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521 teen weeks. By an act passed April 13, 1855, the legislature appropriated $18,000 out of the income of the United States' Deposit and Literature Funds, not otherwise appropriated, "for the instruction of common school teachers in academies designated by the Board of Regents, in the science of common school teaching." The Regents have designated 113 academies to instruct classes of not more than twenty pupils in each academy, for which an allowance of $10 is made for each scholar.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES. By an act of the legislature, passed November 13, 1847, upon the same day that the office of county superintendent was abolished, provision was made to encourage the establishment of teachers' institutes in the several counties in this State.

Prior to that period institutes had been supported, in many of the counties, by voluntary efforts of teachers, encouraged and stimulated by the persuasion and controlling influence of the county superintendents. These officers found, upon an examination of the schools, that their first and greatest need was a supply of competent instructors, and they made this fact known to the people, and the utter folly of employing those who were not fitted by education, or habit, or disposition, for the task. Under these circumstances, it was imperative for those wishing employment, to qualify "hemselves to meet the demands of the profession. The cheapest and most practical mode of doing so, was to associate themselves in institutes and receive practical instruction in the branches they were to teach. It was not uncommon to see one hundred, and, in some of the larger counties, two hundred teachers and others preparing for the profession, in attendance on these institutes; and, although their sessions were short, necessity urged each one to make the greatest possible efforts; and no sooner did their instructors present the shadow of a new principle in science, or in the art of teaching and governing a school, than the substance was sought with an alacrity and energy of purpose indicating that the mind was fully aroused, and every object of study illuminated by the light of its inspiration.

The skill and experience of the best educators in the country were thus diffused among the many who went forth from the institutes to their respective schools, cherishing a higher and nobler ideal of their chosen vocation, and with the consciousness that only constant self-improvement, increased watchfulness, and untiring devotion to it, would answer its high demands. A fourth, at least, of all the teachers in the schools met together in their respective counties annually, reviewed their studies, exhibited and compared their several modes of governing and teaching the children and youth. These results were reported to successive legislatures, by the superintendents, as evincing a heart-felt and growing interest in the cause of popular education. That was a hopeful and promising period in the history of public instruction in this State. The operation of our school system drew from the Hon. Horace Mann, then Secretary of the Board of Education of Massachusetts, the following tribute of praise: "The great State of New York, by means of her county superintendents, State Normal School and otherwise, is carrying forward the work of public education more rapidly than any other State in the Union, or any other country in the world." But when the law abolishing county supervision was passed, these temporary Normal Schools were neglected, and the retrograde results of that neglect have been painfully felt by those who look upon our common schools as the pride and hope of republican institutions. Institutes have been supported in some of the larger cities on Saturday forenoons for a number of years, and are considered by those whose duty it is to supervise and teach them, as an essential means for teachers' improvement.

In August, 1854, the State Teacners' Association, conscious of the importance of renewed and vigorous efforts to give more vitality and a higher toned influence to the schools, appointed one of their number, a gentleman of experience and ability as a practical teacher, to co-operate with this department in its purpose to resuscitate the institutes in the several counties, and to encourage teachers' associations and school celebrations.

I have pleasure in reporting, that during 1854-5, there were organized and successfully conducted thirty-six institutes in the counties. That over two thousand teachers, and those preparing to teach, were instructed in them in the theory and practice of teaching. The expense to the State has been less than one dollar to each person thus instructed.

In the opinion of the undersigned, the practical instruction imparted in these institutes, is the cheapest, and, for the time devoted, the most efficient, of any encouraged by the State, and it is recommended that the appropiation be increased to $150 to each county in which an institute shall be established, and sustained according to the requirements of the act of 1847. It is believed that this is due to No. 6, [VOL. II. No. 2,]—34.

the rural districts and to the villages whose schools are organized under the provisions of the general school law.

CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDANCE AT INSTITUTES. While the State should offer liberal inducements for persons to enter the profession, she has a right to demand as security for the faithful performance of the duties it involves, a continued effort for self-improvement, constant advance in knowledge and skill, and more elevated endowments that shall keep pace with the progress of the age. The propriety of this is recognized in the fact that teachers, generally, are supposed to bear annual examination. The tendency of daily association with those of inferior acquirements, is to remove the necessity which urges to effort; and as there is no point where the mind is at rest, it must retrograde under the continued influence of such association. Hence the teacher, whose attainments will answer the present demands of his pupils, is always liable to relax his pursuit of knowledge unless there exists some stimulating power to prompt him to application.

This power is pre-eminent in well-ordered institutes, for the teachers of superior qualifications are at once a stimulus and an example to those of less acquirements and skill, while among themselves the necessity of efforts for a higher standard of excellence seems imperative. Inducements, therefore, which would encourage and compass a general attendance of all the teachers of a county or even a large majority of them, are needed.

