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THE

REPORT

ANNUAL EXAMINATION

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

CITY OF BOSTON.

1848.

BOSTON:

1848.
J. H. EASTBURN CITY PRINTER.

CITY OF BOSTON.

In School Committee, August 2, 1848.

The Annual Committee appointed to examine and
report on the condition of the Grammar Schools, made
a Eeport, which was received, laid on the table, and
ordered to be printed.

S. F. McCleary, Secretary.

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CITY OF BOSTON

In School Committee, May 10, 1848.

The Committee chosen to report upon the best
mode of making the Annual Examination of the Gram-
mar Schools, have attended to that duty, and

REP OUT:

That they recommend the suspension of the first
two sentences of Sec. 13, Chap. IV, of the Rules, and
the adoption of the following Order, viz :

Ordered, That a Committee of seven be appointed
to make the annual examination of the Grammar
Schools in both departments ; and that this Committee
may divide itself into two or more Sub-Committees, as
they may think most expedient.

This Committee shall, in May or June, visit all the
Grammar Schools, and carefully examine the pupils of
the first class, in all the studies prescribed by the Reg-
ulations, for the first, second, and third classes, in
order to ascertain the condition of the Schools, and the
ability and faithfulness of the Masters, and they shall
report previously to the annual election of the instruct-
ers.

The Committee shall hear each one of the Masters
examine his pupils in at least two of the studies,
and shall conduct the examination, personally, in all
the other studies ; printed questions, not fewer than
three, nor more than six, for any one study, shall

be prepared on History, Geography, Grammar, Lan-
guage, Arithmetic, and Natural Philosophy, which
shall, on the same half day, be laid by the examining
Committee, or by the Sub-Committees on the Schools,
before the pupils of the first class, and written answers
shall be given by not fewer than one twentieth part of
the pupils in each School; these answers shall be
examined by the Sub-Committee of each School, and
after being marked as right, wrong, or incomplete, shall
be transmitted, with the marks annexed, to the exam-
ining Committee, for their examination.

All which is respectfully submitted.

For the Committee.

GEO. B. EMERSON, Chairman.

The foregoing Report was read and accepted, and
Messrs. Codman, Cruft, Spence, Wigglesworth, Jenks,
Willis, and Pickering, were appointed on said Com-
mittee.

Attest,

S. F. McCleary, Secretary.

SCHOOL REPORT.

To the School Committee of the City of Boston :

The Committee appointed under the foregoing Eeport
and Order, have attended to their prescribed duties, and
submit the following

REPORT*.

A few days after the adoption of the Order, the Com-
mittee met, and was divided into three Sub-Committees,
each consisting of the Chairman and two other mem-
bers. To each of these Sub-Committees was assigned
the duty of visiting and examining the first classes in
one third of the Grammar and Writing Schools, which
was completed before the commencement of the June
vacation.

As it appears to be the expectation of this Board and
of the public, that an annuaL comparative view should
be taken of the several Schools, it was thought best
that the Chairman of the General Examining Committee
should be associated with each of the Sub-Committees,
and thus be enabled to obtain a knowledge of the whole
of our system of public instruction.

In looking back upon the duties we have attempted
to perform, the first consideration that presents itself

* This Report is made in the name of the Examining Committee :
but the Chairman alone is responsible for the statements and opinions
advanced in it.

is, the entire inadequacy of the system of examination
that has been adopted for the current year, though it is,
upon the whole, superior to that which has heretofore
been pursued. Yet, while the supervision of the Schools
remains in its present state, we do not see how any bet-
ter plan could be devised. Its defects are not to be at-
tributed to any errors of judgment on the part of this
Board, in the use of the means at its disposal. The
difficulty is of a different nature. It is inherent in our
present organization, and, until that is modified, it seems
impossible that any really satisfactory knowledge can
be condensed in one view, or imparted to the public,
respecting the condition of the Schools. The singular
anomaly is now presented, that the first condition upon
which the s members of the Annual Examining Com-
mittee, or at least those of them upon whom the weight
of the duty falls, are appointed, is, that they shall be
men who, however qualified in other respects, have ac-
tually no experience of the nature of the task to which
they are called. No adequate comparative examination
can be made, unless all the Schools are visited by the
same person or persons. There are twenty Writing and
Grammar Schools in this city. To examine them all is
a very great labor. To form a correct opinion of them
from the impressions left by a single visit, made by en-
tire strangers to both teachers and pupils, may well be
pronounced impossible. The examination cannot be
made without devoting at least half a day to each School,
and protracting the session to four or five instead of the
usual time of three hours. Thus a fortnight must be
employed. It is not reasonable to expect that the same
individuals should often be called upon to discharge
this duty, or that any should be called upon a second
time, while there are members of the Board who have
not had their turn in its performance. Consequently

the new members are always appointed to this office,
upon the principle, that as new men they must take
their part in such annual labors as have already been
performed by their predecessors and seniors. Even if
it be conceded, that under such a system, a fair estimate
of the actual and comparative condition of the Schools,
at any given time, can be made, it is evident that no
means are appointed, except the observations of others
as recorded in the annual reports, of ascertaining, their
progress and improvement from year to year. Each
Examining Committee enters upon a new and untried
scene, without practice, without experience, without any
fair standard of comparison fixed in their minds.

