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in studying the book. The youngest children should not, for some town and the privileges furnished are absolutely wasted. A child
time, even pretend to hold a book, for if they did they could only sent to school one day, and detained at home the next, or sent a
play with and abuse it. They learn the letters and short simple part of one week, and detained the whole of the following week,
sentences, from large printed cards, held by the teacher, or hungcannot learn; he falls behind his class, loses his interest, becomes
upon the side of the room. But they may learn much more by list. discouraged, hates his school, and his education is ruined. To send
ening to her, who, in an agreeable and impressive manner, may him at all, in this way, is to delude him with an appearance, and not
interest them with a variety of oral instruction. But she should to benefit him with a reality. When this arises, not from the
always be careful to question them afterwards upon the things she thoughtlessness of children, but, as it too often does, from the incon-
has told them. It is well known, that adults can remember any siderate demands of parents and guardians on their time, it seems
fact or suggestion communicated to them by a friend, in a pleasant both selfish and cruel. It is selfish, because for a small gain, it
interview, much longer than if they read it in the same words from occasions an immense and irreparable loss. And it is doing a
a book; it is more true of young children. In this way, these teach. wrong to children for which they will have ground of complaint
ers can be of more service than by making the youngest pupils hold against their parents, and may justly reproach their memory, through
constantly before their eyes "books adapted for children." But it a whole life of ignorance, if not of shame.
requires great resources on their part, and a constant exercise of
thought.

SCHOOL REPORTS.

DANVERS. For more than twenty years, have we been pursuing, in all its important particulars, the system of reporting the schools at the annual town meeting.

Some of us felt and well remember the influences of this system, (immediately after its adoption,) upon both pupil and teacher. We know that then a new spirit was enkindled in some of our schools; -a spirit of study-persevering and intense study. We know, too, that our teachers then were vastly more efficient than those who stood at the master's desk in preceding winters. We believe that, down to the present time, many of the pupils, and most of the teachers, have continued to receive favorable impulses and valuable aid from the practice here alluded to.

LATE AND IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE-SCHOOL

REGISTERS.

BEVERLY. They have regretted not to see more of the parents and friends of the pupils present at the examinations, though a few of the districts afforded very honorable exceptions to this remark. In this, as in various other ways, very much may be done by friends to promote the progress of Common School Education. It is to them indeed we may almost say, mainly, that we must look for its great. est success. Their interest and co-operation are needed to breathe life into it, and are particularly needed in securing punctuality and constancy of attendance at school. By registers carefully kept in all the schools of the town, it has been ascertained, that during the past year the average attendance, out of the whole number that have been in them, has been only from two thirds to three quarters-implying, as must be obvious, a most serious loss, on the part of many, of precious privileges.

*

WEYMOUTH.-There has been great irregularity of attendance. This is a point of great moment, and one which cals for the special consideration of parents. It is injurious to all concerned; to the parent, by increasing the expense of education; to those who give constant attendance, by retarding their progress; and to those who or by inducing the habit of inaccuracy, which is with great diffiare irregular, by increasing the labor of keeping up with their class, cu ty overcome. It is discouraging to the teacher, by increasing the labor of instruction, and rendering more difficult a task, which under any circumstances must be sufficiently arduous, if he understand in

SMALL DISTRITS.

WESTBOROUGH.—In some of our schools the year past, teachers
have been compelled to commence day after day with not more than
one third or one half of their pupils present, while the tardy come
"like a continual dropping in a rainy day," often during the whole
first hour of the school. This is a prominent hindrance to the pro- any good degree the responsibility of his station.
gress of the school. There is a sad loss in time and interest, and
instruction, to the individual thus tardy. It occasions also, a de.
rangement oftentimes, in the order of classification, as to reading and
recitation. It is moreover a great interruption in their various
studies. As our school houses are constructed, it is often necessa-
ry for three or four to stand up, or move out of their places, to let
the tardy pass to his seat. This process often repeated occasions
great loss to the school. It adds also to the difficulty of preserving
that degree of discipline and stil ness in a school room which is es.
sential to a good school. In the winter season, also, there is another
serious evil connected with this practice. The constant opening of
the door lets in a fresh current of cold air, which, in most of our
school houses is by no means needful, either for the health or com.
fort of the inmates. An extra quantity of fuel must be deposited
upon the fire to warm the house, which, while it throws the small
children nearest, into a fever, still fails to reach the more distant.
Hence the order of the school is disturbed by the long process often
necessary, by alternate visits to the fire, to raise the temperature
sufficiently to commence study. To say that one third of the morn-
ing is sometimes unnecessarily wasted in this manner, would doubt.
less be a moderate estimate of the evil. And when they remember
that it is an evil which parents in many instances might prevent by a
word, your committee cannot but cherish the hope that every parent
will have sufficient regard to the welfare of his own and his neigh.
bor's children, in all possible cases to apply the remedy.

