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school on Christmas Day, the First day of January, the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, or the day appointed by the President of the United States or the Governor of the State as a day of thanksgiving. And no deduction from the teacher's time or wages shall be made by reason of the fact that a school day happens to be one of the days referred to in this section. And any contract made in violation of this section shall have no force or effect as against the teacher.

Attendance. In reckoning attendance all scholars enrolled shall be credited upon the days named in the preceding paragraph whenever they occur within the school term, the same as if school had been held and all had been present.

Office of State superintendent.—The superintendent of public instruction is allowed $1,600 per annum for clerical assistance.

Teachers' institutes.-The sum of $1,000, in addition to the sum now allowed by law, $6,000, is to be annually appropriated for defraying the current expenses of State teachers' institutes, and for institutes of instruction in normal methods in the elementary departments of graded schools.

Minimum school age.-Children under 6 years of age may be excluded from the public school of a district by a vote of the board of trustees.

Apportionment of funds.-The State school funds shall be apportioned semi-annually in proportion to the number of scholars between the ages of 5 and 21 years, who have been enrolled and have been in attendance 40 days in the public schools, that have had at least 5 months of term within the year by a qualified teacher.

Length of school.-The minimum length of school of independent school districts has been lengthened from 12 to 20 weeks.

High schools.-The annual appropriation for State high schools is increased from $23,000 to $25,000.

Normal schools.-The annual appropriations for the State normal schools at Mankato and Saint Cloud are increased from $15,000 to $16,000, and a standing appropriation of $5,000 made for that at Moorhead.

Temperance instruction.-It is made the duty of boards of education and trustees to provide for, and of teachers to give, systematic and regular instruction in physiology and hygiene, including special reference to the effects of stimulants and narcotics upon the human system. Any neglect of a teacher to give such instruction shall be considered sufficient cause for annulling his or her certificate. Teachers' certificates will, after January 1, 1888, be granted only to such persons as have passed a satisfactory examination in the above branches. Provision is made for withholding a part of its apportionment of the State school fund from any district where no arrangement has been made for such instruction. The superintendent of public instruction and the presidents of the normal schools are directed to recommend some suitable text-book.

School library list. The superintendent of public instruction and the presidents of the normal schools of this State are directed to prepare a list of books, to be amended from time to time, suitable for school libraries, to include books of reference, history, biography, literature, political economy, agriculture, travel, and natural science; they shall advertise in at least two leading papers for the lowest rates at which sellers will fill orders of school districts for books selected from this list, and make contracts accordingly with the lowest responsible bidder for a period not to exceed two years.

Districts which have purchased books under these contracts are entitled, under certain limitations, to receive from the State one-half the sum so expended. An amount not exceeding $10,000 is annually appropriated by the State for this purpose.

For other information concerning education in Minnesota consult the Index.

MISSISSIPPI.

[From Report of State Superintendent J. R. Preston, 1856 and 1836-87.]

DEFECTS HERETOFORE EXISTING IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM.

The school system of Mississippi during the past fifteen years has been undergoing the phases of development incident to every enterprise requiring complicated machinery and involving important and often antagonistic interests.

Peculiar difficulties were encountered at the outset, chief among which were those arising from the dual character of the population, the larger portion of which were wholly illiterate and in the main non-tax-payers. It was not to be expected that a system of such magnitude could be perfected in fifteen years, or that laws could be enacted to operate unerringly in the solution of such a complex problem; hence, efforts to establish a system of free schools have been chiefly tentative and experimental, and they must so continue for many years to come.

From the stand-point of its development up to 1886 it was patent to all who had given the subject even casual consideration that the schools were not educating the children, and experiments showed conclusively that a revision of the law was needed to remove the causes of failure. These defects had been pointed out from time to time by previous superintendents, and may be stated as follows: (1) A want of qualified teachers; (2) too many schools; (3) no supervision and inspection of the teaching force; (4) a waste of the school fund by dividing the term into sessions of two months each.

