Necessity for well-paid supervisors.-Superintendent Logan, of Montana: The necessity of thorough supervision over the public school system has demanded almost universal recognition, as nearly every State and Territory at present has general as well as some system of local supervision, either county or district, and wherever such supervision is lacking it is shown most conclusively by authenticated reports that the absence of it is inimical to the best interests of education.

Without county supervision I believe there can be no uniformity of work or concentrated action. You ask, then, where lies the difficulty? I answer in the law that creates an office without prescribing qualifications or providing a salary that reaches above the dignity of a mere stipend or pittance. The salaries of this Territory range from a minimum of three hundred dollars to a maximum of one thousand dollars per year. Now these are false ideas of economy, and threaten our future welfare as a people.

Now let me ask, can we reasonably expect to avail ourselves of the services of energetic and scholarly persons, thoroughly qualified by educational and natural endowment to do this work, or shall we not rather be compelled to procure those whose services are not worth more than this amount in other fields of less responsibility, or others who, if qualified, can afford to give but a little of their time, while their greatest and best energies are employed in more absorbing and profitable channels? How would we consider and what would be the result if a business man employing hundreds of skilled laborers should place as superintendent over his business one having a limited knowledge of the work and at a salary of one-half or one-third paid the average workman?

Duties of a county superintendent.-Superintendent Rice, of South Carolina: The humblest citizen has the desire and is entitled in this Christian land to claim that his children shall have the protection and guardian care of the most capable officials during their brief school life. We want a real system, vital in all its parts, not one elaborate on paper and defective in every point of practical development. A commissioner should sympathize with and stimulate the teachers. He should eradicate the barnacles that infest the profession. He should bring the intelligent and conscientious into associations for common improvement. He should disseminate the discoveries of science as applied to men, methods, and machinery. He should educate the people and teachers into active co-operation and intelligent sympathy, and thus bind them into a harmonious whole-a real system-all its elements under his supervision. This and nothing less is the measure of the man who should fill this important place. This principle of constant and patient inspection is inherent in any successful co-operation. Its presence and exercise mean life; its absence or want of exercise, death.

Importance of county supervision.-Superintendent Kiehle, of Minnesota: The impor tance of the office of county superintendent is my reason for so frequently recurring to it and for suggesting every possible expedient to increase its efficiency. Besides examining teachers and issuing all certificates, the superintendent is in position to promote capable teachers by his recommendations, and to exclude those incapable from responsible positions. He can in his visitations make valuable suggestions to teachers for the improvement of their instruction, and to school officers for the improvement of school facilities in building, apparatus, and libraries.

* * * Because, therefore, of the importance of this office, I must again call attention to the serious embarrassments which superintendents of counties suffer in being chosen at popular elections at times when all the agencies of party prejudice, personal enmities, and personal ambitions conspire to obscure a sound judgment and prevent a careful selection of an officer who is thoroughly competent to discharge the duties of the office. As a result, efficient superintendents are often displaced when most useful, and the best are greatly tempted to secure themselves in their positions by methods more political than educational. All these things detract from the character of the position, and often create artificial barriers to usefulness.

* *

*

The remaining suggestions I have to make are: (1) That the election of county superintendent be held at a time separate from the usual time of the election of other officers. (2) That some evidence of educational qualifications be required, as that of a first-grade certificate.

Influence of the county superintendent.-Territorial board of education of Dakota: It may be safely said that the county superintendent is the "master-wheel" in our system. It is a well-established pedagogical principle that "as the teacher is, so is the school." None the less true is our paraphrase of it: "As the county superintendent is, so are the schools" of his county. He affects them at every point. His influence in educational matters is coextensive with the limits of his county. The energetic, progressive, intelligent, sympathetic, educated county superintendent is a great blessing. The man of immoral habits, loose manners, and ignorant of his work is no less a curse.

