communicated to the legislature, and to the public. | brings to the office a thorough education, wide and successful experience as a teacher, great capacity, industry, and an ardent zeal for the improvement of common schools. A practical knowledge of the art of teaching, the noblest, but least studied, of all arts, will be given, by the employment of the candidate teachers as assistants in the male and female departments of the High School, and in one of the primary schools. The letter of Prof. Saxe annexed, presents an outline of his plan.

I shall append to this report such documents and information as I have collected during the past year. It would be strange, if an effort to disseminate a knowledge of this glorious progress of universal education in different states and countries, of this common effort of the nations to lift from human nature the burden of ignorance and error, of this glorious emulation in adding to the common stock of human knowledge, virtue and happiness, should be made a matter of reproach; and much more, Some advance has also been made towards orif it should be so far misconstrued as to be regarded ganizing a seminary for the training of female as evidence of a deliberate purpose on the part of teachers, in connection with the education and care any man, or any body of men, to impose a foreign of orphan children. This step, if it can be comschool system upon Connecticut. Certain it is, that passed, will be a double service to the State and Connecticut, if she is true to her past history, will the cause of education. It will provide a home, not long remain cold and lifeless amid this common and the means of physical, intellectual and moral zeal for improvement, this universal sympathy and culture for a class of children, who most need the effort to promote the dignity of man. succoring aid of individual and public benevolence, and furnish our common schools with a class of teachers, who have been drawn to the work of preparation by a love of the employment, and the highest motive of christian benevolence. As soon as a proper degree of legislative, or individual cooperation is extended to commence this enterprise on a safe footing, the services of one of the most experienced and successful teachers in the country can be secured gratuitously as Principal.

III. In 1838, no facilities had been offered to such persons as wished to become teachers, to prepare themselves by an appropriate course of study, and a practical acquaintance with the labors and duties of the school room, for the work.

IV. In 1838, there were, in the State, comparatively, but few books on education, and particularly of a class calculated to interest, inform, and assist school officers, parents and teachers, in the work of improving common schools.

The necessity or importance of providing such facilities in regard to the profession and art of teaching, as the common sense and universal experience of mankind had proved to be important and necessary in every other profession, and in every other art, had been but little discussed in our public journals, in legislative halls, or in public addresses. The want of information and interest on this subject it has been a leading object to provide for through the Journal, in reports to the LegislaTo remedy this defect in part, the Connecticut ture, and in every form of reaching the public mind. Common School Journal was established. By As a demonstration of what might be done to im- turning to the subjects treated of in the course of prove the existing qualification of school teachers, the four years, in the index annexed, it will be seen, arrangements were made in Hartford, in 1839-40, that almost every topic connected with the practiby which, in the autumn, a class of twenty-six young cal working of our own school system, and the men, and in the spring, a class of sixteen young mechanical arrangements, means of instruction, ladies, were enabled, without any expense to them, classification, discipline, methods and studies, of to review and continue their studies under the recitations and practical lectures of experienced teachers, and to witness, in the public and private schools of the city, other modes of school arrangement, instruction, and discipline, than those to which they had been accustomed. Every member of these classes was subsequently employed in the common schools, and most of them still continue in the schools.

common schools, is discussed. Copious selections from standard writers on education, and original communications from experienced and successful teachers and educators, have been published. During the past year, extracts from ten or twelve new books for the use of teachers, and an entire work on slate and black board exercises, have been published. If the methods illustrated and described in this last treatise could be tried in all the schools, it would change the entire aspect of common school education.

The demand for higher qualifications on the part of school visiters, and the community generally, the advantages of specific training, as seen by candiIt has been my aim, in this publication, to emdates themselves, and the interest of the principals brace only documents and articles of permanent of many of our academies, has led to the establish- value and interest. This has necessarily interfered ment, in this class of institutions, of a course of in- with its temporary popularity and general circulastruction particularly adapted to such as propose to tion, and made it the source of constant expense. become, or improve their previous attainments, as It is believed, however, that no one work before common school teachers. An account of the the public contains more practical information as course pursued at the Winsted High School, is to the condition and progress of schools in different states and countries, than these volumes.

herewith annexed.

