ALEX. L. WADE, Esq.,

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Department of Public Instruction.

HARRISBURG, Feb. 22d, 1879.

County Superintendent, Monongalia Co., W. Va.

My Dear Sir:-I have time only to glance at your report, but I have no doubt from what I have seen of it that your "graduating system" may be made to do a great amount of good in public schools. If you will send me a concise account of it and its workings, I will publish it in the School Journal. I shall not have room for a long article.

Yours truly,

J. P. WICKERSHAM."

I will now give an extract from a letter of Dr. JOHN HANCOCK, President of the National Educational Association, It is dated at Dayton, Ohio, April 8th, 1879. He says:

“I have read your report with much interest, and join most heartily with the distinguished educators you have named in commending your graduating system' for primary schools, as worthy the consideration of educators throughout the country. I make no question that the system will serve a very valuable purpose in stimulating youth to greater exertion in study, and at once prove an incentive to the acquisition of knowledge both effectual and healthy."

GEORGE P. BROWN, President of the Department of Elementary Schools of the National Educational Association, in a letter dated Toledo, Ohio, May 7th, 1879, says:

"I thank you for the copy of your report. It is one of the best I have ever seen."

Hon. JOHN EATON, United-States Commissioner of the Bureau of Education, in a letter dated Washington, March 4th, 1879, says:

"Your letter of the 19th inst. and the copy of your Third Annual Catalogue are received. I have not had time to examine the pamphlet, so that I can hardly give my views yet, as to the graded system devised by yourself. I shall read your pamphlet with much interest.”

In a subsequent letter (March 14th,) Mr. EATON says:

"It is very unsafe to express an opinion upon such a matter without a personal investigation."

Barnes's Educational Monthly, February number, contains an editorial which so clearly presents and so heartily approves the graduating system that I present it in full, notwithstanding I have already referred to it. The editor says:

"The question has frequently been asked of late, What is meant by a common-school course? It has been nothing but a mixture of reading, writing, and arithmetic, with a quantity of geography, history, and science in quantities to suit the taste; there has been no course in it. In a multitude of cases what a child studies depends upon the blind judgment of parents or the momentary convenience or caprice of teachers. The so-called common-school course is no course at all. We most earnestly

commend any superintendent or teacher who can suggest any way by which order can be obtained, and the confusion now existing avoided. Mr. A. L. WADE, County Superintendent, Monongalia County, W. Va., has done more in this direction than any other person of whom we have heard. In his work he has accomplished the following results, which we commend to all similar workers throughout the Union:

1. The primary branches are taken up as one course of study for graduation.

2. The time in which each advanced pupil agrees to complete a certain course is fixed.

3. Public examinations of graduating classes are held annually, and diplomas are granted to those who complete prescribed courses.

4. Alumni associations of those who have graduated are formed.

5. An annual catalogue containing the names of all pupils attending school in the county during the year is published. In this catalogue, the names of all pupils are placed in their appropriate classes, showing from year to year what advancement has been made.

In all this work there is needed careful and intelligent supervision. The plan is admirable, and if it should be universally adopted it would give our County Commissioners and Superintendents a definite work to do, and unify our common schools, so that we could point with some show of truth and reason to the Common-School System of the United States of America."

The Teacher, published in this city, one of the neatest and cheapest of the Monthlies, in the January number concludes a review of the Third Annual Catalogue of the Free Schools of Monongalia County, in these words:

"The graduating system as described in the pamphlet before us, is a grand step in the march of education. We hail with satisfaction an appliance of this kind coming as it does from a live teacher, and exhibiting results of practical experience in the school-room."

The Monthly Normal Review, July number, contains a leading editorial on the graduating system, from which I make the following extracts: "It is simply the application to primary schools of a well-grounded principle employed in all higher schools. Every student who enters college, for example, has his course mapped out for him. He may do more, but there is a minimum of work which he must do. So here as soon as a child passes from the preparatory grade to his class, he knows how much work he has to do, and how much time he has for doing it. It insures also a variety of studies, and we do not believe Mr. WADE states it too strongly when he says, 'My opinion is that a pupil from fourteen to sixteen years of age, who has had some advantages in school, will do better in each branch, if he takes up the entire free-school course, than he will do if he takes up nothing beyond arithmetic.' It furnishes the pupil an incentive to work. He has publicly pledged himself to accomplish a certain thing, and has associated himself with others striving for the same end; and now it is no longer the teacher who urges him on, but his own self-pride, his emulative feelings, his love for the approval of friends, and added to these and equally potent with any of them the desire for the ap

proval and fear of the condemnation of public opinion at whose bar he is now judged. Our country schools certainly need some attention, and we know of no plan more promising of good than this. It has been tried in some places, and we would gladly see it adopted in more; for though objections may be found to it, nevertheless it is a step in the right direction, and it is certainly freer from faults than many other plans already in vogue. At the very least it merits a fair trial and a full discussion, and we hope it may have both these as soon as possible."

The New-England Journal of Education, of May 8th, 1879, published the article from Barnes's Educational Monthly, to which I have referred, and in a kindly manner makes this criticism. I give the first sentence and the last paragraph:

"Superintendent WADE, of Monongalia County, West Virginia, has adopted a graduating plan for primary schools, which seems to be producing a revolution in that section; but whether it is due to his enthusiasm as an educational worker, or to the merits of the system we at this distance of remove cannot decide. It has occurred to us that it may be possible for teachers to exalt the form at the expense of the substance, and that in looking too earnestly for the formation of system which shall embrace a multitude of schools and teachers, we are liable to lose that which is the thing of greatest value in education-the individuality of both teacher and pupil. We hope to examine the results of Mr. WADE's efforts more fully when we shall be better able to judge of their merits."

