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11. The drawing of all orders on the town treasurer for school money.

12. The annual division of unexpended school money among the districts.

13. An annual report to the town.

14. A printed report to the State superintendent of instruction.

15. The formation of all new school districts, the alternation or discontinuing of school districts, and the approval of the formation of joint and consolidated districts.

16. The holding of quarterly meetings.

17. The appointment of a town superintendent of schools, when that officer is not elected at the annual town meeting.

It is very important that the schools should have the benefit of the most valuable services that can be found, for their supervision and general control, and as the experience of the last thirty years has proved the wisdom of employing a large number of female teachers in the school-room in place of males, the experiment is now undergoing tests whether women may not with equal propriety and efficiency attend to the inspection of our schools, as school-officers, especially in primary, intermediate, and girls' schools. At the outset, women are especially qualified by nature, in the motherly instincts of love and tender interest for children; and during the first ten or twelve years of the child's life, the mother and teacher have mainly the management and control of his education. It may well be urged, that from the first, no one can take a deeper interest in all that concerns the welfare and training of the child than the mother, and that, whether at home or at school, his physical, intellectual, and moral well-being, are under

her special guardianship. How natural that the mother should follow in heart, the footsteps of her boy or girl from the home to the school, and should feel a jealous interest in the character of her partner and assistant, in the education of her child. How natural, too, that her own steps should follow the child's to the school, to watch the unfolding of the germs of character, under the nurture of the teacher. Now, while we commit the instruction and discipline of child-nature to those whose chief qualification is love for, and an adaptation of nature to the wants of childhood, shall we withhold from official relations to these educational influences, the power and influence of one who is nearer and dearer to the child than any other, his mother? Who, better than mothers, understand the physical nature of the child, his weakness and his needs? Who better understand the petty faults of child-nature, and the kind of training needed to overcome them? Who has more of that true heart-sympathy, which can interpret and understand the proper demands of his nature, and the means of satisfying them? Who has a more inquiring spirit into the laws which govern health of mind and body, and the harmonious development of the powers of the child? Certainly no one, and on these grounds, women have a natural fitness to discharge the trusts of oversight from a more thorough insight into the nature, wants, and capabilities of childhood.

Added to natural fitness, is the valuable experience which so many of our most intelligent and influential women have received in the school-room. In some States, of which Pennsylvania is an example, no person is eligible to the office of school superintendent unless he or she has had a successful history in the schoolroom as a teacher. Such a necessary requirement as ex

perience may well be demanded of our school officers, and in almost every school district in New England are capable women, who have served for one or more years, and have thus learned in the most practical and satisfactory way how to make good schools.

To judge of faithful or unsuccessful labor in the school, and to appreciate the difficulties of the service, none are better fitted than the women who have acted as instructors, and have borne the trials of the station which is placed under their oversight. The advice of women would be of especial value to teachers in matters pertaining to the health, as well as the studies of the pupils, a subject so sadly neglected in our school-work. This advice would be of great importance in the management of girls' schools, when the delicate, but vital changes of life require the instruction and cautions which only the prudent woman can give.

A third qualification is the element of time. The great complaint on the part of our school officers, is, that they have not the time to visit and examine the schools which the work demands. As the service is for the most part a gratuitous one, and is usually prompted only by philanthropic motives, the people cannot demand nor expect that the schools shall receive the attention which they require, from men whose business constantly demands their time and thoughts.

Now, none of the duties of men can so properly, or so readily be delegated to women, as the care of the schools. By an examination of the registers of our schools throughout the State, it will be found that on an average the names of four women appear to that of one man on the visiting lists, practically showing that women have more interest and time to devote to this matter, than men. Of the audiences which gather at

the discussions of educational topics, or at teachers' institutes, the female element here predominates, showing the same fact, that women are first in their intelligent inquiries after the best methods of instruction at home and at school. Perhaps the most convincing argument in favor of woman's appointment to official school relations, is found in practical experience. In some of the States, women hold offices upon school-boards, and this in the most intelligent communities. In several of the towns of Illinois, Massachusetts, and other States, women not only occupy the office of school committee and supervisor with honor and fidelity, but in several instances they occupy the salaried office of superintendent of the schools of the town. So far as the State reports are in evidence, it appears that the work is done faithfully and conscientiously, and merits public approbation. Success proves capacity and fitness.

It has been objected to the appointment of women. upon school-boards, that they are not familiar with the school laws, and with the business management of these affairs. In answer, observation confirms us in saying, that what women do not know of these matters, they would easily and readily learn.

The city superintendent is an outcome of the school committee system in its progressive development. As the schools advanced and a gradation seemed necessary, the members of the school boards saw the necessity of giving more attention to the work of the teachers and pupils, to the supply of school material, the examination. of methods of teaching and governing, and a comparison of the results of different instructors. The first systematic attempt at city supervision was made in Providence, R. I., in 1839. The honor of the inauguration of the plan is due to Thomas Wilson Dorr, subsequently

the leader in the Dorr Rebellion of 1842. Mr. Dorr was chairman of the school committee, and drafted a plan for the more vigorous management and more thorough inspection of the schools. Singularly enough, he drew his notion from the factory system of the State. The manufacturing corporations elected their boards of directors, and these boards selected the factory superintendent, whose duty it was to oversee the operations of the manufactory, to superintend the workmen and their work, and to make such suggestions, reports, etc., as his superior knowledge as an expert and his constant attention to the practical work of the factory might enable him to do. Mr. Dorr regarded the city council as the corporation which had control, in its representative capacity, of the interests of the whole city. This body elected the school committee, and into the hands of the school committee, as a board of direction, was placed the power of electing the officer to superintend the school system, and to inspect the work of the teachers and pupils. The city adopted the plan, which has been followed by nearly every city in the United States, and its universal acceptance proves the wisdom and the necessity of the measure. Hon. Nathan Bishop, of New York, was the first superintendent of the Providence schools, and the first city superintendent in America. Boston afterward inaugurated the plan, and called Mr. Bishop from Providence to be the first superintendent of the schools of Boston. Mr. Bishop was succeeded in Providence by Prof. S. S. Greene, LL.D., and by Rev. Daniel Leach, LL.D., the present incumbent, and in Boston by Hon. John D. Philbrick, LL.D., and by the present superintendent, Samuel Eliott, LL.D.

The superintendency involves four factors of equal

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