MIDDLEBURY.-Several of the public schools are extremely small. The committee are of opinion, that the small districts might be joined to larger districts adjoining them, without any serious disad. vantage to either, but with great advantage to the small districts. Better schools and better instruction would be secured to a large number of our scholars;-to those, who at present have the advantage of public instruction but a few short weeks in the year, and that, too, under such instructers, as a few dollars will procure. The committee would recommend to the town the propriety of taking some immediate action on the subject.

ANDOVER.-It ought also to be considered, that the small districts are the remote districts on the outskirts of the town, and that they are not on an equality with the central districts as it respects many privileges. In the small districts the population is so scattered that the children have to go further to attend school, and therefore have not the same opportunity for attending regularly. Besides, the central districts have academies in their vicinity, to which they can send their children with little expense, while the remote districts are wholly cut off from this advantage, or cannot enjoy it without great inconvenience and cost. The central districts, also, can easily have and do have private schools, without much expense; but in the small, outskirt districts, the families are so scattered, and there are so few who are able to support a private school, that they are almost wholly deprived of this means of educating their children. In these various respects, as well as others, the inhabitants of these districts are not, and cannot be on an equality with others. It is not in the power of the town to make them share equally in these advan tages, or to favor them in these respects. But in distributing the school money, the town can favor them. By giving them a liberal share, the town can make up to them, in some degree, what they lose in other respects; though with all the favor that can be shown in this way, they never can have equal advantages with the popula ANDOVER. Another "defect" which the committee would men. tion of our centres. And we appeal to all reasonable and upright tion, is the non-attendance of children. It is an evil of great mag- men, if it is not right-if it is not a duty to consider these things; and nitude, which, as they have found by experience, it is easier to de-o distribute public favors as to promote, as far as practicable, a scribe and lament, than it is to remedy. So far as it prevails, it com- general equality of privileges among all the inhabitants of the town. pletely nullifies the advantages of our school system. Of what avail are the best teachers, if pupils are not present to be taught? Of what avail are the most liberal appropriations and the utmost care of committees, if the children are not in the way to receive the good designed? It is in the power of the committee to present facts on this point which are painful and alarming, showing a large num. disadvantages of putting these district schools under a constant ber of children who omit to improve nearly all opportunities of edu. cation, and showing the enormous extent to which the money of the

WESTPORT.-On viewing the registers kept in the several district schools, it appears that irregular attendance must be a great hind. rance to the progress of the scholars. After the teacher has ar. ranged his classes, if one-half of each class is absent during a recitation, not only those who are absent lose the benefit of it, but it loses much of its interest with those who remain; and when the absent ones return, they are then behind their classes; and the whole ground must be gone over again, or those who have been absent must proceed superficially and to little advantage.

CHANGE OF TEACHERS.

CHARLESTOWN.-' -This establishment was therefore doing no good during the summer, except that it furnished in miniature, to the whole town, a felicitous and weil.timed illustration of the decided

change and succession of teachers; so that a child who attends upon one of them from the age of four up to sixteen years, will have

been placed under the plastic form and guidance of perhaps twentytour different teachers-and when he grows up, he may know more instructers than he has cousins or family relations.

PARENTAL CO-OPERATION AND VISITATION OF SCHOOLS.

true.

