ANNUAL REPORT.

IN discharge of its duty, the Board of Education herewith submits, to the General Court, its Forty-fifth Annual Report.

In defining the duties of the Board, the law directs that it shall prescribe the form of registers to be used in the schools, and the form of the blanks and inquiries for the returns required to be made by the school committees; that it shall lay before the General Court an abstract of these returns, together with observations upon the condition and efficiency of our system of popular education, and upon the most practicable means of improving and extending it. The Board is made responsible for the general management of the several State normal schools; it is authorized to require returns to be made to itself from all educational institutions supported or aided by the Commonwealth, and is charged with some special responsibilities concerning the instruction of the deaf and dumb. The Board has authority to appoint a secretary and agents, through whose personal labors information is collected and diffused concerning the condition of the schools, the best system of studies, and the best methods of instruction to be used in the public education of the youth of the Commonwealth. It will thus be seen that, as to the common schools, the duty of the Board is fixed by law, and lies almost wholly in the line of gathering and spreading information respecting them. To this end the school registers are kept, the reports of committees and their returns concerning the schools are required to be made, and the abstracts of their returns are printed. The work of the secretary with that of the agents of the Board, and with the published report of the secretary, is to the same general purpose. While this is done, the Board has nothing of direct control over these schools. It raises no money, erects no buildings, employs no teachers, and exercises

no authority with respect to organization, discipline, or courses and methods of study. It only inquires after what is done, suggests any thing that is better, and then puts before the public a report of what it has learned and suggested.

This is a distinctive feature of the oversight which the State has provided for its schools. It does no more, by its own officials, than to cause an inspection and report, more or less complete, to be made concerning them. The State appoints by law that the schools, of a certain grade and range of study, shall be opened, and for a designated length of time, and requires that the children, within prescribed limits, shall attend upon them; but it does not itself undertake directly to manage the schools; and, if they fail to reach such a degree of efficiency as might be desired, the State does not attempt, or has not thus far attempted, to do more than to call attention to the failure, and the means for improvement. The care of the schools, their direct management, and the whole practical control of them, rest with the school authorities, and with the people themselves in each city and town. Thus, in the matter of common-school administration, the State itself, through its own officials, does little more than to observe what is done, and cause it to be known as widely as it may, and to make suggestions of improvement.

This characteristic feature in the policy of the Commonwealth in the care of its schools is one of importance to be considered, and kept in mind. It affects the nature of the responsibility that rests with this Board in respect to the efficiency of our schools, and it affects also much more widely the judgment that is to be formed concerning the development thus far of our common-school system.

It is evident that this policy may have its elements both of weakness and of strength. It may allow to be left for a long time untouched many errors and defects in the management of the schools which might be at once removed if the State were to lay its hand directly upon them; and it may seem thus to fail, and may perhaps really fail, in bringing the schools with sufficient promptness to the best attainable results. But, on the other side, in its reliance upon the intelligence and carefulness of the people themselves, in their several localities, and through the necessity of working only through such agencies, it may secure, in a more permanent manner, the gains that are made.

That very great progress has, in some manner, been made

during the last forty years, while our public-school system has remained practically unchanged, is not open to any doubt. The schoolhouses throughout the Commonwealth are better. They are constructed with more intelligence with respect to ventilation, light, and warmth, and with respect to comfort, order, and decency. They are furnished with better appliances of every sort for the assistance of the teachers in their work. The oversight and management of the schools by committees and superintendents are exercised with more care and more skill. The provision made for the support of the schools by the several municipalities has grown more liberal; and the teachers themselves, upon whom the efficiency of the schools chiefly depends, are more adequately paid, more carefully chosen, and, as a general thing, more thoroughly fitted for the work they have to do. If much still remains to be desired, yet very much has certainly been gained. It is not meant to be suggested that all this progress is due to the efforts of persons officially connected with our system of education on the part of the State. The age itself has been one of progress, with a great turning of thought in many ways, on the methods and means and the necessity of public instruction. But, taking this whole period together, it is believed that the State officials, and especially the secretaries and agents of the Board of Education, have had a very important share in the advancement that has been made. By the conferences they have held with teachers and superintendents and committees, the addresses they have given, and the reports they have made touching all matters connected with our schools, they have greatly assisted in all this progress. It may be that this assistance has not been in reality the less effective for its being separated from any power of direct interference with the schools themselves. There has been put forth, at any rate, on the part of the State, a systematic and continued effort to strengthen and keep steadily in action those general agencies which make toward improvement, in all matters requiring wide popular discernment and co-operation. In such terms may be stated, comprehensively, the larger part of what the State has undertaken to do directly and through its offiAnd, with a government like ours, the importance of intelligent and steadily sustained effort in this direction is not likely to be over-estimated.

