relating to the subject, and all, without exception, | time the extent to which the trustees exercise were imperfect. their authority in making exen.ptions, and will, it is believed, materially aid in forming plans for a more effectual remedy of the evils and inconveniences it has hitherto been the policy of the state to overcome by the extension of its admirable system of public instruction. Among other obstacles to be encountered and successfully disposed of, is the reluctance of many parents to participate in the benefits now afforded, owing to the manner in which this bounty, as they call it, is bestowed. They say they will not send their children to the schools to be reproached for their poverty and assailed with taunts that they are educated at the expense of their more fortunate neighbors. The report from the county of Westchester, comprises twelve of the twenty-two towns in the county, and gives the whole number of children exempted at five hundred and forty-five, and the amount paid on exemptions at $1,113 04, averaging $2.04 for each exempted scholar. The whole number of children between five and sixteen in the same towns, as appears from the census returns, is 5,283, so that about one in ten of all such children was exempted from the payment of teachers' wages. In the town of Fishkill, Dutchess county, the whole number exempted was 740; amount paid, $830; average for each scholar, $1.12; whole number of children between five and sixteen years of age reported, is 2,688; the exempted scholars in this town are as two to seven of the whole number. Those who entertain and express feelings of this sort and would deny their offspring the greatest boon in the power of a parent to bestow, no In the town of Amenia, same county, the ex-doubt reason from false premises and allow them. empted children are one in twenty of the whole selves to be influenced by motives as unkind tonumber between the above ages, and the average wards the great mass of our fellow citizens, as amount paid for the exemptions is only eighty- cruel towards their own children. two cents. It appears from the returns received from Orange county that the whole number of children exempted in Newburgh was 358; amount paid $915.59; average for each $2.56; and the proportion of exempted children to the whole number over five and under sixteen, in the same town, is as two to eleven nearly. IV. OF OTHER MATTERS RELATING TO THE OF- In accordance with the directions contained in the second section of title second of chapter fif. The county superintendents generally concur teen of the first part of the Revised Statutes, it in opinion that the foregoing provisions are not becomes the duty of the superintendent, during regarded to any extent by the trustees, and that the present year, to make an apportionment of certificates of exemption are seldom filed with the school moneys annually to be distributed, the school district clerks even when indigent pa- amongst the several counties of the state, and rents are exempted from the payment of teach- the share of each county, amongst its respective ers' wages; while some of these officers remark towns and cities; and this apportionment must that this inquiry for highly interesting informa- be made among the several towns and cities of tion to be submitted to the legislature was con- the state, according to the ratio of their popula. sidered by the school district officers as inquisition respectively, as compared with the populatorial and obnoxious. We must have arrived tion of the whole state according to the last cenat a very sublimated state of feeling in respect sus. The ratio of distribution will not be chanto private right and public duty, when any in- ged until the first day of February, one thousand quiry after facts which are or should be a mat- eight hundred and forty-seven, and the moneys ter of public record and open to public inspec- to be levied and collected by the boards of supertion, shall be regarded as in the least offensive, visors in the several towns in the state, that or in any way objectionable. year, for school purposes, will correspond in a. What proportion of the whole number of chil-mount with the sums so to be apportioned. dren in the state are excluded from all partici. pation in the benefits of our common schools on account of the poverty of their parents or their own destitution, cannot now be ascertained, and probably never will, however important these facts may be. The superintendent believes that the number in the whole state, embracing our large cities, populous villages and manufacturing towns, whose destitution entitles them to be placed upon the list of free scholars according to the provisions of the existing laws, is much larger than has been generally supposed by accurate observers, and the lowest probable estimate we can make of that number is over forty-six thousand. The superintendent will hereafter require of the trustees of school districts to state in their annual reports the whole number of exemptions certified by them during the year, "in part or wholly," of indigent persons within their districts, and the who'e amount of such exemptions charged upon the district during the same year. This information will enable the department to communicate to the legislature from time to Since the sixth day of February last, forty-five appeals have been brought from the decision and adjudication of the county superintendents, to the superintendent for revision, in eleven of which the determinations of the county superin. tendents were reversed, and in the remaining thirty-four the decisions were affirmed. To what extent these officers are called upon to exercise the appellate power given by statute is not