KINGSTON. We wish our public schools and school-houses were more known and better understood. It is because they are so little known that they are so little attended to,-and the reverse is equally Not more than a dozen or fifteen heads of families throughout the town, ever think of visiting our public schools, where they send their sons and daughters, year after year, to learn that which may be for their weal or woe through all time. And the children, seeing so little interest felt by their parents, in the schools, take comparatively less interest in their studies than they would, were their parents more alive to their duties, and more ready to furnish them with the facilities which they need for their education. SHARON. -All know what smooth and lawyer-like stories roguish children can tell their parents, and that it is possible for parents to think their children right, especially those parents who seldom or never go into a school. Under such circumstances the child lights the flame, the parent fans it, and then scatters the firebrands till great injury is done Some of the greatest evils thus arise in the district. A prejudice is awakened which results, if not in the dismissal of a good teacher, at least, to the detriment of the school. This would have been avoided, had that parent visited the school. AMERST. We cannot forbear expressing our sincere regret, that parents are so much inclined to leave the whole business of visiting the places where their children are undergoing such important discipline, to the committee alone. Were more of them individually to take a seat now and then in the school-room, simply to be silent observers of what is passing there, it would add a great deal to the good order of the school; and were they to appear, in considerable numbers together, at the closing examination, it would give vastly more consequence to that occasion, than it now generally has; while another and most happy effect of it all would be, the maintain ing of that sympathy between themselves and the teacher, which is so essential to his success, and for want of which his work is some. times rendered doubly arduous and difficult. If parents would visit the schools more, they would better understand the trials which the teacher meets with, and better know how to help him through with them. Only let there be, on the part of fathers and mothers, a readiness to sympathize and co-operate with him who has the charge of their sons and daughters, and comparatively easy will be his task in guiding and governing them. On the other hand, let there be in parents a readiness to take an attitude of opposition on the slightest occasion, or simply to manifest that degree of indifference, which their children will at once set down as a license for behaving as they please at school, and the task becomes any thing but an easy one. We would, therefore, earnestly recommend the gaining of that ac. quaintance with the teacher, and with the scene of his daily toils, which will be likely to lead into the so much desired and needed

co-operation.

which he has personally superintended has borne a higher charac ter than any other under his care. For twelve years, the whole pe. riod of his acquaintance with it, it has uniformly maintained a decided superiority over every other school in the parish. And the cause is as obvious as the fact is certain. It is not because the district has had better teachers, or children of better minds, or ex. pended more money; but because the parents have manifested a deeper interest in the management and prosperity of their school. This they do by sustaining the teacher's influence, by securing the punctual attendance of their children, and by their own large attend. auce upon every public examination. The examination is thus made an occasion of importance; it is anticipated through the term, and stimulates both teacher and pupil. Its effect is seen in promoting the fidelity of the one, and the improvement of the other. Why should it not be thus in every district in this town?

NEWBURY.-After all the teacher's efforts to have a good school, the parents have the power to "do or undo" for him, to sustain or prostrate all his plans for good discipline and successful teaching,and too often is it the case, that parental influence is thus unhappily perverted. A few words of complaint against the teacher in the child's hearing, a single expression of willingness to take the part" of a pupil, should any difficulty arise,-may often give serious inconvenience to the instructer, and may very likely create the necessity for severity which otherwise would not be called for. Your committee are fully persuaded, that any attempt on the part of pa. rents, under ordinary circumstances, to contravene the authority of the teacher, is ill judged, and ought not to be countenanced by the patriotic citizen; and whenever by such interference his authority is diminished or his usefulness impaired, while he sustains an inju ry, the community sustains a greater injury than he,—an injury which it may be found very difficult to repair.

On the other hand, let all parents lend their cheerful aid to the instructers of their children-encourage their well-meant endeavors to be useful either in instruction or discipline,-show that they take an interest in their work and its results, take a firm stand on the side of good order,-preach every where, and especially at home, the doctrine of thorough discipline, and, above all, exemplify such doctrines in their own practice; and, while they will seldom have occasion to complain of broken heads or purple stripes, they may have the satisfaction of knowing that our school houses are, as they ever should be, the quiet nurture-rooms of those things only, which are lovely and of good report."

lic schools.

CHELMSFORD. The committee cannot persuade themselves to close this report without adverting to the apparent apathy and cold. ness which parents and guardians manifest on the subject of pub. rents in general do indeed really feel a very lively interest in the inThey say apparent, for they do not doubt that pastruction of their children. Indeed, they know this to be the fact. But still it is no less a fact that they are generally guilty of a very culpable neglect of manifesting that interest by attending the exam. inations and otherwise visiting the several schools. They know lect that they have a committee whose express duty it is to attend very well that it is sometimes pleaded in extenuation of this negto this business; but this does not do away the charge, nor in the least release them from their responsibility. The committee are firm in the belief, (and this conviction is founded in part on the experi nce which some of them have had in teaching,) that if parents would make it their practice to attend the examinations universally, and visit occasionally the schools in their respective districts, indi vidually, the influence they would exercise over the character of the schools, in raising the ambition and exciting an emulous spirit among the scholars would far exceed the exertions of the best qualified committee. Nor is this all. Instances are not wanting, arisen in school, which have threatened at least, if not completed it is presumed, in most school districts in which difficulties havo the destruction of all the usefulness which otherwise might have been derived from it, which would have been wholly avoided had the parents visited the school, and seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears instead of borrowing the use of those of their neighbors and children.

