quirements can be met only by appointing, to the boards of local and county examiners, persons who can and will learn something more of the elements for successful teaching possessed by the applicant than can be learned by any test of mere scholastic acquirements.

Under the head of Supervision, in this report, is discussed a plan intended to remedy the evils connected with the present system of county examination.

To recapitulate-the members of the State Board of Examiners should be paid mileage and something for their services.

This board should issue certificates only to teachers of eminent experience and ability. Scholastic attainments of the applicant, however excellent, should be regarded only when accompanied with that eminence of professional character of which the law evidently intended to make honorable recognition.

As a remedy for the evils or burdens of county and local examinations, the State certificate should not be degraded, but further legislative provision should be made to meet the proper demands of the public.

Something should be done in the way of making honorable recognition of those persons who have attained eminence by successful experience and marked ability as teachers of special subjects. Among our best educators are men and women who have, by long-continued teaching of one, two, or three subjects, become eminent, but from the condition of their work have grown "rusty" in perhaps the very branches required by the State board as essential to the obtaining of a State certificate. Unless much time is wasted in reading up the subjects named in the circular of the State board, these teachers, supplying in part our high schools with some of the best instructors the schools have, can not obtain a State certificate.

COUNTY AND LOCAL BOARDS OF EXAMINERS.

Table XXV. shows that 34,436 applicants were examined by the county boards of examiners. Of this number 23,590 were granted certificates of qualification to teach, and 10,735 were rejected. 1,428 meetings were held during the year. $17,233.67 were received as examination fees and paid in to the different county treasurers to be credited to the teachers' institute fund; $2,437.64 were deducted from the fund to pay necessary traveling expenses. The number of applicants before local boards was 966; of this number 794 were granted certificates of qualification, and 172 were rejected. $462.00 were received and paid into the county treasury to be credited to the teachers' institute fund, leaving $21 unaccounted for. The aggregate number of meetings of local boards was 64.

Modes of conducting these county and local examinations vary; usu ally, however, they are conducted either orally, or by writing on blackboard, or by printed slips. In thirty-three counties the examinations were conducted by printed slips; in nineteen, by writing on blackboard; in sixteen, orally, blackboard, and slips; in seven, orally and slips; in six, orally and blackboard; in three, slips and blackboard; in two, written and orally, and in two, orally.

In the different counties, and at different meetings in the same county, there is little or no uniformity as to the tests applied to discover the qualifications of the applicant to teach. Many evils are connected with the present mode of examining. It will be sufficient to enumerate a few of them, in order to show necessity for a remedy in the matter of county examinations.

It is a well-known fact that in some instances county examiners are appointed to this responsible position with little regard to the qualifications the appointees may possess to perform the important work of testing the merits of and licensing applicants to teach school, the officer appointing having regard to other influences-in a few cases rather to the political influence of the parties appointed than to their qualifications as examiners. This can not be charged generally, but it is true of some of the officers who have this important duty to perform. This is an evil that can not be remedied so long as the examiners are appointed by a county officer. Too many incompetent school teachers are, at best, turned upon the county without risking the blunder that would be made by incompetent examiners. The examiners of applicants to teach should be possessed of liberal culture and opinions; they should be intelligent, fairminded, and, as a rule, they should be teachers of skill and successful experience. With these qualifications they can test the scholastic attainments of the applicant, but nothing more. They can determine to no degree of certainty the applicant's natural ability to teach; they can not discover whether or not the applicant possesses the energy, common sense, and versatility of resource necessary to insure successful teaching. Nothing but an actual acquaintance with the school work of the teacher can enable the examiner to determine who is really competent to teach and manage and train children. Boards of examiners, therefore, though composed of the very best experts, testing only the scholastic attainments of applicants, will frequently grant certificates to persons who will prove inefficient teachers. What can be expected of boards of examiners who are not experts? Of the two hundred and sixty-four county examers in Ohio one hundred and forty-seven are teachers; forty-seven are lawyers; twenty-one are ministers; twelve are farmers; eight are phy

sicians; seven are merchants, and twenty-two are engaged in other occupations. It is proper to assume that these gentlemen are men of fair ability and reputation in the pursuit each follows, yet those who are not teachers can not safely be expected to pronounce intelligently upon the qualifications requisite to successful teaching. The State declares that qualification to teach orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar-an adequate knowledge of the theory and practice of teaching, and a certificate of good moral character, is sufficient equipment to enable one to teach in the common schools. Boards of examiners determine what degree of knowledge in the branches enumerated qualifies a person to teach, and they also determine what is a "good" moral character. It is very apparent that the State does not demand enough; that a passable or even an excellent acquaintance with the branches named is not sufficient qualification to enable any one to teach successfully. The State should add to the subjects, at least, history of the United States and industrial drawing; and the teacher to be successful must possess much culture in addition to a knowledge of and kindred to the subjects named. Each subject taught in the schools has an intimate relation to some other, so that qualification to teach any subject requires some acquaintance with kindred branches of learning. Believing that too liberal an interpretation was generally given to the requirements of the law, and that there was sometimes a disposition to grant certificates to incompetent persons because the demand seemed to compel the issuance of certificates to such, the following circular was sent from the office of the Commissioner of Schools to county and local examiners:

To the County Board of School Examiners:

COLUMBUS, OHIO, February 8, 1875.

