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FIRST

SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

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CITY OF CHARLESTOWN.

JULY, 1866,

BOSTON I

PRINTED AT THE HERALD JOB OFFICE, 4 WILLIAMS COURT.

1866.

REPORT.

To the School Committee of Charlestown :

Gejstlemen, — In compliance with your regulations
I respectfully submit the following, as my first semi-
annual report.

When I accepted the office of Superintendent of
Public Schools in this city, I did not act without knowl-
edge of its peculiar difficulties. In the incipiency of
such an office particularly, it might be expected that,
in any community, a variety of opinions would be enter-
tained relative to its duties and its results. It would be
very natural for some to look for immediate remedies
of real or fancied evils ; some for the introduction of
jieculiar educational plans, or for new schemes of finan-
cial reform ; while others, still more sanguine, might
anticipate all these things, and many others, as the legit-
imate fruits of a brief period of labor in so important a
relation. But useful as such an office may be ultimately
made as a means of retrenchment and educational
progress, it should not be forgotten that public schools
have received, for many years, the constant attention

of gentlemen of refined taste, large commercial ability,
and ripe and extensive experience as practical educators.
In this city, not less frequently than in others, the
School Boards have embraced gentlemen distinguished
for their financial experience and scholastic attainments.
It is not therefore, to be supposed that its educational
aff'airs have been loosely or injudiciously managed ; and
I may conclude that the office, to which you have called
me, is designed mainly to perfect and carry out the
])lans inaugurated by your wisdom and that of your
predecessors, and to give a more complete unity and a
higher finish to the work already commenced, than it
would be likely to receive from a company of gentlemen
of diverse habits, who are daily occupied with the
pressing cares of active business. Still it is not to be
assumed that an already tried and beaten track will be
continually followed, nor that the Committee and Super-
intendent are to ignore the laws of progress, or blind
themselves to the fact, that improvement is possible in
every department of our school-work.

While I fully recognize the propriety of a report by
the Superintendent, at this period of the year, I confess
to a little embarrassment in making one after so brief a
connection with your schools. Since entering upon my
duties, in April last, I have endeavored to gain that
positive and comparative knowledge of them which I
deemed necessary for a successful discharge of my
official responsibilities. To accomplish this I have
made several visits to the schools of other cities, and

have visited each of our own, with very few exceptions,
three times. These visits have ahnost invariably been
made without previous notice. Sometimes I have acted
only as a listener, and at others have conducted the
exercises myself. Though the opinions I have formed,
as a result of these investigations, may in particular
instances be modified by future observations, I consider
the schools in a very fair condition, and the teachers,
as a body, fully entitled by their intelligence and fidelity,
to the confidence of the Committee and the public.

In accordance with the vote of this Board, the Super-
intendent, aided by the sub-committees of the Grammar
Schools, made a written examination of the first and
second classes in those schools, during the first week of
the present month. As the examination papers contain
several thousands of answers, they have not yet been
fully investigated ; but the results, as far as known,
indicate a good degree of proficiency on the part of the
pupils. The comparative merits of the classes will be
exhibited to the Board in a future report.

On the 10th instant, the first meeting of the teachers,
— provided for by the third section of chapter VI. of
the School Regulations, defining the duties of the
Superintendent, — was held in the hall of the High
School. The address of the Superintendent, which was
designed to be of an introductory character, related
mostly to the moral features of the teacher's office ;
though a variety of suggestions was given on subjects
of practical importance. The attention given by the

teachers, on this occasion, as well as the assurances
offered by many of them personally, encourage the
belief that the meetings contemplated by the Board will
be of lasting benefit to the schools.

THE TRUE MISSION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL.

• The Public School is an institution of far more im-
portance, of wider and loftier aims, than the majority,
even of intelligent people, appear to apprehend. Its
fk'st and specific work is to cultivate the intellect, — to
give expansion, harmony, and direction to the mental
powers. Its mission, however, does not terminate here ;
it includes, in its broad comprehensiveness, the prepara-
tion of the young for the conflicts and duties of life in
cultivated and active society. It does not usurp the
place of the church nor of home. It is the handmaid
of each, and supplements the labors of both.

The Public School is an institution of the State, and
should therefore fit its pupils, in the most thorough
manner, for the practical duties of citizenship. It
assumes the right, in the name of the Commonwealth,
to call children from their homes, and instruct and
govern them, for a period of time ; and, in the cities
and populous towns, it actually holds them under its
formative influence, through as large a portion of the
year as the laws of health will allow them to spend in
the confinement of the school-room.

Holding the relation it does to the young, and,
through them, to the State and to all the vital interests
of society, it ought to do something more than teach
the elements of learning, and quicken to vigorous action
the faculties of the intellect. During the ten years it
holds the plastic young in its moulding hands, it ought
to accomplish for them a grand work, which will tell
favorably on their future as citizens and as moral beings.

In the great work of popular education, in addition
to the training of the intellect, special attention should
be given, among other things, to the formation of

CHARACTER, TO THE CULTIVATION OF TASTE, THE DUTIES OF
CITIZENS, PERSONAL MANNERS, AND THE HARMONIOUS DEVEL-
OPMENT OF THE PHYSICAL POWERS.

It is not my wish to attempt a discussion of all these
topics at the present time. I announce them as " cre-
denda,'' worthy to be consulted in settling the various
questions which may arise in regard to the fitness of
buildings for school purposes, the cultivation of morals,
taste and manners, physical education, and the selection
of teachers. That I have not, in these remarks, over-
stated the true mission of the Public School, will be
admitted by all who candidly consider the possible
grandeur, and the ever-recurring hazards of human life,
or the duties of teachers as they are outlined by the
statutes of the Commonwealth. The Public School is
not to send forth mere grammarians and arithmeti-
cians, but to supply society with men and women,
having the graces and moral strength of finished and
noble character.

SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS.

For several years past there has been an mcreasing
demand for seats, both in the Primary and the Grammar
Schools, and it was anticipated that the building of a
new Grammar School-house, on Baldwin street, would
furnish the desired relief; but scarcely h.ad the contract
for the erection of that building been signed when the
Warren Grammar School-house was destroyed by fire.
This disaster resulted in scattering the divisions of that
school, which have been located since that time, in four
different buildings considerably separated from each
other ; and the pupils have consequently been deprived,
to a great extent, of the oversight of the Principal, and
likewise of most of the incidental facilities needed by
such a school. The location of some of the classes is
most unfavorable to all the high purposes of education.
Some of the rooms which they occupy are damp, dark
and foul. No censure can be cast upon the sub-com-
mittee of that school, nor upon the City Government, for
selecting such rooms, for the city has been so crowded
with people, and there are so few public buildings, that
it has scarcely been possible, up to the present time, to
secure better accommodations. Under the circumstances
it seems to be an imperative duty to erect, at an early
day, a suitable edifice on the site of the Warren School-
house. Sufficient land should be purchased adjacent to
that site to furnish convenient play-grounds for the
children. The building should not be more than three

stories in height, and contain ten rooms and a hall.
This would give accommodations for as many children
as it is ordinarily safe to gather in a single building,
and quite enough for all the purposes of classification
and promotion. It would also provide a hall where
the pupils could assemble for instruction in music, for
exhibition, and such other public exercises as the School
Board might from time to time deem advisable.

To do this would increase, to some extent, the burden
of taxation. But who can tell whether that burden will
be lightened by delay? Prices will not return to their
former status for many years, and probably never.
Meanwhile hundreds of children are suifering in their
education, and many in their health. I hope the School
Bbar(J will not let this question slumber. It was a
special calamity which swept away the old building, and
a new one should be reared by a special effort.

In the construction of school-houses there should be
a regard to their appropriate uses, not less than to
economy. They should be provided with conveniences
so as to avoid all needless waste of time and labor.

There should also be a strict regard to health.

The means of heating and ventilating are often inad-
equate, or poorly adjusted to each other, so that it is
quite impossible to preserve an atmosphere fit for study
or for the use of human lungs.

Taste also has its claims. The school-house is itself
an educator; and, whatever its character, it acts effi-
ciently upon the tastes of all its inmates.

Says Mrs. Sigourney, in her admirable essay " On the
Perception of the Beautiful," " Why should not the
interior of our school-houses aim at somewhat of the
taste and elegance of a parlor 1 Might not the vase of
flowers enrich the mantelpiece, and the walls display
not only well-executed maps, but historical engravings
or pictures 1 and the book-shelves be crowned with the
bust of moralist or sage, orator or ' Father of his
Country ? ' " " Let communities, now so anxious to
raise the standard of education, venture the experiment
of a more liberal adornment of the dwellings devoted
to it. Let them put more faith in that respect for the
beautiful which really exists in the young heart, and
requires only to be called forth and nurtured, to become
an ally of virtue and a handmaid of religion. Knowl-
edge has a more imposing effect on the young mind,
when it stands like the Apostle, with the gifts of
healing, at the beautiful gate of the temple," "• I hope
the time is coming when every village school-house shall
be as an Attic temple, on whose exterior the occupant
may study the principles of symmetiy and of grace.
Why need the structures where the young are initiated
into those virtues which make life beautiful, be divorced
from taste, or devoid of comfort V

If the object of education is merely to impart a
limited knowledge of the elementary branches, it
matters little where the school is held, or how unat-
tractive its surroundings ; but if its object is, in addition
to this, to cultivate taste, to open and puiify the fount-

aiiis of happiness in the soul, every part of the edifice
should be adapted to this noble end. The architecture
of Greece and of Rome has affected the tastes of
Christendom, from the erection of the first Christian
sanctuary to the present hour ; and the school archi-
tecture of this country has had a constant and powerful
influence in moulding the tastes and manners of the
American people. If it he true, as travelers from the
old world almost mianimously affirm, that the great
mass of Americans are rude in their manners, may not
one cause be found in the rudeness of the structures
where they were educated?

Will it be asserted that even the poorest school-rooms
are as good as the homes from which many of the
children come, and that there is therefore no need of
improving them ? This implies a misconception of the
work of education. The tastes of the majority are not
to be brought down to the standard of the unfortunate
few. The mission of learning is to elevate every class ;
to inspire a better taste in those who have no means of
culture at home, and, by awakening individual minds,
to bring up the masses. A proper education in the
school-room would so refine the tastes of children
reared in rudeness, that they would eventually seek a
better and a more elegant style of life. Improvement
in the manner of living usually gives strength to the
domestic and social virtues.

The stereotyped objection to the view I present is,
" It costs too much." But it should be observed

that there are, and always will be, buildings of some
kind, and the question of cost relates only to the differ-
ence between suitable and unsuitable edifices. This
fact brings the subject into a very narrow compass.
When a school-house is being erected, it can, with
trifling additional expense, be made right, in respect to
dimensions, adornments and surroundings.

Putting the school-houses of this city in that condition
for the work of education which is demanded by good
taste and true economy, would be one of the surest
means of increasing its valuation. Let it be generally
known that they are furnished with all the requisite
means for early culture, and the legitimate effect would
be to induce people of enterprise and wealth to make it
their place of residence.

Men who imagine that money spent for educational
purposes, and for the refinements which make life
attractive to the virtuous, is wasted, are greatly mis-
taken. Such expenditures are usually repaid to the
community in coin, and always in social and moral
benefits.

The completion of the commodious and well-ara'anged
building now in process of erection, on Baldwin street,
will verify the remarks I have made. It will add
value to every house lot, and increase the rent of
every desirable tenement in that section of the city.

Ie3

MODIFICATION OF SCHOOLS AND STUDIES.

Sudden and radical changes in the management of
any great interest, unless demanded by moral considera-
tions, are usually detrimental. If made without cogent
reasons, reaction inevitably follows ; and consequently
interests of the greatest moment to society often suffer
at the hands of their warmest advocates. Happily, in
the present condition of our schools, ^dolent or unusual
changes are not required. They already possess the
essentials of a great and efR.cient system ; and the most
that is now necessary is, to make such minor modifica-
tions as are demanded by the growing wants of the
people, or suggested, as evident improvements, by edu-
cational efforts in this and other cities.

Our schools are for the people, and the conditions of
attendance and the studies pursued should be such as
will most fully meet the real wants of all classes of
our citizens. It would be pleasant to know that the
great mass of the young would complete the Yfhole
course of studies, and ultimately receive your highest
symbol of educational honor, the Diploma of the High
School. This single fact would give to Charlestown a
reputation more than national ; would make the heart of
every citizen beat with noble pride, and confer upon the
generation to come blessings innumerable and priceless.
We are, however, very far from this grand realization.
But few, very few, of our youth finish the High School
course, and a large proportion of those who enter the

Grammar Schools leave before reacliing the higher
divisions of those schools. Under these circumstances
it seems to be an imperative duty to arrange the studies
so that, while the importance of a finished and thorough
education is kept prominently before the minds of the
young, and all shall be encouraged to make the highest
acquisitions, the best provisions possible shall be made
for those children v^^ho are compelled, by the relentless
hand of want, or by parental cupidity, ignorance, or
indifference, to leave school when they have acquired
only the rudiments of a common education.

HIGH SCHOOL.

The propriety of extensively remodeling this School
has been entertained by members of this Board, and by
other gentlemen of influence as citizens and scholars.
But it does not appear, from the investigations which I
have been able to make, that any extensive change, at
the present time, would subserve the cause of learning.
I regard the school as designed (in addition to fitting
pupils for college) to furnish the youth of the city with
a thorough English education. For the accomplish-
ment of this purpose it has been supplied, through the
wisdom and liberality of the city, with adequate means
for illustrating the natural sciences, and with an able
corps of instructors. Omitting the complimentary
notices merited by his associates, I take the liberty to

remind this Board, and, through the Board, the people,
that in respect to accurate scholarship, genuine polite-
ness, aptness to teach, and abihty to govern, the Princi-
pal of our High School has but few peers among the
teachers of this Commonwealth.

I consider those youth fortunate who are permitted to
enter a school directed by his experience and animated
by his influence. I must hope, in view of the high
character of the School under its present management,
that its membership will annually increase, and its
power for usefulness be augmented by all the means at
the command of the Board. That it may more fully
meet the wants of different classes of youth, a few
changes appear to be desirable. The most important,
it seems to me, is the establishment of an English
Department, which shall embrace a liberal share of
practical studies. This would open a new and inviting
field to many pupils ; more fully secure for the school
the sympathies of the people, and greatly increase its
usefulness.

To the possible inquiry. Why not teach the natural
sciences in the Grammar Schools ? several answers
may be given. One is, the work which is likely to
be required of those schools is all they are able to
accomplish. Again, they contain no apparatus, and to
furnish them with means for appropriate experiments
would involve a great and needless expenditure. A
valid objection to introducing algebra, geometry, and
other higher branches of English into the Grammar

16 .

Schools, is found in the fact that this would necessitate
giving instruction to a large number of classes, while
the number of pupils in any one of these studies would
be so small that they might be taught by a single
teacher, in the time of an ordinary recitation, or, at
most, in twice that time. It w^ould be unwise to incur
so great an additional expense as would be necessitated
by this multiplication of labors.

Another change is called for, and that is, the sus-
pension of the conditions of admission to the High
School in the case of lads who desire to study the
Latin language, — provided satisfactory assurances be
given that they will take a collegiate course, and that
they will, in a reasonable time, complete the studies
required for a regular admission. This change would
be in harmony with the views of most classical scholars,
and would meet a want which has for some time been
felt to exist in the management of this school.

There is one important department of instruction
which receives no attention in the High School. I
refer to Drawing. This is an accomplishment of great
value, and deserves the attention of all young ladies
who desire a finished education, or even sufficient famil-
iarity with the works of art to enable them to hold
agreeable conversation upon those subjects, in polite
society. It would also afford them the means of passing
profitably many hours in sketching the beauties of
nature, the preservation of which would prove a source
of unmingled pleasure for a life-time.

.17

In view of the utility of this art, as a means of culture
and happiness, I hope it may be introduced into the
High School at an early period after the commencement
of the ensuing school year.

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.

These schools, on the whole, are doing well. The
instruction is generally thorough, and the teachers
exhibit a degree of diligence and ability which renders
them fully worthy of the positions they occupy. Yet,
satisfactory as the labors of the teachers are, I believe
the efficiency of the schools might be greatly increased.

The course of study should be so arranged that the
work of each year shall be properly defined. This
would secure the performance of a suitable portion of
the w^ork by each teacher, and by each division of the
school, and would remedy an evil which now exists,
viz. the throwing of an extra share of labor into the
last year. It would also make comparative examina-
tions of the schools convenient, and consequently place
them all more directly under the influence of the Board.

Greenleaf's Common School Arithmetic, or some
other work of equal magnitude, ought to be completely
mastered in its principles, and in the application of
those principles to the ordinary business of life.

Grammar should be more extensively studied than it
is at present. Most scholars who now reach the

masters' divisions have but a superficial knowledge of
this important study, and, the consequence is, they
do not receive that protracted drilling in analysis and
parsing which they need.

Book-keeping might be added to the course greatly
to the profit of the pupils. This is a practical study,
the importance of which in a business community
cannot well be over-estimated.

An attorney of high professional standmg in this
Commonwealth, recently remarked to me, in a conver-
sation respecting the change now proposed, that, in a
legal practice, covering many years, he had had a great
number of cases arising from failures in business ; but
not one of those cases had occurred on the part of a
man who was in the " habit of keeping his accounts."
Should any one object that this is not a fit study for
girls, it may be replied that young ladies are constantly
entering, in increasing numbers, those trades which
require a knowledge of this art. And many who
consider themselves exempt from the toils of mercantile
life, or the cares of business, may be thrown, by an
unexpected providence, upon their own resources, and
then, even a moderate knowledge of this branch might
be worth to them a fortune. It is wise to prepare every
class of youth, so far as may be, for the contingences of
the future.

Drawing maps, etc., should be practiced by all the
pupils in the Grammar Schools ; and when they reach
a proper degree of efiiciency they might substitute

drawing paper, or Bristol board, for the blackboard and
slate. A considerable portion of the time spent by
children in the Grammar Schools is unemployed. Six
or even four hours of close study, daily, is with many
of them well nigh an impossibility ; and when there
is nothing presented to them but study, close study,
the school-room seems a place of tasks and useless
drudgery. Many of them would gladly hasten the
completion of their assigned lessons if they knew that
a fraction of an hour would thus be gained for the use

of the pencil or the crayon.

PRIMAEY SCHOOLS.

These schools, though exhibiting marked differences
in regard to discipline and instruction, are generally
conducted with much ability. Some of them may be
regarded as models, and young teachers will find it
profitable to make them frequent visits. Yet to carry
out successfully the improvements akeady proposed,
and others which are likely to be suggested in the
future, it will be necessary to make the instruction in
most of the Primary Schools more comprehensive than
it is at present

But if the Primary Schools are to achieve higher
results, they must be furnished with better advantages
for securing those results. I suggest, therefore, the
propriety of limiting the membership of those schools

so that the attendance shall not, under ordinaiy circum-
stances, exceed fifty-six. This is demanded by true
economy, for, in the small and inconvenient rooms
now occupied by many of them, it is scarcely possible
to teach successfully a larger number. Crowding the
schools with pupils may give to the casual observer
the appearance of financial prudence ; but it thwarts
the very purpose of education, and should be regarded
as a waste of money, rather than a wise retrenchment.

Another great advantage might be gained by admit-
ing children who have not learned the alphabet only at
the beginning of the several terms.

Under the existing order of things such children
enter school whenever it suits the whim or convenience
of their parents, and consequently teachers are some-
times obliged to form two or three alphabet classes in
the course of a single term. This is a waste of time
which should not be allowed. The benefit to the new
comers is more than balanced by the inevitable disad-
vantage to the older pupils.

Most of the Primary Schools are deficient in black-
boards, slates, and other requisites for edacational work.
Supplying these articles would relieve the teachers
from many embarrassments, and greatly increase their
usefulness.

The expediency of grading the Primary Schools de-
sen'es careful consideration. Without entering now
into the arguments on either side of the question, I
recommend to the Board to make a fair trial of this

new measure, for it is evidently growing in favor with
successful educators. Let the six schools in the build-
ing on Common street be reorganized so as to form two,
and in two or three years the system could be fully
tested. I have no doubt the results would convince the
public of its utility.

COMPOSITION AND DECLAMATION.

I recommend the adoption, by the Board, of a rule
requiring weekly exercises in declamation and English
composition, by all the classes in the High School,
and by the first and second divisions in the Grammar
Schools. The girls should be allowed to read select
pieces instead of declaiming, if they choose to do so.
In connection with the exercises in composition, the
pupils should be carefully trained in writing letters,
bills, notes, etc.; and special attention should be given
to punctuation and the use of capital letters.

The value of these exercises is seldom appreciated as
it should be. The habit of standing by one's self to
address an audience tends, in so many ways, to awaken
the energies of a youth, to produce a spirit of self-
reliance, and power to command his thoughts and
feelings, that the neglect of elocutionary exercises by
any school must be regarded as a great misfortune to
the pupils.

I would also advise that the teachers in the lower

divisions of the Grammar Schools, and in the Interme-
diate and Primary Schools, encourage their scholars
to give occasional declamations or readings. Such
efforts would interest the children, and break up the
monotony of the school-room.

. The practice of vmting composition is so generally
approved that no arguments are needed to commend it
to the favor of this Board or of an intelligent public.

That facility with the pen which makes it a pleasure
to send messages of good will to distant friends, or to
interchange sentiments with them upon subjects of
mutual interest, is one of the priceless yet cheaply-
bestowed blessmgs which a republican education ought
to provide for every youth.

PHYSICAL CULTURE.

Health is one of the greatest blessings possible to
humanity, and its continued possession depends very
much upon the development given to the physical
constitution in childhood. To tie a child to a chair
or bench, under the pretence of packing his head with
geography and grammar, and keep him there till his
limbs are enervated and his vital organs become unfit
for their proper functions, and call this education, is
certainly a great misnomer, to use no harsher epithet.

The value of health must be looked for, not alone in
the department of manual labor, but in its relation to

close study, to the arts, the prosecution of business, and
the right enjoyment of all the moral and social pleas-
ures of life.

There is no reason in the human constitution, as the
Creator has arranged it, why men might not live one or
even two centuries, and enjoy health and happiness.

Young Ralph Farnham displayed to our revolutionary
fathers the energy of a patriot soul ; and, when a hun-
dred full-orbed years had crowned him with honors, he
walked again over the battle grounds in our city, and
showed to us, by his manly step, the capability of a
sound constitution.

The proportion of people possessing really vigorous
health is exceedingly small ; and the time seems to have
fully come when those who are charged with the
responsibility of training the rising generation should
give to physical culture the attention it so fully claims.
Consumption, that terrible scourge which has filled so
many New England homes with mourning, is, in multi-
tudes of instances, produced by cramped chests and a
foul atmosphere. And where do these things abound
more than in the school-room ? The educational labors
and expenditiu'es of the present time will be of little
avail if the young are sent to their life-work Avith weak-
ened spines, diseased lungs, and strengthless nerves and
muscles. If such be their outfit for the future, they
will help swell the growing train of death rather than
augment the active forces of society. Many diseases
result from mechanical causes, and they may frequently

be ciu'ed, and still more frequently prevented, by me-
chanical means, or by a proper development of the
mechanical forces of the human system.

I therefore recommend the immediate introduction of
systematic j>hysical exercises into all the schools of the
city. Several of the teachers have taken lessons of
accomplished gymnasts, and are thoroughly qualified to
give instruction in this department ; and I am sure that
all of them will cheerfully cooperate in carrying out
any plans relative to physical culture which the Com-
mittee may adopt.

SPIRIT OF THE SCHOOL-ROOM.

With suitable encouragements, children patiently
endure fatigues and surmount difficulties with delight.
The vast majority of them do not fear toil or deprivation
if they are made to feel that they are doing something
that is manly ^ noble. The animus of the school-room is
therefore a matter of great importance, and should be
carefully watched over by visiting committees, as well
as by teachers. Some schools are thoroughly alive ;
the teacher and scholars are working with evident
delight in the object to be accomplished ; in others, the
scholars have but little zeal for study, and the progress
made is secured mainly by force, either of the teacher's
will or rod. A studious teacher, whose mind is ani-
mated by new thoughts, fresh and apt illustrations, will

find very little difficulty in kindling the enthusiasm of
pupils of ordinary ability, and enabling them to grapple
with difficulties, at the sight of which, if left to them-
selves, they would shrink back in complete despond-
ency. But by the spirit of the school-room I include
far more than a zest for study. Moral forces are con-
stantly operating there, awakening the faculties and
harmonizing them with the beautiful and the good, or
perverting them to the practices of vice. Conscience,
hope, and indeed all the affections of the soul, as well
as memory and reason, are undergoing a continual
process of training in the school-room, and the culture
which they receive there will mark the character in
after life. If the ruling spirit is such as arises from
indifference to the distinctions between vice and elevated
morality, those faculties will inevitably be perverted or
stultified ; if, on the other hand, it is such as springs
from a deep consciousness of rectitude, and from
active sympathy with what is great and honorable in
human conduct, it will develop the higher faculties,
bring the soul into communion with the moral forces of
the universe, and give to the character a strength and
beauty lasting as the ages. Every day brings to each
young heart expansion and beauty, or blight and
deformity ; — there is no escape from this alternative.
This fact invests teaching, and the selection of teachers,
with a high responsibility. The financial considerations
involved in the election of a teacher are, in comparison
with those of a moral nature, lighter than the dust of

the balance. The obvious mference is that the most
thorough and critical examination should be made
respecting the literary and moral qualifications of can-
didates for the teacher's office.

The law of the State seems to be explicit upon this
subject, and the precautions it enjoins should be care-
fully used, in order that those who have the greatest
fitness, resulting from the gifts of nature combined with
the culture of the schools, may be appointed to the
sacred work of educating human minds and hearts.

Respectfully submitted,

JOHN H. TWOMBLY,

Superintendent of Public Schools.

ANNUAL REPORT

SCHOOL COMMITTEE

INCLUDING THE

SECOND AND THIRD SEMI-ANNUAL EEPOETS

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL^,

FOE, THE YEAR 1867.

WITH AN APPENDIX

BOSTON :

ARTHUR W. LOCKE & CO., PRINTERS, 120 MILK STREET.

1868.

CITY OF CHARLESTOWN.

In School Committee, January 2, 1868.

On motion it was —

Voted, — That one thousand copies of the Annual Report, prepared
by the President and Superintendent, be printed for distribution.

Attest: F. A. DOWNING,

Secretary.

REPORT. -

The School Committee of Charlestown respectfully
submit the following as their Annual Report for the
year 1867.

ORGANIZATION OF THE BOARD.

At the first meeting in January the Board was organ-
ized by the choice of Geo. W. Gardner for President,
F. A. Downing for Secretary, W. H. Finney for Treas-
urer, and Abijah Blanchard for Messenger.

At the second meeting in January, the President
announced the Sub-Committees on the different schools
as they are given in connection with the Reports on
the several schools ; also, the following

STANDING COMMITTEES.

On Finance. — A. J. Locke, Geo. H. Harden, Geo. H. Yeaton.
On Books. — Samuel H. Hurd, J. E. Rankin, 0. F. Safford.
On Printing. — Moses H. Sargent, "Wm. R. Bradford, Chas. H.
Bigelow.

On Fuel. — John Sanborn, A. E. Cutter, John A. Day.

On School Houses. — Geo. W. Gardner, Charles F. Smith,
Geo. H. Harden, J. E. Rankin, David M. Balfour, A. J. Locke,
Samuel H. Hurd.

