Wm. Mitchell, Superintendent of the Columbus Public Schools, constitute the present Board. M. F. Cowdery, Superintendent of the Sandusky Public Schools, Thos. W. Harvey, Superintendent of the Painesville Public Schools, and Pres. Eli T. Tappan, of Kenyon College, were the first Board.

The only branches additional to those required for a county certificate, are United States History, Physiology, Elementary Algebra, Plane Geometry, and Natural Philosophy. Applicants must be of good moral character, and they must have had five years successful practice in teaching.

W. D. HENKLE.

ANNOUNCEMENT.

The Executive Committee of the Ohio Teachers' Association consisting of A. J. Rickoff, D. F. De Wolf, John Hancock, Eli T. Tappan, J. C. Harper, and W. D. Henkle, met in Columbus, on Wednesday, Feb. 2, and decided to hold the next meeting in Columbus, beginning Tuesday evening, July 5, and continuing July 6th and 7th. No invitation having been received from Columbus, free entertainment for ladies is not to be expected; but it is hoped that the local committee will do all in their power to secure boarding places for ladies and gentlemen at hotels, boarding-houses, and in private families at reduced rates. This arrangement will no doubt reduce the number of ladies in attendance, but those who do attend will give stronger evidence of their interest in the Association, and will feel an independence which is not felt by them when enjoying free entertainment among strangers.

The programme will be published next month.

W. D. HENKLE,

Chairman Ex. Com. O. T. Association.

FREQUENT CHANGE OF TEACHERS.

One of the greatest hindrances to the progress of our country schools is the frequent change of teachers. Not one-fourth of these schools are taught by the same teacher the successive terms of a school year. This evil was noticed by Mr. Fraser, and he refers to it as a great defect in the American system, and one deplored in nearly all state school reports. A calculation is made that at least one-fourth of the money expended on the schools is thus wasted" To find a body of teachers who intend to "make teaching their business for several years", excites surprise. And yet it is felt and acknowledged that “a teacher is worth twice as much the second term as during the first.” "Frequent change of teachers" is classed with their "incompetence" and the “irregular attendance" of scholars, as the three great "hindrances to the successful prosecution of the schools."

One cause of this evil is the practice, still too prevalent in many counties, of having winter and summer schools, separated by a long interval. A better plan is to have the school terms consecutive, the same teacher being employed

for the six or eight months, as the case may be. By opening the school about the first of October, the smaller pupils are well started when the older pupils enter for the winter, and the school closes sufficiently early for farm work in the spring. The reason usually urged in favor of summer schools is, that they better accommodate small children, but the other plan accommodates all pupils who are really old enough to attend school with advantage. We are glad to see that summer schools are rapidly decreasing in number.

DUTIES OF SCHOOL DIRECTORS.

The Teachers' Union of Seneca county has issued an address to the patrons of the common schools, urging them to take greater interest in their progress. The address states that many of the sub district schools have made no improvement for several years past, and some of them have the reputation of being unmanageable. This state of things is attributed, in part, to the failure of school directors to discharge their official duties. The address quotes the provision of the law making it "the duty of school directors to visit the school or schools of the sub-district at least twice during each term ", etc., and then adds:

The directors are pledged to discharge this duty by their official obligation. Twice during the term one or more of the three directors are compelled, by law, to appear at the school-room to inspect the work of the instructor, to observe progress of the pupils, and encourage the teacher, as the occasion may demand. Is this provision heeded? Perhaps it is in one case out of a hundred. From this it is apparent that the unadvanced condition of our sub-district schools, is all owing to the people themselves; for were they vigilant on the subject, no third-class impostor could long intrude upon the sacred privileges of the school-room.

A SUBSCRIBER sends us an amusing account of the manner in which the schools in her township are managed. She describes the building of two schoolhouses which, in external form and internal arrangement, are innocent of infringing upon anything invented or planned since the flood. An effort was made to secure the adoption of improved desks, but the township board had a meeting over the subject, and concluded that a home-made article would be a little cheaper. A carpenter was employed who made twice as many desks as were needed, and each desk long enough to seat three pupils. The entire top is so slanting that inkstands and books have to be propped up to keep them from sliding off! The money paid for these unsightly things would have furnished the rooms with Rankin's Improved Desk. She votes for a county super

intendent.

ALL new laws relating to the duties of township boards, which may be passed before March 20th, will be published in our April number.

Editorial Department.

WHEN the late English report on the School System of the United States first appeared, we published a three-page extract on the "Character and Position of American Teachers", and expressed the intention of preparing an epitome of the important document for our readers. As we have not been able to spare the time necessary to accomplish this task, Mr. Suliot has kindly come to our relief, having furnished us with copious extracts, selected with great care and good judgment, and embodying Mr. Fraser's views on the more vital topics connected with American schools. From this mine of valuable material we have made the selections found in this number. We feel sure that they will be read with interest, and certainly that teacher is to be pitied, whatever may be his experience or position, who can read them without personal profit. They are the keen and discriminating judgments of an intelligent and friendly observer, and the defects and tendencies in our schools, pointed out, should receive careful consideration. Indeed, the most thoughtful educators of the country have long been aware of their existence, and have been striving to correct them.Next month we shall present extracts embodying Mr. Fraser's observations and views on religion in the American Common School. The fact that he is an earnest advocate of the denominational system of England, gives increased weight to his strong testimony in favor of the non-sectarian system of the United States.

