can be expected of children, might perhaps be successfully taught in the High School. Allow me also to include in my report my acknowledgment of the aid received from nearly all the regular teachers, who have engaged in this work with earnest interest and untiring energy. Very respectfully, MRS. EMMA OBENAUER, THE UNGRADED DEPARTMENT, which was started with misgivings on the part of some and anxiety on the part of those urging its establishment, has proven successful, and may fairly be withdrawn from its position as an experiment, and take its place as an established part of our educational machinery. It has met even more fully than was anticipated a public want, and has proved useful in directions in which little was expected of it. It has enrolled 99 pupils and has had an average attendance of 41. During the winter term about 75 were in average attendance, and an assistant was employed for one-half of each day. Miss Ida Woodruff of the Central Grammar School, also heard two or three recitations daily. No other school work has awakened so great a popular interest or been received with so much favor. It has proved serviceable to about 40 young men who were past ordinary school age, and would not otherwise have resumed school work. Eight or ten young ladies have reviewed or extended their studies in this school preparatory to teaching. Perhaps a score of pupils have here made up lost standing and regained their positions in the regular classes, and it has proved a convenient place to send a few who were proving troublesome elsewhere. * * * * * CONCLUSION. * * * * * Whatever may be the defects or shortcomings of our schools, they cannot be largely attributed to blindness or indifference; many points in which we wish to improve are clearly understood, and as we survey the past and see the difficulties against which we have labored, which now press against us with abated force, or are entirely overcome, we feel good courage to undertake the work of the years before us. Educational plans of any deep or wide-reaching design require a long time for their consummation. Often an entire generation of school children must be educated and public sentiment molded by years of steady pressure, before the best fruits of a plan can be gained. Contentment with an educational system is folly. The ideal schools of the present age are not yet found. For the schools of East Saginaw I make no boast but of progress; for myself no claim but of earnest purpose. Gentlemen of the Board of Education, for your review the work of the schools is presented. I thank you for your thoughtful support and the intelligent interest you take in the workings of our school system. ST. JOSEPH. DESCRIPTION. [See cut of St. Joseph School Building on preceding page.] The St. Joseph school building is of brick, 102 by 82 feet, four stories in height, besides the basement under the entire building. It is centrally located, occupies high ground, which overlooks the lake and a large expanse of surrounding country. The view from the windows of the High School room is not surpassed in beauty and magnificence in the State. Exteriorly the building is a model of elegance and proportion. The approaches are three in number; those for the students are at the north and south wings of the building. The stairways are in the wings of the building, are of wide and easy ascent. The means of egress are so ample that in event of fire the building can be easily cleared of six hundred scholars in from three to five minutes without confusion or danger. The sum expended about the new edifice, for which orders have been drawn, amount at this date, August 19, 1873, to the sum of $39,731 38. The bonded debt of the district is $42,600. Of this there was contracted for the present building and site $40,000, which draws interest at 10 per cent annually. The remaining debt was contracted for eight lots lying east of the present site, of which no use is made, the interest on which is seven per cent annually. REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT. To the Honorable Board of Education: GENTLEMEN-I herewith submit the second annual report of the schools under your charge. In my last report I discussed at length the relations that the high school has to higer education, the necessity of maintaining such a school, and its relations to society, civilization and to the world. Those of our citizens who have not read that part of my report will, in my opinion, do well in giving it a hearing. The two-session system that was the subject of a few ideas in my last report, demands a place in this, as it is working so admirably, and as it has been adopted in many schools throughout the State, since our success has been known. Our school has become a business college; pupils are coming to and returning from the school nearly every hour in the day. The pupils are either under the immediate care of the teacher or parents; thus immoral practices and bad associations are avoided. In the morning, between the ringing of the first and second bells, the pupils gather in their respective rooms; in the High School and Grammar rooms, to remain two and a half hours; in the Intermediates, two and a quarter hours; in the Primaries, two hours. Primary scholars are dismissed at eleven o'clock, Intermediates at a quarter past, and the High School and Grammar at half-past. The advantages derived from this practice are numerous and of great importance in the education of the young, and our graded system of education is not complete without it. All the Primary pupils, nearly of one age, strength, and ability are sent to their homes unmolested by the larger ones; in fifteen minutes the