SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.

This is the seventy-first annual report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. It is my duty to record the work of public education during the year nineteen hundred seven.

Under the constitution, the legislature was given full power to establish a school system for the State; this was done early in the year 1837. At that time the settlements in Michigan were comparatively few and scattered. Only a few hundred school districts were organized during that year, but the early settlers of our great State realized the value of educational privileges and set about the organization of a school system with commendable zeal.

During the past seventy-one years we have built up a system of public education second to none in the great union of commonwealths, and while this system has not reached a state of perfection, yet in the main it provides a good common school education for every boy and girl and the means whereby the child may pass through the several stages of the public schools and enter higher institutions of learning.

There have been no marked changes in our educational policy during the past year, but there has been a steady growth in the professional spirit manifested by public school teachers and instructors in state institutions.

The work of the Department is largely executive, in that it makes plans and directs the work of county commissioners of schools and suggests to school officers better means and methods of accomplishing the real purpose of education. New legislation has brought new duties and thus increased the amount of work falling within the province of the Department. This has necessitated a slight increase in the clerical force and a more careful division of labor.

I am pleased to record the hearty co-operation of city superintendents, commissioners of schools, and school officers generally, without which the Department could be of very little value to the State. In fact, the real work of public education must necessarily be done by those who have immediate charge of the public schools, and it is the duty of the legislature and of this Department to so legislate and interpret our laws that the greatest possible degree of effectiveness may be given to the work of those who have the immediate charge of instructing the children of the State. The legislature of 1907 enacted several laws which should increase the effectiveness of our school work. The mose import-New ant of these were the following:

legislation.

Act 247, amending the general graded school law of the State, making it easier to organize such districts and providing for a superintendent of schools.

Act 74, amending the truancy law in particulars where the original law had been found defective, and in addition to this act, a new law providing for the compulsory education of blind children and of deaf children.

Act 35, a new law, providing for the establishment of county schools of agriculture.

Act 256, amending the law in regard to school districts issuing bonds by providing that any school district may bond itself by a majority vote of the taxpayers.

Several other minor amendments were made, and already the wisdom of this new legislation has been demonstrated.

In the following pages of this report the various phases of the educational system of Michigan will be treated more specifically, and the following outline merely covers in a general way the work done under the immediate supervision of the Department.

During the year two day schools for the deaf have been discontinued and permission given for the establishment of one new day school for the deaf at Marquette.

Permission has also been given for the establishment of five new county normal training classes in the following counties: Cheboygan, Genesee, Menominee, Montcalm, and Tuscola, making the whole number of county normal training classes at present in operation thirty-seven.

Teachers' institutes.

One hundred twenty-four teachers' institutes have been held during the year 1907, classified as follows:

One general state institute in connection with the State Teachers' Association;

Four six-weeks institutes in connection with the summer sessions of the State normal schools;

Ten two-weeks' institutes in connection with summer sessions of county normal training classes;

Seven three-weeks institutes;

Eighty-four short term institutes of from one to three days;

Eighteen traveling institutes, or institutes extending through one week, in which the instructors travel through the county and meet the teachers and patrons at different points.

Summer schools.

The policy of the State Board of Education in providing a summer session at each of our State normal schools is to be commended, because in this way opportunity is given to a large number of those who are actually engaged in the work of teaching for receiving such special instruction as will enable them to return a better value to the districts in which they are employed. During the past summer more than three thousand persons were enrolled in the four State normal schools and the plan of having a teachers' institute in connection with these summer schools gives additional privileges and adds a better professional spirit to the rank and file of our teaching force.

Under the law authorizing the establishment of county schools County of agriculture, Menominee county is the first to inaugurate this schools of system. $20,000 was voted for the establishment of such a school agriculture. and the city of Menominee gave to the county a tract of land of one hundred fifteen acres. Thus we have established a new system of education in our state, the purpose being to provide elementary training in agriculture, manual training and domestic science. This school is really preparatory to the more extensive work of our State Agricultural College, and it is to be hoped that other counties will soon follow the lead taken by Menominee.

The legislature of 1901 provided for the establishment of rural high schools in townships where no graded school districts Rural high existed. During the current year one rural high school has been schools. established in Excelsior township, Kalkaska county, this being

the first township to take advantage of this law. Three townships in Genesee county have voted to establish rural high schools for the ensuing year, and other townships are giving serious consideration to this important question.

The Department has been frequently called upon to assist Investigaschool district officers in adjusting the records and accounts tion of of their districts. The records and accounts of about fourteen school hundred districts have been investigated by a personal repre- records. sentative of the Department, and in about five hundred additional districts the records have been investigated and adjusted by the county commissioners of schools, under the direction of the Department. In all these cases the main difficulty has been that there is no uniform system of keeping the books and accounts of the districts. In many instances all funds have been mixed together in such a way that it was impossible for the treasurers to know what funds were on hand or what orders could be legally paid. In a few cases we found that no books or records were kept by the treasurer, and in others it was found that the treasurer had misappropriated school funds. The need for a uniform system of school records is very apparent and it is very apparent, also, that school officers are not. familiar with the law governing their powers and duties.

The purpose of these investigations is to assist school officers in the performance of their duties and set them right with reference to the uses and care of public money. The school officers of the state taken together are an honest, conscientious body of men, and they desire to do what will be for the best interests of their schools; but many school districts do not appreciate, evidently, the services of their officers, as they refuse to give them any compensation for the time spent in the performance of their duties, and this injustice has in part been the cause of the carelessness with which the public business has been performed.

officers'

In order to arouse an interest in school matters and instruct officers in their powers and duties I have inaugurated the policy School of holding school officers' meetings in the several counties of meeting. the State, and up to December 31 meetings have been held in the following counties: Iosco, Bay, Huron, Allegan, Calhoun, Oakland, Macomb, and Saginaw. The attendance at these meetings has been large, in some cases every district in the county being represented. The interest manifested has been intense and already the value of such meetings has been demonstrated. It is my opinion that the Department should hold these meetings annually in every county of the state, if possible, but it should be remembered that Michigan is a large state, and there are many duties for the State Superintendent to perform, so that it may not be possible to reach every county. But if this policy inaugurated in 1907 is continued it will ultimately prove of inestimable value to the school officers and through them to the schools of the State. In every instance a permanent organization has been effected, so that hereafter the officers will be prepared for a vigorous program.

In addition to these meetings, I desire to repeat the recommendation of my predecessor that the several Granges and Farmers' Clubs of the State should institute in the several school districts and townships, school improve