Special need of supervision for county schools. Superintendent Morgan, of West Virginia: Competent supervision is a matter of prime necessity in the management of our

public schools in order to secure the best results. The State has done but a part of its daty when provision has been made for the levy and collection of a school tax, the building of school-houses, and the employment of teachers. The qualified teacher should be placed first; next in importance comes competent supervision as factors vitally connected with the advancement of popular education.

The work of teaching suffers more than all other professions from indifference and incompetency. Men and women seek an entrance to the ranks of educational workers, not because of natural or acquired fitness, but because it is the best thing they can do for that particular time, intending, as the majority do, to enter other fields of labor as soon as opportunity offers itself. Fully twenty per cent. of the entire enrolment of teachers in this State leave the work each year. The statistics of other States show similar conditions. It also frequently happens that when two terms are taught in the same year, the two terms are taught by different teachers. It is unnecessary to remark upon the great waste and confusion that result from this condition of things-waste of time, effort, and money.

The importance of securing trained and competent supervision has become fully recognized in the management of all city public school systems, and this fact is so well understood that no expense is spared to secure the best talent and qualifications. A slight examination will show that the ungraded schools suffer more from frequent change of teachers and shorter terms of school than the graded schools of towns and cities, and ret the ungraded schools receive the least amount of supervisory care and direction, and generally that of a quality far inferior to that employed in graded schools. The ungraded schools stand in greater need of supervision than the graded schools, and the best method of securing supervision for these schools stands to-day as an unsolved problem. While it is not likely, for very obvious reasons, that the supervision of our ungraded schools can be brought to that degree of perfection and efficiency that now characterizes graded schools, yet the office of county superintendent can be so enlarged in scope and functions as to improve greatly the quality and amount of supervisory attention now

given the ungraded schools.

portionment

passed in the spring of 1887.

*

*

*

The average increase in

County superintendency proves advantageous in Texas.-Superintendent Cooper, of Texas: years has demonstrated conclusively the superior efficiency of the system and justified the hopes of its friends. The school term has been essentially lengthened in nearly every county which has adopted superintendency, although the reduction in the per capita was expected to reduce the average term. The law providing for optional county superintendency was the school term in the counties having adopted it is nearly half a month, although the apwas reduced 25 cents per capita. But the increase in length of school term is one of the least of the benefits which have followed the adoption of county superintendency in some of these counties. The teachers have been aroused, the schools have been classified, the interest of the people has been directly enlisted, and the children have been taught-not merely kept in school-houses. Effective supervision is essential conscions or ignorant obstruction to economy, efficiency, and progress in our public to School trustees should be progressive men.-Superintendent Logan, of Montana: The office of traste is one of the most honorable and responsible positions connected with our schools, for to them are entrusted the honor, reputation, and welfare of the district, as well as guardianship of the youth. Such responsibilities require responsible men.

schools.

Boards of trustees should be composed of the representative men of every community. Public spirited, progressive, and intelligent citizens are and should be found by the office. It is important that such persons should be elected, as it is essential that only the best teachers should be employed.

XXII.-TEACHERS.

Necessity for teachers of high character.-Superintendent Hook, of Georgia: The teacher is, next lientenant of the parents of every home in the land. hilar and social life. He trains the young minds and hearts, and thus becomes the first

His character should be without

ain, his intelligence should be large, his temper and manners kind, courteous, and genial, and his bearing fully equal to the behests of the high and responsible duties imposed upon him.

