Teachers. The number suitably furnished with convenient seats, desks, &c. is reported at 3,282, and the number not so furnished at 5,972. The number furnished with proper facilities for ventilation is stated at 1,518; while the number not provided with these essential requisites of health and comfort is 7,889. The number of male teachers in the winter schools visited by the several county superintendents, was 5,170; that of female teachers 635;|| of the former 170, and of the latter 175, were under 18 years of age; of the former 1,181, and of the latter 558, between the ages of 18 and 21; of the former 2,113, and of the latter 615, be- No subject connected with the interests of eletween the ages of 21 and 25; of the former 963,mentary instruction affords a source of such and of the latter 228, between the ages of twen- mortifying and humiliating reflections as that of ty-five and thirty; of the former 666, and of the condition of a large portion of the school the latter 137, over the age of 30 years.- houses, as presented in the above enumeration. Of the former 2,004, and of the latter 451, had One-third only of the whole number visited, taught in the whole for a less period than one were found in good repair; another third in ordi. year, and of the former 3,036, and of the latter nary and comfortable condition only in this re1,120, for a longer period than one year; of the spect-in other words, barely sufficient for the former 798, and of the latter 303, had taught the convenience and accommodation of the teachers same school for one year and upwards; of the and pupils; while the remainder, consisting of former 387, and of the latter 125, had taught the 3,319 were to all intents and purposes unfit for same school for two years and upwards; and of the reception of man or beast. the former 319, and of the latter 70 had taught the same school for three years. But 544 out of 9,368 houses visited, contained more than one room; 7,313 were destitute of any suitable play-ground; nearly six thousand were unfurnished with convenient seats and desks; nearly eight thousand destitute of the proper facilities for ventilation; and upwards of six thousand without a privy of any sort; while of the remainder but about one thousand were provided with privies containing different apartments for male and female pupils! And it is in these miserable abodes of accumulated dirt and filth, deprived of wholesome air, or exposed without adequate protection to the assaults of the ele ments, with no facilities for necessary exercise or relaxation, no convenience for prosecuting their studies; crowded together on benches not admitting of a moment's rest in any position, and debarred the possibility of yielding to the ordina. In the summer schools thus visited, the number of male teachers was 1,024, and that of female teachers 5,699. Of the former 34, and of the latter 1,066, were under 18 years of age; 147 of former, and 2,168 of the latter, between the ages of 18 and 21; 363 of the former, and 1,688 of the latter, between 21 and 25; 218 of the former, and 551 of the latter, between 25 and 30; and 261 of the former, and 205 of the latter, 30 years of age and upwards. Of the former 180, and of the latter 2,513, had taught in the whole for a less period than 1 year; and of the former 804, and of the latter 3,150, for a longer period than one year. Of the former 252, and of the latter 911, had taught the same school for one year and upwards; of the former 159, and of the latter 359, for two years and upwards; and of the form-ry calls of nature without violent inroads upon er 166, and of the latter 145, for three years. The average monthly compensation of the male teachers employed in the winter schools was $14.28 exclusive of board; that of the female teachers $7.00. In the summer schools, the male teachers received, on an average, $15 per month, and the female teachers $6. The apparent reduction of the average compensation of teachers, from the prices heretofore paid, may be accounted for by the increased value of money, and the corresponding diminution in the prices of labor and subsistence of all kinds. Taking these circumstances into consideration, it will be found that there has in reality been no falling off in the rates of compensation heretofore allowed to male teachers, while those of female teachers have perceptibly increased. Condition of School Houses. The whole number of school houses visited and inspected by the county superintendents during the year was 9,368: of which 7,685 were of framed wood; 446 of brick; 523 of stone, and 707 of logs. Of these, 3,160 were found in good| repair; 2,870 in ordinary and comfortable repair, and 3,319 in bad repair, or totally unfit for school purposes. The number furnished with more than one room was 544, leaving 8,795 with one room only. The number furnished with suitable play-grounds is 1,541; the number not so furnished 7,313. The number furnished with a single privy is, 1,810; those with privies containing separate apartments for male and female pupils 1,012; while the number of those not furnished with any privy whatever, is 6,423. modesty and shame; that upwards of two hun dred thousand children scattered over various parts of the State, are compelled to spend an ave rage period of eight months during each year of their pupilage! Here the first lessons of human life, the incipient principles of morality, and the rules of social intercourse are to be impressed upon the plastic mind. The boy is here to receive the model of his permanent character, and to imbibe the elements of his future career; and here the instinctive delicacy of the young female, one of the characteristic ornaments of the sex, is to be expanded into maturity by precept and example! Is it strange under such circumstances, that an early and invincible repugnance to the acquisition of