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which has been specifically prescribed, is not, in any proper sense, taught. The one result which is almost certain is that the children will not attend a good school continuously during their school lives.

The mischief which is here suggested has its seed in part in the law itself, which prescribes two visits a term as the legal requirement, and by implication expresses itself satisfied with that number. These two visits can not amount to supervision, and if supervision be necessary, it can not be had under such a law executed to the letter. School visitors can not be held responsible for the failure.

The inefficiency in teaching noted above in some measure arises from the fact that the committees and visitors are entirely unacquainted with what should be taught in schools, and are not competent supervisors. Many of these teachers go astray in their work, because they have no one to tell them what they ought to do. Very frequently young persons labor hard but fruitlessly, because they have no notion of what they ought to accomplish. These teachers are thankful for suggestions, and no teacher has been found to reject recommendations or receive them otherwise than gratefully. Without question, the school committees and school visitors might inform themselves, and thus participate more frequently and actively in school work. This would be an impulse to the efforts of teachers, if it were well directed. IV. The high schools are dislocated from and do not lend a helpful hand to the elementary schools.

There is no cement by which the grammar schools are bound to the high schools. The high schools have dictated the studies of elementary schools to the endless harm of the latter. Schemes are formed, one school first grade, another second, another third, etc., but these names which represent a valuable reality when a school of lower grade gives an education useful in itself and thus fits for a higher, simply imply a harassing limitation upon the subjects of instruction when the higher school dictates the studies and directs the instruction in the lower, or when each school, instead of being a part of an organism, must act as an independent body. Possibly high schools are supplying as much education above the elementary as is demanded, but they are doing very little, perhaps nothing, to stimulate this demand. In the larger towns the high schools furnish the instruction which a few wish for, but they do not help, or help only to a very slight extent, the main body of the youth in the town.

This means that they are doing only what could be done without them. For when so few demand what the high schools afford, it is probable that the people who want this education for their children could be trusted to find it for them. These high schools provide at the expense of the taxpayer what a few want a little cheaper thau private individuals could provide it. They should prove their right to exist by creating a demand for their special training and fitting youth for useful occupations.

Notably is weak teaching manifest in the high schools and in the advanced grammar grades in the elementary schools. Deficiencies in these grades are not easily detected. Children can be set to tasks useless or useful. Memory exercises indicating an apparent intellectual activity can be given, while the whole process of learning is fatal to thinking, and ultimately to independent right action. As in elementary schools, so in high schools the cardinal need to-day is a supply of persons qualified to intelligently instruct.

EDWARD D. ROBBINS.
ANTHONY AMES.
GEO. M. CARRINGTON.
WILLIAM G. SUMNER.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

[From the report of Supt. W. B. Powell for 1892-93.)

Advantages of free text-books.-The distribution and preservation of text-books and supplies, though restricted to the first six grades of school, involved a large amount of extra work and care, which, notwithstanding a custodian was employed, devolved largely on the supervising corps. This work added a large percentage to the labors of the supervisors, and at the same time correspondingly reduced the amount of work and attention that could be given to supervision and improving the teaching in the schools. Books and supplies to the value of $10,000 or $50,000, in use by 40,000 children at work in a hundred schoolhouses distributed over 64 square miles of territory, required for their distribution, their preservation, and such constant knowledge of their condition as is desirable from a business as well as an ethical point of view not only much time as well as care, but also great labor and thought, demanding an expenditure of no inconsiderable nervous force.

Free text-books and supplies, however, have been a great boon to thousands of children, and have secured the prompt and regular attendance at school of many

who, if they had been obliged to buy their books, could not have attended at all. They have also served to make the schools more efficient and more uniform in their efficiency than schools can be made whose pupils furnish their own books, because uniformity in the character of supplies and promptness in furnishing them are more easily secured when books and supplies are provided by the school authorities than when they are furnished by the pupils. With few exceptions, resulting from inability of contractors to fill our orders promptly, teachers had to do but little waiting for materials with which to work during the year. The advantage of this is considerable, being especially appreciable in the poorer districts of the city and the more distant county schools. No other purely administrative item has tended so much to unify the teaching of our schools and to make it as good in the less-favored localities as it is elsewhere as this uniformity of supplies and this promptness in getting them into the hands of the teacher.