On Examination of Teachers. — Geo. W. Gardner, William
H. Finney, A. E. Cutter, Edwin B. Haskell, Geo. H. Harden, S.
H. Hurd. — Secretary of the Committee, the Superintendent, Rev.
J. H. Twombly.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

The amount asked for by the School Committee was —

For Salaries of Teachers, Messenger, Secretary, and

Treasurer $66,125

For Salary of Superintendent 2,000

For Incidental Expenses 11,500

Total $79,625

The amount appropriated by City Council was —

For Salaries of Teachers, &c $60,000

And amount of City's proportion from School

Fund (estimated) 900

$60,900

For Salary of Superintendent 2,000

For Incidental Expenses 10,000

Total $72,900

The amount expended to Dec. 31, under direction of the Com. —

For Salaries of Teachers, &c $47,622

For Salary of Superintendent 1,500

For Incidental Expenses 8, 107

Total $57,229

The estimated expenses for the remainder of the Fiscal year
(to March 1st) are —

For Salaries of Teachers $15,600

For Salary of Superintendent 500

For Incidentals 2,050

18,150

Estimated total expenses to March 1st $75,379

Leaving a deficiency of appropriations for Salaries of

Teachers, &c $2,322

Leaving a deficiency of appropriations for Incidental

Expenses 157

Total estimated deficiency $2,479

SALARIES OF TEACHERS.

In the performance of their duty as reqmred by the
Statutes of the Commonwealth, after due consideration
and careful comparison with the salaries paid in neigh-
boring cities, the Committee fixed the salaries to be
paid to the several teachers as follows, viz. :

Principal of High School $ 2500.

Sub-Master 1600.

First Assistant 800.

Second 650.

Third and Fourth Assistants High School each 500.

Principals of Grammar Schools each 1800.

Two Sub-Masters Grammar Schools each 1400.

Three Sub-Mistresses 700.

Head Assistants 600.

Assistants, 1st year 450.

" 2d 475.

" 3d 500.

One Music Teacher 1300.

Two Intermediate School Teachers each 525.

Teachers of Primary Schools, 1st year 450.

" " " " 2d 475.

" " " « 3d 500.

It will be seen that the aggregate voted and asked
for by this Board for Teachers' Salaries, is in excess of
the amount appropriated for this purpose by the City
Council in the sum of $6525.

The question of ultimate authority in this matter is
now in the Courts.* It is difficult to see how this
Board can exercise its functions if it has not full power
in the matter of salaries. As the action of the Board
has given rise to some unfavorable criticism, — in order

* For further information, and the decision of the case, see Appendix.

that the public may see whether or not we have acted
with unwise extravagance in this matter in comparison
with the School Boards of sister cities, — the salaries
of the teachers in Cambridge and Chelsea are given
below. It is well known that Boston has always paid
higher salaries than the suburban cities.

HIGH SCHOOL

CAMBEIDGE.
Master ....
Classical Teacher
1st Sub-Master .
2d Sub-Master
1st Fern. Assistant
2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th

$2,500

2,500

2,000

1,500

900

700

CHELSEA.
Principal . . . $2,500
Fern. Assistant . 500 to 600

Master . . .
Fern. Assistants

Principal .

Assistants

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.

. . $2,000 Boys', Male Prin. $2,000
. . 550 Girls', Fern. " 1,200

Fem. Assistants, 500 to 600

PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

to 550 Fem. Teachers
425 " 475

$300 to 500

NEW SCHOOL HOUSES.

Two new first-class Grammar ' School Houses have
been dedicated to the cause of popular education during
the year.

In the last Annual Report reference was made to
the Bunker Hill School House, which was then nearly
ready for occupancy. With one or two defects in the
arrangements for ingress and egress, which we have the
promise shall be speedily remedied, this house is com-

plete in all its appointments for the purposes designed.
It has a good location ; is substantial and beautiful in
structure ; three stories in height, exclusive of basement
and Mansard roof; contains a commodious hall and
fourteen school-rooms, each with a seating capacity for
56 pupils, and each with two ante-rooms attached, one
for the teachers, the other for pupils ; it is warmed
throughout by furnaces ; furnished with Mystic water
in each story ; has the most convenient appliances of
bells and speaking tubes, and all its furnishings after
the most approved models. It is a great 'ornament to
the upper section of the city. The entire cost of the
building, exclusive of land, was $75,000.

For a full account of the exercises at the dedication
of the building, which occurred Feb. 22d, 1867, see
Appendix.

The Warren Grammar School House has been re-
built on the same general plan as the Bunker Hill, and
with some improvements in detail. The building is
very tasteful, substantial, and commodious. It is heated
throughout by steam.

As this fine edifice rises up in beautiful proportions
on the crown of the hill, it seems to be vieing with the
Monument itself in doing honor to an illustrious name.
Cost of the building, exclusive of land, $73,184.

For a full description of this model house, with the
exercises of its dedication, see Appendix.

The old Bunker Hill School building has been refitted
for the use of Primary Schools, — aff'ording eight very
pleasant and comfortable rooms. The expense of
remodelling this building was $4000.

Land has been purchased on Richmond Street, and
two Primary School Buildings have been placed there-

on ; total expenditures for the same about $5,000.
Thus the improvements in our school houses during
the last two years have cost the city $157,184.

RE-DISTRICTING.

The city has been re-districted, both for the Gram-
mar and the Primary Schools. This was made necessary
by the construction of the new houses.

By the new districting, the Harvard and Winthrop
Schools are relieved of their pressure, and the Warren
School is made to contain about 600 pupils.

For a schedule of the districts, both Grammar and
Primary, see Appendix.

CLASSIFICATION AND COURSES OF STUDY.

In accordance with a recommendation from the
Superintendent, in his Semi- Annual Report in Feb-
ruary, a committee was appointed with that officer to
arrange and classify the studies in the several Primary,
Intermediate, and Grammar Schools, so as to secure
uniformity in all of the same grade. The courses of
study as so arranged, together with the several courses
in the High School, with the text-books as finally adopted
by the Board, are given in the Appendix. This
schedule will show the work to be done in regular suc-
cession in going through the Public Schools of the city.

EXAMINATIONS OF TEACHERS.

The committee on examination have had four ses-
sions. The system has worked well. About two-
thirds of the candidates have passed satisfactorily.
There is no doubt that while some who would make

good teachers are kept out of our schools by this ordeal,
many who would be but ordmary teachers, or would fail
utterly, have been kept out also. Certificates of ap-
proval have been issued to the successful candidates.

GRADUATION FROM THE GRAMMAR
SCHOOLS.

Many of the scholars never go further than the Gram-
mar Schools. It has been thought that such ought to
receive some testimonial on completing the Grammar
School course. Accordingly, upon the suggestion of
the Superintendent, it has been arranged that regular
graduation exercises shall be held in each of the Gram-
mar Schools at the end of the school year, and a hand-
some " Certificate of Graduation " be given to all the
pupils who complete the course. At the close of the
last year, in July, such exercises were held, and the
following scholars received certificates in their respec-
tive schools.

NAMES OF SCHOLARS RECEIVING
DIPLOMAS.

BUNKER HILL SCHOOL.

Sarah E. Armstrong, Fred. C. Cochran,

Lizzie H. Blanchard, Horace J. Harris,

Emma F. Furbush, Stephen M. Kelley,

Ella P. Holt, Frank Kimball,

Isora Peterson, John H. Studley, Jr.,

Emma C. Talpey, John F. Spaulding,

.Josephine L. Toppan, Geo. L. Venner,

Evie F. Wyman, Geo. A. Wentworth.
John M. Benn,

WARREN SCHOOL.

Eliza F. Cutler,
Emily F. Felton,
Alice L. Harding,
Ella F. Patch,
Drusilla F. Rutter,
Georgianna Stevens,
Abbie H. Wiley,

James A. Anderson,
James F. Bartlett,
James F. Maynard,
Thomas W. Bryant,
Forest D. Green,
Louis P. Hart,
Warren H. Woodman.

PRESCOTT SCHOOL.

Emma M. Hamblet,
Clara Hazleton,
Annie J. Howels,
Mary F. Sargent,
Emma J. Stevens,
Annie M. Williams,
Josiah Gr. Bridge,
George L. Cutter,
Charles B. Emery,

Henry A. Fuller,
Frank B, Oilman,
Henry A. Lawrence,
Eber P. Melzar,
Albert L. Pratt,
David F. Stearns,
J. Charles Thomas,
Spencer T. Williams,
Henry A. C. Woodward.

WINTHROP SCHOOL.

Esmerelda Porter Delano,
Harriet Merrick Gardner,
Grace Hurd Harding,
Alide Sophia Hatch,
Carrie Helen Langmaid,

Julia Mason Pease,
Susan Azulbah Robie,
Mary Ella Todd,
Charles Frederick Ham.

HARVARD

SCHOOL.

Mary L. Clapp,

Susan McWilliams,

Annie E. Denvir,

J. Warren Copeland,

Clara L. Duchemin,

Arthur V. Fisher,

Hattie L, Harris,

John Highland,

Mary Maloney,

Geo. E. Kimball,

Sarah G. Page,

Horace Wyman,

M. Isabel Wellington,

Charles H. Willard.

GENERAL REMARKS.

Improvements in many respects are visible in the con-
dition of the Schools. It has been a year of experi-
ment in many tilings. Most of our experiments seem
likely to be successes. A little more time will be
requisite to show the full benefit of many of the
changes that have been made. Our Superintendent has
worked hard and well to secure, in the average of
advancement in all the grades of instruction, better re-
sults for the labor and money expended.

The last thing we can afford to waste is time. There
is no doubt that much time has hitherto been wasted in
unnecessary detentions and fruitless attempts to make
the child master what is not worth mastering. What
our schools need is a little wholesome stimulant. They
are apt to get into the treadmill. It is a mistake to hold
nimble scholars back until laggards catch up. Let the
lessons be graded to the medium ability of the class, and
rather above it than below it.

In matters of order and discipline we hope there has
been improvement. A new truant system has been
introduced. Stated reports of all cases of corporal pun-
ishment are required to be made to the Superintendent.
The attention of the Board has frequently been called
to this matter. There has been too much whipping in
some of the schools, and other punishments have not
always been judicious and discriminative. The com-
mittee have been awake to this matter. We desire to
reduce corporal punishment, and in fact all punishment,
to a minimum. And if the mitiimum could be zei'o so
much the better. Brute force is a poor educator com-
pared with moral force. Do teachers understand that

punishment, and especially if over-severe or only half
deserved, injures the moral sense of a child ] There
are cases not a few where kindness would win, but
harshness cannot drive. Think what a child is, —
body, mind, soul ; then teach it, govern it, accordingly.

The reports on the condition of the several schools
have been prepared by the Superintendent. That offi-
cer has been constant in his oversight of them, and can
better speak of their comparative merits than any one
of the Board who has had less observation.

It gives us pleasure to testify to the ability, good
sense, and discrimination exhibited by that officer dur-
ing his connection with us. His work is just begun.
It is well laid out, and if prosecuted cannot but elevate
and meliorate the condition of our schools. Results in
education cannot be realized in a day or a year. Time
is the great sealer of all successes.

In behalf of the School Board,

GEO. W. GARDNER,

Gharlestown, Jan, 1868. President.

TRUST FUND.

W. H. FINNEY, Treasurer, In Account with the
Charlestoivn Free Schools.

Dr.
1867.

January. — To Balance $1100.58

" To Cash of City Treas. 6 mos. int. on note $5000 150.00

July. " " " " " 150.00

" •' •' 1 year's " 600 36.00

Total $1436.58

Cr.
1867.
January 26. — By Cash paid Rev. J. H. Twombly for expense

of visit to New Yoik on School business $ 25.00

February 28. Crosby & Ainsworth for Mason's Manuals .... 20.00
" " By Cash paid Trustees of Public Library for

use of Hall for Stacy Baxter's Lectures 144.00

March 7. By Cash paid for Maps, Globes, &c., for Bun-
ker Hill School

J. W. Schermerhorn & Co $42.78

Edwin Ginn 42.90

Alfred P. Gage 10.85

S. L. Blackmer : 7.00

Dodge, Collier & Perkins 3.25

106.78

March 15. " " " Edwin Ginn, Maps for Warren

School 13.50

" By Cash paid Stacy Baxter for course of les-

sons in Vocal Culture to School Teachers. ..300.00
July. By Cash paid Sarah W. Brooks for lectures

before High School 50.00

By Cash paid A. W. Locke & Co., for Certifi-
cates of Graduation 82.30

August 30. By Cash paid V. A. Guiot for Instruction in

Erench at High School 50.00

September. By Cash paid E. T. Moody, for Ribbon for Di-
plomas ; 1.20

By Cash paid C. Carleton, Ribbon for Diplomas .28
December. " " " Snow, Boyden & Knight for Tab-
let Slates 12.00

" By Cash paid Geo. G. Smith, Engraving High

School Diplomas 12.00

" By Cash paid H. H. & W. 0. Chamberlain, re-
pairing Apparatus, High School 5.50

" By Cash paid E. S. Ritchie, Apparatus High

School 4.90

31. By Balance 609.12

Total $1436.58

E. & O. E.,

WM. H. FINNEY, Treasurer.
Chablestown, December 31, 1867.

Chaklestown, January 4, 1868. — We, the undersigned, a Committee
appointed by the Board of School Committee to audit the Treasurer's
accounts, hereby certify that we have examined the above account, and find
^he items therein contained properly vouched for, and the balance as above
stated six hundred and nine dollars and twelve cents ($609.12).

CHAELES F. SMITH, ) . ....

GEO. H. HARDEN, V ^"««?"9'

CHARLES H. BIGELOW, > committee.

SUPERINTENDENT'S SECOND SEMI-ANNUAL
EEPORT.

To the School Committee of the City of Charlestown :

Gentlemen, — In accordance with your require-
ments, I present my second semi-annual Report.

Probably no age has produced such intelligent, clear-
sighted, and successful business men as those who now
conduct the departments of trade and commerce in this
country. These gentlemen who have dotted our rivers
with manufactories, bound together the States with iron-
railways, and floated the products of the national in-
dustry upon every sea, have broken away from the
restraints of mere precedent. Holding methods to be
valuable in proportion to their utility, and not according
to their age or the number of sanctions bestowed upon
them, they adopt with promptness any proposed change
which fairly promises to enhance their profits. New
inventions are immediately tested, and, if found equal
to their pretensions, they receive at once the seal of
approbation Hence each year brings to light some
additional means to multiply the results of capital and
labor.

New materials are discovered, old ones applied to

new uses, and the remnants, which were once thrown
aside as worthless, are now transformed into valuable
commodities. Yet these improvements, instead of
satisfying the worthy ambition of intelligent men,
increase their aspirations for higher successes, for
greater profits in all the spheres of industry. Anima-
ted by the spirit which governs the departments of
business, the conductors of public education should
cheerfully adopt those measures, however contrary to
the routine of the past, which, by their well attested
efficiency or the correctness of their principles, give
assurance of producing a more elevated and varied cul-
ture, or of yielding, in less time, results equivalent to
those now obtained.

Among the great and frequently recurring questions
which demand the enlightened consideration of the
guardians of public education are these :

What is the great end to be accomplished by our
public schools ?

What defects characterize our present methods 1

What measures can be adopted to improve our
educational system 1

To all persons who do not fancy that perfection has
already been realized, these are ever fresh and vital
inquiries.

The answer to the first is brief but comprehensive,
viz. : to enable the young to live right. In order to do
this they must be properly governed, and they must be
thoroughly instructed in respect to the laws of self-
preservation, the means of gaining a livelihood, the im-
portance and the true methods of personal development,
the duties of the individual to the State and to society,

and in regard to those high and sacred obligations
which they owe to the Creator.

Barely to exist and gain a livehhood requires some
knowledge of one's self, and of the laws of nature and
general business ; but he who does only this can
scarcely be said to live. He only tarries with mankind.

A right life is one that meets all the responsibilities
which spring from the varied faculties of human nature,
and from the just demands of cultivated society and
equal citizenship. Public education must aim at this
all comprising end, and, though it fail to grasp and
achieve it fully, it must look towards it as steadily as the
needle points to the pole.

Properly to elucidate this topic would require a
volume ; I leave it, therefore, content for the present
with suggesting that a broad field for culture lies beyond
the limited system of ordinary school instruction.

To the second question, — What defects characterize
our present method % a great variety of answers might
be given. But as it is unnecessary to draw detailed
pictures of defects and failures, I shall specify but few
of them, and leave others to be inferred from the recom-
mendations which I shall make.

I have been impressed in my visits to the schools,
that there is a great loss of time in the Primary Schools,
and in the lower classes of the Grammar Schools. This
arises in part from the incapacity of young pupils for
protracted study ; but this is not the only nor the main
cause. It is very apparent to me that the scholars re-
ferred to could accomplish far more than they do now,
if they had correct habits of study, or their efforts were
properly directed. The teachers in the Primary Schools
have so many classes differing in age and in advance-

ment, that it is quite impossible for them to occupy the
attention, or properly control the conduct, of the large
number of pupils committed to their care. This diffi-
culty is in many instances aggravated by the want of
comfortable sittings, or of blackboards and slates.

In some of the lower classes in the Grammar Schools
altogether too much time is spent in the mere routine
of recitation. For instance, a short lesson is given to a
division of thirty-five or forty scholars ; four or five re-
cite the whole of it, then it is recited by four or five
more, and so on, through the long line, until the major-
ity of the pupils lose their interest in the subject ; and
all of them are wearied by the protracted exercise
and the frequent commands, " stand up," " keep still,"
&c. The object of this repetition is to make the schol-
ars more thorough ; but when the recitation extends
through forty minutes, as is sometimes the case, indif-
ference rather than thoroughness is the result. There
are better methods. One is to call up the class in
sections, and, while a few recite and receive their ap-
propriate drill, let the others attend to some other duty
prescribed by the teacher.

Another defect is found in the failure of the Gram-
mar Schools to bestow anything worthy of the name of
Grammar School education on more than a very small
fraction of the pupils that enter them. The public
school system in most of our large cities seems, in many
respects, to be adjusted to the wants of the rich rather
than those of the poor. In fact, as outlined by the
laws of the State and conducted in the cities, it looks
towards a thorough collegiate education. As early as
1647 the Legislature of the Colony of Massachusetts
enacted a law requiring every township of one hundred

families to provide a Grammar School where the young
should be " fitted for the University." "The University "
has ever been the ultima thule of New England educa-
tors, and very naturally all the preparatory processes
have been arranged with reference to the end to be at-
tained. And were all the pupils in our public schools
destined for the University, we should have but little
occasion to seek for improvements in the lower depart-
ments of education. This, however, is not the case.
In this city less than one in a hundred of those who
enter the Grammar Schools find their way to College.
While, therefore, we may vindicate on many grounds the
general course of study^ it becomes an imperative duty
to make special eff"orts in behalf of the large class of
children who go out from our schools without a practi-
cal acquaintance with the elementary branches of
knowledge. A brief sketch of some parts of the work,
as it has ordinarily been performed in the school-room,
will throw light upon this subject. Suppose two full
classes, or one hundred and twenty scholars, have en-
tered a Grammar School ; for two years, at least, they
have been required to study Colburn's Mental Arith-
metic. The third year, with slightly diminished num-
bers, they have commenced Greenleaf 's Common School
Arithmetic, and have proceeded through the first two
or three rules. Perhaps ninety have commenced the
fourth year, and those who have remained to its close,
have usually gone over about one hundred pages.
During the fourth year several more have left the class,
and, thus, with constantly decreasing numbers, the little
column has completed its educational pilgrimage in the
course of six or seven years, and has left the school
numbering, generally, from twelve to twenty. A large

proportion of the time devoted to arithmetic has been
spent on Colburn's Lessons, with but little interest on
the part of the younger pupils, and with less profit.

The study of geography has been somewhat more
successful ; yet in this branch but very slender attain-
ments have been made by the majority of pupils. Too
much time has been spent on unimportant details ; for
instance, in memorizing minute descriptions of products,
&c., and learning the names of small places, which the
children will seldom hear of after leaving the school-
room. The teachers have had an inadequate supply of
globes, maps, and charts. For several years the pupils
have not been required to draw maps, and too little
attention seems to have been given to the relative
positions of the different bodies of land and water, and
to the great highways of travel upon the oceans, lakes,
and rivers.

Reading has received the special fostering care of the
Board, and I think the attention bestowed upon it will
be amply remunerated. The excellent lessons in elo-
cution given to the teachers of this city by Mr. Stacy
Baxter, during the fall and early winter, greatly in-
creased their interest in this essential branch of educa-
tion. But I have found that though some of the lower
divisions read frequently, they read but few pieces.
In some instances a month has been spent on three or
four lessons. This slow process is employed in order
to make the pupils more accurate in pronunciation, ac-
cent, and emphasis, — in a word, to teach them to read
well ; but it certainly cannot accomplish all the objects
to be sought by this exercise. There are three great
purposes to be accomplished by reading in public schools.
The first, to gain a knowledge of words ; the second,

power to express thoughts conveyed by those words ;
the third, a taste for reading.

On the plan named, the first object is almost entirely
lost sight of, for the lessons read are so limited, and the
pieces so similar, that children may attend to the pre-
scribed exercises a whole year without acquiring any
considerable knowledge of words. The second object,
— power of expression, can hardly be secured by such a
method. The theory on which this practice is based is
in the main correct, for a great part of elocution may
be learned by thorough drill on the alphabet alone. But
young children are not likely to be inspired for close
study by an eloquence whose beauties and intrinsic
worth they do not understand ; and it almost invari-
ably follows that, as they become familiar with the lan-
guage in the lessons assigned to them, and the stories
grow stale by repetition, they lose their interest in the
exercise, and in proportion as they do improvement
ceases. Children would learn more of the true art of
reading in going twice through a piece which they like,
than they would in rehearsing a dozen times one
which they do not like, or have become tired of. The
third object, — cultivating a taste for reading, is quite
lost sight of.

I submit, in view of these facts, whether it is not nec-
essary to arrange the exercises in this branch, so that
while pupils shall have a thorough drill on a few les-
sons, they shall also read a much greater variety of
pieces, and have the new words explained to them by
the teacher, so as to widen their field of thought and
cultivate their taste for reading 1

History and grammar, with unimportant exceptions,
have been pursued only by the first and second classes.

As the studies are now arranged in these schools, the
few scholars, — about one-sixth of the whole — who
complete the course, go through Colburn's First Les-
sons ; to cube root in Greenleaf s Common School
Arithmetic, and, in Quackenbos' History of the United
States, to the Constitutional Period. They also make
fair attainments in geography ; become somewhat fa-
miliar with the elementary principles of grammar ; and,
of course, make more or less proficiency in reading,
spelling, and penmanship.

This stock of knowledge is of great value ; yet,
viewed as an outfit for practical and earnest life, in an
intelligent community, it must be regarded as very defi-
cient. What training do they receive for the responsi-
bilities of citizenship, or for the transaction of business 1
Are they taught to keep even a simple account, or to
write a note, a bill, or a receipt? to write a letter of
business or of friendship 1 Do they receive any ade-
quate instruction in the laws of health, or in manners
and social morals ] or in the infinite variety of objects
and truths in nature 1 The answer to these and similar
inquiries must generally be in the negative.

This description applies to those who finish the whole
course, but it should be definitely remembered that
about three-fifths of all who enter do not reach the
second class, and consequently they leave school, in en-
tire ignorance of grammar and history, and with very
limited attainments in the other branches ; while many
leave with only a smattering of geography, and of arith-
metic through the fundamental rules.

The picture which I have drawn is not peculiar to
the schools of this city, it has a very general applica-
tion. Our schools are, certainly, quite as good as those

in other similar cities. The popular system is defec-
tive ; it is not adapted to the wants of a majority of our
youth. But the defects which I have named, and
others of a like character, do not spring entirely from
the system. A great difficulty is, parents do not con-
tinue their children long enough at school to allow them
to gain a suitable education. This fault can be remedied
only by various and long-continued efforts. In a word,
the popular standard of education must he elevated, and
an interest awakened in the cause of learning commen-
surate with its intrinsic worth.

What measures can be adopted to improve our edu-
cational system ?

In reply to this question I have several recommenda-
tions to offer, the first, and perhaps the most important
of which, is : The grading of the Primary Schools. In
my first semi-annual report, I recommended the grading
of the schools in the building on Common Street, and
spoke of the measure as an experiment. I used this
moderate term rather out of deference to the opposition
which I knew to exist in the Board to a measure of this
kind, than as an expression of my own opinion con-
cerning its value. I hoped that gentlemen who doubted
the utility of such a course might, nevertheless, be in-
duced to make the change as an experiment ; and. par-
ticularly, as the experiences and opinions of the best
educators could be urged in its favor. Up to this time,
however, no action has been taken. The proposition
lies on the table.

And now, after several months of careful observation
and extended inquiry in regard to the practical working
of graded schools, I am prepared to recommend, not as
an experiment, but as a measure of vital importance,

the grading of all the Primary Schools in the city. This
cannot be done at once, as it would be injurious in many
respects to break up the first classes, which are now fit-
ting for the Grammar Schools. Still, the subject should
receive prompt attention, and in my judgment, the
change should be made at the commencement of the
next school year. It will require time to mature the
plan, divide the scholars, and adjust the teachers to
their new positions. Early action seems necessary,
also, inasmuch as the old Bunker Hill Grammar School-
house is soon to be refitted for Primary Schools, and it
is important that the seats and desks be arranged in
reference to the pupils who are to occupy that building.

In regard to the number of grades in each school, I
am fully satisfied that three are better than two. Yet, in
a community in which school-houses are already built,
and their construction has forestalled action in the case, I
would accept of two as a vast improvement over the old
system, or the old ivay which has no system. If the
principle shall be adopted by the Board, no difiiculty
will be found in its application.

Among the reasons for adopting the proposed change
are the following : —

1. It would secure better order.

Any person at all familiar with our Primary Schools
must be aware of the fact that most of them, though
under the supervision of ladies of experience and ac-
knowledged abilty, fail to exhibit that degree of order
and attention to study, or other prescribed duties, essen-
tial to the highest success. In truth, a majority of the
children spend a large part of their time in idleness or
mischief. This is not the fault of the teacher ; it is a
legitimate result of the want of system. In most of

these schools there are five or six classes, and while the
teacher is listening to one class, and endeavoring to lead
its members along the dim and clouded path of knowl-
edge, she is compelled to watch forty or fifty children,
many of whom are restive under an authority whose
value they do not appreciate, and which they but
slightly respect. If she attends closely to the scholars
who are reciting, more or less of the others will be en-
gaged in mischief; if she looks closely after the gen-
eral order of the room, the class reciting will receive
limited, and in many cases, inappropriate instructions.
Much of the disobedience manifest in the Grammar
Schools was nurtured into strength in the ungraded
Primaries. By multiplying the grades, the number of
classes in each room will be diminished, and conse-
quently the teachers will be brought into more direct
and constant communication with their pupils, and have
them more fully under their control. Thus many pupils
will be saved from the commission of off"ences, and be
led to form habits of obedience which may characterize
them for a lifetime.

2. Under the proposed arrangement children will
make more rapid progress in their regular studies.

They ought to be much further advanced, than they
usually have been, in arithmetic, in reading, and in
writing, before entering the Grammar Schools. I have
been assured by some of our best teachers, that they
would find no difiiculty in carrying their first classes
through a series of problems in the fundamental rules,
were they not prevented by a multiplicity of duties.

The children have capacity for such exercises, and
the necessary labor would not severely tax them.

Heretofore but little attention has been given, in the

Primary Schools, to the use of the slate and pencil, to
printing or writing letters, to solving problems in num-
bers, or to the elementary sounds of our language.
Want of suitable attention to these things, during the
early period of their schooling, affects children very un-
favorably in subsequent years.

3. Another advantage to be derived from the pro-
posed plan is found in the fact, that it would allow far
more time for oral instruction in a multitude of things
highly useful to children, and adapted to interest them
in study, and would make the pursuit of knowledge a
pleasure as well as a duty. The knowledge of the ele-
mentary studies acquired by children under ten years of
age, is but an insignificant part of their education.
Their tastes are to be developed, tempers controlled,
habits formed, — their whole social and moral nature in-
spired and directed. Plastic childhood is committed to
public instructors to be moulded into the highest types of
life. This great work is now sadly neglected, not by
the dereliction of teachers, but from the want of a
system which provides for its performance.

