THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE BOARD. REPORT OF THE BOARD. May, 1841. The Board of Commissioners of common schools, respectfully submit the Annual Report required of them by the act of 1839. First, as to their own doings.-In addition to the specific duties assigned to them by the General Assembly, the Board have prosecuted, through their Secretary, substantially the same measures which have been pursued since their first organization. By personal inspection of the schools, written and personal communication with parents, school officers and teachers, public addresses and the Connecticut Common School Journal, the Secretary of the Board has aimed to ascertain the condition of the schools and of the public mind respecting them, to disseminate a knowledge of existing defects and desirable improvements, and to awaken and enlist a vigilant superintendence on the part of committees, and a more intelligent interest in behalf of common education in the whole community. that the evils heretofore pointed out by the Secretary in his annual reports, exist to a greater or less extent in every school society in the state. The most important of these evils are, an undue reliance on the avails of public funds for the support of common schools; the large number of children who attend private schools, or no school public or private; the immense sacrifices of the means and privileges of education from irregular and late attendance; the inconvenient, repulsive and unhealthy state of most of the district schoolhouses; the inequality of the education of children arising out of the inequalities of school districts; the variety of ages, studies and classes in the same school; the diversity and insufficient supply of school books; the imperfect qualifications and constant change of teachers; the disastrous neglect of the primary branches; the deficiency of school apparatus and libraries; and above all other defects, the absence of parental visitation to the school, and co-operation with the teacher in the education of the children. On all these topics there is a remarkable coincidence These measures have, it is believed, been as successful in the views of school visiters. By consulting the abas the difficulty, delicacy and extent of the work to be ac-stracts which the Secretary of the Board has made of complished, will admit. Second, as to the condition of the common schools and the means of popular education generally. The accompanying report of the Secretary of the Board with the documents annexed, embraces a more minute survey of the history and actual operation of our system of common schools, than was ever before submitted to the Legislature. By direction of the Board, instead of the statistical returns heretofore required of school visiters, agreeable to the provision of the act of 1833, the visiters were requested to present their views as to the condition and improvement of the schools, in a series of connected remarks. An abstract in part of the communication made by them in compliance with this request, has been prepared by the Secretary. official documents respecting the organization and administration of the school systems of other states, it will be seen that these and similar evils exist to some extent elsewhere, and that vigorous measures are recommended or adopted to remove or remedy them. This abstract, in connexion with the selections heretofore made and distributed to the several districts, by direction of the General Assembly, presents a complete survey of the means and condition of common school education in Europe and the United States. Without pointing to the system or schools of any other state or country as models for our imitation or adoption, the Board would refer to the experience of Holland for the efficiency which an active, intelligent and vigilant superintendence or inspection can give to a system of public instruction; of Prussia for the value of seminaries for the training of teachers and of a classifiThis document is of the highest value. It contains the cation of schools of England and Scotland for a desuggestions of many of the most intelligent and experi- monstration of what can be done in infant and juvenile enced friends of common schools from every section of schools for early physical, intellectual and moral educathe state, as to the actual workings of our school system tion, not only in the school room but on the play ground; in several important particulars. While they speak almost of Massachusetts for a system of common schools, supuniformly of the increase of parental and public interest ported entirely by a tax on property, and particularly to which has followed the recent action of the Legislature, its successful operation in some of the large towns of that they show that a wide-spread and paralizing apathy hangs commonwealth; and of New York for what can be done over the public mind in relation to the whole subject, and in less than thirty years, towards establishing common schools, supported in part by public funds, in part by to be, would draw to it numbers of our young men, and tax on property, and in part by tax on parents who send to the schools, and towards promoting the general intelligence of the community, by a library of well selected books in every one of her ten thousand districts. From these various documents it is evident that while Connecticut yields to no state or country for her early, continued and liberal provision for the education of all her children, her true policy is to persevere in those measures which will ascertain and disseminate a knowledge of all existing defects and desirable improvements among school societies, districts, parents and teachers, and to incorporate from time to time such modifications as experience elsewhere shall prove to be advantageous and suited to her circumstances. Third, plans for the improvement and better organization of the common schools. Agreeable to a resolution of the last General Assembly, the Board have prepared a draft of a revised school law, young women, to improve the qualifications they already possess for teaching, and gain the experience and skill which are necessary. An appropriation for this object will supply a radical. defect in our system, and give an impulse of the most powerful and salutary character to the cause of school improvement. All of which is respectfully submitted. SETH P. BEERS, LORIN P. WALDO, FRANCIS A. PERKINS, SAMUEL D. HUBBARD. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE BOARD. in which the various enactments of existing laws are To the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, brought together under their appropriate heads. This draft is accompanied by remarks of the Secretary of the Board, on the history and present state of the law relating to schools. These remarks, suggested from three years devotion to the duties of his office, and an extensive observation of the actual working of our school system, are worthy of the serious consideration of the legislature. In conclusion, the Board would renew the recommendation made in their former communications to the General Assembly. GENTLEMEN: submit my Third Annual Report, as Secretary of your At the close of another year, I herewith respectfully Board, in relation to my own doings and the condition and improvement of the common schools. In the course of the year, I have visited seventy-six school societies in seven out of the eight counties, and by personal observation in the schoolroom, and inquiry among parents, school committees, teachers and children, have endeavored to ascertain the degree of 1st. That such aid be afforded by legislative provision, parental and public interest in relation to common as will insure the continuation and wide circulation of schools; the number of children, especially in cities the Connecticut Common School Journal. Thus far this and manufacturing villages, who were in no school, publication has been sustained by individual liberality, and public or private; the condition of schoolhouses; the principally by the sacrifices of the Secretary of the Board. qualifications, compensation, and success of teachers; Its circulation too has been comparatively limited. Still the discipline, instruction, studies, books, and manners the experience of three years, it is believed has shown of the schools, and the means generally of popular that such a Journal, devoted exclusively to the interests of education. During these circuits, I have addressed common school education, and sent to every district, such persons as were disposed to come together on monthly or semi-monthly, with explanations of any ques-public tions and difficulties arising under the school law, with public notice, on topics suggested by the existing state improved plans of schoolhouse architecture, and other of the schools, and of the public mind in relation to their articles calculated to interest, improve and assist school improvement. At these meetings, and through the officers, teachers, parents and children, will form a valua- Journal, I recommended particularly that meetings of ble auxiliary in the work of making our common schools more useful and more worthy of the progress of society, and the abounding means of the state. similar character should be held, as far as practicable, in every school district, under the direction of the school visiters, for the purpose of awakening and enlisting a more vigorous, intelligent, and liberal public opinion in their support. Among the topics which might be profitably presented and discussed on such occasions, the following were suggested: 2d. That some inducement be held out to school societies or districts, to provide for themselves a common school library, as one of the most recent and important means of the intellectual and moral improvement of the community. The interest which such a library would create among the older scholars at school,the assistance it would afford the teacher in oral instruction, and the intellectual tastes and habits it would create and foster in the community, must greatly extend the present advanThe prevailing defects and capabilities of improvement in tages of the district schools, and lead to great improve-physical, intellectual and moral education, as given in our ments in them, to meet the higher educational wants of society. The advantages, individual, social, and civil, of the more complete education of every child in the State, and the necessary connection of ignorance, especially of moral ignorance, with poverty, vice, and crime. common schools. The best modes of securing the regular and punctual attendance at school of all the children of a district or society, and of enlisting the more active co-operation of parents in this and other objects connected with their education. The evils resulting from the location, construction and internal arrangements of schoolhouses as they now are, and the best plans for improving them and for building new. 3d. That some provision be made for the establishment of normal schools, or seminaries for the training of teachers, where a practical knowledge of the best methods of arranging the classes and studies, and conducting the government and instruction of district schools, can be The disadvantages of small or poor districts, and the best communicated and illustrated. One such school, under an experienced principal and assistant, with a model school way of assisting them so as to equalize the opportunities of common education in the same society or town. connected with it, where theory can be carried into prac- The evils of crowding a large number of children of all tice, and an example given of what a district school oughtages and various studies, in a great variety of text books, under one teacher, and the remedies for them-1, by establishing a separate school for the younger children in the summer and autumn, and another for the older children in the winter, each under a teacher of the appropriate qualifications; or 2, by employing an assistant for the younger children; or 3, by a union school for the older children of two or more adjoining districts; or 4, by a central school of a higher order for the more advanced children of the whole society or town. The too prevalent and ruinous neglect of the primary branches, and of the younger children, and the importance of furnishing the latter in every instance with a slate and pencil to use in drawing or writing, or in any innocent way to amuse and improve themselves when not otherwise employed. The evils of a great diversity and inadequate supply of books in the same branches of study. The evils of a constant change of teachers from male to female, and the importance of giving permanent employment to well qualified teachers of both sexes in the same school. The various useful applications of the black-board and other cheap and simple apparatus, and the importance of resorting more to visible