enrolled in public schools do the State injustice, as the enumeration of the former, being a condition of State aid in proportion to the number, is carefully and generally made, while the enrolment, bringing no such aid, is by many districts not reported. The per cent. of enrolment to school youth thus seems much smaller than it is, and, even if reported to the full, would seem comparatively small, because few from 6 to 7 years old are sent to school and few between 17 and 21 continue in it, while pupils in the State University, in the schools for the blind and for the deaf, with all in denominational or private schools and colleges, though included in the enumeration, are not counted in the enrolment as it is now reported. To remedy all this to some extent and to secure better reports and better school work, the superintendent urges (1) county superintendency, fairly paid, for visiting and stimulating schools and securing fuller reports; (2) better school directors, chosen at the general election, to look after individual district schools and report on them to the county superintendent; (3) the institution of county boards of education, to be composed of the existing county examiners and of two intelligent citizens in each county, to be associated with the examiner in the examination and licensing of teachers and the selection of text books for the county schools, for 3 or 4 year terms; (4) free text books for the free schools, to secure uniformity, save much expense, and prevent the waste of time now general in the first few weeks of school from want of books or want of uniformity in them; and (5) a township system, instead of or with the district one, to consolidate school funds, give better school-houses, better teachers, and better appliances for work; among these a gradation even of the country schools. It is to be hoped that his recommendations may be heeded and some progressive action on them set on foot in the interest of efficiency and of a true school economy as well.

ADMINISTRATION.

The system is administered by (1) a State superintendent of public instruction, elected by the people for 2 years; (2) a board of commissioners of the common school fund, of which the superintendent is secretary; (3) a county examiner for each county, appointed by the county courts, and (4) district directors (3 for each district), elected by the people for 3-year terms, with liability to change of one each year. Annual reports of school statistics must be made by district directors to county examiners, by examiners to the State superintendent, and by him to the governor. Directors failing to make the report required are personally liable for any loss of public funds that may ensue from such neglect, and also liable to a considerable fine for neglect of duty. Teachers are required to keep a register of school statistics and to make full report of all school attendance, work, &c., or forfeit pay for the last month taught. They are also required to attend the county institutes held for their improvement, and may not be charged for loss of time at school incurred by such attendance. In the intervals of public schools they may, with consent of their directors, teach a private school in the district school-house. For the educational requirements made of them, see Preparation and Qualifications of Teachers, further on. Separate schools for whites and blacks are required, as in other Southern States. The prescribed studies in them are the ordinary English ones, no provision being made for high schools, except in cities and towns. The books for study are selected by the State superintendent.

FINANCES.

The means for the support of the State system of public schools are derived from the income of a State school fund, from a per capita tax of $1 on men over 21, from such appropriations as the legislature may set apart, and from optional district taxes, the last limited to 5 mills on $1 of the assessed valuation of property subject to taxation. If in any district the public school funds, with local taxes, should be insufficient to sustain a school for the minimum term (3 months), district directors may determine that no school shall be taught therein during such year.

Aid from the Peabody fund to the amount of $4,050 was received for 1882-'83 and 1883-84, of which $1,000 was for graded schools and the remainder for the improvement of the teachers of the State through institutes and other normal training.

NEW LEGISLATION.

The State report for 1882-83 and 1883-84 gives no intimation of any new legisla tive action respecting the school system, though it presents, as may be scen in what has been already said, an urgent call for many modifications of that system.

SCHOOL SYSTEMS OF CITIES WITH 7,500 OR MORE INHABITANTS.

LITTLE ROCK.

Administration. The school system in the capital of the State is administered by a board of school directors of 6 members, chosen for terms of 3 years, with annual change of 2. This board employs the teachers, manages the finances, and with the

aid of a superintendent, chosen by itself, and of a board of 4 visitors and examiners, of whom the superintendent is one, determines the qualification and grade of service of each teacher thus employed. The school year for the city is of 9 months.

Statistics.- Population of the city by United States census of 1880, 13,185; children of school age (6–21) in 1882-'83, 6,875; in 1883-'84, 7,132; average attendance in the former year, 1,794; in the latter, 1,822; teachers employed, 36 in 1882-183; in 1883-84, 37; expenditures in the former year, $30,804; in the latter, $25,327.

Additional particulars.-Of the $30,804 of school expenditure in 1-82-'83, $5,075 went to complete the payment for a new school building, valued, with site, furniture, &c., at $25,000. The number of school buildings, including this, appears to have been 7, with a total valuation of $79,300. The grades were 9 below the high schools, of which there was 1 for each race, with courses of 4 years.

