"Two classes have been graduated from this institution, and, without exception, are employed in positions of usefulness. The State gave to each county a free scholarship, which was filled during the summer by competitive examination. The institution opened under the best auspices, with fifty-one students in attendance. There were over one hundred applicants for the scholarships. The money for these beneficiary pupils is paid out only on my order, after the certificate of Superintendent Johnson is presented. "This movement is rich in promise alike to the State and to these young ladies. We secure trained talent for the schools, and they have the means of an honorable living. This is the first dollar South Carolina has given to educate her daughters, and it has been most worthily bestowed. The standard for admission, now good, will be gradually raised, and the most progressive and modern methods of teaching will be presented here. Superintendent Johnson is ably and faithfully seconded by his faculty.

In behalf of the women of the State this school demands active and intelligent support. It is proper to say that this effort was made possible by the liberality of the Peabody trustees, through their accomplished secretary, Dr. S. A. Green. The name was given in honor of the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, the patriot and scholar, whose interest in its success has in various ways been manifested. Institutions for normal training are now a part of the ordinary educational machinery, and need no vindication. They are to the teacher what the moot court is to the attorney, the dissecting room to the physician, the studio to the artist. They present the most matured views of the most successful teachers. The student, it is presumed, has gathered the knowledge of books, and in these training grounds he finds out the readiest means to impart information. It is presumed that the State has only begun this work. Modifications may and will be needed in the plans of operation and in the methods of assistance, She can never retrace her steps.

Institutes.-Sixteen county normal institutes have been held in the State during the year. In Greenville were gathered two hundred and fifty teachers. For two weeks instruction was daily imparted by a large faculty. In Orangeburg the attendance was large, and, daily, numbers of citizens assembled to hear the instructions of the very able faculty in charge. One unusual and very interesting feature was the "Trustees' Day," By active effort School Commissioner Mellichamp secured the attendance of about sixty trustees, and I had the pleasure of addressing them on the subject of their relation to the work of common schools. It was, indeed, a great source of gratification to see such a gathering of representative men from all parts of the county, who gave their time and energies to the public service without pecuniary reward. The reports from the other counties show a large attendance and a great amount of good done by these annual gatherings of the teachers. The amount of money allowed by the State from the county school fand is handsomely supplemented by the trustees of the Peabody Fund. I am sure no other agency and no equal amount of money spent does more good. It is the only aid for the teachers in the field. They need this help, they desire it, and they use it for the best purpose. The only change I suggest is that the institutes should be under some one general direction, and the faculty and work selected by this agency. One week's faithful labor will kindle enthusiasm, weld into a common purpose the varying plans of separated teachers, direct into one channel the divided forces of distant sections, and impart what is valuable in new methods to old teachers,"

Florence. The graded school of this town has a normal department connected with the high school. Its object is to prepare teachers. The pupils are taught: (1) A knowledge of the common school studies and the best methods of teaching them; (2) psychology and its application to teaching; (3) school management, During the whole course special attention is paid to class methods, the art of questioning, kindergarten methods, methods of teaching elementary branches, and methods of teaching the higher branches. There were five pupils in the senior class and ten in the junior.

Teachers' meeting.-The annual convention of the association was held July 11, 1888, at Columbia. The State superintendent addressed the assemblage on the merits and defects of the State school law. The subjects of History, English, and the Bible in our schools were presented and discussed. Miss Bonham, of the Winthrop Training School, urged the necessity of reading school journals and books on education as (1) stimulating; (2) as arousing professional pride; and (3) as a means of getting new ideas. Mr. Clinkscales said the great obstacles to the success of the State school system were want of money and competent county supervision. County commissioners should be appointed, not elected. Miss Martin, in speaking of Moral Training in the Schools, said the foundation should be laid at home, and that public exhibitions and prize-giving are pernicious, because they foster a love of display. In discussing the question, "What Constitutes a Model [ideal] School," Mr. Baird said that the schools had been too long used by young college graduates as stepping-stones to other professions. Mr. Curtiss said the object of an institute was to instruct the non-professionally trained teachers, and that institutes should be conducted by skilled persons. Superintendent Greenville, in speaking of

teaching as distinguished from cramming, said that it was the art of causing to know. It was a profession, and the school room should be no longer an asylum for briefless lawyers, preachers without churches, and doctors without patients. Miss McCants spoke of the "Professional Qualifications of the Teacher." A good teacher, it has been said, 18 possessed of three qualities: knowledge, patience, and sympathy. The speaker would add a fourth, discipline.

During the session the chairman of the committee on membership stated that of the 3,000 teachers in the State but 110 are members of the association. Among the several resolutions passed was one expressing the gratification of the meeting at the action of the last Legislature in recognizing it to be the duty of the State, to herself and her children, to provide professional training for the future teachers of the public schools, as shown by the provision for the professional training of young men at the university and of young women, by means of county scholarships, at the Winthrop Training School. Some advance was made in the matter of arranging for a permanent place of meeting.