illustrations in instruction. The establishment of district libraries, or of a society or town library, divided up into as many cases as there are districts, to be passed in succession through each, for the older children of the schools, and the adults generally of the district. The purchase of books on education, and especially on the theory and practice of teaching, for teachers. The formation of associations of teachers for mutual improvement, and the visitation of each other's school accompanied by a few of their best scholars. The importance of parents visiting the schools, and the practicability of organizing an association of the mothers of a district or society for this and other objects connected with the common school. The assembling of all the children with their teachers and parents, once a year or oftener, for an examination, exhibition, or at least appropriate addresses and other exercises. Besides these and kindred topics more directly connected with the condition and improvement of the schools, others relating to the organization and administration of them, by law, can be profitably considered, such as The creation of a county or senatorial district board, to examine teachers and give certificate of qualifications, or of a superintendent to visit all the schools within the above limits, and report on their relative condition. provision will be made to continue it beyond the close of the present volume, and send it to every school district in the State. To enable the Board and the Legislature to profit by the experience of other States, where the common school system is in operation, I have made an abstract of such official documents and information as I could collect, respecting the organization and administration of these systems, and the efforts which are making to improve the condition of the schools. To assist the Board in revising and consolidating the various laws relating to the education of children, and schools, I have prepared a review of the most important legislative enactments on the subject from 1650 to 1840, with some remarks on the leading provisions of the law as it now stands. Instead of the statistical information heretofore required of school visiters respecting the several district schools, they were requested, agreeable to the direction of the Board, to communicate their views respecting the condition of the schools in several specified particulars, with plans and suggestions for their improvement, as well as any alteration in the organization and administration of the system. Communications have been received from more than two-thirds of all the towns in the State, an abstract of which is herewith presented. Although this document was necessarily compiled with great haste, and embraces only a small portion of the returns received and examined, it constitutes the most valuable evidence which has yet been collected, as to the existing state and wants of the common schools. I have also received several reports prepared by school visiters of the several societies, giving a minute account of their own proceedings, and of the appearance of the schools at their visitations. As models of fidelity on the part of these officers, and evidence of The establishment of normal schools, or seminaries for the the great usefulness of such local reports, from their education of those who design to become teachers, with model necessary influence on scholars, teachers, parents and schools attached, where a practical knowledge of the best the community generally, I have appended two to the methods of arranging the studies, and conducting the instruc-above abstract. tion and government of children can be acquired. The principle upon which the distribution of the public money should be made, whether by actual attendance in school, or the number of children in the district, or the amount of money voluntarily raised, or the amount of its grand list, or whether any, and if any, what conditions should be attached to its enjoyment. I intended in this communication to have presented the results of my observation and inquiries in the schoolroom, and elsewhere, as to the arrangement and classification of the schools, the succession and extent of the several studies, the methods of discipline and instruction generally pursued, and other kindred topics, for the Whenever consulted, as I have been almost daily by purpose of demonstrating the importance of some legisletter or otherwise, for advice, explanation or informa lative effort to establish seminaries with model schools tion relative to the school law, for plans of schoolhouses, attached, where a practical knowledge of all that for the amicable settlement of controversies, or in any relates to the arrangement, classification, studies, methway to promote the usefulness of common schools, ods of teaching and governing common schools could I have freely rendered any assistance in my power. be given to such as propose to become teachers. But As the source of desirable information to parents, the preparation of the accompanying documents has school officers and teachers, and an indispensable aux- occupied so much of the time allotted to this work, that ilary in my labors, I have continued the publication I shall confine my remarks to such features in the of the Connecticut Common School Journal. As no organization and administration of our school system provision was made for its support by the Legislature, as are discussed in the communications of school this step has subjected me to an expense above all visiters. receipts for subscribers or otherwise, equal to one. 1. PUBLIC AND PARENTAL INTEREST. third of all the compensation allowed to this office. Should the experience of three years have demon- In its organization our school system is eminently strated that the publication of such a Journal, even popular, and the efficiency of its administration dewith a limited circulation, and that circulation not pends mainly on the voluntary action of school societies embracing those who need it most, has been attended and districts, and the personal co-operation of parents with salutary results, it is hoped that some legislative with the teacher. The interest manifested by the com munity, and by parents in particular, in relation to 2. To provide in every county, in connection with common schools, is the evidence and measure of their existing institutions, an opportunity for those who are prosperity. The absolute necessity of awakening and now teachers to improve themselves, and at least one securing this interest as the condition and source of all thoroughly organized normal school, or teachers' sempermanent and extensive improvement, has become inary, where the greatest practical skill, elevation, and more and more deeply impressed on my mind. The efficiency, can be given to the common school teacher, most liberal appropriations on the part of the State, and and a demonstration be made of what can be accomthe most perfectly devised system, will utterly fail, un- plished by the employment of such teachers in all the less the former secures the co-operation of the com- public schools. munity, and the latter becomes embued with the life of public sentiment. With these views as to the importance of public and parental interest, I have aimed to ascertain its present condition, and the means best calculated to increase its amount and activity. 