Regents. I do not believe the allegations or charges against the late Board of Regents contained in the report to be true. Very respectfully yours,

Adrian, February 4, 1864.

D. K. UNDERWOOD.

RESOLUTIONS OF THE SENATE OF THE UNIVERSITY.

At a meeting of the Senate of the University of Michigan, convened January 14, 1864. Present, the President, and Professors Williams, Sager, Boies, Palmer, Winchell, Frieze, Campbell, Cooley, Wood, Watson, Evans, Chapin and Olney.

The following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

Whereas, It has been represented that the late Board of Regents have interfered with the interior management of this University, by assuming the exercise of duties properly belonging to its educational officers, and by improperly intermeddling with their administration, thus impairing their use. fulness, and destroying their independence:

And whereas, These insinuations have in some cases proceeded from those who might be supposed to possess some means of knowledge, and are calculated to have some degree of credit given them on that supposition, and for that reason it becomes proper that those who do know the facts should correct such erroneous impressions as may have arisen, to protect their own reputations as well as to certify the truth:

Resolved, That the late Board of Regents have uniformly treated the various faculties of the University with courteous consideration, and have in no case that we are informed of, infringed in any degree upon their usual prerogatives, or attempted to interfere with them in the discharge of their duties; and that in our opinion the internal management of this institution has in no respect been injured or diverted from its proper custody by the action of the late Board.

Resolved, That the foregoing preamble and resolution be communicated to the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

THOMAS M. COOLEY,

Secretary of the Senate.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.

The State Board of Education is happily able to report the State Normal School as in a highly prosperous condition. The number of students in the present senior class is 18. Number in the higher normal course, 175. Number in the normal training course, 213. Total of normal students for the year 406.

The pupils in the experimental or model school number as follows in the primary grade, 25; in the intermediate grade, 75; total, 100. Total number of pupils belonging to the school in all its departments, 506.

Twenty students completed the full course during the year and were graduated. Many others, probably not less than 75, were sent out from the lower classes to teach in the schools of the State.

The Treasurer's report, hereto appended, shows an expenditure of $12,618 86, of which sum $1,125 00 came from the Normal School fund and the remainder from the small charges made upon each student for incidental expenses. Of these expenditures only about $10,800 00 were for ordinary current expenses. A considerable addition was made to the library, and an additional building was erected, the upper story of which affords a spacious and convenient gymasium, while the lower part gives a large and secure woodroom and two sets of privy closets. The cost of this building was $1,250 00, and the entire expense of its erection has been met without asking of the State one dollar of extra appropriation.

Several important modifications have been made in the course of instruction, and, as the Board believe, with manifest advan tage to its usefulness. The most important of these, is the

changing of the model school into a regular graded school, and the introduction of the Normal training course.

The model or experimental school is designed to illustrate the principles of teaching, and to afford to Normal students the opportunity for learning the practical work of their profession. No student is allowed to graduate without having first spent some time in actual teaching, under the critical supervision of the Principal of the school. The rapid growth of the graded school interest had rendered it desirable that some thorough instruction should be given in the Normal school, in the grading and general management of this class of schools. The experimental department was, therefore, divided in three grades -the primary, intermediate and grammar school-and a course of graded instruction adopted for it.

The nature and purpose of the Training Course, introduced during the past year, will be seen from the following extracts from the Circular issued under the authority of the Board:

"Prominent Educators of the West, are aware that a radical change is taking place in the methods of Primary Education. In our best schools there is a growing conviction that the old routine of early studies and old modes of teaching, are out of harmony with the wants and instincts of childhood. Many parents are beginning to inquire, why it is that their little ones, though kept faithfully at school most of the year, make no sat. isfactory intellectual progress; and thinking men everywhere, who have this subject at heart, are perceiving the worthlessness of a system under which the precious years of early life have been so often worse than wasted.

"The Pestalozzian system differs from the old routine in several vital particulars.

"It recognizes the fact, that the faculties of the child follow an invariable order of evolution, and it seeks to cultivate each faculty during the period of its growth, by supplying its appropriate food. It calls the pupil's attention to such objects as will gratify a natural curiosity and thus makes the acquisition of knowledge a source of perpetual pleasure. It gives a quick

ness and accuracy to the eye and the ear; disciplines the perceptive powers, whose activity is natural to early life; renders the pupil familiar with those objects which are most closely related to bis future happiness, developes in him the love of the beautiful, and makes even his amusements contribute to his education. Finally, while it lays the foundation of genuine culture, in habits of close observation, it imparts that kind of knowledge which is of greatest worth in practical life.

"The officers of the Michigan Normal School, impressed with these facts, have, during the last three years, drilled its pupils in the new method, so far as was possible without infringing upon the usual studies laid down in the catalogue. The Board of Education are now convinced that the time has come, when the school can render no greater service to the State, than to so modify its course of study that all its pupils may receive thorough instruction and practice in the Pestalozzian system of Primary Teaching. This does not imply that they must apply this system hereafter in every school, but, that they may be prepared to do so wherever it is acceptable.

Accordingly, the programme of instruction in the Normal School, will, from this date, comprise two courses of study, so arranged that one third of the entire time shall be given to subjects which are strictly profsesional.

The first course, which is designed to prepare pupils for teaching a primary or common school, will be called the Normal Training Course.

The Normal Training Course will embrace the following topics:

FIRST TERM.-A CLASS.

1. Concrete Arithmetic, Mental and Practical Arithmetic. 2. Object Lessons in Geography, Synthetical Geography and Map Drawing.

3. Drawing of Lines, Plane and Solid Geometrical Figures, and Leaf Forms.

4. Reading, Spelling by Object Lessons, Penmanship, Composition by Object Lessons, Elementary Philosophy.