Lack of qualified teachers.—When free schools were established the vital question was, how to get teachers of any kind. There were few qualified teachers among the whites, and to import aliens was a policy at once repugnant and injudicious. A supply of qualified teachers has been the prime need from the beginning, and the lack of them is the one great evil which has obstructed progress. A license to teach was within the reach of any tyro who could call to his assistance enough personal influence to induce a kind-hearted superintendent to waive an examination on the ground that the applicant needed the place and was represented as suited to the community where he proposed to teach. In some counties, it is true, where superintendents were bold enough to brave unpopularity and were animated by a determination to force poor teachers from the field, there were examinations, and in these counties the schools advanced constantly in efficient work; but the examinations were highly unpopular, as they always will be if left to the judgment of those who are not qualified to pass them.

Want of money to sustain the schools has done far less injury to the cause of education than this neglect to establish and enforce a uniform test of scholarship-a test which would insure competency by stimulating teachers to improve in knowledge year by year. The want of competent teachers has made the system weakest where it should be strongest.

Too many schools.-The location of schools under laws prior to 1886 was placed in the hands of supervisors. The law required the schools to be 3 miles apart, but with an exception providing for the pay of teachers in small schools which had located on account of impassable obstructions. The distance apart was generally disregarded, and the exception came to be the rule. By this means schools were located at the instance of every neighborhood faction. The education of the children was overlooked in the zeal to get a school located for a particular teacher, who resided in the neighborhood and needed a support. Indigence was the leading argument in favor of such applicants. Counties were thus overburdened with little schools, where emulation among pupils was impossible, and where the pay was too small to employ proficient teachers.

This was a process of continual disintegration and too many schools was the result. The school fund was not equal to the demands made upon it, and local relief bills were passed to levy additional tax to make up the deficit.

Want of supervision.-When the people of the State wrested the government from the sway of aliens, the office of county superintendent had been debased in many instances by maladministration, and was virtually abolished, being changed into a mere clerkship and the salary reduced to a sum which was a meagre compensation even for that. The State was yearly spending three-quarters of a million of dollars, with no agents to see how it was spent, or whether the children were receiving an education.

Waste of the school fund by dividing the session.-It had become a practice in many portions of the State to divide the term into two sessions. This had its origin in the claim that in an agricultural country the children could not be spared from work for four successive months. The claim when made means simply this: That the people must make slaves of their children; that they must rob them of the opportunity to become intelligent citizens; that parents must have the labor, and neglect the education of their own offspring.

The people have not realized the significance of this evil, which, while it may give more labor, at the same time inevitably deprives of all education. The child who has toiled for his parent during eight months of the year can not be denied the right of securing during the other four months all the advantages which the State has provided for his education.

LEGISLATION OF 1886.

The Legislature of 1886 sought to correct these evils by a revision of the school law, as follows:

(1) Examination and pay of teachers.-They provided for uniform examinations to test the scholarship of applicants to teach, and to classify those applicants so that they could be paid according to their qualifications, county superintendents being required to fix the salary of each teacher, with due regard not only to his scholarship, but also to his executive ability and the scholastic population of the district in which he was to teach. They established monthly institutes to improve the qualifications of teachers by disseminating among all the experience of the best.

(2) New system of districts.-They provided a system of districts to limit the number of schools and to make each school large enough to justify the employment of a competent teacher.

(3) Supervision of teachers.-They required the superintendent to inspect the work of the teachers and to see that it was properly done, and also to organize and manage the institutes for the advancement of teachers in the best methods of instruction and discipline. (4) Continuous school sessions.-They required continuous sessions, so that the school fund might not be frittered away in worse than useless schools of only two months' duration, and provided that all schools of a term should be in session at the same time, so that the work of supervision and institutes might be systematic and effective.

(5) Pay of teachers.-The salary system based on the per diem average attendance had been a fruitful source of unjust discriminations and of many frauds. It was abolished and the pay for teachers of the different grades was fixed between a maximum and a minimum limit.

That these heroic remedies have created commotion and aroused opposition, says Superintendent Preston, is not to be wondered at when we take into consideration the number of barnacles that had to be shaken off when the work of repair and renovation was begun.1

EXPENDITURE MADE COMPARED WITH RESULTS ACHIEVED.

That the State of Mississippi, in the last decade and a half, has spent on free schools nearly $15,000,000-a sum almost equal to one-eighth of the entire assessable propertyis a fact not calculated to inspire enthusiastic confidence in popular education, when it is viewed in contrast with the meagre advance made in educating those who have entered life and taken the obligation of citizenship since the State assumed control of the schools. The money has been spent, and it must be conceded by any fair-minded man that it has been largely squandered, producing inadequate results, doled out month by month to indigent and incompetent school-keepers, who were placed in charge of most sacred interests of the Commonwealth, in many instances without even the semblance of a test as to their capacity and fitness for the vital trusts confided to their care.