TENNESSEE.

The Peabody Normal College, late State Normal School, has been referred to in the foregoing. It only remains to notice the other State agencies for the training of teachers; and first

Institutes.-These for the last year have been very successful, says the State superintendent, and are doing much to improve the country school teachers, but few of whom have been professionally trained. Twenty-three Peabody Fund institutes were held, seventeen for white and six for colored teachers. They each, as a rule, continued in session for one week, but in some instances two, and even three. Besides these a majority of the counties of the State each held a local meeting of the kind.

Teachers' meeting.-The twenty-fourth annual session of the Tennessee State Teachers' Association met at Cleveland, on August 7, 1888. The manner of proceeding of the association being to refer subjects of special importance to a committee for report, as is done in legislative assemblies, our attention is naturally drawn to the expressions of opinion of these committees. The Committee on Pedagogy reported that to secure the professional training of teachers the requisite is normal instruction, which should be imparted, first, through normal schools or colleges; second, through teachers' institutes or summer normals; and, third, by prominent schools and colleges instituting a chair of pedagogy; that this instruction should be given at State expense; that skill is fostered by State and county supervision; that books and journals, associations and reading circles are an educational necessity; that a monthly outline of "pedagogical” study should be prepared, which county associations should make a prominent feature of their work; and that a column of the county newspaper should be secured for discussion of the county school affairs.

The Committee on Teachers' Institutes made a report providing for State and county institutes. The Committee on Literature reported in favor of the topical method, with the text-book as a book of reference; that the institution should begin on the lower grades and with American literature, and then English, closing with American. “We discussed the reason," the committee says, "why literature should be considered a prominent branch of school work, and came to the conclusion that for the development of the thinking power of the student and for the formation of a habit of accuracy it could hardly be excelled."

The report of the Committtee on the Work of County Superintendents endorsed the work of that office, pointing out its well known usefulness when properly filled. The Committee on Primary Work in its report advocated among other matters that the child be put to writing the first day it enters school. "Do not waste time on the alphabet; teach words." The Committee on Manual Training endorsed that subject as education and recommended that it be a permissible study of the common school course. The Committee on School Supervision distributed that subject into four categories, State, county, city, and by principals. Only the last of these calls for particular attention. Assuming other qualifications, the principal should be familiar with the course of instruction, that he may be able to properly assign any pupil on entrance. To do this there must be a system of grades, observation of class-work, and exemption of the principal from class-work, say, for one-third of the day.

TEXAS.

In treating of the normal schools of the State, the State superintendent speaks of the Sam Houston Normal Institute as a powerful factor in the improvement of the school system, and of the inadequacy of its building to accommodate the rapidly increasing number who attend. A building worthy of its importance and usefulness is asked. But there is a demand for another school of the kind caused by the size of the State and

the necessity of having more teachers. The Prairie View Normal Institute, the outcome of a failure to establish a branch agricultural and mechanical college for the colored people, is reported to be in a prosperous condition. Manual training has recently been introduced. The school is still under the control of the directors of the Agricultural and Mechanical College. A chair of pedagogy should be established in the State university, for there should be some institution in the State capable of preparing high school teachers and scholarly city and county superintendents.

Institutes.-The State superintendent, in speaking of these, says that as the normal schools affect directly but a small portion of the work of the schools, scarcely a ninth of the schools being taught by teachers who have enjoyed the benefits of a normal school, the professional improvement of the other teachers must come through the institutes. Yet as only one-third of the counties hold institutes, measures must be taken to introduce them more generally. The attendance of teachers should be made mandatory, their pay continuing, and three or four experts should be sent to the several counties to organize and conduct institutes for one week each year. As an aid to institute work a programme of exercises for six institute meetings, to be held in the months from January to June, inclusive, was sent out by the superintendent, and if followed will improve the institutes generally. But the difficulties in the way of the institutes are so great under the present law that little hope can be entertained of their general success until it is amended in the particulars above suggested.

Teachers' certificates.-Still using the report of the State superintendent, we find that as an aid and guide to the boards of examiners, complete sets of examination questions have from time to time been sent out, with complete instructions as to the manner of conducting the examination, a plan that has given satisfaction and might be well embodied in the statutes. These examinations, however, only test one side of the teachers' qualifications; the final test is the work in the school room, but for this the law makes no provision; county superintendency should be mandatory, not optional. The requirements for teachers' certificates should be raised, especially those for the second and third grades, and no person ignorant of the theory and practice of teaching should be authorized by the State to teach a public school. A higher grade of certificate than the first should be instituted, relieving men and women of undoubted ability from the annoyance, and sometimes humiliation, of repeated examinations by men in every way inferior to them in knowledge and skill.