At the close of 1882-83, Superintendent J. M. Fish, after 7 years of efficient service, resigned his office and was succeeded by Mr. J. R. Rightsell, who had been principal of one of the city schools.

PREPARATION AND QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS.

GENERAL STATE REQUIREMENTS.

To make sure that the teachers of its public schools shall be duly qualified, the State requires each county examiner to hold quarterly, at the county seat, after 20 days' previous notice to the directors of each school district, an examination of such persons as apply for it with a view to teaching. This examination is to be in the studies prescribed for the public schools. If convinced, from his test of the candidates, that they are competent to teach these school studies successfully and he has evidence that they are of good moral character, he is to give to each a certificate of a grade corresponding to the qualifications shown. The grades of such county certificates are 3, the first valid in the county for 2 years, the second for 1 year, and the third for G months. The questions for the examinations are prepared by the State superintendent, who also has authority to examine candidates for life certificates, good throughout the State, which are granted when candidates pass satisfactorily, not only in the usual school studies, but in 10 higher branches indicated and in the theory and art of teaching. Without a certificate of one or other of these grades no person may receive pay for teaching in an Arkansas public school.

STATE NORMAL TRAINING.

To prepare teachers for its public schools, Arkansas has, since 1872, offered instruction at its Industrial University at Fayetteville (1) in common school studies and (2) in the science and art of teaching them, the course at first being of 2 to 4 years, then of 2 only, and subsequently of 4, all meant to be for whites only. Since 1875 like instruction has been offered to colored pupils in a branch normal college of the university, at Pine Bluff, where there has been a choice between a 2-year and 4-year course. As far as the measure of students' preparation would admit, it has been meant that tho courses should substantially correspond in both institutions, and the rule has been that an equal number of each race might receive appointments to free scholarships on passing satisfactorily an examination in elementary English studies before their county judge or some one acting for him. Provision has been liberally made by the trustees of the university for the admission of 400 normal students to one or other of the above named institutions free of charge for tuition, on the certificates of county judges that they have passed such examination; but, for some reason unexplained, comparatively few appear to have availed themselves of this provision, no distinctively normal students being indicated in the reports from the university for 1882-83 or 1883-24;1 at Pine Bluff only 40 normal students appear in these years, the greater part of all the students there in both years being in preparatory classes, under 6 resident instructors in one year, 3 in the next.

Through aid from the Peabody fund the State was enabled in 1882-'83 to expond $1,200 for fuller normal training of its teachers in institutes and $1,250 for the preparation of specially selected teachers at the Southern Normal College, Nashville, Tenn. The institute training, according to the rule of the Peabody trustees, was to be practical, adapted to the needs of public school teachers, and continued for some weeks. The instruction at Nashville, in which 8 students from this State participated, is of a character fitted to prepare for a high grade of school work.

OTHER NORMAL TRAINING.

A normal department at Southland College, near Helena, under a lady principal who is a bachelor of science, reports 38 normal pupils for 1882-'83, of whom 1 was graduated, the other pupils numbering 135. A report from the same for 1883-84 shows 61 normal students and 250 others, 4 of the normal pupils graduating in the year., Instruction in News has come of the suspension of the normal department at the university in the fall of 1884.

the theory and practice of teaching, as well as in the studies that prepare for it, 18 given, apparently to both sexes, while for girls this is supplemented by a training in housewifery in the dining room, kitchen, laundry, &c. The college received in 1883 an addition of more than $30,000 to its endowment funds, enabling it to enlarge considerably its facilities for training. Instructors, 5 in 1883 and 4 in 1881; normal graduates that had engaged in teaching, 8 according to one return, 17 according to another.

St. John's College, Little Rock, shows by a circular that it continues to offer instruction in the theory, practice, and art of teaching, which, as the last catalogue of the col lege received states, covers a course of 3 weeks.

At Russellville, as appears from the State report, a normal department was added in 1882 to the graded school system of the place, the person in charge of it being a graduate of the Northwestern Normal University of Ohio.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES.

For the improvement of the teachers of State common schools, the State superintendent of public instruction is required to hold a teachers' institute annually in each judicial district of the State, to be called a normal district institute. Each county examiner is also, personally or by deputy, to hold a county institute, which it is the duty of the teachers to attend. In 1883 the former requirement was carried out by holding, during the summer, in each judicial district, a 2-week institute, conducted by gentlemen of large experience, who had given special attention to the science and art of teaching. In 1884 the judicial districts were divided into subdistricts and an institute of a week's duration was held in each. More than 800 teachers were enrolled in the former year; in the latter, not quite so many.

EDUCATIONAL JOURNALS.