The most earnest advocate of popular education must stand appalled as he compares these vast expenditures with the scanty results; and the time is at hand when this comparison must be instituted.

NEED OF TRAINED TEACHERS.

Superintendent Preston utters it as his most positive conviction that the greatest need of the system to-day is a corps of trained teachers. The State has squandered enough money in the last decade on worthless incompetents to train twice the number needed to do the whole work. Many of the leading, progressive teachers, it is true, are equal in ability, enterprise, originality, and power to those of any State. But they alone can not carry the dead weight of the laggards, or relieve the teaching force of the truthfulness of the strictures that have been made upon it.

ECONOMIC ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW SYSTEM.

The average term was 78 days in 1885 and 84 days in 1887. This shows an increase in time of nearly 8 per cent. If the schools had continued as long in 1885 as in 1887, they would have cost $905,451, nearly $64,000 more than they cost in 1887. An increase of 6 days at the same cost, or a gain of $65,000 for the same time, is the true economic advantage of conducting our schools under the law of 1886. Taking into consideration that these results were produced in the first year's trial of the law, it is but reasonable to expect that, when teachers are more carefully graded and their salaries scaled according to the provisions of the law, the school term can be still further lengthened and the total cost reduced.

The total receipts reported for the scholastic year 1886-87 are $972,806.94, about $100,000 more than in 1885. The reported expenditures are $143,000 less than the receipts. A portion of this surplus has been consumed in taking up warrants previously issued and carried over, and in building school-houses in cities, but in the main it will be brought forward and will place the schools on a cash basis in most counties. At present about forty-five counties are practically on a cash basis. In the other counties from one-fourth to three-fourths of the warrants are discounted. With an economical administration of our finances for the scholastic year 1887-88 the next year can be begun on a cash basis in nearly every county in the State. This will put an end to speculation in

Superintendent Preston writes, under date of March 13, 1888, at the close of the last session of the Legislature, as follows:

"The reform measures embodied in the law of 1986 stood the test, and the law was not changed materially, although there was considerable effort made to do so. We are now on a basis which will remain, and though the law is ahead of public sentiment, I am satisfied that it will draw the public up to its plane."

school warrants, an evil which has annually deprived teachers of thousands of dollars and proportionally decreased the aggregate value of their services.

For other information relating to Mississippi consult the Index.

MISSOURI.

[From Report for 1836-37 of State Superintendent W. E. Coleman.]

NEW LEGISLATION.

The last General Assembly, while making no radical changes in the school law, passed some valuable amendments, among which are the following:

Formation of districts.-The section relating to the formation of new districts and to the change of boundary lines, was greatly improved by simplifying the language and rendering the law more definite in its requirements.

Change of date of school census.-As the apportionment of State school moneys is made in July, the time for making the enumeration was changed from June to the first fifteen days in May, so that the county clerks can make their annual reports before the State moneys are apportioned; this enables the State and county apportionment to be made upon the enumeration in May of the same year.

Colored schools.-The three sections relating to colored schools were repealed and two new sections enacted, which outline the duties of the school boards in unmistakable language. Whenever there are 15 colored children within any school district, they are entitled to the same school facilities as are. provided for the white children of the district; but when there are less than 15 in any district, they can attend any colored school in the county, and the board in the district from whence they come must pay for such attendance.

Powers of lown and city boards.-The powers of town and city boards were enlarged, by giving them the authority to continue their schools for a term of not less than 7 nor more than 10 months in the year; by authorizing them to locate additional school sites after the first site has been located by the people; by authorizing them "as soon as the funds are provided" to establish an adequate number of primary or school wards, and furnish the same; and by authorizing them to loan any surplus "sinking fund,” and apply the interest thereon to augment the said "sinking fund."

