VISIT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. The beginning of the school year now under review was marked by the visit paid to the schools of the Territory by the Hon. N. H. R. Dawson, United States Commissioner of Education, who spent part of the months of July and August, 1887, in consultation with your honorable board, and in examining many matters of importance, wherein his discriminating judgment was of great value both to the board in the performance of its duties, and to the schools under its supervision. It would be proper here to make a more particular mention of Colonel Dawson's visit, if it had not formed an important part of earlier communications from me and from your board to the authorities in Washington. HOW THE REGULATIONS FOR COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE OPERATED. At Fort Wrangell, where these rules were enforced through the vigilance of Hon. James Sheakley, United States commissioner, and William G. Thomas, deputy marshal, the best of results followed. At Juneau, partly through a misapprehension of the requirements of the law, no real effort was made to enforce it. At Sitka the hands of the board were tied for the want of a policeman under their control. At the other schools for the want of proper civil officials to enforce the law nothing was attempted. If it is necessary for the Government to provide schools (of which no intelligent citizen has a doubt), it is equally necessary for the Government to compel the people to avail themselves of the advantages offered. This is particularly true among the half-civilized people for whom the majority of the Alaskan schools are established. Neither parents nor children have any appreciation of the importance of regular attendance at school. Nor is it to be expected that they should have. If the head of the family goes a-fishing the mother and children accompany him, and the children are out of school a week or two. If at home, the children are often kept to carry wood or water. Then again, parents neither compel nor encourage attendance. It is left entirely to the passing whim of the child. To secure the best possible results from the school system it is absolutely necessary that the Government should use some pressure. Learning wisdom from the failures of the past, the board have unanimously recommended to the honorable Commissioner of Education that at each of the places where schools are established the sum of eight dollars per month be allowed from the school fund towards paying native policemen to enforce the attendance law. The United States Indian Office has allowed nine dollars per month for the services of such men in keeping the peace. The union of the two sums, making the modest wages of seventeen dollars per month, will secure the services of good men who will act both in the interest of the school officers and of the Territorial school board. This recommendation is renewed among others at the close of this report. THE EXODUS TO METLAKAHTLA. We have the strange spectacle for the nineteenth century of eight hundred people, brought from barbarism and cannibalism to Christian civilization, giving up their comfortable homes and improvements, sacrificing their property, and going out into the untrodden wilderness to make new homes, and all for conscience' sake. They moved across the international boundary line into Alaska, and transferred their allegiance from Canada to the United States. They have settled at Port Chester, Annette Island, and named it Metlakahtla, United States. During the past year they have felled the heavy forest trees upon their new village site, erected over one hundred temporary frame and log habitations, one substantial guest house, two large buildings for public purposes, and set a good saw-mill in operation. The Hon. N. H. R. Dawson, Commissioner of Education, who was present at the landing and taking possession of the new site, and who gave the people warm words of welcome, was so interested in them that he was able to assist them in starting a day school. This largest day school in Alaska is taught by Mr. Duncan and four native assistants. In this commencement of their new enterprise it would be a great encouragement if the Government would erect a suitable school building. SCHOOL-HOUSES. One teacher, from her own bitter experience, reports: "Better have no school than keep it in an unsuitable room.' While not endorsing her view, it is still true that suitable and comfortable rooms have much to do with the efficiency of the school. During the year past new school-houses have been provided for the schools at Unga, Sitka, Killisnoo, and Juneau, and the house at Wrangell refitted and made comforta ble. School-houses are urgently needed at Kodiak, Afognak, Douglass City, and Metlakahtia. BOARDING AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. The annual reports of the teachers more and more emphasize the fact that among the native population the best results can be had only where the childen are separated from their home surroundings. To do this necessitates a system of boarding schools. As there is already one at Sitka that supplies south-eastern Alaska, I would advise one at Kodiak for the Kodiak district and one at Unalaska for the Unalaska district. AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL. The United States Commissioner of Agriculture, in his last Annual Report, having suggested that a station be established in connection with the Sitka Industrial School for "conducting a series of careful experiments to ascertain the agricultural products best adapted to the climate and soil of Alaska, and what breeds of cattle and other domestic animals are most suited to its climate and soil," I would recommend that the board offer to co-operate with the honorable Commissioner in carrying out some such arrangement. As early as 1885 I made application to the Commissioner of Agriculture for an experimental farm in connection with the Sitka school; and in my annual report on that school for 1885 wrote: "There is a wide diversity of views concerning the agricultural and horticultural capabilities of this region, and necessarily great ignorance. The early Russian settlers were here for furs, and the more