XIX. EDUCATIONAL MISCELLANY AND INTELLIGENCE.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, OF NEW JERSEY.

THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL OF NEW JERSEY, at Trenton, was established in 1855, by an Act of the Legislature appropriating the sum of ($10,000,) ten thousand dollars annually for its current expenses, leaving it to the town, where the school should be located, to provide suitable building and outfit, in consideration of the advantages of having such a school in its midst. These were promptly offered by several towns, and were finally provided by an association of the citizens of Trenton at a cost of $25,000.

The Normal School was opened in October, 1855, under the auspices of Prof. William F. Phelps, who brought to his duties, large and successful experience as a teacher, especially in connection with the State Normal School at Albany, and a profound study of the special requirements of such an institution. We shall defer further notice of this school to a subsequent number, in which we propose to give an account of all the State and City Normal Schools and other agencies for the professional training of teachers, in the United States and British Provinces. And in the mean time we present to our readers the following plans of the building erected for its accommodation, as combining in a highly successful manner all the essential requirements of an institution designed for a Normal School, composed of pupil-teachers of both sexes, and for Schools of Practice and Illustration, made up of boys and girls, distributed into several classes, or schools, according to age and attainments. It will afford useful hints for the construction and arrangement of houses for graded schools. The marginal references and notes render any extended description unnecessary. The following is a brief summary of the excellencies of this structure.

"1. Symmetry of form, location, arrangement, and dimensions. On the first floor, every room has its counterpart in all these respects; and the same prinIciple was carried out in each of the three stories, so far as the nature of the case would admit. It was necessary to provide for each sex separately, except when under the direct supervision of an officer of the school. This object it will be seen, has been fully attained, without departing in any case, from the fundamental ideas of simplicity and unity.

2. Every apartment is in its proper place. Its location, form, and dimensions were determined by the particular uscs to which it was to be applied. For example: the four clothes and wash rooms are on the first floor, immediately adjoining the respective entrances of the four classes of pupils to be accommodated thereby. The rooms for the Model School are also on the first floor, to avoid the disorder and inconvenience attendant upon the ascent, and descent of flights of stairs by large numbers of children. The class or recitation rooms of the Normal School are systematically arranged and apportioned among the three several stories of the building, in order to avoid crowds, and the inconvenience of frequently concentrating a large number of persons in the same story. The assembly room is on the second or middle floor; and thus no class is required to ascend or descend more than one flight of stairs. The reception room and library are on the same floor, near at hand, and easy of access, while the recitation rooms of the Principal and Vice Principal are immediately adjacent to,

and separated from the assembly room, by a glass partition. The lecture room, corresponding in form and size to the assembly room, is in the third story, directly over the latter, because less used, and when used, it requires to be well ventilated, and well removed from the annoyances of the street.

"3. The various class, lecture, and other rooms, are large, airy, well-lighted, and in every respect commodious, and well provided with the most approved black-boards or slates.

"4. The means of ingress and egress are ample; there being four entrances for the pupils, besides one for visitors, and four flights of stairs corresponding thereto, each separate from and independent of the others, leading to every story of the building. There are also four doors from the two principal rooms, connecting directly with these stairways. By means of this arrangement, the largest audience which these rooms could contain, may, if needful, be safely discharged in from three to four minutes; also the general movements of the school, such as the passage to and from recitations and lectures, the assemblage and dismissal of the pupils, &c., can be effected with ease, promptitude, order, and precision.

"5. The apartments are well heated and well ventilated. The furnaces, four in number, and of the first class, are located at the ends and sides of the main building, thus securing an equable distribution of heat to every part. In gen eral, the ventiducts pass upward from each apartment, opposite the hot-air flues, and all of them terminate in an air-chamber in the attic. This air-chamber is, when necessary, to be supplied with heat from a small furnace for that purpose in the basement, by a single flue. The contained air is thus rarefied, passing upward and outward through the ventilator in the roof. A partial vacuum is thus formed in the air-chamber, and a current is at once established from each apartment through the ventiducts to it, insuring an effective ventilation, and a full supply of pure and healthy atmosphere for respiration.

"6. Each story is supplied with an abundance of water in both front and rear, either for purposes of cleanliness, or for the extinguishment of fires, should any occur. The halls and stairways, the library and trustees' or reception room, the laboratory and lecture rooms, are all furnished with gas, which renders them eligible for evening use, should such be required.

"7. For the uses to which it is to be applied, the building is of unsurpassed strength and durability. In short, it is believed that in all its appointments, this building leaves little to be desired in respect to simplicity, convenience, and adaptation to the purposes for which it was designed."

FARNUM PREPARATORY SCHOOL.

Among the liberal offers made by individuals and associations, to induce the Trustees of the State Normal School to locate the Institution in their respective towns, was one by Mr. Paul Farnum of Beverly. He offered to place at the disposal of the Board, for the use of the School, for a period of five years, a brick edifice of ample dimensions, to be built and furnished upon the most approved plan, and also an elegant and commodious dwelling house, free of rent, for the use of the Principal. The cost of the two buildings was to be about $20,000. This offer was declined on account of the superior claims of Trenton, as the capital of the State, where the operations of the Normal School, with its improved methods of instruction and discipline, would be under the constant notice of the Legislature,-but it has been accepted for a State Preparatory Normal School, of which we will give an account in an early number.