The

In the Wesleyan University at Middletown, a Legislature, in 1840, made a small appropriation Normal Professorship has been established. The towards the expense of sending to every school gentleman appointed to this place, is the principal society in the State a bound copy of such numbers of the Public High School of Middletown, and of the two first volumes as I had previously placed

at the disposal of the committee on schools. In erected for public or domestic use. The hand of some instances, these packages have not reached improvement and taste, which had reached other the clerks of the school societies. In such cases, structures, our colleges, academies, retreats, prisnearly complete sets of the last two volumes will ons, bridges, had not reached them. be furnished, on application to this office. To effect a reform in the location, construction,

In addition to the time, labor and expense de- and furniture of the district schoolhouse, public atvoted to the Journal, no efforts have been spared tention was early and earnestly called to the subto promote the circulation of such works as Pal-ject. The many evil influences, direct and indirect, mer's Teacher's Manual, Abbott's Teacher, Hall's on the health, manners, morals, and intellectual Lectures, Dunn's Schoolmaster's Manual, Davis' progress of children, which grew out of their bad Teacher Taught, Dwight's Schoolmaster's Friend, and defective structure, were pointed out. The Confessions of a Schoolmaster, District School improved plans which had been published by indias it was, Wood's Sessional School, Lessons on Objects, Hints and Methods for Teachers, Dr. Alcott's Slate and Black Board Exercises, &c. I have reason to suppose, that there are now at least two thousand volumes more of such works owned by, or accessible to, teachers and school visiters, than there were in the State in 1840. One gentleman alone has been instrumental in disposing of more than one thousand volumes, in the course of the last

year.

V. Prior to 1838, no efforts had been made on the part of the Legislature or of individuals,* to prepare and make known improved plans of school

house architecture.

viduals, educational societies, and legislatures in other states, were procured and made known through the Journal and public addresses. New plans were devised, with the advice of experienced school teachers and architects, and furnished gra. tuitously to such districts as were building new, or re-modelling their old houses. Considerable effort has been made, and expense incurred, to induce. at least one district in each county to erect such a building as could be pointed to as a model in the essential features of a good schoolhouse, and to supply suitable apparatus and a library for the children, teacher and parents generally.

The result is, that within the last four years, In no department of the system was there more more than fifty new schoolhouses have been pressing necessity for improvement, at once thor- erected, and a greater number of old ones entirely ough and general, than in this. In no other, were re-modelled in their interior arrangements, on corthere to be found so few instances which could be rect principles, and with the latest improvements. pointed to as models for imitation. In no other, The advance which has been made in this depart were the disastrous results of neglect so little ap-ment, both in public opinion and public action, is preciated, or the standard of practical attainment, secure from accident, for it is put into brick and so low. More than nine tenths of all the district mortar, and other durable materials. Still, the schoolhouses erected prior to 1838, and which have work is but just begun, and there are many district not been since renovated, are incomplete and for- schoolhouses old, repulsive, and uncomfortable, lorn specimens, at best, of what such structures which should give way to new, attractive, and conshould be. They stand in, or directly on, the public venient structures. To aid in this work of reform, highway, and not unfrequently in bleak, and un- I have embodied, in the accompanying report, the sheltered situations, without any playground or ap- results of my observation and reflection on the genpropriate out buildings. They are unattractive eral principles of schoolhouse architecture, with without, and small, inconvenient, and uncomforta- such plans and descriptions of various structures ble within. They are imperfectly supplied with recently erected or prepared, as will enable any the means of ventilation, and uniform temperature. district to frame one suitable to their own wants, They are so lighted, that the eyesight of the scholar free of expense. is not unfrequently endangered by the glare of the sun, and their attention distracted by every passing object. The seats are invariably too high, and the general arrangement and construction of the seats and desks are not calculated to promote the health, comfort, and successful labor of the pupils, or convenient supervision by the teacher. But bad as most of them were originally, they are rendered worse from the want of proper care and timely and necessary repairs. Almost every old schoolhouse which I have visited, is hacked and disfigured, and in not a few instances disgraced by improper, profane, or licentious images.

Such was the condition of many, very many, of these "moral beauties" of Connecticut-of these illage nurseries of health, virtue, and intelligence. They stood, and many of them still stand, in mournful and disgraceful contrast with every other edifice

The premium offered by Erastus Ellsworth, Esq., of East Windsor, in 1887, for the best model of a school desk, should be excepted.

VI. In 1838, no efforts had been made to provide the district schools with libraries, and such cheap apparatus as was considered indispensable in the best conducted private schools.

Out of 1400 schools of which information was obtained by personal inspection, or returns from school visiters, there were but six libraries, containing, in all, less than one thousand volumes, and but two globes. These were purchased by subscription, or given directly by individuals. In one section of the State, through which a lecturer on the subject of school apparatus passed some years since, a numeral frame, and geometrical and other cards, were occasionally to be met with. In the schools of this section, the black board was more frequently seen, and its many useful applications understood.

