on a higher plane than those who are content with the acquisition of the branches in the common school course. This cannot be done unless the imprimatur of some central authority is placed on the certificates of those who complete the course with credit.

The Peabody examinations that are held annually to decide the contests for the valuable scholarships in the Peabody Normal College, at Nashville, and the examinations which I hope to see held to decide the contests for the public school scholarships in the University of Virginia, cannot be justly and impartially graded until some machinery is provided that will subject all the papers on each subject to the critical scrutiny and judgment of the same persons. Under the present system, while no unworthy or ill-prepared candidate can secure a scholarship, exact justice cannot be done to all the candidates. The State Board of Examiners would ensure not only prompt but absolutely fair gradation of all the papers in these con

tests.

These are some of the reasons that impel me to favor the immediate creation of a central board of examiners to certificate all public school teachers. If an additional reason be asked for, I might reply that almost every State in the Union that has a unified system of public instruction has also a State Board of Examiners. Some of the Southern States that are far behind Virginia in other educational reforms have outstripped us in this respect, and have well organized and efficient systems for the proper certification of all their public school teachers.

The cost of maintaining such a board of examiners would be trifling as compared with the advantages that would accrue to the profession of teaching and to the State at large. In nearly all the States where this system prevails the expenses of the examiners are defrayed by the fees of the candidates, which range from one to ten dollars. The State could well afford to bear the expenses of the board, but I am sure that there would be no serious objection among teachers who desire to elevate the standard of their profession in the State and to make the tenure of accomplished, faithful, and experienced teachers secure to the payment of a moderate fee for the consummation of so worthy an object.

Any movement that tends to elevate the standard of scholarship among the teachers of Virginia, to arouse and foster a lofty professional spirit, to give dignity to the noble profession of teaching, and

to exclude from this profession all who are unworthy and unfitted for the work of training children to be useful, high-minded, and patriotic men and women, is surely worthy of the best efforts of all who would advance the highest interests of the Commonwealth.

THE POLICIES OF PUBLIC EDUCATION.

The National Educational Association, at its annual meeting in Detroit in the summer of 1901, adopted a declaration of the policies that should characterize public school education. These principles are stated with such clarity of diction and such justness of conception that I have thought it proper that they should find a permanent place in the educational records of this department. The conditions in Virginia are ripe for a realization of the ideals set forth in this document; and if we will only arouse ourselves and go boldly forward to meet the demands of the times and the opportunities that lie before us, we shall inaugurate a new era in the history of the Commonwealth. The declaration of policies mentioned above is as follows:

"1. The problem of elementary education is the most important problem with which the state must deal. The progress and happiness of a people are in direct ratio to the universality of education. A free people must be developed by free schools. History records that the stability of a nation depends upon the virtue and intelligence of the individuals composing the nation. To provide for the universal education of youth is the duty of every state in the union. All the residents of the territory under the direct control of the general government, including the Indian Territory, Alaska. and our new possessions, must receive the benefits of free education at the hands of the government. We note with satisfaction the steps that have been taken by the present administration to place the blessings of American free schools within the reach of all the children of all the peoples under our flag.

"2. The Bureau of Education, under the direction of William T. Harris, Commissioner of Education, has rendered invaluable service to the cause of education thruout the United States. It is the judgment of this association that the powers of this bureau should be greatly enlarged, and that the general direction of public education in all the territory of the United States not under state control, including our new possessions, should be part of the duties of the bureau. In no other way can the general government so · quickly, economically, intelligently, and safely carry the benefits of popular education to the people for whose education it is immediately responsible.

"3. We reiterate the statement that the public school should be the center of the educational life of the community in which it is located. Especially should this be true in rural districts. Here should be found the public library for the use of all; here the educational extension courses should draw the old and the young; here may literary and social meetings be held which

will tend to uplift the mental, social, and spiritual life of the people. Freed from the ravenous influence of partisan politics, untouched by the narrowness of rigid sectarianism, the public school should become the real center of the broader intellectual life, the educator of men and women beyond the school age, as well as the guide of childhood and youth.

"4. The subjects that may properly be taught in elementary schools include those that bear upon the ethical, physical, and æsthetic nature of the child, as well as his purely intellectual nature. Sober, industrious, intelligent, honest, cultured citizenship should be the result of public-school training in the United States.

"5. Our system of education will not be wholly free until every grade of school, from the kindergarten to and including the university, shall be open to every boy and girl of our country.

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"6. The liberality of men of wealth in making large donations to institutions of learning is to be strongly commended and encouraged. At the same time it should be borne in mind that popular education rests upon the people and should look to them for its chief support and control. The relation between state and local support should be so adjusted that communities will maintain a deep and abiding interest in their schools.

"7. The public-school system of a state should be a unit from the kindergarten to and including the university, and all private institutions should endeavor to work in harmony with the ideals of public education so far as their special purpose will permit them. In order that public and private institutions of learning may more fully co-operate in the general work of education, the relation between these institutions should be more clearly defined than it is at the present time.

