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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http: //books .google .com/I L IB \ • S*/ CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION BUREAU OF EDUCATION. ISTo. Q-1886. PROCEEDIHOS OF THE DEPARTMFNT OF SnPERINTEKT»W!tE LOV THE SATIONAL EDUCATIONAL A&SOCIATIOK AT IIS HBETUra AT WAflHDfGTOS. PEIJRUABV S3>^ but WASHTITOTOUr! OOVRnHMEHT PXlKTrKO OFFtOB. 1H87. w CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION I BUREAU OF EDUCATION. No. 3-1886. PROCBEOntOS OF TfTE DEPARTMKST OF StTPF.RISTKWneKCC Of THE HATIOSAL EDUCATIOKAL ASSOCIATION AT ITS UEKTUm AT WA8B1KGT0H, FEBBUABY SS-dO, l&A WABHTKGTON: aOVKKKMEItT PBIXTIKG OFPIOB. CIRCUURS OF INFORMATION OF TUK BUREAU OF EDUCATION. ISTo. 3-1886 « • PROCEEDIN(iS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION AT ITS MEETING AT WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 23-26, 1886. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1886. 6742— No. 2 79 c ^UiLa/e.«^t-ov\ CONTENTS. Letter of the Commissioner of Edaoatiou to the Secretary of the Interior 83 List of persons in attendance • 85 PRELIMINARY SESSION. Organization of the Dex>artment 87 SECOND SESSION. Address of welcome by the Hon. W. B. Powell, of Washington, D. C 88 School Superintendence a Profession, by the Hon. M. A. Newell, of Maryland. 88 Daties of County Saperintendents, by the Hon. D. L. Kiehle, of Minnesota.. . 89 Reading Circles for Teachers, by Dr. Jerome Allen, of New York City 93 THIRD SESSION. The Co-education of the Uac^s, by the Hon. Charles S. Tonng, of Nevada 96 Appointment of committees 104 FOURTH SESSION. Preliminary Report of the Committee on Educational Statistics 105 National Aid to Education, by the Hon. J. A. B. Lovett, of Huntsville, Ala.. . 106 Discussion by Hon. Theodore Nelson, Hon. Herbert M. Skinner, and others ... 114 FIFTH SESSION. Resolutions respecting the death of the late Hon. John D. Philbrick 123 The Educational and Religious Interests of the Colored People in the South, by the Hon. S. M. Finger, of North Carolina 123 SIXTH SESSION. Forestry in Education, by the Hon. Warren Higley, of Ohio 134 Language Work, by the Hon. N. C. Dougherty, of Peoria, III 146 Growth and Benefits of Reading Circles, by the Hon. Hubert M. Skinner, of Indiana 152 City Superintendence, by the Hon. J. W. Akers, of Iowa 160 Resolutions : On the retirement of the Hon. John Eaton, U, S. Commissioner of Educa- tion 168 Relative to the U. S. Bureau of Education 169 On the centennial celebration of the first settlement of Ohio 169 On the substitution of *^ Intermediate'' for ''Grammar,'' as a designation in the nomenclature of graded schools 169 Of thanks for coartesiea received ^ 169 81 LETTER. Department op the Inteeiob, Bureau op Education, Washington^ D. 0., October 7, 1886. Sir : The accompaDying papers contain the records of the proceed- ings of the late meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association, together with a number of papers read and discussed during the several sessions. The nature of the material and the timely character of its contents seem to render it appropriate as a publication of this Office, and will make it useful to educationists in this country. Following the precedent set in former years, I have the honor to rec- ommend it for such publication. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servaut, K H. R. DAWSON, Commissioner, The Honorable the Secretary of the Interior. Publication approved. H. L. MULDROW, Acting Secretary. 83 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIOM DEPAETMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE, 1886. Hon. John W. Akers, State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Des Moines, Iowa. Dr. Jerome Allen, editor of the School Journaly^ New York City,^. Y. Hon. Le Roy D. Brown, State Commissioner of Common Schools, Columbus, Ohio, Hon. John L. Buchanan, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Richmond, Va. Hon. N. A. Calkins, Superintendent of City Schools, New York City. Hon. H. C. Carpenter, Assistant State Superintendent of Public In- struction, Dover, Del. Hon. Geo. F. T. Cook, Superintendent of Colored Schools of the Dis- trict of Columbia, Washington, D. C. Hon.Leonidas S. Cornell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Denver, Colo. W. B. Oounsell, Huntsville, Ala. Hon. C. C. Davidson, Superintendent of City Schools, Alliance, Ohio. Hon. Jno. W. Dickinson, Secretary of the State Board of Education, Boston, Mass. Hon. Newton C. Dougherty, Superintendent of Schools, Peoria,- III. Hon. Samuel T. Dutton, Superintendent of Schools, New Haven, Conn. Hon. Warren Easton, State Superintendent of Education, Baton Rouge, La. Hon. John Eaton, United States Commissioner of Education, Wash- ington, D. C. Hod. Evarts W. Farr, ex-State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Richmond, Ya. Hoii. S. M. Finger, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Raleigh, N. C. A. P. Flint, Philadelphia, Pa. William H. Gardiner, esq., chief clerk of the Bureau of Education, Wasrhington, D. O. Hon. E. A. Gastman, Superintendent of Public Schools, Decatur, 111. Hon. Aaron Gove, Superintendent of City Schools, Denver, Colo. 85 86 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. James H. Grooves, Washington, D, C. M. E. Hard, Superintendent of Schools, Gallipolis, Ohio. Hon. Warren Higley, Cincinnati, Ohio. Hon. B, A. Hinsdale, Superintendent of City Schools, Cleveland, Ohio. L. P. Holland, State Superintendent's office, Richmond, Va, Hon. George Howland, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chi- cago, 111. Hon. H. S. Jones, Superintendent of City Schools, Erie, Pa. Hon. D. L. Ejehle, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Saint Paul, Minn. J. O. Knauss, AUentown, Pa. Hon. John W. Knott, Superintendent of Public Schools, Tiffin, Ohio. Richard H. Lewis, Kinston, IS. C. George E. Little, esq., Spencerian Business College, Washington, D. C. Hon. J. A. B. Lovett, Superintendent of City Schools, Huntsville, Ala. Hon. George J. Luckey, Superintendent of City Schools, Pitts- burg, Pa. John E. McCahan, Baltimore, Md. Hon. A. P. Marble, Superintendent of City Schools, Worcester, Mass. L. H. Marvel, Superintendent of City Schools, Lewiston, Me. Prof. H. P. Montgomery, Washington, D. C. Hou. Beujamin S. Morgan, State Superintendent of Free Schools, Charleston, West Va. Dr. William A. Mowry, editor of Education^ Boston, Mass. Hon. Theodore Nelson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Lansing, Mich. Hon. M. A. Newell, State Superintendent of Schools, Baltimore, Md. A. F. Nightingale, Principal of High School, Lake View, 111. Hon. B. G. Northrop, ex-Secretary of Connecticut Board of Educa- tion, Clinton, Conn. James H. Norton, Lake View, 111. Prof. John Ogden, Washington, D. C. Col. F. W. Parker, Principal of Cook County Normal School, Normal Park, 111. Hon. John B, Peaslee, Superintendent of City Schools, Cincinnati, Ohio. Mrs. Louise Pollock, Principal of Kindergarten Normal Institute, Washington, D. C. Hon. W. B. Powell, Superintendent of Schools of the District of Co- lumbia, Washington, D. C. Hon. Henry Raab, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Springfield, 111. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 87 Zalmon Bichards, ex-Superintendent of Public Schools, Washington, D.C. Hon. Andrew J. Eickoff, Superintendent of City Schools, Yonkers, N. Y. Eev. L. L. Eussell, Alabama. Hon. William B, Sheldon, of the Journal of Education^ Boston, Mass. Hon. Hubert M. Skinner, Deputy State Superintendent, Indianap- olis, Ind. Miss Linda Slaughter, Bismarck, Dak. Hon. E. W. Stevenson, Superintendent of Public Schools, Columbus, Ohio. Hon. Albert S. Willis, M. C, Kentucky. Hon. J. Ormond Wilson, ex-Superintendent of City Schools, Wash- ington, D. C. Hon. Henry A. Wise, ex-Superintendent of City Schools, Baltimore, Md. Hon. Charles S. Young, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Garson City, Nev. PEELIMINAEY SESSION. Tuesday Evening^ February 23, 1886. A preliminary meeting of the members of the Department of Super- intendence was held in the red parlor of the Ebbitt House at 8 o'clock p. M., for the purpose of arranging for the sessions to be held the sub- sequent days, pursuant to adjournment of the National Educational As- sociation held at Saratoga, N. Y., July, 1885. Hon. Wabrbn Easton, State Superintendent of Education for Louisiana, president, called the meeting to order, with Hon. C. C. Davidson, Superintendent of Alliance (Ohio) Public Schools, as secretary. On motion, the following were appointed a committee to arrange the subsequent sessions of the Department: Messrs. W. B. Powell, of Wash- ington, D. C, N, C. Dougherty, of Peoria, 111., and J. A. B. Lovett, of Alabama. The committee recommended that the morning sessions open at 10 A. M. and close at 2 p. m., and that the evening sessions open at 8 p. m. and close at 10 p. m. On motion, the report was adopted. The Department then adjourned to meet in All Souls' Church on'the following morning. 88 CIBCULABS OF INFORMATION FOR ISMI. SECOND SESSION. Wednesday Morning^ February 24, 1886. The meeting was called to order by Mr, Easton, pregident, and was opened by prayer by D. L. Kiehle, of Wisconsin, Mr. W. B. Powell, Superintendent of Schools of Washington, de- livered the following ADDRESS OP WELCOME. To many of those present a welcome to Washington is not a new thing:, as they have attended these meetings for many years. This is a matter of congratulation — congratulation on the evident permanence in oflftce of those, at least, who are engaged in this branch of educa tional work; congratulation, further, on the augury it offers that the tenure of those engaged in other branches of education will become more secure ; in the past the uncertainty of tenure has caused much waste and much injury to the efficiency of the school service in many •places, especially in smaller cities and rural districts. Mr. Powell also spoke briefly of the various fields of labor opening out before the Department. Mr. Easton, the president, acknowledged the welcome extended to the Department, and announced the same to be open for regular busi- ness. On motion of Mr. Sheldon, of Massachusetts, a committee was ap- pointed to draft resolutions in memory of the late Hon. John D. Phil- brick, of Massachusetts, for many years one of the most active mem- bers of the Department. Hon. M. A. Newell, of Maryland, then read a paper on '* School Superintendence a Profession." He claimed that the province of the superintendent is such as to warrant the cousideration of school super- intendence as a profession as honorable as that of the law or ol* medi- cine. Labor must be^ specialized before it can be organized. It re- quires special fitness, the result of natural ability aided by education and experience, to become an efficient superintendent. Therefore there should be a guild equally as honorable and distinct as in any other profession. Mr. Newell urged the formation of a department in normal schools and colleges, for the special purpose of training superintendents. The reading of the paper was followed by some remarks by Dr. W, ^ A. MoWRY, of Massachusetts, who agreed that supervision should be recognized as one of the things to be studied in normal schools as a distinct profession. The times demanded the highest order of talent for this department of school work. DEPAkXMENT. OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 89 Hon. D. L. KiEHLE, of Minnesota, then read the following paper: THE DUTIES OP OdUNTT SUPERINTENDENTS. The duties of the county superintendent, which are to be here consid- ered, are the duties of opportunity and responsibility. I shall, then, in- quire what a competent man may do in a position which relates him authoritatively as well as professionally to teachers and the people, presuming without argument that what he may do it is his duty to do. Respecting the importance of this position, whatever may have been proven confirming the theory of evolution that there is in the individual a native internal energy ever pushing outward and upward as the es- sential element in development, it is also true that the power which quickens and directs all intellectual and spiritual life is from above ; that the improvement of the race has been from the top downward; that the wisdom and goodness of the world have radiated from the lives of the choice few downward among the masses, so that the shadows have been gradually driven down the mountain sides by the growing light above, and today the morniug twilight covers the earth. Now there have been and are men who occupy by nature this pre- eminence of intellectual and moral leadership; and there are others who by the formal expression of the popular will are assigned officially to this position of pre-eminence in which their opportunity defines their duties, and the interests to which the position is related become grave responsibilities. To this class belong superintendents of education, whether of State, city, or county. Of the several parts of our educational problem, there is good reason for saying that that of the common school of the country is still un- solved. The city and town feel the full influence of the thought and spirit of the age; are perfecting their plans of organization, supervi- sion, and instruction; command the services of the best teachers; and give them the most improved apparatus and conveniences for instruc- tion. But our country schools are about where they were a quarter of a century ago. The conditions peculiar to country life — the people separated from each other, and unaccustomed to the methods, compromises, dependent conditions, and supervisions which characterize life in cities — almost ex- clude the improvements which belong to the age. Country children are still in the traditional white or red school-house of the old pattern, taught by teachers young and without experience, for short terms, without books of general information or apparatus. Some of these conditions are constant, others are variable, and the unsolved problem is. How much may be done under all the circumstances! I am of the opinion that the question of the common school is insep- arably bound up with and in that of the superioteudency of these schools, or that of the county superintendency, for I am not aware that 90 CIRCULABS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. there is any other plan by which these schools may receive the exclusive attention and care of a capable person. The position of a county superintendent of schools under our elective system is peculiarly embarrassing and difficult. It is both political and professional. Elected by the people, he must satisfy the people, else he will not be allowed to serve them at all. In many political offices nothing more is required than to represent the average sentiment or policy of the masses ; but in education the superintendent who does no more than this will soon pass over from the ranks of the profession to those of the politician. The superintendent who is to be an educator must do the difficult thing of keeping near the people and holding their con- fidence, and at the same time represent, in his plans and policy, the intelligence, character, and experience of his profession. He must often exclude from the corps of teachers the friends and relatives of men whose political or social influence might threaten his position. He must introduce and urge improvements and reforms that are quite beyond the present appreciation of many of his constituents. And yet, difficult as this may seem, there is no other way so honorable, so self-satisfying, and in the long run none so safe. For, uninformed or ignorant as these people may be of theories of education, you must remember that they are fathers and mothers, and that the superintend- ent who, by his devotion to the interests of their children, proves that he is wisely studying their advancement, will find that the heart and confidence of the parent are a more reliable support than the self-interest of the politician. I have said that the position of county superintendent of schools is difficult, but I must not forget to say that he is given great authority. He is, in short, the educational autocrat of the county. He has entire control of the teaching force of his county, with power to legally qual- ify and power to discharge for cause. His invitations to attend meet- ings and institutes of teachers are in effect mandatory, and his sugges- tions have the force of instructions to be observed. It is not unreason- able, then, that a county superintendent should be held responsible for important results in the advancement of education among the people he has engaged to serve. Stating the duties of a county superintendent in a general way, he should be the medium of communication between his schools and the educational world. He should therefore know where the world is in his thought, in the solution of its problems, and what results of study and experience in improved methods and appliances of instruction are avail- able for the use of his own schools. He should make it his study how to disseminate this knowledge among the people who can utilize it, but who, by reason of their circumstances, would otherwise continue in ignorance. I come now to consider in detail the duties of the county superin- tendent. DEPARTMENT OF SUPEBINTENDENCE. 91 • The teacher is the sine qua non^ and having the teacher, the school will in good time have all else needful. The housewife said that the introduction of the new and beautiful sofa had given her a new and newly furnished house in place of the old ; and more surely will the introduction of a good teacher into a worn-out district be the begin- ing of a renovation, not to end till the last cobweb of antiquated and obstructive trash has been removed. The supply of capable teachers includes two distinct processes: First, the exclusion of the incapable, under the general law, I suppose, that ** nature abhors a vacuum;^ and if the incompetent can be kept out, the competent will come in. I must not take the space of this paper in noting the details of this important duty. I can only say here that it is of the first importance 5 that, this duty being neglected, the ranks are filled with incompetence, which destroys the demand for good teach- ers, and with persons who neither do anything nor give promise of im- provement. The second step in the supply of teachers is the positive one of selec- tion, by the careful examiuatiou and certificating of those who give proof of ability and skill. The superintendent who is most successful in this must do it by a sort of common sense or instinctive judgment, based upon the facts to be known concerning the applicant as a man of character, as a scholar with requisite knowledge, and as a teacher with a proper theoretical understanding of the principles of school manage- ment and instruction, and snf^cient practical skill to secure the re- quired results. The next duty of the superintendent respecting his teachers is the improvement of them. He should not stand by critically to observe and to pronounce judgment, but having chosen those who deserve his confidence and support, he should, by the means within his control, help them to success, and to be of the greatest influence in improving their schools. This duty is discharged in three parts or ways. First, by the county teachers' institute, which should be held annually for the discussion of general principles and methods that obtain in the theory and practice of teaching. In these institutes he will have the assistance of in- structors of skill and experience. Here teachers should gain fresh inspiration and broader views of their work. Here new problems and new lines of thought and study should be presented, and old truths should be brightened by the skill of discussion. The second way is by holding local or neighborhood associations, for the discussion and illustration of the more detailed work of the school- room. These meetings, under the direction of the superintendent, should be supported in the programme by the teachers themselves. Here may be continued the discussion of questions introduced at the county institute. Here teachers will report the results of their own ex- perience, and will illustrate their plans by exercises with their classes; 92 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1886. and here teachers will have the in valuable opportunities of an experi- ence meeting, in which they will compare experiences with one another and with their superintendent, take counsel, and gain fresh courage for work. The third way by which the superintendent will improve his teaeh^s is the still more detailed and individual work of visitation. Here, in the little kingdom and home of the teacher, the superintendent appears in friendly and sympathetic spirit, to note progress, to advise in emer- gencies, and to call attention to matters of discipline or instruction as it may appear necessary. I pass now from this synopsis of the superintendent's duties respect- ing teachers, to those respecting patrons ; for if the success of the school is dependent upon both the good teacher and the patron, it follows that the duties of the superintendent include a service to patrons which will influence them to more interest and intelligence in affairs of their schools. The methods by which the county superintendent shall communicate with the people are various, and must be selected by each according to his taste and ability. With some, the favorite and most effective method is by lectures, meeting the people at school-houses of the neigh- borhoods. Others will also make use of the local newspaper or the edu- cational journal that is most likely to reach the patrons of the schools. Of the matters in which the people should be informed and interested I note the following : (1) School-houses and grounds. Whatever, in the experience and judgment of the age has proven itself tasteful, health- ful, and helpful in appliances for instruction, should be persistently urged upon the attention of the people until the children are provided with rooms warmed, ventilated, furnished, beautiiied, and located in grounds tidy and shaded. (2) The next matter deserving the attention and best eflbrt of the superintendent is the supply of instructive and interesting reading for the schools. It is astonishing to note what a dearth of good reading there is among the country schools. In my own State — ^I am almost ashamed to confess it, and indeed would not speak of it, only that I am satisfied there are other States no better off— in the State of Minnesota, outside of the cities and towns supporting graded schools, the value of school libraries in country districts is reported at less than $5,000; and this includes the value of unabridged dictionaries, which doubtless nearly equals the entire amount. The folly of supporting a school for disciplinary results, without the materials of knowledge in good literature, is too evident to require a moment of time in emphasizing it. A tonic does not make muscle and sinew. A good school is an appetizer. It ought also to provide whole- some intellectual and moral nutrition for the increase of 'knowledge, for the culture of taste, in choice books so near at* band and so well ftdapted to minds of every age, DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 93 We require, then, in final summary, a county saperintendent in fall aooord with tho spirit of the 'times, and able to communicate to the schools under his supervision the ripest fruits of the experience of the day, with the result of good teachers under permanent engagemeot in good schoolrooms, well supplied with apparatus, and surrounded with the convtniences and adornments that will make school life a culture of intelligence, health, and taste. The paper was discussed by Messrs. Raab of Illinois, Akers of Iowa, Cornell of Colorado, Parker of Illinois, Little of Washington, Allen of New York, l^ewell of Maryland, Farr of Virginia, and Dougherty of Illi- nois. Colonel Parker wished that eastern men could visit the West and see the county superintendeiicy work. There was more life, he said, in one county in Iowa than in all New England outside of the cities. In referring to Pennsylvauia, Mr. Little suggested that the reason that that State had such competent county superintendents was because they were paid good salaries, — from $1,500 to $2,000. Doctor Alien spoke of the movement in 'Sew York to take the examination of teachers out of the hands of county superintendents, and place it in the hands of the State superintendent. He instanced the case of a superintend- ent last year issuing a certificate to a boy nine years old. He further said that there was a strong movement at work to take the matter of educational affairs out of politics. Maryland appeared to be the banner State in regard to tenure of of- fice. Doctor Newell stated that he knew of several instances in which the superintendents retained their places for eighteen years. They hold their places till death or resiguation. Dr. Jerome Allen of New York read the Ibllowing paper: READING CIRCLES FOR TEACHERS. Beading circles are now a part of our educational systems. For many years they have been the means of producing a higher literary teste and a broader culture, but more recently they have been turned into the pedagogical channel. From the necessities of the situation, teachers' reading circles have been established by those who have recog- niaed the necessity for more professional knowledge on the part of those who are called upon to instruct. The average teacher has heretofore known little concerning the professional literature of his vocation. His entrance into his work has not demanded it. The requirements of an average teachers' examination only ask that he should be prepared to know the facts connected with the branches he is required to teach. Beyond this nothing is askeU; concerning the nature, parts, growth, diaeaBes, and incentives of the human mind, nothing is said ; Socratic f qaestions are ignored, Pestalozzian principles passed by, and FroebePs 94 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. discoveries not referred to. A careful coiiiparison of one hundred sets of examination questions from different parts of our country shows that in not more than ten is any one of these subjects mentioned. The result is that they are not known. These are facts as they exist in the districts where inexperienced young men and women are invested with the dignities and prerogatives of teachers for the space of three or six months. These facts have led to the establishment of reading circles, dis- tinctly designed to give teachers that knowledge imperatively de- manded in order to train young minds intelligently. In view of these facts it becomes a question of more than ordiuary im[)ortance: What ought a teacher to readf The answer is most plain : That which will most directly help him in the work of instruction. There can be no dispute here. The question for us to settle is, What does most directly help the teacher? Let us examine the subject. 1. He teaches human beings. It follows that he must ki ow th em- ail there is of them possible to be known— their bodies, their moral nat- ures, their minds. All knowledge he can secure that can help him iu understanding child life, growth, and influence should be his. He can- not know too much here. He cannot know it too soon. It would be better to know less of something else than not know this. What is the value of the facts of history, however important we may concede history to be, or the processes of arithmetic, so necessary in the work of business, or grammar, or geography, compared with the knowledge that makes us know how to touch, the forces of human impulse and turn them in the right direction ? To know a child is next to knowing God. The- memorable lesson of our Savior, when he called a little child ' juid set him in the midst of his disciples, is one of the most radical in all his teachings. 2. He is especially set to train the mind. It follows, then, that he must know mind-growth and mind-science. Under this head we must recog- nize the usual separation of the mind into the threefold division of the intellect, sensibilities, and will. With these at the very outset, the teacher has to deal. His first thought should be, not How much can I induce them to learn ? how can they be made to read fluently and ex- press correctly f but, How can I, through reading and expression, lead these pupils to think correctly, feel properly, and will intelligently! in other words. How can education be made to them the means of training them into well-rounded men and women, able to take their places as citizens of this Republic and members of the commonwealth of God ! The idea underlying all this is that the* child is a being to be so edu- cated as to be able to take the place assigned to it as a part of the di- vine handiwork of the Creator, and not as a memher of the synagogue of Satan. DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 95 This view of the work of the teacher is far different from that taught in most teachers' examinations. There the faook knowledge is secondary in comparison with this, {b) If a teacher knows all science, literature, and art, and does not know the mind and its growth, he is not prepared to teach. His work is empirical. Secondary knowledge. — Methods of instruction, organization, school government, school systems, school laws, the history of education. Facts. — ^Teachers have little time to read. They do know some- thing concerning the branches they study. They know very lit- tle concerning mind-science and the fundamental principles of education. Conclusions. — It is of the utmost importance that a teacher should read the literature of his profession. To encourage general reading, unless professional knowledge has been obtained, will destroy the real professional benefit coming from reading circles for teachers. Dr. Allen'5 paper was discussed . by Hon. Hubert M. Skil^ner and others. THIRD SESSION. Wednesday Evening^ February 24, 1886. Hon. Charles S. Young, of Nevada, delivered the following address In the hall of Columbian University building, corner of Fifteenth and H streets : CO-EDUCATION OP THE BACES. In all the commercial and political relations of races there is necessa- rily consociation. In this consociation there must always be some clash- ing of interests. In no civilization, ancient or modern, have the antag- onisms of race elements caused greater disturbance than in that of the New World. In the North the bitterness thus engendered grew to enormous proportions until 1763, when the Treaty of Paris closed the French and Indian war. In the South the disturbance from race commingling culminated in the most awful fratricidal war of modem times, daily growing more threatening to the perpetuity of our nation, until January 1, 1863, when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Now upon the western shore the agitation caused by race antagonisms is but just begun. Whether or not the races, with DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 97^ their numerous branches^ may blend into a union of harmony and strength is a question than which none is of more vital importance in perpetuating our free republican institutions. The consociation of I)eeple implies to some extent their co-education. In a somewhat lati- tudinarian sense it is the consociation of races on the Pacific Ooast and their education of which we would speak. Whom the ancient Greeks and Bomans captured in war they made their subjects, the captors treating their captives not as citizens, not even as men, but as beasts of burden. The conquests of Mohammed were over peoples not dissimilar in climatic and social circumstances. The Latin races, so called, have ever had in common customs peculiarly characteristic. Out of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Teutons develr oped the civilization of Great Britain. The southern States in • this Union have had two distinct races, and only two ; but west of the Bocky Mountains are found representatives of every race the sun shines on. There exists cosmopolitanism of which history makes no mention. There are the Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, Polynesian, and American Indian. These races, whose ideals of government, religion, occupation, family, and conduct are as unlike as their features, all seek under one flag shelter, wealth, education, and citizenship. The genius of our free institutions seems to be that there shall be no abridgment of the rights of our people by reason of race, color, or previous condition of servi- tude. However, in the Fifteenth Amendment is found a principle of political ethics that would not have received the approval of our Bevo- lutionary Fathers. In the Chinese Hestriction Act the nation gives ex- pression to a sentiment that did not exist even twenty-five years ago. Year after year are evolved from the people new enactments of law affecting the races. If the political liberties of the races, as races, are of sufficient moment for recognition in the National Congress of law- makers, surely the education of the races, as races, is of sufficient mo- ment tor consideration in this national congress of educators. There are within the United States but few of the Polynesian race, yet fully 33 per cent, of these are in the Pacific States. These are natives chiefly of the Hawaiian and other Pacific Islands. While the negroes are not a considerable element in that western population, of the 7,000,000 of these people in the United States there are on that coast thousands of representatives, some of whom are found in every city, town, and village. Of the 264,369 Indians reported in 1885 in the United States, 55,000 are of school age, 43,000 of whom are in tribal relations, and 12,000 in the Five Nations of the Indian Territory. Driven from one hunting- ground to another, most of this quarter million of Indians are west of the Mississippi Eiver. These live chiefly on government reservations, or in hovels and tents around the towns and villages. Simple in habits, savage in proprnsitiea, their transformation from their ruder to our more polite living is slow indeed. Exclusive of the few children in 98 CIBCULARS OF INFOBMATION FOB 1886. school, their edacation is incidental, not special. From more or less constant association with them, from a x)ersonal inspection of the res« ervatiou school at Pyramid Lake, from many evidences of their handi- work seen at yarioas times, I am convinced that the desire and capacity of the Indian youth to learn the rudiments of education are something amazing. Further than the rudiments they seem limited in capacity. The Department of Indian Affairs, in a letter addressed to me a few weeks ago, asked why these Indian youth might not be educated in the public school. The answer is. While the law does not exclude them, nor yet any general sentiment of prejudice, still they are not found in the public school ; the whites do not exclude them ; they are excluded by their own mental peculiarities. Of the 13,000 Indians in Oalifomia, only 192 attend the public school ; of the 6,000 Indians in Oregon, 50 are in the public school; of the 9,000 Indians in Nevada, I know of but one now attending the public schooL It is ofBicially stated that about thirty-three per cent, of the Indian youth of the United States are en- rolled in schools of some kind. This may be true as to other sections, but in Nevada there is an enrollment of less than ten per cent of the Indian youth. It is now generally admitted that the children of the aborigines require special schools — industrial schools, such as are at Carlisle, Hampton, Forest Grove, and Albuquerque, yet not one child of the many thousands in that part of the United States where I live has ever enjoyed the privileges of one of these schools. Oongressman Woodbum, however, has just introduced into the House a bill which provides for the erection, at Carson City, of a building for one of these national industrial schools. In justice to the thousands of domesti- cated Indians of that section, this bill should certainly become a law. Of the Mongolian race there are but few Japanese. This element as yet is so small a factor in our educating influences that I shall pass it over without special comment. There are at least 150,000 Chinese on the Pacific Coast. Few of these are children. This is explained by the fact that the Chinese influx is chiefly males, the number of males to females being as is twenty-five to one. The domestic relation, the home, is an institution wholly unknown to the Chinese serf of this country. In an American home the virtue and devotion of women grace the domestic circle; in our Chinese hovels the lewdness and simulation of women make the society of these people a public debauch. This being their social condition, if children there be they are of prof- ligate mothers. The oidy Chinese girl that ever attended school under my supervision is one who at the age of eleven years was taken from school and sold by an. immoral mother for $500, to be kept by the pur- chaser, it is believed, for immoral purposes. Without good and true mothers there are no homes ; a foreign people that does not bring with it the institution of home is really unworthy of admission into this, of all lands, the land of homes. DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 99 Through the day the Chinese are found in the placer mine, the garden,, the factory, the laundry, the kitchen ; at night-fall they all return to their opium dens, gambling cellars, and brothels of corruption. These quarters are all alike — alike in their filthiness,^ alike in their charac- teristic stench, alike in their unlikeness to anything American ; they have simply been transferred intact from China to America. As yet, there has been found no human influence powerful enough to penetrate and dispel these heathenish customs, which have proved to be so an- tagonistic to our Christian civilization. The best that can be said of the Chinese is that they are industrious; but so is the weevil that de- stroys our wheat, and the army worm that cuts down our oat fields. All Chinese have a primary education, yet it is narrow in its tenden- cies ; it is but an imprint originating with Confucius 2,500 years ago, and ever since, with but little change, transferred from parent to child. The minds formed in such a narrow mold as are those of the Chinese serfs can never take the place of our statesmen, literati, inventors, or artisans. In common with you and me they have no social sympathy, no local or national pride. Theirs is a crusade solely to glean golden shekels; yet the soil on which they glean, although made sacred by the tears and blood of our fathers, is pollution even to the bones of their dead. Still the Chinese have their sympathizers and admirers, chiefiy, however, among those who know them least. The would-be philan- thropist says. Make them in our homes the associates of our wives and children, and they will soon become Americanized. The statesman of would-be lofty ideas says, Give them the ballot, and their now temporary abode for gain will be a permanent home in which they will take pride. The religionist says. Give them the Bible, and all else shall be added to make them worthy of companionship and citizenship. The practical educator says. Do not teach the parents at all, for they are wedded to their idols, but teach the Chinese children ; teach them not alone how to get a living, for there is not a created thing which can- not do that ; teach them rather what are their civil rights and civil duties ; teach them to become valuable members of society; teach them how to love this country of ours. I can conceive that some day, in the centuries to come, the other races may become homogeneous, assimi- lated, not necessarily through inter-marrying, but they may grow to have like tastes, like interests, a common aim, and a common political desti- ny; but with the opportunities now afforded, 1 can conceive of no such future for the Chinese in America. Even the Indians on the plains of New Mexico and on the reservations throughout the West are tilling the soil, building homes, honoring the country of their birth, and at the feet of our civilization are learning lessons of political science and per- sonal liberty. Kot so do the Chinese honor this !Nation. To this land ^ From the personal investigations of a competent friend who is familiar with the Chinese quarter of San Francisco, the editor is persuaded that the filth and the opium- smoking mentioned in the text are much exaggerated in popular belief. — C. W. 100 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. of the free they come as serfs; in serfdom they remain. Into this Chris- tian civilization they make entrance; with all the heathenish rites they make exitj returning to their idols in the land of their birth. It is patent to all that the Ohinese' have not received an American •education. Mentally, morally, socially, in no respect do the Chinese bear the slightest resemblance to those who hold within their grasp the destinies of this Nation. But whatever may be said of their unfitness to become citizens, the Chinese youth who are natives of the soil will grow into citizenship. The Chinese youth, then, should be educated. If there be no better reason than a national pride, this alone would de- maud that at least this much be done for the youth of this race. Edu- cation is the foundation, as well as the superstructure, of this Republic. '« Educate, educate, we must educate,'' applies with like force to the Hawaiian, the Indian, the negro, the Chinese, to every possible element that may become a factor in our Nation's career. In nearly all, if not in all, of the western States, itis conceded that all Chinese youth born in the United States, and of school age, have the same rights as are guaranteed to the youth of the most privileged classes. Recently the courts of California so decided. In conformity with this decision the school directors of San Francisco have rented a building where by themselves the Chinese youth may attend school. Of the 1,000 of these youth in that city a few weeks since, I found in my visit to this school but twenty-one pupils. The latest official returns from the office of the superintendent of public instruction give but twenty-five as the number of Chinese youth in the public schools of the whole State. Although Oregon has a Chinese population of 10,000, Su- perintendent McElroy says he has never seen a Chinese child in school, nor has he ever heard of one being in a school under his supervision. At present there is not one Chinese child either in the public schools ot Arizona or Nevada. Including those in the schools of the various mis- sionary societies, I think there is not an enrollment of five per cent, of the whole number of Chinese youth of school age. In explanation of why the Chinese and Americans do not intermin- gle socially and educationally, it is sometimes asserted that it is culti- vated prejudice, that it is the work of th^ demagogue. Not so; it is human nature, pure and simple. The demagogue who from the pulpit or the platform tells his hearers but half the truth, or deludes them into be- lieving what are not facts, remains usually two thousand miles distant from where the facts are exposed to the view of every observer. The theorist may theorize, the moralist may moralize, but the matter-of-fact American will not become the associate of the Chinese serf. If the lat- ter be a stench in the nostrils of our civilization, much more fatal is his companionship with the Caucasian child, whose character should be permitted to develop in none other than an atmosphere of high moral * influences. DEPAEfTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 101 It may be that all race lines altimately will disappear ander the molding inflnences of oar progressive education. It may be that, some time, ours will be purely an American civilization. It may be that, cen- turies hence, the Caucasian, the negro, the Chinese, the Malay, and the Indian of this country will be one people, whose origin with respect to race is forgotten. Then in the same class-room the children of the various races will study the same text-book, before the same altar the races will worship the same God ; before the altar of a common country the united millions will present a common offering. But the eyes of the practical present see in America no such millenium for the brotherhood of man. Could I take you as often as I have taken eastern friends through the cellars, cesspools, and opium dens of Chinatown in our metropolis, the scenes there presented would be to you argument con- clusive that under the same roof and within the same walls a forced co-education of these worshipers of heathen gods and the descendants of our Pilgrim Fathers would be a national disgrace. The cosmopolitan character of the western communities is not well understood. Frequently I have seen within a radius of three miles the representatives of every flag and the exclusive settlements of three dis- tinct races, the Caucasian, the Chinese, and the American Indian. While in the realm of matter these races are close together, in the realm of thought they are centuries apart. The difference in the habits and inher- ited proclivities of these races is evidence that they require a special edu- cation. An educa>tion practical for one race might be of no practical value to another race. A knowledge of the science of agriculture, grazing, and the various kinds of handiwork, would be useful to the Indian, but a knowledge of the classics, civil engineering, and the fine arts could be of no possible use to him. A knowledge of English liter- ature, architecture, or jurisprudence could serve a Chinaman little pur- pose, while by his knowledge of garden making, laundry work, or cooking he derives his subsistence. An intelligent father, in selecting the kind of education required for his sons, consults the various tastes displayed. He sends one to a school of agriculture, another to a school of theology, another to a school of technology, and another to a school of the classics. The nation has no right to be less discriminating, or not to discriminate at all, as it now does, when providing educational facilities for its different races. If Wendell Phillips, Gail Hamilton, Charles Francis Adams, jr., and others can with reason offer adverse criticism on the practical results obtained from our American school system arranged for children of like heritage and like tastes, still more emphatic becomes the criticism when applied to a school system for children whose tastes are as dissimilar as is an Indian village from an American city, or as is the Empire of China from the Eepublic of America. As in a factory of matter-development each person learns a trade to which he is especially adapted, so in this great national fac- tory of mind-development each race, as much as practicable, should 102 CIBCULAJlS OF INFORMATION FOB 1886. learn those things which nature intended it shoald learn, and in the doing of which it may acquire the greatest possible skill. Then will be produced in our nation an intellectuality in texture firm, in kind yaried, in utility greatest. The Indians and the Chinese do not constitute an integral part of our Republic. Neither race is a factor in any State government, hence its education should not be made an expense to the State. The Indian is neither a producer nor a tax-payer ; he is a beneficiary, dependent for his living upon wild game or public charity. For the past two cent- uries he has been driven westward from the wilds of Maine, New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois, until now the General Government must instruct him in the industrial arts until he may become self-supporting, or the State to which he has been driven must care for him. Is it any more the duty of Nevada to care for the Indians within its boundaries than it is for New York to care for them 1 If the citizens of any State are obligated to feed, clothe, and educate them, because of the nearness of their temporary dwellings, then it may some time seem incumbent upon the people of the West to drive back the Indians east of the Mis- sissippi, whence they came. While the Ohinese are not natives of the soil, still under a commercial treaty with China our Government encouraged their immigration hither, not in the interest of Oregon, California, or Nevada, but in the supposed interest of the whole nation. The Chinese build no homes, make no permanent improvements; they respond hardly at all to the demands of any State in return for its protection. If the Government owes noth- ing to the resident Chinese aliens of its own importation, surely no one State owes them anything. At this very hour there is not a State, city, or town in all the West that is not devising means for self- protection against this Mongolian invasion. The Nation, too, admits its mistake by a retraction of its former policy. Now, who should bear the burden al- ready inflicted — the Nation, which made the mistake, or that very small portion of the Nation which suffers from it, that sparsely settled west- ern coast? Because of the accident of birthplace and residence should the youth of our race in the West in the least degree be deprived of educational facilities that a race wholly foreign to our civilization may be benefited? I believe that to educate the Chinese youth, as well as the Indian youth, is the duty of the Government. It may be economy, or it may be far-seeing statesmanship, for the Government not to recog- nize the necessity of special provision for the education of each of its races, but I think otherwise. Other matters, in my judgment of less moment than that of inquiring into the educational needs of the races and of supplying those needs year after year, consume the attention of our law-makers. Alas, too true is it that the Government at Washington sits too high on its pedestal of indifference looking down on our educa- tional system. Were this not true, long since Congress would have made direct appropriations for education, such appropriations resulting DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 103 chiefly in the interest of the negro, Indian, and Chinese races. Edaca- tional bUls of this nature may not be more constitational than bills to relieve fire sufferers and water sufferers, but they are equally humane. Such bills in the interest of race education may not be more popular with the masses than bills granting railroad subsidies and authorizing the expenditure of moneys for river and harbor improvements, yet edu- cation affectfi, as nothing else does, the head, heart, and life of the Ee- pnblic. At the present crisis in our educational development, nothing could be more conducive to the progress of civilization and the stability of good government than a few millions expended as national aid for the education of the races almost wholly neglected in the distribution of school fands, and comprising 8,000,000 of our people. In a government of the people there is neither beauty nor utility without education. In a government where all men are created free and equal, all men should have opportunities for an equal education. In a government of races there should be an equality of educational privileges, regardless of the political strength of each race. If the gov- ernment be based on education, instead of being a weapon of defense, the free ballot never should be permitted by a free people to become an instrument for the government's destruction. If in education dwells the life of the government, then the government should protect its own life by educating all of its races. If education is the bulwark of Ameri- can liberty, then all the races within our borders should be fortified with such an education as that behind which they can serve their country best. Oreat as may seem the emancipation of a race from servitude, incomparably greater is the emancipation of a race frt>m ignorance. Let there be obliterated from among the races all that caste which now comes fr*om illiteracy, then the Nation will develop unity in its variety, strength out of its weakness, a co-education as broad as the universe. Mr. Young's paper was discussed by Hon. John W. Kjnott, of Ohio, who said : We cannot have schools in which the races can be educated together. If we owe the Chinese anything in the way of education, it is because the Christian view of our relations to mankind as a whole requires such action. There is no race that is not susceptible of culti- vation. It is possible to secure the cultivation of all races. Amalga- mation is not wise and should not be encouraged. The Hon. A. P. Marble, of Massachusetts, said : The race question is local and transient. In one part of the country, where the Germans are numerous and seek to introduce their langaage, opposition arises to the Germanizing process ; Irish ascendency is feared in another place ; negro influences in another ; the Chinese and Indians in another. In the North we do not fear negro ascendency ; in the North- east we do not so much dread the Mongolian. A broad view will ren- der the race question less formidable. The power of absorption in this gieat country is immense ; it has not yet been exhausted ; and time and custom have a mollifying influence. 104 CIRCULAB8 OP INFOBMATION FOB 1886. Forty years ago in my own city there was an African school. The children of the first families wonld not go to school with children of color. There is no evidence that this reluctance was caused by fear that the colored people would outstrip the white. The opposition came from mere prejudice. At the present time in that city children go to school together, with as little regard to the color of the skin as of the hair or eyes. Children of African descent, in some proportion greater or less, attend the schools of every grade; and in the veins of several teachers there mingles one-fourth or one-eighth of African blood. The only crite- rion by which they are judged is brains and moral character. Now if forty years will accomplish so much in Massachusetts, eighty years will do it in South Carolina; for we will not admit that we are more than forty years in advance of our sister State. As to amalgamation, I think we need not be alarmed about that The Creator has always taken care of that ; and He may be trusted with that concern in future. The Anglo-Saxon is a vigorous race, and it has a mixed origin. The Douglas blood was good in Scotland ; and though shaded in America it still has power. As a rule, white people will not choose to marry colored people, unless they are prohibited. Then they may in a few cases desire it. Why, the Indians and the Chinese are our educational superiors, if the modern theorists, the industrial wing of our association, are in the right. Hand-education has long been in vogue with the Indians ; we ought to employ them as teachers in our industrial annexes. The Chi- nese excel in the use of tools and in every imitative art. Employ In- dians and Chinese in the manual training schools and keep cool! The rest may be left to time. Hon. J. W. Akers, of Iowa, said: It is the duty of every State to educate its people. The Pacific States should adopt the same method with the Chinese as the South is wisely doing in regard to the colored race. So far as the public school problem is concerned, we should have no distinction of races in this work. Our duty is to Americanize all who come into our schools. Hon. Lb Eoy D. Bbown, State commissioner of schools of Ohio, said: It is not wise to attempt to interfere with matters that belong strictly to the local authorities. The matter of mixed schools was one that the States have the right to adjust and should be left to them. The colored people of Mississippi and Alabama are themselves opposed to mixed schools. President Easton announced the following committees : On Memorial of John D. PhilbricJc — W. E. Sheldon, Massachusetts; A. J..Rickoff, New York; R. W. Stevenson, Ohio. On National Aid to Common School Education — M. A. Newell, Mary- land; S. M. Finger, North Carolina; B. S. Morgan, West Virginia; Le Eoy D. Brown, Ohio; J. Ormond Wilson, District of Columbia; J. W. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 105 ^ Akers, Iowa; John W. Dickinson, Massachasetts; Aaron Gove, Colo- rado. FOURTH SESSION. Thursday Morning, February 25, 1886. The Department convened at 10 A. m., President Easton in the chair. IPrayer was offered by Rev. S. L. Russell, of Alabama. Hon. Le Roy D. Brown, Yice-Chairman of the Committee on Edaca- tional Statistics, reported as follows: At a meeting of this Department at Saratoga last Jaly a committee was appointed to prepare a report on a plan for securing more uniform and more accurate school statistics throughout the United States. The Hon. John W. Holcombe, of Indiana, the chairman of the com- mittee, being unable to attend the present meeting, I have been requested to prepare and to present the following preliminary report: PRELIMINARY REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS. It is assumed that the desirability of securing uniform and accurate school statistics is very generally admitted by the members of this or- ganization. It is also assumed that in the United States there is still lack of uniformity and accuracy in this direction. Much good has followed the adoption of the report of the Committee on School Statistics, made at Detroit in 1874: That report has tended toward securing uniform laws regarding school age, taxation for school purposes, and the administration of school systems. The twenty-three blanks prepared by our honored Commissioner of the Bureau of Edu- cation, and distributed among the school superintendents of the coun- try, have been of great service in the way of unifying and systematiz- ing school reports. It is believed, however, that we can now safely proceed to define more closely some of the terms used in our reports, thereby securing a nomenclature which in time will be universally adopted and uniformly understood. Your committee hope in their final report, to be made at Topeka next July, to present some questions re- lating to school nomenclature for your consideration. In that report some attempt will be made to define such terms as Attendance, Be- longing, Tardiness, Truancy, High School, Academy, Seminary, Col- lege, Kormal School, and University. Whether there shall be a change of school age in some of the States, and whether the change shall be from the present age to from 5 to 15, or to from 6 to 16, are also questions that will be discussed by the com- mittee and the Department. The only question now presented is whether the term Intermediate should not be substituted for the term Grammar, as applied to the second four years of what is included in the elementary course of instruction. That this should be done is evi- dent, for the reason that the term Grammar School is a misnomer. It 106 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1886. t does not convey the idea of the school with clearness. Whfle Ensflifih is more snccessfally taught than ever before in the second four yeus of the elementary conrse, it is taught by use in conversation and com- position chiefly, and not by the study of technical grammar in text- books on the subject. It may be stated in this connection that the term Intermediate has already been substituted for the term Grammar in many of the schools of the country. In concluding this preliminary report, I have on behalf of the committee to recommend the adoption of the following: Besolved, That the term Intermediate be recommended as a sabstitnte in school re- ports for the term Grammar as applied to the second fonr years of the elementary course of Instrnction in public schools. The report was adopted. Prof. J. A. B. LovETT, of Huntsville, Ala., then read the following paper: NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. In discussing National Aid to Education, we do not propose even to allude to the advantages of education to the individual as such, for this is a fact conceded by all intelligent people. It is the education of the masses in view of their relations to the Government as free citizens, to which we would call your attention. The safety of any free government depends largely on the intelligence and virtue of the people, who are the original source of power. Just as the masses become intelligent and enlightened, do they value and ap- preciate the blessings of good government. A large mass of ignorant and illiterate people must ever be regarded as a dangerous element in any nation. Intelligent and virtuous citizenship is the one great aim of every wise and well-ordered government. Now, if these several propositions be true, there can be no question of greater importance to those who administer the affairs of our coun- try than the education of the people who constitute the Government In a free government like ours, where we have manhood sufGrage, we should have intelligence to so direct the voter that he may be inde- pendent and self-reliant. Kext to the intelligent voter is a competent juryman. An ignorant voter is a mockery upon the name of a free government, and an incompetent juryman puts in jeopardy every in- terest of human life. Unrestrained ignorance is a dangerous element anywhere, and ignorance with legalized power is the one monster evil to be dreaded in our Republic. There is a large voting population distributed all over this country who cannot read the ballots they cast. With national pride we all have written, "George Washington was the father of his country.'* True, George Washington teas the father of his country, when our coun- try was in its swaddling clothes. But in many respects the national paternity has changed. Our country has grown to full manhood, and DEPASTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 107 our grand nation, in its sapreme representative and chief magisterial capacity, should assume the parental care of the ten thousand ignorant ones who to-day bear the names of George Washington, Martin Yan Buren, and Thomas Jefferson, who are unable to write their own illus- trious names. To remedy the evils and dangers mentioned national aid is asked, to enlarge and make more ef&cient our public-school system. The school systems in most of the States and Territories are, perhaps, all that wise legislation can make them. We have no serious controversy with any system of public instruction of which we have any knowledge. It is the inefficiency of the systems we have and the remedy for that ineffi- ciency that claim our attention. We need, and mtist have, more than the mere machinery; we must have motive power; we must have the means with which to support our public schools. How long would the great Corliss engines turn the million spindles, or the Mogul locomo- tives draw the nation's commerce, if machinery were all f Without the steam imparting its force just at the points where force is needed our glorious machinery would stand as still as death. Our school systems, then, in many of the States, need more, vastly more than plans and methods. Yea, they need more of the motive power than we have found it in the ability of some of the States to bestow. They need the impetus which the proposed $77,000,000 would give to them. What would a finely-constructed system of canals, forming a complete net- work of inter-communication over our continent, avail with no water in them f Such a system may be admired for the exercise of engineer- ing skill in its construction, but for what! When the meager appro- priations are spilled out from some of our depleted State treasuries into our systematically-cut scholastic canals, there is not enough of the ped- agogical element of navigation to float a literary tramp. Ko teacher of even passable qualifications can afford to teach in the majority of our public schools at the South for the public funds alone. In view of the fact that education makes a better citizen, a better officer, a better soldier, a better statesman, national aid is invoked. Bat it may be said that this matter belongs to the State. So it does, but certainly not exclusively. The national Government is interested as much as the States in having an intelligent voter. It is a matter which concerns the national peace and safety, as well as State pride and pros- perity. The rapid increase of the population of our country calls for a speedy and prompt action in the matter of free schools on a most liberal basis. While at least a common English education should be provided by our system of popular education, even this much cannot be furnished in some sections of our country. In some of the States three months in the year is the length of the school term, and $21 per month is the av- erage pay to teachers. With these short school terms, and with such 108 CIRCULABS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. meager salaries, confronted by the fearful mass of illiteracy that we And in the Soath, we tremble as we contemplate the future. Some of the States need more aid than others, because the ratio of illiteracy is greater. The colored voter in the southern States certainly presents a strong plea for help. The Government gives him soflfrage, but leaves him, in his ignorance, the easy prey of evil and designing men. The States which have this large class of uneducated citizens are grappling with the matter as best they can, but the number is rapidly gaining on their inadequate means. The only solution that can be given to the negro question is to educate the negro. That he has the capacity to acquire and rightfully use the instruction of schools, is generally conceded. He occupies a position among us as a full-fledged citizen, and is making every possible effort to meet the responsibilities of citizenship. It is not a question of brain with the colored man. The great success Which has attended the State and endowed colored schools of the South, and the high grade of scholarship attained in these schools, more than justify us in saying that the capacity of the colored man for education is beyond question. Fisk University, located in Nashville, Tenn., which stands as a monu- ment of the devoted labors of the Jubilee Singers, was started with the object of testing the educational capacity of the freedmen of the South. We all know the result of this test. Kot to mention the large number of graduates of the institution who are now engaged in teaching the colored youth of the South, there are many of them in the northern States, making enviable reputations in the learned professions. One of them is at Buffalo, engaged in the practice of law ^ others are preach- ing in New Haven, Cleveland, and elsewhere ; and one, we are informed, has charge of a fine church in this city. Since the educating capacity of the colored man was thoroughly tested by Fisk University, many high schools and colleges, which are doing great things for our colored,! population, have been started in the interest of the colored people in the South. But, while this is true, their common schools, those through which the masses are to be educated, are sadly deficient for want of means, and it is especially for these that national aid is so much de- sired. Help is also greatly needed in those States which are so rapidly fill- ing up with a foreign population. Through a well-supported public school system, this foreign element can be brought into sympathy and harmony with the genius and principles of our government more easily than in any other way. And it is every way desirable that these peo- ple shall become Americanized as rapidly as possible, for their voice is to be heard at the ballot-box. But, admitting the importance of the advantages that fiow from an efficient public-school system, why apply to the national Government! Again we reply, because it is the Government of the people; it is part of our system of government, and has no right to stand aloof from this DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 109 work, which is a work to beuefit all. The national Government reaps the reward of educated citizenship as well as the States, and should bear part of the expense. And there is no more legitimate expense be- longing to the administration of any government than that of qualify- ing every citizen by a reasonable education to discharge the important duties of citizenship. How the revenue shall be raised for this purpose, or what the amount shall be, we do not care to argue in this place. It is the practical ques- tion of giving aid that we urge upon the national Government. In our judgment it would be well for the General Government to set apart per- petually some particular revenue which might be given to the States for this specific purpose, on condition that it be duplicated by the States, or coupled with such conditions as would stimulate each State to make the most liberal appropriations to the cause. It is a matter of great pride to see what has been done in the cause of popular education within the past fifty years; but much, very much, is yet to be accomplished. The last census shows about one and one- half millions of adult males who could not read. The popular vote for President in 1884 was some ten millions. This shows that more than one in every ten who voted may not have been able to read the vote he cast. This condition of things is a blot upon our boasted civilization, and a serious danger to our free government, which we can and ought to remove. The States which are putting forth strong efibrts to remove this great evil do not seek to cast the burden upon the national Government, but only ask reasonable assistance for this great work. The General Government is spending vast sums on various internal improvements. This is well; but what is so important as the improve- ment of the individual himself! The class for whom this aid is sought is a class who are unable to educate themselves, and their Imperative necessities constitute the strongest appeal to the national Government for help to be lifted up from ignorance, vice, and crime. Educate the masses I is the cry of the age. Let every true Iriend of humanity and free government give emphasis to this cry, until intelligence, culture, and virtue shall pervade every home. We want educated farmers, me- chanics, tradesmen, and laborers. Give every man such intellectual culture as will enable him to think for himself on all questions which concern his own Interests and his duties to others. The impetus which has been given, in the last few years, to popular education, is one of the most striking characteristics of our time. The great cause is gathering new force every year, and its urgent and strong appeals must be heard and considered, both by the State and national Governments. There is no system of internal improvement undertaken by our Gov- ernment which yields a better return, or produces more happiness, than the money spent in good school-houses and well-trained teachers. The 110 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. Homestead Law was a wise provision for the poor man, bnt the schod- house ought to go with it. There is wisdom, profound wisdom, in mak- ing the citizen a landholder, but let ignorance and its attendant evils be expelled from every homestead. Let our whole citizenship become enlightened, cultivated, and then will human life have attained its max- imum of happiness in this world. Let us notice more closely the educational situation of the South, and the importance of national aid to this section. As the southern States^ according to the Education Bill now before Congress, would be so largely benefited, it is proper to make mention of them in this paper. These are the States which have the hardest struggle against illiteracy, and the very States, too, which have the least means of support for their public schools. Do you ask, Why is this? One short sentence answers the question : The devastation of war, followed by the emanci- pation of such a vast population of unlettered slaves. To meet the fearful responsibility of educating the large and growing population of the South, the southern States, in the main, have been generous in their appropriations to the cause of public education. The superficial observer, however, in contrasting the work at the North with that of the South in this direction, would conclude that the South has been slumbering in the midst of her illiterate children. Kot so ; facts and figures before us at this writing demonstrate that the South has done for the cause of popular education, according to her resources, as much as, if not more than, the North. Not willing to afflict you with prolix comparisons and tedious statis- tics, I would call your attention, briefly, to a few items which I find in a recent report of Dr Atticus Haygood, General Agent of the John F. Slater Fu nd. He says : The Boutbem States expended in 1882, as shown in the Report of the Commissioner [of Education], the sum of $14,820,972 on their public schools, the races sharing alike under school laws that made no distinctipu between them. These are large sums, but school population is large ; the need of money is great ; the churches and bencTO- lent societies, aided by the occasional large gifts of generous individuals, are not' able to do this work that must be done ; the southern States are not able, by unaided effort, to carry this burden. Every day strengthens the argument for national aid. « • * Many persons think that the southern States are far behind their duty in their ex- penditures on public schools ; but when the facts are considered, they are doing mxae than they have generally received credit for doing. The total expenditure for public schools in the United States was, in round numbers, in 1886, $83,000,000; in 1880 the southern States expended on public schools, in round numbers, $13,000,000, or something over $1 in every $7. In 1880 the total valuation of taxable property in the United States was $16,- 902,995,543; thirteen States grouped as southern States in the census tables show a total valuation of taxable property of $2,370,923,269, or a little more than $1 in every $7. A few illustrative comparisons of sections and States will throw ad- ditional light on the subject. Thus : the Tenth Oensus shows the valaa- DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. Ill tion of taxable property of the State of New York to be $2,651,«40,006; the total expenditure of New York for 1880 on public schools was $9,936,662. The total taxable property of the southern division of States was $261,020,737 less than that of New York ; yet these States expended on their public schools, in 1880, $12,475,044; in 1881, $13,369,784; in 1882, $14,820,972. In Circular No. 4, 1884, of the Bureau of Education, page 94, we have this comparison between North Carolina and Massachusetts: Id 1880 the taxable property of Massachusetts was $1,600,000,000, and the school tax was $4,000,000 ; that is, Massachusetts pays $1 a year out of every $400 of taxa- ble property. In 1880, the taxable property of North Carolina was $160,000,000, and the school tax was $400,000, that is, $1 out of every $400 of taxable property, which is exactly what Massachusetts pays. To the above many more illustrations could be added, showing that while our brethren at the North have nobly respouded to the principle, ** Where much is given, much is required," we at the South have cer- tainly appreciated the fact that in the possession of little, but little should be expected. From the foregoing comparisons, the following thoughts are sug- gested : 1. The southern States have more illiterate children than they can educate, and illiteracy is rapidly ou the increase. 2. These States show, by their generous appropriations to the cause of education, that they are not wanting in a feeling of deep interest and solicitude for those who are soon to assume the duties of citizens. 3. From the limited resources of the southern States, as shown by the valuation of their taxable property, it is quite plain to every reason- able mind that they cannot educate their children. ^ 4. If the South is unable to educate her youth, after doing all she can, it is her right, and an imi)erative duty to her children, to appeal to the General Government for aid. And this appeal, coming up as it does from the masses of the people all over the South, and various other sections of our country, is entitled to that consideration which its im- portance demands. We use the term " South " in this connection advisedly. We know that all sections of the Union are contemplated in the provisions of the Edu- cation Bill now before Congress; but owing to the peculiar condition of the southern States, in ijoint of their limited resources and growing illiteracy, they are justly regarded as the prime beneficiaries of national aid, on the plan proposed in the Education Bill. We are disposed to regard with the utmost respect the opinions of those who sincerely oppose the granting of national aid to education. But while some are entangled in '' constitutional rights," and others are afraid of " dangerous precedents," would it not be well that we put into the balances the pro's and co9i'«, and see, after mature deliberation, wllioh outweighs the other! 6742— No. 2 3 112 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. In the first place, if the gi*autmg of national aid to education be unconstitutional, it can only be so in a mere technicality, and not in the spirit of that Magna Charta which has permitted the millions of broad acres of our couDtry to be devoted to the cause of education for so many years past, and which now constitute a school fund which is doing so much in the molding of characters for oar national citizen- ship, and contribute so largely to the safety and prosperity of our American institutions. We deem it altogether useless, in the limited space at our command, to discuss before this body the constituti()nality of the proposed meas- ure of granting national aid to education. There is a Roll of Honor, made up of the names of forty-one United States Senators who favored the Blair Education Bill, the glory of which is only equaled by the illus- trious names which are affixed to the Declaration of American Inde- pendence. The one was to liberate this country from foreign oppres- sion, the other has for its grand object our deliverance from the bonds of ignorance and its fearful consequences. The forty-one Senators re- ferred to as favoring national aid are men of judgment, discretion, and wisdom. Their speeches before Congress were sincere, earnest, and powerful. Their conclusions were reached after mature thought, and I they gave utterance to- what they thought and felt on every i>oint in this issue. With such men to approve this measure in the light of constitutional law, we feel safe. The expediency of this measure, in our opinion, hinges on a few sim- ple propositions, viz : 1. The national Government recognizes the sovereign importance of each voting citizen, and grants to him privileges, and imposes upon him duties, which require a certain degree of educational qualificatioD. 2. When the General Government finds that it has a large and grom- ing mass of illiterate people who have not the means of acquiring such training and development as their relations to the Government demand, it is quite clear that the General Government should promptly assist in their education. For, if the national Government had no claims on its citizens, the responsibility of their education would rest altogeth^ elsewhere. 3. If there is a consititutional impediment to this measure, the same spirit that led to the emancipation of human slavery should lead us to make such amendments to the Constitution as would give liberty to the millions who are now in the slavery of ignorance. Nowyiu conclusion: The Congress of the United States is now in session. To this honorable body we look, with breathless suspense, for the adoption of a measure which will infuse new and vigorous life into that cause which lies near to every true American's heart. Indeed, this is an auspicious moment. From the Lakes to the Gulf, and from Ocean to Ocean, anxious minds are wondering what will be the final DEPABTBdffiNT Oil* fcilTPEBINTENDENCE. 113 result of the great Education Bill. Millions of unlettered children, and millions more who have juat learned enough to thirst for knowledge, are hopefully looking for the provision of national aid during the pres- ' cut session of Congress. The children are inspired with hope, and this inspiration has not been of miraculous communication. National aid to education, for months past, has been talked of by anxious parents at the fireside, by zealous teachers in our schools, and has been the theme of conversation all over our laud, by men of all trades, callings, and professions, whose interest in the education of our youth is only measured by their knowledge of what will be required of them in future years. The true statesman, the one whose mind is properly impressed with the inestimable value of virtuous and intelligent citizens, is also look- ing for the relief which is proposed in the measure now before Con- gress. Need I say that many are the eyes , turned toward the national as- sembly of school-men f This body is composed of those whose official relations to our educational system enable them to fully and clearly un- derstand the very minutiae of our educational situation, our needs, and the best and only means of supplying them. It is composed, too, of men whose positions of honor and trust entitle them to a respectful hearing by the supreme law-makers of the land. Let our deliberations on this subject be timely, wise, and prudent. Let such memorials be presented and such influences be brought to bear on our Eepresent- atives in Congress as may enable them to see as we see, and feel as we feel, on this great question. • To carry out. the proposed plan for temporary aid to education, we have a sufficient surplus in the Treasury. This surplus is now doing so one any good. It should be accomplishing something. It would be difficult to conceive of a more economic measure than to turn this money into the channel of popular education. Napoleon was once shown, in one of the great cathedrals of France, a number of silver statues. " What are these F asked the great gen- eral. *' These," answered his guide, " are the twelve Apostles." " Why do you not," said Napoleon, ''mold them into francs, and send them out into the world doing good!" So, were we permitted, in company with our Congressional Represent- ativeS) to look upon the enormous surplus now in our Treasury, we should not wait to inquire what it is, but would say to them. Mold the $t7,000,000 into the great Educational Bill, and send it forth in showers of blessings upon our drought-stricken fields of public education. Professor Lovett's paper was very fully discussed by Hon. Albert S. Willis, of Kentucky ; Hon. Theodore Nelson, of Michigan; Hon. B. S. Morgan, of West Virginia; Hon. Hubert M. Skinner, of Indiana; A. J. BiekofP, of New York; J. W. Akers, of Iowa; Dr. W. A. Mo wry, of Massacbosetts; W. B. Counsell, of Alabama ; and Hon. John Eaton. 