To remedy this state of things, districts were empowered to raise, by tax, a small sum annually, to be expended in the purchase of school libraries

and apparatus; and the advantages of good books There was great inequality in the means of a open to all the children and inhabitants of a school common school education in the same city. Each district, and of every form of visible illustration in city was divided up into districts, and these districts the work of instruction, has been discussed in the differed from each other in territorial extent, popuJournal, and in public addresses. Through the lation, pecuniary ability, wages and qualifications of same channels, directions have been given for ma- teachers, parental interest, and the supervision of king the more simple, but useful, forms of appara- the commitees. The result was, a vast inequality tus, such as black board, numeral frames, outline in the education of children of the same city, resimaps, and globes, and the best methods of using ding in different districts. them. Some assistance has also been rendered to districts, in purchasing and procuring libraries and apparatus. In this way, to my personal knowledge, more than three thousand volumes have been added to district libraries, and more than one hundred different articles of apparatus been supplied within the last two years. Of the treatise on slate and black board exercises, spoken of in another place, one thousand copies, at least, will be dis The course of instruction in most of the city tributed gratuitously in the State. But the work districts, was limited to the mere elementary studof improvement, in this respect, has but just be-ies; in all of them, in 1838, there were less than gun, and some further legislation is necessary in one hundred scholars who were attending to the order to induce every district to supply itself with higher branches of an English education.

There was a want of system in regard to the studies, books, methods of instruction, and discipline, in the schools of the same city. This subjected a class of the population, whose sole reliance is on these schools, to an unnecessary expense, whenever they changed their residence, and retarded the progress of their children, in passing into different schools.

a library of useful books, and with some cheap The mode of providing for the expense of the and indispensable apparatus. A small appropria- common schools, over the receipts from the public tion for three years, even one half of the amount funds, was, in most of the districts in every city, by provided in New York and Massachusetts, to each quarter bills, or a tax on the scholars, according to district, to be increased by a similar amount raised the time of attendance, payable by the parent or by tax or subscription, would accomplish the object. guardian. This mode of supporting schools, threw The value of the district schools, for the coming upon those parents who sent and were barely able summer and winter, with the same teachers, might to pay the quarter bills of their own children, the be doubled, at least, if a person properly qualified quarter bills of those who could not, and thereby imcould be employed to visit every town, and spend posed on them a tax for this purpose, equal to all but a day with all the teachers in explaining the the other taxes of the city. Its general operation construction and most obvious uses of the cheapest was, to lower the standard of common school eduschool apparatus. cation to that point, which the public money, with a small quarter bill, would maintain, to tempt parents to keep their children at home on any trifling occasion for their services, and to exempt those who are best able to bear it, the class who patronize private schools, from all expense in behalf of the education of the poor.

VII. In 1838, the condition of the common schools, and the means of popular education generally, in the cities and large villages of the State, was deplorable. There was not one, which had a system of common schools at all adequate to its educational wants. Not one, in which there were not many expensive private schools, patronized by nearly all the professional, educated, and wealthy families, and by many others who were desirous of procuring the best education for their children.

The attendance on the common schools was small. Out of all the children between the ages of four and sixteen in the six cities, less than one half were nominally connected with the common schools, in summer or in winter, and less than one third were in regular attendance; more than fifteen hundred were not in the private or public schools in the winter of 1839-40; and about one fourth were in private schools. For the tuition alone, of those who attended the private schools, numbering about twenty-five hundred, a sum equal to what was provided by the State for the education of forty thousand children in the district schools, was voluntarily expended.

The interest of the community, or of parents, in the common schools, as indicated by attendance in school meetings, by expenditures for school purposes, by visits to the schools, and general co-operation with teachers and committees, was even lower than in the country districts generally.

To remedy these and other evils in the condition of the common schools in our cities, the attention of individuals, committees, and the public, has been called to them by means of the press, public addresses, and conversation, and to the following plan for their improvement, or such modification of the same as shall be better adapted to the wants of each place.

1. A union of the several districts in a city, or at least, some concert of action among them, for the purpose of bringing all the schools into one system of studies, books, classification and management, and making the school interest one of the leading interests of the whole city.

