ation of the blanks, sometimes want of judgment in those who filled them; but oftener the obscurity arises from some circumstance which a note could explain.

The meaning of the headings in different reports should be uniform. This is a very important consideration, one which has been little considered, and the one most difficult to secure. To illustrate: In many school reports is found the item, "Cost per pupil." Is this the cost of instruction alone? or is expense of warming, repairing, Janitor's salary, &c., included? Is interest on cost of building and land included? The "Rate per scholar," in the city of Boston, for the year 1857-8, was, without the "Incidentals," $10.36, with them $13.86, a difference of more than one-third of the cost for instruction. Usually there has been nothing in our school reports to tell what was included in the term "cost."

Now, it is obvious that statistics are not worth much when you cannot tell within 25 or 30 per cent, what they

mean.

But, suppose you are informed what the term "cost" includes, the next step presents a new difficulty. The divisor by which you find "cost per pupil" is "number of pupils." But what number? The whole number entitled by law to the privileges of school? or the number enrolled during the year? or the average number belonging to the school? or the average number in actual attendance? Reports have frequetnly left us destitute of any clue to the answer, and the results may differ by more than fifty per cent.

In the last report of the school committee of Boston, the city to which we look for models, we do not find which number is used. In the last and very elaborate report of Baltimore we do not find it stated. The Chicago report for 1858, uses the, "whole number of pupils instructed," which gives the cost per pupil $5.81; but the report of the same city, for the next year, contains some excellent remarks on this subject and recommends that for all such computations the "average number belonging" be used. Using this number, the cost becomes about twice as great. In the report of the St. Louis Schools for 1854, the “average attendance" was used; but since that time, the "average number belonging."

We believe that to be the proper number for all estimates. of expenses, per cent of attendance, number of pupils to a teacher, &c. We find no dissent from this opinion where we have been able to consult. The reasons given by Mr. Wells, in the Chicago Report for 1859, are quite satisfactory.

One question remains. How shall the "average number belonging to the school" be determined? To obtain the "whole number of names enrolled " is easy, so of the "average attendance;" but with this quite otherwise.

What is meant by the expression "average number belonging?" For what causes is a pupil excluded from school? How long is his name retained when he is absent. by truancy? for a visit? for sickness? or if the cause of absence be not known? If a pupil give notice of leaving, is his name at once omitted, or is it retained a certain number of days? Is a pupil excluded for a certain number of tardinesses?

The different answers to these questions from the schools of our country would be almost as numerous as the schools themselves. There is great difference between the practices in the country and in the cities and larger towns; great difference in different grades of schools, High, Grammar and Primary, in the same city. Some schools. retain the pupil's name through the term or quarter; others strike it off as soon as there is evidence that the absence will be permanent. Others omit the name almost at the first absence, and enter it again when the pupil returns. These varieties make some schools report an average attendance of 70 or 80 per cent., while others, whose attendance is no better, report 95 per cent. and upwards. Very frequently, no rule at all is observed. The cities and larger towns usually have penal rules excluding pupils after so many cases of unexcused absence, two cases of tardiness sometimes being counted as one absence. But that which constitutes a good excuse for absence in one place, is not received in another. It would be hardly possible to make the penal rules which, in a considerable degree, determine membership, coincide; for, being established by school committees, they must vary with the variable opinions in respect to discipline which

are held by committees in different localities, and by different committees at different times, in the same locality.

Your committee think this part of the subject demands consideration, and think also that to secure an approach to uniformity is worthy of continued effort.

We would, however, suggest the following modes of determining who are members, as either of them would be better than the present want of method:

1st. That, without the present attempt at uniformity, the school report should always contain an intelligent account of the method by which the "average number belonging" is obtained. The consideration of these different methods will have a tendency, year by year, to produce uniformity. Or

2nd. That the account of membership, for this purpose, be entirely disconnected from the exclusions from school which are of a penal kind; and that whatever the cause of the absence may be, disease alone being excepted, the pupil be considered a member for a certain number of days, say four, after he has ceased to attend, that on the fifth day the name be dropped.

All which is respectfully submitted.

Address

By DR. J. N. McJILTON, of Baltimore, Md.

Gentlemen and Ladies of the National Teachers' Association: The theme of my present discourse has been selected with the view of directing the attention of the teachers, and friends of education of our country, to a subject which has hitherto been too much neglected. It relates to the responsibility of the teacher's office, in preparing his pupils for citizenship in a free republic. It is clearly obvious that such responsibility is imposed upon the office, and ought to be considered by every one that assumes it in any of the states or territories of our Union. The peculiar relations of the citizen to his government as established by the Constitution of the United States, are such as have never before existed. In these relations, each of the governed, is, in some degree, a governor, and so involved with the rest, that any of his acts that relate to the government must have a reflex action upon them all. The peculiarity of such citizenship is strikingly apparent. The necessity of preparation for its exercise is equally so. CHARACTER AND POSITION OF THE NATIONAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION

In the consideration of this subject, the character and position of the National Teachers' Association cannot, with propriety be omitted. In its title the Association assumes to be the representative of the educational interests of our entire country, and ought to, and doubtless will, exercise a controlling influence over those interests. The design of the institution, if I properly understand it, is, not only to encourage the educational enterprize throughout the country, but also to give it tone and character, and to render it effective in the performance of its service. The mission thus assumed by the Association is one of the highest and most momentous concern. It is to develop and regulate the educational resources of the country, and

:

to arouse the people to a sense of its importance. And so essential is this service, that it should be continued until every city and village, and hamlet and school district in the land, shall be excited to action on its behalf.

Nothing can be more plainly apparent than the fact that the American people do not properly estimate the value of their educational intersts and institutions in their intimate relation to their form of government, and the necessity of their sustaining them, in order to secure their own individual prosperity. Even teachers themselves exhibit an apathy and indifference upon this subject, which are indicative of their lack of personal concern in the pursuit of their profession as an agency of national interest, or in any other than an isolated condition. In the choice of, or admission of this isolation, such members of the profession underrate its importance, and as far as the effect of their action is extended, it is detrimental to the great cause which they ought to unite with the brethren in sustaining. To draw out the intelligence, the experience and power that are now obscured, and to concentrate them for action in the service of the nation, is the great work that now lies before the National Teachers' Association. How it shall accomplish that work its future history must declare.

THE FIELD TO BE WORKED BY THE NATIONAL TEACHERS"

ASSOCIATION

The field in which the National Teachers' Association assumes to perform its service, is co-extensive with the states and territories of the North American Union. In its present condition, that field presents an amount of labor scarcely less extensive than its area. As a nation, we have no agency by means of which the slightest encouragement is afforded to the cause of education; and this condition is allowed in view of the fact that our very existence as a people is depending upon our intelligence. Many of the states and territories are not provided with systems of common school instruction, without which the children of the people cannot be educated. There is no provision, by means of which, the labors and experience of school operators in one part of the country, can be rendered available to those who are operating in other