114 CntCULABS OF INFORMATION FOB 1886. Mr. NsiiSON spoke as follows : Mr. President^ Ladies^ and Oentlemen: The qaestion before as has been considered and passed upon by a body of men eminently qaalifiei to give it a severe scrutiny and an exhaustive handling — qualified, I say, as well by the prestige of distinguished ability and intelligence, as by the authority of distinguished position and prerogative. The Senate debate upon the Blair Bill, which was before the Forty-eighth Congress, was very instructive and, indeed, remarkable. It is only just to say that Mr. Blair set forth the claims of his celebrated bill in a speech worthy of the occasion and worthy of the cause^ — a speech which, in its lucid and striking propositions and statements, contains the germ ideas of a most comprehensive and progressive volume on the subject of popular education, whilst in the course of that luminous and search- ing discussion every aspect and bearing of the proposed measure was profoundly considered, and cautiously, intelligently examined. As might be expected, every essential feature of the bill, as well as its most fundamental idea, was boldly assailed and vigorously, ably de- fended. Not only was the wisdom of all ages invoked to give weight and dignity to a cause in itself no worthy of exalted rank, but likewise th^ constitutional argument, and the sectional argument, and the par- tisan argument, each was brought into the drama of discussion and made to act its part, and that, too, after its kind. And why not iu the United States Senate, as well as elsewhere, or anywhere within the borders of the land? Need we be surprised that there was something like an equal display of magnanimity and prejudice, of generous feeling and bitter resentment? that every motive, every argument, every prin- ciple of conduct, every maxim of government, noble and ignoble, found utterance and championship in that exalted chamber of legislation and law? Shall we complain that great men are not always immaculate! Have we any right to be dissatisfied when a distinguished Senator shows some loss of temper, or gives an exhibition of morbid spleen, or makes a rather free use of foolish epithets ? If such excrescences are hideous, may be they are harmless also. They are the wart on the f£M5e' of our Cromwell. As a whole, that debate iu the United States Senate is worthy of patient study and profound respect. Whoever reads it with attention will find the Damascus blades of logic with which to arm, and the Gibraltar of self-evident truth with which to cover and shield his reasons, whichever attitude toward the subject, in consciencOi he feels bound to take. If, for example, he is a true scholar and philanthropist, with strongi patriotic, and national instincts, he will be grateful that the wisest thoughts and noblest sentiments of the human mind and heart find ef- fective championship in halls too often devoted to mere petty partisan conflicts. Or, if it happens to be true that he is under the domination of quite another set of ideas and sentiments, yet ideas and sentimepta DEPABTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 115 Bqaally powerful to mold his judgment and determine his action ; if he feela coursing in his veins the hot blood of the ancient antipathies, which, as an Anglo-Saxon, he has inherited from the days of Queen Elizabeth, he will experience an exquisite thrill of confidence, that the memories of Naseby and of Appomattox are surely immortal. Have we not a right to expect that a United States Senator will ap- proach a great question of this character from the high levels of na- tional welfare? that he will consider first of all, not the peculiar interests of one section of the country, but the common interests of the whole country f in a word, that he will make his obligation to the Nation para^ mount to his narrower and feebler obligation to a State f It would be wholesome, indeed, if all statesmen ielt as Henry Clay said. he felt-. ^^I would rather be right than President." Let Brougham's schoolmaster, who is abroad, surely, in our time, do his best to hasten the day (and he can work mightily dn that direction) when only the man who is right will find it possible to be President ! However, let us not be too much carried away with our own superb ideals. We live in a matter-of-fact world,. and we are all, doubtless, not a little human. Nor can it be justly demanded that a body of educators shall be superior to a body of select statesmen, even when engaged upon a topic which so deeply concerns education. We, too, are bound to consider the matter in its most practical aspects. It is a practical question, indeed, and one beset with some difi&culties, and one npt to be adjusted in the light of speculative theories or abs^act principles alone. One may be earnestly devoted to the highest good of our com- mon couiitry, and of every part of it, yet sincerely believe that national aid to education is inexpedient. Even more, he may believe that such aid would actually retard and damage the cause which it is designed to advance. It is not against outspoken objections from intelligent con* viction that I would utter a word. I only plead, what is the duty of every American citizen, that in forming our convictions we keep in abey- ance all feelings which spring from sectional antipathy or race preju- dice. A score of years ago some of us were soldiers on the side of the* North, and some on the side of the Soqtb. That unhappy conflict taught us to respect each other without impairing our self-respect. This^ thank: God, is a felicity — a sweet, pacific, and beautiful flower, sprung from a soil once burned with fire and drenched with blood. Can scholars afibrd to be less magnanimous than soldiers ? If any one. thinks so, let him learn the instinctive generosity of genius and scholarship from a noble precedent, handed down from times more vexed with enmity and fac- tion than our own times have been. When Cromwell came to. reckon with his enemies, the Puritan Milton saved the head and estates of the royalist Davenant. Likewise, also, when the avenger of his father's 8wift and remorseless sentence and doom came to the throne and judg- ment seat, and made a fierce reprisal of blood, the royalist Davenant saved the head and small worldly wealth of t^e Puritan Miltoa* 116 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1886. But to theqaestioD itself. And first of all, it is clear to me that we should view it in the light of the relation of free schools to free govern- ment. These two ideas are interdependent and inseparable. The one cannot exist apart from the other. The intelligent student of history and of current affairs must realize that, even yet, free government in America is somwhat problematical. Measured by the great cycles which bound the life of the older nations of the world, our nation is still in its infancy. We may rationally hope that the experiment which we have inaugurated will succeed, and that free government in this country will endure to the end of time. Yet why suffer our political optimism to blind us to dangers which are even now quite obviously impending? . Besides, as free government should be the mildest and most beneficent of all human governments, so it may be the most des- potic and diabolical. For an illiterate or a grossly ignorant people, for a people supremely moved and dominated by their superstitions, passions, and prejudices, no form of despotism is so repugnant to gen- uine liberty as that form which we call democratic, republican, popular, or free. And here is our perilr— a peril most real, threatening, and stu- pendous. For a i»eople intellectually and morally qualified to govern themselves, free government is, no doubt, the ideal state of human so- ciety. But let the inspired Milton prophesy, and let the chivalrous Hampden die in behalf of this glorious cause, let the fathers of our own Eepublic "pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" for the maintenance of this natural right of all men; yet for the indi- vidual or the commonwealth, true liberty is no more a birthright or inheritance than true education is a birthright or •inheritance. Liberty is an achievement, as learning is an achievement, and as virtue is an achievement. All that the most perfect form of government will do for human freedom is to afford the opportunity to preserve the most favorable conditions for its achievement. The form (that is to say, the sign language which may be used to express either a truth or a lie) of freedom we inherit from our ancestors; but the substance of freedom we acquire and hold by our own self devotion and diligence. Our form of government is, gerhaps, as perfect as the experience and ingenuity of man qualify us to make it ; yet, having respect to the in- tegrity of the nation, they are not all croakers who complain that we need more conscience in the body politic — that we need a greater pre- ponderance of genuine moral conviction amongst the people. Yes, un- doubtedly ; but let it be more enlightened conscience ; let it be a greater preponderance of broadly cultivated moral conviction. And what instru- mentalities shall bring these ends to pass ? If, under God, free schools cannot save us, nothing human can save us. And here, in a word, is the relation of free schools to free government. Touching the constitutional objection to national aid to education, it may seem preposterous for a layman to venture an opinion. However, the right of self-preservation has o-iways been recognized as the divin- DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 117 est of human rights. Constitutions, also (our own as well as those of other nations), are understood to possess this paramount inherent right. Has the General Government any right, under the Constitution, to ap- propriate funds for the purposes of education *? I give the natural and, I think, invulnerable answer: Yes, if it has any well-defined and urgent necessity. In my own State we have a system of compulsory education, and to that extent we interfere with the liberty of the individual. Upon what ground is this law vindicated ? Upon the ground Of public neces- sity. It was enacted for the protection of the State. And the same public necessity which justifies a compulsory tax for the support of ed- ucation justifies compulsory education itself. The tax-payer has as niuch reason to complain that the State interferes with his liberty as the parent or pupil to protest that the State interferes with his liberty. Now it is a fair question, whether the nature of our Federal Union is not such that '* when one member suffers the whole body suffers." Are not our social and political interests and destiny so interlinked that we must stand or fall as one f In respect to what is most vital to our perpetuity and prosperity as a nation, may not the General Government, and that, too, on the ground of public necessity, deal with the individual State* as the State deals with the individual citizen ? But we have no occasion, perhaps, to urge this extreme view of the question. Nor, on the other hand, have we any occasion to answer those constitutional quibblei^ which are brought forward to obstruct a measure of far-reaching national benefit. It is generally conceded that the letter of the Constitution contains no positive prohibition. More- over, we are permitted to read the Constitution in a manner " between the lines." Our Constitution has a historical interpretation. It has larger meanings and more definite meanings than really appear in the text. The progress of events since that document was framed origi- nally, the vast changes that have passed upon the face of our country, and of its institutions and people, have made this result inevitable. It is not necessary to say whether the ideas of Jefferson or the ideas of Hamilton have obtained ascendancy. Perhaps neither ; possibly, in some sense, both. Let it be admitted that, at the origin of our Govern- ment, the traditional jealousies of the thirteen States put them in an attitude of mutual hostility, or at least of chronic distrust, and that in forming a " more perfect union " there was meant to be an emphatic assertion of " reserved rights" and an earnest protest against centrali- zation. Many public men of that period werfe undoubtedly afraid of anything stronger than a defensive league between sovereign States. Let it be admitted even (if any one will have it so) that the founders of our Government meant to form this union of States on the basis of yielding no attribute of sovereignty — that they meant to make the union scarcely more than a defensive league between strictly independent Commonwealths 5 yet violent revolutionary changes have taken place since the league was made — at least, we have experienced one tremen- 118 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. dous change. In the white flame of overmastering, maddening human passions, and by the awfully resounding sledge-hammer strokes of Om- nipotence, our several States have been fused and welded into a solid, indestmctible union. And if you have ever known of a serious imi>edi- ment to such a union as has been achieved by the /imperial march of great events — a union which implies entire community of interest and absolute oneness of destiny, it is now far too late in the radiant after- noon of the nineteenth century to forbid the bans. And so far from finding it diflftcult to hold his peace, I pity the American who cannot feel sincere contentment and generous pride in our all embracing na- tionalism. Hence, if you ask me to admit that the fathers of our country never dreamed of the centralization and unity, in form and fact, which we, their descendants, realize, I cheerfully make the admis- sion, and that, too, as a signal illustration of the truth that " they bnilded better than they knew." For one I do not regret that the disintegrating doctrine of community sovereignty, or State sovereignty, has become obsolete, arid I believe that the men who now profess that doctrine are repeating the folly of the non-jurors of 1688. The non-juror might earnestly contend for the ''indefeasible hereditary right,'' he might blindly refuse allegiance to any king but James, and he miglit persistently intrigue for the swift return to his regal possessions of the " Lord's anointed ; " indeed, he might give full proof of his loyalty to an exploded idea by consenting, for its sake, to suffer ejectment, or banishment, or even death ; but all his efforts and sacrifices were vain. He could not undo the work of the English revolution, nor wrench the scepter from the firm and pow- erful grasp of King William the Third. May I be permitted to sug- gest that State sovereignty, like the last Stuart king, has gone to be a guest at St. Germain, and that nationalism, like William of Orange, the stolid, silent, immortal Dutchman, who saved the liberties of English- men when Englishmen were too superstitious or servile to save their own liberties, is enthroned at St. James — that is, plainly speaking^ at Washington 1 And if I am not seriously misinformed, prominent men, the actual leaders and expounders of every political faith, practically recognize our paramount nationalism by tbeir ambition to hold Federal ofi&ces rather than State offices, and by their phenomenal interest in the issues of a national election. "Where the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together." Nor can this consolidate nationalism be claimed as a sectional tri- umph or a party victory. The argument which failed in the great con- troversy marshaled a wonderful, an almost invincible array, and was urged by as brilliant genius and by as admirable character as were ever consecrated to the success of a mere human idea ; yet " God hath been the judge: He putteth down one and setteth up the other." Indeed, from old, from everlasting. He had erected the great physical land- marks and boundaries of our nation, writing in the configurations of the DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 119 earth which we occupy the most legible geographical definition. We are one people in spite of ourselves, and must continue one people for- ever, else deservedly share the doom of the innumerable petty barbarian tribes whom we have succeeded in the possession of the American con- tinent. The narrow State pride which flaunts its illustrious names, its military prowess, and its peerless historical position, '' the boast of her- aldry, the pomp of power," becomes a dusky aboriginal brave rather than a highly enlightened and truly chivalrous Anglo- Saxon. Surely, if fight- ing qualities are the final test of superiority, the proof is incontestable that we are" pretty evenly matched when our blood is up. So far from regarding each other with suspicion, we should cultivate amity and good will, and so, by the high reciprocal offices of friendship, realize the noblest things of which we are capable. Previous to our late war, the greatest of English statesmen claimed that our Union was unnatural, and a source of weakness to both sections. In 1862 he asserted that Jefferson Davis had already succeeded in establishing an independent confederacy. In the first instance, Gladstone declared only what was quite obviously true, and in the second instance, only what came quite too near being true. But malice itself, the fondest wish of the most implacable enemy to our Constitution and country, would not dare to assert that, in this year of grace, 1886, our Union is other than natural, or other than a bond of invincible strength. Great, indeed, is our country in many of the attributes of greatness — great in territorial extent, in material resources, in population and wealth — astonishingly great. But Mr. Justice Coleridge has very per- tinently told us that mere bigness is not greatness. Would we make our country great in the noblest sense, we are called upon to cherish a truly national spirit, and not a mere local or sectional spirit, and, if need be, to tax the resources of the whole country for the intellectual and moral education of the whole population. Hence, if the southern States are engaged in an unequal struggle to enlighten and lift up to worthy citizenship a dense mass of ignorant suffrage, why should not the nation itself stretch forth a helping hand? If a dangerous insur- rection were to break out in that quarter, or any other quarter, of our common country. Congress would vote liberal aid to put it down. But ignorant suffrage is quite as dangerous to the peace and prosperity of the nation as a formidable insurrection — it is, indeed, the seed-corn of which insurrection is the harvest. Indulge me, in closing, a moment's view at the question in its partisan aspects. I will be like the fortunate embassador of Miles Standish ; I will, since you ask it, " Priscilla,'' '^ speak for yourself, John.'' It may occasionally help to cure one man of meanness to observe bow the same quality looks in another man. Toward this question I will take the XM)int of view of a northern man — by descent a Puritan after the " most straitesf sect — of one born an abolitionist, and of one who once thought it worth his while to die, if need be (though not passionately 120 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. anxious to die), for the freedom of the slave. Later on I confess I did not think it expedient to enfranchise the negro — that is, to do it so soon after his many centuries of barbarism and bondage. Nor will I now ad- mit that I was wrong as to the expediency of that measure. Yet the deed was done, and by those who said, " Give the negro the ballot and he will protect himself.'' This was true, and is still true, of the illiter- ate classes at the North. Given the ballot they not only protect them- selves, but, led by educated demagogues, they bear absolute and iron rule in every northern community where they are numerically strong enough. • Look at the political status of our great northern cities, where this ignorant suffrage is densely massed, and actually holds the balance of power, even in our national elections. It is notorious that we have the most scandalous municipal governments in the world. Yes, with the ballot which we have so freely given him, the illiterate European does protect himself. He even does more ; he makes legislatures com- pliant and obsequious ; he brings ofi&ce-seekers to their knees ; he is a sovereign, who, knowing the value of his favor, commands his own terms. But has the enfranchised African shown any such capacity for V protecting himself with the ballot? Not the illiterate enfranchised African, I believe. Nor will he Whilst he remains illiterate. His servile instincts are more powerful than his aspirations or desires for political self-assertion. In truth, I fear that the ballot in the hands of the allit- erate freedman, instead of being a weapon of defense, has exposed him to new perils which otherwise he might have escaped. And since the nation has put his manhood and courage to this great trial, by calling him^ unprepared, to the responsibilities of citizenship, it were now the refinement of injustice and cruelty to leave him, in the servility of igno- rance, superstition, and cowardice, "naked to his enemies." The address of Hon. Hubert M. Skinner was as follows : Mr. President : The government policy of appropriating public lands to the aid of popular education is older than the Constitution itself. As early as 1785, over a century ago, the Congress set apart the sixteenth section of every Congressional township in all the great Northwest Territory as a gift to the inhabitants, to be used for educational puri)oses. Thus, a " Congressional township school fund " has accrued to each of the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, all of these having been formed from that magnificent domain. Lands were also granted at the same time for the endowment of schools for higher education. Under the Constitution, the Federal Government granted in 1816 to the new State of Indiana all the lands necessary for working the salt springs which it contained. These saline lands were afterwards sold by the State for the sum of $85,000, and that sum was devoted to the support of public schools. It is not necessary to mention the appropriations made to agricultural colleges in Indiana and else- where, or to specify other grants for educational purposes in later years; DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 121 uor is it worth while to trace the continuation of the old Confederation policy with reference to the newer States and Territories of the West. The constitutionality of such acts is beyond question, and the prece- dents in their favor have been continuous for a century. •But it would seem that Senators and Eepreseutatives are in the habit of making a distinction, as to constitutionality, between the appropria- tion of lands for such purposes and the appropriation of money from the Federal Treasury for the same purposes. The eloquent member from Kentucky (Mr. Willis), who has just spoken, declares that he is unable to see the reason, in the nature of things, for any such distinc- tion. Indeed he has devoted much of his argument to the essentia] sameness, with respect to constitutionality, of appropriations of lands and moneys, holding that the precedents in the one case will apply in the other. It is my purpose at this time to supplement the argument of the honorable member by adducing some direct precedents for the use of Federal moneys in the support of education in the States, espe- cially in Indiana, and in so doing to present a few statements concern- ing the growth of the public-school endowment of that State. The superintendent of West Virginia schools, who has preceded me, de- clares that the mind and heart of his State are " all right" upon the subject of the Blair Bill. I ought to be able to say the same for Indiana, and I think I can ; for there is that in our educational history which might be considered a *' standing instruction," as Douglas would have said, for Senators, and an appeal to Congressmen to support such a measure. Indiana possesses, all told, a school fund of more than nine millions of dollars ($9,394,499.89). Until recently, at least, this has been the largest cash fund possessed by any State in the Union. Our State is.to a large extent relieved of the burden of taxation for the support of the common schools. How was this vast sum obtained? The Congressional township (land) fund amounts to but little more than a quarter of the whole. Considerable as it is, it would be little to the purpose if it were all we possessed. By far the greater part — nearly three- fourths, in fact, of our school fund — is known as the common-school fund. Nearly all of it has accumulated, directly or indirectly, from moneys obtained from the Federal Government. It was the old Jacksonian doctrine that the Federal revenues should be limited to the needs of the Government economically administered. President Jackson, in his first message (in 1829), referred to the diflftculty of adjusting the tariff so as to prevent the accumulation of unneeded revenue, and suggested the distribution of any such surplus among the States^ on the basis of their Congressional representation. In the fol- lowing year he repeated the suggestion. The new States of the West were almost destitute of money, and, though possessing every other ele- ment of prosperity, were immeasurably crippled in their development. 122 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1886. Id 1833 the Federal deposits were removed from the old United States Bank. They were distributed among various State banks, which were thus enabled to extend their loans, to tide over panics, and to furnish the means for developing the country's resources. Indiana was almost a moneyless State. Thus encouraged, it established a State bank in 1834, to continue for twenty-five years. With no money of its own, the State Government took a large number of shares. When it was proposed, in 1835, to distribute the surplus revenue annually among the several States, President Jackson opposed the measure, fearing to cripple the State banks. In 1836, however, it was determined to dis- tribute among the States in the following year the sum of $37,600,000, in round numbers, in four installments. Three of these distributions were made. The panic in the fall of 1837 made the last of the four im- jiractieable. Over twenty-eight millions were distributed in 1837. Indiana's share was $860,254. Of this sum, $573,502.67 were at once set apart asa por- tion of the common school fund. The rest was put into the State bank. This bank had a career of remarkable prosperity for a quarter of a cen- tury. Its notes passed current even in New Orleans, to which city much of our trade was given. The profits were enormous. No interest was rt^quired from the bank for the Federal funds used, while they drew heavy interest at all times, being made the basis of a largeissue of bank woten, which were always in demand in all parts of the country. The State'M net profits on its bank stock amounted in 1859 to about $4,800,000 ($4,707,805.89), all of which was turned over to the common school fund, Taxt^M on the bank stock of individuals furnished $80,000 mote. Thus Indiana not only escaped loss, but was enabled immensely to increase the original sum received in the distribution. Of courHe the Government is nominally liable at any time to call upon the States for the amount distributed. But nearly a half century haH paiiHed away, and notwithstanding the terrible needs of the Gov- ernment in time of war, the demand for the return of the money has never been made, and it never will be made. Though different in form, this dintribution was virtually such a measure as the Blair Bill proposes. Directly or indirectly it has furnished us the greater part of our school fund. The earnings of the State bank, which was established and con* ducted with the encouragement and support given through the policy of Federal distribution, were added to the large amount paid to the school fund directly. I understand that other States pursued much the same policy ; I am informed that Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Illi- nois, Kentucky, and Missouri devoted all or a part of their shares to popular education. Such are the notable precedents in our history for Fedeial aid to education in the States. DEPARTMENT OF SUPEEINTENDENCE. 123 I FIFTH SBSSIOK \ Thursday Evening, February 25^ 1886, W. E. Sheldon, Ohairman of Committee on Beaolutions, reported the following preamble and resolutions in memory of the death of John D. Philbrick, of Massachusetts, which were unanimously adopted by a rising vote : Whereas, we the officers and members of the Department of Superintendence of the National Edncational Association having learned of the death of John Dudley Philbrick, LL.D., of Massachusetts, who for more than twenty-five years has been an active and enthusiastic member, and an ex-President of the Association, and desir- ing to place upon record our appreciation, esteem, and love of him, adopt the fol- lowing : Resolvedf That this association mourns the loss of one of its most devoted and in- telligent workers in the cause of popular education. As a teacher, superintendent, and writer upon educational topics for more than a third of a century, he has ranked among the foremost educators of this country. Wise and discreet in counsel, ener- getic and enthusiastic in action, helpful and sympathetic in his relations with bis co- workers, he has left behind him a record full of inspiration and worthy of imitation. Besolved, That the cause of general education has sustained a heavy loss in being deprived of the zeal, energy, and wisdom which have pre-eminently characterized his long career. Resolved, That the Department of Superintendence especially desire to recognize the eminent services of Mr. Philbrick in their special field of educational work, in which he labored for nearly a quarter of a century, achieving not only a national, but a world-wide reputation as a superintendent of public instruction. Resolved, That these resolutions be entered upon the ihinutes of this association, and that a copy of them be sent to Mrs. Philbrick, to whom we tender our incere sympathy in her great bereavement. W. E. SHELDON, ANDREW J. RICKOFF, R. W. STEVENSON, Committer. The following address was then delivered by the Hon. S. M. Finger, of North Carolina : THE BDUCATIONAI. AND BELIGIOUS INTERESTS OF THE COLORED PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH. Since the storms that beat upon our ship of state subsided, we find her anchored in the harbor of freedom and equality of all men before the law. Twenty -one years have elapsed, and as the clouds clear away, it becomes us to take our reckonings. Almost a generation has passed away, and other men control, other ideas prevail. It is wise that we lay aside all sectional feelings, and without crimination or recrimination discuss all the great problems that confront us, and especially the ne- gro problem, which, I submit, is perhaps the most difficult of them all. I desire to have it understood that in anything I shall say it is furthest from pay purpose tO offend any man, white or black, north or south. 124 CIRCULAKS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. Born and reared in the South, having a soathern ancestry ante-dat- ing the Kevolution of 1775, the son and the grandson of an owner of slaves, I have had opportunity of studying the negro in his home in the South, before and since the late war between the States. Educated in New England, and having had business intercourse with the people of the northern section of the Union, I have had opportu- nity of studying the negro in the North also, both before and since his freedom. Add to this the circumstance that I was taught by my father to look with suspicion upon the institution of slavery, and that consequently I had a degree of sympathy for the slaves. In view of these facts, I trust that I can enter upon the discussion of the negro question with freedom from prejudice against the colored people, and with sufficient opportunity to have learned something about them from actual contact and to enable me to keep up with changing public sentiment about the negro, both North and South. But with all these opportunities to study and observe the negro, I am free to confess that I do not know that I fully understand him ; and I cannot, with satisfaction to myself, forecast his future or form a defi- nite conclusion as to his capabilities. So far he is an undetermined quantity in the problem of civilization. Whether the size of his brain and his other peculiarities mark him as the white man^s natural infe- rior, or only emphasize his wantof opportunity, is an unanswered ques- tion, and it must remain an unanswered question until he shall have been tried and cultivated for more than one generation. It is, however, but fair to state that when we consult history^ any claim of the negro, or of any other of the colored nations, to equality in intellect or force of character with the Indo-European nations, rests up- on a very slender foundation. History shows that the Aryan family of nations overcame all other nations with whom they came in contact. So far as the negroes in Africa were concerned, the grand, ancient civih- zation around the shores of the Mediterranean sea did not stir them. While the Egyptians built the pyramids and their magnificent cities; while the Carthaginians grappled in successful conflict with the Eomaus ; while the Greeks and Eomans made their arts of war and their fine arts felt and known throughout the then known world; while in later days, even down to the present, civilization and Christianity have been devel- oped by the European and American people, — while all these things have been going on, the negroes in Africa have never, to any considerable extent, been aroused by them, notwithstanding in modern times special eftbrts have been made to civilize and Christianize them. History is against the claims of the negro to equality with the white nations. He would seem to be immovable, incapable of progress, except as he is brought into immediate personal contact with the whites. However this may be, the white people of the southern section of the United States, as well as those of the northern, desire to give him a Mr DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 125 trial. In this there seems now to be very fair ananimity of sentiment. So far as the thing to be done is concerned, there is not much diversity of opinion. He is a citizen, equal before the law to any other citizen in all the States of this Union. The conclusion is, therefore, irresistible that he must be educated, intellectually, industrially, and religiously, not alone for his benefit, but for the protection of our government. But when we come to consider how this is to be done, intelligent and good people have different plans an d theories. These plans and theories have foundation, in the minds of those who hold them, according to the glasses through which the negro is seen. One man sees in him capa- bilities equal to those of the white man, and he fits his plans and theo- ries of education to his estimate of the negro!s natural ability. Another man sees the negro as an inferior being, and he fits his plans and theories to his belief. Still another man sees him as an untried and unknown factor in civilization, now far behind in intelligencCi morality, and religion, and so his ideas as to how to educate him take shape. It is exceedingly interesting to watch these ever changing and devel- oping views about the negro himself, and the consequent ever changing and developing plans and theories as to what is the best way to deal with him and educate him, both for his own benefit and for the benefit of the white people. Indeed, the whole matter would be amusing if we could forget the exceeding importance of the problem. One man says, The race line is providential, and therefore it ought to be perpetuated. Another replies that the race line has already been broken down, and he goes on to argue that all laws that favor the sep- aration of the races in schools, and all laws that forbid intermarriage between the races, ought to be repealed. He says that no harm would come to the body politic by allowing intermarriage, because there would be very little of it anyhow. Thus one of the reasons urged why inter- marriage should not be forbidden, serves to show that legitimate social ^ instincts have been given to the races by their Creator, which will per- petuate the race line in spite of law. Still another man says. This race question can never be settled until by intermarriage between the races the white race is made to absorb the colored race; and he advocates mixed schools and mixed churches, because he thinks this policy will lead to mixed marriages. I repeat th^t these different views would be amusing, if it were not for the momentous consequences involved in the adoption of a correct policy — such a policy as will be right in the highest sense of that word, and as will be for the best interests of both races. Whether or not the negro is naturally equal or inferior to the whites is disputed, but his equality or inferiority need not now enter into the discussion as to how he should be educated. In a practical point of view, there is common ground enough to stand upon. The ground upon which this discussion should proceed is his real status now. We should recognize his intellectual and moral condition as it isy and not too eagerly 126 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. inquire what it will be after some generations of training shall hare been given him. The future will take care of itself if we faithfully take care of the present. Let us now inquire whact his real status is. I do not think that any man who has not lived in the South for many years and observed the negro in his country home, as well as in the cities and towns, will be likely fully to understand his real condition, intellectual, moral, and religious. He may read all the literature touching upon it; he may travel through the South, and even sojourn for years in the South, and not comprehend it. Far the greater part of the negroes live in the country, on the plantations, and a traveler would be apt to form his opinions by what he saw in the cities and towns, where the most intel- ligent of the negroes congregate, and where their educational and relig- ious opportunities are better than in the country. One who sees the negro in the cities and towns only will fail fully to comprehend his con- . dition, even if he is free from any preconceived opinions about it. Consider the case as it is. A race of the most barbarous people on the face of the earth, and perliaps the most ignorant, brought to the United States but a few generations ago at most ; sunk into the lowest depths of heathenism ; bound in. all their worship by the most abject fear and degrading superstition ; subijected to slavery without any effort, worth the name, to cultivate their intellects; suddenly released from their bondage in the condition of paupers; suddenly made citizens equal before the law to their old masters, who had been civilizing and developing for a thousand years; taught for twenty years in the bad school of politics ; embittered against their former owners and for a time virtually ruling them; with only a few years of limited education by the impoverished South — with this history and this treatment, what in the very nature of the case must be their condition and disi)osit]on now, even if we assume their natiiral equality with the whites? Let any intelligent man free himself from any preconceived notions and answer as his reason dictates. We could but expect them to be ignorant still; averse to labor, and so still living in poverty; ruled largely by superstition and fear in their worship; without providence for the future, spending their earnings, day by day as they receive them, if not for the necessities of life, for its pleasures and frivolities ; inclined to immorality; the present gener- ation, in large part, growing up in idleness and worthlessness, because of their surroundings and home life. These surroundings and home life are, as a rule, of the most unfavor- able kind. In the country, as well as in the cities and towns, in many cases whole families — fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters — ^live in small houses, often containing but one room, the parents exercising no restraint, or an impatient and ])assionate restraint, over their chil- dren, and the children having no elevating companionship. Of course there are (exceptions, but I am not now noting the exceptions. With DEPARTMENT OF StJPER|NTENDENCE. 127 sadi surroundings in the formative, family life of the colored children, before they reach the school age, and with such companionship, they have a most unfeivorable start for the formation of character. Add to these liome influences the physical inheritances transmitted to them — inheri- tances that are apparent to the sight, and add to these still the inheri- tances of mind and soul which are invisible to mortal sight, but which are no less real than the physical, and we can have some appreciation of the real condition of these children. I have drawn the general picture. I am glad that I can note many exceptions. As we visit the hotels and barber shops, we find almost all the service performed by well-behaved, intelligent, and decent col- ored persons, whose very service has brought the elevating contact with the white people, just as it does in the northern States. Then, too, we have in the South a large number of old negroes, industrious and well behaved — good men and women. The. schools have elevated quite a goodly number into respectable teachers and preachers, and some have advanced in other walks of life. But all of these compose but compara- tively a small proportion of the great mass. In this connection it should be noted, too, that in those sections of the South where the farms were small before the slaves were freed, and where the whites labored with the slaves, the negroes are far more advanced in intelligence, good manners, and good morals, than are those who lived on the large cotton, rice, and sugar plantations. The difference is marked both as to the older negroes and their children. But I cannot now examine the different sections of the South in detail. I have tijfie to dtaw only a general picture of what the negro's condi- tion is in the South, and I desire to draw it strictly in the light of facts; and in making this list of exceptions, I am willing to leave a number of blank pages to be filled by any person to suit his section ; and still the general picture, as I have drawn it, will be found substantially true. I am willing to concede that the negroes, as a whole, arc improving slowly intellectually, and yet I want to impress the fact that the great mass of them are at the bottom round of the ladder of civilization, and that there are hereditary tendencies which any proper system of educa- tion must take into consideration. One of the great mistakes many northern teachers made when they came South and took charge of colored schools was not to take note of these hereditary tendencies, both physical and mental; and the result was that the moral development of their pupils did not keep pace with their intellectual development. Some of these northern teachers, who have had charge of colored schools for j^ears, now understand the real status of the negro children as to intelligence and character, and they hesitate about training their own children i n association with them in the school-room. These teachers had seen the negro in the North only, where the brightest of them had found their homes before the War; where they 6742— No. 2 4 128 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. did not uamber one in fifty of the population ; where, from the very fact of there being comparatively so few of them, contact with the whites was a necessity in the daily labor of the negroes, because, wherever they turned to find employment, they rubbed against the whites j where they had the very best opportunities that any people so low down in the scale of civilization ever had in the whole history of the world; where, on account of the comparative smallness of their numbers^ they had no appreciable effect upon the multitude of superior white people; where the one negro child, elevated by constant contact in every-day life with white people, had been educated with a multitude of white children without any appreciable deleterious effect upon them. These teachers, with ideas about the negro formed by what they saw of him under such circumstances, came south and expected to deal with him in the same way that they had dealt with him north. After years pf labor, many of them, I think, are discouraged with the slow progress their pupils have made, especially in the development of character. Aristotle wisely said, twenty-two hundred years ago, that the same ed- ucation would not produce the same virtues in difPerent persons, for the formation of character in each person is dependent upon three things- nature, habit, and instruction. This was true as applied then to the progressive Greeks, and it is true as applied to all people. Shall we not recognize it now as applied to the negroes ? Shall we attempt to educate the negroes of the South in the same school- room with the whites'? Shall we ignore the fact that the nature and hab its of the col- ored children are widely different from the nature and habits of the white children ? Shall a false philanthropy cause us to atteippt to do an unnatural and an impossible thing? Many things have been done since the War that have been damaging to the educational and religious interests of the negro. The passions of the hour ran so high that we went to work to advance him to a posi- tion far beyond what he was prepared for. He was given the ballot, of which he was not worthy. He was taught that to be free he must leave his old master's premises, if only to remove to an adjoining plan- tation; that he must leave his old master's church and organize a church of his own; that education was a panacea for all the ills of life; that he must have teachers and preachers of his own color; that the southern people would, if they could, put him back into slavery. The color line was drawn in this way, and to a large extent it is kept up yet. Because of prejudices growing out of their bondage, and be- cause the southern people resisted giving them the ballot at the. time it was done and in the way it was done, it was easy to align the negroes against the whites in politics, and to separate them from the whites in every other way. This separation lessened their contact with the whites, and set them back in a religious point of view, because of the dense ignorance of those who assumed the office of preachers. In this respect they yet suffer great loss, for in very many cases their preachers DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. * 129 are still densely igaorant, and the preaching is unofeaning words — mere soand and fury. But the prejudices between the two races, which were perhaps stronger on the part of the negroes against the whites than on the part of the whites against the negroes, are breaking down; and I do not think it will be long until a much better state of feeling will exist between them. What I desire specially to say in this connection is, that the American people have been pursuing a wrong policy with the negro, in that they have placed him in an unnatural state of advancement, and have spoiled him. The negro's burden as a slave was forced labor ; to him, freedom and the ballot and education meant exemption from manual labor, especially with such teaching and treatment as I have alluded to. With all this history as slaves and as freemen and citizens, and with their ignorance, it could but be expected that many of the negroes would become more and more worthless as laborers, and that their children won Id be trained to avoid labor as the curse of curses, and so be more worthless than their parents. The negro's head, so to speak, has been turned by the very novelty of his new condition. In proportion, however, as they have been properly educated and have been led to see their condition as it is, and have learned that their freedom is secure, and that the white people of the South mean to as- sist them to such degree of elevation as they may prove worthy of, they become more contented. The state of feeling towards the whites is continually growing better. So, too, the white people are more and more adapting themselves to the situation. More and more there is a settled conviction that not only are the negroes citizens, and here to stay, but that they are best adapted to the development of, at least the agricultural possibilities of the South. With a judicious system of education, and with just such treatment as they may merit from time to time, they will improve and make valuable citizens. Just now it is of the utmost importance that a determined effort shall be made to properly train the negro children in schools and Sund ay schools, and to improve the home life of the colored people, and to inspire them with a higher idea of the Christian religion. !N"ot only is this of the utmost importance, but it is a work of the utmost difficulty, and one in which the white people must guide. In my judgment we must not only have separate schools for the colored people, but also have separate churches ; and these schools and chorches must be taught and ministered to by colored teachers and preachers, so far as colored people will prepare themselves to fill these offices. This is so because both races, as a whole, want it so, and be- cause the relative condition of the races makes it a necessity. Any at- tempt at a general system of mixed schools and mixed churches would be a signal failure. 130 CIRCWLABS OF INFORMATION FOR 1886. I know that some philanthropists claim that no aid should be given to schools or churches in the South except upon the condition of open- ing their doors to both races. They have a theory that must not be de- parted from. Judging them by their words and acts, they believe it to be wrong, a sin, to open a school for the colored people and at the same time not allow the white people to patronize it; also that it is wrong to open a school for the white people and not alio w the colored people to attend it. Likewise they hold the same belief in reference to churches. They believe in the promiscuous mixing of the races in ttie churches, and in many cases this course is urgently advised. The result of this teaching has been a continual clashing of the races, and it has threatened to break down the public schools of the South. In some sections of the "South strong eflforts have been made to es- tablish mixed congregations for public worship, and the colored people have been invited and even urged to join the white congregations, but they almost invariably refase to do it as long as there is a colored con- gregation in the neighborhood. I see it stated that quite. recently the Florida Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church North divided on the color line, forming two conferences in the same territory, one white and one colored. In making this division it was argued that this step had become a necessity for the progress of this church in the South. Thus*slowlyis the truth dawning upon men's minds that these races are so different in nature and habits that they are not now suited for such associations. The colored people really prefer to have their schools and churches separate from those of the whites, and the whites demand that their schools and churches shall be separate from those of the colored people. This disposition of the races to separate from each other is explained by those who advocate mixed schools and mixed churches by saying that at the bottom of the whole matter is race prejudice. Those who advocate separation say that this disposition rests upon legitimate so- cial instincts, and not upon race prejudice. Whatever is the true ex- planation, the fact is hardly disputed by any intelligent person, and as a fact it must govern our policy. • The most intelligent of the colored people know that the policy Of mixed schools would inevitably break down the whole public school system of the South, and so deprive them of the educational opportu- nities which they now have at public expense. They know, too, that a policy of mixed schools means that white teachers, and not colored ones, would be employed, if such a policy could be adopted without breaking down the schools entirely. They know, too, that mixed churches m^an white ministers and not colored ones. If the colored people are to make progress they must, as far as prac- ticable, be thrown upon their own efforts, educationally and religiously, as well as in a material point of view. In these particulars the same rule applies as in the whole animal and vegetable economy — effort and DEPAETMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 131 m exercise. The colored people can never be made to stand alone unless they are encouraged to depend upon their own efforts and resources. Mixed schools and mixed churches inevitably take away the occupa- tion of colored teachers and colored preachers, and continue the colored people's dependence upon the whites. There may be mixed schools and mixed congregations presided over by colored teachers and colored preachers, but, if so, I do not know where tkey are. I do not mean to say that the colored people are far enough advanced educationally, morally, or religiously, to stand alone, and to make far- ther progress in these particulars without the assistance and guidajice of the whites. Indeed, I am free to say that I do not believe they are. I think it is evident now that if all assistance by the whites and all contact with them were withdrawn, the colored people, in the aggregate, would go backward instead of forward. One thing, however, is very much to the negro's advantage : his fac- ulty of imitation is very strongly developed. He seems naturally to imitate his white neighbors and to follow their guidance, especially when he is not controlled by prejudice. Therefore everything but principle should be conceded by the whites in order to breakdown all prejudice. That done, the whites will have access to the colored people and will be able to guide them. Then good examples will be imitated and good in- struction will be heeded ; then will the whites be able more successfally to teach colored teachers and colored preachers, and to gather colored children into Sunday-schools and instruct them in the principles of morality and the Christian religion. But the colored people must be encouraged in every practicable way to help themselves. Just as a child, when being taught to walk, does not learn to walk, no matter how much its mother may help it, until it puts fotency to all that his certificate does contain, is a field into which the teacher oaght to be led with all the steadiness and enthusiasm which organization and fellowship can possibly give." The fields chosen for general-culture study were history, literature, and science. Only the two first mentioned have as yet been entered upon. A compact, graphic, philosophical, and attractive history of the world was chosen as a basis for this line of reading, embracing as it does the develop- ment of civilization and learning, the origin of philosophies, sciences, and literatures. The book has been used as a text, and the teacher en- couraged to supplement it with sach readings as his opportunities may suggest. The general-culture study has advanced into the realm of literature— not a skeleton of biographical notes of authors and short criticisms, but a view of the course of English literature from its be- ginning, with copious and liberal extracts — sometimes whole composi- tions — ^from the great writers, with notes to aid in critical study. In both lines of work — ^in all the work — our educational journalism and fragmentary current literature and criticism have accompanied the course and aided us. Such is the Indiana Beading Circle, as organized in 1884 — ^the first of its kind. It is a State organization, for systematic reading and study, having two lines of work, the strictly professional and the more general. The growth of the reading-circle movement is- a marvel. It is becom- ing a national institution. In January, 1885, similar organizations were formed in Illinois and Iowa. In June, Michigan and Minnesota fol- lowed ; in Jaly, Wisconsin ; in August, Kansas, !N'ebraska, and Ken- tucky; in September, Texas; in October, Tennessee; in November, Dakot a and Alabama ; in December, North Carolina. I have mentioned only the western and southern organizations, with which I am most fa- miliar, leaving to others to speak of those in the East. In all these States the general plan is an approximation to that of Indiana. In Illi- nois, Iowa, and Indiana, there are about four thousand working mem- bers to each State. The total number of working members in all the States I have mentioned may be set down at not less than twenty thou- sand ; and I believe this is considerably short of the true number, if it eould be accurately known. The importance of right direction in so vast a work is not easily overestimated. No new step should be taken without deliberate care. The question is often asked. Will this endure t After the novelty of the movement has worn off, will these State organizations disband for lack of interest, or become absorbed and merged into some sort of a 6742— No. 2—^-6 160 CIBCULARS OF INFOBIIATION FOB 1860. national union, possessing none of the strength of special adaptation, official sapporty and emalation which as State organizations they now possess? Time alone will determine. Yet every indication now points to a prosperous growth and development io the future. It woold Heem that there is a strength in the movement which cannot be accounted for on the supposition that a love of novelty is the animating^ cause. The reading circle is prepared to show cause for its existence ; it is the demand of the time for the elevation and advancement of the teacher's ^v^ork. Hon. J. W. Akebs, of Iowa then presented the following interestiog paper on CITY SUPEBINTENDENCE. When the idea was conceived of combining all the schooln of a city under one graded system, with departments and courses of study all duly subordinated to one another, and culminating in a high school, there arose certain exigencies of school government and management which called for and created the city superinteodent. This idea of com- bining all the schools of a great city into one system, that should be com- pacted not by any exteroal mechanical tie, but by a unity of organiza- tion that should have its basis in the ascertained laws of the human mind in the successive stages of its UDfoldiug, is a modem, and dis- tinctively an American idea. In this is to be found the key-note to the wonderful degree of efficiency and perfection to which our system of public schools has attained, and which has made them a model for all the world. It is really a matter of surprise that a system so vast and imposing should have grown up and have become so thoroughly established in so short a time. There are men now living, and some of them are witii us today, who helped to lay the foundations of this magnificent stract- ure and have had a master's hand in every successive stage of its rise and progress toward completion. Early in tbe history of this movement, if not wholly prior to its first and feeble pulsations, there was formed a syndicate of modest and un- assuming men, who met in close corporation, in hotel parlors, for the purpose of consultation in relation to the manifold details of their work. On such occasions the cities of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus. Chi- cago, and Saint Louis were always represented, and Superintendents Bickoff, Pickard, Hancock, Stevens, and Harris were seldom known to be absent. They sounded no loud trumpet to attract the notice or at- ' tention of the public, but in a quiet way accomplished a work, the good and far-reaching results of which no man can estimate; and it may never be known that the infiuence of their deliberations, the results flowing directly from their councils and their labors, as affecting educa- tion among fifty millions of people, entitle these plain and unpretending great men to rank with the Grants, the Shermans, and the Sheridans DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 161 of their day and generation. If these men kept a record of their pro- ceedings and discussions, they have never laid it open to the public eye ; but meanwhile the graded systems of their respective cities were making such strides toward perfection as naturally and necessarily re- sulted from their combined wisdom and friendly emulation. What we have to suggest is, that the secret history of that famous " Bound Table '' has not yet been written, and that the eminent knights of education who then composed it are still actively with us, and should not be permitted to go home until this chapter of their esoteric doings shall have been brought to light. It would be a legacy to the ever in- creasing army of superintendents to have the story of the struggles of these mighty Amphictyons as their plans unfolded, and as one after an- other of their difficulties were overcome. What we want is their inner history, which must involve the sum total of their achievements, not only with reference to the evolution of the system as it sprang up under their hands, but as related to the psychological problems which they found themselves compelled to face and to solve. If any such interesting record of experiences should ever be forth- coming, we may be assured that it will exalt to a supreme place in the qualifications of the superintendent his apprehension and mastery of education as a science. The man who can be called a successful city superintendent is a man of affairs. Whatever may have been his natu- ral endowments, he has accomplished vast and various acquirements in a school which has been to him as practical and as actual as that of life. He has met all kinds of people, compassed all varieties of work, and solved all manner of problems. Whatsoever is deep or shallow, whatsoever is difficult or impossible, whatsoever is annoying and per- plexing, whatsoever is of good or of bad report, he knoweth, for he has been called to pass through deep waters ; he has vanquished difficulties ; he has attempted impossibilities; he has exulted in success, and suffered in defeat and failure ; he has emerged from this a pure and good man, with a placid and sweet temper, with a thorough insight into the intri- cate nature of his work, and with a correct notion of life and character; he knows what he does, and why he does it ; he knows what the end should be, and how and when to apply the means. Who shall question his credentials ? Were I to speak of those traits and qualities which go to make the successful superintenijent, I would say: He must be industrious. He must be old enough to have out- grown his love of play, and to have formed a real attachment (I had well-nigh said an affection) for hard and continued labor. He must have that discipline which comes only from a broad and liberal train- ing. He must be apt and quick, and yet unerring in his discern- ment of human nature, as seen in the mind and heart of the young. He should have passed through years of successful apprenticeship in teaching, that he may have come to know experimentally the details of school method and management; that he may know of the trials and 162 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1886. * troables of teachers, and that he may minister to them in that spirit of sympathy which shares their hardships and helps to bear their bar- dens; that he may know how great the troables of childhood are, how to defend and protect, how to be jnst and withal merciful, how to ap- prove and encoarage that which is right, and to reprove and correct that which is wrong ; that he may know something of the anxieties and the solicitude of the parent } that, if possible, he may see the school, the teacher, the pnpil, and himself, as seen from the stand- point of the home. If there is one position in the world that calls for a philosopher, here it is. We are not unmindful that the routine of the superintendent's duties, on superficial inspection, does not seem inviting, or even compatible with the philosophic mood. He cannot be a recluse; above all he mast not be a dreamer ; he must be pre-eminently a practical man ; he must be to a board of directors the eyes through which they shall see, and the ears through which they shall hear; through him they must judge righteously and decide correctly; he must be the medium through which they estimate the qualifications of teachers, and this he can only be by careful and constant study and observation of their methods, and of the success of these methods in their daily application. When experience, or disposition, or knowledge, or tact is wanting, he must be able so to supervene with able and friendly counsel, with apt and timely illustrations, as to help and encourage the willing spirit, aid the struggling faculty, where he sees it to exist. With all the minuticB of classification and curriculum, with organization, regulation, arrangement, promotion, government, and discipline to be looked after and provided for, presenting every day and involving perpetual com- plications with a whimsical and capricious public, assuredly here is a business which will put the keenest practical acumen to the test, and will leave but little time, and very little desire, for meditative moods or philosophic pursuits. He must be a citizen, and under all circumstances he must maintain his proper relations to society. So far as education is concerned, he must be a leader and an educator of public sentiment; he must, so far as he can consistently do so, stand between his schools and ignorant and designing men ; he must be ready with his pen to defend, and, if need be, to attack*. I concede that this is delicate ground. It is not a way so plain that a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. Only the discreet and discerning man can safely enter upon it, and to the man who loves controversy, whose tongue and pen are not under control of unerring judgment, who cannot detect error until he has committed himself to it, it is positively forbidden ground. I do not say that he shall be a politician, or that he shall mix up with or meddle with the municipal affairs of his district ; rather let me place a limit here, beyond which the superintendent may not go. I do this knowing some- thing of the temptations of this position. The reasons so often urged DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 163 ^h J he should seek to manipalate school elections to the end that good and proper men only shall be selected for membership on the board, that narrow and troublesome men shall be kept off of it — in short, that the superintendent shall have in his own hands the reins of management, are both specious and plausible. But the man who embarks upon such a course will soon be convinced, if he be honest with himself, that in- stead of strengthening and protecting his schools he has really weak- ened and exposed them, as well as himself, and that he will be forced to the questionable methods of the ward politician to save his own head and to prolong his tenure of oflBce. It must be conceded that the chief impediment in the way of the suc- cess of our city schools is too often in the arm upon which they must lean for support. While it upholds, it also pulls back and retards. It is an evil incident to our republican government that our highest and dearest interests are often committed to ignorant and illiterate men, who block the wheels of progress by their stupid prejudices, or by their read- iness to lend themselves to the mischievoas tricks of politicians. But while this is to be deplored, it furnishes no good reason why the superintendent should seek to bafBe them with like methods and prac- tices. Let it be once conceded that it is his duty to watch and join issue with such men, that he must be sagacious and shrewd, able to pull many wires, to the end that he may control these discrepant and warring ele- ments in the community, and you will soon find that unhappily you have conceded too much. At the risk of repetition, we should unite in declar- ing it beneath the dignity of the saperintendent to allow himself to be entangled in the partisan quarrels of ward politicians; to bargain, and whisper, and toady; to enter into secret conclaves; to buy up, or by any means to bring about certain results; to promise without any idea of making good; to say one thing to one man, and directly the opposite to another; to drop conscientious scruples in bringing his cherished plans into effect. This error has already worked the ruin of so many superintendents, and the sentiment that whatever succeeds and is not outlawry is right, has been so extensively fostered and encouraged, that special warning should be administered ^to our teachers to keep them- selves aloof; and, as we have endeavored to show, this is altogether compatible with a dignified interest in municipal affairs, at least so far as they relate to the cause of public education. We should at the same time lay special emphasis upon the declaration that the absorbing busi- ness of the superintendent is with education as a science, with peda- gogy, with the human mind in Its nascent and mature jwwers, with the profound and intricate laws which regulate its discipline and its growth, leaving to the people the responsibility of protecting the schools from the assaults of ignorant, designing, and malicious men. Ko doubt this will in some sense be granted by every one, but in just what sense, we may well pause for a moment to inquire. Must the su- perintendent turn philosopher, and enter the interminable labyrinth of 164 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1886. sterile metaphysics, and troable himself with its fruitless problems f If so, he must shot himself ap in his stndy like the German doctor, and lose himself in processes of introversion and abstract speculations that have no end. Confining his attention to the subtle workings of his own consciousness and the depths of spiritual being lying in and beyond his researches, he may make discoveries, indeed, which by and by may work their way into the practical affairs of everyday life, and like Imman- uel Kant efiect a revolution in the entire current of thinking in contem- porary age, but he cannot do that and be a successful city superintend- ent of schools at the same time. That is the work of the professional philosopher, to whom it must be left; and although this world ha^ among all its toilers none that are more valued and necessary, there is happily occasion for but few such men. The superintendent of city schools cannot hope to be one of them. Although this is generally true, it is a fact known and read of all men, that the enormous system of public schools in the city of Saint Louis sprang up under the watchful eye and facile hand of one of the <* Bound Table,'' recognized here and elsewhere as one of the foremost philosophers of the age. Here, it must be conceded, is a case against the position we have taken. It is, however, only a noteworthy excep- tion. It is not inconsistent with the rule, nor does it detract from the pleasure we feel in stating it. How he could combine the detail of school supervision, its petty cares and annoyances, its distracting rou- tine, with the seclusion and temper necessary for the mastery of the higher ranges of philosophic thinking, we cannot well understand; but we may rest assured that he was incited to his conquests in this large field by the stimulation of ordinary pedagogical research ; that is to say, the philosopher grew out of the pedagogue. But some things remain to be said in this connection, on the one side, in defense of philosophy ; and on the other, in defining the duty of the city superintendent. In the first place, the material with which the superintendent works is the human mind. He has boys and girls to deal with ; teachers also, and their methods ; and all that round of task-service that easily degenerates into drudging and perfunctory toil- But it will become perfunctory only when he fails to grasp the intellect- ual and spiritual side of it. There is no problem in school organiza. tiou or educational reform that does not rest ultimately upon a psycho- logical basis, and that should not be determined, at last, by an appeal to the laws of the human mind. All the long history of pedagogy, and the great landmarks we notice all along the route, are but so many phases of psychological discovery, or imagined discovery, as applied to the teacher's art. Indeed, we define pedagogy, or the science of educa- tion, to be the shaping of our school methods according to the ascer- tained order in which the mental faculties unfold ; and as this involves close observation of the most recondite and subtile of all agencies known, in every variety of manifestation^ it will be seen that the study of ity like the study of pbilosoohy in general, is practically endless. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 165 Well, then, if endless, what tvuit is there in itf I beg that yon will Yecar to the fact that no step of educational progress has ever been taken except ander the stimulus of some real or imagined discovery in the workings of the mind. Our boasted natural methods have all come upon us in this way. These are largely in the interest of the physical sciences, and are the resultant, so to speak, of two concurrent historical streams uniting their volume in the age in which we live. The philo' sophical current comes down from Rousseau, swelling out into overshad- owing proportions in the English utilitarian and materialistic schools. Meanwhile the physical sciences pour down from Bacon in ever-increas- ing volume of discovery and invention, until, in Darwin and his school, they mount to an epoch of unexampled prominence and power, entering into and modifying the entire social life of our time. These two currents, uniting, have revolutionized the whole school life of the century, and fashioned its methods, from the primary school np. It was discovered that child life grows and expands through the play impulse, bringing into exercise the mental faculties, through the activity of the senses. Education must, therefore, begin with the senses, and in general proceed from the known to the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract ; and so in a little time the powers of ob- 4servation will come to be unduly estimated, as the chief thing in the •child, and as the great matter toward which all school organization and method should be directed. The movement has been a vast one; and as we contemplate the result of almost a century's growth, we now see it assuming in our schools a controlling and dominating influence. It was, indeed, to be expected that a reform having so much to sup- port it, in the obvious constitution of the human mind, and calculated to achieve such beneficent results all over the world, should be carried by the momentum of its early enthusiasms into unwarranted applica- tions, and so to appear at last in the attempt to dominate the whole field. Science, having a large share in this movement, and in the nature of the case knowing only objective methods, and these also on its ^speculative side, discrediting altogether the old-time conception of the spiritual nature of the child, will in course of time become imperious in demanding that all our methods and all our teaching shall be occupied exclusively with the senses, and that the man, as a compound of phys- ical forces, and in a world of force, shall be educated with exclusive reference to these forces, and in accordance with such analogies as the physiologist and the physicist observe. In this way our great scientific schools have sprung up, and the attempt has been made to force all higher education into this materialistic groove. We are now in the opening stages of a great reaction, and the super- intendent must put himself in readiness for a corresponding change in his speculative views, and in the methods and organization of the schools under his charge. ^^ As the old order changeth, giving place to the new,'' everything speculative and practical must quietly and pro- gressively submit to great and salutary transformations to correspond. 166 CIBCULABS OF INFOBMATION FOB 1886. If it be said that in this we are all agreed, and that all teachers, of all grades and in all branches of this great work, from the district teacher to the college president, have a like interest in these coming changes, we may venture to answer that, in the new order, as in the old, the city superintendent has the most conspicoons and responsible part to^ act. He occupies the largest field for observation and research, and his work extends to every variety of human nature, and to every stage of the unfolding spiritual faculties of the child. He is in the best posi- tion for what we may call the practical work of philosophy^ that is, for the observation of the practical workings of the human mind, with reference to the claims of any new psychological theory that may be advanced. And here it is, at this point of our discussion, that we must make due account of the fact that philosophy itself has undergone a most material modification at the hands of the great thinkers who have ruled so absolutely in the pedagogics of the last two decades. In studying the human mind we can no longer neglect the vast wealth of induction pouring in upon us from the direct and inferential study of the nervous system and the brain. The old method, with its exclu- sive devotion to processes of introversion, and its final and stubborn appeal to consciousness, especially to the consciousness of the ingenious fabricator of a system, has gone by forever; henceforth a large ingre- dient in our researches must consist in the acknowledged operation of the laws of heredity, and the subtle workings of the nervous system and the brain. Here, then, is a field in which the city superintendent has confessedly the widest range; but if he is to participate in the reaction that is now going on, this new feature of our advanced psychology will move him out of the mechanical methods which these very physical dis- coveries have settled on the schools. For example: On the subject of method, his views must undergo a radical change. In the new time coming we are to learn that the man is much more the method than we had thought him to be. It is an evil of the existing system that the method is permitted to have dominion over everything. As a conse- quence, our schools are too mechanical. There is too little liberty, too little exercise of judgment er of common sense. We have been unduly influenced by the fascinating power of regular movements, the step- ping, the marking time, the simultaneous moving, rising, sitting, facing, all at the tap of the drum or the bell, under the vain delusion that all this is education. Eagerness for system, and what often seems to be the unyielding ne- cessities of classification, together with a blinking toward the theory of the brain specialists, that the mind of man is after all only a more highly differentiated form of physical force, — all this resulted in a species of school organization in which the attempt was made to make many minds move under the control of one, with the same unresisting precision and harmony with which the wheels in the factory obey the impulse of the steam. It is easy to see how these false standards must work much det* riment to many pupils, and much needless annoyance to the schools in DBPABTMBNT OP SUPERINTBNDEK€B. 167 their relation to the public, and m^re than all engender wrong construc- tions on the part of the superintendent respecting the value of the serv- ices of the teachers under his charge. A prominent superintendent in an eastern city frankly confesses that he has been held as in a vise, against his better judgment, in this hard mechanical grip of prevailing school organization, and has been obliged to fix the same crude clamps upon his subordinates, because the board of directors have no other conception of efficient school work. He has come to see that accredited practices un- der this system are wrong, misleading, and demoralizing in the extreme; but he cannot lift himself out of them, because the school authorities have imbibed the notion that these methods are invincible, and will visit any innovations upon them with a summary discharge. I do not know that I can touch upon any more plicate subject than the relation of the superintendent to the teachers under his charge. Even the most highly developed system of school organization and government cannot shut the door against the intrusion of narrow and incompetent men into every department of school work, from the city superintendent down. Until the millennium comes, we may be sore thkt school quacks will abound, men whose sole qualifleation is what Emerson calls ^' the power of face." If the superintendent is one of these, he will invariably make his presence known by despotic meas- ures, resorted to in order to secure for his office the dignity and respect he cannot personally command. Absolutism and charlatanry go hand in hand. It is an infallible sign of empirieism in a superintendent when he makes a preliminary demand upon the school authorities that their management be delegated to him, that he may walk as an unchallenged autocrat among teachers and pupils, inspiring in all alike a terror of his power and awful presence. There is uo remedy for this, so far as I know, i\nleBS it be in the growing intelligence of boards of direetors, and in the safeguards which our statutory provisions may throw around the office. It is, however, fitting in this connection, and always, to urge upon school authorities the necessity of keeping constantly upper- most, in all their deliberations, and especially in the choice of superin- tendents, the dignity of the office, and the qtalifications inherently root- ing themselves in well attested devotion to the science of education for its own sake. The city superintendent, above all men, should be the gentleman first, for this will assuredly embody the highest that can be personally said of him. But next to this, and to some extent implied in it, he should be the earnest, thoughtful, patient, enthusiastic student of the human mind ; plying his sacred task in this direction, in season and out of season, with pupils, teachers, and patrons; gathering in- centive from current speculations, and from mutual counsel and inter- change of views with men of his own class, so that his apprehension of his calling shaU, in all essentials, harmonize with the thought and ex- perience of those wise and safe leaders, to whom, by common consent, the great educational interests of the century have been committed. 168 CIBCULABS OF INFOBMATION FOB 1886. BESOLTJTIONS. The following preamble and resolutions were offered by the commit- tee and adopted RETIREMENT OF GENERAL EATON. Whereas, We have learned that General John Eaton has tendered his zesignation of the United States Commissionership of Education, an office which he has held for nearly seventeen years, 1870-86, a period which has been the most intense and fertile in the development of educational thought, and most distinguished as a period of organization and reorganization of State and city school systems, and also the most prominent as the period of the establishment of new institntions, which has ocourred in the history of this country ; and Whereas, His earnestness and the power and the wisdom of his counsels have Id. fused new confidence into the national legislature, and into the minds of the people, as to the utility of the Bureau, at a time when there was good reason to fear the repeal of the law which had established it and when further appropriations for its support had been refused ; and Whereas, By the catholicity of his spirit, and the wide and generous aims of his admin- istration, he soon gained the unanimous sympathy and co-operation of men engaged in every grade and department of educational work and administration, his very first Report (1870) having attracted attention at home and abroad as one of the ablest school reports ever made ; and WhereaSf This Department of the National Educational Association, and all wb« have been at any time engaged in the practical administration of school affairs, and all who have had occasion to seek information in regard to educational institutions of every rank, from the kindergarten to the university, have found in his fourteen great Annual Reports much, aod generally all, that they have needed to guide and assist them in the discharge of their duties ; and Whereas, He has conferred honor on American institntions by his promotion and practical organization of our educational exhibits at the world's fairs in Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876), Paris (1878), New Orleans (1884), etc. ; and Whereas, By the special encouragement, early and wisely given, to the introduction of kindergarten, cookery schools, schools for nurses, technical schools, and art instrac- tion, he has greatly contributed to the development of a complete edugitional sys- tem; and Whtrtas, No one of us, no one engaged in the establishment of common schools, no one seeking to improve methods of education, has ever sought his aid without enjoy- ing his sympathy and assistance; and Whereas, He has especially distinguished himself as a bold and able advocate of the educational power and duty of civil government : Therefore, be it Resolved by this Department, That the thanks of this Department are due to him, and that he is eminently worthy not only of our approval of his administration of tbs affairs of the National Bureau of Education, but of our admiration of him as a man, and finally of our best wishes for his future success and prosperity. I. Education is a national concern. This truth is recognized, even under monarch- ical governments, by placing the care of this important interest in the hands of a min- ister of public instruction, who is a member of the executive department in most civilized countries. Thi^ truth is still more obvious in a free republic, where every citizen is a voter ; and yet in this Great Republic education is but feebly recognized in a bureau meagerly supported, whose chief executive is less well paid than the super- intendents of second-rate cities. We look with hopeful interest upon the wide-spread attention which education is now receiving in the discussion of the bills before Con- gress. II. In spite of its utter destitution of authority, the Bureau of Education has ex- erted a most helpful infinence npon the education of the country by disseminating yal* nable information. DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 169 III. This good result is largely due to the wise, conciliatory, and efficient adminis- tration of Hon. John Eaton, the long-time Commissioner of Education, and we de- sire to express the profound regret of this body that he has decided to retire. THE BURE4U OP EDUCATION. Itesolved, That the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational As- sociation hereby renews its repeated declarations of cordial appreciation of the most valuable services and aid rendered to educators throughout the country by the United States Bureau of Education. Resolved, That this Department earnestly indorses the recommendation of the Hon. John Eaton, the retiring Commissioner of the Bureau, that the salary of the Commis- sioner hereafter be fixed by Congi*es8 at $5^000 per annum, thus recognizing the high character of the ability and qualifications required for the efficient discharge of the duties of the office, and in this regard placing this Bureau on terms of equality with other Bureaus of the Gk>vemment. Beaolvedf That this Department also heartly indorses the recommendation of the Hon. Secretary of the Interior, made in his last Annual Report, that Congress should deal more liberally with this Bureau, and provide it with more means to enable it to accomplish its work still more successfully, and more fully meet the educational de- mands of the country at this time. Beeolved, That it is the sense of this Department that the pending vacancy in the office of Commissioner of the Bureau of Education can best be filled by a practical ed- ucator, one who has the confidence of the practical educators of the country, and who is in thorough sympathy with the common schools of the country and all the institu- tions that have for their especial aim the preparation of the masses for the practical duties of good and useful lives and good citizenship. Resolved, That the president of this Department be instructed to furnish copies of these resolutions to the President of the United States, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Committees on Education of the Senate and House of Representatives, re- spectively. THE CELEBRATION OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF OHIO. In view of the vast educational results accomplished by the Ordinance of 1787, es- tablishing schools in the Northwest, Resolved, That we, as superintendents of schools, give our hearty approval to the plan of celebrating by appropriate exercises and monumental memorial the one hun- dredth anniversary of the first settlement under that ordinance, at Marietta^ Ohio. "INTERMEDIATE," INSTEAD OF "GRAMMAR." Resolved, That the term "intermediate" be recommended as a substitute in school reports for the term "grammar," as applied to the second four years of the elementary coarse of instruction in public schools. THANKS. Resolved, That the thanks of the Department be extended to the Trustees of Co- lumbian University, for the use of their hall for the evening sessions ; also to the Trust- ees of All Souls' Church, for the use of their lecture-room for the day sessions. Resolved, That the thanks of the Department be extended to the press of this city for their generous reports of the meetings ; also to Professor W. B. Powell and other members of the local committee, for their successful efforts in providing for the wanta of the Department and for the pleasure of its members. BUREAU OF EDUCATION CIRCULAR OF INFORMATION NO. 3, 1887 PROCEEDINGS OF THK )EPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL AWUTION AT ITS MEETING AT WASHINGTOI^ MAECH 15-17, 1887 I i0m^ ' WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PKINTINa OFFICE 1887 3636 CONTENTS. Letter of the Commissioner of Edacation to the Secretary of the Interior 5 List of persons in attendance 7 FIRST SESSION. Opening of the proceedings 10 Address by the Commissioner of Edacation 11 Pablic Edacation on the Pacific Coast, by the Hon. F. M. Campbell, of Oakland, Cal 16 SECOND SESSION. The Examination and Certification of Teachers, by Dr. Andrew J. Rickoff, of Yonkers, N. Y 46 Bemarks by Dr. William A. Mo wry, of Boston, Mass 58 THIRD SESSION. i Civil Service and Pablic Schools: I, by the Hon. Le Roy D. Brown, of Ohio.. . 63 Discassion by the Hon. B. S. Morgan, of West Virginia 67 the Hon. W. N. Barringer, of Newark, N. J 69 i * Civil Service and Pablic Schools : II, by the Hon. Thomas P. Ballard, of Colum- [ bns, Ohio -...--. 71 J. Discassion by varioas gentlemen (sh#rt remarks) 77 f FOURTH SESSION. r r Powers and Dnties of School Officers and Teachers: I, by the Hon. A. P. Mar- I ble, of Worcester, Mass 80 Remarks : 89 Powers and Dnties of School Officers and Teachers : II, by the Hon. J. M. Graene, of Long Branch, N. J 94 Bemarks 96 FIFTH SESSION. The Best System of Connty and City Sapervision, by the Hon. E. E. Higbee, of Pennsylvania 102 Discassion 105 SIXTH SESSION. j Industrial Edacation in Our Public Schools : I, by Col. F. W. Parker, of Nor- [ malPark,!!! 113 The Province of the Pablic School, by the Hon. J. W. Dickinson, of Massachu- setts 115 Jndnstrial Edacation in Our Public Schools : II, by the Hon. W. B. Powell, of Washington; D, C •..,»•, 123 3 4 CONTENTS. Pies. What a Small City is Doing iu Indastrial Education, by tlje Hon. H. W. Compton, of 'Medo.Ohio 129 Further remarks, by Maj. R. Bingham, of Bingham School, North Carolina. 134 SEVENTH SESSION. A System of Grading for Country Schools, by the Hon. J. W. Holcombe, of In- diana - 138 Remarks by various gentlemen 145 EIGHTH SESSION. Committee Report upon Dr. Rickoff *s Paper, by Dr. B. A. Hinsdale, of Cleve- land, Ohio ' 155 The Best System of State School Supervision, by the Hon. Warren Easton, of Louisiana 156 Remarks: by the Hon. Richard Edwards, of Illinois 160 the Hon. Solomon Palmer, of Alabama 164 the Hon. John L. Buchanan, of Virginia 167 the Hon. John W. Holcorabc, of ludiana - 170 the Hou. W. H. Anderson, of Wheeling, W. Va 173 State Text-Books, by the Hon. F. M. Campbell, of Oakland, Cal 173 Resolutions of thanks, &c 178 NINTH SESSION. Remarks by Maj. R. Bingham, of Bingham School, North Carolina 178 The Nation and the Public Schools, by the Hon. H. W. Blair, U. S. S 179 Remarks upon Senator Blair^s statement, by the Hon. M. A. Newell, of Maryland. 187 by the Hon. William M. Stewart, U. S. S. , of Nevada 188 Education in Alaska, by the Rov. Sheldon Jackson, U. S. General Agent 191 Adjournment m. 200 .