aid them, that they must know from the nature of the problem itself what is required, or the problem must remain unsolved? The following were the topics in geography submitted to the classes: 1. Draw a map of Massachusetts, locate and name four principal rivers (not branches). Locate Boston, Springfield, New Bedford, Nantucket, and your own town. Indicate with a cross the place of the highest land in the State. 2. Name three leading industrial pursuits of the State of Massachusetts; giving first that which you think produces the most wealth. 3. Where in the United States can we obtain coal? iron? copper? gold? silver? lead? 4. Name three large gulfs or bays on the coast of the United States, and with each an important river that flows into it. 5. Name the zone through which the equator passes, and give its width in degrees. 6. Name the highest mountains in Europe; also three rivers that rise in or near them, and tell into what body of water each river flows. The papers in geography indicated that in some of the schools map-drawing was not much practised, and consequently in those schools the map of Massachusetts was not well drawn. It was not asked or expected that a beautiful map would be drawn in the time allotted for the exercise, but one that should show a tolerably correct outline of the State, and one upon which a few points could be fixed. While in some of the schools the maps were quite well drawn, in others Plymouth, Bristol, and Barnstable Counties were represented to be in the same latitude with Hampden; and of course Cape Cod was carried far to the north, as far north as Boston or even Gloucester. New Bedford and Springfield were located in Berkshire County, and Nantucket a little north-east of Boston, or on the mainland in Worcester County. The second, third, and fourth questions were quite satisfactorily answered in many of the schools; but to the fifth the answers were various. The width of "the zone through which the equator passes" varied from 231° to 180, and on some papers the equator passed through the North Temperate Zone, and in one through the North Temperate, South Temperate, and the Torrid Zones. In one school where the other papers were very good, and the raphy also with the exception of the answer to of the pupils appeared to have no basis for an opinion of the width of the zone, and did not venture to express one. It paper in geogthe fifth, most seemed that they had learned the width without acquiring any knowledge of the zone; and so, having tried to remember and having forgotten, they now knew nothing about it. LANGUAGE. To test the ability of the pupils to take in the thoughts of another when expressed on the printed page, and to express those thoughts in English, to exhibit their penmanship, their spelling, their knowledge of the rules of punctuation, and of syllabication, the following story was given them to read and reproduce. It was printed upon a card, a copy given to each, and after a reasonable time the cards were collected, and the pupils wrote. "In a field of wheat, ready for the sickle, there was a nest of young larks; and their mother, whenever she left the nest to go in search of food for them, charged them to listen with great attention to any words they might hear spoken by persons visiting the field. Accordingly, on her return one evening, her young ones told her that the farmer had been there with his son, and had said to the young man, 'This grain is quite ripe: go, call upon our neighbors and friends, and ask them to give us their help to-morrow in reaping the field.'—'Oh!' said the old lark, 'if that is all that was said, we need not leave our dwelling just yet; but mark well what the farmer says, if he comes again to-morrow.' Next day came, but no help came from anybody; and the farmer again going his rounds, and seeing that his friends were not to be depended on, said to his son, This grain ought to be cut without delay: go and ask your uncle and cousins to give us their assistance.' The little birds trembled as they told this to their mother, and begged her to seek a safer home for them. 'Nay, my children,' said she, 'sleep without fear: there is no danger yet.' She was right, for none of the relations came. The next time that the farmer walked past the nest, he was heard to say to his son, 'I see we cannot rely on others, and to-morrow we must take off our coats, and reap the field ourselves.' When this was reported to the lark, she said, 'Now, my children, there is danger indeed: we must stay here no longer, since the farmer has ceased to look for help from others, and has resolved to do the work himself. He will now, no doubt, mind his own interest; and therefore our business is to get out of the way.' 999 Of the spelling I have already spoken. The penmanship, as was to be expected, differed much in different schools, much in the same school. Some papers indicated that a system of penmanship was taught and well taught in the school; others, that no system was taught, even if the pupils wrote at school; and, while the penmanship as a whole was quite good, some of it was more fashionable than legible. Others still showed that not much time or attention was given to the subject at school or at home. Perhaps I cannot give the impression made upon me by the papers of the different schools in any better way than by quoting from my minutes. A." About one-half the class gained a full and correct idea of the story. A very few expressed the ideas grammatically and well. Most showed an ignorance of the correct use of capitals, and very few showed any knowledge of the use of punctuation-marks, even the most common. In only one of the eighteen papers were quotation-marks used." a B." Such words as lark,' night,' and 'brought' were divided, part put at the end of one line, the rest at the beginning of the next." C.- 18 Capitals and punctuation-marks were quite correctly used; but quotation-marks were not used, and words were sometimes improperly divided." H. "In the story the pupils were quite successful. They generally received the correct ideas, and expressed them grammatically and happily. They had a good knowledge of the use of capitals, of punctuation, and of quotation-marks." The papers from the various schools differed greatly in their general appearance. Some pupils were accustomed to written exercises, examinations, or recitations, and their papers furnished proof of the fact; while others evidently were not accustomed to such exercises, and hence worked to a disadvantage. Indeed, when I put the classes to writing, I was told I had taken them at their weakest point. Had the classes been called upon by their teachers to write more, the mistakes would have been fewer. I have thus given, imperfectly I know, the result of my examination of a part of the schools of Franklin County. I found some good schools, more poor ones. Where I found the best schools, I found that the teachers had had a professional training or a valuable experience, or both, that their situations were permanent, and that they were paid better wages than were paid the teachers in adjoining towns or in other sections of their own town. I found also that the schools are better in a town where there is a good high school, than in a town where there is none. Where I found poor schools, I did not always find a lack of interest or of good-will or of effort on the part of the school committee, but obstacles that seemed insurmountable. When a town pays a school tax of four to six mills on a dollar of its valuation, it cannot reasonably be asked to pay more. We hear it said that the children are the children of the State; that the State needs an educated citizenship, and therefore undertakes the education of the children. If all this is not a "glittering generality," a mere "rhetorical flourish,” it becomes the Commonwealth to do more than it has done to assist the towns who thus tax themselves for their schools. A tax paid by the State equal to two or three mills on a dollar of a town's valuation, to a town which taxes itself for its schools four mills or more on a dollar, would be a great help to the town, and a recognition of the principle that the State as such owes the children an education. Even then the poorer towns would find that to maintain good schools would tax all their energies. In the summer vacation I visited various towns in the five western counties of the State, some of them more than once, to decide upon places for holding teachers' institutes and to make arrangements for them. The Secretary began to hold those early in September, and until the middle of November I was constantly occupied with them. Since that time I have been busy at his office upon the statistical part of his report, or at my home upon the papers of the several schools examined, and upon my own report, which is herewith Respectfully submitted. E. A. HUBBARD. SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 31, 1881. |