Editorial Miscellany.

Teachers' Wages.

FROM the Annual Report of our Superintendent of Public Schools, We are pleased to learn the fact that teacher's wages are higher than they have been since the State was organized. In 1849 the annual wages of males was $16.22 per month; in 1866, $38.53. In 1849 the average wages of females was $6.92 per month; in 1866, $24.05. The expenses of living are not so great as they were in 1864, and yet male teachers receive $4.24 more per month. This we are glad to see, and we hope to see a like increase for fifteen years to come, for schoolteaching is a profession that has never been properly appreciated.

When teachers receive enough to warrant an expenditure of a little fortune and the devotion of the best years of their existence to the securing of a proper education, then we shall have good teachers, who will make teaching a life-long profession. Nine-tenths of the teachers in this State use the profession of school-teaching as a stepping-stone to something more lucrative. There is still too much difference between the prices paid male and female teachers.

School Houses,

During the past year there has been expended for building and repairing, the sum of $174,903.4, a sum sufficient to show an intelligent appreciation of the importance of suitable school accommodations In many of our villages and cities buildings have been erected that reflect great credit not only upon the communities that have built then, but upon the state at large. There are school houses now to be found in Wisconsin that in their construction, arrangement, style and furnishing would not suffer by comparison with the best in older and

wealthier states. The progress, in this respect, made during the past few years, is a source of deep satisfaction to every friend of general education. An elegant school house, conveniently arranged and tastefully furnished exerts a beneficial influence upon all parts of the community. It is both an effect and a cause of intelligence and refinement.

The utter unfitness of some of the school houses in the state for the purpose for which they are designed, and this too in districts entirely able to provide suitable school buildings, suggests the propriety of such legislative action as will secure to the children residing in such districts the means of education. Were town boards of supervisors required, on complaint made to them by the county superintendent, of the unfitness or lack of school accommodations in any district, to examine and decide as to the ground of such complaint, and the ability of the district to provide the necessary buildings for a good school; and were said boards authorized, in the exercise of a sound discretion, to levy, collect, and expend a reasonable tax for building a school house or for repairing the same, it is believed that such a law would be beneficial to the district thus taxed, and approved by the people of the

state.

The poorest school-houses are not generally found in the districts possessing least ability to build better ones. They are evidences of selfishness or ignorance wherever they are found; hence a law of the kind indicated could not be regarded as oppressive. (SUPT'S REPORT.)

MR. EDITOR: Sir-Permit me to lay before the readers of the JOURNAL an answer to the question about the "Lean Horse'

The gentleman who bought the horse,
Which was so poor and lean,

Had spared no cost in keeping him,

'Tis plainly to be seen.

The feeding of the animal,

'Till he got sound and well,

Cost eighteen pounds and one bob more,
And then he did him sell.

The half of which, if added to
One-fourth of the prime cost,

Is just exactly what the gent,
By the transaction lost.

—ANSWER to Horse Problem in February Number.- Cost of feed, 1841s., or 9£. 4s 3d.

Neillesville, Wis., March 12th, 1867.

A SOLUTION TO THE QUESTION.

C. W. BLAKE.

Find two numbers whose sum and product are equal, neither of them being 2.

Let X and Y be the two numbers, then by the question XY=X÷Y; whence by transposing we have XY—X=Y; or X(Y—1)= Y. ·

Whence X

Y

Y-1

Now, by assuming the value of Y, we can from this expression, find the value of X, which will answer the conditions of the question.This formula may be put into the words of the following rule:

From any number greater than unity subtract unity, and divide the number by the remainder, the quotient and the number assumed will be the two numbers required.

EXAMPLE-Take any number 7 for the value of Y, one of the numbers; then 7-1-6 and 7—6—1 1-7; whence 7 and 1 1-7 are the numbers.

EXAMPLE FOR SOLUTION.

