Visiting. We feel more and more the need of a superintendent of schools, who shall be able to devote more time to them than business and professional men are able to do. -Walpole. Evening schools.-It is doubtful whether there are any schools in town where there has been manifested a greater desire to improve than in these evening schools.-West Roxbury. Value of education.-As a general principle, the educated are enterprising and selfsupporting, while the ignorant descend to their level in the alms-house, the prison, and similar institutions, most of which have been established as a consequence of defective early education.-Weymouth. Primary schools.-The idea so generally entertained that any person of fair attainments, though young and inexperienced, can teach a primary school, is assuredly a mistaken one.-Abington. Duty of parents.-Those who neglect to give the benefits of a good common school education to their children make a sad mistake, commit a great wrong against society, and do their children an irreparable injury.-Hansom. Object of public schools.—The final object of our public schools is, or should be, to make good men and good women, good citizens and neighbors. Whatever stops short of this is not the true and sufficient education.-Kingston. Evils in schools. We have learned by experience that it is much easier to discover than to correct existing evils in our common schools.-Marion. Real advancement.-We prefer to see a scholar able to take a crayon and draw a map of a State or country, giving tolerably good proportions, and sketching the position of important points with approximate accuracy, to being able to answer scores of questions like, "How many islands are there in Lake Ontario?" or being able to tell with certainty whether his book states that "Massachusetts is distinguished for agriculture, manufactures, and commerce," or "commerce, manufactures, and agriculture."-Marshfield. Teaching children.-The most prevalent error in teaching little children, it seems to me, is the effort to make them understand the abstract definitions of things before they have any experience of the things themselves through the medium of the senses.— Plymouth. Authority of parents during school hours.The parent has no more to do with his own child than with his neighbor's during school hours. The necessity for this is apparent. The unprofitableness of too many cooks is proverbial.-Rochester. Corporal punishment.-Whipping in school is like a war in a nation-if you go into the custom at all, you may go further than you mean to at first, and there will be no holding up till one or the other party succumbs.-South Scituate. Military drill.-The usual exercise in military drill is continued, and the school-boys, in their evolutions before competent military judges, received high praise for their skillful maneuvring and soldierly bearing, Military instruction, commenced a few years since on the petition of some of our leading citizen, during the trying days of the rebellion, as an experiment, is now a manifest success, and should be hereafter considered as an integral part of our educational system.-Boston. Cleanliness.-In district No. 6, while the board was in use, at the suggestion of the committee the problem presented itself how to clean it, when it was discovered that a boy's cap made an excellent wiper. The committee do not divulge this discovery for the purpose of recommending it.-Ashburnham. Discipline.-Let your boys rule the school-room, and you will soon have bad men to rule the nation.-Athol. Duty of the State to the citizens.-Our children are the children of the town in a sense most endearing, rather than burdensome. Such relationship is preeminently American; more distinctly puritanic. Prussia has the common-school system; but the parent is taxed. With us it is the citizen, parent or not. That is a grand distinction, and honorable to the State. A French reformer, urging the government, gives on the titlepage of his plea this sentiment: "Pour instructions on the heads of the people; you owe them that baptism." With us the State stands godfather to all the children.— Berlin. What children should learn.—In deciding what that course should be, we know of no better rule than that of Aristippus, one of the philosophers of ancient Greece, who, on being asked what boys ought to learn, replied, "What they will have occasion to use when they become men."-Boylston. School-houses-As the style of churches indicates the spiritual condition of the community, so surely do the school-houses indicate the educational prosperity of the people.-Brookfield. High schools. Our high schools are furnishing to those that avail themselves of their advantages, a kind of education, more especially in its disciplinary character, far superior to that which our private schools or academies ever did or can supply. Of the propriety or justice of making schools of this class a public charge, the day for argument has passed.-Fitchburg. Parents visit the school.-The best teacher will fail, if not sustained by the active sympathy of parents. Visit the school often. It will encourage the teacher and incite her to still greater efforts. Your children will see that you feel a deep interest in their education, and be incited to greater diligence. Know for yourselves whether tho school is a good one, and the teacher faithful and competent-not from hearsay, but from personal observation.-Holden. Skilled labor.-The age in which we live demands of us, by every dictate of personal prudence and pure patriotism, which are one in this matter, that we employ skilled labor.-Petersham. Too much time given to arithmetic.-Our impression, from long observation, is that altogether too much of the time spent in our public schools is devoted to the intricacies of arithmetic, the minutiae of geography, and the senseless mummery of grammatical nomenclature.-Shrewsbury. Importance of practical knowledge.-Is it not of as much importance, at least, to a young miss on leaving school at fifteen, to know something about book-keeping, and how to make out a bill-something about the laws of health, of natural history, of natural philosophy, or of the history of the world, as to devote year after year to the study of the higher rules of arithmetic?