Fifth-The want of uniformity of books. The remedies proposed by them are, 1. The appointment of a State Committee to examine all the books before the public and recommend the best. 2. The appointment of a State Committee to prescribe the best books, and make it the condition to the enjoyment of the public moneys, that these books and no others shall be used in the schools. 3. The prescribing, by the school visitors, of such regulations as shall tend to a uniformity in all the schools of the same society. Sixth-The irregular attendance of children at school. The remedies they propose are, 1. The distribution of the moneys to the districts according to the amount of attendance in each, so as to make it the interest of parents and districts to see that the children are regular. 2. Securing the coöperation of parents. Seventh-An unwillingness on the part of districts, school societies, and towns, to raise money by tax for the compensation of teachers, payment of school visitors, and building and repairing of school-houses. The remedies proposed are, 1. The agitation of the subject by lectures and reports. 2. The apportionment and payment of the dividends of the School Fund to such societies and districts only, as will raise a specific sum by tax, and keep the schools in a school-house approved by the school visitors. Eighth-The inability of small districts to maintain a good school-house, and employ a good teacher for a sufficient length of time. The remedies they propose are, 1. To assist the small districts by a larger distributive share of school money. 2. To abolish all small districts, where it can be done without serious inconvenience. 3. The more extensive employment, by such districts, of female teachers, in winter as well as in summer. Ninth-The want of a more thorough system of supervision, that there may be a greater uniformity and vigor in carrying out the provisions of the School Act, in different districts; and a sense of responsibilty to the Legislature, for the manner in which the large amount received from the state is expended. The remedies they propose are, 1. The appointment of a Commissioner, whose sole business it shall be to visit schools, deliver addresses, confer with school committees, circulate information, furnish plans of school-houses, and submit a detailed report of the condition of the schools annually. 2. The establishment of a Board of Education, with a member for each county, and with power to appoint a Secretary, who shall devote his whole time to these duties. 3. The appointment of an officer for each county or senatorial district, to visit the schools within his limits and report to the Legislature or the State Superintendent. 4. The appointment of a single officer for each town or school society, to have the supervision of the schools in that town or society. Tenth-The existence of numerous private schools of the same grade of the common schools; and of the patronage of the former by the educated and wealthy, to the neglect of the latter. The remedies proposed by the visitors are, 1. To make the common school the best school. 2. To establish a common school, of a higher order than the district school, in every town and in every large village. Eleventh-The want of suitable apparatus, and means of visible and practical illustration. The remedies proposed are, 1. A small appropriation by the state to each district which will raise as much more, and expend both sums in the purchase of these articles. 2. Lectures on the advantage of such means of illustration. In conclusion the Superintendent would observe, that while he entertains no doubt as to the importance of having a regular system of returns made to the Legislature by school districts and school societies, respecting the condition of the common schools within their limits for whose support the state makes a larger appropriation than is made by any other state; and that to secure uniformity and efficiency in this and other requirements of the School Law, and keep the Legislature informed of the progress of improvement in schools in other states and countries, some officer or department must be charged with these specific duties; he is no less certain that the financial duties of the Commissioner of the School Fund, are too numerous, and too diverse to be blended with those of the common schools. The supervision of the common schools, should, therefore, in his opinion, be transferred to some other department or officer. Appended to the Report of the Superintendent was a Prize Essay, on the "Necessity and Means of Improving the Common Schools of Connecticut," the history of which is thus given by the Superintendent: Since making the foregoing Report, the attention of the Superintendent has been called to a manuscript Essay "On the Necessity and Means of improving the Common Schools of Connecticut," to which has been adjudged the premium offered in the following notice : PREMIUM OF $100.-A premium of One Hundred Dollars, which the undersigned have been authorized to offer, will be paid for the best Practical Essay, adapted to general circulation, presenting the most simple and efficient plan for improving the Public Schools of Connecticut, and for adding to the Public Schools in Cities, a department for instruction in the higher branches of education. Competent judges will be selected to decide on the merits of the Essays which shall be transmitted to the undersigned on or before the 28th of April next. The names of the authors to be sent in sealed envelopes, of which that one only will be opened which accompanies the Prize Essay. HARTFORD, March 2, 1849. THOMAS DAY, Twenty-seven Essays were sent in. These were placed in the hands of Rev. George Burgess, Chairman of the School Visitors of the First School Society of Hartford, and Mr. Nathan L. Gallup, Principal of the Centre District School, Hartford, who adjudged the prize to the author of this Essay. Without having had time to examine the Essay with particular attention, and without assuming any responsibility, either for the matter or expression of the views which it contains, but as it relates "to the interest of education" in the state, and from respect to the benevolence which prompted the offer, and the practical judgment of the gentlemen who have acted as judges, the Superintendent has concluded to append the Essay to this Report, and commend it to the consideration of the Legislature. To this, as matter of history, it may be stated, that the premium was offered and paid (as well as the bill for the printing of one thousand copies in a pamphlet form) by James M. Bunce, Esq., of Hartford; and the Essay was written by Prof. Noah Porter, of Yale