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indulging no apprehensions from the influence of any language or creed among an enlightened people, I desire the education of the entire rising generation in all the elements of knowledge we possess, and in that tongue which is the universal language of our countrymen. To me, the most interesting of all our republican institutions is the common school. I seek not to disturb, in any manner, its peaceful and assiduous exercises, and least of all with contentions about faith or forms. I desire the education of all the children in the commonwealth in morality and virtue, leaving matters of conscience where, according to the principles of civil and religious liberty established by our constitution and laws, they rightfully belong."

In his annual report for the present year, the Superintendent strongly urges the continuance of the departments for the instruction of teachers connected with the academies, and the increase of the number of the institutions required to maintain such departments. "Normal Schools," he observes, "which are so strongly urged by some, must, after all, be essentially like these departments and the academies in which they are established. There must be a board of managers or trustees, teachers, a building, books and apparatus. These are already furnished by the existing academies, and there can be no intrinsic defect in them which should prevent their being made as useful as any normal schools. The change of name will not change the real nature of the institution. The sum of money which would be requisite to purchase ground, erect buildings for one normal school, and fit them for the purpose, would enable at least ten academies to maintain similar schools in buildings already prepared, and under managers already organized. The Superintendent does not mean to under-rate those schools, nor to depreciate the benevolent motives of those who recommend them. He acknowledges, and indeed earnestly urges, the inestimable value and absolute necessity of institutions in which our youth may be prepared for the business of teaching. But he would use the means we already have at hand for the purpose without incurring what seems to him the needless expense of providing others of a similar character. He would respectfully recommend the extension of the public patronage to all the academies in the state, to enable them to establish teachers' departments, and in those counties where there are no academies, the establishment of normal schools. For the latter purpose there might be a provision, authorizing the boards of supervisors in such counties to raise the necessary sums to procure suitable grounds and erect proper buildings; and upon their being completedappropriating from the funds of the state a sufficient sum to employ compe tent teachers." He, however, remarks in conclusion, "One model school or more might be advantageously established in some central part of the state, to which teachers and those intending to become such might repair, to acquire the best methods of conducting our common schools.”

Professor POTTER, of Union College, who, at the request of the department, had visited and personally inspected during the year 1840, several of the teachers' departments connected with the academies, submitted a very able report of the result of his examination closing with the following suggestion: "I would suggest whether some means might not be adopted for training a class of teachers with more especial reference to country common schools, and to primary schools in villages and cities-teachers whose attainments should not extend much beyond the common English branches, but whose minds should be awakened by proper influences-who should be made familiar by practice with the best modes of teaching, and who should come under strong obligations to teach for at least two or three years. In Prussia and France normal schools are supported at the public expense; most of the pupils receive both board and tuition gratuitously; but at the close of the course they give bonds to refund the whole amount received, unless they teach, under the direction of the government, for a certain number of years. That such schools, devoted exclusively to the preparation of teachers, have some advantages over any other method, is sufficiently apparent from the experience of other nations; and it has occurred to me that as a supplementary to our present system, the establishment of one in this state might be eminently useful. If placed under proper auspices, and lo

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cated near the capitol, where it could enjoy the supervision of the Superintendent of Common Schools, and be visited by the members of the legislature, it might contribute in many ways to raise the tone of instruction throughout the state."

The Superintendent renewed his recommendation of such a modification of the common school system, as was suggested in his report of the preceding year. He contrasts the present situation of the schools with their condition in 1815, the number of organized and reporting districts having increased from 2,631 to 10,397; the number of children instructed from 140,706 to 572,995; and the amount paid from the treasury towards defraying the compensation of teachers from $46,398 to $220,000; and after referring to the fact that $275,000 were annually distributed in taxes, and nearly $500,000 on rate-bills, for the support of the schools, observes, "A people who have thus freely expended their money and appropriated their private means for the education of their children, to an amount nearly double the expense of administering the government cannot with any truth or justice, be said to be indifferent to the subject. And when we find thirty thousand trustees of school districts gratuitously rendering their services, and making their returns with order, regularity and promptitude, we ought not to deny their appreciation of the value of the labor in which they engage, nor their merit in performing it. It is no slight proof of the value of a system which is thus administered without compulsion. Its fruits are seen in the education of one-fourth of an entire population, and of nearly every child of a proper age for the primary schools; in the advance of the wages paid to teachers, a clear indication that a higher degree of talent is employed and appreciated; and in the interest almost universally excited among onr fellow-citizens of every class, in the success of the effort. Still, like every other human institution, it is susceptible of constant improvement. This is not to be accomplished by sudden changes which derange the machinery, and which, when effected, will probably be found to require alteration; and least of all by those schemes which are so comprehensive as to be incapable of practical execution. Amendments, when experience has indicated their necessity, may be gradually incorporated in the system, without obstructing it. And the introduction of new elements to aid, invigorate and sustain what we have, and in keeping with it, will be more likely to accomplish their purpose than if they were antagonistic to what is already established."

