the amount of public money received by such a district will be proportionately small; the amount of taxable property in the district must necessarily be small and of course taxation increased. The means of the district being thus very limited the inevitable concomitants of miserable school houses, indifferent teachers, short sessions, and a want of the appendages and aids to learning that should always be found in school houses, will of course follow this state of things.

.But the evil does not end here. Where taxation is thus rendered high as it surely must be to maintain a respectable and useful school, a spirit of opposition to having a school is engendered in consequence of the inordinate burden imposed upon the taxpayers. It is sometimes absolutely necessary for feeble school: districts to be formed, or some children will be prevented from attending school on account of distance from school-house or the geography of the country; but it is questionable whether the schools of such districts prove at all beneficial to the children whose misfortune it is to attend them.

The remedy for this evil lies entirely with the town superintendent except as an occasional appeal reaches this office; and he cannot be too mindful of the great good or evil which it is in his power to bestow upon the cause of education in the discharge of his duty, nor be too cautious in the exercise of that power. School districts should be sufficiently large to maintain a good school at least nine months in each year without being obliged to resort to burdensome taxation.

APPARATUS.-A further means of improving the schools is by furnishing suitable apparatus to aid the teacher in his explanations and illustrations, and the scholar in more readily and fully comprehending the subject of his investigations. "No school room can be considered as complete which is not provided with such fixtures and means of visible illustration, as will aid the teacher in cultivating in his pupils, habits of correct observation, comparison and classification, and in making the knowledge communicated by books, accurate, vivid and practical.”

A blackboard is an indispensible article in every school room, and should always be found there, no good teaching can be accomplished without it..

A cock is a very convenient and necessary article in a school room, marking the hour of opening and closing the school, and of each recitation during the day.

The cardinal points of the compass may be painted on the ceil ing or the teacher's platform, and will be of much service in the study of geography. The measure of an inch, foot, yard, &c., marked off on the edge of the blackboard, will give a correct and visible standard of distance. Different weights, and measures of quantity may be used to great advantage in a school. Wherever

geography and astronomy are taught there is a necessity for a terrestial and celestial globe, an orrery and tellurion. Outline maps are a great aid in giving instruction in geography. A numerical frame, geometrical forms and solids, scale and triangle, blocks to illustrate square and cube root, &c., will be found useful aids to instruction.

It cannot be denied that if schools were supplied with apparatus comprising a list of articles no more extensive than those enumerated, it would be an invaluable aid to the teacher in enlisting the attention and interest of the class, and making more correct and valuable impressions upon the youthful mind.

There is but very little apparatus found in any of the schools, and there is need that the attention of school districts should be directed to the subject. The sum which a school district is allowed to raise annually for apparatus, will purchase all the articles enumerated, and others can be added as circumstances suggest, or the wants of the district require. The apparatus of a school should of course be selected with reference to the studies pursued; as the wants of a primary department would be entirely different in this respect, from a school of a higher grade.

UNION SCHOOLS.

Union schools have been the subject of discussion in each of the reports made to the legislature from this department, and I

have little to add here upon that subject, except to express my full concurrence in the views therein expressed.

It is in union schools alone that the most perfect economy and the most profitable expenditure of the public money can be attained; that the best school houses can be provided, including all necessary conveniences and appendages; that suitable maps and apparatus can be provided; that the pupils can be properly clas sified; the best order and discipline can be maintained; the time of the teacher and taught most profitably employed; the services of professional teachers obtained; the most approved system of teaching introduced; the highest proficiency of the pupils secured; and the deepest and most continued interest of the public manifested in the prosperity of the schools.

These, without enumerating further, seem sufficient reasons for the establishment of union schools wherever practicable. All these advantages are gained by a concentration and union of means and influence. It is not proposed to abandon the district system to establish union schools, as the latter are nothing more nor less than a large graded school, having two or three departiments, as circumstances may require, in a large school district, with large means, and a large number of scholars. In many districts such schools cannot now be established; but in populous sections, villages and cities, there is no obstacle to prevent their establishment but public sentiment. Wherever they have been established, they have given the most unqualified satisfaction, and there is no desire to return to the old plan of small schools, and of teaching all ages and grades of proficiency, by one teacher in a single room.

There is no necessity for obtaining a special act of the legisla ture to organize these schools, although in large villages or cities, it may be better to increase the number of the school board, and confer upon them some additional powers not now possessed by district officers. A better supervision of the schools will be thus provided for.

But in any populous section of the State, let two or more school

districts be united and formed into one district, and the means and interest thus united, will be sufficient to maintain a good union school. The main objection to such a plan usually is, that the expense of such a school will be much greater than to maintain an ordinary district school. This is true; but the expense is really less than what it costs to maintain the separate schools before the consolidation of districts was effected, and there is a gain of a far better school. There is another great advantage derived from the establishment and maintenance of union schools not before alluded to, which apparently overshadows all other considerations. It is in none but union or graded schools that the services of professional achers can be obtained, because the compensation offered in small districts is no inducement for them to offer their services there, when they can realize far more in almost any other employment. The influence then of these graded schools, is not limited to its own districts, but radiates far and wide in every direction, and is a model for other schools and other teachers.

The great majority of the teachers in the state must be educated and prepared to discharge their duties, in the schools of the state; and I regard these union schools wherever successfully in operation, as so many normal schools, from which annually go forth well disciplined young men and women who become teachers, and who adopt in their schools the same approved method of discipline and instruction that they have learned while in attendance upon these union schools.

Viewing the subject in this light, I would respectfully suggest to the legislature a consideration of the propriety of aiding in their establishment, by loaning a portion of the principal of the school fund, to aid in the erection of suitable buildings for such schools.

A proposition has been advocated before several preceding legislatures, to loan to all school districts that may apply therefor, such sums from the school fund as will be necessary to erect a suitable school house for each such district so applying, but for many and obvious reasons this proposition has met with compara

tively little favor. But such conditions might be embodied in a law, as would secure the repayment of the sum loaned, without trouble, to aid in erecting union school edifices, by providing that within the limits of the district, so loaning money from the school fund, there must be a given amount of taxable property for each hundred dollars received, that the boundaries of the district shall not be changed while any portion of the principal remains unpaid, and the annual payment of the interest on the sum loaned made certain, by withholding from such district, an amount of money from the sum annually apportioned to it, equal to the amount of interest due, if it remain unpaid.

This proposition may be regarded as local in its application, but if there is any truth in the assertion that teachers are being educated in these union schools, possessing far better qualifications than the majority of teachers, it becomes a question of interest to all parts of the state whether a portion of the school fund principal may not properly be used in extending these schools.

The Teachers' Association of Fond du Lac county met at Waupun on the second day of November last, and continued in session during six days. There were over fifty teachers in attendance, from the counties of Fond du Lac, Dodge and Winnebago.

The association was organized as an institute, and the exercises. during the day consisted in drills and recitations in the different branches of common school education, and in discussions upon the best method of teaching. The evenings were devoted to lectures and discussions upon topics of educational interest.

A large number of the citizens of Waupun were in attendance each evening, and quite a number during the morning and afternoon sessions, manifesting much interest in the exercises. Some of them gave lectures and joined in the discussions of the evenings.

The cause of popular education is much indebted to several individuals who nobly came forward and gave their aid to the pro