College, at the time residing in Springfield, Mass. The Essay was printed and widely circulated, with the Report of the Superintendent and in a separate pamphlet, among school officers, clergymen of every denomination, and the friends of educational improvement generally, in the state. It was eagerly read, and its bold, eloquent, and yet practical exposure of existing defects, and desirable remedies in our system, arrested public attention, and called forth vigorous efforts in the right direction. We give below the Prize Essay as originally published. VII. SCHOOLS AS THEY WERE IN THE UNITED STATES SIXTY AND SEVENTY YEARS AGO. Second Article. . LETTER FROM SALEM TOWN, LL.D. AURORA, N. Y. September, 1863. MY DEAR SIR,-In compliance with your request, I transmit this brief article, comprising such reminiscences of schools, school-houses, school-books, and school-teachers as they were some seventy years ago. It must, however, be remembered, that I am not describing what did or did not exist in large cities or large villages, but in rural districts, and more especially that in which I lived. Nor could it be expected that I should know any thing of other districts in the town at the time of my earliest school-days. It is nevertheless highly probable, that educational deficiencies were much the same in most, if not all country districts, as the same destitution of needful facilities as to school privileges, was rather general than local. A large portion of the male population, able to bear arms, had for seven years been deprived of educational privileges, and those at home were compelled to labor assiduously for their own support, and that of our armies in the service of their country. Under these circumstances, few individuals could be expected to qualify themselves for teachers; hence the choice of the people was a matter of necessity between teachers poorly qualified, or none at all. I make these prefatory remarks as a reasonable apology, both in behalf of the teachers themselves, and of that generation which grew up under such educational privations as the state of the country rendered unavoidable. My First Teacher, School-books and School-house. My early school days commenced just after the close of the American revolution, and my recollections as to school matters, though some seventy five years gone by, are quite distinct. One very substantial reason for this, is found in the fact, that physical appliances were frequently employed by teachers in those days, to drive ideas into the heads of little urchins, and impressions thus made are not easily forgotten. I was born in Belchertown, Mass., March 5th, 1779, andwas probably sent to school when six or seven years old. My teacher was a soldier of the revolution, living in the district. The first school-house, if such it could be called, was a room twelve or fourteen feet square, in an old dilapidated dwelling house. The seats were slabs from a saw-mill, and with legs making them so high that small scholars needed a short rope to anchor their feet to the floor. But there we must sit, however painful the position. The teacher was a large slab-sided man, who always sat in an old fashioned arm chair, about the center of the room. By his side was a small round table, and a long birch rod. (I can fancy I can see exactly how he looked.) To avoid the trouble of stooping down, he kept the butt-end of his rod resting on his chair, and we had sensible evidence oftentimes repeated, that its length was sufficient to reach most of us without requir ing the teacher to rise, which he seldom did when once seated, till the close of school. With these surroundings and discomforts, I was taught the alphabet in the New England Primer, from A to ezard and ampersand. All the letters in course must be said up and down just so many times each day. The next book in this school was Dilworth's Spelling-Book, in which, tion and sion were two syllables. In this book we were drilled for a very long time. From Dilworth we went to the Psalter, (the book of psalms,) so called. Nor had we any intermediate book of easy lessons. The Psalter was in our school the only reading book then used, with the exception of some few lessons in the Primer and Dilworth. The school consisted mainly of small scholars, some of them, perhaps, sent to school to get them out of the way. The teacher owned a small arithmetic, name not recollected. From this he gave out questions, if perchance any lad was old enough to encounter the ground rules. Slates and pencils were unknown. Paper was imported, scarce and costly, and those who could not procure it, cyphered on birch bark, and that was the article on which I, in due time first made figures. I often heard old people say my first teacher was great in figures; that he could cypher as far as the rule of three, and compute interest, and they had no doubt he could actually tell how many barley corns it would take to reach round the earth!! Such in the main comprise my earliest recollections of my first teacher and my earliest school days in 1786-7. What other teachers were, and what advantages, more or less other schools in the vicinity enjoyed at this time, I had no knowlege. Progress in Teachers, Books, &c. The next school-house where I attended was an old building near a mill-pond and saw-mill, with no dwelling near by. The teacher was an Englishman, and said to be well educated, but half crazy. Folks said he was love-cracked, and I wondered what that meant. His mode of government was unique. When the scholars became noisy, he would stamp his foot upon the floor with tremendous power, and commence pounding his own head with his fist, exclaiming, "Children, if you do not behave better, I will go right off and leave you." This for the time being would frighten the children into silence. School-books were somewhat improved. Dr. Webster's Elementary Speller, was about this time introduced. It was published in 1783, and I believe the first school-book published on this side of the Atlantic. Perry's Speller, was offered, but I think not much used. Webster's readers were now used whereever his speller was found. About this time a new school-house was built in the district, in a pleasant place, and with comfortable fixtures. A new teacher also was engaged, and I take pleasure in recording his name, for I was then at an age to appreciate instruction. Samuel Greene, (father of S. S. Greene, now a Professor in Brown's University in Providence, R. I.) purchased a farm in the same district in which my father lived. He was in all respects well qualified, eminently successful as a teacher, and universally beloved by his pupils. His name to this day, is with |