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 imposed 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 one. 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 discipline of the school, and in such condition that his presence is not injurious to the school, he must be admitted.

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 Pennsylvania: 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 distinct 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. But 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 pupils, 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 turn 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 fur ther 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 Connecticut, 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 contemplated 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 use of a school is sufficient evidence that its essential corporate use is perverted; for public schools do neither lease, nor rent, nor ask for the temporary use of that very property which, by public tax, has been purchased, and is to be held in trust for their permanent use alone.

XXI.-SUPERVISION.

The best men 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 duty calls him than the county superintendent of schools. He should be required to give his whole time and attention to the schools of his county, and he should receive adequate compensation for the important services rendered and the responsibility assumed. He supervises to-day the training of the citizens of to-morrow. The people expect him to be, aud he should be, a man capable of leading, directing, encouraging, broadening, strengthening, and elevating the character of the community in which he lives.

Corporations provide for supervision.-Superintendent Thompson, of Arkansas: The State should manage her public interests on as sound business principles as private affairs are looked after by individuals who invest capital from which they expect large dividends. Neither individuals nor corporations invest money without providing for careful and intelligent supervision of such business by agents, skilled each in his particalar line of work. Our free school system is a public enterprise, supported by the State and local taxation, by which the State hopes to secure a more intelligent class of citizens than we have at the present time. * Considering the large fund invested, and 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 in every detail of this great work.

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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 importance 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.

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** 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 duty 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 yet 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.

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County superintendency proves advantageous in Texas.-Superintendent Cooper, of Texas: The experiment of county superintendency which has been made during the past two 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 passed in the spring of 1887. The average increase in the school term in the counties having adopted it is nearly half a month, although the apportionment was 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 to an efficient system of public schools, and opposition to county superintendency is either conscious or ignorant obstruction to economy, efficiency, and progress in our public schools.

School trustees should be progressive men.--Superintendent Logan, of Montana: The office of trustee 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.

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 to the minister of God, the most important figure moving on the stage of our secular and social life. He trains the young minds and hearts, and thus becomes the first lieutenant of the parents of every home in the land. His character should be without stain, 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 estimation 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 beer and more thorough work the schools must prove a suc

Prof ssional teackers sh ́uli be emp'cy d.-Z. H. Brown, superintendent of city schools, Nashville, Tenn.: The services of most estimable young men have been secured as teachers, and bad they retained they would have been vaidable accessions to the corps, but their term of service has been to short. It is unfortunate for the school that these positions should be he d 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 laust suffer, at least till they acquire some professional experience. Such policy as will secure a greater length of service, and heuer a Lichter degree of permanency, in these important positions will contribute much to the successful training of the high school pupus.

Tenches shoul) be redi 214 -J. M. Sattericid, school superintendent of Marion County, W. Va.: One great draw aack in the profession of teaching is the low salaries paid. One who makes a saccess in teachen, will also be successial in other callings; hence when tea ang fans to compensate hira he will sees employment mere remaneralive, and the couse, acnce is, the inexperienced teacher is constantly taking the place of the experienced. Too many boys aaû girls-children-are truise to teach school. A teacher of twenty years' experience is offered ʼn better pay in the common schools than one who has never taught rod their honies i hay pen to be of the same grale. A teacher should be paid according to what he does and not according to the amount he knows.