FALL RIVER.-If all parents would countenance able and faithful teachers, and visit (at least once a year) the school which their chil. dren attend, and promptly and cheerfully supply the required books and apparatus for the schools.-and see that their children are decently clothed and cleanly in their persons, and punctual and constant in their attendance, your committee are well assured, that under the present statutory provisions of the Commonwealth, faithfully executed, and the benediction of Almighty God, the Public Common Schools will, at no distant day, equal the most sanguine expectations of the patriotic, the wise and the good. BERKLEY.-Whenever they are invited and urged to take an interest in the examination of a district school, they will excuse them selves by saying " we are not competent, we have no time," and by many such frivolous excuses. In order, therefore, to remedy this evil of indifference, parents must awake and do their duty; they must take an interest, a deep interest, in our schools; they must go into the school room, and in this way demonstrate to their children that they have an interest there; and, while in the school room, they will have an opportunity of witnessing the manner of the teacher, in teaching and governing the school, as well as the deportment MALDEN. Good order in the school is indispensable to its usefulof the scholars. There, they will have a good opportunity of wit. ness; and though this must chiefly be preserved by the efforts of nessing the teacher's laborious task, his cares and his trials. Such the teacher, yet his efforts will be unavailing unless they are second. visits will have a salutary influence on their minds, and constrained by the authority of parents at home. If children hear the parents them to exercise none other than kind and friendly feelings towards speak of the teacher in terms of disrespect or reproach,-it they the teacher of their school; and thus, by their presence, they will find their parents ready to take part with them against their teach. encourage the hearts and strengthen the hands of both scholars and er, in case of any difficulty arising,-if they find that their parents teacher. Union is strength. Parents inust all be united in the com. are jealous of partiality or undue severity on the part of the teacher; mon cause of education; they must all pull together in the same it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to keep those children in district; for, whenever we find discord and disagreement amongst difficult task to govern three or four children at home, and keep due subordination at the school room. If the parent finds it a very parents and families, there we see it growing into a party thing. ANDOVER. To illustrate the importance of a due interest and co. them in tolerable trim, how much sorer is the toil of the teacher who operation on the part of parents, the chairman of the committee is expected to keep 50 or 60 children in the very finest order at would state a fact on his own responsibility. One of the schools school! Is not the teacher presumed to know better than a refrac

tory child what degree of strictness is necessary to regulate the p school! us! he not be supposed to understand his duty better than the parents, who are not upon the spot, and are no way re. sponsible for the state of things? The committee are confident from all their experience that nearly every difficulty and case of insubordination is to be ascribed to the injudicious interference of parents with the government of the schools. If the children were taught to expect, as a matter of course, that their parents would take sides with the teacher, they would not be so fond of running home with complaints, nor of raising disturbance in the school room itself. TRIBUTE TO COMMON SCHOOLS.

AMHERST.-There is an impression of long standing in the minds of some, that they are places where little good and much evil is learned. We would there were less occasion in any part for such an impression. There is, however, one cause for the absence of good, and the presence of evil, which ought to be particularly noti ced. These schools have been neglected by some, whose counte. nance and support were especially needed. Neglect has made way for neglect. But this is wrong, and the remedy is obvious. Let us all take the first proper step towards giving importance to the Common School, by sending a part, at least, of our children there; and then take the second, by looking after them, when there; and we shall soon see a marked change for the better.

FRAMINGHAM. The committee in concluding their report, would commend the great interests of Education to Almighty God, and to the watchful care and generosity of the inhabitants of the town. They ask for the schools, the public provision of a wise liberality; for the scholars, that domestic interest and attention which shall secure a regular and unfailing attendance;-for the teachers, that respect, confidence, and co-operation, to which a laborious and responsible calling, when well sustained, most justly entitles them; and they finally desire for those who, by the suffages of the town, are appointed to the care and supervision of one of the most important spheres of public duty, that sympathy, aid, and candid consideration, without which these nurseries of public virtue and intelligence must languish, and the benefits they are designed to confer be de. feated.