ALL of the older educational journals of the country are published in magazine form, and, the Penna. School Journal excepted, with a single-column page. Several, started in newspaper form, have abandoned it after due trial. The Schoolmaster of Illinois and the Teachers' Advocate of Pennsylvania are recent instances of this change, the former entering upon its third volume, and the latter upon its fourth, as neat magazines. These facts seem to indicate a preference on the part of teachers for the magazine form, and this is due, in part, to a desire to preserve professional articles of permanent value in a shape convenient for reference. Yet several of the newer journals have started as papers. Among these is the Educational Gazette of Philadelphia and the Journal of Education of New York, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana, respectively. The Gazette is a folio of twelve pages, and the four other papers are neat quartos of sixteen to twenty pages. Their experience will afford additional testimony on this subject. A paper can be published at less cost than a magazine, and when profits approach and even go below zero, this is an important advantage. Subscribers sometime complain of the number of advertisements in school magazines, forgetting that extra forms contain the advertisements, and that the amount of space devoted to other matter not encroached upon, as in the case of a paper.

THE Superior Court of Cincinnati decided Feb. 15th, that the resolutions of the School Board prohibiting religious instruction and the reading of the Bible in the common schools, are unconstitututional and void, and the temporary injunction restraining the Board from carrying these resolutions into effect, is made perpetual. Judge Hagan and Judge Storer concurred in this decision, and Jud,e Taft dissented. We have not space this month to give even an abstract of the opinion of the Court, and, besides, we prefer to wait for the revised copy. Suffice it to say, that we are surprised at the strength of the argument on which the decision is based, since the question decided was the power of the board of education to prohibit religious instruction—an extreme form of the great question in controversy. Had the question involved the constitutionality of the old rule of the Board requiring the reading of the Bible in the schools, the provisions of the Constitution and Bill of Rights would have been clearly applicable. The decision goes to the root of the whole matter. It secures the teacher in the right to read the Bible in his school. We think this decision will wake up some people to the fact that the founders of our good commonwealth did not shut God and religion out of it.

-THE article on the organization and classification of country schools, to which we alluded last month, is found in this number. The writer is Mr. A. P. Stone, resident editor of the Maine Journal of Education, and a teacher of large experience. He asserts so positively that he knows such classification to be practicable, that we hesitate to express the doubt in our own mind respecting the feasibility of carrying the reduction in the number of classes quite as far as he recommends. Instead of three classes in reading above the alphabet, we should suggest three classes above the first reader. When the disadvantages arising from inequality of attainments equal the advantages resulting from a longer recitation, the practical limit in classification is reached. But we commend the article to the careful perusal of all teachers of ungraded schools. It urges a reform in their management greatly needed. We once attended a school of eleven pupils with sixteen classes, and we formed four of these classes. We mention this Ohio school as an offset to the Maine school with thirty-four pupils and thirty-two classes.

GEN. JOHN EATON, of Tennessee, has been appointed National Commissioner of Education vice Dr. Barnard removed. We learn that this change was made to save the bureau, and that its friends in Congress are now quite confident that its discontinuance will be prevented. We sincerely hope that the future administration of the bureau may commend it to the confidence of Congress and the country, and that it may yet realize the expectations of its originators and friends. Gen. Eaton's experience in the schools of Ohio, and more recently at the head of the school system of Tennessee, has given him practical views of the educational needs of the country, and we believe that he will give the work of the bureau a more practical direction. Dr. Barnard's mistake was in attempting four-fold too much and in giving undue prominence to matters of little practical interest or immediate national concern. No edu

cator in this country has a wider knowledge of the historical development and progress of education throughout the world, but he lacked those practical administrative abilities essential to success in such a position. While the truth compels us to say this, we bear cheerful testimony to his untiring zeal and devotion and his self-sacrificing labors. No American has given as much of time and means to impress upon his countrymen the transcendent importance of education and make them familiar with educational systems.

LAST month we chronicled the fact that the regents of Michigan University had opened that institution to women, and we are now able to announce that one woman, Miss M. L. Stockwell, of Kalamazoo, has passed the required examinations, and has been admitted to the University classes. She recites in mathematics with the freshmen and in the classics with the sophomores. She is reported to be an excellent scholar in all her studies. She will soon be joined by other women who will find as little difficulty in meeting the requirements of the University. We do not, however, anticipate that many women will avail themselves of the opportunity thus offered to acquire a liberal education. The experiment both at Oberlin and at Antioch shows that comparatively few girls care to take the regular college course. We recently saw the statement in the College Courant that the number of Ohio girls at Vassar Female College, N. Y., exceeds the number in the college classes of both Oberlin and Antioch.

THE Hamilton County Teachers' Association has issued a circular letter to the friends of education throughout the State, requesting them to unite in petitioning the Legislature to enact a law providing for county school superintendence. The letter sets forth concisely, and yet strongly, the need of this measure for the improvement of the ungraded schools of the rural districts. It is urged that supervision would tend to give unity to the workings of the schools; that it would introduce better methods of instruction and management; that it would arouse a greater and more general interest in the schools; and that it would stimulate teachers to a more thorough performance of their work. Petitions have been extensively circulated in Hamilton county and many leading citizens have signed them. This important work should be done in every county in the State.

COUNTY SCHOOL SUPERVISION.

Judge Bartram, of Marion, has introduced into the Senate a bill creating the office of county superintendent of common schools. With the exception of a few verbal changes, it is the bill which was introduced at the last session. It is much shorter than the bill defeated in the House in 1867, which provided for the election of a school clerk in each township, and thus amended many sections of the school law, making the bill of objectionable length. We pointed