the schools, and to perform such other duties as may be required by law, or the regulations of this Department.

A county superintendent, or one in each assembly district, daily visiting the schools, associating with teachers and pupils, holding public meetings in villages and neighborhoods, imparting and receiving knowledge, inspiring and acquiring zeal, encouraging the formation of Normal classes, and supervising and establishing teachers' institutes, discussing plans for developing and guiding the youthful mind, awakening parental solicitude, encouraging the teachers and inspiring the pupils with a desire for higher attainments, and infusing vitality and enthusiasm into every department of instruction, is the one thing most needful to perfect our school system. Such a supervision would awaken the people to the importance of the system, and give that intensity to the popular interest in the welfare and culture of the young, so essential to its cordial support and successful operation.

This appeal was successful. Provision was made by the legislature of 1856 for the appointment of a Commissioner of Common Schools for each county, and a convention of these officers has already been held for conference and united plans. There can be no doubt that in one years' time the torpid members of the school system will begin to show signs of life, and the predictions of the Superintendent will be fully realized.

AMENDMENTS IN THE SCHOOL LAWS. The Superintendent concludes his Report by recommending ten amendments as worthy of immediate attention.

The system of public instruction established by the legislature and aided out of State appropriations in New York, is far more comprehensive than exists in any other State. It does not fall within the plan of this article to present full details of the collegiate, academic, special and supplementary institutions, which might be gathered from the Annual Reports of the Regents, of the Deaf and Dumb, Blind, Idiotic, and other special institutions. We glean the following items from the Report of the Comptroller for 1856.

STATE EXPENDITURES FOR EDUCATIONAL AND HUMANE PURPOSES IN 1856. Department of Public Instruction at Albany, salaries, &c.,

Regents of the University,

Appropriation for Common Schools,

$8,000

NORTH CAROLINA.

First, Second and Special Report of the General Superintendent (C. H. Wiley,) of Common Schools, submitted in 1854 and 1855. 194 pages.

These reports exhibit the history and condition of the system, and schools in North Carolina, with plans and suggestions for the improvement of both. The Superintendent dwells on the following points.

CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS. 1. A stricter and more uniform and patient attention to the execution of the Law.

2. Improvement in the qualification of teachers.

3. The better discipline of the schools.

WANT OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMMON SCHOOLS. The biennial reports of the Literary Board have been mostly confined to this one object; and hence, for twelve years, we have labored in darkness. A deep obscurity has veiled all the operations of the system-not one single general report, with details, has emanated from it-not an official statistic appeared, excepting the general urgent declarations of our judicious Literary Boards, declaring the necessity of light, and their inability to furnish satisfactory information.

As the consequences of this obscurity and uncertainty have been most pernicious, we cannot now have too much light. This is the more especially needed here, because common schools are a new thing to our people; they were adopted and started among a population having no experience in such things, having no examples before their eyes in the neighboring States, many of them wedded to other systems, and many alas! never having had the benefits of any kind of edu

cation.

The government has not only failed to furnish information so desirable and allimportant, but, without by any means desiring or designing it, has exercised an influence the other way; and except in the semi-annual announcement of the division of the School Fund, and in the wise suggestions of the Governors and of the Literary Boards, and the occasional patriotic exertions of members of Assembly, the existence of the common schools has been seldom publicly recognized. We have two Almanacs published in the State, by enterprising and public spirited gentlemen; and yet, even in these useful repositories of local statistics carefully made up, and which go into every house, the most important interest of North Carolina has not been named! I by no means wish to be considered as censuring the publishers; I mention the fact as a most significant and ample illustration of our carelessness in furnishing that light so all-essential to the healthful progress of our system, and of our failure even to recognize in our recorded statistics the existence, much less the progress, of this great and fundamental institution. The members of the last Assembly were fully awake to the importance of this matter; and it is my ardent desire to justify their liberal confidence in using all possible ways to reach with information and statistics, every citizen of the State. To do this. I must of course speak with more than one tongue; and among other means I have reflected on the propriety of issuing a Common School Almanac for universal and free distribution. I desire the reading matter to consist of descriptions and short histories of other systems-statistics from other States-sketches, anecdotes and statistics of our own system-general information about education, suggestions, regulations, duties of officers, &c., &c.

