OFFICIAL DEPARTMENT.

R. R. FARR, Superintendent Public Instruction, Editor.

[The Journal is sent to every County Superintendent and District Clerk, and must be carefully preserved by them as public property and transmitted to their successors in office.]

Summer Institutes.

Our arrangements for these institutes are proceeding very satisfactorily, and everything indicates that they will be more than usually successful. The institute at Staunton will open the 14th of July, and will be under the general direction of Superintendent Bowles of that city, and Superintendent Roller of Augusta, assisted by committees of citizens and the adjacent superintendents.

Professor C. H. Winston, of Richmond College, Professor W. B. McGilvray, principal of the Elba School of Richmond, and Professor F. V. N. Painter of Roanoke, will have charge of the instruction of the institute. These gentlemen are all engaged in school work in Virginia, and each has attained success in his department ; and the teachers who attend the Staunton institute can rest assured that the instruction imparted will be thorough and practical. Professor McGilvray is, perhaps, best known to the public free school teachers of Virginia, having been engaged in institute work in the State from the inauguration of the system. He understands the difficulties of the teachers, and can render them valuable aid in learning how to overcome them..

The institute will open at 81⁄2 A. M. on Tuesday, the 14th of July, 1885, and will close Friday, the 7th of August, 1885.

The Fredericksburg institute will open at 81⁄2 A. M. on Thursday, the 16th of July, 1885, and will close Saturday, the 8th of August, 1885. It will be under the general direction of Superintendent General Daniel Ruggles of that city, and Superintendent J. M. Holladay, of Spotsylvania county, assisted by the committees of citizens and the adjacent superintendents. Professor T. J. Mitchell, of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Professor J. G. Swartz, of the Virginia Military Institute, will have charge of the instruction. Professor Mitchell has had considerable experience, and comes to us well recommended as a successful institute worker. Professor Swartz was at the Harrisonburg institute last summer, and gave general satisfaction to all who were present.

This institute is in easy reach of King George, Caroline, Essex Westmoreland, Richmond, Northumberland, Accomac, Mathews, Gloucester, York, Elizabeth City, Warwick, and all the rest of those counties near to and bordering on the Chesapeake Bay and the streams that empty therein, and we trust that every teacher will arrange to be present. The time is short; and surely every teacher can give a few weeks to needed improvement; or, if they are proficient themselves, can come and lend their aid to help those who are

not.

MARION.

The Marion institute will begin Tuesday, the 21st of July, 1885, and will close Friday, the 14th of August, 1885. It will be under the general management of Superintendent Major A. G. Pendleton, assisted by the committees of citizens and the adjacent superintend

ents.

Professor George A. Walton, of West Newton, Massachusetts, will have charge of the instruction, and will be assisted by his wife. Professor Walton enjoys a national reputation in the school world, and stands at the head of professional institute conductors. Mrs. Walton loses nothing by comparison with him, and in some departments— without disparagement—may be regarded as his superior. They had charge of the Blacksburg Institute in 1883, and by their plain and accurate instruction gave the teachers who were present much valuable information.

We trust that all the teachers of Smythe county, and of the counties adjacent, will avail themselves of this splendid opportunity for improvement.

Professor Walton has furnished the following outline of the work to be done at Marion, and will arrange a more detailed programme, which will be given in the circular of information:

"There will be a daily lesson in the theory and practice of teaching, including the conduct of teacher and pupils, the organization of the school, its government and daily routine of work, with the method of assigning lessons, hearing recitations and using illustrations. The proper means for teaching, as the construction, arrangement and furnishing of the school-house, and the necessary apparatus, will be discussed.

"Instruction will be given in methods with special reference to

teaching arithmetic, language and grammar, including spelling and punctuation, penmanship, geography, history, and the elements of drawing, botany and physics. A course of lessons will be given in elocution and vocal culture, and there will be object lessons in form, color, etc.

"The purpose of the normal institute is to furnish a set of topics for teaching each of the branches of study, and, so far as time permits, to give in each branch a progressive series of illustrative lessons.

"To get the full benefit of the instruction, members must attend all the sessions. It is especially desirable that members should be present at the opening and during the first week.

"Lectures on topics of general interest will be given on one or more of the evenings of each week during the institute."

DANVILLE.

