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classes of schools of the same grade, will be ex-scholar who loses nothing by irregular attendactly the same throughout the city.

"Two years and a half will be required to complete the regular course in each of these schools, [primary and intermediate,] but by extra effort pupils may be able to finish their course in two years or less.

his course,

"The full course of study in the Grammar Schools should be four years, and new classes should be formed and promotions made only once in six months. But every pupil should have the opportunity afforded him of finishing if he is able, in three years or less; that is, he should be promoted to a higher class just as soon as he is able to pass a thorough examination in all the studies the class he proposes to enter has passed over. And if scholars are absent from school, or are irregular in their attendance, they should not be promoted to a higher class until they are fully prepared to sustain an examination in all the studies that were passed over during such absence.

This will operate as an effectual check to the frequent and often unnecessary absences that are now seriously hindering the thorough and rapid advancement in most of our schools. If each pupil was required absolutely, on his return to school, to recite satisfactorily every lesson that had been learned by his class, before he could be fully restored to his former standing, the unnecessary absences would be very few in comparison with what they are at present. I know of no way by which the active cooperation of parents with teachers can be so effectually secured, as by some such an arrangement as the one now proposed."

The course of study thus proposed contemplates two years and a half in the primary schools, the same time in the intermediate, four years in the grammar schools, and three or four years in the high school; thus requiring thirteen years to complete the course of study in the public schools, which will prepare young men at the age of eighteen for business or for college, and young ladies for the practical duties of life in their proper sphere. This course can be shortened perhaps two or three years by the active

ance.

The report shows the number of schools, scholars, and teachers, in the city, to be as fol

lows:

"Twenty-three Primary Schools, containing 3,246 children; seventeen Intermediate, with 1830 pupils, and 36 teachers; seven Grammar Schools, with 1896 pupils, and 36 teachers; and a High School, with 8 permanent teachers. There are besides these, a teacher of drawing, and one in French, in the High; and a teacher of music for the Intermediate, Grammar and High Schools. The whole number of Public Schools in the city, is 48. The number of teachers, 130; and the whole number of pupils admitted the present term, is 7,257.

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"The High School will commence its next session with about 400 pupils."

At the close of the last spring term, a very thorough and careful examination of all the schools, by written questions and answers, was made by the Superintendent.

"This examination," says the committee's report, "showed a high degree of proficiency on the part of the pupils, and was another most convincing proof of the faithfulness and efficiency

of the teachers."

We hope soon to present our readers some of the questions with the result of the examination of the several classes in the high school. The questious used in the examination of the Gram mar Schools were given in the June number of

THE SCHOOLMASTER.

We give place, and would call the especial attention of our friends in the several manufacturing villages of our state, to the remarks of the committee relative to

EVENING SCHOOLS.

"During the past winter, eight evening schools, being the number allowed by the city ordinance, were established in different portions of the city. The schools continued for fifteen weeks, and afforded instruction to above fifteen hundred pupils, of all ages from eight to forty years.

"The entire cost of tuition in these schools

was a little less than twenty-five hundred dollars, making the average cost per scholar, for tuition, about $1 65, for a term of fifteen weeks.

"The good that has been accomplished by these schools, for a class in the community whose circumstances compel their absence from the day schools, is incalculable. Particularly has this been the case during the past winter, when the general prostration of business, and the want of employment, has suggested to those who really desired to be honest, other than honorable means of gaining a livelihood.

ests of the schools will admit of, and that no reduction in the teachers' salaries could be made without serious and lasting injury to the cause of education in our city.

"Our schools are now well arranged, well supplied with experienced and faithful teachers, who have been untiring in their efforts to elevate the standard of intellectual and moral scholarship among their pupils.

"The committee believe it would be false economy on the part of your honorable body, to compel these teachers to seek more lucrative posi"The elements of an education have thus tions elsewhere, and thereby to compel the combeen acquired by those, some of whom, if left inmittee to fill the vacancies thus occasioned, with idleness, would have become the inmates of our less efficient and less experienced teachers, simreform school. ply that a few hundred dollars would thereby be saved to the city treasury.

"The experience of the past, the natural intu

"The committee were much gratified, in visiting these schools, to observe the earnestness with which men, women and children were striv-itive good sense of the human race, teach, in ing to lay the foundations of a common educa- language not to be misunderstood, that the best tion. The committee would therefore pre- and most thorough education is in the end the sent this part of our system of public ed- cheapest. For these reasons, the committee reucation to your honorable body, as one of the spectfully suggest to your honorable body the inmost important means of improving that por- expediency of reducing the salaries of the teachtion of our community beyond the reach of others in our public schools." er means of public instruction. For every dollar expended upon our evening schools, a tenfold return will be received in the improved moral and intellecual character of our city.