NANTUCKET. The committee believe that our public schools de. mand, and that they secure the confidence of our citizens generally. They consider them among the richest blessings the community is enjoying; for, if any object can be considered as interwoven with every interest, and claiming one united and onward impulse, it is the proper education of all our children. To continue and improve these blessings, then, should be the aim of every one who is desirous for the weal of mankind. If we would reduce the public expenditure for the support of pauperism and crime-if we would prepare every individual to perform well his part on the great theatre of life, let us watch with the care of faithful guardians, over those institutions where the germs of moral excellence, we trust, are nourished, and intellectual power strengthened and invigorated.

But to whom does the expense of education seem a burden? Is it to those who now prefer to educate their children at their own private expense? If there are any of this class, they would do well to inquire what guaranty they have, in a country where wealth is constantly changing, that their children's children may not depend upon the facilities for education, which are offered by the system of public instruction? The wheel of fortune is ever turning, and those who are on the upper side to day, surrounded by affluence, may to. morrow be making a descent. Is i. not a duty, then, which we owe our children, to raise the standard of instruction as high as our means will allow, that those who are to take the lead in coming years, may secure those advantages upon which the well being of society so in timately depends?

3. That a classification of the scholars in the public schools, and a separation of those who are more advanced in years and in their stu dies, from those who are acquiring the mere rudiments of learning, or in other words the establishment of a gradation of the schools, would greatly favor the advancement of both classes of scholars; and that it is the duty of every town, whose population is so situated as conveniently to allow of it, to give greater efficiency to the means of education within its reach, by providing at the public expense better instruction for the older scholars, than can be obtained for them in the ordinary district schools.

They believe that the population of this town is so situated, as to allow of the establishment of three public high schools, equal, for common purposes, to the best academies in the country; at places which shall be within a convenient distance of all the inhabitants, and at an expense which will be well warranted by the advantages to be derived from them.

There are many more practical suggestions scattered through these business-like documents, which we should like to transfer to our pages. We have room, however, only to

add the
AGGREGATE OF SCHOOL RETURNS FOR 1838--9.
Number of Towns which have made Returns,
Population, (May 1, 1837,)
Valuation, (1830,)
Number of Public Schools,
Number of Scholars of all ages

in all the Schools,

298 695,550.

$207,783,308 30

3.014

( In Summer, 122.330 In Winter, 143.628 In Summer, 83,814 Average attendance in the Schools, In Winter, 116.855 Number of persons between 4 and 16 yea s of age, 182,191 Average length of the Schools in months and days, 74 Number of Teachers, (including Sum- Males, 2,411 mer and winter terms,) Average wages paid, per month, including board,

Females, 3,825

To Males, $31 90
To Females, $12 32
Of Males, $8 89
Average value of board, per month,
Of Females, $5 91
Average wages per month, ex- § Of Males, $23 10
clusive of board,
Of Females, $6.49
Amount of money raised by taxes for the support of
Schools, including only the wages of Teachers,
board, and fuel,

}{

Amount of board and fuel contributed for Public
Schools.

Number of Incorporated Academies,
Aggregate of Months kept,
Aggregate Number of Scholars,
Aggregate paid for tuition,

$447,809 96

$31,935 88

73

7304

3.599

$54,113 69

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Number of Unincorporated Academies, Private
Schools, and Schools kept to prolong Common
Schools,

Aggregate of months kept,
Average Number of Scholars,
Aggregate paid for tuition,
Amount of Local Funds,
Income from same,

YORK.

$270,462 80 $276 649 72

$12,895 91

The committee would suggst another view in connexion with this SCHOOL LIBRARIES IN LIVINGSTON COUNTY NEW important subject. A father brings all his efforts, perhaps, to bear upon the acquisition of property, that he may leave an inheritance to his children, and no one assumes the right either to disapprove his inclination, or to doubt the sincerity of the motive which prompts him to action; but let him consider the insignificancy of this legacy, compared with the value of moral and intellectual endowments, and he will be qualified to put a right estimate upon the money expended in education, and regard it as an investment which secures a return more valuable, and infinitely more durable, than any worldly possession.

