account all their appointments, are not inferior to the schools of any foreign city. 19. The proportion of female teachers in the public schools of America is too large for the best interests of education. 20. The history of education does not sustain the dogma that the coeducation of the sexes is the normal finality to which civilization is tending. The reverse is true. 21. Differentiation is the law of educational progress; that is, as education advances the kinds of institutions of instruction are multiplied and their functions are reduced in number. On the invitation of the President, Hon. JOSIAH DENT, one of the commissioners of the District of Columbia, addressed the Department. He said that to him had been intrusted the duty of special attention to the schools and charities of the District. He recounted in a few sentences the peculiar position of the District as the creation of the National Government, and without autonomy of any kind; subject to extraordinary expense on account of its urban character and its position as the capital of the nation, yet unable, from its uncommercial position, to support these expenses without help. He trusted that members of the Department would use their efforts to inform their constituents and the National Legislature of the. peculiar facts of the case. The PRESIDENT then read the following letter, which the Department unanimously adopted as its official action, ordering its officers to sign the same and to spread it on the minutes: NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE, SIR: Your fellow laborers in the work of education desire to record in some suitable form their appreciation of the ability and industry shown by you in the management of the educational exhibit from the United States in the Paris Exposition of 1878. It was late when you were summoned to undertake this work, for which no preparations had been made and on the conduct of which the good name and fame of American teachers and teaching in other countries depended. With an energy and a judgment none the less noteworthy because anticipated by us, you collected the material and organized the exhibit at the eleventh hour in such form and order as to attract the attention of experts and enable the juries to perceive its value and its significance. The result, so honorable to your profession and country and so gratifying to yourself, is too well known to need any mention. For this service and success we beg to tender our grateful acknowledgments and our hearty congratulations. We have the honor to subscribe this letter in behalf of this Department and by its order. J. P. WICKERSHAM, President of the Department, J. J. BURNS, Secretary of the Department. Hon. JOHN D. PHILBRICK, LL. D. (St. Andrew's), Mr. NEWELL, as chairman, presented the report of the committee on national legislation. The committee was composed of the following gentlemen: Hon. M. A. Newell, State superintendent of public instruction of Maryland, chairman; Hon. W. T. Harris, LL. D., superintendent of city schools, St. Louis, Mo.; Hon. J. D. Philbrick, United States Commissioner to the Paris Exposition, Boston, Mass.; Hon. George J. Luckey, superintendent of city schools, Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Hon. Gustavus J. Orr, State school commissioner of Georgia. Following is the report: Your committee, to whom was referred the address of General Eaton on "The wants of the Bureau of Education," would hereby report that they have considered the same, and for the purpose of forming a more careful opinion of the needs and necessities of said Bureau of Education, they have visited the same and inspected its work, so far as possible, both as to amount and character. Your committee find the scope of the work undertaken by the Bureau to be strictly confined to the programme laid down for it by General Eaton in his able address. The objects and aims of this Bureau should be on all proper occasions set forth, in order to remove false and erroneous impressions that have gone abroad regarding its tendency to centralization of the control of public education. The Bureau of Education disclaims through its founders, the Congress of the United States, and through all its advocates, including the teachers and school officers and directors of all parts of the country, any intention or tendency to interfere with the educational systems of any State or section of the country, or in anywise to exercise authority in the collection or dissemination of information; said Bureau neither having any such authority granted to it hitherto nor seeking to obtain such authority in the future, but leaving entirely to States and local self-government the organization and management of schools, and finding its proper sphere of usefulness in collecting and disseminating educational information through the voluntary coöperation of teachers and others engaged in educational work, and through the means afforded it by Congress. It accomplishes this work and renders it available by the following means: First. Chiefly by its annual report, containing information as to the educational systems of the United States and foreign countries. Secondly. By its educational library and museum, which benefit to some degree even the most distant localities through their influence upon the representatives of the people of all sections of the country assembled here in Congress or visiting the capital for business or other causes. Thirdly. In furnishing information to Congress which shall guide in the preparation of laws relating to donations for the aid of education in the several States, or to such matters as the management and control of the Indians, the schedules for the national census, &c. Fourthly. Its function in obtaining important educational information and plans and models of school architecture, apparatus, and