| LETTER. Depaetment of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Washington^ D. C.roceeding with the literary exercises, is there anything of a business nature to come before the meeting ? Hon. Le Roy D. Brown, of Ohio: The fact has reached me that some of those down for discussion are not present. Having conversed with a number of members, we have thought it desirable, in case these persons do not arrive, that if the papers which are read extend over 45 minutes, there will be no objection to having them read in full. I sup- pose it is not necessary to make a motion that the Chair be authorized to have this done. • The Chair then presented to the Department William B. Webb, esq., one of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. Mr. Webb welcomed the audience to the capital as a proper place for its deliber- ations. He spoke eloqhently of the evergrowing importance of public in- struction as a factor in local, industrial, political, and national life^ and emphasized the importance of all means for the instruction and reten- tion of trained and competent teachers in the public school service. He mentioned among other points of current interest the danger of permitting the control of public schools to pass into unworthy handle Department of superintendence. 11 and the general interest taken everywhere in the teaching of physiology and hygiene with reference to the abuse of alcohol and narcotics. He closed by offering special facilities for examining public affairs in the District to all members of the Department. To this welcome the president, Hon. C. S. Young, responded in ap- propriate terms. Then, turning to matters directly concerning the De- partment, he upheld the value and advisability of its separate winter meetings, as superior for business purposes to those held in summer ; recalled the part taken by the Department twenty-one years ago in the establishment of the I^ational Bureau of Education, as an instance of its beneficent action in educational interests 5 and urged similar definite action by it respecting current unsettled questions of interest. Among these. President Young was of opinion that direct action in aid of education, superior as well as elementary and public, from the resources of the nation, as desired by Washington and his contempo- raries, was advisable. Why, he urged, should there not be a national normal school t There surely is work enough for it to do, while not one in ten of the teaching force of the country has received any pedagogical training. The nation's aid in exterminating illiteracy is another point for which the Department in its winter meetings should labor. Mr. Young then presented to the Department the Hon. N. H. E. Daw- son, XJ. S. Commissioner of Education. address of MR. DAWSON. Mr. President and Oentlemen : It gives me great pleasure to meet this assembly of distinguished scholars and schoolmen. As the honored representatives of State and city systems of education, your delibera- tions will attract, as they deserve, public interest, and your views upon the many topics that will claim your attention .will be accepted as the authoritative expressions of the best minds engaged in the public school work of the country. I am sure that no essential differences in regard to the leading subjects of discussion will divide your councils, but that your deliberations will all tend to the improvement of methods and will illustrate and illuminate the various topics that will be considered, and that your proceedings will be marked by harmony of action and con- spicuous success. In compliance with your request, I have prepared a brief outline of the work of the Bureau of Education since my connection with the Office. Eecognizing the great debt that is due the members of the asso- ciatioa as the generous friends of the Bureau, I need not assure you that all of its agencies will be used to aid and assist you in your meet- ing, and to make your presence in this city pleasant and profitable. In accepting the position of Commissioner of Education I knew that I would incur no small amount of responsibility and labor ; but I felt that I could rely upon the generous support and hearty co-operation of the earnest educators of the country in the honest endeavor I should 12 CIRCULARS Of' iNt^OtlMATION FOR 1887. make, in the admiDistratiou of the office, to do all in my power to keep abreast of the iucreasiug demands of education, and to meet the just expectations of that large and intelligent class who have consecrated themselves to the work of public instruction. As the successor of the distinguished scholar and educationist, Hon. John Eaton, who so long and ably discharged the duties of the position, 1 can only hope to fol- low in the path which he has blazed. The records of the OflSce attest the efficiency and extent of his labors in the cause of education. His name will be forever associated with its history. Whatever of good it has accomplished is attributable, in great measure, to his industry, zeal, and wise superintendence, and the supx)ort of his assistants. To you the great value of his services is fully known and requires no com- mendation from me in this presence. While it may be said that the life of a State and the preservation of its liberties depend upon the courage of the people, it is eqaaUy true that a wise administration of its laws and the maintenance of order and happiness rest upon the virtue and intelligence of its citizens. If this proposition is admitted, then it follows that the education of the peo- ple becomes one of the highest duties of the State, and no subject is more worthy the consideration of the enlightened statesman. The public school system is the common fountain from which the higher branches of education draw their living waters. You are its chosen guardians, and you should see that no step backward is takeD, either in perfecting its excellences or in extending its usefulness. The time, I trust, is rapidly approaching when its advantages will be offered to all the children of the land without distinction of race. To quote from a high authority : When the common school system shall have unfolded its vast powers; whena corps of trained and educated teachers to supply all its demands shall have ta^en the field ; ■when the text-books used in the schools shall bo wisely selected, and the school-house built upon the most approved model ; when its protection and progress shall be the first object of the Government — then will all its mighty agencies to do good be felt ; the public mind refined and enlightened ; labor elevated ; patriotism purified ; our Republican form of government fixed on an immutable basis, and the people crowned with its benefits and blessiugs. These prophetic sentences were written more than thirty years ago by that venerable and distinguished statesman, Andrew G. Curtin, then Superintendent of Public Instruction of Pennsylvania. He has lived through long and eventful years to realize the partial fulfilment of his bright dreams as to the whole country, and to see his efforts to establish the common school system of his own State upon a better basis crowned with success. Clarum et venerabile nomen. Since I assumed charge of the Bureau in October last, 1 have en- deavored to become familiar with the various i^arts of its work and their relation to the work done by the schools and systems of the DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 13 country. The only changes made by me in the organization and meth- ods have been dictated by a desire to make its publications more sim- ple and effective, more prompt, and, if possible, more useful to its correspondents. This is not yet the time to say whether these efforts, or any of them, have been or will be successful, but I have reason to think that in some respects they will not be found wanting in result as well as in labor. One of the matters that I have tried to forward is the Annual Re- port. To most of you the method of preparing this Eeport is known, but perhaps it is well to describe that method briefly. For fifteen years the Reports of the Bureau have comprised a personal statement by the Commissioner, a resume of the educational condition of each State and Territory, and a series of statistical tables of publicjsystems and other schools of every grade. The variety and extent of these tables, made up almost entirely from written replies to questions sent out by the Office, have resulted in delaying the preparation of the report for many months. The correspondents of the Bureau must collect this informa- tion from their own sources before they can reply. The time spent in getting the document through the printing office, though one for which the Bureau is hardly responsible, is another cause of delay. The report of 1 884-'85 was completed and placed in the hands of the Public Printer in the month of December of last year, but I am sorry to say that it is still unpublished, on account of the great pressure of Congressional work upon his office. From these and other similar causes it results that the Annual Reports of the Bureau have seldom appeared until two years after the time they covered have expired. I have tried to increase the promptness of this valuable document by careful attention to details and by a cautious simplification of methods. Whatever suggestions for improving the substance or the form of this document which you personally or collectively may choose to make will receive most respectful and careful consideration from me and from those associated with me in its preparation. You can often do much to facilitate our labors by fulness, correctness, and promptness in the details of your several replies and reports to this Office. One of the noticeable results of the efforts made by this Bureau to secure accuracy of statement in the preparation of the Annual Reports is seen in the simplification of statistics and the tendency toward uni- formity of classification in the preparation of their returns by State and city educational authorities. Whatever objections there may be to uniformity of methods in the art of teaching, in a country so diversified as ours, there can be no question that the value of statistics for comparison depends absolutely upon their essential conformity to like conditions. In the Annual Reports of this Bureau I d03ire to make continual progress iu this direction^ to mak^ 14 CIECULAKS OF INFORMATION FOE 1887. the presentation of statistics of edacation as simple and concise as is compatible with requisite fulness and accuracy, and to aim, in the com- ments I may be called on to make, at clearness and directness of state- ment. In connection with this subject, I venture to suggest that the methods found most efficient for the collection and compilation of information everywhere in the Union, and the laws found to work best, might be adopted in all other parts of the country, thus producing as much uni- formity as the varying climates, occupations, and wealth of the several communities may usefully allow. When the Report for 1885-'86 is finished, the Report of 1886^'87 wiU be immediately taken in hand. 1 hope to have them both ready within the present year. The main difficulty in accomplishing this will be in obtaining in time for the latter the necessary statistical information. To this end, a consummation so devoutly to be wished, I invoke your prompt and kind attention. ' While the law establishing the Bureau makes the preparation of the Annual Report a specific duty, it also provides for other means of pro- moting the cause of education. Therefore I have prepared several minor publications, and reprinted some of those prepared under my predecessor. Among them are bulletins relating to the planting of trees and to other appropriate ceremonies for Arbor Day, the circulars upon the teaching of music and the libraries of the United States, and the proceedings of your last meeting. This latter circular, I am glad to state, is just from the press, and will be found upon your desks. The Special Report on Education at the New Orleans Exposition of 1884r-'85, prepared under the direction of my predecessor, has been pub- lished and distributed since my entrance upon my present duties. The International Congress of Educators, held in connection with the New Orleans Exposition, took the place of the annual meeting of this De- partment in this city in 1885. The proceedings of this conference form part of the varied and valuable contents of that report. In 1884-'85, at the request of librarians, the Bureau made a syste- matic canvass of the whole country for the purpose of obtaining the names and statistics of all libraries, not strictly private, having three hundred or more volumes. The result of this attempt, comprehending information from five thousand three hundred and thirty-eight libraries answering to the conditions required, formed part of the Annual Report of 1884-'85, but the very great labor required to tabulate the data ac- quired has been performed in great part since I took charge of the Office. A special edition of this table has been struck off from the stereotype plates at the printing office, and has been distributed in ad- vance of the appearance of the Report, as a partial acknowledgment of the assistance given in its preparation by the numerous librarians and school officers of the country, DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 15 Among the more recent pablications of this OfQce may be mentioned the first volume of the Eeport upon Education in the Indastrial and Fine Arts in the United States, prepared in response to a resolution of the United States Senate, by I. Edwards Clarke of this Bureau. This report hias met with decided approbation in literary and art circles, and has received a large number of favorable criticisms from journals and artists in the United States and Europe. The author is now engaged in the completion of the second volume. When completed, this work will be an exhaustive treatise upon this interesting part of the new education, and will take its place among the most valuable publications • made by the Government. The circular upon the teaching of music in our schools, the prej>ara- tion of which was in the charge of Dr. Charles Warren, of the Bureau, has evoked a great deal of satisfaction, and seems to have awakened anew public interest in this attractive study. Prof. Herbert B. Adams, of Johns Hopkins University, is preparing for the Bureau a paper upon the Study of History in American Colleges and Universities. The first part, in the shape of a monograph upon William and Mary College, is in the hands of the printer. This con- tribution to so interesting and vital a subject must prove of lasting value to the history of the higher education in the United States. Another subject now in course of preparation is the report upon the Progress of Indian Education and Civilization. The information upon this interesting question has been collected for the Bureau in compli- ance with a resolution of the Senate, by Miss Alice C. Fletcher, and is now being put in form by her, and will be completed before the expira- tion of the current year. Its publication promises to elucidate a subject full of interest to a large class of philanthropic persons in the United States. It is known to you that the work of education in Alaska has been placed under the superintendence of the Bureau. Many difficulties had to be confronted in the inauguration of the schools in that distant country. Most of these, however, have been overcome by the energy and zealous management of Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the General Agent of th^ Government. Public schools for the instruction of the children, without reference to race, have been established at all of tbe larger villages and settlements in Southeastern Alaska, and in other parts of that Territory . These schools are in charge of a reliable and competent corps of teachers, and are attended by a large number of pupils, who are taught the rudiments of education in the English language. The appropriation by Congress at its last session of $25,000 is a worthy recognition of the claims of the children of Alaska to the aid and care of the Government in their education, and, I trust, is assur- ance that the system now in its infancy will be liberally fostered and encouraged* 16 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. I have thus made mention of a part of the work and intentions of the Bureau, so far as I have had connection with them, in order to show that there has been no breach in the continuity between the past and the present, and to assure you that I shall, whenever possible, endeavor to carry on the work and fulfil the designs for which the Office was es- tablished, and by which it must stand or fall in the future. I trust that you will see that I am no iconoclast, and that my only purpose is to in- crease the usefulness and efficiency of the Bureau and its publications to the profession which it represents in the government of the country. If it be decided that the Bureau of Education is to be kept within its present limits of investigation, in spite of the many new subjects now occupying the attention of educationists, the present force of the Office can be made to do the work as now done; but if the Office is to compre- hend the many topics in its range of inquiry and to treat them as the advance in the methods of statistical science requires and as the expec- tations of its intelligent friends justly hope and desire, some increase in its ability to perform the work will be necessary. If the large and val- uable special collections of the educational library and of the museam are to be of that use to the educators of the country of which they are susceptible, the fostering care of Congress will be i^eeded in moderate annual appropriations for the proper care and increase of their important instrumentalities. If, however, these expectations are denied, as they have been, I shall most cheerfully conform to the exigencies of the hour, and endeavor with the means at hand to produce the best attainable results. I again welcome you to this city, named after the first, the greatest, and thQ wisest of Americans, whose greatness is imaged in the grand marble obelisk that looms above the river and the State he loved ; whose words and whose career are the best object lesson for us in training the Americans of to-day for the labors and duties of to-morrow — ^to this city, the Mecca of American constitutional life, which in its beauty mirrors the serene energy that is the highest result of human effort applied to the best objects ; and to this meeting, which, let us hope, will be f^ui^ ful of wise counsel and wise action for the benefit of all who love or labor for the advancement of our countrymen in virtue intelligence, hap- piness, and education. After a short recess, during which persons in attendance were re- quested to supply the secretary with their names, official positions, and addresses, the Hon. Frederick M. Campbell, superintendent of schools in Oakland, California, was introduced as the next speaker. Public Education on the Pacific Coast. After a continuous residence of 29 years in California I have for the first time crossed the continent to be present at this meeting of superintopdents. Such a trij) is necessary if one would realize in some degree the magnitude of our country — the grandeur of its mountainis— > DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 17 the endless reach of its vast plateaus — the limitless variety of its re- sources, and the untiring energy of its people, who have reared cities all over the wide region where, fifty years ago, the Indian roved through the primeval forest. Passing from the sight of all these, to this beautiful city — ^the seat of the Government of this country — the centre of that power which regulates and keeps in harmonious play all the movements of the great complex unit we call our nation, I feel more than ever glad to be an American. More than ever before am I impressed with the responsibility of being a factor, however humble, in that force which has so large an influence in moulding the mind, the thought, and the character of those who are coming up to the rank of citizenship, who are to sit in these halls of legislation, to fill chairs in these departments, and upon whose patriotism, wisdom, and virtue will depend the future of this country — a future which involves the success or failure before the peoples of the whole world of this last and greatest experiment of a Government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Living for all these years on the very western verge of the con- tinent, awayfrom the advantages of such gatherings as this, I have come SIS a learner, as one delighted to listen, to sit quiet, to catch the inspiration of the hour from my brothers here at the centre of things, and, jealous of every moment, would gladly have listened and learned during this hour, rather than have said any word of my own. It is with feelings of mingled pride and distrust that I rise to address this representative audience — pride, not of any personal nature, but a loyal pride in the State which I represent, born of a consciousness that, in an estimate of the work accomplished by our system of public edu- cation, California can show results of a magnitude which her most enthasiastic sons 35 years ago could not have hoped for in their wildest dream of the future. With this pride is closely linked a self-distrust entirely personal — as I feel how far beyond my ability it is to do justice to my subject in the ei!brt to recapitulate some of the diflSculties which our people have encountered in performing the work accomplished; to give a brief sketch of its present aspect ; and to hint at the causes which have contributed to render our efforts successful in the past, and full of hope for the fujure. May I be permitted one more remark of a personal character, war- ranted perhaps by the fact that I stand among 3'ou a stranger, from the remotest bouudar3'^ of our Union; from a State whence so many wild tales have come of unheard-of transformations — of doctors of divinity shovelling sand, and grave lawyers and learned professors filling the role of cooks and waiters. I stand before you in no recently assumed profession. Memory runs not back to the time when I was not, in some capacity, connected with school work, and the future can offer me no higher honors than those which are to be won on this field. My highest 3536— No. 3 2 18 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. ambition reaches oat to no loftier goal than that gained by the men whose names are remembered as having exerted a beneficent power in monlding the minds and training the energies of the rising generation. Despite the fact that onr Golden State is one of the brilliant sister- hood, that we have constant daily communication with the Eastern shore of the continent, it is nevertheless true that for many years we were in a great degree an isolated State, and the most erroneous and exag- gerated ideas concerning our people were widely prevalent. Roaring Gamp and Poker Flat were soberly taken as the models of our social cus- toms, and the typical Galifornian was the anomalous hero of these and kindred tales. 1 think the popular conception of the average OaUfor- nian was about as near to truth as that of the traditional Yankee, who still appears sometimes upon the comic stage with striped trousers, swallow-tail coat, tall collar, a nasal twang, and a pronunciation the like of which was never heard in any civilized land beneath the sun. It is very difficult to correct an impression when once it has become a part of the fixed belief of a people. On the contrary, having once taken root, it is likely to grow to exaggerated size, and bear fruit of won- derful quality. So it is that after these many years of constant and in- creasing intercourse, I believe our Eastern friends have no just concep- tion of the intellectual and educational position of California to-day. Crowded excursion trains bear thousands of tourists to our shores ; bat they see only one side of our life. They tell you of the rich vineyards in our valleys and on sunny hillsides — of the groves of orange and almond and olive — of gardens of roses and heliotrope, that furnish us bouquets all the year round and lilies to dress our churches at Ohrist- mas time. They see our towering mountains and mighty waterfalls, and the city by ihQ Golden Gate, and of these they bring back the glow- ing record. But it is not in any of these that the real California is found. The Alpine heights are as grand, the vintage of Spain as rich, the olive and orange bloomed long ago on other shores. It is to oar homes and social institutions you must look for that which constitutes our State. Of these a transient visitor can form no just idea. The armies of tourists throng our gigantic hotels and form a community l^ themselves. They bring you back no report of the true life of our peo- ple. It is a life that has been moulded by exceptional circumstances. While the growth of some other sections has been equally rapid^ oars has differed in some essential points, which I touch upon in this con- nection as having an important bearing upon our educational system. The men who settled upon the rich lands of Kansas and Iowa and Dakota took with them their families and their household gods, and founded homes on the fertile prairies. The men who made Chicago and Milwaukee and Saint Paul great marts of traffic, went to remain. But the pioneer of California went out, like Abraham of old, not knowing whither he went. He was essentially an adventurer — his life was, an experiment. Wife and sister and child, if he had them, were left DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 19 behind, till he should see whether a prize or a blank awaited him in the uncertain future. The whole atmosphere of California life has been tainted with the elements of speculation and chance. First came the chance of finding the precious metal in the claim chosen — and to-day hundreds are still toiling on, hoping ere long to " strike pay rock." The gigantic speculations of the mining share market, that came as the next phase of this feverish life, are too familiar to de- mand more than the briefest mention. And when our men began to see that mother earth paid to the tiller of the soil rewards as rich as those she bestowed on the successful miner, even hero the same reckless spirit prevailed. The possessor of a thousand acres would hazard his all on a single crop, which, if abundant, would pay him enormous profits, rather than vary the products of his ranch — so that if drought or flood should come, something might be spared. Dr. Glen had one year 55,000 acres of wjieat and loaded 12 ships. The prevalence of this spirit formed one serious obstacle to the found- ing of educational institutions en the broad, liberal and permanent basis which alone can insure success. I hope presently to show you how we have succeeded in overcoming this diflBculty, but I cannot deny that we still feel its effects, and that the traits of our early settlers have been transmitted to their sons in the form of an intense practicalism, with which we have continually to contend in our efforts to attract these boys to higher and more thorough education, which they are always tempted to neglect for some money-making avocation. I do not suppose this is peculiar to California, though I can see reasons for its existing there in a somewhat exaggerated form. 'No doubt this is one great evil of the time in which we live. In the earlier ages, when learn- ing was confined to the cloister and the cell, or when a little later it began to be the distinguishing mark of a select circle who formed a sort of aristocracy of intellect, it was valued for its own inherent worth. Men sought the treasures of learning for the very joy of acquiring and the triumph of possessing — not merely as a means to some more remote end. But the watchword of the nineteenth century is "Cui bonoT' Men and women alike take up the cry, and the facile tongue of the child soon catches the oft repeated sound. Why should I study the lan- guages ? Will it help me in the race for wealth ? WHy should I be- come familiar with the master minds of my mother tongue, and their stores of lofty thought ? Will it give me any advantage in the strife for |K)Iitical preferment ? Therfe is always some ulterior end, and the love of knowledge for its own sake is a rare and almost unheard-of thing. Does not this have a significant bearing on the present much disputed question of elective courses of study? This is not the time to enlarge upon this point, but I think the relation is evident. The fact remains that our boys leave the broad fields of culture that lie so invitingly before them, to rush, immature and not half equipped, to take their part in the struggle for place and wealth and power — and, 20 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. what is more serious still — to lift up tbeir voices in the attempt to de- cide the grave social issues of the day — a task requiring the maturest effort of trained and disciplined minds — minds capable of taking up these great problems, and, with the keenest inspection, unravelling the tangled web. These boys have ever before their eyes a seeming denial of the neces- sity or desirability of thorough mental training, in the spectacle of ineu totally without such training in the possession of millions gained bysoinB sudden turn of fortune's wheel. Who shall correct their false stand- ards of value, and dissuade our boys from tempting the fickle goddess in the hope that they too may be equally favored ? The money question, too, has another side. In an atmosphere like that of California, fortunes are lost, oftentimes, as rapidly as won ; and the lad who, perhaps, may be craving a liberal education, is forced by a rigorous necessity to begin early in life the hard struggle for daily bread. In cases not a few, moreover, men who came to our State in early days, still looked upon the old home in the East as dearer than the new, and bestowed there the fortunes gained in California. The • most recent instance which comes to my mind is that of Jonas G. Clark, who has j ust made an offer of so liberal an endowment for a college in Worcester, Mass. Mr. Clark was for a long series of years a succes&fnl business man in San Francisco, and, if I am rightly informed, still has large interests in California. The same lingering love of the old home has, in many cases, led our men of culture to send back their sons to their own Alma Mater, where they might reap the benefits of an older civilization, and unfold their minds amid scenes made classic by the presence of the poets, philoso- phers, and scientists of two hundred years. But if we have not found our work free from difficulties and dis- couragements, there have been nevertheless many causes which have aided us in achieving the very gratifying degree of success which, after 35 years, have crowned our Jabors. If the spirit of adventure brought the germs of civilization to our shores, it was not of that baser sort which we have come somehow to link with the name "adventurer," and I use the word in its nobler and more literal meaniag. They came, more like the early colonists of their !N"ew England homes. And while, naturally, a considerable element of the opposite class was attracted by the golden stories of California, the men who really moulded the form of this infant State and shaped its future, were men of thought, of energy, of education, of moral force. Only such qualities could have brought order out of the chaos of '49 and '50, and laid deep and broad and strong the foundations of the State. In the last number of the Overland Monthly, a writer (John Hittell) of reminiscences of his early California life notes the fact that " while the journey could, in those early days, be made without real danger and absolute privation, yet DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 21 tbe difficulties were sufficient to deter the horde of beggars and vagrants from densely populated regions. As between Europe and the Atlantic ports, so between I^qw York and San Francisco, in proportion as the difficulty and expense of transit has diminished, so the number of un- desirable and worthless immigrants has increased." Thus while we have reaped large advantages from these improved facilities, it has, in a certain way, left us still pioneers in the cause of education. In these older States of yours there are a thousand allies of education. The schoolmaster is no longer abroad here, he is at home. He is surrounded by all manner of helpful influences. Colleges and libraries, and churches friendly to education, with wealth that knows its own best use of minis- tering to public intelligence, are here scattered broadcast over the land. The institutions of culture and refinement are too firmly based to be shaken by every idle wind of shifting notions, l^o ambitious politician here hopes to make capital by pandering to the ignorant prejudices of tbe mob. No jealous sectarianism ventures to put itself in the way of tbe march of improvement. Your people, even in the remotest rural districts, are full of the enthusiasm of ideas. The fame of your great colleges has reached every hamlet and household, and the examples of educated and eminent men are familiar to every boy and girl. In. California it is very different. These later years have brought us large numbers of immigrants from ©very nation ; and multitudes, even of our own i)eople, of a restless shifting disposition feel no permanent interest in the prosperity of the country, and do not even call it '^ home.'' But when, a few weeks ago, in our State Legislature, I heard a grad- uate of our State University make an eloquent appeal for the generous support of his Alma Mater, I realized that a better day was close at hand, and that pioneer work would ere long give place to the labors of loyal sons and daughters, born on the soil of California, and nurtured in her own institutions. And I rejoiced in the power and the value of such labors, when, a little later, I learned that the measure so ably and zeal- ously advocated by him and his fellow-graduates in the Legislature had passed that body, been signed by the Governor, and was a law. You will readily appreciate this when I tell you that by this act ^ perpetual annual tax of one cent upon each $100 of taxable property in the State is levied for the support of the University. Upon the valuation of last year this will amount to over $75,000. Yet before I speak more definitely of these institutions, I must recall one or two things which seem to have aided largely in the success of our early efforts. Evidently the character of our State builders them- selves was the main factor ; but, among the wisest and best is diversity of opinion as to the means of attaining the same desired end. It is well that it should be so always. For inquiry, doubt, discussion — even hot debate — are the winds and tides that keep the great world-encom- passing ocean of educational thought from stagnating; and common senaCj one might add, is the good clean salt that keeps it all pure aud 22 CIRCULARS OP IKPORMATION FOR 1887. * sweet. Certain debatable questions were open to our early educators. What shall we teach ? How much shall we teach ? How early in child- life shall we begin ? How far shall our course extend ? And so forth. Of course these questions came gradually, and the result is still- being evolved. But into the laying of their plans, came something of the samespirit which had brought them to this untrodden soil. The breadth of a continent lay between them and the ancient and fossilized theories of the past, and they grasped the opportunity to infuse into their work the fresh energy which they found in the very breezes that invigorated their lungs. Then the cosmopolitan character of our pioneers contributed largely to success. From east and west — from north and south — from England and Germany and France, from Oxford and Heidelberg and Edinburgh, came men bringing the advanced thought of the age. So methods were compared with methods, results with results, until the outcome has been a growth like that of other i^roducts transplanted to our soil — almost unprecedented. First in rank, and having its birth in early days, stands the STATE UNIVERSITY, crowning our system of free public education. The University of California really had its birth early in 1853, when a Congregational minister, a graduate of Yale College, opened a boys' school in a little room in Oakland. This man was Henry Durant, who at this early date had in his capacious brain the plan of a State uni- versity, and who lived to see its buildings rise on the fair slopes of Berkeley Hills, himself its first honored President. Its beginnings read like a tale of romance. You will pardon me a brief chapter as told familiarly by Dr. Durant himself: The house T^as building. It had been roofed in, the outside was nearly finished, some of the rooms quite well under way, and one room furnished inside. The con- tractors, as I understood, were about making arrangements with some parties to let them have the money to finish up the building— some six or seven hundred dollars— and to take a lien oh the building. -They proposed to get the whole property for them- selves in that way. This thing had been done, I knew, with regard to a pretty good house that had been built a little while before. The builder was not able to pay for it immediately, and the contractors got somebody to advance the money to complete the house. They put into the house a man armed with a pistol to keep the proprietor away, and took possession of it themselves ; and he lost the house. Knowing that fact, and not knowing but something of that kind might occur, I consulted a lawyer, who told mo what I might do. Said ho, *' You go and take possession of that house. Be beforehand. Yon have had to do with the contractors ; you really may be regarded as the i)roprietor of it." I came over at night, took a man with mo, went into the house, pi^t ih table, chairs, etc., into one of the rooms upstairs, and went to bed. Pretty early in the morning the contractor came into the house and looked about. Presently ho came to our door. Looking in, says he, " What is hero ? " I was getting up. I told him I didn't mean any hurt to him, but I was a little in ahurry to go into my new home, and I thought I would make a beginning the night before. I asked him if he would not walk in and take a seat. I claimed to be the proprietor, and in DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 23 possession. He went off. My friend went away, and in a little while the contractor came back with two burly fellows. They came into the room and helped themselves with seats. I had no means of defence except an ax that was under the bed. The contractor said to one of the men, "Well, what w^ill you do ?" Said he, "If you ask my advice, proceed summarily," and then he began to get up. I rose, too, then — about two feet taller than usual ; I felt as if I was monarch of all I surveyed. . I told bim that if I understood him, he intended to move into the room. Said I, ** You will not only commit trespass upon my property, but you will do violence to my body. I don't intend to leave this room in a sound condition. If you undertake to do that, you will commit a crime as well as a trespass! " That seemed to stagger them, and finally they left me in possession. This was the beginniug of the college school which was designed as preparatory to a university subsequently to be established. My own first connection with the educational interests of Oakland, with which I have ever since been identified, except my term as State Superinten- dent, was in this school, to which I went as a teacher early in 1861. In 1855 the State gave the college a charter, and the first building of the college proper was erected on Twelfth street in Oakland. In 1859 Dr. Durant was made professor of Greek, and mental and moral philosophy. Three other gentlemen, one of whom— Rev. Martin Kel- logg — ^is now dean of the university, were associated with him, and in 1860 the first Freshman class entered. This class graduated in 1864 four members. The following year three graduated. One of these — Hon. John Glascock — represented that same district as a member of the Forty-seventh Congress. The constitutional convention which met in Monterey in 1849 had provided for the protection, preservation, and improvement of land which might be granted for university uses, either by the United States Government or by individual gifts, and had made it the duty of the State Legislature, as soon as possible, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent security of the funds of the university. The germ of this fund was a grant by Congress in 1852 of 73 sections of land *' for the use of a seminary of learning.'' The same act also set aside 10 sections to create a Public Building Fund. In 1862 the act was passed, offering to each State a certain amount of land for a col- lege of agriculture and mechanic arts. This was formally accepted by California in 1864, and her portion was 150,000 acres. Some ineffect- ive and fruitless legislation was had in the interim, and in 1867 the situation was substantially this ; a State university existed on paper, backed by sufficient funds, but having nothing else. The College of Cal- ifornia had a site, buildings, a faculty and students, but no funds. Evi- dently consolidation was desirable to both parties, and this was satis- factorily accomplished in 1868, and the organic act of incorporation was passed by the Legislature. The buildings of the College 6f Cali- fornia in Oakland were occupied by the university until 1873. In Jaly of that year commencement exercises were held at the new site, and the north and south halls formally dedicated. Failing health had com- pelled the resignation of President Durant, and in 1872 President D. 24 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. 0. Gilman, now tlie honored president of Johns Hopkins University, had been installed as his saccessor. I will not tax your patience with details of early struggles, which have been many and desperate, but as the university is the crowning achievement of our system of free pub- lic education, it seems to demand the especial notice which I have given it. Tuition is absolutely free. All courses of study are open to both sexes. During the last year 122 different courses of study were offered, of which 94 were actually given. I have not been able to verify the correctness of my impression, but it is my belief that when the University of California in 1870 opened her doors to her daughters as well as to her sons, she was the first of the higher institutions of learning to recognize their equal rights and privileges, all absolutely free. The site of the university, comprising 200 acres, is unsurpassed in beauty. Five miles from the City Hall of Oakland, its buildings rise on the lower slopes of the Coast Range, here not more than 1,200 or 1,500 feet in height, facing the beautiful bay and harbor of San Fran- cisco; and looking directly out through the Golden Gate towards the regions of the setting sun and covering all the miles that lie between, are blossoming orchards and fertile farms ; and where the mainland meets the bay, the city of Oakland, covering an area of many miles, lifts her graceful spires amid the trees and gardens that surround the homes of 50,000 inhabitants. It is a remarkable fulfilment of a remarkable prophecy found in a poem written in 1794 by Dr. Dwight of Kew Haven — if I am not mis- taken, the grandfather of Dr. Dwight, president of Yale College : All liail thou Western World I By heaven designed The example bright to renovate mankind I Spon shall thy sons across the mainland ro am, And claim, on far Pacific's shores, their home. Proud commerce's mole the western surge shall lave j The long white spire lie imaged on the wave ; Where marshes teemed with death, shall meads unfold ; Untrodden cliffs resign their stores of gold. Where slept perennial night, shall science rise, And new horn Oxfords cheer the evening skies. I think I know something of the estimate in which the higher insti' tutions of learning in the new States were wont to be held by our brothers in the older States ; and no doubt there was (and may be still for aught I know) much to justify the tone of voice, the expression of face, and the impression sought to be conveyed, as they were alluded to as '^ Western Colleges." But when you think or speak of the Uni- versity of California, try to think and speak of her as she is. The limits of a pafier for an occasion like this, and the ground to be covered in the subject assigned me, forbid that I should dwell much longer on this particular part of our system of public educatiou. I invite those who are interested in this special line of work, and all who are disposed to be well informed concerning our university, to take a copy of the last Eegister, a numb^* ' ' ^ here for this special purpose. DEPARTMENT OP SUPEEINTENDENCE. 26 To Bummarize then : The University of California is an integral part of the public educa- tional system of the State. As such it aims to complete the work begun in the public schools. Through aid from the State and the United States, and by private munificence, it furnishes ample facilities for in- struction in science, literature, and the professions of law, medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy. In the colleges of letters, agriculture, min- ing, mechanics, civil engineering, and chemistry, in the literary course and in the course in letters and political science, these privileges are offered without charge for tuition to all persons that are qualified for admission. The professional colleges, being self-sustaining, require moderate tuition fees. All courses are open to all persons without dis- tinction of sex. The constitution of the State, as will appear elsewhere in my address, provides for the perpetuation of the university, with its existing departments of instruction. The departments of instruction comprise the following : 1. Tn Berkeley. 1. The College of Letters : (a) Classical course. (b) Literary course. (c) Course in letters and polit- ical science. 2. The College of Agriculture. j 3. The College of Mechanics. 4. The College of Mining. 5. The College of Civil Engineer- ing. G. The College of C hemistry. 2. In San Feancisco. 1. The Hastings College of the Law. 2. The Toland College of Medicine. 3. The College of Dentistry. 4. The California College of Phar- macy. It is intrusted to the care of a board of regents, which includes the Governor, the lieutenant-governor, the speaker of the assembly, the State superintendent, the president of the State Agricultural Society, the president of the Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco, the presi- dent of the nniversity, and sixteen other regents appointed by the Gov- ernor and approved by the Senate. To this body of regents the State has committed the administration of the university, including the finances, care of property, appointment of teachers, and determination of the interior organization in all partic- tdars not already determined by law. The instruction and government of the students are intrusted to the academic senate and the faculties of the various colleges. The senate consists of all persons engaged in giving instruction in any of the de- partments of the nniversity by authority ot the board of regents. It holds its meetings twice a year. 26 CIRCULARS OF* iNJ^ORMAtlON t*OR 1687. FUNDS. The resources from which the uuiversity is maintained were derived from various sources, and include the following endowments: 1. Seminary fund and public building fund granted to the State by Congress. 2. The property received from the College of California, including site at Berkeley. 3. The fund derived from Congressional land grant of July 2, 1862. 4. Tide land, land fund, appropriated by the State. 5. Specific appropriations by Legislature, for building, current ex- penses, &c. 6. Gifts of individuals. The general funds of the university are devoted to the College of Letters and College of Science. The Colleges. of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmacy are self-supporting. The College of Law has a separate endowment. The income of the university for'the last year approximated $200,000. The corps of over 40 professors and assistants engaged regularly in the work of instruction at Berkeley includes some whose fame, in their special lines of thought and work, is not circumscribed by the bound- aries of our country. The University of California, with all its splendid equipments in every other respect, is specially rich in its unusually fall, strong, able, earnest teaching force. And after all that can be said of buildings, and apparatus, and libraries, and all the helps and aids that can be given the student anywhere, is he not finally fortunate or un- fortunate in accordance with the kind of men he must meet as his guides and instructors 1 The answer to my question is expressed in the apho- rism, "The teacher makes the school." A magazine article which I read recently relates of President Garfield, that some years ago he at- tended a meeting of the alumni of Williams College (of whom he was not the least distinguished). There was presented to this meeting of her sons the urgent need their Alma Mater had of new apparatus and other appliances of study. General — then Senator — Garfield said that he was fully conscious of the value of these things. "But," said he, " give me a log cabin in the State of Ohio, with one room in it, and a bench with President Hopkins at one end of it, and me at the other, and that would be a college good enough for me." We have in the faculty of our university more than one man whose words are an inspiration, and whose very presence is a benediction to the student. I believe, moreover, that our university reaches out and down, and comes nearer to the people, in their industrial interests, than is usual with institutions of the higher education. Bulletins are issued, from time to time, by the agricultural department, and widely and gratui- tously distributed to those directly interested, giving the results of scien* DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 27 tiflc investigations and experiments of direct, practical value and im- portance to tbe farmer, the fruit-grower, and tke vineyardist ; by the department of chemistry, giving the results of analyses made by the professor of chemistry, in his capacity as State analyst, to whom, as such, may be sent mineral waters, wines, soils, or anything else, and by anybody, for official examination and analysis. The wine interests, now assuming such vast proportions in California, are not forgotten, and the university has a large fermenting cellar and all necessary appliances for thorough, intelligent, practical work, as well as scientific investigation and experiment. Some si^lendid and very successful experimental work is being done there also, in the direc- tion of determining the character- and values of ores by the use of the microscope. Indeed, in the department of mineralogy and metallurgy, I have been told by those who were in position to be thoroughly in- formed on the subject, that very few institutions anywhere are better equipped than our university. In addition to other large collections, those of the State Geological Survey, which cost the State government hundreds of thousands of dollars, are now the property of the institution. I do not mean that it is rich simply in case specimens, but in hand specimens for manipulation by the students as well. Moreover there is a fully equipped assay office, and a department, with all the mechanical appliances of mining, such as a quartz mill, crushers, concentrators, &c., where the student can see practical work carried on in the beneflciation of ores. Without detailing the practical work done in the mechanical arts college, or the fine art gallery, the gift of Henry D. Bacoii, or more than naming the library, enriched by gifts by many generous givers — indeed, in a word, without elaborating further, I repeat that the people of our State feel, that in the University of California they have, not only a place for their young men and women to go to for instruction in any branch of human knowledge, but that they themselves, from day to day, at their homes and in their business, can share in its advantages, and enjoy its blessings. Without at all yielding any of its strength or its dignity, it is made, essentially, a university of and for the people. In the new constitution, adopted in 1879, no provision was made for high schools, each local board being left free to establish them if so disposed, and willing to raise the necessary funds by local taxation — and therefore as next in our Stale system, I mention our two NORMAL SCHOOLS. One of these is located at San Jos6, 50 miles from San Francisco, in the midst of the fertile Santa Clara Valley, and the other at Los An- geleSy in the southern portion of the State, and distant from San Fran- cisco 500 miles. The State early recognized the necessity of having trained and com- petent teachers in the public schools. To this end a State normal 28 CIRCULARS OP INFORMAtlON FOR 1887. school was organized in July, 1863. . It was first located in San Fran- cisco, but was soon removed to San Jos6, that city giving for its site a square containing 28 acres in the center of the town. Upon this, the State erected a magnificent building coating upwards of $300,000. This building was a few years ago destroyed by fire, but upon the same site was erected the present building, of equal capacity and convenience with the former. The statistics of this school show a greater number of normal stu- dents than any in the country, except those of H^ew York City and Philadelphia. This does not include private normal schools, but only those supported by the State. To the 19 teachers employed in the institution is paid an aggregate in salary of $31,000 annually, ranging from $4,000, the salary of the principal, to $850, the lowest paid to any of the regular corps. In the 24 years of its work, this school has graduated 1,126 teachers. That the school is doing good work, and that its graduates are in demand, is shown by the fact that, at tbe present time, no graduate of the school who desires to teach is without a position. In September, 1882, a branch school was opened, by authority of .an act of the Legislature, at Los Angeles, the city giving a beautiful site of 8 acres directly in the town, commanding an extensive view of tbe city and surrounding country. The school has sent out 225 graduates. The corps of instructors numbers 7, and the annual pay-roll is $11,600. The present Legislature was considering, when I came away, the question of establishing a like institution in the northern section of the State, and I have learned, since getting East, that the bill passed. Hian SCHOOLS. About the time the constitutional convention met to frame a new constitution for California, namely, in 1878, there was an unusual agi- tation of those vexed questions of social and political economy from which no State can be always free. One result of this strife was a clause i)roviding that no State funds shall go to support any public school of a grade higher than a grammar school, and that all schools supported by State aid should be taught in the English language only. While this was regarded as a direct blow at the high schools, it was really so in its moral effect only, because the amount received from the State fund had never been sufficient to support more than the lower grade of schools. The action of the convention, however, was only another illustration of that delightful inconsistency which prejudiced or unreasoning men will use. These law-makers were ready to provide for a free university, while at the same time they would weaken or destroy the free bridge which would carry their children from the gram- mar school to the entrance of this higher education. Fortunately, this action did not represent the sentiment or wish of our people, and a sys- tem of high schools has been maintained by city taxation in our principal DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 29 » cities. (lu my own city of Oakland, the city tax for school purposes for the ensuing year was fixed by the city council, a few days before I left home, at 24 cents on the $100. This on the assessment roll of $30,000,000 will yield $72,000.) The faculty of the university, recognizing the unity of the system, admit without examination graduates of approved high schools, on recommendation of their principals. The schools are ap- proved by a visiting committee from the faculty, who examine the courses of study and methods of teaching from time to time. Presi- dent Holden says of this in his biennial report : '^ If it is carried out in good feeling, and with a due sense of responsibility, the result will be to weld the whole public school system into an organic whole. We are not yet prepared to admit private schools, however excellent, to our accredited list." A special feature in our whole system is the growing importance at- tached to the study of our own language. I believe that in English re- quirements the University of California takes the lead of American universities; and the impulse thus given is felt to the lowest grades of our primary schools. Mr. Matthew Arnold is reported recently as say- ing tUat he wished he might see in the schools and colleges of England the same kind and amount of study bestowed on English as is given to foreign tongues. We hope that in the next visit to America of this distinguished gentleman he will come to California, that we may en- joy the satisfaction of seeing and hearing, not only Mr. Matthew Ar- nold, the distinguished poet and essayist, but what to every true teacher would be almost as great a boon, the son of Thomas Arnold of Rugby. We will show him that we have, at least, a true conception of his ideal, and are striving for its attainment. In the pamphlet concerning the Oakland Public Schools, which I have brought to distribute among you, I have spoken so fully of the work of the Oakland' High School that I need not dwell upon this topic more at length. This school stands first in the State in the estimation of the university faculty as to the thoroughness of work done in all lines of study. I believe, however, that the other approved schools adopt sub- stantially the same courses as those followed in Oakland. I have incidentally alluded to our new constitution, bat, to present clearly our public school system, I must speak on this point somewhat more at length. The present constitution of California was adopted by vote of the peo- ple May 7, 1879, and went into effect on the 1st day of January, 1880* The changes wrought by this instrument were radical in many de- partments of government, and this is specially true of the school de- partment. By the old constitution and the laws passed in accordance with its provisions, the school system was essentially a State system. The central governing body was the State Board of Education, com- posed of the Governor, superintendent of publicinstruction, principal of the normal school, and the county superintendents of certain counties 30 CIECULAB8 OP INFORMATION FOE 1887. named. This board adopted a aniform scries of text-books, the use of which books, so selected, was compulsory in all the schools of the State ; it also prescribed the course of study for all the schools, and the list of books from which selections could be made for the district school libra- ries. They also prepared and sent out the questions to be used by the local boards in the examinations of teachers, and, upon the returns, issued State cctillcates of three grades, valid in all the counties of the State. They aiso issued life diplomas and educational diplomas. Following is the article on education in the new constitution as adopted in May, 1879, with section 7 as amended by vote of the i>eople later, viz, in November, 1884. This last provides for the preparation and publication by the State of a series of text-books. ARTICLE IX. EDUCATION. Section 1. A general diffuHiou of kuowlodgo and intcUigence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the Legislature shaU encoarage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectoal, scientific, moral, and agii^altnral improvement. Sec. 2. A superintendent of public instruction shall, at each gubernatonal election after the adoption of this constitution, bo elected by the qualifi.ed electors of the State. Ho shall receive a salary equal to that of the secretary of state, and shall enter upon the duties of his office on the first Monday after the first day of January next succeeding his election. Sec. 3. A superintendent of schools for each county shall be elected by the quali- fied electors thereof at each gubernatorial election : Provided, That the Legislatnre may authorize two or more counties to unite and elect one superintendent for the counties so uniting. Sec. 4. The proceeds of all lands that have been or may be granted by the United States to this State for the support of common schools, which may be, or may have been, sold or disposed of, and the five hundred thousand acres of land granted to the new States under an act of Congress distributing the proceeds of the public lands among the several States of the Union, approved A. D. one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, and all estates of deceased persons who may have died without leav- ing a will or heir, and also such per cent, as may be granted, or may have been granted) by Congress on the sale of lands in this State, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which, together with all the rents of the unsold lands, and such other means as the Legislature may provide, shall be inviolably appropriated to the anp- port of common schools throughout the State. Sec. 5. The Legislature shall provide for a system of common schools by which a free school shall bo kept up and supported in each district at least six months in every year, after the first year in which a school has been established. Sec. 6. The public school system shall include primary and grammar schools, and such high schools, evening schools, normal schools, and technical schools, as may he established by the Legislature, or by municipal or district authority ; but the entire revenue derived from the State school fund, and the State school tax, shall be ap- plied exclusively to the support of primary and grammar schools. Sec. 7. The Governor, superintendent of public instruction, and the principals of the State Normal Schools, shall constitute the State Board of Education, and shall compile, or cause to bo compiled, and adopt .i uniform scries of text-books for use in the common schools throughout the State. The State board may cause sach text- DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 31 books, when adopted, to be printed and published by the superintendent of State printing, at the State printing office, and when so printed and pnblished, to be dis- tributed and sold at the cost price of printing, publishing, and distributing the same. The text-books so adopted shall continue in use not less than four years ; and said State board shall perform such other duties as may be prescri]>ed by law. The Legis- lature shall provide for a board of education in each county in the State. The county superintendents and the county boards of education shall have control of the ex- amination of teachers and the granting of teachers' certificates within their respective jurisdictions. [Amendment adopted November 4, 1884.] Sec. 8. No public money shall ever be appropriated for the support of any sectarian or denominational school, or any school not under the exclusive control of the officers of the public schools ; nor shall any sectarian or denominational doctrine be taught, or instruction thereon be permitted, directly or indirectly^ in any of the common schools of this State. Sec. 9. The University of California shall constitute a public trust, and its organi- zation and government shall be perpetually continued in the form and character pre- scribed by the organic act creating the same, passed March twenty-third, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight (and the several acts amendatory thereof), subject only to such legislative control as may be necessary to insure compliance with the terms of its endowments and the proper investment and security of its funds. It shall be en- tirely independent of all political or sectarian influence, and kepf free therefrom in the ax)pointment of its regents, and in the administration of its affairs; provided^ that all the moneys derived from the sale of the public lands donated to this State by act of Congress, approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two (and the sev- eral acts amendatory thereof), shall be invested as provided by said acts of Congress, and the interest of said moneys shall be inviolably appropriated to the endow- ment, support, and maintenance of at least one college of agriculture, where the leading objects shall be (without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tacM.cs) to teach such branches of learning as are related to scientific and practical agriculture aud the mechanic arts, in accordance with the requirements and conditions of said acts of Congress ; and the Legislature shall pro- vide that if, through neglect, misappropriation, or any other contingency, any portion of the funds so set apart shall be diminished or lost, the State shall replace such por- tion so lost or misappropriated, so that the principal thereof shall remain forever un- diminished. No person shall be debarred admission to any of the collegiate depart- ments of the university on account of sex. By this it will be seen that the duty of examining and certificating teachers was taken from the State board, and vested in the local or county lioards of education. Previous to the meeting of the constitu- tional convention, a very bitter contest had been waged between rival publishers for the adoption by the State board of their respective books, reaching even the Legislature and the courts, and the echoes of the , conflict had hardly died away at the time of the meeting of the con- vention. Suspicions, moreover, had for some time existed that the questions for teachers' examinations, sent out by the Stale board to the various counties ot the State, would sometimes and by some means get into the hands of favored candidates before the examinations began, and these suspicions found confirmation and a crisis came, when, on the evening before one of these examinations, a San Francisco paper published all the questions for the three days' examination. 32 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. i These things no doubt had their influence in causing the convention ' to insert in the new instrument the sections so completely changing the system from one of centralized power — an essentially State system, as has been said, to one in which the chief powers, those of adopting text- books, &c., were relegated to the local boards. The adoption of the constitution was very generally opposed by teachers and school of&cers on account of the educational section, but it was nevertheless adopted by a large vote. The text-book question, transferred to the 52 county boards of edu- cation and the boards of education of the several cities of the State, still attracted attention and excited discussion. The abolition of State uniformity was not altogether popular, people often being obliged to change school-books as they moved from one county to another, and in some instances even, as they moved from town to country or vice versa in the same county — and so, as the outcome of the whole matter, sec- tion 7 of Article IX of the constitution was amended in 1884, to read as jiist given. The publication of text-books by the State is not general; and that it is a matter of interest, and that the experiment in Cali- fornia is attracting some attention among the school people of the sev- eral States, is manifest by the numerous letters of inquiry received from other States at the State oSice in Sacramento, and even at my own office in Oakland. And so, if a convenient time shall offer, audit is desired, I will read a few pages (which I will now for the present pass by) giving the present status of this featjire, and will have here for your inspection some copies of the books thus far prepared and gradually going into use. (This was subsequently called for and is given later on. — Editor.) The adoption of the new constitution, as has been stated, had been very generally opposed by teachers and school officers on account of this article on Education, completely revolutionizing, as it did, the school system of the State under which so great progress had been made in educational facilities and in educational work, and under which our schools had so prospered. It is not strange, therefore, that very grave doubts should have been entertained by many of the most earnest friends of public education as to what the outcome would be. I had the honor of being elected the first superintendent of public in- struction under the new organic act, and it was my privilege to have a helping part in adjusting the school law and the machinery of the de- partment to ihe new order of things ; to aid in holding fast that which was good, and, in the changes necessary to be made, in securing the best possible provisions in the light of experience and the fullest infor- mation obtainable. In this connection, I quote a brief paragraph from the concluding words of my last report as State sui>erintendent to the Governor : During my term of office, especially the earlier months thereof, and more especially during the revision of the school law, I laid undev trihuto the experience and judgr DEPABTMENT OF SUPEBINTENDENCE. 33 ment of teachers and sohool officers all over the State ; and the department has larg^y profited thereby. It woald be an inexcusable oversight, if not downright injostice, should I fail particularly to mention in this connection the name of the vet^an su- perintendent, teacher, and author, Hon. John Swett. By his wise counsel, I was greatly aided in -meeting and solving the many difficult questions which confronted me at the very outset of my term. I am glad to pronounce in this presence the name of the man whom the teachers of oar State and coast delight to honor, as standing in the very front rank of American edncators, and whom our people will al- ways hold in grateful remembrance for the intelligence, zeal, and cour- age with which he labored as State superintendent in an important epoch in California's early educational history. The Legislature of 1880 and the executive were entirely hospitable to public education ; were disposed to act in all things for the best interests of the cause ; to do all things necessary to strengthen this great and mighty arm of the State ; the arm, viz : which, reaching out to the coming generation, protects them from the brutishness or the ra- pacity which would withhold from them their birth-right of intelligence, gaarding them against ignorai^ce — that prolific mother of all miseries, wrongs, and disasters — as, with its tfther mighty arm it guards its present against crime — guards the peaceful, honest citizen, against the assassin and the thief. With all else that was to be done in a short session of 100 days in re- arranging and re-adjusting other departments to the new conditions (the sessions of the Le^slature after the first are only 60 days), the re- casting of the school laws was placed in the hands of a small joint sub- committee of earnest men, in connection with the State superintendent and to this committee were immediately referred, upon their introduction in either house, all bills upon educational matters. The school law could thus be prepared as a harmonious whole, and as such was finally pre- sented and passed. Under it the system has worked without any per- ceptible jar, and in several respects the schools are in abetter condition to-day than they have ever been before. We feel that in California we have a school system and a code of school laws embracing many most excellent features — calculated to secure the very best results. I have with me a few copies of a pamphlet, containing the school laws, the constitution, and the rules and regulations of the State board of education. These pamphlets, so far as they will go, are at your disposal. Some of the features of special value and excellence are : 1. A State board of education. It is composed of the Governor, the superintendent of public instruction, and the principals of the normal schools. A small board, and with limited powers, but still, a State board. 2. A State system, to the extent that the State board makes rules and regulations (within the State laws) for the government of the schools, and district school libraries. Uniform school registers are 3536— No. 3 3 34 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. also prepared, by the State saperintendent, distributed to the schools, and their use made compulsory. 3. The professional recognition of teachers. The State board under specified conditions issues educational diplomas, valid for six years, and life diplomas : the former upon five years, and the latter on ten years of successful experience. Upon these, local boards issue their certificates without examination. The life diplomas and State normal diplomas of other States are similarly recognized. 4. Thorough supervision. Beside the State superintendent (who, by the constitution, ranks with the secretary of State), tllere is, in each of the 52 counties, a county superintendent of schools. He is a constitu- tional officer, is elected by the people, and holds oflBce for four years. The salary paid ranges from $500 to $2,400 per annum, the average being something over $1,000. In the city- and county of San Francisco it is $4,000. 5. Oounty boards of educatikm,, and the provision that at least two of the four appointed members shall bej>rofessional teachers holding first- grade certificates. The county saperintendent is, ex officio^ a member. As a rule, one or both of the^other t^o appointed members are also teachers, and thus teachers are examined and certificated by their peers. 6. Oounty teachers' institutes. In counties of twenty or more school districts, the superintendent must hold an institute at, least once each year, continuing not less than three nor more than five days. In the smaller counties he may, in his discretion, hold them. Teachers are compelled to attend, and their pay continues while in attendance. One hundred dollars are appropriated annually for the expense of the insti- tute, together with the sum derived from a fee of one dollar charged each candidate at a teachers' examination, and each applicant for a cer- tificate upon credentials from another State. 7. District, libraries. Ten per cent, of the State money received by each district must go to the library fund; provided, however, it does not exceed $50 per annum. 8. An offtcial journal. The State board may designate some educa- tional monthly journal as the offtcial OBgan of the department. The jour- nal so designated must go to each district, be preserved in the library, and be paid for out of the library fund at an expense not to exceed $1.50 per year, for each district. 9. Meetings of superintendents. The State superintendent may call a meeting of the county superintendents, biennially. The law makes it the duty of the superintendents to attend and the supervisors must allow and pay their travelling expenses. 10. Diplomas of graduation, to those completing the prescribed course of study. By this, the stimulus and inducements for boys and girls to follow to completion a prescribed course which has heretofore been confined to iiigh schools and colleges are applied to the district schools. DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE./* 35 Besolt: Boys and girls remain longer at school, as shown by the rec- ords. 11. Women made eligible for edacational offices. Besnlt : Well, we school officers have to behave ourselves. Galifornians are proverbially gallant, and the nomination of a woman always makes it very warm for the "other fellow"; 7 of the 52 county superintendents are women. 12. TSo discrimination against female teachers. This is by a special act. The statute is crisp, and to the point. It is not long. Here it is in full : Section 1. Females employed as teachers in the puhlic schools of this State shall, in all- oases, receive the same compensation as is allowed to male teachers for like services, when holding the same grade certificates. SscnoN 2. This act shall take effect and he in force from and after its passage. (That's Oalifomia, too.) , 13. The provisions for forming new districts ; especially valuable in sparsely settled localities. A new district may be formed on application of the parents of 15 census children (those between 5 and 17 years of age) living more than a mile from an|^ school house. 14. Lapsing districts. This is a provision to prevent the abuse of the foregoing; a district lapsing, if the average daily attendance for 3 months is only 5 or less. 15. Mode of apportioning school moneys. The State superintendent apportions the State money to the counties on basis of census chil- dren. The county superintendent apportions the State and county money to the districts in his county so that the smallest districts re- ceive, at least, $400 per annum, and the others $500 for every 70 census children, and fraction not less than 20. Any balance is apportioned among the districts on the basis of the average daily attendance. To re- ceive any money at ally however, a district must have maintained a six months' school during ftie previous year (except prevented by flood, &c). It occurs to me to remark here that when, in the early days, it finally became necessary to have schools of some kind, private schools, more or less expensive, sprang up in all directions. You must remember that money was plentiful then, and easily obtained, and Galifornians of those days preferred to pay for everything rather than get it for nothing. To many, moreover, the idea of *^ public schools " was objectionable. But all this is changed, and no|r the public schools are the pride and the boast of our people. Under the operation of the sections just read, and the one to follow, school districts have been formed and public school houses have sprung up on every hand. Let any one go into any of the dilapidated mining towns, or into any of the interior towns of the State and the *' White School House on the Hill" is the first building to attract the eye. Whatever their surroundings, their school house is their pride. 36 CIBCULABS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. A friend, who not long since made a hunting and fishing trip over several hundred miles of the northern coast counties, where there are merely small settlements around saw mills, in the lumber regions, re- marked to me on his return, that it was a matter of surprise to him to see so many school houses. He saw them in places where there were, apparently, no residents, where only a few loggers' huts were built, and at long distances from even small villages. They were invariably re- spectable-looking edifices, neat and clean, and in marked contrast to many of the dwellings of the parents of the children — the settlers. 16. The provision that all the money received from the State fund (ex- cept the 10 per cent, for libraries) shall be applied exclusively to pay- ment of salaries of teachers of primary and grammar schools. 17. This section from the penal code : 654. Every parent, guardian, or other perso9 who upbraids, insalts, or abases any teacher of the public schools, in the presence or hearing of a pupil thereof, is guilty of a misdemeanor. 18. We have upon our statute books a compulsory education law; but i am sorry to say it is a " dead lette?.'' 19. The various provisions for county and district taxation ; includ- ing the power of a district to issue bonds for the purchase of school sites and the erection of school buildings, and for securing the payment of the bonds 5 and, generally, the very liberal provision of money for school purposes. Oonceming this last, it may be said that there are two quite distinct theories of State taxation for school purposes. One theory is, that the State tax should be small ; that the different localities should tax them- selves for the education of their own children, and that no locality should be taxed to educate the children of any other locality. The other theory is, that, the State being a unit, the State as a whole is interested in reducing illiteracy to a minimum in all parts of its terri- tory — that, as all parts of the State are tributary, in the matters of business and wealth to the centers of population and trade, it is but just and proper that these centers should contribute of their abundance, towards the education of the children of the poorer and more sparsely settled sections of the State. This latter is the theory which controls in California; and thus we find that San Francisco has contributed to the State fund in taxes, very much more than she has received back. The State apportionments are made twice each year, in February and August. Last year the State superintendent apportioned $1,844,065.07. This, on the census roll of 259,973 census children, was a per capita of ^7.09. The amount so apportioned, was derived from the interest upon securities held in trust by the State treasurer, for the benefit of the school fund, from poll-tax, and from a direct property tax. In addition to this, there were raised last year for school purposes, iu county taxes $996,703.22 ; and in city taxes $694,001.64; and by other sources — district taxes, &c.— $138,596.48, making a total of $4,135,528.21 or a per capita of nearly $16, on th^ l. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 37 KINDERGARTEN WORK. I began my record of the advantages offered to the youth of California with a sketch of her highest institution of learning. That record would be lacking its most attractive feature, if I should neglect a notice of what is being done by that most charming and valuable of modem methods of education — the kindergarten. From the nature of the work it must be done largely by private beneficence. The peculiar fitness required in a teacher, the necessarily small number of pupils that con- stitute a class and the elastic and discretionary character of much of the instruction-— jnake it difQcult to engraft it upon our public school system except in a limited degree. The city of 8an Francisco has two classes connected with its school department and, so far as I am in- formed, these are the only ones receiving public aid. Bat California has cordially accepted FroebePs gift, and in all our larger cities and towns, the kindergarten is a recognized institution. Thirty free Jcin^ergartens exist in San Francisco and Oakland alone, and San Francisco stands the third dtyin the United States in the num- ber of children thus instructed. Under able direction are conducted two training schools for teachers, which supply the teaching force. As nearly as I can learn, about twenty private kindergartens, moreover, exist on the coast, all taught by graduates of good training schools. To the generous gifts of benevolent individuals, especially of Mrs. Leland Stanford and Miss Harriet Crocker, are we indebted for the means of supporting these nurseries of infant thought, Mrs. Stanford bearing the entire expense of eight schools, with an enrolment of over 600 children, Kot less essential and valuable has been the aid of those large-hearted women who have given that, without which money would have been useless — the unwearying exercise of fertile brain, cult- ured minds and great executive ability, to secure a wise utilization of the material aid furnished. God bless the noble women — there, and here, and wherever they may be — who thus go down into the byways and the alleys of our great dtiea, and lift up these poor little ones from the darkness and filth of their surroundings, into the bright sunshine of the Garden of Child- hood. And great and glorious too shall be their reward, for to tbem the King will say — " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me ; come thou blessed of my Father, in- herit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." GIFTS. I should fail to give a just and comprehensive view of our educational facilities in California, if I omitted to mention some of the gifts of pri- vate Individuals to the State. Kor can I neglect to call attention here to the fiehct so often stated : that, if a man would have his wishes in this regard carried out, it is the part of wisdom to place his projected enter- 38 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. prise on a safe and abiding basis daring his lifetime, rather than to subject his estate to litigation, or at least to delay — by leaving it to be distributed after his death. It is a noticeable fact that those philan- thropists of California who have given away the largest sums of money have turned it in the direction of education. James Lick was one of the first of our very rich men who made large bequests in the interests of education. His gifts, aggregating originally $1,200,000, by increase in value now amount to $2,000,000. Seven hun- dred thousand dollars was his original gift for the observatory, with which the public prints have made you all familiar. Very large bequests, the exact amount of which I do not accurately recall, were also made by him to the California Academy of Sciences (of which I shall speak hereafter). You have doubtless read of the safe transit of the great lense — the larg- est in the world — and its arrival at Mount Hamilton, which is near San Jos6, the seat of the State Normal School. The whole scientific world is awaiting with interest the time when the appliances for its use shall be complete and the watcher shall see -— New planets swim into his ken. This observatory when fully equipped, is to be turned over to the State University. In this connection, I may speak of the Chabot Observatory in Oak- land. This building, erected and equipped at an expense of $15,000 is the gift to the Oakland public school department of the public-spirited gentleman whose name it bears. The observatory stands in the center of a public square in the heart of the city, and is furnished with an equatorially mounted telescope, a transit iustrnment — an exact dupli- cate of the one at the Lick — and all the necessary accessories for origi- nal research and technical work. So far as I know, our Oakland school department is the only public school department in the world thus pro- vided; and an English astronomer of world- wide fame, in a recent per- sonal letter to Mr. Burckhalter, one of the gentlemen in charge, says : The observatory under your charge affords yet another illustration of that disinter- ested zeal for the promulgation of scientific knowledge which characterizes the mighty American nation. There is no such thing in England as an observatory to which the public is admitted. One evening in each week is reserved for the use of the high school student in astronomy — one evening for observatory work by the gen- tlemen in charge — and at all other times the public is freely admitted, the only condition being a card given by the superintendent of schools on application. at his office. This is another confirmation of my belief that, in matters of public education we come nearer to the people than do most other State systems, especially in our teaching of the natural sciences. There are several reasons why great attention is given in California to natural science studies. Our peculiarly clear atmosphere and the great number of clear nights give special advantages for astro- DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 39 nomical observation. Oar climate is such that iu many localities we often have from two hundred and seventy-five to three hundred clear nights in the year; and the clearness and dryness of the atmosphere daring the months of our long summer, make it possible to obtain the very best results. In and around Oakland there are many private ob- servatories and telescopes in private hands, used by amateur astrono- mers of more or less ability. In Oakland alone there are three private observatories;^ two of which are equipped with transits, clocks, and other accessories, and all furnished with equatorially mounted telescopes. At San Mateo, San Francisco, San Jos^, Alameda, Berkeley, and other towns are from one to three observatories belonging to private schools and citizens. There is at present much attention given to the study of this science and you need not be surprised if you hear iu the near future that the leaders in this study have formed the ^' Pacific Astronoiiiical Society." Indeed, something has already been done towards such an organization. Thus, also, the large fruit-growing and viticultural interests of our State directs attention to the various insects and insect-pests-— our mines lead us to geology and metallurgy — the wonderful variety of veg- etation in different localities and altitudes, invites us to botany — and the wide ocean which washes our 800 miles of sea coast lays the treasures of the deep at our feet — and our climate affords special advantages for the study of all these. Why, the Le Cont6s and others of our univer- sity professors and scientists not infrequently go off on extended camp- ing trips of 8 and 10 weeks, with saddle and pack animals, never for a single night sleeping in a house. Another of our rich men, with that enthusiasm for natural science which begets a desire to spread the knowledge of its wonderful revela- tions, has announced his purpose of a generous bequest in this direction. Adolph Sutro, esq., whose large estate lies on the western side of the peninsula on which San Francisco is built, directly on the shore of the ocean, overlooking the famous seal rocks, has devoted many years to the study of natural history — particularly of marine life. He has col- lected a library of 100,000 volumes, which he proposes to increase to 500,000, entirely on scientific subjects. Many of these works are very old and very rare. He offers to give six acres of his very valuable land to the nniversity on condition that the regents will erect there a build- ing to cost $10,000. Mr. Sutro has as yet made no other formal offer, but has informally announced his intention of presenting to the public his library, the two large aquariums to which he is constantly adding and the botanical and other gardens connected with this large estate. President Holden thus speaks in his recent report of the offer of Mr. Sutro: This site is an ideal one for a seaside biological laboratory, where scientific research shaU be carried on, and Mr. Sutro will provide and will snpport the best aquariums in the world. These are now partly built. The site adjoins splendid gardens in 40 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887, which facilities are offered for experiments in botany and agricnltnre. The library of Mr. Sntro will be, in itself, half of a nniversity, and access to it is equally impor- tant to all the colleges of the nniversity. The site proposed is at the terminus of two cable roads, and will be less than one hour distant from the City Hall. Actual teaching must be done elsewhere, I presume, bnt there is no better station in the world for real research. I need only speak of the similar stations of Naples, and of the Johns Hopkins University; on Chesapeake Bay, to show how much may come from such an establishment. But among the benefactions of private individuals to the cause of education in our State, is one which is unique in the history of our country — and I might almost say of the civilized world — unique whether we consider the intrinsic value of the gift or the far reaching wisdom of the donor's plans for its utilization. From the ordinary newspaper reports one gains little idea of the magnitude of Senator Leland Stan- fordVgift to the youth of California. Eighty- three thousand two hun- dred acres of land, may or may not be a valuable possession. In some portions of our 160,000 square miles of area such a property would be an incumbrance rather than a treasure. But the three great ranches embraced in this gift comprise the choicest and most highly cultivated land in the State — the largest of them being the most extensive vine- yard in the world, containing nearly 3,000,000 vines and occupying more than 3,500 acres. Besides this, 1,500 acres of alfalfa, 8,000 acres of wheat, 400 acres of oats, 3,000 acres of timber land, 25 acres of or- chard, 2,500 acres rented on shares, 3,000 uncultivated bottom and tim- ber land, and 41,000 of grazing lands make up the great Yina ranch. The Gridley ranch, assessed last year at $1,000,000 contains about 20,000 acres of the Hchest wheat land in the State. Bnt the home of the university is the princely domain of Palo Alto — ^20 miles from San Francisco, on the line of the Southern Pacific Bailroad. On this estate of 7,000 acres is the residence of Senator Stanford, and it is here that he proposes to erect the buildings of the future university. In the deed of trust which gave this abi^lutely into the hands of 24 chosen men, provision is made for instruction in every branch of industry, art and science ; and, in closing says : The object is not alone to give the student a technical education, fitting him for a snccessfnl business life, but is also to instil into his mind an appreciation of the blessings of this Gi>Yernment, a reverence for its institutions, and a love for God and humanity, to the end, that he may go forth, and, by precept and example, spread the great truths, by the light of which his fellow-man may be elevated, and taught how to obtain happiness in this world and in the life eternal. Besides the lands enumerated Senator and Mrs. Stanford have made munificent bequests by will to the same eud, so that the total value of the endowment is estimated at not less than $30,000,000. Who can estimate the possibilities of such an institution, and who does not hope that the generous givers may live to see, through many long years, the fruition of the seeds of blessing they have sown in the founding of the Leland Stanford, Junior, University. DEPAETMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 41 But in these modern days there are lines of education which ran par- allel with, if indeed not embraced within, the domain of philanthropy and charity — departments of education where it is so difftcnlt to sepa- rate, in the popular mind, the idea of the school from the asylum — chil- dren so important in number, and yet so handicapped by jnisfortune, that special provision has to be made for them, both in the method of their instruction and the manner of their support. What, it may be asked, has California done for the DEAF AND THE BLIND? Incidentally it may be remarked that nothing more truly indicates the character of a people, and the worth of their civilization, than the care they extend to those who are crippled in the race of life. Judged by this standard, California may take front rank with the oldest of her sister States ; aud her work in this direction began early. While the people of San Francisco yet dwelt in tents, they established orphan asylums ; while the Legislature was yet on wheels, provision was made for the insane ; before the State had a capital she opened a school for the deaf aud the blind. From those argonaut days till now, the education of these stricken of God has been the tenderest care of the Commonwealth. Fronting the Golden Gate, standing side by side in the fairest of all that fair land, the university and the school for the deaf and the blind, rear their solid walls — the one representing the highest culture, the other the broadest humanity, and both opening wide their doors to rich and poor alike, without money and without price. In 1875 a destructive fire swept away buildings costing over $200,000 but our generous people, unappalled by the calamity, have since ap- propriated nearly $300,000 to the reconstruction of an institution which to-day is admitted to be a model of its kipd. A distinguished principal of an Eastern school, who attended the national convention of those interested in the instruction of deaf-mutes and the blind, which convention was recently held at the California Institution, says, in an article in his home paper — "It is the most remarkable institution in the world, and a visit to it, would, in my opinion, repay a trip across the continent.'' A yearly appropriation of $45,000 is made out of the State treasury to support this most excellent school of 165 pupils, while its intellectual results may be judged from the fact that 2 per cent, of all its pupils have matriculated at the State University, and one of its graduates is now pursuing a course at the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore. In this direction, too, is the Home and School for Feeble Minded Children. Two years ago the Legislature made an appropriation of $45,000 for the beginning of such an institution. A tract of many acres was purchased in Santa Clara County, near San Jos6, and, in temporary 42 ciRcuLAtts OB* iNPoitMAtioN i*OR im. baildings, the home and school was opened. The present Legislature, three weeks ago, made an appropriation of |i250,000 for the erection of the necessary permanent buildings. I must not fail to mention, also, the Industrial Home for the Adult Blind. With the moderate appropriation of $40,000 two years ago, premises were rented ji;ist outside the city limits of Oakland, the former elegant home of a deceased wealthy citizen. It is the design' of this institution to provide a home for blind men ; not an asylum j but a home and manual training school^ in which these unfortunate people shall be taught trades adapted, to their circumstances and condition, and be afforded the opportunity to be useful, self-supporting, so far as may be, and, to that extent, independent. Bills are now before the Legislature aggregating upwards of $112,000 for the purchase of the property, and for increased facilities. Those institutions which are more distinctly charitable than educational do not of course come within the limits of the i^bject assigned me. In its provision for all these, however, California is second in point of liberality to no one of her sister States. Oalifomia has no State orphan asylums, but, by legislative appropria- tions, supplements private charity, by paying to each institution caring for them, $100 per annum for each full orphan, $75 for each half orphan, and for each abandoned child supported and maintained in such insti- tution, $75 per year, after the first year. During the last Qscal year 19 such institutions received State aid, aggregating in amount $229,412.03. Among the specific duties of the State superintendent of public in- struction, imposed by law, is — Ninth. To visit the several orphan asyloms to which State appropriations are made and examine into the course of instruct ion therein. I am aware, gentlemen of the association, that I have occupied too much of your time, very much more than my just share; that I have put your good-nature and your politeness to a stranger, to a severe test. But in the attempt to meet in some fitting manner the requirements of the subject which your good president paid me the high compliment to assign to me, this paper has necessarily thus extended itself very far beyond the limits deemed proper for such an occasion. And yet in all I have said, I have not gone beyond the limits of my own State of Cal- ifornia. Kor can I upon this occasion. California must stand for the Pacific coast} must be the type by which you shall j udge of " Education on the Pacific coast.'^ Indeed, I have left untouched much of the field of public education even in California. That field, so barren but a few short years ago, and from circumstances to some of which I alluded in the beginning of my address so unpromising, but now giving abundant hope and assurance of that high intelligence among the masses of her people, which alone can secure anywhere the safety of society, the stability of all our institutions, and the progress of all good things among us. DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 43 Private schools and seminaries we have in various parts of the State, and many of them are of a high order of excellence. Mills College, near Oakland, is the largest institation for girls. It is incorporated and its extensive, highly improved, and valuable grounds, with its spacious and costly buildings, were deeded by the founders and owners, Mr. and Mrs. 0. T, Mills, to a board of trustees, to be forever an institution for the higher education of women. Denominational schools and colleges .are numerously established, and are aiding in the work of education. Some of these schools are large and powerful, and in many, instruction is free. In closing, permit me to refer, very briefly, to a few of the most im- portant factors in the work of public education in California, outside of her universities, colleges, and schools. By State enactment, pro- vision is made for free libraries and reading-rooms, with which most of the cities and towns are provided. They are founded and maintained by general direct taxation. In Oakland, we have a fine free library, and maintain in widely separated portions of our city, four free reading, rooms, supplied with all the leading magazines and current literature of the day. The rate of taxation just fixed for the ensuing year in Oak- land for this purpose, is 4 cents on the $100, which will yield about $12,000. The State has also a mining bureau located in San Francisco, under charge of the State mineralogist. Here is another immense collection of ores and minerals from all over the coast. They are all grouped and identified, and are open to the public for examination and comparison. It is the duty of the State official in charge to publish reports, and to give all possible information to inquiries concerning the mining inter- ests. The California Academj^ of Sciences is an old established institution and has a large and rare collection of natural history specimens. The academy has been endowed with over half a million dollars by James Lick, in addition to its other property, and is one of the richest institu- tions of its kind in the United States. It possesses a very large collec- tion of ores and minerals. To the student of botany it is especially useful. The herbarium contains a very large and complete collection of plants from the whole coast. These are all identified, grouped and labelled, so that any one can use them for purposes of comparison and investigation. There is also a very extensive collection of birds, and a complete one of California fishes. The ethnological collection is very full, and relates specially to the Pacific coast natives, those of Alaska, and those of the islands of the South Seas. In the Golden Gate Park, plants of all descriptions are grown, and many rare and beautiful ones can there be seen by all the people. Among other vigorous active societies for the collection and dissemi- nation of useful knowledge — which I can now only name, are the Cali- fornia Historical Society, dealing with matter^ relating to the Pacific 44 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. coast mainly ; the Microscopical Society, with its fine library and micro- scopic slides; the Geographical Society, devoted to records of geograph- ical research ; the Technical Society of the Pacific Coast, devoted to the discassion of engineering topics. All of these hold meetings, to which the public is invited and freely admitted, and all have special libraries and collections* Besides the very extensive Free Library of San Fran- cisco, the Mechanics' Institute, the Mercantile, and the Odd Fellows, are the representative libraries ; there is also a French library of 20,000. or 30,000 volumes of the choicest and rarest French books, and there are many others of a semi-public character in addition to the hundreds of fine private ones. The best known of these last is the Bancroft Library containing everything possible relating to the Pacific coast. Although not directly connected with our system of public education, the work of the historian Hubert Howe Bancroft demands at least a passing notice. .It certainly shows an achievement unique in the record of states and nations, when a citizen of this new State collects a library of 250,000 volumes relating exclusively to its history and that of the Pacific coast. Many of these are manuscripts taken from the dictation or written by the pen of actual participants in the scenes described 5 and the archives of Spain and Mexico have been thoroughly searched for all the wealth of material there found to throw light on the history of the earliest Spanish settlements in America. With this library as a basis, thoroughly indexed, with a large corps of competent assistants, in a large brick building specially erected for the purpose, Mr. Bancroft has for years been engaged in putting in permanent form the riches of this vast collection, in the shape of a history of the Pacific countries. States and Territories, from Alaska to the Isthmus of Darien, to compiise, when completed, 39 large octavo volumes. Such a work has never been done for any other country. Said Wendell Phillips, concerning it : "What a Godsend such a devotee would have been for the Atlantic coast, a hundred years ago." . And now, gentlemen, if what I have said of my adopted State seems to savor too much of boastfuluess ^ if, in my attempt to give you a pict- ure of my home, I have laid on the colors in hues that seem too bright, let me urge you to come and see for yourselves whether I am not a true chronicler. On behalf of the citizens of the State, I invite you to hold your next meeting in California ; on behalf of the citizens of Oakland, I invite you to hold it there. The Knights Templars and the Grand Army of the Eepublic will bear witness how we receive our guests. It is recorded of the grand old hero of Appomattox, by one who knew him best, that upon only two occasions was he ever known to be moved to tears. One of these occasions was when he learned of the sudden, and terrible death of a dear friend, by a frightful railroad accident. The other, was that of the beautiful and touching reception given him by the school children of Oakland, on his return to his own country from that journey round the world, in which the nations of the earth had vied DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 45 with each other in showing him royal honors. Gentlemen, the sohool children of Oakland — ^the healthiest, handsomest, happiest, brightest, and best children on earth, the bravest yonths and fairest maidens, shall greet yon with flowers and song, and bid you welcome. Gome, and as you traverse the continent, gain, as I have done, a new sense of what it is to be an American citizen. Oome! and see our lofty mount- ains, our fertile valleys, our smiling vineyards, our blossoming or- .chards. If our ocean breezes blow too freshly, visit our sunny inland valleys ; and if the heat there is too intense, a half day's ride will take you to the resinous odors of the pine belt of the Sierras. You shall see on your way, the miner washing down the golden sands of our hills — miles of waving grain — miles of ripening fruit — and, while you marvel at our resources, you shall rejoice in the goodly heritage that is not ours alone, but is yours also. But more than this, we shall welcome you to our homes and hearts ) and when you turn your faces again to the rising sun, you will be ready to say that the poet's dream has been fulfilled — and that he was a true seer, though uttering an un- conscious prophecy, who sang : A brighter HeUas rears its mountains From waves serener far ; A new Peneus rolls his fountains Against the morning star. * * * * Another Athens shall arise And, to remotest time Bequeath, like sunset to the skies, The splendor of its prime : And leave, if nought so bright can live, All earth can take or Heaven can give. Upon the conclusion of Mr. Campbell's paper, at 12.30 o'clock, the convention adjourned until 1.30 p. m. SECOI^D SESSION. The convention re-assembled at 1.30 o'clock p. m., Tuesday, March 15. The President :. Arrangements have been made for the Depart- ment to pay its respects to the President of the United States to-morrow at 1.30 p. m. The exercises to-morrow will commence at 9 a. m. instead of 10, and there will be but one session. We will finish business for to-morrow in the forenoQn, and give the afternoon to pleasure. I have received several letters of regret, one from the Hon. Henry Sabin, of Iowa; also one from Mr. W. C. Russell, in which he expresses his sincere interest in the Department and in this meeting ; also one from the Hon. G. J. Orr, State superintendent of Georgia, who ex- presses himself in like manner. He is much interested in the meeting, and would have been present if possible. 46 CIRCULAES OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. Major McKinley, who is on our programme, was called away by im- portaiit basiness and hence will not address us. Mr. S. D. Waterman, of Galifornia, also sends his regrets. I have also received a letter from Hon. James McAllister, of Phila- delphia, whose absence, I know, will be a disappointment to the De- partment. I will read a part of it. He says : I regret exceedingly that I shall not be able to keep my engagement on next Wed- nesday evening. I have been quite unwell for two weeks past and to-day I have gone to bed. It is a great disappointment not to be with you. I have been looking forward to the meeting with eagerness, and especially to the discussion which I expected to open. It seems to me the time has come when a positive position should be taken, on the question of industrial education, and I was anxious to con- tribute in the cause of the work which has been so successfully begun by the public schools of this city, and but for the orders of the doctor I would have attempted to speak on Wednesday night, but you have such an array of able speakers that you will be able to get along without me. I trust the meeting will be successful. I will say that the evening is fully provided for. Col. F. W. Parker will be here, and Hon. W. B. Powell is prepared to address us. Hon. H. W. Oompton, superintendent of schools of Toledo, Ohio, is also present and prepared to addrbss*us, and Major Bingham, of the Bing- ham School, of North Carolina, will have something to say. There are several others who are expected to take part in the discussion of this interesting subject. In i)lace of Representative McKinley, Senator Blair will occupy at least 30 minutes on Thursday evening, and Dr. Sheldon Jackson will occupy about the same time in the discussion of the subject of the relation of our public schools to the General Govern- ment. The first thing on the programme will be an address by Dr. Andrew J. RiOKOFF, of Yonkers, K Y., on the subject of "A Teacher's Certificate — County, City, State, and National." I have the honor of introducing Dr. Rickoff. -. t THE EXAMINATION AND OBETIFIOATION OF TEACHERS. The problems met with in the development of the American public school system grow in complexity as they successively present them- selves. In its relation to the Government on the one side and to the people on the other, we can borrow from foreign nations no models that are suited to our case. We must work out our own modes of adminis- tration. In such a task our first attempts will be crude ; more crude, perhaps, when put into comparison with what will be than was Fulton's first steamboat compared with the palaces driven to and 'fro by the power of steam under the shadow of the palisades that witnessed his first experiments. But, by a faithful application of the means already placed within our control under the school laws of the several States, by convincing the leaders of thought and action in State Legislatures of advantages to be obtained by slight improvements in the statutes al- ready existing, and by seeking more radical changes when opportunity DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 47 offers and pablic opinion can be brought to their sapport^, we shall suc- ceed in elaborating a systeui suited to the nature of our political insti- tutions and thoroughly effective in every part. But let it be understood that improvement comes only from the appli- cation of correction to error and by a cautious employment of means to supply defects whenever they become apparent. In relation to our common school systems there is no more vital ques- tion than this : What shall be the moral quality and scholarship of the teacher ? Compared with this models of school buildings, plans of or- ganization, and even methods of teaching are quite insignificant. Hence, almost from the very beginning of the State school systems it has been required that no person shall be employed as a teacher or paid for services as such unless he holds a certificate of scholarship and good moral character from some legally qualified examiner or board of exam- iners. In the several States these examiners are variously appointed or elected. In a majority of cases their terms of of&ce are limited to two years. In many States there are scarcely any guarantees of the compe- tency of the examiners, and in some the presumptive evidence is that they are not competent to effect the good results that are possible even under the laws as they now exist. So far as I can ascertain there are only two States that have taken the precaution to secure teachers in the examining boards. In Alabama the State superintendent of schools appoints the county superintendent and he in turn is required by law to appoint two teachers to assist him in the work of examining the teachers of the county. In California the county board of education (the examining board) is composed of the county superintendent (elected by the people) and from three to five teachers, holding first-grade certificates, appointed by him. The merits of this system, thus illustrated in these two States, are well worth the consideration of all who may hereafter be called to legislate on this sub- ject. Certainly the requirement that the county commissioner or su- perintendent of schools shall be assisted and advised by professional teachers in the examination of teachers is an excellent one and may easily be grafted upon the plans now existing in most of the States. There is one other condition essential to an adequate examination of teachers ; it is that one or more members of every examining board, being themselves experts in the business of teaching, shall act as visit- ors of the schools taught by those who hold their certificates, for surely no examination is complete that does not take cognizance of ability to govern, tact in management, and aptitude to instruct. The practical adoption of this principle might require that the county superintendent himself should be a competent teacher. This may be difftcult to secure, but it is surely as essential to an effective administration of county school affairs as it is to the good management of city schools. How it Bhall be broagbt about is one of the problems that practical school men t. 48 CIBCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. have yet to solve. Bat it will come sooner or later. In the mean time much can be gained by the adoption of that feature of the school laws of Alabama and Oaliforniay whereby it is required that qualified teachers shall be associated with the county saperintendent in the examination of candidates for teachers' certificates. Formally, and in a legal point of view, the end to be gained by the examination of teachers is to prevent immoral or otherwise incompe- tent men or women from becoming teachers. If this were the only service that coald be r^idered by them, their qualifications, and hence the mode of their election or appointment and their terms of office would be a matter of great moment. But when we come to consider the in- fluence that a thoroughly qualified, judicious, earnest, man or woman, holding the office of examiner for a term of years, must exercise upon the teachers of a county, the sense of his or her x>ossible usefulness grows upon us beyond estimate. At least four-fifbhs of the teachers in the rural district schools, in most if not all the States, are mere apprentices in the business of teaching. I suppose in fact that it is within the observation and experience of almost all who are here, that in some districts it is quite impossible to obtain a sufficient supply of even fairly qualified apprentices to take charge of the schools. To suoh as these the examination should be a guide and spur as well as a test of present scholarship. If properly conducted, it would show cai^didates their own defects and clearly indicate the appropriate remedy. The errors and defects to be found in the manuscripts and oral responses of each candidate should suggest the line of examination at his next appearance. In the hands of a man entirely competent, such an influence would be possible that, in flve years, the standard of teaching in a county might he thereby raised many hundred per cent. Such an examiner would flnd no obstruction in the law of any State, for the mode and extent of an examination lies wholly within the discretion of the examiner, pro- vided only that he examines upon the branches required by the law of the State. / Under such conditions as I have set forth, I would have the certifi- cate of the appointee limited to the shortest period for which it is now issued in any State. It ought not to extend beyond one year at most. The reissue of a certificate should be conditioned upon improvement. If the supply of competent teachers is insufficient to supply the needs of a county, let certificates of lower standards be reissued, if the examination shows decided improvement, rather than those of some- what higher grade if improvement is not manifest. For obvious rea- sons the certificate of an apprentice should not be made valid beyond the jurisdiction of the original examiners. Any party holding an ap- prentice's certificate (a first certificate good for only one or two years), and removing from one county to another, should be subject to exami- nation as for the first time. DEPARTMENT OF SUPEEINTBNDENCE. 49 It is clearly the interest of the State to provide specially for the in- spection of all schools taught by those who hold certificates of less than one year's standing, and wherever the mode of election of coanty saperintendents does not guarantee the election of competent men, or when the superintendent's field of observation is too large to permit a careful inspection of schools within his jurisdiction, inspectors should be provided for by law to be appointed either by the county or the State superintendent. Wherever thorough inspection is possible, the indorsement of the inspector should be made essential to the renewal of a certificate. It hardly needs to be said that no improvement of methods of exami- nation can be expected under the prevailing mode of selecting county school officers. Sometimes the best man may, by chance, be elected, but generally it is not so. In cities where the superintendent is appointed by the board of edu- cation, and is a member of the examining board, or is himself sole ex- aminer, the method of certification that I have spoken of is entirely practicable, and if indorsement of success were required for the validity of a certificate beyond a term of three or six months the difficulty that sometimes occurs in the removal of incompetent teachers might be greatly reduced. Such a requirement would work no injustice, for surely a teacher's usefulness lies as much in tact to govern in moral in- fluence, in power to interest and inspire a love of learning as in mere literary or scientific acquirements, however ^reat these may be. But when a teacher, by industry, ability, and success, has won the approval of his employers he should be considered an employ^ for life and be exempt thereafter from the annoyance of periodical examinations. For boards of education to require a teacher to appear before an ex- amining board to be examined in branches in which he had been pre- viously examined and which he had also taught for years, and that, too, under their own jurisdiction, merely in the hope that, by reason of pos- sible failure in the examination, they may themselves escape the re- sponsibility of telling him that his work is unsatisfactory, betrays a species of cowardice that admits no excuse. What has been said of the examination and certification of an appren- tice will not apply to the case of one who, having an education more or less extensive, but thorough as far as it goes, has passed five years or more in the work of teaching. Such a one, having a good moral charac- ter, and having achieved a good reputation as a teacher, deserves to be set free from the limitations to which he was subjected as an appren- tice. At the expiration of the years assigned to apprenticeship the candidate should be permitted (o appepf the State, who is authorized to contract with teachers only nncler certain conditions, one of which, in every State, is that the 52 CIRCULABS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. party with whom he proposes to contract shall hold a certificate of certain qaalifications specified by law, which certificate shall have been issued by an examiner, or board of examiners, provided for by the law. If a contract is made with, and services rendered by, one who does not hold such certificate the treasurer is forbidden to pay him for his services. All this the State is competent to do, and there is no authority in any State to interfere with the exercise of this right by another. Nor can the General Government interfere with it in any way. In this respect the teacher teaching without license in the common schools of a State is in a more unfortunate position than that of the physician who assumes to practise in a State without license from the exanfining board in that State; for the unlicensed physician may, at least in some of the States, collect his fees if his patient is honorable enough to pay without proc- ess of law, but the patron of the uncertificated public school teacher dare not pay him for fear of the penalty attached to a misappropria- tJon of public funds. But is there no means by which a contract made by a superintendent or other school officer acting under authority of the board of education in one city, county or State with a teacher in another may be enforced without the consent and approval of a fourth party, styled an examinei" or board of examiners ? It seems to me there is none except such as may be found in the mutual courtesy of examining boards. Another remedy might be found in such change of the statutes of a State as to admit certificates from other States as of equal validity with its own cer- tificates of corresponding grade. But I have already spoken of the prac- ticability of such legislation and of the safeguards essential to protection from fraud by forgery or false personations. So far I have not presumed to speak of the truly professional certifi- cate or diploma. The requisition that a teacher of a common school shall have a certificate of qualification from some legally constituted board is designed to secure the essential qualifications on the part of teachers. It is a civil-service examination to aU intents and purposes, and has no use or significance except as such. It cannot be regarded as the examination for a degree or the diploma of a profession. If we look to the State or to State officials for the certificates of individuals as duly qualified members of the teaching profession, the conditions of such membership must be fixed by State laws, and the consequence would be that there would be as many professional standards as there are States, and in each it would vary with the varying pleasure of the Legislature. A profession cannot be created by law, but a boeo- ple ; (3) two years. DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 57 dmnecticut, — (1) No county supervision. Delaware, — (1) No county superintendent. Florida.— (1) County superintendent of common schools ; (2) appointed by the Otoy- emor ; (3) two years ; (4) county board of public instmction. Georgia, — (1) County school commissioner ; (2) by county board of education ; (3) fonr years ; (4) county board ; five members elected by grand jury for four-year terms. 7Kinot«.—(l). County superintendent of schools; (2) elected by the people; (3) four years. Indiana,-^!) County superintendent of public instruction ; (2) by township trustees of county ; (3) two years; (4) county board of education ; consists of county super- intendent and township trustees, and the presidents of the city and town school boards. lotca, — (1) County superiutendent; (2) elected by the people ; (3) two yean. Kansas, — (1) County superintendent of public instruction ; (2) elected by the peo- ple ; (3) two years. Kentucky, — (1) County superintendent of public instruction; (2) elected by the people ; (3) two years. Louisiana, — (1) Parish (county) superintendent of public schools; (2) appointed by parish board ; (3) not specified ; (4) parish board of directors of public schools for every parish of the State (except the parish of Orleans), five to nine in number, appointed by the State board quadrennially. Maine, — (1) No county supervision. Maryland. — (1) Secretary of county school commissioners, who acts also as county examiner and treasurer of the board ; (2) appointed by county board of school com- missioners; (3) not specified; (4) board of county school commissioners, apxK)inted by judges of circuit court for two years. Massachusetts. — (1) No county supervision. Michigan. — (1) Secretary of county board of school examiners; (2) elected by county board of school examiners; (3) three years; (4) county board of school examiners. Minnesota. — (1) County superintendent of public instruction ; (2) by the people; (3) two years. Mississippi, — (1) County superintendent of education ; (2) by State board of ed- ucation ; (3) two years ; (4) county school board, appointed by county superinten- dent and the board of supervision. Missouri, — (1) county commissioner of public schools ; (2) by the people ; (3) two years. Nebraska. — (1) County superintendent of public instruction ; (2) by the people ; (3) two years. Nevada, — (1) County superintendent of public instruction ; (2) elected by the peo- ple ; (3) two years. New Hampshire. — (1) No county supervision. New Jersey. — (1) County superintendent of public instruction ; (2) by State board of education, subject to approval of freeholders. New York. — (1) School commissioners (may be more than one in a county) ; (2) elected by the people ; (3) three years. North Carolina, — (1) County superintendent of public instruction; (2) by county board of education, the county commissioners, and the justices of the peace ; (3) two years ; (4) county boards of education, elected biennially, the justices of the peace, and the county commissioners. Ohio. — (1) No county supervision; (4) county board of examiners, appointed trien- nially by probate judge. Oregon. — (1) County superintendent of -public instruction ; (2) elected by the peo- ple ; (3) two years. Pennsylvania, — (1) County superintendent of public instruction ; (2) by the school directors of county ; (3) three years. 58 CIBCULABS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. Bhode Island. — (1) No county supervision. South Carolina. — (1) County school commissioner; (2) elected by the i)eople ; (3) two years. Tennessee, — (1) County superintendent of public instruction ; (2) by county court ; (3) two years. Teacas, — (1) County Judge (performs duties of county superintendent) ; (2) elected by the people ; (3) two years. Vermont, — (1) No county superintendent. Tirginia, — (1) County superintendent of schools ; (2) appointed by State board of education ; (3) four years ; (4) county school board , consisting of the county super- intendent and district trustees. West Virginia. — (1) County superintendent of free schools ; (2) by the people ; (3) two years. Wisconsin. — (1) County superintendent of public instruction ; (2) elected by the people ; (3) two years. The President : As several inquiries have been made as to whether Mr. Oscar H. Cooper is present or not, I will read a telegram from him : Important legislation prevents my presence with you. OSCAR H. COOPER. Mr. W* E, Sheldon : In answer to a number of inquiries that have been handed to me in regard to the volume of the proceedings of the National Association for 1886^ I will say that all members of the National Educational Association for the year 1886 are entitled to one copy of the proceedings of the annual meeting at Topeka. Those per- sons who have not received their copies can be supplied by presenting their certificates of membership to Mr. Zalmon Eichards, of this city. Copies will be sold for $1.50 each, or $1.75 if sent by mail. Copies of the proceedings of the Association for previous years can also be fur- nished by Mr. Bichards at $1 per volume, except for a few years. The convention then took a recess for five minutes. After the recess Dr. Eickoffs paper was discussed. Dr. William A. Mowry, of Boston, said : When at home I read in the programme as the subject to be discussed, "A County, City, State, and INTational Certificate," I was appalled. I do not feel so now, having heard Dr. EickoflPs paper. He has told us how we may make a national certificate for all the States. After all it is only bearing another name. This matter of the certification of teachers, '^approbating" them, as we used to say, with a certificate of approbation, as you have heard in the paper which was read, lies at the foundation of all good school keeping. The whole thing depends upon the character of the teacher, and the character of the teacher is determined by the committee who carry on this examination. There is the great evil all over this country, that we have not found the right method of examining and certifying these teachers, and what are you going to do about it ? There comes in the practical side of the matter. I take it that it will be impossible for us to formulate a system that would apply in all cases, and have one grade of certificates for all schools, or DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 59 a certificate for all the IStates, or a certificate for all the couuties in one State. What would be proper in a country town, and best, would not answer at all in some city which had maintained excellent schools for a long series of years. What would be proper in one State would not answer the purpose so well in another. We have- old communities and new communities ; sometimes the new communities outstrip the old ones, and have the best of everything — the best plans, the best methods of elect- ing school boards, aqd the best arrangements for issuing certificates. Then there are communities, some of them old ones, that are still be- hind. Therefore, I take it, that there is no inflexible rule that this as- sociation should adopt and recommend to the country. The subject is a broad one, and in the discussion I suppose it would be proper for different speakers to take up different points and speak of what they have in mind. There are, then, one or two more remarks which I will venture to make. There is a great diversity of practice in the different States, and in different cities of the same State, and in the different schools of the country, but I take it that we all agree that we ought not to have large school boards having this matter in charge. I have in mind a city of 125,000 inhabitants, which has a school board managing those schools, composed of 63 persons, 63 men having actual control and handling of all the arrangements of the schools, including the gradations, promotions, building school houses, hiring teachers and placing them at their work and changing them. All the machinery of the schools is divided among 63 persons ; when it comes to the matter of their duty in granting certificates what do they do ? Practically they do not do much of anything ; they have a subcommittee to exam- ine these teachers, but sometimes this works in one way and sometimes in another. Sometimes they have rigid examinations and sometimes only nominal ones. In such a case as that, I want to suggest, in the first place, a small school board — I would say not over half a dozen persons, men and women, to form that board, and that the school board should have one member from the common council of the city and one member from the board of aldermen to represent those two departments of the city government. This school board should be chosen for a term of years, the longer the term the better, so as to make a continuous, permanent board. Then, when it comes to the matter of the examina- tion of teachers, and also to the matter of. examining the schools, another plan should be engrafted upon this, and that is the adding to the school lK)ard of six good teachers, whether from the public schools of the city or from private schools matters little, if only they are real ; but they should be teachers who understand the matter of school work. 1 am not sure that I should like to intrust the whole matter of examining the applicants, even to a board of that sort, to these teachers exclusively ; for the present, perhaps, it would be best to have this a compound board, one-half teachers and one-half members of the school board. 60 CIRCULAES OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. The examinatidn shonld be condacted in a definite way. It should not be altogether an examinatioain writing upon subjects named, upon specific topics, with questions proposed, but there should be some ele- ment of this kind in it, as well as oral questions and answers. I am speaking now of the examination of what might be called ^^ the rank and file " of teachers, the ordinary teachers of the various schools of a large city. These are mostly women. But that should not be all. I would say that all the work which relates to the scholarship of the teacher should count but one-half in summing up. The other half should relate to tact in teaching and to matters of morals 9>nd char- acter. This second part of this examination seems to me of greart importance. I have known that to be carried out as I am giving it. There is a com- pany of teachers taking this examination, and they have the written questions. They have written their answers, and they go in for the oral examination, it may be in grammar, in geography, or in arithmetic. These teachers should be known only by numbers. Each one of these teachers, after passing this written and oral examination, now comes before the whole board. " Well, Miss Jones, you have taught school, have you 1 ^ "Yes, sir.'^ " How long ^^ She tells about it. She has not uttered three sentences before these men know something about her ability to teach school. Continue this examination until it is satis- factory. It^is a study now of nature, of tact, of character, and these examiners will easily mark it with a great deal of accuracy, and that is a matter of as much importance as scholarship. There is a great deal of tact and character which cannot be put into written questions and answers but which would be marked on a school. Now what next ? The next thing is, for what grade this certificate shall be. I want to say here that you should have only one certificate for primary grades, intermediate grades, and grammar grades, below the first assistant in the grammar school. Here are twenty persons that have been examined to day. Twelve of them x>assed, and have been approved by these examiners, but here is one who stands first ; that number is entitled to the first vacancy, no matter what or where it is. It may be primary, it may be grammar, but that best teacher, who has passed the highest examination, takes the first vacancy, the next one the second, and so on. After they have been appointed they cat> be changed, promoted, or discharged. Here is one teacher who strikes the medium between the youngest and the oldest. That teacher may be fitted for the older scholars and she will gravitate that way. The salary is the same, it is immaterial, and in that way your teacher is put in the right position, where she can do the best work most faithfully and successfully. I do not know bat that some such plan as this would be feasible. One other thing which has been mentioned by Dr. Bickoff : The public interest, and particularly State and !N"ational interest, will be promoted DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 61 by a constant interchange if this is properly conducted. I was delighted last summer to visit a western city, one of those places that have all the best elements of the American school systems } I refer to the city of Denver. There I found one of the best school systems to be found any- where, and it has this peculiarity t they do not feel that their high school is established mainly to educate teachers for the city. Their high school is for a different purpose ^ it is to educate citizens and not teaohers only. Therefore a girl just emerging from the high school does not feel within six months that she has a mortgage on the city, for a . place as teacher. They do not allow any graduate of the high school to teach m the schools. of that city until after one year's experience in teaching somewhere else. What did that superintendent say to me ? " There is no one normal school anywhere from which I have been draw- ing teachers ; when, therefore, vacancies occur, we get teachers from everywhere; ^ and I know that they are getting the best teachers to-day in the country, I think this would be a good plan for some New Eng- land States that I know of. The Hon. H. S. Jones, of Erie, Pa., wished to protest against the cur- rent method of issuing certificates based merely upon the results of purely scholastic examination; the questions asked are puerile in importance, and the replies thereto are only scraps from the text-book ; no real im- provement in the quality of teachers can occur except when this method of examining is abandoned. A primary school teacher of some experi- ence and of singular excellence was once, in his experience, in danger of rejection because she could not pass the formal examination required by the Pennsylvania school law of 1854, still in force ; the superintend- ent before whom the matter came was advised by him (Mr. Jones) to examine her as an expert primary teacher, and not as to her actual knowledge of such subjects as "per cent., banking, stocks," and like topics, which in primary grades she would never be required to teach at. all. On the other hand, a raw girl-graduate from his high school recently obtained a highly graded certificate after an examina- tion in the required studies, though she knew nothing about the art of teaching. Examinations like this were of no value in ascertaining practical teaching ability. Indeed, a general question often was more valuable as a test. Lately Mr. Jones had asked a lady who wished to be employed as a primary teacher, "What can you do in the school loom, madam, that another lady, equally well educated in the ordinary branches, would be likely not to do f She did not reply. He asked again, " Can you, for example, smile naturally and laugh heartily on occasion t" To which she answered, " I do not know what you mean." Mr. Zalmon Bighabds begged to interrupt the discussion for a mo- ment to say that copies of the proceedings of the National Educlational Association, at Topeka, had been received, and that all members of the Association who had paid dues for 1886 were entitled to copies. He would also state that the Ebbitt House would accommodate all dele- gates at $2.50 per diem. 62 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. Dr. B. A. Hinsdale resumed the discussion of Dr. Eickoff's paper. * He said : So far as the certification of teachers is concerned, the coun- try presents simply chaos, from which it will be a long timein emerg- ing. Teachers certainly have great reason to complain of tbe unreason- able rules and restrictions which prevail at the present time. When we consider that 'the educational affairs of this country are administered by the States, and by township and subdistrict and municipal boards, the question as to how we are to lift ourselves out of the inconveniences of this position is not so obvious. I understood Dr. Eickoff to suggest that this section should take some action looking to the furth^ discus- sion of this topic. It seems to me that it is hardly well to drop the matter where it is. In my opinion, much ought to be done towards correcting the things of which we complain. A good deal is to be done by dis- cussing it, and informing the public mind, and I do not know any body of men in the country who are better qualified for this than the super- intendents of the country. I would move that a committee of five be ap- pointed, to report during this session at such time as the chairman may designate, upon what further action, if any, is advisable. The motion was agreed to, and the president appointed Dr. B. A. Hinsdale, of Ohio; Dr. M. A. Newell, of Maryland j Superintendent F. M. Campbell, of Oakland, Cal. ; Dr. Eichard Edwards, of Illinois, and Superintendent W. K. Barringer, of Newark, N. J., such committee. The President : The Chair again states that the Department will meet March 15, at 9 a. m., with the understanding that at 1.30 it adjourn to call upon President Cleveland. To night the Institute of Civics will join us in our meeting. At 4 o'clock p. m. the convention adjourned. THIED SESSION The convention re-assembled at 7.30 o'clock p. m., Tuesday, March 15, the American Institute of Civics meeting with the Department of Superintendence. The President : I have the pleasure of introducing to you Dr. W. E. Sheldon, a representative from the Institute of Civics, and also presi- dent of the Irrational Educational Association. Dr. W. E. Sheldon : Since I entered the hall I have been informed that this Was to be a joint meeting of the Department of Superintendence and the Institute of Civics. The subject taken for discussion this even- ing is very akin in its character to, and in harmony with, the spirit and in- terests and purposes of the Institute of Civics, and it seems very fortu- nate that those who are eminent educators from different sections of the coufitry should take an interest in that which pertains to good cit- izenship, not only in its intellectual aspect, namely, knowledge of the civil polity, ethics and economics of our Government, but that we should ^]m be interested in its practicj^l application, The purposes of the DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCli. 63 American Institute of Civics are to throw light, by means of the public schools, the higher institutions of learning, the public press, and public sentiment, to the great importance of a general and thoroughly practi- cal knowledge of the elements of sound citizenship ; these elements in- clude whatever will secure to this Eepublic integrity of character among its citizens, and honest and efficient officers in every department, from the humblest, high and low, general and local. It affords me great pleasure to emphasize the duty of educators in training the young that they may become useful members of society, intelligent, co-operative citizens in all that is good in society and in government. In harmony with this IS the addresjs of our excellent friend, Hon. Le Roy D. Brown, of Ohio, who is to speak to night on "Civil Service and Public Schools," and whom I have the honor to introduce to you, CIVIL SERVICE AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. By the Hon. Le Roy D. Brovtn, State commissioner of common schools for Ohio. It is with great pleasure, fellow teachers and fellow citizens, that I stand before you to open the discussion upon what seems to me to be one of the most important subjects that has been recently brought before this convention of school superintendents. The paper which I have pre- pared for this occasion was written some weeks ago, and not knowing at the time that is thwas to be a joint meeting of the two associations, after the action of this Department last night, I decided that it would be perhaps better for me merely to open the discussion on this subject, be- lieving that there are other members present who will have something of interest to offer us. Once every year this association of school superintendents' assembles at Washington. In the nation's capital you renew your vows to your country, and you rededicate yourselves to the great cause of education. As executive officers of the respective State systems of public schools, which you represent and which you are unselfishly and laboriously striv- ing to improve, you are interested in all that pertains to administrative and executive work. As superintendents of schools, or as heads of sys- tems of schools, you are profited by observing the conduct and the meth- ods of governors, presidents, and other executive officers ; for, by such observation, you are enabled the better to discharge the duties which devolve upon you in your own fields of labor. During the last fifty years the progress of public education in the United States has been marvelous. The growth of State systems of schools in this country may be considered among the wonders of the age. Even the prophetic Horace Mann, who was secretary of the Massa- chusetts board of education a half century ago, did not foresee th^ (^ntic proportions tp which these scl^ools have developed. 64 CIBCULABS OF INFORMATION FOB 1887. Strange it would be if a growth, at once so rapid and Inxuriant, should be altogether sound and enduring. In the affections and judgment of the people are found all that is good in our Gkjvemment, but in the elective system by which school offi- cers are generally chosen lies the greatest weakness of our school admin- istration. The time was when only the best men were placed on school committees or elected to serve on boards of education. But that time is, alas, too rapidly passing away. The '< spoils sys- tem'' which obtains in American politics has worked its way steadily but surely into the boards that control the schools. If a school-house site is to be selected, not the site which is the most desirable is chosen, but that site for which a corrupt committee can obtain the most money for their votes. If a school building is to be erected, the best architect and the best builder are not so much desired as an architect and a builder who will give up the largest per cent, of their remuneration for votes. The ^' spoils system " extends even to the employment of superintendents and teachers. The politician on the board of education gives his support to those from whom he has re- ceived favors, or from those who will reciprocate in the future. In the most vital matters, merit is of less consequence than ^^ influence." What is the result ? Poorer teachers, inferior schools, and a growing lack of fiskith in public education. Better the total annihilation of the people's schools than that these schools should become fountains of political pollution or streams of financial impurity. Fortunately an adequate remedy for these evils is suggested by the the history of " Civil-Service Eeform." In my judgment, the friends of free Government and of iree schools owe a lasting debt of gratitude to Dorman B. Eaton and his colaborers. I wish that Mr. Eaton's great work on " Civil Service in Great Britain " could be in every public library, and that it might be studied by every American. In that volume we learn of the advantages of the <^ merit system" in the appointment of public officers, and it is the "merit system" which we need to-day in the selection of school officers, school superintendents, and teachers. The method of applying the "merit system" in our State would probably not be the best in all States, for State systems of ^education are dissimilar in many respects. But as courts are agencies of the peo- ple, and as such are subject to the will of the people, I am of the opinion that in some States it would be best for courts to appoint boards of education. In other States boards of education would better be ap- pointed by a State board of education. It is probable that, in some cities at least, good boards of education may be best secured by ap- pointments made by city councils. But the method of appointment is not so important as the kind of men appointed. These men should have fitness for their duties. An intelligence and a character qualification should bo required by the appointing power. In suggesting so radical a change in school management, I shall not be surprised at opposition DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 65 The politicians will oppose the change. The ' goody-goody superin- tendent who owes his position to influential relatives, to his church as- sociates, or to his political friends will oppose the change ^ and, in doing so, will probably say to the people that their voice should be heard in the choosing of school officers at general elections, forgetting that courts, city councils, and StatiC boards of education can more surely choose efficient school officers than the political caucus which too often thwarts the will of the people by giving them worthless candidates who, in the excitement of election day, are chosen. Throughout our country the general rule prevails that members of boards of education and members of school committees shall be elected to their positions. In the abstract, that mode of choosing these impor- tant officers may be correct ; but as I have observed the working of the schools indifferent States, including my own, I believe that the time has come when some modification of that mode must be made. I would not say anything to lessen the interest in school affairs felt by those patri- otic citizens who, without pay, have endeavored to discharge the duties pertaining to members of school committees and boards of education. I would not say an unwise word at this meeting that would affect in any way the future usefulness of the public schools of our country j but this is the place in which a free utterance of the truths that we believe should be made. And I am here to assert, and assert, I think with facts that would have great weight with a jury if the opportunity to present these facts was offered, that the " spoils system," of which we have heard so much in this country, has worked its way so far that many boards of education are under itc unwholesome influence. I can remember, young man as I am, the time in my own State when only the most worthy men in our towns, villages, and townships expected to be made members of boards of education, but I am sorry to state that the political and personal influences that always accompany the ^^ spoils sys- tem " in the great field of politics have come to be felt in the selection of these boards and of their employ6s. Men who have no capacity, as &r as one is able to judge, seek these positions, and openly seek them, for the money that they obtain by corrupt awards of the contracts to be made by them in the discharge of their duties. One of the greatest school scandals that has gone forth from the largest city in my State grew out of a contract for the purchased of a school-house site. The most undesirable site was bought, and bought at an extravagant figure, and some of the money was traced directly to the board of education that had relations with the committee who recommended the purchase. Very often if the employment of an architect is required, so that the most de- sirable school building may be erected, the most competent architect is not selected, and the man who will sun'ender the largest share of the cost to the committee obtains the prize. If the matter is the election of superintendents of schools, at least in some of the towns and cities of tiiia oonntry, and I have special reference to Ohio when I make this 3536_Ifo.3 5 66 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. statemeut, it is not the most worthy man^ not the man with the longest experience, who is likely t/O be elected j but it is the man who is able to pay the largest sum of money to be divided by the committee. The time has come, I think, when this Department of Superintendence should seek a remedy for these evils. I had occasion to read, not many weeks ago, a telegraphic dispatch which informed the person addressed that a city of 20,000 inhabitants without a superintendent of schools was in such a condition that the pitiful sum of $100 paid by him would secure his election to the x>osi- tion. I am not certain that it fs at all in good taste for me to refer thus to special cases, and I shall not do it again on this occasion, but I have not prepared this plain statement without fortifying myself with the facts, which can be produced if necessary, and I believe I am stating what has been felt by others who are present here to-night. I must not prolong this discussion to a very great extent in this di- rection. Suffice it to say that I charge that the " spoils system^ has taken possession of many boards of education in the United States. I would not say that the remedy needed in Ohio is the remedy that is needed in West Virginia, or in New York, or in Missiasippi; I only state it as my opinion that in some way we should change the mode of elect- ing our boards of education. It seems to me that we might make & definite standard of qualiiication for the place a necessary condition* In some States, and I am inclined to think that this is true of OhiOy re- lief may be found in appointing the members by the same powers that appoint the State superintendent of public instruction. I have jngt completed a tour of travel through three or four of the Southern Staftes, and especially in Florida, and I take this opportunity to caution our friends who are doing such noble work in building up education in the South that they should not deprive the State board of education of the authority to appoint local boards of education. It seems to me that we must appoint by State authority many of these boards of education, enough at any rate to harve a leavening influence on the whole. One of the subjects that has most interested me for several yeArs back is this subject of civil-service reform. We have this topic before as ta- night, and I for one would acknowledge my.gratitude, and the grtftitade of my profession, to Dorman B. Eaton, and to those who labor ^ath hhn and especially to the American Institute of Civics, that comes out with boldness to stand for the merit system as opposed to the spoils system, not only in the selection of subordinate officers of the nation and State, but also in the selection of school superintendents, members of boards of education, and teachers. I would that Dorman B. Eaton^s book relating to civil service in Great Britain could be read by every School superintendent, by every teacher, and by every friend of education in the United States. I rejoice, as I converse with members of this Association, and men eminent in public life, to know that here in Washington the cause of DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 67 civil-service reform is assuredly gaining groand, as it seems that the remedy for these evils will lie along the line of the principles advocated by the fi:^ends of that reform. We cannot if we will, separate oar local self-government from the government of States, nor the govern- ment of States from the national Government. The inflaence of Wash- ington extends down into the humblest school districts throaghout the entire country, and I had this in mind when suggesting this subject as a suitable one for discassion at this time, and I still hope that the result of our discussions and our deliberations on this part of the programme will strengthen those here at the national Capital who are standing by the cause of civil-service reform. Now I have the hope that the discus- sion that may follow will result in bringing out of this body of school superintendents views favorable to this organization to which I have referred, the American Institute of Civics, that stands by us, and stands by the principle involved in the merit system, and to this end, Mr. Chair- man, I will now close. Mr. Manly of Ohio, and Mr. Butcher of West Virginia, the next speakers on the programme, not being present, the president introduced the Hon. B. S. MOBaAN, State superintendent of West Virginia, who said: Ladies and Gentlemen : I assure you that I had expected to take but a very little part in this discussion. I saw the programme was full of able speakers, and I understood that other gentlemen were prepared with a great deal of fullness on this satgeoty and so I proposed to content myself with being a listener, but as a worker in this great cause of education, I deem it my duty to add a word of approbation and commendation to what has been said in re- gard to civil-service reform and the x)ublic schools. There are a great many people who do not believe in civil-service reform, many of each political party who do not so believe. I have no doubt in my miod that the extent and true nature of civil-service reform in its application to the adininistration of our Government is but very poorly understood. What JB dvil-service reform as understood by the reader of the news- ppenf to-day t I think he would gather this idea: that civil-service wtorm is simply to test the fitness of an applicant to hold of&ce under the Government by certain intellectual and moral tests, by his ability to answer a reasonable per cent, of a given number of questions prepared by a bbard of exawiners upon certain branches of knowledge. We can all readily see the importance of intellectual qualifications to hold cer- tain pofdtions, but it is very difficult to convince a great many people that the fitness to hold office should be determined by these intellectual tests aod not by political principles. Admitting that civil-service re- form IS right, admitting that it is the true principle of the administra- tion of our Government, is it not doubly applicable to the administra- tion of our educational institutions f A large part of a clerk's duty in 68 CIECULAES OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. one of the Departments is almost mechanical now, bat if, as has been as- serted by the honorable gentleman preceding me, civil-service reform is already gaining ground withreference to the discharge of these simple clerical duties, ought not a similar reform in regard to the administra- tion of our educational institutions be doubly applicable and worthy of the approbation and approval of all educated people everywhere? The teacher in the public school, the principal of the high school, the super- intendent of the city schools has something more than mere mechani- cal, clerical duty to perform. There are certain duties that can only be estimated and measured after long years of trial, only be measured by special qualifications to discharge those duties^ If, after the test of a {rial, after the test of experience, it is found that the individual who presides over the educational institutions of city, county, town- ship, and State possesses these qualifications, would it not stand to reason that the principles of civil-service reform should govern his selection and retention, since they are applicable to a greater extent than in the discharge of some mechanical duty t Civil-service reform, it occurs to me, has an application to the educational work of the country in three respects. A very brief examination of the educa- tional systems of any of the States will prove that it had an humble beginning, and that the State superintendent in a large number of them is tacitly understood, when elected, to hold his place until there is sufficient cause for his removal; while the teachers are not ex- pressly told so, yet it is fully understood that they will hold their po- sitions until there is cause for removal. These facts evidence the be- ginning of a profession; that is, the beginning of a true professional character in the work of education. I find in a Maryland county ad- joining my State that the teachers are elected to teach in the public schools, and it is understood that they will hold their positions indefi- nitely, and they cannot be dismissed except upon thirty days' notice, and no teacher can be discharged or resign his position except upon such notice. There the professional character of school-work is thor- oughly recognized. If there is anything base in the public school system of the country it is the prostitution of it to political, partisan ends. Now, I believe in party; I do not believe in divorcing politics from education ; but that a principal of a school or superintendent of a city or county is qualified to discharge his duties because he holds to a certain political faith is all wrong, and I am glad to say that there is a sentiment prevailing that it is not a true test. I think we see evidences that civil-service reform is applicable to teaching in three aspects : First, in regard to the exam- amination of teachers ; second, in regard to tenure of office ; and third, in regard to the unification of educational work. ]^ow, a word in regard to the certification of teachers. The work of the public school teacher, I mean outside of the large cities, is a preca- rious sort of work, and it is not even of a semi-professional character. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERIKTEKDENCE. 69 The pablic school work in my State, and in a large number of other States, is a sort of recmiting ground for all other professions. There are no ftxed limits or standard of qualifications which a man or woman most rea^h to be called a ^^ teacher,'' as the physiciau qualifies himself for his work, or the lawyer, or the minister. There is nothing of that kind. There are no limits or professional standards, and without these fixed professional standards we cannot have a profession. The bright young man or woman just from the normal school or col- lege has, ijerhaps, a better chance than if he or she had fifteen or twenty 3'ears of experience, and I have known of teachers from the academy or normal s<5hool passing a better examination than the teacher of ten years' experience. There is no distinction between that inex!^e- rienced teacher and the exx>erieuced professional teacher. I say that oar methods of certification of teachers are defective from the fact that there is no recognition of ex][>erience, special qualifications, special fit- ness for the work; that the principal test, the general test the country over, is simply intellectual qualification and nothing more. Of course, teachers must have good general moral re[)ntation, but I mean that the intellectual test only is applied, and it is so a[)plied that there is only one grade of success. If we could have true civil-service reform Id the certification of teachers there would be several grades. The teacher ought to have some recognition of his intellectual qualifi- cationSy and there ought to be s[>ecial recognition of professional expe- rience, because there must be, in onler to make a teacher, intellectual qualification, professional qualification, academical training, and there most also be actual exi>erienee in public school work. So far in our examinations we do not sei>arate these, and there is no recognition p^d to these distinct qualities that fit the te:icher for his work and really make him a teacher. I tliiuk, if we could get some sort of civil -service reform applicable to the certification of teachers it would go much towards helping to make it a profession and not simply an avocation. The president next introduceriQ- tendent of a Sunday school, perhaps even a member of the board of educa- tion, ran away with a large sum of money belonging to various widows and orphans. The newspaper s began to talk about the horrible cor- ruption in the community; here was an eminent and trusted man who had gone astray, and everything and everybody was going to the dogs. A minister preached on that subject the next Sunday and said that he had known more than five hundred officials who had been trusted and who had not gone astray, from which he drew the conclusion that after all there were some pretty good men left in spite of the riecent defaulter. Now and then a franchise for a railway is said to be sold improi>erly, and the officers " bag the boodle,'' and are afterwards themselves " bagged '^ by an outraged community. That does not happen all the time or everywhere. There are hundreds of cities where nothing of the kind has ever taken place. Corrupt " rings " and some corrupt men ex- ist in a few places, but they are exceptions ; he believed therfe were in the audience before him a good many men with whom it would be per- fectly safe to leave his pocket-book. Now the schools — what a horrible state of things there is in the schools — and yet parents send their chil- dren to these schools, and we do not hear them in large numbers crying out against them. When the question is discussed as it has been here, the impression goes all over the country that the system of schools is the most faulty that has ever been devised 5 its defects are often obvioas enough ^ but after all the public system is a good system. He disliked this everlasting outcry against evils, this constant overlooking the vastly preponderating amount of good. At the conclusion of Mr. Marble's remarks, at 9.45 o'clock p. m., the convention adjourned. FOUETH SESSION. The convention re-assembled at half i^ast 9 o'clock, Wednesday, March IC, 1887. Dr. A. P. MA.TIBLE, superintendent of schools in Worcester, Mass., opened the day with the following paper : POWERS AND DUTIES OF SCHOOL OFFICERS AND TEACHERS, ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE. School officers are the agents or representatives of the public, who constitute the proprietors in the organization and control of public schools. They are of various grades, with duties more or less extensivei DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 81 as district, township, boroagb, or city, county, and State ; and they are varioosly named, as boards of directors, boards of control, trustees, school committee, board of education. They sometimes act as a body, and sometimes through an agent, who is their executive officer, and an educational expert as the superintendent. These school officers exer- cise the functions of the trustees of an incorporated school or the pro- prietors of the private school. Teachers are those who administer the school 5 they have the immedi ate control of the pupils, and attend to their instruction and discipline. Teachers are also classified as principal and subordinate. In such cases the general duties of the teacher are distributed, and some of the powers and duties of the subordinate teacher are exercised under the direction of the principal. Certain of the duties which in a general way belong to the office of teacher are, under the public school system, assigne/d to the school officer. The superintendent, for example, may be authorized to direct, in a general way, the methods of teaching, and he may, in borough or city schools, assist in the discipline. The prin- cipal teacher, on the other hand, may be intrusted with certain powers of the school officer, acting as the agent of the committee, directors, or trustees ; for example, he may select and appoint his subordinate teachers; but the twofold character in which individuals in certain phases of the school system may act need not confuse the function of the teacher with them belonging partly to the school officer ; and this discussion will proceed as if these functions are always exercised by different individuals. In order to a clear understanding of the powers and duties belongiog mider any system to school officers and teachers, respectively, it is nec- essary to examine the question historically. Schools are very ancient institutions. The teacher has come down to us from very early times. Public schools on the other hand are a modem invention, comparatively, and the school officer is a new crea- tion, made necessary by the new relation of the public to the schools and to education generally. In considering the powers and duties of the teacher, therefore, we must find from tradition what the status of the teacher is. The powers and duties of the school officer are defined in specific terms in the statutes. There is the same distinction be- tween the two as between the common law and the code as I under- stand it; the same as between the constitution of England, which is known through a body of precedents, and the Constitution of this country, which is a written document ; the same distinction which is found between the officers of an ancient monarchy, who find their powers in long established usage, and the officers of a new republic, where the duly of each officer is specifically defined by law. My idea of the rela- tion between the teacher and the school officer may be still further illus- trated by the authority of the State as compared with the l^ational Gkiveniment. The State is a sovereignty ; but in entering the Federal 3636_2jro. 3 6 82 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. Goverument and becoming a part of one great nation, the State has surrendered a specific part of that«general and undefined power called sovereignty. If we inquire wl^ at are the powers of the Federal Gov- ernment, we must seek them in the Constitution ; if we seek to know what a State may do we find nothing definite 5 everything which a sovereign power may do belongs to the State to do, except what has been surrendered in the national Constitution. In like manner the powers and duties of the teacher in the public schools include every- thing which is inherent in the office of teacher, in the broad understand- ing of that term which we have from tradition ; and the exceptions to this broad and general authority of the teacher are found in the specific laws, and what belongs to them by implication, which prescribe certain powers and duties to the school officers. The modern public school teacher is the traditional teacher shorn of certain functions which have been by specific laws imposed upon the school officer. We find the au- thority and duty of the teacher by subtraction, by eliminating from the general notion of what belongs to the teacher all that has been assigned to the school officer. We find the authority and duty of the school officer, on the other hand, by addition — by augmenting the gen- eral notion of what belongs to the proprietors or the founders of a school (like the chartered schools of England for example), by the specific duties assigned to these officers from time to time in the law.^ Traditionally, then, the teacher stands in the place of the parent for all the broad purposes of education. Whatever belongs to the parent be- longs to him in this regard, and the parent's rights and duties are inferior to no earthly power. Parents are responsible for their children, and their authority is commensurate with their duty. Under the Boman law the lives even of children were in the hands of parents. Under our mod- ern laws these extremes of parental authority have been abridged, but parents may still exercise all reasonable control over their children. For the purposes of the school, and while in school, the teacher assumes all these broad i)owers of the parent. In very early times the teacher in. structed and guided those who resorted to him voluntarily, attracted by the power of his wisdom. Such was Socrates and Plato and Aristotle. Mediaeval schools founded by charitable donations, established by those who had charge of the foundations and who selected tbe teachers, were administered by the teachers. The pupils were intrusted to them by the parents who delegated their authority to those teachers. So it was in the chartered schools of England. Magister, the master, is a term which implies authority. In those schools even to this day the student is in the hands of the master or teacher, whose authority is as unlimited as that of'the parents. The right to inflict corjporal punishment and every other reasonable right belongs to the teacher and is intrusted to him by the parent. This traditional notion of the teacher's powers and duties is recognized in the school laws of every State. In these laws the powers and duties of the teacher, and what a p' * ' ' . are assumed to b.e known. