XIV.-MORAL TRAINING.

Moral training should be given in the schools.—Superintendent Brumbaugh, of Huntingden County, Pa.: Discipline is, and to my mind must continue to be, a matter of great vortance. The State reasonably expects from the school, as a product, thoroughly disepined citizens. The mere importation of knowledge or, indeed, the unfolding of a mind is not the leading result demanded by the State. What is of paramount value is training, discipline, correct habits, not merely of thought, but of action. There is, therefore, a moral demand made upon teaching. The school is a power which will be felt in the government of the future. This power needs more than awakening; it needs high intel gent direction. The schools must send out boys and girls whose habits of thought, system of business, and uniform adherence to right have all been awakened, stimulated, and exercised along the proper channels of life until the State may safely repose in them full confidence. Thus only may we meet the expectation and reasonable demands made upon us. Our instruction, therefore, needs to be so modified as to include careful training in civics and in the higher principles of morality.

XV.-NATIONAL AID.

National aid needed in Georgia.-Superintendent Hook, of Georgia: The colored people show great anxiety as well as aptitude to learn, and it is to be regretted that the noble effort of our State has not been backed up by the General Government by the passage of the Blair bill. Every consideration, as it seems to me, of justice, humanity, and right demands such action on the part of the National Government in behalf of these people, upon whom that Government has cast such important responsibilities.

dional aid to local efforts advocated.-Professor Chambers, editor of the Progressive Teacher, New Orleans: No one believes more firmly than I in the wisdom and justice of that measure now pending in Congress known as the Blair bill. The same principle by which a State government is interested in the welfare of every one of the citizens com posing its counties and cities holds equally as good when we say that the General Government should be interested in the citizens of its constituent States. But while I believe help from the General Government to be good, I also believe that help from the State is better, and best of all is that self-help that township, district, or community inintes when it levies its own special tax, expends it at home, and is directly interested

in the expenditure.

Veled to overcome illiteracy in Alabama.—Covernor Seay, of Alabama, in his message to the Legislature, November 3, 1855, says: The great burden which has rested upon anges, and even more weightily upon our consciences, has been the cost of public eduton. But for this increasing burden our affairs would indeed be easy, and yet very few thoughtful men will say that the policy of the State had not been both wise and

beneficent. ***

The census bureau of 1880 reports in a voting population of 260,000 there are about 1 electors who cannot write; and that there are within the borders of this State, in

not read.

a total population of 1,262,000 souls, about 371,000 over the age of ten years who can This burden of illiteracy, which we have been stooping under, was largely imposed by the Federal Government, which by a paramount force debased our suffrage and destroyed our property. This edict more than quadrupled the illiteracy of our citizenship and reduced our property from the grand total of $650,000,000 to $150,000,000. The tween the children of the two races in the State. Therefore it remains clear to me that farther immediate effect is felt by a division of the tax money from this narrow fund bethe Federal Government should at least divide the burden which has been imposed. But in the mean time we should continue in the path which our predecessors have so bravely followed, and we should make an additional appropriation from the State treasry to the public schools of the State. It is not claimed that this policy should be pursued merely because it comports with the dictates of enlightened philanthropy, though certainly it should be no cause of challenge to its expediency that it is in harmony with it. That "the Prussian school-master won the battle of Sadowa," is the opinion of one ho is neither a sentimentalist nor a humanitarian, but a grandee and a prince, a seTerely practical soldier and an intense aristocrat.

* * *

*

-X- * It is unsafe for us, however,

rely either on Federal aid, which will probably be temporary, or on an appropriation from the general funds in the State treasury. inly if there ever was a time in the history of the country when Federal aid should be The Sorth needs assistance as never before.-Superintendent Palmer, of Alabama: CerEven to education, that time is the present, when the surplus in the Treasury has so Contracted the circulating currency as to threaten the destruction of the commerce of

the country and to seriously damage every business enterprise. This surplus should be, must be, returned to the channels of trade and to the people from whom it has been wrongfully taken, because not needed for the proper administration of the Government; and for what purpose can it be, is it more likely to be, appropriated that would benefit the people-the people of the South-especially of Alabama-and be restored to the channels of trade more speedily than by appropriating it to the cause of education in

the several States?