The Statutes of the Commonwealth declare, that " It
shall be the duty of all instructors of youth to exert
their best endeavors to impress on the minds of children
and youth committed to their care and instruction, the
principles of piety and justice, and a sacred regard to
truth, love of country, humanity and universal benevo-
lence ; sobriety, industry and frugality ; chastity^ good
behavior, moderation and temperance ; and those other
virtues which are the ornaments of human society, and
the basis upon which a republican constitution is
founded" ; " and also to point out to them the evil ten-
dencies of the opposite vices." — General Stats. ^ chap.
78, Sees. 1, 10, 11.

These extracts are but a part of the statutes bearing
on this subject, yet they indicate a great and essential
work, which, under the pretence of economy, or from a
dislike to turn from a beaten track, receives but little
attention in a majority of public schools. Did moral
culture hold its true place in the work of education,
corporal punishment might almost be abolished from the
schools, and the prison and the gallows from the State.

Blackboards and slates should be frequently brought
into requisition, and the time now wasted in idleness or
mischief, should be devoted to some form of culture.
The school-room should not be a place for listlessness ;
but for useful instruction and entertaining exercises.
To make it so in the highest degree, the schools must
he graded.

4. Another argument in favor of the measure pro-
posed is its well-known success. Most of the great cit-
ies of the country have adopted the plan, and, after a
full trial of it, have pronounced in its favor. It has
everywhere stood the test of fair experiment. Boston,
New York, and Chicago, to say nothing of a large num-
ber of other cities and towns, have tried the graded
system with eminent success.

5. Another argument might be drawn from the prac-
tices of shrewd business men.

Almost every kind of mechanical and commercial
business is conducted on this system. The old idea
that a merchant should keep all kinds of goods, that a
blacksmith should be skilled in the working of metals,
from the forging of a horseshoe to the manufacture of a
watch, or that a carpenter should add to his regular
vocation the business of the tailor or attorney, has long
since given way to a better theory. Work is everywhere

systematized. It should be, also, in the school-room as
thoroughly as in the factory or the store.

The Grammar Schools of this city have been for sev-
eral years conducted on the graded system, and no man
of common intelligence would throw them back into
their original chaos. I have only to ask that the Pri-
mary Schools be conducted on the same principle.

In order to increase the efficiency of the Grammar
Schools, I offer the following suggestions.

1 That the studies in these schools be so adjusted as
to give to those scholars who must leave, at an early
period, a more extensive and accurate acquaintance
with practical subjects. This would not interfere with
mental discipline, for that can be as fully acquired by
the study of the useful as of the merely theoretical.
There is a prevalent opinion among business men and
educators, that quite too much time is spent in public
schools in mere routine. The time, I apprehend, has fully
come when the brief school hours of the children of the poor
should be devoted to the most useful branches of learning.
A majority of them have but three or four years, after
leaving the Primary Schools, in which to complete their
education. They should therefore have a much more criti-
cal and comprehensive training in these lower schools
than they do at present, and, when they enter the Gram-
mar Schools, they should commence as early as possible
studies of practical utility. Altogether too much atten-
tion is given by this class of pupils to Colburn's First
Lessons. Thousands of dollars are annually paid to the
teachers of this city to give instruction in this branch,
and a very large share of the money so paid is wasted.
The work was not designed mainly for the class of pupils
who use it most, and the introduction to it contains a posi-

tive condemnation of the popular method of studying
it. It has its place in the curriculum of our public
schools, and when properly employed, is highly useful.
But to make it the main text-book, during the three or
four years in which so many of our dependent children
complete their schooling, is not merely a tax upon the
public funds, — it is a fearful waste of the pupils' oppor-
tunities.

Can a substantial reason be given why a majority of
the children in our schools should be drilled in this
study till their ambition for an education is well-nigh
extinguished, and then be sent out to the duties of life
without being taught how to write a note, a bill, or a
receipt, or to perform the simplest transactions in busi-
ness 1 I think not. These remarks might be ex-
tended, but I forbear, believing that enough has been
said to commend the subject to your candid consideration.

2. There should be increased facilities for promotion.
I have hesitated to speak on this subject, because the
practice of making semi-annual promotions, which once
prevailed in this city, was abandoned for what were
doubtless supposed to be sufficient reasons. Neverthe-
less, I am fully convinced that the present method is
prejudicial to the best interests of many pupils, and
tends to diminish the number of those who complete the
prescribed course of studies. I hope this suggestion
may receive the favorable consideration of the Board,
and that measures may be taken immediately to provide
for regular semi-annual promotions in the Grammar and
Primary Schools.

3. Let the results of any comparative examinations,
which the Committee may judge best to make, be kept
for their information, and not be spread before the pub-

lie. If such examinations are made and the results
published, the Committee must take the business of pro-
motion into their own hands. It is quite too much to
hold teachers up in comparison with each other before
the public, and then require them to promote partially
qualified pupils, merely for the benefit of those pupils.
The practice of publishing comparative examinations
has been found in most cities prejudicial to the progress
of the scholars, and has been very generally abandoned.

4. All the teachers, and especially the principals of
these schools, should be required to use their best en-
deavors to awaken in their pupils a spirit of worthy am-
bition, a love of knowledge and of personal culture, and
particularly, to give them frequent instructions in re-
gard to the importance of continuing their studies, so as
to gain the full benefits of our public schools. By kind
advices, by appropriate anecdotes, and by fitting illus-
trations of the value of knowledge, many minds now
dormant might be quickened to a new life of thought
and endeavor. A single well-timed efi"ort of this na-
ture might be of more value to a class, than a whole
week of ordinary instruction.

5. Special eff"orts should be made to secure the visita-
tion of the schools by the parents and friends of the
pupils. One of the greatest hindrances to success in
the work of education is the seeming indifference of par-
ents ; and any rational means which will remove this diffi.-
culty, will greatly increase the eff'ectiveness of our
schools. Should the sub- committees take this matter
in hand, they will find the teachers and pupils cheerful
co-operators, and in a single year a great change might
be wrought in the public mind. Special exercises
might be prepared by each school, at trifling expense f

time and labor, and public notices given, or private in-
vitations could be sent by the teachers to the parents,
and thus an interest be developed which has never yet
been witnessed in this community. Our schools must
be made the centers of attraction to the people, as well as
to the children.

6. I recommend that a Diploma, or Certificate of
Graduation be given to every scholar who shall here-
after complete the Grammar School course of studies,
and give evidence of possessing a good moral char-
acter. This would prove a stimulus to many chil-
dren to spend an additional year or two in school,
and give character to this department of our educational
system. The experiment, wherever tried, has proved
effective, and meets with the general, and, I think, the
universal approbation of the teachers in this class of
schools.

7. That the following items be published in the An-
nual Report of the Board :

First, The names of all scholars who are neither ab-
sent nor tardy during the year, except on account of
sickness.

Second, The names of all who are neither absent
nor tardy during a single term, with the same excep-
tion.

Third, The names of all who finish the course of
study and receive the Grammar School Diploma.

These are simple measures, but they will exert a
powerful influence on the minds of the young.

There are other topics which have received my atten-
tion, but I will present for your consideration, and that
briefly, only two of them.

The city is annually paying quite a sum for instruc-

tion in music, but for several years past no one has been
charged with the responsibility of looking after the
classes in this important branch of education. It has
occurred to me that great benefit might result to the
schools from regular semi-ar>nual examinations in this,
as in other branches of study. The musical exercise
seems to be regarded by a majority of pupils as a mere
pastime, and consequently golden opportunities to ac-
quire informa'ion which might be useful through life
are wholly lost. Let all the children who receive in-
struction in music, whether they can sing or not, be
examined relative to their attainments in that science,
and they would be far more likely to profit by the in-
struction given than they are now.

The subject of Drawing was presented for your con-
sideration in my first semi-annual report. And, feeling
as I do, a strong desire for its introduction into the
schools, at an early period in the coming year, I again
commend it to your attention.

The object of the development of man is to witness
to the glory of God by culture and obedience. What-
ever enables us to fulfil this duty is, in the purest and
highest sense, useful. Things which help us to exist
are useful only in a secondary and meaner sense. They
prolong, but they do not elevate life. And yet people
speak in this age of haste and activity, of houses, lands,
food, and raiment, as if these alone were useful ; and
hearing, seeing, and thinking were only subordinate to
eating and drinking. Thus it is with the masses ; not
so, however, with studious educators. The training or
cultivation of the sight has, with us, been too much
neglected. We are placed in a world of beauty with
capacities to enjoy, and with a life-principle which is

quickened by what we admire and love, and which is as
fully capable of culture and expansion as any other fac-
ulty of the mind, while it possesses the widest range and
commands the greatest variety of objects.

Drawing is regarded by most people as a needless ac-
complishment, quite too frivolous to secure the attention
of industrious youth ; nevertheless, if a bright boy ex-
hibits a talent for imitation and produces a good pic-
ture, he is at once applauded and pronounced a genius,
even by those who have no interest in the cultivation of
the art.

Time and space are not at my command to set forth
at length the relation of this art to the various activities
of life. " It has an intrinsic and practical value in
every pursuit in which form is considered, such as archi-
tecture, machinery, pattern-making in all its varieties,
jewelry, and engraving of every kind. It is indispensa-
ble in inventions, and in discoveries in the natural
sciences, in perpetuating knowledge acquired. There
is scarcely a calling in life in which this art would not
find a useful application." But these are minor consid-
erations compared with its importance in educating the
mind. It addresses itself to the earliest developed fac-
ulties of the child, and should receive attention as soon
as the child can hold and guide the pencil. Were this
the case, we should secure far greater elegance and
beauty in writing than we now obtain. The eye and
hand should be trained in the delineation of form before
they are set to imitating the intricate lines of manu-
script.

We receive the idea of beauty from the objects of
nature, in proportion to our acquaintance with those ob-
jects and our power to comprehend them. It has truth-

fully been said, ' the artist sees the works of nature as
they are seen by no other." The practice of drawing
assists in forming the hahit of correct observation^ en-
larges the mind and enables it to grasp a much greater
variety of truths concerning the objects beheld. It
quickens the perception, corrects and stimulates the
imagination, and presents nature transfigured to the
well-cultured eye. By directing the mind to the diver-
sity in the forms and size of objects, and to the delicate
coloring in landscape and clouds, it multiplies the sources
of pleasure, and becomes to every pupil the occasion of
genuine delight. "It is so facinating to the young,
that it will agreeably and usefully occupy their leisure
hours, will render home more attractive, and serve to
check those idle habits which, when once formed, re-
sult in mischief and even ruin. It tends also to refine-
ment of taste, the elevation of the moral feelings, the cul-
tivating and developing of the love of the beautiful, and
tends, through nature, to lead the mind to Nature's God.''
Gentlemen of the Committee, thanking you for your
many acts of kindness, both official and personal, I sub-
mit these various suggestions, hoping that some of them
may receive your approval, and be turned to good ac-
count in promoting the great interests committed to
your trust.

Hespectfully presented,

J. H. TWOMBLY,

Sup't of Public Schools.
February 28, 1867.

SUPERINTENDENT'S THIRD SEMI-ANNUAL
REPORT.

To the School Committee of the City of Charlestons :

Gentlemen, — In conformity with your Regula-
tions, I submit the following as my third semi-annual
Report.

Aware that an unusual number of interesting docu-
ments are to be printed in connection with the forth-
coming Annual Report of the Board, I have omitted
several topics which w^ould otherwise have been pre-
sented for your consideration.

Those subjects, however, which are of general interest
as indicating the present condition of the schools or the
development of our school system, I shall lay before you,
and with as much brevity as their importance seems to
allow.

PHYSICAL CULTURE,

The importance of this subject is seldom appreciated
as it should be.

Physical culture holds an intimate relation to every
department of education, and to all the activities of life.
Health is one of nature's conditions of success in the
" learned professions," as well as in the sterner pursuits
of commerce and trade, and should receive the careful
consideration of the guardians of public instruction. A
proper attention in the school-room to the laws of

physical development would add a large per cent, to the
intellectual capacity and acuteness of the pupils. The
out-cry so often made respecting the severe tax laid
upon the brains of school children, seldom has even the
coloring of fact for its support. I consider it a reproach
to the human intellect, or a burlesque upon the popular
methods of education, to say that children of ordinary
ability cannot gain a good knowledge of the studies
pursued in our Primary and Grammar Schools, in the
time usually allotted for that purpose I know that
pupils have sometimes failed in health, but this has
arisen from other causes than the amount of mental
effort they were required to make. It came from feeble
constitutions, from improper indulgences at home, or the
want of muscular exercise. A well-expanded chest, and
properly developed lungs, are prime conditions of mental
growth and a cheerful life. The ordinary recreations
of children bring into play but a small part of their
muscles, or, if the muscles are generally exercised, the
chest and lungs are but partially developed. Free
gymnastics therefore should be required of all the pupils
in our schools, the feeble as well as the strong ; and such
vigorous exercises should be provided for the older boys
as will develop manly energy in the coming men.
Rooms for such purposes already exist in the Bunker
Hill and the Warren Grammar School buildings, and,
with as little delay as possible, the basements of the
Prescott, Winthrop, and Harvard Schools, and particu-
larly that of the High School, should be turned into
gymnasiums, and be furnished with proper apparatus.
The expense incurred by such an arrangement would be
paid a hundred times over, by the improved health and
the increased vigor of the youth of this city.

39
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.

Corporal Punishment, as defined by the Regulations
of this Board, means " the infliction of bodily pain."
This definition may be correct, but it is far more com-
prehensive than the one ordinarily given. It is gen-
erally understood to mean beating or striking, as with
the band, a rattan, or ferrule.

In regard to the necessity of eff"ective government in
school there is universal agreement. No one would
sanction anarchy there. But government implies law,
and law, penalties. Still the penal code of a school
should be regulated less by what may seem to be the
demands of rigid justice, than by a due consideration of
the object of public instruction. That object is the in-
tellectual and moral culture of the pupils.

For the maintenance of good government, several
things are requisite on the part of the teacher ; among
which are an ardent love for the young, ready discrim-
ination of character, self-possession, tact to meet emer-
gencies, genuine enthusiasm in the work of the
school-room, extensive and varied attainments, and in-
ventive power to interest and direct the minds of chil-
dren. Unquestionably, the possession by the teacher of
a comprehensive and symmetrical character, is essential
to the highest type of government ; nevertheless, I do
not believe it possible, in the present state of society, to
conduct our public schools efficiently without the right
to resort to the rod. Let it be announced that corporal
punishment is abolished, that hereafter no pupil is to
be whipped^ and anarchy would be the immediate result
in many schools. It is admitted that some teachers are
highly successful in managing their schools without em-

ploying this agency. But the number who do so is so
small, compared with the whole number of teachers,
that their success must be regarded as an exception
rather than the rule. The fact is, there are some chil-
dren in every community, and in almost every school,
so persistent in disobedience, so lost to all the prompt-
ings of self-respect and elevated principles, in a word,
so mature in sin, that it is impossible for a teacher op-
pressed with the cares of a school to control them sim-
ply by moral suasion. Some sterner agency must be
employed. But when the necessity for corporal pun-
ishment does arise there is need of great prudence, To
pupils of refined and delicate sensibilities, a blow, under
almost any circumstances, is morally injurious, and it is
so to all children when given in anger or impetuous
haste.

When a teacher is obliged to perform this unpleasant
duty, — and the person to whom it is not unpleasant, is
unfit to have charge of a school, — he ought to do it
deliberately/, thoughtfally , and in a spirit of unfeigned
kindness to the offender. The spirit of many a child has
been embittered for life, by a needless, or an improperly
administered punishment in the school-room. We would
enjoin it upon every teacher to use the utmost caution,
the greatest prudence. This duty, this irksome task,
should be performed with a clear conception of its moral
consequences. It should be done in a spirit of genuine
sympathy, and for the purpose of promoting the ulti-
mate good of the pupil. To punish a child merely to
illustrate the supreme authority of the teacher, rather
than to benefit that child, is an abomination.

Probably there is no more whipping done in our
schools than in^ others of a similar character, yet I am

convinced that there has been altogether too much of
it in many of them. Cliildren have been punished for
trivial offences, hastily, and sometimes unduly. Lat-
terly, however, there has been exhibited a positive dis-
position for improvement.

I have on two occasions addressed the teachers on
this subject, with I think some good results ; and the
order adopted by the Board is having a very favorable
influence. This order requires every teacher to keep a
record of all cases of corporal punishment, and to make
a monthly report to the Superintendent of each case,
giving the name of the scholar, the date of the occur-
rence, the ofl"ence, the mode and degree of punishment.

From the returns for October, November, and De-
cember, it appears that the punishments have decreased
in severity and number. The number of cases was
more than fifty per cent less in December, than it was
in October. There is, however, still chance for im-
provement, and if parents will use suitable endeavors
to cultivate in their children a spirit of obedience, and
a proper regard for the privileges of education, the occa-
sions for correction may be greatly diminished.

TRUANCY.

One of the most perplexing vices of the young, with
which teachers have to contend, is truancy. Its influ-
ence is so pernicious, and its management requires so
much time, and the intervention of so many parties,
that it may be regarded as one of the greatest evils that
afflicts some of our schools.

In order to abate this evil, the following plan, recom-
mended by the Superintendent during the summer

term, was adopted by the Board, and has been for some
time in successful operation.

This plan provides that the city shall be divided into
four districts, and that a box for the use of truant offi-
cers shall be kept in each Grammar School. Notices
of truancy in the building where the box is placed, and
in the Primary Schools in the vicinity, are to be deposited
in this box immediately after the commencement of the
morning session ; and as early as ten o'clock the truant
officer is to take the notices and search up the absentees.
The plan also provides that a monthly report shall be
made by each teacher to the Superintendent of Schools,
of all pupils reported to the truant officers, and also- by
the Chief of Police of the action of the truant officers
relative to those pupils. The committee on Police,
appointed by the City Council, unanimously voted to
co-operate with the School Board in carrying out this
arrangement.

I am satisfied from the testimony of the teachers, that
the truant officers attend promptly to their part of the
work, and I take pleasure in commending them for their
fidelity and efficiency.

COURSE OF STUDIES.

In my first semi-annual Report, I recommended the
classification of the studies of the Grammar and Primary
Schools, and the Board passed a vote directing me to
carry out the recommendation.

No regular classification existed in the Primary
Schools, and scarcely anything worthy of that appella-
tion in the Grammar Schools as a whole. The arrange-
ments of the latter schools were quite dissimilar ; so

much so, in fact, that a description of the classes and
divisions in one, would very imperfectly apply to those of
another. I do not mention this as a fault on the part of
any one, but as indicating the condition of the schools as
they were, and one of the almost inevitable results of the
want of a general oversight. Taking the limits sug-
gested by the Regulations of the Board, I divided the
Primary School studies into six parts, making a three
years' course ; and the Grammar School studies into
twelve parts, each occupying six months ; and the
twelve together forming a course of six years. The
arrangement of the several studies ultimately decided
upon was the result of much reflection, a personal in-
spection of schools in this and other cities, and a careful
examination of the courses of study prepared by the best
educators in the country.

Numerous advantages will arise from the adoption of
this course.

It provides a definite work for each six months, and
will thus stimulate teachers and pupils.

It presents a great variety of topics for instruction ;
for instance, the form, color, size, and construction of
objects ; air, water, articles of food, and of wearing
apparel; plants, flowers, animals, and minerals ; habits,
manners, and morals ; physiology, philosophy, inter-
esting biographies, and historical sketches. While it
insures definite and early attention to the branches
ordinarily taught, it opens the living world of thought
and fact to the pupils.

Special provision is made for attention to singing,
physical exercises, and those elementary instructions
which are ever essential to finished scholarship. It
will greatly enrich the instruction of the schools, and
give to each examiner a definite field for investigation.

In a word, it will make it possible to hold every
teacher and every class to a definite line of effort.

PROMOTIONS.

The new rule requiring semi-annual promotions can-
not immediately go into effect. Promotions in the Gram-
mar Schools are regulated by those in the Primary
Schools. In these, the work has been greatly increased
by the new arrangement of studies, consequently the
whole year will be needed to complete the preparation
of the first classes.

Some of the advantages of this measure will be patent
to all. One is, that scholars who fail to receive promo-
tion, at any particular time, will lose but six months,
instead of a year as formerly. Another is, all enter-
prising, healthy, and studious pupils will find it much
more easy to shorten their course of study, than they
did under the old regime.

The true method of promotion is, when the studies
are adapted to the pupils of ordinary ability, to allow
those of superior talents to advance as rapidly as they
can, and promote the others by classes, carrying forward
the dull with those possessing medium talents. There
may be exceptions, but they should be few. It will
doubtless be better, far better, for nine out of ten dull
scholars, who have but a brief period for schooling, to
go forward with the children of their own age, than to
be sent back into classes of younger pupils, to go a
second time over studies which, at best, are only par-
tially introductory to those which should be their chief
object of pursuit.

45
TEACHERS.

During the year, four public examinations of teachers
have been held, and for each occasion several series of
written questions were prepared. One of these was
an examination of gentlemen for the principalship
of the Harvard Grammar School ; the others of ladies
who were applicants for positions as assistants in the
Grammar Schools, or as principals of the Intermediate
or Primary Schools. Of this class of applicants, eighty-
one were in attendance at the several examinations, and
forty obtained sevenfj/ per cent, of correct answers, which
is the minimum percentage allowed by the committee.

NAMES OF ACCEPTED CANDIDATES.

Elvira L. Austin
Carrie L. Bos well,
*Frances A. Craign,
*Mary L. Coombs,
Evantie F. Cliesley,
*Frai]ces L. Dodge,
Frances B. Dewey,
Lucy E. David,
A. L. Fosdick,
Sarah M. Foster,
■*Elizabeth J. Farnsworth,
*Alice Hall,
Jennie E. Hintz,
Paulina E. Holbrook,
Mary J. Haslit,
Sarah P. Hamilton,
Mary H. Humphrey,
Effie G. Hazen,
Angelina M. Keefe,

Georgia Lane,
Sarah L. Lancaster,
*Hattie E. Marcy,
Frances H. Munroe,
Hannah E. Moulton,
E. B. Norton,
Ellen M. Pierce,
*Helen Porter,
Alice M. Richards,
*Harriet V. Richardson,
Mary S. Russell,
*Mary P. S^vain,
*M. E. Tuck,
*Emma B. Tyler,
Helen Tincker,
E. A. Thomas,
C. E. Woodman,
*B. W. Willard,
B. M. Whittemore.

* Now teaching in this City.

The following questions, which were used on one of
the occasions, will indicate the character of the exam-
inations.

ARITHMETIC.

9 L 2. _

1. Multiply ^ by Y~, and e^^plain the process.

2. Divide 7.25406 by 9.57, and explain the process.

3. A merchant bought cloth at $5.00 per yard.
What must be his " asking price " in order that he may
fall on it 10 per cent., and still make 10 per cent, on
his purchase ?

4. A and B can perform a piece of work in 5tt
days ; B and C in 6f days ; and A and C in 6 days. In
what time would each of them perform the work alone,
and how long would it take them to do it together ?

5. A certain room is 24 feet long, 18 feet wide, and
12 feet high. How long must be a line to extend from
one of the lower corners to the opposite upper corner ?

GEOGRAPHY.

1. Draw a map of the Middle States, and name the
capital of each.

2. AVhat are the boundaries and principal rivers of
Ohio, Missouri, Italy, Persia, and Hindostan 1

3. Name the divisions of land and water through
which the 40th parallel of north latitude extends.

4. In what countries and on what rivers are the fol-
lowing cities, viz : Seville, Berlin, Glasgow, Belgrade,
and Pittsburgh ?

5. Describe the course of a ship, and name the
waters through which it would pass, in going from Mar-
seilles to Calcutta.

47
GRAMMAR.

1. What is a verb ? Give the principal parts of the
following verbs : Awake, chide, learn, eat, work,
dream.

2. Write a sentence containing two correlative con-
junctions and a connective adverb.

3. How does analysis differ from parsing ?

4. Analyze this sentence, giving the principal parts
and the modifiers.

5. Parse the Italicized words in the following quota-
tion :

" Ambition ! powerful source of good and ill !
Thy strength in man, like length of wing in birds,
When disengaged from earth, with greater ease
And swifter flight trans-ports us to the skies."

HISTORY.

1. Describe the settlement of Virginia.

2. What were the causes, the chief battles, and the
results of the French and Indian war ?

3. When and where did the first Colonial Congress
assemble, why was it called, and what was done ?

4. State the causes of the second war between this
country and England.

5. Give an account of " Southern Nullification."

Most of the young ladies who applied had enjoyed
the advantages of an academic, normal, or high school
education ; but as a whole they had received very little
special training for the profession upon which they pro-
posed to enter ; and the great majority of them failed to
answ^er the more difficult questions proposed. All were
probably qualified to give tolerable instructions in the

elementary branches, but, to make teaching a success,
broad and varied culture is requisite. Public school
teaching is, in many respects, a belittling business. The
constant dwelling upon detail, upon the minutiaj, -sThich
must necessarily be explained, in order to facilitate the
progress of young pupils, inevitably draws the mind
from the more comprehensive and elevating subjects of
thought. It is consequently a matter of the highest
moment that teachers have, in the outset, thorough cul-
ture. It is not sufficient for them barely to understand
the studies to be taught, they need a familiar acquaint-
ance with many branches of knowledge. To many, it
would seem absurd, indeed, almost ridiculous, to require
the teachers of Primary Schools, or of the lower classes
in the Grammar Schools, to have a thorough knowledge
of botany, mineralogy, conchology, natural history,
chemistry, &c. Yet if they had this knowledge at their
command, how easy it would be for them to multiply
their usefulness a hundred fold. Pebbles, shells, flow-
ers, fruits, grasses, trees, and animals would all become
living volumes which they could open by the wayside
and in the school-room, to awaken and inspire the
minds of their pupils.

No one regards an examination as an infallible test
of scholarship, much less of ability to conduct a school ;
for there are many who would utterly fail in such an
ordeal, who are, nevertheless, very successful teachers.
The same persons, however, if more fully accomplished,
would be far more useful than they are at present. Let
it be fully established, then, that in all places candidates
will be thoroaghli/ examined, and they will secure a far
better preparation than they have heretofore.

There are subsidiary yet essential qualifications which

must not be overlooked. One of these is health. There
are but few places, out of the mines or the coal pits,
where health is so severely taxed as in an ordinary
school-room. The want of ventilation, the atmosphere
usually found there, and the constant use of the vocal or-
gans, together with the unceasing anxiety of a faithful
teacher, are quite too much for ordinary physical
strength. A person with a feeble constitution should
not seek for such a position.

MUSIC.

This important branch of education continues to be
under the charge of Mr. Wm. H. Goodwin, who has
for several years filled his present position with great
credit to himself, and to the satisfaction of the Com-
mittee and the public. He spends two hours weekly in
each Grammar School, and one in the High School.

Early in the summer the Board ordered the formal
examination of the classes in music. The Committee
charged with this responsibility visited each school,
" listened to recitations in the rudiments, the singing of
the scale, practice upon the board and in the singing-
book," and reported, '* That the instruction given in this
branch by Mr. Goodwin is very thorough and important,
that it extends beyond the limits usually reached by
such pupils, even in what used to be called singing
schools." " Your Committee were especially pleased with
the familiarity with the chromatic scale, evinced by the
pupils in the Prescott and Warren schools ; while the
first divisions in all the schools showed that they had
been carefully trained, and gave their answers with
great promptness."

50
PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

There are in this department thirty-five schools ; two
of which have been formed during the current year.
The new schools numbered, respectively, 6 and 7, and
taught by Miss Tuck and Miss Prescott, occupy rooms
in the Bunker Hill Piimary School building.

Decided improvements have been made in the accom-
modations of the Primary Schools within the year. The
edifice just referred to has been remodelled at an ex-
pense of $3,400. A hall has been run through the
centre of the building, in the first and second stories,
making in all eight rooms. Each room has a sink and
a clothes-room, and is supplied with a full complement
of blackboards Six of the rooms have been furnished
with desks and chairs of the most approved patterns.
The school on Charles Street, taught by Mrs. Small,
the two in Allen's Building, one taught by Miss Marden,
and the other, recently, by Miss Tuck, also Miss Tate's
school on Bunker Hill Street, and Miss Yeaton's on
Mead Street were removed to this building early in Sep-
tember ; and from the surplus of these schools, and the
accessions of new pupils, another school was organized
early in that month. These schools have now an aver-
age membership of sixty-two.