"8. Legislation with respect to public education must not wait for public sentiment. It should lead public sentiment when necessary. Experience teaches that what people are compelled by law to do with respect to schools they readily learn to do without compulsion, but that they usually are slow to demand reforms which involve increased taxation. School legislation should, therefore, be under the general direction of educational experts.

"9. The National Educational Association recognizes the principle that the child has the same right to be protected by law from ignorance as from abuse, neglect, and hunger; and it therefore records with approval that many of the leading states of the union have compulsory-education laws upon their statute books.

"10. While many cities have at least partly solved the problem of school supervision, in most rural communities the problem is almost wholly unsolved. Close, constant, expert supervision of schools in both city and country is imperatively demanded, not only on account of the large financial interests involved, but also on account of the supreme importance of the teacher's work and the lack of well-rounded preparation on the part of many teachers.

"11. The National Educational Association watches with deep interest the solution of the problem of consolidating rural schools and transporting pupils at public expense, now attempted in many of our states. We believe that this movement will lead to the establishment of township and county high schools, and thus bring more advanced education to rural communities,

We also believe that supplementary state support of rural high schools is in the highest interest of the entire state.

"12. The state should support and control institutions whose object is the preparation of teachers for the public schools. Normal schools free to persons preparing to teach are an absolute necessity in a perfected system of education.

"13. No one should be placed in charge of a school who has not been' previously trained for the work of teaching. The plan of issuing teachers' certificates of low grade year after year is at best a makeshift and should be discontinued whenever the state is sufficiently advanced in education to warrant its discontinuance. There should be a limit to the length of time a person can serve as an apprentice in the vocation of teaching.

"14. We believe that the standards for school architecture, including the proper seating, heating, lighting, ventilation, and ornamentation of school buildings, should be as definite as the standards for teaching. The law should fix the dimensions and all other requirements of school buildings, as well as the size and character of school grounds.

"15. The National Educational Association declares in the preamble to its constitution that its objects are 'to elevate the character and advance. the interests of the profession of teaching, and to promote the cause of popular education in the United States,' and we again promise that the best efforts of this association and its members shall be given to the furtherance of these objects, in the firm conviction that in no place can we serve our country better than in her schools."

The foregoing policies have got to prevail in Virginia before we can hope to have a public school system abreast of the times. How far we are from a realization of them all who are acquainted with conditions in Virginia fully know. We have the primary and grammar schools and we have the university, but we are yet far from having enough high or secondary schools to articulate the two extremes of the system. When this is done, we may expect a great educational revival in every section of the State.

MANUAL TRAINING.

I desire to emphasize what was said in the biennial report of 1898-1899 in regard to the introduction of manual training into our public schools. Lynchburg has followed the lead of Staunton in providing an excellent plant for instructing the boys in the public schools in woodwork and the girls in cooking and sewing. Under the stimulus of modern life and industrial progress it will not be long before some form of manual training will find a place in every public school of the land. We are living in a wonderful age. During the last century more advancement was made in material progress than had been made in all the preceding centuries. But in educational matters we have not kept pace with the advancement

in other departments of life. We are still to a great extent in the shackles of mediaeval scholasticism so far as educational methods and subjects of study are concerned. We are still giving almost exclusive attention to the studies of discipline, and but very little to those that count for practical usefulness as well as for discipline. We have not been able to emancipate ourselves from the antiquated superstition that nothing can be of any educational value unless it is learnt from a book. We fail to recognize the fact that the education of the hand and the eye is to a certain extent as important as the education of the mind. Classical training is not to be discounted, but we cannot all be scholars and critics; some of us must be men and women of affairs. It is well enough for the boys and the girls in the country, as well as those in the towns and cities, to be acquainted with Shakespeare and Milton, with Homer and Dante, with Goethe and Tennyson; but it is equally important that they be made acquainted with those practical duties of life with which they will have to become familiar when they leave the schoolroom. A system of education that gives no preparation for life, for complete living, as Herbert Spencer phrases it, is radically defective. All our schools would be richer in results and life, richer in good living, if we had some form of manual and industrial training in our schools. We must have it if we intend to prepare our boys and girls to compete successfully with those from other States in the race of life. This form of instruction cannot be introduced into the schools at once, nor can it be introduced simultaneously into all the grades; but a beginning can be made by introducing simple exercises in the lower grades and continuing them up to the highest. The expense would be comparatively small, very small, in proportion to the good that would be accomplished. The greatest difficulty would lie in the selection of competent teachers for this work.

While I regard manual training of prime importance for all the children of the public schools, it is imperatively demanded for the colored children, who are growing up with but little preparation for good living and good citizenship. I believe the welfare of the Negroes in this country depends very largely on their preparation for agricultural pursuits. The peculiar conditions surrounding them must exclude them from many vocations in the country as well as in the cities; but they have a peculiar place in our agricultural system, if they can only be properly prepared to do in an intelligent