Not a mere passing notion.—Superintendent Raab, of Illinois, in renewing his recommendation for a change to the township system, says: "It is not a mere passing notion which prompts me to urge this matter of school administration, and to ask such a sweeping modification of the existing laws, but an earnest desire to help to simplify and improve the school affairs of the State causes me to again propose a measure, which it becomes the more difficult to carry into effect the longer we wait. I mean the change from the present district system to the township system in school administration."

Advantages of the township system.-The following synopsis of the advantages of the township system is given by Superintendent Thompson, of Arkansas:

"1. The building of better and more convenient school-houses.

"2. The schools could be classified and graded with more ease.

"3. Better teachers would be employed.

"4. School terms would be longer.

"5. Taxation would be equalized.

"6. The school revenues would be more equitably distributed.

7. Equal educational privileges could be extended to all parts of the township. "8. Children could attend the school that was most convenient.

"9. School-houses would be better furnished.

"10. The per capita cost of education would be diminished.

"11. There would be but little uncertainty about district boundaries.

"12. Reliable statistics and information could more easily be obtained.

"13. There would be better management and supervision of the schools. "14. Text-books could not be so easily changed.

"15. The school law would be simplified and better understood and obeyed."

Consolidation of school districts.--Superintendent Williams, of Delaware: "There can be no reasonable doubt of the practical benefits to be derived from the consolidation of small school districts. In district schools some of the difficulties which are met, and which tend greatly to impede the progress of the schools, are the large number of classes, in one instance numbering as high as 26 in a school of 35 scholars; the shortness of the school terms; the necessity in some districts of employing inexperienced teachers, owing to the small amount of money, and the frequent changing of teachers. These, and many others which might be mentioned, could be overcome by consolidating some districts and establishing graded schools.

"The benefits of the consolidation of small school districts are seen in Sussex County, as the results of the commission appointed by the last General Assembly, and have been found highly advantageous to the cause of education."

Practical results of the adoption of the town system in Vermont.-Superintendent Dartt: "At the last session of the Legislature a law was passed requiring all towns having the district system to vote upon the question of abolishing the districts and adopting the town system at the annual meetings in 1885 and 1886; the vote to be by ballot and opportunity to be given for discussion.

"It will be seen from the record that in the 2 years 16 towns voted to adopt the town system, and one voted to return to the district system after using the town system 5 years."

Town superintendent of Bolton, Vt.: "Five years have passed since this town entered upon the town system, and when the people had an opportunity to return to the old district system at the last annual meeting, not a single person, to all appearance, desired to do so. Surely a good argument for the town system, when almost a majority were at first bitterly opposed to it."

Of Middletown: "We note a very decided improvement in our schools under the town system. It is working admirably with us and fast gaining friends. Its adoption by our town is a long step in the right direction."

Of Grand Isle: "The town system has made many friends in this town since we adopted it one year ago."

Of Warren: "This is the first year under the town system, and I am satisfied that after we get settled into business and the people become accustomed to the new way, there will be no desire to return to the old district system with its unequal taxation. We have not had so much friction as we anticipated. Our schools are in better condition than before."

A county system recommended.—Superintendent Lawhead, of Kansas: “While there appears to be some ground for the present agitation demanding the abolition of the district system and the establishment of the township plan, it is questionable whether that plan will be the panacea for all the ills of our school system that its advocates claim. It is true that under our present district system taxation is unequal; the district that is financially weak has, in order to secure anything like equal school advantages, to tax itselt almost to the point of bankruptcy. Should the township plan be adopted it would not equalize

-* *

taxation fully, while it would create endless confusion in district lines, as no school dis triets have been so formed as to have their boundary lines conform to the boundary lines of the municipal townships. It seems to me that if we are to destroy our present system of school districts, it would be wiser to resort to a county system, and thereby secure a greater degree of equalization of taxation and at the same time avoid all changes and conInsion in the boundary lines of districts. Is there not danger of losing that general interest which we now have under the district system, should we pass to the township system and thereby place the control of our schools in the hands of a few? It seems to me that by a carefully considered law providing for a system of school taxation by the county, and the locating and building of school-houses by the same authority, the burden of taxation could be much more equally distributed, and the school-houses so located as to more fully accommodate the children than by any other system. Such a thing as a district financially weak would be unknown; hence, this man or that man would have no incentive in the way of escaping taxation to ask to be transferred from one district to another."

