The powers and duties of Town Superintendents should be, I believe, either increased and more definitely defined, or else taken away entirely. So far as regards the Schools, this is but little more than a nominal office. The Superintendent's legal power is almost wholly confined, (practically) to the granting of certificates, and the distribution of the public money. The power of advising is given to him indeed, just as it is to others, but his advice is not legally binding, any more than that of any one else. Even with regard to certificates, his power is very limited; for if the Principal of a school is a legally "qualified" teacher, his assistants may or may not be, as they choose, and the Superintendent has no power to make it otherwise, provided, the Board is willing to engage them, for the legal requisition that the school be taught by a "qualified" teacher, is met, and the public money cannot be withheld. He has no power whatever to secure a uniformity of textbooks, although this is especially desirable in a city or large village, so that whether one particular series or another shall be adopted, depends very much upon the persuasive powers of the different book-agents, and upon how much the district Boards, who as a general thing do not even pretend to understand the comparative merits of the various series presented, are governed by price and typographical appearance.

I am decidedly in favor of the appointment of County or District Superintendents; as this, I believe, would do more to increase the efficiency of our present school system, than almost anything else.

A multiplicity of duties forbids my lengthening this report by mentioning other changes in our school laws. Doubtless many suggestions have been made by others, which with your own knowledge of our educational wants will enable you to propose those changes in our school system, that will promote the interests of education; and these are generally desired.

JAMES W. STRONG, City Superintendent. WATERTOWN.

Previons to April last our schools had been under the district system. Since that time we have been organizing under a special Union School Law, passed last winter, for this city. The organization of our schools under this system is of course not yet complete; but we are progressing, and are confident of ultimate success in raising the standard of instruction in this city. Owing to the want of suitable buildings our progress is slow and we are unable to give that completeness to our system that is desirable. Yet we think the cause of education in our midst is advancing. Our schools have largely increased in numbers and efficiency.

The interest in the minds of parents is on the increase, as is manifest from the support of public opinion given to nearly every measure adopted by our Board of Education for the benefit of the schools; also, by the frequent inquiries as to the condition of the schools, by the desire to have good schools frequently expressed by many citizens, and by the fault that is found if things do not go well in the schools, whereas formerly it was all the same whether they were good or bad. Many scholars are also taken from the private and put into the public schools, and already two private schools have been given up in consequence of the increased utility of the the public schools.

The standard for qualification of teachers is, for our female teachers, a thorough knowledge of Orthography, Reading, Grammar, Arithmetic, a good general knowledge of Geography, physical, political and mathematical, and a thorongh knowledge of the geography of our country: for our principal teacher, capability to teach any of the branches necessary to fit a young man for college.

The branches at present taught in our public schools are, Orthography, Reading, Grammar, Geography, Arithmetic, Algebra, Philosophy and Latin. We are introducing other branches as occasion requires.

Our chief obstacle to educational prosperity, at present, is the want of appropri ate buildings and sufficient room to accomodate the schools, which are crowded to overflowing, and many children are turned away for want of room. Another obsta

cle has been the difficulty of procuring thoroughly qualified teachers; but this has been to some extent overcome by the advance of wages about 50 per cent., upon previous rates in this place and the importation of some excellent teachers.

We have experienced some trouble from the intrusion of boys and others upon the school grounds, for the purposes of play or disturbance of the school by noise outside the buildings; we are remedying this, however, by city ordinances, but some general law might be beneficial.

We have a uniformity of text books, for the most part. The books mostly used

Pictorial Primmer.

Series of Keaders.

Elocutionary Chart.

Thompsons Series of Arithmetics.

Cornell's Geography.

No uniformity on Grammar. We use Ricord's, Clark's and Pinneo's.

Parker's Philosophy.

Brookfield's Composition.

Davies' Algebra.

Coe's Drawing Cards.

Cutters' Physiology.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

C. B. SKINNER, City Superintendent.

APPENDIX.

THE CHARACTER AND QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS.

