The State superintendent says: "I am most heartily in favor of a large increase of the State appropriation for the support of our common schools. It has been largely increased within the last three years, and I shall continue to cooperate most cheerfully with all efforts made to increase it to the largest amount the condition of the State finances can be made safely to admit. If made as large as it should be, it will bring the needed relief to the districts that are now so oppressively taxed, without introducing a principle into the working of the system that would most assuredly, in the end, whatever appearances might indicate in the beginning, tend to weaken it in the affections of the people and cripple its efficiency. "In this connection it is proper to express the opinion that any division of our school fund, either of that appropriated by the State or of that raised by local taxation, and the use of a part of it for the support of schools established by particular individuals, parties, or sects, would be the virtual abandonment of the principle upon which our school system is founded, and prove, in the end, its complete destruction. No serious attempt in this direction has yet been made in Pennsylvania, but successes of the kind, gained elsewhere, may induce efforts to achieve success here; and it may as well be understood now, as at any time, that any attempt to divert the State school moneys from their present broad purpose of benefiting all alike to a contemplated narrow one, of aiding in promoting the interests of some private party or sect, will be met with the most determined opposition. What cannot be done for all parties and all seets must not be done for any. As far as possible the common schools must be kept free from whatever is offensive to any good citizen." HIGHER EDUCATION. "Except in the matter of authorizing school directors to grade the schools, where they can be graded, our school law makes no provision for the encouragement of higher education. A district may tax itself to establish and support a high school, but the State lends it no helping hand in so doing. The appropriation the State makes is wholly to support common schools, and the tax it compels districts to impose upon themselves is exclusively for the same purpose. All money used to promote the interests of higher education is expended voluntarily by school officers, not in opposition to the law, but without there being in it any express compulsory stipulation to that effect." TEACHERS' INSTITUTES. There was an institute held in every county of the Commonwealth, with an attendance of actual members of 11,381; an average attendance of actual members of 8,216; an attendance of honorary members of 1,936; an aggregate attendance of spectators, counting those present at some one session of each institute, of 28,230; an average attendance of spectators of 12,758. These institutes were instructed by 558 lecturers and 253 essayists, and cost the several counties $10,796 81, and the members $2,262 32.” NORMAL SCHOOLS. "The whole number of students who have attended the four State normal schools is 10,237, and the whole number who have graduated is 321. These institutions had, during the past year, 76 professors and teachers; 4,178 students, of whom 481 were in the model schools; 7,560 volumes in their libraries; property of the estimated value of $302,273 78; to which, if the estimated value of the property of the State normal school of the sixth district, $120,000, be added, the sum would be $422,273 78; an aggregate indebtedness of $111,275, an income of $123,070 37, and expenditures to the amount of $132,405 63." COLLEGES. "Collegiate privileges have been granted by the legislature of Pennsylvania to between forty and fifty institutions of learning. Over thirty of these are believed to be still in existence, but a number of them are in such a condition of constitutional weakness or premature decay that they would scarcely claim for themselves the rank of a college. Apart from these dilapidated institutions, we have some twelve or fifteen lire colleges. These institutions have graduated 5,105 students, of whom 198 graduated the past year; and they have now 2,901 students in attendance, instructed by 149 professors. The volumes in their libraries amount to 97,938, and the value of their apparatus is $82,450. Their aggregate endowment, as reported, is $287,000, but it is known to be greater, though nothing like what is needed."" The State superintendent of common schools, Hon. J. P. Wickersham, has directed his special attention to securing, through the agency of the county superintendents, an increased interest in the general character of the schools throughout the State, and he has succeeded in awakening the attention of the local school officers and teachers to such a degree that the system is now rapidly developing its good results in producing a greater earnestness in the work of education, and in demanding a higher standard of qualification on the part of teachers, as well as greater uniformity in the courses of instruction, and a more thorough system of gradation from the lower to the higher schools. PHILADELPHIA. This city constitutes the first school district of Pennsylvania, whose educational affairs are managed by a board of school controllers. Since 1867 these officers must be residents of the respective wards, and they are appointed by the judiciary. The following are the school statistics for 1869: In his report to the board of controllers, January 1869, the president, Daniel Steinmetz, says, in relation to the salaries of male teachers of the grammar schools: "The highest salary paid in a grammar school is $1,650, and for this is demanded an amount of talent which would command a much larger compensation in almost any other profession. It is a mortifying reflection that the great city of Philadelphia compels her male teachers to give the best years of their lives to her service without adequate compensation, and, when age brings weakness and decay, permits them to be removed from position, to depend, it may be, upon the cold charity of the world for daily bread." He says this is no fancy picture, "at least one case of this description having occurred within a month." Referring to a new rule of the board prohibiting the pupils to take home their textbooks, he remarks that it is the wisest adopted by the board. "Under