Except in a few cases the books have been well preserved and the supplies carefully and economically used. The supervisors have exercised a judicious, intelligent, and painstaking supervision in the use and preservation of everything that has passed through their hands. The teachers, as a rule, have shown that interest and exercised that care in the preservation of books and the economical use of supplies that they would be expected to show were they providing these things themselves. In many instances the teachers do more than this; they impress upon their pupils the moral importance in caring for property that is a loan or trust or whose use is in part a gift. Indeed the strongest teachers have made this an opportunity to impress upon the minds of the children the moral obligation that rests upon one who is the custodian of public property, making them feel not alone that their own interests in the ownership of what they use should insure a careful consideration for its welfare, but also that the fact that they are trusted agents is a much weightier reason why they should be careful of this property. If the coming generation of citizens can be trained to a feeling of responsibility in the exercise of care in the use of public property which shall result in the cessation of vandalism, careless destruction, and the hoidenish practice of writing their names and carving their initials in public places, thus marring the beauty of every thing they touch, the furnishing of free text-books will yield a fruitage quite commensurate with the

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One may almost know before an examination of a school has been made the condition of the books in use and the care that is exercised in the preservation of perishable materials, as paper, ink, and pencils, by the condition of the fence inclosing the school lot and the fences of the adjoining lots, by the condition of the halls and other passageways of the school building, and he will be further strengthened in such judgment by the presence or absence of cuts, mars, and marks on the school furniture, on entering the schoolroom. These are telltales whose reliable stories the wise supervisor will not fail to read in passing. It has been the constant effort of the supervising corps to train the children to preserve the property of the District, not so much for the preservation, per se, though that is strong enough reason for the effort, but that the training of the children may be secured to that manly conduct, to that conscientious discharge of duty in the use of property that characterizes the safe man.

Moral effect of the condition of schoolhouses.-The condition of the houses and their surroundings at all times should be such as to influence the children to thoughtful care in their treatment of them. To the effects of this condition is due much that gives character to the conduct of the children. A scratch on the casing of door or window invites another scratch. A boy sees less harm in breaking a pane of glass adjacent to another that is broken than he does in breaking one in a sash containing only whole panes. It does not seem very wrong to jerk or twist from its post a gate that is hanging by only one hinge. To the mind of the child it is a small matter to take one or more bricks from a sidewalk already broken or partly torn up. The lesson to be learned from these facts by the management, if the children are to receive proper influence from their surroundings, is that the schoolhouses and their appurtenances should be kept in perfect repair all the time. The effect of a clean schoolroom, in good repair, on a pupil's life and conduct is greater than any code of precept on order and cleanliness that may be dictated by the teacher or other person in authority. The one becomes a part of himself, because he lives it; the other he is likely not to believe, if he understands it, because it has only been said to him. People are what they grow to be. They grow on what they take for nourishment. The life of a young child is undoubtedly affected by what is said to him, but it is influenced far more by what he does. The atmosphere of a well-ordered, well-kept schoolroom is not only an inspiration, but it is moral nourishment developing his tender life in desirable, profitable growths. It is a crime to the State and to the individual child, to the State because to the individual child, to permit him to sit

for a school term on a broken chair, at a desk whose top is scratched and marred, in a schoolroom that is dirty and otherwise untidy. How different must be the effect on a child of daily work for an entire year on a comfortable seat, at a desk that is in good repair, in a clean, well-ordered schoolroom, with books that are whole and free from dirt, from a corresponding daily work on a stool without a back, at a desk made hideous by the vandal's knife or inconvenient and ugly by accident or carelessness, in a dirty, untidy schoolroom, with torn and dirty books? Example is a contagion for which there is no antidote.

Night schools.-Stable character of membership.-Teachers.-The night schools, as they grow older and become more mature, show their usefulness and thus prove their right to exist and the importance of giving to them liberal support. Their history, which points clearly to a fluctuation of attendance and a variation in their success, proves the importance of giving to them a wise and careful supervision. Pupils present themselves for instruction in successive years at those schools that are well taught and skillfully managed. The system of gradation that was adopted at the beginning of the school seems to work well for the adjustment of the teaching force as well as for the educational interest of those who attend them. Much latitude is allowed in the interpretation of this course for the different schools. Promotions have taken place from year to year, so that now pupils are advanced from the division night schools to the night high school. This gradation of work and the consequent promotion of pupils who finish the work of a given grade seem to influence the pupils to a continued effort for a longer time than one or two years. At least 33 per cent show this continuity of purpose. The increase of this element in the annual enrollment is an evidence of the substantial results the night schools are securing. A spasm of desire for improvement that lasts but a half dozen evenings is perhaps to be encouraged, but is not encouraging, while a purpose to learn and improve that shows staying qualities which last a term of years under varying circumstances gives encouraging promise that assistance given to it will fructify in good.

The stable character of the membership is shown by the fact that in the early history of these schools there were few pupils in the upper or highest classes while the lowest were crowded, whereas now the highest classes are large while the lowest classes are small. It is perhaps advisable for the board of trustees to offer to such as finish a course at the night high school a certificate of graduation. This would serve as an incentive to many to attend more regularly and for a longer time, yet it could be done easily and at little cost. It would add dignity to the whole system of night schools and would have a strong tendency to insure their stability, as very many of those who attend them require some incentive to continued effort in welldoing stronger than a love for knowledge, and as the irregular attendance in these schools gives little opportunity for developing the spirit of the true student.