The other two rooms have been temporarily occupied
by divisions of the Warren School, and will be supplied
with their appropriate furniture whenever they are
needed. The rooms in the building on Bunker Hill
Street, near the Navy Yard, and the one on Soley Street
have been furnished with new desks and seats.

The building on Austin Street, occupied by Miss
Rea, has been removed to the recently purchased lot on

Richmond Street, and considerably enlarged and im-
proved. In consequence of the burning of Boylston
Chapel, in the early part of the summer, Miss Foster's
school, which had been held there for several years, was
temporarily disbanded. After many efforts to secure a
place for it, a small room was obtained under the City
Hall. Here the first class was assembled and instructed
till the close of the term. The remaining pupils were
sent to other Primary Schools.

At the opening of the fall term this school was placed
in the dilapidated structure on Elm Street, from which
place it will be transferred immediately to the building on
Richmond Street, which was moved some months since
from Charles Street, to afford temporary shelter for a
division of the Harvard School.

It will probably be necessary, at an early period in
the spring, to transfer the school-house near the summit
of Bunker Hill to the City lot on Medford Street, or to
some place nearer the Point, in order to supply the in-
creasing wants in that section of the City.

Early in the autumn the City was re-districted. The
plan was prepared, at considerable expense of time and
labor, by an efficient committee. That portion of their
report relating to Primary Schools was immediately
adopted by the Board, and those schools were re-organ-
ized by the Superintendent.

The new system of graded schools was put into
operation soon after the opening of the term in Septem-
ber ; and many prejudices which at first were entertained
against the measure, have been overcome by an exhi-
bition of its advantages. The teachers are gener-
ally pleased with it, and all probably will be when they
shall have given it a fair trial.

The new course of studies has been introduced into
these schools with every prospect of success. Teachers
and pupils are alike interested. The children are
delighted with the slate exercises, and are making ex-
cellent progress in printing letters, making the Koman
and Arabic characters, drawing the figures on the tab-
lets, solving simple problems in the fundamental rules
of Arithmetic, and in forming script letters. They are
also making good proficiency in the elementary sounds of
the English language, which will be of lasting benefit to
them both in reading and spelling.

I called the attention of the teachers and of the
scholars to the exercises named, long before the classifi-
cation of the studies was completed ; and, as a result of
all the means employed, several of the first classes are
now, in many respects, better qualified to enter the
Grammar Schools, than most of the first classes were at
the date of their admission in July, 1866.

The importance of the Primary Schools is a theme
upon which many committees have written, but none of
them have over stated it. In these schools, habits are
formed, which are carried along through the whole
course of instruction. Here the softened clay is
moulded, and often dried and hardened. That mould-
ing, if possible, should be right, for it can never be re-
peated. The old notion, that almost any one can teach
a school of this kind, has been pretty generally aban-
doned. In this department, as much, if not more than
in any other, are needed varied culture, refinement of
manners, patience, tact, and nice discrimination of char-
acter. The School Committee have shown their appre-
ciation of these teachers, and equally of the work which
they expect them to perform, by making their salaries

the same as those of assistants in the Grammar Schools,
The Primary School teachers, as a body, are laboring-
with great fidelity and success, and most of them are
favorably noticed by their respective committees.

INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS.

So.

Teacher.

Location.

Sub-Committee.

SARAH M. GINN.

Winthrop St.

ANDREW J. LOCKE.

*A. E. STEARNS.

Main St.

GEORGE H. YEATON.

These schools are among the most difiicult in the
City. They are usually crowded ; their accommoda-
tions are of an inferior character, and they are mostly
composed of Scholars who, in consequence of sickness,
irregular attendance at school, and other causes, have
made but little progress in their studies. To govern
and teach them require experience, energy, and versa-
tility of talent ; nevertheless they have been well
managed and are sucessfully accomplishing their mis-
sion.

The committee on No. 1, in both of his reports,
highly commends the school and the teacher, and in
the second he says, " Miss Ginn seems in every respect
well qualified for her onerous situation." Thirteen
scholars were sent to the Grammar Schools in February,
and forty-four in July.

No. 2 was under the charge of Miss Mary A. Smith
till the close of the term ending in July. ,Miss Smith
was a competent teacher, and enjoyed the favorable
consideration of the Board.

After her resignation, Miss A. H. Stearns was trans-
ferred to this school from Primary No. 24.

* Transferred to the Bunker Hill Grammar School building Jan. 6, 1868.

Miss Stearns is an experienced and capable teacher,
and the school is making excellent progress under her
direction. Between forty and fifty scholars were sent
to the Grammar Schools last year.

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.

My views in regard to these schools were pretty
clearly indicated in my first and second semi-annual
reports. Those views have been confirmed by subse-
quent observations.

In July, I examined the first and second classes by
written questions. The results showed that the
scholars had made about the same attainments as were
exhibited by those of similar classes at the previous
annual examination. I can speak in the usual terms of
commendation respecting teachers and pupils ; in fact, I
can truthfidly speak in very high terms of many of the
teachers in these schools ; nevertheless, the progress
made by the classes is not what in my judgment it
should be. Tiiis is not owing to the want of industry
or capability on the part of the teachers, but to the
defects in the general system of education.

In grammar, the first classes appeared to be quite
familar with the terms usually employed in analysis ;
but they evidently lacked practice in 2?arsing. Not a
few of the pupils found it difficult to construe the words
of a sentence so as to give its proper meaning ; yet one
important object of the study of grammar is to unfold
and express the sense of a writer.

The second classes, now the first in these schools, had
not then advanced sufficiently far to attempt to parse
all the parts of speech.

In history, all the classes, both first and second,
appeared very well so far as they had pursued that sub-
ject ; but the course in this branch is altogether too lim-
ited. The text-book is too diffuse, and the events in
our early national history are treated at such length,
that the most advanced classes go only to the " Colonial
Period " ; hence they leave school in almost entire
ignorance of the history of the country since the organ-
ization of the Federal Government. A change must be
made in the text-book or in the method of instruction.

In geography, the scholars had evidently made much
proficiency. They exhibited a good degree of famili-
arity with its prominent facts. Quite too much time
has heretofore been spent in this branch in memor-
izing mere details. A wiser policy has been adopted
by many of our teachers. In these schools, children
should be taught the main facts, the unchanging out-
lines of geography ; the minutiae, whether relating to
natural products, population, or business, should hold a
secondary position.

A few of the classes in arithmetic passed unsatisfac-
tory examinations ; the majority acquitted themselves
very creditably. This study has not been commenced
as early as it might have been, consequently too great
an amount of labor has been left for the last year.

Map drawing, composition, declamation, and vocal and
physical gymnastics have recently been introduced into
these schools.

Map drawing is attended to by all the classes in geog-
raphy. Many of the pupils have become quite expert
in the practice, and some of their maps are really fine.
In one school, at least, the scholars are required daily
to draw maps from memory, and the exercises are so

conducted that each individual draws a map of every
state, territory, or country which is the subject of study.

Composition, declamation, and vocal and physical
gymnastics are generally attended to, but not with that
regularity and efficiency which is desirable. It is
expected that as soon as the Grammar Schools are
reorganized in accordance with the new districts, more
definite and constant care will be bestowed upon these
important exercises.

A peculiar feature has been introduced into these
schools during the year, which consists of giving a
Diploma, or Certificate of Graduation, to every scholar
who completes the entire course of study.

The decision of the Board in regard to this matter
was reached at so late a period in the year, that there
was very little time to prepare for public exercises, still
a beginning was made.

Next year the Grammar School Commencemetits will
doubtless be occasions of general and popular interest.
No great amount of time should be spent in preparation ;
but brief exercises and addresses, which will interest the
people for an hour or two, will be of great advantage to
the cause of education.

BUNKER HILL SCHOOL.

Teaelrers.

ALFEED P. GAGE, Pkincipal.
MARY A. DAVIS, Head Assistant.
ABBY F. CROCELER, Sob-Mistkess.

ASSISTANTS.

ELDORA A. PICKERING, LTDIA S. JONES,

BERNICE A. DEMERITT, MARY F. JAQUITH,

MARY S. THOMAS, MARTHA B. STEVENS,

HATTIE E. MABCY, ANGELINA M. KNOWLES,

*MARY L. COOMBS, *CLARA S. NYE,

*L. W. McCUTCHINS, *EMELINE B. TYLER.

SiiI>-CoJHMaittee.

WM. H. FINNEY, CHARLES H. BIGELOW,

CHARLES F. SMITH, WM. PEIRCE.

The following extracts are made from the February
Report of the Committee.

" The new school-house on Baldwin Street was dedi-
cated on Friday, 2 2d February. The transfer from the
old building was very agreeable to scholars and teach-
ers, but it is necessary for the comfort and convenience
of both that a few changes be made in and about the
building. The most important change required is to
provide another entrance to the yard or basement, or
both. By the present arrangement much time is lost
at recess, and also at dismission. It requires fifteen
minutes for all the scholars to file out and in, at recess.

* Substitutes.

" Should a gate be made in the fence of the girl's
yard, half of this time would be saved, and other incon-
veniences avoided."

The Committee speak in high terms of the teachers,
and particularly commend the method of instruction
and the progress of the classes in reading.

"Written Arithmetic. — Formerly, scholars did not
commence ivriting numbers in Arabic characters until the
third year. The limits now prescribed for the first year
are to write numbers containing seven figures, add and
subtract the same. The scholars have made a very good
beginning. The class that has previously completed
addition in written arithmetic in one year, will, this
year, complete division

" Geography. — Very great improvement has been
made throughout the school in the method of teaching
geography. More oral instruction has been given, and
the scholars appear to have a better understanding of
the subject. In the upper classes the cumbersome text-
book in use has prevented as rapid an advance as might
have been attained by the use of a book not so full of
details."

In their Second Report the Committee say : - —

" The Bunker Hill School maintains the same gen-
eral standard of excellence as was indicated in the last
semi-annual report.

" During the entire summer, the Principal, Mr. Gage,
was confined to his house by a painful sickness. He
continued, however, to exercise in some degree a direc-
tion of the aff'airs of the school, by frequent consulta-
tions with the teachers ; by preparation of questions

for the semi-annual examination, and by general instruc-
tion in relation to its management.

" During this time the school suffered no interruption
in its usual progress of studies, and no slackening of
its usual good discipline.

" Upon Miss Mary A. Davis devolved the responsi-
bility of the general supervision of the school, as well
as that of preparing the first class for admission to the
High School. She performed her arduous duties with
a devotion and success which command the hearty
thanks of the committee, and which merit recognition
by the Board.

" The thanks of the committee are also due to most
of the teachers for their zeal and co-operation in main-
taining the usual standard of discipline and thorough-
ness of instruction. They also recognize the general
good conduct of the scholars during this period.

" The exercises at the close of the term were wit-
nessed by quite a large audience of friends of the
school, who were apparently interested and gratified.
The programme and questions were prepared by the
principal with a view to exhibit the general work of
the school, and to enable each class to be represented.
The questions were placed in sealed envelopes and
handed to the teachers immediately before the com-
mencement of the exercises. Diplomas were presented
to the members of the graduating class, and addresses
were made by the Superintendent and others.

" Weekly meetings of the teachers are held for
consultation in relation to methods of teaching and
discipline, and to consider various subjects connected
with the welfare of the schools."

PRESCOTT SCHOOL.

Teachers.

GEORGE T. LITTLEEIELD, Principal,
SARAH M. CHANDLER, Sub-Mistkess,
MARY G. PRICHARD, Head Assistant.

ASSISTANTS.

MARTHA M. KENRICK, MARIETTA BAILEY,

MARY C. SAWYER, GEORGIANNA T. SAWYER,

ELLEN C. DICKINSON, FRANCES A. CRAIGEN,

LYDIA A. SEARS, ELIZABETH J. EARNSWORTH. •

Sub-Coininittee.

GEORGE H. MARDEN, GEORGE H. YEATON,

JOHN SANBORN.

Extracts from the semi-annual Reports of the Sub-
Committee : —

" The usual examination of the Prescott School was
made in February. The scholars were examined in
the various studies which they had pursued, and the
School was found to be in good condition.

" The Principal and teachers are working together
harmoniously for the interest of the scholars, and are
meeting with success. Some of the teachers are of
course more successful than others, for all have not the
same faculty for drawing the children towards them,
and of awakening and keeping up, on the part of the
scholars, an interest in the school duties and studies,
making them feel it a pleasure as well as a duty to go
to school.

" Some progress has been made in inducing the
parents and friends of the scholars to visit the school,
and see, for themselves, how its affairs are conducted.
Many have dropped in from time to time to hear a
lesson or witness an exercise, thereby encouraging the
teacher as well as the scholar.

" The new diplomas furnished by the School Com-
mittee were awarded to the scholars of the graduating
class, who received them with evident marks of pleasure.
This new feature in our school system will prove to be
very beneficial."

" The usual examination of this school was made in
July, and the result was quite favorable. A consider-
able success had attended the method of teaching by
oral instruction. Map drawing from memory is con-
stantly practiced in all the rooms. Gymnastics are
practiced twice each day in all the classes, and in fair
weather both boys and girls are drilled in these exercises
in the open air. The writing in many of the rooms in
this school is, as usual, excellent."

Early in the fall term, Mr. William Baxter, who had
held the position of Principal about three years, tendered
his resignation, accompanied with a request that it might
take effect on the first of December. His resignation
was accepted, and, by permission of the Board, he
immediately went to the West in pursuit of health.
Mr. B. was an active and progressive teacher, and,
though afflicted with illness for sometime, he managed
the school with a good degree of energy and tact.
During most of the fall the school was under the charge
of Mr. Littlefield, long and favorably known as Principal
of a Grammar School in Somerville. Mr. L. has recently
been appointed Principal, and has assumed the full

charge of the school with every prospect of success.
He brings to his new position much experience, sound
judgment, and a worthy ambition.

WAREEN SCHOOL.

GEORGE SWAN, Principal,
CHRISTIANA ROUNDS, Sub-Mistress,
ANNIE M. TURNER, Head Assistant.

ASSISTANTS.

MARY A. OSGOOD, HENRIETTA J. MERRILL,

MARIA BROWN, *GEORGIANNA HAMLIN,

MARGARET VEAZIE, *MARIA T. SAVAGE,

JULIA A. WORCESTER, fFRANCES L. DODGE,

V. A. M. L. DADLEY, fALICE HALL.

Sub-Comniittee.

EDWIN B. HASKELL, ANDREW J. LOCKE,

WILLIAM B. BRADFORD, STACY BAXTER.

The examinations of this school were regularly at-
tended to, and indicated a very commendable degree of
success in the work of instruction, considering the
positions occupied by the classes. Its misfortunes are
very clearly delineated in the first Report of the Com-
mittee.

" The Warren Grammar School has undoubtedly
suffered somewhat since the last Report of the sub-
committee, from the unsuitable rooms occupied by
several of the classes. We are pleased to report, how-
ever, that we have emerged from two basements and
are now mostly above ground. Soon after the Thanks-

* Transferred from the Prescott School near the close of the year,
t Transferred from the Harvard School near the close of the year.

giving vacation (in 1866), the hall of the High School-
house was filled with seats and desks for two classes,
and the two classes that formerly occupied the Univer-
salist Vestry, one in charge of Mr. Swan and Miss
Turner, and the other in charge of Miss Brown, were
removed to that place."

" This change enabled us to remove one class from the
basement of the Prescott School, and one from the
poorest room of three in the basement of the old
Armory building, at the corner of High and Pearl
Streets. The other class from the Prescott basement,
Miss Worcester's, was at the same time remeved to the
rear room over the Engine House on Main Street, which
had just been vacated by a colony of the Bunker Hill
School. In December (of 1866), the old Armory
building, before mentioned, was partially destroyed by
fire, and the two classes which had occupied rooms there
were obliged to emigrate again. After some delay,
quarters were found in Winthrop Hall, on Main Street,
eligibly situated over a marble worker's place of busi-
ness, where the scholars have an opportunity for edify-
ing meditations on the effects of polishing the rough
' blocks that come from the quarry. The classes of Miss
Rounds and Miss Osgood are in the Universalist Vestry,
and those of Miss Veazie and Miss Merrill are in Win-
throp Hall, hoping soon to be removed to spare rooms
in Bunker Hill (new) School-house."

In their second Report the Committee say, " Much of
the Principal's time has been taken up in going from
one colony to another, a disadvantage which he has
keenly appreciated, and the instruction of the first
class has devolved, to a great extent, on the first assist-
ant. Miss Turner. By reason of this lady's ability and

fidelity the class has not suffered, as has been shown by
the success of the applicants for admission to the High
School, including two scholars not recommended by
the Principal. With this case in mind, the sub-com-
mittee wish that the trial for the High School might be
open to all scholars, especially to all in the first classes,
as the Principals may, in some cases, be swayed by
views of their own interest to reduce the number of
candidates. The Warren School is probably no more
liable to this danger than any other, and we make these
general recommendations with no special reference to
this school."

The afilictions of this school now seem to be at an
end. A beauiful and costly edifice has been reared for
its accommodation, and, in a few days, the school will
be reorganized, enlarged, and regularly performing its
appropriate work.

WINTHROP SCHOOL.

Teachers.

B. F. S. GRIFFIN, Principal.

CALEB MURDOCK, Sub-Mastek.

SOPHIA W. PAGE, Head Assistant.

ASSISTANTS.

HARRIET E. FRYE, A. M. CLARK,

E. A. WOODWARD, HARRIET V. RICHARDSON,

A. P. MOULTON, JOSEPHINE A. LEES,

M. F. GOLDTHWAITE, SARAH L. FRYE.

Siilb-Committee.

SAMUEL H. HURD, OSCAR F. SAFFORD,

JAMES ADAMS.

Mr, David Balfour served on the Committee through
the early part of the year, and the vacancy made by his
resignation, which was presented to the Board in June,
was filled by the election of Hon. James Adams. The
corps of teachers has suifered but little change during
the year, and the school has been conducted with its
usual order and efficiency.

In their second Report the Committee say : " We trust
the proposed plan of a systematized course of studies
will effect the graduating, each year, of a larger number
from the Grammar Schools. It is a pernicious habit to
remove boys and girls from school just as they have
grown old enough, with proper effort, to make good
progress. Parents yield to the fancy of a child to with-
draw from school, — a yielding, the importance of which
the parent should realize, but does not any more than
the child, — too often to be regretted by the sufferer

from it — the child — in future years. A sacrifice on
the part of parents, and a greater energy on the part of
the children, at this particular period, for a year, or a
few months even, would elaborate wonderfully many
rudimentary elements of education. It is surprising to
see how much is accomplished at this age. We believe
that the community need to be more thoroughly alive
to the good our schools are accomplishing and can
accomplish."

" Parents are dissatisfied with the discipline of a
teacher, and seem to forget how their own patience is
tried, and their authority set at naught at home, by this
same troublesome disposition, — about the punishment
of which they come to consult the committee. Ir-
regular attendance is a manifold evil. It is not super-
fluous to enlarge upon its influence. Those who should
feel most interested do not realize the baleful conse-
quences which result from it. They do not under-
stand, apparently, that habits of irregularity are formed
never to be overcome. That education is undervalued.
That the value of the attendance actually given is much
lessened by frequent interruptions. Injustice is done
to the class as a whole ; the progress of the more con-
stant scholars is hindered, and dissatisfaction created
among their parents."

" The practise of weekly reviews is still continued
as during the past three years. The written reviews,
we believe, are of great assistance in cultivating accu-
racy on the part of the pupils."

HARVARD SCHOOL.

Teachers.

WARREN E. EATON, Principal.

MARTHA BLOOD, > „ .

ABBIE B. FISKE, 5^^^^ Assistants.

ASSISTANTS.

ANN E. WESTON, FRANCES L. DODGE,

LOIS A. RANKIN, HELEN A. PORTER,

LUCY L. BURGESS, SUSAN H. WILLIAMS,

FANNIE B. HALL, ALICE HALL.

&"u.l>-CoiM.mii:t;ee.

ABRAM E. CUTTER, J. E. RANKIN.

JOHN W. RAND.

Mr. Moses H. Sargent was a member of this com-
mittee till the close of the summer term, at which time
he moved from the City, and closed his connection with
the Board. Late in the autumn, Mr, Rand was
appointed to fill his place.

The February examination was made by the sub-
committee, and the performances of the pupils, except
those of the first classes in a few branches, were favor-
ably mentioned in their report. The exercises in read-
ing, spelling, and Colburn's First Lessons, and also the
penmanship of the diff"erent classes, were particularly
commended.

Early in March, Mr. J. B. Morse, a gentleman of
large experience and well known ability, who for many
years had had charge of this school, tendered to the
Board his resignation, to take eff"ect on the first of June.
Mr. Morse left the school immediately after presenting
his resignation.

The sub-committee, after thoroughly canvassing the
subject of a successor, decided to recommend Mr. War-
ren E. Eaton, sub-master of the Prescott School, for the
vacant principalship. Their choice was unanimously
ratified by the Board. Mr. Eaton is a gentleman of
much energy, thoroughly progressive in spirit, and
devotes himself assiduously to the duties of his posi-
tion.

In their second Report, recently made to the Board,
the Committee say : " It was found necessary at the
commencement of the present term, in consequence of
the crowded condition of the lower classes, to form
another division outside the school-house. This division
was placed in the building recently moved upon the lot
purchased by the City, on Richmond Street, making,
with the division in the City Hall building, over one
hundred scholars more than can be provided with seats
in the Harvard School building."

" Mr. Eaton, who is well known to this Board, has
taken hold of his work with characteristic energy, and
has already gained the favor and respect of teachers
and pupils. In his report to the committee, he says :
' I was agreeably disappointed to find the diff"erent
classes in such excellent state of discipline. With the
exception of the conduct of- the boys at recess, and the
order of one or two rooms, I saw nothing in the general
deportment of the pupils that was not creditable.'

" It is greatly to be desired that, another season, some-
thing may be done for our school-house, it having been
left far behind all the others, in our City, in its accom-
modations. The present condition of its roof will neces-
sitate some action on the part of the City Government,
and a thorough remodelling of the whole building would

be better economy than temporary repairs, and conduce
greatly to the welfare and convenience of the school.
Your committee would, at this time, take occasion to
commend in a special manner the labor and efficiency
of Mrs. Fiske, upon whom the chief direction of the
school depended during the time it was without a prin-
cipal, and while Mr. Eaton was absent on account of
sickness. In season, and out of season, she performed
the arduous duties devolving upon her with good judg-
ment and fidelity.

" They would also bear testimony to the faithful labors
and efforts of the assistant teachers, who united cordially
with Mrs. Fiske in sustaining and carrying on the exer
cises and discipline of the school." .

HIGH SCHOOL.

Teachers.

CALEB EMERY, Principal.
JOHN G. ADAMS, Sub-Mastek.

ASSISTANTS.

CATHAEINE WHITNEY, ANNIE E. CARR.

JOSEPHINE M. FLINT, * One Vacancy.

Siilb-CoiMmittee.

GEORGE W. GARDNER, OSCAR F. SAFFORD,

J. E. RANKIN, S. H. HURD.

This school is conducted with much efficiency, and
seems to be growing in favor with the people. Its
government is characterized by kindness, firmness, and
discretion. Corporal punishment has not been employed
during the year, and there have been but few cases
requiring discipline of any kind. The pupils are
treated as young ladies and gentlemen, who are required
to cultivate a high degree of self-respect, and to
exhibit a delicate regard for the rights and feelings of
others. It is to be regretted that the youth of this City
do not more generally fully appreciate the privileges of
this school. A successful mastery of its course of
studies would give tone and completeness to mental dis-
cipline, open to the active mind many sources of
pleasure, and insure valuable acquisitions of knowledge.

During the year an English and Commercial Depart-
ment has been organized, comprising a course of three
years of such studies as are most appropriate for

business life. Tivelve boys and sixteen girls entered this
department at the beginning of the present term, and it
is ex^Dected that in future many of our youth will avail
themselves of the opportunity thus furnished, to secure
a knowledge of the higher English studies. A Diploma
will be given to every scholar who completes this
course.

It has recently been decided by the School Board to
introduce drawing into this school, and it is to be hoped
that the pupils will manifest that cheerful interest in the
exercise which its merits demand.

A desire has been expressed by some of the leading
citizens of the place, and by members of this school, for
the introduction of military drill. The utility of this
exercise has been fully tested in several cities of this
Commonwealth. The subject will be presented at an
early day for the consideration of the Board.

The following Report of the Committee on this
school, gives a clear exhibit of its condition.

MINUTES OF EXAMINATION IN HIGH
SCHOOL, FEBRUARY, 1867.

" The Committee arranged to examine the classes in a
uniform manner, using a scale of marking from 5 to 0 ;
5 being perfect, one failure detracting 1, &c. In this
way every member of all the classes was examined and
marked, and from these marks the average of the class
taken.

" The following schedule of classes and studies will
show the results of the examination.

Teacher.

Average Mark.

Mr. Emery,

4.90.

Miss Reed,

3.50.

Mr. Emery,

4.85.

Miss Whitney,

4.75.

Miss "Whitney,

4.50.

SENIOR CLASS.

Studies.

1. Virgil (Latin Division),

2. Epingle (French Division),

3. Iliad (College Class),

4. English Literature,

5. Natural Philosophy,

FIRST MIDDLE CLASS.

1. Gcesar, Mr. Emery & Miss Reed, 4.95.

2. French,

3. Geometry, Miss Reed, 3.50.

4. Rhetoric,- Miss Reed, 4.67.

5. Constitutional Text-book, Miss Flint, 5.00.

6. Xenophon (2d College Class), Mr. Emery, 4.90.

SECOND MIDDLE CLASS.

1. Latin Prose Book, Mr. Adams, 3.75.

2. Algebra, Miss Carr, 3.75.

3. French, Miss Carr, 3.87.

4. Rhetoric, Miss Flint, 4.85.

5. History, Miss Reed, 4.10.

6. Greek (3d College Class), Mr. Adams, 4.75.

JUNIOR CLASS.

1. Latin Lessons, Miss Carr, 3.00.

2. Algebra, Miss Carr, 3.50.

3. Physiology, Miss Whitney, 4.11.

4. Reading, Spelling, and Pen-

manship, Mr. Adams, 4.75.

REMARKS OF EXAMINERS.

Mr. Rankin. — " I found the class in Latin [Juniors]
separated into three divisions, the first of which
appeared admirably, but the other two were very defi-

cient in promptness and accuracy of recitation. There
was not the same difference in the corresponding divis-
ions in Algebra, but the first division seemed vastly
superior to the others.

" Class in Greek (3d College) appeared to be taught
with great precision. Some of the scholars seemed per-
fectly versed in the matter before them ; leaving no
questions to be asked and no criticisms to be made."

Mr. Safford. — "The class in English Literature
passed an exceedingly satisfactory examination. The
First Middle Class in Rhetoric exhibited evidence of
faithful teaching and patient study. The Second Mid-
dle Class in Rhetoric made a highly creditable appear-
ance."

Dr. Hurd. — "In general terms I. do not think the
classes I examined appeared as well as the two previous
years.

" My examinations were in the hurry and fatigue
attending the general examination, and for that reason,
probably, the scholars were weary ; certainly less fresh,
animated, and interested, it appeared to me.

" The class in Latin Prose Book (Second Middle)
acquitted themselves with great credit."

Mr. Gardner. — " As a whole, the examination was
very satisfactory. The College Classes all did them-
selves credit. Great allowance is to be made in all the
classes for difference in intellectual capacities and hab-
its, and in natural tastes. The teachers have all been
diligent and faithful, though not equally successful.
This could hardly be.