Relation of teacher and pupil.—Superintendent Draper, of New York: The teacher has a legal right and is vested with legal power and authority to maintain order. If order is the first law of Heaven, it is none the less so of the school-room. It is of the first and highest importance. The law understands this and clothes the teacher with author

ity adequate to secure it. If with this authority the teacher can not maintain order and exact an immediate and unhesitating obedience to his reasonable commands, he had better surrender his commission and go into some other business, and not be long about it. If he can not do it without brutality he had better abandon the attempt to do it at all, for the law will no longer sustain him in doing it that way. The law does not forbid corporal punishment, but the better opinion of the people is unquestionably adverse to it. Any severe infliction of it which amounts to brutality is an assault in the esti mation of the law, for which the teacher is both civilly and criminally liable. I have sometimes thought that teachers are liable to be misled by the frequent use of the phrase in loco parentis. The teacher cannot, and he ought to know that he does not, stand in the exact relationship which the parent sustains to the child. That is impossible. It is impossible because nature is against it. The law will not permit a teacher to punish as severely as it will a parent, because the law is humane and recognizes the fact that the parent has in his breast a feeling for the child to which the teacher is probably a stranger. The law will guard more jealously the treatment of the teacher towards the child than it will that of the parent towards the child. The law clothes the teacher with power to exact and command obedience, but it expects that he will be of such a character, of such natural attainments, and of such qualifications and experience that he can exact and maintain obedience and order in the school-room without resorting to measures that are overharsh. The tendency of the age undoubtedly is to debar vicious and incorrigible children from the privileges of the schools or to provide for them in schools arranged for their separate use and with special reference to their care and discipline.

The teacher can require that pupils who pretend to come to school shall come with reasonable regularity. Can a child come to school but one day in a week, can he come only on alternate days, can he come an hour after the sessions have commenced, can he leave in the midst of daily sessions, only because the child knows no better and is allowed at home to follow his own inclination, or because the lawless parent wishes him to be so irregular? I answer no, with much confidence in my position. The school is free to all. It is the common right of all. Each must, however, use his privileges in a way which will not injure his neighbor. If you are to permit such irregularity and lawlessness in one case you must do it in all cases, and any such position would lead to the overthrow of the public school system. And so I say unhesitatingly that it is within the province and it is an essential part of the duty of those who are in charge of the public schools to exact prompt and regular attendance, so far as attendance can be prompt and regular, having in view the nature of the home circumstances which ought

to be taken into consideration.

Influence of the teacher.-City Superintendent Shelley, of York, Pa.: The teacher must himself be the embodiment of what he would have his pupils become. His motives of action will inspire lofty motives in the young souls entrusted to his care; or, on the other hand, the low plane of the teacher's intellectual and moral life will be the certain prelude to the mental dearth and moral degradation of those under his instruction and influence. The teacher should prepare himself intelligently to direct the observations of pupils in the realm of nature as well as to lead them to appreciate and enjoy the good in literature. With teachers who find their highest enjoyment out of school hours in preparing themselves to do beller and more thorough work the schools must prove a suc

cess.

Professional teachers should be employed.—Z. H. Brown, superintendent of city schools, Nashville, Tenn.: The services of most estimable young men have been secured as teachers, and had they remained they would have been valuable accessions to the corps, but their term of service has been too short. It is unfortunate for the school that these positions should be held by young men who are simply preparing themselves for some other profession rather than that of teaching. However promising they may be, and however well they may have stood in the college from which they bear a diploma, they are but novices in the business of teaching, and the school must suffer, at least till they acquire some professional experience. Such policy as will secure a greater length of service, and hence a greater degree of permanency, in these important positions will contribute much to the successful training of the high school pupils.

Teachers should be well paid.-J. M. Satterfield, school superintendent of Marion County, W. Va.: One great drawback in the profession of teaching is the low salaries paid. One who makes a success in teaching will also be successful in other callings; hence when teaching fails to compensate him he will seek employment more remuner ative, and the consequence is, the inexperienced teacher is constantly taking the place of the experienced. Too many boys and girls-children-are trying to teach school. A teacher of twenty years' experience is offered no better pay in the common schools than one who has never taught, provided their certificates of scholarship happen to be of the same grade. A teacher should be paid according to what he does and not according to the amount he knows.