Teachers' meetings.-The annual session of State Teachers' Association was held June 26, 1888. The president, in his address, spoke of the various influences and qualifications not of a pedagogical nature which often avail more than professional knowledge in the selection of a teacher. He criticised the want of zeal in teachers in failing to join the association, remarking that of the ten thousand teachers in the State only two hundred were present, and that there were teachers in their State that did not know that they had an association. Of the several papers on "Enthusiasm," "Conversation," the "Public School System of Texas," and others, the Office has no full account.

The public school superintendents of North Texas met at Dallas, October 29, 1887. We have no record of the proceedings.

VERMONT.

At the normal school at Castleton the standard for admission has been steadily raised, being now 75 per cent., while for advancement from class to class in course the percentage required is 80. This has resulted in a corresponding advance in the age of the pupils attending the school, the recent graduating class averaging twenty-one years. In the last seven years the first course of study has been lengthened from one to two years, and from it have been graduated one hundred and thirty-one pupils. The second course has been lengthened from one to one and a half years, and from it have been graduated twenty-four.

At the normal school at Randolph ten weeks were recently added to the time for the study of pedagogical subjects and ten more are to be added during the coming year, so that now for seventy of the eighty weeks of the course a study of the principles is one of the four main lines of work. But the study of education, says Principal Conant, from whom we have quoted the foregoing facts in regard to this school, should extend through the entire course, and more time is needed for the study of natural science. We can not do better in closing these brief remarks on Vermont normal schools than by quoting from Principal Leavenworth's report to the State superintendent: "The normal schools of the State are meeting and supplying the demand for better equipped teachers. Many attend for a part of the course, and then engage in teaching. So great is the demand for their services it is difficult oftentimes for them to get away from their schools so as to return and complete the course. For the amount of the assistance received from the State, it is gratifying that the normal schools have been able to do so

much. The best training in methods I conceive to be the most thorough instruction in the branches to be taught, and the uniform success of our graduates seem to fully warrant this conception."

Teachers' meeting.-The annual session of the Vermont State Teachers' Association was held at Brandon, January 26, 1888. Mr. Hume, of Boston, spoke of the tendency to teach too many things. Right thinking and right acting should be the real fruits of education. Miss Wells, of the Castleton school, in her article on "English Grammar," thought that pupils should be led to see that grammar in books is the same as grammar in ordinary life. Mrs. Dewey, in her paper on "Morals and Manners," thought that incidental teaching of morals in the school of more value than formal instruction. The teacher should be an object lesson on the subject. In Miss Lowry's paper on "Books and Schools," it was said that it was quite as essential to teach children what to read as to teach them to read; and to do this the teacher must be capable of judging as to the value of a book. Principal Conant, of the Randolph Normal School, spoke of the need of more teachers' associations in the State. The association of one teacher with one book of acknowledged excellence in teaching and then with another book, is also one of the teachers' associations that should be multiplied ad libitum. Principal Dutcher urged that American history and literature should be studied by American pupils. Civil polity should also be taught in the high school. Professor Yager, of Middlebury College, delivered an address on "Missing Links in Education." Legislation will not supply the place of ability to manage. In most cases there has been an abundance of stimulus resulting in attempting too much and mastering too little. Discipline is of much more consequence than scientific information. The fundamental studies should be kept fundamental. The natural method which has constantly in view the essentials, should be employed, thus imparting intelligence to the pupil without making him especially learned. But the link most generally missing is the educational spirit, which can only be begotten by a better conception of what education means.

The association passed a resolution before adjourning expressing their pleasure at the appointment of a commission to study the school system and to remedy defects, should they be found, and recommending that the duty on foreign educational books be removed.

VIRGINIA.

By the act approved March 5, 1888, the College of William and Mary1 became a normal college. The first session began on the 4th of October, 1888. Each county and city in the State is entitled to one pupil, who is to be nominated by the county or city superintendent, and instructed without charge to him, while his living expenses are not to cost him more than ten dollars a month. The number entitled to admission is 115, and the annual cost to each $90. Such pupils are to give satisfactory assurance of their intention and willingness to teach in the public schools of the State for at least two

years.

The admission requirements are reasonable proficiency in the studies of the common schools, some of which will be reviewed in the college with special reference to illustrating and exemplifying the best methods of teaching them. The course of study is in (1) English and history; (2) mathematics; (3) Latin and Greek, French and German; (4) natural sciences; (5) moral sciences; (6) pedagogics. The organization was effected on the 5th and 6th of July, 1888, by the election of a faculty.