The Arkansas School Journal, which closed its second volume in October, 1882, was succeeded in January, 1883, by Kellogg's Eclectic Monthly and Educational Journal, Little Rock, which ended with the number for July of the same year. It was followed, January, 1884, by the Arkansas Teacher, published at Russellville, under the editorship of Principal Josiah H. Shinn, of the Russellville public schools. Of duodecimo size only in the first 6 numbers, it was enlarged to quarto size in the seventh, and promises, if continued, to be a useful adjunct to the educational work of the State.

SECONDARY INSTRUCTION.

PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS.

Until 1881-82 the high schools for white and for colored pupils at Little Rock formed almost, if not absolutely, the only schools of this class in the State. Greater educational enthusiasm in that year led to the establishment of others at Russellville, Lonoke, Fort Smith, and elsewhere, while another was projected at Hot Springs. Reports sufficiently full to determine the character and standard of these latter additions are wanting.

OTHER SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

For statistics of business colleges, private academic schools, and preparatory schools of colleges, see Tables IV, VI, and IX of the appendix, and for a summary of such statistics for the State, see corresponding tables in the report of the Commissioner preceding.

SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION.

UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES FOR BOTH SEXES.

Six universities and colleges, all open to both sexes, report for 1883-'84, viz: Arkansas College, Batesville; Cane Hill College, Boonsboro'; Arkansas Industrial University, Fayetteville; and St. John's College, Philander Smith College, and Little Rock University, all three at Little Rock. Judson University, Judsonia, has not been in operation since 1882, and St. John's College is said to have been also suspended since its last report. Its real estate had been in litigation and continued to be when last heard from, August, 1884.

Little Rock University, chartered in June, 1883, had 15 collegiate students in attendance during its first year, ending at that date. Its curriculum embraces preparatory, classical, and scientific courses, with colleges of medicine, law, music, and modern languages, the college of medicine being for the present represented by the medical department of the Arkansas Industrial University. Its college building, going up in 1883-84, was to cost $30,000, of which $15,000 were to come from citizens of Little Rock.

Philander Smith College, for colored youth, hitherto reported among schools for secondary instruction, has a collegiate department, with the usual 4-year course for the degree of bachelor of arts, in which 2 students were enrolled during 1883-84. Its other departments were primary, preparatory, theological, and musical. The college

edifice, recently erected at a cost of $10,000 by Mrs. Philander Smith, of Oak Park, Ill., will accommodate about 40 boarding and 200 day pupils. Mrs. Smith also gave $1,000 towards the erection of a building for a college industrial home, in which the young women are to be trained in household arts and industries. The building was nearly completed in January, 1824.

The Arkansas Industrial University, as last reported, presents 8 regular courses of study, the classical, Latin letters, modern languages, English, scientific, civil engineering, mining engineering, and agricultural, the normal course having been dropped. There are also departments in music and art, the course in the former comprising usually 4 years. The property of the university (including the proceeds of the congressional land grant, bonds of Washington County and of the town of Fayetteville, State appropriations, and the university farm and lands) amounts in all to $300,000.

The remaining colleges continue to furnish instruction as reported the preceding year, all presenting preparatory and classical courses, three of them, Arkansas and St. John's Colleges and the State University, adding scientific, and most of them giving some instruction in modern languages, music, and art.

SCIENTIFIC AND PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION.

SCIENTIFIC.

Arkansas College, Batesville, has a "practical business course," embracing 1 ancient language and 1 modern, besides English, with history, geography, physiology, chemistry, higher arithmetic, and mathematics; also, moral science, political economy, book-keeping, and business forms; for this it gives the degree of bachelor of science. Another course, combining classical, mathematical, and scientific studies, but admitting of a substitution of French or German for higher mathematics, bears a "scientific" title, but leads to the degree of A. B.

St. John's College, Little Rock, gives the degree of B. 8. to students that stand an approved written examination in the studies of its schools of English, physical science, and mathematics, without reference to length of course.

The Arkansas Industrial University, Fayetteville, more fully than either of the above named, prescuts a fair scientific training (1) in a general scientific course, (2) in a civil engineering course, (3) in a mining engineering, and (4) in an agricultural course, each well arranged and covering 4 years. The degrees given correspond with the courses pursued.

PROFESSIONAL.

Theology.-Philander Smith College, Little Rock (Methodist Episcopal), has instituted a theological course, meant to be prepared for by a preceding collegiate one. The length of this course is not definitely given, but will probably be dependent on the degree of preparation of the students that enter it.

Little Rock University, of the same church, proposes to institute such a course as soon as an endowment can be secured for it.

Law. A college of law connected with Little Rock University was organized in 1883, and began its instruction in October of that year, with a faculty of 11 professors and lecturers, besides the president. Its course is of 2 years, with a 5-month term each year.

