female teachers. Contemporaneous with the gradual change from male to female teachers which has been mentioned, there has taken place a gradual improvement in the schools of the State; until now, when female teachers are more numerous than ever before, the reports of town superintendents, as well as the personal observation of the Board and of its Secretary, all warrant the assertion that the schools are in better condition than ever before. It is impossible not to recognize the vital relation between the two facts. One of them is, in no small measure, the legitimate result of the other. The schools are better because the teachers are better, and one reason why the teachers are better, is, that so many more of them are female teachers. Females are peculiarly adapted by nature to the work of teaching. Quick sensibilities, ardent sympathies, natural love for the true, the beautiful and the good-patience, perseverance, and enthusiasm, eminently qualify them for that employment. Except in the family, nowhere does woman so truly occupy her appropriate sphere as in the school-room. The occupation of teaching harmonizes with her character, and in no other employment can she achieve greater success. There is force and truth in the remark of an eminent teacher, that "it is a rare thing to find a man who has a gift for teaching, and it is an equally rare thing to find a woman who cannot teach well."

Especially is the superiority of female teachers apparent in the departments of morals and manners. Among the things which the statute requires to be taught in the common schools is "good behavior." Whether that phrase is used in an ethical or social sense, the department of "good behavior" is one of the most important in which instruction can be given, and one which most powerfully affects the future happiness and usefulness of pupils. In this department the superior merits

of female teachers are eminently conspicuous. They possess those delicate arts which win the confidence and secure the affection of the young, and thus enable them to exert an easy and unconscious influence in improving the morals and refining the manners. Their gentle reproofs accomplish what the severer punishments inflicted by teachers of the other sex fail to secure, and by an assiduous cultivation of the better feelings they most effectively hold in check those which need to be suppressed.

These two important considerations, then, the superior econ omy of employing female teachers, and the superior merits of such teachers, furnish occasion for gratulation that so large a proportion of the schools is now taught by them, and for hope that the proportion will yet be increased.

Referring to the Report of the Secretary for statistics and details, the Board have only to say generally, in conclusion, that the present condition of our common schools is as honorable to the people of Vermont, and as encouraging to the friends of social and public progress, as it is creditable to the teachers and officers through whose agency they have been brought into that condition. As among the strongest bulwarks of present prosperity, and surest foundations of good hope for the future, we renewedly commend them to the fostering care of the legislature and the people,

And remain, very respectfully,

JOHN GREGORY SMITH, ex officio,
PAUL DILLINGHAM,

HILAND HALL,

PLINY H. WHITE,

MERRITT CLARK,

Board

of

Education

Secretary's Report.

SECRETARY'S REPORT.

VERMONT BOARD OF EDUCATION,
SECRETARY'S OFFICE, AUGUST, A. D. 1865.

The law of the State provides that the Secretary of the Board shall

"-prepare and present to the Board of Education, on the "first day of their annual session, a report of his official doings "for the preceding year, and a statement of the condition of "the common schools in the State; of the expenditures of the "school monies therein; and such suggestions for improving "their organization and modes of instruction, together with "such other information in regard to systems of instruction in "other States and Countries, as he shall deem proper."

To the Hon. Vermont Board of Education:

In accordance with the foregoing provision of law, I now present the Ninth Annual Report of this department.

An effort has been made fully to discharge the various duties prescribed by law for the Secretary, during the preceding year. In the main, these duties vary but little from year to year, the preparation of the School Registers and statistical schedules and their distribution, the holding of the Teachers' Institutes, and the general visitation of the State, being annually required, and retaining the same general characteristics. The specific direction of the Board, requiring special attention to be given to making the subject of Graded Schools a prominent topic before the public mind, has made it necessary to give more than the usual proportion of time to the visitation of localities particularly adapted to the establishment and support of Graded Schools. In order to accomplish this object somewhat less time has, of necessity, been given to other places, but the whole amount of labor performed has been not less than usual, while its accomplishment has required more than the usual time and travel.