The schoolhouses provided in the cities, could not seat, at any one time, one half of the children who were entitled to go to them; and, with a single 2. The establishment of schools of different exception, in New Haven, there was not one which grades, for children of different ages and studies. could be pointed to as a model in respect to loca- First-Primary schools, for the young children, tion, size, ventilation, and the construction and ar- to be located in different parts of the city. In this rangements of seats and desks.

class of schools, the arrangements of the school another class who have had such advantages, and room, play ground, studies, and exercises should may wish to pursue such studies of the high school be adapted to promote the health, manners, moral as are connected with their several trades and pur culture, and the gradual and harmonious develop- suits. By means of such schools, the defective edment, of the mind of the very young. Oral teach-ucation of many of the youth of our cities might ing, in respect to real objects, maps and figures, be remedied, and their various employments be habits of observation, the alphabet, easy lessons in converted into the most efficient instruments of self reading, vocal music, drawing and other lessons on culture. the slate, should constitute the course of instruction. Female teachers, in all cases, should be employed, and the supervision of the schools be mainly left with the mothers of the children.

3. Each grade of schools should be provided with suitable school rooms, play ground, and class rooms. They should also be furnished with maps, diagrams, globes, and other forms of illustration, Second-Intermediate or secondary schools. so that the knowledge acquired may be vivid, ac These schools should take up the education of the curate, and practical. To enable the teacher to children where the primary schools leave it, and give oral and explanatory instruction, and the carry it forward to as high a point as is now at- scholar to carry on his investigations beyond the tained in the first classes of the best district schools. point where his teacher and class book may leave If the foundation was properly laid in the primary it, a library of well selected books should be school, and teachers properly qualified employed vided.

pro

in both, it is believed that all which is now taught 4. The same studies, books, course of instruc. in our best common schools, could be accomplished tion, and discipline generally, should be adopted at the age of twelve, and thus four years, at least, in all of the schools of the same class. To secure in the school period of most children, be saved. In this class of schools, there should be a male and female principal, as the influence of both are needed at this stage of the moral education, and the manners, of children.

this uniformity, and bring the teachers and schol ars under constant inspection, the management of the schools, and the property and concerns of the district should be left with a committee, or board, elected by the people, and subject to their directions. To give stability and efficiency to the measures of the board, it might be provided, that one third, at least, of their number, should have been members the year previous, and one person should be designated to devote his whole time to

Third-A high school with two departments, one for boys, and the other for girls. This school should receive such pupils as are found qualified in the studies of the secondary schools, on due examination, and conduct them forward in algebra, geometry, surveying, natural, moral, and mental phi-the prosperity of the schools. losophy, political economy, the history and consti- 5. To place these schools on their old footing, tution of Connecticut and the United States, book and interest the whole community in their welfare, keeping, composition, and drawing, with reference I have advocated the abandonment of quarter to its use in various kinds of business. Whatever bills, or charge per scholar, and making property, may be the particular studies, this school should whether it represented children or not, chargeafford a higher elementary education than is now able with their support. This is the cardinal idea given in the district school, and, at the same time, of the free school system, and with the aid now furnish an education preparatory to the pursuits of commerce, trade, manufactures, and the mechanical arts. All that is now done in this way for the children of the rich and the educated, should be done for the whole community; so that the poorest parent who has worthy and talented children, may see the way open for them to a thorough and practical education. In some districts or cities, the studies of this school might be included in the secondary school, in case there were not scholars enough to constitute a school by itself, and the two departments might also be united for this purpose. However constituted, whether as one department or two, as a distinct school, or as part of the secondary school, something of the kind is needed to make the pleasures and advantages of a good education common, and to draw in the children, the means, and the interest, of a large number of parents whose regards are now turned exclusively to private schools.

Fourth-As a part of the system of common schools for cities, I have urged the establishment of evening schools for such young persons as are hurried into the counting room, the store, or the work shop, without a proper elementary education, or for

furnished from the school fund, which is appropriated for the equal benefit of all the people, this charge cannot be considered burdensome. This, too, is the practice of every city which has an efficient system of common schools. The practical abandonment of it in our cities, has led to the withdrawal of the children, and the active interest, of the wealthy, from the common schools. Many parents who now send to private schools, would send to the cominon schools, if they were taxed annually for their support; and many more, if by that tax, and the interest it would excite, the common schools were made better than they now are.

