David Perkins Page

Page then attended the academy for a few months at age 17, advanced sufficiently to obtain a teacher's license, and taught for a term in local schools in order to fund his further studies.

In August 1838, Page delivered an address before the American Institute of Instruction on the topic of "Duties of Parents and Teachers".

Horace Mann, who was in the audience, stated that this was the finest speech delivered before the Institute in its history, and arranged to have 6,000 copies printed and circulated to Massachusetts teachers.

[6] The project faced stiff political opposition, and throughout the following years, Page spent much of his time traveling around New York shoring up support for the Normal School.

[7] By the time the copyright had expired in 1889, more than 100,000 copies had been sold and it was the most widely used textbook in American teacher education.