Authority of law might be given to the chairman of the committee appointed to manage and organize the institute, to associate with himself two others, who should, together, constitute a board, with authority to examine teachers at the institute and to grant them certificates of their comparative qualification.

There should be at least three grades of certificates, either of which might be considered as sufficient to authorize the employment of the holder in any common school in the county for one year from its date. Trustees would then have data to guide them in the employment of teachers, and an additional stimulant would be offered to teachers to neglect no opportunity for improvement, whether in institutes or elsewhere, by which they might hope to acquire a certificate of higher grade and a position more honorable and probably more lucrative. Under these circumstances, those who might receive a certificate of the highest grade, would be continually urged to action and devotion to their duties by the necessity of sustaining themselves at their re-examination at the close of the year, or the meeting of the institute. I have thought that school officers generally should have authority to grant certificates, indicating the grade of acquirement and qualification to which, in their opinion, the teacher is entitled.

EVIL OF CONSTANT CHANGE OF TEACHERS. There are two teachers employed in the same school, and at different periods of the same year in many of the districts. One no sooner becomes acquainted with the powers, dispositions, habits and acquirements of his pupils, than his term closes, and the trustees are prepared to employ somebody else, who must gain the same knowledge before he can effectually instruct them. As soon as he has secured, for those under his charge, proper classification, according to age and acquirements, and they are fully prepared and anxious to progress in their studies, his term of employment closes, and another is engaged to go through with the same preparation. The number of years consumed in this continued routine of repetition, which should add vastly to the power and acquirements of the youth under instruction, are too precious to be passed without notice.

DIMINUTION OF THE SUPPLY OF GOOD TEACHERS. There has been a diminution of the supply of teachers in this State, in consequence of inducements offered in other localities. Many are now teaching in Pennsylvania. Her system of county supervision is awakening among the masses of her people a lively interest in her common schools, and should she hold fast in that which is good, and not follow the example of New York in abolishing the office of county superintendents, her almost limitless wealth will not add so much to her future power and renown, as her common schools. The West, too, which offers so many inducements to the energetic young men and women to migrate thither, is drawing sensibly upon the supply of teachers; and so long, too, as other vocations promise greater wealth, and superior position and influence in society, so long will the proper education of the children in this State require of those to whose hands is intrusted the duty of legislation, the establishment and liberal support of temporary and permanent institutions for the education of teachers.

AID TO THE NEW YORK TEACHER. By virtue of an act of appropriation made by the legislature at its last session, the undersigned subscribed for copies of the New York Teacher, to be sent to each town and city superintendent in the State. All communications which this department desires from time to time to

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address to them generally, or through them to district officers, are gratuitously inserted. In no other way could this be done so readily and economically.

It is under the control of a board of editors, composed of highly qualified and experienced teachers, appointed by the State Association, and is peculiarly valuable to town superintendents; for it supplies them with important information concerning the construction of school-houses, the duties and proper qualification of teachers, and the most approved modes of instructing-thus adding to their capacity for supervision.

COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES SHOULD BE CONNECTED DIRECTLY WITH COMMON SCHOOLS. In his last annual report, the Superintendent presented his views in regard to the connection which ought to exist between the primary schools and the higher seminaries, as alike instruments in one comprehensive system of public instruction.

The academies being directly and regularly aided by a permanent grant of public money from the Literature Fund, the duty of the undersigned seemed to require that he should invoke the attention of the legislature to the framing of some plan by which the services to be rendered by them in return, should be fixed and determinate, and should, moreover, directly subserve the general benefit, instead of being limited to the children of those who have the pecuniary ability to support them at the academies. tion of the legislature, the proposition of a former Superintendent of common With this view, he again commended to the consideraschools, that the academies should be required to furnish free tuition to a number of pupils, proportionate to the public money received by each. It was also proposed that the free scholarships in the academies should be made prizes for distinguished ability and acquirements in the pupils of the common schools.

This plan contemplated the putting of the colleges, so far as they may receive public money, upon the same footing; that is to say, subjecting them to the obligation of expending it in the maintenance of free scholarships to be granted to the successful competitors in the free departments of the academies.

Other methods were suggested as alternatives, which would secure the same object that of rendering the colleges and academies, to the extent that they may be recipients of public money, common colleges and common academies, in the same sense as schools are common. Among these were the obligatory investment of the money granted, in the support of professorships of didactics, for instruction in the theory and practice of teaching; in additions to the libraries of the institutions receiving grants, upon the condition that the libraries shall be open, under proper regulations, for the use of every citizen; in the maintenance of courses of public lectures upon such of the physical sciences as tend most immediately to the increase of production, such as agricultural chemistry in the rural districts, or general chemistry and physics in the large towns and cities.

