It is a pleasant duty to direct official and public attention to the growth and present prosperous condition of education in our State.

In the year 1848 we had but 105 school buildings, 124 teachers, and 40,646 pupils of school age. By reference to statistics which are presented in this report, it will be seen that we have 11,285 school-houses, 22,081 teachers, 604,739 school children. In this same year we expended $14,885 for all purposes connected with education. For the year closing September, 1882, we disbursed for school purposes,

$5,558,259.31.

Were it possible to estimate the improved character, and value of instruction at present as compared with that early date, the result would be still more gratifying and astounding. To know that this has not resulted from causes that are temporary, but rather that it has been a natural and vigorous growth, is all that is needed, as a ground of faith in the future of our public schools.

So far as may be known at present, there is no disposition to take any backward steps in the educational policy of our State. On the contrary, the interest is constantly growing. There is an earnest and aggressive spirit everywhere moving the people to accomplish all that is possible in the way of better accommodations and more adequate facilities.

There may have been a time when our people were inclined to be a little vainglorious and boastful of our excellent provisions for the education of our children, and at the same time to rest content when a commodious and elegant house had been built and furnished, taking for granted that this being done, the benefits and blessings of a good education were assured to their children. Experiencé is fast teaching us that good school-houses do not necessarily mean good schools, and that good and well

TRAINED TEACHERS

are as necessary and indispensable as good and well-furnished houses. We are beginning to demand satisfactory results, and naturally to give more attention to the selection and employment of teachers. There is, therefore, a very marked change in public sentiment in favor of normal training schools.

This is seen in the disposition to establish training depart

ments, in connection with local high schools and academies, as well as in the numerous petitions from various sections of the State, asking for State normal schools. A number of such propositions were presented to the Nineteenth General Assembly, it being stipulated, in most cases, that spacious grounds and a suitable building should be provided, and the same donated to the State, on condition that it should be organized and equipped at public expense, and adopted as a State normal school. It is highly important that such a sentiment be fostered and encouraged, for however much may be accomplished in the way of suitable buildings and appliances, however broad and comprehensive may be our plans for education, everything must finally depend upon the character and fitness of those who are employed to teach. All these are but the body, while the teacher must be the living moving spirit. We hear much of natural teachers. It is very frequently asserted that teachers are born, not made. Natural gift is of the greatest importance; but it is equally true that those who are successful in the highest degree, in any calling, are born with faculties which specially fit them for their chosen work, and yet there is no profession that is content to rest on natural bent or adaptation alone. On the contrary, the naturally gifted are required to supplement and enlarge their talents by long and patient application before they are entitled to public recognition and approval. Teachers should not be exempted from the operation of this rule. Preparation for this work implies much more than is commonly understood. Teaching is a science peculiar and particular.

It is a great mistake to suppose that those who are young in years, with little experience and no special training, are competent to teach and govern, however well qualified by nature they may be. We need good training schools, to the end that any one who desires to enter the profession of teaching may have suitable opportunity to obtain the necessary preparation for its arduous and responsible duties.

This would not only insure better teachers, but would add from two to three years to the age of the average beginner, insuring mature judgment and increased strength in all respects. Errors in connection with the government and management of schools would largely disappear; increased confidence on the part of parents, and a more cordial relation between the people and the schools would be sure to follow.

It has been a matter of surprise and disappointment that our people

have failed to avail themselves of the opportunities afforded by our law, to establish township and

COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS.

In many counties there are no colleges, academies, nor high schools for the accommodation of young people of the county who desire to fit themselves for teaching, and about all the preparation they obtain, they get at the common district schools. Such counties are often supplied with teachers from a roving class who have no special inducements to stay at home, and who are too often encouraged to go away. Better teachers might be made of the boys and girls of such counties, if there could be established for their benefit such schools as we now have at Panora, in Guthrie county. Quite a number of unsuccessful attempts have been made in various counties to establish county high schools, but owing to petty jealousies and general short sightedness, nothing has been accomplished. It is to be hoped that such laudable and worthy efforts will be more successful in future.

As a rule our schools are good just in proportion as our people are willing to pay for them.

Houses, furniture, apparatus, if they are what they should be, are all expensive, and the districts that fail to pay good prices for teachers, must suffer a decline in the efficiency of their schools.

