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"Catalogue of the State Normal School at Westfield, Mass. For the year ending July 26, 1859"

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Massachusetts pioneered in the field of teacher education. By the time this catalogue was printed (1859) four state-funded "normal schools" were established to train teachers for local schools (primarily so-called "common schools"). The Westfield school, founded in 1839 and originally located in Barre, Massachusetts, was the second public normal school in the country. It is now called Westfield State College. As this section of the catalogue shows, tuition was free to all those who pledged to teach in the "schools of Massachusetts." The curriculum was quite broad, including chemistry, rhetoric and music composition. Students were "expected to attend public worship on the Sabbath, at any church they may select."

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