The superintendent retains the convictions which prompted the suggestions of his former report. He regards it as highly desirable to the prosperity of the higher institutions that they should be plainly seen to co-operate directly in elevating the character of the primary schools, and in enlarging the range of that instruction which they offer to all the children of the State. It can hardly be hoped that this will be so generally seen, as to secure the same hearty, popular support for pecuniary aid to the higher seminaries as now buttresses the common schools, until it shall be apparent that the State, by its contributions, fosters and diffuses practical science, and not mere erudition. The common schools are the nurseries of the more advanced institutions, and the latter must thrive in proportion to the industry of their friends in cultivating and multiplying thrifty shoots in the former, in transplanting them by easy gradations to the seats of maturer learning, and making the latter in a wider sense than now, public institutions, instead of the dependents of limited classes.

INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND AT NEW YORK. The number of pupils in the Institution for the Blind is one hundred and sixty, of whom one hundred and twenty-four are beneficiaries of the State. The amount expended during the past year for their support and tuition was $19,531.59.

The pupils of this institution are instructed in the branches usually taught in common schools, and in some of the higher branches of science. They are likewise taught to manufacture baskets, mats, mattresses, brushes, carpeting and band-boxes. The females are instructed in plain sewing, various kinds of fancy knitting and bead-work. The study and practice of music constitutes an important feature in the course.

Many of the graduates have found situations as organists, choristers and professors of music in different sections of the State, some are employed as teachers in similar institutions in other States, and a number are retained in the institution and have proved most successful teachers. It is a part of the policy of its managers to educate their own teachers.

INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. The number now in the institution is two hundred and ninety. The amount paid from the treasury for the tuition and board of the beneficiaries during the last fiscal year, was $30,672.06.

The several branches of science and of the industrial arts continue to be taught with success. Cabinet-making, shoe-making, book binding, and, in its season, gardening, are all prosecuted. All the pupils are instructed in drawing, thus affording them an opportunity to develop whatever talent in the art they may possess; and instruction in the art of engraving on wood is given to a select few, who manifest a capacity and taste for it. The young women are taught plain sewing, dress-making, tailoring, the folding and stitching of books, and the lighter house

hold duties.

The experiment of organizing a class in the higher branches of science, which was instituted three years since, has proved entirely successful. The course of instruction for this class embraces three years, and the first class was graduated at the close of the academic year last past. Their attainments, as shown by their examination, and set forth in the report of the examining committee, were superior to those ever known to be made by a class of deaf-mutes. The restoration of the deaf and dumb to usefulness, and in a great degree to the society and sympathies of their fellow beings will be hailed as a bright feature in the march of Christian civilization.

INSTRUCTION AND CARE OF THE INDIANS. Among the Senecas, fourteen schools have been in more or less successful operation during a part of the year. Of these, five are on the Allegany reservation, four of which are conducted on the district school plan, one is a girl's boarding school, and all are sustained by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Seven are on the Cattaraugus reservation, and all are conducted on the district school system, one of which is supported by the State, and six by the American Board. Of these, three have been in operation only about half of the year. There are also two schools on the Tonawanda reservation, one of which has been taught by a young Indian lady, educated at the Normal school, who has proved herself to be a competent and successful teacher. Three Indian youth have been employed as teachers on the Cattaraugus reservation, two of whom were beneficiaries of the State at the Normal school, and the other was educated at the Clover Street Seminary. All are reported to have succeeded well in teaching.

On the Tuscarora reservation, there are two schools; one a girls' boarding school, supported by the American Board, the other a common school supported by the Indians.

On the Onondaga reservation, there is one school supported by the State. Those having the supervision of it report the whole attendance to have been fortyfive, of whom thirty-four are under twelve years of age. The average attendance is estimated at about twenty, which is greater than that of former years, and is said to have been secured by the bestowment of food and clothing as a reward for punctual attendance.

On the Oneida reservation, there are two schools, both supported by the State. Under the appropriation of 1854, five Seneca youth-four girls and one boywere selected and placed in farmers' families. One of the girls after five or six months returned home, and another was appointed in her place, who also left soon after. Of the other three, one has returned in consequence of the death of her father; the remaining two are doing well in the places provided for them. The boy is still in his place. All have had the reputation of good scholarship and good behavior.

An act was passed by the legislature on the 10th of April, 1855, incorporating the Thomas Asylum for orphan and destitute Indian children, to be located on the Cattaraugus reservation, and appropriating two thousand dollars for the erection of buildings.