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We notice in the proceedings of the Board of Visiters of Common Schools of Livingston county, at Geneva, on the 16th of January last, that in twelve towns, numbering one hundred and fifty-seven school districts, that there were one hundred and sixteen which had supplied themselves with libraries-more, we presume to say, than is to be found in the state of Connecticut-and we should be safe in including the whole of New England.

CLERKS OF SCHOOL SOCIETIES.

eties how desirable and even necessary it is, to forward the We would respectfully remind the Clerks of School SociSchool Returns as soon as they are completed. Nay more, we would request them to inquire after them, in case they are not returned by the last of this month. It will require a month of solid labor, with the assistence of a clerk, to make such an abstract of them as shall be of any value to the Legislature.

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ber of children of the proper school age, in order that the liberal provisions of the state for their education may be equitably distributed. The committee of the society must certify that the appropriations of the public funds have been legally

If these returns are not already filled up, we wish, whenever it can be conveniently done, that the number of volumes in the several Sunday School Libraries, in the town or society, should be added under the head of Lyceums or Library Asso-applied in the several districts within their limits. The teachciations. These libraries form a large portion of the moral and religious reading of the young, and constitute an important item in the means of popular education now enjoyed in

the state.

er is required to keep a register of the names, ages, parents, and attendance of each scholar in his school, not simply as an instrument of moral discipline in his school, but also as a record of the condition of the school always open for the inspection of parents and school committees. The visiters, or of the society a written report of their own doings, and of the overseers of schools are called upon to lodge with the clerk condition of the several schools within their supervision with the results of their observation and reflection. This will sethe material for a sound judgment in reference to future imcure faithfulness on the part of the committee, and provide provement on the part of the society. This committee are further required to make out an annual or semi-annual return of the condition of the several schools to teard of Com missioners of common schools, in such form and at such times Connected with the returns, we would again call the at- required to submit to the legislature annually, a Report of the as the board may require. The Board of Commissioners are tention of school visiters to the requisitions of the law re-condition of every common school in the state, and of the specting the Annual Reports.

We trust that school visiters will willingly and industriously co-operate with us in this work, not merely to comply with the requisitions of the law, but to spread out before the people of the state the actual condition of the common schools, with a view of improving this "long forgotten heritage of the many." We wish, too, that the Clerks would see that their returns are forwarded to the Comptroller, or to the Secretary of the Board, as soon as they are made; and if they are not made by the time specified, the last day of March, to inquire after them. It will require incessant labor for weeks, if not months, to get them ready for the Legislature in May.

ANNUAL REPORTS OF SCHOOL VISITERS.

means of popular education generally, together with plans and suggestions for the improvement and better organization of the common schools. These reports together with the local The school law as it now stands, provides for a regular sys-information of the members of both houses will enable the letem of supervision and accountability on the part of every gislature to frame and modify the school law so as to foster officer intrusted with its administration. The district mittee are requested to make out annual returns of the num

com

this time hallowed institution.

The importance of this system of supervision and accounta

friend of the schools.

bility, resting where it should primarily on the popular subdi-| On these and other topics, the opinions of school visiters, vision of school districts and societies, and calculated to in- gathered up from every section of the state, will carry with list as widely as possible, the active interest of every parent, them great weight-altogether beyond the views of an indiby bringing home the state of the school to each individual vidual who is necessarily familiar only with the more obviannually, and at all times through the registers of the teach-ous features in the condition of the schools. We wish too ers, to every parent who chooses to inquire at the school that they would invite teachers and other intelligent friends house, must, we think, be appreciated by every intelligent of education who do not happen to be school committee men, to communicate their views on the best method of improving common schools. We have but one wish in this whole matter, and that is to ascertain and spread out before the board, and through them, before the legislature and the people of Connecticut, the exact condition and best means of improving those common schools which have been, and are still, her pride and her beauty, and which hold in their embrace her progressive advancement in every thing that it becomes a state to cherish and labor for.

With this general view of the law, we now recall the attion of school visiters to the annual reports which they are required to submit to the school society. It was the intention of the framers of the law of May, 1838, that this report should cover the official year of the committee, and hence in a majority of cases where the annual meeting of the society for the choice of committee is held, this report would not be made till some time in the autumn. The clerk is required to read the report at any meeting held previous to April. We should esteem it a personal favor, and regard it besides as an invaluable service to the general object, if the visiters would make out a report of the condition of the winter schools still in session, or which will soon close, together with their views and modes of improving the common schools in winter and in

summer.

