DISCUSSIONS OF EDUCATIONAL QUESTIONS, CHIEFLY BY H ADMINISTRATION-Arbor Day-Compulsory Attendance-Discipline-Education-Evening Schools— I. ADMINISTRATION. Township districts adopted in Indiana.—Superintendent Holcombe, of Indiana: At first Gire satisfaction in Rhode Island.-Superintendent Stock well, of Rhode Island: So far What would be secured.-Superintendent Thayer, of Wisconsin: I am most cordially in favor of an obligatory township system of school government. I am of the opinion that: (a) It would greatly equalize the cost of public schools. (b) It would almost entirely remedy the evil of inconvenience to school-houses by permitting every child to attend where most convenient. (c) It would do away very largely with the controversies over boundaries of school districts and the location of school-house sites. (d) It would secure better school-houses and better appointments. (e) It would secure better teachers by diminishing the opportunity for the prevalence of unworthy motives; would make it easier to secure uniformity and free supply of textbooks; would promote the efficiency of the township system of libraries; would promote some measure of local supervision; would insure the adoption of a course of study in ungraded schools. (f) It would especially be useful in the way of such disposition of the available teaching force in the town that the greatest utility would result. The "misfits" of teachers and districts are a large factor in the failure of schools. Some of the advantages.-Superintendent Hine, of Connecticut: The township system has the following advantages: (a) Greater efficiency of management. (b) Because the system is co-ordinate and not dislocated. (e) More public interest in schools, because the matter is of greater importance. (d) There results always more schooling for the children. (e) Equality of advantages, continuation of teachers in more places. (A course of study pursued continuously to the end. (9) Better buildings and material. Better men could be secured as directors.-Superintendent Smith, of Tennessee: The township district is decidedly the plan for Tennessee. I favor the township plan because we have several object-lessons in Tennessee that speak louder than words. The fewer men you have to manage the schools, the better. We can secure good directors on the township plan with but little trouble; the other plan gives much trouble. Gives satisfaction in Alabama.-Superintendent Palmer, of Alabama: By our fundamental law every township is a school district and a body corporate, and there has been no disposition to change it, and the system gives satisfaction. Advantages of.-Superintendent Thompson, of Arkansas: In the township a larger number of voters would give a more general expression of the popular will, and more interest would be manifested in selecting good men for school directors. The township as the school district would do away with the necessity of transferring from one district to another; the schools would be as convenient as they are under the present system, the people would retain the same absolute control over the schools, and equal privileges be secured to all. At present, locality determines the length of the school term and other privileges; for instance, one district has a school for eight or nine months, with a comfortable house and excellent teacher, and in the same neighborhood, in another district, though the number of children is greater, there is only a three months' term. How it works in New Hampshire. -Superintendent Patterson, of New Hampshire: It will no longer be possible for a rich district, by squandering surplus funds on a few pupils, to deprive all the other scholars in town of a portion of their legitimate schooling. It will no longer be possible for the village child, unless under special act, to secure thirty or forty weeks of schooling, while the boy or girl on the farm gets but ten or fif teen because he happens to live in a poor district. It will no longer be possible to limit a heavy tax-payer in a poor district to half the schooling of a non-taxpayer in a rich one. The law makes the town as at first the political unit of the State, and is in the interest of equality and fair play. No law ever encountered at the outset, greater or more groundless prejudices than this, and none ever disarmed opposition more quickly, and demonstrated its power to benefit the State. Though the sum paid teachers is $10,328 less than last year, the average length of school has been two weeks more. There has been a more equitable distribution of educational opportunities than formerly, and, as a rule, better teachers have been employed. The reports from the school boards generally indicate that the new law is settling down into an efficient and orderly system, and that the people, as they become accustomed to it and recognize its power to eliminate chronic evils and vitalize the schools, are disposed to cherish and maintain it. In favor of it.-Superintendent Draper, of New York: I am myself inclined to favor the proposition, in the belief that it would result in securing a better class of men for trustees in the rural districts, and that the levying of a tax upon the entire town for the support of the schools of the town would operate to the advantage of the weaker outlying districts. What might be expected of it.-Superintendent Edwards, of Illinois: As a consequence of the establishment of this system, I should expect to see better organization, better grading, an elevation of the standard of teachers' qualifications, more methodical and efficient work in the schools. Under that system schools would not be isolated as they are now. They would be each a part of a reasonable system. I am glad that If we had it A county system in Maryland.