But even with regard to forming an estimate of the
actual condition of the Schools, the present mode of
examination is unsatisfactory. It is obviously impossi-
ble that one set of persons should be able to make a
minute examination of the first classes of twenty Schools.
Not more than one or two visits can be made to each,
and what opportunity is thus afforded for investigating
all the external circumstances and the internal relations
which may affect the character or appearance of a
School1? There are a thousand local and temporary
causes, which on any given day, may so affect a School,
as to give a transient visiter an utterly erroneous idea
as to its condition ; and the effect of such circumstances
is always to make it appear worse than it really is. The
ventilation, the weather, the disposition of the teacher,
as dependent on his state of health on a particular day,
the very terror caused by the idea of the Examining Com-
mittee, which was found to be prevalent in many of the
Schools, are all causes of temporary depression and slug-
gishness of intellect. The existence of these and simi-
lar causes may not be perceived by the Committee, while
their effects are visible, and may be ascribed most un-

justly to very different reasons. These considerations
are presented in order to show how extremely unjust it
would be to form an unfavorable opinion, or to pro-
nounce an adverse judgment of any School, on the
strength of impressions derived from such a transient
view ; yet it is for the purpose of inquiring whether any
such opinion should be formed, or such a judgment pro-
nounced, that the annual Examining Committee is
raised; and upon their report depend, in some measure,
the reputation and estimated character of the 'teachers.
In Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, Lord Eldon
is introduced, relating the following anecdote of his ex-
amination for his bachelor's degree at the University.
" I was examined in Hebrew and history." " What is
the Hebrew for the ' place of a skull I ' " "I replied,
Golgotha." " Who founded University College I" "I
replied," (though ' by the way the point is sometimes
doubted,) " King Alfred founded it." " Very well, sir,"
said the examiner, " You are competent for your de-
gree." Our annual examinations are not quite so su-
perficial as this, but they are not much better adapted
to do justice to the various interests that, to some extent,
depend upon them.

In making these remarks, we would not be under-
stood as indulging in the language of complaint. The
duty which the Examining Committee have attempted
to fulfil has been discharged with cheerfulness and plea-
sure; but in looking back upon our labors, we can easi-
ly see, by the light of the experience which has been
acquired, how they might have been performed in a bet-
ter manner ; and we have dwelt upon the subject in or-
der to call the public attention to such defects in our
noble system of popular education as render it less per-
fect than it ought to be.

It has long been perceived, by those who hav* reflect-

ed intelligently and earnestly upon the subject of edu-
cation, that there is a want of adequate general super-
vision of our public Schools, and that the means do not
exist, or are not used, for ascertaining and submitting
to the knowledge of the people, their actual and pro-
gressive condition. The only means now provided by
law for exercising this supervision and obtaining this
knowledge are the monthly, quarterly, and annual ex-
aminations of the Schools, by the members of the School
Committee. This Board consists of twenty-four active
members, — men who, for the most part, are working
every day under the high pressure of engrossing busi-
ness, and from the time they can spare from this busi-
ness, they are called upon to devote many days in each
year to the duties of the School Committee. There are
eighty-two permanent offices to be filled by these twen-
ty-four men. The requisitions as well of the laws of
the Commonwealth as of our own Rules, provide
for the monthly and quarterly examination of the
Schools. These examinations, together with the exam-
ination for and distribution of medals and certificates,
will consume thirty days of the time of each member.
There are also to be added the frequent and protract-
ed meetings of the Board.

The information derived from these examinations is
embodied in the Quarterly Reports,, which show noth-
ing of the comparative standing of the Schools, or of
the general system of instruction, each report being
made by a different individual, usually the Chairman of
the Sub-Committee of the School reported on. No pro-
vision is made for publishing or collating any part of
their results, and after having been read, they are qui-
etly consigned to the oblivion of the official files. Each
Sub-Committee, it is true, is enabled to obtain knowl-
edge, more or less extensive, of the condition of its own

School. But these Committees are changed from year to
year ; the members go out of office, and no means are
taken to arrange the scraps of information acquired,
for future use. They glide before the vision of the
members of the Board for a single moment, and are
then forgotten.

Of the remaining source of information, the exami-
nation and report of the Annual Examining Committee,
enough has been already said to show its value. A sin-
gle individual, or at most, a set of individuals, visit eve-
ry School in the city once, and pass a day or half a day
in each. They have never been in all these Schools be-
fore, they will probably never visit all of them again, and
it is from the observations made at this railway speed
over the surface, that the observers are expected to form
such conclusions on the nature of the country, the quali-
ty of the soil, and the state of cultivation, as will enable
them to discover abuses, to remedy defects, to detect
unfaithful agents, and to bestow due commendation
upon such as appear to have deserved it. No one com-
petent mind has the supervision of all the Schools. It
is the duty of twenty-four men to observe the working
of the detached parts of the machine, and it is no
doubt efficiently performed. But it is the business of
no man or body of men, to combine or compare these ob-
servations, to see how the parts are adjusted to, and how
they are related to each other ; and until such is the duty
and the business of some person or persons competent
for the office, and bound to responsibility by honorable
and adequate compensation, we can never be sure of
the true working of the great and complicated institu-
tion, or whether it will not fail us when its aid is
most needed for our preservation or well-being. We
do not mean to say that our Schools are without super-
vision. The constant labors of the members of this

Board, as well as the good condition of the Schools,
testify to the contrary. But we do mean to say that it
is not as perfect as it might be, that it is too much lim-
ited to details, and that the results of the whole are not
presented in a manner to be easily grasped or under-
stood. A competent knowledge of the condition of in-
dividual Schools can be no doubt obtained ; but this is
not enough for the satisfaction of the public, or the per-
fecting of the system.

