untary system fails in securing a large per centage of attendance of the chil dren. In our cities, less than 49 per cent. of the children of school age attended the public schools last year. Of those between four and fifteen years of age in the whole State, only 69 per cent. were enrolled in that time in these schools. Only about 5 per cent. of the children were instructed in private schools. The great number of absentees from the schools must increase the feeling that more rigorous measures should be adopted to secure their proper education.

The principal question now before us is, whether the people will observe the provisions of the law. Such a statute is very popular in European countries, where it has been tried a sufficient length of time, and it is said that no promi. nent man in those countries would now advocate its abolition. In some sections of our own country, the measure is growing into decided favor after being in force a few years. If the school boards of the State will take an interest in the law, and enforce it in a prudent and efficient manner, they will make it the source of incalculable advantage to the State. Let an intelligent and healthful sentiment in support of it be awakened throughout the State before September next, when it goes into effect.

Not so many institutes as usual will be held this spring. More county superintendents are each desirous of securing a two weeks' institute next summer and fall. So much of the fund was expended last fall in conducting institutes, that the committee in charge thought it best to discourage the organization of the usual number. Besides, they were deprived this spring of one of the regular conductors, who now serves as the President of the Platteville Normal School.

We have before referred to the fact that only about one-half of the teachers in our public schools receive any benefit from these institutes. Our leading educators take great pride in this means of instruction; and our teachers, who are thus instructed, are earnest in their praise of this work. We must expect this year a decided increase in the attendance. County superintendents will urge upon their teachers the necessity of reform in this matter. The school boards must not penuriously object to their teachers spending one or two weeks at the county institutes, during the term time of their schools. Persons who wish to prepare themselves for the exercises of the institutes to be held this year, can procure copies of the syllabus in advance from their county superintendents; and can thus be assisted to take a more active part in these exercises.

THE Legislature treated the Free High Schools of the State in a very generous manner the past winter. They passed, in the first place, a bill which allowed all such schools in operation under the old Free High School law, to receive their share of the State aid; as the Revised Statutes stood, only seven schools out of eighty-five could be thus helped. To this bill there was not expressed any opposition. As soon as it passed, the $25,000 raised last year toward the support of these schools, was distributed among them, on the basis of the provisions of the former law.

Subsequently, another bill was carefully considered in both houses, and this proposed radical amendments to the Statutes on this subject which had been in force since the first of November. In the Assembly, it was amended in several features. The limitation of five years in which any Free High School can be aided, was adopted. School districts not in cities or incorporated villages, but maintaining graded schools with at least two departments, and with twenty-five pupils prepared to enter High School classes, may be organized into Free High School districts. The provision authorizing the appointment of a committee to visit all the Free High Schools, and report upon their condition and compliance with the law, was rejected by the Assembly. This is a measure that should have been adopted, and will be demanded by nearly all the schools at no distant day.

In the Senate, the bill was further amended by allowing the boards in charge of these schools to determine, with the advice and consent of the State Superintendent, the course of study to be pursued in the schools and the minimum standing for the admission of pupils on their examination. The principals of these schools must, hereafter, be graduates of Universities, Colleges, or State Normal Schools, or pass an examination in the studies which they are required to teach in these schools. The Senate, also, accepted the provision that the district boards of the Free High Schools not in cities, nor established by towns, nor in incorporated villages, nor co-extensive in their territory with such villages, shall be composed of the usual boards of those districts. The bill, as finally enacted, received the almost unanimous support of both houses.

A pamphlet edition of the law as amended, with proper instructions and explanations, will soon be issued by the State Superintendent.

The several amendments of the general school laws will also soon be issued in pamphlet form.

THE Statute relating to the annual reports of school-district clerks, was so amended this winter, that hereafter the classification of the ages of school children is not required. To return all those in attendance and not in attendance upon our public schools, who are in the three classes from four to seven years of age, from seven to fifteen, and from fifteen to twenty, demands a large amount of labor, and the statistics thus obtained are comparatively of little value. Some years, no notice has been taken of them by the State Superintendents, or by other school officers. This past year, special effort was made to ascertain the percentage of attendance of the children between four and fifteen years of age, and the results of this effort are given in the Annual Report of the Superintendent. Next year, the clerks of the school boards will be requested to give only the number of children between four and twenty years, in the State, and the number of these enrolled in our schools. This arrangement will be satisfactory to very many who have experienced great trouble in securing accurate statistics on this subject.

AN amendment to the school law was adopted lately by the Legislature, limiting the amount of school district tax be raised annually. Hereafter it cannot

exceed five per cent. of the assessed valuation of the property in the district. The benefit of this amendment will be realized mainly in the northern part of the State, where the lands of non-residents or of large corporations have been exorbitantly taxed some years for the erection of plain school-houses, or for the maintenance of small schools.

THE law has been made very stringent in denying to any member of the district school boards, the privilege of teaching in the schools under their charge. It says that "no person employed as a school director, clerk, or teacher, shall hold the office of school treasurer in the same district."