-Superintendent Newell, of Maryland: There are no townships in Maryland nor, so far as I know, in any of the Southern States. The unit of authority and direction for schools and other purposes is the county. such a monstrosity as the district system has never been known among us. we should make every effort to get rid of it. Township districts will be adopted.-Superintendent Estabrook, of Michigan: The system is sure to prevail. We shall come to look on our present system as if under dark ages. The merits of the system cannot fail to commend themselves to the judgment of all who will give it their careful and candid consideration. * * * Works well in Massachusetts. Superintendent Dickinson, of Massachusetts: The township system works infinitely better than did the district system. Secures good local management.-Superintendent Morgan, of West Virginia: Under this system our schools have the advantage of a careful local management and all the advantages of the district system. Gives satisfaction.-Deputy Superintendent Stewart, of Pennsylvania: The township system is entirely satisfactory. Is being adopted in Maine.-Superintendent Luce, of Maine: The increase of fifteen in the number of towns that have discarded the district system-a very marked increase as compared with the number abolishing in any previous year-is, therefore, evidence of better schools in as many towns. It is also evidence of the growth of a public recognition of the need of reform in this direction, and is thus a promise of better things to come. The Legislature of 1887 can do no more beneficent work for the State than to wipe from the statutes every provision therein, under and by which the school-district system exists. All experience goes to prove beyond possibility of disproof that schools managed on the town plan are more economically managed, and are in every way more efficient than those managed on the district plan. Desired in Vermont.-Superintendent Dartt, of Vermont: The experience of another two years in the common schools of the State has still more fully convinced me of the utter inefficiency of our plan of district management. A large number of our people have felt this to be true for some time, and have urged a change throughout the whole State. These people are intelligent; they are actuated by unselfish motives, and have a strong desire to see our schools lifted out of this low and unsatisfactory condition to One of efficiency, strength, and progress. No movement was ever advocated with a more patriotic spirit than this one for the improvement of our system of education for the children of our commonwealth, and none is worthier of the careful, unprejudiced, and thoughtful consideration of our citizens. It is worthy of note that most of the teachers and nearly all others who have been practically connected with the schools, favor the change of the district for the town management. Nearly every gathering of teachers in the country has indorsed this movement.***Not only is the district system inefficient, but it is inequitable and anjust. It discriminates against the poor in favor of the rich, and gives no equality of opportunities, having wholly outlived its usefulness as a promoter of intelligence among the people. * * * * * There are now in Vermont thirty towns using this system, and it is working well. As for myself I believe in the town system. The old district system has served its day and should be now made to give place to a better. * This town system is right in the line of progress and it can not be stopped. It will move on in spite of ignorance, prejudice, and parsimony. Let us work for it. We are right, and I believe the right will prevail. Township districts desired in Texas.-Superintendent Cooper, of Texas: In the States which have been divided into townships, the town has been found to be the most satisfactory unit for the subdivision of the county for school purposes. The plan of forming districts so small that one school for each race will supply the needs of all the children the district has been found to be liable to nearly the same objections which have been found to lie against the community system in Texas. The North-western States, where we find the best system of rural schools, are gradually abandoning the one-school district for the township district, containing from five to fifteen schools. Some of the Southern States have adopted the township district, notably Alabama, and all find it the best possible unit. This instructive fact will furnish us with a safe guide in fixing the general size of school districts. The area of the township is about 36 square miles. II. ARBOR DAY. Why we should have an Arbor day.--Superintendent Hoitt, of California: We have heard much and read more of the wanton destruction of our forests. Our schools can not protect the forests, but they can raise up a generation which will not leave our hill-sides and mountains treeless; a generation which will frown upon and rebuke the wanton de struction of our forest trees. There is no spot on earth that may not be made more beautiful by the help of trees and flowers. If, under the influence of a manifest destiny, the child must inevitably leave the home of his childhood, we may at least surround the home with beauty and make it attractive, so that his heart, in whatever distant land it beats, shall, like the sea-shell far from its ocean bed, retain some faint whispers of its early dwelling place. Trees everywhere exert a controlling moral influence. We may not be able to