The remedy for this defect consists in the appoint-
ment of a Superintendent, the business of whose life
shall be the careful supervision of the Schools. We
were indifferent or doubtful as to the merits of this
question up to the time of entering upon the late annual
examination; but with the knowledge gained by going
through with such an examination, we believe no candid
man would question the imperative necessity for the
appointment of such an officer. We do not propose
to go into the details of the mode and plan of his ap-
pointment, of the duties he is to discharge, or the rela-
tions he is to hold to the City Government and this
Board. All these things must be subjects of future
careful consideration. There are various questions of
law and expediency to be settled ; but there are no diffi-
culties in the way which may not be obviated, either un-
der the existing laws, or such modifications of them as
none would have any interest in opposing, if the citizens
of Boston are united in desiring to obtain them. Soon-
er or later, it appears to us, the necessity of acting in
this matter will be impressed upon the people. It will
be better to act soon enough to prevent evil, than to
defer action so long that we shall be compelled to pro-
vide a remedy for it.

The writer of this Report has not, before the present
year, entered a School-room since he was himself a

School-boy, and had never before been inside of a
Boston School-house. The examination, therefore, was
a novel and untried scene. The progress which has
been made in twenty years in the mode of instructing
children, is most impressive to any one who has only
known the former systems of teaching. Every thing
is changed, and almost every change is an improve-
ment. The worst Schools of the present day are
superior, in most respects, to the best of a former period.
The public mind is more awakened to the importance of
the training of the young. The rights of children are
better understood and recognized, their feelings are more
tenderly regarded, their comfort is more sedulously pro-
vided for, they are led instead of being driven to their
duties, encouragement takes the place of intimidation,
the ferule has rest from its former ceaseless activity, and
the whole aspect of the Schools shows that improvement
has been made in the relations between parents and mas-
ters and pupils. A great advance has been made in the
amoftnt and quality of instruction. A competent knowl-
edge can now be obtained in the Schools of this City of
branches of education, which but a few years ago, were
reserved for the senior classes in our colleges. A still
greater advance has been made in moral education.
This has been an early object of the care of the framers
of the constitution and laws of the Commonwealth, and
the appearance of the public Schools shows that they
have been faithfully obeyed.

In an age and country of such great activity as our
own, this subject becomes one of paramount importance.
Mere intellectual superiority is of little value without
it, but, by a law of our natures, they go hand in hand,
and, other things being equal, that pupil will attain to the
greatest proficiency in his studies, and acquire the great-
est power of using and directing his intellectual faculties

whose moral perceptions arc most clearly developed, and
whose moral habits are most securely fixed. The knowl-
edge and application of the law of kindness are better
understood than they used to be. The relation be-
tween master and pupil, according to our own, perhaps
peculiarly unfortunate experience, was that of jealousy
on the one side, fear on the other, and antagonism on
both ; now, in almost every School in the City, the two
parties arc friends, pursuing their common objects in a
spirit of confidence, and with mutual good feeling.

Such are the general impressions caused by a visit
to the Boston Schools. But, whatever may be their
merit in comparison with those of a former period and
of other places, they are to be judged, not by a com-
parison with the past, but by inquiring whether all, or
which of them, come up to the improved standard of the
present time. In this view it must be confessed that
there is a marked inequality in the condition of the
Schools, and the varying degrees of attainment in them
are hardly to be accounted for by alleging the differ-
ence of materials and situation. There are some of
them which, on the conditions under which they are
carried on under the present system, can hardly be im-
proved; there are others which, in comparison, are
in an unsatisfactory state. The impressions left of
each School will be stated in the separate notices of
them which are annexed to this Report. It will be
our endeavor not to make any unfavorable strictures
without ascertaining whether the Sub-Committee of
the School remarked upon agree to the opinions ex-
pressed, and we shall also endeavor to state all the
circumstances beyond the control of the instructers
which have come to our knowledge, which tend to ex-
cuse or explain any unfavorable appearances. Let it
be remembered too that our remarks are the result of a

single examination of institutions previously unknown
to the Committee, and that further inquiry might
show that the impressions we have received are owing
to temporary and accidental causes, and are susceptible
of being explained or modified or corrected. "We may
say, once for all, that we are satisfied that, taking into
consideration the immense number of children who re-
ceive instruction, and the fact that the expense, great as
it is, must have some limit, the system is as good as
can be devised, and upon the whole, it is faithfully
and effectively carried into execution. We have en-
tered upon this duty of examination in no carping or
complaining mood, and, in general, we are well satisfied
with its results.

The general condition of the Schools is decidedly
better than we were led to expect from the impressions
made on reading the annual reports of the examining
Committees of the last two or three years, and we
therefore attribute to the faithful criticism of those re-
ports an increased exertion on the part of teachers,
which has led to a correspondent improvement in the
Schools.

The first point on which we shall remark is that of
discipline. The discipline of the Boston Schools is in-
tended to be maintained by moral means, by acting,
upon the higher feelings, the generous impulses, and
the consenting reason of youthful minds, by tempering
authority with kindness, with justice, with encour-
agement, and, in cases of delinquency, with mercy,
wherever there is room for its judicious exercise. This
system is well carried out. Nothing is more affecting
or more pleasing in a view of the Schools, than the
manifest good understanding and right feelings that in
general subsist between the head masters and the pu-

pils of the first classes * The masters all appeared to
be gentlemen of good manners and correct principles,
and in most cases to have acquired the respect and af-
fection of their pupils. With two exceptions, we have
no evidence or belief of any disaffection between master
and pupil. On the other hand, we have thought that
easiness and indulgence were sometimes carried a little
too far. While kindness should always be the general
rule, it ought to be clearly understood that there is a
limit to its exercise. The idea of authority should
never be wholly withdrawn from the mind of a child.
A superior cannot entirely obtain the affection of an in-
ferior, unless that affection is accompanied with a very
distinct feeling of reverence and respect, and even of
fear, which shall induce, if not a dread of punishment
for transgression, at least an unwillingness to incur dis-
pleasure for ill-doing.

