where board and tuition are furnished free; yet such is not the case. Out of 450 whe ought to be at school, only 273 are connected with the institution, and of these only 232 are in actual attendance. The causes of this are various, but the principal one is the reluctance of parents to intrust their afflicted children to the care of strangers, and a lack of knowledge even of the existence of the institution in many cases. Pupils from other States are admitted to the same privileges as those from Illinois, on payment of $100 per annum. Since the opening of the institution twenty-five years ago, about 700 mutes have enjoyed its blessings. Two hundred thousand dollars have been expended in buildings. The whole amount appropriated from time to time to sustain the school is nearly $500,000. The current expenses of the past year have been $45,000. ILLINOIS INSTITUTION FOR IDIOTS AND FEEBLE-MINDED CHILDREN, located at Jacksonville, Morgan County, C. T. Wilbur, M. D., superintendent, was founded February 16, 1865; opened on the first of September of the same year. Up to the present time 200 applications from this State and 20 from other States have been received, of which number probably 125 are suitable cases for the system of instruction pursued. Though the institution has been in operation but a short time, the results have been such as to greatly exceed the expectations of those particularly interested in its projection, and of the parents and friends of the pupils conected with it. The great majority of pupils have been public beneficiaries, though parents and guardians are expected, if able, to pay such reasonable sum for the education and support of children as the superintendent shall stipulate. Applications should be made to Dr. C. T. Wilbur, superintendent, who has furnished the foregoing facts. ILLINOIS STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE, located at Jacksonville, Morgan County, Andrew McFarland, M. D., superintendent, was founded March 1, 1847. The number of patients is at present limited to about 412, on account of inadequate revenue, though the capacity of the institution is for 450 patients. Patients are strictly limited to the State of Illinois, and are admitted only through process had before the county and cire.it courts. The government of the institution is vested in a board of six trustees, appointed by the governor of the State. The number of attendants upon patients, and others engaged in the service of the insti tution, is about 70. Entire cost of the institution, including lands, buildings, furniture, &c., has been about $600,000. The annual expenses are about $110,000, threefourths of which is paid by the State; the remainder is derived from the board of pay patients. The number of patients in the institution, at the date of present report, is 406. PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS. For the purpose of making a more complete presentation of the educational condition of the State, the superintendent of public instruction, early in the year 1868, addressed circular letters to presidents and officers of all private institutions of learning in the State of which he could obtain information, requesting their aid and co-operation in the work of preparing an exhibit of what the State is doing through those channels. In response to these circulars he received information, more or less full, respecting twenty colleges or universities, twelve female colleges, nineteen academies and seminaries, nine theological seminaries, and twelve miscellaneous institutions, consisting of medical colleges and infirmaries, libraries, and literary associations, &c. The collection, preparation, classification, and arrangement of the historical and general sketches of these institutions, presented in the report, though still incomplete from lack of material furnished, have, the superintendent states, cost much time and labor in their preparation, and furnish the greatest amount of information upon the subject ever brought together. It is to be regretted that time and space will not permit a more extended notice of these various institutions, but some idea of their magnitude and scope may be formed from the following "grand statistical summary," taken from the report under consideration: Whole number of pupils graduating during the year 1868 3,299 Whole number of professors and instructors.. Whole number of graduates since the organization of the institutions Total value of college buildings, furniture, and grounds.... 384 3, 427 377 $2,758, 395 $2,335, 571 Whole number of volumes in libraries.. Total estimated value of libraries.. 100, 476 $120,830 $65, 634 The superintendent's report closes with a brief history of the establishment of a national Department of Education at Washington, beginning with an allusion to the visit of an agent of the department of public education in Belgium to the United States, in the year 1855, for the purpose of obtaining information relating to our various State syste.ns of public schools, and to the difficulties encountered in the accomplishment of the work, being obliged to travel from one State capital to another, owing to the fact that our government was at that time destitute of a national Department of Education. He says: "The above incident speaks for itself. It is a striking and palpable commentary upon the spectacle of a powerful nation, the most gigantic democracy on the globe, founded upon the principle of self-government, which involves and demands universal intelligence as an essential element of perpetuity; yet, until less than two years ago, without a national Department of Education, and then, after the bureau was established, and before it was possible for its full capacity of usefulness to be developed, virtually abolishing it by the indirect and not very magnanimous device of withholding the paltry appropriation necessary to carry it on." The report concludes with the remark that "the educational men of Illinois expect her senators and representatives to see that the national Department of Education is neither abolished nor crippled through any acts or votes of theirs." CHICAGO. The report of the president of the board, Hon. S. A. Briggs, for 1869, commences with a comparison between the school facilities of the present and those of ten years ago in the city, at which time the first report of the president of the board was made. The city, he states, has enlarged in area from fifteen square miles to thirty-eight, and increased in population from 50,000 to 300,000 inhabitants. Her schools were then thirteen in number, employing 101 teachers, with an average enrollment of 5,516 pupils. The present year closes with thirty schools, employing 479 teachers, with an average enrollment of 22,838 pupils. At that time the total expenses of the schools were $70,000, distributed as follows: Salaries of teachers and superintendent, $43,000; incidentals, $12,000; rent of buildings, $15,000. The total expenses of the current year have been $746,320, divided as follows: Salaries of teachers and