having only 1,700,000 inhabitants, has 130 industrial schools of various kinds, in which there are more than 20,000 pupils. England, too, is driven to the necessity of establishing a system of education somewhat similar to that of which I have spoken, in order to maintain her supremacy as a manufacturing and commercial nation. From 1860 to 1868 the number of industrial schools in Great Britain had increased from 9 to 300; while the number of pupils had advanced from 500 in the former year to 15,010 in the latter. I have thus presented these few facts,-gathered mainly from the report of the commissioner of education,--not for the purpose of discussing the question of industrial education among us, but because they seemed to me to be of interest, and worthy of consideration. Superintendent of Public Schools.-E. B. HALE. CHARLESTOWN. Drawing Schools. In compliance with a law of the State, passed at the session of the legislature of 1870, a school for instruction in mechanical, or industrial drawing has been established, under the direction of the committee on Evening Schools. A meeting for organization was held on Friday evening, December 16, at the High School-house, at which 117 pupils above the age of fifteen years presented themselves for admission; and it was found necessary to divide them into two classes, each of which meets two evenings a week in the High School-house. The present number of pupils is 188, there having been accessions each evening that the school has been in session. The committee have engaged the services of Mr. Lucas Baker, who comes highly recommended for his accomplishments as a teacher of drawing. It may perhaps be necessary to establish a third class, and it will undoubtedly become needful to engage an assistant in this branch, as it is found that considerable individual instruction is necessary for progress. The experience of other cities, as well as the limited experience in this city, leads the board to believe that this class of schools meets a decided want which has existed in our Commonwealth, and will be productive of the best results in all respects, though the law requiring the establishment of such schools, no doubt, contemplates its utilitarian rather than its æsthetic value. Corporal Punishment.-The committee understand corporal punishment to mean "all inflictions of bodily pain." But if the monthly reports can be relied on, either the term is understood differently by some of the teachers, or else there has been no other form of punishment administered in our schools but the use of the rod,-as there appears no record of pinching, shaking, slapping, &c. Perhaps, however, some of these modes, such as slapping on the head, might be more appropriately termed capital punishment. But in whatever sense the term may be understood, it remains as the settled opinion of the committee that all inflictions of bodily pain should be avoided when consistent with good order and discipline. By good order and discipline the committee would not be understood as at all approving of that precise and tedious strictness which is so detrimental to the proper relation between master and pupil, as also to the healthy and hearty progress of the school in its studies. It is absurd to require perfect uniformity in a class, thus destroying all of the native imagination and force of the individual scholar. All restraint not absolutely needful, either to the mind or the body, should be avoided. While the committee would hesitate long before expressing the opinion that corporal punishment should be entirely abolished, they believe its abuse to be far more detrimental than would be its abolition; and unless its administration be restricted to extreme cases of insubordination, public opinion will demand its prohibition by law. But there are other forms of punishment as objectionable as that of bodily pain. The Scriptures tell us that a tongue can scourge. A taunting or sneering word may sting more than the tingling rattan, and a teacher that is continually finding fault will soon cause discouragement and derangement of a class of scholars, who, under judicious treatment, might be zealous and studious. The committee are aware that much might be said in excuse for a teacher in contracting the habit of fretting, for it is frequently an unconscious habit; they fully realize the strain to which a teacher's patience is often subjected; but they nevertheless desire to call the attention of teachers to the subject, with the hope that the habit may be broken up, if formed, or guarded against if not already contracted. While speaking thus plainly and earnestly to teachers, it is but just to say that, in some cases at least, parents are equally responsible for the excessive use of the rod in our schools. It will be seen that the committee wish to restrict its use to extreme cases of insubordination, and every one conversant with our schools knows that those cases rarely occur when the home influence is what it should be. A petulant or thoughtless word reflecting upon the teacher in the presence of a child, is often the cause of such insubordination, and renders the punishment necessary. If the pupil feels that the teacher has the confidence of his parents, he is not apt to place himself in an attitude of insubordination. In behalf of the Board.-Wм. H. FINNEY, GEO. W. GARDNER, ABRAM E. CUTTER. There is a question among teachers of the extent to which the spelling-book should be used, and the class of words which should occupy the chief attention of the pupil. My own opinion is, that while a spelling-book with words well classified may assist pupils in recognizing the general principles already alluded to, a large part of the practice in spelling should be upon words which the pupils are in the habit of using in conversation, or meeting with in their reading. The orthography of words of whose meaning and use they have no conception, will hardly be retained for a long time, but may be easily acquired when such words become a part of their vocabulary. Reading.