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twentieth of all county and town taxes annually raised to secure said income, for the purchase of school libraries.

For other information concerning education in Wisconsin consult the Index.

WYOMING.

The following, from the report of Governor Warren, for 1835, is the most recent general statement with regard to education in Wyoming in the possession of the Bureau: Wyoming takes front rank in educational matters, considering her age as a Territory. There is a strong and growing interest on the part of her citizens which cannot fail to keep the public schools up to the standard of our older and wealthier neighbors. "The Territorial school laws, among other provisions, provide for a Territorial superintendent of public schools, appointed by the Governor, and a county superintendent in each county, elected by the electors of the county. Each school district elects its trustees. 3 to 6 in number, at a 'spring meeting,' and none can vote who did not pay polltax the fall previous.

The law also provides for a 'teachers' institute,' which shall hold annual meetings at some point in the Territory (usually in different towns in rotation), for not less than 6 nor more than 10 days each session. Every teacher or superintendent of public schools may attend, and his fare to and from the institute is paid by the Territory. When there are 15 or more colored children within any one district, the trustees, with the approval of the county superintendent, may provide for a special school. The law prohibits any discrimination as to pay or otherwise on account of sex in employing teachers. Although a compulsory law with penalty clause exists, obliging children from 7 to 16 years of age to attend school at least 3 months in every year, unless excused by physician's certificate or special excuse granted by the district board, yet not to exceed 65 per cent. of all the children are enrolled at public schools, because, first, in cities and towns many attend private, select, or parochial schools; and, second, outside the towns, where thinly populated, many families are so isolated from neighbors that schools cannot yet be established and maintained. This last cause is rapidly improving with settlement. At Cheyenne a convent building is now being completed at a cost of between $50,000 and $60,000, by the Society of the Holy Child Jesus; there are also two branches of the Saint John's Parochial School in Cheyenne, with about 250 scholars and valuable school property: also a kindergarten school with a few score of the younger children, and several private and select schools having from half a dozen to a score of pupils each.

"At Laramie City the Sisters of Charity have an acade my with 100 or more scholars, and appropriate school property of their own (they also have an extensive hospital for the sick, at this place), and, as at Cheyenne, select and private schools are also taught. "Other places throughout the Territory have schools, other than public, according to the size of the city or town."

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SCHOOL LANDS.

Governor Moonlight, in his report for 1887, in common with other Governors of Territories, calls attention to the circumstance that the school lands set apart by the General Government are not yielding any revenue for school purposes, although largely utilized for agricultural purposes by persons who occupy them free of rent, after fencing them in. The Governor makes the following recommendation:

"An act of Congress, authorizing the boards of county commissioners of the various counties, under the direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to lease the school lands in their respective counties, for a term of years, and the proceeds to be applied to the support of the common schools of the respective school districts, pro rata, according to the number of school children in each district, and by the Territorial superintendent of public instruction, would be the greatest boon which could be conferred upon the people of the Territories, and the greatest blessing which could befall the children. Those leasing the lands should be required to pay in advance to the respective county treasurers, who would be required to transmit the same to the Territorial treasurer, from whom it should be drawn by the Territorial superintendent of public instruction for distribution among the school districts. The leases should be made to expire at the close of the year in which the Territorial government terminated. The act of Congress could fix the minimum price for the three classes of land to be leased, viz, uplands, second bottom, and bottom or meadow lands; could prohibit the cutting of any timber for any purpose; prohibit the quarrying of rocks of every description, and the taking out of any coal, mineral, or other valuable deposit wherever found. Thus the lands would lose none of their original value, and in many instances would be made more valuable. Within the limits of the railroad-grant lands many of the school sections are now fenced in and used for grazing purposes and for the production of hay, which brings in no revenue to the Government and no addition to the school fund, and upon which the parties pay no taxes.

