a For 1881-82, school age 6-16; for 1882-'83, same as white. (From statistics furnished by Hon. J. Desha Pickett, superintendent of public instruction.) STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM. GENERAL CONDITION. Through the exertions of the State Superintendent the above statistics have been furnished in time for this report, notwithstanding the obstacles with which he had to contend in collecting them. In 1882-'83 the figures show a large increase of youth of school age, particularly of colored youth whose increase was nearly three-fourths of the whole increase, which was mainly due perhaps to the fact that the school age was changed from 6-16 to 6-20, or the same as that for whites. The decrease in the percentage of the enrolment and of the average attendance of colored youth to those of school age may be attributed to the same cause. Such being the case the only feature that materially detracts from a year of evident advance is the extraordinary decrease in the average pay of teachers, both male and female in cities, which a later report may explain. ADMINISTRATION. For the State there is a board of education consisting of the superintendent of public instruction (elected by the qualified voters of the State for 4 years), the secretary of state, the attorney general, and 2 professional teachers elected by them: for counties, a county superintendent elected by the people for 2 years; for districts, boards of 3 trustees elected by the voters of each district for 3 years, with annual change of 1. The State board prepares rules for the government of the common schools of the State, selects and recommends a course of study, with suitable lists of text books, from which the trustees of districts adopt those to be used in their several districts for 5-year terms. Indigent orphan children may be supplied with text books gratis. The board has power to organize and keep in existence a State Teachers' Association; also, to cause to be organized and held annually 3 model State institutes of 3 weeks each, to be under the care of the State superintendent and to be taught by an expert model teacher, with such assistants as may be necessary. The State superintendent must report biennially to the general assembly and may visit anuually different portions of the State in the interests of the schools. No person is eligible to the office of county superintendent save upon a certificate from the judge of the circuit court of the county in which he resides that he has been publicly examined before him and that he is qualified to discharge the duties of county superintendent as required by law. The county superintendent must visit at least once a year each district school in his county, investigate and direct the operations of the school system, condemn any school-house which is unfit to be occupied for the purpose of a common school, report to the State superintendent the census of children in his county between 6 and 20 years of age and the required school statistics of the county, under a penalty of $200 to $500 or imprisonment in the county jail not longer than 6 months in case of knowingly and wilfully making false reports. He must also conduct or superintend the examinations of all offering themselves as teachers of the common schools. He must not give a certificate of qualification to any one whom he has not personally examined or who has not been examined in his presence as provided by law. For any violation of this rule he is liable to a fine of $20 to $50. He may suspend or remove teachers or trustees for cause. No district may include more than 100 children of school age, unless it contains a town or village within its limits, and none may contain less than 40, except in extreme cases, and never less than 20. Widows with children of school age may vote at elections for district school trustees. These trustees must employ duly qualified teachers, and may, for cause, remove them, subject to approval of the county superintendent. They are to encourage the attendance of all the children in the district, but may forbid attendance from families where infectious or contagious diseases exist. They are to visit schools 5 days after their opening and once a month thereafter, to see that the regulations for their government are complied with, and for cause may suspend or dismiss a pupil. Schools for colored children must be kept separate from those for whites, in separate districts, and governed by colored district trustees, but under the common supervision of the State and county superintendents. The school year begins on the 1st day of July and ends on the 30th day of June; the school month is 20 days. No books, tracts, papers, catechisms, or other publications of a sectarian, infidel, or immoral character may be used or distributed in any common school; nor may any sectarian, infidel, or immoral doctrine be taught therein. When a pupil in any common school shall have completed the prescribed course of study and passed an examination before the county board of examiners, he is to be entitled to a certificate to that effect, signed by the county board and indorsed by the State superintendent, who must affix to it his official seal. SCHOOL FINANCES. The annual resources of the school fund are: (1) the interest at 6 per cent. on a bond of the State for $1,327,000; (2) dividends on 735 shares of capital stock of the Bank of Kentucky, representing a par value of $73,500, owned by the State; (3) interest, at 6 per cent., on a bond issued for surplus due counties by the State; (4) an annual State tax of 22 cents on $100 of taxable property; (5) an annual tax of 50 cents on each $100 of the capital of the Farmers' Bank of Kentucky, of the Bank of Kentucky, of the Farmers and Drovers' Bank, and of the Bank of Shelbyville; (6) all other moneys and property, taxes, fines, and forfeitures set apart by existing laws for common schools. The sum to be distributed is the net revenue accruing during the year, less expenses incurred by the State board and the incidental expenses of the department of public instruction. The State superintendent apportions the fund in proportion to the number of children of school age in each county and district, as ascertained by the returns of the county superintendents, the