"It is plainly due to the former excellence of our schools, and the universality of education among the people, that Connecticut has always taken the lead in the number, variety, and value of its inventions. Our manufactories are relatively more numerous and more diversified in their processes and products than those of any other State. The ingenuity and inventive talent of our people have ever been remarkable, as is shown by the statistics of the Patent Office. "The whole number of patents granted to citizens of the United States for the year 1871 was 12,511, of which "To citizens of Connecticut were 667, being one to each 806 District, Columbia 136 1. Vocal music being now required to be taught in our Schools, we insert the following striking illustration of its value and importance as a softening and humanizing influence as a subject of instruction, from the report of the Secretary of the Board of Education in Connecticut, for last year. It will be seen how successfully he combats the statement so often put forth that instruction in vocal music is of no practical use to large numbers of children, because of their inability to sing. He says: "Music is taught in our best Schools and should be in all. In many instances it has taken its proper place as one of the regular studies. It is the testimony of multitudes of teachers, that music helps instead of hindering progress in other studies. It stimulates the mental faculties and exhilarates and recreates pupils, when weary with study. Some branches are pursued largely for the mental discipline which they impart. No study that can be taken up so early, is a better discipline in rapid observation and thinking; none so early and easily develops the essential power of mental concentration. In sing ing by note, a child must fix his thoughts and think quickly and accurately. The habit of fixing the attention thus early formed, will aid in all other studies. There is abundant testimony that Scholars progress more rapidly in the common branches, where singing is taught. Vocal music aids in graceful reading, by promoting better articulation, improving the voice and correcting hard and unpleasant tones. The influence in cultivating the sensibilities, improving the taste and developing the better feelings of our nature, amply compensate for the time required for this study. Its efficacy in School Government, making work a play, giving a systematic recreation-enjoyed the more because always in concert, and with the sympathy and stimulus of companionship-is admitted by the most successful teachers. Trouble in the School-room often comes from that restlessness, which proper intervals of singing would best relieve. Singing is a healthful, physical exercise. In primary Schools, gymnastic exercises often accompany the singing. When children are trained to erectness of posture, and to the right use of the vocal organs, speaking, reading and singing are most invigorating exercises; expanding the chest, promoting deep breathing, quickening the circulation, and arousing both the physical and mental energies. Diseases of the respiratory organs, are the great, scourge of this climate, and occasion more than one-fifth of our mortality. It is said that in New England and New York, more than forty thousand die annually of diseases of the throat and lungs. The remarkable exemption of the German people, alike in Germany and America, from pulmonary disease, is attributed, by eminent medical authority, largely to the universal habit of singing, in which they are trained from their earliest years, both at home and at school. Thus their lungs are expanded and invigorated. The broad chest is a national characteristic. There is a common but erroneous impression that only a favoured few can learn music. How is it then that every child in Germany is taught singing as regularly as reading? But facts may be found nearer home. In late examinations of all the Schools in New Haven, only two hundred and forty-eight children out of over six thousand 'were found unable to sing the scale, and one hundred and forty of these belonged to the 'primary grades; that is, out of this multitude, only one hundred and eight above the primary grades could not sing. Superintendent Parish says: 'A systematic course of 'training the voices of the little ones in the primary rooms, has been commenced. Thus 'far the experiment has been a complete success. Children from five to eight years of 'age, readily sing the scale, singly and in concert, and read from the blackboard, notes on 'the staff by numerals and syllables with as little hesitation as they call the letters and 'words of their reading lessons.' In the Hancock School of Boston, of about one thousand girls, less than a dozen were unfitted from all causes for attaining to a fair degree of success in singing. General Eaton, the National Commissioner of Education, and Governor English, when visiting the Schools in New Haven, expressed their surprise and gratification at hearing children in the primary Schools, sing at sight exercises marked on the blackboard by the teacher. 'The exercises are placed on the blackboard in the presence ' of the scholars, and they are required to sing them once through without the aid of 'teacher or instrument, and are marked accordingly.' 2. The report of the School Committee of Boston, of the present year, after explaining the system of instruction adopted, and noticing some of the happy effects of musical exercises in the Public Schools, remarks:— "The primary School is, of all others, the place where instruction in music, if we would ever expect it to attain to anything like a satisfactory result, as a part of our Common School instruction, ought to begin. The child of five or six years ean easily be taught the first rudiments of music, and a few plain principles in the management of the voice, if early adopted, and carried up through the lower and intermediate classes; especially if to this were added some instruction in the art of correct vocalization, and the proper management of the registers, greater strength, a more resonant tone, purer intonation, exacter enunciation, precision, ease, fluency of delivery-everything that is improving to the voice would finally result." 