-Reading stands next in the course, an art in itself sufficiently wonderful, if its commonness had not made us insensible to its value. But reading gives us a more or less perfect transcript of the writer's mind, according to the degree of perfection to which the art is carried. A merely tolerable reader will obtain the main ideas of a writer, especially where the understanding alone is addressed. But in all that constitutes our best literature,-in poetry, and in the choicest specimens of prose,-it is only a cultivated ear and a well-trained voice that can bring out the aesthetic element, the sentiment and feeling, and at the same time intimate the mental mood of the writer or speaker. In proof of this, I might confidently appeal to any one who has heard familiar pieces read by experts in such a manner as to invest them with beauties, which, with their own reading, they had never discovered. We pay the price of an ordinary volume to hear a good elocutionist read a few selections from Hood, Dickens and Shakspeare, when we have the books containing those selections unread upon the shelves of our own library; or, if not unread, yet read with greater interest after paying a good reader for breathing into them a living soul. It has seemed to me that we fail, in our schools, to make this exercise what it might be made. Of all the branches taught in our Grammar Schools, this appeals to the greatest number of faculties. Apart, then, from its own value as an art, it is, perhaps, of greater educational value than any other school exercise. It calls, if rightly taught, more faculties into play than any other. Nothing but a perfect understanding of the author's meaning can secure correct emphasis, force, rate and inflection. The sentiment, if appreciated, will manifest itself in the quality and modulations of the voice. As a means of general culture, it has no rival. It opens to the pupils the richest treasures of thought and sentiment on all conceiv able subjects. A teacher who has command of a good elocution, can give, by reading, a more subtle analysis of a choice specimen of prose, or a beautiful poem, than can be imparted in any other way. But, to make the reading exercise what is here claimed for it, every teacher should not only be a good reader, but should understand the principles of elocution. It may not be necessary to teach those principles abstractly, or to say anything of the technical terms employed in the art; but the teacher should be so possessed with those principles that they will be unconsciously recognized by him in all his teaching; and he should be able at all times to give a reason for the emphasis, quality of tone, the rate, pitch, &c., with which he reads a passage. No one would be considered qualified to teach music because he sang or played well by rote, if he knew nothing of the science of music; nor should one undertake to teach reading without making himself acquainted with the principles of elocution. Much of the early instruction in this branch is necessarily mechanical and imitative. The ear must be cultivated to an appreciation of all the elements of expression, and the voice to their utterance. When this is done, by systematic practice in articulation, inflection, stress, &c., in the lower classes, it is not too much to expect that, in the higher classes, the reading exercise may be made to convey much information on important subjects, to create and strengthen a literary taste, in short, to become an efficient means of general culture. Grammar.-Grammar, too, is found among the recognized studies in all our New England schools, and has even given the name to what is perhaps considered the most important grade of schools. And yet it may be doubted whether, as generally taught, it is of much practical value. If it is merely a critical art, designed to enable one to detect errors in what somebody else has written, perhaps the common mode of teaching it is as good as any. But if, as the books say, it is "the art of speaking and writing correctly," then, committing the text-book to memory, and learning to analyze and parse, and correct false syntax, do not teach the art. In teaching any art, three things are required, a knowledge of principles, an examination of models, and systematic and abundant practice. A text-book, in the hands of a judicious teacher, may assist in teaching a knowledge of principles. Analysis and parsing, or the examination of models, will show the application of these principles; but systematic and abundant practice alone will secure the power of "speaking and writing correctly." The great error that we have committed in teaching grammar is, undervaluing, or wholly omitting, practice in writing. What proportion of the time now allotted to grammar in our schools is spent in composition? I think at least half the time might be devoted to it without detriment to the exercise in analysis. and parsing. How does the carpenter learn his trade? Not simply by studying the working plan of the architect, and committing to memory the names of the several parts, and the manner in which they are put together. He must do what he wishes to learn. "Ye shall know of the doctrine," says the great Teacher, "if ye do," &c. This is true in all things. We learn to read by reading; to sing by singing; to paint by using the brush. We learn a trade by working at it; of course under proper guidance, and subject to criticism,-that what is done poorly at first, may be improved upon. We laugh at the folly of the man who resolved never to go into the water till he had learned to swim. Let us beware lest "Like that strange missile that the Australian throws, Drawing.-Drawing has pushed its way into the course of required studies. The instincts of childhood, which could not be whipped out, impelling the pupil to make pictures on his slate, came gradually to be "endured," perhaps not without a touch of pity, and is finally "embraced." Is this the insidious approach of vice, or is it not rather a proof that the instincts of childhood may be wiser than the mature judgment of manhood? Is it not possible that some other restless activity of youth, which now subjects the offender to punishment, may hereafter be found to be in the same category? "Take heed that ye offend not one of these little ones." Superintendent of Public Schools.-B. F. TWEED. CONCORD. Until recently, the words, "make a detailed report of the condition of the several Public Schools," have been naturally enough interpreted to prescribe that the annual report should contain a full account of the virtues, and the short-comings too, of each and every teacher, in each and every term of the year, and in respect to all branches of study and discipline. As a result, if a young man fresh from college, perhaps, with no experience whatever in teaching, failed, as he naturally might do, to secure the best order, that fact was duly put in print before the eyes of all tax-payers at the March meeting. If a young lady equally inexperienced, did not prove to have a good |