"San Jose State Normal School — 1898 San Jose — Established kindergarten department. Technical success, numerical failure; closed at end of year. Had special instruction from Boston and demonstration. Department re-established 1900, discontinued 1901, but demonstration kindergarten class kept open. Reopened 1913."
Training Department
"The early history of the school records the beginning of the training department where the young, prospective teacher could have the opportunity to gain experience. A 'model class,' consisting of about thirty little girls selected from the different primary schools of San Francisco, was the nucleus of this important aid to teacher training. Miss Matilda Lewis, a graduate of the Oswego Normal School, was made principal in 1869, but upon removal of the institution to San Jose in 1870, there was more or less adjustment to be made, and it was not until 1872 that the training department was organized with Mary J. Titus (now Mrs. Hazleton), a graduate of the Oswego Normal School at the head.
"Forty children from the different schools of the city were collected, of all grades and all degrees of mentality. The first year, observation only was required of the prospective graduate, but as the school became organized and graded under the capable direction of Miss Titus, practice teaching was required; criticism was given; and the training department, in time, came to be the center and core of school life, the pivot upon which the entire educational plan revolved. Practice teaching was the final test, and many a brilliant student has gone down to ignominious defeat when confronted with a class of squirming, impish youngsters who sensed, in some uncanny fashion, that the young teacher was subject to discipline like themselves, and only a shade more important in the scale of values.
"The Training class in those early days was called, (for some reason which cannot be explained) the 'D' class, and many were the somewhat profane references by the student teachers to the 'little D's' who have since then grown to be reputable and highly esteemed citizens of San Jose.
"For a number of years it was customary for the local Board of Trustees, upon the recommendation of the President, to appoint teachers from the city school department whose salary was paid jointly (though not equally) by the city and the state.
"Methods in the different subjects to be taught were carefully detailed by the instructor, who also supervised the teaching, and, armed with this information and a thoughtfully worked-out plan of attack, the young teacher entered upon this phase of her preparation with enthusiasm, high hopes, but with a beating heart.
"Daily supervision and a weekly summing up of faults and merits made the system quite satisfactory at the time and, resulted in some excellently trained teachers being sent out into the
"Although the training of teachers has been, from its inception, the outstanding purpose of this institution, it has become necessary, as the various courses have expanded and developed, to establish a teacher training department— a department of education— where the light could be focused upon every phase of educational progress— a sort of clearing house where all the debits and credits could be checked up and the results tabulated.
"As at present organized, there is a director of Education and Teacher Training who is administrator of the Training Department. There is a director of the Kindergarten-Primary, a principal of the Primary School, a principal of the Intermediate School, and a principal of the Junior High School, with a corps of assistants who demonstrate and supervise.
"In the 'Old Timers' number of the Alumni Bulletin there is an excellent summing up of the achievements of the Training School written by Miss Martha Trimble, for many years supervisor of the seventh grade, and now in the Psychology department of the college. She brings out clearly in this article the fact that art and music appreciation, home decoration, printing, educational measurements, foreign languages, and many other now well established parts of the college curriculum, had their inception in the training school— the working laboratory of the college.
"Cadet training is now an established feature of teacher training, and in this connection the pioneer work of Miss Clara Smith, teacher of history and rural supervisor for some yeasr [sic], should be gratefully remembered. The system worked out by her and successfully put into practice in the rural schools of this and near-by counties gave an added stimulus to rural school teachers whose problems, under her encouragement and assistance, became less fearsome."
Kindergarten-Primary Department
"Until the year 1898 there was no specialization in the training offered. The same course was given to every student, and all graduates were entitled to a certificate permitting them to teach in any of the eight grades in the public schools of the state. The value of kindergartens was recognized in some measure, but special training for teachers of very young children was not, up to this time, considered seriously. It was, therefore, something in the nature of an experiment for the Board of Trustees to establish a kindergarten training department with a demonstration class, and while the work was most successful, under the able direction of a highly trained woman, Miss Woodward, from Boston, the Board felt that the expense was disproportionate to the numerical gain, and the training school was abandoned, to be again
established the following year with a faculty of three, a student body of ten, and a kindergarten group of some seventy little people. The results were very gratifying, but the Board decided that the outlay was not justified, and again the kindergarten training school was abandoned. The kindergarten classes, however, were continued, the enrollment increased by leaps and bounds, and when the training school quarters were outgrown, the children were taken out into the grounds, and classes were held under the trees whose drooping branches furnished shade and shelter."From this overflow into the beautiful grounds, the germ of the May Fete was implanted, an out-of-door play festival, beginning with the wee kiddies in 1900, and each year adding the older groups, until the entire student body and training school had a part in this delightful spring festival, which expressed in song and dance and games the joy of youth and the playtime of life. The May Fete was big in its inceptions and attracted, not only state-wide notice, but national as well, and the two page description of its educational value together with the illustrations of its beauty and charm in an edition of the SATURDAY EVENING POST was a means of broadcasting to the country at large the scope of the San Jose Normal activities in the line of child development.
"In 1913 the State Legislature enacted a law making kindergarten training mandatory whenever twenty-five parents or guardians of children of kindergarten age presented a signed petition for such training. From that date the kindergarten department has been functioning regularly, and successfully, all graduates being eligible to teach in the kindergarten and first grade.
"It was not until 1922 that the law was amended permitting graduates of this department to teach in the first three grades of the grammar school. A further step was taken in 1923 when the Teachers Colleges of the state were authorized to grant the Bachelor of Arts degree in education. The result has been the return of a large number of former graduates to secure their degree through the kindergarten course.
"The success of this department has been amply demonstrated, not only in the large number of graduates, but in the demand by school authorities for teachers who have been given kindergarten training.
"It must not, however, be imagined that this development has been without years of struggle and sacrifice. Intensive, systematic and persistent efforts have been involved; far-seeing need, patient waiting, and undimmed faith have been exercised by those whose love for little children has demanded for those first critical years, understanding skill and sympathetic insight into childish nature.
"This brief story of the kindergarten department would be quite incomplete if mention were not made of Miss Isbel Mackenzie, whose vision and organizing power, and quiet persistent struggle never faltered until the department became one of the strongest and most efficient in the college.
"Indeed it is quite impossible to disassociate this tireless personality from the thought of childhood, for love of which she has devoted the best years of her life."
"It is quite apparent from the records that the normal school and the city schools were endeavoring to cooperate for a little later the state superintendent and the principal of the normal school were instructed 'to confer with the Board of Education of the City and County of San Francisco with reference to the proper organization and management of the Training School connected with the State Normal School.' This was at the same meeting at which the board considered the question of a permanent location for the normal school. Although it is not stated specifically, there appears to be plenty of evidence to indicate unrest and dissatisfaction with the arrangements. This was also evident in the attempt to secure proper housing for the normal school."