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 83 No specific duties are assigned to the teacher except the implied duty of teaching a good school. There is a singular absence of all law on the subject. The only duties specifically assigned to the teacher are of a merely formal character, such as having a license or certificate of qualLfication to teach, and making out and certifying certain school statistics. All the functions belonging to the teacher are left to be in- ferred from the traditional notion of what a teacher is, and from the purposes of the school, which are the right nurture and training of youth. The only exception to the above — the only specific duty of teachers in the laws — ^relates to moral culture. It is expressed in the statutes of Massachusetts as follows : " It shall be the duty of all in- structors of youth to exert their best endeavors to impress on the minds of children and youth committed to their care and instruction the prin- ciples of piety and j ustice, and a sacred regard to truth, love of their coun- try, humanity, and universal benevolence, sobriety, industry, and fru- gality, chastity, moderation, temperance, and those other virtues which are the ornaments of human society and the basis upon which a repub- lican constitution is founded ; and it shall be the duty of such instruct- ors to endeavor to lead their pupils, as their ages and capacities will admit, into a clear understanding of the tendency of the above men- tioned virtues, to preserve and perfect a republican constitution and secure the blessings of liberty, as well as to promote their future happi- ness, and also to point out to them the evil tendencies of the opposite ones.'' In spirit, though not in terms, the laws of many, if not most, of the other States contain the same. By tradition, then, confirmed by this single statute, the education of children is intrusted to the teacher by the parents, and all the powers of the parents and all the authority necessary to this great end are conferred upon the teacher. This authority is amplified by numerous decisions of the courts. I will refer to a few. The teacher may inflict reasonable corporal punishment except when forbidden by special law ; he may punish for offenses committed out of school which directly in- terfere with the school (Lander v. Seaver, 32 Va., 114); he may insist that a pupil shall submit to the authority of the school before resuming his place in school, even against the school officer who waives such sub- mission (Scott V. School District, 46 Va., 452); he may suspend a pupil for disorderly conduct ; the school house is his castle, and he may insist upon the same control over all persons who enter which a man may ex- ercise in his own house (Stevens v. Fassett, 27 Maine, 266). The teacher is the school. The best service to education consists in appointing the best teachers. School officers have no higher duty than this. Teachers are employed for a purpose *' vastly great." They must teach the science of health with all the learning, but without the pay, of the doctor ; they must inculcate the principles of morality with all the impressive sincerity, but without the sectarianism of the minister; they must be altogether more patient and discreet than parents, and 84 CIBCULASS OF INFOfiMATION FOB 1887. more even- tempered than God Almighty himself, for He was '* wroth'' when Hq panished the wicked, whereas if a teacher panishes in anger he is guilty of an assault and battery; they must invent schemes to in- vert human nature, and make every good thing and thought enticing and every bad thing and thought abominably disgusting, especially to the " desperately wicked,'^ who have no good in them 5 they must ten- derly moderate the zeal of the too ambitious and inspire the dullest blockhead with a manly thirst for fame and knowledge ; the incorrigibly uncouth and vicious they must endow with the tastes, instincts, and manners of the refined and virtuous. And, in short, they must turn all from the thousand paths that lead to indolen ce, ignorance, and folly, and prepare them to find infallibly all the ways of pleasantness and all the paths of peace. These are the hig;h purposes for which teachers are employed ; and it would be a shame and a reproach to require so much of them, and at the same time tie their hands by withholding from them the power which is indispensable to their success. The law is not so unreasonable — for with any well-defined duty the law gives an incon- testable right to all the power necessary for the performance of that duty. (From Pedagogical Law, III, or case of Newman v. Bennett, 2 Chitt., 195.) Let us now inquire to what extent all this has been modified by the powers and duties of school officers, who are created and made neces- sary by our system of public schools. In the earliest colonial days the necessity for universal education was recognized. In 1636 the colony of Massachusetts Bay appropriated £400 to found a university, in order that learning " may not be buried in the graves of our fore- fathers in church and state." The act of 1642 enjoined upon the municipal authorities the duty of making education universal, but not necessarily free. In 1647 another law was passed, making the sup- port of public schools compulsory and education universal and free. As this was the first law of the kind ever passed by any community of persons or by any State, Massachusetts may claim the honor of having originated the free public school. The school law of 1826 (Massachu- setts) was the first to require towns to elect school committees. (Sec- retary Dickinson in School Law, 1883.) Previous to this law of 1826 the public schools were supported by the towns, and the teachers were appointed by the selectmen or a set of of&cers chosen primarily for another purpose. The school officers, as they now exist, have developed from this law and from similar laws in the several States of the Union. This system has not grown up in any one State or in the several States, or from thirty-eight individual and separate counties 5 but each S tate has adopted or improved upon the laws and customs of the other States. The American system is not national in the sense that it is promoted and conducted by the General Government, but it exists nevertheless ; and it may be shown by a careful study of the various State laws respecting tduc.ition, and DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 85 the cnstoms undBr them^ that the resemblances are far more numerous than the dissimilarity. Since education is recognized as a necessity, and it is made a public duty in all the States, the teacher becomes an agent of the State. He stands not only in place of the parent, but he represents the State in securing this universal education. The public, moreover, assumes the position of proprietor of the schools, and hence there must be agents or representatives of the public who take the place of trustees in an incorporated school to select the teach- ers *and to make rules and regulations for the schools. The public, including all parents, by it^ agents, the school officers, organizes the school and appoints the teachers, and by the laws the public compels the attendance of the children at school. Parents, then, as a part of the body politic, are the proprietors of the school and act through their agents^ and as parents merely, they surrender their parental functions for the purposes of the school to the teachers so appointed. The school officers, however, so selected, have a power and authority under the laws, the most arbitrary and complete known to our Constitution. The school is an institution of the State for the benefit of the State, and not merely for the individual pupil, though this benefit is attained of neces- sity through securing the welfare of the individual pupil. The powers and duties of school officers are direct and immediate as in the case of district trustees or committees, or they are more general and remote as in the case of State boards of education, State superin- tendents, of public instruction, &c. Among these officers there are various ranks. The execution of the school law is in some States intrusted to the subordinate or more immediate school officers who are only partially under the control of the superior officers, and in other States these subordinate officers are controlled in their action by those above them. For ex:ample, in Massachusetts the local school commit- tee have the entire management of the schools of their locality, including the examination, the certificating, and the appointment of their teach- ers. In Pennsylvania the trustees of a district can appoint no teacher who has not the certificate of the county superintendent. In most cases, I believe, the more general and remote school officers may exert a power- ful influence upon the schools through the official inspection which they have the power to make,and through the statistics which they may require, that will show the necessity for new laws and secure their enact- ment. Through the distribution of funds to the several districts that comply with the requirements, these officers may also powerfully affect the schools. Under various names, and with duties variously subdivided, school officers have these powers and others, perhaps, for I do not propose to enumerate them all. They may determine what schools are needed, how many and what kind of houses are necessary, aud in some States they may assess the 86 CIRCULAES OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. taxes and raise the fands to build them or to support the schools. They appoint and contract with the teachers. They decide what pupils shall be admitted to a school. They fix the course of study in the schools, and when the schools are graded they ^x the attainments required for each ijrade. They select the school-books to be used in each grade. They may dismiss a teacher for any cause satisfactory to themselves. They may exclude aoy pupil from school whenever they judge his attendance to be injurious to the school or no longer useful to himself. This authority of school officers who are the officers of the State may overrule the wishes of parents. A parent may desire his child to pur- sue a study not in the curriculum fixed upon, or he may desire the child to omit one or more of the studies included. He can iusist upon neither as a right, though a wise administration of the schools would make all possible allowance for the parent's wishes. The decision in the celebrated Wisconsin case, where a man insisted upon his child's omitting the study of geography, would, if applied broadly (which the judge may not have intended), overthrow the power of the constituted authority to fix upon any curriculum, and leave the whole school system, not in the hands of the majority, but at the mercy of any insignificant minority, (Morrow v. Wood, 35 Wis., 59.) They may insist upon punctuality and regularity of attendance. It has been held by one court that the only cause for which the committee may expel a pupil is incorrigible misconduct, but tlie weight of the decisions is in form of a broader discretion in school officers, and if it were not, if pupils might be absent or tardy ^s often as they please without fear of expulsion, the committee could still have the right to assign all such irregular pupils to a school by themselves, and thus practically to exclude them from the school they had previously pretended to attend. These powers specifically conferred upon school officers, it will be seen, Abridge the ancient prerogatives of the teacher. The relative powers and duties of school officers and teachers will now be briefly considered : (1) The officers having the power to appoint and dismiss teachers are able to control the school and give it the character which they prefer, for they can select teachers in sympathy with their own views, and they can dismiss those who will not act in harmony.with those views. (2) The power of inspecting and examining a school gives the school officer the right to act as teacher for the time being. In the examina- tion he may listen while the teacher conducts the exercise, or he may conduct it himself and require the teacher to listen, and while perform- ing this duty he is clothed with all the authority of the teacher, and he * may apply correction and discipline while acting in this capacity. (Peck V. Smith, 41 Conn., 442.) On this point we have also the opinion of one of the most eminent educational writers, Horace Mann : • Daring the period of visitation the committee have the entire control of the school. For the time being it is their school and the teacher is their servant. They may de- DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 87 cide what classes shall be called upon to perform exercises and in what studies. They may direct the teacher to conduct the examination or may conduct it wholly themselves, or they may combine both methods. In fine^ they may dismiss the teacher for the hour and pursue the examination in his absence. Should any scholar misbe- have himself or prove refractory or contumacious to the committee while they are engaged in examining the school, it is presumed they have an authority to suspend, to expel, or to punish on the spot, in the same way that the teacher may do in case of like misconduct committed against himself. (10th Reps., p. 183.) (3) Fixing the course of study carries with it the power to decide, to a very large extent, the methods of teaching. In a certain grade, which corresponds to a certain year of school, and which is designed to pre- pare pupils for the studies of the following year, certain studies must be taught in general in a definite way 5 and the power which organizes the school must be able to insist that this particular work shall be done by the teacher. But it would bo exceedingly unwise to exercise such a power except in a general way. To destroy the individuality of the teaclier by minute and detailed directions is to hinder him and injure the school. (4) The selection of school-books also enables school oflBlcers to give tone to the school and color to the teaching. Suppose, for example, that a text-book is selected in political economy which strongly advo- cates protection because the school oflBcers favor that view; and sup- pose the teacher is a strong believer in free trade, so much so that he regards protection as a moral wrong, a kind of robbery of the many to enrich a monopoly. He cannot conscientiously follow the teaching of the school-book provided for his class; he must then refute the teach- ing of the book, and thus in effect yiolate the regulations of the school, for which he would be likely to be discharged ; or else he must do vio- lence to his conscience, commit what he regards as a wrong, in order to retain his place.; and in this case he would prove himself unfit to be a teacher. Here comes up the question. How far has a public school the moral right to give instruction in any branch of study involving questions upon which the community is not agreed I Such questions may arise in the teaching of zoology, where, for example, the doctrine of evolution may point to an origin of man not in accordance with the commonly ac- cepted understanding of Scripture; and in the teaching of English his- tory the question may arise whether Mary Stuart was a murderess or a sainty whether Elizabeth was a most wise, patriotic, and virtuous sover- eign or a malignant and vindictiv^e persecutor and curse. To exclude all such subjects as may give rise to differences of opinion is to deny the right of the public schools to conduct the higher education, and even the secondary, and thus practically to debar a large portion of the community from the privileges of this higher training. To enforce through the text-books and the teachers the teaching of opinions held by the majority of a community as represented by the school officers is a kind of oppression of the minority. 88 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. ThQ object of schools is edacation, calture^ and not the propagation of any one set of opinions, the development of the powers and not stor- ing papils' minds with the opinions and thoughts of older people. The true coarse on sach questions is, then, not to exclude the studies, and not to control the teaching of them in any particular channel ; it is rather the duty of the officers and of the teacher to present the oppo» site views, and to lead these advanced pupils to reason themselves upon the question at issue, leaving their conclusions as much as possible to their own natural judgment later in life. In this way only can the hon- esty and the fairness of the teaching be justified when they come to ma- turity in the minds of the pupils. (5) The authority to send pupils to any particular school involves the power of the officers to promote pupils who are not qualified. What is the teacher to do in case this happens? He can do nothing but submit and leave the officers who are guilty of a wrong to the inevitable retri- bution which overtakes all wrong-doing. In such a case the retribution will come from an awakened and outraged community, if there be a wrong. There may be cases where it is the best for all concerned to advance a pupil to the higher grade though he is not fully prepared. (6) May a teacher punish a pupil or require of him, with the approval of the committee, any duty which the parent has expressly forbidden! The answer to this question appears when we consider what the school is for. It is not alone for the individual pupil but for the community, for the good of the whole. Now, if one parent may interpose his wishes and his opinions with authority another may do the same. This would remove the direction and control of the school from the regularly con- stituted authorities, the officers elected by the majority and the teacher whom they appoint, and vest the real control in individual caprice. The right to dictate does not rest with the parent. If he is dissatisfied his remedy is to secure a new set of officers. (7) But the more arbitrary the authority with which the highest suc- cess of a system of public schools makes it necessary to invest school officers, the more discreetly this authority should be exercised lest it become oppression, and so defeat its own aim. It is a great thing for a parent to surrender into the hands of a teacher so much of his own authority and control over his children as he must in order to the main- tenance of an effective system of public schools 5 and when, by the laws, the support of the schools becomes a public tax, and either attendance upon them or else the additional cost of private schools is made compul- sory, an extreme limit has been reached in the curtailment of a parent's natural rights. Hence, so far as it may be done without positive injury to the school, the preference of individual parents ought to be respected and granted. CONCLUSION. These extensive powers and the corresponding duties in conducting uublic school education are vested in school officers and teachers by the DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 89 laws and from tbe necessities of the case, since education is a pablic concern under oar republican institutions and indispensable under our form of Government. It will be noticed that the principle of local con- trol is everywhere recognized. This is the wisest and most beneficent feature of the system. The county and State boards of control are chiefly useful in stimulating this local interest; and whatever the au- thority and the duty of the teacher or the school oflScer, of whatever rank, that authority is best exerted and that duty is best performed when it secures and works with an intelligent active interest in the community, the parents, and the pupils; and without this co-operation all other agencies are comparatively powerless. Paul may^ plant and ApoUos may water; from that source comes the increase. Paul is State assist-ance ad libitum ; Apollos is national aid ad nau- seam; ihe Divine SpiTit which gives life and growth must be found in the local interest. This is not a grace-of-God Government, with all power and wisdom inherent in hereditary rules. Neither is it an aristocracy, in which the best rule. In a democracy like ours foolish councils will sometimes prevail, but the exercise of the folly works its own cure. The people get sick of misrule after a while, and they rise in their might and reform or revolutionize — and we have no grace-of-God system of education. It is what the people make it. There arc no hereditary school oflftcers or teachers endowed with all wisdom. Power does not proceed from above downwards in education, as it does not in our Government. If teachers buy their places, and school trustees sell out, as has been said here, the best cure for a community, where that is possible, is to let it go on — the more of it and the ranker the better — and the sooner the evil will be cured. Educational references and great teachers, inspired with a noble am- bition to really improve the schools, arise from time to time. But tbey are not like a great central dynamo, to send the current to the little arcs or incandescent ribbons in every room. They may be gasometers. They rather resemble the sunlight whose beams start into life the seeds long slumbering in the earth. Those seeds are the individual local interests. The President called upon Dr. B. A. Hinsdale, of Cleveland, Ohio, to begin the discussion of Dr. Marble's paper. Dr. Hinsdale : Mr. President, I wish to say in the beginning that I have listened with interest and- satisfaction to this strong and clear pre- sentation of the subject that Superintendent Marble has given. I do not know what may have been the experience of others who have lis- tened, but the subject has been so brought to my own mind that I have obtained views and glimpses of it from new angles and from unfamiliar points of obser^'^ation. I shall not, if you please, wander very far from the lines that have been drawn in the paper in the remarks I am to make, but shall call at- 90 CEBCULAES OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. tention to two or three things that have been presented, largely for the purpose of emphasizing them and their applications, and partially, also, for the purpose of extending them in one or two particulars. It seems to me that the most suggestive and fruitful thought presented in this paper, so far as its consequences and applications are concerned, is the thought that since the medisBval times there has been a process of dif- ferentiation going on, educationally speaking, the result of which has been to strip the teacher or educator of certain powers and rights and duties which at one time belonged to him, and to give these to a new educational functionary, so to speak, who represents the State, the public interest, and the public authority. I think there can be no ques- tion as to the soundness of this position I should say, generally speak- ing, that, as compared to those who, in mediaeval times represented that business side of affairs, the teacher is relatively less than he was, and that those who represent the business side of affairs, as compared to the teacher, are more than they were. I think there can be no doubt as to the fact that such a process of differentiation has been going forward. Our attention was also called to the fact, which seems to be an im- IK)rtant one, that whereas the duties and powers of school offtcers, who represent the public, are defined in statutes, in laws, and in law books, the powers and duties of teachers for the most part are not defined in the statutes or in the laws. They come down to us from the past by tradition, and they rest to-day very largely upon a basis of usage and of custom all over the land. I suppose it is so all over the world, or in civilization at all events, meaning by that expression the European civ- ilized world. It occurs to me that that fact is a very much more im- portant one than it is possible for some of us to suppose. I take it to be a fact. Every one who has read the school laws of the various States knows that very little indeed is said in the laws about teachers, about the teaching coiporation, so to speak ; whereas the powers and duties of the managing corporation are very definitely written on t in the stat- utes. The way of putting that seemed to me very happy when Mr. Marble said that whereas the duties of school ofi^cers rest upon a basis of positive law, the duties and powers of teachers are to be drawn or inferred from what in a large a nd general sense we might call a sort of "educational common law.'' I take it that this is a very fortunate cir- cumstance. There is a marked difference between the duties and powers of school officers and teachers. It is a vastly easier thing to define the. duties of school officers than it is to define the duties of teachers. I know, as a matter of course, that boards of educ ation go far beyonfl the Legislature in ordering that this thing shall be done and that that shall not be done, but their ordinances lie largely in the field of things that are formal in their nature and do not reach to the heart and character of teachers and of education. I take it that it would not only be a diffi- cult thing, but an impossible thing, to sum it all up and to define in the statutes what teachers are to do in the carrying forward of schools, and DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 91 I think we have reason to congratalate ourselves that the law makers have permitted themselves to leave that part of the work, considered as a whole, -alone, and have not attempted to define or limit the duties and powers of teachers to any considerable or appreciable extent. I think this is a fortunate circumstance, growing out of the very subject- matter, as compared with the subject-matter of the other branch of the discussion. I think there is another reason why it is fortunate that the matter is left in that shape, and that is this: I takeit that it isfar easier to change public opinion, i>ublic sentiment, far easier to change ideas and notions and sentiments and to give a new motive to what we may call " tradition," the educational common law, than it is to tate the educational statutes and change tbcm. I know it is sometimes an easier thing to change a statute than it is to change public sentiment, but I take it upon the whole that it is easier to go forward, to make progress, owing to the fact that the powers and duties of teachers rest upon a basis of common law — I takeit that it is easier for us to go for- ward than it would be if we had all these things written out in an edu- cational book of chronicles, so to speak, so that a great body of tradi- tional law atid of book legislation had to be affected and ch anged before particular things might be wrought out to our satisfaction. There is another conclusion that follows from the generalization which has been presented in the paper, namely , since the powers and the duties of teachers repose for the most part upon a basis of common law, they will differ with the cultivation, with the intelligence, with the civilization, so to speak, of different communities, and the result is that the common law as respects these matters in one State, while it is to a great extent the law in another State, is not so throughout, and not only so, but the common educational law of one State, of one locality or section of the State, is not by any means what it is in another locality or section. To some extent this is probably a misfortune, but there is a great deal of reason, I take it, to be found for congratulation in the fact that it is so. Let me illustrate : In the State of Ohio the Legisla- ture says that school boards shall choose all text- books, and from a legal standpoint superintendents and teachers are not recognized in this matter. From one point of view it is difficult to conceive of greater absurdity than this. My understanding is that in the colleges of the country, governing and controlling boards of trustees and the like, never burden them- selves with the text-book question. That is left for the faculty, and not only so, but it is practically left to the head of the teaching depart, ment to manage. Now, there are probably reas ons, very grave and weighty reasons, why the Legislature ought not to give the teachers of a city or locality the power to choose their text-books. I am not going lo enter upon this argument further than to express this opinion ; but there comes up a question, the question how far shall teachers and superintendents be recognized in this matter? How much influence. 92 CIECULAES OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. liow much power shall they wield, not because they are endowed with the power by the statutes of a State (Dr by the rules of a board of edncation, but because custom^ usage, or tradition giv^es it to them! There are boards of education that, although they are clothed with the power of settling this whole question out of hand, practically hand it over to the teaching board ; and there are other boards of education that would regard it as an impertinence upon the part of a teacher or superintendent to deal with this matter. I might make a remark very similar to this with reference to the courses of study, although as a matter of course boards of education are more dependent upon in- structors for courses of study than they are for books, whereas a course of education cannot be exactly measured off by any of the material standards. Then there comes up the matter of the selection of teachers. The law of the State in which I live clothes the board of education, or in the subordinate districts it clothes the board of directors with full and ab- solute and exclusive power, so far as that matter is concerned. There is not a superintendent in the State who by express law is clothed with power in this matter. 1 do not know that there is a superintendent in the State who is clothed with power so far as the rules of the committee or board are concerned. If we go behind the law for the purpose of inquiring into the usage, for the purpose of inquiring into the traditions, we find that they are different in different places, as naturally would be the case. Whereas in some places the executive head of a system is listened to and appealed to, there are other places in which, if the superintendent were in any way to express his opinion with regard to the employment of a teacher, it would be regarded as a gross intrusion upon his part into a matter which did not concern him and with which he had no business. At this point Dr. Hinsdale's time expired. SuperintendentO.E. Latham, Danville, 111.: Ladies and Oentlemen: I think the views of this convention have been sufficiently presented, and I would therefore desire to call your attention to one of the duties of teachers. I take it as granted that the object of a teacher is to develop brain power, or it may be stated in a broader way, to develop character. Character includes moral development and brain power. A merely good man is not our ideal ; nor is a merely able man our ideal. School work, then, implies the development of both these characteristics. I want to call your attention to a peculiar duty which has been overlooked for some years, and the tendency is to continue to overlook it. Sup- pose you take a child in your arms and go out for a stroll. Soon yon see its little finger pointing, and you look up and you finally interpret the thought that the child has by some such expression as this : " That is a bird.'' In a moment you see another motion, and you follow it, and interpret the thought of the child again, *^ The bird flew." Now, notice DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. .93 « that the child had the thought. You only tried to put that thought into symbols for him. Take another illustration: You are playing with the child on the floor 5 you roll an apple to him ; he rolls it back to you, and you roll it to him again ; he is satisfied with this play. Then you take out your knife and cut the apple ; he looks a little astonished ; he takes up both pieces, puts them together, and you see a pleased expression pass over his face. You cut the apple again ; he gets all the pieces in his hands, and is satisfied. If, now, you take one of these pieces away from him, the child begins to cry. How are you going to interpret the thought in his mind ! Undoubtedly he may have discovered that the whole apple is equal to the sum of all its parts, but if you attempt to put that propo- sition abstractly in words you bewilder him. A thought is very simple in itself, but the putting of that thought into word-symbols is difficult. A simple sentence often words may express a thought; but that thought is no more difficult to master than each one of these symbols. It is as hard for a child to master one word as it is the thought itself. So that in mastering a thought we have this : The thought itself is one thing ; if on an average there are ten words to a thought, then there are ten other things to master, so that there are eleven essential things in a thought and its expression. I have also noticed that in mastering ten words there are seventy actual difficulties of pronunciation and spelling; so that the thought is one difficulty, the ten individual words make ten more, the seven difficulties to each word make seventy more, so that eighty-one difficulties are encountered in mastering one sentence. Now, notice that in our system of mastering thought seventy of these difficulties are useless ; they can be done away with, so that on that estimate seven- eights of our time is completely wasted if the object be to develop thought. I want the general body of school teachers, who feel the necessity of improving and advancing school- work in every possible way, to notice this one phase of the work that we have slighted for years past. ISTow, we have the organization, we have this meeting, and will have the national meeting at Chicago, all competent to deal with this question. The moment you have accomplished this you can give seven more parts of time to the developing of the brain powers of our boys and girls. The difficulties are so very great that some dispair of ever accomplishing it. When we speak of the powers and duties of teachers, relative and absolute, I think there is no duty that stands in any com- parison to the duty of reducing the difficulty of acquiring the capacity to think. Superintendent J. M. Green, superintendent of schools. Long Branch, K. J., then spoke as follows : My conception of the question before us has been different from that which has been stated by those who have preceded me. I have been greatly instructed, indeed, by the basis that has been shown for the powers that are possessed by teachers and officers and from the way 94 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. in which they have been shaped by statate laws, but I did not nnder- Btand that our subject to-day was so much the tracing of this process as the consideration of what shall be done at this time in the adminis- tration of the laws and the relations actually existing between officers and teachers. There are some questions which are before every com- munity at the present time that I thought, perhaps, would come profit- ably to our attention at this time. For instance, there are boards of education which assume and exercise the power of arranging a course of study, so that under that course of study the teacher and the super- intendent are merely servants, exercising no individuality. There is a responsibility for the development and education of the child, but that responsibility is not placed upon the superintendent or the teacher, but is understood to be with the board. I think we ought to discuss the question whether that power should be exercised by the board or by the superintendent. Again, there are systems of education in parts of our country where the superintendent definitely marks out the work for each particular time in each and every school room 5 he looks after the whole system in detail so closely that there is nothing left for the individuality of the teacher. Now, if the teacher is not called upon to develop individuality, what should he do in fulfilling the purpose of the school t It is on these lines that I have been thinking. I wish to say that I am deeply indebted to those who have preceded me for showing so clearly how much of iBrror there is still left, and it certainly seems to me that there is still enough power to arrange things so that they should be just as they ought to be. Mr. Green then read the following paper : THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF OFFICERS AND TEACHERS, ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE. Our subject is classified under two heads, officers and teachers. With entire loyalty to the spirit of this discussion, I would like to classify it under three heads — trustees, superintendents, and teachers. The official guardians of our schools have been given various titles, as school boards, boards of education, school commissioners, i&c, to suit different localities and different tastes ; but for the purpose of this occasion I prefer the terra trustee because of its significance. I have placed the superintendent in a class by himself, as his office seems to me in nature distinct from that of either trustee or teacher. The term trustee, as indicated above, is significant. The people in their entirety cannot, in the nature of things, be the executive guardians of their schools, but must delegate this function to chosen representa- tives in trust. This trust is twofold in its nature, financial and educational. Financial in that it calls for the judicious application of the money raised for the support of the schools and the proper preservation of the school property. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 95 Edacational in that it calls for sach an organization of the school sys- tem as will best accomplish the edacational pnrpose of the community. In the application of the school money the duties of the trustees should be absolute. Chosen as they are, or should be, by the; votes of the people and occupying a representative position, they are held directly responsible for the money and may safely be regarded as possessed of at least the most practicable judgment in its expenditure. In the general organization of the educational system the powers of the trustees should also be absolute. By such general organization is meant the mapping out or plaiming what the system shall be, as, for instance, it shall consist of a superin- tendent, with or without certain assistants, with certain duties and pre- rogatives, also principals of each of the various schools, heads of depart: ments, the manner of choosing these officials, a system of gradation in the schools consisting of primary, intermediate, grammar, and high schools, &c., including their location and relation. In addition to the mapping out of this general plan the board of trustees must sit in judgment on its execution as to general results, for should it fail the board is responsible for its change. I wish to emphasize the statement that this judgment should be passed on the general results of the system rather than on technical results based upon examinations or other data. I should not favor examina- tions conducted by school boards or committees, as I should not favor on the part of any one the assumption of a duty the full import of which he did not understand. It may also be considered the absolute duty of the board of trustees to select a superintendent, as it. constitutes the only power in the dis- trict higher than he, and the power that is responsible for the general results of his work. It is also the prerogative of the board to sit as the high court of appeal before which shall come all questions not satisfactorily settled by those to whom their settlement has been delegated. With the powers and duties thus briefly outlined it seems to me the absolute functions of the trustees close. The superintendent of schools should be a professional educator, and one who will command the respect of those over whom he is given charge by reason of his peculiar fitness for his position and not by rea- son of any foreign attainments, political or otherwise. He is to superintend the work of the schools, not from general ri^sults, as in case of the board, but from a professional standpoint. The peo- ple may see the results of the physician's practice in the healing of the sick, but the physician must understand how best to obtain those results. Likewise are related the superintendent and the board. It is one of the absolute duties of the superintendent to arrange a course of study for the schools and to so adapt it and apportion it as 96 CIBCULABS OF INFOBIIATION FOE 1887. shall be best suited both to the intellectaal development and present needs of the pupils* I am well aware that this duty is, and perhaps will be, curtailed by many boards, believing, as they do, that it would be giving the superin- tendent too great power. The question, however, comes at once whether an unprofessional board shall require the best results of a professional man, or whether it shall simply require the best results under certain unprofessionally pre- scribed conditions. Imagine a patient going to a distinguished physician, desirous of being cured of an ailment, but with this one condition, that the medi- cine must be pleasant to the taste. Not less inconsistent is it to require the best results of the superin tendent while^imiting the means of acquiring those results. It is also the absolute duty of the superintendent to attend to the working out of this course of study both in its regulative and intellec- tual conditions. This attendance may be more or less in detail on the part of the superintendent, in proportion to the size of his field of labor. On what plan this attendance should be conducted should be entirely at the discretion of the superintendent. It is also the duty of the superintendent to ascertain the efficiency of all who are under his charge, to thoroughly inform himself on all mat- ters in connection with his work, to convene his teachers and give gen- eral direction to the^ work by making x)lain the spirit and purpose of the educational sj^tcm. Itshould also be the prerogative of the superintendent to sit in judg- ment on such questions as cannot be finally decided by those under him." He should be the supreme court from which the board is the court of appeal. Such, it seems to me, are the absolute duties and powers of the superintendent. It is the absolute duty of the teacher to maintain discipline in her room, and instruct the pupils in the branches, or parts of branches set apart for her for a given time. This time should have reference simply to harmony in the promotion of the grades. How much should be given for any one lesson, or in what manner the subject should be presented, should be left to the teacher, that his individuality may be preserved. It is the duty of the teacher to thoroughly study the child. He is the master mechanic of the destiny of the souls, and unless he fully understand the laws and nature of the subject before him he surely will go astray. IN'or can instinct be relied on for the accomplishment of this work. That quality is left to the lower orders of animals. Man is a rational being and depends for his success on the culture and accuracy of his reasoning powers. DEPAHTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 97 It is the duty of the teacher to thoroughly familiarize himself with the spirit aud purpose of the system under which he is engaged, and to work for its promotion. There is called for no slavish allegiance, but we are called upon to build each other up, ever remembering that Hannibal learned well the art of good soldiery before he permitted himself to accept the office of general. It remains to notice the relative duties of the respective parties under discussion. There is one duty paramount in importance — the selection of teachers. I have hesitated whether to make it absolute or relative, but decided finally to make it relative ; the relation to exist between the superin- tendent and a committee chosen with great care from the board. But I would fain have the relationship between these parties to be that of a respected father to dutiful children, the committee being the latter. So necessary to the working out of any good system is the assistance of thoroughly competent teachers who are entirely familiar with the system, in complete sympathy with it, and actuated by no other motive than its promotion, that their selection cannot be too carefully guarded. In this selection the judgment of the superintendent should have great weight, and this judgment should be based entirely on the qual- ifications of the teacher for the position, ignoring entirely all minor considerations, such as place, residence, political obligations, &c. There is, I am sorry to observe, a tendency in* many localities to make place of residence a qualification in the teacher, but it is not more fitting to this occupation than to trade or any other occupation. Imagine a city that would not accept immigrants in any occupation. Where the responsibility is the power should be, is a principle that is coming more and more to be recognized, and that its realization may be hastened should be the devout wish of us all. There should exist between the board and superintendent the co- operative principle of mutual counsel, that they may together labor for the common cause. The superintendent should be next to the board in counsel and the one through whom all official communications from the teachers should reach the board, excepting in cases of appeal. Between the superintendent aud the teachers there should exist a mutual relationship. He is not the boss and they the servants. He is the director and friend. Every principle of education demands that between the superintend- ent and teacher there should exist the relation of man to man, that while full respect should be accorded his position the feeling towards him should be such that in his presence every feature of the work should be unreservedly laid. bare. 3536— No. 3 7 98 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION JPOR 1887. Let the duties and relations thus feebly indicated be realized in their complete sense, and I am persuaded our school systems and our educa- tion would step forward with rapid pace. 2S"or should it be considered that, by an arrangement on the general plan indicated in this discussion, any power is sacrificed or compromise suffered. Many of our boards of trustees, jealous of their -prerogatives and their patronage, curtail the powers of their superintendents and teachers. But in this position they fail to discern the true preservation of pre- rogative, while they weaken executive force in their system. The Department at Washington defines the purpose of the war and furnishes the provisions; the general in the field calls for the supplies and furnishes the plan of action ; the soldiers respond and fight the battle. Thus are our arms crowned with victory and our purposes accom- plished. In a somewhat similar manner may our educational triumphs be achieved. Prof. W. E. Sheldon, Boston, Mass. : The duties of school officers are very clearly defined in the laws of the States under which they are appointed. Those duties, it seems to me, need to have some considera- tion. I would not like to say in this presence, where so many superin- tendents are gathered, that the school officers of this country are not always the wisest men in the world. I would not like to say that they have always, with a sense of responsibility and duty and privilege, earnestly and heartily performed all the duties incumbent upon their positions. There are in the country, unquestionably, many faithful, in- telligent, and conscientious school officers and school committees and boards of education, but I am inclined to think that very largely the duties of school officers are performed with a perfunctory reference to the position rather than with a hearty and sincere regard for what is required in the education of the youth of the land. Of one thiug I am certain, that many school officers so magnify their positions as to place the teachers of the country in leading strings. Their regulations and restrictions are such as to destroy that manly independence and womanly power which belongs to a teacher. One of their important functions is to select good teachers. If they honestly discharge that duty in selecting those who are proper for the schools of the country, it seems to me that they should then allow the teachers the freedom that will enable them to discharge their duties wisely and well. In the older sections of this country, in Kew England, we have so many tra- ditions, we are hedged in by so many considerations that look towards the ruling of teachers in the schools rather than to the guidance and encouragement and stimulation that belong to a good school officer to stimulate the teacher to do the very best work in accordance with the very best methods. That cannot be done in leading strings. I know DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 99 of many teachers in the good old Bay State that are trammelled by the regulations and directions of school boards, and my conception of the duty of school officers does not lead me to feel that it is their duty to do that which they know nothing about, and very few of them know any- thing really about how to manage and control a teacher or the children of the schools which they are supposed to oversee and supervise. When you come to superintendents, their duties are to some extent both those of school boards and of teachers. The superintendents should be experts. They should know all the history of education, should know all about the relative merits and different methods of instruction, should be able to comprehend them, to know whether this idea or that idea should prevail. What superintendent here is able to say to-day how a child shall be taken from the home through the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth grades, on through the higher schools, and to decide exactly in what way the faculty of every child shall be developed to preserve in him the individual, to preserve the characteristics that tend most to make good men and good women of the children that are placed in his charge ? This educational question, from this standpoint of view, is one large enough for the greatest minds that ever dwelt upon the earth. Ques- tions like this will need careful study, and the superintendent who con- scientiously discharges his duty, taking upon himself the powers dele- gated to him by the boards of education, and at the same time coming right alongside the teacher with his warm heart and his enlarged views and his extended experience, ought to be the nearest and dearest friend to the whole American people ; he ought to be a wise man who assumes this responsibility. This is my conception of the duty of the superin- tendent. Now, one word about the teachers. The teachers of this country are not all professionally trained. They are not all in the work because of their yearning interest in the education of the young. Such teachers ought to stand before their children and ask themselves the questions: **Am I fitted for this work ? What do my duties and responsibilities require in this responsible position ? " These ought to be their questions in the morning, and their questions at night, their questions in reference to all that they do. They should almost try to forget, if possible, that at the end of the month they are to draw their salary, but they never will in this generation. A broad conception of the teacher's duty would be that they should work and serve and toil, because of the usefulness there is in their profession. It is very easy to utter words of this char- acter ; it is not so easy to practice them. After twenty-five years of experience, I am frank to say that I was not myself always able to sink my individuality, my personal interest in the cause, and yet I tried to have this broad and large view of the work. The relation which the superintendent and teacher hold to each other is so close that they ought to be such friends and such co-operators that they will consult in refer- 100 CIBCULAES OF INFOBMATION FOB 1887. ence to every step which will promote the interests of the school. There are some men in the commanity who regard themselves as exceedingly wise on all of these great questions. Some of them are in the profes- sion ; some of them are not. Some of them have broad, liberal, and extended views of what the work of education should be, and others,! am sorry to say, I think are a little cranky ; I have been called one of the latter sort, myself, claiming to be always eminently conservative, and yet I know that I have very positive notions about some things. I know that when I am told that the youth of this land can be edu- cated by the personal power and by personal influence in the first steps, and without any reference to the traditions of the past, or the books of the past, that all these shall be thrown aside, I am one of those who do not believe that this can be done. I do not believe the people of this country can be carried by any teacher's hand straight to gloiy, without any personal eflfort. I am one of those people who believe that everything can be done ob- jectively. I do not believe that the philosophy of Herbert Spencer can be applied to every common difficulty ; neither do I believe that the de- veloping process of Froebel is adapted for all the parts of our school pop- ulation. By taking a broad view of those ideas that pertain to methods of elementary culture, I believe we can and should pursue a course, as teachers and as superintendents, that will secure to the children the elements of individuality and strength of character that will, in the future, make good men and good women by preparing them for citizen- ship. Col. F. W. Parker, Normal Park, 111. : In speaking about the salary question, I can only speak for Illinois, that we are always for getting our salaries there. Now, some of this talk we have had I do not under- stand, and lam seeking for light. When gentlemen tell me that we can lay aside all traditions and all use of books, and then educate the chil- dren, I do not believe it. We hear this idea over and over again, as gentlemen said last night, this idea that the public schools tire all bad, and that the case is hopeless. Now, whoever proposed to lay aside the text-books ? I have a little library at home which I read, especially the American Teacher and the New England Journal of Education. I would like to know who ever proposed to lay aside and not use the mighty wisdom of the past for the improvement of the children t I call that, with the profoundest respect, "thin talk.'' Hon. W. N. Barringer, Newark, N. J. : I have taken considerable interest in this question, although I felt when I entered the hall that I did not have much interest in it. I rise simply to try, if possible, to find out some of the duties of school officers. The first duty I find belonging to me as superintendent of schools is to keep out of the way. I found that when I entered the school room in my dignity, clothed in my official garments, feeling my authority and the great consequences DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE!. lOl that must follow at my wondrous wisdom^ because I b^^ppened to hold the office — I found that when I entered the school with that feeling that I did not accomplish very much ; that after all the true place, the true duty of the supervising officer, is to ke^ep as much as possible out of the way. The tendency to-day is to organize and to systematize and to multiply officers and supervising agencies, and everything is in lead- ing strings. Why, I have seen committees appointed in order to help the president of a board of education out of a dilemma as to what to do with the mem- bers of his board; so that they manufactured committees, and when they looked around for something to do, the president smilingly said : " Call a meeting, and then we can make something to do.'^ So they called a meeting to manufacture business, and after a little while we find out this, that teachers are tied and restricted until there is no instruction and cannot be. I think I have learned in the ten years that I have been trying to supervise my schools, that the greatest thing of all things for the teacher is liberty, freedom from restriction, freedom from this everlasting sui)ervision that binds the thought and feeling of those who should be left at liberty to think and to act and to teach, and so 1 said to myself, as I left the school room : " I will keep out of the way, but I will exalt the teacher, I will magnify the teacher, and I will give the teacher an opportunity to be an individual, and to teach indi- viduality." The great trouble to-day is that the world is governed en masse. You have got to get to the individual before you can do any- thing in the way of reform. You must reform the individual, and when you have reached the individual you will have put the leaven where it will leaven the whole lump. I do not mean any reflection upon anybody here when I say to those who have grown gray in the cause, Keep out of the way, exalt your teachers, give them freedom, and let every teacher feel that when he stands before thirty or fortj" pupils that they are thirty or forty individuals, and that he is an individual, and in so far as he can reach the individual heart and character of these children forming his school, just so far will he be able to perform his duty and no further. The Hon. L. S. Cornell, State superintendent of Colorado, briefly expressed his concurrence with the remarks of Mr. Barringer. Hon. J. Ormond Wilson then presented an invitation to the members of the department of superintendence from Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Cabell, No. 1214 Fourteenth street northwest, to take lunch with them in the afternoon, after the visit to the President, which invitation was accepted with thanks. There being special arrangements for the afternoon, the president, after a short recess, again called the meeting to order. 102 CIRCULABS OF INFORMATION FOE 1887. FIFTH SESSION. The president introduced Hon. B. E. Higbee, State superintendent of Pennsylvania, who read the following paper : CITY AND COUNTY SUPERVISION. We assume at the outset that the public schools in our counties and cities need supervision. Were all the teachers and boards of control pro- fessionally qualified and earnestin their work, even then the inter-relation of schools and grades, and the examination of candidates, and the selection of teachers for various positions would demand some super- vising headship before there could be any proper general organization. But neither teachers nor comptrollers are perfect, aod the need of super- vision, from this fact, becomes more imperative. The supervision of schools is twofold ; one part relating to the more external matters of school-work, and the other to the internal. This division we regard as absolutely necessary j and, so far as our experi- ence extends, it is universally made. We can suggest no change in the matter of keeping these two parts under separate supervising jurisdic- tion. In our judgment, however, there should be a clearer understand- ing of what is properly included in each part, so that responsibility for results may always rest upon the right parties, and corrections be made without any ambiguity as to the right place at which to begin. Generally what we have called external matters of school-work fall under the supervision of directors or boards of control, elected by the vote of the districts or municipalities in which the schools are, and act- ing under the limitation of State law. To this part of supervision belong, without doubt, the selection and purchase of proper school grounds, the erection or rent of suitable school buildings, the levy of taxes, the determination of teachers' sal- aries, and the proper furnishing of the schools with all that is required to place and keep them in fitting condition for occupancy and use. For external work of this kind the whole responsibility should rest upon * the boa¥ds. This is the general practice, although there may be great diflferences in the specific legal limitations under which the work is done in our various States and Territories ; for as yet we have no min- ister of education with power tq suggest an organized educational sys- tem which shall be more general than that of the individual States. What we have called the internal matters of school-work require a supervision quite distinct from this. Here, without doubt, belong the examination of teachers and schools, and methods of instruction and discipline, granting of certificates, and the privilege of a wide range of recommendation to the boards. Thus far, what is made to be included in either department of supervision can give but little difficulty. But to which element of supervision shall belong the important worJc of determining the grades, the courses of stud^fj the Mnds of apparatus, and DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 103 textbooks^ the appointment of teachers suitable to the various schools and grades f In tho Commonwealth of Pennsylvania this work is placed almost ex- clusively within the jurisdiction of the local boards. Superintendents, whether of county, borough, or city, have no power of determination beyond what is simply advisory ; yet they are held responsible for di- dactic results peculiarly dependent upon just these elements of super- vision. If, for example, the school buildings or grounds are out of order through fault of location or construction, or through neglect of repair, or if the children suffer through wrong sanitary ordinances, or from want of school facilities, there can be no hesitancy in fixing the re- sponsibility where it belongs. If, however, the schools languish because right teachers are not in right places, or because the courses of study are inadequate, or unsuitable text-books are kept in use, or defective systems of grading are. maintained, or no proper apparatus is in use, the superintendent is very promptly held responsible, although he may have had no voice whatever in determining the selection in either case, beyond that of advice merely. Indeed, if advice has been offered, the superintendent may be charged with meddling in matters quite beyond bis official business. It is true that in most cases superintendents can revoke certificates upon proper evidence of immorality or incompetence on the part of their holder^; but this is only a remedy of obstruction, and requires great prudence lest the superintendent defeat his own purpose by arous- ing the animosity and prejudice of the boards and weakening his whole power of well-doing. Practically, it is often but locking the door after the thief has entered and gone, and then shooting the police officer for untimely interference. Indeed, the certificate may be all right in itself, and the holder thereof may have general qualifications of a high order, but what the superin- tendent needs is the power, in some form at least, to put the right teacher in the right place, that he may secure the best results which flow from the specific adaptation of talent and experience. Engineers and firemen, and conductors and brakeman, are alike needed in running a railroad train ; but sad work will follow if these officers change places, although each may be well qualified for his specific position. Our boards are not always qualified to judge of text-books, or to de- termine the range of studies needed, or to fix the grades, or to select the right teacher for the right place, or to pass an intelligent criticism upon either the need or character of apparatus. They are not often composed ot men skilled in the profession of teaching. They are se- lected mostly in reference to those external school matters to which we have called attention. Therefore, in our judgment, they should not have sole jmisdiotion in this more internal work of supervision. 4 104 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. On the other hand, superintendents are, or should be, selected just be- caase of their professional skill and experience. Therefore, in all cases, superintendents, whether of city, or borough, or county, should not be allowed to enter upon their office simply because they have been elected by the boards. To this should be added the necessity of commissions from the chief educational authority of the State, based upon the severe test of credentials carefully determined by tlie law. But should the superintendents of our cities and boroughs have exelu- sive eontrol in the appointment of teachers^ in the selection of text-books, and in the whole matter of courses of study j rotation of grades^ and nature of apparatus f Shall we not run a great rislc if we swing the pendulum too far on this side f Under the very best regulations, and the most carefully devised lim- itations, a superintendent may be placed in office who will misuse the very powers we thus give him, working for himself and not for the wel- fare of the schools. Law must take into consideration the defects of men as well as their virtues — must lessen by proper checks all tempta- tions to misuse, while offering every encouragement to well doing. With some distrust of our own judgment, and with the hope that discussion may give more light, we suggest that in city and borough supervision the commissioned superintendent shall, by enactment of law, be ex officio chairman of the committee having charge of these inner elements of supervision already enumerated, and that his disap- proval as such of any action suggested in reference thereto shall neces- sitate a two-thirds vote of the whole board before it can be carried into effect. Some such check will be of great service in improving our gen- eral system of city and borough supervision. County supervision, because spread over so nauch larger territorial space, and including a larger number of boards and a greater variety of conditions, requires different treatment. The very first effort towards improvement here should be to bring the supervision into narrower limits, by subdividing the counties into sub- ordinate inspectorates. Our counties in many States are large and populous. Indeed, in Pennsylvania the average number of schools to a county is three hundred and eight How can a county superintendent supervise and inspect so wide a field ? The mere statement of the question involves the answer. Every county, excluding the cities and larger boroughs therein, should be properly districted into inspectorates including not less than twenty schools, and not more than fifty, over which a well-qualified inspector should be placed, elected by the boards, and commissioned by or sub- ordinate to the county superintendent. These inspectors should have the whole management of local institutes and the general direction of local school work, representing the county superintendent in a wide range of official duties. Within the limits of his supervision, the in- spector should be ex officio chairman of all committees which have to t)El>AfeTMEN'r OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 106 do with appointing teachers, fixing coarses of stady, grading schools, and determining npon the selection of proper text-books and appara- tas. This will insure more freqnent visitation, and more constant inspec- tion ; and thus we may avoid the multiplication of officers, co-ordinate in authority with the county superintendent, who should be chief, for the more general purposes of granting certificates, holding county in- stitutes, and directing the educational sentiment of the county y and also for reporting the general status of the schools of the county to the de- partment of public instruction. Beyond these few suggestions of improvement we can see no practi- cal methods of securing a better system of county and city supervision *than that which now prevails. Hon. E. W. Stevenson, Columbus, Ohio, being absent, the president called upon Hon. W. R. Comings, of Korwalk, Ohio, to open the discus- sion. Snpt. W. R. Comings, of Norwalk, Ohio, said : I am familiar with the school system of no State except Ohio, and Ohio has no system outside of the cities. This want of a system is a misfortune to the State and will probably remain so, so long as its product, the " Ohio man,'' keeps to the front as an object lesson to the State legislators. Content with seconding Dr. Higbee's paper, I turn to a somewhat dif- ferent phase of this question of supervision. A good system of school supervision is without doubt a help to the securing of a good education by the children with which it deals. But the danger in any system is to run into methods that are purely mechan- ical, and that have for their purpose the showing off of the system, thereby perverting the good which they might do into an evil. . A good education, which should be the result of a good system, is a factor in the evolution of a higher man, a nobler race, and a better Gov- emn\ent. Whatever the system, then, we must look beyond it to its fruits. The proper test of school supervision must be based upon the work done by pupils, not on that done by assistants, principals, or teachers. Considering this question, then, from the standpoint of the greatest good to the pupils, I shall merely make a few suggestions. I. The superintendent should not be a mere compiler of statistics. Statistics are important but not vital. • Monthly reports from teachers covering every conceivable form of at- tendance, punctuality, nationality, age, physical condition, mental prog- ress and what not, are almost useless, unless it be to afford a superin- tendent or his clerk occupation in recording, summarizing, and reducing to per cents. I do not say that these things should not be obtained, but that, to the pwpil^ these things, that take so much time and effort on the part of the teacher, are of no value. 106 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. Statistics have their value ; but may they not be secured from a term report, or from even an annual report made by the teacher, as well as from one made each month T In other words, is it not possible *to torn the energy they require into other channels that will be of greater bene- fit to the pupils f If there could be concert of action in this matter of statistics, I believe it would be possible to have a uniform system in the shape of annual or semi-annual reports, starting from the common school teacher and reach- ing, by way of the State officers, the United States Commissioner of Education. The chief value of statistics is for comparisoriy and without uniform- ity comparison is impossible. II. The superintendent should not be merely an examiner. There is a better place for a general than in the rear of his army. A school system like an army must be led, not driven. *^ Eeviewing ^ an army is no test of generalship. Examination of a school, however thorough, is no test of a true supervisor. All the good a school can get from a written examination can be secured by written recitations or re- views. These can be given as a part of the regular routine of school- room work, and as such are of high educational value. But severe examinations, whether as a basis for promotions or to test the teaching qualities of the teacher, are of a nature to do more harm than good to the pupils, whose interests are, above all other things, to be considered. Correct and efficient supervision calls for an educational leader. This leader should be a broad and philosophical thinker, yet conversant with all the methods and other minutiaj of school-room work. A very intelligent lady, formerly a teacher in Cleveland, Ohio, said to me not long ago, that Dr. A. J. EickoflPs power as a superintendent lay in his habit of suggesting high ideals, of pointing out the ends to be secured, leaving the teacher to discover the best means for reach- ing the end. It was not his habit to suggest methods until he had brought his teachers to feel their need 0/help, And it is said that he preferred originality on the part of teachers, rather than mere copying of methods in a mechanical manner. Such a superintendent soon finds his teachers in a mood to discuss intelligently and earnestly the best methods of doing work, and his .teachers' meetings soon show an earnest spirit of progress ; they become, not the occasion for berating teachers, but the means for healthful dis- cussion of school-work and aims. III. The wise supervisor is loyal to his board of education. A fault- finding superintendent cannot lead his board in educational work. He should be loyal to his teachers in every earnest effi)rt they make for self or school improvement. He should be loyal to the public school system, promoting it by reformation rather than by criticism or denunciation. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 107 IV. The wise saperiatendent will not allow his advice to teachers to conflict with that given by an assistant or principal of a building. He will, however, make it his purpose to be the superintendent of in- stmctiou in all that the title implies. Discipline and the mechanical work of the schools may well be left to principals of buildings, but the carrying out of methods of instruction, whether by specialists or by assistant supervisors, should be under the direct control of the head of the system. I am aware that these points are not a discussion of the question of the " best system," except as they may present the question, from the standpoint of securing the greatest good to the pupil. Hon. H. S. Jones, Erie, Pa. : Ladies and Gentlemen: The educator must be a practical man. There are two reasons why our schools are weak J the first is, the frequent change of directive power. I go into our little city and look at a business, and say, " Is this a success ? " I turn to Dunn's Book, and 1 find that it is. I trace back its history, and I find that the directive power of this business has not changed for twenty years. I turn to education, and I say to A, " How long did you serve f" "I served three months." I turn to B, '^ How long did you serve!" " I served a year." To C, " How long? " " I served three months and wanted to serve more. I got really interested in the work, but a young fellow came out, and here I am in the bench." I find that our superintendents generally change schools in two or three years. We cannot run a saw-mill in Pennsylvania if you change every three years j you could not even run a grocery store in that way. This is the main reason why we want more supervisory power. The second reason for the weakness of our public schools is the tran- sient connection of most teachers with the business of teaching. The large majority of the teachers are not even apprentices. They are called teachers, but they are often mere laborers. The average teacher generally expects to stop teaching next year, or she expects to stop when ** somebody" calls. I once said to a young man, "I wish you would become a teacher." He began, and the glow of the teacher be- came fixed on his cheek. I said to him, *' You are a nice fellow," and he was blossoming out into a success, but he did not have very much money^ so he gave it up, and went out to obtain subscriptions for an album; in two weeks he had made more than he had in two months' teaching. He said he guessed he would stick to the album. Now a word as to county superintendents. The most of them that I know, if they have a large county, have good horses and beautiful roads, and drive about, sometimes seeing three or more schools in a day. It makes me think of a physician, who comes in, feels his patient's pulse, says " You are badly off ! you have typhoid fever," and then goes out. The county superintendent comes in, and if the school is a failure, he says nothing and goes out ; if it is a good one, he says ^^ You are doing splendidly," and goes out. 108 CIRCULARS OP mFOHUAttO^ FOR 1887. We really need some good supervision, some of the kind that has heen spoken of here, that which permits the teacher to retain spiritual lib- erty. There are a great many people who, if they can only get a chance now and .then, will have some liberty. These workers, if they could have the experience, would soon get the skill. I do not mean this kind of skill that we see once in a while. These workers ought to be under the influences of care and sympathy. These influences would lift them up, and there would not be this kind of teaching which we have, which is no better in the main than it was fifty years ago. The boys come in, and the girls come in; and the boys go out, and the girls go out, .with all their freshness and sweetness, and wh en the teachers do remain, as I said, they gain a kind of skill that will never make a right usage of what we have, unless we supervise it. In every county there are some that might do more if they had supervision. Now, unless we have some skill and stand at the shoulder of this laborer, this apprentice, we can- not succeed as we would like. I will give you an instance of it at home: Surrounding our city is a township on the east and south and west. Its schools were nowhere, and they said, " Let's have a sort of a superintendent,'^ and they appointed one man to overlook fourteen schools. Those schools jumped up in less than a year, and at a small expense. They tried itin several other places, and some judge said, ^^ Stop ; that is not according to the statute." Now they have no district superintendent, and I think there are none in the State. If you bear in mind, first, the great business principle upon which our schools are based ; and second, the coming and going of this great army of so-called teachers, you will see our dif&culties, and I think the best thing we can do is to strengthen the directors and the teachers by more supervision. Prof. W. H. Bartholomew, Louisville, Ky. : I take it, my co-work- ers, that there has been no more important question that has been pre- sented for our consideration than the question of supervision. I indorse most heartily the paper of Mr. Higbee, and the suggestions of those who have occupied the floor before me on this question, and it would seem that there could be no difference of opinion here as to by whom and how our schools should be supervised. How would it be possible for the superintendent to be one who is engaged in secular pursuits, one who is not trained and skilled in the developing of the mindt I desire to make this plain in reference to the city where I live, in order that my remarks on this occasion in reference to this subjectmay have their proper weight. In the supervision of our schools, although our board is elected directly from the people, it understands that the responsi- bility of the proper supervision of the schools of the city rests with the superintendent and those who may be associated with him in that work. In the arrangement of the course of study, the adoption of text-books, and all that goes to make up the proper supervision of schools, the teachers of the city are all, without exception, selected in reference to this work. DEPAETMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. l09 Now, I want to look at the principle which underlies this question. Who can sapervise the schools, who has the qaalification to do th»t work, other than those who have been trained for it ? As the last speaker said, it seems to me that we ought to agree upon Something when we come here. We ought to determine upon the right course, and stand shoulder to shoulder, but in the reaching for wider results we should look on all sides of the question. We should look carefally at the premises and see what the difficulties are. It would seem that there would be no difficulty in reaching the conclusion that that system of su- jxervision is the best over which there preside those who are qualified by education and training to superintend that work. There can be no difference of sentiment here, it seems to me. I want to say this : that that supervision is best which does not seem to supervise. The super- intendent who has that genius and that skill by which he can awake to this maximum power the intellectual and moral forces of those who are under him is the best superintendent. Now, perhaps, we ought to look a little at ourselves. Perhaps some of our difficulty is that we have not learned the secret of power and influence, because we have been elevated to a high plane, which has turned our heads. Instead of realizing that he is greatest among us who is the servant of all, we have reversed that principle. When all the people engaged in this work work harmoniously to- gether, each realizing his responsibility and his duty to contribute to the development of the entire system, then we will reach the solution of this question of supervision. I want to say this : that while we say a good deal about boards of education, I want to say that I have, with few exceptions, never seen a board of education, composed of intelligent men, who, when teachers would approach them presenting a unanimity of feeling and of sentiment in reference to what ought to be done for proper supervision — 1 have never yet seen a board that did not or would not listen to them in reference to this work. The trouble seems to be that we do not ourselves agree upon this question. Now then, he who is thus qualified to discharge this grave responsibility, he who has the honesty of purpose and of conviction to give the proper educational value to the work of those who are under him, who recognizes merit, who is governed by principle, he will have this influence. We ought to establish ourselves upon principle in this question. A doctor could not come in and supervise our schools, a lawyer could not come in and supervise our schools. They have not the qualifications. The necessity for training schools and for schools for the proper development and training of teachers, has no right at all to exist if it is true that we are going to promote those who are not trained in this work, to let them come in and take upon themselves the grave responsibility of controlling and directing this system of schools. I believe, from what I have observed and my experience in reference to boards of education — though, perhaps, it has be^n limited — that, wherever the teachers of a given locality will 112 CIBCULAES OF INFORMATION FOB 1887. > low or a high degree of work and of workers, according to the peculiar conditions in that county and the peculiar means that may be obtained to supply the necessary work. Near great cities and communities where there is a healthy sentiment that will sustain and support and advance education, to obtain the most cultured and best qualified teachers, the effort of the superintendent must be to arouse that public sentiment and bring together those that hold the power and inspire the effort that will result in providing the means by which teachers may be trained and directed. Under our system, as that power was vested in the superin- tendents, the superintendent was the first to move in the direction of establishing a county normal school and enacting a law that was the means of providing normal schools in any county, if the sentiment of that county was favorable; and under such a law we have the county normal school and we have the means by which we can educate oar teachers for their work, and we believe that those who are to control the advance in this country through the children should be those who study the lives of the children and know enough about the unfolding of their mental powers and physical and moral powers to direct them as they come from the homes as little children. Eealizing that the growth is to come through those people that are selected to direct and teach; realizing that all depends upon their work, for it is not possible that the power that shall accomplish the best results shall be vested in any one else than in the teacher, you must point out the way by which the teacher may have the knowledge and may grow, and you will be teaching those whom we are seeking to develop and to educate, you are reaching those for whom all systems are organized, and if the sys- tem does not have for its direct object the better training and teaching of the children, it had better be abolished and put out of the way. Under such a system of training and of providing for the teachers, we can control the means of examining and the character of the examina- tions at a point where you can meet the demands of the whole people by furnishing just enough teachers to supply their demands without having a surplus to enter into competition. Under such a system of training one-half of the 900 teachers in Cook County, outside of Chicago, have been trained in our normal schools since its organization in 1867. Last year a class of 80 graduated. They were in demand, and yet out- side of that there was a necessity for 120 other teachers in the county to meet the changes that were occurring. The city of Chicago, with 1,400 teachers, constantly draws from the county, but, as we take them from the high schools, this in no way interferes. A system of insti- tutes was prepared, so that before entering upon their work the teachers can be directed for a month or for five weeks specially in their work, and so, knowing the needs of a community, the superintendent may forecast or foreknow and secure the best he can obtain, and then put them under the proper training. The trouble is that all over this land there are thousands who are sent into the schools without any prepara- Iv/ do JKlt for ware what ])iiblic iren for . loduced ukl graft : cleiiients,* '\\t geiiera- ractice and .X)ecial refer- e for a higher ^tatc, which is and men would iph\s of action. V private utility deaof promoting ysteni the public" iii-'i^}, ] 8, in- .114 CIECULAES OF INFORMATION FOR 1887, original design of each child's mind shonld be developed and manifested in his character. Kow, character is made np of habits, and all education is the formation of habits. Eight habits promote healthy growth, and growth in character shonld resnlt in growing freedom of thought and' act. So far as industrial education is applied in our schools to the train- ing of mechanics who are to be treated as though they were parts of the machines that they work with, it is in the highest degree reprehensible, and even terrible. We must not shape education jnto a means for help- ing machinery. Its puri)oso is to cause the child to work out the best of which he is capable. This is the reason why the kindergarten is of such immense importance in primary education. The child in it is taught, not only how to use the gifts and how to make the articles de- rived therefrom, but the greater, the diviner truth, that what we pro- duce should not be primarily for ourselves but for others. It is this spirit which should inform any industrial training that we give in any part of the public school course. That man must earn his bread by the sweat of his brow may once have been a curse; but work of every kind, when animated by this altruistic spirit, is no longer a curse but a blessing. By introducing manual training into our schools in this spirit Colonel Parker believed that it will develop a future which we cannot now conceive. Hon. J. W. Dickinson, secretary of State board of education, Boston, Mass. : Ladies and Gentlemen: For the most part, if I under- stand the speaker who has just taken his seat, I agree with him, and am sorry that he did not have more .time for the discussion, because I think if he had he would have come upon the topic that is befoue us for discussion. Last year I had the pleasure of reading before this con- vention a paper on the province of the public schools, and as this sub- ject is somewhat similar to that, I thought I would make an analysis of my paper, and present that with some views at this time, and as. I read it I want to call your attention to that part of it which our good friend who has just taken his seat calls "dogmatic." I did not intend to have my arguments have that quality at all, and I thought, as I dis- cussed the question in a quiet and orderly manner, as I treated, as I thought, all the topics upon the same general principle, that I should at least, if E did not prove my case, be free from the charge of dog- matism. Now, I will not occupy your time very long in reading what I have written here. I want to say at the commencement that I am not opposed to industrial education. I have spent my life in promoting it and preparing the way for it. The question is simply this: Shall we introduce what is called industrial education, not what Colonel Par- ker has called industrial education, but what is called industrial edu- cation, into the jwiblic schools of the country ? That is the question.* *In8tcad of the synopsis used by the speaker on this occasion, the whole paper as read by him at tlie meeting of the Department in February, 1886, is here given, be- canse it was omitted from Circular No. 2, 1886, which contained the other papers reud at that time. — Editor, DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 115 THE PROVINCE OP THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.* There is doubtless a wide difference of opinion among educators con- cerning the ends which the public schools should labor to attain. Some affirm that the public schools have failed to accomplish their purpose unless they have prepared the children for their special places in life, or have trained them in some of the special applications of their active power. Others, believing that in the general education of every child he should be considered an end unto himself rather than an instrument for the production of some end outside himself, would direct him to those exercises which have a tendency to produce a symmetrical devel- opment of all his faculties. This, they think, is the legitimate work of the public schools and the direct end to be sought in all disciplinary study. In the first case the educator would direct his attention to the communication of knowledge, and to trai ning his pupil in some of the occupations of life. In the second case his mind is fixed on what he can lead his pupil to become. On account of the existence of these two opinions, and of the two plans of instruction that grow out of them, we hear much, on the one hand, of the advantages of practical knowledge, and, on the other, of the value of a symmetrical development of the mind. It seems necessary, therefore, for those who have anything to do in forming public opinion on educational methods, to determine what the public schools of the country should attempt to accomplish for their pupils. This appears the more necessary when we become aware that a choice of ends to be secured by school life will determine what subjects of study or occupations shall become the occasions of public school exercises. If it is the function of the public school to prepare the children for some special mode of gaining a living, those exercises may be introduced which will train them to some special employment. This would graft upon our common school work the professional and industrial elements,* and the schools would be no longer common schools. The next genera- tion of citizens would be composed of men who might practice and pursue the trades with skill, but all would be done with special refer- ence to supplying the wants of life. That intelligent desire for a higher life of the individual and a higher civilization of the State, which is strong in every rightly trained mind, would be obscured, and men would be moved chiefly by the mechanical and animal principles of action. But no system of public schools can be maintained for private utility alone. All social institutions must be founded on the idea of promoting public utility also, and in the administration of the system the public* good must not be -sacrificed for private ends. report of the Massachusetts State board of education, 1885-'86; pp. 117-128, in- clusive. 116 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. It is because there is a human education which should precede the acquisition of special professional or industrial skill, and which has a tendency to elevate the individual above the narrowing effects of any profession or trade or occupation and bring him to his special work with a trained mind, a strong will, and manly spirit, that we may estab. lish public educational institutions, to be supported by a general tax, and may gather all the children into them for a common course of study. This sort of human training is what John Stuart Mill says every genera- tion owes to the next, as that on which its civilization and worth will principally depend. It should be the ultimate end of public instruc- tion to so direct the attention of the learners to themselves as individ- uals and to their relations to one another as social beings and members of the State that they will become true men — intelligent, loyal, and vir- tuous in all the relations of private and public life. If this solid foundation can be established men will turn to their trades as branches of intelligence and not as mere trades, and they will l)ursue them with a conscientious regard not only for their own highest good but also for the highest good of all with whom they hold any re. lations. Theodore Parker once said to a convention of teachers in his own State that " to the instructed man his trade is a study ; the tools of his craft are books; his farm a gospel, eloquent in its sublime silence; his cattle and his corn his teachers ; the stars his guides to virtue and to God ; and every mute and every living thing by shore or sea a heaven- sent prophet to refine his mind and his heart.'