It is hard, to define the limit beyond which indul-
gence in respect of School discipline should not be
allowed, but the subject may be illustrated by the nar-
ration of an event which took place at one of the ex-
aminations, in regard to which, the Committee fell into
the very error of over indulgence which they are now
censuring.

Nearly at the commencement of the examination of
a School for boys, one of the pupils requested to be ex-
cused from farther attendance, on the ground that he
had a ticket of admission to some public exhibition,
(Bayne's Voyage to Europe, we believe) which had been
given to him, and which he supposed would only be
available for that afternoon. The Committee were pas-

* By this limitation, it is not intended to intimate that a different
state of things exists in the lower departments. We believe quite the
contrary. But we can only speak as witnesses of what came under
our personal observation.

"sive in the matter (which they should not have been),
and the master granted the boy's request. Now the
annual examination is the most impressive and important
event in the School life of a pupil, and that he should
be allowed to absent himself from an exercise which is
in some degree to show how he has been using the op-
portunities of a whole year, for such a very trivial rea-
son, reflects little credit in the particular case, on the
master who granted the indulgence, or the Committee
who acquiesced in it. It was rather disagreeable to de-
bar a child from a pleasure in itself so rational and
innocent, but it could hardly fail of the effect of lower-
ing, in the estimate of this child and of his fellow
pupils, the importance of a prominent feature of the
system on which their education depended, to see it
postponed to a mere temporary amusement.

In justice to the child it should be added, that he
soon felt the unreasonableness of his own gratified de-
sires, and on the next day addressed a letter to the
master, apologizing for his conduct, and confessing it
was not creditable either to himself or to the School.

The subject of corporal punishment hardly comes with-
in the cognizance of the annual examining Committee.
We have no reason to believe that it is in any School
used unduly. But one complaint on the subject has
been brought to the attention of the School Committee
during the present year, and, although it was not sent
to a Committee, the charge was investigated and ex-
plained in such a manner, that, in the opinion of the
Board, the master who inflicted the punishment was free
from blame.

A few years ago a rule was adopted by this Board,
requiring that all corporal punishments should be in-
flicted in the presence of the whole School. We enter
tain some doubts of the expediency of this rule. With

the advance that has been made in governing by better
motives corporal punishment has become discreditable
to the individual upon whom it is inflicted. It is very
seldom resorted to, when there is the least chance of re-
forming the offender by other means. In almost every
case, at the moment when a child is brought up for
punishment, a few words addressed to him judiciously,
under the excitement caused both by the consciousness
of wrong doing and the anticipation of its reward, will
be effectual to .soften and reclaim him. But can such a
moral influence be effectually exerted over a child who
has committed a fault, in the presence of three or four
hundred witnesses 1 We think not There is a nat-
ural reluctance in every mind, to make public conces-
sions under the apparent influence of fear. When the
child therefore is standing upon the platform, with his
master holding the instrument of punishment in his hand,
and with the eyes of the whole School directed upon
the scene, he is strongly actuated to be stubborn and
unyielding. The power of the master is very much
limited by his situation. It is less easy to converse
freely and confidentially in the presence of a hundred
observers, than in the retirement of a private room. And
the same words and acts will produce a different effect
in the two cases. He cannot so well get at the heart
of his pupil in public as in private. Neither is the spec-
tacle of punishment productive of good on the minds
of the Scholars, any more than public executions are
preventive of capital crimes. The individual punish-
ed goes to his seat, with a consciousness that he is in
some measure disgraced, and that all his companions
know it. The other children, if the School is in a bad
condition, have their minds hardened by the recurrence
of such scenes, and .corporal punishment comes to be
dreaded for its pain only, and not for its disgrace. If

the School is generally in a good state, the, exhibition
is not needed for example, and we cannot conceive that
it should be witnessed, but with feelings of unmixed pain
and disgust, which would -leave their uncomfortable
impression on the School during at least the remainder
of the session. The teacher is either very ill qualified,
or very unfortunate in the subjects with whom he has
to deal, who at the present day finds a frequent resort
to these inflictions necessary. "We do not believe that a
single step in moral improvement has ever been made,
by their being- publicly administered. We think that
the master should at least be permitted to use his dis-
cretion as to the mode of administering this form of
discipline. If he is allowed to do it in private, if he
knows any thing of his vocation, the result in most
cases will be that he will not be obliged to resort to it
at all.

The opinions above expressed are not those generally
entertained. There is a great, and to some extent, a
reasonable jealousy of intrusting to the teachers this
control over the bodies of their pupils ; and the re-
quirement of publicity in the punishment is supposed
to be a check on the abuse of a power, that after all
must be conceded. But we believe, Tor the reasons we
have stated, that the evils of public punishment are
greater than its advantages ; and such is the opinion of
many of the masters with whom we have conversed,
who, from what we know of their character and admin-
istration, have no need of the extension of the power
of corporal punishment, or desire of screening their acts
from the cognizance of this Board. Under a system
like that of our Common Schools, something must
necessarily be intrusted to the discretion of the mas-
ters, always, however, under their responsibility for
its exercise. The mode of inflicting corporal punish-

ment seems to be one of those subjects which it is
impossible to limit by previous general rules, so much
is every case where it is needed, modified by its peculiar
circumstances. We would recommend an alteration
of the existing rule, and an endeavor to guard against
its abuse, by electing only such persons as instructers
as, in all human probability, the power could safely be
intrusted to.

