tilation, and in general, their want of proper provision for the health, the comfort, the instruction and the discipline of the pupils. They have exposed the ruinous consequences of the multiplication of districts, and urged the smaller ones to unite and establish schools of different orders, placing the young children by themselves under the charge of female teachers, and the older ones in schools instructed by men, so that more and better instruction might be obtained for a given amount of money. They have shown the importance of lengthening the term of tuition, and of establishing town-schools. They have caused registers to be kept in the schools, by means of which the great amount of time lost by the absence and irregular attendance of the pupils has been ascertained, and brought home to the minds of the people. By procuring the passage of an Act for the payment of the services of school committees, they have greatly increased the attention of these important officers to their duties. Their activity, seconded by the munificence of a gentleman who was a member of their body at the time, effected the establishment of the Normal Schools for the education of teachers, which have now been in operation for some years, and have rooted themselves in the favor of the most competent judges of their merits. The grants of money from the public treasury, in aid of the purchase of libraries for the districts, in pursuance of Acts passed at the recommendation of the Board, have afforded the means for a very wide diffusion of knowledge; and the arrangements which the Board have made or approved, have enabled the districts to procure valuable books at a very cheap rate. The publication of the Abstracts of School Returns, prepared with so much labor by the Secretary, has been of great service. The wide circulation of the information and suggestions which they contain, has probably contributed more than any other act of the Board to interest the people of the Commonwealth in the cause of education, and to promote the improvement of the schools. Every town in the State has been enabled to see what the others have done. The backward have been stimulated, the active have been encouraged, and all have been enlightened. To use the words of Mr. Mann in the preface to the volume of Abstracts for 1839-40: "Cases have been constantly oc

curring, where striking views or suggestions for improvement, made by one committee and published in the last Abstract, have been extensively copied or recommended for adoption by committees in their reports for the present.

We wish to say a few more words on some of the points presented in the above general survey. The condition of most of the school-houses in the Commonwealth, at the time when the Board began its work, was such that the Secretary thought it necessary to append to his First Report a supplementary Report devoted to school-houses exclusively, in which their great defects were particularly specified, the injurious consequences resulting therefrom forcibly portrayed, and many valuable suggestions made respecting the proper remedies for these evils and the proper construction of school-houses in future. These suggestions, repeated on every proper occasion, in Reports and lectures and journals, by the Secretary and the fellow-laborers whom his activity brought into the field, have produced a great improvement in the school-houses throughout the State. The Eighth Report of the Board says, in reference to this subject, "no one can travel through any part of our State, without being struck with the great change for the better, which has been effected within the last few years." The selections from the school committees' reports, published in the volumes of "Abstracts," testify to the truth of this We may add in this connection, that the number of school-houses has been greatly increased within a few years. At a meeting of the American Institute of Education in 1841, it was stated by Mr. Rantoul, that since the publication of the Report on the construction of schoolhouses, "more school-houses have been built in this State in one year than in ten years from 1828 to 1838." The Eighth Report of the Secretary of the Board, dated December 10, 1844, says, that "since 1837, the appropriations for building and repairing school-houses have amounted to between nine hundred thousand and a million dollars."

statement.

The importance of seminaries for the education of teachers was forcibly presented to the Legislature in the same Report. The example of other countries, where such institutions for imparting skill in the business of instruction have long existed, with the most beneficial results, was set forth; an interest in the subject was awakened in

the minds of legislators and of the public; and the contribution of ten thousand dollars by a member of the Board, to afford means for a trial of the plan, procured a grant to the same amount from the Legislature, and the consequence was the establishment of the Normal Schools for teachers, already alluded to. The abstracts from the reports of the school committees show how highly they are appreciated. Of their importance we need say little. Young men and women usually begin to keep school at an age when they are not much accustomed to self-restraint or to responsibility; when they have little knowledge of the world and are looking forward with hope and anxiety, eager to make themselves acquainted with the higher branches of knowledge, and very reluctant to give their attention to elementary studies; when they are disposed to make violent exertions, but are very impatient of the long-continued, moderate efforts, repeated over and over again in spite of constant failure, which are continually required in the education of children. The young teacher knows neither the difficulties which he has to meet nor the proper modes of meeting them. He needs training for the profession that he has chosen, as much as he would for any other profession. A full understanding of its difficulties, and a thorough indoctrination in the best modes of effecting its objects, will tend more than anything else to supply his deficiencies, to give him self-control, self-possession and resources, and thus fit him for encountering sudden emergencies and enduring protracted trials. This knowledge of what he is to meet and how he is to act, it is the object of Normal Schools to impart, and the experience of foreign countries shows that they have succeeded in imparting it.