—Ib. Absenteeism.-We can conceive of no better method to bring both parents and children to their senses upon this subject than to put such irregulars all into one class, regardless of their grade of scholarship or size. If they use half a dozen different books, just as well. Call it, if you please, the "jumble class," and let it be understood that all irregular scholars are to go into it. When visitors or the committee come, let it be told them that this is the jumble class.-Spencer. Abolition of the district system.-Your committee have heard fears expressed that the abolition of the district system might excite feeling which would in some cases hinder the due working of the town system. We are glad to record that no such disposition has been shown.-Southbridge. What kind of education shall be chosen for the children?-Every person must be educated in the street, the bar-room, or the brothel-a vagabond graduating, it may be said, from the poor-house; a criminal, from the jail or prison-or else in the family, the school, or the church, a worthy citizen, a virtuous man, with due regard for law and a just consideration for the rights and privileges of all men.-Warren. Primary schools.—Thus it appears that the primary schools are the strategical point. It is a mistake to suppose that every person can teach a primary school. These schools need the most skillful teachers. We employ the most careful gardener to cultivate the tender blade, not the vigorous stalk.-Worcester. Teachers' wages.-There are people who value the work of a teacher as they reckon the wages of a mule-driver-so many dollars for so many hours. As well attempt to measure the potent influence of the summer rain, and the gently-distilling dew by the yard, or the lightning's force by the pound. It is said that the salary of the president of Harvard College is $3,000 a year, and that of the chief cook at the Parker House is $4,000. So long as cooks are paid more than teachers, there may result this advantage, that few will engage in the higher vocation who are not actuated by the higher motives. But the community should not forget that a debt of gratitude is due the faithful teacher which is not cancelled by pecuniary reward.-Worcester. Table of statistical details of schools in Massachusetts, from State report for 1869, Hon. Joseph White, secretary of Massachusetts board of education. COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. * Including Marshpee district. COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. MICHIGAN. The annual report of the Hon. Oramel Horsford, superintendent of public instruction, embraces the following school statistics in its summary: School population of the State, five to twenty years....... Number attending school under five or over twenty years Number of male teachers.. Number of female teachers. Total.... Average monthly wages of inale teachers Average monthly wages of female teachers Number of districts in which teachers "board around Number of visits to schools by county superintendents. Number of graded school districts. Number of school-houses... Value of school-houses.... Amount paid for building and repairs.... Number of volumes in district and town libraries Amount paid for books during the year. Total receipts for public school purposes.. Estimated number of pupils..... Increase. 374,774 20, 021 269, 587 14, 852 5, 869 $1,177,847 86 $169, 284 00 2,235 486 1,050 5,744 10, 670 236 4, 921 $5,331,774 00 $1,028, 296 00 $14,295 03 $2,759, 096 94 173 68, 807 The plan of free schools has been in operation less than a single term, the legislature "In consequence of the schools having only at the last session abolished the rate bill. being free," it is stated, "the length of time they have been held has been greatly increased. In some districts they are said to have nearly twice the length of school that they have previously had. The advantages of the free-school system are so manifest that it was adopted in most of the cities and large towns several years since, the rate bill being abolished by public vote. A larger number of children are found to attend the public schools, and there is far less irregularity of attendance." It is estimated that tuition in the graded schools is, at least, ten cents a month cheaper than in the schools which are not graded. A decision of the supreme court, upon a suit brought against the board of education in Detroit, affirms the equal rights of the colored children of the State to the privileges of the public schools. TEACHERS' INSTITUTES. The spring and autumn series of State teachers' institutes was held at eighteen different towns and cities, with a total attendance of 1,833 teachers. The influence of these institutes has been very marked. "The full conviction" is expressed "that no better result can be obtained from so small an expenditure of time and money." In accordance with the requirements of the law, most of the county superintendents have held county teachers' institutes, continuing one week; and also what are termed district institutes, continuing two or three days, in connection with the examination of teachers. Many of these institutes have had a large attendance, and the exercises have been exceedingly interesting and profitable. Instead of institutes, some of the superintendents have formed teachers' classes, in connection with some union school of the county. These classes have continued from four to eight weeks, the principal of the school and other teachers aiding in the work. These classes have been of the highest value to the teachers. It has been the endeavor to give to these classes a thorough review of the studies they were expected to teach, having daily recitations in the several branches. At the same time lectures were given upon methods of teaching and upon school organization and government. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. This institution, located at Ann Arbor, reported, for 1869, through President Haven, who has since resigned, a total number of 1,114 students, 34 professors and instructors; also, a secretary and steward, the treasurer, and four janitors. In the department of |