It is not at all uncommon to have men on committees who can not read: some of these, as I know from personal observation, make capital committee men, all things considered, when there are checks and guards by which they can learn a teacher's character and capacity from disinterested persons of more intelligence.

TEACHERS. There has been great complaint in regard to them; and I know it to be a fact, that their incompetency and their want of fidelity in many, inany cases, have given just cause of complaint. This is a real sore, and one of the severest which now afflicts our system; and the character of these teachers has done much to disgust a large class of citizens with our system, and to cause intelligent people to refuse to send to the schools, or to interest themselves in their suc

cess.

It is not the want of money which makes indifferent teachers and indifferent schools; we have a good illustration of this, in the fact that the best schools are by no means to be found in those counties where the largest salaries are paid. Of course good teachers ought to be well paid; but bad ones have been paid as much as the good ones, while much better ones could be employed for the same salary. I do not say the sums paid are sufficient for worthy instructors; but I do assert

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that much better ones might be employed at the same rates, and that the mere increase of the salary will not elevate the standard of teachers without the assistance of other causes. On the contrary, large salaries under the old regulations would often enhance the nuisance; it would be an inducement to imposters and adventurers to swarm among us in pursuit of the sums thrown out to attract the attention and excite the enterprise of such characters. Have it understood that fifty to seventy-five dollars per month were to be paid to those who would fill in so many days in a school-house; and that no evidence of moral character, and no certificate as to mental qualificationss from those capable of judging, and no reports of the manner in which they had discharged their duties, were to be required, and you will have not merely, indifferent teachers, and respectable and moral persons now so much complained of, but every ignorant neighborhood, from the seaboard to the mountains, infested and overrun by plausible, worthless, and dangerous characters; setting on foot all sorts of intrigues, imposing on the credulity of the simple-minded, and even conspiring with local speculators to obtain and divide with them the tempting spoils. Small as salaries now are, there have been reports of improper influences to obtain them-reports about committees selected by a few, with a view of employing relatives to teach the school, and even of higher officers using influences to have employed persons indebted to them, &c., &c. The difficulty about teachers, as to numbers and qualifications, is the natural result of our former and present condition, with respect to general education: and it is a difficulty which the cause of education itself will have to overcome.

YEARLY EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS. Teachers must be yearly examined; to make this more effective as a stimulus, I prepared a form of certificate, which was to indicate the grade or rank of the teacher on the branches of spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and grammar. Figure 1 attached to each study denoted the highest grade of scholarship; figure 5 the lowest allowable rank. This form, approved by the Literary Board, was sent to all the counties. The effects anticipated were these: it was intended to honor good teachers by indicating their rank above others not so good, but still allowed to teach; it was intended to put committees on their guard, showing them the relative proficiency of the different persons licensed; and it was expected to excite emulation, and also to furnish officers and the public with the means of judging of the progress of the teacher from one examination to another. Few would like to take out the same numbers, if low, each year; and it would give the Commitiee of Examination a good reason for cutting off those who took out the lowest numbers on all studies and failed to improve. This was the second step; and with the certificates went instructions from me to the Examining Committees, explaining the law and the certificate; suggesting to them to have reference, in the granting of licenses with low grades, to the wants of the community; to be lenient at first with poorly qualified persons of good character, but to continue to elevate the standard by degrees, and to see that the law was enforced.

Some teachers held back-some affected to treat the idea of their being examined with contempt-but the chairmen, feeling sustained by the Superintendent, and knowing that through a general organ of this kind the prejudice of one neighborhood could be brought to the judgment of the whole State, and thus exploded, did their duty generally with commendable discretion and firmness. Appeals made to me from their decisions, even by college students, were not sustained; and under my advice payment was withheld in several cases from teachers who had failed to be examined. Finding the officers disposed to sustain each other, they were glad at last to pass the ordeal; and intelligent persons become more and more encouraged to act on Committees of examination, and to take an interest in the

cause.