known, except in the instances where the number is stated in their special reports, in some of which as many as thirty appeals are stated to have been examined and decided by a county superintendent. It is not believed that one in ten of the decisions of the county superintendents is brought before the state superintendent for review. Many controversies in school districts are compromised or arranged to the mutual satisfaction of the parties and thereby neighborhood contentions are allayed. In other cases the proceedings appealed from are modified by a competent officer whose personal examinations enable him to adjust all difficulties, after hearing the respective parties, and ascertaining what arrangements would be the most satisfactory to the people of the district and put at rest all controversies. These are some of the practical re. sults of the present organization, and they are known to have contributed largely to the quiet and prosperity of the districts, and saved parties appealing and answering much trouble and expense in pr paring their papers for a hearing be fore the superintendent. "Teachers' institutes" and "teachers' drills" have been held during the past year in nearly thirty counties in the state, and were attended by more than three thousand school teachers, for periods varying from two to four and eight weeks of continued session. These voluntary associations are rapidly spreading over our en tire state, and are destined soon to occupy much of the public attention. An ardent desire for improvement is seated in the minds of professional teachers; the "schoolmaster is abroad" in search after that educational knowledge which will qualify him to discharge the important duties of his profession, and elevate him and his vocation in public esteem. niences to be overcome or removed, and the extent to which the welfare of the state may be involved by permitting their continuance. diate supervision of this very interesting subject, renders it unnecessary for the superintendent to extend his remarks in regard to it. The act of 1844, establishing a "normal school for the instruction and practice of teachers of common schools, in the science of education and in the art of teaching," has committed the general supervision, "management and government" of that institution to the regents of the university and superintendent of common schools, who, by the exercise of concurrent authority, appoint an executive committee of five persons, of which the superintendent must be one, and the immediate care, management and government of the school is vested in this committee, and they are required to observe such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the superintendent and regents of the university for the government and management of the school. The superintendent and regents must report to the legislature annually, giving a “full account of their proceedings, and the expenditures of money under" the act, "with a detailed report of the executive committee of the proThe principal of the state normal school, and gress, condition and prospects of the school." the professor of mathematics, attended a number The report which must be submitted from the of these county" institutes” during the last au.officers and departments charged with the immetumn, and several of its graduates and pupils were called upon to preside over their proceed. ings and conduct the courses of instruction pur. sued in them; the pertinent and instractive lectures of the former, and the eminently success. ful efforts of the latter, have been duly appreciated by the members of the institutes where these services were performed, and that appreciation has been manifested in the most decided terms of approval. It may not be out of place to re. mark, here, that the expenses of these associations are paid by the teachers themselves, which is somewhat burthensome to those who are females, and to others possessing limited means of support. In answer to a suggestion that some pecuniary aid and encouragement should be granted to the members attending these "institutes," by the legislature, it has been remarked It is an institution of THE STATE; all the powthat these teachers are only fitting themselves ers, however, essential to its successful operato pursue a profession for mere private gain or tion are exercised by the school district electors personal advantage, and why should this parti- on whom it mainly acts, and by the local town cular class, more than any other, be selected as and district officers elected by the people, but the recipients of legislative bounty and favor? the authority to supervise, inspect and visit, exBut does this objection present a full and fair tends no further than is necessary to produce a statement of all the facts bearing upon this sub-uniform and harmonious action in the different ject? Our laws require that a school shall be counties, towns and districts, and to ensure a taught in a district at least four months in a faithful execution of the law, and preserve the year by a licensed teacher to entitle such funds appropriated from misapplication and district to a participation in the public moneys waste; and in this every parent and every taxdevoted to the maintenance of the schools; re-payer, whether a patron of the schools or not, cognizing no act of this kind as legal where the has a common as well as an individual interest instructor does not possess, in form, the evi- to be protected. dence of full qualification; and hence it becomes Although it may well be conceded that the a matter of the highest import to the state, and whole expense for tuition should not be defrayevery member of the community, that these qua-ed from the public treasury of the