Medicine. The medical department of the Arkansas Industrial University, organized in 1879 at Little Rock, requires for graduation the usual 3 years of study, with attendance on 2 annual lecture courses of 20 weeks each and the passage of an examination in the subjects of study at the close. Faculty, 8 professors, a demonstrator, and 7 lecturers. Matriculates of 1882-83, 32; of 1883-84, 28; graduates in the former year, 4; in the latter, 13.

Graduation at this or any other reputable medical school does not, since 1881, insure admission to medical or surgical practice in this State. To gain such admission there must be also the passage of an examination before a board of 3 medical examiners in the county in which the candidate wishes to practise, or, failing of success in this, the passage of a like examination before a State board of 5 examiners and then a registration in the office of the county clerk.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTION.

INSTRUCTION OF DEAF-MUTES.

The Arkansas Deaf-Mute Institute, Little Rock, has for its object the free education of children in the State who are too deaf to be educated in the common schools. No charge is made to such for board, books, or tuition. The age for admission is 9 years; the ordinary limit of continuance, 7 sessions of 9 months each. The buildings are said to be good and the grounds ample. The common English branches are taught, with such industries as printing, shoemaking, and agriculture for the boys and housekeeping and dressmaking for the girls. The instruction given is oral for such as can

practise it; manual for the others. Instructors in 1883-'84, 5, besides a principal, matron, foreman of printing office, and foreman of shoe shop; pupils, 94, of whom 51 were males and 43 females.

At the date of the report 6 years had been completed without a death in the school.

INSTRUCTION OF THE BLIND.

At the Arkansas School for the Blind, Little Rock, blind of either sex receive from the State a training in English school studies, as well as in music and handicrafts. Under 6 teachers in 1882-83 there were 40 pupils. Besides ordinary school studies, instruction was given in mattress making, broom making, cane seating, upholstering, and piano tuning for the boys, and for the girls hand and machine sewing, crocheting, housework, &c. Valuation of grounds and buildings, $20,000.

EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

ARKANSAS STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, 1883.

Of the sixteenth meeting of this body, in 1883, there is only a brief record, which shows that it was held at Little Rock, June 27-29, and that the first important topic discussed was the sufficiency for schools of the 5-mill tax, to which districts have been limited since 1874. The insufficiency of that tax, as an addition to the State distributable fund, was so generally agreed upon that a resolution was passed to appeal to the general assembly for a law that would enable districts to tax themselves more adcquately for the employment of good teachers and the more efficient carrying on of schools. A paper by Professor Russell on "Normal schools" subsequently enunciated the idea that finances do not make schools, that school-houses do not make them, but that as is the teacher so is the school, and that, consequently, if the State would have good schools, it must undertake more efficiently and explicitly the preparation of good teachers for State school work." Prof. G. A. Hayes spoke of the advisability of setting aside a few minutes daily in the schools for brief and simple presentation of elementary studies in physical sciences, with the aid of collections of natural objects, such as seeds, plants, and geological specimens. Professor Harney seconded the proposition, on the ground that studies of this kind were better fitted to develop a child's mind than many others now commonly taught. Professor Conrad urged the development of physical strength in pupils by shortening the hours spent over books and giving more time to athletic exercises, as otherwise the overcultivation of the mental faculties would result in a fragile bodily mechanism, unfit for the rough work of the world.

STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, 1884.

The seventeenth session of the Arkansas State Teachers' Association was held in the Baptist church, Morrillton, June 18-20, 1884, with 89 enrolled members additional to preceding ones, and is said to have been throughout not only harmonious but even enthusiastic. The governor of the State and the State superintendent were among those present. An address of welcome by Col. C. B. Henry, of Morrillton, suggested a movement towards such changes in the school laws as might secure the attendance of teachers upon institutes and make the limit of the State tax for its schools 5 mills instead of 2; but as this last was accompanied with a proposition to do away with the district tax, which may be of that amount, but little good could come from such a change. State Superintendent Thompson then suggested also some changes in the school law, the character of which is not stated in the only report received. These suggestions were subsequently referred to a committee on school legislation, and before adjournment four members of the association were associated with the superintendent to present to the legislature the ideas of the meeting as to changes needed in the school law to make it more effective. Other topics presented were the need of special preparation for the work of teaching; the need of normal schools to give such preparation; the development of character and physique more important than rapid development of mind; but so much of the time of the association was given to musical exercises that very little real business appears to have been transacted.

CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICER.

Hon. W. E. THOMPSON, State superintendent of public instruction, Little Rock.
[Term, October, 1882, to October, 1884.]

Mr. Thompson has been reëlected for another term.