knowledge is imbibed by the youthful mind; that the school house is regarded with unconcealed aversion and disgust, and that parents who have any desire to preserve the health and the morals of their children, exclude them from the district school and provide instruction for them elsewhere? If legislation could reach and remedy the evil, the law-making power would be earnestly invoked. But where the ordinary mandates of humanity, and the laws of parental feeling written by the finger of Heaven on the human heart, are obliterated or powerless, all statutory provisions would be idle and vain. In some instances during the past year, comfortable school houses have been erected to supply the place of misera. ble and dilapidated tenements which for years had been a disgrace to the inhabitants. Perhaps the contagion of such worthy examples may spread; and that which seems to have been beyond the influence of the ordinary impulses of humanity, may be accomplished by the power of example or the dread of shame. What ideas of the good sense and intelligence of the past, will be entertained by the instructed men of future times, to whom will be bequeathed the legislative patrimony of this State-who The expense of constructing and maintaining will inherit, in fee simple, an enormous debt and convenient buildings, and all other proper appli-a voluminous inventory of unfinished works, ances for the education of the young, is a mere forsaken by God and man, the yawning Golgotrifle when contrasted with the beneficial results tha of wasted human toil-and who, instead of which inevitably follow. Of all the expenditures a general fund, and a replenished treasury, will which are calculated to subserve the wants or receive the negative blessing of an "exhausted gratify the caprices of man, there are none which receiver?" That combination of interests which confer such important and durable blessings as for years could have seduced a whole community those which are applied to the cultivation and into such gross fatuity, will probably be an enig expansion of the moral and intellectual powers. ma to the future historian. The signal success It is by such cultivation that human happiness is which has been achieved and maintained for graduated, and that from the most debased of the a long period over the human understanding, by savage tribes, nation rises above nation in the the unblushing repetition of false statements, scale of prosperity and civilization. The penu-fraudulent estimates, treacherous promises, and riousness which has been manifested on this sub-hollow and interested pretences, will astonish ject, and the reckless profligacy exhibited on every intelligent man, woman and child of future others, is strongly characteristic of the past. In days. Nor would their wonder be diminished future times, when the light of science shall be by a disclosure of existing efforts in the same more widely diffused, and when the education of direction, moving in a subdued under current, the young shall claim and receive the considera- with the evident design of artfully obviating tion it deserves, a retrospection of the records of every impediment to the onward course of the the past will exhibit preceding generations in no Juggernaut of debt. enviable point of view. Those who come after us, and who shall In 1805, thirty-nine years ago, the basis of the make themselves acquainted with the facts and School Fund was laid; and now, after the lapse records of the present and the past, will inquire of almost forty years, the aggregation of every with surprise and indignation, how it was posdollar which has been consecrated to the availa-sible that such things could have been. Lookble capital of this fund, gives the amount of only ing at the avails of nearly half a century, in the $1,975,093.15. With a population of two and a slow and parsimonious accumulation of the half millions, the entire avails of the appropria- school fund, and at the wanton profligacy of a tions of forty years, destined to the holy purpose few years of the same period, in the entire of youthful progress and human improvement waste of countless millions of the public wealth, for all time to come, is less than seventy-five and the aggregation of an enormous debt; and cents to each individual in the State. Nor has contemplating the wretched accommodations and this extraordinary parsimony been caused by any reckless indifference for youthful instruction, legislative restraints or constitutional inability. which to a great extent contemporaneously preThe will of a bare majority might at any time vailed throughout the State, they will find it dif have augmented this fund. But the will of le- ficult, if not impossible, to reconcile such extragislation has been frequently signalized in a di- ordinary facts with the ordinary laws of human rection exactly opposite. In a much shorter nature. "Did the men of those days," they period than it has required to collect the School will ask, "omit to furnish proper accommodaFund, more than ten times as much has been ut- tions for the advancement of their children in terly wasted in the reckless career of miscalled the rudiments of indispensable knowledge, "internal improvement." Without estimating while at the same time, they quietly looked on, the vast sums which have been applied, and from year to year, and witnessed with stolid inmust yet for a long period continue to be applied difference, the ruinous and reckless career of leto the payment of principal and interest, the gislation? Did they neglect to provide for their amount invested as capital alone in this profli-sons and daughters, in their helpless and tender gate crusade, is $34,400,729.26; and the State age, comfortable buildings, competent instruchas been "improved" into a standing debt, now tors, necessary books, useful apparatus, and all producing