3. In an address, delivered before the National Teachers' Association, at Cleveland, Ohio, an eminent teacher and authority says: "Music should enter into Common School education, because "1st. It is an aid to other studies. "2nd. It assists the teacher in maintaining the discipline of the School. "3rd. It cultivates the æsthetic nature of the child. “4th. It is valuable as a means of mental discipline. "5th. It lays a favourable foundation for the more advanced culture of later life. "6th. It is a positive economy. "7th. It is of the highest value as a sanitary measure. "8th. It prepares for participation in the church service." And again : 66 Through the medium of the music lesson the moral nature of the child may be powerfully cultivated. "Music meets the demands of that nature; it infuses itself into his life; it intwines itself about his heart, and becomes a law of his being. Hence, his songs may more directly and powerfully than any other agency give tone and direction to his moral character; they may be made the means of cultivating his nationality and patriotism; they may promote a love of order, virtue, truth, temperance, and a hatred of their opposites; they may subserve his religious advancement, implanting lessons at once salutary and eternal." Regular musical instruction is now incorporated with the school studies of nearly every city and large town in New England and the Northern and Western States, not only with the happiest musical results, but with marked good influences upon the health, general intelligence, capacity for receiving general instruction, and orderly habits of the youth so taught. FACILITIES FOR GIVING A PRACTICAL COMMERCIAL EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOLS. As I intimated last year, one of the felt wants in our system of Public and High Schools, has been facilities for giving boys instruction in matters relating to Commercial and business transactions. That want has been supplied; and both in the High and Public School Law, provision has been made for giving pupils instruction in subjects reating to Commercial education. For years this subject has received attention in the Model School of Ontario, and boys have been thoroughly prepared in book-keeping and other kindred branches, so as to fit them at once for practical work in the counting-house and other departments of mercantile life. The result has been that boys trained there have been much sought after by merchants and others. In the Schools generally, beyond a little theoretical book-keeping, no special attention has been hitherto paid to commercial subjects, but in the new programme of study prescribed for the Schools, pupils are required: "1. To be practically acquainted with Compound and Conjoined Proportion, and with Commercial Arithmetic, including Practice, Percentage, Insurance, Commission, ' Brokerage, Purchase and Sale of Stock, Custom House Business, Assesment of Taxes and Interest. "2. To know the definition of the various account books used. To understand the relation between Dr. and Cr. and the difference between Single and Double Entry. "3. To know how to make original entries in the books used for this purpose, such as Invoice Book, Sales Book, Cash Book and Day Book. "4. To be able to journalize any ordinary transaction, and to be familiar with the nature of the various accounts in the Ledger, and with the mode of conducting and closing them. "5. To be familiar with the forms of ordinary Commercial paper, such as Promissory Notes, Drafts, Receipts for the payment of money, &c. "6. In the English Course for the High Schools, pupils are required to be acquainted with Commercial forms and usages, and with practical Telegraphy." III.-PROVIDING ADEQUATE SCHOOL ACCOMMODATION. 1. Since the date of my last Report, very much attention has been given to the question of School-house accommodation. The extracts which I have given in Appendix B, from the reports of the County Inspectors, are full of interest on this subject. They show (1.) The actual condition of the School-houses in the rural parts of the country. (3.) The apathy, timidity, or penuriousness which influence the remainder to do nothing. 2. The operation of the provision of the new law on this subject, as reported to the Inspectors, show therefore that one of the most valuable features of the School legislation of last year was that which provided for increased School-house accommodation. Thinking that it would not be necessary to provide for the trustees and ratepayers to do what was an obvious duty in this respect, no provision was made in the comprehensive School Law of 1850 for this essential part of our School economy, nor was it even embodied in the School Law Amendment Act of 1860, which was designed to remedy certain proved defects in the law. Indeed, not until after twenty years' experience had demonstrated the actual want of some general regulation relating to School-house accommodation being made, did the necessity for a clearly-defined regulation on the subject force itself on public attention. 3. Although some opposition was made, at first, to this most desirable reform, yet on the whole, it has been hailed as a real boon by the vast majority of the trustees. Never was there such singular unanimity on any one subject among the intelligent friends of our improved School system as on this. It has (when proper explanations have been given. to the parties concerned) been regarded as a most enlightened step in advance. The provision of the law has been framed, as we think all will admit, in the interests of humanity, cleanliness, order and decency. It is true that in many cases a thoughtless apathy or inattention alone had prevented anything from being done to improve the condition of the School premises; but, in other cases, timidity on the part of the trustees, or the fear of taxation on the part of the ratepayers, had paralyzed local efforts; and from year to year nothing was done to put the School-house in even a reasonable state of repair. Hence the necessity for the interposition of some higher authority, in the shape of Statute Law, to rouse public attention to the subject, and virtually to decide the question in favour of the health of the teacher and pupils and the advancement of the School. These were, really, the parties who had suffered so long from local apathy or selfishness, while they were powerless to effect any change for the better. 