Page images
PDF
EPUB

and superintendents in the State. Send us any and all educational intelligence you may acquire, an original article to the reading columns, one dollar and a quarter, now and then to the treasury, and if you have no interest in the Journal now, you soon will have.

Teachers' Association.

We learn from a La Crosse paper that the next annual session of the State Teachers' Association will be held in La Crosse on July 23d and 24th; that Hon. J. L. Pickard, of Chicago, will deliver an address on the first evening, and Hon. Matt. H. Carpenter, of Milwaukee, on the second evening; that distinguished educators from other states will be present, and that arrangements have been made by which the teachers are to make an excursion to St. Paul.

A better place could hardly have been selected than La Crosse. For several years past the Association has been held in the eastern part of the state, and the teachers of the western part have, many of them, been prevented from attending, owing to the inconvenience of conveyance and expense. We hope the teachers from the eastern part of the state will turn out en masse, and make the hospitable citizens of La Crosse "twice glad." The proposed excursion to St. Paul on the Mississippi is a plan that should immortalize the name of the originator. Nothing could tend more to a lasting acquaintance and friendship among the teachers, or to a forgetfulness of the trials and labors of the schoolroom. We never have attended a Teachers' Association but that we have returned from it strengthened and improved, and we have always felt that these meetings should be more frequent and of longer duration. Let the valleys of the upper Mississippi reverberate with the shouts of a thousand noisy school ma'ams and masters.

YOUNG CHILDREN AT SCHOOL. At the last regular meeting of the board of education of St. Louis, a resolution was adopted prohibiting children under the age of 7 years from attending the public schools, claiming that the confinement of children under that age in a schoolroom is detrimental both to physical and mental development.

An amendment to the new tariff bill has been adopted by Con gress, admitting maps, school books and furniture free of duty.

Location of Normal Schools.

The Normal School Regents have located a normal school in each of the first five congressional districts of the state, as follows:- -1st district, Whitewater, Walworth county; 2d dist., Stoughton, Dane county; 3d dist., Platteville, Grant county; 4th dist., Sheboygan, Sheboygan county; 5th dist., Oshkosh, Winnebago county.

The design is to have one in each congressional district. The Regents have not yet located one in the 6th district, nor will those in the 2d and 4th districts be erected until the wants of the public demand it. For the school in the 4th district, Fond du Lac was a strong competitor and made a handsome offer. Sheboygan, however, making an equally tempting offer, and being so located as to benefit a large portion of the German element of our population, was selected by the board as the most suitable place. Sheboygan gives ten acres of land for a building site, and agree to erect buildings worth $35,000. Stoughton is to give a building site, 40 acres of timber land, and $30,000. Platteville gives the Academy building, a sufficient amount to repair it, and $5,000. Only one school is at present in operation, the one at Platteville. Prof. Chas. Allen, formerly of the normal department of the university, was appointed principal, at a salary of $2,000, and is now conducting the school to the satisfaction of all. Prof. Allen is peculiarly fitted for the place he occupies, and he is not only doing a vast amount of good in the immediate vicinity of his school, but is making himself generally useful in the south-western part of the state by visiting schools, giving lectures, and grading schools. The school now numbers one hundred and fifty. Prof. Allen is assisted by Prof. J. Wernli, formerly of Milwaukee, Prof. Guernsey, formerly principal in the Academy, Miss Joslyn, formerly assistant in the Academy, and Miss Sprague, of Chicago.

The next annual meeting of the board of regents will be held at Madison, Sept. 4th.

FISH IN THE AMAZON.- Prof. Agassiz, in a recent address at Northampton, Mass., stated that he had collected eighteen hundred new species of fish in the waters of the Amazon, and that the whole number of species there was at least three thousand.

ILLINOIS.-We clip the following from the Illinois TEACHER :— No. of teachers, 16,279. No. of school-districts in the state in 1865, 10,062; in 1866, 9,937. No. of districts having schools six months or more, 9,063, showing that 875 failed to comply with that provision of the law. No. of white persons under 21 years of age, 1,152,074.