This institute for colored teachers will begin Tuesday, July the 7th, and will continue until Thursday, July 30th, 1885. It will be under the general supervision of Superintendent H. C. Slaughter, assisted by the local committees and the adjacent superintendents. Professor H· P. Montgomery, one of the colored supervisors of the public schools of Washington, D. C., with his own corps of teachers, will have charge of the instruction.

Professor Montgomery is well known to the people of Virginia as an instructor, having been employed in institute work in the state almost every year since state institutes were inaugurated, and as showing the appreciation in which he is held by the school officers of the State, it may not be out of the way here to state that he was unanimously elected president of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute by the State Board of Education, the 31st day of December, 1884, under a law approved December 1st, 1884, and the board still hopes that he will accept the position.

He promises a fine corps of teachers and says: "The following subjects will be actually taught: Algebra, Physics, Grammar, Geography, including Map-Drawing, History, Reading, Pedagogics and Drawing. Physics will be taught by suitable experiments which can be arranged for and performed by any one of ordinary intelligence. The faculty will be composed of four persons."

This is the finest opportunity that the colored teachers have had

for years to improve themselves and we expect them to avail themselves of it. We published in the last JOURNAL the proposition of the citizens of Danville, and every teacher who appreciates his responsibilities can and should attend. On no class of our citizens does as much depend at this time as upon our colored teachers. They are the ones who are to lead their people from moral and mental darkness into the light of higher manhood and womanhood, and unless they are thoroughly prepared for the work they are a hindrance rather than an advantage.

Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute at Petersburg.

An act providing for an eight weeks' course of instruction for the colored teachers in this state at the above institution, was passed March 7th, 1884, and was amended December 1st, 1884. It provides "that the President, Secretary and Faculty of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute shall be required during each and every year to conduct a summer session of eight weeks for the benefit of the colored teachers in the public schools of the state and those who expect to make teaching a profession; said summer session to commence on or about the first day of July and not later than the 10th of said month in each year. The day above named for the commencement of the said summer session to be fixed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the said session to continue for eight weeks."

In obedience to this law we have fixed upon Thursday the 9th day of July, 1885 for opening the said summer session, and, as required by law, it will close Thursday the 3d day of September, 1885. The instruction will be under the management and direction of the Principal, Secretary and Faculty of the institution and will consist of a thorough drill in all the branches taught in our public free schools, together with instructions in the best normal methods, and affords a fine opportunity to those teachers who have not had a chance to master the branches they are required to teach. The law provides, Sec. 4, "that the teachers in attending such summer session may occupy the rooms of the school and in all respects have the same accommodations as the regular students have during the regular course of instruction, and subject to the rules and regulations made for their government by the Board of Education. They shall receive certifi

cates for proficiency and attendance and such other marks of distinction as the Board of Education may think proper and by rules establish." Sec. 6. "The charge for board shall not exceed eight dollars per month while attending said session, and should it exceed that sum the deficiency shall be paid from the annuity fund of this school." Thus it is seen that the law brings this session within the means of every colored teacher in the state and leaves no excuse for failing to attend at least a part of the time. Sec. 4 provides that "when any county or city snperintendent of schools shall be notified of the time of the commencement of said summer course he shall notify all the colored school teachers in his city or county," &c. Therefore all county and city superintendents are hereby notified that the summer session of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute at Petersburg, for colored teachers, and those who expect to teach, will open at said institution the 9th day of July, 1885, and will continue for eight weeks from that date, and that they are required to comply with the law without further notice.

A programme of studies will be arranged before the session begins.

Interest Manifested.

We are very glad to see that the superintendents directly in charge of the institutes are showing so much energy in working up an interest in them. Superintendents Bowles and Roller have out a very neat circular inviting and urging all the teachers to attend at Staunton. Superintendent Pendleton has one in course of preparation, in which he offers strong inducements for all the teachers to attend at Marion, and Superintendent Holladay is determined that the old town of Fredericksburg shall not be left, and will, in a few days, have out a circular presenting its claims and urging teachers to attend the Fredericksburg institute. Superintendent Funkhouser, of Rockingham, the editor of The People, shows his appreciation of past favors and will do his best to make all of the institutes succeed, and will in a short time publish a normal edition of his valuable paper for free distribution with special reference to the Staunton institute.

We now desire to appeal directly to the teachers to know if all this effort shall go for nothing, for it will amount to nothing if you do not attend the institutes. We know that you are hard-worked members of an under-paid profession, but will your salaries ever be