" The general tone of scholarship is quite high, and
most of the scholars are evidently receiving the benefit
designed. But there is room for improvement in the

general interest and spirit of study that go to make real
scholarship. There ought to be less task work and
more love work ; less frigidity, routine, and treadmill
drudgery, and more awakening and quickening of
thought ; more vitality of intellectual action ; less of
mere accumulation and more of growth. How shall
these be secured % "

ANNUAL EXHIBITION WITH THE GRADUA-
TING EXERCISES IN JULY.

" The exercises were varied from those of previous
years in omitting all formal examinations of classes.
Instead, declamations, readings, and prepared recita-
tions in Latin, French, and English, with one or two
dialogues, occupied the time. The occasion was one of
great interest, and gave universal satisfaction, with less
weariness than in previous years.

" The President of the Board briefly addressed the
graduating class, and then presented them with their
Diplomas.

GRADUATES OF 1867.

James F. Beard, Lelia N. Holt,

William Bradford, Mary H. Humphrey,

Constantine F. Hutchins, Addie D. Hunnewell,

Wilmot M. Mayhew, Isabella E. Magoun,

James W. Pickering, Laura A. Mayers,

J. Frank Wellington, Mary A. S. Murphy,

Maria L. Bolan, Ella F. Parkinson,

Cora E. Butler, Hannie B. Parsons,

J. Annie Carlton, Anna M. Reilly,

Flora H. Doughty, Emma F. Robinson,

Ellen E. Flanders, Julia F. Sawyer,

Georgianna E. Goodwin, Nannie H. White,
Emma H. Greene.

"It is but just to remark that by vote of the Board,
Monsieur V. A. Giiiot has been employed a part of the
year to give instruction in French pronunciation. He
gave twenty-five lessons, and proved himself an emin-
ently successful teacher. It is hoped that his services
may be retained in the school. It is well known that
no one but a native teacher can give to pupils a cor-
rect living illustration of the peculiarities of the French
tongue."

CONCLUSION.

Gentlemen : — The period of my connection with the
schools of this City has been emphatically a period of
interruption and of change ; a time of preparation and
of seed-sowing, such as very few cities in the older
States have ever seen.

Four times, our schools have been disturbed by fire ;
fourteen places, halls, basements, vestries, and cham-
bers, have been temporarily fitted up for schools or
classes ; two large and elegant structures, costing about
$70,000 each, and capable of seating fifteen hundred
pupils, have been erected and thoroughly furnished for
the occupancy of Grammar Schools ; and eight Primary
School-rooms have been formed, and thirteen supplied
with furniture of the first class. At my suggestion, the
School Board and the Committee on City Property
recommended the revision of a large quantity of school
furniture. By request of the Board I took the over-
sight of the work. The measure resulted in the pro-
duction of a large number of desks and chairs, worth
about two thousand dollars, and in a net profit of more
\hdiTifive hundred dollars.

The numerous outward and comparatively mechani-
cal duties which I have been called to perform, and
which have arisen from the devastations of fire, and the
generous eff"orts which have been made to improve our
school accommodations, have necessarily interfered with
my more appropriate labors. But the exigencies of the
hour seemed fully to justify this diversion of time and
effort.

The School Records and Teachers' Reports have been
revised and put, it is believed, into a permanent form.

Several forms of blanks, and also a Teacher's Certifi-
cate and a Grammar School Diploma have been pre-
pared.

The calls of citizens to obtain information, or to bring
complaints, likewise of teachers for various purposes,
and of candidates for positions as teachers, the corres-
pondence necessarily belonging to my office, the selec-
tion of teachers to temporarily or permanently fill the
many vacancies w^hich have occurred during the year
past, visiting schools in other places as required by
the Regulations of the Board, holding occasional meet-
ings of our own teachers, together with other similar
and necessary duties, have consumed much time.

Four public examinations of teachers have been held
during the year, each conducted by means of written
questions. I have also prepared and presented to the
Board two semi-annual reports, and several others on
special topics.

During the present term twenty-eight of the Primary
Schools have been graded ; and in consequence of chang-
ing the boundaries of the districts, a measure necessi-
tated by various causes, all of them, with a single
exception, have been reconstructed. From each school,

pupils have been taken and placed in other schools,
and their places have been supplied by new comers from
different localities. This process has required my time,
and has temporarily hindered the progress of the schools
in this department.

My chief and appropriate work has been to acquaint
myself with the popular school system, and to study the
schools of this City and devise plans for their improve-
ment. To do this I have sought to inform myself in
regard to educational movements in other places, and I
have spent a large share of my time in visiting our one
hundred recitation rooms, and attending to the exercises
of the many pupils assembled there. These visits,
numbering several hundred, have been brief or pro-
tracted according to the exigencies of the occasion, or
the pressure of other duties.

Whether I have been a silent observer, or have
questioned the classes myself, I have endeavored to
ascertain the methods of the teachers, and the actual
and possible progress of the pupils, so that I might aid
the Board in securing from the resources at its com-
mand and the teachers in its employ, the highest and
best results.

The fidelity and success with which I have labored to
accomplish this purpose, may be judged of, in part, by
the measures which have been brought forward directly
or indirectly by me, and have received the approval of
the Committee.

Though various causes, as already intimated, have
disturbed our schools, positive educational progress has
been made. All of the schools are in an improved con-
dition ; they are generally animated by a higher spirit
of achievement, and are working for more varied and

practical results. The teachers are laboring to develop
a broader, richer culture ; and five thousand children
and youth are receiving the benefit of the new moulding
influence.

The measures adopted by the Board are not to be
regarded in the light of experiments, for they are such
as have been long and thoroughly tried in the most
populous and enterprising cities and towns in this coun-
try, and have everywhere won the approbation of intel-
ligent people. With us, many of them are in their
incipiency ; nevertheless, their influence is felt in every
part of our educational work, and valuable results have
already been secured.

Kespectfully submitted,

JOHN H. TWOMBLY,

Superintendent of Public ScJwols.

Chaulestown, November, 1867.

SCHOOL RETURNS AT THE SEMI-ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS.-1867.

ERMEDIATE

Torm

snding February, 1867.

Term

I ending August. 1867.

HIGH, GRAMMAR & INT]
SCHOOLS.

2 H
0 g3

J^ 1

Mi 0)

s|: 0
CO a,

1 .2

to m

0 .3

0)
CI V
6D C

rt .2

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10 be

1— ( a

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oi
6 0

S H

2 ^

^ £

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s ^
? '^

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bX) c 1 ^ 5

TO « f^ TO

3
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T-T;^-!-, S^^^r>f^l

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711

64 104

11 50'

287

94| 148 148 188 17!

10
46

150 56
688 344

94
844'

133
547

47 86 1-^a' is'>

1241 9| 5
29; 518 P''^

Bunker

Hill School..

354 357 kl6

329 586

592 9 6071

272' 275

569 580

AVarren School

894

192

202 ;i337

161

176; 314

316 1

836!

355 167

188!

296

! 145

294

279

3 293

Winthrop School »

60G

314 2921 474

281

243 540

459

468'

506 246 260

424

204 220 391

400

6 418

Harv'ard Sehool

5GS

275

2931 1)00

244: 256: 448

456

486

536 263 273

448

227 221I 412;

481

7 441

Prescott

School

701

345
47

356 i)89

37 '• 88

295
50

294 570
S8 60

568
69

574;

88!

33
18

649 330 819
82 50 32

515
68

26
4,
2(

123

3 249 ^'■^^' ^«o

11 504

33
9
5

ri;,. + « Q/il-,r>r.l Mr, 1 .

5 25

63 58

Intermediate School, No.

i 5^

46 '71!

33| 47
1463 2713

51|

83 43 40

'32

) 12
3 1233

•

1 ^^

332916421687

S25i362

2659 178

2647

212 30491499 1550

2463

140 2413

180'2463

193

—

Term ending February, 1867- |

Primary Schools.

Term ending August, 1867.

Primary Schools.

Location of Pri-
mary School

c 0

a a

l- T!

1 S .

0) .

35 S
c 0

bcca

«T3

I', bo
U3 "^

0) .

SUB-COMMITTEE ON

c
d

teachers' names.

Houses.

ax3

<u a)
^1

> g

. >

teachers' names.

"3 *^

£ S

P-l X

0 0

^ C

PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

Lucy M. Small,

Charles Street,

4 1

Lucy M. Small,

32 33

Chas. H. Rigelow,

Eliz. W. Veaton,

Mead "

Eliz. W. Yeaton,

87 39

William Peirce,

M. Josephine Smith,

Mead "

M. Josephine Smith,

33 31

"William Peirce,

Malviua B. Skilton,

Mead "

Malvina B. Skilton,

34 25

Win. H. Finney,

Jennie D. Smith,

Elm

10 t

Jennie D, Smith,

24 31

Stacy Baxter,

Kllen Ilaclley,

Medford "

Ellen Hadley,

30 30

Stacy Baxter,

Fannie A. Foster,

Boylston Chapel,

Fannie A. Foster,

No Exam.

Abram E. Cutter,

M. A. Blanchard,

Cross Street,

M. A. Blanchard,

A. J. Locke,

Almira Delano,

Cross

Almira Delano,

103

A. J Locke,

Louisa A. Pratt,

Common "

Louisa A. Pratt,

O.T

David M. Balfour,

15. A. Pricliard,

Common "

E. A. Pilchard,

(

David M. Balfour,

Ellen M. Arnistead,

Bow "

fifi

3-^

! 51

Ellen M. Armstead,

2.)

J. E. Rankin,

C. \V. Trowbridge,

Bow "

7'>,

1 60

C. W. Trowbridge,

J. E. Rankin.

Sarah E. Smith,

Bow "

fi3

Sarah E. Smith,

No Exam.

()9

Abram E. Cutter,

C. M. W. Tilden,

Bow "

fiO

C. M. W. Tilden,

No Exam.

(>-A

M. H. Sargent,

E. R. B rower.

Common "

K. R. Brower,

3;j

32 72

0. F. SafFord,

Susan E. Etheridge,

Moulton "

' 73

Susan E. Etheridge,

70|

40 80

Geo. H. Yeaton,

Fannie B. Butts,

Moulton "

Fannie B. Butts,

45i

Geo. H. Yeaton,

Louisa W. Huntress,

Moulton "

Louisa W. Huntress,

Wm. R. Bradford,

Matilda Gilman,

Soley

Matilda Gilman,

3fc

()4

Sam'l H. Hurd,

Lucy J. Simonds.

Sullivan "

Lucy J. Simonds,

103

4-1

- 40

Geo. H. Marden,

Frances M. Lane,

Sullivan "

15{ 75

Frances M. Lane,

100

Geo. H. Marden,

Helen G. Turner,

Haverhill "

33( 67

Helen G. Turner.

102

62j

Chas. F. Smith,

C. C. Brower,

Common "

18i 49

C. C. Brower,

) 24

26 00

0. F. Safford,

Martlia Yeaton.

B. Hill

32! 61

Martha Yeaton,

• 85

3."

) 42

1 1

John Sanborn,

2fi

H. C. Easterbrook,

B. Hill

109

0'^

211 74

H. C. Easterbrook,

100

40| 31

John Sanborn,

Lizzie M. Tate,

B. Hill "

32i 76

L. M. Tate,

122

1 42

81>

Chas. F. Snaith,

Anna R. Stearns,

Moulton "

30'i 77

Anna R. Stearns,

42| 44

Wm. R. Bradford,

M. J. A. Conley.

Mead

?,'>

25'| 52

M. J. A. Conley,

l\ 33

.').')

Wm. H. Finney,
Charles H. Bigelow,

Fannie A. Marden,

Main "

100

34:i 73

Fannie A. Marden,

lO.T

34 39

Carrie A. Rea,

Austin "

0'>

2'?

11 51

Carrie A. Rea,

27 23

William Peirce,
Edwin B. Haskell,
Edwin B. Haskell.

Emma C. Jones,

Comtnon "

3^^

3-^

21 57

Emma C. Jones,

5.«

23 22

Mary E. Taylor.

Common "

22! 15 45

Mary E. Taylor.

22 21

2525

12S2

1243

|204b

10G7

97911638

I6S8I 8901 792 204U

1 6 I2U9

270'.

11369

134012290:1102:11341180911762

886 876i2294i 2

203

CHARLESTOWN, January 2, 1868.

F. A. DOWNING,

Secretary School Committee.

APPENDIX.

iBSM &w mxH;

DK.mj^JlUi

!m4

DEDICATION

ON Bi^LDWm STRSEIT,

; — "

j \

S O N a ,

By a Choir of Pupils of the Bunker Hill School.

READING OF SCRIPTURES.

PRAYER.

SONG.

STATEMENT

By his Honor the Mayor, LIVERUS HULL, acting as Chairman
of Committee on City~Property.

PRESENTATION OF THE KEYS TO THE SCHOOL
COMMITTEE.

ORIGINAL SONG — Rev. J. E. Rankin.

Home of the free and of the brave,
Whose deeds light up Time's story ;

These are the bulwarks that will save
Thine earlier classic glory.

Far as thy banner waves on high,
Blessing our children's eyes.

To greet the blue approving sky,
O, let these temples rise.

So then built up with love and truth

On deeply laid foundations.
Graceful and strong, hence let our youth

Go forth to bless tlic nations.
Upon these altars let the fire

Of freedom ne'er grow dim.
Nor cease our children to inspire

Religion's heavenly hymn.

Thou who didst guide the Mayflower's keel

Thro' cold Atlantic's Avaters,
Around Thine altars here we kneel, —

O, bless our sons and daughters !
Thou who didst give us Freedom's height,

And many a hero's name,
Through all Time's far-descending flight.

For them Thy love we claim.

i p

— ~«^QXv^

ADDRESSES.
ORIGINAL SONG — B. P. Shiixaber, Esq.

Tlie treo our fetliers set witli pride,

We cherisli as a sacred trust,
And 'neath its branches spreading wide

Wc render it a tribute just.
With Education for its root,

Its healthy veins with vigor thrill,
And many a glorious attribute

Bespeaks the soil of Bunkek Hill.

Grand branches of the primal tree

Their healtliful origin attest :
In Harvakd we its lineage see,

In WiNTHROP it is manifest ;
In Warren, Prescott, Putnam, all

The gracious qualities we trace, '
Througli which, admiring, we recall

The spirit of tlieir natal place.

And here to-day we fondly meet,

To venerate and liless anew,
'Mid scenes more ample and complete,

Tlie faithful friend — the guardian true.
Oh, may its future e'er be bright,

With learning's halo round it still,
And children's children, with delight,

Shall name the School of Bunker Hill.

BENEDICTION.

Z/i^lji ARTHUR W. LOCKE & CO., ^=^"^3^ rjr):
y^V»2) PRINTERS, BOSTON.

DEDICATION OF THE

BUNKER HILL SCHOOL-HOUSE.

The new Grammar School-house on Baldwin Street,
to which reference was made in the last Annual Report
of the School Committee, was dedicated Friday, Feb.
22d, 1867.

The exercises were commenced with a song by a choir
of pupils of the school. Selections from the Scriptures
were read by Rev. C. N. Smith, and prayer was offered
by Rev. J. E. Rankin. After another song by the
children, His Honor the Mayor, Liverus Hull, delivered
the following address :

Address of the Mayor, acting as Chairman of the
Committee on City Property.

Mr, Mayor, Gentlemen of the School Committee, and Fellow-
Citizens :

The occasion which has drawn us together to-day, is one of a
truly gratifying character. "We are met here to dedicate this sub-
stantial and commodious edifice to the grand purposes of education.
And we have prayerfully invoked the Divine blessing to rest upon it,
to hallow and prosper it, that it may amply and long fulfil the object
for which it was designed and erected. The glory and pride of our

State is in her schools and from the mental training which she
secures to all her children, may be ascribed her prosperity, her
renown, and her power and influence in the nation. Hence, in
rearing this costly structure, we have obeyed the lesson which the
State constantly inculcates and illustrates. The exigencies were
pressing which required a building of more ample accommodations
for the pupils in this section of the city, than could be obtained in
the adjoining grammar school building. The increase of the popu-
lation had outgrown the capacity of that structure to supply the
needful facilities for education. And, therefore, we have reared
beside it, and for the reception of its pupils, this more capacious
building, whose many and noble sized rooms, will, it is believed, not
only accommodate all for some years to come, but will do away with
any necessity for seeking for school-rooms in other localities, or in
buildings other than those owned by the city.

Late in the year 1865, a communication from the School Com-
mittee urged upon the City Council the necessity of a prompt increase
of school accommodations. The buildings owned by the City and
devoted to education were crowded to over-flowing, so that many
children were unable to obtain seats, and rooms were hired of pri-
vate parties to meet the necessity of the time, and the localities
selected, though the best that could be obtained, were by no means
what were required. It was too late to act upon the School Com-
mittee's communication, which was received in December, and the
matter passsd over into the hands of the succeeding City Govern-
ment. In the month of October previous, in anticipation of early
action to be taken for the erection of a large school building, the
City Council had authorized the purchase of the lot of land on which
this building stands, being an area of 12,000 feet at a cost of $6,067.

The subject was brought to the attention of the City Council
early in 1866. In February of that year, the Committee on City
Property were instructed to procure estimates and plans for an ample
building upon this locality, calculated to supply the existing need of
school-rooms, and in some degree to supply for prospective wants.
In the month of March, that committee submitted their report with
plans and estimates of the cost. Their report and plans were
accepted and an order was immediately passed authorizing the
committee to contract for the building and to cause the same to be
built at an expense not to exceed seventy thousand dollars.

Armed with this authority, the committee entered upon their work

animated with a desire to see it completed at the earliest practicable
moment, compatible with substantial finish and solidity. They
looked for a building which should fully meet the wants of the city ;
which should be worthy of the purpose for which it was planned ;
which should be a pride and ornament to this section of the city, and
which, when finished, should reflect no discredit upon the zeal and
judgment of the Building Committee, nor upon the ability of the mas-
ter workmen, our own citizens, to whose hands the contracts were
given.

******

Gentlemen, the work is done ; this school-house is finished, sub-
stantial and commodious — provided with the best conveniences that
the science of rearing these structures has yet designed, and of which
the Building Committee could obtain knoAvledge. Within these
walls, in rooms large and airy, nobly lighted and comfortably
warmed, and with the most assured means provided against acci-
dental fire, nearly a thousand pupils can be accommodated.

The expense of construction, exclusive of furnishing, amounts to
the sum of $65,862.79.

Our thanks are due to James H. Rand, Esq., the architect of this
building, for the able manner in Avhich he has performed his portion
of the work, and for the zeal he has manifested from its commence-
ment to its completion. And we also feel great pleasure in tendering,
as we do here, our thanks to John B. Wilson, Esq., the master
builder and the contractor, for this substantial work ; and to Messrs.
J. E. & Wm. W. Bray, by whom these solid foundations were laid,
and this mass of stone and brick piled above them, — for the
thorough and workmanlike manner in which each and all have
performed the parts assigned to them, and for their unvarying kind-
ness and gentlemanly courtesy in promptly deviating from their
original plans to make such altei'ations and changes as, in the
progress of the work were seen to be manifest improvements, and
were desired by the Building Committee.

To you, sir, who was the chief executive officer of the city when
this building was inaugurated, the committee, under whose direction
the work was completed, have desired me to present the keys of this
building, that from your hands they may be transferred, in language
more appropriate than I can utter, to the Board of School Committee,
which henceforth is to have charge of its destinies. It is deemed
fitting that you, sir, — because of the inception of this structure, and

its almost entire completion during your mayoral administration, —
should bear an honored and prominent part in its dedication, and it
gives me great pleasure to perform this duty.

Sir, in behalf of the Building Committee, I now present to you
these keys, with the expression of this fervent wish, — that when
this building shall have been fully dedicated and used for the purposes
of Education, it may become a power of good in our city, and that
the youth here trained may become fully qualified for the great battle
of life, and to be good and useful citizens.

Extract from the Address of Hon. Charles Eobinson,
Jr., acting as Mayor :

Mr. Chairman of the Committee on City Property :

Your courtesy compels me to address you by this title, rather than
by the one which your fellow- citizens have conferred upon you.
Before accepting from your hands the keys of this building, which
has been constructed under your immediate supervision and control,
I cannot but express my appreciation of the respect which has been
shown to me, in your request that I should participate in the exercises
of this occasion, and assume the functions which are now no longer
-mine. I thankfully accept the position which has thus honorably
been assigned to me.

In behalf of the City Council I now accept from your hands the
keys of this building as a symbolical transfer of it to the City, to be
used for the high and noble purposes for which it has been designed.
This acceptance discharges you and your associates of the Com-
mittee of the trust which has been committed to you. It is needless
for me to say that the duty has been satisfactorily performed. The
work sufficiently attests your fidelity, the competency of the archi-
tect, and the skill and faithfulness of the builders. Speaking of the
past and present City Governments, I signify their approval of your
labors and of those who have been engaged in the erection of this
edifice.

Members of the City Government, of the Board of School Committee,
Ladies and Gentlemen :

The statement which has been presented on behalf of the Com-
mittee sufficiently sets forth the business details in relation to this

structure. Its cost has largely exceeded that of any other building
erected by the City for educational purposes. Had a policy been
pui'sued which ignored the wants of our youth aud gave more heed
to matters of minor consideration, rather than to those of primary
importance, the work would not now be completed, but have been
deferred to a later period. The demands for increased school
accommodations were so urgent that its erection could not be wisely
postponed to that desirable future when financial affairs shall have a
solid basis, and commerce, trade, manufactures, and all the industrial
pursuits of man shall move harmoniously, each observing its proper
relations, and all " on golden hinges turning."

While it does not become me, on this occasion, to speak of the
adaptation of the building to the purposes for wdiich it is designed,
it is fitting for me to say that its general appearance, its substantial
character, and architectural proportions are creditable to the City.

I rejoice that more attention is being given to the style and
appearance of our public buildings and especially to our school-
houses. * * * * * *
It is not wise, either in public or private matters, to lose sight of the
Eesthetic in the pursuit of the useful.

" Stars teach as well as shine,"

and a fine building, while it shelters those who gather within its
walls, exerts a healthy and elevating influence upon its beholders.
In fact, the useful is not confined to that which clothes, warms, and
feeds, or performs menial offices for mankind ; but all things are of
use ; the waving fields of grain as well as the homely loaf. The
silver moonlight on the lake — the sculptured marble — the speaking
canvas — the swelling harmonies of music, sweet as the song of an
angel, — and all the beauties of nature and art minister to the wants
of the mind and the soul. If v^e would educate our children so as
to approach that degree of excellence Avhich is so desirable, we must
grasp all the utilities and apply them for their advancement. It will
not be sufficient to furnish them with only those facilities which we
enjoyed in our childhood. They are to live their lives and creditably
to perform the duties which will be incumbent upon them, and not
to live such lives as we have led or are leading, or to do such things

as we have done, or are doing.

******

True economy will justify all expenditures which look to improve-

ment and progress. I have faith in the future and the unfoldings of
time. If, as a people, we do not sow neither shall we reap. The
harvest belongs to those who plant.

For the cause of education, for the benefit of our youth, we should
not sow with a sparing hand. The opportunities for advancement
open to every American boy and girl are almost unlimited, and it is
our duty to do our share of the work in furnishing adequate facilities
to enable our children to improve and secure these opportunities. It
is about all that we can do for our country, for liberty and humanity.
The greatness of our country, the growth of liberty, the uplifting of
humanity, do not much depend upon those of us who have reached
or passed middle-life, — they are dependent upon the rising genera-
tion. We may live to see the glory of the incoming flood, but we
shall not form a part of it. Our relation to it will be that of the
seed to the harvest — therefore let us sow plentifully in order that
the return may be abundant. *****

Culture assimilates us to the best minds of all countries and all
ages. We need it for our welfare and our enjoyment ; we need its
enriching influence and exhileration. It makes us cosmopolitan. It
takes the conceit out of us and in its place puts good manners and
good sense. It enables one to value the substance of things rather
than their semblance. ******

The beginning of culture is in our common schools. They are
the ten thousand springs which send forth those little rivulets of
learning, that, flowing onward and developing in their course, shall
yet unite and form a broad expanse of education and improvement
which shall cover all our land. Let us then guard and feed these
springs with all diligence and love. They shall make possible the
time when men shall receive and welcome higher and more noble
ideas and sentiments ; when they shall understand that the interest
and welfare of every man is bound up in and dependent upon the
pi'osperity and happiness of every other man. * * * *

Mr. President of the Board of School Committee : It has been
assigned to me as a duty, to transfer the use of this building to your
Board and its successors to be set apart and kept for the purposes for
which it has been designed. By authority of the city government, I
now present you with these keys in token of that transfer which is
now completed. And I trust that this occasion, and the instrumen-
talities which may be employed in this building, shall all prove
conducive to sound education, good government, pure morality, and
genuine piety.

Kev. Geo. W. Gardner, President of the Board ot
School Committee, on receiving the keys spoke briefly
of the symbolism of these keys. He who carries them
is both a master and a teacher. They mean authority.
Schools must be governed. Education is disciplinary.
Obedience, order, precision, punctuality, are great les-
sons for the young to learn.

They also symbolize instruction. The storehouses of
knowledge are locked against ignorance and idleness.
Education is the key to golden treasuries. The teacher
holds that key and uses it.

This day witnesses the homage of wealth to learning.
These school-palaces are fit abodes of the King's chil-
dren ; and the people are king.

The President then passed the keys to W. H.
Finney, Esq., Chairman of the sub-committee on the
Bunker Hill School, who delivered an address largely
histcrical, and of permanent interest. The historical
portion is given below.

MR. FINNEY'S ADDRESS.

It has been the boast of the citizens of Charlestown, that, from a
very early period in the history of the town, the cause of education
has received that encouragement and fostering care which its impor-
tance demanded. I quote from the Report of the Trustees in 1840 : —

" Six years had not elapsed from its settlement, ere a school had
been established ; established not in times of peace and plenty, but
amid scenes of Indian hostility and of pressing want. And the town
has ever maintained its schools through all changes of government,
through prosperity and adv^ersity, until the time when its dwellings
and temples fell an early sacrifice on the altar of Liberty. As the
town gradually arose upon smouldering ruins so came up our public
schools."

I have thought it not inappropriate for this occasion to present
extracts from the town and school records, illustrating the spirit
which has heretofore animated the inhabitants of Charlestown. For
the knowledge of the facts prior to the year 1775, I am indebted
to " Frothingham's History of Charlestown," the author of which
was also the author of the Report from which I have quoted — a
gentleman whose appreciation of, and interest in, the schools of our
City have been often manifested in his official acts as well as in his
capacity as a citizen.

"June 3, 1636, Mr. "Wm. Witherell was agreed with to keep a
school for a twelve month, to begin the eighth of August, and to have
£40 this year." The historian remarks, " This simple record is
evidence of one of the most honorable facts of the time, namely, that a
public school, and, judging from the salary, a free school at least for
this ' twelve-month,' was thus early established here ; and on the
principle of voluntary taxation. It may^be worth while to remem-
ber, also, that this date is eleven years prior to the so often quoted
law of Massachusetts, compelling towns to maintain schools."

The following vote was passed Aug. 27, 1644. " It was agreed
y* one peck of wheat, or 12d. in money, shall be paid by every
family towards the maintenance of the College at Cambridge."
" This humble contribution continued to be made many years."

" The school continued to be maintained, though there is no notice
of a school-house until 1648, when one was ordered to be built on
"Windmill Hill, and paid for by a general rate."

In " 1671, Benj. Thompson, a celebrated teacher, was engaged by
the Selectmen to keep school in town upon the following terms :

" 1. That he shall be paid £30 per annum by the town, and to
receive 20 shillings a year from each particular scholar that he
shall teach.

" 2. That he shall prepare such youth as are capable of it, for
college with learning answerable.

" 3. That he shall teach to read, write, and cypher."

It may be interesting to compare the dimensions and cost of a
school-house built in 1682 with the figures which have just been read
by the Mayor. The house was " twelve feet square and eight feet
stud, with joints with a flattish roof, and a turret for the bell, and like-
wise a mantel-tree of twelve feet long," The expense for carpenter
work was £13 The masons were to " build up chimneys and under-
pin the house, and to ceil the walls with clay and brick, and to point
the roof with lime for £5."