National aid as given in 1837 desirable.—Governor Taylor, of Tennessee: If, after the General Government shall have discharged all its current obligations and met every demand; if, after this, there still remains a surplus of money in the Treasury not applicable to the national debt, because not yet due, then, I said, the appropriation of such surplus for educational purposes, stripped and freed' from every possible condition of Federal supervision or control, would be an inestimable blessing to the children of the State. I said, in substance, and say now, that such a surplus under such circumstances, and unburdened with conditions prejudicial to the local government of the States, could not flow back to the people (to whom it belongs) through a better channel than the school room. I want to be understood. We do not want Federal aid to education unless it is appropriated to the State of Tennessee, to be used under her own laws, without any Federal control whatever. We want it as we received it fifty years ago, when "Old Hickory" Jackson was President of the United States.

XVI.-PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

Private schools detrimental to public schools. Superintendent Williams, of Utah: While from a casual view it may appear that no disadvantage to the district schools is likely to result from their [private schools] establishment and successful progress, yet it seems to me that in this very condition is found an element that must operate to the detriment of the public schools, tend to hinder their advancement, and lessen their influ

ence.

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*

If the public schools are not made worthy of the support of the public without distinction of party, it may be naturally expected that the influence, whatever it may be, of those not patronizing them will be exerted against their maintenance at the public

expense.

XVII.-PRIZES.

Prizes stimulate the wrong pupils.-City School Superintendent Bettison, of New Orleans, La.: The system of awarding prizes has often been discussed, and generally condemned. The offer of a prize is a powerful stimulus, but it stimulates those only who need no such incentive; it deprives them of the rest and recreation their nature requires; it often creates the bitterest heart-burnings, and even robs the contestants of some of their noble appreciation of learning for its own sake, which, before the offer of the prize, was growing with their growth.

The system of marking recitations and reporting the relative standing of the pupils has its advantages, though it is often much abused. If a pupil knows that he can not be head, he still would rather be tenth than eleventh, and the class receives a moderate stimulation throughout.

XVIII.-PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Development of the school system. Superintendent Draper, of New York: The public school of to-day is a public school in an entirely different sense from what it was two hundred, one hundred, aye, even fifty years ago. Then it was maintained for the well being of the child, now for the safety of the State. Then it was supported by private contribution; its advantages were bought and paid for like any marketable commodity: or it was maintained as a public charity for the help of the poor. Now it is supported by the entire people, through a general tax upon all interests, upon the ground that it is a thing essential to the promotion of good citizenship, to the protection of property, to the safety and preservation of the State. The last vestige of personal support and personal control, as well as the last taint of charity, has disappeared.

Public schools must still be improved.-Superintendent Morgan, of West Virginia: The educational systems and institutions of to-day are the results of long years of growth, having passed through many changes in reaching their present state of efficiency and completeness. Although in every way more perfect and efficient than those of any preceding age, still the educational systems of to-day have not reached their highest degree of efficiency, nor are they to be considered as finished products. In obedience to the great law of progress, they must continue the work of change and improvement to meet the demands of the onward march of civilization. Marvelous as has been the growth of popular

education, the public school system is, comparatively speaking, yet in the first stages of its development and usefulness. It must go forward with the work of improvement as publie sentiment becomes more liberal, stronger, and more enlightened. Many obstacles that now clog the wheels of progress must be removed, some by the force of public senfiment and some by legislation. The educational interests of a people are matters of the first and highest consideration.

The public school system was established because it is necessary to the public welfare. Any failure, therefore, to provide for its highest efficiency, is a failure thus far to provide for the public welfare. Through the agency of the public school every child is expected to receive that elementary training which forms the necessary qualifications for future citizenship and usefulness, and, so far as practicable, the State should see that every child does receive the advantages of this elementary training; at least, the State should see that no child is prevented from receiving these advantages which have justly been called its birthright.

Public schools awaken a desire for knowledge.—S. G. Pyle, school superintendent of Tyler County, W. Va.: It is not merely the information and knowledge gained in the short stay of boys and girls in our free schools that educates them, but it is the inspiration there given to learn more, and the avenues and highways opened and the directions pointed out by the teacher, to which a higher, more thorough and practical knowledge can be gained through individual efforts and personal sacrifices.

Public schools should have public interest.-Superintendent Moody, of Idaho: Our publie schools are the product of public sentiment, and until the people are aroused to a point where their interest will become active in school matters and in educational affairs maje can be done for the improvement of the school system. In communities where the majority of the inhabitants never enter the school-room, where the conduct of school matters is left to the control of irresponsible individuals who receive no pay and too often are too ignorant to perform the simple yet responsible business of the office, the task of arousing a proper interest is almost hopeless.