recent Americans for mining and trading. No systematic effort, intelligently prosecuted, has been made to ascertain what can or cannot be raised to advantage. The industrial training school of this, distant and but little known section of the United States furnishes a basis for a department that shall make careful experiments extending over a term of years to ascertain the vegetables, grains, grasses, berries, and small fruits, apples and the larger fruits, trees, flowes, etc., best adapted to the country; the best methods of cultivating, gathering, and curing the same; tree planting and grafting of fruit trees; the development of the wild cranberry; cattle, hog, and poultry raising, and butter and cheese making. If the Government will determine what can be done in this direction both settlers and natives will utilize the information gained. Such a course will add both to the wealth of the country and the comfort of the people." PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND. The present method of supporting the schools of Alaska by an annual appropriation from Congress is very unsatisfactory. As Congress one year voted $25,000, and the secand nothing, and the third $15,000, it can readily be seen that neither the school board or the teachers can arrange for the schools until after Congressional action has been taken, nor until such action can they be sure that there will be any schools. And not months after the fiscal school year commences. only that, but some years the action of Congress is not known in Alaska until three A failure on the part of Congress any ment property, and throw the teachers out of employment thousands of miles away from one year to make the necessary appropriation would close the schools, scatter Govern home and friends. be asked The disadvantages of the present system need but to be stated to be seen. to set apart one-fourth of the gross revenues of Alaska annually as a permanent fund for the education of the children of Alaska, without distinction of race. In the Western States and Territories the general land laws of the country provide that sections 16 and 36 in each township are set apart for the use of the schools in said States and Territories. In some of the States this has been a munificent endowment. Bat Alaska has no townships and no surveyed lands, and no law by which they can be surveyed. And when in course of time the general land laws are extended over it, the nature of the country and the peculiar climate and the requirements of the population will prevent to any great extent the laying out of the land in sections of a mile are. Thus, while no school fund is practicable for years from the lands, the General Government derives a regular revenue from the Seal Islands and other sources, a portion of which could be used in the place of the proceeds of the sale of school lands. CONCLUSION. In conclusion, much praise is due the noble band of teachers in the Government schools, the majority of whom are isolated from cultivated society, without comfortable schoolrooms, unassisted either by a friendly public sentiment or the strong arm of the law, in daily contact with dirty and often diseased children; in more or less personal danger from the fanaticism and superstition of the people; many of them away from regular mail communications and some of them with only an annual mail. Their courage, their perseverance, their tact, their zeal is heroic. Very truly yours, DISCUSSION OF QUESTIONS RELATING TO CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. Introduction-Substitute Teachers-The Departmental Plan in Elementary Schools—Thoroughness— Half-Day Sessions-Methods of Determining the Fitness of Pupils for Promotion-Examinations as a Basis of Promotion-Primary Schools-Age for Admission to Primary Schools-Physical Trainng-Summer Schools-School Buildings-Pernicious Methods of Heating School Houses-Irregu larity of Attendance-Discipline-Incorrigibles and Habitual Truants-Suburban Schools-Evening Schools-Statistics of Enrolment and Attendance in Evening Schools. INTRODUCTION. The topics discussed in this chapter refer principally to the administration of school systems; questions which relate to methods and subjects of instruction, courses of study, etc., have been reserved for the Report of 1838-89, in which they will be treated moro fally than the limits of the present Report permit. These discussions are designed primarily to show the status of various questions which affect the progress of public education. The facts stated and the opinions quoted are taken almost without exception from the official reports of city superintendents, as they are by far the most reliable and generally the most accessible source of such information. These reports emanate from responsible officials, and the accuracy of the statements they contain may be relied upon. They are made to boards or officers upon whose approval reelection depends, and are therefore not likely to give expression to hastily formed opinions, or to contain ill-considered recommendations. It being intended to make this chapter reflect as far as possible the prevailing sentiment upon the subjects touched among men actually employed in educational work, and in contact with the schools, the expresssion of any opinions except those ascribed to such men is generally avoided. It must not be understood, however, that the Bureau of Education approves the specific recommendations made in each case. SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS. With the increased attention to the qualifications of teachers and the demand for improved character of instruction has come a realization of the necessity for well-qualified substitutes to fill the places of regular teachers unavoidably absent. Formerly there as little or no method in the employment of such substitutes. The superintendent was usually authorized to employ any one whose services were available, and deduct her compensation from the salary of the absent teacher. It was even required in many places that the absentee herself employ the substitute, and be responsible for the quality of the instruction given in her absence. Under such systems, or lack of system, vexatious delays in securing temporary