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1.--SCHOOL-DISTRICTS.

If we count nine parts of districts as equivalent to four whole districts, the number was:

In 1867.
In 1866.

Increase

4,612 4,420

192

It is probable that more new districts have been formed than the returns indicate.

The new districts are offset by a consolidation of old ones. The desire to unite districts is an encouraging fact. The advantages of large districts are so many and so apparent, that few intelligent school officers fail to appreciate them. It is to be hoped that the policy of consolidation will soon supersede that of subdivision, and that public opinion will soon demand a town organization of schools, thus abolishing independent school-districts within the towns altogether. So long as we adhere to the present system of small and independent districts, we must not expect a strong and vigorous organization. There is no good reason why all our thickly settled country towns should not each have a good central grammar school, with primary schools conveniently located, the whole being managed, by a town board, with a degree of efficiency and vigor that it is impossible under existing arrangements to secure.

The number of districts which reported this year is 4,546, or 171 more than made returns in 1866, and 66 less than the whole number. As it is probable that those districts alone, which failed to maintain a school five months, neglected to report, we see that only about one district in seventy has failed to support a school during the time required by law.

II. NUMBER OVER FOUR AND UNDER TWENTY YEARS OF AGE.

The whole number of persons, in the state, of school age, on the 31st of August, 1867, was 371,083, which is 16,566 more than were reported for 1866.

of

The increase in the number over four and under twenty years

age, for each of the past ten years, has been as follows:

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The greatest increase in one year was in 1855, the number being 31,825, and the least was in 1862, being only 8,923.

III. NUMBER OF CHILDREN OF SCHOOL AGE RESIDING IN DISTRICTS MAINTAINING A SCHOOL FIVE OR MORE MONTHS.

This item in the reports is of the utmost importance, for it is upon it that the apportionment of the income of the school fund should be based. Town clerks should carefully examine the reports received from district clerks, and no money should be apportioned to any district that has not maintained a school at least 110 days, including legal holidays. The number reported under this heading is 330,263, which is 40,820 less than the whole number reported of school age in the state. There is reason to believe that this item of the reports is not accurate, and an opportunity will be given to town clerks to correct it before making the apportionment for 1868.

IV. TOTAL NUMBER OF PERSONS ATTENDING THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

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This number is 5,680 more than the number in attendance during 1866. Of those over 4 and under 20 years of age in the state, 63 per cent. are reported as having attended school some portion of the year.

It is cause for regret to find so many children less than 4 years of age attending school. Certainly no parent of ordinary intelli

gence will subject his child to the irksome routine of ordinary school life before he has reached at least six years of age Listlessness,

apathy and disgust are too often the results of the restraint necessarily imposed upon the children in school; and, if teachers cannot persuade parents to keep their children at home until they are old enough to be benefited by school exercises, it is their duty to afford them facilities for play rather than for learning, and to amuse rather than to instruct them.

V.-TIME OF ATTENDANCE.

The average length of time the schools were kept open was 137 days, which is 5 days more than in 1866. With an enrollment of 239,915, the number of days possible attendance is 32,872,465, but the number of days actual school attendance is 17,275,686, or about 52 per cent. of the possible attendance; or in other words, there were, taking one day with another, 52 scholars of each 100 enrolled, in attendance at school during 137 days of the past year. Therefore the average time each scholar attended school was 71 1-4 days.

VI.--GRADED SCHOOLS.

The number of schools of two or more departments is 357. This class of schools is increasing, and no fact connected with our educational affairs is more encouraging.

The disadvantages of the practice of providing but one school for scholars of different ages and attainments are 'too manifest not to attract serious attention. The discomfort, and in very many cases, the physical suffering to which all, and particularly the younger scholars are subjected, call imperatively for some relief. Where there is a great disparity in the ages of the pupils, the work of education can not be carried on appropriately or progressively. Both instruction and discipline should be adapted to the age and proficiency of pupils. There are periods of development of mind and character, and each period demands the training adapted to it. The methods are based upon general principles, but they vary to correspond with the work to be done, which is determined by the progress already made.

A system of discipline adapted to advanced scholars presses with unwise severity upon the young, and the exercises appropriate to the peculiar wants and temperaments of the younger pupils will tend to endanger the habits of study and good order of the older scholars. To properly instruct young children requires the use of methods quite the opposite of those employed for those more advanced. The oral and simultaneous methods adapted to the primary school distract the attention of those who should form habits of patient application, and a school, in which there is no proper method of classification, makes no provision for the discussion, explanation and undivided attention of both teacher and scholars, without which no real progress can be made by those old enough to pursue those branches of learning requiring close and careful study.

The following, from the pen of Hon Henry Barnard, describes, in fitting language, the condition of many of our public schools. He says:

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From the number of class and individual recitations, to be attended to during each half day, these exercises are brief, hurried, and of little practical value. They consist, for the most part, of senseless repetitions of the words of a book. Instead of being the time and place, where the real business of teaching is done, where the ploughshare of interrogation is driven down into the acquirements of each pupil, and his ability to comprehend clearly is cultivated and tested; where the difficult principles of each lesson are developed and illustrated, and additional information imparted; and the mind of the teacher brought in direct contact with the mind of cach pupil, to arouse, interest and direct its opening powers; instead of all this and more, the brief period passed in recitation, consists, on the part of the teacher, of hearing each individual and class, in regular order and quick succession, repeat words from a book; and on the part of the pupils, of saying their lessons, as the operation is most significantly described by most teachers, when they summon the class to the stand. In the meantime the order of the school must be maintained, and the general business must go forward. Little children, without any authorized employment for their eyes and hands, and ever active curiosity, must be made to sit still, while every muscle is aching from suppressed activity, prob

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lems must be solved, excuses for tardiness or absence received, questions answered, whisperings allowed or suppressed, and more or less of extempore discipline administered. Were it not a most ruinous waste of precious time,-did it not involve the deadening, crushing, distorting, dwarfing of immortal faculties and noble sensibilities,were it not an utter perversion of the noble objects for. which schools are instituted, it would be difficult to conceive of a more diverting farce than an ordinary session of a large public school, whose chaotic and discordant elements have not been reduced to system by proper classification, The teacher, at least the conscientious teacher thinks it anything but a farce to him. Compelled to hurry from one study to another, requiring a knowledge of methods altogether distinct, from one recitation to another, equally brief and unsatisfactory, one requiring a liveliness of manner that he does not feel and cannot assume, and the other closeness of attention and abstraction of thought, which he cannot give amid the multiplicity and variety of cares, from one case of discipline to another press ing on him at the same time,—he goes through the same circuit, day after day, with a dizzy brain and aching heart, and brings his school to a close with a feeling that with all his diligence and fidelity he has accomplished but little good."

The graded school is the only means by which proper provision can be made for a proper classification of pupils, and for exercises and modes of discipline adapted to those of different ages and attainments. It would also secure greater permanency in the employment of teachers and thus, to some extent, remove an evil from which our schools so generally suffer. As most of our schools are at present managed, the good accomplished is in spite of the tendency of the system. The 'own system of school organization will make graded schools practicable, and this efficient agency is demanded by every consideration that can influence those desirous of promoting the public good.

VII. TEACHERS AND TEACHERS' WAGES.

The number of teachers required to teach the schools is 5,059, and the number who have been employed during the past year is 8,357. We thus see the extent to which the teachers of our schools are changed. The consequences of these frequent changes are highly

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