3. To subject the common schools not only to local supervision, but to the inspection of one or more persons, practically acquainted with the subject, in each county or senatorial district, who shall not only examine teachers, visit schools, confer with parents, teachers, and school officers, but publish semi-annually a detailed report of what has been done and seen, with plans and suggestions for the improvement of the Towns, school societies and districts, as such, contribute little or nothing to support schools. More than five ninths of the annual expenses are paid by permanent-funds, and less than one ninth, by a tax on the schools. property of the community. 4. To send to every school officer and teacher a periThe annual and other meetings of school societies are odical sheet, devoted exclusively to official school thinly attended, and the meetings of school districts, documents, and to such other articles as may be calcu although they are better attended, are not characterized lated to promote the prosperity and usefulness of the by liberal appropriations for building and repairing common schools. schoolhouses, and the employment of well qualified teachers, for a suitable period of the year. 5. To hold out inducements to school societies or districts to establish libraries of well selected books, by which the instruction of the schoolroom and the art of printing may be made practically available to the poor as well as the rich. 2. DISTRICTS. The Parents do not make sufficient efforts to secure the regular and punctual attendance of their children at school, to supply them with the requisite books, to ascertain their progress by visiting the schools, and inquiring into their studies at home, to respect, to encourage From the operation of various causes, the territory and co-operate with the teacher, by inviting him to or families of school societies have been divided into their society and sustaining him in all cases of neces-about 1650 school districts, differing from each other sary discipline, and to read, hear and converse on the in territorial extent, population, pecuniary ability, and condition and improvement of the common schools. more than all, in the degree of public and parental The causes which have led to the present apathy interest manifested in the common schools. are, a defective organization of the system by which avails of the school fund, and generally, of the town the school interest is dissevered from all the great in- deposite fund and of local funds, are distributed to terests of the community acting as towns, or as religious these districts according to the number of persons besocieties, and the support of schools is practically remo-tween the ages of 4 and 16, and constitute the main ved from parents and towns to permanent funds, the reliance of the several districts for the compensation avails of which are enjoyed without the necessity of of teachers. This diversity in the means and influenany corresponding effort; the absence of all arrange ces which determine primarily the character of a ments by which teachers may be properly qualified school, results in the most obvious and disastrous inefor their duties, and the inspection and supervision of quality in the education of children in different dis- the schools may be exercised by persons to some tricts. If a child is born or located in a populous extent independent of local prejudices and influences, district, or in a small one, where the energy and liberand in all cases capable, from their intelligence and ality of a few individuals make up for its weakness in experience, of suggesting improvements in every de-numbers and other disadvantages, he can enjoy the partment of the system; the want of a just appreciation instruction of a well qualified teacher for ten or eleven on the part of parents of the nature, means and ends months in the year during his whole school life, and of education, and the importance in its social and politi-thus attain the highest advantages provided by our ical bearings of making the common school at once system of common schools. But if, on the other hand, good and cheap, so as to become practically the he is born in a small district, and especially, in a disbroad platform for the elementary education of all the trict where little or no effort is made on the part of the children of the community. parents, or the community, he can only attend a The remedies for this want of parental and public district school from four to five months in the year, kept interest are: usually in a small, inconvenient and unhealthy school1. To make it the duty of towns acting as school house, and taught by a cheap, and generally an incomsocieties to maintain a sufficient number of common petent teacher. True it is that the advantages of a schools of different grades for the free, useful, and large and wealthy district are too often thrown away equal education of all their children and youths, and to by the districts themselves, and the children located distribute the school money on such conditions and in such a manner as to aid those who are willing to help themselves, and to conform to the requirements of the law. there do not, by regular and punctual attendance at school and diligence in their studies, profit to the extent they might; and it is equally true, that many persons make up in after life for the imperfect and inferior school advantages enjoyed in small districts by the son enumerated, to enable them to employ a teacher energy of superior talent, by self-training, and the