There is one subject which may seem too trivial to
deserve notice in this Report, but which has always had
an unpleasant effect upon our minds. It is the custom
of the masters of many of the Schools for girls, to ad-
dress the pupils of their first classes, by their surnames
alone. The girls of these classes can hardly be regard-
ed as mere children. They have grown almost to wo-
manhood, they are generally well dressed, and, from the
decorum and maturity of their manners and appearance,
and their modest self-respect, may well be considered as
young ladies, and entitled to be treated as such. Xow
it is not the custom of the land, to address such persons
in this manner; and when we first heard it, it struck us
as improper, and harsh, and deficient in the respect and
courtesy due to them, though standing in the subordi-
nate position of pupils to a master. Custom has hard-
ened, though it has not reconciled us to the practice.
It is one that might easily be avoided. The usual pre-
fix of " Miss " would be attended neither with trouble
nor loss of dignity on the part of the master, and would
be productive of a better relation between the parties in
every School where it should be introduced. We can-
not but think that the mode of address complained of
must be unpleasant to the pupils, unless habit has made
them insensible to it. It would be better than the
present custom to address them by their Christian names.
This latter mode should also be adopted with the young-

20 .

er children, with regard to whom the present custom
is equally objectionable. We hope that a thorough re-
form in this particular will be introduced.

Before entering upon this annual examination, we did
not fully appreciate the value of School libraries. They
are certainly among the most important aids in the busi-
ness of instruction ; and they appear, in general, to be so
intelligently and faithfully used, that they ought to be
made sufficient for the demands of the pupils. Private
munificence has done much to supply them, but they are
not yet what they ought to be. There should be a li-
brary worth $500 in every School in the City.

There is one cause in operation, which tends to ele-
vate unduly some of the Schools for boys at the expense
of others, and is productive of still further evils, which
demand attention. We refer to the transfer from the
Grammar Schools of the boys of the first class, at the
end of the academical year, to the Latin and English
High Schools. Some of the Grammar Schools send
nearly all the boys who are competent to these higher
Schools, and thus deprive their first class of its brightest
ornaments. Others, able to furnish an equal supply,
send a much smaller number, and perhaps none. Thus
one School has this year furnished nine boys for the
English High School, while another of quite as high
rank has sent but one to that School, and two to the
Latin School. This matter has so recently come to our
knowledge, that we have had no opportunity for a full
investigation of it, and we therefore restrict ourselves to
the mere mention of the fact, and of the bad effects
arising from it. These effects are two-fold.

1st. The School which sends away the most, and of
course its best, pupils, is lowered in its standard of
scholarship for the next year, and also in the average
age of its first class. The School which retains its pu-

pils, has its standard raised, both of age and scholarship,
in consequence, and we have been informed that boys
have sometimes been retained so long in the subordi-
nate School, that it has been deemed by their friends,
that they were too old to commence a new career of ed-
ucation, and they have been transferred immediately
from School to the active pursuits of life, without receiv-
ing that more perfect education, which the Latin and
High Schools are so competent to supply. The injustice
which is thus effected in the Lower Schools, by unduly
elevating the estimate of the one and depressing that
of the other for a cause, which ought, if brought into
the calculation, to have a directly opposite effect is too
obvious to need farther remark.

2d. An injury is done to the Higher Schools by keep-
ing from them those pupils who are prepared for their
severe examinations, and thus diminishing the supply of
the best materials for their influences to act upon.
There is already some complaint as to the diminution
of numbers to recruit these Higher Schools. If the
education which they are intended to impart can be ob-
tained in the Lower Schools, the Latin and High Schools
are a useless burden on the finances of the City ; if it
cannot, great injury, however unintentional, is done
to the pupils in the Lower Schools, in keeping them
there after they have completed the prescribed course
of instruction, and carrying them again over the same
ground, when they could be more profitably directed to
a higher career. Whether the error of judgment in
this matter lies with parents or teachers we cannot say.
We are informed of its existence, and without imputing
intentional wrong to any parties, we think it proper
to call the attention of the Board to the subject, that it
may be made a topic of investigation, and, if need be,
of correction.

* We have been much pleased to find that our Irish
population avail themselves largely of the benefit of
our Schools, and that many of the Irish children have
attained a high rank in scholarship, and are in other
respects among the best children in attendance. Reli-
gious opinions do not appear to deter them, as there are
many children of Roman Catholic parents to be found
among them. There is no class of our population whom
it is more important to bring under the influence of our
Common School system. It will, sooner than any thing
else, tend to domesticate them, and to give them Amer-
ican feelings, and identify them with ourselves as one
people, with common interests. We shall have little to
fear from the much talked of dangers of immigration,
if the rising generation of immigrants can thus be
brought practically to understand that a common career
is open to them with the native population, and that
the State will take equal care of them, as of the children
of the soil.

We found that absences and truancy were subjects of
complaint with many of the masters. The evil is a
very great one, tending in various ways to disturb the
order and interrupt the progress, not only of the delin-
quents, but of the School. The only remedy which is
in the power of the teacher, consists in admonition and
punishment. Nor do we see that it can be prevented
by any further regulations of this Board, except such as
would do more injury than good. The only effectual
remedy consists in the power of parents, in the home
influences which may be used in discouraging absences
and enforcing attendances. Those influences, it is to be
feared, are not now properly exerted, especially among
the poorer classes of our population. There are so many
by whom the advantages of education are not appreciated,
so many to whom the services or daily earnings of their

children are made a matter of primary importance, that
the irregularity of attendance in some districts has become
an evil of very great magnitude, and no means should
be left untried to impress upon all such parents, the
superior obligations they are under of causing the regu-
lar attendance of their children at School. No School,
however able and faithful the instructers, can prosper
when there is a very great irregularity in the attendance
of the pupils.