Now

Three gentlemen contribute £161 5s towards the building of a church at the distance of 2 miles from the residence of the first 24 miles from that of the second, and 3 from that of the third. they agreed that their shares shall be reciprocally proportioned to their respective distances from the church. How much should they individually contribute?

Yours.

J. C

THE University of Wisconsin is in a flourishing condition as is indicated by the Annual Catalogue. There are in the College Classes 41 students; in the Normal, 80; in the Preparatory, 4s dies and 100 gentlemen. No Chancellor has yet been elected. Prof. Sterling is Vice-Chancellor. Prof. J. C Pickard has charge of the Normal Department.

County Superintendency.

THE improvement in methods of instructions that may be noticed in many of the schools of the state, is mainly due to the efficient efforts of county superintendents, These officers have generally co-operated with this department in all measures calculated to advance the interests of education.

In the few cases where dissatisfaction exists in regard to the manner in which the duties of the office have been discharged, it will be found that there has been less care exercised in the selection of officers than the importance of the office demands. The system ought not to be condemned on account of mistakes made by those who administer it. It cannot be denied that, in a few instances, the persons selected as county superintendents have shown little interest in the position, or fitness for it; but in every county in the state men may be found, if they are sought, who will do their duty intelligently, unselfishly and efficiently. It may be that these men cannot always be found at a political caucus, but this ought not to be an insurmountable objection to their nomination or election.

The salaries at present paid to these officers, are, with a few exceptions, too small to secure the talent and ability which they ought to possess. As the minimum of the salary fixed by the legislature has great influence in determining the amount actually paid, and as the law limiting the compensation of these was passed six years ago, a change of the law so as to encourage the payment of larger salaries, and to provide for the printing, etc., necessary to a proper discharge of the duties of the office, is recommended.

It would also seem to be proper, that the county superintendent should have an office room furnished him at the county seat, where the records of his office shall be kept, and where he may be found at convenient times by those who have business to do with him.

TEACHERS.

THE demand for better qualified teachers is earnest and general. Although we may occasionally find in our public schools those who are poorly qualified acting as teachers, yet they remain in any one school but a short time, while those who possess knowledge and character and are "apt to teach" are sought to take their places. The

time has passed when conceit, superficial attainments and indolence could fortify themselves with the deference that was paid to the position of a teacher. ; and, no one but those who lose by it will deplore the change in public opinion. There has never been a time when real attainments and real ability in the teacher would meet with a readier and heartier recognition than now. While the compensation of teachers is still inadequate in many, and perhaps in most instances, yet industry, culture, energy and manliness, in this, as in other professions, are sure of obtaining a reward.

A marked feature in the educational history of the past year is the interest shown by all classes in educational meetings. A short notice of an address upon an educational topic, given in any one of our villages or country towns, will bring together a large and more intelligent audience than can be gathered upon any other ordinary occasion. The press of the state, without exception, it is believed, is always ready to publish anything tending to promote the interests of education, and reports of school examinations, and of educational meetings occupy the most conspicuous places in our newspaper columns. The people no longer need argument to convince them of the utility of our common school systems. It is as needless to argue this subject as to deny the existence of solar light, or the power of gravitation. What they now ask is that the system shall be developed; that its discordant parts shall be harmonized, and that it shall meet the demands of society. They see in our common school system, wisely administered, the salvation of the Republic. The lessons of the last few years have been learned by heart. They know that it was the common school that stood like a wall of iron against the assaults of treason; that wherever it was established it remained the symbol of loyalty and order. They know that the patriotism it teaches is love of country, and that the morality it inculcates promotes the good of all; that the virtues it plants and cultivates are those which render life useful, beautiful and noble, and that it is the instrumentality demanded by Christianity to destroy the fictitious distinctions of birth and wealth and creed and color, and to lay deep and broad the foundations of a government that shall be not less stable than beneficent. (Supt's. Report.)

Nebraska is now a state in the Union, making the thirty-seventh.