The success of a teacher determined in the school-room.-F. R. Brace, school superintendent of Camden County, N. J.: It is too true that many who enter the teacher's profession have only a slight conception of the teacher's work, and so fail in the outset. Some find out their unfitness and fall out of the ranks, and some remain to become tramp teachers, staying only a year or a part of a year in any school. It is also true that some of those who take the highest standing in our normal schools and colleges, and wear the highest honors, are complete failures in life. Some who are sent out to teach, clothed with the authority of a normal school diploma, are utterly unqualified to take charge of a school and teach the pupils, while some that have failed to get their diplomas have be

come first-class teachers.

Preparation of teachers.-President Sheib, State Normal School, Louisiana: The teacher must have completed her preparation when she enters the class-room. She is there to instruct and train, and the object and means by which it is to be attained must have

been considered beforehand.

Moral character of teachers.-President Sheib, State Normal School, Louisiana: It is the man or the woman, not the method or the disciplinarian, that teaches the most serious lessons which the child has to learn. It is this teacher who appears before the class at the same moment as a guardian, as instructor, as friend, as guide, and as the model man or woman whose truth, sincerity, and purity are worthy of imitation.

***

Education has for its object the moral being as well as the intellectual one. The very idea of benevolence and justice revolts against a system which wilfully, or as a result of criminal negligence, entrusts the conscience and the character of the child to the care of a teacher whose mind is poisoned and whose heart is bad. This evil commudangerous because to the child the teacher is a guide and a

nication is all the more

model.

Young persons should not be employed.-Town Superintendent Matthews, of Cornwall, Vt.: I think that the law ought to require that all teachers should be at least eighteen years of age. There are too many young teachers who not only have had no experience in teaching but do not know how to govern themselves, much less their schools.

Town Superintendent Guild, of Enosburg, Vt.: I think there is need of a law limiting the age at which one can secure a certificate for teaching. In some schools there is a strong tendency to hire young teachers in order to save a little in wages.

Older teachers would have a maturer judgment for the work, would demand higher wages, and the larger wages would lead the people to demand better qualifications, so that the benefit arising from such a law would be for both teachers and scholars.

XXIII.-TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION.

Temperance instruction in Minnesota.-Superintendent Kiehle, of Minnesota: The rePorts from the

doubtless as well taught the doubt will derive much permanent good through the skill and example of good teachers. Nothing should be left undone that will fix in the minds of our youth a sense of the folly and danger of the use of alcoholic beverages and a resolution to entirely ab

as others are. The children are easily interested, and I have

stain from their use.

I measure can better promote temperance and morality.—Superintendent Estabrook, of thehigan: It is certain no measure eu le malle more eles qual for the advancement of

the cause of temperance and morality than thorough, faithful, and honest instruction given in our public schools to all pupils in regard to the effects of alcohol and narcotics

on the body and soul.

*

*

*

I believe in teaching temperance, but not in forcing

text-books upon our grades where they can not be used.

The subject of physiology and hygiene is growing in the favor of teachers, pupils, and Temperance instruction gaining favor.-Superintendent Leech, of Cambria County, Pa.: in many schools it was but imperfectly taught, and in many of these the law was barely citizens. Our teachers are making rapid progress in the study of the subject. However, complied places is disappearing, but still it exists, and in some cases with the teachers, too.

Where it has been properly taught the feeling against this branch, where it existed, is fast disappearing. Can we place too much importance on health of body?

What shall

it profit us if we gain the whole field of knowledge and lose our own health? How can any intelligent parent be opposed to this subject when he once knows that its object is to make better men and women, physically and morally, of the boys and girls who shall go out from our schools, and to warn them against the evils of intemperance and instil into their minds a love for temperance in all things. This subject is destined to be one of the most useful as well as one of the most popular studies of our

common schools.

XXIV.-TEXT-BOOKS.

Free text-books advantageous.-Superintendent Chapman, of New Jersey: No appropria tion of an equal sum can secure greater advantages to the schools than that which is required to furnish the text-books. The district can purchase at a lower price than the individual, and the same book, with proper care, may serve half a dozen pupils in succession instead of one. If the books are so furnished a thorough grading is made possible, and much inconvenience and delay are avoided.