On the 26th of May, 1841, the legislature, by a nearly unanimous vote, passed the act drawn up by Mr. Spencer, and reported by the literature committees of the two houses, providing for the appointmeut by the board of supervisors of each county, biennially, of a County Superintendent of common schools, charged with the general supervision of the interests of the several schools under his jurisdiction. The various powers, functions and duties of this officer, will hereafter be more particularly adverted to. The number of town inspectors of schools was reduced to two; the qualifications of voters at school district meetings, specifically defined; provisions made for the establishment of schools for the instruction of colored children; a subscription for so many copies of a monthly periodical exclusively devoted to the cause of education, as should supply each district in the state, authorized; and various minor amendments in the details of the system made.

Under this act, County Superintendents were appointed in the various counties of the state; and under full and ample instructions from the Superintendent, entered in the succeeding winter upon the discharge of their official duties. S. S. RANDALL, then a clerk in the department, was appointed by Mr. Spencer, general Deputy Superintendent, in accordance with one of the provisions of the act.

By an ordinance of the Regents of the University, of the 4th of May, 1841, the sum of $300 was directed to be annually apportioned to two academies in each of the Senate districts, for the maintenance of the departments for the education of teachers of common schools; in addition to which seven other academies were provided with similar departments, under the act of 1838, requiring their establishment in every institution receiving a share of the literature

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"Deputy Superintendents properly qualified for the discharge of their functions, possessing a competent knowledge of the moral, intellectual, and physical sciences, familiar with all the modern improvements in elementary instruction, and earnestly intent on elevating the condition of our common schools, can do much more to accomplish this desirable result, than all the other officers connected with the system. Acting on a broader theatre, they can perform more efficiently all that supervision which has heretofore been so deplorably neglected, or badly executed. The system of deputy superintendents is capable of securing, and can be made to secure, the following objects:

"It can produce a complete and efficient supervision of all the schools of the state, in reference as well as to their internal management, as to their external details:

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It can be made to unite all the schools of the state into one great system; making the advancement of each the ambition of all; furnishing each with the means of attaining the highest standard of practical excellence, by communicating to it every improvement discovered or suggested in every or any of the others:

"It can do much towards dissipating the stolid indifference which paralyses many portions of the community, and towards arousing, enlightening and enlisting public sentiment, in the great work of elementary instruction, by systematic and periodical appeals to the inhabitants of each school district, in the form of lectures, addresses, &c.

"It can be made to dismiss from our schools all immoral and incompetent teachers, and to secure the services of such only as are qualified and efficient, thereby elevating the grade of the schoolmaster, and infusing new vitality into the school.

"An attentive examination of the interesting reports of the deputy superintendents will clearly show that the accomplishment of several of the most important of these objects is already in a state of encouraging progression.

"In these times of commercial paralysis, monetary pressure and impending taxation, superinduced by causes which were clearly foreseen, and might easily have been obviated, it is very far from the intention of the Superintendent to advocate any system which shall add weight to the existing burdens of the community. Instead of this, it will be manifest that the system of deputy superintendents can be made to supersede official duty heretofore badly performed, and taxation heretofore imposed with little resulting utility, to an amount greatly exceeding the expenses of this system."

