An 1886 freshman writes about her first semester
By
Dr. Sam Dicks,
ESU Historian
Mattie J. Foster and Nannie Walbright of Minneapolis, Kan., most likely changed trains at Junction City and arrived at Emporia on the MKT or Katy train when they came to the Kansas State Normal School in the fall of 1886.
Although some men also attended KSN, unlike the state university at Lawrence, the state agricultural college at Manhattan, and most church-supported colleges, a majority of the students at the Normal School were women.
Travel was difficult and expensive, yet young women might find a teaching career open to them. The shortage of teachers to fill the many one-room rural schools was immense.
Students were encouraged to complete the four-year curriculum, and some did, but most attended for only one or two semesters before teaching country school.
Those left behind must have been curious about what a normal school was like. As the fall twenty-week semester drew to a close either Mattie or Nannie (we are not sure which) wrote to the editor of the ‘Minneapolis Messenger’ and described what a typical day in her first semester at the normal school was like.
“ED. MESSENGER: As a goodly number of your readers are interested in education and the institutions for that purpose, I send the following from the State Normal.”
“Just as the sun rises above the horizon as if he were looking to discern whether we, his children, nearly six hundred strong, are moving toward the temple of learning (the Normal) or not, may be seen the march of students and as the clock points to the hour of 8:10 our voices join in the songs that, though they are old, are ever new unless the professor of music should persuade himself that we need more practice.”
“After chapel we pass with the precision of clock-work to the several recitation rooms where all is pleasant unless the instructors have an imperfect lesson to contend with.”
“Our professor of mathematics is great in body and soul. He is editor of the mathematical department of the Western School Journal, and, combining the clearness of his explanations with the logic of his statements, makes this branch one of great interest as well as benefit.”
“We next pass to the professor of elocution, and with wonderful aptitude speedily become eloquent.”
“From here we go to the gymnasium to take calisthenic exercises, where all are required to beat the air, bend the limbs, and contort the body into every conceivable attitude all to good music and for the benefit of the health and muscle, it is said, after which we take geography under one of the most able instructors of the Normal.”
“At 11 o’clock we have a short recess, when we have the privilege of passing out for exercise, or remaining in the assembly room and conversing with the many representatives of the counties of Kansas, with now and then one who has crossed the ocean and resolved to get an education by attending a western school.”
“The fourth hour is spent in bookkeeping and drawing, and the fifth and last hour is successfully spent in studying the English language.”
“At 12:30 we are allowed to go to dinner, soon to return to studying.”
“
We have been honored this term by persons of considerable note. The soldiers’ reunion, Ladies’ Social Science club and the Kansas Academy of Science have all brought to us some of the best educators of the state, and now as we sit thinking of home and those we would see above all others, our roused feelings are calmed by the thoughts of vacation.”
The mathematics professor she praises so highly, was Middlesex A. Bailey. A 1877 graduate of Wesleyan University in Middlefield, Connecticut, he came to KSN in 1885 and quickly became a popular teacher.
The reunion of Civil War veterans, with their parades, patriotic speeches, and heroic stories, along with the leading scientists and other scholars also giving public presentations on the latest findings in their fields, created impressions to a young farm girl which are hard for us to imagine in our own world of mass communications.
Last Updated July 2, 2007>