^ The spirit which the individual brings from the public school to his special work is of more importance, as far as either public or private utility is concerned, than that sort of special skill which public schools will ever be able to communicate. For this spirit will determine the use he will make of his skill after it is acquired. Mill says that if we can succeed in the disciplinary schools in making < . sensible men they will be sure to make of themselves sensible laborers in the pursuit of whatever occupation they may choose. After the disciplinary studies have been taken, then the industrial, technical, and professional schools should open their doors and offer to all who desire to enter the advantages of a special education. We now have in the Commonwealth such schools, the best that human ingenuity and generosity have thus far been able to establish ; and the way should be made easy to their instruction for all who desire a tech. nical training. But these institutions have a right to demand that those who apply for admission to their classes shall already know the ele- mentary facts of science, the processes by which the mind passes from particular to general knowledge, and the principles and rules which govern the use and construction of the language we speak. They have also a right to require of those who apply for technical instruc- tion that training of the faculties which enables them to think acca- DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 117 rately and to behave with all the proprieties of well-ordered public and private life. It has been found that those who take up the work of preparing for their special places in life, with minds trained to observe, to analyze, and to reason, joined with that self-control which enables one. to turn his full- attention to whatever he desires to do, soon outstrip all others by what they are able to accomplish. Boys have been known to pass through the preparatory schools and the university with credit to themselves as scholars in the branches of learning pursued in those institutions. In their courses of study they were trained to use their active powers in gaining a personal knowledge of the real objects and subjects of their thoughts. In this way they formed the habit of accurate observation for facts and of performing with skill all those acts by which the mind passes from individual ex- periences to a knowledge of general truth. They left the university , with that enthusiasm for practical life which a consciousness of the I)Ower of self-activity and a love for excellence always produce. Their collegiate education had not made them shiftless or indolent or despisers of hard, honest labor. Their acquired knowledge had excited in them a love for more knowledge. The development of their faculties and their modes of thinking had created within them the power of an in- telligent and indefinite progress. With this general preparation for any application of their active powers they entered the mills in a man- ufacturing town to learn all the mechanical processes that work up the raw material into the finished product and with the idea of sometime becoming the directing agents. The most menial service known to the business was performed with the skill which intelligence communicates to the eye and hand and with the pleasure which a foresight of good results adds to even manual employment. They were in actual contact with that which they were to understand. No manual exercises disconnected from any real material products were perverting their practice. With minds trained to observe and to gen- eralize, by the exercises of the schools, now directed to the particular operations of their business, they at once became conscious of what must be generally true. This power of generalization, the product of right training in the elementary and scientific schools, enabled them to pass easily by all those who see only what is actually before their eyes. The experiences and testimony of thes3 young persons and their overseers prove that general intelligence and the power of self-control ^brm the true basis of all high success in the practical applications of active power. With this basis a course in the technical schools would have given them a more direct and easy way to experience and skill. 118 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. The term '* practical " is sometimes applied to knowledge. This use of language often leads us into error, for by it we are in danger of attribut- ing to knowledge that which belongs to power only. The mos* practi-^ cal men in the world are those who have the largest and most symmetri- cal development of their active powers. A philosophical system of education, then, should provide for a general cultivation of the individ- ual, as a human being, before his activities are turned into an unnatural channel by the pursuit of any trade or profession. But the idea of introducing into the public school any exercises that have for their immediate end to train the children for special places in life has been quite generally abandoned, and for two reasons : First. It has been discovered that a citizen of a free State has no special place for which he is to be prepared and to which he is to be as- signed. The place that he is to fill is to be determined not by the acci- dents of birth, of race, or of wealth, but by the qualities of his mind and the use he makes of his power. The children as they enter the public schools do not bring with them the facts from which the teachers may infer what special instruction the future of each one will require. Second. There is a growing sentiment in favor of directing public in- struction towards that general development of the individual which will make a man of him, and in accomplishing this end fit him to enter with intelligence upon any service to which his capacities and his inclina- tions may finally lead him. It seems now to be generally admitted that any system of public in- struction that does not make human development an end, with all that is implied in it, is false in theory and a failure in practice. To justify the support of a system of public schools by a general tax there must be some common end which they are adapted to accomplish and whicli is necessary to the well-being of the people considered to be citizens of the State. This is the only solid ground upon which the public school may rest and expect public support. Suppose, then, it be the concurrent opinion of those best able to judge that the proper function of the public school is to furnish the oc- casions of a symmetrical human development, it still remains to be de- termined what are these occasions. Human development is produced by the right exercise of power. It% school the occasions of this exercise are objects and subjects of thought* These, collected and rightly arranged, constitute our public schooL courses of study. The schools are criticised for the poor quality of their products. Their graduates, it is said, pass out of their classes into active life with grave defects in their e&ucation. They know something of books, but they neither have the ability nor the inclination to produce anything. They can understand what is explained to them, but they cannot invent for themselves. They may have some power of thinking, but they can- not realize their thoughts in any product outside their own minds. BEPAHTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 119 Their capacities have been trained, but their faculties have been neg- lected. The criticism, while it is largely the product of an a<5tive imag- ination, has some foundation in fact and directs our atteution especially to one defect charged against the work of the schools. This defect con- sists of a failure to train the children to an independent use of their I)Owers. It is proposed to remedy this defect by adding tp our public school exercises a manual element in the form of training in the use of mechanical tools. The most enlightened advocates of the new education, as it is some- times called, would not occupy the attention of the public school with manual exercises for the sake of the manual skill which would result from them, but for the sake of that general development of active power which an orderly use of tools is said to be adapted to produce. For no other reason than this could the practice with mechanical tools find a legitimate place in the public schools. Admitting that the defects supposed actually exist, it does not follow that they are due to defective courses of study nor that they may be removed by adding the operations of the workshop to the list. Both these things are assumed, but neither of them has yet been proved to be true. Mere manual dexterity without reference to invention or construction is the product of imitation. To produce it requires simply a long prac- tice in imitating a few mechanical movements that are first made by a master for examples to be followed. After a time the states of mind that give origin to the skilful movements of the body are hardly objects of consciousness at all, and the individual moves on under the influence of the mechanical principle of action. Great manual skill is not unfrequently found with those whose gen- eral intelligence is not of the highest order. In our experience we find instances of the existence of the one without the other. Some minds are conscious of that knowledge only which they have obtained by experience and of that power only which they have acquired by repetition. They may become skilled in imitating, but they will be wanting in independent and progressive power. They will also be want- ing in that general intelligence which is necessary for the regulation of their private conduct as Christians or of their public acts as members of a free State. It was a significant remark, made by one who had de- voted his life to the promotion of technical and industrial education, that we send missionaries to countries the skill of whose artisans is the admiration and envy of the missionaries themselves. The public schools of Massachusetts were established that the learn- ing necessary to the successful practice of self-government might not be buried in the graves of the fathers 5 that the learning necessary to set the people free from the bonds of those prejudices that enthrall the reason and the liberty of man might not be lost. 120 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. It appears from what has been said that in every complete system of pablic instruction ample provision shoald be made for the cnltivation of general intelligence before the attention is directed to any special mode of life. This is because the individual is of more consequence to himself as a well -developed man than he is as a mechanical instrument, and because he is more valuable to the State as an intelligent and vir- tuous citizen than he can be as a skilful artisan. It does not appear that the cultivation of mere mechanical dexterity holds any necessary relation to general intelligence or to virtue. It may exist apart from all these states of mind and body which fall within the legitimate province of the public school to produce. It does not appear to be necessary to prepare the individual to pursue his disciplinary studies with greater facility or to enter upon the race of life with the ability to acquire for himself the highest order of either professional or industrial skill. A distinguished president of an industrial 'institution recently read a paper before a large convention of public school teachers upon the topic entitled " The Workshop in the Public School.'' He says: '' For many years I have worked to develop the material and technical relation of education. I have sought to so direct both my own work and that of my pupils that there might ever be an open bridge between the theo- ries of science and the familiar facts of every-day life, that each might be better developed by constant contact with the other. It may be that I have not worked as earnestly as I might have done; but I have not been able to discern such valuable results from hand-culture as my friends seem to find. I do not find that the exact construction of a box leads to the exact construction of an English sentence, but that me- chanical students need as much drill in writing as any other. I have not found that students in mechanical courses were especially good in their mathematical work. On the contrary, I do find the best workers in wood and metal are those who have proved that they have clear thoughts and can express them clearly, and they who have shown large mathe- matical ability. Is it not possible, in these materialistic days, we push the methods of the laboratory too far ? May not the gross and material concepts gathered in the shop so stand as to obscure the clearer and exacter intellectual concepts ? '' Says another most distinguished authority : " The fundamental idea of our theory of mental education is, as I think, that of the superiority of man to his uses. Our primal thought has been to develop the indi- vidual man roundly and fully in himself. The service which he does for the world is the natural outgrowth of what he is.'' This is the lan- guage of experience and philosophy ; it directs our attention to the use of other means than the workshop for a proper modification ' of the work now done in the public schools. What changes, then, do we need in the conduct of the public schools that they may do their own work in the most productive manner f If the defect consists in a failure to cultivate practical power in the minds of the children, then the reform DEPARTMENT 01* SUPERINTENDENCE. 121 we need is not so much in courses of studies as in the method employed in presenting these courses to the learner's mind. If it is true, as affirmed, that the children are not able to do any in- dependent work when they leave the schools it is because they were not permitted to work independently in their class exercises. A skil- ful analysis of the mind of a school graduate will expose the processes to which it has been subjected during the periods of its tuition. In the examination we should inquire for the nature of the knowledge acquired and for the kind of training the faculties have received. Pupils who have been brought up on books alone will show when they take their places in the world that the world is a new object of thought. The words of a book, if understood, direct attention to the ideas which they name, and not necessarily to anything beyond them. One may use a book and understand it and still be ignorant of the objects it describes. From these statements it appears that in the acquisition of knowledge words were never intended to take the place of things. When used ex- clusively in the schools they seem to close the senses and the under- standing against the true objects of knowledge, and the individual passes through the world without seeing it. Again, if we turn our attention to the effect on the mind produced by the abstract use of language in study we shall find that such a use is adapted to cultivate the passive powers only. The mind is active in receiving effects when- ever it uses language as a substitute for objects as occasions for ideas. In such a case its labor is simply to discover the invented by other minds. The result of such an exercise of the faculties is to prepare them to obtain information rather than knowledge ; to feel impressions but not to produce them ; to be controlled but not to govern ; to imitate the acts of others but not to invent an independent course of conduct. All this is changed when things take the place of words. Then the mind becomes conscious of knowledge and of obtaining it by its own efforts. Under a system of objective teaching the learner is brought in direct contact with whatever he is to know — with natural objects, language, abstract truth, and states of mind. These are all made ob- jects of consciousness as a condition of knowledge. The pupil in this way becomes an original investigator. He is trained to handle the ob- jects of his investigation. He learns the true method of thinking by using it, and in time he will find the source of his activity within him- self. An individual trained in this way will acquire a knowledge of the facts of science by the use of his own observing powers • he will become skilled in analyzing the objects of his study by practice in an- alyzing them, and so will furnish his mind with that elementary knowl- edge which win form the basis of scientific classifications and of reason- ing for general truth. This training leads to self-control and to a prepa- ration for taking up the work of life with a good prospect of success. 122 CIRCULARS OF INFORliATION FOR 1887. In addition to the objective studyof things, of which I have spoken, we havjd two exercises in the schools that are especially adapted to train the mind to a skilful use of the eye and the hand. I refer to drawing and to the practice by the pupils of constructing their own simple illustrative apparatus. Drawing is the language of form, and may take the place of written speech as a mode of expression. It im- plies a careful and prolonged observation of things to be described. It presents occasions for a free exercise of judgment, imagination, and in- vention. It is one of the best means of cultivating the taste by re- quiring that exercise of the faculties upon which the activity of taste depends and by directing attention to the beautiful in the works of nature and art. In constructing the means of reproducing physical phenomena to be observed the mind is most thoroughly exercised in the study of the phenomena themselves. The exercise of making the apparatus is not now a simple imitation of a few mechanical motions ; it is an invention of the means of illustrating ideas and of presenting the phenomena of nature in a convenient form for a prolonged and systematic observa- tion. Our schools are overcrowded with work already. In the elementary grades there seems to be no time for the systematic study of the quali- ties of objects, nor for the application of the knowledge thus gained to a systematic observation of natural objects, nor for such an exercise of the faculties as will add to their original state a facility in acting. In most schools there is no opportunity given for acquiring, in a phil- osophical way, an orderly knowledge of the facts of any of the sciences. Even language itself is learned as a collection of words rather than as a means of expressing ideas. As a result of these omissions there is a failure to train the powers of observation and analysis, upon whose culture and products all future scientific study, all true exercise of the reflective powers, and all high success in the operations of practical life will depend. It is a common criticism that pupils pass from the elementary to the scientific schools with little or no preparation for the pursuit of scien- tific knowledge; that the high schools, the technical schools, and the colleges are compelled to stop in their courses and teach the facts of science before scientific study is possible. It is urged that sewing and cooking should take their places among the branches of learning and practice pursued in the public schools as a matter of plain necessity. If our civilization and the conditions of our social life render it necessary, then let these occupations be taken in the public schools as a burden upon them, but not as in harmony with the spirit or work peculiar to these institutions. It should be the aim of every wise educator to so train those under his care that when they come to take direction of home affairs they will perform with skill and fidelity all the duties of home life, especially the duties of prepar- DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 123 ing, in a proper manner, food and clothingfor the nourishment and pro- tection of the body. The objeet of public school life, then, is not to teach special profes- sions nor occupations nor trades, nor to practice those exercises which produce mere manual dexterity, but to develop the child and bring him to his special work with trained faculties and an honest purpose. After the powers are sufficienty unfolded, and good habits are formed and independent ability to acquire knowledge from the study of things and information from communication with other minds have been ac- quired; after the foundations for a true manhood have been established by the disciplinary exercises of the public schools, then let the technical and industrial schools offer to all who desire it the opportunity of prepar- ing for special places in life. The cities and large towns may establish industrial schools where the school, population who cannot be trained at home may have the op- I)ortunity offered to them of acquiring manual skill. Technical schools may also be organized for those who, having passed through their dis- ciplinary studies, desire to obtain the advantages of a technical educa- tion. But the public common schools of the State must not be confused and burdened with work of the home or of society or of the church. These schools will fail of accomplishing their purpose and will lose their hold on public confidence if they attempt to teach that knowl- edge which is not necessary for all to know or to produce that culti- vation which is not necessary for all to acquire. The common schools are necessary for the State, special schools for the individual. The one should be made universal and the attendance upon them compulsory ; the other should be offered to all who desire to enjoy their advantages. Let the work in the public schools, as they are now organized, be done in accordance with the true philosophy of teaching and study, and the children will graduate from them prepared to enter, with every prospect of success, upon the x)erformance of the duties of either private or public life, or, if they choose, they can enter with disciplined minds into the professional schools for special instruction. In either case they will be likely to become honest and intelligent citizens of a free Com- monwealth. Upon the conclusion of the reading of Dr. Dickinson's paper Dr. M. A. ISfewell moved that it be referred to a special committee to consider it; which motion was agreed to. The Chair then appointed Dr. M. A. Newell, of Baltimore ; Superintendent Aaron Gove, of Denver, Colo. 5 and Superintendent A G. Lane, of Cook County, Illinois, as such com- mittee. Hon. W. B, Powell, superintendent of schools, Washington, D. C. : Ijadies and Gentlemen : I think that the question before us is no longer open for discussion ; that the public has declared that handcraft shall be taught in the public schools. I believe that the careful observer of 124 CIRCULARS Ot' INFORMATION t'OR 1887. society during the last few years, with its commotion tending towards convulsion and anarchy, will decide that the two great parties in society, the capitalist and he who gains a livelihood by intellectual pursuit on the one hand and he who earns a living by the use of his hands on the other, shall cease to be educated at the public expense on diverging lines ; that their education shall be conducted, while conducted at public expense, towards each other, to the end that each may appreciate more fully the part performed by the other in human society. I believe that the careful observer will decide that the public school shall consider all the faculties of the children and shall decide to build on broader lines at the bottom and cease to build finer and higher at the top. I pre- pared a paper of some length before I knew what would be required. After finding out, I tried to reduce it. Mr. Powell then read the following paper : If there is any institution of the many forming our complex society that is a growth, a development, the public school system is one. The needs of the people, as seen and understood by the people, are the soil out of which the public school system grows. In a broad sense it is not the province of the schoolmaster to deter- mine what shall be taught. In a restricted sense the school authorities fix the course of instruction and determine what parts of subjects shall be taught, but whenever this authority prescribes a curriculum not in accordance with the public needs, as understood by the public, trouble arises, and the school, if too ambitious, suffers and is not infrequently torn down. If not ambitious enough agitation never ceases until the work is corrected. The history of high schools is given in evidence of this position. The public school does not make public sentiment ; its office is to do the bidding of the public will. Public sentiment is formed by other in- strumentalities — the professional and the secular magazines, the news- paper, the forum, the pulpit, the technical institution for investigation and experiment, supported by private benevolence, the philosophical society, the civic society, and scores of other societies — all public agita- tors. Each of these does its work in determining the relations of social, domestic, and political society, and declaring the values of these relations, until the people see and understand and decide what they want for themselves. These form public opinion. The public schools to-day would be tep.ching " the three E's " had not public opinion demanded a broader teaching. In a restricted sense the school authorities fix the course of instruction. Public sentiment demands what subjects shall be taught; the school authorities decide how much and what parts of such subjects shall be taught and in what order they shall be presented. This educational problem is more im- portant and more difficult than any other with which the schoolmaster has to deal. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 125 It was decreed that the elements of physics should be anderstood by the children, and the work has been added to the school curriculum. It was declared that a knowledge of plants and animals, a knowledge of the laws of health and the rules of \ight living should be taught our children, and these subjects have been added to the course of in- struction. It was teared that the school course would be crowded, and many complaints have been made because of the great amount to be learned; but where the schoolmaster has performed his part well in determining what parts of these subjects shall bo taught, where the professional part of the work has been done properly, it is found that there is no crowding of the curriculum and that this apparently great mass of work only gives healthful variety. For instance, if a child is to be taught the use of language he must first be made certain that he has idea and thought requiring expression. That he may gain idea and thought in a systematic training in seeing and comparing and con- cluding he is presented with natural objects, as plants or animals or with other physical phenomena. He thus comes to a knowledge of the forms of nature, either animal or vegetable, while, in fact, only prepar- ing himself for his language lesson. If I read the signs of the times correctly, the civic societies, the phi- losopher in his den, the essayist, the philanthropist, the political econ- omist, the scientist — all l^ave been at work. They have solved the prob- lem, or they believe they have, and they have made the public believe they have solved it ; and the schoolmaster has only to accept the result, for even the legislator, whose office it is to formulate the relations discov- ered by others and fix to such relations their values, has declared it, and the law has been made, and the demand upon the schoolmaster is man- datory that a part of the child's common school education shall be a training in handcraft. This is an age characterized by the triumphs of mechanical skill, which triumph alone is a recognition of the importance of handcraft as a factor in human development. The people have been easily convinced of the value of manual training because, as is natural, they see the relation of this to the questioji of subsistence and prosperity. But not this alone. The people have seen long lines of men going to the front, and have seen that these nen, without college education, without scholastic train- ing other than that which has come through and because of the hand, now manage thousands of the industrial enterprises of this country. They see that they control complex means of communication, long and expensive and complex means of transportation. More tban this, the people have looked into our workshops and have seen men skilled in handcraft capable of adjusting, creating conveniences and wealth and the instrumentalities that contribute to refinement, although the moods and tenses of their verbs are not always what they should be, and they have come to believe that there is an education intellectual, a de- velopment and training of the mental capacities, of perceiving, com- 126 CIBCULAKS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. paring, concluding, and doing that comes tlirongh the training of the hand. The people have seen, and many of them now appreciate, that hand-culture, handcraft, is a sixth, a higher and a dominating sense, a sense purely anthropological, which, with the spiritual, puts man in a kingdom of nature above the animals which he controls ; that this sense is that which puts man in control of his environments, so that instead of beingtheir slave and being controlled and modified by them, he makes them do his bidding and contribute to his happiness, his growth, and his financial benefit. The schoolmaster, in his capacity as such, never de- veloped this and never would, such is the conservatism of letters. The schoolmaster as a philosopher, in his association in other societies and in other callings, has had his share in the growth of thought. The work of Pestalozzi and Froebel cannot be forgotten, but the kindergarten owes its introduction to the public school system — ^not to the school- master, but to the philosopher, the philanthropist, and the capitalist who has gained his wealth by handcraft. It is beginning to be recog- nized that handcraft has added no small share to the sum total of human thought, and that handcraft at all stages of cultivation is suggestive and is productive of new thought. It cannot be denied that the psycholog- ical importance of eye-culture and ear-culture, in connection with intel- lectual training, is recognized by all who seek a symmetrical develop- ment of the young, though to gain this recogi^^tion in systems of teach- ing the five senses have had a hard struggle. Equally hard has the sixth sense — handcraft — struggled for recognition. It is now recog- nized. It were unfortunate if eye-culture and hand-culture were not to be recognized in our system of intellectual training, that the kindergar- ten were introduced, for the kindergarten gives us the beginnings of all that is asked by those who would introduce manual training for gen- eral culture. The eye is trained and the hand is made to shape and form and adjust, doing the bidding of judgment and fancy. The growth of machinery has transformed the industries of the coun. try and has practically reduced the work of learning to do the myriad things that are now done to learning a single trade — that is learning to manage and run a machine. What changes have been wrought I I was told ten days ago that the carpenter no longer even needs a shop, liis work is turned out by machinery in condition to be put together a finished product; and that the laborer need to know only how to fit and to adjust, and moreover that he who has learned to adjust and control machinery can, with a few weeks or a few months of special effort at most, manage any one of the multitude of machines used in preparing the material. Now it takes but little more time, specially directed, to prepare him who has general training in the management of machines to manage profitably the machines doing work in iron or other material than wood. Thus it is that apprenticeship has declined and that the trades have been reduced to one so far as learning a trade is concerned, except a DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 127 three or six months' apprenticeship or training for special work. Ma- chinery has centralized labor, and the apprentice, if taken now, instead of being made to do menial work, as sweeping shop, feeding pigs and cows, and grooming horses for a large portion of his time during his three, five, or seven years' apprenticeship, is put at work with a machine' and is kept at that special work, and, if he has any aptitude at all, be- comes very profitable to his master, because he accomplishes as much as the journeyman or the full hand. Men seeing and knowing these things refuse to bind their children to apprenticeships. Moreover, competition is so sharp and close that the contractor is unwilling to al- low his competitor more apprentices than he has himself; hence the compact between contractors or the laws and rules of trades unions that contractors shall have apprentices in proportion to the number of men in their employ. This law has not been made by trades unions, as has been supposed and as has been so generally stated, to limit the num- ber of skilled workmen, but it has been made that the number of ap- prentices (whose labor is so profitable) employed by a contractor may be in proportion to the whole number of workmen Employed, to the end that contractors may share this profit relatively. My observation and experience lead me to believe that it is a mistake to gay that work- men oppose hand-training because they fear overproduction of work- men, but rather that the^ as fathers demand it for their children and as honest men encourage it for the children of their neighbors. What, then, is demanded of the people's school to-day is that such general culture in handcraft shall be given as will fit the young learner, after taking three or six months' special training in the industry of his choice, to do the work and draw the pay of a journeyman. This amount of cultivation in handcraft in the sohooZ course is demanded, not alone because of the specialization of industries, though this would be reason enough, but because the general cultivation and breadth of knowledge demanded of the commonest citizen requires increased time of pupil- age. The narrowing of activities by the specialization of the indus- tries has made it necessary to shorten the hours of labor because the activity required does not furnish the necessary variety. If the hours of labor are shortened the citizen and the State alike demand a cultivation and knowledge on the part of the laborer sufficient for his entertainment and occupation during his hours not devoted to labor. The ignorant man is not a safe man in leisure. Experiments have been made in sufficient number to show that the work of manual training in connection with the public school is prac- ticable. These experiments have shown — 1. That the scholastic work of the school does not sufter, but rather that it is improved, by taking a portion of the time allotted to school- work for training pupils in the use of tools. 2. That it increases the liking for school- work, for it appeals to and develops the creative spirit, and causes the learner to appreciate the 128 CIKCULAKS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. value of improvement by self-activity, and leads the pnpil to valae his own powers as a self-teacher. This has been shown more by the intro- daction of the kindergarten methods than by the introduction of work- shops, because there has been more experiment at this end of the line than at the other; but evidence is not wanting that what has been stated is true respectiug the introduction of workshops also, especially where such training has been introduced to complement or supplement the scholastic work of the school by giving practical application to the same. 3. By the health it gives and cheer it produces in giving variety of exercise, thus relieving the monotony and tedium of school-work, and by associating study with what the learner can appreciate as the practical in life, and by changing school-work from a task to a pleas- ure. As a long and careful observ|r of school methods and their effects upon the present and future If v%s of the students, I believe the last con- sideration is reason enough for the introduction of manual training into the ordinary work of the public school. He who would receive physical benefit from exercise must take such exercise for other purpose than physical benefit. He must saw wood for two dollars a cord, and not for exercise. He must be chosen on one side or the other and play ball to beat, and not for exercise. He must walk to see a friend or to obtain a flower for analysis. But the illus- trations given do not fairly illustrate the benefits that are derived from carefully directed physical effort which is to be had in a properly con- ducted workshop. 4. It has been seen that leisure hours are devoted to self-improve- ment by the exercise of hand and brain. Eecreation and rest are given by variety in activity, the only rest needed by complex man except the rest enforced by nature in sleep. By the teaching of handcraft education will be productive to the State at every stage of its advancement in proportion to the amount given, which is not true of scholastic education. One of the chief pur- poses of the State in educating a child gratuitously is to render him self-supporting and, if possible, productive to the State. Music, drawing, and physiology and hygiene have, one by one, been incorporated into the curriculum of the public schools, and where this work has been well done (as has already been intimated) it is found that the course is not necessarily crowded. Manual training can be taken on, too, without disadvantage to other parts of the curriculum. What work of manual training shall be selected it is not easy to deter- mine. The what in teaching is always more difficult to determine than the how. Ko doubt the continuation of work begun in the kinder- garten, adjusted to the growing capacities of the children, will give the ^arly part of the general training necessary. After this there most be DEPAETMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 129 shops and special teachers. There will be expense connected with this ; the teaching force must be increased ; workshops and tools must be pro- vided. The average expense of education will be increased becaose there will be the expense for the purchase of materials, and that for the supply of tools, which will wear out, and which will need to be changed from time to time as tools are improved and processes of work are changed. Tools will need to be changed, perhaps, oftener than books. The course of instruction in manual training will change year by year as machinery increases and processes change. I can see, how- ever, no more difficulty, except in the matter of expense in the intro- duction of handcraft in the school course, than there was in the intro- duction of music or drawing. It would be a pity — indeed a sore ca- lamity — if manual training could not be introduced with less difficulty, less expense, less failure, and with less foolishness than have attended the introduction of drawing into the school course. Some changes in the other branches will be required, as in drawing and mathematics. Courses of drawing are not alike in different cities and localities. It is not desirable that courses of manual training should be alike. Each locality, especially the smaller places, after providing for general culti- vation of the hand, will round out its course by a process of training suited especially to the industries of that locality. In larger cities the last year of training may vary with the different localities of tbe city, as, for instance, the final yeai^s work in one section of the city may be directed especially, towards one kind of labor, a second towards another kind of labor, that of a third towards another kind of labor. This will avoid the expense of duplication and will give an opportunity of choice to the learner. Distances need make little or no difference to pupils of this age. Manual training has come to be ingrafted on our public school sys- tem. It has come to stay. It has come to harmonize our developing systems as a physical and an intellectual embryo. It has come to make productive all teaching and development at whatever stage of growth the learner may withdraw from the school. It has come for a greater purpose — to unite the intellectual to tbe highest physical sense, the sense that is purely anthropological, and thus give to all scholastic learning a fibre which it has never ^et possessed. WHAT A SMALL CITY IS DOING IN INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. Hon. H. W. COMPTON, Toledo, Ohio: I share in tbe disappointment which I think must have been felt hero when it was announced that Mr. McAllister could not come. I had expected to hear from him a scientific and practical statement of manual training, because he is in daily contact with it and knows what it is and what it does for the pupil. Since learning of the absence of Dr. McAllister, and hearing the remarks and papers that have been read by other gentlemen, I have been sorry that I had not prepared a paper too, and I regret that I 3536— IS^O. 3 9 130 CIRCULAKS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. shall hare to trust to a few rambling remarks apou the subject of manual training, and I fear that it will not be interesting, for I^know that I am rather dry. However, I am going to talk for a few min- utes, and will try to give you some idea of what manual training is from our point of view in the State from which I come. I feel, too, iSiat in the presence of gentlemen who have grown venerable in the cause of education I ought to be a listener, and if what I have to say is pos- sessed of any value it will be solely because I have been intimately connected with manual training for a few years, because as principal of the high school I have heard those classes recite daily that are doing manual work and have had daily supervision of them. I would like to say something, too, about the theory of manual training, but you have heard considerable about it, about its merits and demerits, so that un- less I should have time after I get through 1 will not try it, but will give you a plain statement as to what we are doing in our city for manual training and what we believe to be its object and what it is ac- complishing. We began, in our humble way, about four years ago in this worL We hired one instructor, a graduate of the St. Louis Manual Training School, who is a very successful instructor in this work, and our suc- cess is largely due to his efforts and interest. We fitted up a room, which would accommodate two classes of 24, with tools and benches. We also had a recitation -room for a drawing-room. We had also a drawing class of 15 or 20 girls in free-hand drawing. The boys did the first year one hour a day of work in drawing, and two in shop work, besides the regular school - work. The interest and enthusi asm in this work were very great, and we had more applications than we could receive. We were limited to 48 boys and 20 girls. This state of enthusiasm and interest we had to modify and regulate somewhat It was in danger at first of detracting from the regular mental work, but since that time we have so succeeded in adjusting the hours of recitation and hours of work in the shop and in drawing that the system is progressing i^moothly. For the first year the interest had become so great and the practical value of the report was so evident that we erected a large build- ing adjoining our high school building. This building is 120 by 60 feet, with four stories. We have equipped that building with tools and benches, two lathes and forges, drawing-rooms, and a department of domestic economy for the girls. I will simply state, then, without pro- ceeding to explain or to argue the matter, that these boys have taken this manual training work, drawing and shop work, and their daily work in school ; that the greatest success and satisfaction exist. We have had a few who have failed, but they have failed in everything, and we must expect to find this occasionally. We have simply dropped them, but the great body of our students has not only become deeply interested, but has become very proficient. DEPABTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 131 If there is any one in this house who has any prejudice against manual training or any idea that it is not conducive to the best interests of the school I would like to take* him through that school some day. I have tried it before, and 1 know that if I could take this opponent through the •school and let him isee these young people at the lathe, at the forge, and with a hammer ham'mering away at the iron work; if I could carry him up two flights of stairs to the workshops and let him see the lathes and those beautiful objects which they turn out; if I could take him to the department of domestic economy, to the drawing-rooms, and let . him observe at the same time the work in the regular classes, I am con- fident that he would begin to see its educational value. I agree with the point which was made by the gentleman that to teach mere me- chanical dexterity, to acquire that* mechanical dexterity, is simply imi- tating. We do not do this. We teach the pupils to, think and to express thought and to avoid imitating. We are doing this, and doing it with remarkable success, and I defy any man who examines the work to say that it is otherwise. I had myself a great prejudice against this school at the time it began. I shared in the misgivings of many, and it was not an easy matter for me to overcome this. I watched for failure in the mental work. I watched for bad results, but I must confess that I have not found them. I have found, on the other hand, a broad intel- lectual development. I think I have seen where the pupils become broader and more thoughtful, that their morals and their habits have been improved ; and I think if I were to enumerate some of the advan- tages I would name this one — ^that it has brought to the schools more pupils than they have ever had before. You know the disposition of boys at 10, 12, and 13 years of age to break away to the bank or store or factory and get to making money— to work, as they call it. Our grammar school and high school have increased in numbers fully one- third since we introduced manual training. They are anxious to take part in this work. We lay special stress and emphasis upon this point, that we are laying a good foundation. If a boy becomes proficient in the handling of tools — the saw, the plane, the hammer, the square, chisel, or file — he has laid the foundation for all trades. He is an imi- tator, he has mere meshanical skill in one direction or the other, but he is independent. When proficient in the use of tbese tools, when pro- ficiency in the making of his working design has been achieved, he has one side of his nature developed which has hitherto been neglected. We find it of inestimable value as an educational factor in the school room. I say that one of the best results is the fact that these boys all stay in school. If I were to name another good result it would be, I think, the educational value', the disciplinary power it gives as a means of interesting them. I will not attempt to speak at length upon this subject. Another decided advantage which I have observed is the direct influ- ence it has had upon their habits of life, their morals — we have furnished 132 CIRCipiARS OP INFORMATION TOR 1887. them with occapation. There is no idleness, there is no laziness, in our manual training school. The boys have learned industry. I never see them on the street corners or engaging in any vicious occupation. We cannot get these boys to take a holiday. If wo give them Washing- ton's birthday or Saturdays they want to go into the workshops knd make their drawings, and to their work every day in the week. So that they are acquiring better habits. If "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do," there is nothing left for Satan to do in that direction. Another decided advantage, and one which I think is destined to do a great work in manual training throughout this country, is that it dig- nifies and exalts labor and the laborer. A boy no longer looks upon manual work as the exercise of mere* brute force. He sees in that skill and power to develop, and I know that these boys have more respect for a mechanic and for those iadustries that produce wealth in this country than they have ever had before. The other day I saw two of these boys watching a blacksmith as he finished the iron upon his anvil. They seemed to gaze upon his every motion. I asked them what they were interested in, and they said they were watching him handle his tongs, &c. So it is I find them going to the machine shops about the city, in- forming themselves, criticising and learning every day ; and if we thus lay the foundation of the mechanic arts and of the trades we do not care anything about teaching special trades, and we will awaken in these boys and girls sympathy and admiration for that which produces the wealth of this country, for the laboring man. Discipline is one of the greatest benefits which manual training will confer upon the schools and people of our country. I think it will in- troduce in the boys sounder judgment. These boys know the qualities of the materials, and they become critics. If they ever become mer- chants or foremen of great manufacturing interests themselves they can never be imposed upon by the wiles of incompetent men or by poor material. They can be their own inspectors. A year or so ago I un- dertook to build a house, and I never felt until that time what a loss I had been the victim of in not having had manual training in my educa- tion. In the absence of superintendent or architect I was almost help- less. Some of the boys came out to see the house. They could detect the poor material and the incompetent workman, and they could criticise the tools, and tell when they were handled in the proper way, while I could not. This is simply an illustration of what these boys will be able to do as men when they are grown up, when they have great responsi- bilities resting upon them. In whatever occupation they may be en- gaged they will be perfectly competent to manage their own affairs. And now I should say a word about the girls. The girls, as is usual in most cases, have succeeded admirably. They have taken up wood- carving, &c., and have done work which is equal in its perfection and DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 133 beauty with anything that the boys have ever done. They made cases, screens, &c., and they have gone on to higher tasks also. They have made beantiful tools which can be used in the shop. Occasionally an accident occurs, and very little is needed in the way of replacing tools. NoWj the girls have done their work with success, and their mental work is done with uniformity. Occasionally the boys become careless, but the work of the girls has been beautiful throughout. Eecently we introduced the department of domestic economy, to teach the young girls how to prepare food on economic principles. We have a special teacher for this department. I would like to have some of those who are here attend that department and see those girls at work on the ranges and tables. I would like to have you go there and see the food which they prepare, and taste it. I think Dr. Dickinson would like that department if he were to go there, especially if he were hungry and had been boarding long in a Washington hotel. That food is well prepared and palatable, as 1 know from having tasted it often. Any one who comes in there and sees these girls at work making their recipes, &c., another- division sitting on the seats waiting for their turn to come, would say this is practical education, here is something that is of value to the people. As to the theory of education whether this ought to be in the schools or not I do not think that has anything to do with it. If it educates, if it develops tbe mind, if it prepares these hands and minds for the battle of life, if the people want it, if they are willing to levy taxes for it, why they ought to have it. It makes a symmetrical education, it develops the whole nature, and is of value. I will close, then, by saying simply this : That we think manual train- ing has come to stay; it has come to be regarded by us not as a good tiling theoretically, but as a good thing in its practical study; we intend to keep it, for we believe in it. We are going to do all that we can to spread it abroad, and before I sit down I want to say that I think one of the greatest enemies of man- ual training is the lamentable ignorance that prevails as to what it is and what it should be. I get letters, two or three a week, from villages where they are trying to have manual training schools, and they get a few tools and a few boards, and then get the village carpenter and begin in this way. You cannot have a manual training school until you get some one who can teach it, not teach boys and girls some manual dexterity and a few other things which they will learn by mere imitation. J] you will go into a box factory you will find a machine there which takes a piece of pasteboard and a pot of paste, cuts the board, folds it and pastes the ends and puts it away. That is what the imitator really does, and this is just the difference between our boys and the factory. In the factory the finished product is the great desideratum; that is what is wanted; the apprentice who makes it is of no account at all. We say 134 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. that the best, the most important, thing is the boy; we do not care any- thing about the prodact. Maj. E. Bingham, of the Bingham School, N. 0.: I have not heard tiie words *^l^orth" and "South'' since this meeting began. Bat I come here as a Southern man, looking for the advancement of my own State, and I am perfectly willing to leave the advancement of other sec- tions in the hands of those who have carried the other sections so far ahead of ours already. Wo must look at this thing from our standpoint With us we are in a condition of change. Old things have passed away, and the change is for us vastly for the better. If there is not a new heaven and a new earth, there is a changed heaven and a changed earth, and the changed heaven has no war cloud on the horizon and the changed earth no volcano under its surface. We have began a condi- tion of prosperity much better than we had before and mach more stable. We have stability, and we know it and feel it ; so that when we look ahead we look with clearer vision, we see farther and we see more clearly than our fathers did, who looked through the smoked glass of their peculiar conditions and who looked at things distorted. We look at ourselves, and we see one very disagreeable thing about ourselves; we see that we have done nothing, or but very little, in the past to develop the rich material which we have; that we have been, and are still, in some sense, hewers of wood and drawers of water to those who combine mechanical skill and the raw material, who take a pound of cotton and manufacture it into $2, or $3, or $5 ; who create wealth by using this raw material which we turn loose and make nothing more of it; who create wealth for themselves by putting increased values into this raw material, in some cases as much as a thousand-fold. They tell me that a pound of steel manufactured into the hair-springs of watches is increased one thousand times. The best we have ever done is to in- crease two or three times, and we have only begun to do that lately. We see further that, comparing my own State of Korth Carolina and Massachusetts, for instance, for we take the North as having done much of this manual work and ourselves as having done very little, and just see th e result. With advantages of soil and climate, with about the same population, we see that the State of Massachusetts is worth per capita $10 to our $1, and it does not take a man very learned in the schools to understand what that means. We see further that these people who have wedded the manual skill to the raw material have been successful in every work that they ever undertook, and war is a crucial test of the power to recover. We see that this people, who began upon that basis, and who have continued upon that basis, defeated the Indians, that they defeated the French and Indians, that they defeated the British in 1776 and again in 1812, and some of us who were at Appomattox Court House have a distinct recollection of some one else that they defeated. One great difficulty with us was that we did not have the material power DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 135 to oppose their material power. We had men enough to do most won- derful fightiug, but our material gave out; we had no material power* They had it all. We had depended upon them for everything, aud when we came to depend upon ourselves we did not have the material. It was a question of heavier guns, and we came out of the little end of the horn. We have learned a most valuable lesson thereby. We see farther that technical education has-been the condition of mankind for all the ages. Even away back in the tim e of the prophets there were schools that gave technical training, tech nical schools, training lawyers and doctors and teachers ; we see that the different governments had schools to train officers and sold iers, as we see that all this has been going on in the past, and we look distinctly at the fact that we have no technical or manual training schools of any kind in the South. There are two or three supported by endowment, but none where any really valuable technical training can be obtained. There is a good deal of talk of manual training. Man has been called a knowing animal, a talking animal, a thinking animal; perha ps one of the best possible defi- nitions is a tool-using animal. Now look at the human hand. Many animals have five digits, just as man has, but man is the only one that has this power of presenting the thumb either in the same plane or out of it at right angles with the lingers. The other digits make man a tool-using animal, the thumb serving as the hand-screw lo the otherwise useless jaws of the vise. He clamps the tool with the fingers and holds it. Consequently man is the only animal that has this simple power of turning the hand over npon the elbow joint. !N^o other animal has it. Our common English ancestry saw this fact and they crystallized it in their common speech. A lazy person won't do "a hand's turn." An ingenious person can "turn bis hand" to any- thing. There it is. It is this power which enables man to grasp a tool with his hand and then to present that tool in any direction. He strikes it up or down, t'o the right and left ; without any hesitation at all it is laid down. We of the South absolutely have not the respectable train- ing schools necessary for the purpose of getting the skill out of that hand and arm. I say without any hesitation that as a practical ques- tion we cannot introduce manual training into the schools of the South. Much as it ought to be introduced, and as we need it, the conditions there do not justify it now. There is already too much stuffing in our public schools. The average teacher, I believe, seems to think that the average child is an empty gun and that he must load it ; whereas the child is a loaded gun, and a magazine gun at that, loaded by the Almighty, and it is the business of the teacher to fire that gun.* We do not want to stuff the child. We want to give him the power to think, to make an intellectual gymnast of him, and a physical gymnast. German schools are far ahead of us in this. ^ They go through the laborious process of training the mind with an accuracy that we hardly I 136 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. realize in this country. A child goes from one school to another. There was there a great oatcry from the schools of technology and scieatific scho(ds that their pupils were not allowed to go to the university. The idea was that they would take a university course in science and excel all others, but when they got there it was found that they were rapidly distanced by the men who h ad studied science for the first time in the i university ; the men who had been studying science all their lives were distanced by the men who had not studied science at all. A gentleman who had been on a trip up the Kile told me that the most remarkable talent he had ever witnessed was iu some of the na- tives. There he found an Egyptian servant boy who spoke ten lan- guages. He asked him how he had learned, and he said that he had gone up the Nile with a family of English nobility 5 that he knew that they were rich and spent a great deal of money ; he wanted some of the mouey, and so he had learned to speak the languages in order that he might obtain it. He had a great deal of lingual skill, but he had no mental skill; he had a skilful tongue, but no mind^ that was the defect We cannot in the South do anything without mechanical skill. The j)eople there hardly realize the difficulty that they have to contend with. Take, for instance, Massachusetts and North Carolina. We are seven times as large, but have only one-tenth the manufactures of Massachusetts. Ta.ke nine-tenths of the money away from Massachu- setts and spread the one-tenth that they have left over seven times the peop le they have. An other thing. Take Massachusetts again. A large part of the peo- ple of Massachusetts live in cities and towns where they can get access to each other. With us one twenty-third of our people live in cities and towns, and you cannot get at the rest. It is extremely difficult for us to get enough together to make a good school. We labor under difficulties that people do not appreciate a^ all, and we have done a great deal more than other people would do under these peculiar circumstances. It is very difficult for us to get any good teachers. If you put upon the teacher this mechanical trainings which he does not know and has had no opportunity to learn, and put upon the child a mechanical training when he cannot read or write, what progress are you going to make if We sec you from the Korth, where you have the advantages which money can give, and by seeing this thing done, we see you disputing about this, we see you saying that it has c ome to stay, and saying that it has not come to stay, &c. We look at it and draw our own conclusions about it; and we have resolved this, at least, that we are to educate the public sentiment of our i)eople, to call their attention to this fact of our weakness and to the source of the strength of other communities. We will call our people's attention to the fact that there are millions in it, and they will begin to try to get millions out of it. We have as good a right to them as any one, and we are going to have them. Those who have been called upon to talk upon DEPARTMENT OP 6tfPERINTENt)ENCE. 137 this sabject have urged the idea upon oar people that there is money in it. The peculiar circumstances of our situation are favorable to it. We want to show that there is just as much power in the unskilled as in the skilled brain^ and we want to show our people that they must combine the two to be wealthy and powerful. They are thinking about it now in a way that would surprise you if you could know it. Some of you think that our people have no mechanical skill. I think it is in them. Think of it for a moment. Who built the ^rst ironclad that changed the whole conditions of naval warfare ? She was built at Kor- folk^ and came out and did what she could. It was the Merrimac, a Southern invention, built by Southern people, and if we had had a chance to get her out before the Monitor was made something would have happened that did not happen. Where did the torpedo come from I If you will look at the naval history of the war you will find that twenty-seven or twenty-eight of the Federal ships were blown up by torpedoes during the war, and that wherever we got a chance we used these torpedoes. That has produced another change in naval warfare. Do you think that a people who did that have no mechanical skiin - . Another illustration. I once heard a lawyer defending his client on the ground that he was a man of mechanical skill. It was during the war, and practical prohibition had gone into effect. We did not have corn enough in those days, and a stringent law was passed against tam- ing corn into corn-juice. They prosecuted people for it. Kow, this fel- low began to furnish some of the article, and the authorities began to be suspicious ; so he was arrested. When he was tried his lawyer proved distinctly that he had made it out of persimmons, and defended him upon this ground. The lawyer said : " Now, we all need mechanical skill, and that is what we have not had, and what we must have. Now, my client has set a brilliant example. He takes an utterly worthless article and tnanufactures a good drink ; but he does not stop at that, he has im- proved his invention by putting a little corn into it, and he has gone on and improved it until he has learned to make a very respectable whiskey without one particle of persimmons in it." Now, I believe that we have in the South advantages that no other people ever had. The fabric of our civilization has been broken up, but we have an opportunity to develop. Some one asked Newton why he saw so mtich further than other men saw, and he said it was because he stood upon the shoulders of genius. We look upon the geniuses of the i)resent time to see what they have done and will do. We look for the skill in their schools, for the skill in their mechanical schools, in their normal schools and universities, and espe- cially for their skilled hands. We are looking for it and finding it, and you only have to look at Birmingham, Ala., to see that we have begun to get the dollars out of it. There is nothing to stimulate a man like get- ting some money out of something. We have just as keen an eye for 138 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. the dollars as any Yankee in the land. We feel that the way to have this power is to wed our raw material to our mechanical skill, and we will get it. I heard a story once of a boy whose father had died, and he wanted to have him prayed out of purgatory, so he paid a small sum of money to get his head out and his arms out, and then they demanded a considerable sum qf money to get the rest of his body out, but the boy said : " Ko 5 1 know my dad too well ; I know that if he was so near out as that atU thunder couldn't hold liim.'' Now, what I have to say is that what we in the South are looking for is this : We must get the heads of our children out of the purgatory of ignorance, and then we must get the hands of those children out of the purgatory of unskilfulness, and when we do this we liave laid the foundation for greatness and power, in !N"orth and South, upon a basis that will make this country greater than it ever was before, and we of the South intend to have just as large a share in that greatness as anybody else. Upon the conclusion of Major Bingham's remarks, at 10.15 p. m., the convention adjourned. SEVENTH SESSION. The Department was called to order at 10 o'clock a. m., Thursday, March 17. The President: I have the pleasure of introducing Hon. J. W. Holcombe, State superintendent of public instruction of Indiana. Mr. Holcombe read the following paper : A SYSTEM OF aRADINa FOR COUNTRY SCHOOLS. The difficulty in grading a country school, still more in grading uni- formly a number of country schools, lies not in devising a plan but in applying it; or, more correctly, it is exceedingly difficult to devise any plan which can be made to operate in the almost infinitely varied con- ditions and surroundings of school- work in the country. We may pre- scribe a perfect course of studies, comprising all the essentials of a com- mon school education, and presenting each subject at its proper time and place, — a course arranged Exactly in accordance with the organic relation of the branches and with the order of mind-development, the work stated in detail, duly divided and arranged in logical and psycho- logical order, — ^but when it comes to enforcing such a cou rse in the average country school — well, a little reflection on what such a school is, may well call ahalt to the venturesome innovator, or will at least remove the won- der that this work of grading has been so long delayed. "A few years ago," writes a county superintendent, concerning the country schools, " what a boy studied was determined by his own caprice or by family tradition and custom. The teacher, confronted by forty or fifty pupils, found asf many different courses of study, and was compelled to pass day after day in giving individual lessons to individual pupils. In such a school much time and energy were wasted; the greatest amount, of DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 139 labor being required to produce the smallest result. It is easy to be seen, also, that such training — ^if it may be called training — serves to in- tensify family traits; that the studying of two or three branches to the exclusion of all others produces unsymmetrically developed minds, and fosters and aggravates individual idiosy ncracies." Another thoughtful and scholarly county superintendent describes the partial, imperfect, hap-hazard work of the country schools, and the incomplete results of a child's training therein, substantially as follows : m Pupils have been aUowed to pass through school, giving attention to but few branches and neglecting others equally essential ; pupils are advanced rapidly in some studies, while in others they make slow progress because these latter were not commenced at proper times or given duo attention j pupils are required to study the same parts of the same branches year after year till all interest is dead, or are pro- moted not from any evidence of scholarship but at the importunity of the child, the whim of the parent, when the book is worn out, or when the teacher wishes to appear as making progress. Two wrongs are done the child by allowing these systemless ways to control his career — he does not acquire all the knowledge that is his due, and vrhat he does acquire is without regard to symmetrical development. **' Who ever finishes anything in a country school?" is a current question. A majority of the children obtain a knowledge of only four branches and an imperfect knowledge of those. Such testimony might be accumulated indefinitely, for innumerable have been the comments on this state of things, in which «^ a pupil might have finished the Fifth Eeader and never have studied geography or might be quite proficient in arithmetic without any knowledge of grammar.'' Indeed, the picture of the old-time country school, pre- served to us in song and story, is interesting and not uninstructive. The teacher was there and the birch or hickory also, and on benches of some kind the boys and girls, miscalled *' scholars.'' Classification was carried to the last point of subdivision possible without dividing a pupil ; that is, each pupil was a class to himself in every subject he studied. The teacher's time was occupied with hearing lessons, giving from two to ten minutes to each class (as defined above), and in whip- ping the unfortunates whom the tedious hours, vacant of occupation in well-directed studies, inevitably drove into mischief and disorder. The text-books were as varied as the generations from which they had been handed down. It is clear that in such schools a great deal depended on the genius of the pupils, on their having " a natural aptitude or affinity for knowledge.'^ If anything further is needed to show that the country schools had to be reformed, the consideration of two points will be sufl&cient : (1) Ap- proximately three-fourths of the educational work of this nation is done in and for the country schools, as shown by the statistics of a State that may be taken as fairly representative, where 72 per cent, of the chil- dren were enumerated in the country, 83 per cent, of the teachers were employed in the country, and 68 per cent, of the revenues were ex- pended in the country. (2) The statutes of the States prescribe certain branches for instruction in the school, whence it is fair to infer that the 140 , CIRCULARS OF INFORMATtOl* FOR 1887. people will that every child shonld have an opportanity to acquire all of these branches as the constitnents of his common school edacation. The country schools, then, the sole dependence of so large a propor- tion of the people, having failed of their purpose — to lead the children toward the possession of all their faculties, or, in Herbert Spencer'a phrase, "to prepare for complete living '' — it became manifest that something mtist be done to make them fulfil this purpose, that the law of the land might be complied with, and that the revenues of the people might yield a return. Grading was the expedient resorted to. It was . conceived that an authoritative course of studies which should be gener- ally enforced in the country schools was what was needed ; and in spite of the numberless difficulties in the way, many townships, not a few counties, and several States have made efforts to secure uniformity of classification, as a rule, with steady progress towards success and most beneficial effects upon their schools. Though producing an unfortu- nate confusion, through the use of an old term in anew application, the process is generally called gradation, a graded course of studies being applied to each school though contained within but a single room. This grading is analogous to the grading of schools in a city, but modified to suit the very different conditions. In the city a large num- ber of children are to be provided for. About four hundred are assigned to an eight-room building. They are then parted into eight divisions, according to age and advancement (which will in the main correspond) 5 each division is assigned to a separate room, in charge of a single teacher, and with a little transferring between neighboring buildings it can generally be brought about that the rooms will average fifty pupils each, and that all the pupils in a room will be of nearly the same age and will study the same subjects. The work thenceforward is simple enough. The teacher divides the pupils into two sections, hears each section recite twice in the forenoon and twice in the afternoon, with time to spare for general and special exercises, and thus within the school year carries all together over the subjects assigned to the grade. N"ext year these pupils are promoted to the next higher grade, and so are carried forward from year to year to the completion of the course. The conditions that surround the country school are very different from these, and the problem is far more difficult. To a modest house of one roonr, to be taught by a single teacher, come thirty to sixty pupils 6 to 21 years of age, and representing in their advancement all the eight lower grades of the city schools, with perhaps several of the four grades of the city high school added, and the law permits them to demand instruction in from six to ten different subjects. Certainly the gradation of such a school so that so many pupils may be taught so many branches by one person is no easy task. It involves tliree steps : First, arranging a course of study; second, placing or classifying the pupils under the approprigite divisions of the course ; third, providing for the promotion of pupils from one division to another. DEPARTMENT OF SUPEBINTENDENCP. - 141 Of these the first is the least difficult, for the general principles upon which a course of studies should be constructed are commonplace in pedagogical literature. The law prescribes the subject-matter, usually reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, and physiology-r-called often " the common branches.'' Under certain cir- cumstances one or more additional branches may be required, as alge- bra, Latin or German, or a science study. Let these subjects be outlined in a table which shall '^ state clearly and definitely the work intended," shall* divide the work into parts " arranged in their logical and psycho- logical orders — considering the parts themselves in the order of depend- ence and the relation of the parts to the child in the order of mind- growth (I quote the terms of this recipe from a logical and psychological writer), and allot approximately the time for completing each part" — and you have your course of study. The work of classifying the pupils is the teacher's difficulty, requir- ing nice discrimination, perseverance and firmness, and much tact in dealing with children and parents. This subject may be dismissed with the passing remark that, the readers being the basis of the course of study, the pupil's proficiency in reading, somewhat modified by his knowledge of arithmetic, will determine his grade ; and that even grad- ing is not to be expected or insisted upon, but every pupil must at first be placed in each branch just where his advancement in that branch entitles him to go. Time and circumstances will bring about an even grading, as far as such is necessary. The third-mentioned consideration— ^rowof tow — is, in connection with the element of time, one of the serious obstacles to a course of study. The city schools give eight years to the common branches which we are dealing with. With a separate teacher for each grade, there is no difficulty in adapting the grades to the school years, promoting at the end of each year. Indeed, through the necessary alternation of study and recitation the teacher can manage two grades as easily as one, and the so called half grades, with semi-annual promotions, result, in fact, though not in name, in sixteen grades. In the country school it is not practicable to promote from grade to grade more than once each year, and even annual promotion is anything but a simple matter. The problem is this : If we allow eight years for the course, and promote each year, and give each grade four recitations a day, how many classes must our single teacher hear daily f Answer, thirty-two. Manifestly too many ! So we must contrive to reduce the number of grades. Examining, then, the composition of the school, we find that a large proportion, approaching 30 percent., are the new pupils, near C years of age, who must be taught from the very beginning. Their number and the kind of instruction they require justify and ne- cessitate forming them into a class by themselves. This will be the first grddCj and the aim of the teacher will be to teach them to read in the First Reader, and to give them a start in numbers within the year* 142 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. They will require brief but frequeut attention from the teacher, say five periods of ten minutes each. The next largest portion of the pupils, perhaps 25 per cent, of all, will bo those who have made some progress in reading and numbers, and these will be formed into the second grade^ to complete the Second Eeader, with the accompanying exercises in lan- guage, spelling, and writing, and to continue numbers till prepared for primary arithmetic. This grade should have not less than four recita- tions of fifteen minutes each, if possible. Thus one-half or more of the school is provided for in less than two hours of the teacher's ]time. Scarcely three hours remain for the others, who represent six stages of progress, separated by intervals of a year. Divide them as well as pos- sible into three divisions, designated as third, fourth, and fifth grades, corresponding to the readers of the same numbers. Thus if you allow four recitations for each grade you have reduced your recitations from thirty-two to t wen ty. These can be handled in five hours, allowing fifteen minutes to each, and thus a half hour will be saved for general exercises of the entire school, as writing, drawing, singing. Then go to work, hoping for the best, and see what happens. We will conceive that the work is entirely satisfactory, and that the skilf al teacher produces all the re- sults anticipated. At the beginning of the next school year the pupils of the first grade pass easily forward and become the second, the place they leave being filled by the incoming new pupils. The former second grade passes into the third. But what happens to the third ? Bemember that this is one of the three classes into which we divided the pupils scattered over the stages of six years 5 consequently two years are prop- erly requifed for completing its work. Shall we then, after these have pursued their appropriate studies for one year, merge with them as uaiiy more pupils who are just one year behind them in all their studies t Tfa^re seems to be nothing else to do. Let us then do it and manage as best we can. Our third grade, then, is the one which will give us SMist trouble. To reduce the difficulty to the minimum let us select oat tke pupils of the best natural parts and most apt in their studies and kdistea their promotion to the fourth grade. Then carry on the W(vr^ tteoilgrh the year, and see how wo can manage at another period •t* chM^9(w This comes at the opening of tlie next school year, when the fir$: iTFiid^ twomes the second as before, and the second is merged into ttn- tiuni. ni» comiX)site elements of the third must then bo dealt with. T\!«A m»?u^ *i^ have been in the grade two years are ready for promo- ^^.1 «^: «it J^ be iulvanced to the fourtli grade, except such as make m tti r^"* ' tL;:uT5* ia iheir examinations ; while those who have been in Tit> •'^ ** ^"^ -'^^^ ^'^^^ remain and be tarned back a little, to ac- -TjuminiKwt- ^Wr '*^^ olT the ucw members who have just come up from ♦.^ 4k»^'- C i-t* A JWtii gr«*fc» and a year later for the fifth. Finally your ,. ^, wU*rfl»^ its-gi'adtes in operation, and will make its promo- il viMiLi'^N^^^ tl^ ^^^ ^^^^ higher, the disturbance occur- DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDEl^CE. 143 ring in the third, fourth, and fifth grades. This disturbance arises from annual promotions in biennial classes, which causes each section of pupils promoted to go through an experience of alternate hastening and retardation. Those who enter a new grade, being classed with pupils who have been in it a year, must be hastened as much as possi- ble to keep up with these latter, and the next year must in turn be held back to accommodate the new additions. To meet this state of things methods of teaching will be followed which would not be necessary or permissible in the city graded school. The work of the third, fourth, and fifth grades will be done with the understanding that practically much of it is to be gone over twice by each pupil. Such in theory and practice is the five-grade system of classification for a district school, the one adopted in Indiana, extensively followed in Illinois, and generally recognized, I believe, as the most practicable that has been tried. In its workings it is not entirely satisfactory, but it is an immense improvement over the old-fashioned ungraded school, — as much better as certainty is better than chance, though it be the cer- tainty of but a moderate result against the chance of considerably more. In practice the promotion difficulty, so strongly colored above, seldom causes as great disturbance as its statement would suggest. No two country schools are alike, and the number of pupils in the several grades will vary indefinitely, as much as hands in a rubber of whist, though a decrease from the lowest to the highest will generally be found. Thus, usually, the extreme number of classes can be reduced by com- bining two grades in some subject, as geography or numbers, and often an entire grade may be unrepresented, thus giving more time for the others. The work laid out for a teacher in the common branches would seem to be enough for one mortal ; but with his school well graded a teacher of superior qualifications and physical endurance can handle three ad- ditional branches if one of these be book-keeping. Let us select as the other two algebra and Latin. The older pupils who pursue these studies,, constituting a sixth grade, will rise early and do their morning ♦^chores 5^ without waiting for their younger brothers and sisters, they will set out so as to reach the school at 8.30 and recite in algebra for half an hour. At 9 the school will assemble, and fifteen minutes will be spent in singing and in literary or devotional exercises. The sixth grade will receive no more attention from the teacher for the present, but will spend the time till recess in studying algebra and Latin. At 10.30 rQcess for a quarter of an hour. Then the sixth grade, our algebra class, gives an unbroken hour to work upon a set of books, during the last fifteen minutes of which all the other grades are occupied with slates and drawing-books, and the work of all is inspected by the teacher. Then follows fifteen minutes of writing in copy-books by the whole school, and noon is reached. At 1 o'clock the sixth grade recites Latin for half an hour, before the rest of the school assembles, then gives 144 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. another half hour to study of the same subject, and spends an hour and a half in a prescribed course of req-ding in juvenile histories, biography, travels, and fiction, the books for this purpose being supplied from the school libraries. At 3.30 such members of the sixth grade as are needed to help in the evening work of the farm may be dismissed, while others may remain to join the rest of the school in spelling or some kind of general exercises. To the effective working of the course a daily programme of studies and recitations is essential, which should set forth on a chart exactly what each grade must do at every period of the day. This will prevent the waste of time l)y the pupils and the need of constant directions by the teacher. To carry on the course of study the usual helps, stimulants, and ap- pliances employed in cities are necessary — as examinations by the teacher and by the superintendent, teacher's records and reports, cer- tificates and awards to pupils, and the graduation exercises on comple- tion of the fifth grade. These last have proved a most powerful incentive to pupils and have wonderfully awakened the interest of parents and the public. Their influence in inducing regularity of attendance and continuance in the school surpasses anything that has yet been devised. Thus far we have been considering a single school. But if grada- tion is a good thing, it is desirable that every country school should be graded. If this be effected it is almost necessary that all the schools of the same neighborhood be graded alike ; there is great utility iu uniformity within each county, and if so much can be attained it is certainly possible and in many ways desirable that all the counties of a State should adopt the same plan. The agencies through which this can best be effected are: (1) a superintendent of public instruction ; . (2) a State board of education j (3) county superintendents ; (4) county boards of education ; (5) local school boards for cities and towns, and boards or single trustees for townships ; (6) school superintendents for cities, and school principals for towns and townships. These several agencies afford a complete yet simple organization, of which each part is essential to the whole, and the whole and each part are essential to the general enforcement of a course of studies j for .the grading of the couutr^^ schools, as I apprehend the question, in-, volves the whole subject of the administration of the system of public education, implying a control and supervision over the training of teachers in normal schools and institutes, determining their qualifica- tions by examinations, assigning them to positions and regulating their compensation; over the organization and 'management of the schools generally, and the correlation of different kinds of schools among themselves ; over the selection and supply of text-books and apparatus — a highly centralized but at the same time a perfectly flexible system. But a discussion of these parts of the subject would cover the whole range of school supervision, which is beyond the province of this paper. