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centralight summer '14
Do you remember
PHOTO COURTESY OF CLARKE HISTORICAL LIBRARY
1897
This was what the graduating
class looked like at Central State
Normal School in 1897. It was
the first year a telephone was
installed on campus. During
this time, there was only one
building on campus, Old Main,
which stood where Warriner
Hall is located today. Old Main
burned down on Dec. 7, 1925.
One of only two state-governed
normal schools at the time, the
Graduation day, 117 years ago
primary mission of Central State
Normal was to educate teachers.
Classes included math, English,
history, geography, music, civics,
physiology, physics, botany,
physical training, education
courses, psychology and,
importantly, penmanship.
Because many of the students
who first came to Central
State Normal had attended
one-room schools themselves,
most didn't have more than
an eighth-grade education.
A rural certificate enabled a
graduate to teach in a one-room
schoolhouse, while a graded
certificate allowed him or her to
teach in primary and grammar
schools in villages and cities.
The first bachelor's degree
would be conferred in 1919. •