Aims of opposition to the public schools in the South.-Superintendent Finger, of North Carolina: A prominent ground of opposition to public schools in this State, and in the South generally, is the burden cast upon an already impoverished white population to educate the negroes, who pay so small a proportion of the taxes. This ground of opposition is intensified by the belief that is more or less prevalent that education spoils the colored people as laborers, to their own damage and the damage of the white people, who own almost all the lands. It is said that when you "educate a negro you spoil a field On this point it may be said with truth that the negro's sudden freedom and citizen

band."

ship, for which he was

ences he had during and soon after the War, including much bad leadership, completely toned his

unprepared, the privileges of education and all the new experi

hership and curse. In his ignorance he thought the new conditions, and especially the privilege of education, were to relieve him from this curse of labor.

The old negroes

went earnestly their failure to their children, and, with this special end in view, the escape from manual labor. The thes of early opportunities. But they resolved that they would secure education for present generation of younger negroes has been educated too much with this purpose in view, and, because of this wrong idea, it is true that a smattering of education to many of them has caused idleness and laziness.

Schouls of different grades should be established.-Superintendent Cooper, of Texas: The schools should be classified into primary, intermediate, and high schools. The primary schools should be limited to the subjects required by law to be taught in every public school-spelling, reading, writing, grammar, and composition, elementary arithmetic, izenship. Forty-nine fiftieths of all our public schools belong properly to this class. The

trustees acting together, so that not more than one should be established in each juste's precinct, and should be allowed to give instruction in all the subjects of the primary school and such other subjects as are required for admission to the high school. A high school should be selected or established in each county by the county commissmers' court, with the approval of the county superintendent, to which any pupil of proper qualification within scholastic age, resident within the county, should be admitted free of charge.

Necessity for good common schools.—Superintendent Rice, of South Carolina: Our poverty prevents many children from leaving home, and the great number must be educated the local schools. The most important school in the State, to the ordinary citizen, is the one at his door, and he should spare no pains nor expense to make it so good that

the children of himself and neighbors may receive first-rate common school training therein.

The people should take an interest in the schools.—Superintendent Logan, of Montana: The public is the most powerful agency, if properly employed, in working out the salvation of the schools, for they should control and be held responsible for the present, and, to a certain extent, shape the destiny of the future.

Yet we find them often relegating to teachers and other officers influences that they alone should control.

No matter how competent the teacher, or how zealous and mindful of interests are boards of trustees, if the public withhold their sympathy and support and allow their interest and vigilance to relax, just in that proportion will the schools suffer and progress be impeded; and the extra duties thus iinposed upon teachers become barren of the best results.

They too often consider their work finished when taxes are paid and imposing structures are erected for school purposes. This is a great mistake, for schools will not successfully run themselves.

Suspension of pupils.-Superintendent Draper, of New York: May children be suspended or expelled from the schools? I have no doubt about the right of the school authorities to deprive children of the privileges of the schools. It can only be done for good and sufficient reasons. A child with an infectious or contagious disease; a child of such utterly depraved morals as to be beyond redemption and dangerous to others; a child of such viciousness and incorrigibility as to be beyond control; a child who comes with such irregularity as to make his attendance only valueless to himself and detrimental to the school, may unquestionably be put out of the school. But the cause must be a grave The right to attend the schools must not be abridged except for reasons which tend to the destruction of the school itself. The suspension of school privileges can continue no longer than the reason for it exists. If the child comes ready to abide the dis cipline of the school, and in such condition that his presence is not injurious to the school, he must be admitted.

one.

XIX.-REVENUE.

Local taxation preferable.-Governor Seay, of Alabama, in his message to the Legislature: The intelligent tax-payer does not complain so much at the rate of taxation as at the mode of expenditure of the tax money. Where the tax is a local one, and is raised and expended in the immediate view of the tax-payer, and for a local purpose that he deems valuable for his community, it is paid readily and with alacrity.

XX.-SCHOOL-HOUSES.

Importance of good school buildings.-City Superintendent Babcock, of Oil City, Pa.: Pleasant, well-ventilated, and well-lighted school-rooms are not only a convenience, they are a necessity to good work. This has been demonstrated in our experience. In the new rooms the work was far superior to that accomplished by the same pupils in the rented rooms, which, though the best that could be obtained, are ill adapted to school work. A community can make no better investment than building good, even beautiful, schoolhouses. However good otherwise the school may be, the effect upon the pupils' characters and tastes of a rude, barn-like school-room should not be considered as the result of a wise economy.

School-houses should be built with reference to future needs.-Superintendent Williams, of Utah: Where a population has become permanent, and every reasonable probability is that it will gradually increase, the erection of a school building should be one of great concern to the people, and it should be built with reference to the future rather than the present.

