Before the end of the year 1897 the State will have ten normal schools ready for its use. Four of these have been established by the Board, in accordance with resolves passed by the Legislature of 1895. All the normal schools of the State, when existing contracts are executed, will be provided with new buildings constructed after the most approved plans and furnished with the most modern means of teaching and study.

In connection with the normal schools practice schools will be maintained, in which the normal students may acquire an experience in school keeping even before they enter the public schools.

It is desirable that the normal schools should be filled with students. The number may be increased at once, by giving assurances that professional training will, in the future, be a requisite for the employment of teachers in the public schools.

The Board is made responsible for the general management of the normal schools. This imposes upon it many and important duties, among which are included the care of school buildings, the general oversight of boarding halls, the appointment of teachers, the arrangement of courses of study, the examination of candidates for admission to the schools and of candidates for graduation, and, lastly, that constant supervision necessary to a knowledge of their needs and of the best means of supplying them. These duties are so many and of such a character that it seems necessary that a special agent, well instructed in all that pertains to the professional training of teachers and acting under the direction of the secretary of the Board, should be appointed to supervise the affairs of the normal schools. This agent would be a medium between the secretary and the schools, and would furnish him with that assistance which the satisfactory performance of his large and responsible duties relating to the normal schools requires.

For information as to the condition and efficiency of the several normal schools, reference is made to the reports of the boards of visitors of these schools.

NEW NORMAL SCHOOLS.

None of the structures for the four new normal schools established by the act of 1895, nor that under construction at Salem, are yet fully completed, although two of them are now in use.

The money appropriated by the last Legislature for the purpose of grading the grounds and furnishing and fitting for occupancy the new buildings is being judiciously expended for the purposes for which it was appropriated. It was hoped at one time that the new buildings at North Adams, Fitchburg and Salem would be ready for occupancy at the beginning of the present school year in September, but the work on them was unavoidably delayed. Both the Salem and the Fitchburg schools are now in their new buildings, having taken possession of them on the same day, Wednesday, December 2. The North Adams school will open in February. The buildings at Hyannis and Lowell are expected to be finished in season for occupancy in September, 1897.

Mr. Frank F. Murdock, who has had twelve years of practical experience as a teacher in the Bridgewater State Normal School, has been appointed principal of the North Adams school, and is now aiding the visitors of that school in the work of equipping the building for school purposes and in the selection of assistant teachers.

AGENTS OF THE BOARD.

Section 9, chapter 41 of the Public Statutes, provides for the appointment by the Board of one or more agents, and also defines their duties. While the agents have no direct authority over the management of the public schools, their services are highly useful, and are received with great favor by the teachers and the school authorities of the State. The plan of their work is to visit the schools of the districts assigned to them, for the purpose of observing the condition of school buildings, of examining the school records for an account of school attendance, and of obtaining information concerning the course of studies taught, the condition of the text-books and supplies which the towns are required to furnish their school children free from individual expense, and the efficiency of the schools themselves.

After such observations have been made the agents are prepared to meet the teachers, superintendents and school committees to give advice and offer suggestions.

The agents, under the general direction of the secretary of the Board, conduct teachers' institutes and other meetings of teachers held for the purpose of discussing questions as to the

best means of promoting the ends of public instruction. They have also rendered important service to the State by aiding and encouraging the smaller towns to form themselves into districts for the employment of union school superintendents.

The Board desires to commend the agents for the faithful and efficient manner in which they have performed the important duties of their office. For a detailed account of their work, reference is made to their several reports.

It is with great regret that the Board has received the resignation of George A. Walton, one of its most valued agents, to take effect Dec. 31, 1896. For twenty-five years he has served the Commonwealth with distinguished fidelity and signal profit. His investigations into school conditions have been painstaking and thorough, his reports thereon judicious and stimulating, and his varied service as a counselor sagacious and helpful.

With the retirement of Mr. Walton the force of agents is left as follows: John T. Prince, Andrew W. Edson, Henry T. Bailey, G. T. Fletcher and J. W. MacDonald.

SUPERVISION.

