REPORT. To the Governor of the State of Maine: SINCE the undersigned submitted their Report on the 14th May last, they have not been in session, until Wednesday last. "A report of their doings for the past year," therefore, will consist mainly of a statement of the exertions of the individual members in their respective counties, in carrying out the plans for reform, which at our former sessions had been agreed upon, together with the doings of the Secretary of the Board in the performance of the arduous duties assigned to him. The Report of that officer, which is herewith submitted, contains so full and accurate an account of what has been done during the past year in this State, and the results which have already followed the action of the legislature and of the friends of popular education, that we deem it unnecessary to add any thing to the history of the movement contained in that report. The law also requires us to report "the result of our investigations" during the preceding year. In performing this part of our duty we might very properly content ourselves with referring again to the Report of our Secretary, but have thought it best to advert to one or two matters of interest, which seem more properly to come directly from us. The law under which the Board of Education is at present organized, by requiring a Report, in the month of April, annually, necessarily requires a meeting of the Board in that month. It also requires the newly elected Board to hold their first session on the first Wednesday of May. This makes an expense to the State of several hundred dollars which, as it seems to us, might very properly be saved. When we consider how much money is necessary, and ought cheerfully to be granted by the legislature in promoting an object so important as the education of the people, we cannot but deem it our duty to call attention to every plan by which money can be saved without injuriously affecting those interests. It is not perceived how this saving can be effected under a law, which, like the present, makes it possible that all the members of the Board may be changed each year. For while it is obviously right that the Board about to retire from office should give an account of their doings, it is no less important that their successors should, at the commencement of their official term, meet to arrange their work, and select their Secretary. We submit, therefore, to the legislature the propriety of so altering the law, that after the election next autumn, only one-third of the members of the Board be elected annually; that the report required in April be dispensed with, and the annual report be made at the session when the Secretary is chosen. Besides the saving to the State by this change, two-thirds of the expense of the conventions of school committees will be avoided, as the convention in each county will be but once in three years. We forbear to urge any other reasons for this change, believing that the arguments for and against it on other grounds will readily suggest themselves to the minds of the members of the legislature. Our investigations during the past year have led us to the opinion that certain changes in our laws relating to public schools are expedient, but we have decided to refer the recommendation of those changes to the Board of Education for the ensuing year. The reason of this decision is, that most of the members of the present Board are reëlected to office, and that several of the counties not now represented will have members present at the session commencing on the first Wednesday of May next, and it seems to us desirable, that before changes in the law are proposed, they should be considered by members from all the counties in the State. In presenting the Report of the Secretary of this Board, we deem it but justice to add our convictions, that it contains the result of a most faithful application to the duties assigned to him; and we congratulate ourselves and the State upon having secured the services of a person so well fitted for the most prominent position in this great work. As a fund of statistical information prepared with great skill and labor, and of strong argument addressed to the mind and heart of the people, we can do no better service than by promoting its extensive circulation, as well for present use, as for future reference. We therefore advise that a sufficient number of copies be printed to furnish one to each school district in the State, to be kept for its use by the clerk of the district, or deposited in the school district library, where such a library exists. An examination of the returns of school committees shows that while quite a number of towns have neglected to make any returns, others, through carelessness or ignorance, have made them incorrectly. It may be deemed advisable to secure the correction of such errors in future, that these returns be made through the Secretary of the Board or the members of the Board in the respective counties. The prompt liberality of the last legislature in aiding our views, by an appropriation for the establishment of Teachers' Institutes, has already received the approbation of the people, and the alacrity with which so many teachers availed themselves of the opportunity afforded them is conclusive proof that as soon as it is known that teachers qualified to instruct, are wanted and will be paid, there will be no lack of them, and no reason for the oft-repeated complaint that the greatest evil we have to contend with is the incompetency of teachers. We can truly say, that more than the most sanguine of us hoped for, as the result of the first year's labor, has been realized. Already from the annual meetings of our towns we hear of the appropriations for education being doubled and trebled. The school districts are uniting and liberally raising money for the construction of convenient and commodious school-houses. Everything betokens that the subject has taken strong hold of the public mind, and that its importance is beginning to be felt somewhat as it ought. Sympathizing deeply with those, who, in other lands, are at last aroused to snatch by force the liberty which tyranny has so long withheld from them, we may well rejoice that to us is committed the labor so infinitely more pleasant, of preserving, by the diffusion of knowledge and virtue, the liberty for which we are not called upon to shed our blood. In this thankfulness let us not forget, however, that pleasant as our task is, it is still a work requiring constant, persevering labor. A work in which all departments of the government and all classes of the people must coöperate, with an honest intention and a strong determination never to desist from labor, till the end we aim at, the thorough education of every child in the State, is attained. All which is respectfully submitted. Augusta, April 29, 1848. STEPHEN EMERY, HORACE PIPER, WILLIAM R. PORTER, A. F. DRINKWATER, EBENEZER KNOWLTON, SAMUEL ADLAM, DAVID WORCESTER, OLIVER L. CURRIER. NOTE. The members of the Board from the counties of Lincoln and Somerset were not present at the meeting at which this Report was adopted. |