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"The committee would also here repeat a suggestion made in their last report, that the cause of public education would be greatly promoted, if one or two evening schools should be established, in which higher branches of study should be pursued than are at present pursued in these schools.""

With regard to the comparative expense for educational purposes, the committee show that the expenses for education in 1848 was thirty per cent. of the whole expense of the city, and that the proportion has gradually decreased until the last two years; during which time the expense for schools has been only fourteen per cent. of the city expenses.

On the subject of teachers' salaries, "The committee believe that our schools are now managed as economically as the best inter

The city council, however, about the time this report was presented, voted by a small majority to reduce the salaries of the principal teachers in the city. It is evident that the honorable city council were misled with regard to the economy of the schools, and that the time is near when a wiser counsel will prevail and the hard earned salaries of the public school teachers will be reinstated. Sure it is that unless this action of the council is soon reconsidered and revoked great and permanent injury will be done to the schools of this city. Providence has attained an enviable distinction among the cities of our country for efficient and successful schools. If now the motive power is reversed, and the train is to move backward, a change will be wrought the evil effects of which it will take years of toil to overcome.

The people have labored too hard and given of their substance too freely for the elevation of the standard of education to see it now trailing in the dust.

SCHOOL EXERCISES.

For the Schoolmaster.

20. Where in order to have at the same time all longitudes and no latitude?

21. At what place is there literally no north,

Review or Test Questions in Mathematical no east, no west?
Geography.

NOTE. Many of the following questions may to some seem too simple or altogether useless, yet we have known even teachers to be puzzled by the most simple of them. We think that they will be found useful in testing the accuracy of the pupils' conceptions of a most important department of geography.

1. In what respect does the earth differ from a sphere?

2. What is the diameter of the North Pole? 3. Does the equator extend through the earth or around it?

4. What is a parallel of latitude, and how many parallels are there?

22. At what place is there no south, no east, no west?

23. What place is exactly north from every other place on the earth's surface ?

54. What places on the earth's surface are exactly south of the North Pole ?

25. Two persons are so situated that when they point towards each other, both of them point exactly north. Where are they?

26. Which is the greatest distance, ten degrees east on the equator or ten degrees east in fifty degrees of latitude?

27. Why does a difference of time indicate a difference of longitude?

28. In what longitude from Greenwich is the place at which it is one o'clock in the afternoon

5. Are parallels of latitude all of the same when it is just noon at Greenwich? At which it length?

6. Are degrees of latitude all of the same length?

is one o'clock in the morning?

29. In what longitude is the place at which it is eleven o'clock A. M. when it is noon at Green

7. Is latitude measured on straight lines or on wich? circles, and on what ones is it measured?

30. Washington is 77 degrees west of GreenIf a telegraphic dispatch could be instantaneously transmitted, what time would it

8. What is the latitude of the poles, and what wich. of the equator?

9. If you were at the North Pole how would reach Washington if it left Greenwich at noon? the heavenly bodies appear to move?

10.

31. The captain of a vessel which is sailing

What is a meridian of longitude, and on a parallel of latitude finds that his chronomhow many meridians are there? eter which keeps correct time seems to be losing 11. Are all meridians of the same length ? 10 minutes per day. Which way is the ship sail12. On what lines or circles is longitude meas-ing and how many degrees per day?

ured?

13. Are all degrees of longitude of the same length?

14. What is a first or given meridian ? 15. Is there more than one meridian running through Greenwich, and if so, from which of them do the English reckon longitude?

16. Of what use is latitude and longitude? 17. Where must a place be to have no latitude?

18. Where to have no longitude?

19. Where to have neither latitude nor longitude?

Mr. Schoolmaster:

C.

AUGUST 21, 1858.

The following question was asked in an examination of teachers: "Will you give me a sentence containing the words two, too, to, one of which shall be a preposition, another an adjec tive, and the other a noun ?"

The candidate failed to do this, when the examiner gave the following: "Two boys gave too much to the man."

Query. Which of the three words of similar pronunciation is a noun ?

OUR BOOK TABLE.

AMERICAN BIOGRAPHICAL SERIES. Benedict
Arnold-Gen. Israel Putnum-Capt. John
Smith.

THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY; or a Summer Ramble among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides. With Rambles of a Geologist; of Ten Thousand Miles over the Fossiliferous Deposits of Scotland. By Hugh Miller, LL. D. Gould & Lincoln, Roston. 1858.