It may . be expected that something should be said
as to the working of the three different plans on which
the Schools are organized. For the last few years, the
current of opinion has been setting strongly against the
plan of Schools with two independent heads. We do
not entirely agree with this opinion. The success of a
School depends much more upon the character of the
teachers, than upon the plan of its organization. When
the principal condition for the success of this plan can
be obtained, there is no reason to complain of its results.
The masters of many such Schools speak decidedly in
its favor. Some of the best Schools in the City are on
this plan. Some of the least satisfactory are not. The
condition to which we refer is, perfect harmony between
the grammar and writing masters. This is not always
to be attained, and without it such a School must neces-
sarily suffer from jarring and distracted councils. When
it exists, one great advantage arises from the division of
duties. We have heard one of the best instructers under
the new plan complain, that the whole course of instruc-
tion is too great a strain upon the mind ; and we think it
must be obvious, that the power of a master to impart
knowledge will be greater when his faculties are concen-
trated upon only half of the studies pursued in the
Schools, than when he is obliged to divide his attention,
by directing it to the entire round of instruction.

Another objection, which applies equally to this and
to the plan of dividing a School of the usual size of
from four to five hundred pupils into two separate in-
dependent departments, is the increase of expense ; and
in this view both these plans are objectionable, in com-
parison with that of placing the whole School under
one undivided control. This last mentioned plan has
not yet been in operation long or extensively enough to
afford the means of deciding from experience on its mer-
its, though the few Schools into which it has been in-
troduced, are all in a very satisfactory condition. It
may be as effective as that of the Schools with two
heads, and is certainly as good as that of dividing a
School into two independent departments, and therefore,
on the ground both of economy, and of the difficulty and
uncertainty of finding masters who will agree together
in the exercise of independent authority over the same
pupils, it is • to be hoped that the experiment will be
persevered in and extended, until its merits can be fairly
tried.

Great inequalities exist in the School-houses them-
selves. In those recently erected, there is little want-
ing that could be desired. There is one defect, how-
ever, existing in some of the new as well as the old
buildings — the want of a separate apartment for de-
positing the hats, bonnets, and outer garments of the
pupils. In one of the girls' Schools which has such
an apartment, the master informed us that in wet
weather the smell diffused by the vapor arising from so
many damp garments was almost intolerable. Now, in
many even of the new School-houses, no such apart-
ments have been provided, and the garments are hung
up on the walls of the School-rooms.

The consequence is, that whatever matter offensive
or injurious to the health is generated from this cause

mingles with the air breathed by the teachers and pu-
pils, and is to a greater or less degree retained in the
room. It may be said, that this annoyance is neutral-
ized by the improved ventilation. But it is an addi-
tion to the evils with which the power of ventilation
has to contend, and it is obvious that this power remain-
ing the same, the less of impure matter it is obliged to
carry off, the more clear and healthy will be the atmos-
phere of the room. The vestibule of the School house
might in most cases be converted into such an apart-
ment as is needed, were it not for the danger of theft.
The subject is one of sufficient importance to engage
the attention of the Sub-Committee on the erection of
School houses.

It will not be necessary in this part of the Report,
to dwell at length upon the proficiency exhibited in
the several Schools, as the subject will be touched
upon in the individual notices.

The branches in which oral examination was made,
were Reading, Grammar, Spelling, History, Geography,
Arithmetic, and Natural Philosophy. Only one or two
Schools had commenced the study of Physiology.

The Reading was generally very good. After read-
ing the brief portion allotted to them, the children were
questioned as to the meaning of words, the allusions,
and the general import of what they had read.

In some of the Schools such questions were very satis-
factorily answered. But this was not always the case.
We found that very good reading did by no means im-
ply that the readers entered into or understood the
subject of the pieces on which they were exercised.
And it is hardly possible that it should be otherwise,
unless the pupils are drilled upon those pieces, and
obtain their explanation, by instruction from their

teachers, or the voluntary study of books not included
in the prescribed course. To understand fully the im-
port of the compositions in the reading book used in
the Schools, would require an amount of learning
which is not imparted in the usual routine of com-
mon school instruction, and is not to be expected of
children of the age of thirteen or fourteen years. This
must necessarily be the case, whatever book is used.
Children must learn to read compositions which con-
tain many references to matters of which they have had
no means of acquiring previous knowledge. Such are
the allusions to Mythology, Biography, Natural History
and Philosophy, History and Mental Philosophy, the
Sciences, and the Arts. The spirit of inquiry, how-
ever, appeared very active. In many instances it was
found that the suggestions presented by what they had
read, had been followed out by a resort to the School
library, and by such other aids collateral to the regu-
lar course of study as were at the command of the
pupils.*

With regard, to Grammar, the system of instruction
is so different from that in use in our own school days,
and is at present in such a transition state, that we
hardly feel competent, with the limited opportunities
which we have had, to form or express an opinion.
The nomenclature of instruction in this study was alto-
gether new to us. No doubt great improvements have

* A very valuable book entitled " The Instructive Reader," has re-
cently been published by William D. Swan, Esq., head master of
the Mayhew School, consisting of Reading Lessons in Natural His-
tory, Science and Literature. The pieces are simple and easy to be
understood, and contain a great deal of useful information. It might
be introduced into the Schools with advantage, as auxiliary to the
books now in use. «

been made on Murray's system, and the science of

Grammar and Language is more logically and philo-
sophically taught than formerly ; but we have serious
doubts whether the subtle refinements and distinctions
which have been introduced, do not, some of them at
least, rest upon slight foundations, and are not calcu-
lated rather to perplex than to aid the young learner
in his course. There are many minute distinctions and
rules, which we will not dwell upon. The opinions of
the masters were much divided upon the system of
teaching, and we certainly did not find those Schools
the most deficient in which the more simple mode was
adhered to. The more complex system appeared to
have a tendency to impart rigidity and stiffness of
style, the pupil being more anxious to construct his
sentence in accordance with the various rules that
were to govern the different parts of it, than to write
naturally and gracefully, from a good habit of writing.
It was as if a child should endeavor to walk, not by the
natural use of his limbs, but by attempting to put in
practice, at each step, those laws as to the contraction
and relaxation of the muscles, which he finds stated in
his class book of Physiology.