No further legislation having been perfected this winter, in regard to textbooks, the laws upon this subject of course remain in force just as they were. They are embraced in the following sections of the School Code, or the Revised Statutes: 430 (sub-division 13), 436, 440, 514, 503, 501.

MESSRS. COWPERTHWAIT & Co., Philadelphia, remind us, through their agency at Chicago, that Warren's Geographies, Greene's Grammars, and Monroe's Readers, are used in Wisconsin schools, and that the name of the firm should therefore be added to the list on page 77, of the February number of the Journal. Address F. S. Belden, Western Agent, 25 Washington street, Chicago.

COURSE OF STUDY FOR COUNTRY SCHOOLS.

Considering the liability of any thing attempted in this line to run into unmeaning, mechanical monotony, the following extract from the address of Pres. Sabin, of the Iowa Teachers' Association, is worthy of consideration:

"The attempt has been made to remedy some of the difficulties of country school work by county courses of study. If such a course tends to unify and simplify the work, the effort is in the right direction. If, however, it prescribes an undeviating line: if it marks out only a straight furrow in which teacher and pupil must walk, "Indian file," it will work only evil. There is no conceivable good in substituting one rut for another. Such a course may be made so helpful and suggestive as to add to the teacher's self-reliance; it may be so minute and imperative, as to form a convenient crutch upon which the teacher hobbles over the ground. It seems to me that a course of study for ungraded schools might be formed, setting forth what parts of each branch demand the most attention, and the essential relations of the various steps through which the pupil should advance, embracing also some simple instructions in methods. It should contain some suggestions and pointed cautions in regard to oral lessons; it should also be so framed as to render it easy for a pupil passing from the country to a city school, to find a place in the grades with little loss of time. Some points easily attainable, which always characterize a good school should be

designated, with a few general directions regarding matters in which the County Superintendent knows his teachers and schools to be most efficient.

The course of study which is most desirable, is one which gives the teacher something about which to think, as well as something to do; which awakens the teacher to newness of life; which gives him a sense of freedom; which maps out the course, points out the destined harbor, and leaves him to be Cap. tain of his own ship.

We are pleased to hear from a Wisconsin teacher in a neighboring State. We have frequently noticed that teachers who leave Wisconsin, by no means forget her:

SUPT. WHITFORD,

HARLAN, IOWA, February 22, 1879.

Dear Sir:- Enclosed please find $1.00 for the Journal. I have read it since 1870, and can not get along very well without it, even when outside the State. You will doubtless remember me when I tell you that I am a member of the class of "74" from Platteville. You were one of the examiners. I have taught since that time, two years in Wisconsin and two in Iowa. I have a school of 186 pupils now in three departments. We shall have four departments in the school during the summer. The country here is comparatively new, but is rapidly settling up with people who are desirous of having good schools.

Our salaries are good, viz: $100 per month for principal, and $50 for assistants.

I am glad to learn that Prof. Graham will do some institute work in this State next fall. I assisted in the four weeks institute held in this place last fall. We had between sixty and seventy teachers in attendance, most of whom were very desirous of fitting themselves for more thorough teaching, and better work in the future. We expect a larger class next fall. Very respectfully,

W. W. G.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

GRUBE'S METHOD. Two Essays on Elementary Instruction in Arithmetic. By Louis Soldan, Prin. St. Louis Normal School. Chicago: Vaile & Winchell. 44pp. Price 25 cents.

Grube's Method discards large numbers, for children, and teaches all the oper ations within the range of each of the small numbers, in succession, comparing each with the preceding one. The nature and benefits of the method can best be learned from the book. The writer proposes, if circumstances permit, to issue a primary arithmetic based on the same method.

SLATE DRAWING BOOK. Messrs. A. H. Andrews & Co., of Chicago, have issued a third edition of Pres. McGregor's nice little Drawing Book, which we have already noticed. The merit of the book is that the lessons are easy, prac. tical, philosophical, and progressive.

COWPER'S TASK. J. P. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, have added to their list of Annotated English Poems, Cowper's Task. The list now embraces Gray's Elegy, Goldsmith's Deserted Village and his Traveler, Scott's Lady of the Lake, and the Task, as above. It is a good healthy sign that these standard poems are called for in the study of English literature.

THE ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH ANALYSIS. By. S. H. Carpenter, LL. D. Madison: W. J. Park & Co.

This book appeared some months ago, but we take occasion to say, as it is advertised on another page, that like every thing else from Dr. Carpenter's pen, it it is very terse and clear in statement, and accurate in treatment. A new system of diagrams is used, which is not so meagre as to be obscure, nor so complicated as to confuse. We think all teachers, who like to do good work, will like this book.

THE EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT of the State Board of Charities and Reform, a neat volume of 241 pages, discusses: I. The Board and its Work; II. Pauperism; III. The Labor Question, Tramps, the Insane, etc. (miscellaneous papers); IV. Crimes and County Jails; V. State Charitable and Correctional Institutions; VI. Private Benevolent Institutions. An appendix contains a report on the Delevan Investigation, and a Paper on Religious Instruction in Public Institutions. The Report, as a whole, is full of interest.