The Educational Weekly, Chicago, of March 28th, contains an editorial of more than two columns in which the system is carefully and critically reviewed. I extract two paragraphs which give the spirit of the article: "There can be no question but that such a course will very materially quicken the interest of both pupils and parents in the public schools. The same personal ambition is appealed to in the children as that which inspires the academic or college student to apply himself diligently to his studies, and finally graduate from the course with a formal certificate of attainments. And this is also the testimony of Superintendent WADE after having well tried the plan.

This question is one of great importance in the administration of the public-school system, and the friends of that system should give it a fair consideration. While, therefore, the Weekly would approve and defend every such movement as that of Superintendent WADE, in West Virginia, if judiciously and wisely conducted, it would caution all who are devoted to such progressive steps to advance slowly and carefully guard against abuses which are apt to follow close upon the heels of all true progress." The American Journal of Education, St. Louis, April number, contains an editorial which I present in full:

"We hope the article on Schools in West Virginia, published in our last issue, was very carefully read.

"We see in it many things to admire and to commend.

"As a means of interesting both the pupil and the parent, it proved to be eminently successful. The parents, too, were tax-payers, and it gave

the teachers an opportunity to demonstrate to the tax-payers the worth and the measure of their work. We should have more liberal estimates made for all our schools in this State, if the tax-payers knew what and how much our teachers are doing.

"Not knowing much about it, they are disposed to cut down the "estimates for teachers' wages and other necessary things, to the lowest figure possible.

"For this, our teachers themselves are very much to blame. They do not take care that the tax-payers shall be kept well posted on what the schools are doing-on what improvements are being made.

"This graduating system, adopted and so successfully carried out by Mr. A. L. WADE of Monongalia County, West Virginia, would certainly work a much-needed reform in this direction.

"There is so much of real practical value in it, touching as it does this vital question of the worth and the work of our teachers, that we are disposed strongly to commend it to the attention of our friends all through the West and South."

But I must close this testimony, and conclude this argument. I have presented a system which is new, and have shown that its introduction into the Free Schools of Monongalia County, West Virginia, produced an educational revival of unusual interest, and that although four years have elapsed this interest is undiminished. I have shown that the State Teachers' Association of West Virginia recommends the adoption of this system throughout the State. I have proved by official reports of County Superintendents who have tested the system, that it carries with it the spirit of revival. I have shown that the public press of West Virginia favors its adoption. I have proved by the official report of the General Superintendent of Public Instruction in West Virginia that it is a plan that has worked with admirable success, and that he favors its adoption by law, I have shown by letters and editorials that some of the foremost thinkers and freshest writers connected with the educational work of the nation, favor the system.

I now leave the subject with the Association, believing that it will re_ ceive due consideration. Permit me to say in conclusion that we are engaged in a grand cause, the education and elevation of our race. To educate a being whom God made a little lower than the angels, and then crowned him with glory and honor, is a noble work, but we must not for. get that education embraces the culture of the whole man with all his faculties.

In discussion, J. W. HARVEY, of Chester Co., Pa., said that he considered the subject of the utmost importance. A modification of present methods would have a tendency to keep pupils in school a greater length of time. It would also be a stimulus to both teachers and pupils.

W. A. BELL, of Indiana, said that the graded system in country schools was not a new thing in Indiana. It had been in operation in that State for the past six years, and in all the counties having efficient county superintendents had proved a success. In some of the best counties the

schools are not only graded, but at the close of the course an examination are given to those

is held by the county superintendent and "certificates who have successfully completed the course.

Mrs. REBECCA D. RICKOFF, of Ohio, read a paper on

THE FIRST SCHOOL DAYS.

At the opening of the fall term of our city schools, children, varying in age from four to seven years, come pouring into the lowest department until not only the seats, but often the edges of the platform and all other available places are overflowing with a jostling, uncomfortable, disconcerted crowd. In the confusion many children get into the wrong grades and must be exchanged. Some are found not to be of legal age, and must be sent home; some are too old for this grade and yet not sufficiently advanced for the next. These and similar things demand the immediate attention of the teacher; added to this are constant interruptions from the necessary visits of school officials and interviews with parents. It is under such conditions as these that the primary teacher has to begin her important work. If during the first week she succeed in organizing her school, in recording names, ages, and residences, in getting each pupil properly provided with slate, pencil, sponge, and other necessary materials, in having slates ruled, pencils sharpened, etc., she will have accomplished much, and her school, so far as the mere machinery of management is concerned, will be ready to begin work. But while the teacher is doing all this, there sit the little children in the close school for four, five-in some wicked cities even six-hours each day. The majority of these children have never before been inside of a school-room, and everything about them is new and strange. Whence have these children come? From homes whose influences vary as the number of families the children represent. How various, then, must be the impressions, produced upon them by these first days of school! The teacher, as she looks over the room, will observe that nearly every type of character, nearly every phase of disposition, may be studied in the faces before her. Here she will see a bold, defiant boy, a little Arab from the streets, who never heard a word of love he is on the look out that no one gets the better of him; and beside him sits a timid girl, the pet of a household, who misses her pleasant home and wants to run away and hide her head in her mother's bosom. There is the bully with an air of bravado; there the sly puss; and yonder a fair young face full of expectation, dashed a little, it may be, by awe of the teacher, and chilled by a sense of loneliness, but the little one loves novelty, and is eager to push forward on the pathway of life. Here is a spoiled darling, pouting because she finds herself not, as at home, the centre of interest, but only one of a crowd; and near is the little girl who has been obliged "to help" ever since she could walk; the only happiness her childhood will ever know she will find in the school-room. Here is a little idealist; already he dreams of conquering the world he knows, be it to dig a deeper well, to build a higher wall, to sail the ocean, or scale