correct answers. questioning on the subject of the lesson, which is so essential to effective teaching. The recitation is slavishly confined to the text, and any question outside of it, howsoever pertinent, is ruled out because it may lower the per cent. of The same tendency is seen in the review of the previous lesson or lessons, such review being omitted unless definitely assigned as a part of the lesson! That the point made by our correspondent is one of practical importance, no one will deny who has observed the working of the marking system in our graded schools. Its general tendency, as used, is to groove the recitation and curtail the freedom of instruction. The teacher who yields fully to its demands, is converted into a sort of testing machine with a very narrow gauge, and with the added duty of estimating the value of answers on a numerical scale! That such a system lessens the vital power of the recitation, is evident. It hinders the free play of thought and inquiry, and checks that inspiring contact of mind with mind, so essential in all true education. It puts both teacher and taught under a deadening restraint. But may not this tendency of the system be the result of its abuse or misuse? May it not be used without such results? What is the proper use of the marking system? Who will answer? THE recommendations of the State School Commissioner on the subject of school legislation, have been printed in advance of his full report, and we take great pleasure in commending them to the attention of our readers. It will be seen that the creation of a system of county school supervision is placed first among these measures, and that its importance is strongly pressed upon the attention of the General Assembly. A decided majority of the members are disposed to do something to give increased efficiency to the schools, and it is to be hoped that they are ready to take up this great measure and pass it. There are, however, two facts that stand in the way, to wit: (1) an efficient system of county supervision will cost something, and (2) the present General Assembly was elected on a decided retrenchment issue. The weight of these facts is increased by the Governor's strong and urgent appeal in his message for a reduction of taxation, for retrenchment, and his ominous failure to recommend any school legislation. He simply calls attention to the Commissioner's recommendations, and gives a few statistics, making specially prominent the fact that the increase of local school taxation for the year was $598,962. This, taken in connection with the strong retrenchment drift of the message, is a plain hint to the General Assembly that such increase should be stopped. We have stated these facts thus squarely that the friends of the supervision measure may realize that work is necessary to secure its adoption. It will meet with opposition. A word to the wise is sufficient. We also heartily indorse the Commissioner's proposition to abolish our present mongrel school system in townships, and adopt the township system, and simple. We are almost weary of urging this measure, and yet its great importance demands line upon line. We feel that whatever else may be done or left undone, this change should be made. It is a prime condition of pure the further progress of our country schools. Indeed, were we obliged to choose between county supervision engrafted upon the present complicated system, and the purely township system without county supervision, we should unhesitatingly take the township system. The best efforts of a county superintendent would be largely thwarted by the conflicts between local directors and township boards, and by the great number of local directors to be reached and advised. Besides, the change to the township system will cost nothing, and even retrenchment, urged in party interest, can not object to it. Let us have the township system at once. -The recommendation to abolish local boards of examiners, is a good one, and we call attention to the communication of "A Teacher on this subject. Experience has proved the system to be worse than useless, except in cities and large towns; and this remark opens the way to explain why, in drafting the law of 1864, we did not require applicants examined by local boards to pay the same fee as applicants examined by county boards. We feared that the large number of local boards and the small number of applicants examined by each would make it difficult to get the fees into the treasury, and that the consequent irregularities and friction would endanger the institute fund. THE Commissioner's reference to normal instruction shows a just appreciation of the importance of this agency. We regret the mention of the special report on normal schools made to the General Assembly in January, 1866, since it recalls and makes fresh what, we confess, was a very sore disappointment. In March, 1865, the General Assembly, with great unanimity, passed a joint resolution authorizing and requesting the School Commissioner to report "the organization and results of the best Normal Schools in the country," with "the best plan of organizing one or more Normal Schools in this State." This duty was done as thoroughly as the pressure of other duties would admit, and the special report called for was laid before the General Assembly, and was most favorably received. Every thing indicated that the Assembly was ready for action, and had the report been properly backed up, an efficient normal school law would have been enacted before the close of the session. The golden opportunity was allowed to pass unimproved, and we now seem as far from a normal system as we were ten years ago. We can but regard the desertion of the normal school cause in 1866 as the most serious mistake in the history of the school system. GEN. GARFIELD, of Ohio, has introduced a bill into Congress to consolidate what was the National Department of Education with the Educational Department of the Freedmen's Bureau, and giving to the newly organized department the necessary powers of both. This strikes us as the only feasible mode of saving this important national agency, and we hope that the bill may receive the prompt and earnest support of the educators of the country. It is evident that the department, bureau, or office-whatever may be its present name or status-must take a new start or die. We are informed that the committee on appropriations will doubtless destroy what is left of it. But the measure. passage of Gen. Garfield's bill will give the departmemt one more opportunity -may we not say an opportunity-to demonstrate its utility and importance. We learn that the President and the Secretary of the Interior both favor the -A meeting of the National Superintendents' Association is to be held at Washington, opening March 1st. It is to be a business meeting of great practical importance, and it is hoped that every State superintendent and the superintendents of the leading cities, at least, may be present. The cause demands a large attendance. -THE REV. J. Hyatt Smith, of Brooklyn, formerly of Cleveland, recently delivered a lecture in which he thus touched upon the claim of a New York editor that the State has no right, by any word or act, to cross the path of a citizen's conscience, or trench upon his religious belief: 6 The papist presents his claim: "I am a citizen, and I object to the Bible in the schools, either the Protestant version or our own. It will not do to let the