The district system the best at present for North Carolina.-Superintendent Finger: "The district system is, perhaps, not the best system, but as we have it, and our people are accustomed to it, I think best to retain it, at least for the present. The general machinery of the system is working fairly well, and I suggest only such changes as seem to be necessary in the present condition of public sentiment, and considering the small amount of funds now raised under our statutes."

The State superintendent should be independent.—Superintendent Baker, of Texas: "The superintendent of public instruction is selected with special reference to his fitness to ernduct the educational interests of the State. The general public holds him responsible, and it is fair to presume that he understands the duties of the position better than others who give those duties little or no attention. The people impose no higher trust upon the government than the supervision of the education of their children. I hold therefore that the department of education ought to be made entirely an independent one, with a head not subject to the dictation of other officers. The Governor, comptroller, and secretary of state, the officers who compose the board of education, have enough to do to occupy their whole time in discharging the duties particularly appertaining to their several offices, without being called upon to determine the correctness of the rulings of the superintendent of public instruction upon subjects with which they are in no way familiar. Such a power bestowed on a board cripples the influence of the superintendent, and in many instances renders him powerless to amicably settle the most trying differbetween inferior officers. The superintendent is selected by the people just as the overnor and comptroller are selected, and there is as much reason for a board to act apon the decisions of those officers as upon the decisions of the superintendent; better on, if the boards were chosen with reference to their understanding of the matters they were to act upon. I unhesitatingly state that the several boards of education since 1573, notwithstanding they were composed of gentlemen of distinguished ability and pright character, have been potent factors in retarding the advance of popular education and the successful administration of the school law.”

Briation between superintendent and school committee.-Superintendent Stockwell, of Rhode Island: "It is extremely unfortunate for the welfare of our schools that, in the development in our State of the work and status of the superintendent of schools, the sea should have been allowed to gain a foothold that the office was in any way independent of the school committee, or that the occupant thereof was responsible to any others than the committee, for the whole theory of the office and of its duties has ever been to make it the medium of the committee's actions, to give opportunity for so uniing and simplifying the work of the committee as to make it more effective in every xt, and thus to afford a constant and suitable medium for the expression of their

wül.

"We are all aware how long it took to place the selection of the superintendent where Laturally should go, in the hands of the school committee, whose servant he is to be, and who conter upon him every particle of power or influence which he may exert. We Lave one more step to take before the office is placed in its true position of entire independence from any bo ly or interest, save that to which it is legitimately subject, the * committee. The salary of the superintendent should be fixed by the school comater and paid upon their order, just the same as that of any teacher. In fact, the intendent is but a principal teacher. Just so far as he fulfils the ideal requireants of his place, does he do his best and most valuable work in teaching, both by pt and by example, the teachers of the town. To thoroughly discharge the duties s place he must himself be a teacher. It is evident, therefore, that upon that Palalone the school committee are the only authority naturally fitted to determine e value of his services and the rate of compensation. It is to be hoped that the time

is not far distant when this change may be effected and another long step taken in the direction of simplifying our educational machinery and determining more clearly the nature and extent of the responsibility for its smooth and successful working."

II. SCHOOL CENSUS.

The facts should be made known.--Superintendent Dartt, of Vermont: "It is a matter of regret surely that no provision is made by this State for the enumeration of all the children of school age. If there are those within our borders who are growing to manhood and womanhood without any education, who do not attend school at all, the facts as to their number and where they are should be fully known, that effectual means may be used to remedy this evil and remove the reproach from the Commonwealth."

We should know the facts.-Superintendent Powell, of the District of Columbia: "If education is of value as a factor in society, and if the schools are the only tangible measure of that value, we should know the facts by means of which an estimate may be made, so far, at least, as numbers of children are concerned, of the relations between what is accomplished and what ought to be accomplished."

III.-CO-EDUCATION.

Will become more sensible men and women.-Superintendent Fred W. Campbell, of Oakland, Cal.: "It seems to be the natural order of things that boys and girls should be educated together. They are together in the family, in the relation of brother and sister. In the co-education of the sexes in school, there are secured greater economy in instruction, better discipline, more natural, and therefore more healthful, intellectual, and moral and æsthetic development for both the boys and girls. The mingling of the sexes in the school-room checks the tendencies both to the romantic fancies and overwrought and unreal imaginings engendered by attendance on separate schools; and this it does by substituting for such illusions the every day commonplace reality of mutual rivalry in a common labor. Thus each forms correct and sensible judgments of the other. They learn that they are much alike in their natures, that they possess about the same ability to learn, with nearly everything yet to learn. By so much as all this is the effect of educating boys and girls together, by so much will they become more sensible men and women than by educating them separately."