Our impressions generally cannot be better stated than
by transcribing the following passage from the Report
of last year on the Grammar department of the Phillips
School. " Much attention had been given to Gram-
mar, and the examination in this department was very
satisfactory. The system here introduced is immeas-
urably superior to the one whose place it takes, but
there is danger that somewhat of the essential excel-
lence of the thing will be lost by too great care about
the frame work. Every teacher of Grammar ought to
remember that Parsing and Analysis are of value not
in themselves, but only as helps to a more thorough

understanding and a readier use in writing and speech
of the language whose philosophy they are intended to
point out."

In all but a few of the first Schools we visited, the
examination in Spelling was made by giving out twelve
words, more or less, of some difficulty, and requiring
the pupils to write them on their slates. The list of
words was the same in all the Schools, and very nearly
as follows :

Accommodate,

Analysis,

Receive,

Believe,

Sieve,

Friend.

Separate,

Bartholomew,

Tuesday,

February,

Phantom,

Fantastic.

Chelmsford,

Salisbury.

The slates were then examined, and the words mis-
spelled, marked. Very few of the pupils had spelled
the whole list correctly. Omitting an m in ' Accom-
modate,' the transposition of the e and i in the words
where those letters occur as a diphthong, ' Separate,'
instead of the correct spelling, and the omission of the
first r in ' February,' were very common mistakes even
with good scholars. This mode of exercise in Spell-
ing, is a very trying and efficient one. It will be ob-
served that the words are of more than common diffi-
culty, but we hoped for a more satisfactory result
than was usually found.

There has been some confusion during the past year,
in the Schools, in regard to 'History. In the recently
revised list of books, Parker's Outlines of History was
substituted for Worcester's, which had been previously
used, and there having been some delay in the supply
of the former work from the press, it was not thought
expedient to require the children to be at the expense

of buying the other, which was so soon to be super-
seded, and consequently, in some of the Schools the pu-
pils were not prepared at all for an examination in this
branch, and in some others the progress was very lim-
ited. In others, however, the appearance was very
good, and ready and correct answers were given to
questions not. contained in the text-book.

The attainment in Geography was in general very
satisfactory. The text-book was very little used in the
examination, but such questions were put as occurred
to the minds of the Committee, and the character of
the answers showed a mature and intelligent acquaint-
ance, not only with facts but principles.

In Arithmetic the progress was very unequal in the
different Schools. In some, the first class had advanc-
ed no farther than Fractions. In one, at least, it had
nearly completed Sherwin's School Algebra, and prob-
ably knew quite as much of the subject as the examin-
ing Committee.

In Natural Philosophy the progress was in general
very limited. This study has been recently introduced.

There was occasionally, in all the studies, an appa-
rent backwardness in answering, when we were con-
vinced, both by the assurances of the masters and by
our own impressions that the pupils were possessed
of knowledge, which, from some inexplicable cause, it
was difficult to extract from them. This trait was
more distinctly manifested in the girls' than in the
boys' Schools, and showed itself more on the examina-
tion in this study than in any other. A class would be
asked, for instance, for an explanation and description
of the barometer, and not a hand would be raised ; but
when an individual was singled out and pressed for an
answer, it would come at last, and be substantially
correct.

These remarks are not intended to apply to all the
Schools. There were some in which the knowledge
shown of Natural Philosophy was very satisfactory.

The writing books of the classes were also examined,
and though there were great inequalities, they in gen-
eral appeared very well for the work of children of the
age of those under examination.

The Schools appear to be more defective in the prac-
tice of original composition, than in any other branch
of intellectual acquirement. It was impossible for the
examining Committee, in the limited time at their com-
mand, to make any competent examination of themes or
essays composed by the pupils. This judgment is formed
mainly from the inspection of the answers to the print-
ed questions, in which the defects in Grammar and
Spelling are very numerous, even in the exercises of
some of the best Scholars. These defects are found in
sentences and words so simple, that in the ordinary
course of a School exercise, we are very sure they would
not occur. The^chirography also of these answers is
in general inferior to that of the writing books. It is
true that in giving them, the children were restricted in
time, but this will not wholly account for errors in
points, where it was apparently quite as easy and ex-
peditious to go right as wrong. It shows how much
more difficult is the practical application of knowledge,
than its mere acquisition or exhibition in the routine
of study and recitation. The habit of correct writing
is acquired by use, and it is essentially an accomplish-
ment of practice and of a maturer age. The subject is
not mentioned therefore in the tone of fault-finding or
complaint, but with the view of calling to it the atten-
tion of the head masters, and of recommending to them
that they should devote as much time to giving to the
children under their charge the habit of ready and cor-

rect composition, as is consistent with the other and
varied duties of instruction.

In many of the Schools, instruction in drawing is
given, and the black-boards were covered with maps
and other objects so beautifully executed, that we ex-
perienced a feeling of regret, that they must soon be
erased to make room for other exercises. Much of this
instruction is given out of School hours, an important
fact, as showing the faithfulness of the instructers, and
the desire for improvement, and interest in other pur-
suits than mere play, on the part of such young chil-
dren as fill our Grammar and Writing Schools.

The subject of Music in the Common Schools is al-
ready in the hands of the appropriate Committee. "We
shall restrict ourselves to saying that, on some plan, it
ought to be retained and cherished. Wre do not sup-
pose that much real knowledge of the science of Music,
can be imparted in the brief time . and in the wholesale
method which are all that can be allotted to it. We
are not competent judges, but the Music we have heard
in the Schools appears to be little more than rote sing-
ing. Its chief value consists in the moral influences
which it exerts over the minds of the pupils, and in
. this respect it is almost inestimable.

