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SECRETARY'S REPORT.

:

Gentlemen of the Board of Education :

I respectfully present for your consideration my Eleventh Annual Report as your Secretary, and invite your attention to the suggestions which I deem it advisable to make upon a few of the topics which have engaged my attention during the past year. Before entering upon these, I present the usual

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All have made returns except Chelsea, and three towns newly incorporated-Ayer, Gay Head and Maynard.

Number of Public Schools,

Increase for the year,

340

5,076

113

Number of persons in the State between five and fifteen years of age, May 1, 1870,

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Increase for the year,

Number of scholars of all ages in all the Public Schools during

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278,249

7,197

273,661

#26,581

201,750

Average attendance in all the Public Schools during the year,

Increase for the year,

2,037

Ratio of average attendance for the year to the whole number of persons between five and fifteen, expressed in decimals, . Number of children under five attending Public Schools,

Decrease for the year,

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The number too large, through incorrect returns of school committees. They were requested in former years to return the whole number of different scholars attending school in Summer, also in Winter, in separate statements; but in the last Blank Form of Inquiries they were desired, according to the universal practice in other States, to return the whole number of different scholars during the school-year, in one amount, without distinction of seasons or terms. The result was that in some towns the whole number of different scholars in one term was added to the whole number in the second and perhaps third term, thus returning a number too large, by counting the same scholar more than once, for the year. This mistake was perceived, and there was much correspondence to correct it; but in many cases it was difficult to detect the error with certainty, or ascertain the extent of it, and quite impracticable fully to correct it. Hence the return of an increase which is too large.

Number of different persons employed as teachers of Public
Schools during the year; males, 1,049; females, 7,186; total,
Decrease of males, 9; increase of females, 138; total

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Increase for the year, .

*129

3 days.

Average wages of male teachers (including High School teachers) per month,

Average wages of female teachers per month,

Amount raised by taxes for the support of Public Schools, including only wages, fuel, care of fires and school-rooms,

Increase for the year, .

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$147,282 24

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8,235

8 months 9 days.

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Income of funds appropriated for Public Schools at the option of
the town, as surplus revenue and dog tax,
Voluntary contributions to prolong Public Schools, or to purchase
apparatus, etc.,

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. $6,457 64 Amount of local school funds, the income of which can be appropriated only for the support of schools and academies, Income of the local school funds appropriated for schools and academies,

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Income of the State School Fund paid to the cities and towns in aid of the Public Schools for the school-year 1870–71, Amount paid for superintendence of schools by school committees, and for printing school reports,

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Amount of salaries paid to superintendents of Public Schools, Aggregate returned as expended on Public Schools alone, exclusive of expense of repairing and erecting school-houses, and of school books,

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Sum raised by taxes (including income of surplus revenue and
of similar funds, $6,240.68,) exclusive of taxes for school edi-
fices and superintendence, for the education of each child in
the State between 5 and 15 years of age-per child,
Increase for the year, .

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39,026 50

3,520,510 35

11.78.3

$0 23.4

Percentage of the valuation of 1865 appropriated for Public Schools, including only wages of teachers, fuel, and care of fires and school-rooms (3 mills and 25 hundredths,)

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All the towns in the State have raised by tax the amount required by law, ($3 for each person between five and fifteen), as a condition of receiving a share of the income of the State School Fund, except Gay Head,

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Number of High Schools returned as such in towns not required

0.003-25

by law to maintain them,

39

* In the last annual report, page 104, it was incorrectly stated that there was a decrease in the number of teachers from 1859-60 to 1869-70; there was an increase of 866 in ten years.

Number of High Schools in towns and cities having 500 families
and required by law to maintain such schools,

Only three towns required by law failed to maintain a
High School.

Evening Schools-number, 51; average attendance, 3,479; ex-
pense, $36,760.65.

Schools in State Charitable and Reformatory Institutions-num-
ber, 20; teachers, 30; number of different pupils, 1,531; av-
erage attendance, 898; number between five and fifteen, 573;
number over fifteen, 413; expense, $9,576.40.
Number of incorporated Academies returned,
Average number of scholars,

Increase for the year,

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142

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46 2,945

54

$115,136 15

. $3,268 86

428

38

12,443

1,473

$406,432 85

$73,248 33

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2,058,853 30

Amount expended in 1870 for erecting school-houses,

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5,462,852 49

19 63 375 5 mills.