teachers were unavoidable, and efficient instruction was out of the question. The extracts below indicate a wide-spread tendency toward reform in this respect, and contain suggestive hints for those searching for means of improvement. The plan of paying the substitutes a regular salary, and requiring them to give all their time not employed in filling vacancies to preparation for teaching was new, and it a decided improvement over the old system." [Superintendent W. L. Steele, Galesbar. Ill.] The committee on examinations prepared a plan which met with the unanimous approval of the board, and by which a certain number of teachers were to be engaged to act reserve corps, and to perform duties heretofore discharged by uncertificated substitute teachers. The short experience gained since the adoption of this plan has verified in every respect the predictions of friends of this measure. Principals are cordial in their approba tion of the change from inexperienced substitute teachers to the reliable, well-educated, and more mature reserve-corps teachers. Heretofore, when higher-grade teachers were absent, all sorts of shifts were made to take care of the class, because the substitute teachers were of such a character that intermediate and higher grades could not be entrusted to their care. We are now able to provide teachers capable of holding, for a short period, the seventh and eighth grades; and it is not too much to say that the absence of the teacher from her class is no longer an event to be dreaded by the principal. The classes fare very well in the hands of the reserve-corps teachers supplied from the office." [Superintendent W. E. Anderson, Milwaukee, Wis.] "The method of employing and paying 'substitute' teachers should be made more systematic, and success as a substitute teacher should be made a prerequisite for appointment as a regular teacher. With this end in view, I would recommend that the board of trustees of each ward be authorized to appoint a substitute teacher for each five hundred pupils in the schools of the ward, based upon the average attendance for the preceding year, the annual salary of each teacher to be one hundred dollars. Principals should be required to make to the trustees monthly reports of the character of the work of the substitute teachers, and the city superintendent should report, as occasion may demand, any information bearing upon the same matter. A regular record of all such reports should be kept by the trustees, and preference in appointment given to those having the best records. [Superintendent John Jasper, New York City.] "The plan adopted by the board this year of employing three extra teachers on half pay, with the requirement to spend the whole of each school day in the class rooms and in such school work as may be required of them by the principal or the superintendent, proved a most helpful provision. Under this arrangement it is now possible for the principals of our large city schools to look after many small but important matters in the different rooms that formerly received but little attention from them." [Superintendent B. M. Zettler, Macon, Ga.] "The unemployed holders of teacher-certificates constitute the corps of supernumeraries. They are assigned as nearly as possible according to their residence. Each supernumerary has a standing invitation to visit monthly, under the direction of the principals, the schools to which he or she may be assigned. It is believed that this privilege will prove of great value to those who would avoid the mortifying errors of inexperience." [Superintendent Ulric Bettison, New Orleans, La.] "I am convinced that for the best interests of the school more attention should be given to the qualifications of candidates for positions in our corps of teachers, and especially to the employment of substitute teachers. Every person before receiving an appointment as a teacher should be carefully examined by the proper authorities, not alone as to scholarly attainments, but also in all the requisites of a good teacher. * "I would recommend, therefore, that a competitive examination, under direction of the proper authorities, of all applicants for positions in the schools, be held annually, and that hereafter no person be elected for a first time to teach in the schools of this district, either as a regular or substitute teacher, who has not satisfactorily passed such examination. Furthermore, I would recommend that, as far as possible, all persons elected to permanent positions shall have demonstrated their fitness by substituting in our schools." [Mr. E. C. Willard, Principal of School District No. 1, Westerly, R. I.] In those cities in which teachers' training schools are in operation, it is usually customary to require substitute work of the pupil-teachers in such schools. Mr. J. L. Terry, the principal of the teachers' training school of St. Paul, Minn., has this to say of the practice: "Substitute teaching has been a marked feature in our year's work, particularly within the last four months. During the first term we were able to detail certain members of the training class to work with model teachers, subject to summons for substi tutes, but later, as the class became smaller and the demand for substitute teachers greatly increased, we were obliged to select from the students in theory those who could best sustain the extra work, equalizing the distribution as far as possible. The result is that the average of substitute work for the year is over three weeks to each member of the class. We do not consider a moderate demand for substitutes any real interruption to our work. We allow for it and accept it as a valuable means for learning to cope with new conditions-a practical lesson in meeting emergencies which a teacher may make even more valuable than uninterrupted instruction in theory. However, we are convinced that a sudden call to work in grades higher than the fifth is a severe tax upon young ladies, of whom our course of study already requires all the work that can well be crowded into a busy year." "L The attempts to adapt the methods of high-school instruction to the elementary grades have not been attended with conspicuous success. No mention has been made of the |