"At the annual meeting in March, 1701, it was voted, 'That if
there should be a county school-house settled by the General Court,
that this town would raise £40 in order to provide for it, if it be
settled in this town.' "

In 1713 there was a controversy about the location of a new
school-house ; the controversy was finally settled by building on the
Hill near the old house (probably near where the present Harvard
School now stands). "The cost of this House was £104 4s. lid.
The salary of the grammar master was £50, and £4 were voted to
pay for teaching children to write among our inhabitants near
Reading."

In 1718 the salary of the master was £60. In ,1725 the salary
was £80 ; which was the largest item in the appropriations to defray
the town expenses. In 1748 five gentlemen were appointed to visit
and examine the schools at least once a quarter, and an addition of
£100 Avas made to the salary of the grammar master.

Many other extracts might be made in relation to the provision of
the town for schools, but I have already presented sufficient to show
the estimation in which education was held. In 1793, March 27th,
a special Act of the Legislature was passed " to incorporate certain
persons by the name of the Trustees of Charlestown Free Schools."

It appears by the preamble, that certain real and personal property
had been bequeathed to the town, the income of which was to be
applied to its schools, and, in order to better carry out the trust, this
Act of Incorporation was passed. It required the Board " to be the
Visitors, Trustees, and Governors of the Charlestown Free Schools,"
the town to choose annually seven persons to be Trustees ; the Board
to have power to make "rules and orders for the good government
of said schools, all which shall be observed by the officers and
scholars, provided such be no ways repugnant to the laws of this
Commonwealth."

By a subsequent Act of the Legislature, the School Committee
were constituted the Board of Trustees, with all the powers belong-
ing to the old Board.

" Previous to 1800 there was but one school-house in Charlestown,
below the Canal Bridge, for the accommodation of children between
7 and 14 years of age, and that was near where the Harvard Schoo'
now stands.

'•'■There the children from the old bridge to the top of Winter Hill
were brought together. In May, 1801, it was ascertained that

within the above limits there were 347 children between the ages of
7 and 14 years, and that 66 of this number resided between " Capt.
Richard Frothingham's house on Main Street,' at the corner of Eden
Street, ' and Mr. John Tufts' house at the top of Winter Hill.' The
Board of Trustees therefore recommended that a ' new school be
forthwith established at the Neck.' In October, 1801, a room was
procured near the Canal Bridge and fitted for a school during the
winter — this school was taught by Mr. Benj. G-leason. In May,
1802, Z. B. Adams, Esq., offered to give to the town, ' for a school
house lot,' " the lot of land on which stands the house now vacated
by the Bunker Hill School. The gift was accepted, and a wooden
school-house 30 by 25 feet square, and one story high, was built in
that year. In March, 1804, this building was destroyed by fire. In
May, 1805, the town voted $1000 for erecting a brick school-house
at the Neck, in place of the one destroyed by fire ; this building was
36 by 25 feet square, and was finished and occupied in the fall of
that year. The building was subsequently enlarged and improved,
mostly at the town's expense, though partly by the voluntary contri-
butions of the citizens in this district, at whose expense the cupola,
the bell, and a time-piece were furnished.*

Were it not for fear of exceeding the proper limits of this address,
I would be glad to present copious extracts from the early reports of
the Trustees, to show the liberality of the citizens in providing the
necessary means of supporting the schools. But I have time only to
make but brief extracts. From the Report of the Trustees in May,
1815: — "They indulge the hope that, with the joyful return of
peace, our fellow-citizens will be restored to their wonted occupations,
and blessed with such prosperity as shall furnish them the means, as
they have always possessed the disposition to support with cheerful-
ness and liberality, such additional means of education as the in-
creasing population of the Town may require."

In their Report dated May, 1816, the Trustees say, "If we
consider these things," (referring to the distress of the people during
the war) " we shall at once perceive that these schools presented a
powerful inducement to many to remain in town, and, by making the
privilege of instruction free to all, has preserved the chain of educa-
tion unbi'oken by the distresses of the people or the shock of war."

* For these facts in the early history of the Bunker Hill School, I am
indebted to H. K. Frothingham, Esq.

In 1827, a school-house was built on the Trainin* Field, Winthrop
Street. Our fellow-citizen, Lemuel Gulliver, Esq., was the first
master.

■ In 1838, the " School at the Neck " was named the " Bunker Hill
School," the school on Harvard Street was named the " Harvard,"
and that on Winthrop Street the " Winthrop School." At this time,
and for a few years afterwards, the town limits were such as to
require a school under the charge of the Trustees, situated at about
seven miles distance from the Town House, and contiguous to the
western part of Woburn — and another verging on the town of West
Cambridge.

In 1840 a new Grammar school-house was built, and at a meet-
ing of the Trustees in March of that year it was named the " Warren
School."

In 1845, a new school-house was erected for the Bunker Hill
School. It was dedicated on Monday, Dec. 1, 1845. Addresses
were made by Henry K. Frothingham, Esq., President of the Board,
Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary of the Board of Education, Rev. Mr.
Greenleaf, Rev. Geo. E. Ellis, Mr. Richard Frothingham, Jr., and
others. In 1847-8, the High School was built, the Harvard
school-house remodelled, and the Winthrop School transferred, name
and all, from Winthrop Street to a new building on Bunker HiU
Street.

The Prescott School-house Avas built in 1857, and dedicated Dec.
15, by appropriate exercises. The erection of the Prescott School
building relieved, for the time, the wants of the City for grammar
school accommodations ; but within the last four or five years, it has
been seen that another school-house would soon be required. Various
temporary expedients have been adopted to provide room for the
children. The basement and the hall in the Prescott building have
been successively fitted up and occupied as school-rooms. Addi-
tional rooms have been occupied in the Winthrop. Two additional
rooms have been made in the basement of the old Bunker Hill, and,
for more than a year, one class has occupied an unsuitable room at
considerable distance from the school-house ; and recently a room
has been fitted iip in the City Hall for the surplus scholars belonging
to the Harvard School who could not be accommodated in the school-
house. The Warren School has heen literally -puvsuedi hj fire ; and
■figuratively by the sword in the neglect to provide suitable accommo-
dations for it. The house that we dedicate to-day will be nearly

filled by the present Bunker Hill School. After the rebuilding ot
the Warren school-house, in accordance with the recommendations
of the Mayor, and after the children are gathered from their various
rooms in different parts of the city and from the private schools to
which many have been sent in consequence of the present arrange-
ments, and after relieving the Prescott, Winthrop, and Harvard of
their surplus scholars, I think it will be found that the City will
possess none too much room for the education of our children. I
have made these statements in relation to the present and prospective
wants of the City for school accommodations because I fear that the
facts are not fully understood in the community, — at least by many
who are compelled to bear a large proportion of the taxes, but whose
circumstances are such that they have not been put to any personal
inconvenience by the lack of proper school-room, — and because I
feel confident that there is no one in this community who, after
understanding the facts as they exist, will say or do anything to dis-
courage generous provision for our children's education.

It has been said that we can pay only to posterity the debt we
owe to our ancestors. This has been acknowledged by the City of
Charlestown in the adoption for its seal of the xaoiio ■'•'• Liberty — a
trust to he transmitted to Posterity." The way to perform the duties
of this great trust has been indicated by those from whom it has
been transmitted through succeeding generations to us. The seal
of the " Trustees of the Charlestown Free Schools," adopted in 1798,
is embellished with a representation of an open book and other em-
blems of popular education, and this inscription : " The way to
preserve Liberty." We are thus admonished of our duties, and are
told how we can best perform them. With grateful hearts let us
acknowledge the debt we owe our fathers, by doing what we can for
the benefit of our children.

And now, Mr. Principal, one more duty devolves upon me as the
representative of the Committee on the Bunker Hill School, and that
is, to deliver these keys to you, the Master of the school. "We have
full confidence in your ability and in your appreciation of the duties
and responsibilities of your position ; and I can assure the members
of the city government, the parents, and all who have an interest in
the intellectual and moral advancement of this community, that the
cause of education and morality will suffer no detriment at your
hands. The Committee have watched with attentive eye your course
during the time you have occupied the position of Principal of the

Bunker Hill School. You have already won an enviable reputation
for ability and success. I do not propose to give you any instruc-
tions in regard to methods of teaching or of discipline. It belongs to
those who are active in the practical work of education to consider
these subjects. With your past course we are satisfied. In regard,
to the future discharge of your duties we have faith that you will
consider increased facilities as calling for yet higher achievements.
We bid you and your noble corps of assistants, God speed. And,
invoking the blessing of Heaven upon this school, I give these keys
into your charge.

Mr. Alfred P. Gage, the Principal of the School, on
receiving the keys from the Chairman of the Sub-Com-
mittee, replied as follows : —

31r. Chairman : In receiving at your hands these keys, as symbols
of the trust reposed in us, be assured that we are sensible, in some
degree, of the new duties and increased responsibilities devolved upon
us. And, encouraged by the flattering record of this school since its
organization, we shall realize our fondest hopes if its future success
shall be found commensurate with the increased facilities which this
edifice affords, in contrast with that time-honored temple which to-
day becomes to us a cherished memento of the past.

The duties and obligation of a teacher, if rightly realized, are of
no ordinary kind. If it is granted that his work is not merely to
furnish to the young certain mechanical accomplishments, as " read-
ing, writing, and arithmetic," but, in a more liberal sense, to unfold,
direct and strengthen the intellect, to enlighten the conscience, to
inculcate correct principles of truth, justice, and morality, or, in the
words of another, " to educate man to perform skillfully, justly, and
magnanimously all the ofiices of life, both public and private," then
it is hardly possible to exaggerate the importance of the calling.

But I am well aware that many words do not become me on this
occasion. Allow me to congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, and those
associated with you in the guardianship of this school, on the suc-
cessful accomplishment of the object in which you have been so
deeply interested. To your untiring efforts do we owe the timely
erection of this commodious building. And it seems fitting that I
should thus publicly express to you, in behalf of pupils and teachers,
— and I venture to add patrons, — our gratitude for your valuable

services ; also for the many kind attentions and encouragements
which you have bestowed upon us, and which have contributed in a
degree to whatever of success has, hitherto, attended our efforts.

I am gratified to know that my past labors have been acceptable
to you.

I can only pledge you my best energies, aided by an able corps
of assistants, to perpetuate the fair reputation of the Bunker Hill
School.

The following Dedication Hymn, written for the oc-
casion by Rev. J. E. Rankin, was then sung : —

Home of the free and of the brave,

Whose deeds light up Time's story;
These are the bulwarks that will save

Thine earlier classic glory.
Ear as thy banner waves on high,

Blessing our children's eyes,
To greet the blue approving sky,

O, let these temples rise.
So then built up with love and truth

On deeply laid foundations,
Graceful and strong, hence let our youth

Go forth to bless the nations.
Upon these altars let the fire

Of freedom ne'er grow dim.
Nor cease our children to inspire

Religion's heavenly hymn.
Thou who didst guide the Mayflower's keei. .

Thro' cold Atlantic's waters,
Around Thine altars here we kneel, —

0, bless our sons and daughters !
Thou who didst give us Freedom's height,

And many a hero's name.
Through all Time's far-descending flight,

For them Thy love we claim.

Remarks of a very interesting nature were then made
by liev. J. H. Twombly, Superintendent of Schools for
this City, Hon. Richard Frothingham, J. D. Philbrick,
Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools in Boston, and
others. The exercises were closed with the Benediction.

95
DEDICATION OF THE

WARREN SCHOOL-HOUSE.

The Warren Grammar School-house was dedicated
to the uses of public instruction, on Wednesday, Jan-
uary I, 1868. The following is substantially the order
of exercises, some of the addresses being abbreviated.

SONG:

By Pupils of the Warren School, under the direction of
Wm. H. Goodwin, Teacher of Music.

READING OF THE SCRIPTURES :
By Eev. T. R. Lambekt, D.D.

PRAYER:

Bt Rev. C. N. Smith.

ORIGINAL HYMN:

Written by Rev. J. E. Rankin.

To the future a temple we 've builded.

Its proportions to cast down the ages ;
By the light of each morn to be gilded,

And in evening's soft radiance shine.
While with Ignorance warfare it wages,
And illumines the shadow of Error,
To all tyrants, O be it a terror.

And to patriots a beacon divine !

Eor the name of a martyr we give it,

That our children may learn of his story ;
May cherish his valor, and live it

When the thunders of battle shall sound ;
May cover their names, too, with glory.
Should invaders commission their minions
To fetter free men with their pinions,

In the breach like our Warren be found.

John B. Wilson Esq., Chairman of the Committee
on City Property, on passing the keys of the building
to the Mayor, made the following

STATEMENT.

Mr. Mayor : — The Warren School-house, in compliance with
the request of the School Committee and by order of the City Coun-
cil, has been rebuilt on the spot and over the ashes of the former
structure. The original building was erected by the town in 1840,
and was a well-arranged building for that time. It was twice seri-
ously damaged, — once by fire and once by storm, — and was finally
destroyed by the hand of an incendiary, in April, 1866, having been
in use for more than twenty-five years. In the July following its
destruction, the school-house lot was enlarged by the purchase of
adjoining property to an area of fourteen thousand (14,000) square
feet. In January, 1867, just before the dedication of the new
school-house on Baldwin Street, the School Committee informed
the City Council that " the interest of the city required the imme-
diate rebuilding of the Warren School-house." In February, plans
and estimates were ordered. In March, these were considered and
adopted, and the Committee on City Property directed to contract for
the erection of the proposed building according to the plan and
specifications of the architect, James H. Rand, Esq. of this City. At
the same meeting of the Council the sum of sixty thousand dollars
Avas appropriated for the work ; and subsequently, two addi-
tional sums, one of two thousand dollars, (for the extra cost of
"pressed bricks,") and another of seven thousand five hundred
dollars, (for heating apparatus, school furniture and iron fence) were
appropriated, making altogether, and covering the entire cost of the
edifice, the sum of sixty-nine thousand five hundred dollars ($69,500).

The contract for the entire building, exclusive of heating appara-
tus, was awarded by the Committee to Mr. Robert R. Wiley, who
promptly commenced the work on the morning after the contract was
signed, and carried it forward to completion with his accustomed
energy and faithfulness. The work has been performed in a most
thorough and substantial manner. The material and work through-
out the building are open to the inspection of all, and will bear com-
parison with similar work of the kind in this vicinity.

The lot upon which the building has been erected is about 90 by-
ISO feet ; is enclosed by a substantial iron fence, and is bounded on
three sides by public streets. The building on the ground is 61 by
90 feet, three stories high, with a basement and Mansard roof. In
the three middle stories there are twelve school-rooms, 30 by 32 feet,
and 12 feet 6 inches in height. These are finished in chestnut, var-
nished, well lighted, properly ventilated, and provided with black-
boards and other required . conveniences. The four rooms in the *
basement are cemented and floored, to be used as recess rooms ; and
in the fourth story we find the large hall in' which we are now
assembled. Mystic water is svipplied, with conveniences for its use
in the corridors of each story. There are closets for teachers and
pupils in each story, and two broad flights of stairs from the base-
ment to the fourth story.

The entire building is warmed by Gold's Patent Low Pressure steam
apparatus, located beneath the front entrance on Summer Street, in
the basement. It consists of a steam boiler, steam pipes, and hot-air
chambers, — all placed in the basement story, with a single steam
radiator in the lower corridor, into which the outer doors of the
building open. In the steam chambers the air is heated and con-
veyed directly to the rooms above them, so that no steam pipes are
placed above the basement, and there will never be more than a
single fire in the building, — and this in a completely fire-proof apart-
ment. The apparatus accomplishes the object in a most perfect man-
ner, 'and it is believed with entire safety. The pressure of steam in
the boiler (power being to no extent an object desired) will not in
th"e coldest weather exceed five pounds to the square inch, which is
only three per cent, of its tested strength ; and in milder weather
the pressure will be even less than the mere fraction stated. The
fire itself, by an ingenious contrivance, is completely under the con-
trol of the steam ; and should the steam be raised above the pre-
scribed pressure, it immediately operates to check the fire, with or
without the presence of the attendant. There are other safeguards,
relating to the supply of water, &c., which, as they are also self-
operating, are deemed perfectly reliable.

And now, Mr. Mayor, in rendering up this building to the City
authorities for the use of the School Committee, I may be permitted
to say that I do it with the highest satisfaction. We have not
selected the first day of the new year for this service because it
inaugurates any new purpose on the part of the City government in

relation to its public schools. It is the third edifice of its class —
the other two being to the right and to the left of this, in full view
from these windows — which has been erected by this City within
the past ten years, for the same purpose, at an aggregate cost of
more than two hundred thousand dollars. In the erection of this
building it is, therefore, with the third edifice as it was with the first,
merely following up and following out the generous liberality of this
City, and the town before it, in providing for its public schools. A
city of thirty thousand inhabitants, which shall in a period of ten
years, erect three first class school-houses for the accommodation of
its pupils, must be entitled to rank among the most liberal and its
citizens among the most favored of the land.

In expressing in this public manner the thanks of the Committee
to all who have been engaged in the completion of this work, and
their heartfelt gratitude that no accident has occurred during its
progress, I now present to you the keys and the control of the edifice.

His Honor, Mayor Hull, then delivered the following
address.

EEPLY AND ADDEESS OF MAYOE HULL.

Mr. Chairman of the Committee on City Property : — In
receiving the keys of this building from your hands, I cannot do so
without offering to you my sincere thanks for the energetic and faith-
ful manner in which you have superintended the erection of this
beautiful building. Yours has been a position of great responsi-
bility, and the result of your earnest and anxious labor in the pub-
lic interest is so completely successful and satisfactory, in all respects,
that you may justly feel an equal pride and pleasure in the accom-
plishment of the work. It affords me much satisfaction to make
this public statement, and to bear my testimony to the uniform
promptitude and fidelity of your public services, as a member of the
Board of Aldermen and chairman of one of its most important
committees.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — "We are assembled
here to-day to dedicate by appropriate exercises this beautiful build-
ing to the purposes of education. Our State has made it our duty
to provide suitable buildings in which to educate our youth, and to
raise money by taxation for this purpose, and fixed a penalty for

neglecting so to do. The statutes also provide that persons having
charge and control of youth, shall send them to school that they may
be educated, and that ministers of the gospel shall use their best
endeavors that the youth shall regularly attend the schools established
for their instruction ; it also makes it the duty of all instructors of
youth, to use their best endeavors to impress on the minds of chil-
dren committed to their care and instruction, the principles of piety
and justice, and a sacred regard for truth, love of their country,
humanity and universal benevolence, sobriety, industry and frugality,
chastity, moderation and temperance, and those other virtues which,
are the ornaments of society and the basis upon which a republican
constitution is founded. You will see that, in its fostering care, by
wise legislation, the State has made ample provision for the educa-
tion of all its youth, and by enactments, made it obligatory upon us
to send our children to be instructed, directing that certain great
principles shall be taught ; yet leaving each city and town full liberty
to adopt such plan, system or course of instruction as it may deem
best. It is therefore important that such a system or course should
be adopted as shall best qualify those instructed to fill the positions
they or their parents intend they shall occupy in life, and fit them to
become useful members of society.

In the School Report of last year it is said, " Society owes to
every child the opportunity for such complete mental furnishing as
shall fit him to be an intelligent citizen and a worker for the common
weal."

The design or purpose of education is to expand the intellect,
increase the power for being useful, enlarge the capacity for enjoy-
ment and happiness, and qualify the pupils for the business of life.
The nearer any course or system of instruction approaches to this,
and most thoroughly draws out and develops the best powers of the
pupil, the better it is. Upon this point there can be no difference of
opinion, neither in regard to the proposition that our youth are entitled
to such training and instruction as shall best qualify them for their
sphere of action in life.

Having thus briefly set forth some of the obligations of society,
the duty of instructors, the rights of those who are to be educated,
and the benefit or final purpose of education, I wish now to present
to your consideration the question, whether or not the system in use
in our schools is the one best adapted to the wants and circumstances
of a large portion of the children and youth of our City, or whether

100

the adoption of a new, or naodification in part of the present course,
might not more practically and usefully develop their minds and
better qualify them for life's avocations. I am aware that some
changes have just been made in the course of study, and that an
English course has been introduced into the High School. This
change was mvich needed and will help materially those who can
avail themselves of it, to perform with greater satisfaction to them-
selves and their employers, those duties that are incidental to busi-
ness occupations. The change in the Grammar School course is a step
in advance and meets with my hearty approval. But what I have to
say relates more particularly to a class of scholars who, by force of
circumstances, cannot avail themselves of a full course and for whose
benefit a change is desired.

Mr. Pi'esident and Gentlemen of the School Committee: — I wish
it 'to be distinctly understood that I am not finding fault with the
present course of study, or the management of the schools. I believe
the schools in our City are as good and as well managed as any in
the land. I am not willing to admit that they are second to any.
But in my intercourse with business men and mechanics who have
employed boys from our schools, I have learned that some of them
were not as well qualified as they had reason to expect them to be
from the character of the school. And boys who have entered upon
their duties with confidence as to their ability, were disheartened to
find themselves unable to do what they supposed they were fitted and
qualified for. The cause of this, in many cases, is not in the schools,
but rather in the inability on the part of such pupils to comply with
the rules and regulations, and to complete the course of stvidy pre-
scribed at the outset. It is in view of these facts that I venture to
speak to-day upon this subject.

The present system, Mr. President, is progressive in its character,
each step fitting and qualifying for the one above it, until all is com-
pleted, leaving nothing to be desired by those that can go through it.
And I most heartily wish that all were so situated that they could
receive the full benefit it is designed to give.

But they are not. The circumstances of a large portion of our
people will not permit them (so they think), to let their children go
through the whole course. In many cases the children must work
for their daily bread, when they ought to be in school. Is it not
important that such children be fitted as thoroughly as possible for
life's duties by a course of studies adapted to their wants and cir-

101

cumstances ? In the superintendent's report for last year, he says :
" Our schools are for the people, and the condition of attendance
and the studies pursued, should be such as will most fully meet the
real wants of all classes." If this be true, then these people, debarred
by necessity from the advantages of the present system or course,
have a right to demand that some plan be adopted by which, in a
shorter time, they may be qualified for the ordinary business of life.

The Superintendent, in the same report, also says , " A large
proportion of those who enter the Grammar Schools leave before
reaching the higher divisions of those schools." He says, " a large
'proportion" I endeavored to ascertain the exact per centage, but have
not been able to do so, but from facts, opinions, and such informa-
tion as I have been able to obtain, I am satisfied that there are more
than fifty per cent of the pupils that never reach the higher divisions
of the Grammar Schools. (One teacher of a Grammar School is of
the opinion, that not over ten per cent, go through the whole course.)
This large proportion of pupils are dropping out all the way along
the course, as individual convenience or necessity demands, with an
education unfinished and incomplete, having laid a foundation upon
which they will never build ; — they go out into the world unfitted
and unqualified for its great battle.

Mr. President, when I consider these facts, and how large the pro-
portion is of those that go out thus unqualified, I feel a strong and
earnest desire that some plan may be adopted that will, to some
extent, mitigate or remove this great want. If the people cannot
conform to the present system, because the prescribed course of study
is so long, it seems proper and right that a shorter course be
adopted, complete in itself, that will, in part at least, conform to
their wants and necessities. The change I would suggest is this :
that the schools be divided, so that a short course may be adopted,
in which the studies pursued shall be only those that are practical
and useful in ordinary business affairs, thus saving the time of both
teacher and pupil. Then let those who cannot go through the
present course take the short one. With this simple presentation
and statement of the want, which I believe exists, I leave the subject
in your hands. It was not so much my purpose to discuss this sub-
ject, as it was to direct your attention to it, believing, that if on
investigation, you find a change, or modification in part to meet the
wants of the class I have referred to, be desirable, the wisdom which
has heretofore been exercised by the School Committee in their

102

action, will be a guarantee that such measures will be adopted as
will best promote the true interest and welfare of all. Upon the
teachers of our schools rests a great responsibility. The future
of our country, either for weal or woe, depends upon the teaching of
the day.

Mr. President, in behalf of and for the City Council, I am about
to present to you, as the proper representative of the School Com-
mittee, the emblems of authority and possession. This house, so
beautiful and perfect in itself, and in all its arrangements, will be
placed in charge of, and under the control of the board you repre-
sent, to be used for educational purposes. The City Council, by its
agents, will have then completed the part assigned them by law, by
furnishing and placing under your care this building as a part of the
machinery of education. It is substantial and symmetrical in its pro-
portions, well arranged and furnished, and as perfect in all its
appointments as our present knowledge has enabled us to make it.

Mr. President, I will now place in your hands these keys. In
accepting them, you assume the care and control of this building,
which we now dedicate to the cause of education. And upon you,
and the Board you represent, rests the responsibility of providing for
the children and youth sent here and entrusted to your care, that
mental furnishing and training which shall best qualify them to
become good and useful citizens.

Rev. George W. Gardner, President of the School
Committee, received the keys from Mayor Hull, and
after a few remarks, passed them to Edwin B. Haskell,
Esq., Chairman of the Sub-Committee on the Warren
School, who spoke as follows : —

MR. HASKELL'S REMARKS.

After returning thanks for the building, in behalf of the Sub-Com-
mittee, and reporting the school in good condition, Mr. Haskell
said : — The completion of this elegant school-house is an interesting
event beyond the fact of its accommodation of some hundreds of
scholars. It is a mark of progress in school architecture and all the
material aids of education. To note the long stride that has been
taken in this direction, we have only to compare this building with

103

the one which preceded it on this site. * * * Taken as the
embodiments of the popular idea as to what a first-class school-house
should be, at two diiferent periods of time, these two buildings, the
old and the new, show an encouraging rate of advance.

The speaker then gave a brief description of the old building, and
presented facts from the records of the School Committee, to show
the changes that have been brought about in the last thirty years
in school buildings and their furniture, and the number and compensa-
tion of teachers employed. He then said : —

It may be that we are approaching the best types in these material
auxiliaries of education, and it is probable that the next thirty years
will not witness such radical changes as have taken place in a like
period of time in the past ; but no one acquainted with the workings
of our school system can believe that we have advanced so near per-
fection in the vital principles of education, as to be justified in resting
with what we have achieved. Buildings like this are good things in
their way, but they are only the machinery of our system of instruc-
tion ; and if I were to write an essay on the present needs of our
schools, I should turn my attention to the tendency of the times to do
everything by machinery. Perhaps we depend too much upon it.
We employ it not only in material things, but in political, social,
and religious things, also. We build up a system, — a machine, —
and expect it to do our work for us. We call it, perhaps, a labor-
saving machine, — and sometimes that is its only recommendation.
But there must be something besides the most cunningly devised
machinery to produce good work. There must be skilled workmen,
and the more complicated the machinery is, the more skill should the
workmen possess. Especially is this true in the Avork of education,
— the culture of the human mind, — the drawing out of the wonder-
ful faculties with which God lias endowed mankind.

I would oppose to this idea of producing certain results by machin-
ery, — which is purely mechanical — the more natural idea of
growth. The purpose of education is growth ; and in the cultivation
of the mind reference must be had to the character of the soil, as
well as the nature of the plant. We cannot expect to produce the
same results by the use of the same means on different minds. It
is not desirable. I fear that the tendency of our present system of
education is to repress individuality, — that it is something like
pruning the oak and the elm, the vine and the palm to the same
model, instead of allowing them to illustrate the strength and the
beauty of Nature each in its own way.

104

After some further remarks in regard to the direction of future
progress, the speaker turned to Mr. Swan, Principal of the school,
and said : —

In handing over the keys of this building to you, sir, I cannot
refrain from expressing my sense of your deep interest in this school,
strengthened by long and successful service here, which has sus-
tained you under disadvantages you so keenly appreciated, and kept
you faithful and hopeful to the present moment. You are happy
already in tried and true fellow-teachers, who have nobly stood the
test of the last two years, in diligent scholars, and, — what is of
equal importance, — in intelligent, honest, and appreciative parents.
To all, teachers and scholars of the Warren School, I wish you joy
of your new possession, and in its enjoyment a happy New Year."