4. Were it not vouched for, in Appendix B, by the written testimony of the Public School Inspectors, who have examined and reported to the Department upon the state of the School-houses and premises under their jurisdiction, it could scarcely be believed that trustees and parents would, in so many cases, have allowed their children to congregate, day after day, and year after year, in the miserable hovels which, up to this year, had existed as so-called School-houses in many parts of the Province. And yet so it was. Neither the ill-health of the teacher, nor the listless faces of the children, added to the warning of medical men, or the counsel of local superintendents, could, in many localities, rouse trustees or ratepayers from their apathy. "Their fathers, or other relations, or friends, had gone to the School, and it was good enough for them." This, or some other valueless excuse, was too often their reply, and hence nothing was done, or would be attempted. Not even, in many cases, would the spirited example of their neighbours in other localities influence them; and often, in inverse ratio to the wealth of the neighbourhood, would the spirit of selfish economy prevail, and even be defended on the plea of poverty! 5. It is true that many people had no definite idea as to what was actually required to be done, in order to provide what was really necessary to put their School-house and premises in a proper and efficient state. Such people would say, "Tell us what we should do, and we will cheerfully do it." "We know that our children and the teachers are sufferers, and that they are not in such a School-house as we should like them to be in. But we do not know the proper size to build the School-house, the space for air we should leave, or the best way to ventilate the building or premises. If the law or regulations would lay down some definite general rules on the subject, we should be glad to follow them, but we do not like to spend money on a new School-house, and then find that we were all wrong in our calcnlations on the subject." Such excuses as these were often urged, and they were reasonable in some cases. Trustees, too, would say, when pressed to do something to better the condition of the School-house: "We would gladly do so, but the ratepayers object to the expense, and we do not like to fall out with our neighbours. If you say that we must do it, we will undertake it, for then the responsibility will be on you, and we shall do no more than our duty in complying with the law.' Some trustees have felt so strongly the necessity of improving the condition of their school premises, and yet have lacked the moral, and even the legal, courage to do their duty, independently of this pressure, that they have privately intimated their desire to the Inspector that he would enforce the law in this matter in their School Section. 6. It affords me real pleasure to say that, in carrying out the law and regulations on this subject, the Inspectors generally have displayed great judgment and tact. They have even taken unusual pains to enlist the sympathies and best feelings of trustees and ratepayers in favour of this much-needed reform. They have answered objections, smoothed difficulties, removed prejudices, met misrepresentations by full information and explanation, and have done everything in their power to introduce, as I have suggested to them, a gradual change for the better in the condition of the School-house, the out-buildings, fences and premises generally. I. PRIZES FOR PLANS OF SCHOOL-SITES AND SCHOOL-HOUSES. 7. With a view to encourage as well as develop a taste and talent for improved School-house accommodation, and to enlist the energies and skill of the local School authorities in this good work, I decided to issue a circular offering prizes for the best plans of Sites and School-houses. This I was enabled to do out of a small sum placed in the Estimates for that purpose. In this way I have sought to give a further illustration of a principle which I have always held, and which has always characterized the administration of our School system from the beginning. This principle is, that the Department should seek rather to aid the people to help as well as educate themselves through themselves, than to take the matter out of their hands, or compel them to do what was obviously their duty to do. II. WHAT WAS DONE ELSEWHERE IN 1871. 8. Before referring to the provisions of the Law and Regulations in force in Ontario in regard to School-house accommodation, I think it will be interesting and instructive to take a glance at what is done elsewhere in the direction of building and repairing Schoolhouses. I take the example of some of the American States as their system of education and modes of proceeding are similar to our own. The result discloses the painful fact that although the expenditure in 1871 for School-sites and the building and repairs of School-houses in Ontario was nearly $345,000, or about $75,000 more than in 1870, yet the average expenditure per School was very much below that of the various American States which have reported the facts on the subject which I have given in the table below. Thus: In Ontario for 4,600 Schools the expenditure was $345,000 66 Massachusetts, for every 4,600 New Jersey, 1,840,000 "1,538,700 66 Pennsylvania, 66 993,600 9. Thus we see that the ordinary expenditure of the least generous of these States for School-sites, buildings, and repairs-and those States much younger than our Province -is nearly double that of the extraordinary expenditure of last year in Ontario; while Pennsylvania spent nearly three times the amount per School that Ontario did, Connecticut nearly five times and New Jersey and Massachusetts nearly six times as much per School during 1871 as did Ontario. III-ACTUAL EXPENDITURE FOR SITES, BUILDINGS AND REPAIRS OF SCHOOL HOUSES. 10. Among the most eminent educators, it has been generally held that the public expenditure for education was a good national investment, and one which always paid a high rate of interest to the State. Investment in real estate for School-sites and buildings is among the most valuable which can be made. It is always available and tangible and capable of being readily converted into money. Our own expenditure for sites, buildings and repairs of School-houses last year was $345,000, or upwards of $50,000 more than the sum expended for a like purpose in 1870. The expenditure of some of the leading States in the adjoining Republic for the same objects was as follows: The expenditure in the State of New York for School-sites and houses has been nearly ten millions of dollars, during the last five years, or nearly two millions of dollars per year! |