The schools of many of our towns and cities have been personally visited and inspected. In the great majority of cases they are in excellent condition, and seem to be in a fair way to improve. This is especially true of those schools over which a good principal or superintendent has been retained for a term of years.

That a man or a woman may bring a system of schools to a high standard of perfection, it is necessary that he thoroughly know and understand them, and the people whom he serves. This is too often lost sight of, and changes are made every year or two, to the detriment of the schools.

One system of organization is but fairly introduced when a new man is employed, which means new plans and methods, which in turn are scarcely well understood by subordinate teachers, parents and pupils, when a stranger is called in to overturn what has been done, and inaugurate something new and different. Many think that unless radical changes are made and the old order of things reversed, they will be thought to lack individuality and fitness for the place.

A somewhat careful examination of courses of study as used in our graded schools, has disclosed the fact that very marked changes have taken place during the past few years. There is now a conspicuous absence of the higher mathematics, grammar, latin and French languages, logic, mental and moral science.

The tendency everywhere is to lower the grade of academic work, to the end that something more practical may be introduced and taught in the schools. In many instances these branches are sacrificed as a compromise measure, and to placate and quiet a class of people who have very narrow ideas as to what constitutes a good English education. They would discard all the foreign languages, and many of the sciences are considered purely ornamental.

As a rule, that class which demands that the schools shall confine themselves to that which is practical, hold that reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic constitutes a good and sufficient education. There are no more practical studies than philosophy, chemistry, geology, physiology, civil government, higher mathematics, and ancient and modern history. The latin and German languages constitute a broad field of culture as necessary to a good practical education as many of those branches which represent the lowest rudiments of learning. So necessary and important are these higher branches of education, that any system of mental training is incomplete without them. We should lose no time nor spare no effort to arrest the unwise policy of putting them beyond the reach of our high school pupils.

I think that the great demand for something more practical in education, grows out of the mistaken idea that "practical" means mechanical.

The term "industrial training" would probably more nearly express what is commonly meant by a practical education. It is doubtful whether this term, as used, is always understood. It is most generally employed by those who deprecate the fact that our people are losing respect for labor and think that our schools should do something to cure this defect of our civilization. The fact that industry may be mental, or of such a character as to demand principally the use of the educated faculties of the mind, is overlooked by those who charge that education is doing nothing in the interest of labor.

It ought to be understood that the schools as now conducted, are subserving the interests of all industries. To do this it is not at all

necessary that schools should be converted into work shops and factories. While it must be granted that there is a scarcity of skilled workmen, and that it would be a blessing to many young men and women if they could have the necessary training to make them such, there is something more important. There is a scarcity of educated workmen.

In view of modern co-operative societies, trades unions and other schemes for uniting and unifying laboring men, it is all important that we should seek to control them by education. To this end it is necessary that intelligence and that wise spirit of moderation, reason and discretion which comes of education should rule in all their councils. This will not only render them safer as citizens, but more skillful, more reliable, more temperate, more industrious, and, therefore, more productive and valuable to society, than the illiterate, though skillful, laborer.

As a rule, educated persons master trades, and acquire skill much more rapidly than those not educated. This is the universal testimony of men who employ large numbers and are in positions to estimate them correctly upon their comparative merits.

Our schools promote the interests of all industries, for the reason that educated persons, as a rule, seek employment. I grant they may be more particular as to what kind of work they do. I think it quite probable that many educated young people have false notions as to the gentility of certain kinds of labor, and the baseness of others. Society everywhere teaches this baneful lesson, and those who disregard it must pay the penalty of being denied recognition.

What can our schools do to correct this error?

If it were the result of ignorance, and if the nobility and dignity of labor, and the laboring poor, had not been taught faithfully in our schools from their earliest existence, we might hope to modify public sentiment in this regard; but I am free to say that in my judgment any material departure from our present system, with this end in view, would be a fruitless attempt.

It is urged that we need more mechanics, and our boys, as now educated, decline to enter these useful and honorable walks of life. This may be true, but if it is, it is due to other causes than those usually assigned. They choose other occupations or professions because they pay better. They are able to command a higher price in some line of work which affords opportunity to employ their educated. and cultured talents.