TABLE 27.-Comparative Statistics for 1887-88 of Property, Expenses for Tuition, and Receipts from Local Taxation of Public School Systems of Cities and Towns containing over 4,000 Inhabitants-Continued.

TABLE 28-Summary by States, Geographical Divisions, and Classes According to Popu lation of Comparative Statistics of Property, Expenses for Tuition, and Receipts from Local Taxation of Public School Systems of Cities and Towns containing over 4,000 Inhabitants.

a Comprising Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Comprising Delaware, Maryland. District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

eComprising Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas.

TABLE 28.-Summary by States, Geographical Divisions, and Classes According to Population of Comparative Statistics of Property, Expenses for Tuition, and Receipts from Local Taxation of Public School Systems of Cities and Towns containing over 4,000 Inhabitants-Continued.

dComprising Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas.

eComprising Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Washing. ton, Oregon, and California.

CHAPTER IX.

THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.

Professional schools educate but a minority of the teaching body-Impossibility of obtaining statistics and infor nation as to the character of "institute" instruction - An examination of the proceedings of teachers' meetings instituted, for expressions of opinion on the condition of the teaching body-- The characteristics of such associations- Their value- Problems of the year Chairs of pedagogy-Normal schools-Institutes - The Illinois institute syllabus - Local supervision of teachers The College for the Training of Teachers in New York City-The Peabody Normal College-Proposed national normal college-Physical and manual training-What and how normal schools teach- The Peabody Fund-The meagre salary excludes the professionally trained teachers from the country school - The State normal schools do not supply the demand in eities - Do the graduates teach? - Not improbable that the annual demand for beginners is about equal to the number teaching who have attended a normal school- Attendance at public normal schools for 1887-88 - Gra luates- Permanent funds- TuitionAverage annual cost of board and lodging-Receipts-Statistics of private normal schools -- Kindergarten training schools — Condition of normal schools and the work of other instrumentalities for qualify ing teachers with extracts from the proceedings of their annual incelings for 1887-88, by States-Statistics of individual public normal schools, Table 32 - Of individual private normal school, Table 33 - Of individual schools for training kindergarten teachers, Table 31.

AN EXAMINATION OF NORMAL SCHOOL WORK NOT SUFFICIENT.

It is well known that the annual catalogue of institutions of every kind is not, in the great majority of cases, a record of the events of the year. It is not intended to be such; its purpose is avowedly to give information concerning the school as a place where education may be obtained, not to chronicle the vicissitudes of the year. It will therefore be seen that it is not from such a source that information as to the condition of the profession of teaching is to be found; nor would such information, if found there, be complete. An examination of the following pages will show that normal schools furnish but a small proportion of the teachers of the public schools; the vast majority have never received professional training. To educate this majority a peculiar and American institution has been established called an institute. In this, at annual intervals, the teachers of the county or "institute district" are assembled for periods varying from one week to four or more, and receive instruction of uncertain kinds at the expense of the State, the county, or, in some cases, in part at their own expense.

The activity of these two agencies for the professional training of the teacher and the intending teacher, and the results, might give some idea of the quality of the teaching in the schools were it possible to gauge the exact value of institute instruction given to adult pupils for one or more weeks in a manner varying with the locality and to a number which may be all, many, or a few of the teachers of the district embraced. Such statistics are as yet impossibilities as far as this Office is concerned.

But there is a third institution for the training, at least cultivation, of teachers that we have heretofore neglected, and this is the teachers' association. Not that it is to be assumed that all the teachers of the State or county belong to these annually convened assemblies; far, unfortunately, from that. But because in following their discussions we may get at least some idea of the condition of the educational affairs of the State. There is another advantage that is to be considered; the proceedings of these meetings are for the most part printed in the school journals, and we are thus relieved from the necessity of awaiting the publication of reports, which so long delays our own.

In the last report of this Office the presentation from the catalogue point of view was exhaustive, the normal school and its course of study were defined, and the origin and methods of the institute given. We will, therefore, assume that the reader knows that as one turns from contemplating one of these schools to another, a never-changing view is presented, kaleidoscopic in all save symmetry, and that institutes shade down from professional through elementary instruction until they degenerate into a parliamentary assembly; and, in view of this assumption, will proceed directly to considering the events of the year, first, however, making a few remarks on the varieties of the associations formed by those engaged in the profession of teaching.

TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS.

Even undertakers have an association, says Superintendent Palmer, of Alabama; why not the teachers? The idea is not new, and the many pedagogical associations of Germany have been thought by some to have been a great influence in forming the pedagogical part of that most pedagogical nation, where, as Grimm says, teachers are as common as monks in Spain or Italy. Alumni associations are formed primarily on memories of the past not unconnected perhaps with anticipations of more material pleasures annually, and joint-stock companies for the purpose of material profit; but the association of teachers is founded on a desire for professional improvement and is a matter of pecuniary loss; how great, we are unable to say. The editor of the Iowa School Journal computes that the expense to the teachers of attending the 96 Iowa institutes of the year in that State would be $200,000 including instruction and examination fees.

These associations meet annually with but few exceptions, and it is inevitable that, unless avoided by the most capable management, the proceedings of meetings held at such comparatively frequent intervals should become monotonous, or there is danger that, in the effort to avoid common-place, the speakers may consult their imagination for the ideal rather than the common experience of themselves and their hearers, in an effort to assist them to "kick against the adamant of things," as Carlyle characteristically says.

That dulness or fancy does not necessarily preside at these gatherings, the paper by the California professor, given under that State, will show, and any one reading his glowing tribute to the country teacher-where the battle for education is being fought as that for manual training is being fought for in cities-will fully acquit him of a tendency to be unsympathetic; while the address of the president of the superintendents' section of the Ohio association shows that it is as valuable to collate opinions as to add another to the many on the list, and the warm language of the president of that association-so warm indeed that we stopped where he really began-that it is not necessary to be dull.

To give definiteness and force to the expression of opinion on matters of moment, committees are formed in some associations to which are referred the topics upon which it is necessary to have a formal expression of view. In some cases the committees report during the same meeting, in others at the following one.

But the tendency to specialization is, in all likelihood, the most potent force in association work. When it bas produced an association of persons following the same profession it immediately begins to group the members, and superintendents' sections, primary sections, and college sections are the results. Even the Michigan association, if our authority be right, where what is good for one is deemed good for all, has yielded so far as to organize a primary teachers' department. Nor is this wheel-within-a-wheel system apparently altogether satisfactory, for we find that superintendents' associations, city and county, are quite common, while the teachers, turning from the smooth LatinEnglish word association, denominate themselves a "club" or a "round table." This change of name very likely denotes something more than the desire for variety of nomenclature. The meeting of the club at least may have something of the alumni dinner in it, while the round-table gathering exchanges the rostrum for the easy-chair.

The direction of its educational affairs is entirely in the hands of the State, its power pervading its territory to the imaginary lines or natural features by which it is defined. But the teachers of the States have not found these impassable. Seven degrees forty minutes west longitude from Washington does not avail to keep the city superintendents of Indiana from meeting those of Ohio when they have a mind to, and the headwaters of the Potomac have been ineffectual to prevent the West Virginia association from meeting in joint convention with the Maryland organization, which meeting was so satisfactory that the two associations appointed a committee of five to attend the meeting of the associations of Pennsylvania and of Kentucky and to invite those associations to return the compliment.

Not only is a community of professional thought and feeling uniting the teachers of the central States of the East, but a spirit of human sympathy has caused the teachers of Baltimore to organize a " Beneficial Association" with the object of mitigating the evils that are apt to overtake the recipient of a comparatively small salary when ill, and, in case of death, to pay a sum of money to those he leaves behind. A similar association in New York City goes even farther; members who retire after having taught for thirty-five years, in the case of women, and forty years in the case of men, receiving aid from a fund composed of one-half of all receipts. The State superintendent of California calls for a pension for teachers, and the teachers of Alabama are providing a "home" which would appear to be, however, a place to recuperate at rather than to retire to.'

There is a similar society in Texas, but we are obliged to postpone an account of it until our next Report owing to the late day at which the information came to hand.