pays for his lodging and food and books; Maryland is now supporting fifty-five such students. After further remarks by Mr. Sheldon, Dr. Hancock, Dr. Philbrick, and General Eaton, the subject was referred to the next meeting of the National Education Association. The secretary read a letter addressed to the convention by Mr. G. H. La Fetra, of the General Post-Office, in which the writer urged the adoption of a phonetic system of spelling English words. The secretary read a memorial from Dr. Edwin Leigh, of New York City, reciting the very small quantity of instruction received by at least half the school children in our great cities because of their early withdrawal from the schools, and urging that none of the little time so expended by them in school be wasted by injudicious methods of teaching. The following is an extract from this paper: Children have rights, as well as men and women; and certainly among their inalienable rights, in this free and enlightened country, is the right to have secured to them at least as much of a primary education as includes the ability to read simple reading with sufficient ease and understanding of the same to make them actual readers of ordinary books and newspapers. The undersigned would therefore ask of you 1. To use your influence to secure the extension throughout the United States of efficiently executed laws like those which have done something for the children of Massachusetts. If our free Government cannot give its children all the rights and privileges which the powerful military organization of Prussia secures for its children, yet it may do more than it has done: it may assert the rights of children in its fundamental law, and it may pass and execute laws to secure to them their rights. 2. But if we cannot immediately secure such laws and efficient execution of them, let us, at least, employ improved and more effective methods for teaching children during the very first years of their primary instruction, that the children who enjoy only these may derive the greatest possible benefit from them. In view of the facts already referred to, should not our course and method of study be shaped with special reference to the wants of this neglected half of our children, that we may use to the best advantage for their progress the little time during which we have them under our care? Dr. Leigh's memorial gave remarkable instances, from several places, of this improved method and its results: 1. The lowest classes in the St. Louis public schools do the work in one year which used to consume two and a half years. 2. Miss Stickney, principal of the Boston Training School, has carried her pupils through the Second Reader in the same time that before was used in mastering the First Reader. Her example has been followed by other teachers, and so successfully that Superintendent Philbrick will recommend that the method be made obligatory for all the city schools. Similar results have been reached in every school where a trial has been made. The memorial continues as follows: But the first thing to be done is to ascertain the extent and character of this evil, this deficient education of so many of our public school children. "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." When we know that we are sick and how sick we are, we are in a fair way to seek and find and apply a sufficient remedy. The undersigned would therefore ask of you to devise and adopt some simple practical, comprehensive, and uniform method of gathering up and combining the facts and statistics on this subject. It may be practicable, in connection with school records and school reports, to ascertain 1. How many (on some one or more specified days in the year) are in the alphabet class, how many are in the primer, how many have finished a primer and are in a second book, how many are in a third book, and so on. 2. How many have been in school less than one year, how many one year and under two, how many two years and under three, &c. Or it may be practicable, in connection with the school census, to ascertain, with regard to children of the school ages who have quit going to school 1. How many only read, while in school, in a primer; how many finished a primer and were in a second book; how many read through a second book and were in a third book, &c. 2. How many attended school less than a year, how many attended one year and under two, how many attended two years and under three, &c. It is believed that, if these or any other such classes of facts on this point be systematically collected and brought together and made known to the public, it will lead to the adoption of some more efficient means to keep the children in school and do the best for them while we have them. The Department adopted resolutions thanking President Hayes for his expressions in favor of education in his message to Congress, and the trustees of the public schools of Washington, the officers of the First Congregational Church, the newspapers of the city, and the proprietors of the Ebbitt House for various kindnesses. It was also determined that another meeting of like character should be called at some time during the winter of 1878–79. The Department then adjourned sine die. 197 APPENDIX B. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE PRESIDENTS AND OTHER DELEGATES OF THE STATE UNIVERSITIES AND STATE COLLEGES, HELD AT COLUMBUS, OHIO, DECEMBER 27 AND 28, 1877. 12 C I 199-200 |