"An act of Congress placing these school lands in the hands of the county boards would create a local power and a local pressure, which would compel the parties having the lands fenced to pay a reasonable annual rental to the support of the public schools, or tear down their fences so as to give others a chance who were willing to pay. The whole tax-paying population, outside of some of those holding the lands, and they are by far the fewest in number, would become the friends and allies of the Government and the law, and would force a compliance to the very letter. The land in Wyoming is being rapidly taken up, and of course the best land is usually the first taken. It is very likely that many of sections 16 and 36 have prior claims, and that many are deficient in area, and many others are so located as to be of almost no value, and as the law authorizes the selection of indemnity sections to be certified by the Commissioner of the General Land Office to the State, it seems to me that the interest of the common school fund would be best served by permitting this to be done during the Territorial form of government through the surveyor-general of the Territory, the registers and receivers of the land office, and the Territorial superintendent of public instruction. This would make it possible to select some of the good lands as indemnity before they were all taken up, and locating within each county its proper proportion. I am informed that the Wyoming Territorial lines cut through townships so as to deprive the Territory of some 440 school sections.

"The Yellowstone Park, the military reservations, and the Indian reservation deprive the Territory of about 200 more, and it would appear but just that the indemnity sections be given in lieu thereof before all the desirable land shall be taken up. The granting of the power to lease these lands would prevent the possibility of any monopoly control, as the people are keenly alive to the interests of education, and will sacredly guard and protect the common school fund, to supply which all are taxed. In this age of enlightment it is apparently anomalous that the Territories can not share the advantage equally with States of leasing their school lands, and at a time when this advantage would be most serviceable to them. I have made these suggestions with some diffidence, but believe they are worthy of a careful consideration."

For other information concerning education in Wyoming consult the Index.

CHAPTER IV.

DISCUSSIONS OF EDUCATIONAL QUESTIONS, CHIEFLY BY STATE SUPERINTENDENTS.

Administration-Censuses, school-Co-education-Compulsory attendance-Country schools-Education, nature and objects of.-Graded schools-High schools-Hygiene-Libraries for schoolsPublic schools-Religious and moral training-Revenue-School-houses-School systems-Statistice of education-Supervision-Teachers-Temperance instruction-Text-books.

I.-ADMINISTRATION.

The unwisdom of the district system illustrated.—Superintendent Kiehle, of Minnesota: "Noticing the defects of our system more in detail, I call attention to the common school district. This may be known as the neighborhood plan, in which as many families as can conveniently send to one school have their own officers and school-house, and tax their property for the education of their children. This plan prevails nowhere but in the country, although it is not a whit better adapted to it than to cities. The unwisdom of this plan would be fairly illustrated if our cities should adopt it, and provide by law that every one, two, or more blocks might organize for the support and control of their school affairs by a separate set of officers. If the two cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis should adopt the plan of the country, they would support over 500 districts and over 1,500 school officers; there would be some very rich districts, with excellent schools supported at trifling cost, and there would be other very poor districts, with few children, poor schools and short terms, maintained at a burdensome expense. And this is the precise condition of things in the country. Some districts are large, rich and thriving; others are poor, sparsely settled, have few children, and can hardly support a four-months school by levying the highest tax allowed by law.

"There is no more reason for having a set of officers for each school in the country than there is for making as many separate districts in a city as there are school buildings. The same rule should govern in the country that governs in cities. As the territory of the municipality is the territory of the school district, so the township should be the school district in the country; and as in the city a single board provides school privileges as they are needed, so in the township, under one board, school-houses should be located, teachers employed and all conveniences provided as the distribution of population and the progress of the children may require."

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Evils of the district system in Arkansas.-Superintendent Thompson, of Arkansas, renews his recommendation of a change to the township system, and says: "After two more years' experience with the present law I am more firmly impressed with the wisdom of the change recommended in 1884. The present plan of separate, independent districts divides the funds into such small parts, that the length of the school term is reduced to the minimum, and to maintain a school for three months it is necessary to employ the cheapest teacher. The school buildings are uncomfortable and poorly furnished. Some are even without any conveniences. This is the school the directors are forced, for want of means, to give the children in their districts.

