THE DISTRICT SCHOOLS. Elsewhere in this report it has been shown that the number of school buildings was not increased during the year, though there was great necessity for more school rooms. The number of kindergartens was not increased, though the enrollment and attendance for the year was considerably greater than for the preceding year. That this increase in enrollment was only about one-half as great as the increase for the preceding year, is due principally to the fact that the buildings could accommodate no more children. The kindergartens, as well as the priprimary departments, were overcrowded, and, alike, in both departments, the want of room was the only cause for the comparatively small increase in numbers. The rules regulating the admission of children to kindergarten and primary instruction have not been changed since last year. The kindergarten still remains a distinct organization, and to most persons, there seems to be no connecting link between the instruction imparted in the kindergarten and in the primary school. That the child should begin with the kindergarten training and pass into the advanced primary work by a gradual transition from purely kindergarten instruction and methods, to instruction and methods suitable for the acquirement of that which is required of the school, seems to be a necessity, and will, without doubt, be the final result; but, up to the present time, the person qualified to make this transition and preserve the spirit of the kindergarten, has not appeared upon the pedagogical field. The methods of the kindergarten empirically engrafted upon the old stalk of the primary school as at present organized and conducted, will not produce the desired result. The former recognizes education as the unfolding of spirit, a process of developing or bringing to consciousness that which exists potentially within. The knowledge of the external is the means, not the end, and the methods are definite for the accomplishment of its end. The old method of primary instruction recognizes, or at least proceeds as if it recognized, the external as the end, and if the notion is entertained that, somehow, intellectual and moral culture is involved, it is vague, and only indefinite means are adopted to accomplish such end. The nature of the mind is not studied by the teacher, or regarded as essential. Instruction imparted without a knowledge or comprehension of the nature of mind and its process must certainly end in formalism. It would be difficult, to-day, to find many teachers who would acknowledge that the acquirement of external facts is the only aim in education. All might admit that one of the purposes of their daily efforts should be the development of the powers and activities of the mind. Though the teacher of to-day makes a general admission of the truth as presented in the culture side of education, though he claims to hold a clear notion of its true meaning and its bearings upon the intellectual and moral prospects of the child, yet too often he confines himself to "the mere mechanism of specific processesto committing to memory and the repetition of a task with or without explanation," or to the development of a socalled intellectual faculty without reference to the totality of the intellectual process; therefore we have too much of mere learning of the thing for the sake of things, "too little of close observation, searching analysis, reflective thought and penetrating investigation, by which, only, the mind can be trained to higher stages of activity." The interest in the Public School is centered mostly Blow, a. m Blow, p. m Carondelet, p. m. Carroll, a. m Carroll, p. m. Clay, a. m. Divoll, a. m Everett, a. m. Everett, p. m.. Franklin, p. m. in the District Schools, for they afford the means through which the great mass of the people are furnished with the necessary "conventionalities of intelligence — the tools of thought," which are the means for communication and practical relations as well as for acquiring higher education and more complete culture. With the great mass of people, and even with some whose education and position should lead to better judgment-the men who lay great stress upon the so-called practical side of education the school is valued mostly for its "practical results," namely, the ability to "read, write and cypher." Judgment is passed upon the school almost entirely from this side. If the pupil can read fluently, can write a fair hand, and can compute rapidly, these judges express satisfaction they are gratified with the results. These certainly are necessary results, results that must be attained; but they, by no means, should constitute the all of primary and intermediate instruction. Intellectual and moral training is within the province of the school. Not intellectual and moral training as an incidental result of the discipline enforced or of pursuing the branches taught, but intellectual and moral culture obtained through definite aims and methods. Moral training should not rest with the mere accumulation of will power resulting from school discipline and study, or from enforced obedience to the rules of the school. There must be a definite idea in the mind of the instructor as to what should be accomplished in the way of acquiring habits, tastes, desires, and in the performance of rational deeds. This idea should be no less definite than the idea of what is required in the study of arithmetic. It is as essential that pupils be taught to know and to obey the rational as to know and apply the principles of numbers. The same is true of intellectual culture. The training of the intellect must not be left to mere chance, to the possible discipline that may accrue from the nature of the subjects taught. While pursuing the studies that furnish |