A volume in Contemporary Research in Education
Series Editor: Terry A. Osborn, University of South Florida, Sarasota-Manatee
Normalites: The First Professionally Prepared Teachers in the United States is a new original work which
explores the experiences of three women, Lydia Stow, Mary Swift and Louisa Harris, who were pioneers in
the movement in teacher education as members of the first class of the nation's first state normal school
established in Lexington, Massachusetts in 1839. The book is biographical, offering new insights derived
from exceptional research into the development of the normal school movement from the perspectives of the
students. While studies have provided analysis of the movement as a whole, as well as some of the leaders
of the initiative, such as Horace Mann and Henry Barnard, there is a lack of rich, published information
about the first groups of students. Understanding their accounts and experiences, however, provides a
critical foreground to comprehending not only the complexity of the nineteenth century normal school
movement but, more broadly, educational reform during this period.
Arranged chronologically and in four parts, this book explores the experiences of Lydia Stow, Mary Swift and Louisa Harris during their normal
school studies, their entrance into the world and commencement of their careers, the transitions in their personal and professional lives, and the
building of their life work. Throughout these periods, their formal educational experiences, as well as broader moments of transformation, are
considered and how life paths were shaped.
This book will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students and faculty connected to teacher preparation programs. More than 100,000
students are currently awarded baccalaureate degrees each year in Education. Over 80,000 of these students are women. Their experiences are rooted
in the pioneering efforts of Lydia Stow, Mary Swift, and Louisa Harris at our nation's first state normal school. It is a particularly fitting time to share
their experiences as the 175th anniversary of the start of formal, state sponsored teacher education,
the normal school movement, will be celebrated in 2014.
