by the trained mind," Prof Norton says, 'Once a student has acquired power over himself he can learn anything or do anything, he may set out to do. To trimph over whatever obstacles may arise, to act quickly and wisely-these are what mark the cultivated mind I believe taht the student should be taught to meet each day's exigencies, and to acquire the ability to meet them bravely and well. Character seems to me the ground work of the equipment of our teachers The common wealt rests upon the school-the school upon the teacher- the teacher upon his own inner power The man or woman of charcter who take up teaching as a profession will it goes without saying, be well informed That becomes a matter of conscience. And when the lessons of mental victory over obstacles are learned, it is no longer difficult to force the mind to acquire whatever one sets out to have it acquire."

THIS YDAR'S GRADUATES.

The graduating class of forty-one shows in as earnestness and vigor that it has received instruction of an unusual sort. There does not appear to be a member of the class who will take up hi or her duties as instructor in a perfunctory way. The deep responsibility which a teacher bears has been planted in their comprehension

Sunday Morning this class listened with profundest attnetion to the baccalaureate sermon by Dr. Roland of Lincoln. Wednesday best will be the comencement exercises The class day program, by the way, is said to have been quite the jilliest and most original in the history of the school-even Miss Morgan, the preceptress says that, and she ought to know, for she has been with the school for over twenty years. Twenty years, it may be parentherically remarked, is a long time in Nebraska.

Prof. Norton and some of his faculty conducted a summer school at Peru last summer, but owing to a union of a number of teachers' institures this year, he will not take up the school at Colorado Springs. President Norton is form Elmira. N.Y. and a man who has had much experience among many different sorts of pupils-and most obviously a man who has accepted his calling as a sacred one, with incalculable opportunities for influencing the lives of others It is a fortunate thing for the state that such an educator is within its boarders, to counteract to some extent the deadly selfishness and secularism which is too liable to grow up in the public school system. The state is fortunate in having over its prospective teachers a man of profound religious conviction, as well as one of keen intellectual activity, and of aggressive and progressive modernity

ELIA W PEATTIE