habits or teachers of the legal qualifications for six months in of self-reliance and self-respect created by our civil the year at the average rate of wages. and social institutions. But speaking generally, it may I would recommend is this: that a certain sum, say be safely said, that there are at least four hundred $50, be distributed to each school district, without districts in the State, and one or more in every school reference to the number of children in each, and the society, in which the children are doomed to an infe- remainder be divided among the several schools (inclurior and imperfeet education, and to all its disadvan-ding the schools of a higher order) according to the tages. ratio of attendance for the preceding year. This mode will enable every district to come up to the minimum standard, and make it the interest of the district and parents to secure the regular attendance of the children. Much may be done not only to increase the amount and quality of common school education, as will hereafter be shown, but to distribute the advantages of this education much more equally than at present to children in different districts. To accomplish this last There are many considerations connected with this object, a general revision of the extent and limits of feature of our school system which cannot be preschool districts is desirable, for the purpose of defining sented here. In another place I shall show the necesthe boundaries of all of them more accurately, and of sity of schools of a higher grade than the district school, adapting the size to the altered state of the popula- if we would increase the amount and quality of comtion. In such a revision many small districts might be mon school education, and do away with the necessity enlarged by adding portions of larger adjoining dis- of private schools. tricts, and in some cases by annexing the inhabitants of small districts to others, when the same can be done without subjecting any of the children to an inconven- The work of improvement has commenced in this ient distance. This revision can be made at any time department. More new schoolhouses have been erectby school societies, but as the object is a desirable one ed, and old ones repaired on correct principles, within other points of view, it should be done immediately. in the last three years, than for twenty years previous. Whenever any district or individual is aggrieved by the action of the society or their committee in this respect, the party should have the liberty of appeal to some disinterested tribunal, whose decision in the case should be final. 3. SCHOOLHOUSES. But from personal knowledge of many hundred school houses, and minute written descriptions of many hundred more, in more than two thirds of all the school societies, and the uniform testimony of school visiters, there is pressing need of immediate and still greater improvement. The following is a summary of the present condition of nine-tenths of all the district. schoolhouses in the state. Whether any revision or alteration of districts is made or not, the present rule and practice of distributing all school money among districts according to the number of persons between the ages of 4 and 16 Location. They stand in or on the public road, so in each, should be changed, and provision made, as that the attention of children is disturbed by every pasthe basis of all distribution, that every district sing object; not unfrequently in bleak and unsheltered shall have the means of employing a teacher of the situations, where they are exposed to winter's storms, requisite qualifications for at least three months in and to the concentrated radiation of a dry sandy soil; winter and three months in summer, or for a con- in the neighborhood of noisy trades and places of pubtinuous period of six months in the year. This will lic resort; without any other playground than the highrequire that the small and weak districts receive more way, or adjoining private property; and without apthan they now do, but not more than enough to accom-propriate and necessary out-buildings, whereby the plish the purpose-the useful education of all the child- health, manners, and instinctive feelings of decency ren of the society. If this calculation is based on the and propriety in children and youth are exposed and practice which prevails in more than 1500 districts, of injured. supporting but one common school for all the child- Size. They are small, with a prison-like narrowren of the district, and of employing a male teacher ness and lowness of dimensions, and yet with less cuin winter and a female in summer, and the rate of bic space to each scholar than is allowed to every teachers' wages for the State, say $17 for males and prisoner in the state prison or county jail; without a $8 for females, every district must receive at least $75, separate entry for boys and girls; without scraper, viz. $51 to employ a male teacher for three months in mat, hooks, and shelves, so that habits of neatness, the winter, $24 to employ a female teacher in the sum- order and propriety can be cultivated; without suffimer, or $12.50 for a male or female teacher for six cient space for the proper seating and necessary evomonths. This does not include any provision for the lutions of the scholars; without a raised platform and board of teachers, or fuel, which is left to the district, desk for the teacher; and without any rooms for reor to parents. If $75 be taken as the smallest sum citation or other useful purposes. with which any district should be furnished, and the avails of the school fund and town deposite fund together be estimated at $1.75 for every person between the ages of 4 and 16, there are 60 districts which now receive, each, only $17.50, and require, each, $57.50 more, or $5.75 on each person enumerated; 177 which receive $35, and require $40, or $2 on each person enumerated; and 454 districts which receive $52.50 and will require $22.80, or less than $1 on each per Light. They are lighted by windows on three or four sides, without blinds or curtains, so that there is much inconvenience and danger from cross lights, as well as from excess of light reflected from the book, or falling directly on the eyes. The window sills are so low, and the situation of the building so near the street, that passing objects and events out of doors are sure to attract the attention of the scholars. Ventilation.-There are no sufficient means to effect |