injurious. It is not an uncommon practice to employ a female teacher in summer and a male teacher in winter, and different teachers each successive summer and winter. Each successive teacher is unacquainted with the children or their parents; he is ignorant of the methods pursued by his predecessor, and has himself had but little experience in teaching, and thus his success is hazarded, the progress of the school retarded, and the confidence of his employers not secured. Weeks are lost in vain attempts to effect an organization, new methods and new regulations are disapproved, new text books are introduced and some of the scholars are put back to review their studies, and others are pushed forward into studies for which they are not prepared. Three or four months are worse than wasted, when the school closes preparatory to another change without a step of progress.

While the pay of teachers is less than it ought to be, and while many of those most competent are induced to seek employment that involves less labor and secures better compensation, there is nevertheless a steady increase in the average salaries,

The following table shows, for the past ten years: (1) the monthly wages of male teachers; (2) the monthly wages of female teachers; and (3) the ratio of the wages of female to the wages of male teachers:

The following statement shows the number of certificates of each grade, granted to male and female teachers during the past school year:

The number of male teachers decreased during the war, but it was supposed that the number would be relatively increased with the return of peace.

The following statement shows how far this expectation has been realized:

While the number of male teachers may be expected to increase, and that of female teachers to diminish relatively to the whole number employed, there is reason to believe that our primary schools will continue in charge of female teachers. No friend of education will regret that the necessities growing out of the war have demonstrated the superior fitness of women as teachers of youth. If they are well qualified by knowledge and training, their patience, tact and fine instincts peculiarly fit them to govern, influence and instruct the young.

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For our grammar and high schools, however, we need, as principals, men of attainments, character, experience and skill. The work demanded in these positions is difficult, requiring a degree of executive ability, as well as a power of endurance that women seldom possess.

The demand for well qualified teachers has been greater this year than ever before. The establishment of graded schools in so many of our villages and towns has created this demand; and teachers who have furnished evidence of ability to properly conduct this class of schools are sure of permanent employment with good salaries.

The salaries paid to the principals of the public schools in our cities and larger villages range from $1,000 to $1,800.

VIII.-COUNTY SUPERINTENDENCY.

The number of schools visited by the County Superintendents, as reported, is 4,223. This is not to be confounded with the number of visits, which is much greater.

Although there exists some dissatisfaction in connection with

this office, in some parts of the State, we feel confident that the objects sought by its creation have been, in some good degree secured. These objects were:

1. A better supervision of the schools by an officer having the authority and ability to improve their condition.

That this object has been secured, is generally acknowledged by those acquainted with the condition of the public schools six years ago, and familiar with their present condition. Improved methods of instruction have been introduced, and better order very generally prevails. Many of them have been well classified, and they have been graded, where circumstances permitted, so as to secure econoomy and efficiency in their management. Courses of study have been adopted and extended, and in many of the country towns there are facilities for acquiring an education, that could never have been secured without intelligent supervision. That there are towns where the schools are inferior to what they were before this system was adopted, is not only possible, but certain. Under the old system of town superintendency, there were some towns that secured a proper supervision of their schools, but these were the exceptions. And, that there are counties under the present system that have very inefficient Superintendents may be asserted, and perhaps proved; but no person, who knows the work that has been done during the past year in our State by these officers, can doubt, that on the whole, all has been accomplished that could reasonably have been expected, and that we owe a debt of gratitude to our County Superintendents, for their patience, self-denial, energy, and industry, that we cannot pay.

The schools in our country towns cannot enjoy all the advantages that favor the schools in our cities and villages, but they may be improved by the same means, and among them none is more important than a searching, constant, and intelligent supervision.

2. A careful and thorough examination of teachers.

This has been secured so far as possible.

The fact that so many

of the teachers in our public schools are not qualified in respect to character, experience and attainments, is not the fault of the examining officer. It has been absolutely necessary to license hundreds

who are illy fitted for their important work, or to close many of our schools. The inducements to engage in other and more lucrative employments are so strong as to lead many of our best teachers to abandon a calling that barely affords the means of living, and removes all hope of saving anything for the future. No other class of persons is so poorly paid, and to no other are there offered so few incentives to aim at excellence and to achieve success.

County Superintendents can not raise the standard of attainments much above that which the people demand. Those who do this are almost sure to excite an opposition that is too strong to be withstood. A few disappointed teachers with their sympathizing friends can easily effect a change in officers, and thus a premium is offered to time-serving, incompetent men, who are always ready to avail themselves of every opportunity to secure by chicanery what they cannot obtain by merit.

But in spite of all adverse circumstances, the standard of attainments has been raised. Our teachers are better qualified than they In some of the counties where county superinpeoople, the change for the Salaries have been increased, during the year, and teachers

were six years ago. tendents have been sustained by the better is too marked to be questioned. schools have been taught a longer time have found permanent employment. Incompetent men and women have been refused certificates. Character has been made a prerequisite to employment, and ability and acquirements have become the only means of retaining it.

Our experience has not been unlike that of other states, where the testimony is strong, if not unanimous, that this educational agency is a necessary part of any good school system. Hon. Newton Bateman, Superintendent of Public Instruction for Illinois, in his last biennial report, says:

County supervision of schools is the right arm of power in our system. It can not be dispensed with. It has done more than any other agency to make our schools what they are, and its vitalizing influence is more manifest every year. More and better work has been done by it the past year than in any other since the system was established. Some of the counties have been almost revolutionized in respect to schools and education during the past year,

year

and the county superintendents have done it. They have visited the schools, visited the parents, held institutes, addressed the people, issued circulars, written for the press, published reports, and mightily awakened and quickened the public mind. By their influence and efforts districts have been consolidated, schools have been graded, superior teachers employed, courses of study perfected, controversies settled, school-houses built and furnished, and the whole aspect of educational affairs changed for the better. I know that these things are so, because I have seen them. I have visited many of these good and true men in the scenes of their labors, and witnessed the results that I describe. I declare my belief that the destruction or crippling of the county superintendency would be the severest blow that could fall upon our common schools."

Similar testimony can be found in the annual school reports of every state where the system has been established.

A meeting of the county superintendents of the state was held at La Crosse, on the 23d of July last, pursuant to a call issued by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The meeting was harmonious in its action and profitable to those in attendance. The experience of the more successful was made instructive to those needing advice and encouragement; and plans for work, methods of conducting examinations, and measures calculated to awaken interest among parents and teachers were discussed.

The resolutions adopted by the convention will be found among the proceedings, which are published in the appendix.

IX.-SCHOOL-HOUSES.

The number of public school-houses in the state is 4567, which is 111 more than the number reported last year. Of these 451 are built of stone or brick, showing an increase of 41 during the past year. The number reported with outhouses in good condition is 1867, or 241 more than in 1866. The number with sites containing

one acre or more is 946, while 3621 sites are each less than one acre in size. The number of sites well enclosed is 903, or about one in five. The number of scholars that can be accommodated in the public schools is 259,284.