subjects of study and methods of teaching in an annual report which few teachers have the opportunity of reading, when these topics are so fully considered in the course of study, which every committee and teacher may have for the asking. I feel confident that there has been substantial progress along educational lines during the year.

Respectfully submitted,

G. T. FLETCHER.

NORTHAMPTON, Dec. 31, 1894.

E.

REPORT OF J. W. MACDONALD,

AGENT OF THE BOARD.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES, DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENTS, HIGH SCHOOLS, COURSES OF STUDY IN HIGH SCHOOLS, REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF TEN, COURSES OF STUDY PARTIALLY ELECTIVE.

REPORT.

To the Board of Education.

Much of my work during the past year has been of the usual kind, such as responding to the many calls from teachers, superintendents and school boards for various services, and also addressing and conducting teachers' institutes.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES.

I have assisted at twelve of these institutes conducted by your other agents, and have myself conducted five, in Lynn, Middleborough, Plymouth, Abington and Brockton, respectively, of which the last was for high school teachers only. I have found it better to separate the institutes for high school teachers from those for other grades, as the relatively small number of high school teachers makes it desirable to call them together from larger districts, in order that, with due regard to economy, a sufficiently comprehensive programme may be presented.

Besides these institutes, I have assisted at a large number of teachers' conventions and meetings of local associations. This last class of organizations I have endeavored to encourage all I could, and I am pleased to report the formation of a number of them during the year. I regard them, if efficiently conducted, in many respects the most valuable of all our different kinds of teachers' associations. They stimulate to individual study and to the formation of teachers' libraries; they promote a better understanding and co-operation between teachers of the several grades, and tend to a unification of plan and purpose from the lowest school to the highest; and, lastly, their meetings can be held out of school hours, and do not necessitate the closing of the schools.

It may not be amiss in this connection to call attention to the too frequent interruptions of the school sessions in some