an exhausting tax upon its land and those other aids which are requisite to the right labor, of about twenty-eight millions of dollars; development of the youthful mind, and, at the and which debt, before it is finally extinguished, same time, allow their rulers to lavish not only will probably draw from the tax-payers, in prin- all the disposable resources of the State, but to cipal and interest, forty or fifty millions of dollars.crucify its credit and put it to open shame, in a The interest of one-half of the money which mad career of wild and hopeless profusion? Did has been thus hopelessly sacrificed, would, of it-they grudge to their own flesh and blood, a miself, be sufficient to educate every child in the State for all time to come. In a single instance legislation has thrown a much larger amount than the whole School Fund into the luxurious lap of a rotten and meretricious corporation. This bonus of three millions bestowed upon corruption by felonious legislation, was peddled out to brokers on little strips of paper, upon which the fiat of law had assumed to stamp the credit of the people of the State; the redemption of which credit is yet to be effected by the sweating process of annual taxation, serable pittance for the necessaries of mental life, whilst they allowed their rulers to scatter millions to feed the hungry rapacity of rotten corporations, and to subserve the pecuniary and political aspirations of unprincipled demagogues? Did they, with miserly gripe, withhold the inconsiderable funds necessary to instruct the young, and thus to promote virtue and intelligence, and to accelerate the progress and elevi. ate the character of the human race, whilst they permitted themselves to be grievously taxed for the purpose of digging the graves of productive Fund, industry, to support pauper canals, and to be-Transferred from the General 800 00 $38,611 64 Moneys received into the Treasury, viz. 41,990 83 2,730 99 2,002 00 9,775 99 82,868 97 $116.175 61 Diminution of the Fund. Bonds for lands, viz: der foreclosure of mortg'es, $25,708 19 20,866 60 Principal of bonds paid into the Treasury, If those of the present and the past should be summoned from their graves into judgment before the future, what response could they make to questions like these? The six hundred thousand children of the State, now rapidly approach-Redemption of lands, ing maturity, will soon occupy the places of their forefathers. And if with no more virtue and knowledge than their predecessors, the destinies! of the future are committed to their guidance, the demoralizing scenes of the past may be reenacted; and the combined influences of paper money inflations and profligate "Internal Im-Reversion by sales of lands unprovement" again roll their full tide of corrup tion over the State. The practice of fraud, theft, embezzlement and robbery, whose almost daily and nightly occurrence blackens the annals of the present period, is but the miniature epitome of past legislation. Destitute of the law-mak-Principal paid into the Treasury, ing power, by which the property of millions is Principal paid into the Treasury, compendiously plundered, the vagrant, nocturnal Money paid out of the Treasury, viz: culprits are reduced to a miserable retail busi- Surplus moneys on resale of ness, and forced either to abandon their calling, lands, refunded, or to levy contributions upon single individuals. Redemption of lands sold, &c. That most of the crimes against property which Erroneous payments into the refunded, now disgrace society are the necessary results of Treasury, refunded,. " unclean legislation," and the consequence of examples of profligacy set in high places, there can be no reasonable doubt. The turbid stream of black legislative precedents flows through all the departments of human society, down to the very lowest, with the accumulating velocity of a descending torrent. But thank God the prospect of the future is not wholly devoid of hope. The records of the past year clearly exhibit an awakening in many portions of the community, on the important subject of juvenile instruction. The majority of the schools in the State are manifestly in the condition of palpable improvement. Instruction of a better quality, and in greater quantities than ever before, is now communicated to the young; and it is, therefore, certain that the present sickening vices and crimes will ultimately receive a salutary check; although the period of reformation may, perhaps, be protracted until most of the existing adult actors on the theatre of life shall have passed away. COMMON SCHOOL FUND. The following statement shows the amount of the capital of the fund and the increase and diminution of the same, during the year ending 30th Sept. 1843, viz : Amount of the fund 30th Sept. 1842,... $1,968,290 72 116,175 61 $2,084,466 33 1,976,093 16 Loan of 1792: Loan of 1808: ...... $816 72 74 69 141 82 for bonds transferred from E. & C. Canal $46,573 79 41,990 83 2,730 99 2,002 00 1,032 28 9,445 00 300 00 5,299 34 $109,373 18 $344,472 38 275,461 64 $69,010 68 Amount of public money received and expended, and amounts paid on rate bills. The aggregate amount of public money receiv. ed and expended in the several districts from which reports have been received, during the year ending on the first day of January, 1843, was $660,727.41, of which $565,793.76 were $178,412 00 applied to the payment of teachers' wages, and $94,933.65 to the purchase of suitable books for the district libraries. The aggregate amount paid by the inhabitants of the several districts on rate bills, was $509,376.97, making in all the sum of $1,075,170.73 applied to the payment of teachers' wages. The whole amount of public money received by the commissioners of common schools and by-word of repulsion-and the district school town superintendents, during the year ending