REPORT OF A. J. PHIPPS.

Gentlemen of the Board of Education:

In presenting my annual report, I shall treat of those subjects. only most intimately connected with the specific and prescribed duties of the Agents; and in doing this, my report, as in former years, must be of a much more general character than I would prefer, as the copious notes of my record of visits, etc., would enable me to present a detailed one. As the relation of the Board and its officers to the Public Schools of the State, with the exception of the Normal Schools, is merely advisory, I have designedly withheld from my published reports any statements or strictures which might possibly create ill feeling or hostility, without resulting in any good. Such faults in teaching, and in everything relating to the internal working and efficiency of the schools, as I observe, I always speak of to the teachers and to the school committees, who alone can remedy them; and deficiencies resulting from other causes, which can be remedied only by the parents and citizens, I do not fail to present earnestly and faithfully in my public addresses. Without any intimation from the Board with regard to the character of the report to be submitted to it, I have been guided by my judgment, based on the view presented above, and shall be glad to receive from it definite instructions on this subject.

In the earlier part of the year, and previous to the appointment of an additional number of Agents, and the assignment to each Agent of a limited portion of the State, my visits were not confined to any particular section, it seeming to be the duty of the General Agent to go "anywhen, and anywhere," as the necessities of the case and special invitations required, excepting to the western counties, which had been assigned to Mr. Walton, the only other Visiting Agent previous to the recent appointment of Messrs. Hubbard and Kneeland. Subsequently

to this assignment of territory, my labors have been mostly confined to the "Old Colony," and more especially, thus far, to Barnstable County. Beginning at Provincetown, I have visited every town in the county except Mashpee, and with one or two exceptions have given from one to three public lectures in each of them. In a majority of these towns, I have visited nearly all the schools, and in about half of them every school. Many of these cape towns embrace a very large area, and in several of them, as Barnstable, Sandwich, Harwich and others, there are numerous villages, each expecting a visit from the Agent. To meet this expectation has required, in numerous instances, that several days be spent in a single town, not always consecutively, for sometimes intervening engagements have called me away, and this has rendered necessary other visits to the same town, thus consuming much time in travelling, etc., so that the number of towns visited is by no means an index of the visits made to them, or of the time spent in these visits. Neither can the work of the Agent be properly understood and appreciated from a mere statistical report of the number of miles travelled, towns and schools visited, public lectures given, scholars addressed, and items of this nature, which often lead to an erroneous estimate, favorable or otherwise, of services rendered. I will, however, briefly say that I have during the year visited sixty-eight different towns and cities, in eight of the counties; have arranged for, and had the management of, two Teachers' Institutes; have, by special invitation, delivered addresses at the dedication of four schoolhouses,-in Taunton, Acushnet, Winchester, and in a neighboring State; have participated in the annual meetings of three County Associations of teachers, at one of them (Dukes) spending two days, and giving three lectures; have attended most of the semi-annual examinations of the three Normal Schools in the eastern part of the State at the close of their terms, and, by request of the Visitors, several of the preliminary examinations of applicants to enter them at the beginning of the terms. I have also frequently visited Private Schools of every grade, and Academies, sometimes by invitation as an examiner, with the object, in part, of comparing them in their methods of teaching and results with our Public Schools, and, in part, also, of removing the erroneous impression that has

existed in the minds of many of hostility to private institutions on the part of the State Board of Education and its executive officers.

The prominent objects contemplated by my visits to the towns have been in compliance with the requirements of the statute, and in accordance with the usage of past years, as follows:

1. To confer with teachers,-to observe their methods of teaching and of disciplining their schools, and, when necessary, to suggest better methods; to assist them in a better classification of their schools; to counsel them in their perplexities, and, in manifold ways, in their own school-rooms, and when, as often, they are all convened to meet me, to render them such aid as may contribute to their greater success in their vocation. Excellences are commended, deficiencies are pointed out, and ways of improvement suggested; and, by the repeated acknowledgment of many teachers, such visits have proved very acceptable and beneficial to them.