Experience has shown that only those teachers who succeed well in day-school work are fitted to do even passable work in the night schools. It is a difficult matter to secure enough competent teachers from the day-school force, as the day-school work is very exacting and consequently exhausting. Only the strongest (physically) can teach both day and night school. Many persons seeking employment regard the night school as a place to experiment or to "try their hand" at teaching. Wherever such experimenting has been allowed the teaching has proved a failure. The pupils in every instance have been able to detect the lack of ability and strength in the teacher. As the teacher so the school" proves especially true of night schools. A person unaccustomed to manage others in large numbers is helpless in the presence of a dozen or score of boys and young men, much of whose life is spent on the street. It were better not to have night schools than to put them in the hands of such persons.

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It is especially noteworthy that those night schools are the most successful whose principals have remained at their heads for a number of years. Principals who remain at the work from year to year become interested in it, get to know thoroughly the conditions of the pupils as well as their ambitions, and are thus able to plan for them better than strangers can. The pupils become acquainted with the principal, learn his ways, and if they are satisfied to stay at school at all, develop a pride for the one they attend. This mutual interest between principal and pupils is an important factor in securing good results, but being of slow growth is rarely found in schools whose principals are changed each year. The night-school principalship is an important position, one which can not be well filled except by a person of broad experience. It is a position demanding executive ability, liberal education, and experience in its practical application, and especially a missionary spirit. A person to fill this position well should feel the responsibility that attaches to it sufficiently to be willing to make sacrifices for his pupils whose antecedents and present lives he must study. A few persons have been found who have made the

position what it ought to be. The place is not a sinecure. It may be desirable to increase the principal's pay, that when the right persons have been found they may more easily be induced to stay.

Kindergartens.-There can be no doubt that a relatively small annual expenditure for kindergartens would give rich returns to the school and to the community. It is not difficult for the teachers of experience to select from the children entering the first grades those who have had training in the kindergarten. They learn enough more rapidly and enough more thoroughly to warrant the maintenance of this kind of school for its economic value alone. This is more evident when it is considered that the child who does not get training in the kindergarten before coming to the primary school gets, in too many instances, a training that is a hindrance to progress until it has been corrected.

Much of evil found in many persons that lasts, and whose fruitage is measured in the police court, is implanted in early life at the kindergarten age. It would be in the interest of good government and of economy to get hold of these persons and properly care for them before germs of evil are planted in their susceptible young lives, which, when strength of character develops, make criminals of them. No small part of the effort of the primary teachers is given to counteracting the teaching that has been done by the street the year or two preceding the time the child enters the school. An earlier start at this by one year or more would be an inestimable advantage. The kindergarten offers this.

Gradation and promotion of pupils.-The gradation and promotion of children are two subjects requiring the utmost care and the most profound consideration of those who manage school systems. It is detrimental to a pupil's interests for him to be improperly graded for any great length of time. The effect of having to work in too high a grade may be as harmful as having to work in a grade that is too low, though of quite a different character. The graded school scheme may work injury to the child if the course of instruction is inflexibly fixed by metes and bounds of text-books, as indicated by page, chapter, section, or paragraph. A graded course of instruction so outlined or determined, in the hands of a machine teacher or an inexperienced teacher not under close and correct professional guidance, will do the child harm from which he may never recover. The value of graded instruction, that is, teaching many pupils the same lesson at the same time, as compared with that of individual instruction, is receiving the attention of many earnest thinkers among those who are investigating the effects of our social institutions. The evil to which I have alluded has been pointed out by many of these inquirers, some of whom have sought a remedy for it.

Among the various plans that have been offered as remedies is that of shortening the period of the grade; that is, making a grade a half year or a quarter of a year long and allowing talented or competent pupils to pass along rapidly, but detaining for a longer time those who are unable to do the work-a plan of gradation and promotion now in vogue in some of the cities of the United States. The effect of this is, of course, to advance the talented pupil along the straight line of the course more rapidly than he would be advanced were the grades each a year in length, requiring him to do more waiting for the less fortunate pupil to accomplish prescribed work. The effect of the plan must be to foster and emphasize in the mind of the teacher that view or understanding of the graded course of work from which the greater portion of the poor grade teaching proceeds, namely, that the course of study contains, in its letter, all that any need learn, and only that which all must learn. This is the root of the evils of graded work, as opposed to individual work. The evils of the plan for prevention may become more serious than the one which it is intended to prevent. These evils are threefold:

First, the tendency of rapid promotion is to prevent, in the interest of "going up” more rapidly within prescribed lines, a breadth of learning for which some children who are sent up in advance of their mates are capable, and to minimize the broadening which all should get before they are allowed to advance. This broader learning involves (a) the assuring or confirming part of perception and conception that is secured by testimony, testimony of numerous examples or of authority, or both, and (b) the synthetic steps of mental acts, rounding them out, perfecting or completing them, and applying them, as opposed to the purely analytic steps of mental acts, a most necessary part of education indeed.