on synonymous with all that was vulgar, low, imthe first day of July last, from all sources, is re-moral and degrading. The repeated and conported at $655,699.44, of which $552,772.79 curring testimony of individuals and public offiwere apportioned for the payment of teachers' cers, and the observation and experience of all wages, and $98,470.65 for the purchase of suit- who have had the means of knowing the condiable books for the district libraries, maps, globes tion of these schools, in the greater portion of and other scientific apparatus, under the provi- the districts of the State, will corroborate the sions of the act of 1843. truth of the picture here reluctantly drawn. That there has not been a gradual and steady improvement in their condition, notwithstanding the obstacles they have been compelled to enre-counter, it would be equally unjust and untrue to assert: but under the disadvantages inseparable from an almost total absence of public or private supervision, that thorough and complete elementary education, which it was the policy and design of our system of public instruction to secure to every child of the State, has been almost universally withheld. The amount of local funds in the possession of the several towns and districts, derived from the avails of their gospel and school lots, unappropriated poor funds and other sources, is ported at $17,425.83. County and Town Superintendents. The sources of the general inefficiency which has hitherto characterized our common schools, are undoubtedly to be found in the absence, until quite recently, of any effective supervision; in their complete isolation from each other, and from the community in general; in the indifference manifested by the great body of the people to their interests and welfare; in the want of competent teachers; the want of suitable school houses, suitable text books and suitable modes of government and discipline in the school-room; in short, in the absence of any interest on the part of parents, and any enlightened knowledge of the science of education on the part of teachers. Up to the year 1841, the only class of officers whose special duty it was to visit and inspect the schools, and provide a suitable body of teachers for their instruction, were the commissioners and inspectors of common schools. But we may reasonably 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; In what manner these important and responsi- and in addition to the periodical inspection of the ble duties were discharged by them, has already county and town superintendents, the trustees been submitted to the Legislature, in previous and inhabitants are now, in many portions of reports from this Department. Incompetent the State, beginning to visit the schools of their teachers were permitted to take charge of a districts; striving to ascertain their advancement; great majority of the schools, under the official to encourge the exertions of teachers and pupils, sanction of certificates of qualification, granted and to remove every obstacle resulting from frequently without any previous knowledge of their previous indifference. Incompetent teachtheir character or attainments; and the visita-ers are beginning to find the avenues to the com. tions required by law were seldom, and in a ma- mon school closed against them; and the demand jority of instances, never made. Trustees of on the part of the districts for a higher grade of districts contented themselves with discharging instructors, is creating a supply of enlightened the duties specifically imposed upon them by law; educators, adequate to the task of advancing the and after having contracted with a teacher at youthful mind in its incipient efforts to acquire the lowest prices they could obtain, and made knowledge. The impetus thus communicated to the requisite arrangements for continuing the the schools of one town and county is speedily school for a length of time sufficient to enable diffused to those of others. Through frequent their district to secure its proportionate share of and periodical meetings of town and county aspublic money, they rarely felt themselves called sociations of teachers and friends of education, upon to investigate the condition of the school the improvements adopted in any one district are itself; and the inhabitants of districts conceived made known to all; and the experience, observatheir duty discharged by sending their children,||tions and suggestions of each county superintenwhen convenient, to the school, and punctually dent, annually communicated, through their repaying their quota of the tax list or rate bill, ports, to all. By these means the stream of when called upon for that purpose. No oppor-popular education, purified at its source and retunity was afforded for comparing the condition lieved from many of its former obstructions, is of the school with that of others, near or remote: dispensing its invigorating waters over a very and each teacher, for the brief period embraced considerable portion of the State. in his contract with the district, without super- The reports of several county superintendents vision, encouragement or advice, daily passed which are herewith transmitted, exhibit unequiv through a tedious and monotonous routine of un-ocal evidence of efficient exertions on their part, intelligible, and consequently uninteresting exer- in the performance of the responsible duties ascises. After an interval of three or four months, signed them by law and by the instructions of this another teacher was employed, and the same Department. To their efforts is to be attributed, process repeated, with such variations only to a very great extent, the revolution in public as resulted from the substitution of one imprac-sentiment, by which the district school from beticable method of instruction for another. The ing the