San Jose State Normal Training School History

From the 1927 La Torre:

"'The San Jose State Teachers College is primarily a teacher training institution where students have an opportunity to fit themselves, in the best manner possible, for their chosen work. The individual of today should be rightly educated for the service of all mankind. The rights of humanity are championed by the students of an institution in which ideals for universal peace, good will, and right and honest living are instilled. The entire field of education, as broad as life itself, has responded to the ever increasing whirlwind of progress. The modern college offers valuable training in citizenship, and opportunity for achievement through cooperation."

"The two years just closed mark a period of quiet accomplishment. The course of study has been revised to meet new needs in kindergarten, elementary, junior high school, and secondary education. A pre-kindergarten school and a junior high school have been established."

Mention of the Pre-Kindergarten ceases starting from the 1928-1929 Course Catalog.³

In 1929 the junior high school and the nursery school were discontinued.¹ "This left the two divisions represented by the kindergarten-primary and the intermediate units. In the meantime a gradual change was taking place with reference to the practice teaching. This was being transferred from the demonstration school to the 'additional facilities' in the schools in the city of San Jose and Santa Clara County."¹

There is mention of a Kindergarten Primary building in the 1929 La Torre.

"In 1930 two significant announcements were made concerning the demonstration school. The first was:

'The college maintains on the campus a Demonstration School enrolling approximately three hundred children. The school contributes much to the professional atmosphere of the campus, and provides the laboratory experience without which training for teaching would be incomplete.'

"The other announcement was that of the completion of the new training school building which had been authorized by the legislature in 1927. This provided three buildings in all for the demonstration school.

"Despite the fact that the training department was well equipped with facilities for housing the various divisions which had been maintained in it, the demonstration school was discontinued in 1930."¹ This occurred during the academic year 1929-1930.² The last mention of the demonstration school is in the 1930-1931 Course Catalog.³ In place of the demonstration school, "there was inaugurated a new system of cadet teaching, and the buildings were occupied by various departments of the college."¹ "MacQuarrie’s concept of student teaching was that it should not be carried on in a training school, but rather in a real school and in all-day participation" so he "arranged to have student teachers trained in the public schools as far away [as] Monterey, King City, and Bakersfield.”²

"The subject of practice teaching receives very little attention in the Circular of Information for 1932-1933. There is no mention of the former demonstration school. Inquiry, however, reveals that the practice teaching is now carried on in certain selected schools. All students are still required to take practice teaching, but in a vitally different manner from that in which it was carried on in the campus schools.

"Those who are responsible for devising the new plan believe that the old system was too artificial and that the conditions did not simulate which the teachers had to meet when they went out into the field of public school work. It was partially because of this that the demonstration school at the San Jose State Teachers College was discontinued and a system of field cadet teaching was put in its place. In the new system the cadet teachers go into the actual school situations and handle a real school under the supervision of an experienced teacher. They are required to put in six weeks of full-time work in a graded school and the same amount of time in a rural school. This gives the practice teachers twelve full weeks of actual practice in the public schools. The system is radically different from that which existed previous to 1930 in the San Jose State Teachers College. The experiment will be watched with much interest because in recent years there has been much dissatisfaction with the arrangements for practice teaching.

"Those who are responsible for the change at San Jose State Teachers College are convinced that the new system is far superior to the old, but sufficient time has not elapsed since the change to form a judgement in the matter. This experiment is an example of the attitude and policy of the school toward trying what may prove to be a progressive movement in education. In this respect the training school has contributed much to education for in it many new ideas have been tried out since the time Miss Matilda Lewis introduced object teaching while the school was still located in San Francisco. It is this spirit or progress that has been such a big factor in the influence which the San Jose State Teachers College has exerted upon education in the state of California."¹

"In May 1933 it was announced that the old training school was a fire hazard and that the language and commerce departments, which had been housed in the building for the previous two years, were being moved. On October 20, the San Jose Mercury reported that the building was to be wrecked."²

A thesis was found to be written on the Demonstration School at the San Jose State College.⁴ However, this seems to be different from the traditional Training/Demonstration School on campus grounds seen from previous years up until 1930, as the thesis mentions that "The research project was carried on at the Demonstration Summer School of the San Jose State College during the summer of 1953. The Demonstration School, which annually uses the facilities of Lowell Elementary School in San Jose, California, maintained a six-week program designed to demonstrate good educational practice and to help teachers supplement or refresh their learning experiences."⁴

Consent and Release Forms for a Summer Demonstration School in 1971 were found in the San José State University ITV Studio Records.⁵ However, this is most likely similar to the 1953 Summer Demonstration School that took place on an external campus.

¹Walter, A. 1933. The origin and development of the San Jose State Teachers College [Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University]. San José State University Library, Special Collections & Archives.

²Gilbert, B. F. & Burdick, C. 1980. Washington square, 1857-1979: The history of San Jose State University. San Jose State University.

³San Jose State Normal School and San Jose State Teachers College Course Catalogs Collection, MSS-2010-05-05, San José State University Library Special Collections & Archives.

⁴Standerfer, D. F. 1955. A study of the value of art workshop experiences in a summer demonstration school program [Master’s thesis, University of the Pacific]. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/1274

⁵San José State University ITV Studio Records, MSS-2018-06-29, San José State University Library, Special Collections and Archives.