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 145 In conclosioDy mach is urged about iudividuality and the liberty of the teacher, while we seem in this paper to have cast a stereotype form, an inflexible mould, into which every school shall be run. But the dan- ger is not here. In attempting the gradation of the country schools we • do at best but "mete unequal laws" unto a lawless realm, and in hap- piest conditions we can hope for little more than to establish such a degree of order as may restrain inextinguishable liberty from waste • and destruction. The President : This convention having been favored by the au- thorities and people of Washington in many ways, the Ghair will name Dr. Eichard Edwards, of Illinois, Hon. Solomon Palmer, of Alabama, and Hon. L. S. Cornell, of Colorado, as a committee to report appro- priate resolutions this afternoon. The discussion of Superintendent Holcombe's paper was then com- menced by Kon. O. B. Johnson, superintendent of schools, of Colum- bia, S. C, who said : Ladies and Gentlemen^ co-worlcers : I do not propose this morning to enter into a discussion of the details of the system of grading. That ground has been presented very fully and admirably covered by the paper of the gentleman from Indiana. I have, however, jotted down a few notes, which I will give for what they are worth in a few moments. System is necessary to the proper conduct of any business of life, but a system without the spirit of sympathetic, intelligent direction per- vading it, where that system has to do with the development of human character, of the immortal soul — such a system, I say, will not give good results or practical growth; it will produce discord instead of harmony, it will produce spiritual death instead of life. Therefore, in speaking of system, we wish to be understood that it is not in a procrustean sense. President White voices the sentiments of many of the leading educators of this country when he says that he hopes and expects to see established a national system of schools that will be worthy of this great Eepublic — a system where the child can start in the primary schools and advance regularly, step by step, up through the grammar school and high school into the college, and thence into a grand national university from all of the States. It will be a long time before such a consummation, so devoutly to be wished, is brought about. In the mean time, however, the different States should turn their attention to the operation of their own indi- vidual systems. In most of the States, if not all, there is already a system of gradation in the schools from the lowest primary into the colleges, constituting a ladder upon the rounds of which the city boy may mount from the gutter of degradation to the pinnacles of useful- ness and honor. Ko such provision has been made for the country boy and the country school. As a rule they are in a chaotic condition, and it seems to me that some graded course adaptable to the conditions peculiar to the several States is imperatively needed. In many States 3636-^No- 3 10 146 CIECaLAES OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. the country teachers are changing constantly, and we have a constant change of text-books, all for the lack of a prescribed course of study, or if there is no cliange, then it is because the parents are unwilling to buy the books in order that their children may advance in study. I have heard of children attending the country schools for five con- secutive years under five consecutive teachers, and going over the same text-books for five consecutive times, without understanding the books much better the last time than they did the first- Such senseless repetition, caused no doubt by this lack of a graded course of study, or of an intelligent outline by which to work, or in many cases by a lack of intelligence to follow any outline, is not only disap- pointing but is benumbing and deadening to the children. With a system of grading for the country schools by which teachers and pupils could work with an end and an aim they thereby would have their fac- ulties quickened and strengthened. A purposeless, aimless man accomplishes nothing of consequence here. We cannot expect much of a purposeless or aimless system. The many difficulties, however, which confront the Southern State or county superintendent at the very threshhold of his attempt to intro- duce grades into.his school, seem almost insurmountable. The inability of the parents or unwillingness of the parents to buy the necessary text- books 5 the short session of from two and a half or three months a year, between which the pupils forget what has been taught them; the poor pay, and, therefore, the poor teaching which is provided (some teachers get no more than $10 a month in the country districts); the prejudice against everything new that is today so common in country districts— and, I must say that is not confined to country districts alone — the cling- ing to that which is old; the so-called conservatism, even for the old log house with a slit for a window and with cracks between the logs for ven- tilation; or, if it be a ^'howling school," where the teacher compels the children to study aloud for the reason, as he asserts, that if they do not study aloud you cannot tell whether they are studying or not — these are some of the schools and some of the difficulties. Some of them may exist in greater or less degree, but all of them do exist. It would seem, then, that we should first bend ourselves to overcome these difficulties and then turn our attention to the gradation. Judging from my own State of South Carolina, I should say that heroic efforts are being made in the South to correct these evils. We have, for instance, a popula- tion, according to the census of 1880, of whites, 391,105; colored, 604,332; school population, whites, 101,189; colored, 180,495, and an enrolment in proportion. Kow, in our State wo have a constitutional 2-mill tax for the schools. Many communities have levied a local tax, or supplemental State tax. Columbia, the capital of the State, with a population equally divided between the white and colored, has put upon herself, in addition to this constitutional 2-mill tax, an additional local tax of 2 mills to the dol- DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE, 147 lar, making in all 4 mills to the dollar, or 40 cents to the $100, for school purposes, exclusively for the equal educatioual advantage of all chil- dren, without regard to race or color. The burden, however, is greater than can be carried by the South without some assistance. I think it is time that Southern men were announcing and declaring that far and wide. National aid is woefully needed, and, whatever may be said to the contrary, the people desire it. If the question Were put to a vote in South Carolina to-day, with the understanding that local management would not be interfered with by the General Government, it would be carried with an overwhelming ma- iority. South Carolina and other Southern States have no school lands, no school reserve fund, and a population half of which have little prop- erty to pay taxes. The South, however, has tried to do her whole duty to all of her citizens. A great educational revival is in progress through- out that section. She is straining every nerve to meet the great de- mands made upon her for the education of her children, colored as well as white ; but, alas, she must strive in vain to accomplish the Herculean task, self imposed, unless a generous, helping hand is extended by the sister States, in Congress assembled, who are, and should be, equally concerned in the obliteration of illiteracy from every corner of this land by the aid of the common school, of which we are so proud. I say they ought to be equally concerned as those States in which this illit- eracy unfortunately exists. Here I must say that it has warmed the heart of every true Southern man, or rather, I should say, of every true American, to see with what sympathy and unanimity New England and the North have taken to themselves and their representatives an appre- ciation of the difficulties under which the South has labored, and their readiness to meet these difficulties as dangers threatening a common country. The recent response from all parts of this country to relieve sufifer- ing and loss occasioned by that terrible convulsion of nature in the State in which I live, is another link in the golden chain which is now binding the people of this glorious country in the bond of brotherly love. An era of good feeling and mutual esteem, as is shown by the reception of our Southern members here, and on every occasion when such occasion offers, has dawned upon this fair land of ours. God grant that through the agency of universal education, and all other good agencies, it may quickly brighten into the full glory of noonday. Hon. H.C.Speer, State sui)erintendeut of i)ublic instruction, Topeka, Kansas : Ladies and Gentlemen : I labor under the misfortune of Listening to the last part of that admirable address, and for that reason you will pardon me if I am unable to discuss the paper itself pertinently. The subject is one in which I have taken great interest, and which I am ex- ceedingly gratified to find has a place on the programme of this Depart- ment. I believe that the question of grading the work of the country school is one which belongs to the practical development of the State 148 CIECULAES OP INFORMA.TION FOE 1887. departments of public instraction in this country. It is to these de- partments, and not to th^ State organizations, that the work of sys- tematizing the teaching of the country schools must be trusted. It is through the State superintendents, with the co-operation of the various county superintendents, that it is to be accomplished. I think there is no question about this. I feel assured that the discussion of the ques- tion by those gentlemen who go into institutions through our several States and give instruction upon the art of teaching and upon the prac- tical management of schools can largely aid in the work. I have very little to say this morning upon the question of whether a grading of country schools is a possible thing. I have settled this long ago. I think it is a practical undertaking. I am here to explain briefly this statement. I do not wish to compare the work of the country schools with that of the city schools, and the man who is accustomed to man- aging city schools, who goes into a country teachers' institute of 150 people, assembled from the various rural districts, and undertakes to tell them that they can manage and teach country schools as he has done the city schools, simply announces himself as an impractical man. But there are possibilities that may be brought before teachers in the country. As the gentleman wlio read this paper said, the average teacher of the country school is not a man or woman upon whom you can depend for the development of a course of study. That is why I say it belongs to the State superintendent. Here is the comparison be- tween a country and a city school — we can give to the average country teacher an interpretation of that misty term, geography. What is geog- raphy *? What is arithmetic or grammar? You could take the teacher who has come out of the country school house to teach or who is a grad- uate of a high school in town. That person is a very good candidate for a first-grade certificate in a country school, or for a second-grade certificate. Do you expect him, without assistance, with but an occa- sional visit from a county superintendent, or circular from the State su- perintendent, to go into that school and develop for those pupils the elements of geography teaching ? You cannot expect this. The superintendent of a city school does not leave to his teachers this solu- tion'. You do not allow any teacher in a city school to determine what grammar is. You bind your teachers pretty closely to the very i)rinciples of the teaching of grammar. The country school teacher is left an absolute monarch in his school. He is often there without even a printed guide. The average school boy knows and decides for himself what he is going to study. He announces, *" I am going to study arithmetic and grammar this winter," and that settles it. I have visited country schools where, upon asking the teacher how many pupils were studying geography, he had to determine by counting up how many were studying it. There was a lack of classification. K"ow, what do we ask when we talk about this problem ? We ask a course of study, a suggestion to that DEPARTMENT OF SUPERIKTENDENCE. 149 grand army of young men and women who are ambitions, who are con- scientious, and who want to do good teaching: We ask for a guide. I want that young man to know and be able to say to his pupils, ^'When you have accomplished such and such work, I can say to you, you have a pretty good knowledge of arithmetic.'^ You ask a country boy what he is studying, and he will tell you he is studying the readers. At the age of fourteen he has been through the arithmetic three times. At the age of twenty-one he will go to school with the same books, and there is no one to tell him that there is something above and beyond that point. There is no one to say to him, '^ I want to teach you this and this, and when we get there we will take the next step. I do not want to keep on grinding over and over again." Here you let the child come in when he has forgotten all he once knew, and you ask him a few ques- tions and he answers them, and you think you have accomplished a great deal, and after all you have to begin at the beginning again. It is a tiresodie and monotonous revolving around and around and around, a constant revolution and very little progress. Kow, what is the first idea with regard to grading a country school ? It is to set before the country Echool teacher an objective point. He will set the children's mind upon this point. The child is ambitious. Immediately the practical application of this question comes in un- dertaking to introduce a system of gradation into the country school, which is an impossibility. I think there ought to be a printed outline of study and instruction in every State of the Union. There ought to be one in every county ; and I do not care whether in the same State the course of study is uniform or not, or whether it shall be one that this Department shall adopt ; but I do care that it should be a course of study that should develop into something practical, that will do genuine good and will avoid a great waste of time and energy. I would sim- ply suggest, Mr. President, with regard to the practical development of the question, that I see Mr. Macdonald is here, and he will doubtless give us some of the practical experiences in our State. Hon. John Macdonald, Topeka, Kans. : Looking over this pro- gramme I find myself like a private on the battle-field. The colonel and the captain have taken to the woods, one or two of the superior oflScers are left, and the private feels a reluctance in coming to the front. A private, however, has one great consolation — that he is not likely to have a fearful and wonderful sketch of himself in the morning papers. I be- lieve it was Dr. Samuel Johnson who said, on hearing that an acquaint- ance was going to write his biography, "That adds new terrors to death." I think the sort of sketches we have been having adds new terrors to the National Association. I suppose that a great many of you look at this subject under discus- sion from the elevation of your great city schools in a sort of theoreti- cal manner. We unfortunates have to grapple with it every day, and to carry on a hand-to-hand fight, and it is to us an intensely practical 150 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. question. The necessity for grading coantry schools is not so apparent to yon as it is to us, and we are required to carry out these details. Pupils are promoted from book to book and from school to school at the sweet wills of parents, teachers, and school officers, and in even many cases the pupils promote themselves. Studies are pursued in a sort of circular manner. The pupil begins with a book at the beginning of the term ; he goes to a certain page in the spring ; he comes back, begins at the beginning of the book, and goes to the same place in the fall ; he comes back next spring and begins again, and goes to the same point or a few pages beyond ; and so goes on and on in a circular way, to my personal knowledge, for eight or ten years. In many States of this Union the condition of things is much the same as when there was no King in Israel. While it is apparent that tlie necessity for grading exists, the more I study this question the more I am impressed by Herbert Spencer's words, " a system of education grows, it is not made ; " and its growth is insensible. While the necessity for training schools is apparent, the difficulties are almost insurmountable in some States. You have no idea of what difficulty they have in carrying out courses of study in the States that are cursed with the independent school district system. I suppose some of them — most of them — have that system in their respect- ive States. An independent school district is a tract of country from a quarter to twenty miles in area which elects its own officers, adopts its own text books, selects its own teachers, and is responsible to no one, and in harmony with nothing. In some of the counties of our State we have 267, 335, and 458 school officers, and in one county 558, enough men to capture a fort. Before the county superintendent can carry out the details of any particular course of study it is necessary to secure the approval, the co-operation, of 558 persons. I want to say to you that some of these persons cannot read or write. We have been told here time and again that we must not distrust the people. I do not distrust the people, but I have a deep and strong distrust of any system of edu- cation which makes it possible for three or four illiterate men to select teachers for my children. Various efforts have been made to establish courses of study, but owing to these difficulties which I have mentioned they have had but partial success. In my own county I was compelled to begin at the wrong end of the course. I thought it better to begin there than not at all. Kow, here is another difficulty. In order to have any uniformity in laying out a course of study the school terms should begin on the same day and close on the same day. We hare 3, 4, 5, G, 8, 9 months ; school terms begin every month from the 1st of September to November, and close from the 1st of February to the 1st of July. How is it possible to secure uniformity ? Mirabeau, the French statesman, said, " Impos- sible! Do not mention that word." If he had tried to construct uni- formity out of our school system he would not have si)oken so hastily. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 151 But, notwithstanding this, we are trying to do our best and hoping for better things. The best course of study that I have examined is that adopted by Mr. Speer and now enforced in our State to a more or less extent. This course of Mr. Speer has that flexibility which we need in any course, and that we must have in country schools. The course of study in a country school must have elasticity to it. Set measurements have been tried and proven failures, and we want a course of study such as outlined here by Mr. Holcombe and such as Mr. Speer has prepared. Such a course is practicable ; but in order to make it successful we need to centralize the control of the schools by widening out such a sys- tem as I have mentioned, and by having local control in one or three men, and having a county board of education which can prescribe and enforce uniformity to a given course of study. As it is now the enforcement of things of this sort depends upon par- ticular individuals. As men die, another government will arise which knows not Joseph, and probably will know nothing else, and all of the work will be scattered to the four winds of heaven. Our system of grading country schools should have the sanction and force of law. Several years ago I announced that I would hold exam- inations at the close of the school year — that is, if it were possible to find out when the close of the school year came. I took an average, and called an examination some time in April as a kind of experiment, to see how it worked, and I was so satisfied with the success of the experiment that I have continued the work ever since. I have now reduced it to a system, and we hold examinations in every townsh'ix) in our county, there being eleven of them. Questions are sent out under seal, committees then hold examinations, the papers are then returned to me, and I do the grading and issue the diplomas. Last year we issued seventv. Kow, one good result of this system was this : If I had a piece of chalk I could illustrate it better. I believe in object lessons. [Going to the blackboard and illustrating.] Now, I draw a line. That is the way studies are pursued in our country schools. The lines may repre- resent geography, grammar, &c. The result that I have found in hav- ing this examination at the close of the year is this-— it creates interest in every school in the county, and naturally directs them to the common school course, because they know that in order to obtain the average required they must have at least 60 per cent., and they must not fall below it in any one average, because they know that in order to pass this examination they will have to obtain it. I find, also, that the parents take an interest in the work of the children, so that there was an ob- jective point made, and I am so satisfied with the work that I propose to continue it. As I stated before, while this work is for particular in- dividuals, if we would have anything like complete success we must 152 CIECULARS OE INFORMATION FOR 1887. have an authoritativo source from which the coarse should emanate, and this should have the force of law. After us there will arise superintendents whose shoes we are not worthy to lace, and I say now for their speedy comiug let us all hope and pray and work. Hon. M. A. Kewell, State superintendent of public instruction, Baltimore, Md. : I speak with great reluctance on this occasion, as on all occasions. It is only a feeling of duty that brings me up here to-night, with a hope that the sketcher will not be around'. It is something like fourteen years since I commenced preaching the gospel of a uniform schedule for country as well as for city schools. When I say the same I mean the same not in degree but in kind.- Some time ago I went through all the counties of our State, gathered the teachers around me, offered to them a uniform schedule, explained the nature of it and the advantages, and for two long years my voice was as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. There was no response, except *^It is impracticable 5 it is impossible; we cannot yet do in the country what you do in the city." The best thing, as my friend from Topeka has told us, is to bring in the strong arm of the law. So the State board of education issued a schedule, and by law required it to be enforced in every school of every county in the State. We are for- tunate in not being troubled with the independent school district. We have only one, a little school district of about 450,000, the city of Baltimore, the only independent school district in the State. We are for- tunate again in having superintendents who do not come in every year or every two years, but whose terms of office are practically for life or good behavior, or some very sudden turn up in politics. We have one gentle- man who has been superintendent of his countj^ for twenty-one years. We have now, what we have not always had, a tenure of office on the part of the teachers which is practically for life or during good behavior. The order upon the subject is simply this — that a teacher once appointed legally retains his office until he resigns or is dismissed. The power of prompt dismissal is still retained but is seldom exercised. With a uni- form body of superintendents and a fairly uniform body of teachers there is not much difficulty in having a uniform course of study. The county superintendent makes quarterly, or half yearly or yearly, a uni- form set of questions for his county. These are answered by the teachers and the result reported to him. Then we have diplomas for those who have passed the grammar grades and others for the high school grades. I shall add only a single observation in reference to what the super- intendent of Kansas said when he seemed to insinuate that the country schools are at a disadvantage as compared with the city schools. I have not found this disadvantage. I find that although nominally in the list of graded studies your pupil from the high school of the city is ahead of the high school pupil from the country, and probably of grammar school pupils of the same grades, but when they get to work you can get DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 153 more work from the country boy or girl than from the city boy or girl. I do not know that they will pass as good an examination, but I do say when you get to work that the best work is done by the country children. Hon. J. W. HoLCOMBE, Indianapolis, Ind. : I should like to call out a former superintendent from Indiana whom I am pleased to find here. I am quite sure that the convention would like to hear from Mr. M. A. Mess. Mt. M. a. Mess, Washington, D. C: Fellow-tedchers : lean stand before this audience with entire impunity from the sketchtaker, because I am a Government clerk, and the Government clerk is not noticed by the sketchtaker or anybody else particularly. Forfiveyearslwasactively engagedin the work of superintending the schools of a county in Indiana, and I can speak from experience on the subject of gradation. The point made by the State superintendent of Kansas^ that the course of study should emanate from the State super- intendent, I think is not well taken, from the fact that the State sui)er- intendent is too far removed from the immediate working force of the county. The woik of gradation must emanate from the working force m the county. For four years we agitated in our county the work of gradation against all objections. We found that advocating it did not help it along; we had to take hold of it ourselves and push it for- ward. The first thing we did in our county was to prepare not only a course of study, but brief and pointed directions how to put that course of study into practical operation in the school room. The course of study that we prepared at that time of course was not based upon ex- perience. We had to take what we considered a practical plan, and although we did not labor under the difficulties that some of the speakers here have mentioned of having an independent district, &c., yet we bad all of the other difficulties that are common to country schools. The children are distributed over wide territories, they have difficulty in attending school regularly, the terms of the schools are varied from three to ten months, each beginning everywhere from September to December, and yet we had to make our course of study and the practi- cal operation of it so flexible that it will satisfy all these difficulties to a certain extent. What was to be done ? We had to bring order out of chaos. Our board divided the work that was expected to be done in the district schools. The mastery of the common school branches had to be so distributed over the proper length of time and properly adjusted, so that each pupil could complete the course at that time. I think, too, that our course of study was adapted for the State. There were fifty different systems from different counties, each having a dif- ferent course of study and plan of operation, yet all reaching forward and tending to accomplish the end in view. From all of these courses of study which emanated, not from the State superintendent, not from the central authority of the State, but from each county superintendent and the teachers, we built up a harmonious whole. 154 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. In the States where this has not been accomplished, I hold that the work must begin with the teacher. If your teaching force is not edu- cated up to the point that the work of the pupil must be reduced to a system, your teacher is not ready for the work of grading a school. The county superintendent, in all States where there is one, should be the leader in this matter, and should not only arrange the course of study but should prepare a hand-book to put into the hands of the teacher that will guide him in the arrangement of his work and in car- rying it out. This book need not bind the teacher to any particular system of instruction, or to any particular method or plan; it should simply be placed in his hands to form a general guide to lead him in the right direction, to put his schools upon such a basis as will bring them together, draw them to a converging line, and be able to build them up on a classified basis. A course of study issued by the State authority is very good theoretically, but you will find that the teacher, the country teacher, will always look upon it as something which is handed down from a person who does not come into practical contact with the work. Therefore, educate your teachers and your teaching force to the necessity of reducing the work Qf the district schools to a system of arranging the work of the children in such way as to make a systematic whole. You will find that you will accomplish more by be- ginning at home and working from the immediate source than you will by commencing at the top and working downwards. Hon. B. S. Morgan, State superintendent of public instruction, Charleston, W. Va. : I do not rise to discuss this subject, but to make a statement in regard to Monongalia County, West Virginia, and its public schools, when we undertook the grading of the schools in that county. The good work which was set on foot by Mr. Wait met with serious obstruction by his going out of office by a change in the law, abolishing the office of county superintendent. That lasted for two years. At the next session of the Legislature the law was again changed and required the superintendent to visit the schools. At that time I was elected county superintendent, and prepared an outline course for the schools that has been in operation ever since, and is to-day. I am glad to say thafc twenty counties in the State have these published out- lines. You will see from this that it is not a dead letter in West Vir- ginia, but we have the same obstructions in the way that we have every- where. The work is going forward, and we expect to try at our next State educational association to prepare a plan and try to have it adopted at the next session of the Legislature for the entire State. In this purpose we have some facilities. We have a one-book series for the entire State, and we think that this will be one facility towards the adoption of a course of study for the entire State. We are heartily in sympathy with the work in West Virginia, and expect to push it forward until we have a course of study for the entire State. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 155 Hon. A. G-. Lane, superintendent of schools, Cook Goanty, Illinois: Just one word. I wish to call attention to this — that in every State there is an average, an expected requirement of work for every country school under the State law. If there can be an omtline prepared and issued from the State department covering this minimum of requirement of the State law, acc&mpanied by suggestions that are helpful, that are simply to direct, so that from this department to every county there can be issued this general outline, and upon that outline superintend- ents may have the power to enlarge or limit, or improve as the necessi- ties of the case may require, we have then the foundation that the State law demands^ and with such an outline as spoken of in the paper of Mr. Holcombe as required in Indiana, giving perfect freedom for the super- intendent to enlarge or limit, as he may desire, and as the needs of his school may require, we have found the means by which you may reach all of the counties of the State, those counties that are neglected in their supervision, and when the State superintendent is in harmony with the great movement to reach all the schools and all the children, to arouse public sentiment and assist the county superintendents in enforcing this outline, in directing the educational work, and in arous- ing public sentiment in regard to the education of the children, then we have laid the foundation that can be built upon everywhere, an outline that can be made to suit the necessities of South Carolina at the present time, or of North Carolina, which will be different from that which is required in the States of New York and Pennsylvania. So, Mr. Presi- dent, it seems to me that the work is progressing. Let us hope that there may be this outline embracing the minimum of requirement of the law as presented by the State department, leaving the county super- intendent free to act upon it as the necessities may require. Upon the conclusion of Mr. Lane's remarks, at 12.45 o'clock, the con- vention adjourned. EIGHTH SESSION. The convention was called to order at 1.30 o'clock, Thursday, Maich 17, 1887. The committee appointed to take under consideration the paper of Dr. Andrew J. Rickoff, on "A Teacher's Certificate, County, City, State, and National," through their chairman, Dr. B. A. Hinsdale, presented the following report : The committee to whom were referred Mr. Rickoff's paper on the certificates of teachers, respectfuUy report : ' I. Inasmnclji as four-fifths or more of the teachers in the rural district schools of al- most, if not all, the States are mere apprentices in the business of teaching, and in- asmuch as tact in government and skill in the work of instruction is as much needed by the teacher as literary and scientific attainments, it is clear — (1) That successive examinations of beginners should be directed to induce improve ment in the branches of study required and in the art of teaching 156 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. (2) That the certificates of this class of teachers shonld be limited to six months, or at most one school year ; (3) That they should be limited to the territorial jurisdiction of the board or other authority by which they were issued ; and — (4) That when the examining authority is a county superintendent of schools he should himself hold a first-grade teacher's certificate, and when it consists of a board of examiners t^ should contain one or more persons who holdjuch certificates. 2. Teachers who have had five years of successful experience and hold first-grade certificates shonld be relieved of the necessity of periodical examinations on obtaining State certificates from a State board of examiners, or other State authority appointed by law for that purpose. 3. Stat« certificates should be valid throughout the State in which they are issued, and should be accepted as valid in other States under such conditions as may be estab- lished by law in the respective States. 4. The representatives of the several States in the Department of Superintendence may facilitate the policy herein recommended by considering at this, or subsequent meetings, whether the conditions of this reciprocity should bo based on eqnal condi- tions of certification in the several States, or whether the certificates of one State should be accepted by other States for their face value. 5. The profession of teaching should fix its own standard independent of the State (and without regard to service in the public schools), and this committee would re- spectfully suggest the consideration by this Department and by all State teachers' as- sociations of the practical means by which this may be realized. Respectfully, * B. H. HINSDALE. FRED. M. CAMPBELL. W. N. BARRINGER. RICHARD EDWARDS. M. A. NEWELL. The resolutions were adopted. The president then introduced Hon. Warren Easton, State super- intendent of public education in Louisiana, who read the following paper : THE BEST SYSTEM OF STATE SCHOOL SUPERVISION. Mr, President and Gentlemen: It is not the purpose of this paper to present any dogmatic views as to the ^' best system of State supervis- ion,'' but simply to make it a basis of discussion. I feel that this is the most important question that the convention has had before it, and one upon which time and careful study should be bestowed. I believe that upon a proper State supervision depends the perfect development of the common school system of the country. As all great bodies move and are controlled systematically, so should the educational work of a State be so systematized as to move in perfect unison j all departments should so fit one to another that there would be no adverse friction. To establish this ideal system has been the desire of our educators since schools have been founded, and, possibly, before it is perfected as many more years will have rolled around as have come a"tid gone since the establishment of the free school system. I believe that to-day every State and Territory has made the proper beginning towards the establishment of a system of State supervision. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 157 Whether any one has succeeded in developing a perfectly satisfactory one I cannot say. I am sure that such is not the case in my State, for there exists constant dissatisfaction caused by the difference of opin- ion as to the authority of the chief school officer. Every State should have a bureau of education, the chief officer of which should be the State superintendent of public instruction. This bnrean of education could be called the State board of education, or any other appellation, provided it carried with it the proper significa- tion. This State board of education should be clothed with absolute legislative power. The powers and duties of this board should be clearly defined by law, as follows : To prepare rules and regulations for the government of the common schools of the State, which should be adopted and enforced under the authority and direction of the county, city, or division superiutendents in all cases where the school trustees have failed to enforce the same. It should, from time to time, select and adopt a proper course of study and a suitable list of textbooks for all the common schools in the State, which text-books the trustees or directors of the various cities, towns, or districts should use in their respective cities, towns, or districts ; provided said books be not changed offener than once in four years. The said board of education should recommend suitable works for district libraries, and such standard works and professional aids for the teachers as it deems proper on educational science and the art of teaching. The board should have the power to require the trustees or superin- tendents to report everything that, in its judgment, is necessary to fur- ther the interests of the common schools of the State. The board should prepare for district school libraries a list of books suitable for such libraries, which might, from time to time, be amended, revised, and enlarged, and to prepare uniform rules and regulations for the government of same. Absolute control being granted to this board of education, the im- portant question arises, who should compose this board 1 I think the Governor and attorney-general should be members; the first, be- cause he is the executive of the State, and directly interested in the success of every department of the State ; the second, because he is required to be the legal adviser of the board. The State superintend- ent should be the executive of the board. The other members of the board should be the division superintendents. The State should be divided into divisions, according either to area or population ; over each division a superintendent should be placed ; this officer could be called a division superintendent, or an assistant State superintendeut ; and should be, by virtue of his office, a member of the State board of education. The General Assemby having determined how many divisions are nec- essary for a proper supervision of the State, it will become the duty of the State superintendent to present to the Governor the names of those 158 CIECULAES OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. ho iU>8tres to be appointed as division superintendents ; the Governor, thoiif by and with the advice and consent of the senate, should appoint Olio division superintendent for each division, said person to be a resi- dent of the division for which he is appointed. Tlio division superintendents, so appointed and chosen, should take the oaths required of State officers, and should hold office for four years, or in accordance with the constitutional term of office of the State of which they are residents. The board so constituted should hold one regular annual meeting at the capital of the State, in the office of the State superintendent of public instruction, and such other meetings as occasion required. Division superintendents should have general supervision of all com- mon schools within their respective divisions, subject to all rules and regulations passed by the State board of education. They should examine and certify to the qualifications of all applicants within their respective divisions, unless such appli cants hold certificates from the State board of examiners. They sho uld receive and trans- mit all reports from the board of school trustees to the State superin- tendent. They should make all arrangements for meeting teachers who ar« desirous of being examined, and for the transaction of all other business within their jurisdiction. They should have the power to revoke the certificate of any teacher iu tht> division for any reason thatwould have justified the withholding tUewof when the same was given. They should, annually, make a i't^|K>rt to the State board of education, containing a digest of the reports iiuhI^ to thorn by the local school authorities, and such other matters as I ho.v (ithouhl l>c desired to report by the said local school authorities, kkkid Huch tt» they, themselves, may think pertinent and material, and o*jHH»itUly »uoh as will show the condition of the schools under their 'IHio> iihiHiUli ut all times, conform to th'e instructions of the State U»4U'il uf iHlUiH^tJon us to matters within their jurisdiction, and should f^vu vo »w tho iM'^iis of communication between the State board of edu- \u4MiMh (hv l^^iAto Muperiutendent of public instruction, and the district UoiH dK ol' trujifeooi*^ They should furnish the district boards of trustees in U^aohom with M blanks, circulars, and other communications which .uo lo lUoiu du\^4^ttHU Hiul should entertain and decide all appeals taken iu»iu Uu> diH'i.^umj* of district boards of school trustees, which should be Utial, uulo.^.^ tho a^k^Hvul he carried to the State board of education be- U»il^ lUo i\\piii4tiuu of thirty days. They should organize and conduct, t»uiH' lu oM-h .\oiw\ ut >iUoh time, after conference with the State su- pi\iimou\lout of puWio Instruction, as may be designated, a teachers' iumIuuIo, Hi .soiuo cvatrul locality, which is easy of access and where lo.u.luM.i will avi^oive tho ouoouragement of hospitality. hi tlus wmlik tho JiUiH^nuteud ents should be aided by the professors III liio 8uvlo uui'iuul iiohoul> ur some practical teachers appointed by the .SUlIo su^Hu-iutomloutof ^uhUo instruction. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 159 « They should also encoarage and assist at teachers' associations, to be convened frequently, urging the attendance of the teachers, for the pur- pose of mutual conference and instruction in their duties. They should also report the number of private schools, academies, and colleges; the number of pupils, and all other information, in such form as the State superintendent may prescribe, so as to present a fall view of their educational facilities. State superintendent of public instruction. — ^The State superintendent of public instruction should be a constitutional officer, elected at the general election with other constitutional officers ; his term of office should be for four years ; his salary, commensurate with the dignity and requirements of the office ; his office should be at the seat of govern- ment, in which should be filed all papers, reports, and public documents transmitted to him by the division superintendents of the several divis- ions, and by the boards of trustees, each year separately, and hold the same in readiness to be exhibited to the Governor, or to a committee firom either house of the General Assembly, at any time when required, and should be required to keep a fair record of all matters pertaining to his office. He should make a full report to the General Assembly at each session, which should embrace a statement of the condition of the common schools throughout the State, the number of pupils attending in the va- rious towns and districts, and the condition of the public school libra- ries ; also, a statement of all rules and regulations adopted by the State board of education, and whatever suggestions he may deem it expedi- ent to offer upon the efficient working of the school law. The State superintendent should be charged with the general super- vision of all the division superintendents, and all the common, high, and normal schools of the State ; and should see that the school system, as early as practicable, is carried into effect and put into uniform opera- tioiu With a general view to these special duties, he should meet the division superintendents at least once in each year, in each division, at such time and place as he may appoint, giving due notice of each meet- ing ; and it should be the duty of the division superintendents to at- tend each meeting, the object of which should be to accumulate valu- able facts relative to common schools, to compare views, discuss prin- ciples, and, in general, to listen to all communications and suggestions, and to enter into all discussions relative to compensation of teachers, their qualifications, branches taught, method of instruction, text-books, divisions, libraries, apparatus, and all other matters embraced in the common school system. He should visit such schools as he may have it in his power to do, and see the manner in which they are conducted. He should cause to be printed and distributed all acts bearing upon educational legislation, together with all forms, regulations, and in- structions, among the division superintendents. He should also pre- pare and have distributed to the several division superintendents a 160 CIRCfULARS OF INFORMATION^ FOR 1887. form of certificate in blank to be issued to teachers, and all other blanks found necessary to be used in carrying on the school system. He should make a report to the General Assembly and State board of edu- cation of the condition and needs of the schools of the State, annually or biennially. The State superintendent and the division superintendents should be constituted a board of examiners, which should examine all teachers applying for State certificates. Said board of examiners should hold its session at the State capital once in each year, and the session should continue as many days as necessary to complete the work. The State superintendent, with the necessary number of division superin- tendents to make a majority, should be required to sign each certificate issued before it became valid. They should not grant a certificate to any applicant until they be- came satisfied that he was possessed of a good moral character, a knowledge of the branches of study required in the compion school course, together with physiology and hygiene, and a fair ability to teach and govern a school. The certificate should be good for five years, and if the holder teaches the five years continuously the said certificate should be renewed without subjecting him to another exami- nation. The State board of examiners should be instructed to recognize the diploma of the State normal or normals, and to issue a certificate to the holder without further examination. These, gentlemen, are some of my views on what is necessary to de- velop the " best system of State supervision.'' I think the subject so important that, after the discussion, a committee should be appointed to which it should be referred, with instructions to report upon it at the meeting of the Department in Chicago. Discussion on Mr. Easton's paper was opened by Dr. Eiohabd Ed- wards, State superintendent of public instruction, of Illinois, who said : Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: The able and exhaustive paper to which you have listened will make it unnecessary for me to give anything like a complete statement of the duties and powers of those officers whose duties and powers we are discussing — State superintend- ents of public instruction. I shall, therefore^ be permitted to confine myself to a few of the points which, it seems to me, in the present ex- igency of our school history, require to be emphasized. The millennium is coming, and we shall have all these things to which our friend from the South has so ably adverted some day. We shall be kings and queens in the country one of these days, but for the present we are in the wilderness, we are only travelling towards the promised land, and I will call your attention to some of the things that we need just now on our way towards the results we seek. In the first place, let me say that it is the duty of the State superin- tendent to collect statistics. We need them. We want to know some- DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 161 thing about the onward march of the canse; to know how it stands this year as compared with last year; to see whether there is greater atten- tion given to the necessities of different school communities. Are these parents more considerate of their duties towards their children and more careful of the attendance of children upon the schools ? Are these tax- payers becpming more and more aware of the worth of the property on which they pay taxes of this institution of the public school, and are they, therefore, growing more liberal ? And so with many other things. We need to know how things are going, and for that purpose we need the gathering of statistics from different parts of the State under the care and eye of this officer. I want to say that there is a point where statis- tics had better be dropped. Statistics are not a panacea for all the ills that flesh is. heir to. We may go crazy over these things even. There is an old adage that we used to hear in my boyhood, that "Figures won't lie,^ but then you and I know that they will. They are just as unreli- able as men are, and so in gathering statistics you must have an eye to what is real. There are a great many things that it is our moral duty not to know in this world. If I burden myself with all the things that are within my reach I should bo crushed by the weight of my attainments, and I do not want to run the risk of it. And so there are many things that I leave, and I think it would be wise for us all only to collect those things that are applicable to, and that bear directly upon, the progress of our work. A State superintendent and all other State officers need to know the fsbota that can be used in presenting the claims of the free school to the pupil. Do I know of a district of country where they are growing lax, where the amount of money is failing, where the attendance is falling offf For in some of the school districts of this country I know there is a diminution of the school appropriations. Do i know where the attend- ance is Mling offf Here is the thing I want to know. I want the fig- ures for it in black and white, so that we can hold it up as a warning where a warning is needed. It is astonishing how much knowledge there is in this world. The State of Illinois has a great many people who do not know the provisions of the school law. Every day I have letters in regard to trifling matters. There are large numbers of copies of the school law printed and circulated, but they know nothing of it. They expect to write letters to nje and to have their attention directed to the particular sections of the code, and so on. That is one of the things a superintendent has to do. Another thing is to aid the Legislature by the aid of reasonable in- fluences. For one I am not willing to have even an improvement in the school law effected except on the basis of a conviction in the minds of the Legislature and of the public. I want to know the ground I am standing on. I know several things in respect to which I would like to have the law changed, but I know that for some of them the public sentiment is not ready, and the effect of that would be disastrous to the free school enterprise, and so, therefore, I want legislation helped where 3^6— No, 3 11 162 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. it can be reasonably accomplished, and where such changes, properly presented, will be sanctioned by the public. In the next place a State superintendent ought to assist the county superintendents. The plan of my excellent friend from Louisiana would make it possible for the State superintendent to wield whatever influence was necessary. This has not arrived in my State as yet Every county superintendent is as independent as a king. I can only reach him by obtaining his sympathy. I find, however, among that body of men, 103 of them, that there is an excellent spirit. I think there has been a great advance in our State on that subject. The char- acter of the county superintendent has improved, and I do not know that that body of men is unprepared for anything that could rea- sonably be presented and which it saw to be for the advantage of the great interests of the public school. It is a wise thing for meetings to bo held in divisions of the State, for the State to be divided into di- visions, and for the county superintendents in each division to be asked to meet the State superintendent and discuss the questions that i^crtaih to the progress of education, the application of the school laws, the question of the qualification of the teachers, and the instrumentalities to bo employed to secure better attendance and other good results. I shall issue circulars, I think, to the county superintendents in our State, and ask them to meet, some in the northern part of the State, some in the central part, and in the different sections of the State, and in that way I shall hope to meet all the superintendents in the State of UUniua, and to take counsel with them in regard to the progress of edu- cation. This is one of the duties of the State superintendent. Another of his duties is to do what he can for the improvement of tlui (umutry scliools. I heard a talk upon that this morning ; I heard Houio excellent things, and I listened with a great deal of interest, for I said this is exactly in my line. So I listened to the suggestions that wcve madi^ and 1 am sure that I shall go home the wiser for having heard that discussion. A great deal has been done for these schools in my State. There has been at least one manual prepared, containing a oouvse of stuily and suggestions, which has been very largely used in dilUuout counties of the State with the very best possible results. I hold it to bo my duty, us the constitutional officer of the State, to do wliut I can to carry forward that work, in order that we may avoid the (lilUoultios to which reference was made this morning, difficulties aris- iu;^ IVom tiio lack of understanding between the different schools. We wiiut, tlioroforo, to avoid tliese difficulties, and for that purpose the State su[KMintiuidont hinis^^U' onglit to become as thoroughly familiar with the couditiou of tluv country schools as it is possible for him to be. The {^ri'iit cities are able to take care of themselves. The great city of Chi- i''iVfj!;oj tor instance, in onr State, does not care whether there is a State superintendent of education or not. They have good schools and means to carry them t'orwaiHl, iniblic sentiment to sustain them, and wisdom DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 163 to do the best thiug for their schools. It is not necessary that personal attention should bo given to them on the part of the State officer ; but the country schools, where men are moving along year after year, are not so much shaken up by the agitation of the time that disturbs other sections. These are the places where something ought to be done, and where the local influences . ought to be helped in support of the free schools. Here is where the superintendent ought to make himself per- sonally felt. I do not think it is wise, but 1 will just add a few words more. Another thing that the superintendent ought to do is to assist in the conducting of teachers' institutes. I have not a particle of control over the teachers' institutes of our State. I cannot dictate to them. The county superintendents suggest the subjects, and they appoint the time 5 they are entirely under the control of these officers; but I can go and show my good- will at these institutes. I can go and speak to those county superintendents and other officers, and it is my duty to do it. I want to say one other word which seems to me to be very true and somewhat important. The State superintendent of public instruction ought, to the best of his ability, to do what he can to improve the prep- aration of teachers, to improve their professional preparation, and to increase the usefulness of those who have a profession proper. He can only do this by using his influence ; he cannot order anything, and in our State we do not believe in central authority. All his influence, whatever it may be, ought to be exercised on the side of a better pro- fessional preparation in the teachers that are employed in the schools. I tell you, my friends, we have a great many instrumentalities here. We have had presentations here to-day and yesterday of ways and means for advancing the cause of education by means of studies, by means of contrivances and machinery, but these are only outward forms. I want to tell you that after all they are dead things. There is just one live thing in this work of education, and that is a live teacher, fit for the work in which he is engaged. Therefore, the man who is in office does the very best that can be done for the improvement of the school when he does something towards improving the qualifications of these teachers. Let us, then, do what we can to improve this thorough preparation. The world is full of shams; let us then do what we can to encourage thorough preparation on the point of the teachers, and not only that, but a high ideal in the mind of every teacher concerning the nature of his work. We need to believe in our work, and, incidentally, in ourselves in connection with it. We do not want to reverse the order of these things, but we do want to have faith in the work, and faith in our ability to perform it. My friends, I have said in times past, and it really seems now that after the experience of the years that I have had I may repeat here to-day^ that if, in the case of 164 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. a teaclier, we are to have our choice between good literary qualifica- tionS; with a lack of professional enthnsiasm on the one hand and poor literary qualifications on the other, with the presence of a right professional enthusiasm along with this poverty of literary attain- ments, I would take the latter. Any man, or woman either, who is lack- ing in literary qualifications, but who has a faithful, loyal purpose to per- form his, or her, duty, will have the qualifications sometime. I remem- ber one notable instance. It was in the State of Massachusetts, where they know everything that is worth knowing. I remember, years ago, that the venerable president of Harvard College was a member of a State board of education, and a certain gentleman, very well known, was i)roposed for secretary of that board. Some of the members said, <*Oh, no 5 it will never do. He is not a college graduate ; he has never received a diploma." Said the president, " I want to say to you that if he does not know enough to be secretary of the board of education now, if you elect him he will kuo\v enough in six months;'' and that was the highest kind of a recommendation. He was elected and became a distinguished suc- cess. Now, I hope you will not infer that I place a low estimate on lit- erary qualifications. I do not believe that one of the wants of the time is more profound knowledge. We ought to have a profound attainment in every man who has to do with the administration of this great enterprise of the public schools, but we want something that will guarantee, not present attainments alone, but greater attainments as the years come and go, and then we will have something more valuable than the present can disclose. We have ill Illinois a school law, and, I should think, from the number of bills that are now before the Legislature proposing to change the law, that it must bo one of the worst laws ever enacted. Well, I think it ahouhl bo changed; it is imperfect. But let me tell you one thing, that the school law of Illinois, or any other State, imperfect though it may be, is better lltttnl to accomi)lish its work than the general average of the qualitlctttions of the teacher. This is not a very popular thing to say at a teachers' convention, but I find quite a number of teachers who will indorse it. A good, thorough, earnest, well-informed, self-educated body of teachers will do good work, and under the best law ever contrived a body of teacluu's of poor character will certainly do poor work, and so this association, and all other associations of teachers and of superin- teudouts, have it in their power to effect results just where they can be used to the best advantage in the onward march of this great work of i\ducation, namely, in the improvement of the qualifications and in the iharacter of teaehers. lion. Si)Li)Mi)N Talmkr, State superintendent, Montgomery, Ala.: LadivH and (hutlemen : I am in the habit of getting out of making a spiH^ch whenever I can, but upon the subject of education I am always ready to raise mv voice in behalf of what I believe wjU promote it. I DEPAETMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 165 fally indorse every word of what Dr. Eichards has said, and it was largely in the line of what I proposed to say myself. The paper of njy friend, Hon. Warren Easton, is certainly valuable, full of suggestions, and should receive our careful consideration. It is eminently practical. However, it looks rather to an amendment of the law than to an exe- cution of the law. Upon a careful analysis of the subject, I believe it will bear that construction. I have a great deal of opinion and preju- dice in my nature, and I hesitate to adopt the opinions or the theories of men unless they are tested by actual experience, and my experience does not extend far enough beyond my own State, and I think that it would be the safest, perhaps, and as profitable as any other mode of discussion, to tell you something of what we have. in Alabama — some thing of the laws of our system and of their execution. This paper suggests that there should be a board of education, which may be called a State board of education, or by any other name. Kow, I am free to confess that this is something that I believe we have never had in Alabama. I have read the school laws of most of the States, and as far as I know Alabama is about the only State in the Union that does not have a board of education. I was a little anxious to come into the line ; I did not like to stand alone, and I have given this some little consider- ation, with a view of recommending in the future to provide for a State board of education. I have made some inquiry as to the duties and the operations of these boards of education in other States, and I was led to the conclusion that possibly they might be dispensed with just as well as to have them. In my own State I have experienced no in- convenience, practically, on account of the want of a State board of education. I believe that we can, and do, under our system accomplish all that which would be desirable to accomplish with this board. I am free to confess that if appeals were to come to the State superintendent he would like very much to have a board of education to share that responsibility, but, fortunately, in my State the law specifically provides that no appeal shall lie with the State superintendent, and notwith- standing that I receive from six to a dozen letters each day asking for information and to settle the differences that occur in the various town- ships and districts of the State. I think, possibly, they ought to have this right of appeal. I tried to be just and liberal, but I felt that there were cases in which there were hardships. I was reading a few moments ago the report of the State superintendent of New York, and he was an elaborate writer. He set forth in glowing terms the variety of duties that devolved upon him, and they seemed to be laborious indeed, and at the close he said, that, notwithstanding the accumulation of these various duties resting upon him, '«I must confess that seven-tenths of my time is taken up in hearing appeals." I cannot conceive that a State superintendent could intelligently and satisfactorily and enthu- siastically discharge the duties of his ofQce, harassed and worried with 166 CIRCULARS OF IKFORMATION FOR 1887. all this responsibility, and I am really very glad that an appeal does not lie to me. One thing that is rather peculiar has been referred to at this meeting, and that is that the State snperintendent has authority under our law to appoint county superintendents^ and the county superintendents to appoint the township or district superintendents. This seems to be a little arbitrary, a little undemocratic. There has been an effort time and time again to have some special law passed allowing the people to elect the county superintendent. In many instances they have done this, but I find recently that they are going back, many of them, to the appointing power. I believe two counties at the last session of the Legis- lature passed from the elective to the appointing system voluntarily. One man, who was not a progressive man, came to me a few months ago and told me that he was opposing normal schools, but said he, ^^ Yon are right upon one question, and that is about the appointing of county superintendents.^ We have made a complete failure in electing county superintendents, and we would like a change. The present manner of appointing secures unity, and there should be unity to secure harmony in every system. I believe I have said all I care to say so far as the law is concerned. Fow, I would lay stress upon one additional duty, and that is I would have the superintendent be an expert teacher, let him be well versed in the modern methods of instruction, and let him be the conductor in each of the districts of a live teachers' institute. This will have a tendency to unify the work, to unify the course of instruction, and the methods of instruction, and I am sure that that would be very profitable indeed; and I can only say that I have felt very much the need of uniformity in our ex- aminations and in the certificates that are granted. Under our system there is a board in each county. It is true that the law prescribes that the examinations be for the different grades of teachers' certificates, but outside of that they are entirely free and independent of each other. I have seen a few of the questions propounded by these boards of ex- amination, and they are wholly impracticable, and I confess that I would oome before them myself with fear and trembling if I had to secure a certificate. This is very unfortunate. There should be some provision for uniform examinations and tending to a uniform series of questions to be propounded and answered by teachers for certification, Now, in conclusion, allow me to say one thing in the way of emphasis for something that Dr. Eichards has said. For fear that a wrong im- pression may go out, I want to say that the State superintendent is, ex offlciOy a member of our normal school, and it is his duty to meet with the board; and I want to say to some of them here that we have six normal schools that are doing excellent work, and we do something, too, in handicraft, in industrial education. In each of our three colored nor- mal schools industrial education is taught. They make everything that is needed in an ordinary home — chairs, tables, bureaus, washstands, DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 167 &c. They do their own cooking, their own Rewinfj^, laundrying, and I feel sure that it would be a matter of astonishment and do your hearts good to see the industrial department connected with th^se nor- mal schools for the colored race in our State. Isot only so, but we have established recently in connection with the A. and M. College an indus- trial department. They have some two dozen lathes, and now a plan is being made, and an appropriation has l?een secured, to obtain forges for hand work in iron, and that will be in successful operation in a few months, and free, entirely free, to every young man, not only in the State of Alabama, but in all of the States. As I said, I want to emphasize one thing. Any system must have a head, and there will be death to the execution of that system unless it has at the head a live^ man, just as we must have in a school a live teacher, I have been wonderfully im- pressied since I have been actively engaged in school- work with the im- portance of the school officer or school teacher having his heart in the work. He will have a dead school unless it is. I tell you a live super- intendent with the cause of education in his heart, I care not how poor the system may be, will make a success of education in that State; and I care not how complete the system may be, if he has not the cause of education at heart, it will be a failure. I was very much impressed with one remark that was made by the gentleman from New Jersey. He said we had too much supervision and that we must get out of the way. Fow that might be differently construed; and we had a different construction, or at least a construction placed upon it a few meetings ago that might mean one thing and might mean another. I take it that it may be well enough for the supervisor to get out of the way. He should get out of the way by leading the way and not letting his heels be tramped upon by any one. He must lead the way and the others i^ill follow. Dr. John L. Buchanan, State superintendent of public instruction, Bichmond, Va. : Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: I rise more for the purpose of seconding the motion which my friend Mr. Palmer proposes to make to adopt the paper read by my friend from Louisiana and the remarks made by Dr. Edwards, tod also to move to add his very appropriate remarks upon the subject, and allow that to cover the "whole question, and that I might be relieved from any effort to add any- thing more to this interesting discussion. The fact is that the older I get the less disposed I am to enlist myself in anythi/ig like an off-hand discussion. My experience is limited to a single year, and therefore it is rather more proper that I should be a learner than a teacher as touching such an important subject. The sub- ject, as presented on the programme, is without any limitations, and I suppose it is proper in those who discuss it to develop, as far as prac- ticable, the highest idea of a system of State school supervision, and then endeavor to secure proper legislation to make that ideal the real system. 168 CIECULAES OP INFORMATION FOB 1887. I suppose the object of this discussion is to develop as far as we can the best system of State supervision, and then let the laws grow out of the system, rather than the system out of the laws. I understand that we have an open field in this matter, and that we can. devise any sys- tem that we think best. It is unnecessary to remark that the best sys- tem of supervision in one State might not be the best in all respects in another State. The extent of territory embraced, the amount of money available for school purposes, the density of population, the status of society, intellectual, moral, and social, and the general economic and business life of the people, all have a great deal to do with this. All these will necessitate certain modifications of any general system to adapt it to special requirements. It is hardly worth while to say that every system of State supervision ought to be marked by a oneness of purpose and unity of plan, and of course that oneness of purpose, it goes without saying, is the education of thepeoplej whatever that term, may include. I will not take up your time by any discussion of what the thing is, but the one purpose of supervision is the education of the rising generation. I was glad that Dr. Edwards emphasized that. We may have here a beautiful piece of machinery j every wheel runs with perfect precision, every bolt is in place, everything is all right, but the machine will not move. An old friend of mine, living near me, be- came excited on the subject of finding coal. He found a certain kind of rock, and he said that the rock on his farm was a first-rate kind of coal — it only lacked one thing, and that was that it would not burn. You may have the best system in the world, but if it does not educate the chil- dren it is like the coal — it is of no account. To accomplish this purpose it is necessary to have a central power somewhere, a power endowed with the persistent energy that works to this end, and a power that is possessed of intelligence, that knows how to direct the energy to the attainment of the end. This is the mainspring of the entire system, and this mainspring ought to have sufficient power to act without any hesitation. We might go on to say how this power would be elected and in what officers it should be vested. I should want a board of ed- ucation, one member of which ought to bo the Governor of the State, another member the attorney-general ; but I have found, practically, in Virginia, that, with our three members of the State board of education, the Governor, the attorney-general, and the State superintendent of public instruction, the most of the work will fall upon the latter. The Governor and the attorney-general have most of their tim^ occupied with the business of their offices, so it leaves this matter largely with the State superintendent. That officer, if I were to imitate a certain gentleman who always took off his hat when he spoke of himself, is your humble servant. I would like to add to this State board of education three or four of the educators of the State, who will do the literary or educational part of it. I want the Governor on it, because he is the chief execu- DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 169 tive. The power of the State is represented in bim, and I think he ought to be a member. I want the attorney-general because of these trouble- some legal questions to which my friend Dr. Edwards, has referred. This is one of them : The clerk of a school board wrote to me to know whether it was his duty to carry a written contract to a lady teacher or whether it was her duty to come to his oflQce and sign it. He said that as one of the board he had voted against that lady, and that she had treated him with such want of courtesy that he did not feel that it was his duty to carry that paper to her. Says I to myself, this is a very foolish question. There is no post-oflBce, no railroad. I began to turn the thing over, and I did as I do in a great many things, I began to reason over it. Said I, *' Sir, if it was your duty to have that contract ready and you did not have it ready, then, sir, it is your duty to take that contract to her.'^ I should want, besides these gentlemen, two or three or four men, rep- resentative of the educational interests of the State, men who were in that line of work and who have faith in this thing, and men who believe that a great result lies before us. I was reminded of another little incident. I had a kinswoman re- siding in a town in Alabama who was a literary lady, and she had a son who was a successful business man; and one day a lady said to her, " How in the world did you manage to rear your son in such an excel- lent wayP "My gracious!'' she said, "by the use of prayer and the slipper.'