superintendent, $353,815; other current expenses, $100,120; for permanent improvements, $292,385. We have added to our school accommodations during the year 4,782 seats-by the erection of the Clarke, Franklin, and Hayes houses, each 945 seats, and the Elm street and Wentworth avenue primaries, each 512 seats, together with 1,013 seats in additional rented rooms; increasing our corps of teachers 78. While educators differ as to the exact number, it is admitted by all that economy of classification and of means required, in cities organized like ours for school purposes, the concentration in one school of not less than 800 pupils of all grades, and many able teachers place the minimum at a higher figure. In our schools we place 63 pupils under the charge of each teacher, a number so large as to be excusable only by the pressing demands upon us for seats. A large portion of the report is occupied by remarks in regard to the use of corporal punishment in schools, taking strong ground against the proposal which has come before the board to prohibit its use, his opinion being that it is possible, in most cases, to govern schools without resort to this extreme discipline, but that this is only rendered possible by teachers having the reserved right to inflict it, if, in their opinion, it is necessary. The report expresses an opinion against the advisability of reading the Bible in the public schools, of the ground that as our people represent every shade of religious belief, and as all contribute to the support of the schools, they should be entirely unsectarian in all respects. "Those of us who are Protestants would resent any attempt on the part of the authorities to require our children to listen to a daily lesson from the Douay scriptures. Why, then, should we compel our Romanist neighbor to listen to the version of King James, or insist that the followers of Moses join in the reading of the New Testament?" The report closes with pertinent and forcible remarks concerning the need for the introduction of scientific training in the schools, especially the teaching of natural history in the primary schools. Its study appeals to the first senses that mature, the first powers that have the privilege of experiment. It is related to the most familiar sights and sounds of early life. "Give the children the alphabet, which is the key to the record of human wit and folly, but let them learn, too, the alphabet which the divine hand has written on the leaves of nature." SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT. The report of the superintendent of the city schools, Hon. J. L. Pickard, for 1869, gives the following information: The population of the city, as per census of 1868..... In grammar and primary schools-boys, 17,504; girls, 16, 692 Average number belonging in grammar and primary schools.. Average daily attendance in grammar and primary schools.. Number of schools-high, 1; grammar, 21; independent primary, 9. 252, 054 64,842 51,432 34, 196 544 22,392 445.6 21, 634.3 430.4 Number of teachers in high school-males, 12; females, 4 Teachers in grammar schools-males, 20; females, 378; absent, 2 Teachers in independent primary schools-females 63; males, 2 Total number of teachers... Average number of scholars to a teacher-estimated upon average number belonging-in high school... In grammar and primary grades.. Cost per scholar for tuition alone, upon average number belonging. 31 406 16 400 65 481 31.8 52.1 $15 35 540 15 88 24 49 8.59 25 22 $551, 371 12 34, 618 53 45, 639 47 350,515 43 7,349 21 96, 271 87 Permanent improvements. Total.... Total school fund.. The increase of enrollment during the year 1868-'9 was 4,786. The actual increase of school accommodations during the year was 3,414 seats, the remaining increase of enrollment being provided for in rented buildings. The average number belonging shows an increase for the year of nearly 25 per cent. The number attending through the year without loss of membership is 8,427; an increase of 2,293 over the previous year. The average daily attendance has increased nearly 25 per cent., while the increase of enrolment is less than 16 per cent. In the primary schools, in the grade where no text book is used, most marked improvement has been made in the methods of teaching. The old practice of learning letters first and then words is almost entirely done away. Children learn words as easily as they learn letters, and in so doing get ideas that interest and profit them. A graded course of study in music has been most successfully carried forward by the music teachers, which has not interfered at all with other work, but rather aided it, from the relief afforded by the exercise. At the examinations the ability of the pupils to read music at sight was most thoroughly and satisfactorily tested. The number of cases of corporal punishment reported during the year is less than during previous years, notwithstanding the increased number of pupils. The actual daily average is less than one case to 1,500 pupils. The number of suspensions for misconduct has been 343; of restorations in the same number, 175. The number of suspensions for absence has been 2,836; restorations, 1,303. Ten regular sessions of the teachers' institute were held during the year, attended by 561 teachers. In the high school there is need of enlarged accommodations. The attendance has been better sustained than in previous years. Fewer pupils have left during the early part of their course, therefore the higher classes have been larger than in any previous year. The normal department of the high school has been unusually full. The introduction of the special class has added to the efficiency of the school, by furnishing teachers an opportunity for practice, under the direction of the training teacher. The school of practice has given additional proof of its great value. Not one who has passed successfully through it has subsequently failed in the regular work of teaching. The evening schools for the year 1868 had an enrollment of 3,303 pupils, with an average attendance of 1,005 for a session. The high school class numbered 91, with an average attendance of 30. The amount paid teachers was $7,678. The total expenses were $9,521 91; cost per pupil on enrollment, $3 43; on attendance, $11 08. Certain special funds have been created for the purpose of furnishing text books to indigent children, for the awarding of medals, and other rewards of merit, by gifts and bequests from private individuals. From the late Flavel Mosley, esq., $10,400; William Jones, esq., Walter L. Newbrey, esq., Dr. John H. Foster, Philo Carpenter, esq., and N. C. Holden, esq., each donated $1,000 to this purpose. Jonathan Bell, esq., bequeathed a portion of his estate to the city, in trust, for the purpose of furnishing books of reference, maps, charts, illustrative apparatus, and works of taste and art; and, in case the city fails to provide the necessary text books and slates for indigent children attending the public schools, then the whole, or any part, of the income is to be used for that purpose. |