Gov. Bouck, in his annual message to the legislature of 1844, thus alludes to the condition and prospects of the common schools:

"No interest of the State is entitled to a more favorable regard, or a greater share of attention at the hands of the legislature, than that of public instruction. The intellectual and moral culture of the six or seven hundred thousand children who are speedily to succeed the generation now on the stage of active life, and to assume the duties and responsibilities, as well of government as of society, in all its departments, involves, in its consequences, the existence and destinies of the Republic itself, and cannot be neglected without danger to the vital interests of free institutions. The elementary education of the youth of the state has attracted the attention, and occupied a prominent position in the policy of, the executive and legislative departments, from a very early period of our existence as a state. A perpetual fund, the revenue of which, for several years past, has secured an annual apportionment from the the treasury, for the benefit of the common schools, of $110,000, has been specifically appropriated, by a provision of the constitution, to this object; and since the year 1839, the additional amount of $165,000 has annually been appropriated, by the liberal and enlightened policy of the state, from the revenue of the United States Deposite Fund, to the same object, and to the procurement of common school libraries in the several school districts of the state. An amount in the aggregate equal to these two sums ($275,000) is required to be annually raised upon the taxable property in the several towns; and the proceeds of this fund, augmented by nearly an equal amount, contribu

ted by the inhabitants of the several districts, on rate bills, by various local funds, and by sums voluntarily raised for this purpose by the inhabitants of the towns, are applied exclusively to the payment of the wages of competent and approved teachers, and to the purchase of suitable books for the school district libraries.

"The substitution of a single officer, charged with the supervision of the common schools of each town, for the Board of Commissioners and inspectors formerly existing, in connection with the supervisory and appellate powers of the several county Superintendents, as defined by the law of the last session, seems to have met with the general approbation and concurrence of the people. Conventions and associations of the friends of education have, during the past year, been held in almost every section of the state, indicating a concentration of interest, and a direction of effort to this great subject, which cannot fail of producing the most salutary results. The standard of qualification of teachers has been materially advanced; parents and the people generally manifest an increased interest in the welfare and prosperity of these elementary institutions of learning; and there are the most abundant reasons for anticipating a steady and continued improvement in all the elements of our extended system of common school education."

There were in the state, as appears by the annual report of the Superintendent, (Jan. 13, 1844) 10,875 organized school districts, 670,995 children between the ages of five and sixteen, exclusive of those residing in the city, of New York; and 657,782 children taught during the year. "We may reasonably," observes the Superinteodent, "congratulate ourselves upon the accession of a new order of things, in relation to the practical workings of our system. Through the medium of an efficient county and town supervision, we have succeeded not only in preparing the way for a corps of teachers thoroughly competent to communicate physical, intellectual and moral instruction-themselves enlightened and capable of enlightening their pupils but also in demolishing the numerous barriers which have hitherto prevented all intercommunication between the several districts. An extended feeling of interest in the condition and progress of the school has been awakened; and in addition to the periodical inspection of the county and town superintendendents, the trustees and inhabitants are now, in many portions of the state, beginning to visit the schools of their districts; striving to ascertain their advancement; to encourage the exertions of teachers and pupils, and to remove every obstacle resulting from their previous indifference. Incompetent teachers are beginning to find the avenues to the common school closed against them; and the demand on the part of the districts for a higher grade of instructors, is creating a supply of enlightened educators, adequate to the task of advancing the youthful mind in its incipient efforts to acquire knowledge. The impetus thus communicated to the schools of one town and county, is speedily diffused to those of others. Through frequent and periodical meetings of town and county associations of teachers and friends of education, the improvements adopted in any one district are made known to all; and the experience, observations and suggestions of each county Superintendent, annually communicated through their reports, to all. By these means the stream of popular education, purified at its source and relieved from many of its former obstructions, is dispensing its invigorating waters over a very considerable portion of the state.

"The reports of the several county Superintendents exhibit unequivocal evidence of efficent exertions on their part, in the performance of the responsible duties assigned them by law and by the instructions of this department. To their efforts is to be attributed, to a very great extent, the revolution in public sentiment, by which the district school from being the object of general aversion and reproach, begins to attract the attention and regard of all. To their enlightened labors for the elevation and advancement of these elementary institutions, we owe it in a great measure, that new and improved modes of teaching, of government and of discipline have

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