IV.-COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE.

A proximate and provisional enforcement desired.-Superintendent Akers, of Iowa: "To say the least, there must be a strong presumption in favor of an educational measure in which all the leading nations of the world are enlisted, and which has almost the unanimous advocacy of the teaching profession, and of those public officials who are best informed as to the necessities of the case. In face of this there is everywhere acknowledged difficulty in putting a compulsory school law into force. A close study, however, of this kind of legislation will make two things apparent, both setting aside any objection to the law on the score that it can not be enforced.

"First, wherever boards of education have been empowered to employ a special officer or officers, whose business it should be under some systematic method of search and report, to find out the defaulters and get the children to school, the end contemplated by the law has been gratifyingly attained. It has been suggested that this officer be partly police and partly missionary in his functions, but mostly missionary, as being more in keeping with the kind of work he has to do. And this suggestion brings us to the second most important lesson from the study we bave had in hand, namely that for the ends of public well being a proximate and provisional enforcement of a compulsory school law is all that should be desired. In the language of one of our most eminent educators, Dr. Welch, compulsory education should not be reckoned of value simply to the extent to which it can be rigidly enforced, but in the main it should be prized because of the 'compulsory environment' it throws round the ignorant and the dilatory, and the general public interest it arouses in the cause of education as lying also at the very heart of the national life."

The rights of the children should be secured to them.-Superintendent Stockwell, of Rhode Island: "I think the duty of the hour to lie in the direction of arousing and directing public sentiment to demand that the rights of these children, so many thousands of whom are practically dependent on the State for all the opportunity they will ever have, be recognized and secured to them. Our people need to be reminded that these children are the future voters; that in their hands will be placed the destiny of the State, and that we are responsible for the training given both to their hands, and also to the minds and hearts which will control them. We are trifling with tremendous issues, and we shall be fortunate if we do not pay for our folly by some terrible experience. Let us awake from our lethargy ere it is too late."

Reasons of failure in Minnesota.-Superintendent Kiehle: "I am not able to report any substantial aid gained from the law on compulsory education. Several superintendents bave undertaken to enforce it, but the results have not been permanent. The reasons of failure have been:

"1. Defects in the law. It very properly allows children to be educated in other than the public schools, yet leaves the condition so indefinite that there is not the least guarantee that the children are receiving the equivalent of a common school education. Whatever else is required, every school which is to be recognized by the law should certify that it is conducted in the English language, and that instruction is given in the branches of a common school education, viz.: reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and the geography and history of the United States.

"2. The difficulty inherent in this method of improving the people. The more children there are in any given district who do not attend school, the more probable it is that no one in the district will take the trouble, or endure the odium necessary to the enforcement of the law. There should be a truant officer in the city, and a constable in the country, whose duty it would be to attend to the enforcement of the law."

The best possible compulsory_law.--Superintendent Jones, of Dakota: "The law for compulsory education in our Territory, which is intended to be provided for in sections 119, 120, is not enforced. To enforce such a law requires first, that public sentiment be educated up to a proper appreciation of the principles involved. This may yet be in the somewhat distant future so far as it interests those communities which are most negligent. I fully believe that a law which taxes the parent or guardian of every child, say twenty-five cents per week, per capita, for all children of school age under his care or control, to be collected as are all other taxes, and the amount collected to go to the support of the schools, would be the best possible compulsory law. The parent or guardian may then receive a credit upon such tax of twenty-five cents, in favor of any particular child, naming it, for each week of school attendance, upon presenting the certificate of the director showing the attendance. But the credits of one child should not be accepted from the parent or guardian in favor of another."

Justification of compulsory attendance laws-Limits of the rights of parents.-Superintendent Hine, of Connecticut: "There are many parents who assert what they call their right of governance. Such think it unjust that they must send their children to school, and thus lose the profit of their labor. Others, timid about interfering with the relation of parent and child, prefer that the child should suffer abuse and deprivation rather than disturb the principle of parental control.