money to be used only in the payment of legally qualified and employed teachers. If it be the ascertained will of the legal voters of any county to levy a county tax. in aid of common schools, such levy is now lawful. Donations, gifts, grants, or devises designed for the education of colored children in the State must be held by school officers for that purpose and expended as the law directs. No tax may be levied upon the property or poll or any service be required of any white person to aid in building or repairing a school-house for the use of colored children, and the same provision is made to exempt the colored people from aiding the whites. NEW LEGISLATION. The new edition of the school laws of 1884 appears in a much improved form and arrangement, showing such changes as were demanded by the advanced condition of the public schools, the most important of which are as follows: The school month is changed from 22 to 20 days and a section is added providing for graduation in the common schools, as before noted. Article VII puts in place of county commissioners county superintendents, who, as before noted, must be examined by the county judge. These superintendents, in their turn, are to examine teachers for the county, and in this, as in other duties, take the place of the former county commissioners, the only change being in the modé of compensation. In Article VII, which provides for "reforming and laying off districts," sections are added defining the area of the new district and the number of children to be included. Half time and third time schools are authorized and the officers are named who may order the proposed change. Section & of Article VIII authorizes an annual poll tax of $2 for incidental expenses in place of 50 cents in the law of 1882. To section 7 of Article IX is added a clause providing for the renewal of a 5-year State certificate held by a teacher without another examination. In section 1 of Article X, providing for an annual teachers' institute, the time for such session is made to be between the 1st of July and the 1st of September, the old law leaving it indefinite. In section 2 the minimum time of the session is made 4 days instead of 6 days, the maximum in the old law. Section 3 is so amended that if there is a surplus arising from the examination fee of $2 the fee shall be reduced, instead of using it for libraries. Sections 5 and 6, providing for special institute teachers and specifying the subjects to be discussed, are added. SCHOOL SYSTEMS OF CITIES WITH 7,500 OR MORE INHABITANTS. ADMINISTRATION. For cities and towns there are boards of trustees, who appoint city superintendents. Some cities, under special charters, have boards for the examination of teachers. Corington presents for 1882-83 and 1883-84 no statistics beyond 65 regular teachers in the latter year (including principals), 10 substitute teachers, and schools graded as primary, grammar, intermediate, and high, with apparently 5 ungraded schools for colored pupils. Henderson, for 1883, reports 1,211 children of school age, housed in three school buildings, with 20 rooms (one of them for recitation only) and 1,389 sittings for study; 21 teachers; apparently 1,014 enrolled pupils, 845 of them in average daily attendance; and a school expenditure of $9,018. Its high school course covers 4 years and the 3 teachers employed had 18 pupils. Louisville presents no printed report to indicate the details of its school work, but its manual for 1883-84 shows that it had, at that time, primary, secondary, intermediate, and high schools, the primary including 4 grades, the secondary and intermediate each 2 grades, making 8 below the high schools, one of which, with a 4-year course, was for girls; the other, with a preparatory class and a 4-year course beyond that, was for boys, and included, in the last 2 years, studies fairly collegiate. Returns, however, for 1882-83 and 1883-84 give 27 buildings for primary, secondary, and intermediate schools, with 2 for the high schools and 1 for a city normal school. These buildings (valued, with their sites and furniture, at $882,065 in the former year and at $892,936 in the latter) contained 336 rooms in the first year and 350 in the other. Evening schools were maintained in from 19 to 30 rooms in these years, showing considerable growth in enrolment from year to year, though the average attendance on evening schools comes far short of that in day schools. Newport, with a gain of 246 in youth of school age from 1882 to 1883, lost 208 in enrolment and 278 in average daily attendance through an epidemic in the latter year, 623 pupils being withdrawn from the schools during the year. For 1883-84 no report has been received. PREPARATION AND QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS. REQUIREMENTS FOR TEACHERS' CERTIFICATES. Persons desiring to teach in the public schools are required to present certificates of qualification from State, county, or city boards of examination. First class certificates are for 4 years and second class for 2 years, and no certificate except first class may be issued to the same person more than twice. STATE NORMAL TRAINING. The State makes no provision for the training of teachers other than in institutes which must, under the new school law of 1884, be held annually in each county for the normal instruction, improvement, and better qualification of teachers, and in the 3-year normal course of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, Lexington. Teachers are required to attend such institutes in their respective counties or their certificates will be forfeited. OTHER NORMAL TRAINING. Louisville City Normal School is reported by the city superintendent to have had, in 1883, under 1 teacher, 36 pupils, of whom 33 were in average daily attendance; in 1884, again under 1 teacher, 35 pupils, 31 of them, on the average, present daily. The length of the normal course is not given, but the city school manual shows that it includes mental philosophy, theory and methods of teaching, drawing, and the subjects of study prescribed for a grammar certificate, which are spelling and definitions, reading, English grammar, geography, American history, mental arithmetic, written arithmetic, penmanship, physical geography, algebra, natural