tell why or how it is done, but the fact we know and feel in our every day's existence. Every plant in our door yard or upon the naked sidewalk in front of our sapling which we Our schools bear a near relation to the dwellings makes, with every spreading branch, expanding leaf, and opening blossom, home pleasanter and recollections of it stronger. state, but a and when school opens the family life of the whole district is stirred up as if it were a festival day. We should not be satisfied till the school grounds, as well as our homes, are such in themselves and in their surroundings as shall not only be attractive, but shall surely tend to strengthen, elevate, and ennoble human character. Let us have a legally appointed "Arbor day," and take the children out of our schools, and, under proper directions, teach them how to plant shade trees, shrubbery, and flow eta Teach them how to prepare and plant the lawn with their own hands, and to care for these things when they have been planted. Thus may over a quarter of a million of children be taught to think of the value of trees, become familiar with them, and learn to love them. Thus may they take the hand of nature and be led to noble thoughts and worthy deeds. For one day, at least, "Come forth into the light of things; let Nature be your teacher." Good effects of Arbor day.-A. F. Hess, school superintendent of Jefferson County, W. Va.: Arbor day has accomplished much good in having our school grounds properly fenced and beautified. Arbor day may be devoted to general improvement of school grounds.-Superintendent Higbee, of Pennsylvania: Many of our schools for various reasons were not able to observe the regular spring Arbor day in answer to the Governor's proclamation. We are anxious that the good work so happily begun, may continue and give still larger results for the benefit of the schools, and for the general good of the Commonwealth. It is not necessary to confine Arbor-day work exclusively to the planting of trees. The proper grading of school grounds, the removal of stones and all refuse, the careful guarding of trees against the winter winds, the protection of tender shrubbery from destructive frosts, the dissemination of useful information on the subject of fruit and shade trees, of forestry, and landscape gardening, the gathering and storage of seeds for the next spring's planting, botanic lessons especially devoted to the flora of the district, with definite reports from season to season of what has been done in the locality, what good results have fol lowed therefrom, and what it is proposed shall yet be done all these are proper subjects for Arbor-day observance, and well deserve attention. Such digression from the ordinary routine of school work will be profitable to the children in many ways. It will give them some sense of what they themselves can do by organized effort, having some definite aim in view. It will challenge them, each and all, to take part in work for the general good, and help to awaken a proper pride in the good appearance of the whole neighborhood in which they live. It will add to their habits an aesthetic culture, which will increase with their increasing years; and the vision of what their own hands have done in beautifying their school grounds and improving and adding value to their home surroundings will delight them more and more as season follows season, through not only their school life, but that more mature life of manhood and womanhood, for which, in large part, the school is designed to make preparation. III.-COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE. The necessity for compulsory education.-C. E. Walling, school superintendent of Morgan County, W. Va.: Some say we must educate the masses so they will appreciate an education; but how are we to do it? The greater number who do not avail themselves of the opportunity offered by the free schools are the children of poor and ignorant parents, who will be allowed to grow up in ignorance, and generation after generation will do the same unless the law forces them into school until the one generation is educated, then the greatest difficulty will be overcome. If parents are remiss in their duties to their children, and not aware of the great responsibility resting upon them, they should be made sensible, and be compelled to discharge a parent's duty. IV.-DISCIPLINE. The model school-government.-School committee of Salem, N. H.: There can be no permanent prosperity or real progress unless the scholar is subject to the rules. Where this does not exist the teacher is nothing and the school is worthless. It should be a discipline founded on respect, a government administered by leading rather than driving the pupil. To have it perfect, there should be a willing obedience to authority without the display of passion. True discipline is something more than mere order; it is a cheerful submission on the part of the scholar to his instructor, not from fear, but from love. The teacher wins the heart, inspires reverence and esteem, in a word, governs without seeming to govern or causing the pupil to feel that he is governed. Good discipline the first essential of a good school. --Superintendent William E. Puck, of Manchester, N. H.: Correct habits are largely the result of proper discipline; therefore good discipline is the first essential of a good school, and one's ability agreeably to discipline a school properly is the first mark of his fitness for a position at the teacher's desk. Ordinarily, the condition of the American family is such, at the present day, that good order at school is generally and agreeably secured by