state, still we lifications should, "in respect to moral charac. ter, learning, and ability," and aptness to teach, be possessed by every instructor of youth. The successful progress and practical results that have hitherto marked the steady advance of our common school system, present to the mind of the philanthropic statesman, the patriotic citizen, and the moralist, a theme for profound reflection on the prospects of the future, and of grateful recollections of the past thirty years. During this time, amidst all the asperities that have marked the conflicts of mind with mind on other topics, civil and social, the revolutions of political parties, and a material change in the fundamental law of the state, this great and invaluable institution has stood like an ocean rock unharmed and unmoved. are left to the inquiry, what should be the extent of the contribution, and what proportion shall it bear to the whole charge in the aggreThe general inquiry is more as to the amount gate, or what shall be the average ratio per of the teachers' wages than in regard to fitness, scholar? The amount annually apportioned is and competition seems rather to cheapen the re- stationary, has been since the year 1839, and wards of this employment than to encourage an will continue the same until the annual income emulation to excel among the teachers. Whether shall exceed the sum now distributed, at least these considerations should justify any pecunia- ten thousand dollars, and this can only be effectry relief, and to what extent, must depend upon ed by transferring the surplus interest, if any, the view taken of the magnitude of the inconve. to the capital, and thus increase it; or by other means provided by the legislature. From 1839 to 1845 the number of children over five and under sixteen years of age had increased 125,124, giving an average of 20,854 for each of the six years. The increase from 1845 to 1850 may, it is believed, be safely estimated at 110,000-or at an average of 22,000 for each year. Thus showing in round numbers upwards of 800,000 children in the state between five and sixteen years of age within four years from this period. Meanwhile our annual distribution remains the same. The apportionment of money from the school and U. S. deposit funds in 1839, averaged forty-eight and a half cents to each child of the above description; in 1845, nearly forty cents; and upon the foregoing estimate the ave. rage will not much exeeed thirty-four cents four years from this time. secure every attainable advantage which legislative authority could well accomplish. The power conferred upon the inhabitants of the towns to impose a tax, to a limited amount, for the support of schools, is not exerted, save in a very few instances, and the sums raised are in the aggregate quite small. The non-exercise of this authority shows that the electors of the towns are not inclined to exert the taxing power, even where they might, and when it is obviously the interest of many of them to do so. Free schools have been established in many of our cities by local laws, applicable only to them, and why may not large and wealthy districts in our populous villages be placed on the same footing? Here are found the largest number of persons who should be exempted, from their inability to pay the rate-bill for teachers' The money contributed by the state, or by wages, and here are congregated hundreds of means of its direct agency, should be enough, at children exposed to the contaminating influen all times, to excite attention to it, and produce ces of grog-shop idleness, and other vicious asa desire on the part of the school district inhab. sociations. A corrective may be found in the itants to participate in its distribution, if we de- occupations of the school room, now closed sire to sustain the present or any other state in- against many of them, and it is believed that a stitution for public instruction. In small remote law, guarded in its provisions, vesting in the districts, it sometimes happens, even now, that taxable inhabitants of school districts which the amount apportioned is too inconsiderable to contain a certain number of children between make it an object to organize a school and con- the required ages, and a fixed amount in valuatinue it the time required, as the people of the tion of real and personal estate, to be ascertaindistricts are either unable or not willing to pay ed from the last assessment roll of the town, the the additional expenses of the school to secure power to raise money by tax, to be applied to the small amount apportioned for their benefit, the payment of teachers' wages, would be acand the dispensing power vested in the superin- ceptable, and carried into effect in a very consitendent is not unfrequently appealed to in such derable number of districts. There are about cases. The multiplication of joint districts, and fifty-six thousand town and school district offiespecially those comprising territory of contigu-cers directly employed in executing the school ous counties, prdouces considerable inconve-laws, and of course entertaining and expressing nience and inequality in the assessments for school district charges in building and repairin; school houses, the expenses for fire wood, &c. Constant and unremitting efforts have been made to discourage the formation of small and ineffec. tive districts, but these efforts will not be successful in the thinly populated districts of country where distance, bad roads, and inclement weather form serious obstacles to attendance at the schools. various opinions in respect to the different pro- COMMUNICATION. [For the District School Journal.] MR. RANDALL-In the last No. of the Journal appeared an article