object of general aversion and reproach, profession of the teacher became, too often not begins to attract the attention and regard of all. without cause, disreputable-the school house 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 succeeded in a very large proportion of the districts, to those which have hitherto prevailed; that a higher grade of qualifications for teachers has been almost universally required; that parents have been induced to visit and take an interest in the schools; that private and select schools have been to a considerable extent discountenanced, and the entire energies of the inhabitants of districts concentrated on the district school; and that the importance, the capabilities and extended means of usefulness of these nurseries of knowledge and virtue, are beginning to be adequately appreciated in nearly every section of the State. Collectively considered, these officers have well vindicated the confidence reposed in them by the legislature and the people, and justified the anticipations of the friends of education. act referred to, has generally been found, emi- "The substitution of town superintendents for commissioners and inspectors of common schools," says the Cortland county superinten has, on the whole, resulted in a decided benefit to the schools, and in a more correct and uniform administration of the laws. It could not be expected that an entire uniformity would exist in the decisions or practices of these officers, but the uniformity is greater than under the former system; and the official relations, as well as the frequent official intercouse and co-operation between them and a central officer of appellate jurisdiction, tends to prevent any material discrepancies." In accordance with the recommendation of this Department, many of the county superinten-dents have, in addition to the statistical and gene-dent, ral information comprised in their annual reports for the present year, submitted their views on special topics which had been assigned them, embracing the consideration of various subjects connected with the science of elementary education. These topics have been, in general, ably discussed; and the results of their examination will be found to embody a mass of valuable and interesting information in relation to many of the most important departments of mental culture. I respectfully recommend that some adequate provision be made by the Legislature for the distribution of these valuable documents, together with the general reports of these officers, among the several school districts of the State. Should it be thought advisable to place one copy in each school district library, the expense of such an appropriation would be inconsiderable when compared with the benefits which could not fail to be derived from the general diffusion of the valuable information embodied in these reports. "I am highly gratified," says the superintendent of Dutchess county, "in being able to bear testimony to the readiness and efficiency with which these officers have, in general, discharged their duties; and I take this opportunity publicly to acknowledge my obligations for the efficient aid received from them in the discharge of my duties, in furnishing me with all the necessary information relative to the schools in their respective towns. The office of town superintendent is one of great importance; and it is hoped that the selection of these officers will be made without reference to their partizan character. Let the question be 'Is he capable, is he honest, is he moral ?'" as they too frequently are in the election of town officers. The town superintendents have almost invariably accompanied me in my peregrinations through their respective towns, and a more efficient, conscientious and co-operative set of offi cers cannot be found." The provisions of the act of the last session of the Legislature, relative to common schools, seem to have met with general acceptance on the part of the people. So far as the means of as- "It affords me much pleasure," says the councertaining public sentiment on this head have ty superintendent of Franklin, "in being able to been possessed by the department, through its say that the constituted authorities exemplified extended correspondence with the officers and in- much wisdom in their selection of these officers; habitants of the school districts, and through the more it is to be feared, than will the people hereannual reports of the several county superinten-after, actuated by the bickerings of party spirit, dents, it may safely be alleged that the system of common schools as now organized, has received the almost universal approbation of those to whom its immediate interest and administration are committed. The great simplification of its details, by dispensing with the cumbrous and expensive machinery of commissioners and in- "It is a source of pleasure," says the county spectors, and committing the direct administra-superintendent of Essex, "for me to be able to tion of the affairs of the several schools in each speak of the zeal and spirit of co-operation town to one officer, selected in view of his pecu- which has been manifested by these officers in liar qualifications for the discharge of this duty, the discharge of their duties since their appointand required to give security for the faithful ap- ment. They seem to be conscious of the replication of the public funds entrusted to his sponsibilities devolved on them, and have rencare, has commended it to the public favor; and dered essential service during the past season, in it is gratifying to be able to state that the tem- contributing to perfect such arrangements as had porary selection of this class of officers, by the been projected to reform crying evils in the inlocal authorities, under the 18th section of the ternal workings of the schools." |