No.

of white persons between the ages of 6 and 21, 759,987, being the actual white school population of the state. No. of colored persons under 21, 8,276. No. of such between the ages of 6 and 21, 4,931. No. of male scholars, 320,977. No. of female scholars, 293,682, being 27,295 less than of male scholars, a result, we fancy, differing from that of Massachusetts. The total number of scholars 614,659, leaving 145,328 persons of school age who do not attend school. No. of male teachers, 6,825; of female teachers, 10,454. During the year the number of male teachers has increased 553, and that of females diminished 389. Total No. of teachers, 17,279. No. of graded schools, 628,, being an increase of 115 during the year. The No. of school-houses is 9,753. The No. of pupils in the Normal school is 164. The amount of funds received from district tax in 1865 was $1,958,770, against $2,789,335 in 1866, this being voluntary taxation. Total amount received for all school purposes in 1865, $3,316,730; in 1866, $4,445,130. Amount paid for teachers' wages in 1865, $2,042,780; in 1866, $2,531,036. Amount paid for building new school-houses in 1865, $475,072; in 1866, $830,889. Amount paid for repairs and improvements in 1865, $140,913; in 1866, $216,337. For school furniture in 1865, $24,100; in 1866. $62,982. Total amount expended for all school purposes in 1865, $4,193,636; in 1866, $4,359,238. Highest monthly wages paid to male teachers, $240; to female teachers, $110. Lowest monthly wages paid to male teachers, $13; to female teachers, $6. Average monthly wages paid males, $39.10; females, $26.19. Principal of township funds, $3,987,405. Surplus in treasury belonging to districts, $64,872.

NATIONAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION-PROCEEDINGS.-The association has ordered the proceedings to be furnished at the following rates: The series complete, $2.00; a singe number, $0.50. The volume for 1866 will shortly be issued, and may be had for $0.50. Address James Cruikshank, Treasurer, N. T. A., Brooklyn, N. Y. Educational Journals, and other papers friendly to the cause, please copy.

THE METRIC SYSTEM.-The Metric System has been adopted, permissively, by congress, and any person may do business by this method, if he pleases.

In France, Spain, Belgium and Portugal, the system has been adopted to the exclusion of all others. In Holland other weights are allowed in compounding medicines only. Sardinia and Lombardy have long possessed the system, and it is now extended over the whole of Italy. On the 8th of April, 1862, the House of Commons of Great Britain appointed a committee of fifteen to consider the practicability of adopting the Metrie System. After examining thirty-nine witnesses from different countries of Europe, all intelligent men- -mine of them from countries where the method was in force-they were unanimously in favor of its introduction into Great Britain. A bill passed the House of Commons in 1863, making this system of weights and measures compulsory after three years. It was not acted on by the House of Lords. In 1864 a bill making it permissive was passed and became a law. These facts are significant. As its use is already legal, it will soon be adopted by the people as being simpler, more uniform, and similar to that in use in most countries with which we have intercourse. In our next number we will give the tables and say more in regard to this important innovation. Meanwhile, if anyone wishes to make himself acquainted with this system, he can procure a pamphlet, giving the necessary instruction, of A. S. Barnes, & Co., New York.

WISCONSIN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.- Wm. H. Peck, Editor. Published at Mineral Point, Terms $1.25 a year, or five copies for $5.00. This is a monthly publication devoted to the educational interest of the State. A periodical of this kind has a strong claim on the support of the friends of education within the State, and is a vehicle of important information upon educational topics. The editor solicits from teachers communications for the Journal, and we cordially second the suggestion whether a greater interest in its usefulness and wide circulation cannot be awakened among teachers and all who ought 10 feel a pride to raise the standard of education in our State. [Beloit Journal.]

Local and General Intelligence.

THE salaries of the Principals of the Milwaukee Schools has been raised to $1,200 per annum.

PROF. SAMUEL D. BROWN, a professor at Dartmouth College, has been elected president of Hamilton College, N. Y.

Williams college has opened, with classes numbering as follows: Freshmen, 51; Sophomore, 35; Junior, 48; Senior, 51.

HON. NEWTON BATEMAN, has been re-elected Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state of Illinois.

HON. GEORGE W. Hoss, has been re-elected Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state of Indiana.

WASHINGTON IRVING.- Messrs. Hurd and Houghton have in press the posthumous works of this gifted and beloved author, edited by his nephew Mr. Pierre M. Irving.

ELK HORN.-Brother Cheeney, ex-captain and ex-superintendent, has returned to his first love-the teacher's profession. He has charge of the public schools of Elk Horn.

HON. PAUL A. CHADBOURNE, Professor of Chemistry in Williams College, has been elected president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, in place of Judge French, resigned.

MADISON.-B. M. Reynolds, A. M., late principal of Lockport Union School, and formerly superintendent at Rock Island, has been appointed Supt. of Public Schools at Madison, Wisconsin. Salary, $1,500.

JANESVILLE.-O. R. Smith, the jolly member from Geneva, is in charge of the Janesville schools, at a salary of $1,200. We understand that the citizens of Janesville are proud of the valuable acquisition they have made.

« PreviousContinue »