It should be borne in mind that this variety of oversight

which the State has had upon its school system has not been without some point and stringency in its applications. No State official interferes directly, indeed, with the management of any of the common schools, to cause this or that thing to be done or omitted. But he does interpose to get information concerning what is done or left undone, and to cause these things-so discovered-to be held up widely and steadily to view. The giving of the main facts relative to the schools and their work in any locality, as they are called for, is not left to the choice of any local officer, but it is required by law. Great care has been taken in the framing of these inquiries, that are sent to the local committees concerning the schools; and the steady publicity that is given year by year to the returns received becomes a very important means of securing carefulness in the management of the schools themselves in every locality. The results, to some extent, of what is done are made known; and there is something like a public and official record of success, or of failure. It may be granted that this public record concerning the schools, which the Board has been able to cause to be made from year to year, is far less complete than it ought to be; and that the effect of it, in calling attention to the fact and conditions of success or of failure, and in giving incitement to progress, is much less than it should be. The remedy may be not in throwing aside the plan, but in causing it to be more vigorously carried out.

We are thus brought to the consideration of a topic which has been presented with urgency in former reports; that is, the desirableness of providing for a more efficient supervision of the schools, throughout the whole State, than now exists. It is not needful to repeat the arguments that have been set forth at length on other occasions to exhibit the necessity of such a provision. The oversight referred to would be of a kind to offer no interference whatever with the full control of the schools by the local boards, and to involve thus no new departure from that line of State policy which has just been sketched. The Board does not ask for officials to be intrusted with direct management or administration, but officials to carry on further and more fully the work, now in part undertaken, of diffusing knowledge concerning the best modes of management and of collecting information respecting the actual condition of the schools.

To this end the Board earnestly requests of the General Court that it may be enabled to employ at least two additional agents. This is not regarded as by any means an adequate provision for all the requirements of the public service in this department. The Board adheres to its judgment upon this matter, as expressed on other occasions, whether in its own reports or in those of its secretary. But the request is brought forward in its present form, in the hope that it may the more readily and certainly meet with favorable consideration. The opinion held by the Board, concerning the great importance of some enlargement of the working force at its disposal, is one that has been reached with entire agreement, and with great strength of belief, on the part of all its members.

It is to be considered in this connection, that the agents of the Board, as assistants of the secretary, aid in conducting the teachers' institutes, and that they attend also the meetings of the various associations of teachers, superintendents, and committees, wherever they may be held. They have thus large opportunities for acquaintance and communication with the persons directly engaged in the work of public instruction; and they are able, on these occasions, both to gather up, and to distribute in the most effective manner, the fruits of experience and reflection relative to the ordering of all school affairs. The institutes especially are of the greatest value in this respect. Twenty-one have been held during the season now closing, and they have been attended by 2,276 teachers. The interest manifested in them by the teachers, and also by the public at large, does not abate, but exhibits rather a continued increase. It is greatly to be desired that a still larger number of these meetings might be held, and that their length might be, in some cases, increased. And this might be possible, as it is not now, with the additional agents for whom we desire that provision may be made.

These agents visit also, to such extent as they are able, the schools themselves throughout the State; but the work is by far too large for them. Three years ago, by the desire and with the co-operation of the committees, some beginning was made, in one county, of a systematic examination of the schools with respect to attainments actually made by the pupils, and with a record of the results arrived at arranged in form for general use. The work attracted attention throughout the