the good sense and tact of the teacher, supplemented by the mord support of parents; but occasionally an apparently incorrigible pupil is encountered, who, "like a hornet in a bee-hive," brings consternation to the queen, creates confusion in the swarm, and threatens all with destruction. In the bee-hive the death of the offender or his expulsion is immediately deter mined: and in the school the wilful disturber must be promptly met with subjection or exclusion. It may be properly inferred from the foregoing that, in the matter of school discipline, Iregard as best the mildest means that can be made successful, but that the means must be successful at all hazards. So it would seem that there may be instances where corporal punishment might be regarded as justifiable; but it should be inflicted only as a last resort, and then not hastily or inconsiderately. I hold it safe to enunciate the general principle, that whatever a judicious parent may rightfully do in the matter of correcting his child and enforcing obedience, the teacher, standing in the place of the parent, would be justified in doing; and yet, while believing that corporal punishment is justifiable in some instances, I think it well that the teacher should consider in each case appearing to merit its infliction whether it would not be wiser to pursue a different course from what the parent even would be likely to take in regard to a misdemeanor deserving corporal punishment; for the teacher has the parent back of him, and, by conditioning the case so that the parent will have to take cognizance of it, the co-operation of the parent may be secured when otherwise it might be antagonized. The alternative for corporal punishment in school is suspension therefrom; and in no instance when such suspension occurs should the pupil be allowed to return to school, except under conditions which would cause him, his parents, the school, and the teacher, all to feel that whatever of good could have been gained by the infliction of corporal panishment had been attained, unless, indeed, it should become clear that the case was not deserving of such punishment. Corporal punishment discouraged in Louisiana.-Rules and regulations of Louisiana State board of education: Rule 27. Those teachers who are the most successful in maintaining the order and discipline of their pupils, without the use of corporai punishment, other qualifications being sufficient, shall be awarded by the board a higher degree of appreciation, and be preferred above all others in promotions and appointments. Corporal punishment sometimes necessary.-City Superintendent Bettison, of New Orleans, La.: While it is true that in the best schools there is the least punishment, and that the best disciplinarian is he who can cause his pupils to govern themselves, it is not to be inferred that it is a teacher's duty to submit to anarchy rather than to resort to corporal punishment. V.-EDUCATION. Education the defense of the State.-Territorial board of education of Dakota: We recognize the influence of education upon the individual, in the family, the church and society, but do we not overlook the fact that it is the defense of the State? Education is, in the highest sense, the charge of political society. It is so important an agency as to justify compulsion on the part of the State. To education the State must look for trained patriotic citizenship, for the promotion of morals among the people, and for assurances for continued progress in everything that is wise and beneficent in our present civilization. The State should guarantee to every child a good education, and compel the attendance of those who would voluntarily absent themselves, or whose parents, through motives of avarice or neglect, would prevent attendance. The obligation of free education is with the State, and no local influences should be permitted to deprive any child within the State of some opportunity for at least an elementary education. It may be opposition to free public schools, it may be poverty caused by drought or cyclone, it may be extravagance in taxation, it may be the general neglect of local officers; no matter. In any case the State should step in with some funds and provide a school for a short time, and enforce the attendance of all children of school age. Pellice education not a matter of charity. Superintendent Finger, of North Carolina: Very frequently we hear the statement that it is robbery to tax one man to educate another man's children. This sentiment prevails to some extent everywhere, I sup20e, and those who hold it regard public education as a charity. They are, perhaps, willing to dole out a little education to the poor on the same principle that they would Are them a loaf of bread to keep them from starving. Snel persons reason from other premises than those which the founders of our Repalie used in support of public education. The foundation of public education is broad atmanship and not charity. The friends of the public schools in the past, and now, do not think that our property or our lives are safe in the hands of ignorant voters, and Ley do not think that our free governmental and religious institutions can long exist hout liberal provisions made by the State for the education of all the voters. They eve that the rich man, who does not even think enough of the public schools to atronize them by sending his own children to them, is made richer by them, in that e is made securer in the possession of his wealth, and that verily his contribution to then does not impoverish him." Besides, it is a fact that any man may know by a little investigation that general in |