The Cruise of the Betsey is an account of a summer trip, made by the lamented Scotch geologist, among the Hebrides, on a geological sur

Messrs. E. O. Libby & Co., of Boston, have recently issued these three volumes of American Biography, by George Canning Hill, to which we wish to call especial attention. Each forms a neat little octavo volume of about 300 pages, il-vey lustrated by engravings on tinted paper. They are designed especially for the young, and are admirably adapted both in matter and manner to interest and instruct them. The author has shown himself capable of writing just such books as children and youth love to read, and just such as will be useful as well as entertaining. We

of the oolitic deposits of those islands. The Rambles of a Geologist, gives a similar detailed account of other tours in the north of Scotland. To the general reader as well as to the scientific man, nothing can be more enchanting than these familiar reports of Hugh Miller's travels. Written in his inimitable style of ease, delicacy and freshness, they throw around the

rarely meet with books of Biography so well study of dull rocks and stones the beauty, fresh

adapted to school libraries. Teachers cannot do a better thing than to send for these beautiful little books. If they have no library funds, tell the boys about them and take up a collection. They will surely furnish the means to purchase them. Price, 75 cents per volume.

BOOK-KEEPING by Double and Single Entry.For Schools and Academies. Adapted to Payson, Dunton & Scribner's Combined System of Penmanship. By L. B. Hanaford, A. M., and J. W. Payson. Crosby, Nichols & Co., Boston. This is a new work on a somewhat novel plan. It contains sets of accounts in both single and double entry, with the accounts to be copied by the learner engraved in imitation of real manuscript account books. The arrangement seems proper, and the book teaches the elements of this science in a very clear and comprehensible manner. The store or the counting-room is, however, the best place to learn the science of accounts. We believe the best method of teaching anything is by the concrete rather than the abstract.

No

ness and interest of a brilliant romance.
one who commences the volume will willingly
lay it aside unfinished.

AGNES.-A Novel. By the Author of IDA MAY.
Philips, Sampson & Co., Boston.

This new novel is a romance of the Revolu tion. It is an exciting story, and admirably written. It fails to convey the moral which one finds impresssed upon the mind after reading Uncle Tom, Ida May, or The Lamplighter, bút is a pleasing story, displaying talent, and enchanting the reader. We understand it is having a large sale. Sold by Gladding & Brother.

ANALYTIC GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LAN-
GUAGE. By I. H. Nutting, A. M., M. D.
Crosby, Nichols & Co., Boston.

The author of this treatise has evidently made the subject of English Grammar a study. He has come to the conclusion that the structure of our language is quite simple and therefore the Grammar should be.

He has prepared a brief treatise of 112 pages, in which he discusses the fundamental principles THE FORT EDWARDS INSTITUTE MONTHLY.- of Grammar in a clear, concise manner, using Eight pages, quarto. A spirited monthly publi- plain, conspicuous language, and - what we cation, devoted to literature and education, pub-are glad to see without questions and answers, lished at Fort Edwards, N. Y., by Wm. A. Holly. Terms, 50 cents a year.

He has no discussion of voice, calling put, in the sentence, "His books were put away," a "pred

icate participle."

AND COMMON SCHOOL READER. - Sanborn, Bazin & Ellsworth, Boston. 1858.

He simplifies in some things THE PROGRESSIVE SPEAKER
and apparently confuses and confounds in others.
Much of the plan of the work is identical with
Greene's system.

ELEMENTS OF GEOMETRY; with Practical Ap

plications to Mensuration. By Benj. Greenleaf, A. M. Robert S. Davis & Co., Boston.

1858.

We are much pleased with a cursory examination of this new work on Geometry. It is comprised in 320 pages, octavo, and embraces substantially the work of Legendre on plain and solid Geometry; to which is added two books on Mensuration, one of Miscellaneous Geometrical Exercises, and one on Application of Algebra to Geometry.

The author gives his own method of demonstration, in many instances differing from Legendre, but as far as we have had an opportunity to examine these changes are for the better, rendering the demonstration more clear and concise. The author has added much valuable matter, and the whole is brought within a smaller compass than usual, thus furnishing the book at a low price. Retail price, 87 cents.

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This book completes the series of Progressive School Readers. It contains 528 pages, including 46 pages of "General Remarks on Reading, Speaking, and Gesture." It is designed as a complete First Class Reader as well as Speaker. It contains a great variety of pieces, which are selected from our best authors and well adapted for practice in reading or declamation. It will add much to the present popularity of this excellent series of Readers.

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GOLDSMITH'S WRITING BOOKS. -For Academies and Schools. Sheldon, Blakeman & Co., New York.

This series is comprised in four books. The copies are engraved on steel and are well executed. There is less system in the arrangement of copies than in some series, and the writing is not so free of flourish, yet it is easy and graceful.

NATIONAL FIFTH READER.-A. S. Barnes &
Co. New York. 1858.

We have received a copy of this reader from the publishers. We would refer our readers to our notice of it in the June number of THE SCHOOLMASTER.

WE have received the last CATALOGUE OF THE TROY FEMALE SEMINARY, which shows twenty-four teachers, and three hundred and nineteen scholars.

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