On receiving the keys, Mr. Swan, Principal of the
School, spoke as follows : —

ME. SWAN'S REMARKS.

Mr. Chairman : — It is with pride and pleasure that I accept
these keys as emblems of the charge you formally commit to my care
to-day.

This birthday of the New Year, we celebrate in dedicating to our
youth this elegant and durable structure, which with its internal
accommodations, adapted to the greatest comfort and health of our
children, its architectural finish all beautiful, will henceforth rank as
one of the monuments of the wisdom and liberality of the citizens of
Charlestown. We do not, however, look to the costly walls or the
architectural beauties of the building for the true glory of our
school ; these may be ruins to-morrow ; but to that sound moral and
intellecttial training given to its youth, — preparing them for the
duties of good citizens in a republic.

As master of this school, my heart is in the cause which has called
lis together to-day. Encouraged by the presence of so many friends,
I dedicate anew my best energies to the duties of the position you
have assigned me. In speaking for myself and in behalf of my
associate teachers, no efforts on our part shall be wanting to make the
school worthy the confidence you place in us.

105
The following Hymn was then sung.
DEDICATION HYMN. '

BY EDWIN B. HASKELL.

Heavenly Father, grant Thy blessing;

Make our labor Thee to praise ;

Be to us as to our fathers,

In our country's early days.

Lead us upward, by Thy spirit,

To Thy bright and holy ways.

Bless the labor of our hands.
And the cause for which it stands ;
Make us faithful to our trust,
Which shall live when we are dust.

Give us wisdom for Thy service ; •

Give us strength to do Thy will;

Give us courage to go onward, —

Make Thy works to praise Thee still.

Be to us as to our fathers.

And Thy promises fulfil.

Bless the labor of our hands,
And the cause for which it stands ;
Make us faithful to our trust.
Which shall live when we are dust.

After the singing of the hymn, addresses were made
by Rev. George E. Ellis, D. D., Rev. J. H. Twombly,
Superintendent of Schools for this City, A. J. Phipps,
Esq., of the State Board of Education, and Hon.
Richard Frothingham. Dr. Ellis' address is here
given in full. The exercises were closed with a Song,
and the Benediction by Rev. O. C. Everett.

DR. ELLIS' ADDRESS.

Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen : — I recall, not however with much
vividness of impression, the day, Tuesday, April 21, 1840, when I
took part in the exercises at the dedication of the edijfice which occu-
pied the site and anticipated the purpose of this noble structure*

106

Having been then less than one month a resident in this town, I
found myself at once put to service on that occasion. The Rev.
Mr. Bent took -part with me in the devotional exercises. Our late,
most excellent fellow-citizen, Mr. Charles Forster, that devoted
friend of the young, and faithful worker in every good cause, was, if
I remember rightly, the official administrator on the occasion. The
little sheet in my hand, Avhich I have searched out from among my
papers, giving the order of exercises, with two original hymns by
teachers of the school, was put into my hands by a bright-faced
youth who answered to the name of Thomas Starr King. Those
whose names I have spoken have already passed into the higher
tuition of the skies.

I know not whether any of the pupils of that day are here now as
fathers and mothers of those who, in their turn, are to enjoy the
privileges of this school. But if such are here, they will find within
these spacious and commodious halls the ground of an appeal to their
children to make a corresponding improvement in their pupilage,
like that which there is in the new building over the old one.

When a remnant of the impoverished inhabitants of this town re-
turned, in small groups, to re-occupy it, after it had been burned by
the British Army at the opening of the Revolution, the desolate
spectacle, marked here and there by bare chimney stacks and well-
sweeps, had to them a far more forbidding aspect than had the na-
tive wilderness to their fathers a century and a half before. The
enemy had held the town during the nine months of the seige of
Boston, after the battle on these heights. They had built a large
blockhouse on the old Town Hill, — which then ran up like a cone
thirty feet higher than its present elevation, — not greatly unlike one
which the first settlers under Winthrop had built on the same spot
for defence against the natives. That second blockhouse served for
a time, as did the former one, for otherwise houseless citizens, a great
variety of needful uses. There, as in a Town Hall, they met for
business ; there, as in a church, they worshipped ; there, as in a
school-house, the children were taught. It was also a place for stor-
age, a kitchen, and a lodging-house. All our public buildings on the
peninsula are an expansion of that serviceable structure. This, the
last in the order of time, is the most costly, the most seemly, and I
hope it will prove as satisfactory for its uses and as enduring as any.
Those who examine its solid, thorough and convenient appointments
to-day, may think first of its expense, and be reconciled to that only

107

by a generous appreciation of the transcendent interests to our com-
munity, of which it is the symbol and the exponent. The edifice
will doubtless wear its finishing touch of beauty for the eyes of the
citizens when it has been paid for, and stands not to represent a por-
tion of a public debt, but a part of the invested capital of the city.
Such in fact it really is now. The citizens evidently mean only to
pay the interest on its cost for years to come ; and the liquidation of
the principal of the debt will fall to the ripe age of the scholars who
are to be educated in it. Let them think of that as they are study-
ing and learning, and be sure that they get their money's worth. If
we could harmonize the feelings of the young persons who are to be
taught here, with the reasonable expectations of their elders who
furnish them with the place and its opportunities, instead of the al-
ternate boasting and grudging indulged in about our school system,
we should know better how to administer it and how to improve it.

What is said among us with anything of official authority, on occa-
sions like this, relating to the interests and the practical workings of
our system of free common education, is a matter of more impor-
tance than speakers always realize. Our words may be quoted in
favor of or against complaints, theories, experiments of this or that
kind, which ask a hearing or a trial in our school system. The wide
spaces of our still expanding country that are to be planted with
schools, look to our New England for their methods, and they adopt
our last reports as their guides. And there are always commis-
sioners, official agents from some countries of Europe, pursuing their
inquiries among us, gathering up statistics, and sharply scrutinizing,
comparing, and testing the results of a system in which it has been
generally supposed that we are in advance of the civilized world.

When it was proposed last year to provide by legislative enact-
ment for the sending over and the setting up at the Paris Exposition
of a model of a New England school building, with its apparatus
and appointments, a very interesting discussion was opened in the
State House and in the newspapers. Certain facts came to public
knowledge, which brought under question the supposed superiority
and perfection of our system, as compared with those of one or more
other countries. The proposed measure failed of public approval.
The failure might be referred to our modesty, to our mortified vanity,
to our uncertainty as to the result of the competition which we might
provoke, or to an intelligent conviction on our part that our educa-
tional system was not as yet so satisfactory in its workings to our

108

selves, as to incline us to stand for it in its general metliod, or in its
details, before the whole world.

This last suggestion intimates to us a fact, of which we have many-
other reminders, that our school system is still largely a matter of
theorizing and experiment. The constant changes which are made
in the structure and arrangement of our school edifices ; in the grada-
tion of classes ; in the relations between head and assistant teachers ;
in the course of study ; in the text-books ; in the methods of disci-
pline, examination and promotion, and in the adoption of devices, at-
tractions, and aesthetic branches of education, physical culture, draw-
ing, painting, and music, — all these are tokens that a large part of
our working consists in scheming, and that we feel that we are rather
trying than accomplishing.

One might wonder, in looking at some aspects of the matter, over
the multitude of still debated questions and conflicting opinions, in
our own community, about our school system. In fact, hardly any
of its details or methods, or fundf^mental principles can be said to
have universal acceptance and approval. Radicalism finds material
and occasion for itself in this subject as in so many others. Novelty
and experiment, too, have their enthusiastic theorists. The simple
word Kindergarten^ borrowed with its associations of green arbors and
rustic playgrounds and flowers, from Germany, has proved enough
in itself for introducing a supposed revolution in the primary educa-
tion of little children, and the mere name transfigvires an ordinary
basement school-room with white plaster walls. Some, there are,
who tell us that it is a species of cruelty to confine little children
even to the physiologically shaped seats of our modern humanity.
But it seems to have been intended in the structure of our frame that
we should some times sit down, and then should confine ourselves to
the motions which are consistent with that posture. If restless ac-
tivity is natural to children, quietness, at some times, is a grace
which they must learn. There is a virtue, physical and moral, in
being able to sit still. The practice must early be made easy, for
occasions will come for it in life. It is certainly to be hoped that
when we have carried to perfection the building and appointments of
a model school-house, we shall not find ourselves persuaded that we
have no need of them.

There are but two powerful agencies which have sway over human
beings, — the one is Force, the other is Intelligent Conviction. In
our country we have repudiated the former, and committed ourselves

109

to the latter agency. Our community educates its children in self-
defence, for self-protection. We face courageously and hopefully the
risks of a universal franchise only when we provide for the education
of those who are to enjoy its privileges and bear its responsibility.
We are often reminded with how little wisdom this world is gov-
erned. Perhaps even less of it than there is will insure our safety
and prosperity, if we can diminish the number of fools.

If through the legislation and the records of our first fathers on
this soil, its original English occupants, I can get at the design or in-
tent which they had in view in their famous Court Order of Nov. 11,
1647, initiating our common school system, — that intent was to
offer rudimentary education, i. e., reading, writing, and arithmetic,
gratuitously to all the children growing up in the Colony, and to
compel their parents and guardians to avail themselves of the public
provisions for that purpose. They expected that the advanced
branches of education, what we call liberal culture and all accom-
plishments, would be provided for, in the main, by those who were
to enjoy the means of them, and to a certain extent by the liberality
of large minded, noble hearted, individual benefactors who possessed
wealth. If this is the truth in the case, the event has shown that in
trusting the interests of advanced education and mental culture to
private benevolence, rather than to a public tax, our fathers trusted
wisely. Any one who has a gift for research and statistics might
find an engaging theme for his investigations, in gathering the gross
amount of all the sums which have been given by individuals and
associations, by bequests, endowments, and contributions for free
academies, libraries, colleges, and other manifold institutions of
learning, and then bringing this gross amount — and a gross one it
would surely prove — into comparison with the whole sum of what
has been exacted by compulsory taxation through the Avhole Com-
monwealth since the beginning of things here in support of public
schools. It would not be strange if, as the result of such a compari-
son, it should appear that in this, as in many other high interests of
humanity^ Love had effected more than Law.

I am aware that it would not be strictly true to say that the legis-
lation of our fathers provided only for a rudimentary education at
the public expense. For the same order of Court which required a
township of fifty householders to appoint and maintain one who
should teach all the children " to write and reade," further provided,
that every town of an hundred householders " shall set up a gram-

110

mar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as
they may be fitted for the University " ; and that they had also ten
years before planned for the foundation of that University, by de-
voting to it a sum equal to the vv^hole of one year's tax of the Colony.
Still, it is none the less substantially true that in their custom and
usage the first Colonists and several generations of their descendants
did not feel themselves charged with the responsibility of exacting at
the public cost, the means for thorough and comprehensive education
in anything like the elaborateness of our modern system. In the
country towns, the bright, smart, ambitious youth who wished to go
farther in the humanities than the village teacher was bound to ad-
vance them, had to trust mainly to their own wits, to their parents'
purse, or to the helping kindness of the parish minister. The biog-
raphies of the men and women of our past generations, who have
secured such a memorial of themselves, tell us many interesting
stories of the shifts to which they had recourse in obtaining an educa-
tion. When, as almost within the memory of the veiy aged still
among us, there were but two books in the school-house, the Bible
and the Dictionary, from which, the children came up to the teacher's
seat that they might learn to read and spell, there was but a slender
field on which book agents might try their arts on the patronage of
school committee men.

Our present elaborate system of education, with its intermeddlings
with all knowledge, its gymnastics of voice and mind, its high phi-
losophy, and its not always graceful calisthenics, its attempted initia-
tion into the accomplishments and elegancies of culture, might or
might not now have the sanction of our fathers, if they could come
and inspect its workings. Our present system, with all its liberal,
comprehensive, and necessarily tentative elements, is the growth and
development of what we inherited from the past, combined with the
novelties of present taste, popular judgment, and the ever active
spirit of improvement. Certain it is that we attempt a great deal
now, and a part of our outlay and effort, if not spent upon the im-
practicable, is spent upon the unrewarding. "We take for granted
that all the children of a generation are capable of receiving and
appreciating a complete education, that they have brains for it, physi-
cal and mental aptitude for acquiring it, and rewarding uses for it.
In the spirit of our Democracy, we attempt to deal equally by all, to
provide without favor the same for all of every class and condition in
their childhood, the full means which our schools and books in their

Ill

latest advances will afford. Our system is thus contrived, and at
great expense put on trial, with reference to offering to all, to the
whole of a generation, advantages which experience shows us can
be appreciated and appropriated only by a very few. We even cast
pearls before — some, many, who do not know what to do with them.
We organize our school system with appliances for making sages,
philosophers and artists by the million.

I remember very distinctly the experiences which fell to my share,
the facts which came to my knowledge, and the dissatisfaction which
I could not but yield to at times, when, as a member of the School
Committee of the city, I had assigned to my oversight two Primary
Schools, a Sub-Committeeship in a Gi'ammar School, and the chief
supervision of the High School. Promotion was then the word
which stirred children's souls. We realize in our mature years how
strangely unwise all children are in a constant restlessness, to get out
of their youth, "to be big," and to grow up, — not knowing the
blessings and the privileges of their immaturity. We met their folly
more than half way by the proffer and emphasis of Promotion. Look-
ing always for something made too enviable before them, they lost
opportunities and advantages on the way which led to it. Boys and
girls who needed especially further training in the elementary studies
of the Grammar Schools, availed themselves of what we so foolishly
made their right, — to be examined for admission to the High School.
In very many cases, when the boys and girls themselves cared but
little for such advancement, feeling a sort of conviction that it would
not really be the best thing for them, their parents claimed and in-
sisted upon their admission. I recall those examination periods with
old aches of weariness and vexation. Very often parents would
come to my study, bringing children who had failed in passing the tests
so very moderate in their exaction for those who aimed for a High
School, and importunately seeking their admission. Often I yielded
against my own judgment. That period and form of annoyance for
our school year being passed, and the new classes with their ap-
pointed studies having been disposed in the High School, a new se-
ries of applications was made to me by parents or children, seeking
for release from one or another of the very sort of lessons for whic'
the High School was organized that it might offer instruction. T
plea would be that Algebra, Geometry, French, Latin would be m -
less to this or that boy or girl, who wanted rather tO be taug
writing, arithmetic, grammar, or book-keeping. Such children h

112

been promoted out of a region suited for their training into one which
could adapt itself to their wants and capacities only by falling short
of its own especial purpose. The Committee on the High School
were told that they must admit as many candidates from the Gram-
mar Schools as there were of unoccupied desks in the two fine halls.
I used to think it would have been better, if we had been allowed
to have some regard to the amount of space and capacity in unfilled
or untrained brains.

Now I hold it to be a self-evident truth, that a New England
child, whether of native or foreign parentage, if lacking anything in
capacity, will make it up in the impulse and incentive found in the
straits of self-interest and necessity for learning how to read, how to
write, and how to cast an account. The atmosphere and the condi-
tions of his life, help the teacher in putting the pupil through that
part of his education. But beyond that stage of education, if the
capacity of the brain is feeble, and the impulse of self-interest and
necessity fails, then an advance in learning becomes difficult, it frets
the pupil, and he has little heart for it. The teacher has to do
double brainwork, for himself and for his pupil. He sees the stupid,
irresponsive scholar stand before him, and feels much as if he were
undertaking to fashion a marble statue out of clay, or to create ideas
in the mind which he is addressing by words. Whenever I hear the
" class in philosophy" called out in a public school, I have always a
new sense of the profundity of that hard science, and a fresh convic-
tion that our Creator does not design that all our boys and girls
should be philosophers.

Much indeed might be said in favor of such a thorough reduction
and simplification of our present system, as would hold us bound by
tax to provide freely, and with comprehensive, universal reference
for the educating of all children, only in reading, writing and arith-
metic, and making the enjoyment of any farther advantages to stand
as a privilege reserved for those who, by some effort,' capacity, or at-
tainments of their own, gave evidence that a higher training would
not be wasted upon them. And this condition might be advocated
not on grounds of economy, but in the interests of good learning,
and with the intent of securing, what every teacher will tell you is
his most delightful and helpful incentive, — an engaged and respons-
ive sympathy in his pupil.

Even those of us who have the strongest natural taste for learning,
and are trying to gather it all our lives long, forget that part of our

113

acquired knowledge which we attained without the expectation or
pitrpose ever to use it. "Wlien you hear school children asking
" what is the use of our leai-ning this, or that," you may be pretty
sure that they are not learning it. The two duties which will be two
leading purposes of a faithful school teacher are, first, to stir the
hearty, living interest of the pupils in what is to be taught, and
second, to communicate some valuable information, which will be so
intently i-eceived as to be retained and added to by the pupil's own
effort. "We never retain what we have received from others, unless
we add to it by affection or effort something of our own. When pu-
pils do not themselves have some practical sense of the value of their
lessons, the lessons have an air of unreality about them. Imagine
actual cases, and note how differently any particular kind of knowl-
edge is regarded when it can be directly turned to account, and when
it is faced as the dull taskwork of a book. Many of the soldiers in
our civil war, marching over the country, or escaping in roundabout
wanderings from prison or from the risk of capture, would have re-
joiced to have had in their knapsacks or blankets a few pages of
the geography which they once had the unused opportunity of getting
into their heads. Many a coaster blundering through the mists and
fogs of our shores, and studying our headlands, sends back regrets
over his old school atlas. Show a Yankee child the practical use of
any knowledge offered to him and he will acquire it, as by the in-
stinct which makes our foreign servant girls so skilful in casting up
their wages without so much of help as the Indian finds in counting
his bunch of sticks.

There is, of course, an extreme limit of wisdom to all experi-
menting and theorizing in our school system, beyond which we peril
all its expected and possible results of good. There is a limit to the
expense which our burdened community is willing to bear for it, and
excess in that direction may prompt to niggardliness and restriction.
Hasty changes and ill-considered devices tempt some who have the
administration of our schools. I have never approved that lavish
liberality which provides school-books gratuitously to those who pro-
fess an inability to buy them. The usage is prejudicial in two ways,
as it lessens one of the restraints upon caprice and fickleness in con-
stantly changing text-books, and encourages carelessness and waste-
fulness in pupils and in their parents. For I fear there are parents
who will take books so easily come by, when well greased by the
soiled hands of their children, and, using them to kindle the fire, send

114

for a duplicate copy. We are justified in requiring, we are mani-
festly bound to require some one moderate and reasonable condition
or exaction of parents and children, to ensure their appreciation, —
the appreciation even by the poorest and most straitened of them, —
of the lavish cost and pains engaged in offering them an education.
They should be compelled to furnish their elementary books.

The direction in which at present we are to look for further and
better results for our system of education is, in securing from the
pupils themselves a better appreciation and a fuller appropriation of
the generous and exalted privileges offered to their use. They, too,
must work, and try to turn their opportunities to account.

115

DECISION OF THE COURT,

In the Case of the City of Charlestoivn vs. School Committee,
respecting Teachers' Salaries.

Oa May 11, 1867, in compliance with an order of the City Coun-
cil, Henry W. Bragg, Esq., City Solicitor, submitted to the City
Council an opinion relating to the power of the School Committee to
fix the salaries of teachers, and the liabilities of the City resulting
therefrom, in which he held that the School Committee were not
limited by any ordinance of the City in fixing the salaries of teach-
ers, and that the City would be obliged to pay the salaries of teachers
employed by the Committee, — even though the aggregate of such
salaries should exceed the appropriation therefor made by the City
Council.

This opinion, together with another one furnished to the Com-
mittee to the same effect, seeming to conflict with a previous one
given by the late J. Q. A. Griffin, Esq., the City Council concluded
to apply to the Supreme Court. And for that purpose, employed
Hon. Charles Robinson, Jr., to draw and present to the Supreme
Judicial Court a Bill in Equity, setting forth the fact that the Com-
mittee had employed teachers at salaries, the aggregate of which,
would exceed the appropriation made by the City Council for that
purpose. And praying the Court to issue an injunction restraining
the Committee from continuing the Schools and retaining the teach-
ers therein at such salaries. The Committee employed Henry W.
Bragg, Esq. to represent them in this suit. He demurred to the Bill,
and claimed that the Committee had the exclusive power to fix the
salaries of teachers, and that the Court had no jurisdiction in the
premises, and could not issue the injunction as prayed for.

The cause came up for argument on January 30, 1868, and was
fully ai-gued upon both sides. On February 10, 1868, the Court
ordered the Bill dismissed, and sent down the following opinion.

" The School Committee have the power to establish the salaries
" of teachers in the public schools, and this cannot be controlled by
" the City Council, except by voting to close the schools after they
" have kept the length of time required by law."

116

GRAMMAE SCHOOL DISTEICTS.

Bunker Hill. ■ — Commencing at Charles River, through Walker
Avenue, including within the district hoth sides, to Main street ; cross-
ing Main street to Walker street ; through Walker street, hoth sides,
to the westerly end of Wall street ; thence by straight line to the top
of the hill, thence across Bunker Hill street to Belmont street ;
thence through Belmont street, hoth sides, across Medford street to
the Mystic River.

Prescott. — Commencing at Mystic River, crossing Medford street
to Belmont street by 7-ear line of Belmont street to Bunker Hill street ;
across Bunker Hill street, and by rear line of Walker street to rear
line of Russell street ; by rear line of Russell street to Pearl street ;
through the centre of Pearl street to Bartlett street ; by rear lirie of
Bartlett street to Monument Square ; through Monument Square to
Lexington street, by rear line of Lexington street to Bunker Hill street ;
across Bunker Hill street, through the centre of Lexington street,
across Medford street to Mystic River.

Warren. — Commencing at Charles River, thence by rear line of
Walker Avenue to Main street ; crossing Main street and running by
rear line of Walker street to Russell street ; through Russell street,
hoth sides, to Pearl street ; through the centre of Pearl street to Bart-
lett street ; thence through Bartlett street, hoth sides, to Monument
Square ; through Monument Square to High street ; through High
street to Winthrop street ; through Winlhrop street, hoth sides, to
Main street ; through the centre of Main street to Bow street ; by
rear line of Bow street to Arrow street ; thence by rear line of Arrow
street to Front street.

Harvard. — Commencing at the Navy Yard gate, through the
centre of Wapping street, across Chelsea street to Chestnut street ;
through Chestnut street, hoth sides, to Adams street ; through Adams
street, hoth sides, to Winthrop street ; through Winthrop street hy rear
line to Main street ; through the centre of Main street to Bow street ;
through Bow street, hoth sides, to Arrow street ; through Arrow street,
hoth sides, to Front street.

Winthrop. — Commencing at the Navy Yard gate, through the
centre of Wapping street to Chelsea street ; through Chelsea street to
Chestnut street ; by rear line of Chestnut street to Adams street ; hy
rear of Adams street to Winthrop street ; hy rear of Winthrop street

117

to MoQument vSquare ; thence, including within the district, the
easterly side of Monument Square to Lexington street ; through Lex-
ington street, hotli sides, to Bunker Hill street ; across Bunker Hill
street, and through the centre of Lexington street, crossing Medford
street to Mystic River.

BOUNDARY LINES OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

No. 1. — ScJiool-house on Haverhill street. — Commencing at Cam-
bridge street, through Kingston or Seavey street, including hoth sides
within the district, to Haverhill street ; through Haverhill street, hoth
sides, to Main street ; across Main street to Dorrance street ; through
Dorrance street, hoth sides, including Sherman Square to Mystic
River.

Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. — School-house situated on the corner of
Bunker Hill and Charles streets. — Commencing at Mystic River,
thence hy rear of Dorrance street to Main street ; across Main street
to rear of Haverhill street ; thence to rear of Kingston or Seavey
street to Cambridge street ; across Cambridge street to the Mill
Pond ; thence to Canal street ; through Canal street, hoth sides, to
Allen street ; through the centre of Allen street to Main street ; through
the centre of Main street to Baldwin street ; through the centre of Bald-
win street to Bunker Hill street ; through the centre of Bunker Hill
street to Belmont street ; through Belmont street, rear line, crossing
Medford street to Mystic River.

No. 8. — Room rear of Gun House on Bunker Hill street. — Com-
mencing at Mystic River, across Medford street to Belmont street ;
through Belmont street, hoth sides, to Bunker Hill street ; through
the centre of Bunker Hill street to Cook street ; through Cook street,
hoth sides, to Medford ; across Medford street to the Mystic River ;
thence to the point of starting.

Nos. 10, 11, 12, and 13. — School-house on Mead street. — Com-
mencing at the Mill Pond, through the centre of Allen street to Main
street; through i/ie centre of Main street to Baldwin street; through
the centre of Baldwin street to Bunker Hill street ; through the centre
of Bunker Hill street to Sullivan street ; through the centre of SuUi-
van street to Main. street ; across Main street to Charles River.

Nos. 14 and 15. — School-house on Sullivan street. — Commencing

at Main street, through the centre of Sullivan street to Bunker Hill
street ; across Bunker Hill street to the rear of Cook street ; thence,

118

hy rear line, to Medford street ; through Medford street to Pearl street ;
through Pearl street, hotli sides, to Bunker Hill street ; through Bunker
Hill street, hoth sides, to School street ; through School street, both
sides, to High street ; through High street, hoth sides, to Salem street ;
through Salem street, both sides,to Main street ; through Main street,
both sides, to Phipps street ; through the centre of Phipps street to the
Burial Ground.

No. 16. — School-house on Medford street. — • Commencing at Mystic
River, crossing Madford street to rear of Pearl street : thence, by
rear line, to rear Bunker Hill street ; thence, by rear line, to Everett
street ; through the centre of Everett street, crossing Medford street,
to Mystic River.

Nos. 17 and 18. — School-house on Gross street. — Commencing at
the corner of High and School streets, thence by rear of School street
to Bunker Hill street ; through Bunker Hill street, both sides, to rear
of Lexington street ; thence, by rear of Lexington street, to Monu-
ment Square ; thence to Concord street ; thence to High street ;
through the centre of High street to Green street ; through High street,
both sides, to School street.

Nos. 19 and 20. — School-house on Bunker Hill street. — Com-
mencing at Mystic River ; crossing Medford street ; through the cen-
tre of Everett street to rear of Bunker Hill street ; thence to Lex-
ington street ; through Lexington street, both sides, to the corner of
Monument Square and Tremont street ; through the centre of Tremont
street to Edgeworth street ; through the centre of Edgeworth street to
Bunker Hill street ; across Bunker Hill street to Tufts street ; through
the centre of Tufts street, crossing Medford street, to Mystic River.

Nos. 21, 22, 23, and 24. — School-house on Moulton street. — Com-
mencing at Mystic River ; across Medford street ; through the centre
of Tufts street to Bunker Hill street ; across Bunker Hill street to
Edgeworth street ; through the centre of Edgeworth street to Jay street ;
through the centre of Jay street to Chelsea street ; through Chelsea
street to Mystic River.

Nos. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30. — School-house on Common street.
Commencing at Warren street and running through the centre of Win-
throp street to Monument Square ; thence to corner of Tremont street ;
thence through centre of Tremont street to Edgeworth street ; across
Edgeworth street through centre of Jay street to Navy Yard wall ;
thence following the wall to Water street ; both sides of Water street
to Warren Bridge ; thence through the centre of Warren Avenue,

119

City Square, and Main street to Monument Avenue ; thence through

the centre of Monument Avenue to "Warren street ; thence hotli sides
of "Warren street to "Winthrop street.

No. 31. — School-house on Soley street. — From High street through
the centre of "\Yintrop street to "Warren street ; by 7-ear of Warren
street to Monument Avenue ; through the centre of Monument Avenue
to Main street ; through the centre of Main street to Green street ;
through Green street to High street ; thence through the centre of
High street to "Winthrop street.

Nos. 32, 33, 34, and 35. — School-house on Botv street. — Com-
mencing at Prison Point Bridge, through Austin street, both sides, to
Main street ; through the centre of Main street and City Square and
"Warren Avenue . to Front street ; through Front street to Austin
street ; thence to Prison Point Bridge.