the old practice the teaching was done at home, to the annoyance and sometimes serious discomfort of the family circle, whilst the teacher's duty was mainly to hear recitations. Now the teacher is required to teach during the sessions of the school as well as to hear recitations, restricting all study to school hours." PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENTS BY GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. The president, in his report, says: "I sincerely regret being obliged to condemn this system. Whilst the object had in view is generally, if not always, commendable, the evils are too great to warrant the practice, even for good objects. The amount of time and attention necessary to secure a creditable entertainment is so great that it cannot but seriously interfere with the studies of the school; and when to this is added the great annoyance to friends and acquaintances from the pertinacious efforts to dispose of tickets, and when, most important of all, we consider the influence of public performance, especially upon the youthful female mind, I think every judicious parent would be unwilling to expose his daughter to the evils possible to arise from these performances." The president of the board of controllers of public schools, Hon. M. Hall Stanton, in his report, January, 1870, gives the following in relation to THE NIGHT SCHOOLS FOR ADULTS. The night schools for adults, opened under the direction of the board during the past. year, at a very moderate expense, have been eminently successful, and ought now to be regarded as incorporated into our system. Twelve of these schools, containing an average nightly attendance of over 2,300 pupils, in charge of some thirty-five or forty teachers, remained open during the fall and winter months, and it is conceded by all that much good has been effected through their instrumentality. The happy influence alone of these evening schools upon the order of a densely populated city cannot be over estimated. Perhaps the most efficient of these schools, and that which excited the most general interest in the community, was the "night school for artisans," at the Central High School. The school remained open during a term of twenty weeks, under the care of Professor George Inman Riché, principal, with Professors Hopper, Bartine, Kern, and Houston, of the high school faculty, and Professor Warrington, as assistants. COMPULSORY EDUCATION. It is estimated that upward of 20,000 children not attending any school, public, private, or parochial, are running the streets in idleness and vagabondism. That these poor children should be provided for there can be but one opinion, but to enact a compulsory law for their education, without other essential provisions, would be idle and chimerical. That education is essential to the welfare of all classes, and a permanent source of blessing to all, is beyond dispute, but the mode of imparting such education to the class of poor unfortunates in question has not been suggested. Not unless we clothe these 20,000 cumdren, and place them, in point of appearance, on a level with those who now occupy almost every seat, can our public schools open their doors for these outcasts of society and render them the same facilities afforded to the better class now in attendance. This wretched class, who stand so much in need of our sympathy, and for whom education would be a means of reformation, are in part composed of street wanderers, many of whom are often without a home, and with scarcely clothing enough to cover their nakedness. Without food, they beg and steal from actual necessity. When convicted of some petty offense and sent to prison, they find its discipline anything but a punishment, and on getting out seem to have no other thought than how to get back again. Our streets are filled with boys of this character, and the many petty thefts daily committed by them is an evidence of the inefficiency of our laws to correct the evil. Again, children of bad and drunken parents are allowed to run at large, to the detriment of society and their own demoralization. To compel drunken parents to perform a moral act is a thing impossible, and to impose a penalty for the non-performance of an act, in not sending their children to school, is simply absurd. A CITY SUPERINTENDENT NEEDED. With regard to the subject of a graded course of instruction for the grammar, secondary, and primary schools, the president of the board says: "Had the public schools of Philadelphia the very necessary and competent services of a city superintendent to interpret, arrange, and execute our rules upon this and other kindred matters of school government and discipline, how readily could these conflicting views be harmonized, and all difficulties and diversity of sentiment among the teachers adjusted! Let us hope that the time is not far distant when councils will see the imperative necessity of making the appropriation necessary to secure the services of such an executive head for the public schools. Our duty is simply to legislate. We need a proper officer to execute the laws essential to the prosperity and unity of the system." PITTSBURG. The first annual report of the superintendent of public schools of Pittsburg contains an account of the number and condition of the schools for the year ending June 1, 1869. From this it appears that the first school law was enacted in 1834, through the influence of Thaddeus Stevens and others, and that Pittsburg availed itself of the provisions of this act in 1835, and "opened a public school with five pupils, under the charge of G. F. Gilmore. Few parents could then be induced to send their children to what was commonly considered a pauper school." From an enrollment of 5 in 1835 there has been an increase to 12,000 in 1869, with an average monthly enrollment of 8,337, and an average monthly attendance of 6,826 for the year. CLASSIFICATION AND STATISTICS. The schools are classified as primary, medium, grammar, and high. The high school has a four years' course of study, and an advanced course, answering to a normal school, a diploma from which is equivalent to a professional certificate issued by the city superintendent. Number of children enrolled during the year Average daily attendance.... Number of teachers..... Number of pupils per teacher. Expended for teachers' salaries.... 12, 329 7, 129 204 43 $121,537 46 |