As evidence, these reports will carry deserved weight. They will contain the testimony and suggestions of men, whose intelligence and character in the eyes of their fellow townsmen secured their appointment, respecting schools which have been under their direct supervision, and measures of improvement and reform to meet evils now suffered, and dif. ficulties and dangers recently encountered. We would especially call their attention to such subjects as formed the topics of our report to the Board last year, and may also be found in the extracts in the last number of the Journal, viz., the location, construction, internal arrangement and ventilation of school houses; the expediency of a gradation of schools, by the employment of well qualified female teachers for the younger children, and the formation of a union school for the older children of two or more adjoining districts; the best mode of ascertaining the qualifications of teachers, by a senatorial district, or a county board of examiners; the gain to districts in employing well qualified, instead of cheap teachers; the importance of paying more attention to the younger children, in respect to their teachers, and their employment, health and comfort in the school; the large amount of non-attendance in any school, public or private; the late and irregular attendance; the deficiency and diversity of school books; the neglect of the primary branches; the great variety of studies; the want of black boards, and other school apparatus; the mechanical character of instruction; the necessity of introducing more of oral teaching; the advantage of district or society school libraries for the older children; the origin and influ. ence of private schools of the same grade as the common school on the latter; the best mode of apportioning the school money; the influence of the present mode of supporting the common schools; the improvements which have been made in the common schools; the best modes of supplying the schools with well qualified teachers; the advantage of teachers' associations; the annual meeting of the schools for examination, exhibition or appropriate addresses; occasional excursions of the scholars with their teacher in summer afternoons; the best mode of securing moral and religious education in common schools; the importance of parental visits to the schools, and the best mode of securing a vigorous and faithful inspection and superintendence of the schools in disricts, societies and the state.

We only add a request that all reports and communications (and in these we would include copies of reports made last year) should be forwarded to Hartford, as early as possible.

TOLLAND REPORT OF SCHOOL VISITERS

FOR 1839.

The Committee soon after they were appointed, held a meeting to consult respecting the manner the interests of education as entrusted to them demanded they should act. The visiters present were of one opinion-that there ought to be a full and minute examination of those who proposed to teach, in the various branches of learning in which they were to intion to teach who could not sustain well such an examination. struct, and that no individual ought to receive their approbaIt is believed that a practical adherence to this rule has been highly beneficial. The several schools have been twice visited. No one of the visiters visited all the schools, and hence the relative condition of the respective schools cannot well be ascertained. Yet, with some exception, it is believed by the visiters, that the schools have been in a better condition than usual. There are some faults of which the committee feel disposed to speak. The standard of spelling, in most of the schools, is far too low. Good spelling is an essential part of an education, and of such an education as the common school should furnish to every child. Correct spelling is one part of an education best fitting individuals to do business respectably and well. A child that cannot spell correctly at ten or twelve years of age, will not be likely to do much better at twenty, well is not acquired at an early age, in the common school, it and will spell worse when a man. If the habit of spelling is not often acquired anywhere, at any age. It should be a principle, carried into practice in every common school, that every child, if capable, must be taught to spell correctly." of the visiters, sufficient attendance to the manners of the In some of the schools, there has not been, in the opinion. scholars. One important object of education is the cultivation of the social and moral feelings. This object is greatly overlooked, where no proper pains are taken to form in children right and becoming manners and habits. And the many happy influences of education fail to be appreciated, if this object is lost sight of. The whole character and conduct are intimately connected with the social and moral habits and manners formed. The district school works with a mighty power in deciding what our children shall be in after life. More knowledge of the best modes of teaching, on the part of the instructers, would have been greatly to the advantage of the schools.

There are three prominent wants in respect to our schools: teachers better qualified for their duties, a greater supply of books, and more suitable houses in which our youth may be instructed. For these the remedy is plain. Let the State, with its more than two millions of common school fund, establish teachers' seminaries, and see that books in some way are provided; and let those whose duty it is, take care to provide a pleasant and convenient home for the youth while in school. It is with considerable satisfaction the visiters contemplate the change, which has begun in the condition and prospects of

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