There is no reason why buildings for school purposes should not last through the education of several generations of children, and with that view the structure should be planned and erected. To do this, however, involves necessarily the raising of a considerable sum of money, a burden that would be borne with difficulty if imposed at once, or within two or three years. To avoid the imposition of so heavy a burden within a brief space of time * provision should be made by law whereby districts might issue bonds, and thus raise an amount of money adequate to supply such structures, with a provision for levying a light tax annually to gradually discharge the indebted

ness.

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*

School-houses to be used only for public schools.-Superintendent Higbee, of Pennsyl vania: It certainly is a plain principle of law that corporate property must be used solely for corporate purposes. Otherwise all the school property of the Commonwealth might, by a simple vote of directors, be devoted to any purpose they saw fit.

In the syllabus of a decision rendered by Hon. George W. McIlvaine, chief-justice of the supreme court of Ohio (35 Ohio, f. 143), it is held first: That "boards of education are invested with the title to the property of their respective districts in trust for the use of public schools, and the appropriation of such property to any other use is unauthorized," and second: "That a lease of a public school-house for the purpose of having a private or select school taught therein for a term of weeks is in violation of the trust; and such use of the school-house may be restrained at the suit of a resident tax-payer

of the district."

In rendering the decision this able judge says: "The questions in this case relate solely to the power of a board of education to appropriate the public school-house of its district to private uses, or indeed to any use other than public schools." After citing the Ohio enactment for the reorganization and maintenance of common schools, which defines the powers and capacities of school directors in language almost the exact parallel of our enactment above quoted, he says: "By virtue of these sections, all public school-houses are vested in the boards of education in trust for the use of the public or common schools, and the appropriation of them to any other use is unauthorized and illegal."

In the case submitted to us, it is stated that the board of directors have rented or leased a public school building for the use of a parochial school, where the peculiar dogmas and usages of a particular church are promulgated and taught, or where only a certain dist net class of children are admitted. In this case, granting the statement of facts, there is not only an unauthorized violation of trust, but a seeming indifference to what is explicitly forbidden by the Constitution of the Commonwealth itself.

A school is not sectarian because taught by a minister, or priest, or any church official. Bat a school controlled or managed in the interest of any particular church organization, upholding its peculiar confession and ecclesiastical practices, and used for any class of papils, exclusive of others, is certainly sectarian. It does not, in any sense, belong to our system of public schools. On the contrary, no money raised for the support of the public schools can be used for its support without a direct violation of the Constitution. Were school directors permitted to lease our public school property thus, at their own will, for the use of parochial schools, the ecclesiastical convictions of the directors could far our public schools into as many different kinds of church schools as there are different denominations in the Commonwealth. The point is too plain to require any further explanation. Some may be willing to grant that directors can allow school buildings to be used out of school hours for such incidental purposes as singing schools, debating societies, etc., without justifying an injunction of restraint, although there has been a decision in Conbcient. by a divided court, even against this (see 27 Connecticut, f. 499); yet here the school building as alleged is used, not incidentally, but exclusively for a purpose not conemplated in the law and forbidden as regards statutory schools by the constitution itself. The very fact that the school building is rented, or leased, or granted for the temporary se of a school is sufficient evidence that its essential corporate use is perverted; for pubic schools do neither lease, nor rent, nor ask for the temporary use of that very propwhich, by public tax, has been purchased, and is to be held in trust for their per

erty

manent use alone.

XXI-SUPERVISION.

The best mea should be chosen for county superintendents.-Superintendent Hoitt, of California: No officer in the State is of more importance to the community in which his

daty calls him than the county superintendent of schools.

ives.

He should be required to

gite his whole time and attention to the schools of his county, and he should receive sted. He supervises to-day the training of the citizens of to-morrow. The people date compensation for the important services rendered and the responsibility asexpect him to be, and he should be, a man capable of leading, directing, encouraging, broadening, strengthening, and elevating the character of the community in which he Corporations provide for supervision.--Superintendent Thompson, of Arkansas: The State should manage her public interests on as sound business principles as private afir are looked after by individuals who invest capital from which they expect large dirends. Neither individuals nor corporations invest money without providing for careful and intelligent supervision of such busines by agents, skilled each in his particalar line of work. Our free school system is a public enterprise, supported by the State

than we have at the present time. the interest the State has at stake, it appears vastly important that the most careful and intelligent supervision should be secured; a supervision intelligent, vigilant, and active

* * Considering the large fund invested, and

every detail of this great work.