[NOTE.-The number of children enumerated in January, 1878, as given above on page 17, is less by 68 than the number given in the Report of the Commissioner of the School Fund. That Report adds 58 in East Haddam and 10 in Essex, who were enumerated in 1877, but accidentally omitted in the returns made to the Comptroller that year.] STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. It is fortunate for Connecticut that men of so high standing and character consent to serve the State on this Board, though receiving no compensation for their services. The total amount paid to defray their expenses in attending the four meetings held the last year, and in visiting the Normal School as each member has done, is $62.65. Besides the deliberations of the regular meetings of the full Board, I have been favored with frequent consultations with the Executive Committee on various details, and with Judge Carpenter on all new and difficult law questions. From the first I have spared no pains to prevent law suits on school cases. The money spent on such legal controversies is a minor evil, compared with the bitter and often lasting alienations thus engendered. I have therefore kept before the local school officers a standing invitation to consult me on law questions when they first arise, on the theory that prevention is better than cure. If necessary, in order to learn both sides, the district or town is visited for "a hearing of the case." Whenever the question is new and difficult, I have consulted Judge Carpenter, whose opinions, always gratuitously given, have served to settle the controversey. The great diminution of school litigation—a matter of familiar remark with the judges and lawyers-is largely due to his very valuable and gratuitous service. A statement of the amount of money received for Common Schools, from the several sources, for each of the last ten years, with the yearly increase or decrease in the total amount, and for each child enumerated. co 1870 124,082| 432 $1.00 124,082.00 1872 128,468 3,059 44,883.94 12,300.34 415,318.26 491,420.61 15,996.86 165,150.82 1,269,152.83 226,066.12 10.23 1.79 1871 125,409 1,327 1.00 125,409.00 45,650.19 7,920.77 568,387.50 498,846.09 11,907.73 225,895.07 1,484,016.35 214,863.52 11.83 1.60 1873 131,748 3,280 7,172.42 47,119.12 1,542,489.20 99,820.19 11.60 .65 a, Including $65,874 from the State Treasury, or 50 cents to each child, i. e. from State Tax. b, Two-fifths from the School Fund, three-fifths from State Tax. c, $1.10 per child from the School Fund; $1.50 per child from State Tax. d, Decrease. Voluntary Other Sources. 1870 161.75 124,082 88,348 78,865 105,313 84.87 9,583 114,896 92,60 1871 168.51 125,409 94,092 83,192 110,640 88.19 9,304 119,944 95.64 1872 172.41 128,468 94,408 83,095 113,588 88.50 8,754 122,342 95.23 1873 173.34 131,748 94,787 83,874 114,805 87.14 9,029 123,834 93.99 1874 174.18 132,908 95,199 86,987 114,857 86.41 8,529 123,386 92.83 1875 176.29 133,528 99,550 89,674 119,298 89.34| 8,422 | 127,720 95.65 1876 176.26 134,976 98,402 88,595 119,489 88.53 9,145 128,634 95.30 1877 178.13 135,189 98,923 89,832 119.106 88.10 9,816 128,922 95.36 1878 177.52 137,099 99,657 90,845 119,208 1879 178.47 138,407 100,288 91,413 119,828 Incr❜se 15.42 14,757 18,148 16,236 20,438 86.95 10,180 129,388 94.38 86.56 11,109 130,937 94.60 NEGLECTED CHILDREN. This subject continues to claim attention. As the trend of the tide is here against us, to stem it requires constant watchfulness. Without effort, a backset would cover ground well nigh reclaimed. For, however well done, this is a work like that of a physician, that never stays done. Old cures will not stop the breaking out of new cases. In dealing with negligent parents our main reliance has still been kindness and persuasion, appeals to their parental love and pride, their sense of duty and their personal interest in view of the great importance of education to their children, and the rich privileges freely proffered them in the public schools. The same arguments have often reached the children, and thus they have gained a higher appreciation of the influence of the school upon their happiness, thrift and prosperity through life. Teachers as well as school officers may greatly help in this good work. It is the teacher's duty, or rather his privilege, to visit the parents of truant or neglected children, learn the causes of delinquency and secure parental coöperation. As I have urged this duty, a few teachers have asked substantially-"Is that in the bond," "what does the law demand?" as if the one ruling thought was— what is the minimum work I must do; but fortunately there are but few teachers whose theory and practice limit their duties and sympathies to the school house and school hours. On the other hand, a large proportion of our teachers, bent on doing the utmost good to their pupils, inquire into causes of absence from school, visit pupils in sickness, and thus often win the confidence and coöperation of parents otherwise captious or indifferent. Among the causes of absenteeism is the want of proper clothing. In these hard times, while many willing hands are unable to find employment, this plea is by no means limited to the huts or haunts of indolence, intemperence and profligacy. Where parents are really too poor to provide comfortable clothing, the pressing needs of their children should enlist the sympathies of the benevolent. Here true charity may do as truly Christian work as by any gifts for missions in pagan lands. That charity which really begins at home is at once most comprehensive and diffusive. Poor children have often been thus provided that they might attend the Sabbath school, and this effort is worthy of all praise, but even for morality and piety, thirty hours a week in the public school is worth far more than one hour in the Sabbath school. In some towns the Selectmen have met this exigency. While great caution should be used not to encourage indolence and improvidence, there are cases of destitution where town aid may be used as wisely to prevent starving the mind as famishing the body. The fact that nearly ninety-five per cent. of our children are reported as in schools of all kinds, shows that the law for the prevention of illiteracy has worked beneficently and opened to hundreds the door of the school house otherwise closed to them forever. The influx of the foreign element suggests the leading cause of absenteeism. Those who need the most watching are of alien parentage, as yet novices in the English language, speaking chiefly a foreign tongue. There is also a large class of native children, whose parents, being illiterate immigrants, do not yet appreciate the advantages of education. But four parents have been prosecuted and fined during the year. Instead of brandishing the penalties of the law, we have kept them in the background, and urged mainly the great advantages of education. These persuasions are, however, sometimes enforced by the delicate hint that we desire to avoid the painful duty of prosecution which must follow any and every case of willful and open defiance of the law. As will be seen by the following report, the prosecution of the employer and three parents in one town, resulted in promptly bringing seventy children to school. It was a very gratifying fact that the superintendent of one of the largest factories in the State, after being prosecuted for the employment of children who had not received the required schooling, and being bound over to the Superior Court, should have the manliness to write to the Agent of the Board: "The legal measures you took were right and proper, as you used every other means in your power, and the law as the last resort. From this time, you may be assured, I shall use my best efforts to comply with the law-and without the law, I |