[lit-ideas] The "Normal School of Sex" -- And Why It is Important to You

From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 15:43:51 EDT
Ursula is puzzled:

>Why are teacher's colleges called Normal  Schools?

Exactly. My mother attended one of them. And she likes to say she only was  
trained to knit and sow.
 
The 'normal school' she attended was founded by an American (so I disagree  
with Wager and think this _is_ an American problem), a female TEACHER literally 
 imported by the Argentine president back then.
 
The OED is clearer that this was an _American_ *and German* thing. Never  
Liberal Empiricist British!
 
I guess the idea is that teachers are into 'norms' of behaviour (e.g.  
etiquette). But if norms are something deeper, then surely we cannot be trained 
 
into them, only educated. Now I'm all confused.
 
Cheers,
 
J. L. 
     Speranza's Boy
 
                  (My mother is called Speranza and why she has been 
'trained' (into cooking and  knitting, I still love her, because she trained me 
to be 
Dorian). 
----

3. Of, relating to, or intended for the training of  teachers, esp. in 
Continental Europe and N. America. Chiefly in normal school. Now hist. 
In N. America, normal  schools were for training primary school teachers. In 
Continental Europe,  different normal schools also trained teachers at 
secondary and tertiary  levels.  
1826  C. ANDERSON Let. 29 Aug. in H. Anderson  Life & Lett. C. Anderson 
(1854) viii. 276 Colonel Abrahamson..has been with us all this afternoon, and 
has  
shewn us the Normal  School, the institution for the deaf and dumb, and the 
lithographic  press. 1834  Edinb. Rev. July 491 The system  of Primary Schools, 
which the French..have..denominated Normal. 1857  Illinois House Jrnl. 17 Feb. 
970 Senate bill for ‘An act for the establishment and maintenance of  a 
normal university’ was taken up... There shall be established in said  
university..a normal college for the education of teachers of common schools. 
1888  Nat. 
Educ. Assoc. U.S. Addr. & Proc. 1887  502 A course of normal instruction. 1939  
_H. G.  WELLS_ 
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-w2.html#h-g-wells)
  Holy Terror IV. i. 359 An  increasing number of women are 
taking up professions now; at architecture,  catering, various industries, 
normal teaching..they are practically as good as  men or better. 1960  S. J. 
CURTIS & M. E. A. BOULTWOOD  Introd. Hist. Eng. Educ. xii. 278 The Normal  
School 
of Design became the Royal College of Art in 1896. 1993  Beaver Oct.-Nov. 
43/1 She  graduated from the high school at Winkler, Manitoba in 1921 and 
attended Normal School at Manitou,  Manitoba, until 1922.

 
J. L. Speranza, Esq.  

Town:

Calle Arenales 2021, Piso 5, St. 8, 
La Recoleta  C1124AAE,
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tel. 54 11 4824 4253
Fax 54 221 425  9205

Country:

St. Michael Hall,
Calle 58, No. 611,
La Plata  B1900 BPY
Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tel. 54 221 425  7817
Fax 54 221 425  9205
http://www.stmichaels.com.ar

jls@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
http://www.netverk/~jls.htm



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[lit-ideas] The "Normal School of Sex" -- And Why It is Important to You

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