received 73 boys and 14 girls and released on trial 59. Besides the elementary branches of learning the boys were taught brush making and farming; the girls, housekeeping and needlework. EDUCATIONAL CONVENTIONS. NEW JERSEY STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. The New Jersey State Teachers' Association held its meeting for 1883 at Newark, December 26 and 27, the president, Randall Spaulding, in the chair. The address of welcome and response were followed by a paper from the president on "Conservatism," in which he described a true conservative as one who unites the fire and force of youth with the clearer vision and prudence of age, who gathers from the past seed for present strength and present sowing, but whose eyes are directed towards a future harvest; who lends an honest hearing to old custom but is never enslaved by it. Professor Seward, of Orange, presented an exposition of the tonic sol fa method of teaching vocal music and President M. E. Gates, of Rutgers College, gave an address entitled "The teacher a determining power in the child's life." Other papers followed on "Technical and art education as a means of mind culture" and on "Illi teracy and national aid to education," the latter paper giving arguments in favor of leaving the care of schools in the hands of the State alone. A proposition laid before the association in 1882, to request the legislature to substitute 7 normal schools, with sessions of 4 weeks, for district teachers' institutes, was considered, but was not adopted. CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICER. Hon. ELLIS A. APGAR, State superintendent of public instruction, Trenton. (From report of Hon. Neil Gilmour for 1882-'83 and of Hon. William B. Ruggles for 1883-84.) STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM. GENERAL CONDITION. The school work of 1882-'83, as shown by reports received, indicates improvement in many particulars. There was an increase in the number of youth of school age, in the average attendance in public schools, and in the total number attending all schools, including those for higher and professional instruction. The average pay of public school teachers increased, a larger number were employed 28 weeks or more, and more held normal school diplomas. A larger number of visits were made by school commissioners and there was an improvement in the character and value of school buildings. Over $400,000 more were expended for buildings, sites, furniture, and repairs, and $675,566 more were expended for all public school purposes. The report for 1882-'83 notes some improvement made during the year in the sanitary condition of school buildings, although much deficiency in this respect remained. Considerable good had resulted from an amendment to the school law, made in 1882, providing that no school-house shall be built in the State until the plan of it, so far as ventilation, heat, and lighting are concerned, shall have been approved by the school commissioner of the district in which such house is to be built. The State board of health has given special attention to the sanitary condition of the schoolhouses, making systematic inquiries regarding it throughout the State. The result showed that only 1 in 15 was well fitted for protecting the health of pupils; that generally ventilation was insufficient and the means for it badly designed. It was found that the experiment of omitting the forenoon and afternoon recess was being extensively made, with doubtful, probably injurious, results. It was also noticed that the physical benefit derived from light gymnastics, so important to the health of pupils, particularly to the younger ones, was not suitably appreciated by the people. No exception was furnished in this year to the rule of annual decrease of volumes in district libraries. State Superintendent Ruggles renews suggestions heretofore made looking towards amendment of the law as to school libraries. He would restore the essential provisions of the old law previous to 1851, authorizing the several districts to raise by tax an amount for their libraries equal to that of their respective quotas of library money from the State, making the payment of the State quota depend on the raising of an equal sum by the district, the money to be rigidly appropriated to the purchase of books. The school year 1883–84 was an exceptional year in that it was shorter by about 6 weeks than usual, owing to the fact that the legislature, in the year 1883, changed the date of its close from September 30 to August 20. This accounts for the falling off in certain statistical details which, from their nature, are necessarily affected by the matter of time. In particulars not thus affected the reports received from the various districts show decided improvement over the year preceding. With about 41,000 fewer pupils enrolled, the average daily attendance was 13,000 greater, and the per cent. of attendance on the whole number enrolled was also greater. More pupils were taught in private schools and more attended academies, colleges, and professional schools. More teachers were employed 28 weeks or over and more attended institutes. The expenditure for sites, buildings, and furniture was greater, although, naturally, the whole amount expended was less, and the estimated value of all school property increased by more than $900,000. ADMINISTRATION. A State superintendent of public instruction, elected by the legislature for 3 years, is at the head of public school affairs. Academic, collegiate, and professional training is under the direction of a board of regents of the university, of which board the superintendent is a member ex officio. Local school interests are administered by school commissioners, elected by the people for 3 years, 1 for each school commissioner's district, and by district boards of trustees, of 1 or 3 members in ordinary districts and of 3 to 9 in union districts. Women are eligible to school offices and may vote in school meetings. Trustees must make an annual report of school statistics to county commissioners, who in turn report to the superintendent and the latter to the legislature. Public schools are free to all residents 5 to 21 years old in the school district. Separate schools for colored children may be established by the school authorities of cities or of union districts; but facilities for instruction must be provided in them equal to those in schools for white children. Separate arrangements are made for the instruction of Indian youth on reservations. The public school system includes union or graded