This collection of circulars and examination questions is intended for the guidance of high school pupils who are intending to train themselves for the vocation of teaching. It should be kept in the school library, and the attention of candidates for admission to the State normal schools should be frequently called to its contents.

The standard of admission to the State normal schools was raised in 1896 to include high school subjects. Since that date the admission questions have presupposed a four years' course in the high school or its equivalent. This pamphlet contains all the admission questions, under the new standard, from 1896 to 1901 inclusive, - being the June and September sets for each year, or twelve sets in all.

Certain features of the written examination for admission merit special notice : —

1. The examination places primary stress upon power rather than on mere information.

2. It attaches more consequence to the candidate's attainments than to his deficiencies.

3. It regards the orderly marshalling and fair presentation of a body of resources more highly than the furnishing of single or isolated facts, however accurately, in response to narrow questioning.

4. It invites large views of things, the principles and causes of things, rather than mere details, those greater things that are more likely to abide as the result of sound training than those minor things that people seldom carry as permanent possessions.

5. It aims to encourage methods of study in the high school that are valuable in themselves, and should be pursued whether the examination encourages them or not.

6. It is not the sole and final criterion in determining the candidate's fitness. It is presumed that a four years' course in a high school counts for a great deal which the admission examination cannot reach. The candidate's record in the high school, his personality and any supplementary evidences of fitness he may see fit to furnish, all these are factors in determining whether or not he is duly qualified to enter a normal school.

For an exposition of the spirit underlying the normal school admission examinations, consult the sixty-third annual report of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, pages 210218.

SEPTEMBER, 1901.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, September, 1901.

CIRCULAR OF INFORMATION.

☞ Principals of schools and others whom this circular may reach are requested to bring it to the notice of young people who wish to become teachers. Such persons should be found out, if possible, at the beginning of their high school course and wisely advised about their plans of work.

THE NORMAL SCHOOLS.

Massachusetts has ten normal schools. The following table gives their location in the order of their organization, with their present principals :

Candidates for admission to any one of the normal schools must have attained the age of sixteen years complete, if young women, and seventeen years, if young men; and must be free from any disease or infirmity which would unfit them for the office of teacher. They must present certificates of good moral standing, give evidence of good intellectual capacity (records of their scholarship standing in the high schools are required) and be graduates from the four years'

courses of reputable high schools; or they must have received, to the satisfaction of the principal and the board of visitors of the school, the equivalent of a good high school education. They must also declare their intention to teach. The examinations for admission shall cover such elementary and high school subjects as may be determined by the Board of Education.

WRITTEN EXAMINATION.

The examinations will embrace papers on the following groups of subjects, a single paper with a maximum time allowance of two hours to cover each of groups I., II. and IV., and a single paper with a maximum time allowance of one hour to cover each of groups III. and V. (five papers with a maximum time allowance of eight hours) :— I. Languages. (a) English, with its grammar and literature, and (b) one of the three languages, Latin, French and German. II. Mathematics. (a) Arithmetic, (b) the elements of algebra and (c) the elements of plane geometry.

-

III. History and Geography. The history and civil government of Massachusetts and the United States, with related geography and so much of English history as is directly contributory to a knowledge of United States history.

IV. Sciences. (a) Physical geography, (b) physiology and hygiene, (c) physics, (d) chemistry and (e) botany.

V. Drawing and Music. (a) Elementary, mechanical and freehand drawing, with any one of the topics, form, color and arrangement, and (b) musical notation.

ORAL EXAMINATION.

Each candidate will be questioned orally either upon some of the foregoing subjects or upon other matters within his experience, in order that the examiners may gain some impression about his personal characteristics and his use of language, as well as give him an opportunity to furnish any evidences of qualification that might not otherwise become known to them. Any work of a personal, genuine and legitimate character that the candidate has done in connection with any of the groups that are set for examination, and that is susceptible of visible or tangible presentation, may be offered at this time, and such work will be duly weighed in the final estimate, and may even determine it. To indicate the scope of this feature, the following kinds of possible presentation are suggested, but the candidate may readily extend the range of choice:

1. A book of drawing exercises, - particularly such a book of exercises as one might prepare in following the directions, or any portion of them, in "An Outline for Lessons in Industrial Drawing in