^ So faith and discipline is what we want, and men who have the faith and the discipline to go on these boards. Kow, you will observe that I have the boards established. I want them to be sort of cabinets for these humble individuals, the State super- intendents, to be advisory boards, and to operate as checks upon them if they grow a little autocratic. In our State this board does the chief work of investigating all the fands that are given; the State board is employed to make laws, adopt resolutions, and carry into effect th^llpablic school system, and would you think that there is not one single school officer in Virginia who is elected by the people? There is but one man who is elected by the Legislature, and he did not make it by a great deal this time, and that is the State superinten- dent; he only came out a few hundreds ahead. The State superintendent in Virginia is the only school officer who is elected, and he is elected by the Legislature. The State superintendent appoints every county superintendent and every city superintendent, and then we have a county electoral board, respecting which I hope to have the law changed. That board, if I can have the law changed, will consist of the county judge of the Commonwealth, the attorney-general, and the county superintendents. We have the township system in Virginia, a school board of three gentlemen for each district. The county superintendent examines the teacher and the district elects him. The theory is to have this central 170 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. power lodged with the State board of education arid the State sui)erin- tendent, and then all this machinery between the central power and the end to be reached will be done away with. I once asked a man, «' What do you do when you want to raise good com ? " " Well/' said lie, " in the first place, I have good land." Well, the first thing you need for a good system of State supervision is to have a good man at the head of it— a broad-minded man, a man of liberal views, of culture (I am not exemplifying what 1 say), a man of broad culture, of earnest faith. I would not object if he had been reared the way the lady reared her son ; but he should have definite, clear ideas on popular education, clear ideas of what personal character is, and of good citizenship and unity and harmony and progress, and all those things that make a country great. The teacher is the school, as some gentleman has said, and the best way to have the best sort of State supervision is to get a good man and then make him State superin- tendent. When you have that man, be he Democrat or Ilepublican, or what not, if he is the man for that place, let his politics alone, and let him stay there as long as ho will stay. Hon. J. W. H0LC03IBE, State superintendent of public instruction of Indiana : Though, as compared with the gentleman who has just spoken, I am a sufiQciently venerable person, feeling the weight of four years of superintendence, I do not step to the floor presuming to instruct the gentlemen whom we have just heard, nor did I intend to speak upon this subject, as I have occupied the time of the convention before. The remarks which have been made about a State board of education have very much interested me, because I regard a State board of education as a body which may be the salvation of a State system of education if you get the right men on the board. This convention some six or eight years ago did the State of Indiana the honor of adopting as its opinion of an ideal public school system a report which embodied the existing system of the State of Indiana, with very slight and unimportant changes. Four years ago, when I entered upon the duties of superin- tendent of public instruction of that State, I had my ox)inion as to what constituted an ideal State system. During these four years my views have changed somewhat, and I have come to the conclusion that the ideal system, as adopted b}' the conven- tion and as operated in Indiana, is not entirely ideal. I have come to think that we are too much hampered by legislative statutes. Nearly every function of an educational officer, nearly every operation of the educational work, is laid out and defined with exact- ness in the statutes of our State. We are bound by a rigid, stereotyped system. Our statute prescribes • the subjects which must constitute the course of study; it prescribes the subjects in which the teachers must be examined ; it prescribes the times and i)laces where these examinations must be held. If most of these matters of detail and arrangement could.be left to* a competent DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 171 State board of educatioo, which should have very large aud very gen- eral legislative powers in regard to fixing the qualifications of teachers and in regard to prescribing the courses of study in different kinds of schools ; if it could be given considerable control in the matter of the selection of text-books, and if it'could be given a general supervisory control over the system of normal schools, teachers' institutes, &c., very much could be eft'eoted in the direction of improvements which have been pointed out at this and other meetings. With all deference to their excellencies, the Governors of States, and their honors, the secreta- ries and State officers, who are generally the members of State boards of education, I would like to suggest that, so far as my own observa- tion goes, it has led me to the opinion that these gentlemen are of but little value as members of such boards. Different kinds of State boards prevail among our States. A board made up of the Governor, attorney-general, secretary of State — some three or half a dozen State officers — men whose time is entirely ab- sorbed in the duties of their offices, who have but little knowledge of educational work, and who take a mere perfunctory interest in it at best — such boardsTiave seldom given much practical help in promoting a system of public instruction or in carrying it out. There is another kind of board of education, composed of persons ap- pointed by the Legislature, perhaps^ or by the Governor. This is much better, because we may naturally expect that persons appointed for these specific duties will have some interest in and qualifications for them. I think a still better arrangement is one by which we may secure for the members of our board professional educators in an ex officio manner^ men acquainted with educational work, and who will not have to be ap- pointed especially as members of the State board of education. We have this feature to some extent in Indiana. So, in reforming our present ideal system, I should wish to preserve this feature. We have first upon our ex officio State board of education the State superintendent of public instruction, and then the Governor, representing the executive authority of the State. The Governor attends a meeting now and then, shakes hands, sits down for a few moments, hopes that things are going on well* and takes his departure, and when he goes the work proceeds. The board, however, is made up mainly of professional educators, the city superintendents of the three largest cities in the State, and the presi- dents of the State's three higher institutions being members thereof. These men are selected by the several cities and institutions for their special qualifications as school officers and teachers, without reference to service on the State board. Yet this impartial and nonpartisan mode of selection gives us the best men that could be procured for just that service. They are, to repeat, the president of the State Univer- sity, the president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, the president of the State Kormal School, and the superintendents of schools 172 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. of tbo three largest cities. This gives us professional educators. But! wish to see the board enlarged in another direction, in order to qualify it for wider legislative powers which should be conferred upon it. There should bo added to it an equal number of county superintendents. (I believe every State should have county superintendents, and those that have not should get them.) A State board, then, should contain representatives of these three elements on the board : the country schools, the city schools, and the higher educational institutions. A body of this kind, composed of from nine to a dozen professional educators, all actively engaged in school-work in their dififerent departments, each one bringing to the board an exact knowledge and experience which the board would need, and all under the direction of the State superintendent of public in- struction — such is the board 1 want. It is best qualified to unify the school system and to co-ordinate its dififerent parts. I think we would not need the attorney-general as a member. He would generally be a dead- head at the meetings, and as the constitutional adviser of all State officers his opinion may always be obtained on any points of law which may arise. The work that this board could do would be an extension of the work it has been doing in Indiana for the last twelve years. Through such a State board we could secure what the gentleman from Alabama desires to secure — uniformity of qualifications for the teachers. For the last twelve years our board has prepared all the questions upon which the teachers throughout the State have been examined. At its quarterly meetings it prepares these questions, which are printed and distributed to the ninety-two counties. The revising of the manuscripts is left to the county superintendents. I have said, perhaps, enough to suggest what a State board of education can do for a State. In my own experience such a board as this has thus far done the very great work of bringing about something like uniformity of quali- fications for the teachers, and has raised the standard of qualifications throughout the State, and this is doing very well. A board consti- tuted as I have suggested would be competent to legislate upon all questions connected with the qualifications of teachers, the improve- ment of their examinations, their training, and professional reading, and the matter of laying out courses of study which we considered this morning. A Member : What would be your opinion as to the advisability of a popular election of State superintendents as compared with the ap- pointment of the superintendent by a board of education constituted as that of Indiana is 1 Mr. HoLCOMBE : I certainly must admit that the appointment of the State superintendent by such a board seems to me to have some very decided advantages. It gives, at any rate, the advantage of unity in the board and sympathy between the board and its head. At the same DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 173 I time there are, I think, positive advantages connected with the popular election of the State superintendent as we have it in the Western States. The State superintendent is then a constitutional officer, though his term of office may not be so long as is desirable. It brings him to a certain extent into relations with the people, gives them greater con- fidence in the opinions and work of the officer than if he were appointed by a remote board. On the whole, I regard the method of election by the people as preferable. Hon. W. H. Anderson, Wheeling, W. Ya.: This is a hard question that is given here. It is hard when you undertake to talk about the best system of almost anything, and I do not come here to answer this question^ I think that the best system is that which will reach out — the best system is that* which will benefit the whole State most; but how to get it, that is the hard question to answer. The live teacher will have a live school, and there are live teachers and live scholars. I sup- pose that every person who has had any experience in teaching school will know of pupils who are driven off to school who cannot get there in time, and who will make excuses as to why they did not get there in time. After awhile they are placed in the hands of another teacher. The whole thing changes ; they get to school in time, and they be- come really interested in the school. You see just what is the matter. They have had a sort of awakening, and I think it is all on account of the teacher. The best kind of a system will not be that kind of a sys- tem which will get at those who are alive, but some kind of a system to make them alive, and in that way they are awakening the schools. I believe there is a way by which almost every man may be awakened, but how to bring this about is the question. I think we cannot answer it at this meeting. I think that no system will bring this about entirely, but I believe we ought to aim at it. Now, just one word about the board. I feel like agreeing with the gentleman from Indiana about having politics on the State board. The Governor and the attorney-general would further education, but if pol- itics is brought in it will do the schools more harm than good. Hon. Fred. M. Campbell, Oakland, Oal. : At the time I had the pleasure of reading a paper at the opening of the convention I passed over some notes bearing upon this question. I passed them over, say- ing that if it was desired I would state what had been done, and as I have been asked about it to day I will talk two or three minutes to explain it. STATE TEXT-BOOKS. At the general election in November, 1884, a constitutional amend- ment was adopted by the people of California by a vote of 143,017 to 11,930 directing the State board of education to compile, or cause to be Compiled, a series of text-books for use in all the schools of the State, 174 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. The section of the constitution, as thus amended, I have read in year presence, but reproduce it here. It is as follows : Sec. 7. The Governor, saperintendent of. public instractioD, and the principals of the State normal schools shall constitute the State board of education, p.nd shall compile, or cause to be compiled, and adopt a uniform series of text-books for use in the common schools throughout the State. The State board may cause such text- books, when adopted, to be printed and published by the superintendent of State printing, at the State printing office, and when so printed and published, to be dis- tributed and sold at the cost price of printing, publishing, and distributing the same. The text-books so adopted shall continue in use not less than four years ; and said State board shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law. The Legis- lature shall provide for a board of education in each county in the State. The county superintendents and the county boards of education shall have control of the exami- nation of teachers and the granting of teachers' certificates within their respective jurisdictions. At the session of the Legislature next following the adoption of this amendment an act was passed designating the books to be first made, and appropriating $20,000 for their compilation, and $150,000 for plant, printing, and manufacture. Following is the act thus passed : An act to provide for compiling, illustrating^ eleotroti/ping, printing , hindingj copyrighting^ and distributing a State series of school text-hooks, and appropriating money therefor, [Approved February 26, 1885.] The people of the State of California, represented in senate and Assembly, do en- act as foUows : Sec. 1. The State board of education shall compile, or cause to be compiled for nse in the common schools of the State, a series of school text-books of the follow- ing description, viz : Three (3) readers, one (1) speller, one (1) arithmetic, one (1) grammar, one (1) history of the United States, and one (1) geography. The matter contained in the readers shall consist of lessons commencing with the simplest ex- pressions of the language, and, by a regular gradation, advancing to and including the highest styles of composition, both in prose and poetry. Sec. 2. The State board of education shall employ well-qualified persons to com- pile the books mentioned in section 1 of this act, and shall ^x the remuneration for the services thus rendered : Provided, That if competent authors shall compile any one or more works of the first order of excellence, and shall offer the same as a free gift to the people of the State, together with the copyright of the same, and the ex- clusive right to manufacture and sell such works within the State of California, it shall be the duty of the State board of education to accept such gift, and to expend no money for the purpose of compiling works relating to the subjects treated of in the books thus donated. The State board of education shall furnish to the superin- tendent of State printing designs for all cuts and engravings to be used in the said series of text-books. Sec. 3. The printing of all the text-books provided for in section 1 of this act, and all the mechanical work connected therewith, shall be done by and under the supervision of the superintendent of State printing at the State printing office : Pro- vided, That the purchase of paper for the school-books, and the cardboards^ cloth, and leather for covers shall be procured by advertising for proposals to furnish the same, in the manner now provided for by section 532 of the Political Code, relating to pax>er supplies for the State printing office : And, provided further, That when the State has its bindery in operation, all folding, stitching, binding, and ruling of the State shall r DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 175 1>e done in the State bindery; bat the accoauts of the school-book binding shall be kept separate from those of all other binding. Sec. 4. The State board of education shall secnro copyrights to all the books that shskll be compiled under the provisions of this act, and shall protect said copyrights from all infringement. Skc. 5. Whenever any one or more of the State series of school text-books shall have been compiled and adopted, the State board of education shall issuo an order requiring the uniform use of said book or books in the common schools of the State ; but said order for the uniform use of said book or books shall not take effect till the expiration of at least one year from the time of the completion of the electrotype plates of said book or books. Nothing in this act shall be construed to prevent any county or sehool district from adopting any one or more of the State series of school text- books whenever said book or books shall have been published. Skc. 6. The process of distribution of the text-books shall follow this course : The county superintendents of schools shall make such requisitions for books as the schools under their jurisdiction may require, upon the State superintendent of public instruction ; the State superintendent of public instruction shall then make requisi- tion for the same on the superintendent of State printing, who shall ship the books to their destination. All requisitions from county school superintendents for books shall be accompanied by the cash price fixed for the same by the State board of edu- cation, and the State superintendent of public instruction shall make no requisition for books upon the superintendent of State printing unless he shall have received the lawfril price for the same. And it shall be the duty of the superintendent of public instruction to report to the State comptroller, on or before the fifth day of every month, the number of books sold by him during the preceding month, and to pay the mon- eys received for the same into the State treasury. It shall also be the duty of the superintendent of State printing to make a monthly report to the State comp- troller of the number and value of the books shipped by him on the order of the State superintendent of public instruction, and the number and value of the finished books on hand. Sec. 7. It shall be the duty of the boards of supervisors, of the counties, or cities and counties, in this State, to provide a revolving fund, for the purpose of enabling the county school superintendents to purchase the State text-books ; all moneys to be taken therefrom to be replaced by the moneys received from the teachers of the commonschools in the several counties for the books furnished by them to the scholars. Sec. 8. The sum of $20,000 is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the State treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the purpose of compiling, or causing to be compiled, the series of text-books for the common schools, as set forth in section 1 of this act. The appropriation provided for in this section shall be subject to the order of the State board of education: Provided, That all demands against said appropria- tion shall first be approved by said State board of education and presented to the State board of examiners in itemized form for its approval, and upon the approval of the State board of examiners the comptroller is hereby authorized to draw his warrant upon the State treasurer for the payment of said demands, and the State treasurer is authorized to pay the same. Skc. 9. The sum of $150,000 is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the State treasury not otherwise appropriated, to-purchase the necessary machinery, i)resses, types, bindei^, electrotyping apparatus, and such other material as may bo required in the manufacture of the text-books provided for in section I of this act, as well as to pay the salaries or wages of the compositors, binders, and other persons to bo em- ployed in such manufacture : Provided, That the State board of education shall first approve the style of printing, engravings, and illustrations, kind of paper, size and binding of volumes ; said sum to be drawn by the superintendent of State printing iu the same manner as provided in subdivision 4 of section 526 of the Politi- cal Code. 176 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. Sec. 10. The school-books published under the provisions of this act shall be fur- nished to the common school children of the State at cost, the same to be ascertained and fixed by the State board of education at the beginning of each school year. Sec. 11. All acts or parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this acli aie hereby repealed. Sec. 12. This act shall take effect immediately. At a meeting held shortly after the passage of this act the State board selected a competent gentleman as managing editor of the work at a salary of $200 per month, since made $250, and advertised for the ben- efit of the educational public that it would receive and consider speci- men chapters of the various books proposed to be made. None of the matter so submitted, however, was accepted except the selections for a series of three readers, which were taken as the basis of that work. The State superintendent. Prof. William T. Welcker, and the managing ed- itor were directed to prepare the readers and the speller. Prof. Ira Moore, of the normal school at Los Angeles, was directed to take charge of the arithmetic. To Prof. Charles H. Allen,'of the normal school at San Jos6, was assigned the preparation of a grammar. These gentlemen employed such assistants as they deemed necessary, and pro- ceeded with their work. At the present time the series of three readers and the speller have been placed before the public, and the prices fixed, at Sacramento, and by mail, as follows : First reader (cloth, 128 pages), 15 cents, mail 20 cents 5 second reader (cloth, 288 pages), 30 cents, mail 38 cents; third reader (half Eussia, 512 pages), 40 cents, mail 52 cents; speller (cloth, 192 pages), 20 cents, mail 26 cents. In passing through Sacramento on my way hither I obtained a half dozen sets of these books, and they are here for inspection and are at your disposal. At that same time, upon inquiry, I also learned from the present State superintendent, Mr. Ira G. Hoitt (who went into office on the 1st of Januar3^ last), that communications from the localities in which thebooks have been used for several months express very great satisfac- tion with their character. The books are going into use gradually, be- cause many of the contracts heretofore made between local boards and school-book publishers have not yet expired. Our contracts in Oakland will not expire till June, 1888. Concerning the other books, it may be said that the arithmetic has been placed wholly in type, for revision by the author, the editor-in- chief, and the board, and a considerable part of the work has been re- vised and electrotyped. The grammar has been prepared and portions of it put in type for revision. From my intimate personal acquaintance with all the gentlemen into whose hands this work has fallen, I can speak confidently of the consci- entious manner in which it is being prosecuted, and their peculiar fit- ness for carrying it on to successful completion. Mr. W. H. V. Eay- mond has had large and valuable experience in similar work, and more- over brings to his duties as editor-in-chief untiring energy and zeal. The authors are practical men, for years at th^ head of leading normal DEPARTMENT OF SUPEEINTENDENCE. 177 schools; and I know that, in the compilation of all the books, it has been their conscientious aim to employ only well-tested school-room methods. The general plan of criticism and revision has been to dis- tribute proof pamphlets of each work, not only to the members of the board, bnt also to a number of the enterprising and intelligent teachers of the State, and to take their suggestions into consideration. The method of distributing the books to pupils has not been fully or satisfactorily settled. That is one of the most perplexing problems in- volved in the whole scheme of State publication. The provision for this in the original act of the Legislature was not well considered. A bill to amend that act in this particular, which is before the Legis- latare, now in session, provides as follows : > Sec. 6. All orders for text-books shall be made on the soperintendent of public instraction, and shall be accompanied by cash, in payment for the same, at the price fixed by the State board of education as the cost price at Sacramento : Provided, That if the books are to be shipped by mail, the cost of postage shall also accompany the order. The following persons shall bo entitled to order books : (1) County superintendents of schools, for the use of teachers and pupils in their counties. (2) Principals of State normal schools, for use in their respective schools only. (3) The secretary or clerk of any school district in the State, whether incorporated or operating under thfi general law of the State, for the use of the pupils in said dis- trict only, but no books ordered by county superintendents, principals of normal schools, or clerks of school districts, shall be sold at a price exceeding the cost price at Sacramento, with the actual cost for freight added. (4) Any dealer who shall first transmit to the State superintendent' of public in- struction an obligation, signed by him, not to sell to be sold again, or to any one be- yond the limits of the State, or at a price exceeding the mailing price of the bo.oks. These provisions will probably become law, and in this way it is hoped that all classes of citizens will be conveniently and cheaply served. Four candidates for the authorship of the United States history sub- mitted specimen chapters. Superintendent Hoitt has control of that subject, and has directed that the engraving shall go forward of such matter as can be determined upon in advance of the complete writing of the work. Nothing definite has been done about a geography, further than to get from the State printer an estimate of the cost of plates. Of the $150,000 appropriated for plant, labor, and material, $120,000 has been expended. Of the $20,000 for compiling, $9,000 has been expended. One hundred and eighty-thousand dollars is asked from the present Legislature for compilation and manufacture. By the bill making this appropriation it is to be expended in making, say, 50,000 books of each kind, after which the further editions shall be made from money drawn from the fund accruing from the sales. The cost of plates, plant, com- "'pilation, and illustration has been distributed by the board over an esti- mated supply for twelve years. There are in stock (in round numbers) 3536— No. 3 12 178 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOB 1887. $40,000 worth of finished books at the cdst valaa tion. This, of coarse, comes back when they are sold. The gentleman, Mr. Kinne, who con- tribnted the selections, ased as the basis for making the readers, did so without asking or receiving pay. Mr. Willis, who made the speller^ received $1,000. All the work of every kind in the readers and speller has been done in California. The designs, costing about $900, were made by artists of California. They were Thomas Hill, Miss A. Eandall, and Carl Dahl* green, of San Francisco, and Mrs. Miriam Weeks, of Sonoma County, whose previous work had been done for London publications, she hav- ing been in California but three years. The engraving was done in tbe capitol building by engravers emploj^ed by the week. The amount paid for this work was about $2,300. The committee on resolutions made the following report; which was adopted : Resolved (1), That onr thanks are due to Professor Bainl for the use of this commodi- ous room for holding our meetings ; and also the local committee for their efiQcient preparation for the same. Resolved (2), That our thanks are due to the railroad corporations that have favored us with a reduction K)f rates of tran8i)ortatiou. Resolved (3), That our thanks are due the press of this city for the interest taken in our proceedings and the courtesy shown in the publication of the same. Resolved (4), That we tender our thanks to the hotel proprietors who have kindly reduced their rates for the benefit of those attending this session. Resolved (5), That our thanks are hereby tendered to the president and executive committee of this Department for the efficient and acceptable manner in which they have performed their duties. Resolved (6), That the National Department of Superintendents looks with favor upon the disposition of some of the colleges and universities to recognize public school work as a profession, nxiQ that we appreciate what has "been done towards estab. lishing chairs of pedagogy in a few of them. . Resolved (7), That it is the sense of this Department of Superintendence that if satisfactory railroad and hotel rates bo guara n teed, it would be in the interest of the National Educational Association that its session for 1883 be held in San Francisco. Resolved (8), That the secretary of this Department be instructed to forward a copy of the foregoing resolutions to the secretary of the National Education Association. NIKTH SESSION The convention re-assembled at 7.30 p. m,, Thursday, March 17, 1887. The President: Tbe first thing on the i)rogramme is a privileged statement by Major Bingham, of li^orth Carolina. IMaj. Robert Bingham: I find myself reported this morning as hav- ing said last night that there were no free manual training schools in the South. Several gentlemen, besides the reporter, so understood me, and I rise to correct the misstatement, if I made it. We have in Geor- gia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arka nsas manual schools^ mechanical and agricultural, sustained by the proceeds of the land scrip given by the Government^ but they are called colleges for higher in- DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 179 8traotion. There is the Miller School in Virginia, doing a most excel lent work^ and there are several excellent schools snpported by North- em charity for colored people, so that we are doing this work. Even in North Carolina, my own State, we have an orphan asylnm, for which the State has made an appropriation for the agricaltnral and mechanical training of two hundred orphans. This has been in operation for a year. The statement I wished to make was that we have no manaal training connected with the public schools, distinctly supported by school taxes. That kind of manual training we have not been able to have. It seems to me doubtful if it can be had in the North even. That was the state- ment I wished to make, that so far as public school work was concerned, sustained by school- tax money, we have not as yet been able to reach it. Otherwise we are doing as much as can be expected under the circum- stances. The President: The subject for discussion is "The Relation of* our Public Schools to the General Government." Major McKinley, who was expected to be present, is called away and has sent his regrets. Senator Blair, who some months ago was asked to participate in the discussion, at that time thought he could not ac- cept Since that time, however, he has kindly accepted the invitation, and I am glad to say he is with us to-night and will talk upon this sub- ject. I have the honor to introduce Senator Blair. Senator H. W. Blair : I am sorry, my friends, that your greeting cannot be extended to the gentleman who was to be present and to ad- dress you upon this subject. It was the day before yesterday, I think, that I understood he was to be absent, and your president called upon me and requested that I would say a few words, which I am here to do. As suggested by the chairman, this is one of the most important sub- ects that engages our attention. Being an important subject, it could hardly be more appropriately considered than by the educators of the country, because really in the hands of the educators of the country lies its fate ; and this question, the relation of the schools of the country to the nation, and the nation to the schools, which can only be a prac- tical question as you consider it and as you may discourse upon it — this question I say, thus important, thus engaging your attention, may, I think, very properly be taken up on this last meeting of your associa- tion, because I think just now in the existing relations between the na- tion and the schools of the country, in the existing condition of the public mind, that there are influences now in operation which must be led to work out fairly and fully their ultimate fruition, or by the con- sideration of the present or the immediate future be destroyed, so that their influence for good in the whole future of our country will as an element disappear. If the members of this convention were to take home to the several States which they represent any one thought for the immediate present and future, I think it may well be the relation between the nation and the public schools. There is a vast body of the people of 180 CIRCULARS OP INFORMATION FOB 1887. the country with whom by reason of the practice of the pkst and the fact that in those portions of the country whore the system is well founded no other idea seems to prevail save that of loca 1 support and respon- sibility for the education of that community, and so of the country. That is the general sentiment, and the thought is an aggressive one which breaks up the existing order of things, which requires interfer- ence by the nation in the management of the schools, or in their sup- port. The affirmative seems to be upon those who take the ground that now and in the future, or at least temporarily, until existing conditions are removed, the nation should become a factor in the education of the children. I recognize that fact, that it is the right and duty of the nation to par- ticipate in the education of the children ; I realize that it is upon me, as one individual, to maintain affirmatively that right. The public mind must be first convinced. When I say that the public school is practically the government of the country, I do not mean to say that for the legislation of to-day and for the administration of the laws of to-day the public schools of today are responsible, but I do mean to say that the influence of the public schools in the past, the development of intelligence among our people by educative influences and institutions, is responsible for the coirtiitions that exist to-day, for the character and capacity, for the nature of the nation, as it now is; and just so with reference to the future educational influences that are at work to-day; just so, I say, the future is to be founded upon these ii)fluences. I say that I consider the public school the Government. The forms of our Government, both national and State, are republican; they are based, of course, upon the intelligence of the people. From the beginning of the Government, and long years before, during the colonial period, when the idea of self-government was germinating and strengthening and ex- panding, enlarging and growing more and more vigorous, until it cul- minated in the Revolution and freedom, the public school, the idea of intelligence in the individual, was the formative principle which led to the republican form of government. Certainly, before a body gf this kind, it is unnecessary to argue that without intelligence self-govern- ment is impossible. If it be so, it follows that self-government, once existing, can be prolonged by the continuation of moral intelligence in the children and those who are to come afterwards. If the principle of in- telligence be once demanded as indispensable to the exercise of sover- eignty, and if the establishment of a republican form of government gives sovereignty to each individual, it follows that this individual must be in- telligent if it be necessary that intelligence exist in the Government We would hardly expect the king or the emperor or the czar to undertake the functions of his form of government without intelligence, but is it less difficult for the American people to rule themselves as a nation. Is it not, on the contrary, more difficult because of the universal subdivision of power ? If intelligence be necessary to the government of the czar, DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 181 whose will is law, in order that he may carry out the functions of his form of government, is not intelligence equally necessary to every in- dividual who is a sovereign in the republican form of governmeYit ? Knowledge is power j government is power. The functions of govern- ment are precisely the same in a republic that they are in a despotism. There is the legislative power, which makes the law ; the judicial power, which construes it ; and the executive power, which executes it. The only difference is that with us these powers are universally diffused, the sovereignty is everywhere, in the whole i>eople; while in the other case it is an unlimited, absolute monarchy or one man's power. If this be so, if knowledge is indispensable to the existence and to the pres- ervation and perpetuity of the republican form of government, then the right to make the people intelligent is simply the right of self-de- fence, and the duty of self-defence. If we are to-day sufficiently intel- ligent to govern ourselves, the children who are bom without education will grow up as ignorant as those in Africa. They must be educated; and the duty of the preservation of our institution is simply the duty of educating the children of the country, educating them religiously, mor- ally, intellectually, and physically ; and this is the great work that de- volves upon the educators of the country. The IN^ational Government is republican in form, as much as are the governments of the States; and if intelligence be indispensable to the one it is also to the other ; and if the right of defence belongs to the government of the State and can only be exercised by educating its people, equally so must that right of self-defence belong to the National Government, for it is equally repub- lican in form; it is founded originally upon the people themselves; it is not an outgrowth of the State governments; it is independent of them ; it is sovereign in its great and universal sphere. The nation is charged with the duty of guaranteeing to the States a republican form of gov- ernment. K that republican form is intelligence among the masses of the people, and it be the duty, as it is made by the express terms of the Constitution the duty, of the nation to preserve perpetually to the States a republican form of government, how can that guarantee be ful- filled save by guaranteeing the intelligence of the people in the States ? That will give them a republican form of government in the States, and nothing else can. In order that we may fulfil this guarantee of free government, of a republican form of government in the States, must it not be able to preserve a republican form of government in it- self? That is to say, must it not hav^o the power, and exercise it, of making the universal citizenship of the whole country, the national citizenship, intelligent, in order that it may preserve and defend the government republican in form to the nation itself I Thus I think to educate the people within the jurisdiction of any government repub- lican in form is simply the right of self-4efeDce, the right to live.. I have sketched in this brief way what is to my mind the fundamental 182 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. idea with reference to the duty of the United States in its relation to the public schools of the country, whether they be in States or Terri- tories. If this be so, the question would then arise, and it is a prac- tical question, whether that power should be exercised ; whether there is at the present time a duty for the nation to perform. I recognize that the exercise of this power to create a citizenship. State and na- tional, will not be necessary at any given time on the part of the nation, or that at any given time its partial exercise only may be necessary, that the manner of its exercise may bo by absolute interference and control with educational affairs in a State, or in the way of assisting existing educational institutions and facilities then under the control of the State, or there may be other methods, according to the nature of the necessity or the circumstances existing. The primary necessity and duty is that tlie nation see to it that the citizen of the nation and the citizen of the State shall be intelligent, that he shall be fit to discharge the duties and functions of citizenship, that we may preserve our liberties. As a universal rule, unless there be strong reasons for exception, I think the support of the schools of the country should be a local affair, exercised and carried out by the people, by the parents of the children who are to be educated. I think the primary duty of education would seem to be upon the parent. If the parent is unable to discharge it, or fails to do so, then the surrounding community, the State at large, ought to assist and should see that the thing is done. It has been found in our country, universally, that some municipal or State organization was necessary in order to bring out the advantages of the education of all the children to the State. So that the common school system has come to be the State system universally throughout the country. There I would like to leave it, with the parent and with the State, if there was not, for the time being, in my judgment, a necessity for other assistance, for the exertion of national power, for the efiicacy of national appro- priations to this great result. I do not myself think it would be for the benefit of the nation, for the benefit of the States, that national assist- ance to common schools should come to be perpetual. I do not believe that it would be necessarily so. The necessity exist- ing to-day can very soon be relieved and will pass away, and when a condition of intelligence has established schools throughout the coun- try the community that has known this blessing will take good care that it shall be perpetuated. The State which has once a vigorous, strong, influential system of common schools, which shall have pre- sented this condition to its people, which shall be able to remember and contrast these existing conditions — conditions of elevation and re- finement, of wealth and culture — with that from which it has emerged, such a State will maintain the institutions through which this trans- formation has been effected. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 183 Bat until the common school system and method of educating and rendering intelligent the children of the country— until such a system has been once established and has permeated the whole community with its liviog influences — until then we cannot expect local communities to be very willing to contribute for its establishment ; but if they fail to do so, are other sections of the country, that have already fully experienced the benefit of these schools — I say shall they protest that where they are not perhaps even desired they shall not be established ? The very fact that in some'sections the desire for the establishment of the com- mon schools is feeble that is the stronger reason why they should be established. Those who comprehend the necessity should take a special interest- in the establishment and development of the common school where it has hitherto been unknown. Where this is once done these very communities that have been the slowest to appreciate and the last to use are the most vigorous in their approval and support of the institutions. I do not want to speak with reference to this matter sectionally. I have no sectional feeling so far as I am aware. I think the man who is not in his feelings and sympathies as broad as his country had bet- ter get out of it. The American ought to be as large as America, and it is so with the American people of to-day. Therefore it is that I believe that any eflfort made by the nation, as such, to assist in the establish- ment and maintenance of common schools should bo based upon some universal law or general condition ; it should be based upon the evil which is to be removed, and the means should be applied where the evil is, in the proportion in which it may exist iu the diiferent sections. It is the illiteracy, the ignorance of the country which is our danger, and if we are to apply a remedy we must apply it where the danger exists. If in so doing a larger amount of the medicine goes to one section than to another, it is equally for the good of all ; for it makes no difference where you introduce the virus in the system— it may be in the hand or foot, or anywhere — the circulation carries it all over the body. In the question of the education of the children in the Southern States it is as much important that Massachusetts contribute to the removal of the evil there as it is that she contribute to the prevention of the evil or the removal of the conditions existing in her own borders. National help should come, then, to all parts of the country, according to the de- gree of evil which national assistance to education is expected to re- move. The past is passed, and we are dealing with the present ; and who shall say that Massachusetts, or New England to-day, if she has advantages in wealth and education that m'dj be lacking in other por- tions of the country has for that reason any cause to take to herself any superiority over those other ijortions ? In all portions of the South- em and Western country it is astonishing those familiar with the facts to see how the people are advancing, how the children are improving. 184 CIRCULARS OF mFORMAttON FOR 1887. and how the wealth has grown by intelligence^ and how rapidly there is coming to be, wherever the school is established, a prosperous condition of the people and of the country. There are some other things which ought to be considered with refer- ence to this national relation. All through the Southern country where the institution of slavery prevailed common labor was, of course, for the time being, involved in the subjection to the law. Oompensation to labor was substantially the necessary support of labor, and whatever there was of profit went to the class which owned the labor. That was the institution of slavery, an institution as old as time, and which had existed under the laws of the States and the Constitution of the country until within the last twenty-five years. Labor then was oheap throughout that section of the country; it was cheap by reason of the existence of this institution. That institution existed for the reason that there was a condition of ignorance upon which alone slavery coald be based; therefore it was that labor was cheap, because it was igno- rant, unintelligent, not capable of entering into the different industries. Production was cheap in the South. In the North different causes op- erated; the masses of the people became intelligent; self-production more universally diffused among the people; and as civilization is simply the development and cultivation of our wants, so this desire of the civilized man for greater means wherewith to supply his wants became greater. Without the power to purchase consumption must fail, and consump- tion is simply the ministration to those wants of the higher civilization. All that has passed away ; freedom is universal throughout the coun- try ; it is the rule; and yet production is much cheaper to-day. The production of the South is coming to be diversified. People are being educated, but at the same time education has not progressed at the South. General intelligence among the people has not progressed in the same degree with the power to produce. In proportion as their increased power of production has been developed new and diversi- fied industries have sprung up everywhere. European capital is being invested there; every coal-mine, every water-power, every valua- ble portion is being fastened upon by capital,'and every form of pro- duction is springing up all over the South. The result is — and I am stating this for the information of Northern people — the result is a competition between the Southern production and Northern production in some of our Southern States. Now we must give to all portions of the country the same degree of elevation, so that if in a Northern home there shall be a piano, or any form of ministration to higher wants, there shall bo a corresponding development in some Southern family, and there shall be a homogeneous condition produced of general intelli- gence and development of culture m the production and in the power to purchase the productions which minister to the wants of the higher civilization. If you produce, then, among the Southern people, the same condition of elevation, the same wants as in other parts of the country. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 185 there mast be the same consumption there ; those who labor must have and will have universal wages, in order to purchase the material to supply those wants, and the result will be that it will cost as much to produce at the South as it costs at the North, and the common people will have the same power to purchase, and, therefore, power on their own part to consume. As there is so little time I must drop the idea, but the point is this : Korthern people are interested in this matter just as much as Southern people are. It is a matter of self-defence for the Korth ; for unless the great labor problem is met and regulated you will have this enforced competition between these productions. I have been requested to say a little to the audience with reference to the condition of the education bill. This association of superintend- ents of the country has fathered it from the beginning. It has grown out of the wants of the people in all portions of the country as they have have b^en brought to the attention of the superintendents of the country. The census also was a revelation, but along with the cold fig- ures of the census came the personal statements of the superintendents of the various States. These statements have been laid before Congress for six or eight years. These statements and some deductions from the census were brought to the attention of the different members of Con- gress and finally to the two Houses of Congress. There was ifor a long time a bin which proposed to give simply the interest of the annuabaccumu- lation of the sales of the public lands, to distribute this throughout the country upon the basis of population. It was found that this would not amount to much. For the present it was no help, and therefore it was that the present educational bill which has one thing as its leading feature, and that is the appropriation of enough money now to do some good^ therefore it was that this educational bill was introduced into the Congress of the United States. That was in the month of December, 1881. It was introduced in the Senate as a report from the Senate com- mittee, but it got no further. , , It was discussed, however, and the idea was brought out. Thenextwas the Forty-eighth Congress, in which the bill was fully discussed and finally passed the Senate. It appropriated $77,000,000 to be distributed through the country upon the basis of illiteracy during the eight years following its enactment into law. It was just about an average of $10,- 000,000 a year. It began at 7 millions; went to 10, 15, 13, 11, 9, 7, and 5 millions, during which time the whole amount would have been distrib- nted. That bill was very carefully and fully discussed during several weeks of the Congress, and was finally passed by a vote of 33 to 11. It was not passed by a two-thirds vote or as a party measure. . Perhaps it was more generally supported upon the Eepublican than upon the Dem- ocratic side of the Senate, but the difterence was so slight that it was not a party measure. The States of Louirianaj.ArJta^sfVS, and Jdi^sissippi gave 2 votes in the Senate; there was 1 from Alabama, 2 from Florida, 2 from Georgia, 1 from South Carolina, 2 from Korth Carolina, 1 from 186 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. West Virginia, 1 from Kentucky, 1 from Tennessee, &c. As you see, tbe South as a section really gave more votes thin were given against it. It passed in the Forty-eighth Congress, on the 7th of April, by a vote of 33 to 11. It went to the House, and, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of Mr. Willis and other members of the House, it failed to be considered ; and I ought to say that in the House of Kepresentatives, in the same Congress, there was a measure of like character, though of con- siderable less power, which was reported from the Senate Committee on Education, but got no further. Strong influences were against the bill, and it failed. On the assembling of the Forty -ninth Congress, just ex- pired, the bill was reintroduced in the Senate in precisely the same form that it had passed before, and after a three weeks' discussion it again passed the Senate by a vote of 36 to 11, gaining 3 votes. It went to the House last March a year ago, and there it met a bad fate. The Com- mittee on Education, who should have considered such a measure fav- orably, were found to be opposed to it. Its friends then introduced the bill under another head as a House bill, and it was referred to the Com- mittee on Labor after a somewhat heated contest, which resulted, I be- ^ lieve, in a vote of some 50 majority. There were some objections to the reference, which seemed to be a slight to the other committee, who had failed to act upon it. For a long time the Labor Committee, who were expected to report at once, kept the bill in their possession, and at last, after very great pressure, re- ported adversely on the Senate bill, and presented a substitute, which was really — I do not risk anything by saying this when I say that the majority report was made for the purpose of killing the bill — reported a substitute which was too ridiculous for consideration. The minority reported in favor of the measure of the Senate, but failed to get consid- eration through the long session, and so the matter came over to the short session. ^N^ever was greater effort made. Memorials came from all over the country. Over 100,000 signatures were placed to a petition for the pas- sage of the bill, many of them representing large bodies, societies and or- ganizations of men and women, so that the entire representation — as I am assured by those who have examined into the matter — the entire rep- resentation in favor of the bill was not less than 2,000,000 of people. The friends of the measure made a strenuous effort to secure its consideration under the direction of the committee who had the bill in cha^rge, and on a test vote, as to the consideration of the bill, had a majority of 160 in its favor to 76 against it, more than a two-thirds vote. By a process of fili- bustering its consideration was defeated, and so it passed beyond the control of any committee. Then nothing remained but an appeal to the Committee on Rules, who are a committee of the House with power to report at any time. That committee, in connection with the man- agement of the appropriation bills, an d the Speaker's power of recog- I DEPARTMENT OP SUPERINTENDENCE. 187 nizing whomsoever he pleases, are the elements which really control the coarse of business in the House. A minority of the committee were in favor of reporting the bill for consideration, but the majority steadfastly refused not only to report that bill, but to report for the consideration of the House any of the great measures that had bieen referred to it in the same way, fearing, as they expressed it, that if a report was made some of the friends of the school bill would move to. amend that report by proposing the school bill for consideration, and if it got out of the committee it would go through the House, so that there was no other way but to prevent its report, and so it Failed. But, although the bill failed, its strength before the country was developed, and also that it had more than a two-thirds vote in the House of Eep- resentatives. Any one who has observed the discussion on this bill must have seen its strength. The matter now stands in this way : The public necessity almost universally demands it, the Senate in two Congresses has developed more than a three-fourths majority for the bill, the House more than a two-thirds majority, which would insure its passage, even if it had to incur the opposition of a veto, which I do not believe it will, if it reaches the Executive of the country, and we have every reason to hope that in the Fiftieth Congress we shall achieve success. We will know the na- ture of the opposition we must meet, and the friends of the bill will see that it is considered during the Fiftieth Congress, and being introduced early, and supported as I know it will be by the same influences which have hitherto carried it along, until it has grown stronger and stronger, 1 believe we shall be certain of success in the Fiftieth Congress. Remember the necessity for the bill. It will educate two generations of the children of the country in the common school. Your great work will be to aid in the passage of this bill. To have passed this bill with all its beneficent influences and results will be a sublime work for at least one generation. If we accomplish it we may pass from the State and feel sure that the republican form of government and all that it means will be perpetuated forever. Dr. M. A. Newell, Baltimore, Md.: Ladies and Gentlemen: I am in the position of a man whose thunder has all been stolen. Senator Blair has left me absolutely nothing to say. I have watched the progress of these various gatherings for the last eight years and have always been charmed and encouraged by the Senator. Now I owe him an everlasting debt of gratitude for having relieved me from the necessity of making a speech. I rise merely to make an apology for not speaking. There is just one point, however, that may possibly be brought up in connection with this subject, taking as the theme the words of our subject, "The re- lation of the public school to the Government.'' What relation have the schools to the Government ! In the first place, the schools must teach the nature of the Government ; they must make the pupils familiar, not only with local administration and municipal administration and county 188 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. administration and State admiuistration, but also with national admin- istration. Among the things the schoolmaster will have to teach to the children before very long, perhaps during the very next session, is this: That the time is coming, i)erhaps the time has come, when it wDl not be in the power of any one man or of any clique of men, any small knot of representatives, any corporation, to thwart the will of the vast ma- jority of the people of the United States. There is a part of the rela- tion the public schools will have to the Government. Our children must understand that we are a free people, that we are the Government, and that we will not have our hands tied behind our backs when we are coming forward in the great cause of liberty and education for all. Our hands have been tied ; we have been prevented froftr doing not only what is just and right, but what a large majority of the people of the country, ]N"orth and South, East and West, desired to do; and we say, "Children, you must see that this shall not be done again.'' Whenever changes are necessary in the administration of the Government — this should be embraced in them — that no small knot of men, however high their position may be, whether Speaker of the House or chairman of a committee, shall be able to make of no avail the expressed will of the great majority of the people of these United States. Eights and duties are reciprocal, and our schools have a right to claim something of the Government. We talk about the Government supporting the schools. Why, it is the schools that support the Government, for the Govern- ment is the people, and what is it that keeps us as a people but our in- telligence, and what creates that intelligence but the schools f Let the Government support the school; let the township support it 5 let the State support it ; let the nation support it. I am not an advocate of patronage; I do not believe that the Government should be asked to do anything that we are able to do*ourselves, but here is a thing which we cannot do for ourselves at the present time, and we have a right to call upon the Government we support to support us in that which is right. I thank you for your attention. The President : I have the honor to introduce Senator Stewart, of Nevada. Senator Stewart : Ladies and Gentlemen: I came here as a spectator, with no intention of making any remarks ; but your subject is one in re- gard to which every intelligent American must have some views. I be- lieve the subject under consideration is ''The relation between our com- mon school system and the Government of the country." There can be no question about their intimate and important relation. Our Govern- ment is projected upon the theory that man is capable of self-govern- ment; that he can govern himself. We have extended to all men, with- out regard to race or color, the right to participate in the Government. If the Government fails at any time it will be from ignorance. Nothing else can destroy a government of the people but ignorance. Intelligence prompts every citizen to desire good government, and if the people DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 189 know how to obtain it they will have it. It is not alone the case with tliisGrovemment, but it is the case with all governments that have failed on acconnt of ignoranc^. It has been the foe that has stood in the way of the progress of man and the government of men. It is the foe of our iree institutions. ISTothing else can destroy us but ignorance. We have ample resources; we have a country which in fertility of soil, extent of country, and natural resources of every kind surpasses any other coun- try on the globe, and it is now occupied by the most intelligent people on the globe, 60,000,000 of them ; they are better fed, better clothed and educated than any 60,000,000 ever were before. Still, we are not free from the enemy of all good government — ignorance. Why is it that in our crowded cities we have fraud and corruption and bad government? Is it because the mass of the people desire bad govern- ment, because they have not learned how to remedy it? Four- fifths of the people of every great city where fraud and corruption exist desire godd government. They must study how to obtain it. It is so through- out the country. We have presented to this country in the progress of civilization new questions, involving new information, new studies; the labor question, the tariff question, and the money question; great and complicated questions which are coming up, are being developed, and they require additional information. What would enable the people of this country to govern themselves fifty years ago would be inade- quate now. Where there is little wealth the Government is simple, and it has been said that republics could only exist where there were no cities. The promoters of our Constitution declared that it was possible to have free government in America because there was no probability of there being great cities, and that there would be no difficult problems of gov- ernment presented. But these i)roblems are now being presented with a rapidity of development never before conceived of. Every new in- vention, the railroad, the telegraph, and every other, demands new in- telligence. The question of the power of this Government to meet the foe, ignorance, and to provide means to advance against that common enemy of good government is unquestioned. We have many precedents for it. Whatever seems necessary for the public defence and the pub- lic good has been deemed within the power of the General Government. It has always exercised.this power. It was thought, in the early part of the Government, necessary to have an army to fight the battles of the country, and we established West Point; we wanted a navy, and we established Annapolis. These are schools, schools maintained by the General Government because it was necessary to provide these means for our common defence. ^N^ow, again, I do not think wisely, but we have been having schools for Indians for the last forty years. They have accomplished very little, and have been failures. All the educating of savages will fail. Our Indian schools have been failures because they did not teach the Indians to work; but it illustrates the power of the Government in favor of any legislation that may be deemed necessary. 190 CIBCULAKS OP INFORMATION FOR 1887. I am in favor — and I believe I have suggested it before in the course of debate on this question — I am in favor of the establishment in Wasl)- iugton of a normal school for the education of teachers. I believe the educators of this country should understand the problems of govern- ment with which the mass of the people are called to contend ; that they should know all that is known of the labor question ; all about the tariff question, about some of the elements of the money question ; they should study the question of political economy, and, above all, the busi- ness of teaching should be made honorable; the teacher should be ele vated in his own estimation. His badge, his diploma, should be a clear passport to the best society. If you will send a few thousand of edu- cated teachers who understand home industries, homo economy, who understand some of the fundamental principles of society — I do not care whether they are skilled in foreign languages or not — but if they understand the science of American government, of free government, of equal rights — I say if you will send a few thousand of these teachers as missionaries throughout the country you will elevate the standard and you will produce a revolution in our school system. This Government can afford it. Why, if we spend $20,000,000 a year in educating teach- ers, in building up the system of free schools, of common schools, which would enable them to grapple with the complications of the Govern- ment as they arise, so that they would not be led away, so that they will have a safe anchor in an enlightened public sentiment, so that an- archists and fanatics cannot sway the people, it would not be too much. I believe a normal school, liberally endowed by the Government, would do more to sustain this Government than all the money spent on your navies and armies. I do not think the danger of our fall comes from without; I think it comes, and must come, from ignorance. Talk about the power of the Government ! A. bill was passed at the present Congress involving an exercise of power on the part of the Government the like of which has never before existed. You talk about the proposition that has already been illustrated by numerous examples, but the lazy House of Representatives took up another subject — widespread, immense — the subject of interstate commerce, the subject of the common carrier, the subject of trade, involving every section of our Republic, placing under the charge of the General Government the vast systems of railroads and common carriers generally, to undertake to regulate it for the benefit of the country ; and what was more strange to me, the most rabid States' rights men of the South and of the North, and those who have been talking about a strict construction of the Constitution, when I find them going into all the States and taking charge of the commerce of the country, let no man say hereafter that we may not on the subject of education exercise the power that has been repeatedly exercised for 1 ike purposes, especially when now, as we know, the machinery of Gov emmeut becomes liiore complicated, and we need a higher class of education, and while* higher educators may go forth to enlighten the DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 191 pablic, and we can govern this country withoat failing for the same cause that every government heretofore has failed, iguorance on the part of the people. . Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the general agent of education in Alaska, was next introduced, and spoke as follows : EDUCATION IN ALASKA. Mr. President, Senator Blair has given you the principles of national aid to education. I bring to you an object lesson on the same subject. The Alaska schools owe a debt of gratitude to the Department of Superintendence.of the National Educational Association which it gives me pleasure to express. At the winter meeting of this association, in 1882, Congress was me- morialized to establish schools in Alaska. In 1883 the National Educational Association took similar action, and upon its recommendation teachers in all parts of the United States — north, south, east, and west— sent petitions to Congress in behalf of education in Alaska. The Department of Superintendence for 1884 went a step further, ^nd appointed a committee to wait upon Congress and secure the incorpora- tion of schools into the bill providing for a civil government for the dis- trict of Alaska. This involved direct school-work by the General Government. It was already carrying on schools among the North American In- dians, and among all classes, white and black, native and foreign-born, in the District of Columbia. Why should it not also undertake, until other provision could be made, schools Iq the district of Alaska. The United States, in the jiurchase of Alaska, assumed all the obli- gations of Kussia, guaranteeing by treaty to the inhabitants " the en- joyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States.'^ And among the advantages is the enjoyment of schools. The Eussian-American Fur Company, as the agent of the Govern- ment, gave Southern Alaska schools. A school was established at Kadiak by Gregory Shelikoff, Governor of the colony, as early as 1785. In 1803 it reported thirty pupils, who were studying arithmetic, navigation, and four mechanical trades. In 1805 the imperial chamberlain and commissioner. Count Nikolai Eesanoff, organized a school at Kadiak, under the name of the " House of Benev- olence of the Empress Maria,^ in which were taught the Eussian lan- guage, arithmetic, and the Greek religion. This school was reorganized in 1820. About the same time a school was opened at Sitka, with a very pre- parlous existence until 1820, when it came under the charge of a naval 192 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. oflScer, who kept a good school for thirteen years. In 1833 this school came under the direction of Etolin,«who still farther increased its effi- ciency. Etolin was a Creole who, by the force of ability and merit, raised himself to the highest position in the country, that of chief director of the Fur Company and Governor of the colony.. In 1825 Yeniaminoff, who afterwards became the metropolite of Mos- kow, established a school for natives and Creoles at Unalashk a. In 1860 it reported 50 boys and 43 girls. For the use of the sc hools, Venia- minoff prepared an alphabet and grammar in the Aleutian language. In 1837 a school was established for girls, children of the employes of the Fur Company, and orphans. In 1842 it had 42 pupils, and 22 in 1862, when it disbanded. In 1840 there were in the colonies 8 schools, 4 for boys and 4 for girls. Besides the colonial school at Sitka was one for orphan boys and sons of workmen and subaltern employes of the Fur Company, in which were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, mechanical trades, and religion. The most proficient of the pupils at the age of 17 were ad- vanced to the colonial school and prepared for the navy or priesthood. The number of boarders was limited to 50. The school was in charge of Lieutenant Commander Prince Maxutoff, assistant Governor of the colony. In 1847 the attendance was 52 ; in 1849, 39 ; and in 1861, 27. In 1839 a girls' school of a similar character was established and num- ber of boarders limited to 40. The course of study comprised Russian language, reading, writing, arithmetic, household work, sewing, and religion. In 1848 the school numbered 32 ; in 1849, 39; and in 1861, 2G. In 1841 a theological school was established at Sitka, which in 1845 was advanced to the grade of a seminary. In 1848 it reported 30 board- ers; 12 day pupils and 12 Creoles being educated in Eussia. Of those in Eussia, 2 were in training for pilots, 1 as merchant, 1 gunsmith, 1 fur dealer, 1 tailor, 1 cobbler. In 1849 the attendance was reported 28, with 11 others in Eussia. In 1859 and 1860 the common schools at Sitka were remodelled, in order to secure greater efficiency. The course of study consisted of Eussiau, Slavonian, and English languages, arithmetic, history, geog- raphyj book-keeping, geometry, trigonometry, navigation, astronomy, and religion. A knowledge of Eussian, reading, writing, and the four rules of arithmetic were required for admission. A pupil failing to pass examination two years in succession was dropped. The course extended over five years. Extra compensation was allowed teachers who secured the best results. The faculty consisted of a principal, who was a grad- uate of the School of Commercial ^N^avigation ; a free pilot, who taught navigation ; an employ6 of the company, who taught book-keeping and commercial branches ; one priest and two licentiates, graduates of the Universityof St. Petersburg. -» The corresponding school for girls was in charge of a lady graduate of one of the highest female schools in Eussia, with two male teachers. DEPARTMENT OP SUPEBINTENDENClE. 193 This made five schools at Sitka : two for the children of the lower <3las8, two for the higher class, and one seminary. On Spruce Island a Eassian monk kept a school for thirty consecutive 3ears for giving instruction in the rudimentary arts and agricultural industries. In 1860 a school was reported on Amlia Island, with 30 in attendance. All these schools have been discontinued. A school house was erected on the lower Yukon, but never used. The result of these schools, es- pecially among the Aleuts, is thus summed up by Hon. W. S. Dodge, of Sitka : Nearly aU of them read and write. Around their homes, in their chorches and schools, are seen many if not all the concomitants of ordinary American homes. Many among them are highly educated, even in the classics. The administration of the Fur Company often reposed great confidence in them. One of their best physicians was an Aleutian ; one of their best navigators was an Aleutian ; their best traders and accountants were Aleutians. When, in 1867, Alaska passed from Eussia to the United States, some ' of the inhabitants are reported to have asked Major-General Eousseau, who was the representative of the United States Government in the transfer, what would become of their schools, he replied, in substance, that the public school system of the United States was far in advance of Eussia, and that our Government would provide them better schools. The teachers supported by the Eussian Government were withdrawn, and the people, naturally and properly, look to the United States for a continuation of the schools. Again, the citizens of Alaska have no power to levy taxes for school or other purposes. Like the District of Columbia, they are governed by Congress, and must necessarily look to Congress for the support of their schools. Further, the conditions of the country are such that for a long time to come it will receive but a small emigration from other sections of the country. The population that will remain permanently in that land and develop its many resources and cause it to assist in advancing the national prosperity are the native inhabitants. This makes it of national importance that those native inhabitants should be educated and civilized. The present population of Alaska largely speak in foreign tongues, and it is a wise policy for the General Government to unify their lan- guage and raise up English-speaking citizens through good schools taught in English. A large part of the civilized population of Alaska is Eussian in its customs and sympathies. While Washington's birthday and the Fourth of July are uncelebrated and unknown among them, the Eussian Emperor's birthday and all the national holidays of Eussia are celebrated with great enthusiasm. Yet these people are by the terms of the treaty United States citizens. Therefore it is the duty of the Government, through the public schools, 3536r-]Sro. 3 13 194 CIRCULAES OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. to educate them into an appreciation of the privileges of their citizen- ship. An important object lesson in every Alaska school would be the '^ Stars and Stripes." Let every school be furnished with a flag. The Government receives from Alaska into its treasury at Washing- ton an annual revenue of about $317,500, and it is just that a portion of this revenue should be returned to that country for education. These and other reasons were brought to bear on Congress, and in May, 1884, was passed the act providing a civil government for Alaska. Section 13 of that law reads : That the Secretary of the Interior shall make needful and proper provision for the education of the children of school age in the Territory of Alaska, without reference to race, until such time as permanent provision shall be made for the same, and the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby ap- propriated for this purpose. Establishment of public schools, — On the 2d day of March, 1885, the honorable the Secretary of the Interior assigned the work of making provision for the education of the children in Alaska to the Bureau of • Education. Lt was a work of great magnitude, on a r^ew and untried field, and witli unknown difficulties. It was a work so unlike any other, that the experience of the past in other departments could not be the sole guide. It was a problem peculiar to itself, and must be worked out by and for itself. It covered an area of one-sixth of the United States. The schools to be established would be from 4,000 to 6,000 miles from headquarters at Washington, and from 100 to 1,000 miles from one another, and that in an inaccessible country, only one small corner of which has any public means of intercommunication. The teachers of five schools in Southeastern Alaska will be able to receive a monthly mail; the larger number of the others can only receive a chance mail two or three times a year, and still others only one annually. It was to establish English schools among a people the larger portion of whom do not speak or understand the English language, the diffi- culties of which will be better appreciated if you conceive of an attempt being made to instruct the children of ]N"ew York or Georgia in arith- metic, geography, and other common school branches through the me- dium of Chinese teachers and text-books. Of the 36,000 people in Alaska, not over 2,000 speak the English tongue, and they are mainly in three settlements. It was to instruct a people, the greater portion of whom are uncivil- ized, who need to be taught sanitary regulations, the laws of health, improvement of dwellings, better methods of housekeeping, cooking^ and dressing, more remunerative forms of laber, honesty, chastity, the sacredness of the marriage relation, and everything that elevates man. So that, side by side with the usual school drill in reading, writing, and arithmetic, there is need of instruction for the girls in housekeeping, cooking, and gardening, in cutting, sewing, and mending; and for the boys in carpentering and other forms of wood- working, boot and shoe- making, and the various trades of civilizatinn. ' DEPARTMENT OF SUPBRINTENDENCE. 195 • It was to furnisli edacatioaal advantages to a peQple, large classes of whom are too ignorant to appreciate them, and who require some form of pressure to oblige them to keep their children in school regu- larly. It was a system of schools among a people who, while in the main only partially civilized, yet have a future before them as American citizen^. It was the establishment of schools in a region where not only the school house but also the teacher's residence must be erected, and where a portion of the material must be transported from 1,500 to 4,500 miles, necessitating a corresponding increase in the school expenditure. It was the finding of properly qualified teachers, who, for a moderate salary, would be willing to exile themselves from all society, and some of them settle down in regions of arctic winters where they can hear from the outside world only once a year. To the magnitude of the work, and the special difficulties environing it, is still further added the complication arising from the lack of suffi- cient funds to carry it on, there being appropriated only $25,000 with which to commence it. Schools in Southeastern AldsJca.-^ln Southeastern Alaska the es^b- lishment of schools, in comparison with the difficulties met in other sections of this land, was easy, as four of the seven schools^ can be reached monthly by the mail steamer. Further, schools had been kept at all these points but two for several years by teachers in the employ of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church. This missionary organization was the first of the American churches to enter that neglected land. Finding no schools, they established them side by side with their missions, proposing to furnish educational advantages antil the General Government should be ready to do it. Therefore last fall, wherever the Government was ready to undertake the work in any village occupied by the Presbyterians they have turned over their schools to the Government. As the Presbyterians had a body of effi- cient teachers already on the ground, acclimated, experienced in the work, more or less acquainted with the native language, and possess- ing the confidence of the people, it was both more economical to the Gov- ernment and for the best interests of the schools that they should, as far as possible, be re-employed, which was done. Yukon River. — For years the Church Missionary Society of England has had mission stations at Fort McPherson and La Pierre House, bordering on Northeastern Alaska, and its missionaries have made occasional trips on the Upper Yukon and its tributaries. Among the capable and energetic young men in its employ, Eev. Vincent C. Sims manifested so much interest in the people, such en- durance of hardship, and such adaptation to the work, that application was made to the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church to secure him as teacher of a Government school on the Yukon River. The society responded favorably, and selected as teachers Mr. Sims and Mr. Kirby, a young man born in that region, the son of Archdeacon 196 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. W. W. Kirby, an English missionary. Before the news of his appoint- ment reached him, Mr. Sims died. The Eev. Octavius Parker, an Epis- copal clergyman, of Oregon, was selected to succeed Mr. Sims. Mr. Parker and family removed to Saint Michael, Alaska, in 1886. This spring Eev. John H.. Chapman, of the same church, has been appointed to join Mr. Parker. The school will be removed from Saint Michael, on the coast, to the valley of the Yukon. Bethel. — During the summer of 1884 the American branch of the Mo- ravian Church sent a commission, consisting of Eev. A. Hartman and Mr. William H. Weinland, to visit the western section of Alaska in search of a suitable location for a mission to the Eskimo. They left San Francisco May 3, 1884, reaching the mouth of the Kus- kokwim Eiver, 4,479 miles, on the 12th of June. Leaving the steamer and hiring two three-holed bidarkas* (sea-lion skin canoes), with four natives to manage them, they ascended the river to Kapaimute, 300 miles, visiting every village by the way. On the 9th of July they com- menced their return to Fort Alexander, 600 miles distant, which they reached August 8, having been eight weeks in the uncomforta,ble boat. From Fort Alexander they returned to Unalashka by schooner, and from thence to San Francisco by steamer. The result of their exploration was the locating of a mission station 150 miles up the Kuskokwim Eiver, near the native village of Mumtrekhlagamute. The new station was named Bethel. It was found necessary to have a special boat made for use on the river, also to purchase in San Francisco the lumber, sashes, doors, hardware, furniture, &c., for the mission buildings, to lay in a 3'ear's supply of provisions, medicines, and other necessaries, and charter a schooner to take the supplies to the mouth of the river. On the 18th day of May, 1885, the party, consisting of Eev. William H. Weinland and Eev. J. H. Killbuck (Delaware Indian), and their wives, with Mr, John Torgersen, mechanic and lay assistant, sailed from San Francisco, reaching the mouth of the Kuskokwim on the 19th of June. They at once set about the transporting of the building materials and supplies to Bethel in their small boat. On the 10th of August the mission met with a great loss in the acci- dental drowning of Mr. Torgersen, who, passing aft on the deck of their little boat, slipped and fell into the river. Eopes and planks were im- mediately thrown to him, but, being heavily clothed, the swift current swept him under. Eev. W. H. Weinland was appointed teacher of the Government school. He was also commissioned by the Government to establish and maintain a Signal Service station at that point. Nushagdk River. — A contract has been entered into with the Mora- vians for the establishment of a school at Nushagak. The teachers selected are Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Wolff and Miss Mary Huber. The build- ings were erected in 1886, and the teachers are now en route to their destination. ** See illustration. Kll)\l k\ II WEI I i\ in: t-TMiiiiipiiutici^i'i'iiyii''* ^ :MU VILLAGK, ST. MICHAELS, ALASKA. r, ST. MICHAELS, ALASKA. led thronsh tfao cnurtcR.T of Mn. >'raa^ Lraliu. From a phutOBrajili i.j- MeKsrs, HattmBun i W Floiu u pLolo;;rnpli Uj- K '/S^'i- !':^ DEPARTMENT OF SUPEKIKTENDENCE. 197 Aleutian Islands. — ^The principal settlement and commercial center of the Aleutian Islands is Unalashka.* This village has a i)opulation of 14 white men and 340 Aleuts and Creoles. They have a church, priest's residence, the stores, residences, warehouses, and wharves of the Alaska Commercial Company, 18 frame residences and 50 barrabaras. One-half the population can read the Aleutian language. It is the most important settlement in Western Alaska, and the commercial center of all the trade now in that region, or that shall develop in the future. It is the natural outfitting station for vessels passing between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans« A public school^ with an attendance of from 35 to 45, was kept at this village during 1885 and 1886. Southern Aldslca. — In the fall of 1886, as agent of the Bureau of Education, I chartered a schooner at Seattle, Washington Territory, to convey myself and party of teachers with their household and school supplies to Southern Alaska. The round trip consumed 104 days. Prof. John H. Carr and wife were left at Unga, on the Shumagin Islands^ Prof. W. E. Roscoe and family, at Saint Paul Harbor, Kadiak 5 Prof. James A. Wirth and wife^ at Afognak Island, and Prof. L. W. Currie and family, at Klawack, on Prince of Wales Island, and a school estab- lished at each place. Industrial training. — Into all the public schools, with the exception of those on the Pribylov Islands, which are not under control bf this Bu- reau, industrial exercises are being introduced as rapidly as possible. Arrangements are already provided by which the girls on two after- noons of each week shall be instructed in sewing and kitchen work, and plans are under way for a similar training of boys in the use of tools. This is but a beginning. As the purpose of the schools is to de- velop an intelligent and useful citizenship, they will need more and more to extend their industrial facilities. As the people make progress, catch the spirit of civilization, and come under the influences which emanate from the schools, they gradually begin to give up their old methods of living and adopt the American. This is especially the case among the native and semi-civilized population. One by one they saw out openings in the windowless walls of their houses and insert sashes and glasses. One after another purchases a cook stove. No longer content to eat off the floor out of a common iron pot, tables and dishes, knives and forks are procured. Then comes a bedstead, and the bed- ding is taken from the floor. Warm, comfortable store clothes take the place of the inconvenient, uncomfortable blanket. Thus slowly and gradually, through the influence of the schools, the population is raised in the scale of civilization. But all this creates a necessity for a larger income and more remunerative employments. The income that was sufficient when the family ate off the ground without dishes, cooked oyer a fire without a chimney, and slept on the floor under skins of wild beasts, is not sufficient to purchase cook stoves, dishes, tables, chairs, * See iUustrations. 198 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. bedsteads, &c. Therefore to create the want without enabling them to supply it is only to make them more miserable. As instruction necessarily creates new wants, and is so intended by the Government, it is but proper that instruction should go farther and so train the hand that the newly created wants can be supplied; Or, in other words, the work of the Alaska school system is not only to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic^ but also how to live better, how to make more money in order to live better, and how to utilize the re- sources of the country in order to make more money. The special resources of Alaska, in addition to her fur-bearing ani- mals, are her vast supply of fish and minerals, and in the southeastern section, great forests. There will also in the southeastern section be more and more the production of garden vegetables and the smaller fruits. Therefore, her schools should eventually teach the best methods of extracting stumps, grading and ditching land and preparing it for cultivation, the vegetables best adapted to the country and the best method of cultivating them, the berries and fruits best adapted to the climate, and how they should be treated, tree planting and drafting, the development of native fruits, also cattle, hog, and poultry raising, and butter and cheese making in regions along the warm southern coast. The rising young men of Alaska should be taught the cutting and rafting of Togs, the running of saw-mills, carpentering, coopering, fur- niture making, and all kinds of wood-working. To this tbey will take readily and naturally, for they and their fathers before them have been noted for their skill in certain mechanical arts, the manufacture of canoes, and carving wood, stone and metal with their rude, native tools. As fish is another of the commercial commodities of the country, and one which will furnish its inhabitants with an ample and reliable means of support, the boys should be instructed in the names, habits, and commercial value of the various kinds of fish found in their waters, im- proved methods of taking and preparing them for market, the making and mending of nets, the management and repair of boats, rope-splicing and sail-making, swimming and naval drill, with some instructions in the tides and in the use of the compass. They should also be taught how to treat accidents, such as gunshot wounds and drowning. The girls should be familiarized with the use of kitchen utensils and exercised in the best methods of cooking meats, fish, and vegetables, the preparation of corned, smoked, and pickled meats and fish, the dry- ing and preserving of berries and care of winter vegetables, making yeast and baking bread, the care of milk with butter and cheese mak- ing, the proper care of storeroom and pantry, the setting, waiting upon, and clearing ofif tables, orderly arrangement of furniture and simple adorning of walls, cleaning and care of lamps, cutting and making of clothes, changing, mending, and patching of garments, knitting and darning of socks. i)ractice on the sewing-machine, washing and ironing, making of lye, soft soap, starch, &c. DEPAETMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 199 Moral training. — The training of the schools should be extended to the heart as well as mind and hand. In sections of Alaska the un- civilized natives are accustomed to herd in large houses, with several families occupying the saoie room and cooking around a common fire. Among some of these families polygamy prevails, and sometimes, not often, a woman is found with two or more husbands. The children grow up amid filth and uncleanliness, accustomed, to impure sights and conversation, and systematically taaght to lie and steal. To them there is no wrong or disgrace in it. It is only disgraceful in being caught, as that seems to be a reflection on their skill ; they should have been smarter. Nephews inherit their uncle's wives and his property as well, so that many a boy is married to a toothless old aunt. In these same homeR are taught, and sometimes even yet practiced, the horrible cru- elties of witchcraft. In some of the schools nearly all the children come from such abodes; and the teacher that would be true to his mission and accom- plish the most good must give prominence to moral as well as intellect- ual instruction. He must try to educate them out of and away from the training of their home lives. They need to be taught that both the law otGod and the law of the land forbid more than one man and one woman living together as husband and wife, that each family should have a separate home, however small, that lying, stealing, and impurity of speech and behavior are alike offenses against God and man, and that these vices are not only destructive to society but a disgrace to themselves. The education demanded in Alaska is the moral, intellect- ual, and physical training of the people at one and the same time^the gradual uplifting of the whole man. All of this may not be attainable at once, or even ultimately in every one of the schools. But a begin- ning has been made in all of them, and the brightest and most promis- ing children will be advanced into the larger training schools, where they will be taught trades and prepared to earn a competent support. One such higher school is in existence at Sitka. Obligatory attendance. — The schools of Alaska are established, with but two or three exceptions, among a half-civilized people. It has long been known in educational circles that the greater the ignorance and the lower the condition of parents, the less they appreciate the impor- tance of education for their children, and the greater the need of out- side pressure to oblige them to send their children regularly to school. It is of no use to establish schools if the children do not attend, and many will not attend unless it is made obligatory on them. This is true of many in enlightened communities and much more so in uncivilized ones. If Congress wisely provides school facilities for the children of Alaska, it should go further and make their attendance at those schools obligatory, for in no other way can the best results of the appropria- tion be secured, and in no other way can the highest interests of the children themselves be subserved. 200 CIRCULARS OF INFORMATION FOR 1887. School buildinga. — Oq accoaut of the small appropriation made for the commencement of schools in Alaska, it was not deemed wise to attempt much in the way of bailding. As a consequence, not a single Govern- ment school in Alaska owns the bailding it occupies, and, with bat two exceptions, not a single school has a comfortable building adapted to its necessities. Teachers. — Only those of the higher grades of certificates have been^ employed as permanent teachers. In some instances teachers of less skill have been employed temporarily until others can be procured. In a few places, where they can have a home in a private family, un- married ladies have been employed ; but in the larger number of places the teacher has been a married man and accompanied ]jy his wife. Especially is this the case in the native villages, where the school aims to lift the whole community out of its old methods into those of civ- ilization. In such communities a well-ordered household is an object lesson of great power. The most argent need of the Alaska schools is ik more adequate ap- propriation from Congress. Summary of monthly attendance at the public schools in Alaska, 1885-^86. 1 i ft October. November. December. CO i hi E • 1 1 Jniie&a ....•••.••. 34 22 37 26 90 34 76 31 77 69 87 81 44 101 67 43 77 65 77 84 44 117 72 44 76 67 84 88 43 115 50 58 74 43 56 47 35 91 40 36 30 58 52 37 56 35 30 166 36 41 51 53 39 13 106 85 32 Sitka No. 1 46 SitkaNo. 2 48 Port Wraneell 41 59 40 53 78 77 45 70 76 68 44 68 33 Jackson -- 19 fTaines ................................ 106 TJnalashka 1 35 TTOOnah .'......r^.rrrr.T^Trr.r.,,. 39 Killisnoo 24 24 32 Port Tuniraa ......^ Totals 235 316 450 566 574 697 510 386 362 351 Prof. GBORaE E. Little, of Washington, D. 0., made some remarks on the cultivation of manual dexte rity, which he illustrated by work on the black-board. The President : I think this closes the work of the convention, and I wish to say in conclusion that as chairman I feel under special obliga- tions to my associate officers, the local committee in Washington, and to the members of the convention for the way in which they have sup- ported me in conducting this convention since its organization. In many respects I trust the meeting has been profitable. As your pre- siding officer I have tried to discharge my duty faithfully and conscien. tiously, and now I wish to thank you most cordially and warmly for your support. The convention then adjourned to meet again in Chicago with the general association of which it is a department. •V ■-- FtDQKskut I liv M tiBlann Bjp ^'