schools, academies, teachers' institutes, State normal schools, and institutions for the instruction of the deaf and of the blind. Provision is also made for instruction of children in orphan asylums, for the care and instruction of idle and truant children, and for the compulsory attendance of children between 8 and 14 for at least 14 weeks each year, unless instructed in the common school branches at home or otherwise. The employment during school hours of any child under 14 who has not received this amount of instruction the year preceding is prohibited under a penalty of $50. Free instruction in industrial drawing must be given in all cities and in union and free school districts under special acts, unless such districts are excused by the State superintendent. State normal schools must also teach this branch. These school commissioners, including city superintendents, number usually from 1 to 2 or 3 in each county; in some cases, from 3 to 6. FINANCES. Public schools are sustained from the income of a common school fund, of a United States deposit fund, of trust funds, and by the moneys coming from certain fines and penalties, as well as from State and local taxes. The amount of State tax, according to the last revised code, was one mill and a quarter on the dollar of taxable property. District taxes must be levied when necessary to cover a deficiency in public moneys for teachers' wages; and they may be levied for school-houses, sites, apparatus, and libraries. To be entitled to their share of State school funds, districts must have sustained not less than 1 school, taught by a qualified teacher, for at least 28 weeks in the preceding school year; and no public school money may be paid to an unqualified teacher. SCHOOL SYSTEMS OF CITIES WITH 7,500 OR MORE INHABITANTS. ADMINISTRATION. City public schools are managed by local boards of education, under special statutes, varying in the nature of their provisions. They are also under the supervision of local superintendents or clerks of local boards who perform the duty of supervision and exercise powers and duties similar to those of school commissioners, with whom they are ranked in the State reports. Such superintendents report annually to their boards of education and also directly to the superintendent of public instruction, embodying in their reports whatever facts the superintendent may require. a These statistics are for the Kingston school district only; the population of the city in 1880 was 18,344. b Including 499 in evening schools. Including 143 in evening schools. d Including 8,001 in evening schools. In Albany the public school system comprises primary, grammar, and high schools and a teachers' class, the last added to the course in 1882-'83, in which year there were 26 school buildings. The prevalence of epidemic diseases caused a falling off in attendance, which, however, in 1-83-84 reached a higher point than ever previously, for, though the registered number reported was somewhat less, owing to strict exclusion of duplicates, the average attendance was 393 more than in 1883. During the past 20 years registered pupils have increased 210 per cent. and average attendance 350 per cent. Taking into account the 5,000 pupils estimated as belonging to private, académical, and parochial schools, there were about 55 per cent. of youth 6 to 21 under instruction. This limit exceeds the preferable school age, which is from 6 to 16, and on this basis the number under instruction was about 90 per cent., leaving only about 10 per cent. of the children of the city neglected. The superintendent insists that even this is too large a proportion, and he renews his former suggestion that steps be taken to enforce the compulsory education act. Considerable improvement was made in both 1882-'83 and 1883-84 by the erection of 2 new buildings, costing $62,000, and by other additions to the seating capacity of schools, at a cost of $20,899 more. Resort to corporal punishment to maintain discipline is rapidly dying out, cases of suspension also becoming less. In the teachers' training school pupils are required to practise such methods of government as will preclude the necessity of using the rod, and its entire disuse is looked forward to in the near future. A trial of the new plan of dispensing with the noon recess confirmed the belief of school officers and teachers in its advantages over the old. By the new arrangement pupils of the first 3 years are given 10 minutes' recess each session, the widest liberty of individual recess is allowed, and between the exercises opportunity is given for whispering and for physical movement. Auburn has a course of study in primary, grammar, and high schools covering 12 years. Schools were taught in 1882-83 for 200 days. No changes had been made in studies, nor in the general method of presenting them. A new feature in the high school was the giving of greater prominence to rhetorical exercises. The most radical measure of the board for many years was its discontinuance of the regents' examinations for promotion after 1883. This was done after careful investigation and thoughtful consideration as to the best interests of the schools. The action is not expected to result in a lower standard of scholarship, but in a greater freedom in the selection of subjects of study and the methods of dealing with them. Some of the schools were at a disadvantage on account of their crowded condition. The discipline in all was good and was maintained without serious complaint as to strictness and severity. In response to a pressure for additional accommodations, a new building was finished in 1883, at a cost of nearly $11,000, with sittings for 200 pupils, and another one to cost $8,000 was contracted for. Binghamton reports public schools classed as primary, grammar, and high, taught during 1883-84 197 days in 10 school buildings, affording 3,216 sittings for study and valued, with other school property, at $228,411. There was an estimated enrolment of 542 in private and parochial schools. The Brooklyn public schools in 1882-83 were taught 28.8 weeks by 70 men and 343 women in 61 school-houses, of which 56 were brick and 5 frame, valued, with sites, at $3,300,000. The public school library comprised 18,000 volumes, valued at about $20,000. Because of a great deficiency of seats for pupils, particularly in the pri mary grades, the city board of education has been endeavoring since 12 to secure additional school buildings, with better arrangements for both health and comfort. The success achieved has been far short of its desires, but enough advance in good |