University in the State, each State scholar to receive from the State fifty dollars annually, on condition that he pledge himself to engage in the business of teaching, within the State, for a term of time equal to that for which he shall have received such bounty; and if he shall fail so to teach, if in competent health, he shall refund the money so received from the State, or render himself liable to an action at law for its recovery.

This would require the sum of $5,000 annually, and, I doubt not, its appropriation in this direction, would prove a powerful stimulus to the youth of the State to seek these State scholarships, and would eventually secure a noble annual addition to the number of highly qualified teachers for our High, Central and Normal Schools. Every such encouragement on the part of the State, would tend to elevate the standard of Common School education among us, foster and encourage our Universities and Colleges, and provide for our future wants, a class of superior instructors for our higher graded schools.

TOWN SUPERINTENDENTS.

Could

The frequent incapacity of Town Superintendents to properly examine and determine the qualifications of candidates for teachers' certificates, has been already referred to; and a County Examining Board of three persons, composed of the County Superintendent, and two practical teachers, has been suggested as, in my opinion, the best remedy for this great evil. this, or some similar change be adopted, a multitude of evils would at once be obviated. But if such change be deemed impracticable or premature, I would suggest that for the purpose of examining teachers and granting certificates, that two practical teachers in each town be recommended by the teachers of such town to the Town Board of Supervisors for their approval and appointment, to be associated with the Town Superintendent for the purpose of examining and granting certificates to qualified candidates for the teacher's profession. While I should regard this as a step in an improved direction, I should still look upon it as infinitely inferior to an able County Examining Board who would make thorough and impartial work of their examinations, and grade the certificates according to merit.

If neither a County nor Town Examining Board be provided, then some legislation will be needed with reference to the removal of a Town Superintendent for refusal or neglect to perform his duties. When a member of the District Board refuses to perform his duty, or declines to obey a decision of the State Superintendent, his office is declared vacant, and filled accord

ingly. But a Town Superintendent may-as has actually been done-refuse, out of mere spite, to examine a candidate for a teacher's certificate, to whom he has two or three times previously granted a certificate, whose moral character is good, and whose services as teacher are greatly desired by his district; and though the aggrieved party appeals to the State Superintendent, and the latter should decide against the action of the Town Superintendent as unjust and arbitrary, yet I know of no way of enforcing such decision-no way of declaring the office vacant. It is true, the Town Board of Supervisors have power to make a temporary appointment whenever a Town Superintendent "may be unable" to perform the duties of his office; but there is, so far as I know, no power to remove for unwillingness or refusal to perform those duties. As the law now is, the State Superintendent's decision may be mocked at, a petty tyranny exercised over a worthy citizen, and the reasonable wishes of a whole district oppressively denied, and all without a remedy. Such power is not in accordance with the genius of our free institutions-equal and exact justice to all, and a remedy for every wrong.

CHANGE OF TIME FOR MAKING REPORTS.

Section sixth of the School Law passed the last night of the last session of the Legislature contained, when published, some unaccountable blunders and incongruities which the authors of the law never designed. It was intended to specify the time. for the District Clerks to make their annual reports not between. the first and fifteenth days of July, in each year, and bear ing date the first of July, but between the first and tenth days of September, bearing date the first of September thus making the school year close, as formerly, the 31st of August. This arrangement of dates best corresponds with the time now designated by law for the Town Superintendent to make his report, which is between the fifteenth and twenty-fifth days of September; the Clerks of the Boards of Supervisors to make theirs on or before the tenth day of October, and the State Superintendent on or before the tenth day of December.

If the school year were to close the 30th of June, as the law now erroneously provides, it would prove a serious hardship upon such districts as are unable to maintain a winter school, and depend upon the summer for their three months' school. It leaves a long and unnecessary gap between the 15th of July and 25th of September in which for the Town Superintendent to make his report, when ten days would be sufficient, and was so

intended. In view of the difficulties which the law, in this particular, if enforced, would involve the districts, I directed the District Clerks, with the approval of the Governor, to make their reports the past year between the first and tenth days of September, bearing date the first of that month, and they accordingly did so. If the present district system is adhered to, it will be necessary to remedy the defects in the law here pointed out.

STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

The annual meeting of this body of educational laborers is subserving a very useful and important purpose both to them-. selves and the people. If there could be an auxiliary Association formed in every county in the State, to report to the State Association; and the full proceedings of the latter, including such essays of merit as are read before it, together with an abstract of the reports of the County Associations, be reported to the Legislature for publication, or to the State Board of Education, or State Superintendent, to be appended to the Annual Report of the latter, if deemed worthy of it,-if this could be done, much additional information of a useful and interesting character would be disseminated among the teachers themselves, and spread before the people, upon the subject of the teachers' vocation, labors and usefulness. The State of Massachusetts provides for the annual publication of the proceedings of the Teachers' Association of that State. Our State Journal of Education, with the variety of mattter it is expected to furnish, and the space accorded to the State Superintendent for notices, opinions and decisions, has not sufficient room for the publication of the proceedings, essays and reports of the State Teachers' Association; and to be published in an embodied form as a State document, would give to it a far wider range of circulation and usefulness, and at a cost comparatively trifling.