philosophy, and science and art of teaching, with general fitness for the office of teacher." Berea College, Berea, has a spring normal institute for instruction in the theory and practice of teaching, and in 1882-83 some normal training was given in the Kentucky Normal and Theological Institute, Louisville. The Southern Normal School and Business College, Bowling Green, offered in 1883-'84 a 48-week course of normal training, with a preparatory course of the same length. In the teachers' course 98 students were reported. This course is said to be the chief feature of the school and shows a teaching force of 9 members; the preparatory course, 7. Glasgow Normal School, Glasgow, with a teaching force of 11 members, presented preparatory and normal courses of 40 weeks each in 1882-'83, in which were 63 persons preparing for teaching. This school and the preceding one show many points of resemblance, and the teachers are in several instances the same. Murray Institute, Murray, is reported by the State superintendent to have still the normal training noticed in 1881. He also says that such training is given in the Frankfort High School. South Kentucky College, Hopkinsville, announces a 2-year normal course for the session of 1884-85. SECONDARY INSTRUCTION. These schools exist in the chief cities of the State, but the information respecting them comes irregularly and is rarely complete. In Louisville the whites have one for each the course in each case covering 4 years; also, one for colored pupils (apparently for both sexes), its course covering 3 years. Henderson shows one with a 4-year course in 1882-83. Covington, Newport, and Paducah had each 1 in 1882, the first with a 4-year course, the others with one of 3 years. The State superintendent says that there are also high schools at Bowling Green, Frankfort, Hopkinsville, and Maysville. SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION. COLLEGES FOR YOUNG MEN OR FOR BOTH SEXES. Of the 17 institutions of this class noticed in 1882, 13 make report by catalogue or return or both for 1883-84, namely: Georgetown College, Georgetown, and Bethel College, Russellville (both Baptist); Eminence College, Eminence; Kentucky University, Lexington, and Kentucky Classical and Business College, North Middletown (all Christian); Berea College, Berea (Congregational); Kentucky Wesleyan College, Millersburg (Methodist); Ogden College, Bowling Green, and Kentucky Military Institute, Farmdale (non-sectarian); Centre College, Danville, and Central University, Richmond (Presbyterian); St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, and St. Mary's College, St. Mary's (Roman Catholic). Cecilian College, Cecilian (also Roman Catholic), has not reported since 1882, while Murray Institute, Murray (non-sectarian), and Concord College, New Liberty (Baptist), have long failed to report. Of the 14 that show signs of life, Centre College, Central University, Kentucky University, Georgetown College, and Ogden College indicate especial vitality in full faculties, high standards, and prominence given to real collegiate work; while Cecilian College presents courses indefinite as to time and standard and St. Mary's courses of comparatively low grade. For statistics of 1883-84, see Table IX of the appendix; for a summary of them, the report of the Commissioner preceding. INSTITUTIONS FOR THE SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION OF YOUNG WOMEN. For statistics of schools of this class reporting, see Table VIII of the appendix; for a summary of such statistics, see a corresponding table in the report of the Commissioner preceding. Of the colleges for young men or for both sexes, Berea, Eminence, and South Kentucky Colleges admit women to full privileges; Kentucky University admits them to its commercial department. In the list of students of the State College of Kentucky (agricultural and mechanical) there are indications of a considerable attendance of young women, without any apparent limitation as to studies and courses. SCIENTIFIC AND PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION. SCIENTIFIC. The State College of Kentucky, for scientific instruction in agriculture and the mechanic arts, Lexington, continued in 1882-'83 and 1883-'84 its departments and courses in the appropriate studies of such a school, together with commercial and normal training for such as desired these; but in 1883-84 it more distinctly formulated its main studies into agricultural, scientific, and classical courses, each of 4 years, with preparatory courses of 2 years leading to them. The agricultural course embraces English, German, history and political economy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, zoology, geology, botany, astronomy, veterinary science, agriculture, horticulture, and shop work. The scientific has nearly the same elements, adding French to the English and German and substituting mental and moral philosophy for veterinary science, mechanics for shop work, and optional civil engineering for agriculture and horticulture. Students, without distinction of classes or departments, 306 in 1882-83 and 226 in 1883-'84, under 16 professors and instructors. Of the 13 colleges before mentioned for young men or for both sexes, all show either scientific courses of 3 or 4 years or such intermingling of scientific instruction with the English and classical as amounts to nearly the same thing; but the statistics of such instruction are rarely given. The Kentucky Military Institute, at Farmdale, showed in 1883-'84 3 students in an engineering course. The Polytechnic Society of Kentucky, Louisville, incorporated in 1878, has for its objects, among other things, the promotion of scientific knowledge through the maintenance of a free reference library, a circulating library, and popular lectures on such topics as the history, topography, geology, paleontology, zoology, botany, and mineralogy of Kentucky. These lectures, delivered twice a week in 1882-'83, proved so interesting as to fill a room that would accommodate 500 people, many of the audience coming with note books. The library of over 37,000 volumes was frequented by 11,793 lady visitors and 26,296 gentlemen, the issues of books reaching 32,027. The membership of the society numbered 826 in 1883. |