Second, rapid promotion results in taking the child while he is yet young and immature, as graded courses of study are now planned, to higher work, work suited only to maturer minds, minds that have proved their sense impressions and synthesized their powers and their percepts. If the advanced grades of instruction were simply for giving broader views and more numerous applications of principles learned in the grades below them, and for formulating such views and applications, rapid advancement along the straight line of the course would be conducive to healthy mind growth; it would be strength giving in its tendency, and would secure to the pupil that possession of confidence in himself which is a result of all

correct learning. But such is not the case. The child, in passing from grade to grade, encounters at each step a new subject or a new part of a subject that is to him a new subject, which must be approached by analysis. Concepts come only by synthesis, but the child thus rapidly moved from one thing to another of greater difficulty is accumulating unrelated percepts. Because of this, he is given little opportunity to complete his mental acts and make totals of them, resulting to him on the culture side in unorganized, unrelated bits of strength, and on the acquistion side " patchwork" knowledge, whose relations he has never been made to see fully and of whose uses he is in the main ignorant. The pupil who is advanced rapidly from grade to grade often meets with subjects that are too intricate for him to understand, and which he consequently learns ouly in an unprofitable, memoriter way. If didactic teaching is not done and memoriter learning not allowed he may yet be hurried from one point to another before his mind has had testimony enough to shape or give character to a sense impression and make a percept of it, and exercise giving it strength enough to hold the percept in consciousness as a permanent acquisition. Then, too, it must be remembered sense impressions are not percepts, nor does it make percepts of them for the teacher to name them for the child and cause him to commit the names to memory. What must be the influence of this kind of training (?) on the mind of the boy, continued for a greater part of the time devoted to elementary and secondary education? It is not strange that pupils thus taught disappoint their friends and employers when tested in practical life. It is not strange, perhaps, though it ought to be, that a pupil thus taught can get into college, and while there be one of the bright lights of his class, and graduate from it an "honor man."

Third, rapidly hurrying part of the class over a course of study does great injustice in many instances to those who are left behind. The totality of the mind of one boy may be as great or even greater than that of another, yet the former may appear to the unskilled teacher much duller and less talented than the latter, because he gets percepts less easily, which power only is considered by the teacher in rating the two boys. But the slowness with which he gets percepts is not proof that he is less talented than the other. His mind may require more testimony before a percept becomes, and yet when it is fixed he may have natural aptness in synthesizing or applying percepts, or both, of which his apparently more fortunate mate may have little. The one boy is only apparently "bright" and the other is only apparently "dull," and that to a teacher incompetent to judge of mind aggregations. The kind of teaching that rapid promotion almost inevitably induces prevents the teacher from striking a balance and knowing the working value of a child's mind. In a majority of cases it gives no opportunity to test the minds of the class, as simple justice demands they should be tested before the serious distinctions are made that are shown by the promotion of some and the detention of others. The stronger person, as shown by an aggregate of mental endowments, is often found at the foot of the class, and is therefore left behind when promotions are made.

KENTUCKY.

[From the report of State Supt. Ed. Porter Thompson for 1892-93.]

Some leading facts.-There are at present in Kentucky between 8,000 and 9,000 public schools, under the supervision of city and county superintendents.

The teachers employed in these schools number approximately 9,400. The number of white teachers in the counties receiving first-class certificates for the year ended June 30, 1893, was approximately 43 per cent, as compared with 23 per cent for that ended June 30, 1891, and this notwithstanding the fact that the examinations have been gradually growing more difficult.

The average annual State fund disbursed in cities and counties for the two years ended June 30, 1891, was $1,275,181.78; contributed by local taxation for all purposes, $723,215.54. The average annual State fund for the two years ended June 30, 1893, was $1,668,308.37; contributed by local taxation for all purposes, approximately, $834,115.33. This remarkable increase of State fund, more than 30 per cent, was due in part to the fact that in 1892 the direct tax due to Kentucky by the General Government, $606,641.03, was returned, and by constitutional provision was made part of the school fund, and on which a semiannual interest of 6 per cent is paid yearly; in part to the fact that the new revenue law has materially increased the State's finances. It is to be remarked as a most favorable indication that the increase of local aid during the two years was more than 15 per cent.

Character of the system.-Apparently much, indeed most, of what the active friends of popular education have been contending for as to organization and State aid has been secured. The system is so comprehensive and symmetrical as to present the appearance of having that close organic connection of schools of all grades, from that of the ordinary district to the State college, for which the Swiss plan is so much

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