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subject to removal, for just cause, by the State Superintenden or State Board of Education; and the State to appropriate out of the School Fund income, or General Fund, as the Legis lature may direct, one hundred dollars annually to each County Superintendent, on condition that the county should pay at least as much more, and such County Superintendent should devote at least three months exclusively to the duties of his office; and the State to appropriate an additional one hundred dollars annually to each County Superintendent who should devote at least six months during the year exclusively to the duties of his office, and the county pay him at least as much more; and for the purposes here specified, such sparsely settled counties as Douglas and La Pointe, could be coupled together,at least until the next Legislative apportionment, and one Superintendent made to serve for the united counties. As remuneration for the two members of the Examining Board, to be associated with the County Superintendent, for the purpose of examining and granting certificates to teachers, a reasonable fee could be charged for each such examination-not for granting certificates, for that might possibly prove a temptation to grant them to unworthy aspirants; or the county could allow them a reasonable compen

sation.

TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT.

There is a revolution going on in our country regarding th division of Townships into geographical districts. The distrio system has been so long in general use, that the people are slow to discover its inequalities and inconveniences, and hesitate to make a change, even when convinced of a better arrangement. That the Township system of school government has many and decided advantages over the old district plan, let facts and experience testify:

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"As a general fact," says HORACE MANN, in his Tenth Annual Report as Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, the schools of undistricted towns are greatly superior to those in districted towns;-and for obvious reasons. The first class of towns, the undistricted,-provide all the schoolhouses, and, through the agency of the school committee, employ all the teachers. If one good school house is provided for any section of the town, all the other sections, having contributed their respective portions of the expense to erect the good house, will demand one equally good for themselves; and the equity of such a demand is so obvious, that it cannot be resisted. If, on the other hand, each section were a separate district, and bound for the whole expense of a new house, if it should erect one, it would be tempted to continue an old house, long after it had ceased to be comfortable; and, indeed, as expe

fence has too often and sadly proved, long after it has ceased to be tenantable. So, too, in undistricted towns, ve never see the painful, anti-republican contrast of one school, in one section, kept all the year round, by a teacher who receives a hundred dollars a month, while, in another section of the same town, the school is kept on the minimum principle, both as to time and price, and, of course, yielding only a minimum amount of benefit,-to say nothing of probable and irremediable evils, that it may inflict. In regard to supervision, also, if the School Committee are responsible for the condition of all the schools, they are constrained to visit all alike, to care for all alike, and, as far as possible, to aim, in all, at the production of equal results; because any partiality or favoritism will be rebuked at the ballot-box. In undistricted towns, therefore, three grand conditions of a prosperous school,-viz., a good house, a good teacher, and vigilant superintendence,-are secured by motives which do not operate, or operate to a very limited extent, in districted towns. Under the non-districting system, it is obvious that each section of a town will demand, at least, an equal degree of accommodation in the house, of talent in the teacher, and of attention in the Committee; and, should any selfish feelings be indulged, it is some consolation to reflect that they, too, will be harnessed to the car of improvement.

"I consider the law of 1789, authorizing towns to divide themselves into districts, the most unfortunate law, on the subject of Common Schools, ever enacted in the State. During the last few years, several towns have abolished their districts, and assumed the administration of their schools in the corporate capacity; and I learn, from the report of the School Commitees, and from other sources, that many other towns are conemplating the same reform."

Speaking of Mr. Mann's opinion of the unfortunate law of 789, authorizing the division of towns into districts, Rev. Dr. SEARS, Mr. Mann's successor as Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, observes, in his Report of 1850, The justness of the above observation is illustrated every day by the evils which are forcing themselves upon the public attention from every quarter.'

Hon. H. H. BARNEY, in his Report of 1855, as Commissioner of Common Schools of Ohio, gives the following synopsis of the able argument of Dr. Sears, in favor of the township system, and the evils incident to the old district plan: After explaining, at great length, the nature of these evils, he sums up the whole matter, by saying that the schools ordinarily maintained in the districts into which they are divided, are no longer capable of giving the education required by the character of the times; that they preclude the introduction of a system of proper