signed "J. R.", on the present superintendent system, which, in the main, so well accords with my views on the subject, that I cannot forbear expressing my hearty approval. And there has been so much misappre hension of the views and feelings of the members of the state convention of teachers, held at Syracuse, last summer, that I cannot refrain from making an effort to correct the prevailing senti. ment, in that respect. Especially am I anxious to do so, in view of the fact that a mighty effort is being made in the legislature, at this very time, for the overthrow of that system. I trust in God it will not succeed, for none can deny that immense benefits have already accrued It would have required an annual increase of nearly ten thousand dollars, to be added to the apportionment to maintain the average rate appropriated in 1839, and if the estimated yearly surplus of the U. S. deposit fund, $50,000, had been carried to the capital of the school fund and invested at 5 per cent interest, the annual income of the instalments of capital thus accumulated would have been one-fourth of the required sum. The condition of this fund, and the permanent augmentation of it, so as to ensure a gradual and certain increase of the apportionments commensurate with the increase of population and the public necessities, are subjects of vast importance to the state, and it is hoped will soon attract the earnest attention of the legislature and the people. The entire support of the schools by direct appropriations from the public treasury is not now practicable, nor is it supposed to be desirable. But the state will have discharged its duty when means suffi. ciently ample are provided to sustain our educational institutions without rendering individual contributions either burthensome or vexatious; and the ratio of fifty cents to each child between from that system, wherever it has been faithful. five and sixteen years of age would probably ly carried out. the following, which were unanimously adopt Resolved, That while the members of this Association bow in humble submission to the afflictive dispensation of divine providence, they deeply deplore the loss of this distinguished friend of popular education, feeling as we do that we have lost a kind and faithful friend and counsellor. Resolved, That we sympathize with the fami ment, assuring them that our prayers for them shorn lamb" will in their case be a father to the shall be, that He who "tempers the wind to the Resolved. That the proceedings of this meeting be published in the papers of this county, the District School Journal and Teachers' Advo It is not true that the author of the report on superintendents adopted at that convention, is now, ever was, or probably ever will be, oppos ed, either openly or covertly, to our present common school system, in any particular. Nor is it true that the secret object of that report was to attack that system, or bring contempt upon it in any degree. I fully believe that the great body of teachers in this state will agree with me in saying, that much, very much good has already been derived from the system of superintendents -and further, that great, very great injury would be done by its abolition. It must be ap. parent to all, that an efficient, enlightened su-ly of the deceased in this their great bereave. pervision is not only necessary, but absolutely indispensible. And we sincerely hope that all attempts to abolish the office of county superin-fatherless, and the widow's God and friend. tendent will utterly fail, until it is well ascertain. ed that some new system will accomplish more. It cannot be denied that the Syracuse conven tion took strong and decided ground as to the character and qualifications of superintendents; and facts were at that time in possession of the writer (and more have come to hand since) that warranted us in saying all that we did say. Buf it wo.ld be as unjust to array the members o that convention in unqualified hostility to super intendents, because abuses were pointed out, as it would be to consider Dr. Wright and the mem. bers of the superintendents' convention general. ly, as opposed, or unfriendly to teachers, merely because they prepared a stringent report on their character and qualifications. The fact is, a little watching on both sides will do no harm, provided always, that it be done in a proper spirit. If any thing has been done through my instrumentality to create any jealousy between su. perintendents and teachers, I sincerely regret it; yet if both parties are what they should be, it will be done away as soon asboth come to a mutual understanding on the subiect. Truth, frank. ly and kindly spoken, can never do harm; and as we are all aiming at the same object, let each fire in his own peculiar way, Ignorance and Vice being the targets, and an approving conscience and the satisfaction of benefitting our race, the prize. Albany, Jan. 21, 1846. T. W. V. THE LATE FRANCIS DWIGHT, ESQ. A special meeting of the Tioga County Com mon School Association was held in the village of Owego on the 3d instant. The object of the meeting having been stated, Messrs. Charles R. Coburn, Stedman, and A. Coburn, on the part of the males, and Miss C. D. Hill, and Miss F. L. Payson on the part of the females, were appointed a committee to present resolutions expressing the feelings of the Association. They reported From the Cherry Valley Gazette. I have read with sensations the most painful sudden and unexpected death of this distinguishthe announcement in the Albany papers, of the ed friend and able advocate of popular education. He died at his late residence at Clinton Park, on the 15th inst. ers' Association, and several other highly resThe Common School