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"Another reason for changing to the township system, is that under our statutes separate schools must be provided for whites and blacks. In some districts there are only five or ten children, for whom a school must be provided at a cost of from $25 to $40 per month. In the township system in the northern part of the State, schools could be maintained at much less cost for the few colored children who are in the township. The same conditions are found in many districts in the eastern and southern portion of the State, where there are not more than five or ten white children. There is an imperative necessity for a change, if we expect to advance our schools to that degree of usefulness that is desired and demanded by the spirit of the age."

Not a mere passing notion.-Superintendent Raab, of Illinois, in renewing his recommendation for a change to the township system, says: "It is not a mere passing notion which prompts me to urge this matter of school administration, and to ask such a sweeping modification of the existing laws, but an earnest desire to help to simplify and improve the school affairs of the State causes me to again propose a measure, which it becomes the more difficult to carry into effect the longer we wait. I mean the change from the present district system to the township system in school administration."

Advantages of the township system. -The following synopsis of the advantages of the township system is given by Superintendent Thompson, of Arkansas:

"1. The building of better and more convenient school-houses.

"2. The schools could be classified and graded with more ease.

"3. Better teachers would be employed.

"4. School terms would be longer.

"5. Taxation would be equalized.

"6. The school revenues would be more equitably distributed.

"7. Equal educational privileges could be extended to all parts of the township. "8. Children could attend the school that was most convenient.

"9. School-houses would be better furnished.

"10. The per capita cost of education would be diminished.

"11. There would be but little uncertainty about district boundaries.

"12. Reliable statistics and information could more easily be obtained.

"13. There would be better management and supervision of the schools. "14. Text-books could not be so easily changed.

"15. The school law would be simplified and better understood and obeyed.”

Consolidation of school districts.--Superintendent Williams, of Delaware: "There can be no reasonable doubt of the practical benefits to be derived from the consolidation of small school districts. In district schools some of the difficulties which are met, and which tend greatly to impede the progress of the schools, are the large number of classes, in one instance numbering as high as 26 in a school of 35 scholars; the shortness of the school terms; the necessity in some districts of employing inexperienced teachers, owing to the small amount of money, and the frequent changing of teachers. These, and many others which might be mentioned, could be overcome by consolidating some districts and establishing graded schools.

"The benefits of the consolidation of small school districts are seen in Sussex County, as the results of the commission appointed by the last General Assembly, and have been found highly advantageous to the cause of education."

Practical results of the adoption of the town system in Vermont.-Superintendent Dartt: "At the last session of the Legislature a law was passed requiring all towns having the district system to vote upon the question of abolishing the districts and adopting the town system at the annual meetings in 1885 and 1886; the vote to be by ballot and opportunity to be given for discussion.

"It will be seen from the record that in the 2 years 16 towns voted to adopt the town system, and one voted to return to the district system after using the town system 5 years."

Town superintendent of Bolton, Vt.: "Five years have passed since this town entered upon the town system, and when the people had an opportunity to return to the old district system at the last annual meeting, not a single person, to all appearance, desired to do so. Surely a good argument for the town system, when almost a majority were at first bitterly opposed to it."

Of Middletown: "We note a very decided improvement in our schools under the town system. It is working admirably with us and fast gaining friends. Its adoption by our town is a long step in the right direction."

Of Grand Isle: "The town system has made many friends in this town since we adopted it one year ago."

Of Warren: "This is the first year under the town system, and I am satisfied that after we get settled into business and the people become accustomed to the new way, there will be no desire to return to the old district system with its unequal taxation. We have not had so much friction as we anticipated. Our schools are in better condition than before."

