annihilating, for the time being, whole neighborhoods. In the new county of Huron, not less than seventeen school-houses were burned. The most of them were framed buildings, of a better class than are usually found in newly organized districts. One of these was valued at $2,000; the best district school-house in the county,-large enough to accommodate 100 pupils. It was supplied with the best kind of school furniture and apparatus, consisting of maps, charts, blackboards, reference books, and the like. It was not only an ornament to the little hamlet, but showed clearly the character of the people who built it. Other houses were burned, whose valuation was from $500 to $800. The report says that "over one hundred square miles of our timbered lands have been burned over and converted into 'charred wastes' and impenetrable windfalls. But however extensive this loss of property, how is it to be compared with the loss of human life, or to the destitution and suffering which followed? Charred remains were all that was left of several families, and many more only escaped meeting the same fate by taking refuge in the waters of Lake Huron." Four hundred and fifty-one families, comprising nineteen hundred and fifty-seven persons, were rendered homeless and penniless, and many almost entirely destitute of even wearing apparel. Nearly nine hundred children are thus deprived of the privileges of school in this county, and must be prevented from attending school for some time to come, unless aid be furnished from abroad. It will be all that these people can possibly do, for the present, to build their houses and barns, and re-fence their lands, and raise enough for their subsistence. Other sections of the State have suffered most severely. Many school-houses have been burned in other counties, but the destruction was less extensive and complete. In those sections which are most appropriately called the "burnt districts," it will require years to restore the schools to their former prosperity, unless foreign aid be furnished, while in other sections a year or two of vigorous labor will obliterate

the most serious evidences of the fire. The school-houses will be rebuilt, and farm buildings restored, and families returned to their homes. In Saginaw county the fires were less severe than in Huron, yet in this county eight school-houses have been burned, and great destitution brought upon many of the people. Ten school-houses were burned in Sanilac county. Notwithstanding this depressing state of things, from the interest already shown to the suffering, we are led to believe that the deprivation referred to will be but temporary. Aid will be furnished to the destitute, and they will soon be permitted to enjoy their former prosperity.

THREE TERMS OF SCHOOL.

One of the first defects in the present mode of conducting the district schools, noticed by the Superintendent, is the attempt to continue the school through the months of July and August. Almost without exception, the schools are nearly destitute of pupils during these months. In schools numbering forty or fifty pupils during the early part of the term, not more than ten or twelve pupils are found in July and August. Reference has been made to this fact in former reports, and the recommendation made, to change the school year, having three terms instead of two, an autumn, winter, and spring term, leaving July and August for a long vacation. The attempt has been made by a number of the Superintendents to secure such an arrangement, and their efforts have not been fruitless. In several counties a sufficient number of schools have adopted the plan to test its practicability. The change has been found to be a most desirable one. In these schools the average of attendance has been very largely increased, there has been greater interest manifested by the pupils, and of course much better progress made in study. As the year is now divided by the two-term system, the vacation occurs in September and October, as pleasant months as are found in the whole year. The memory of being chained in the school

room six almost endless hours, as they then seemed, each day, during those hot, sultry, scorching summer months, is anything but pleasant. Wherever this change has been effected there is but one opinion expressed as to its desirableness, there is a better attendance, and the pupils are able to pursue their studies with greater vigor.

The plan proposed is to have the fall term commence with the school year, the first Monday of September, or as soon after that as possible, and continue two months, with a vacation of one week; then follows a winter term of four months, with a vacation of two weeks; then a summer term of three months; then a vacation until September. There can be but one opinion as to the fact that the time thus indicated is the best for school work. The only objection ever offered is the unpleasant weather of spring, and the difficulty the children. may experience in reaching the school. With the arrangement indicated, the spring vacation would occur at the time of the breaking up and settling of the roads, and when the spring rains are the most abundant. It is found by experiment that more pupils attend the schools in these months, although it may be difficult for some to go, than during the hot summer weather. It is to be hoped that the three-term system will yet become the only one.

COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS.

The labors of the County Superintendents have never shown more valuable results than during the past year. All persons who have given any attention to the condition of the schools, freely admit that they were never in so flourishing a condition as they are at the present time. This improved condition of the schools, and the advancement made in the various kinds. of school work, are largely owing to the untiring efforts of the County Superintendents. Knowing, as they did, that it would be impossible to have good schools without competent teachers, and knowing that many utterly incompetent persons were

employed in the schools, they made it their first work to remove such ones, and supply their places with those worthy of the position. This was no easy task; but few could be found who were thoroughly prepared to teach. Hence the Superintendents made it their first and special effort to induce teachers to prepare themselves for their work; and believing that they would not be likely to seek higher attainments than were demanded, they at once advanced the standard of scholarship required to secure a certificate, and they have made their requirements more and more stringent year by year. This has given dissatisfaction in many instances, as might have been predicted. Those who had been employed for years, it may be, in the schools, but who were destitute of nearly every qualification to fit them for their position, and too opinionated or too indolent to consent to make any effort to improve themselves in the branches to be taught, or in methods of instruction, would, of course, complain when they found themselves set aside, and others occupying their places. But how is it with the schools? Are they the worse for the change? This question needs no reply, at least to those who have been at all observant of the condition of the schools as they were a few years ago, and as they are now.

It has been the policy of the more experienced Superintendents to retain every well tried and competent teacher in the county, and so far as possible to persuade them to continue in the profession. They have also endeavored, so far as they could, to induce the school boards to retain the same teacher for a series of terms. The frequent change of teachers is a great injury to the schools, as well as to the teachers. No teacher can build up a permanent reputation if compelled to change his situation every term, nor can a school become noted so long as a constant change of teachers is permitted. Not every one who is able to pass a satisfactory examination. proves to be a good teacher. It was no unfrequent occurrence formerly for persons to secure certificates who proved them

selves entirely incompetent, and their schools were worse than failures. Such persons were often removed, and the school discontinued, because the school officers knew of no one to fill the place. By the present system the difficulty is fully met, in the first place by preventing in a large measure, such teachers from entering the school; but if they find their way there, as they will sometimes, they are easily removed, and the Superintendent, from his general knowledge of teachers unemployed, is able to fill the place at once. One Superintendent, who has been compelled to make a few changes during the year, says that the schools were discontinued but a few days, the longest time being but one week, and some of them not a day. In most counties the greatest harmony exists between the Superintendents and the teachers. Those who are willing and anxious to fit themselves for their work, have no complaints to make of severe and unreasonable requirements. They prize a certificate that costs them toil, and they are gratified with the better results of their labor.

THE KINDERGARTEN.

Mention should be made in this report of the growing interest in Fræbel's system of primary education, called the Kindergarten system.

This system is now most highly prized in many parts of Germany, although most violently opposed by the Government at its introduction. It was first introduced into this country about twenty years ago, but in a private way, Dr. Douai then founding a private school for Germans. This at first, did not comprehend the entire plan of Froebel, especially its more minute details, but subsequently a teacher, trained in one of Fræbel's Normal Classes, was imported from Germany to instruct teachers in all the details of his plan.

In speaking of this system one has said, it "not only insures healthy physical development, but trains the artistic imagination, the scientific mind, and the skillful hand of labor;