PUBLIC SCHOOL ASSOCIATIONS.

At the instance of D. Y. KILGORE, Esq., City Superintendent of the public schools of Madison, there has been organized in this city a Public School Association, comprising the patrons and friends of the public schools. The officers consist of a President, two Vice Presidents, a Secretary, a Reader, and an Executive Committee of five persons. A weekly meeting is held, each Saturday evening, with the following order of exercises: 1st, reading the minutes of the last meeting; 2d, reports of com

mittees; 3d, report of the Superintendent; 4th, lecture, or discussion, or both; 5th, reading communications and selections; and 6th, miscellaneous business.

The object of the Association is to create a greater interest in the minds of parents with regard to the education of their children at the public school, and to awaken a spirit in the minds of the people which should, to some extent, appreciate the labors of the teachers, and co-operate with them in securing that intellectual training which would result in the highest good to all concerned. It was rightly judged, that by bringing the schools as much as possible under the supervision of parents, and the patrons and teachers into a more intimate relation, offering frequent opportunities of friendly interchange of opinion, advantages of a practical character would result to the children profitable alike at school and at home.

The results have, thus far, been in the highest degree satisfactory. Several lectures have been delivered, and the discussions of educational questions have elicited an interest amounting almost to enthusiasm. Committees have been appointed each week to visit the several schools of the city, and report the result to the Association. Thus is increased attention paid to the public schools, and both teachers and pupils encouraged. Instead of becoming eloquent with indignation over some fancied or exaggerated grievance, parents are more inclined to sympathize with the teacher in his difficult, pains-taking and responsible labors, and contribute what they can to lighten his burdens and increase his joys-for the public appreciation of his labors, is to the earnest, faithful teacher his "exceeding great reward." Judging the future of this new organization by the past, we may confidently expect that it will become a fixture in our educational system, destined to confer mutual benefits and lasting blessings upon both schools and families.

I would earnestly recommend the organization of a similar Association in every city and township in the State. We need by every possible means in our power to encourage the public teacher, and elevate the standard of public education. The com-. mon school-the free school, is the hope of the State. "Like the dew of heaven," says President LORIN ANDREWS, of Ohio,. "it distils alike its blessings upon the poor and the rich. It practically carries out those glorious principles of Liberty and Equality of which we so much boast. Every child in this. broad land has a God-given right to claim from the powers that be, moral and intellectual, as well as physical development. We imprison in the deepest, darkest dungeon the wretch who has brutally crippled his child or ward; but we inconsistently

permit thousands of our respectable citizens to cripple and starve, with impunity, the deathless energies of the minds of. our children, and wantonly to deface the image of God from their souls. The free school, and the free school alone, affords to every child the privileges of intellectual and moral culture, and hence in principle, and practice too, it is right.

EDUCATIONAL TRACTS.

The

Several of the States have made appropriations for the wide dissemination of ably written tracts upon educational topics of great public importance. These tracts are designed to contain a brief, yet strong, pointed, condensed argument, and generally limited to eight pages, and never exceeding sixteen pages. type-setting, therefore, costs comparatively nothing-the cost being almost exclusively confined to paper, press-work, and folding, no stitching being necessary. As many as thirty thousand copies of an eight page tract have been furnished in the Eastern States for the small sum of two hundred dollars. Tracts like that of Charles Northend's Teacher's Appeal to the Parents of his Pupils, on Graded Schools, School Libraries, Consolidation of School Districts, Improved Qualifications in Teachers, Superiority of Female over Male Teachers for Primary Schools, on School Visitation, Education in its relations to Health, Insanity, Labor, Pauperism and Crime, on Vocal Music in Schools, Normal Schools and Teachers' Institutes, and many subjects of this kind, could be tersely and pointedly presented in a small tract-a large edition published, scattered over the State through the medium of Teachers' Conventions and Institutes, and other modes of distribution, that would enter many families destitute of such information, and give a new direction to the future career of many a parent and his children, and accomplish a vast amount of good. So important did Mr. Barnard, when Commissioner of Common Schools of Rhode Island, deem this mode of reaching the mass of the people, that he caused upwards of ten thousand copies of Educational Tracts to be stitched to the Almanacs circulated in that State, which were sold during the winter of 1844-'45, and thus they found access to many a family they would otherwise never have reached.

In the Report of the Superintendent of Common Schools of the State of Maine, last year, it is thus observed: "It is the testimony of other States, that a free circulation of Educational Tracts has prepared the public mind for some of the most decisive and beneficent measures in behalf of popular education." While the PRESS is universally conceded to be the mighty lever