NOTICE. A copy of this Report is furnished to School Directors (and should be placed in the library, if the district has one), Township Clerks, County Clerks and Treasurers, and County Superintendents; and a sufficient number is designed to be sent to the County Clerks to supply the officers named, in the several counties in the State. The publication has been delayed solely by neglect of so many school officers to make their reports in the time required by law. Such delinquents are requested to look at Duties of School Officers in Making Reports, commencing on page 153. All school officers, especially, ought to make the reading of the whole book a question of business, and not a mere matter of amusement, as they would read a novel. Education is not a matter of romance; it is the sober business of life; and they to whom the great work is committed cannot keep themselves too well posted in its progress, or in their duties. This Report, though some of it may not be exciting, is still full of information upon what is being done, and what needs to be done, to secure most efficiently the education of the four hundred thousand youth in the State, who are soon to control the State. The County Superintendents' reports are full of interest to those who will sit down to a patient perusal of them. They bring the reader in elose contact with the schools, and furnish more accurate knowledge of their condition than can be obtained, perhaps, from all other sources. All the amendments made to the School Laws since the publication of the edition of 1869, will be found, commencing on page 298. In examining the School Laws, these amendments should be constantly kept in mind. They are the same as published in the Report for 1870. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, Lansing, Michigan, December 15, 1871. To His Excellency, HENRY P. BALDWIN, Governor of the State of Michigan: SIR-I have the honor to submit herewith, in accordance with the provisions of the laws of this State, the Annual Report of the Department of Public Instruction, and the accompanying documents, for the year of our Lord 1871. I am, very respectfully, Yours, etc., ORAMEL HOSFORD, Superintendent of Public Instruction. |