For the year 1898–99 it was reported that 90 normal graduates were employed in the public schools, and in 1899–1900 the number was 89.
The legislature of 1899 granted an annual tax of 1½ cents on the hundred for the normal-school fund and appropriated $3,500 to pay the accumulated indebtedness. In its report on the workings of the institution[1] the visiting committee of the trustees for that year considered the development of the school as “worthy of commendation” and then fell into a discvussion of the whole subject, which showed the trend of the school itself and of the times:
We desire to call particular attention to the course of study and to most strongly commend the efforts of the trustees in giving a thorough English course. Too many of the young people of America graduate from high schools and colleges with a mere smattering of a practical education. There is an intense desire on the part of such institutions to rush students into Latin, Greek, French, German, higher mathematics, mental and moral science, etc., before they have acquired proficiency in spelling, grammar, rhetoric, geography, the history of our country and our flag, physiology, and those other branches which are usually called “common.” It is evident to those who are victims of such mistakes that the normal school at Tempe insists upon a thorough English education before anything else is considered. If in time it is demonstrated that our young men and women come from the public schools very proficient in the common branches, then will be ample time to extend the course to meet their needs. At present the course as outlined is, in our opinion, that which our students need to fit them as teachers, as well as to make them most useful as men and women in any walk in life. We believe that the board has acted wisely in adopting the plan of giving three years to academic work and one year to those branches which belong purely to the professional teacher. The students who find that they are not fitted for teaching, or who desire to adopt some other life course, will have lost no time in the study of methods of teaching, etc. On the other hand, the student who desires to teach is thereby better equipped for the study of purely professional branches in his final year.
By this arrangement the Territory succeeded to an extent in supplying the need of high schools. Those who could afford and had the disposition went to the normal school at Tempe or to the university at Tucson for their academic and high-school courses. In this way the high-school facilities of the Territory were greatly enlarged.
In 1899 a second normal school, located at Flagstaff on the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad and known as the Northern Normal School of Arizona, was organized. The genesis of this institution is interesting. Its beginnings go back to an act passed in 1893 looking to the creation of a school for delinquent boys.
In that year such a school was actually provided by law[2] and was to be formally known as the Reform School for juvenile offenders. A building for this purpose located at Flagstaff was commenced and