The following extract from a Report of the School Committee of Westborough, Mass., embodies so much practical good sense that we give it a place here, and hope it will be read and remembered:

"A teacher should understand something of the minds and characters of children. Mental philosophy, it is true, is not a distinct branch to be taught in the schools, but it is the basis of all judicious and successful teaching in all the branches. It is a matter of fact that many teachers instruct as if the minds of their pupils, especially the younger portion of them, were made of the single faculty of memory. The words of a rule in Arithmetic are to be committed to memory; while the judgment and reason, which should discern its meaning and relations, is left to sleep. And when the task is completed, it is parroted over to the teacher. They have no skill in awaking and calling into action the reasoning powers, or the better moral feelings of their pupils. They know too little of the human mind to lead it to apprehend the principles of the various branches of study; and, consequently, when difficulties occur to the pupils, their only resource is to lift him over thein. They help the pupil through, or over, an example under a given rule, leaving the principle which that rule involves, unexplained, and the difficulties, of course, unremoved. One would almost imagine they were aiming to do, with their pupils, as the angel did with Habbakkuk, when he took him by the hair of his head, and transported him, in an instant, from Judea to Babylon. But, when the astonished pupil is thus transported, though it be from Addition to Cube Root, or from Etymology to the last line of the immortal Essay on Man,' he knows little of the process, by which he might reach these points again, without some angel's help. A little knowledge of the human mind, as well as of the science taught, on the part of the teacher, would lead to a very different and more happy result.

"A little knowledge of human nature is essential to the education of the morals, and to the deportment of the pupils. For the want of it, many a child has had his spirit chafed, his temper soured, and injury done to his disposition, which no knowledge acquired could compensate or atone for. It is one thing to govern a scholar, and quite another thing to lead that scholar to govern himself. It is one thing to subdue a child to right action by the rule, and another thing, by a little address, to lead him to choose that right action. The former educates his bad passions, making him impatient and malicious; the latter educates his better feelings in all that is lovely and of good report. The latter alone is education, in its only appropriate sense.

"A teacher should possess also a high tone of moral sensibility. Your Committee cannot so well express their meaning by any other phrase as this. They do not mean that he to whom you commit the education of your child should not be profane, or intemperate, or licentious. It is not enough that he be reputed moral, and be moral in his general deportment. He should be a person of spotless mind, with a tone of moral sensibility which would blush at the thought of an impure or indelicate allusion. A single expression, which savors of indelicacy, from the lips of one entrusted with this high charge, may sap the foundation of all those principles of morality and virtue, which, with fondest anxiety, you have nurtured as the ornament and the hope of your child. Next to the parent, the teacher has or ought to

have, the confidence of the child; for he is, for the time being, in loco parentis.— What comes from his lips, therefore, they may repeat, and every allusion he may utter. their imaginations may follow out. As you would not, thus, for an egg give them a scorpion, nor for a fish a serpent, give them not for wholesome instruction the seeds of impurity and death. Let the man or the woman to whom shall be entrusted the education of your children in the school-room be pure above suspicion, above the thought of indelicacy."

The Committee of the town of Methuen, offer the following views:

Touching the government of schools, your Committee feel some delicacy about speaking. They believe teachers fail more here than in any other one point. Good order in school they approve as highly as any other person can, but they cannot approve of the means that are used to secure that order. They have noticed that

in those schools where the best order obtained, the mildest and kindest means were in use. The teacher respected his scholars, and made them respect themselves. And so far as they have been able to learn lessons of wisdom from experience, they have generally found that harsh and tyrannical measures were calculated to prevent rather than secure obedience. On the other hand, those measures which are conciliatory in their character, and which are calculated to win the affections, operate to lead scholars in the way of obedience; to mould their hearts to love, from which obedience naturally flows.

But before teachers can govern their schools in this way, they must have learned to govern themselves-they must possess a thorough knowledge of themselves and their own powers-they must not be mere striplings, that have leaped into the preceptor's chair for the sake of the honor it confers; but men of moral, intellectual and physical culture, who will reflect honor upon the station they hold; such men will not only be able to govern their scholars, but instruct them. They will be able to adapt their instructions to the capacity of the learners, and to make them understand what they seem to know. Instead thereof, we frequently have now those who engage in the business of teaching for the same reason that others do in peddling, solely for the sake of the money. They have no love for the employment, no sympathy for their scholars, no concentration of their minds upon the business."

FEMALE TEACHERS.