Intermediates are dismissed, who return home before the Grammar and High School scholars. Thus when the advanced pupils are at liberty everything is quiet and orderly. The article on school organization in my last report, has been of value to some of our teachers during the year,-though there are two points in that article that were not carefully considered. I refer now, first, to the lack of definite analysis of the lesson by the teacher during recitation. Second, to the substitution of individual explanation on the part of teacher for correction (in the class) of bad habits of study. The first of these propositions, in my judgment, is most sadly neglected. Previous preparation on the part of the teacher is indispensable; and it is my wish to have teachers in your school who will make such preparation for their daily recitations as will enable them to discard the text-book entirely, except in studies where the pupil is allowed the same privilege. Teachers must feel the importance of teaching pupils how to study. The lack of this knowledge on the part of the pupil, is the cause of censure and much embarassment on the part of the teacher. Under the head of primary schools and primary instruction, it was urged that the most experienced teachers must be placed in charge of the primary grades. The fact has become so established that it needs no further discussion, but, in addition to this, we need adaptation. I have become very much in sympathy with the Kindergarten culture, or the New Education, as it is called. It first commences in preparing the child for the school by means of playthings, selected and handled so as to engage the entire nature of the child, and aid development in all directions. To these playthings it attracts the child's attention; this not only exercises its entire muscular system, but also the faculties of the mind. Under this system the first four years in the school-room will seem like a home, with the teacher as parent. That education should commence at birth is a maxim which appears to have been generally conceded, even in earliest antiquity, notwithstanding but few appreciate the necessity of early training, as furnishing the basis for the entire future of the young. This subject I will treat at length during the coming year, in connection with a series of lectures to be given before the students of the High School by our home talent, but wish to call your attention to it in this connection so that we may soon find ourselves in full possession of the Kindergarten system of instruction. ARITHMETIC. In my treatment of numbers in my last report, under the head of arithmetic, I gave my sanction to Grube's method, and discussed, to some considerable extent, the importance of dealing with numbers according to his plan. It has been our practice to follow out his suggestions, and I am very much pleased with the result. "You must teach the child to know the numbers some way or other," says Grube, "but to know a number, really means to know its most simple relations to numbers contained therein." Professor Olney, of our State University, in his careful perusal of this article, found valid objections to Mr. Grube's method, and was kind in communicating the same to me; but, although I consider the Professor the best mathematician in America, and has given us the most complete algebra, geometry, and trigonometry now in use in our schools, nevertheless I consider Grube's manner of presenting numbers to a child superior to any that I have tried, or any to which my attention has been called. GRAMMAR. The teaching of grammar has been with us an experiment; I have been perfectly disheartened in seeing results which were derived from the method generally used in our schools. Too little attention has been paid to the subject of grammar as an art. Time enough has been spent by the pupils to commit to memory whole pages of definitions and rules; but what is their value in accomplishing the object for which this instruction is given? It has been the general idea that if a pupil can give the definitions and rules in the text-book, and is able to parse and analyze difficult sentences, he is regarded as a good grammarian, even if he violates the simplest rules of grammar every time he analyzes a sentence. ** * * What the pupil should know is the ordinary correct usage of the English language, and this can be secured by devoting the time usually allotted to this study, to practical exercises in composition and conversation; in short, in learning to speak and write correctly. The needed rules and facts in grammar ean, with the best results, be taught orally, and should commence as soon as the pupil enters school. In the graded course of instruction, which I prepared last year, and which was adopted by you as the course to be pursued in your schools, it is required of the teacher to pay special attention to this branch of study in every department. Oral instructions and written exercises in the intermediate and grammar rooms are given daily, and do, in a large degree, take the place of the text-book. By this method the study of grammar is commenced in the lowest grades of our school in connection with every recitation, and is continued through the entire course; thus we have results commensurate with the time consumed, and therefore are able to assure the parents of our pupils, that when the common school education is completed, they are capable of expressing their thoughts intelligently and grammatically. GEOGRAPHY. Geography has been taught in your school during the year as is suggested in the graded course of instruction; and I appeal to your visiting committee to say if better results could be obtained. |