cessfully completed the second or middle year were granted an elementary diploma (second grade certificate). This diploma was abolished in 1880.

"In 1876-77 the legislature increased the appropriation to meet the running expenses of the school to $24,000 annually.

"On the morning of February 10, 1880, the beautiful building took fire from a defective ash chute, and burned to the ground. A large part of the library and a portion of the furniture were saved. Books of reference, the museum and herbarium, and furniture, valued altogether at $18.000 were lost. The total loss to the state was estimated at $304,000. Through the courtesy of San José citizens, the school at once took up temporary quarters in the San José high school building (now the Horace Mann Grammar School) on Santa Clara street. In a short time the present substantial brick building was erected by the state on the site of the burned building, at a cost of $149,000. In 1891-92 a well-equipped building, at a cost of $47,500, was erected for the accommodation of the Training School.

"In 1888 important modifications were made in the course of study. The school year was divided into three terms instead of two. The courses were made uniform in the normal schools throughout California. A graduate course of one year was also introduced, but as the student received no substantial credential on its completion it did not develop.

"In 1887 a room was fitted up for manual training, and the instruction given by the regular teachers. In 1888 a regular teacher was employed. The work was at first elective, but later it was required, and has so continued down to 1901.

"C. W. Childs, who succeeded Charles H. Allen as principal in 1889, was succeeded by A. H. Randall in 1896. Professor Randall remained at the head of the school for three years, and in 1899 was succeeded by James McNaughton, who, after an administration of one year, was succeeded by Morris Elmer Dailey, the present head of the school.

"The demand for a higher standard of scholarship among teachers was met in the year 1901 by placing admission to the San José State Normal School upon a university basis. In September, 1901, none but high school graduates and teachers were admitted. At that time the course of study was made largely professional, and two years' practice teaching and observation work were required.

"Since the organization of this Normal School 3,219 students have been graduated. More than 1,200 of these are now teaching in the public schools of California."

The State Normal School at San Francisco was established by act of the legislature on March 22, 1899. Its work has gone on without interruption ever since, and there are those who say that its efficiency is as great as that of any school in the United States. It has been the aim of the founders and instructors to do good work, and much attention is given to the personality of those it selects as teachers who are to go forth with its credentials. President Frederick Burk thus outlines the purposes and methods of this institution.

"The faculty determined, in the first place, that the school should give no courses in general scholarship, to do which is already the function of the public school system, but should direct its energy exclusively into the channels of technical preparation for teaching. A normal school is a technical school, ranking in character with schools of medicine, engineering, law, and trade-learning. The public school system is expected to provide pupils with that kind of general knowledge, culture and training which concerns life common to all people, whatever their occupations may be. The technical school obtains students after this general education and training are accomplished, and its only concern should be to determine the stage of academic instruction at which students may be recruited into its special service; or, in short, to set a standard of academic knowledge requisite for admission.

"The San Francisco Normal School is located in the midst of a large number of the best high schools in the United States, and therefore the requirements for admission were made identical with those for admission to the State University. These requirements demand graduation from an accredited school with a special recommendation from the high school principal. Thus the San Francisco Normal School stands for a sharp distinction between general or academic scholarship and the technical or professional training special to teachers. No courses whatever are given in purely academic studies, and the school centers its energies exclusively upon professional training, in which term are included studies in the grouping and adaptation of the material of the various subjects to the special uses of the class-room."

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE STATE UNIVERSITY.

Freëminent among institutions of learning in California, and occupying a dignified place among the great universities of the United States, is the University of California, the principal buildings and headquarters of which are at Berkeley, in Alameda county, though the Lick Observatory, the Hastings Law College and other branches of the great work are not carried on at Berkeley.

Geographically and climatically the location of the state's highest place of learning is superb, for Berkeley escapes the fogs and stiff sea breezes of the immediate coast and particularly of the peninsula which comprises the city and county of San Francisco. It is also far removed from the extremes of summer that make the San Joaquin and the Sacramento valleys too hot for comfortable studying.

The town of Berkeley now exceeds twenty-five thousand inhabitants, the community being one of the most orderly and free from crime of any city in the west. The site of the university comprises about two hundred and seventy acres, rising at first in a gentle, then in a bolder slope from a height of two hundred feet above sea level to one not far from a thousand. Back of it a chain of hills continues to climb a thousand feet higher, affording an inspiring outlook over the bay and city of San Francisco, over the neighboring plains and mountains, the ocean, and the Golden Gate. As before said, the climate is exceptionally good for uninterrupted work throughout

the year.

The following is a brief summary of the history of the great institution of learning, given as a prelude to more specific data:

"In 1869 the College of California, which had been incorporated in 1855 and which had carried on collegiate instruction since 1860, closed its work of instruction and transferred its property, on terms which were mutually agreed upon, to the University of California.