Total expended for school-houses in 1870, .
Amount of taxes paid to maintain Public Schools alone, exclu-
sive of cost of school books,-for wages, fuel, care of fires and
school-rooms, repairing and erecting school-houses, supervising
schools, printing school reports, providing apparatus, instruc-
tion of children in reformatory institutions and almshouses,
-or for each person in the State between five and fifteen years
of age,
-or for each man, woman and child in the State,
-or a percentage on the valuation of 1865 of over
Amount paid for popular instruction of children and youth in the
State, derived from taxes, voluntary contributions, income of
funds, tuition in Private Schools and Academies, exclusive of
what is expended for collegiate and professional education and
for school books,

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-or for each person between five and fifteen years of age, —or for each person of the entire population,

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DEAF MUTE EDUCATION.

In obedience to the requirement of the statute there will be found in connection with the report of the Board the full report of the Clarke Institution; the fifty-fifth report of the Directors of the American Asylum, relating principally to the lamented death of Rev. Collins Stone, the late accomplished Principal, with extracts from the first annual report of the present Principal, and the names of the pupils supported by the Commonwealth in the Asylum; and a report of the chairman of the committee having charge of the Boston School for Deaf Mutes, with the names of the pupils therein who are aided by the State.

Following these reports will be found a statement of the sums paid from the State treasury to each of the schools for the year closing January 1, 1872.

During the last year application was made for the admission to the American Asylum of two young men nearly twenty years old, who had been suffered to grow up in ignorance to that period of life, in one of our most populous towns, and in the immediate neighborhood of a large city. I am impelled by witnessing such cases to renewedly urge upon the school committees and all others who are interested in the welfare of the communities where they reside, and of the whole Commonwealth, the exercise of such vigilance as shall gather all of this class of pupils into the schools prepared to receive them. The Commonwealth is desirous of furnishing all needed assistance to accomplish this most desirable end; and it is deeply to be regretted that any should fail of receiving an education through indifference or neglect on the part of friends or school officers.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES.

Seven Institutes were held during the autumn, one of which, occurring on the week of the annual election was continued three days. The remaining six were continued the usual number of days. In each, twenty-seven teaching exercises were given by day, and five evening lectures, most of them being accompanied by rhetorical exercises given by Professor Monroe. The Institutes were held in the following towns and counties in Pittsfield, Berkshire County; Sandwich and Wellfleet in Barnstable

County; West Newbury in Essex County; Ayer and Marlborough in Middlesex County; Medway in Norfolk County.

Most of these were marked by an unusually large attendance of intelligent teachers, earnest in their endeavors to secure the highest possible aid from the instructions and counsels offered them, and the evening lectures were listened to by crowded audiences, thus evincing the deep interest which everywhere pervades the minds of our population in the cause of public education.

I respectfully refer to the valuable report of Mr. Phipps, the General Agent of the Board, for a more full account of the Institutes, to whose unwearied and judicious efforts their success is in a large degree owing.

So long as the ancient custom generally prevailed of dividing the school year into two terms, held in midsummer and midwinter, it was possible so to arrange the times of holding the Institutes as to cause but little interference with the schools while in actual session. Now, however, that a more rational division of the school-year by which three terms instead of two are held, very extensively prevails, the Institutes must be generally held during term time; and school committees are very often embarrassed with the question as to the propriety of allowing the teachers to attend the Institutes in term time. This is more especially the case in those towns where no more money is raised than is sufficient to continue the schools for the bare time required by the statutes. It thus not unfrequently happens that those teachers who most need the instructions which the Institutes give, and who are most desirous of availing themselves of them, are cut off from the privilege.

In several of the States,-New York, for instance, where Institutes are annually held in each county,-the Common School teachers are required by law to attend them, as one of the conditions of receiving a certificate of qualification to teach.

While I would not care to introduce this feature into our school system until other important modifications are made, but rather to leave the attendance upon the Institutes to the good sense and voluntary action of school committees and teachers, I would remove, so far as possible, the obstacles in the way of such action. I therefore recommend, that the legislature be requested to pass an Act which shall give the school committee of any town the

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