Normal school diplomas.—A diploma, granted by any one of our State normal schools, upon completion of the full course therein, is made authority for the holder thereof to teach in the public schools of the State without further examination by any authorized examiner, until said authority is revoked by the county commissioner, State superintendent, or the board that issued such diploma, for causes therein set forth.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

Among the changes in the school law recommended by Superintendent Coleman in the present report are the following:

(1) The establishment of efficient county supervision. This matter was entirely ignored by the General Assembly at its last session.

(2) Making the minimum school term 6 months.

(3) The enactment of a law enforcing the provision of the State constitution forbidding the appropriation of public funds for any sectarian purpose or in aid of any sectarian institution.

This law is being violated daily in many of the public schools of the State, and it results in prejudice and open opposition to the public schools in those communities where it is practised.

(4) The law should specify definitely in what language instruction in the primary schools must be given; two languages cannot be taught, in these schools, at the same time, without great detriment to the teaching of English.

ARBOR DAY.

The 15th day of last April was observed by hundreds of school districts as Arbor Day, and thousands of trees and shrubs were planted in the school yards. It has been such a dry season that many of the trees did not live; besides, it was apparent that the date fixed was too late, therefore this date will be observed hereafter on Friday following the annual school meeting, which will be the first Friday after the first Tuesday in April; instructions are given to this effect in the school law; and April 6, 1888, will be observed as "Arbor Day."

For other information in this Report concerning education in Missouri consult the

MONTANA.

Governor Leslie, in his report to the Secretary of the Interior for 1887, makes the following remarks upon education and school lands in Montana: "Montana is justly proud of her public and private schools. Liberal provision is made by direct taxation for the support of public schools, and good buildings have been erected for these people's colleges in all the populated portions of the Territory. Our cities and towns have substantial, commodious, and even elegant school buildings, and the most approved systems of graded schools, kept up for the larger part of the year. In fact, these schools will compare favorably with the schools in towns of equal size in any of the States. These public schools are supported by direct county and district taxes, and penal fines for violation of Territorial laws.

"The county taxes can not be less than 3 mills nor more than 5 mills per dollar on the valuation of all taxable property. Districts may vote additional taxes for building, apparatus, and salaries of teachers.

The amount of school money raised by direct taxation during the last year was $223,871, and from fines in various courts $6,466, making for public schools, $230,337."

SCHOOL LANDS.

"Montana has been the home of the white man only a fraction over a quarter of a century; her people have no school fund except as they draft upon their estates by the process of taxation. The General Government has heretofore donated to our people for school purposes lands which consist of the 16 and 36 sections of each township and 72 sections for the support of a State university. But these lands are still held by the giver, and Montana has no title to or control over them. They have been selected and designated, so that the school mark is upon them. It therefore appears to be appropriate for me to ask your attention to this most sacred trust, involving the intelligence and virtue of the future population of this promising Commonwealth.

"I am advised, and believe the information to be true, that very much of these lands has been seized by certain persons, who have them fenced up and live upon them, and in this and other ways are appropriating and consuming their products, greatly to the injury and tending much to the destruction of this valuable school property, and I am assured that this species of taking for private uses of the wrong-doer has been going on for a number of years.

"Moreover it is a fact that already some portions of these school lands have been lost, in this, that a portion of them were found to have been appropriated before they were surveyed and designated for school or university purposes; and still another portion was taken as mineral lands.

"I ask for the people of Montana that such action be taken as will insure the immediate expulsion from these lands of every person who is engaged in their occupancy, cultivation, or selfish appropriation in any way, and that ample provision be made for their oversight and protection against trespass and spoliation."

For other information concerning education in Montana consult the Index.

NEBRASKA,

Reference is made to the Index for the statistical and other information concerning education in Nebraska contained in this Report.

NEVADA.

State Superintendent W. C. Dovey writes as follows: "During the year there has been a revival of interest in educational matters, both among teachers and the public generally.

"The State teachers' institute, held at Reno during Thanksgiving week, was the largest, most successful, and most profitable ever held in this State. Many teachers came from a distance of more than 200 miles to attend the meeting. A State teachers' association was organized, which already embraces in its membership a majority of all the teachers in Nevada. From three to four meetings will be held each year in different parts of the State, besides State teachers' institutes. One of the chief objects of the association is to arouse public interest in education, to the end that much needed legisla tion may be secured thereby.

"County supervision in Nevada is a failure, and must remain so as long as county superintendents receive an annual salary of from three to four hundred dollars only. My

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