The law regulating the disbursement of this fund is as follows: "All warrants drawn by district boards of trustees upon the public school fund of the State, as now provided by law, shall, if approved by the county or corporation superintendent, be taken up by him and his own warrants issued therefor, which shall be paid by the treasurer of the county or corporation out of any State funds collected by him. * * "The Auditor of Public Accounts will furnish to the several superintendents of schools blank warrants, as follows: "This certificate shall be paid by the county treasurer on whom drawn, at its face value, in preference to other warrants, when signed by Supt. of Public Free Schools, County." JOHN L. BUCHANAN, Superintendent Public Instruction. How Peabody Appropriations were Applied During the last year. The following are extracts from the report submitted by the Superintendent of Public Instruction to Hon. Samuel A. Green, acting general agent of the Peabody Education Fund: DEAR SIR,-In obedience to your request I have the honor to submit a brief report of the application of appropriations to the State of Virginia from the Peabody Fund for the year 1886-87. The appropriations were as follows: Scholarships-Nashville Normal College, Normal School-Hampton, Va., $2,800 00 2,000 00 Total, 500 00 2,000 00 $7,300 00 The fourteen scholarships allotted to Virginia in the Nashville Normal College were all taken, and the appointees were all in attendance during the entire collegiate year. The average rank of the Virginia students for the entire sesson, as shown by the several reports sent to this office was, "daily attendance," 96.1; "class work, including examinations," 86.1; "teaching ability," 84.3. This is a very creditable exhibit. Eight of the fourteen Virginia students graduated in the class of 1887. Appointments have just been made to fill the vacancies thus created. The estimate in which these scholarships are held, and the increasing general interest felt in them, is shown by the fact that over fifty persons communicated with this office in regard to them, and about half that number entered the competitive examinations held the present year. The appropriations to the Normal School at Farmville, Va., and the Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hampton, were judiciously applied. It is not easy to over-estimate the value of the contributions which these schools are making to the teaching force in our public school system. A general outline of the Peabody Institutes—the places where they were held, the character of the work done, &c., was given in former numbers of the Journal. The whole cost of the eight institutes was about $2,200. The report to Dr. Green closes as follows: Our Normal Schools and Normal Institutes are developing more fully the idea that teaching is a profession, and that success in it requires professional training. Their special work is to furnish this training and thereby vitalize and invigorate the whole public school system. Therefore, in no department of educational work can funds be more wisely expended than in that of Normal instruction. The liberal appropriations to this end made by the Board of Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund, continue to place the friends of popular education in Virginia under special obligations, and the manner in which the proceeds of the noble benefaction of Mr. Peabody have been dispensed commands the profound respect and gratitude of our people. SUMMARY OF PEABODY INSTITUTES. From the "Summary of Peabody Institutes," given in the preceding article, it will be seen that 940 white and 294 colored teachers were enrolled at the Peabody Normals. These numbers, however, do not indicate the full extent of the institute work carried on during the summer. Reports received show that in several counties Superintendents held institutes of from two to eight weeks each, which were well attended. These were not teachers' meetings merely, but well-conducted institutes-good instructors and thorough courses of instruction being provided. As space forbids the publication herewith of the very interesting reports at hand, we make the following SUMMARY OF COUNTY INSTITUTES: Total Number of Teachers Enrolled at the Institutes. If to the total enrolment of teachers at the Peabody Institutes there be added the number of teachers-white 324 and colored 180-reported up to this time as having been enrolled at Normal Institutes at other points in the State, and in session from two to eight weeks, the total number of teachers who have received normal instruction in regular institutes during the summer of 1887, is 1,736-1,262 white, 474 colored. This includes 131 teachers in attendance at the five weeks' normal held at the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, and 49 teachers enrolled at the institute of four weeks held at Hampton. By comparison it will be observed that the above figures represent, perhaps, the largest number of teachers who have availed themselves of the benefits of institute instruction during any one year in the history of the school system. A CAREFUL PERUSAL of back numbers of the Journal has been of profit to us, and we suggest that school officers generally might spend a short time very profitably in the same manner. That is, of course, if they have a file of the Journal, as Superintendents and district clerks ought to have. Certainly there is no reason why any Superintendent should be without a complete file of the numbers issued since the present corps came into office. And yet there is every reason to believe that some of our Superintendents either do not get the Journal, or do not read it, or else having read it, they are so much absorbed in other matters that it is feared what they do read fails to make any impression. Read every number, and read it with care. First Virginia Teachers' Reading Association-Third Annual Meeting. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. ROANOKE, VA., September, 1887. The third annual meeting of the FIRST VIRGINIA TEACHERS' READING ASSOCIATION, was held at Pearisburg, August 5, 1887, just at the close of the Normal Institute which was held at that place. |