furniture from foreign governments, and in reciprocating these favors by exchange. With these objects and aims of the Bureau of Education clearly in view, your committee would further report in detail regarding the several items enumerated by the Commissioner as wants of his Bureau: 1. Your committee regard as of first importance the publication and distribution of the annual report of the Commissioner in an edition sufficient in size to furnish a copy of the same to each party contributing to the statistical information which it contains, and at least one copy to each superintendent of schools in cities, towns, and villages, to each president of school board, to each county superintendent or commissioner of schools, and to all teachers prominent in their influence upon the direction of the methods of discipline or instruction. Such an edition your committee think should comprise at least 12,000 copies for the exclusive use of the Bureau, besides an edition published for the use of members of Congress to distribute to their constituents. 2. Your committee would further report in regard to the means and facilities for collecting statistics for this report, involving the work of examining the reports of education, domestic and foreign; the condensation of information in the form of abstracts and the translation of pertinent and valuable matter; the publication of Circulars of Information on special features of education in the systems at home and abroad; the distribution of the publications of the Bureau and of books and apparatus received from abroad-these things, together with the correspondence necessary, demand a considerable increase of the clerical force to enable the Bureau to accomplish its work to the best advantage. 3. Your committee find further occasion for an increase in the appropriation made to the Bureau in the flourishing condition of the pedagogical library and museum of school apparatus, containing all books on education published in this country or in foreign countries; also containing plans and models of buildings, furniture, apparatus, and exhibits of pupils' work. The proper arrangement and display of this material and the preparation of catalogues and inventories, together with the other work that has been named, demand, in the opinion of your committee, an addition to the present clerical force equivalent to four clerks and two copyists, which addition your committee recommend that this convention of superintendents ask of Congress in a memorial addressed to the proper committees of that body. 4. Your committee would further recommend that the memorial herein named should suggest to the committees of Congress addressed the importance of locating the Bureau of Education in permanent quarters, said Bureau having been removed five times within the nine years of its existence, and the provision of a fire-proof room or rooms for its library and museum, if possible. 5. Your committee would further indorse and approve of the provision for transportation and exchange of documents, apparatus, and models illustrative of educational methods, as recommended by Commissioner Eaton. 6. Your committee would further report that their personal examination of the several departments of the Bureau of Education enables them to confirm their previous impressions regarding the present efficiency of the management of said Bureau; and your committee take pleasure in stating that they believe that their own favorable impression regarding the present Commissioner's direction of this Bureau is shared by the teachers and directors of education generally in all sections of this country. Your committee therefore recommend that this convention of superintendents express their emphatic approval of the present conduct of said Bureau of Education, and their confidence in the measures inaugurated and carried out by the present Commissioner. Mr. NEWELL, as chairman of the same committee, further said: The committee to whom was referred the paper read by Hon. G. J. Orr, after careful consideration of the recommendation therein contained in reference to legislation, have the honor to report that, in our opinion, the views of this body as expressed one year ago on devoting the proceeds of the sales of public lands to the support of primary schools in the various States, were wise, and that we should continue to urge upon Congress such action as will insure this result. We would further recommend that the valuable paper by Dr. Orr be published as a Circular of Information by the Bureau of Education. On motion, the report of the committee on legislation was accepted and unanimously adopted. The committee on resolutions reported as follows: Resolved, That the thanks of this Department are due, and hereby tendered, to the board of education of the District of Columbia. Resolved, That the chairman of this Department, Hon. James P. Wickersham, LL. D., superintendent of public instruction for the State of Pennsylvania, deserves our hearty thanks for the energy and ability with which he has conducted its affairs both before and during these sessions. Resolved, finally, That the Commissioner of Education be requested to print and distribute the proceedings of this convention, and the papers read before us, as one of the Circulars of Information issued by his Office. The resolutions were adopted. The PRESIDENT. If there is no further business, I announce that the Department is now ready to make the visits referred to: First, to the President of the United States; next, to the Corcoran Art Gallery; and, third, to Hon. Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior. It is desirable that the members of the Department should go in a body. We are now ready for a motion to adjourn. The motion to adjourn being made and carried, the Department of Superintendence was declared adjourned sine die. |