A county system recommended.—Superintendent Lawhead, of Kansas: "While there appears to be some ground for the present agitation demanding the abolition of the district system and the establishment of the township plan, it is questionable whether that plan will be the panacea for all the ills of our school system that its advocates claim. It is true that under our present district system taxation is unequal; the district that is financially weak has, in order to secure anything like equal school advantages, to tax itself almost to the point of bankruptcy. Should the township plan be adopted it would not equalize

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taxation fully, while it would create endless confusion in district lines, as no school districts have been so formed as to have their boundary lines conform to the boundary lines of the municipal townships. It seems to me that if we are to destroy our present system of school districts, it would be wiser to resort to a county system, and thereby secure a greater degree of equalization of taxation and at the same time avoid all changes and conasion in the boundary lines of districts. * Is there not danger of losing that gracral interest which we now have under the district system, should we pass to the Dwnship system and thereby place the control of our schools in the hands of a few? It seems to me that by a carefully considered law providing for a system of school taxation by the county, and the locating and building of school-houses by the same authority, the burden of taxation could be much more equally distributed, and the school-houses so located as to more fully accommodate the children than by any other system. Such a thing as a district financially weak would be unknown; hence, this man or that man would have no incentive in the way of escaping taxation to ask to be transferred from one district to another."

The district system the best at present for North Carolina.—Superintendent Finger: "The district system is. perhaps, not the best system, but as we have it, and our people are accustomed to it, I think best to retain it, at least for the present. The general machinery of the system is working fairly well, and I suggest only such changes as seem to be necessary in the present condition of public sentiment, and considering the small amount of funds now raised under our statutes."

The State superintendent should be independent.—Superintendent Baker, of Texas: "The superintendent of public instruction is selected with special reference to his fitness to conduct the educational interests of the State. The general public holds him responsible, and it is fair to presume that he understands the duties of the position better than others who give those duties little or no attention. The people impose no higher trust upon the government than the supervision of the education of their children. I hold there fore that the department of education ought to be made entirely an independent one, with a head not subject to the dictation of other officers. The Governor, comptroller, and secretary of state, the officers who compose the board of education, have enough to do to occupy their whole time in discharging the duties particularly appertaining to their several offices, without being called upon to determine the correctness of the rulings of the superintendent of public instruction upon subjects with which they are in no way familiar. Such a power bestowed on a board cripples the influence of the superintend ent, and in many instances renders him powerless to amicably settle the most trying differences between inferior officers. The superintendent is selected by the people just as the Governor and comptroller are selected, and there is as much reason for a board to act upon the decisions of those officers as upon the decisions of the superintendent; better reason, if the boards were chosen with reference to their understanding of the matters they were to act upon. I unhesitatingly state that the several boards of education since 1873, notwithstanding they were composed of gentlemen of distinguished ability and upright character, have been potent factors in retarding the advance of popular education and the successful administration of the school law."

Relation between superintendent and school committee.-Superintendent Stockwell, of Rhode Island: "It is extremely unfortunate for the welfare of our schools that, in the development in our State of the work and status of the superintendent of schools, the idea should have been allowed to gain a foothold that the office was in any way independent of the school committee, or that the occupant thereof was responsible to any others than the committee, for the whole theory of the office and of its duties has ever been to make it the medium of the committee's actions, to give opportunity for so unifying and simplifying the work of the committee as to make it more effective in every respect, and thus to afford a constant and suitable medium for the expression of their will.

We are all aware how long it took to place the selection of the superintendent where it naturally should go, in the hands of the school committee, whose servant he is to be, and who confer upon him every particle of power or influence which he may exert. We have one more step to take before the office is placed in its true position of entire independence from any body or interest, save that to which it is legitimately subject, the school committee. The salary of the superintendent should be fixed by the school committee and paid upon their order, just the same as that of any teacher. In fact, the superintendent is but a principal teacher. Just so far as he fulfils the ideal requirements of his place, does he do his best and most valuable work in teaching, both by precept and by example, the teachers of the town. To thoroughly discharge the duties of his place he must himself be a teacher. It is evident, therefore, that upon that ground alone the school committee are the only authority naturally fitted to determine the value of his services and the rate of compensation. It is to be hoped that the time

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