gradation in the schools; that the classification of the pupils is necessarily imperfect, and the number of classes altogether too great for thorough instruction by a single teacher; the fact that the district schools without any of the advantages of gradation, once answered their purpose very well, does not prove that we need nothing better now; that the old system is much more expensive in proportion to what it accomplishes than the other; that by means of it, hundreds of schools are kept in operation, which would otherwise be abandoned, as they ought to be; that in 1849 there were in Massachusetts 25 schools, whose highest average attendance was only five pupils; 205, whose highest average attendance was only ten; 546, in which it was only fifteen; 1,009, where it was only twenty; and 1,456, where is was only twenty-five; that most of these schools were of so low an order as not to deserve the name, and that the impression which they made upon the agents of therd of Education while visiting them, was that the money of the districts, and the time of the teachers and pupils, were little better than wasted; that while some schools thus gradually dwindled into comparative insignificance and worthlessness, others became too large for suitable instruction by one teacher; that another evil almost invariably resulting from the division of the townships into independent school districts, was the unjust distinction which it occasioned in the character of the schools, and in the distribution of the school money; that when there was no responsible township School Committee authorized to act in the name of the township, there could not be that equality in the schools which the law contemplated; that the inhabitants of one district, being more intelligent and public-spirited than those of another, would have better school houses, more competent, zealous and devoted School Directors, and consequently better teachers and better schools; that the smaller and more retired districts, which stood in greatest need of good common schools, because entirely dependent on them, were more likely to languish for want of public spirit and good management than to be prosperous; that inasmuch as the theory of popular education is founded upon the principle that the public security requires the education of all the citizens, and that it is both just and expedient to tax the property of the people for the education of all the children of the people, and inasmuch as the school tax is levied equally upon all parts of the township, and as the object contemplated, which alone justifies such taxation, is the education of the whole mass of the population, without distinction, nothing short of an equal provision for all, should satisfy the public conscience. '

With such facts and arguments presented and enforced, through a series of years, by two of the most accomplished and experi

enced friends of popular education in this country,-Horace Mann and Dr. Sears-gentlemen who have carefully observed, thoroughly studied, and minutely noted the practical workings of the various school systems of this country and of Europe, the people became aroused at last to the importance of the change which had been so ably advocated, and the utility of which had been so completely demonstrated.

In a recent report of the Secretary of the Board of Education of Massachusetts, the following important statement is found, viz :

"A very considerable number of the townships have dropped the former mode of dividing the schools according to districts, and have placed the whole matter of their organization and distribution in the hands of the School Committee of the township. This change has already been made in about sixty townships of the Commonwealth, and the subject is now, more than ever before, engaging the attention of other townships, so that the year to come is likely to show greater results than any preceding year. The perceptible improvement of the schools in those places which have made the change, is an argument before which nothing can stand, and which is now acting upon the minds of the people at large, with silent but resistless power.

"The clear intelligence, steadiness and sobriety with which the people are beginning to pursue their object, as contrasted with the adventurous and uncertain efforts in the same direction in former years, is one of the many pleasing indications that the days of turmoil and confusion in settling great questions of school policy, are passing away, and a wise regard for the interests of posterity is becoming more and more controling in the management of this branch of our public interests. It is hardly too much to say that, under the guidance of such lofty sentiments, all the townships of the State will, within a short period, be found adopting that policy in the management of their public schools, which experience shows to be the best.

"The gradual abandonment of the district system as here stated, results in no small degree from its connection with another measure, which has been regarded by the people with great favor, namely, the gradation of the schools. The districts are known to stand directly in the way of this improvement, and are receiving judgment accordingly. It was not until somewhat recently that a subject so important, so fundamental as that of establishing schools of different grades, for pupils of different ages and attainments, received much consideration from those who alone possessed the power to make the change. Distinguished men had written on the subject, and those who had studied the philosophy of education, were generally agreed in respect to it. But it was known chiefly as a theory passing,

in only a few instances, except in the cities, from the closet to the school room. By degrees, the results of these few experiments became known. Measures were taken to communicate them to the people, the majority of whom were still without any definite information on the subject. From this time, a course of action commenced in the townships which were favorably situated for trying the experiment, and has been followed up with increasing vigor ever since.

"But what particularly distinguishes the present state of education amongst us from that of former times, is the existence of so many free High Schools. Until quite recently such schools were found only in a few large towns. The idea of a free education did not generally extend beyond that given in the ordinary district schools. All higher education was supposed to be a privilege which each individual should purchase at his own expense. But at length the great idea of providing by law for the education of the people in a higher grade of public schools prevailed. The results have been most happy. High Schools have sprung up rapidly in all parts of the Commonwealth; and within the last six years, the number has increased from scarcely more than a dozen to about eighty.

"The effect of this change in the school system, of this higher order of schools, in developing the intellect of the Commonwealth, in opening channels of free communication between all the more flourishing towns of the State, and the colleges or schools of science, is just beginning to be observed. They discover the treasures of native intellect that lie hidden among the people; making men of superior minds conscious of their powers; bringing those who are by nature destined to public service, to institutions suited to foster their talents; giving a new impulse to the colleges, not only by swelling the number of their students, but by raising the standard of excellence in them, and finally, giving to the public, with all the advantages of education, men who otherwise might have remained in obscurity, or have acted their part struggling with embarrassments and difficulties."

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Hon. GEO. S. BOUTWELL, the present Secretary of the Board of Education of Massachusetts, remarks in the Twentieth Annual Report: "In many districts, the number of pupils is too small to constitute a good school. This evil was fully discussed by Dr. Sears, in the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board of Education. The evil, however, continues, without much alteration for the better; nor is there great hope of improvement while the present system remains. A district, however small it may be, is anxious to preserve its existence, and especially unwilling to be united with, or merged in a larger

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