Extract from the report of the City Superintendent of New York:

"In this responsible sphere of usefulness woman claims, and with propriety holds, a prominent position. There is something in the employment of the teacher which makes it a drudgery in the eyes of many young men. Their temperament, their mental constitution, and their moral impress are not of that order which fit them to endure the disciplinarian perplexities of the school-room. Points of weakness in the character of teachers are quickly detected by the pupils, and they are as quickly exhibited by the instructor, unless he be on a watchful guard of his every word and act. This self-control is of course a sign of strength, and he who maintains his position when surrounded by the frequent temptations of the school-room, has achieved his triumph. But all men are not so constituted, and though well qualified as regards their literary attainments, they are apt to become wearied, disaffected, and repelled from the profession. The female teacher, however, goes into the schoolroom with a natural fitness, both mental and moral, which adapts her to control the tempers and the affections of the young. The levity and rudeness which would delight in a school-boy triumph over the master, is disarmed and subdued by the presence of the female teacher, while the gentleness and quietness of the other sex, wins the homage of kind and respectful deportment and attention.

It is in this sphere, where the power of the domestic affections calls so earnestly upon the sympathies of both teachers and taught, that the female is so well adapted to labor, and to distribute her influence. In the school-room, distilling the gentlest and most valuable influences over thousands of minds, leaving salutary impressions upon the young hearts of those who are taking their active part in the strife on the

great stage of action offered by Americah citizenship-in answering the inquiries and directing the thoughts of the future arbiters of our destiny,-in inspiring the young hopes and implanting the purposes of nobility, virtue and honor-in such labors thousands of our daughters must sooner or later be employed."

TEACHERS AND PARENTS.

Extract from the Report of the School Committee of Dedham, Mass:

"The assortment of teachers in the land is a curious study generally, and to a School Committee particularly. Some are foamy as the bubbling brook; others, like water, deep and still. Some seem to have eyes before and behind. Some seem to have no eyes, either before or behind. Some have all sorts of knowledge without system. Some, all sorts of systems, without knowledge. Some are facile to glide into a child's mind, like music. Some will storm away at the portal, till all the ideas within are frightened into perfect panic. We have them too quick and too tame; too stern and too plastic. Some vaulting into the saddle of ambition, and some fit only to be saddled. We state this, also, as a general proposition. The remark may not apply to our teachers. They may apply. Whether we employ any such or not, we find specimens of each class every year, seeking employment. Nor do we mean to speak disparagingly of the profession. We honor it. We defend it. We encourage it. And we encourage others to honor it.

"The position of the teacher demands great consideration.

First, he comes to the ordeal of an examination. The Committee are all strangers, and are supposed to be savages, too. They place the poor victim on the rack, and turn the wheel. They ply him with questions as mercilessly as the hail falls on the grain field. They drive him all over the earth in geography. They corner him in all sorts of dilemmas in arithmetic. They jump him in all manner of spelling. They pace him in all manner of reading. At last they sit in awful conclave, to determine what disposal shall be made, if anything remains to be disposed of.

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"Yes, you may have a certificate, and begin to-morrow.' Forty scholars now begin their scrutiny, and speculate on the new master, as those of a larger growth speculate on the character of a new president. The teacher, too, is doing the same with those forty. How many of them are brilliants of the first water? How many silver and gold? How many lead and clay? What proportion crabbed? He organizes his school. A few weeks elapse, and on the gentle winds the gentle murmur floats of some disaffected parent. Bye and bye the tone comes nearer and fuller; and presently, as the blast of a hurricane, clatters at the very portal of his ears. Party lines are formed, one for, the other against; boreas on one side, a tropical sun on the other. Why! the Committee are bound for humanity's sake, to protect him. We endeavor to do so, for his sake, for the sake of the school, for the sake of the neighborhood, and for our own sakes. Sometimes he is hard pressed by forty scholars and eighty fathers and mothers. Shall we leave him alone? It is not our wont to do so. We keep him if we can till the end of the term, because it is better than the breaking up of the school.

"There is another and very cogent reason why we should retain our teachers as long as may be. Where human affections are perpetually interrupted, the heart is imperceptibly acquiring a cold indifference in its social affinities. The young child learns not to love an object liable to be lost at any moment. But let time be allowed, let affection be permitted to entwine around a teacher, and the moral influence is worth very much to the future character of the child. What is there more pleasant thad to meet in latter years of life one who was daily with us in our youth, patient, gentle, and anxious to shape and mould us into intellectual and moral beauty? The faithful teacher once interested in his pupils by long acquaintance, retains that interest to his dying day. These considerations should have great weight, and induce us to sustain liberally and encourage kindly those whose influence may be made to effect so much good. "These thoughts bring us very naturally to the subject of co-operation between parents and teachers. They are not necessarily antagonisms in society. Each has

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