GENTLEMEN: Permit me to say that I believe the true interests of the public schools demand of you, in your official work, a strict adherence to the requirements of the law indicating the qualifications requisite to the teacher to teach a common school.

I am fully aware that the theory has been that the demand must be supplied even though the standard of qualification be lowered. I think this theory unsound, and pernicious if put in practice. The qualifications regarded by the law, as requisite to the common-school teacher, are limited within the actual requirements for really successful teaching; hence the applicant's knowledge of these branches should not be doubtful or restricted.

In my opinion, you should not grant certificates unless the applicants indicate on examination more than mere passable acquaintance with the branches taught in common schools. You should not supply the demand for teachers by granting certificates to persons who, you are fully convinced, are not qualified to teach. Too many inefficient teachers are now supplying the demand and utterly ruining the schools, and are standing in the way of good teaching. The demand is, unfortunately, not what it should be, and so long as examiners of teachers fill the country with certificated inefficients, it will never be what it should be.

Supply the want as nearly as you can conscientiously, and the demand will soon be what it ought to be, and in due time will be supplied.

I am, very respectfully, yours, etc.,

CHAS. S. SMART,

State Commissioner of Common Schools.

A general approval of the sentiments of this circular came from county and local examiners, and yet public sentiment is such that many examiners thought themselves compelled, in order to supply the demand for cheap teachers, to grant certificates to applicants who were believed to be incompetent. This is wrong. A school under the charge of a teacher who is cheap-in culture, in ability, in moral character-in all the essentials to success as a teacher-as well as in the wages for which he will stay in the school-house-is more damaging to the community in which such school exists than would be the consequences of having no school at all. That is to say, it would be better for any community to have no school at all—the boys and girls being engaged in some honest industry— than that these boys and girls should attend a school under the control of a teacher who is incompetent, unlearned, lazy, unrefined, immoral, lacking in all or many of the requisites to successful and worthy teaching. It will be better if examiners will grant certificates only to such applicants as indicate excellent acquaintance with, at least, the few subjects in which the State has declared the teacher shall be qualified, and such capacity to teach as may be learned through an oral or written examination; even then many inefficient persons will be licensed to teach.

The present system of county examination is wrong. It lacks uniformity; it tests only the literary attainments of the applicant; it is based upon the hypothesis that a passable acquaintance with the common English branches will enable the possessor to teach the subjects; it expects three men, through a literary examination merely, to determine the degree of excellence as a teacher possessed by the applicant; it makes the conditions for obtaining a certificate as numerous as there are counties, if not as numerous as there, have been different meetings held; it leaves the work of the teacher without inspection; it does not sufficiently recognize marked ability and successful experience; it has filled the country with many incompetent teachers, to the injury of the pupils and to the detriment of successful teachers.

The remedy suggested is intelligent county supervision. Any three adjoining counties being a district for examining purposes, and the three county superintendents constituting the examining board. Such a board will possess the requisite culture and attainments. As county superintendents, they must hold certificates of extraordinary qualifications from

the State board of examiners, countersigned by the Commissioner of Schools. In the constant performance of the duties devolving upon a superintendent of schools, they will have seen the teachers at their work, and can test more than the literary attainments of the teachers; having to meet at stated periods to perfect the work of supervision, they can readily adopt some uniform mode of examining and conditions for obtaining a certificate; by daily inspection of the work of the teachers through the year, having discovered the possession or lack of those elements necessary to successful teaching, they will fill the schools only with competent, successful, energetic, earnest teachers. Inexperienced teachers can be given positions on trial, under the inspection of the superintendent, whose duty it will be to inspect the work and determine the worth of such teacher.

STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

The attendance of representative teachers at the meeting of the Ohio State Teachers' Association at Put-in-Bay, held June 29 and 30 and July 1, was larger than usual. The superintendents' section held a session on Tuesday, June 29. The inaugural address of the president of the superintendents' section; the address of President E. T. Tappan on "Qualifications for admission to Colleges;" of Mr. J. M. Clemens on "What provision in courses of study should be made for pupils whose attendance on school is necessarily irregular," each, was a practical and exhaustive treatment of the subject under consideration. Sessions of the general meeting were held Wednesday and Wednesday evening, June 30, and Thursday and Thursday evening, July 1. Papers indicating much thought and careful preparation were read by Dr. Kinsman on "Health and Education;" Superintendent J. B. Peaslee on "Object Teaching;" Hon. James Monroe on "The National Government and Popular Education;" President Orton on "Science in Public Schools;" Rev. W. H. Jeffers on "The Perils which threaten our Public Schools; Hon. T. W. Harvey on "The Life and Labor of Dr. Asa Lord." The meeting was marked for the general excellence and practical worth of the several papers read, and for the intelligent and prevailing interest in the work of the Association on the part of the teachers present.

A report of a Centennial committee on education, appointed by the State Commissioner of Schools, May 29, was presented to the Association and adopted Thursday, July 1. The action of the State Association respecting a preparation for an exhibition of the school interests of the State at Philadelphia will be given under the proper head.

During the year meetings were held by the North-western, the Cen