people interpret the word of God. It is the prerogative of the church." "Your right shall be respected," responds the editor. A Jew approaches: "I am a citizen, and my grievance must be redressed. I deny the validity of a part of the book claimed to be the Bible, and reject the Christ taught therein." "Your claims shall be respected," says the editor. "You can leave." "Not yet," replies the son of Abraham. "The date of the Constitution reads, 'the year of our Lord 1787.' Change the figures to 6,000, and strike out our Lord."" "It shall be done," responds the editor. John Chinamen approaches the perplexed guardian of conscience. "Our Confucius gives quite a different date, and makes an older world. Strike out the Hebrew figures. I am a citizen, and claim my right." Last of all, an atheist draws nigh, saying, "You are all wrong. Draw your bold pen over date and deity, and leave a blank." The good editor yields again, and for consistency's sake strikes from the head of his own paper the sectarian date so offensive to Jew, pagan, and infidel. A republic so constructed would surely save its builders from the penalties of that commandment which says: "Thou shalt not make unto thyself the likeness of anything in the heavens above, the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth." This is what an exchange calls reading the chapter through, aad we call it good reading. OUR friend writes that he was glad to see in the January MONTHLY our "first efforts in thinking upon the matter of teaching reading", and though he is not quite prepared to call them "a good beginning", he trusts that they may lead to good results. He does not like our terms silent and oral reading, and he also asks whether our statement is true, viz: "But as comprehension must necessarily precede utterance, the proper teaching of oral reading includes the imparting of the ability of silent reading." If by utterance we mean the proper oral expression of the ideas, thoughts, and emotions of what is read, as stated in the preceding sentence (which is just our meaning), he can admit it, and the last part may be correctly stated. But if it be so, he asks whether we shall teach silent reading only for its aid to oral reading? This seems to be the point that gives him concern, and he wishes us to "keep on thinking." Let us try again, beginning with a question. Is oral reading to be taught only as an aid to silent reading? No. Is it to be taught chiefly with this end in view? Let us see. A class drill in reading has at least three aims or objects, to wit: 1. To impart to the pupil the ability to comprehend the ideas, thoughts, and emotions expressed in written or printed language. 2. To give him the ability to give proper oral expression to such ideas, thoughts, and emotions. 3. To impart literary culture and afford an opportunity for the acquisition of knowledge. Hence the question is, What is the true subordination of these ends? Will our friend tell us whether this is a good beginning? Meanwhile, we will keep on thinking. THE sudden death of Mr. R. Q. BEER, of the firm of Wilson, Hinkle & Co., which occurred at the Burnet House, Cincinnati, January 3d, is a startling reminder of the uncertainty of life's tenure. He took a severe cold about three weeks before his death, which assumed the form of pleurisy, giving him some annoyance. On Thursday evening he was seized with very severe pains in the chest, which continued almost unremittingly until Sunday, when he seemed better, becoming cheerful and talkative. A clerk of the firm left him at 8 o'clock, in the care of an attendant, and seeming comfortable. About 9 o'clock the physician entered, and found that he was dead. Since his death it has been ascertained that he was troubled with heart disease, having suffered from an attack in November last. The remains were taken to Ashland, his early home, where they were interred on the 6th inst. Mr. Beer was born in Western Pennsylvania, and, at his death, was 42 years of age, and unmarried. He traveled for the Cincinnati house nearly 20 years, becoming a partner about two years ago. Few business men have ever formed so large a circle of acquaintances and fewer have won such a host of friends. He was frank, generous, and genial, and thousands have a lively memory of his brilliant wit and droll humor which convulsed many a social circle and caused many a "side-ache"; and yet beneath that genial exterior was an earnest nature, full of sympathy, and responsive to what is true and noble. His ability to read character was remarkable, and, hence, he rarely misplaced his confidence. We have written these lines conscious that many who read them will feel that they are a feeble tribute to their worthy friend. His speedy summons says, "Be ye also ready." MR. WARD, a Roman Catholic member from Hamilton county, has introduced a bill into the House, making the reading of the Bible or any religious book in a public school a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not less than $100 nor more than $1,000. It is needless to add that the bill will not pass.A bill has also been introduced making school attendance compulsory. SCHOOL STATISTICS FOR 1869. By the kindness of School Commissioner Henkle, we are permitted to publish the following summary of statistics in advance of the printing of his annual report, which will probably not be reached by the State printer for several weeks. Most of the figures have been taken directly from the tables, that we might not deprive the report of the interest of the Commissioner's suggestive summaries and contrasts. We contrast the statistics selected with the corre sponding figures for 1868: Number of townships not organized as separate school .............. Number of school houses erected during the year. (1869) Common, 10,962; high, 198; German, 55; Number of youth between the ages of five and twenty-one Increase for the year..... Number of pupils enrolled in the public schools (1869) Common, 711,652; high, 12,146; German, Average number of pupils in daily attendance.... (1869) Common, 417,032; high, 7,888; German, Number of teachers necessary to supply the schools....... Average number of weeks sub-district schools were in session..... 14,070 14,182 schools ..... ......... Average number of weeks graded schools were in session.. Average monthly wages of female teachers..................... Expenditures for sites, building, and repairs.. Fuel and other contingent expenses.. Grand total of expenditures..... A comparison of these two columns shows an increase for the year in nearly all the items, but the most marked advance is in the receipts and expenditures. While the receipts from the State tax, irreducible school fund, and from miscellaneous sources remain about the same, the receipts from local taxation show a gain of $708,625. The increase last year in this item was $607,183, and the increase for the previous year was $989,378. The increase of 1869 as compared with 1866, is $2,305,186, or over one hundred per cent. A similar increase is seen in the expenditures. The total expenditures for 1869 being $6,630,793 against $3,836,970 in 1866! But the great increase is in the amount expended in the erection of school houses. The gain in this one item over that of 1866 is $1,394,002, or nearly three hundred per cent., while the increase in contingent expenses is less than seventy per cent., and in amount paid to teachers less than thirty per cent. These facts show what is increasing |