motion of the objects of the institute which is under the direction of able and efficient managers. The occasion was one of the highest interest and will be fruitful of good results, at least to the teachers attending and the schools under their management.

I cannot forbear to express my appreciation of the interest and enterprise of the members in sustaining semi-annual meetings of the association; it is alike creditable to themselves and to the localities they represent; and has a visible effect in elevating the character of the common schools in that county, and in awakening the people to life on the subject of education. Were there live associations of this kind in every county, the influence thus exercised in behalf of popular education, would be paramount to all other means yet devised in the State. It would improve the methods of teaching, have the effect to discard the mechanical school exercises, worthy only of by-gone days; and make the school-room what it should be, a fountain of learning, where pupils are taught to think and reason, to understend principles as well as rules; where the mind is developed, the mental capacity enlarged, instead of being blunted and contracted by exercises which serve only to mystify the studies they are vainly endeavoring to master; where the exercises are intellectual and calculated to inspire love instead of disgust for study. Teaching is a profession with some, and it is a noble and honorable onc. To be a good teacher requires all the learning, skill and ability that is necessary to insure success in any other profession, indeed more. But it is useless to talk of so extending the numbers of this profession, that all of our common schools or even a majority of them will be favored with the services of professional teachers, during the present generation, at least.

It is a pleasant theme to discourse upon, and "a consummation most devoutly to be wished," but we have no better assurance that we shall succeed in accomplishing in this State what has not yet been done in other and older States, after years of trial.There are insurmountable obstacles to prevent it. Teachers, like other persons, are not above pecuniary considerations, and as long

as other professions and other occupations offer far greater pecuniary returns for talent and ability, for services rendered, it cannot be expected that the profession of teaching will be over-stocked. But a small number of persons follow teaching beyond two or three years, and for this time only as a means of aiding them in some other undertaking already in view. They go to teaching not as a business or profession, which they intend to follow through life, but as a temporary occupation induced by temporary circumstances.

As then, no arrangements that can be made will, for years to come, accomplish the result of placing well educated and competent professional teachers in all the schools; it follows, that temporary teachers, those who teach just long enough to have an idea of the duties and responsibilities of their employment, are to be the instructors of the great mass of the youth of the State.

This is a solemn fact, and cannot be controverted. The ques tion then arises, what, if anything, shall be done in preparing these temporary teachers for a respectable discharge of their duties? Has not the State a deep interest in the matter? and can it not by provision of law, and a small appropriation of its funds aid in elevating the standard of teaching?

In every State and in every county where these institutes have been held, the people bear ample testimony of the great good flowing from them. I therefore respectfully repeat to the legislature the recommendation heretofore made, that an appropriation be made and placed at the disposal of the State Superintendent, to defray necessary expenses to be incurred in organizing and holding such institutes, in as many of the counties as may be thought practicable.

NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The law providing for the organization of the "University of Wisconsin," declares that it shall consist of four departments: 1. The department of science, literature and the arts;

2. The department of law;

3. The department of medicine;

4. The department of the theory and practice of elementary instruction. (The Normal Department.)

It is only during the past year that a complete organization of the first department has been accomplished; the pecuniary condition of the University has not permitted a more rapid advance towards its full establishment, according to the intent and requirements of the law.

The Normal department will probably next claim the attention of the Regents of the University, as the departments of law and medicine are secondary in importance to it, and their organization will necessarily be deferred until there shall be such an increase o the fund, by the sales of land, and a consequent increase of income, that the latter will support the institution complete in all its parts.

By an act of Congress of the present session, seventy-two sec. tions of land, which were originally granted to the State, on its admission into the Union, as saline lands, have been added to the amount previously granted by the general government, for the support of the University. This additional endowment will so increase the fund, ultimately, that the plan of the Regents, and the pride of our citizens, will be realized in making the "University of Wisconsin," the first literary institution in the country.

But its present available means will not allow it to attempt the organization of any other department, and its means in prospect will not be available for that purpose within three years, at least, so that there is no probability of the opening of the Normal department within that time, by the Regents, without some aid from the State.

There seems no necessity for commenting upon the great good which a successfully conducted Normal school will have upon the common schools of the State. Wherever tried they have proven their usefulness and received the approbation of all friends of education. New York has one which has been in operation for eight years, supported by appropriations from the general fund, and the large number of teachers who have gone forth from it to teach

the youth of the State, are living examples of its good works. Massachusetts has three and Connecticut one Normal school supported at the expense of the respective States; and no consideration could induce those States to abandon so successful a plan for providing their schools with good teachers.

It is respectfully recommended to the legislature that such appropriations be annually made from the income of the school fund as will be sufficient to secure the services of a competent Normal professor, and defray all proper expenses incident to the full establishment and successful operation of this department, until such time as it shall appear that the income of the university fund, exclusive of the support of the law and medical departments, shall be sufficient for the purpose.

The Board of Regents of the University adopted an ordinance in 1849, providing for the organization of the department of the "Theory and Practice of Elementary Instruction," constituting the Chancellor and a Normal Professor to be chosen by the Regents, the Faculty, whose duty it shall be to hold annual sessions of at least five months, for the instruction of the Teachers' Class, composed of such young men as may avail themselves of its advantages with a view to the business of instruction in common schools. The members of the Teachers' Class or Normal department to be members of the University, entitled to its privileges, and amenable to its discipline, having free access to the lectures of the other professors, the use of the library and apparatus on the same conditions as members of the regular classes. The pupils of the Normal Department will be entitled to the instruction of the University without charge; and to this end it is made the duty of the Chancellor to admit to this department "any young man of suitable age and unexceptionable character, who shall present the certificate of the Treasurer that he has executed his written obligations to pay the usual fee of tuition, conditioned to be void in case he shall have been engaged in instruction two years within the four next succeeding the period of his connection with the University."

"At the close of the course, the members of the Teachers' Class shall, if approved on examination, have a part in the exercises of the commencement, shall be admitted to the appropriate degree in the art of teaching, and receive a diploma from the hands of the Chancellor."

It is the intention of the law of the state providing for a Nor mal department in the University, and of the Board of Regents acting under that law, that it should be organized and opened for the reception of teachers; but when? That is the important point. We shall never hereafter need its good services so much as now, in providing the schools with good teachers, and now is the time for that Normal department to exist otherwise than upon paper. It has thus slumbered long enough.

The second dormitory building will be completed in June next, when there will be ample room in the University buildings for the use of this department. It will be perceived that the design of the Normal department is not to give elementary instruction to its members, or to educate them in the branches usually taught in our common schools, but to teach them the theory and practice of elementary instruction, or in other words, the best modes of teaching, government and discipline of our common schools, and to give instruction upon all subjects pertaining to the duties of a teacher.

The ordinance of the Regents, providing for the organization of the Normal department, is well conceived and suited to the purpose. It would seem proper, however, that young ladies should be admitted as well as young men, as a majority of the teachers in our common schools are young ladies.

"The instructions and honors of the institution being thus gratuitously tendered, we may reasonably expect that the Normal department will be crowded with pupils as soon as it shall be organized; and, with the aid of teachers' institutes, a new impulse given to the cause of popular education in the state."

NON-ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL.

From the official reports made to this department, it appears, as beretofore stated, that the total number of children residing in