This year, I have enPUBLIC RECORD of the STANDING OF TEACHERS. deavored still further to build on this foundation happily laid; a foundation, the character of which, I have taken much pains fully to ascertain.

After careful consideration, a new form for the annual returns of chairmen was devised; and this form, without adding but very little additional trouble to the chairmen, contains columns and captions for a record of the names and rank of each teacher licensed.

This would be a still greater inducement to teachers to improve; and it would also enable us to see and understand our whole position, with respect to the supThe form contained ply and character of teachers-information very necessary to be known by all who wish to be able to understand and to aid our system. ample explanations, and males and females were to be distinguished, as it is important to have a good corps of female teachers, to operate wisely, for which we must first see how we stand with respect to them.

This form, also, by its caption would enable us to see how the fund is divided in each county, and how much is paid to each district, or divided for each child.

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Still farther to improve these Normal Schools in efficiency, I have instructed or rather suggested to the chairman in the various counties, to put the names and rank of the teachers on the copies of their returns to be posted at the Court-House doors; and I do not think I can be accused of too much stringency while I am conscious that all these general regulations have to operate on relatives and intimate friends. Good teachers will delight in all such efforts by which they only shine the brighter; and all young people coming under these regulations, being forced to push on in the race of improvement, will some day rejoice that they had to pass through an ordeal that taught them self-reliance, and the necessity of persevering efforts at continual improvement.

TEACHERS' LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS. As a farther means of improvement, I most earnestly recommend the formation of Teachers' Library Associations. Every trade and profession should be learning by experience; but how many teachers in North Carolina have read one single book giving an account of the experience and improvements in their profession in other places? How little inter change of thought is there on this great subject here!

There are a number of good works on the subject of school-teaching--and any one of these, even the most indifferent, might be read with great profit by our teachers generally.

They have Teachers' Institutes and Teachers' Societies of various kinds in other States; none of these would suit our peculiar position, for reasons which I could give, but deem it unnecessary to occupy time in discussing here.

The Library Association, on the principle indicated in my report to the Assembly, would be a Society peculiar to us, in many respects-and yet it is founded on the principle on which Teachers' Institutes are founded in other States.

The legislature should pass a general act of incorporation, giving corporate existence and privileges on certain conditions to the chairmen of the board of County Superintendents and the teachers of each county and committees of examination; and an appropriation of one dollar or more for each school-district-(in that proportion, that is) should be made for a foundation. Let the Chairman be Librarian, with a certain remuneration-and let each teacher pay fifty cents, more or less, annually, for the privilege of membership.

The Superintendent can furnish or recommend a list of books, in conjunction with the Chairman; and each teacher who joins should have the fact stated on his certificate.

These associations will increase in consequence, they will form meeting places for teachers to assemble and discuss the affairs of education, and furnish proper places for lectures, by Superintendents and others; besides, when the minds of teachers are thus brought in contact, the superior intellects will diffuse themselves and be reflected in the action of all the teachers in the association.

SCHOOL BOOKS MUST HAVE REFERENCE TO THE STATE. possible, to make arrangements to have the children classified, and to get into use I determined, if one uniform system of good books; to insure this end of classifying the pupils, to save cost, to have good sources of instruction in the schools, and to have the young mind of the State in its plastic condition, learning about North Carolina, and learning to love the State, and to take an interest in its institutions. This of itself would make a great revolution in time; how could we feel an abiding interest in the common schools or in any other institution of the State, when under the old way of doing things, we were educated to love and respect every other country, and the affairs of every other country more than our own. fore, to have a good series of North Carolina Readers; but so little respect have I determined, therepublishers had for our State, that I might not have been able to induce any one to risk it, except for the moral influence of the office I hold. It has influence with publishers; and I determined to make it tell for the good of our schools.

I made personal sacrifices myself of an amount of some importance to me; and I induced publishers to undertake a complete series, the whole to be prepared under my supervision. I selected Professor Hubbard, of the University, for Editor; and the publishers are a liberal and honorable firm in New York.

I would willingly have intrusted the selections, &c., altogether to Professor Hubbard; but his diffidence induced him to make ine promise to examine everything.