Such was the condition of common schools in our cities, and such the course pursued and recommended, to improve it. The present condition of these schools is such as to justify the assertion, that some advance, at least, has been made in public action, and much more in public opinion, in regard to them. During the last four years, in every district but two, new schoolhouses have been built, or the old ones entirely re-modelled. In three of our cities, the number of children attending the common schools in the winter of 1842, was double what it was in the winter of 1838; and in the

six cities, the aggregate attendance is greater by paratory classical one. A uniform set of class fifteen hundred. There is a larger number of male books is prescribed, and every scholar is supplied teachers, of superior qualifications, and at higher by their parents, or the committee, with the neces wages, employed through the year. The number sary books and stationery. The committee have of primary departments, under female teachers, met regularly every week for nearly three years, has increased. The course of instruction is more and one or more of their number has visited the complete, and the variety of text books in the same schools every month. Nearly all the private schools school, and the schools of the same city, less. The have been given up, and a saving effected in this supervision of committees is more thorough and way to the parents, of nearly four thousand dollars active. And as at once the cause and effect of a year. The entire expense of the public schools these improvements, and the pledge of greater, a is nearly two thousand dollars less than was exspirit of inquiry is abroad in every city, on this pended in the private schools in 1838, and the avewhole subject. I cannot conclude this part of my rage expense per scholar, is less than it was at that report without referring to what has been done in time. The crowning glory of the whole is--that it the city of Middletown. is a practical illustration of what can be done to In 1838, there were four districts, with 885 per- make common schools good enough for the richest, sons over four, and under sixteen, years of age. and cheap enough for the poorest, and thus to make Of this number, 276 attended the common schools. the advantages of a good eduation ccommon to the The poor, and those only who felt but little interest rich and the poor. in the education of their children, sent to them. Some progress has also been made in the large The schoolhouses were old, and very much out central villages, by dividing the school into two of repair. The studies were those ordinarily pur- departments, one for the older and the other for sued in a common school. There was no uni- the younger scholars, and in a few instances by formity of books, and the teachers were constantly organizing a union district school. changing. There was no money raised for their Although much has already been accomplished support, beyond the avails of public funds. The in the cities and large villages of the state, and schools were seldom visited by parents, and only although there are individual schools of great exformally by the committee, to secure the public cellence in several of them, still as a whole in all money. At this time, there were eight or nine the essential features of a school system, the public private schools, taught by well qualified and well schools as at present provided and sustained, are paid teachers, and including the children of those inferior to those in more than twenty other cities parents who cared most for education. The ag- and towns of the same relative size, in other parts gregate expense for tuition alone, in these schools, of New England. The superiority of the latter was three times as great as the whole expense of consists in the schoolhouses, the classification of the common schools. the schools, the number of children attending

VIII. Prior to 1838, no inquiry had been instituted into the condition of education in the manufacturing districts, nor the extent to which the requisitions of the law, as to the duty of owners and proprietors of factories, and manufacturing establishments, to the children employed by them, were complied with.

In 1839, after several public meetings, an entirely school, the quality and quantity of instruction new system of public schools was adopted. The given, the liberality of the public appropriation, and four districts were made a school society. Four the active interest taken by committees in their primary schools, for children under nine years of supervision and management. To these might be age, under female teachers, and one high school added the universal fact, that the schools are free, with two departments, one for boys and the other and that children from all classes, as to wealth, for girls, with a male and female principal, were occupation, and education, are found in the same established. The books, studies, discipline, and school room. management, of the schools, were intrusted to a board, or committee of eight members. In 1842, out of 849 children between the ages of 4 and 16, 675 are connected with the public schools, and among them are the children of the best educated and wealthiest families of the city. Three of the old schoolhouses have been repaired and fitted up, and one new one built, for the primary schools; Since that time, this whole subject has been inand a large, substantial building, 72 feet by 54, ca- vestigated, and facts ascertained and published, pable of accommodating both departments of the which should have alarmed and aroused a commuhigh school, has been erected, at an expense of nity, which had made provision near two centuries about $8000. This house stands in the center of ago, "that not a single child should be found unable a spacious lot, affording large and separate play to read the holy Word of God, and the good laws grounds for the boys and girls, and in respect to of the colony." It was found, that there were palocation, size, ventilation, light, conveniences for rents, born in Connecticut, who could sell their recitation, and all the essential features of a good children into the ransomless bondage of ignorance, schoolhouse, is superior to any in the other cities for the miserable pittance which their services of the State. The regular meetings of the school would earn-that there were owners of factories society are now numerously attended, and not a who would employ such children, when they knew week goes by without a visit to the schools from their earnings were made at the sacrifice of their parents or strangers. The course of study em- education, and were applied to support the idle and braces a thorough English education and a pre- dissipated habits of one or both of the paren