Free text-books authorized in Pennsylvania.-Superintendent Higbee, of Pennsylvania: The grant of authority to school directors to furnish free text-books for their schools is more and more used, and thus far such action has given full satisfaction, not only in our large cities, but in many of our rural districts. It is found to be more economical, saving all loss to parents through change of text-books, and making it possible to commence the work of teaching on the first day of school, each scholar being provided with his books at once, without any annoying delay until parents can purchase. It adds greatly to the enrolment of pupils, for many parents who through poverty or indifference have failed to supply books, and thus have kept their children from attendance, now send them. In Massachusetts the law is compulsory. With us authority only is given, and

the directors are to use their own discretion in the matter.

The fact, therefore, that the practice of furnishing text-books free steadily gains ground with us is an argument in its favor.

Cost of text-books when furnished free.-H. W. Halliwell, secretary of the board of controllers of public schools of Philadelphia: The cost of books and other supplies for many years has ranged from 80 cents to $1 per pupil.

Free text-books in New Jersey.-Superintendent Apgar, of New Jersey: Nearly all our cities furnish text-books free of cost to the children. We have fifteen hundred school districts in the State outside the cities, and four hundred of these furnish free textbooks. It is my endeavor to get all all the districts in the State to adopt the policy which now prevails in so many.

In New York City.-Superintendent Jasper, of New York City: The board of education furnishes all pupils in the public schools with books and school supplies free of expense, and this merits the hearty approval of the citizens of New York City.

In Newark, N. J.-Superintendent Barringer, of Newark, N. J.: We have furnished our pupils with books, slate-pencils, chalk, etc., for many years. It has cost on an av erage about 45 cents a year for each pupil. We like the plan very much. Its advantages are many. I will name a few of them: Cheapness, convenience, uniformity, complete control of course of study, and removal of all excuses for non-performance of work by pupils.

Text-books furnished free for many years in Jersey City.-City Superintendent Barton, of Jersey City: For many years free text-books have been furnished to the pupils in the public schools of this city. This plan has proven very satisfactory. The cost per pupil has varied from 50 cents to $1.25 per year for books and stationery.

Free text-books in Woonsocket, R. I-City Superintendent Thomas, of Woonsocket, R. I.: It is found that the average cost of text-books for the past four years has been 66 cents per pupil. We have never lost a book except by the usual process of wear and tear. I do not know of a single disadvantage connected with the plan. The system works perfectly in every respect, and none of us would give it up.

Want of uniformity prevents good teaching.—Superintendent Cooper, of Texas: In many schools good teaching is a physical impossibility, on account of the variety of text-books which parents desire and trustees allow to be used.

Why school-books should be free.--Superintendent Newell, of Maryland: Why should not the books needed in our common schools be free to the pupils? We have free schoolhouses, free teachers, free stoves, free fuel, free desks, free black-boards, free wall maps; why not also free school-books? There was a time when none of these things were free, and some were non-existent. The teacher was paid so much a week and "boarded around." The writer has seen, when he was a boy, a band of urchins trooping to the school-house, each with his contribution to the fuel of the day under his arm. also in his capacity of teacher had a pupil come to him with his desk carried behind him by a colored man, because “such was the old custom," as his father explained. Now all is free except the school-books, and that tax remains as one of the relics of barbarism. But why should school-books be free?

He has

(1) Because otherwise the schools are not really free. If any money consideration is necessary to the enjoyment of school privileges, the name of "free school" is a mockery (2) Because the cost of books keeps some children out of school, and these perhaps the very children who need schooling the most. The parents are too poor to buy books and too proud to be willing to have their children enter as paupers. (3) Because the book tax introduces invidious class distinctions. for their books; others are classed as "indigent" and do not pay.

Some children pay
Here is a line of