Institutes.-Eight Peabody and eight county institutes were held during the year. The Peabody institutes continued through four weeks with one exception, when the session was double that term. The attendance of white teachers on the five for them was 940, and of the colored teachers on the others 294; in all 1,234. The attendance at the county institutes was 322, the time of session varying from two to eight weeks. To these figures should be added the 131 teachers attending the institute of five weeks, held at the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, and the 49 teachers enrolled at the institute of four weeks, held at Hampton.

We take the following notes on these meetings from the article by the State superintendent in the Educational Journal of Virginia: "While it is not now intended to foreshadow the policy touching institute work for the next year, it is but just to say that the policy adopted this year is abundantly indicated by the results attained. As a general remark it can be justly said that the work was worthy of high commendation. In some of the institutes the teachers met at the first hour in general assembly for religious exercises and general lectures. Thereupon they were distributed into two or three classes or sections, occupying separate rooms, and instruction given on the class plan. * ** There is one point in this connection to which especial attention is

The vicissitudes of this college, the second to be established in the land, are given in Circular No. 1, 1887. To be had on application to this Bureau.

*

called, and that is that a'good many teachers are late in entering the institutes and many of them drop out before they close. * * An institute is a school. Therefore those who attend it ought to be present when it opens and remain till it closes if they would secure the full benefits of the course of instruction given."

Teachers' meetings.-The sixth annual conference of the county and city superintendents was held at Richmond, November, 13, 14, and 15, 1888. Dr. Curry, agent of the Peabody Fund, said he was glad to hear the State superintendent speak of the free schools as an established system. He could remember when every step in the progress of the work had to be fought for. No people had ever been educated except by the State. The right and duty of the State to educate is based on the law of self-preservation. The perpetuity and the very existence of the nation is dependent on the education of the people, and to secure this important end the State has a right to proceed by taxation. Beyond this no such right exists. The first subject of discussion was "Teachers' Salaries as Dependent on the Average Attendance of Pupils." The committee appointed to report on this subject recommended that a circular, giving the rules and regulations regarding discipline, lack of text-books, and sparsely-settled districts, be issued; that all issues arising under these laws are to be decided by the county superintendent; that the county superintendent draw his receipt for the teachers' monthly report according to the actual enrolment and average daily attendance, and that the salary be for such sum as he may think the law justifies; and, finally, that the laws are not intended to work hardships to the teachers, but to secure faithfulness and efficiency and prevent the multiplication of small schools. An amendment requiring the teacher to report the number of children not attending school and the reasons was lost, and the resolution adopted.

The committee to which was referred the topic of "Examination of teachers-what changes are needed in existing laws and regulations," reported that the State superintendent should urge the Legislature to legislate upon this subject; that a diploma from a Virginia State normal school or the Peabody College at Nashville should constitute the holder a qualified teacher; that a State certificate be instituted; and, finally, that county superintendents should not be required to hold examinations in a district upon demand of its school trustees.

The committee on "Normal institutes-how can they be improved?" reported that (1) a well-graded course of instruction covering at least three years should be established, and (2) the appropriation should be increased.

WEST VIRGINIA.

The State superintendent writes to the agent of the Peabody Fund, as follows: "Our normal schools are making commendable progress, and are doing a great work for our public schools. I will give the enrolment of the six schools for the past four years, that you may see how encouraging is the increased attendance: The total enrolment for 1885 (was 687; for 1886 it was 727; for 1887 it was 766; for 1888 it was 890. The number of graduates for 1888 was 47.

"I have taken a special pride and interest in doing all in my power to promote the efficiency of these schools, and feel confident they are in better condition than at any other period of their history. Yet I am frank to state that on account of limited appropriations for their support their usefulness has been very much hampered. With larger and better trained corps of teachers, and better library facilities, and more apparatus, their usefulness would be greatly increased. Those advantages can, however, only be secured with larger appropriations than they now receive."

Institutes.-The teachers' institutes have also increased in attendance and efficiency, and the superintendent continues: "The enrolment for 1887 for the term of five days was 6,301, being about 1,200 more than the number of teachers employed in all the schools of the State. The reports from forty-seven counties for this year [1888] have been received, showing an enrolment of 5,451.

"A very successful normal institute for a term of four weeks was conducted at the State University at Morgantown, beginning the 18th of last June. This institute was under the auspices of the faculty of the university, and the success was such as to warrant a permanent organization for an annual institute of six weeks at this institution. I hope to see next year similar institutes established at two of our normal schools.

"It is not necessary that I should comment upon the service the institute has done in the improvement of our teachers, the advancement of our schools, and the elevation of public sentiment. It has been an invaluable factor, and upon its continuation we must largely depend in the future for the training of a large number of our teachers and the education of a more favorable public sentiment for popular education." For the meeting of the State Teachers' Association see under Maryland.