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. 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. "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 his course, 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 promot-sion with about 400 pupils." ed 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 High School will commence its next ses 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. 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 "During the past winter, eight evening schools, to complete the course of study in the public being the number allowed by the city ordinance, schools, which will prepare young men at the were established in different portions of the city. age of eighteen for business or for college, and The schools continued for fifteen weeks, and afyoung ladies for the practical duties of life in forded instruction to above fifteen hundred putheir proper sphere. This course can be short-pils, of all ages from eight to forty years. ened perhaps two or three years by the active "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. "The elements of an education have thus been acquired by those, some of whom, if left in idleness, would have become the inmates of our reform school. 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 tions elsewhere, and thereby to compel the committee to fill the vacancies thus occasioned, with less efficient and less experienced teachers, simply 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. 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? 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 Green. If 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? 11. Are all meridians of the same length? 12. On what lines or circles is longitude meas 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? eter which keeps correct time seems to be losing 10 minutes per day. Which way is the ship sailing and how many degrees per day? 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 THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY; or a Summer Ramble among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides. With Rambles of a Geologist; or Ten Thousand Miles over the Fossiliferous Deposits of Scotland. By Hugh Miller, LL. D. Gould & Lincoln, Roston. 1858. 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 of the oolitic deposits of those islands. 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 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 as will be useful as well as entertaining. We rarely meet with books of Biography so well 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. THE FORT EDWARDS INSTITUTE MONTHLY.Eight pages, quarto. A spirited monthly publication, devoted to literature and education, published at Fort Edwards, N. Y., by Wm. A. Holly. Terms, 50 cents a year. 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 study of dull rocks and stones the beauty, fresh No ness and interest of a brilliant romance. AGNES.—A Novel. By the Author of IDA MAY. This new novel is a romance of the Revolution. 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, but 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- 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 of Grammar in a clear, concise manner, using plain, conspicuous language, and what we are glad to see without questions and answers, He has no discussion of voice, calling put, in the sentence, "His books were put away," a "pred icate participle." He simplifies in some things 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. GreenRobert S. Davis & Co., Boston. THE PROGRESSIVE SPEAKER AND COMMON SCHOOL READER. - Sanborn, Bazin & Ells worth, Boston. 1858. 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 We are much pleased with a cursory examina- selected from our best authors and well adapted tion of this new work on Geometry. It is com- for practice in reading or declamation. It will prised in 320 pages, octavo, and embraces sub-add much to the present popularity of this excel. stantially the work of Legendre on plain and lent series of Readers. leaf, A. M. 1858. solid Geometry; to which is added two books on Mensuration, one of Miscellaneous Geometrical | THE FRANKLIN GLOBE MANUAL. 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. A PRIMARY ASTRONOMY, for Schools and Families. Four Hundred Engravings. By Hiram Mattison, A. M. Mason Brothers, New York. A book of 168 pages, giving by question and answer, with a very good arrangement of topics, the principal facts and laws of the general science of astronomy. It is adapted to the comprehension of the young, designed as a text book for common schools. THE NATIONAL PRONOUNCING SPELLER. - By R. G. Parker and J. M. Watson. A. S. Barnes & Co., New York. 1858. This spelling book is designed to accompany Parker & Watson's series of National Readers, or it may be used with other readers. It adopts Webster as the standard in orthography and generally in orthoëpy. It has ample lists of sentences for dictation exercises. It arranges words "with regard to the vowel sounds, accent and number of syllables." Nims, Troy, N. Y. 1858. A neat small quarto volume of 74 pages to aid both teacher and pupil in the use of globes. The publishers are well known as the proprietors of the Franklin Globes, considered by many of our best teachers as the best in the country. This little manual will be found useful in connection with globes in giving correct ideas of the relations of different parts of the earth's surface and in teaching many of the leading principles of astronomical science. |