WYOMING.

The chief need in educational matters in this Territory seems to be a normal school, but it is doubtful whether such an institution could be maintained with the present number of schools. The University of Wyoming, recently established at Laramie, includes in its curriculum a course of study in the theory and art of teaching, and the law provides free tuition to all students of the University who are nominated by the county commissioners of the several counties.

Annual teachers' institutes of at least a week's duration are required, and the fare to and from the institute, of all teachers and superintendents of public schools who attend, is paid from the Territorial fund. A Territorial institute was held at Laramie, August 29, 1887.

PEABODY AID TO NORMAL SCHOOLS.

In regard to appropriations for normal schools and other appliances for the training of teachers, the generous aid of the Peabody Education Fund, with its important results to the cause of Southern education, must not be overlooked. "The graded schools in so many cities and towns and districts; the excellent school laws in so many States; the training schools and normal colleges which have been established in so many quarters of the South; and the normal institutes which have been attended by such throngs of teachers and students, and of people of all classes and ages, and of both sexes, during the summer months, bear abundant testimony to the work which has been done since George Peabody signed that memorable letter of trust." While disclaiming all these great results as having been accomplished solely through this assistance, and making due acknowledgment of the cooperation and cordial concurrence of the Southern people in this work, the chairman of the board adds: "It is not too much to say that Mr. Peabody's munificent endowment opened the way, gave the original impulse, and secured a successful progress for that great educational movement in which the Southern States are now rejoicing, and in which it is our privilege and pride to rejoice with them."

The settled policy of the trustees is to use the greater portion of the annual income for normal schools and institutes, believing that nothing is so much needed in the South as trained teachers for the public schools.

The following table will show the several amounts distributed among ten States, for educational purposes, since October 1, 18864-$57,000 in all, not to public schools:

including $13,000

a Claflin Normal School. b Nashville Normal College. e Sam Houston Normal Institute.

REMARKS UPON THE TABLES.

TRAINED TEACHERS, NEW TEACHERS, CERTIFICATES, ETC.

[Table 23, Page 453.]

Table 23 shows approximately the proportion of professionally trained teachers, new teachers, and number and grades of certificates given to the whole number of teachers employed. The teaching force is given for the present year, from replies of the State superintendents to this Office, while the other data, unless otherwise specified, are compiled from the latest accessible State reports, usually for the year previous. In Cali

Iowa Normal Monthly, June-July, 1887.

2 Report of the Governor of Wyoming.
Address of the Chairman to the Board of Trustees of the Peabody Fund.
Proceedings of the Trustees of the Peabody Fund.

fornia, of the 900 normal school graduates reported as teaching in 1886, more than twothirds were graduates of the California State normal schools; and of the entire teaching force, 2,012 subscribed for some educational journal. The total number of teachers, winter and summer, in Connecticut were 6,165, as given in the table, of whom less than one-half were continuously employed. The Illinois State Normal University reports over 1,100 graduates and under-graduates teaching in the State during 1886. In Kansas the 335 teachers holding State certificates are all graduates of the State Normal School; and of nearly 12,000 certificates of all grades issued to teachers in Michigan, about one-half had attended institutes during the year. New Hampshire reports 146 towns as employing teachers from normal schools; in Pennsylvania, during the past year, nearly 15,000 teachers read books on teaching; and in West Virginia about one third of the teachers subscribed for some educational journal during 1886.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES.

[Table 24, Page 454.1

The statistics of this work throughout the country are incomplete, as they are compiled from the reports of the superintendents of public instruction for the several States when such information is given. These State reports are issued annually in some States and biennially in others, and hence complete statistics for the current year are not available. The latest statistics of teachers' institutes are tabulated below. Of the 37 held in Alabama, 15 were Peabody normal institutes for both races separate. Besides the county institutes in Indiana, there were 4,190 township institutes additional; and in Minnesota, 167 local associations and meetings were convened by the county superintendents. District institutes were held in 747 school districts in Pennsylvania during the past year, and the three institutes reported from South Carolina were inter-county institutes, besides which several others were held, with a total attendance of at least 500 teachers. In Vermont many educational meetings were held in addition to the institutes. Wisconsin reports 6,246 teachers in attendance at the seventy-five institutes held in that State during 1886, of whom 1,757 had not taught.

TABLE 23.-General summary showing teaching force, where educated, teachers' certificates, etc.

PUBLIC NORMAL SCHOOLS,

[Tables 25 and 26, Pages 456 and 458.]

In the following tables giving the statistics of public normal schools reporting to this Office for the year 1886-87, only those schools are included which receive appropriations from State, county, city, or Peabody funds. These number 124 schools, with 1,235 instructors and 30,296 students. Of the last mentioned, 26,594 are normal pupils, 7,576 of whom are. males and 17,507 females, with 1,511 whose sex is not stated. Normal pupils are also reported from high schools (including public and partly public schools), the number aggregating 2,967, while private normal schools and academies increase the number by 18,386 pupils. To these are to be added 1,542 normal students reported from 58 colleges, giving a total of 22,895 in other than public normal schools, and a grand total of 49,489 normal students in public and private schools throughout the country.

About two-thirds of the public normal schools receive State aid; a few are assisted by county funds; while many are supported wholly from the appropriations for city schools. The Peabody Education Fund assists liberally in this cause, distributing nearly $50,000 annually among normal schools in the South.

PRIVATE NORMAL SCHOOLS.

[Table 26A, Page 404.]

Peculiar difficulties attend the classification of schools reporting under the head of private normals, on account of the following conditions:

Their work is twofold; general and special. The general course is sometimes of an elementary grade, sometimes corresponds to the usual academic course, and is sometimes a union of the two. Again, the special or teachers' training course may consist of a brief series of lectures on methods of instruction or an extended course in the theory and art of teaching, including practice in a model school.

In the former case the special course is not a feature of sufficient prominence to be made the basis of classification. In the latter case the schools are essentially training schools for teachers, and are so regarded in their respective communities.

It is hoped that special inquiries now in progress may secure information that will lead to a more satisfactory exhibit of the number and character of the schools in question than is possible with the present data.

Table 26A presents the statistics of twenty-six private normal schools, having 238 instructors and 8,470 pupils.