Since the Seneca nation began to adopt the habits of civilized life, its population has increased at least twenty per cent., and a similar increase is noticeable among other tribes in proportion to their advancement, while those of the aborigines who retain their savage customs, receiving from the whites only their vices, have been gradually wasting away, and many have become extinct.

CITY SCHOOLS. It is their mission to give a practical education alike to the rich and the poor; and they are fulfilling it in a manner creditable to their particular localities and to the State. Thousands of parents have been induced to remove from the rural districts for the purpose of educating their children in these schools. With one or two exceptions, they are under a complete and thorough supervision, which points out the most approved modes of school architecture, secures competent teachers, and incorporates into their plans of instruction every improvement of the day.

SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS. At present the school officers consist of trustees, town superintendents, and a Department of Public Instruction. If the experience of the Department for fifteen years, and the testimony of every officer who has presided over it, supported by the opinion of every friend of popular education who has spoken upon the subject are worth anything, the work of the school system is performed in an unsatisfactory manner. The system lacks strength and compactness; its joints are so loose as scarcely to hold its parts together; its movements are irregular, and its results uncertain.

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SUPERVISION OF CANAL SYSTEM AND SCHOOL SYSTEM COMPARED. age the canals there are three Canal Commissioners, with salaries of $1,700 a year; a Canal Auditor, at $2,500 a year, with clerks, at $5,300; a Canal Board composed of nine State officers, whose duties connected with the board occupy much of their time; five Commissioners of the Canal Fund, to keep and manage its moneys; a corps of engineers, with salaries varying from $2,500 down to $500; a troop of collectors, superintendents, inspectors, weighers and lock tenders; the whole forming a very complicated and expensive system, confined, in its operation, to but a fractional portion of the State. Compare the School Department with its Superintendent, deputy and two clerks, with this formidable array of receiving and disbursing officers. I do not include the town superintendents, because the time and attention devoted by them is as insignificant, compared with the wants of the schools, as their reward is stinted.

The schools are as much more important than the canals, as mind is more important than matter. The schools are the nurseries of mind. The State would exist and grow in material and intellectual strength if the canals were filled up. But abolish the schools, and it would sink into barbarism. The schools inform, invigorate, and elevate the masses; the canals are the muddy avenues of trade. The general intelligence of which we boast, the mental superiority of our people, their inventive powers, and mechanical skill, are the fruits of the schools. Our common schools lie at the foundation of our superiority and greatness as a State. Why, then, should more care and circumspection be bestowed upon a monetary interest, which, if abandoned to-day, private enterprise and capital would carry on with far more vigor and economy to-morrow, than upon a system which is more important in a pecuniary point of view, and which, in a moral, intellectual, and even political view, has a value beyond arithmetical calculation."

COUNTY SUPERVISION. County supervision was recommended by Hon. John C. Spencer, in 1841, and instituted under his administration. In 1843, the Hon. Samuel Young, who came into office strongly prejudiced against the plan, after a year's experience of its results reported to the legislature that "in every county of the State where the Deputy Superintendent has assiduously fulfilled his mission, an improvement in the condition of schools is manifest." In his next report he emphatically expresses his conviction of the importance and utility of county supervision. His successor, the Hon. N. S. Benton, in 1846, bore his testimony of the excellence and usefulness of the plan. The legislature of 1847, in an unpropitious hour, upon the memorial of some half dozen boards of supervisors, abolished the office. The Hon. Christopher Morgan, after one year's experience in the office of Superintendent of common schools, without the aid of county supervision, in his report of January, 1849, says "The act abolishing the office of county Superintendent was, in the opinion of the undersigned, a retrograde movement. If those officers were not in every instance competent and faithful to their trust the fault was in the appointing power. If a wise selection was not always made, does that furnish a sound reason for destroying the office? It may safely be said that no other office in the State would bear so severe a test." The same officer in his succeeding annual reports strongly urged upon the legislature the necessity of a restoration of the office. The Hon. Henry S. Randall, in his report in 1854, strongly condemned the present inefficient and defective system, and drew a glowing picture of the advantages, and the results of county supervision. The under signed deems it unnecessary to quote at length the language of the reports, to which he has referred. He will be happy to aid the legislative committee who have in charge the subject of education, with all the facts within his knowledge bearing relation to this subject. It will be found that all opinion and authority worthy of the highest consideration are in favor of county supervision.

The duties of these officers should be to examine and license teachers; to visit and inspect schools; to organize and conduct teachers' institutes; to encourage teachers' associations and school celebrations; to counsel in all local questions arising under the operation of the school laws; to introduce to the notice of teachers and the people, the best modes of instruction, the physiological laws that govern the health and the growth of the young, the most approved plans of healthful exercise of the children; to awaken a general interest among the people on the subject of education; to report from time to time the condition and prospects of

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