REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT. 1o the Honorable Board of Commissioners: GENTLEMEN-I have the honor, as Superintendent, to submit to you my First Annual Report of the transactions of the State Public School for the education and care of dependent children for the official year ending September 30, 1874. It affords me great pleasure to state that this Institution has opened with. very flattering prospects for success and future usefulness. Michigan, distinguished above her sister States for her educational institutions, has also taken the lead in providing for her unfortunate and dependent classes. The State Public School takes the friendless, destitute, helpless, and frequently abused and perishing dependent children from the several counties of our State, trains, sustains, and educates them in families as in a father's house, teaches them to labor, and when sufficiently developed, finds places for each one of them to learn some useful pursuit in life, as well as to receive at least three months' tuition each year at school, exercising a guardian care over the girls until eighteen, and over the boys until twenty-one years of age. The wants of the children while here are provided for, their healthfulness promoted, their education, mental, moral, and physical carefully directed, and suitable places procured for those sufficiently matured to be indentured. This is not intended. as a permanent residence for children, but a temporary home, where they are to be kept and trained until they can be placed in good families. The State Public School was opened for the reception of children on the 21st day of May, 1874. We have received in all, 159 children, forty-seven girls and 112 boys; one girl having been found to be inadmissible under the law, was returned to the county from which she came; three children have been apprenticed, and five have died of diphtheria, leaving in the Institution at the close of the official year 150 children. TABLE Showing the Number Received each Month. Our children, in most cases, came to us in an uncultivated condition, many of them with pernicious habits,-indolence, lying, swearing, and fighting being a common practice with many of the boys. But with all of their imperfections they have yielded to kind treatment and the mild yet firm training and discipline of the Institution, and have become. industrious, reliable, orderly, respectful, and peaceable children. LABOR. All of our children who are old enough to perform physical labor work three hours each day. They are employed in the dining-room, in the kitchen, in the laundry, in taking care of the cottages, in the tailor-shop, and on the farm. Ten boys and two girls are learning the tailor's trade, and it is expected that they will be able to make all of the boys' clothing the coming year. Four girls are learning the dressmaking trade, and all of our girls are taught plain sewing and all kinds of domestic labor. It is the intention to so instruct our children that those who remain here until they are 16 years of age shall acquire industrious habits and be able to support themselves by their labor. The scholarship of the children is shown by the following tables: Condition when Admitted. Who could not read a word... Who could read on Primary Charts.... Who could read in Word Method Primer... Who could read in First Reader.___ Who could read in Second Reader.. Who had studied Common School Geography. Who could read a newspaper understandingly.. 64 25 8 38 18 2 14 145 97 62 6 1 1 151 622 41 31 25 28 108 12 Who can add practical examples... Who are studying outlines of Geography... The preceding tables show that the education of these children had been. sadly neglected, and that they are intelligent and have at least an ordinary capacity for acquiring knowledge. Each child attends school 4 hours a day-21⁄2 hours in the forenoon and two hours during the afternoon. Our children are graded into three rooms, with one Teacher for each school. The two lower grades commence at 8 A. M., and at 1 P. M. The other grade begins at 9:30 A. M. and at 2:30 P. M. The children are taught Reading, Spelling, Writing, Written and Practical Arithmetic, Geography, Language Lessons, Singing and Drawing; and as soon as their advancement will permit, U. S. History, English Grammar, Physiology and Natural Philosophy will be introduced. We have an excellent corps of Teachers, and the Scholars have made very rapid progress in their studies, and I am highly pleased with the very satisfactory condition of the educational department of the Institution. RELIGIOUS. A part of the 23d Psalm is recited by the children before the commencement of each meal; instruction in the Sabbath-school lesson is given in each cottage during the evenings of the week; on Sunday morning many of the older children go with me to church, and at 3 o'clock P. M. all of them attend Sabbath-school in our school-rooms. I regard the Sabbath-school as one of the most interesting and beneficial parts of our work. Our Matron, Teachers, and many of the Christian people of Coldwater, have rendered us valuable assistance in conducting these exercises. And here let me express my obligation to the citizens of Coldwater who have interested themselves in the welfare of our children. We have received donations of papers from the citizens of Coldwater, toys and books from the Sabbath-schools of the First Congregational and Jefferson Avenue presbyterian Churches of the city of Detroit, and books from Governor Bagley. From these sources we have been supplied with reading matter for our children. New books will soon be added, which will form a nucleus for a permanent library. We have five cottages, with thirty children in each. These are arranged with sleeping apartments, sitting-rooms, bath-rooms, and clothes closets for the children, and a suit of rooms for the Cottage Manager. Each cottage is in charge of a woman, who has been selected on account of her peculiar fitness to care for and manage children. These cottages are the homes of the children,-here they sleep, play, read, sew, and receive instruction in deportment, morals, and manners. All of our children take their meals in the general dining-hall, where each family has its own table, presided over by its Cottage Manager. Our children, with rare exceptions, are robust and strong, giving promise of a healthy and vigorous future. Their moral and intellectual status equal their personal and physical condition. They are happy, orderly, and well behaved, respectful to their superiors, and are making rapid improvement in their habits and manners. While the diet of our children has been plain, it has been substantial, abundant, wholesome, well prepared, and good for their health. Milk has been extensively used, and fruits and vegetables in their season have been provided in abundance. Good food frequently changed has much to do with making the children contented and happy. * * The State Public School has become a fixed fact, not perfect in its organization, but growing into system, and destined to become an Institution to which the people of our State will refer with pride. I feel it a gratification to accord much praise to the officers of the Institution for their efficient aid and prompt co-operation in the management and instruction of the children. And to the Board of Commissioners I wish to acknowledge my obligations for the valuable assistance they have rendered me in opening and organizing the Institution, and for the sincere interest they have taken in its general welfare. * * * * Inventory of Property of State Public School, Sept. 30, 1874. * $10,000 00 67,142 15 1,675 00 12,083 93 Steam Heating Apparatus. Cooking and Washing Apparatus.. Furniture... Plumbing and Gas Fixtures. Clothing.. Flour and Meal Fuel. Groceries Hospital Stores. Lights.. Meat and Fish... Stationery School and School Furniture.. Vegetables Farming Implements... I respectfully submit this Report. 1,881 81 163 75 5,958 33 4,853 90 1,305 85 602 30 17 17 443 25 108 78 20 98 885 00 3 50 50 00 75 30 90 72 228 90 $107,590 62 ZELOTES TRUESDEL, |