Any one who undertakes a series of readers for youth, will find the task, all things considered, a perplexing one; the preparation of contents, selection of engravings, the rules, kind of execution, prices, &c., &c., are all grave subjects, &c., &c. To add still farther to the utility of this work as a Common School TextBook, I procured a likeness of Bartlett Yancy, the immediate father of the Common Schools of North Carolina, to be engraved, and accompanied by a short familiar sketch of his life. No invidious distinction is intended; the object being to dignify common schools, to learn the children the idea that the great promoters of com

mon schools are to be respected, and thus also, indirectly, to show other great men that if they are not promoters of the education of the poor children of the State, these children may not appreciate them as highly as others, perhaps of less note as politicians.

As I have often intimated, we must begin at the root of things to have an efficient system of public schools in North Carolina; there must be a revolution in the ideas and heart of the State, and the most fruitful seeds of such revolutions are school books.

SCHOOL LECTURES. In other States where common schools exist, they have Teachers' Institutes-associations of teachers for improvement, and the State being laid off into a certain number of these, the Superintendent, or some one designated by him, delivers occasionally lectures to them; and the teachers are required to attend, and they have their expenses paid. Now, so far as speeches are concerned, here is a vital centre through which they can operate to advantage. How is it in North Carolina?

When traveling, to acquaint myself with the character of the State, I often undertook to deliver lectures, and I was of opinion that many who heard me, began to feel a new interest in the cause.

But many of our so-called intelligent people would not attend, looking on the whole common school machinery as not intended for them-and they, whom they called the common people, had no excitement to draw them out, no example of interest set by others, while teachers, afraid no doubt of exposing themselves in some way, rarely ever attended. Hence, speech-making in North Carolina was not calculated much to advance the cause.

IMPORTANCE OF COMMON SCHOOLS. In common schools the people are infi nitely more interested than in all the other literary institutions of the country. Colleges and academies reach, in their influences generally, only a favored few: even railroads and river-improvements reach only a portion of the people with their benefits. On this institution, and this alone, depends the temporal welfare of all the people: this is the great interest of all humanity, in every cottage and cabin, in all its phases, and all its positions throughout the entire scope of the State, and wherever in it is found the haunts and homes of men. It is the temporal hope of the masses for advancement in social rank, in political rights, in industrial prosperity: it is also the base of the pyramid of society, the foundation on which rest the prosperity of all classes, the stability of law, the security of the possessions of the rich, the liberties of the present, and all the hopes of the future. This is simple, unvarnished truth; and hence, from its own importance, from our want of experience, and from the difficulties by which it is surrounded, it makes the most solemn and urgent appeals to those to whose hands its destinies are committed. The efficient management of a concern so great, so lasting and pervading in its influences, implies care, investigation, liberality, commensurate with the interests at stake.

STATISTICS. The number of children now attending common schools, in seventy counties, is eighty-three thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, and the number in the counties not heard from, and the number not reported, may be safely estimated at twelve thousand more, making at least ninety-five thousand, who attended common schools in 1853, against fourteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven in 1840, being an increase of over six hundred per cent. in the number attending primary and common schools.

There were 632 primary and common or country schools in 1840; and I am thoroughly convinced, that if all our twenty-five hundred common schools are not as good as those 632 subscription schools were, (and certainly they are not by a good deal,)—yet that there are more than one thousand common schools now in operation, which in all respects are equal to the 632 schools heretofore in exist ence. I am convinced that for every two good subscription schools broken down by the common schools, we have at least three equally good common schools and one academy somewhere else, or two good schools for one, besides three or four other schools not so good, for every one thus interfered with.

The average time during which all the schools are taught in the year, is about four months; and the whole number of white children between the ages of five and twenty-one years, can not be short of 195,000.

From the foregoing statistics, I am fully warranted in asserting that the average ignorance among the generation now coming on, will be at least fifty per cent. less, or only one-half as great as among those now on the stage of active life in North Carolina.

Great are our inducements to labor. Perhaps fully one-sixth of the free, grownup people of North Carolina can not read the word of God!