Mr. Mann devotes a considerable part of his last Report to the subject of these schools. We hope that those which have been established among us will be provided with suitable buildings and all the other conveniences which they may require, to give them a fair opportunity of producing their proper fruits.

The Teachers' Institutes, which have been in operation for two or three years past in the State of New York, show the estimation in which seminaries for teachers are held, since even the imperfect ones described as follows, in the Report just alluded to, have excited much interest.

"Teachers' Institutes. These are constituted and sustained in the following manner :

"In the spring and autumn of the year, those persons, male and female, who propose to keep school the ensuing season, assemble at some convenient and central place; and not only form classes for mutual improvement, but they employ some distinguished teacher or teachers, to preside over their meetings. and give them instruction. Here they are indoctrinated, not merely in the general principles of school government, the means and modes of order, discipline, classification, motive-powers, etc., but they go through the actual drill of classes and routine of the school-room. These teachers elect form themselves into classes, in all the branches they expect to teach; they study lessons and perform recitations, just as is done in a school. The exercises are interspersed with discussions, and the evening is generally occupied by lectures on some topic connected with the great cause of education. The Institutes hold regular sessions from day to day, usually for a fortnight, though for a longer or shorter period, according to the ability and zeal of the parties. During the autumn which has just closed, a large number of such Institutes were held in the interior and western part of the State of New York."

In the First Report of the Board, and the one which followed it the next year, the subject of District School Libraries was discussed at length. "A foundation was made for the formation of such libraries by the Act of 12th April, 1837, authorizing an expenditure by each district of thirty dollars for this purpose the first year, and ten each succeeding year." The purpose of the Act was carried into effect by the Board, who made arrangements for the publication of a series of books for such libraries. The publishers obtained the aid of men of literary eminence among us, to re-edit existing works or to prepare new ones. To guard against the introduction of partisan or sectarian books, no work was to be admitted into the series without the unanimous approval of the Board of Education, in which the principal political and religious bodies among us were represented. In March, 1842, the Legislature passed a resolve, that the sum of fifteen dollars, to be taken from the School Fund, be appropriated to every school district in the Commonwealth, to be expended in books for a school district library, to be paid to every district which shall have raised and appropriated fifteen dollars or more for the same object. At the same time they appropriated six

thousand dollars annually to the support of the Normal Schools. In the Sixth Report of the Board, made the next year, (1843,) they remark, in reference to the above-mentioned grant for the purchase of school libraries:

"The impulse which has thus been given to the improvement of the youthful mind has already been felt throughout our Commonwealth. The enterprise of individuals has been thereby stimulated, and to meet the demand for books a number of libraries have been selected by different publishing houses for the use of schools."

From the last Report we learn that

"Since the resolve of March 3d, 1842, in behalf of school district libraries, about sixty thousand dollars have been expended for this object alone, and, leaving out the city of Boston, twothirds of all the remaining districts in the State are supplied with this invaluable means of improvement."

By a Resolve passed March 11, 1844, any school district is entitled to draw from the public treasury, for the purchase of books, as many times fifteen dollars as the number sixty is contained in the number of the children of the district between four and sixteen years of age.

In their First Report, the Board also recommended the publication of a periodical paper, of which the exclusive object should be the promotion of Common School education. Such a journal has been published ever since November 1838, edited by the Secretary of the Board, and has proved a valuable instrument for diffusing information, and a valuable depository for documents relating to education.

The duty, which the law assigns to the Secretary, "to collect information of the actual condition and efficiency of the common schools and other means of popular education," has been performed through the medium of Conventions, called in each county of the Commonwealth, composed of teachers, school committee men and the friends of education generally, held at convenient intervals, throughout the State, so that the Secretary might be present at each Convention. These Conventions have given rise to many instructive discussions, have collected and diffused much information, and maintained and extended an interest in the subject of education.