Association, the Teach pectable bodies in the city of Albany, at meetings called for that purpose, have borne testimo ny to his merits, and made public manifestations of grief for his untimely death. Why these badges of mourning? Why is a city and the New-York Public enveloped in the gloom of grief? Mr. DWIGHT was neither a ronage, nor a Warrior crowned with the laurels of Statesman who had dispensed government pat victory; but he was the most modest, unassuming, unpretending man, (although, true it is, he was a man of great literary attainments, and possessed talents of a high order,) that I ever knew.What then has caused these general lamenta tions for his death? It is because his ardent benevolence, his love for the human race, and his in the absence of all motives growing out of pezeal for the preservation of our civil institutions, cuniary interest, impelled him to engage in the cause of COMMON SCHOOLS, with the ardor and perseverance of a Missionary of the Cross, and with the indomitable firmness of the Patriot and the Soldier. In this holy cause he knew no sect in religion or party in politics. If he had to encounter opposition, and even this benevolent and kind-hearted man was sometimes opposed, he met it in grief, but never in anger. It is greatly to be feared that the rising generation will have cause deeply to lament this inscrutable dispensation of Divine Providence.His gentle spirit, I trust, now reposes in peace, where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.” w. DISTRICT SCHOOL JOURNAL, VOL. VI. OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK. TERMS. ALBANY, MARCH, 1846. For one copy, in all cases, (per annum,)........50 cts. one hundred copies, each,. Such of the ToWN SUPERINTENDENTS as will forward us the names of one or more subscribers, together with the amount of subscription, shall receive a copy of the Journal gratuitously. The law provides only for suuplying the several school districts. No. 12 TO THE FRIENDS AND PATRONS OF The superintendent of common schools having directed the subscription on the part of the state to be continued to the Journal for the ensuing year, to an amount sufficient to supply one copy for each organized school district, the undersigned, with the approbation and assent of the department, will assume the editorial manage. ment of its columns during this period-relying will confer a favor upon us by forwarding, as for such compensation as his services may be early as may be practicable, after the town meet-deemed to deserve, wholly upon the subscription ings, the names and post office addresses of the list with which he may be favored, independentTOWN SUPERINTENDENTS of their counties, res-ly of the state appropriation. Intending faith pectively. The several COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS fully to devote his best abilities to the dissemi STATE CONVENTION OF COUNTY SUPER-nation, through this channel, of sound and prac INTENDENTS. tical views of common school education, and to Communications have been received from the elevation and progressive improvement of 35 of the 65 County Superintendents, in answer our elementary institutions of public instruction," to the request contained in the December number of the Journal in reference to the place of holding he confidently appeals to the several county and the next State convention of those officers. Two town superintendents, trustees and other officers only of the Superintendents heard from, Mr. O. of school districts, teachers, and the friends of W. RANDALL, of Oswego, and Mr. McCORD, of Dutchess, are in favor of retaining Poughkeepsie, Popular education generally, for the renewal and as designated by the last convention: the residue, extension of that patronage which has heretoconstituting a majority of the whole number of fore been bestowed upon the Journal, while unCounty Superintendents, being in favor of holding the convention in this city. As one of the inder the control of its late eminently gifted and ducements to the proposed change, the facilities deeply lamented editor. While he cannot hope which would thereby be afforded to the members to equal, much less to surpass, the zeal, ability, to visit the Normal School, and witness its opera- and devotion which characterized this distintions, have been strongly pressed: it is proper therefore to state, that the spring vacation of this guished champion of our common school system, institution will extend from the middle of March in this his favorite field of labor, he ventures the to the fourth or fifth of May and it is respect-assurance that no pains shall be spared, and no fully submitted to the several County Superinten. dents, whether, for this and other reasons, it industry be wanting in the endeavor to sustain might not be advisable to change the time of the high reputation which the Journal has alholding the convention, from the third Tuesday ready attained-to make it the faithful exponent of April, to the second Tuesday (11th day) of of the enlightened spirit of the age in reference May. The Normal School will then be in full operation, the facilities for travelling will doubt to the great interests of elementary public inless be much improved; and it is believed the struction-to render it a welcome and instructive convenience generally of the superintendents will guest at the family fireside, and on the teachers' be best promoted by this alteration. We hope to hear from these officers on this point in season to table; and to enhance its utility as the direct or. enable us to publish the notice for the Convention gan of communication between the department fully and officially in our next number. and the various officers connected with the local |