Talk:Normal school

New Zealand Unassessed Low‑importance

	New Zealand portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject New Zealand, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of New Zealand and New Zealand-related topics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.New ZealandWikipedia:WikiProject New ZealandTemplate:WikiProject New ZealandNew Zealand articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Education Unassessed

	Education portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Education, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of education and education-related topics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.EducationWikipedia:WikiProject EducationTemplate:WikiProject Educationeducation articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Chinese equivalents

Are there articles in the Chinese Wikipedia on normal schools? Since the article mentions them, it would seem appropriate to link to them. Mateo SA 04:49, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)

List

Should there be a list of (current or former) Normal Schools? — Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}#top|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

My $.02 says "no," as there are MANY of these schools. Madmaxmarchhare 16:48, 2 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I also see a move toward providing a paragraph or more on the establishment of Normal Schools in each region or State of the United Stated. I don't think that will add to the article, either, and I propose to remove the paragraphs of this sort that have accumulated already. Comments? Pzavon 02:14, 10 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The article isn't terribly long, and the paragraphs do add some historical context. Why don't we watch to make sure that they don't get bloated with boosterism at this point? Madmaxmarchhare 16:43, 10 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ecole Normal

My French is atrophied, but I'm pretty sure Ecole Normal means "model school" comment posted 20 April 2007 by 192.18.41.196

Roughly, yes. However, the word was borrowed directly to a number of other languages, most notably to German. From German, the word normal school spread then to other languages along with the concept. (In 19th century, many notable pedagogicians were German.) --MPorciusCato 10:10, 23 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No. First Normal School was Reims' 1685 School, long before German pedagogicians' rise to prominence. And école normale is "normal school", "model school" is école modèle. A norm (norme in french) isn't a model (modèle in french). 88.178.189.194 (talk) 11:11, 17 May 2008 (UTC) [reply]

Merge with Teachers college

"Teachers college" and "normal school" are synonyms; some schools use one term and other schools use the other term. There is no difference in the concept, therefore the one article should discuss all schools that prepare students to become teachers. Neelix (talk) 17:20, 21 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have no problem with this if Normal School is the surviving article. That term is the original term and the article itself is older and more extensive than the Teachers college article. Pzavon (talk) 00:33, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with Pzavon's position that normal school should be the surviving article. The term "teachers college" was relatively short-lived since it was eventually displaced by the rise of the modern graduate school of education throughout the United States. --Coolcaesar (talk) 04:01, 24 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I completed the merge. Otebig (talk) 15:12, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Meaningless in UK - Wikipedia US-centric weakness

I edited the article earlier to indicate that there was no such thing as a 'Normal School' in the UK and that the phrase 'normal school' would be taken to mean that a school is normal, i.e. not abnormal or unusual.

I have worked in the Education sector in schools and universities for many years, but any ordinary citizen would verify the change I made as easily. However finding a 'source' for it might prove as difficult as finding a source for many statements that are so widely known that they rarely warrant comment.

Nevertheless, the 'follow our script if you don't now any better (and even if you do)' pproach of Wikipedia provides the perfect platform for ignorant 'editors' to exercise 'power' within their little dominions.

A, presumably well-intentioned but rather ignorant, Wikipedia editor reverted my change because it was not 'referenced'. However, the same editor apparently saw no need for a reference to support the implicit implication of the converse - an implication much more in need of verification if it is to be (incorrectly) claimed as a blanket definition for the whole world.

Anyone living in the UK would confirm the voracity of my change. That it is unknown to a US editor is illustrative of the variability of quality of Wikipedia editors and, indeed, of widespread ignorance amongst them. Editors such as the one who reverted the change are clearly not the brightest pebbles in the pond and it is unfortunate that they wield such power over Wikipedia content, demeaning its quality as they do so.

Perhaps the same editor believes, on the back of the unreferenced and unchallenged information in this article, that 'Normal School' means the same on Mars or Jupiter or the Andromeda Galaxy as it does, apparently, in the Good Ol' U S Of A, Yessirree. Presumably, anyone who claimed it doesn't would have their change reverted until they provide definitive references from The Daily Martian Chronicle, or similar inter-stellar publications.

If it weren't so sad, it would be laughable that some Americans (of which I believe that only about 25% have ventured outside their own country), feel that anything they read in an American source is de facto correct.

Oh well, back to laughing at Dubbya's 'nucular', and all the Americans who produced an article in Wikipedia trying to demonstrate that he was correct, rather than just 'plain stoopid', as Americans would say.