The value and importance of skilled supervision has been clearly demonstrated in Massachusetts by the experience and observation of more than forty years. Wherever this policy has been fairly tried, whether in the large cities or in the small country towns, the recognition of its importance as a prime factor in the improvement of the public schools is nearly or quite universal. Practically, the question may be said to have passed the debatable stage. The chief benefits resulting from the employment of trained and skilful superintendents are these better schoolhouses, better teachers, more regular and increased attendance, greater economy in the expenditure of money and greater interest in the schools on the part of pupils, parents and the community in general. Since its inception in 1854, supervision has, by the voluntary action of the towns and cities, steadily won its way into public favor, until 259 towns, embracing over 93 per cent. of all the school children

The date of the first Massachusetts statute authorizing the employment of superintendents of schools. As a matter of fact, superintendents of schools were employed, without State sanction, by several school committees before 1854. Springfield, for instance, employed a superintendent as early as 1810.

in the State, have their schools under the care of intelligent superintendents.

There are now 94 towns not under supervision. These are mostly small country towns, many of them heavily burdened. with taxation for the support of schools and other town purposes, but especially needing the benefits which flow from skilled supervision. Some of these towns have voted in favor of uniting in a district for the employment of a superintendent, but are unable to effect such union by reason of their relations to other towns or cities. They may be nearly or quite surrounded by towns of too high a valuation to unite in a district entitled to State aid, or by towns now under supervision, or by those indifferent or possibly averse to the plan.

Supervision has made but slight progress during the year. It has gained seven towns and lost one; three of the new towns are entitled to receive State aid. Little, if any, further progress can be expected under the existing law. This law should be so amended as to remove many of the obstacles which now prevent school supervision from becoming universal. A town whose valuation is within the limit fixed for receiving State aid should have authority to unite with a neighboring town whose valuation is above the limit, and still receive its proportional share of such aid.

School committees should have authority to agree upon the boundaries of union districts.

The Board of Education should be authorized, in its discretion, to form districts of less than twenty-five schools, which should be entitled to receive State aid. It should also be authorized to form union districts in cases in which school committees cannot agree.

It might be deemed desirable to increase the appropriation towards the payment of teachers' salaries from five hundred dollars to seven hundred and fifty dollars to union districts composed of towns having a smaller valuation than the limit now fixed by law for receiving State aid.

Other amendments to the law might be suggested which would increase its efficiency and thus tend to make school supervision universal throughout the Commonwealth. If this desirable end cannot be accomplished by the voluntary action.

of the cities and towns, which is highly improbable, then it should be brought about by compulsory legislation, which should make supervision both universal and permanent. In the opinion of many of the most competent observers and best educators, the time for such legislative action has already arrived.

HIGH SCHOOLS.

The number of high schools in the State is 257,- an increase of 5 for the year. The number of pupils attending is 34,323, an increase of 1,571 for the year.

The Legislature of 1891 made provision for the free high school education of all children living in towns not required to maintain high schools. In 1894 the law was made more effective by an amendment providing a reimbursement of tuition to all towns whose valuation is less than $500,000.

These acts of the Legislature have so organized our system of public instruction as to bring all grades of it within the reach. of all. Hereafter no child can complain that he is deprived of the advantages of secondary instruction because he happens to live in a small town. No other State has a system of secondary schools equal to our own; no other State has done so much to equalize for its people their opportunities to receive secondary instruction.

In making high school instruction free and possible for all, the State has furnished the opportunity for all who choose to accept it to prepare to enter the colleges or technical schools. for a superior course of instruction. In this way the colleges may be made to hold a close relation to the public schools.

The provisions thus far made for manual training in the manual training high schools seem to be more generous for boys than for girls. The law, however, makes no distinction between them. The reasons for such training, whether of a commercial, physiological, intellectual or moral character, apply to girls as well as to boys. Certainly the capacities of girls and often their tastes fit them to take elementary handwork with the boys. When it comes to foundry, machine or other unsuitable work in the higher grades, there are alternative branches, like certain parts of domestic economy, which girls can pursue with profit.