"There is no necessity of confusion or hesitation here. That parents may have the governance of their children is not an unalterable principle upon which unchangeable laws are based. It is only a proposition based upon extensive experience and embodying the general conviction that parents inspired by instinctive love will treat their children wisely and humanely. There is a strong probability that they will so treat them. This presumption of good will yield to a certainty of evil. When it is certain that a parent is injuring his child a point is reached where society says his action is not reasonable, and the law says it is not lawful. It may be unreasonable long before it is unlawful, but it is merely a question of degree when the legal limit is overstepped.

"Responsibility for the education of the child is placed upon the parent. It is admitted that the parent may and ought to understand what is the best education for his own children. But at the point of no education or of limited education resulting in meatal starvation, the law undertakes to make the parent do his duty. If in the exercise of his judgment and right of control, the parent gives no education he has overstepped the reasonable limit of control and transgressed the positive enactment. He is Low compelled to do what he ought to do.

"Similarly there is no principle which confers upon a parent the right to cause his child to work for gain or for the support of the family. It is supposed that the labor which the parent compels the child to perform will [not] result in good to the child. If the mind or body of the child is injured by work in any industry, the limit of reason is again overstepped, and the law compels the parent to refrain from doing what he ought not to do. Both in depriving the child of education and in causing him to spend his early years in labor the parent is not conforming to what the experience and convictions of society regard as right. He is not acting in a reasonable manner, and the law says he is not acting in a lawful manner.

"The enactments relating to attendance and employment have restrained and mitigated in many cases the harshness of parental control. If they have accomplished nothing more their operation has been beneficent."

12 ED

V.-COUNTRY SCHOOLS.

A course of study adopted for country schools in Indiana-Classified schools.-In Indiana, under the superintendency of Hon. J. W. Holcombe, a standard course of study for one-room country schools, prepared by a committee of the County Superintendents' Association, was adopted by that body in 1884. From that time a general effort has been made throughout the State to conform the district schools to the standard course. divided into three parts, known as the Primary, the Grammar, and the Graduation Divisions.

It is

Diplomas, tastefully lithographed, are granted to pupils who attain an average of 75 per cent. and who do not fall below 65 per cent. in any one branch. The graduating exercises are held in each township under the supervision of the county superintendent; these have been attended with a degree of interest far beyond expectation."

Following are the courses of study referred to above, and a daily programme of study and recitations for a district school. The word year is used somewhat indefinitely in the arrangement of the work, and does not mean necessarily either the calendar year or the school term (since the latter is not uniform), but rather such a time as is necessary for the completion of the work allotted-in other words, the interval between the promotions.

COURSE OF STUDY ADOPTED FOR ONE-ROOM DISTRICT SCHOOLS OF INDIANA.

PRIMARY DIVISION.

First grade-first year.

Spelling. All the words of the reading lessons by letter and sound.

Reading.-First reader complete; introduced by the word, in conjunction with the object method, afterwards combining phonic method.

Writing.-Blackboard and slate exercise.

Arithmetic.-Adding 1's, 2's, 3's, and 4's. Roman numerals; Arabic numerals. General lessons.—Language lessons in connection with reading. Object lessons-color, orm. Geography-distance and direction.

Second grade-second year.

Spelling. Written exercises, slate, board, and spelling tablets.

Reading.-Second reader completed.

Writing.-A complete drill on position at desk, as to pen and movement and form of

letters.

Arithmetic.-Oral lessons, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and tables constructed as far as learned.

Geography.-Home-outline of township, county, and State.

Language.-Lessons in connection with reading, notation, and numeration.

Third grade-third and fourth years.

Spelling.-All the words of importance in the various lessons; new words defined, spelled by sound and letters, using proper diacritical marks-slate and blackboard. Reading.-Third completed.

Writing.-Copy-books Nos. 2 and 3. Special attention given to position, holding pen, movement, etc.

Arithmetic. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, mastered as principles without the use of text-books.

Grammar.-Oral language lessons; analysis by diagrams, giving subject, predicate, object, and simple modifiers.

Geography.-Oral lessons, by subject, to primary geography.

History.-Oral lessons; important events and dates. (Occasional.)

GRAMMAR DIVISION.

Fourth grade-fifth and sixth years.

Spelling.-Same as Third Grade.

Reading.-Fourth completed; supplemental reading introduced.
Writing.-Copy-books Nos. 4 and 5.