2. To confer with school committees, who avail themselves of the opportunity to get advice and information from one whom they know to be professionally trained as an educator, and an expert in matters which often give them much perplexity, relating (1) to the school laws, some of which they do not clearly understand, and do not know how to carry out so as most efficiently to meet their demands; (2) to school buildings, in respect to the location, size, heating, ventilating, etc., of contemplated new buildings, and remedying existing faults in the remodelling of old ones; (3) to school furnishings, including desks and seats, blackboards, wall maps, books of reference, apparatus, etc.; (4) to the best modes of examining teachers, and of superintending and inspecting the schools,—and to numerous other subjects in respect to which they reasonably presume that from the experience and observation of one who has devoted many years to practical education, in all its relations, they may derive much information that will aid them in the often difficult and embarrassing duties devolved upon them.

3. To visit schools, not only to confer with teachers for purposes suggested under the first topic, but also to see the children, to judge of their proficiency, their characters and habits, etc., so far as a brief visit will enable me to, and to

give them a few words of commendation or reproof as the circumstances may justify, and of counsel and encouragement, stimulating them to higher intellectual and moral attainments. In such visits, sometimes necessarily brief, frequently continued through a half-day's session, both teachers and pupils in the schools visited, almost without exception manifest much pleasure, and the examination of classes followed by criticisms and suggestions, and the brief address before leaving, are thought to be very beneficial. Generally, some member of the school committee, and frequently several members, accompany me in these visits.

4. To give public lectures. It is not possible always to make arrangements for a lecture in connection with a visit to the schools, but it is done whenever practicable. The visits to the schools during the day, and the previous careful examination of the school statistics of the towns visited, with such information as may be gleaned from intercourse with the committee, teachers and citizens, afford material for the evening's talk, though sometimes a carefully prepared lecture on some leading educational topic follows a brief extempore address relating to these local circumstances. It is a very gratifying fact that in almost every place where such a public service has been rendered, it has apparently been highly appreciated, and requests have been made for another similar visit.

5. To select places for holding Institutes, and to interest committees and teachers in neighboring towns in the proposed Institute, when the place for holding one has been decided upon. The preliminary arrangements for a Teachers' Institute require much time and labor, which are seldom apparent. Often several visits have to be made to the same town before it is decided to hold an Institute there, and afterwards to see that all the local arrangements are perfected. Besides this, the Institutes are to be advertised in several papers; posters and circulars are to be written, printed and sent off; railroad officials are to be seen with reference to free return passes; lecturers are to be personally visited or written to; and other similar duties to be performed, followed by constant attendance upon the Institute while it is in session, to register the names, to see that every exercise is ready at the proper time, to issue free return tickets, etc., all of which requires much time which the Agent

might otherwise give to visiting a larger number of towns for the purposes named under the four preceding topics. In this connection, I will say, that most of the Institutes held this year have been in the western and central counties, and have been arranged for, and conducted by, Messrs. Walton and Hubbard. For several years previously, the arrangements were made for all the Institutes by myself, but it was thought best that under the present arrangement the several Agents should arrange for them in the counties assigned to them. The Institutes at Orleans, in Barnstable County, and in Lexington, in Middlesex County, are the only ones for which I made the arrangements, and detailed statements of these will be found in the Secretary's report.

The great object contemplated in these varied services, has been to awaken, or increase, the interest of the people in what relates to the welfare and improvement of the schools.

As my work, of late, has been chiefly in Barnstable County, I will speak more particularly of the state of education in that part of the State. There is, perhaps, no county in the State, that, considering its valuation and other circumstances, has made more progress of late years in educational matters, at least in several respects, than Barnstable County. In the percentage of valuation appropriated for Public Schools, which is one of the surest evidences of the interest felt in education, this county takes the lead of all the others, and has done so for the last four years. While Suffolk appropriated in 1874-5 less than two mills to the dollar, and Middlesex less than three, Barnstable appropriated more than four. In the "average attendance" of children at the Public Schools, it holds the second place in the counties of the State, being excelled, by a very slight fraction only, by Middlesex County.

There has been, of late years, a very great improvement in nearly every town in the county in school buildings and furnishings. There are no very expensive or showy school-houses on the Cape; but most of those recently erected are substantial, well-constructed buildings, pleasantly situated, well lighted, and frequently, but not always, I regret to say, furnished with all the necessary conveniences of a school, both internally and externally. The abolishment of the "District System" is the principal cause of this great improvement in school buildings.