No. 36. — School-house on Richmond street. — From Prison Point
Bridge, by rear of Austin street, to Lawrence street ; thence by rear
of Lawrence street to Phipps street ; thence to the Burial Ground.

No. 37. — School-house on Richmond street. — From Main street,
through Green street to rear of High street ; following rear line to
Salem street ; down Salem street, by rear line to Main street ; across
Main street to Phipps street ; through the centre of Phipps street to
Lawrence street ; thence both sides Lawrence street to rear of Austin
street ; following rear line of Austin street to Main street.

120

COURSE OF STUDIES.

PEIMARY SCHOOLS.
SIXTH CLASS.

Hillard's First Reader, to the 22d lesson. The words in the
columns to be spelled without the book ; and also words to be
selected from, the reading lessons.

Boston Primary School Tablets. — Nos. 2 and 11 to be used
in teaching the names and elementary sounds of letters. Nos. 13,
14, 15, and 16 to be read and spelled by letters and sounds. Nos.
9, 10, and 2 to be used in reviewing the alphabet in reference to the
variety of forms of letters. No. 5, the pupil to name and point out
the lines and plane figures.

Slate Exercises. — Printing small letters, writing the Arabic
characters, and drawing straight lines and rectilinear figures.

Numbers. — The idea of numbers to be developed by the use of
objects. The pupil to be taught to count to one hundred on the
numeral frame, and to read at sight any number expressed by Arabic
figures from 1 to 20.

Oral Lessons. — Children are to be taught to observe the forms,
colors, positions, and parts of objects ; to distinguish the different
parts of the human body, and of animals with which they are famil-
iar ; each lesson to be conducted with a view to cultivating habits of
attention and ohservation. Objects or pictures should he freely used
in giving illustrations.

Repeating verses and maxims.

Singing, for five or six minutes, twice, at least, each day.

Physical exercises, from three to five minutes, twice at each
session.

The Primary Schools are arranged in six classes, each occupying
one-half of the school year.

The classes in the Grammar Schools occupy one year each, and
as promotions are made semi-annually they are sub-divided into sec-
tions. The progress to be made by each section in most of the
branches is clearly defined ; in a few it is left to the discretion of the
teacher.

121
FIFTH CLASS.

Hillard's First Reader, to be used in the same manner as in
the sixth class, and completed.

Boston Primary School Tablets. — Review of the exercises
on the tablets prescribed for the sixth class. No. 19, entire. No.
6, name and point out the figures and their parts. No. 14, syllables
to be spelled by sound.

Numbers. — Roman numerals to L. Simple operations in addi-
tion and subtraction to be taught by means of objects and the
numeral frame. Adding, on the numeral frame, by twos and by
threes, to one hundred ; also subtracting by the same numbers.
Reading numbers readily at sight, and writing them, with Arabic
figures, to 50.

Slate exercises, as in the sixth class ; also printing capital letters
and short words, and drawing curvilinear figures. — Tablets 5 and 6
to be used in the drawing exercises.

Oral lessons, physical exercises, and singing, as in the sixth class.

Repeating verses and maxims.

FOURTH CLASS.

Hillard's Second Reader, to the 31st lesson. The words in
the columns to be spelled, and also words selected from the reading
lessons.

Worcester's Primary Spelling Book, to the 44th lesson.

Boston Primary School Tablets. — Nos. 5 and 6 reviewed,
with a description of the lines and figures. Nos. 11, 13, and 14
reviewed. No. 12 to- be learned. Nos. 17 and 18 names of punc-
tuation marks.

Numbers. — Roman numerals to C, with all their combinations.
Writing numbers correctly, with Arabic figures, to 100. Simple
questions in addition and subtraction, mostly with concrete nunabers.
Addition table to 10 -\- 10, and subtraction table to 10 — 10. Add-
ing, with or without numeral frame, by twos, threes, and fours, to one
hundred, and subtracting by the same numbers.

Slates and blackboards to be used daily in printing letters, in
writing numbers, and in drawing.

Oral lessons on form, color, size, and parts of objects, given in

122

such a manner as to lead pupils to observe things which are not in
the school-room, particularly plants and animals ; also, on morals
and manners.

Repeating verses and maxims.

Physical exercises and singing, as in the fifth and sixth classes.

THIRD CLASS.

Hillard's Second Reader, to be used as in the fourth class, and
completed.

Worcester's Primary Spelling Book, to the 88th lesson. Daily
exercises in spelling words by sounds. Teachers are expected to
question their pupils •frequently respecting the definition of the words
which they spell, and the meaning of the lessons they read.

Boston Primary School Tablets, — Nos. 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, and
14, reviewed, No. 18, definition of punctuation marks. No. 20,
completed. Frequent questions in regard to the names and uses of
the marks in the reading lessons.

Slate Exercises. — Printing capitals, writing small script letters,
and drawing plane figures. Exercises in writing and drawing to be
illustrated by the appropriate tablets, and by examples on the black-
boards.

Numbers. — Roman numerals to D, with all their combinations.
Addition and subtraction tables completed to 12. Multiplication
able, through 6 times 12, and division table to 72 divided by 6.
Numeration through three figures ; addition of two or more num-
bers, each containing two figures.

Abbreviations commenced.
' Oral lessons, as in the fourth class.

Recitation of maxims and select pieces.

Physical exercises and singing at each session,,

SECOND CLASS.

Hillard's Third Reader, to the 36th lesson. Special attention
to be given to the definitions of words, and to the meaning of the les-
sons read. Teachers should frequently explain the meaning of
words, both those which are in common use and those which are
difficult or of rare occurrence ; and they should endeavor, by all
suitable means, to encourage their pupils in the practice of inquiring

123

closely into tlie sense of what tliey read. Marks of punctuation
thoroughly studied, and their uses applied in reading.

Worcester's Primary Spelling Book, to the 144th lesson.
Frequent exercises in spelling words by sounds.

Boston Primary School Tablets. — Nos. 3,5,6,11,12,18,
and 20 to be thoroughly reviewed.

Numbers. — The tables of addition, subtraction, multiplication,
and division fully mastered to 12. Exercises in writing numbers
with Roman numerals to M. Numeration through four figures ;
addition and subtraction, with numbers containing three figures.

Abbreviations continued.

Slate exercises, as in the third class ; also writing capital letters.

Oral lessons upon objects of a mechanical origin, on plants, animals,
and the events of daily life ; also on morals and good behavior, —
illustrations to be drawn from school incidents, I'eading lessons, and
other proper sources.

Recitation of maxims and select pieces.

Physical exercises and singing at each session, and as often as the
condition of the school may require.

FIRST CLASS.

Hillard's Third Reader, completed. Reading exercises to be
conducted in the same manner as in the second class.

Worcester's Primary Spelling Book, completed. Exercises
in spelling words by sounds.

Boston Primary School Tablets reviewed, with special refer
ence to the elementary sounds of letters, the names and uses of the
marks of punctuation, and drawing.

Numbers. — The tables thoroughly reviewed. Questions requir-
ing a practical application of the tables. Numeration through six
figures. Addition and subtraction by the use of numbers containing
four figures each. Examples in multiplication and division : the
multiplicand and dividend containing five figures each, and the mul
tiplier and divisor limited to a single figure.

Geography, from globes and geographic cards. The form of the
earth ; the main bodies of land and water, rivers, lakes, mountains
etc. ; the points of the compass ; the location of the New England
States.

124

Slate Exercises. — Writing words and short sentences from
copies and dictation. Drawing the most difficult figures on the tab-
lets, and such as the teacher may place on the blackboard.

Abbreviations completed.

Oral lessons, as in the second class ; special efforts to be made by
teachers to cultivate, on the part of their pupils, the faculty of obser-
vation and the habit of comparison.

Maxims and recitations as in the second class.

Physical exercises and singing at each session.

125

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.

SIXTH CLASS.

Oral Instruction. — Articles of food ; plane figures ; circle and
its parts ; plants and flowers : filial duties.

Hillard's Fourth Reader, to the 119tli page.

Penmanship. — Book No. 1 of Payson, Dunton & Scribner's
System.

Drawing. — Book No. 1 of Bartholomew's Series.

SECOND SECTION.

Worcester's Speller, to the 29th page.

Colburn's Arithmetic, to the ii. sec. Review of the arithmetical
course prescribed for the Primary Schools. Numeration through
nine figures.

Geography. — Lessons on globes, and cards or maps, respecting
the general configuration of the earth. Special attention to be given
to rivers, lakes, gulfs, bays, seas, islands, capes, etc. ; also to the
points of the compass ; the location of countries, and to latitude and
longitude.

Abbreviations, and the use of capitals and the marks of punc-
tuation.

FIEST SECTION.

Worcester's Speller, to the 44th page.
Colburn's Arithmetic, to the iii. sec.
Greenleap's Arithmetic, to the 33d page.
CoLTON & Fitch's Geography, to the 17th page.
Abbreviations continued ; also, the use of capitals and the marks
of punctuation.

FIFTH CLASS.

Oral Instruction. — Reciprocal duties of children ; industry ;
true courage ; influence of early habits ; articles of wearing apparel.
Penmanship. — Book No. 2.
Drawing. — Book No. 2.
Hillard's Fourth Reader, completed.

126

SECOND SECTION.

Worcester's Speller, to the 55th page.
Colbltin's Arithmetic, to the iv. sec.
Greenleaf's Arithmetic, to the 58th page.
CoLTON «& Fitch's Geography, to the 28th page.
Abbreviations reviewed. The use of capitals and the marks of
punctuation.

FIRST SECTION.

Worcester's Speller, to the 66th page.
Colburn's Arithmetic, to the vi. sec.
Greenleaf's Arithbietic, to the 82d page.

CoLTON & Fitch's Geography, to the 38th page ; and review
from the beginning.

Exercises in writing capital letters and abbreviated words.

FOURTH CLASS.

Oral Instruction. — Trees and their uses ; household furniture ;
National and State coats of arms ; biographical sketches of distin-
guished navigators, warriors, benefactors, and statesmen.

Lectures on Physiology by the Principals.

Penmanship. — Book No. 3.

Drawing. — Book No. 3.

Hillard's Intermediate Reader, to the 122d page.

SECOND SECTION.

Worcester's Speller, to the 76th page.
Colburn's Arithmetic, to the vii. sec.
Greenleaf's Arithmetic, to the 110th page.
Colton & Fitch's Geography, to the 52d page.

FIRST SECTION.

Worcester's Speller, to the 86th page.
Colburn's Arithmetic, to the ix. sec.

Greenleaf's Arithmetic, to the 131st page, with a review from
the beginning.

Colton & Fitch's Geography, to the 66th page.

127

THIRD CLASS.

Oral Instruction. — Air, water ; respiration, digestion, and cir-
culation of the blood ; citizenship and social duties ; National and
State governments ; biographical sketches of eminent historians,
orators, inventors, and naturalists.

Penmanship. — Book No. 4.

Drawing. — Book No. 4.

Hillard's Intermediate Reader, completed.

SECOND SECTION.

Worcester's Speller, to the 100th page.

Colburn's Arithmetic, to the xii. sec.

Greenleaf's Arithmetic, to the 181st page ; omitting explana*
tiou of least common multiple and greatest common divisor.

CoLTON & Fitch's Geography, to the 80th page.

English Grammar. — Names and definitions of the parts ot
speech, and the construction and analysis of simple sentences.

FIRST SECTION.

Worcester's Speller, to the 109th page.

Colburn's Arithmetic, to the xiii. sec.

Greenleaf's Arithmetic, to the 205th page.

CoLTON & Fitch's Geography, to the 9 2d page.

English Grammar. — Names and definitions of the pai'ts ol
speech, the construction and analysis of simple and compound sen
fences ; parsing simple sentences.

SECOND CLASS.

Oral Instruction. — ■ Trades and business ; influence of early
habits, illustrated by anecdotes ; light and sound ; lessons on pic-
tures ; historical sketches of Babylon, Ninevah, Jerusalem, Athens,
Carthage, and other ancient cities.

Penmanship. — Book No. 5.

Drawing. — Book No. 5.

Hillard's Fifth Reader, to the 144th page.

128

SECOND SECTION.

Worcester's Speller, to the 133d page.

Colburn's Arithmetic, to the xv. sec.

Greenleaf's Arithmetic, to the 248th page.

CoLTON & Fitch's Geography, to the 109th page.

History op the United States, commenced.

English Grammar. — Properties of the noun, pronoun, verb, and
adverb ; the rules of syntax applicable to those parts of speech ;
construction and analysis of sentences ; parsing simple sentences.

FIRST SECTION.

Worcester's Speller, to the 147th page.

Colburn's Arithmetic, completed.

Greenleaf's Arithmetic, to the 270th page; review from the
beginning, including portions previously omitted.

CoLTON & Fitch's Geography, reviewed.

History op the United States, continued.

English Grammar. — The properties of all the parts of speech ;
the rules of syntax, omitting observations and exceptions of minor
importance ; construction and analysis of sentences ; parsing simple
and compound sentences.

FIRST CLASS.

Oral Instruction. — Patriotism; historical sketches of Assyria,
Egypt, Persia, Media, and other ancient nations ; metals and min-
erals ; philosophy ; astronomy.

Penmanship. — Book No. 6.

Drawing. — Book No. 6.

Hillard's Fifth Reader, completed.

Worcester's Speller, finished.

Colburn's Arithmetic, weekly exercises.

Greenleaf's Arithmetic, finished.

History of the United States.

Physical Geography.

Book-Keeping, by single entry.

English Grammar. — Properties of the parts of speech ; all the
rules of syntax ; construction and analysis of sentences ; parsing
from the Fifth Reader.

129

Physical exercises and singing daily in each class.

Composition and declamation through the course.

Map drawing, by all the classes.

Teachers are expected to pay particular attention to the elementary
sounds of the English language, and to give their pupils frequent
exercises in vocal gymnastics.

In the first, second, third, and fourth classes, pupils are required
to learn and to apply the rules for punctuation, and the use of capital
letters.

All teachers are expected to make it an essential part of their
daily labor to cultivate the morals and manners of their pupils.

130
HIGH SCHOOL.

ENGLISH AND CLASSICAL COURSE.

JUNIOR CLASS.

1. Cuttee's Physiology; Warren's Physical Geography.

2. Greenleaf's Elementary Algebra.

3. Harkness' Introductory Latin Book.

Reading ; Spelling and Defining ; Penmanship ; Book-keeping,
with practice in Business Forms, — Wednesday and Saturday.

SECOND MIDDLE CLASS.

1. Tenney's Natural History ; Worcester's Ancient His-
tory.

2. Algebra, finished ; Greenleaf's National Arithmetic ;
Porter's Chemistry.

3. Hanson's Latin Prose Book, through First Book of Caesar,
with Harkness' Latin Grammar.

Magill's French Grammar ; Quackenbos' Rhetoric ; Reading and
Spelling, — Wednesday and Saturday.

FIRST MIDDLE CLASS.

1. Gray's Botany ; Ancient History, finished ; Alden's
Science op Government.

2. Greenleaf's Geometry ; Brocklesby's Astronomy.

3. Hanson's Latin Prose Book ; Csesar, Cicero vs. Catiline.
Magill's French Grammar and Magill's French Reader ; Alden's

Intellectual Philosophy, — Wednesday and Saturday.

SENIOR CLASS. '

1. Quackenbos' Natural Philosophy.

2. French Grammar and Reader, continued.

3. Six Books of Virgil's ^neid, for the Latin Division of the
class ; Noel et Chapsal's Grammaire Frangaise, and translating Eng-
lish into French, for the French Division.

Alden's Moral Philosophy ; English Literature and Biography, —
Wednesday and Saturday.

131

ENGLISH AND COMMERCIAL COURSE.
JUNIOR CLASS.

1. Cutter's Physiology ; Warren's Physical Geography.

2. Greenleaf's Elementary Algebra.

3. English Gramhiar, with exercises in Analysis and Parsing.
Reading ; Spelling and Defining ; Penmanship ; Book-keeping,

with practice in Business Forms, — Wednesday and Saturday.

MIDDLE CLASS.

1. Tennby's Natural History ; Worcester's Ancient His-
tory.

2. Algebra, finished ; Greenleaf's National Arithmetic ;
Porter's Chdemistry.

3. quackenbos' natural philosophy.

Rhetoric ; Reading ; Spelling and Defining ; Banking, with Busi-
ness Forms, — Wednesday and Saturday.

SENIOR CLASS.

1. Greenleaf's Geometry ; Trigonometry, (elective.)

2. Brocklesby's Astronomy ; Gray's Botany, (elective.)

3. English Literature and Biography ; Alden's Science
OF Government ; Geology, (elective.)

Mental and Moral Philosophy, — Wednesday and Saturday.

PREPARATORY COLLEGE COURSE.

JUNIOR CLASS.

1. Cutter's Physiology; Warren's Physical Geography.

2. Greenleaf's Elementary Algebra.

3. Harkness' Introductory Latin Book.

Reading ; Spelling and Defining ; Penmanship ; Book-keeping,
with practice in Business Forms, — Wednesday and Saturday.

THIRD CLASS.

1. Algebra, finished; Arithmetic, reviewed; Worcester's
Ancient History.

132

2. Hanson's Latin Prose Book, through First Book of Caesar,
with Harkness' Latin Grammar.

3. Hadley's Greek Grammar ; Whiton's Greek Lesson's.
Ancient Geography ; Rhetoric ; Reading and Spelling, - — Wed-
nesday and Saturday.

SECOND CLASS.

1. Greenleaf's Geometry.

2. Latin, through Fourth Book of Caesar, and Cicero's Orations
against Catiline.

3. Greek Grammar, continued ; Xenophon's Anabasis.
Latin and Greek Composition ; Sallust and Cicero, continued, —

Wednesday and Saturday.

SENIOR CLASS.

1. Freize's Virgil ; Cicero's Select Orations.

2. Anabasis, finished ; three Books of Homer's Eiad.

Latin and Greek Composition ; Algebra and Geometry, reviewed,
Wednesday and Saturday.

GENERAL EXERCISES BY ALL THE CLASSES.

1. Calisthenics, daily.

2. Composition ; Public Reading by the girls, and Declamation
by the boys, weekly.

3. Instruction in Music and Drawing, twice a week.

The Warren, with Bits of its
Early History.

THE ORIGINAL HOUSE DES-
TROYED BY FIRE.

THE VIIESENT KDIFICJi A>J} ITS
TEACHEKS.

The history of the Warren School dates
back as far as 1839, ami the erection of the
first house on the present site grew out of
the fact, that the Harvard and Wiuthrop
schools contained 654 scholars, and were
crowded, making over 200 more scholars than
there were seats. The trustees were then
constrained to recommend the erection of a
new school house, ex[)ressi!ig the opinion in
their report that it would " be the best econ-
omy for the time to construct a large and per-
manent building sufficiently commodious to
couiain all the conveniences, necessary for a
modern school," and they re:jom mended the
Elliot school oa Beunet street, Boston, as a
model. The town at the May meeting recom-
mended the appropriation of §15,000 for the
purchase of laud and erection of a school
house. A lot of land contaiuiug 7630 feet, on
the corner of Summer and Pleasant streets
was purchased of Jonathan Brown at
thirty-four cents a foot. The erection was
commenced, the i^ontract for mason work
being awarded to Jonathan Locke, and the
carpentry to Clark & Varney. The wall had
beer, completed but a short time when the
violent gale of December 15, 1839, occurred,
and blew down two of the chimnies, the con-
cussion throwing out both gable ends of the
building. The damage was of course repaired
and when completed, the building which was
of bri.'k, was 60 feet long by 40 feet wide,
having a porch 32 feet by 18 feet. It was two
stories high, with a basement story. There
were four rooms, two for grammar scholars
and two for primary. The rooms were 14
feet 6 inches high, 56 long, and 36 wide. On
the 7th of April, Samuel L. Gould was elec-
ted the master, and Miss Caroline E. Andrews
the assistant of the grammar department and
James G. Foster, the master, aud Miss Sarah
C. Fernald the assistant of the writing de-
partment. On the 13th of April it was deter-
.miued the school shcjuld he dedicated on
the 20th, and commence on the 2Lst.

Mary married, and went witi her husband
to the far West. James took hi.s small
fortune of a few hard earned dollars and
left us for the golden land of promise,
California, and only little Ruth was left
us. Then the angel of death came for
Martha, and only six months later I was
stricken helple.-s with paraly.'-is. "i-

But even in that time of rebellious mur
muring, of bitterest repining, there was
some consolation. First, there was the
house and five acres of land, m}^ very own,
free of debt or mortgage, and a small sum
in the bank, the interest ot which lifted us
above actual want. Then T had Iluth.

She was just twenty when her mother
died, and others besile her fathrr thought
her face the fairest one for miles around.
She had the bluest eyes, like the patches
of summer sky, and hair that was the color
of corn silk, and nestled in little baby curls
all over her head — rebellious hair, that
would never lie straight under any coax-
ing, but kinked up in tangles that were
full of sunlight. Her skin was white as
milk: her cheeks like the heart of a blush
rose, and her smile showed the prettiest
rows of pearly teeth I ever saw.

She coaxed me from my wicked repiu-
ings by coming to me for directions.
making me feel that my head was still
needed to direct the work, though my feet
v.ould never more carry me over the door-
sill. Then she fitted up for me a la ge
back room that overlooked most of the
farm and had Silas, our head man, lift
me up every morning and put me in
a deep-cushioned chair by the w ndow,
where I could see the barn, the poultry-
yard, the well, and the fields of waving
corn and wheat. She made me feel my
self of importance by giving me thus the
mastery over my own little domain ; and
she brought up her own meals to eat with
me in the room where my infirmity held
me a prisoner.

She devised little dainty dishes to tempt
ine to eat ; she put saucers of flowers on
my table, that 1 might cheat m3'self into
fancying 1 was out doors, as their perfume
crept out on the air ; she assured me, pet-
ted me, loved me, till even ray misfortunes
seemed blessings drawing us nearer to-
gether

And when she was all the world to me,
all that saved me from misery, John Hayes
asked me to give him Ruth for his wife. I
could have struck him dead when he stood
before nae, a young giant in strength, with
his handsome sun-burnt face, glowing with
heal h, and wanted to take away my one
bles-ing, my only home child.

"I will be a true son to you, Mr. Mar-
tin," he .said, earnestly. "I will never take
Ruth from here ; but Jet me come and share
her life, and lift tome of the burdens from
her shoulders."

1 laughed bitterly. I knew well tvhat
such sharing would be when Ruth had a
husband, and perhaps children, to take her
time and her love from me. But I was not
harsh. I did not turn this suitor from my
house, and bid him never speak to Ruth
again, much as 1 longed to do it. I worked
more cautiously. I let him go from me to
Ruth ; and when he left her and she came

\ J

to me, all rosy blushes, to tell me, with
drooping lids and moist eyes, of her new
happiness, 1 worked upon her love and her
sense of duty till she believed herself a
monster of ungrateful wickedness to think
of leaving me or taking any divided duty
upon her hands.

I wept, asked her if she could face her
dead mo; her after deserting her helpless
father. I pointed out to her the unceasixig'

life would ?)ot be out of place here. He is
not by any means unknown in connection
with the scIkjoI, for he has anted in the capa-
city of sub-master since May 10, 1869. In
his youlh he fitted for Harvard College, but
on the breakiuij out of tlie war he took his
chances with tliat grand army that went
forth to battlo for the i-io;lit. He enlisted in
the 40th Massachusetts Infaiitri', and did
gallant service. Three times bo was wound-
ed in engagements, the third and last time at
the battle of Cold Harbor, June 3. 1864. It
incapacitated him for further duty, and he
was confined to the hospital for .^ome time.
As soon as lie was able lie took up teaching
in Providence, and as above stated cai-ue to
the Warren School May 18, 1869. The new
sub- master is Edward Stickriey, who only
two weeks ago passed the exainiuatiou. He
was specially examined by the supervisors
and passed very creditably. '/He came from
the Car'.ei school in Chelsea, and has been a
long and experienced teacher. Sarah M.
Chandler and Elizabeth Swords are the first
assistants, and Ellen A. Pratt and Anna D»
Dal tern the second assistants. Thp third as-
sistants are Mary F Haire, Alice Hall, Abby
E. Holt, Marietta F. Allen, Julia E. Har-
rington, Mary E. Pierce, Caroline W. Graves,
Mary B. Lynde. Caroline E. Osgood has the
primary class in t his school, and John P.
Swift is the janitor. The teacliers in the
Cross street school are Abby O. Varney, Jose-
phine E. Copeland, and Alice M. L3rons is the
janitor. The Meade street teachers are M.
Josephine S:nith, Cora A. Wiley. EfBe C.
Melvin and Aiibie P. Trlichai-dsou. The
janitor is James Shute. The Common street
school has only recently been transferred
from the Harvard District. It has for teach-
ers Elizabeth A. Pritcliard, Agnes McGowan>
Elizabeth R. Brower, and Alice T. Smith.
William Holbrooke lookt after the building.
The Warren district is (Contained in the terri-
tory bounded by Mystic River, Meade and
Mill streets to the Mill pond. Austin, Warren,
Pleasaut, Bartlett, Green, Bunker Hill and
Webster street, back to the Mystic river.

lOCAI INTEIiLIfiENCE.

Valuable Fbesskts to the Evbbexx Sohool.
An interesting affair took place yesterday afternoon
In tlie hal! o( the Everett schoolhouse. The hall
was crowded with the parents and friends- of the
echotars, and a large nnmber of prominent individ-
uals occupied the platform, among whom were
Mayor Lincoln, ex-Mayor Quincy, JohnJD. Philbrick»
Superintendent of Public Schools of Boston, Eev.
W. H. Cudworth, Eev. Wm. Hague, besides School
Superintendents from New Haven, Philadelphia and
Baltimore. The services were under the direction
of Kev. Mr. 'Waterslon, the chairman of the sub-
committee of the Everett School. After an intro-
ductory hymn, sung by the 8choIar8,'under charge of
Prof. J. B. Sharland, Mr. Watoraton welcomed the
parents present for the purpose of witnessing the
proficiency of then: children. After some interest-
ing remarks, he proceeded to uncover two pictures,
which he had been requested to present to the Ever-
ett School by Mr. Edward Shippen, the Superintend-
ent of Schools of Philadelphia. They were life-size
*-Siltiouctte" profiles of General and Mrs. "Washing-
ton, taken Ctom h'fe, and originally the property of
Mrs. Elizabeth Bordiy Gibson. They came into
possession of Mr. Shippen by purchase, and he had
given them to the Everett Sshool. Thoy were m-
spected by the scholars a.nd visitors, and many ex-
pressions of gratitude were tendered to Mr. Sliippea
for h'S generosity. An autograph poem by Professor
Longteilow was also presented to the school. Mr.
Waterston gave an interesting account of his visit
to Springfield, 111 , and exhibitefl several autograph
letters of President Lincoln. Ihe scholars wsre af-
terwards addressed by Mayor Lincoln, Hon. Joslah
Quincy, John D. Pbllbrick, Mr. Parish of New Ha-
ven and R«v. Dr. Hague.

^ J

INDEX.

Page

President's Eeport ' . . . 5

Treasurer's Account . . . . . . . . ... 15

Superintendent's Second Semi-Annual Eeport . ... . . . 17

Superintendent's Tliird Semi-Annual Eeport . . . . . . 37

Primary Schools 50

Intermediate Schools 53

Grammar Schools . . . . . . . . . . 54

Eeport on Bunker Hill School 57

Eeport on Prescott School 60

Eeport on Warren School 62

Eeport on Winthrop School 65

Eeport on Harvard School , . . 67

Eeport on High School ... ...... 70

Dedication Bunker Hill School-house 81

Dedication Warren School-house 95

Decision of the Court . . . 115

Grammar School Districts . . . 116

Primary School Districts 117

Primary School Studies . . . , . . . . . . 120

Grammar School Studies 125

High School Studies 130

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Full text of "Annual report of the School Committee of the City of Charlestown"

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