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REPORT

OF THE

BOARD OF EDUCATION

TO THE

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF CONNECTICUT.

The Fourteenth Annual Report of the Board of Education is herewith respectfully submitted.

The statistical tables which accompany the Report of the Secretary of the Board are worthy of attention and careful study. It is evident that the value of such tables depends, first, on the proper selection of items to be embraced in them, and secondly, on their accuracy. The experience and judgment of the Secretary of the Board, under whose direction these tables have been prepared, are sufficient guaranty that, as regards both the selection and the arrangement of material, they present in a concise and systematic form many facts important to be known by the Legislature and the people as illustrating the condition, work, and wants of our public schools, while at the same time they furnish facilities for comparing the educational progress and standing of Connecticut with those of other States. But however carefully and wisely their materials may be selected and arranged, unless the tables are accurate, or at least approach accuracy, they will possess little or no value; may possibly mislead, and so be worse than useless.

The law requires School Visitors to send two copies of their report to the Secretary of the State Board of Education, "on

or before the fifteenth day of October," and to "furnish such additional returns and statistics respecting the schools of the town as he may call for." Blanks for the reports of Visitors are furnished by the State and specific directions are given as to the items to be embraced, the manner of preparing them and the time when the reports should be made. School Visitors and District Committees should observe strictly the directions thus given in accordance with the statute, since carelessness in the preparation of their reports or delay in transmitting them to the office of the Board, works serious inconvenience and partially defeats the end for which the reports are made.

In January, 1878, there were in the State, according to the school census, 138,407 children between the ages of four and sixteen years. This enumeration is larger by 1,308 than that of the previous year.

The number registered as pupils in the public schools at some time in the course of the year was 119,828, which is a gain of 620 on the registration of the previous year. There was also a decrease in the number of pupils over sixteen years of age. Making allowance for this difference it appears that there were in the public schools 735 more pupils of the ages embraced in the enumeration than there were the year before, while the number reported as not attending any school was 391 less. There was also an increase of 929 in the number reported as attending other than public schools.

In average attendance there was a gain of 1,486 in winter, and 1,244 in summer, while the average length of the schools was very slightly increased.

These statistics of registration and attendance tend to confirm the indication furnished by the school census, that the population of the State is steadily increasing. Better still, they furnish evidence that the efforts which have been made, by legislation and otherwise, to secure to all the children of the State some opportunities for education have been attended with a good degree of success, and so give encouragement for the continuance of such efforts.

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The financial reports show that the average wages of male teachers fell during the year nearly six per cent., while there was a very slight increase in those of female teachers.

In the total receipts from all sources for the support of schools, the report for 1877 showed a falling off of $54,346. The present report shows an advance of $2,940. But the amount raised directly by town and district taxes furnishes a better criterion of the ability and disposition of the people at large liberally to support the schools. The amount thus raised in 1877 was $63,948 less than in 1876, while last year it was only $2,517 less than in 1877.

The agencies employed by the State for the training and improvement of teachers have been, as in former years, the Normal School and the Teachers' Institutes. The report of the Secretary furnishes detailed information concerning the number, location, and expenses of the Institutes, and the number of teachers and school officers who have been members of them. It will be seen that they have been well attended, and it is believed that they have performed a valuable service by suggesting to teachers principles and methods of instruction, and by arousing in the communities among which they have been held a deeper and more intelligent interest in public education.

The work of the Normal School has been carried on in its customary quiet, yet thorough and efficient way. The class graduated in January numbered nine, and that in June, sixteen, making a total of twenty-five graduates in the year. The appearance of the school at the semi-annual examinations and at other times when visited has been remarkably satisfactory, and the success which its graduates have, as a general rule, achieved in teaching leads to the belief that for no portion of its entire expenditure does the State receive an ampler or more truly valuable return than for the money devoted to the maintenance of the Normal School.

No class of children more need the kindly interposition of the State's authority in their behalf than those who, by reason of orphanage or of the neglect, inefficiency or avarice of parents, are suffered to become vagrants, or are kept at work beyond the limits allowed by law. Certainly there are none whom the State, for its own safety, more imperatively needs to train aright than these neglected or abused ones. The labors of the Agent of the Board, who is specially charged with the duty of

securing as far as practicable the enforcement of the laws with reference to attendance, have been faithfully and it is believed very wisely pursued. Details of the amount and character of those labors, and of their gratifying results, may be learned from the accompanying report of Mr. Potter.

While it is rightly held that the circumstances of the times demand in the administration of public affairs the same rigid economy which has become so generally necessary in private business, it is believed that the interests of education in the State should not be allowed to suffer by reason of inadequate provision.

The money expended by a State for the education of its youth should not be regarded as in any sense a charity. The advantages which education confers on its subjects are so great and so obvious that, not unnaturally, some have come to regard schools as maintained solely for the benefit of those who are educated in them. Acting on this supposition they assert, not without some show of reason, that those who, for themselves or for their children, are to reap the advantages of education should pay for them, just as for other advantages, helps or luxuries. It would not be difficult to show the fallacy of this assertion even if the supposition on which it is based were correct. Reference might be made to numerous purely charitable institutions maintained in all civilized communitiesinstitutions which are usually organized and supported on a scale commensurate rather with the dignity and pride of the State than with the needs of those who are to be benefited by them.

But the public school in a free State is not a charitable institution. Like the public highway it is for the convenience and benefit of the entire community. The State maintains courts of justice not for the benefit of individuals but for its own defence against the evils of lawlessness. So it maintains public schools not for the benefit of teachers or pupils but for its own protection against the dangers of ignorance.

For the prosperity or even the existence of a free, self. governed State there can be no security except in the intelligence and morality of its citizens. It may have good and righteous laws, an upright judiciary, a wise and fearless exec

utive, and behind them as the source of all their power a correct public sentiment. But what shall secure their permanence? Time makes constant changes, and a few years will transfer all departments of municipal, state, and national administration, as well as the control of public opinion, to those who are now children and youth. Let education be neglected and soon unskilled and unfaithful labor would render industrial prosperity impossible, incompetent and wicked men would make, interpret, and execute our laws, and the public opinion of an ignorant people would be controlled by noisy fanatics or by designing and selfish demagogues.

In this country public sentiment rules.

Laws are enacted

or repealed in obedience to its real or supposed demands. However wise or salutary a law may be if public sentiment be against it its execution is almost impossible, and it will soon be removed from the statute book or will become a dead letter thereon.

Public sentiment is largely formed in the schools. The men and women of twenty years hence will be, to a great extent, what the schools are now making them. But intellectual eduIcation alone will not form such citizens as the State needs. Doubtless one cause of the wide-spread labor troubles is an inability on the part of many to perform any but the coarsest kinds of work; a lack of the skill, forethought and ingenuity requisite for the successful pursuit of agriculture or any mechanical art.

The question of industrial education in public schools is assuming considerable importance. From the action of various causes apprenticeships, once so common, have become almost unknown. Since the prosperity and wealth of a State depend so much on skilled labor, and since lack of skill in some handicraft breeds failure, pauperism and crime, it is a fair question whether the State ought not to take care that opportunities for industrial training should, in some way, be secured to its youth. However this may be pupils in the public schools should not only be taught to read, write and cipher; they should also be trained to do things with dexterity and skill, to be ingenious in devising means for the accomplishment of desired ends, to observe accurately and to deduce correct inferences from their observations.

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