Following is a condensed statement of the annual salaries paid at this time to teachers in the Department: To one teacher, $2,700; to ten teachers, $1,800 each; one, $1,500; to fifteen teachers, $1,200; to six teachers, $1,080; to thirteen teachers, $1,050; to two teachers, $1,012 80; to three teachers, $930; to thirteen teachers, $900; to twenty-six teachers, $870; to twenty-four teachers, $840; to eighteen teachers, $810; to six teachers, $780; to one teacher, $750; to one teacher, $690; to one teacher, $630; to two teachers, $600; to one teacher, $360 (evening school).

There are in our schools, including the High School, eleven grades, the studies for each of which are a fair year's work for pupils of the age for which they are designed. Four of these, the eighth, seventh, sixth and fifth (the eighth being the lowest), are the Primary Grades; the fourth, third, second and first the Grammar Grades; and the Junior, Middle and Senior, the High School Grades or classes. The youngest age at which pupils are admitted is six years. A pupil entering the eighth grade at this age and going regularly through all the grades, would graduate from the High School at the age of seventeen, thoroughly prepared for admission to any of the colleges of the University.

Recognizing the fact that, no matter how thoroughly pupils may be classified at the beginning of the year, there will be, long before the end of the year, a great difference in their advancement, each grade is separated into a high and low, or an "A" and "B" division, and there is a re-classification every six months. Thus also there are two classes graduated from the High School each year, and two also admitted each year. Promotions are made semi-annually

throughout the Department.

Our High School stands in the very front rank of the schools of its class-not only on this coast, but in the country at large. This statement is made on the best authority, that of people who are competent to speak, and who have had the opportunity to form a correct judgment. Among

these are some of the gentlemen who have the most recently come from the East to take positions in the faculty of the State University. As a preparatory school for the University, it ranks first in California.

The course of study, as has been said, extends through three years. There are indeed three courses of study open to the choice of the student upon his or her entrance to the school.

Special prominence is given to English, and the course in that subject is said by eminent authorities to be among the best in the United States.

In our schools, special prominence is given in all the grades, to drawing. The whole system, from the Eighth grade through the High School, is not intended to make artists-though it gives a broad foundation for that kind of work-but is especially adapted to the wants of the working people and mechanics. It is designed to teach pupils to read and write the language of lines the universal language of the mechanic arts. It concludes the training of sight, and the development of the inventive faculties.

From, his first school days, the child is taught to judge of position, distance and direction; to space dots, and to connect them so as to invent his own designs-keeping his mind as active as his hands. Geometrical forms succeed each other, and are grouped by the pupil's mind and delineated by his pencil.

Practical geometry is the foundation of the whole structure. Pupils are encouraged to make their own models and to draw them, not according to the diverted views of perspective, but in accordance with mechanical projections.

The reason being that the artisan needs to know the real shape and size of object, an end not easily attained by perspective.

The subject of industrial training is one which is attracting considerable interest in educational circles in the East, and classes are being started in many of the large cities,

so that the boys may receive needed mechanical training. With the permission of the Board of Education, Principal McChesney last June established a class for the study of mechanical drawing in the High School. The drawing studied there consists of projection, which is at the basis of all the trades. Pupils are taught to project lines, surface and solid, on the different plans and elevations of objects. They are taught to draw from models giving elevations and plans of a great variety of objects and they readily and accurately draw them.

Particular attention has been paid to the development of solids, and pupils are required to produce working models of them to scale, the dimensions being given. They draw plans and elevations from them, and developments, on cardboard, which when folded and pasted must produce the required model.

A beginning has also been made in the direction of manual training. In connection with the Lincoln School is a large carpenter shop equipped with lathes, 21 work-benches and 21 sets of tools for working in wood. Classes are formed, and come to the shop at regular stated times for instruction. Principal McClymonds is assisted in the work of instruction two half days each week by the Department Mechanic. Mr. Garin, the drawing teacher, also gives such special instruction to the boys in the shop as their case requires. Some very creditable work has been done by the boys. In use in many of the class-rooms of the Department are closets for books, etc., made by boys in the shop. It is the intention of the Board to enlarge this special feature so as to extend its benefits to pupils of other schools.

There is one feature of the Oakland School Department which is unique-in which it stands quite alone-and that is in the possession of a fully equipped astronomical observatory. So far as is known to the writer, ours is the only public school department in the world which is thus provided.