The following passage from Milton's treatise on Edu-
cation, shows the estimate which he placed on the effects
of music. " Let children compose their travailed spirits
with the solemn harmonies of Music heard or learned,
for if prophets and wise men are not entirely out,
Music hath a great power over the manners and dispo-
sitions, to smooth and make them gentle from rustic
harshness and distempered passions." — The Greek his-
torian, Polybius, relates, that amid all the refinement
and civilization of Arcadia, there was one city, Cymetka,

whose inhabitants were barbarous and savage in their
manners, and he attributes this to their neglect of that
early instruction in Music, which was prevalent among
all the neighboring states.

We trust that a conviction of the utility of this
branch of instruction, if for no farther use, at least as
an auxiliary to the moral training in the Schools, is too
deeply seated to be easily moved. The details of the
economical alterations and arrangements which have
been proposed during the past year, as to the plan of
instruction, we shall leave to the Committee charged
with the subject.

One of the greatest existing obstacles to the success
of our Common School system, arises from the non-at-
tendance of the children of the wealthier classes. From
the observations and inquiries we have been able to
make, we are satisfied that in general the Public
Schools are not resorted to, because they are the abso-
lute, voluntary choice either of parents or children,
though we are rejoiced to be able to say, that the ex-
ceptions to this rule are numerous and fast increasing.
It is a fact deeply to be regretted, that the two places
where human beings ought to meet on terms of the
most perfect, humble and levelling equality — the School ,
and the Church— are those where too often the distinc-
tions of rank are in practice most severely guarded, and
the differences of social position made most glaring and
prominent. The old prejudice against free Schools is
not yet done away. The time has been, when they
were regarded as mere eleemosynary institutions, of
which, none but the poor could or would or ought
to avail themselves. That they now form the corner-
stone of a great public system, that they are the
surest hope of a well-regulated freedom, the barrier

alike against the evils of despotism and of anarchy, that
they are instituted to diffuse good learning and morality
among all classes, as freely, as widely, as cheaply as the
air we breathe ; these are considerations which, though
most manifestly true, and most deeply impressed upon
the understanding of the people in general, have not yet
sufficiently penetrated the minds of a large and most in-
fluential class of our population. The vestiges of opin-
ions formed in a different state of things are apparent.
The result of such opinions is, that many children
are kept from the Public Schools on account of the
honest, however erroneous prejudices of their parents.
A large class of children, whose home education is
of so high a cast, as would enable them to exert
a very beneficial influence on their associates, are
sent to private Schools. It is not however the par-
ticular character of the children, wno are thus with-
drawn from the influence of our great public sys-
tem, which is the principal evil. That principal evil
is the want of universality in the public instruction.
Opinions adverse to the system tend directly to their
own verification. A large and the most wealthy
part of the people, may be willing to bear their
proportion of the taxes which are levied for its
support, but if their own children do not avail them-
selves of the opportunities that it affords, their in-
terest is limited to this mere payment of money, and
.the Schools are deprived of the benefit of the scrutin-
izing jealousy, with which all men watch over that
which has a personal interest and value in their eyes.
So far as this indifference prevails, the thoughtful intel-
ligence, the careful investigation of the people, are not
exercised, in examining the operation of the School
system, and testing its results. From a general, it be-

comes, in effect, merely a partial system, and this alone
is enough to show, that it cannot be so perfect as
it would otherwise become. No great institution can
be entirely successful,, unless it commands the uni-
versal support of all those who are intended to
be brought under its influence. The history of the
world shows the truth of this. The institutions of
Lycurgus owed their permanence and success, to their
reaching to every class of the community in which
they existed, from the king to the lowest citizens.
They could not have survived their founder, had he
left a class exempt from their operation, but which, in
giving its assent to their partial influence, could have
said " They are well enough for the poor."

Look at the two systems that have been the scourge
of the people, in the countries of modern Europe where
they existed — the inquisition in Spain and Italy, and
the conscription in Imperial France. They were uni-
versal in their operation. No class was placed beyond
the reach of their baleful power. No invidious dis-
tinction was made by them, between the poor and the
rich. The consequence was, that during the period al-
lotted to their existence, they were irresistible and un-
controllable, and have left the traces of their effects, in
the moral and physical deterioration of the people sub-
jected to them, which centuries of reform and of liberty
may not be able to remedy. It is obvious that the same
law of nature will produce similar results, when ap-
plied to education. And why should we not borrow
from bad institutions, the principle that gave them effi-
ciency, and apply it to the diffusion of the good % We
have a system, which, as far as theory goes, is almost per-
fect. It is a system for the universal and unpaid educa-
tion of all the children of the land. It is the most vitally

important of all the institutions of the land. Its perfect
success would make us the happiest people, upon whom
the sun ever shone. The hope of the good self-govern-
ment of the people is to become realized by its means
alone, and, when perfected in its results, it will enable
us to dispense with most of the burdensome institutions
for the prevention and punishment of crime, which the
present state of human morals renders necessary, while at
the same time they are the greatest weight upon prop-
erty and industry that exists. How important then is
it, that such a system should be perfected. But perfected
it never can be, until it is regarded with universal favor;
until it is believed to be the best existing plan for the
purposes for which it is designed ; until it receives not
only the theoretic assent, but the practical support of all
classes in the community, and not merely of those to
whom it is necessary or convenient ; until it is not only
paid for by all, but used by all ; until it becomes a point
of union for the future citizens of the Commonwealth,
the rich and the poor, where they may meet and learn
the great truth of their equality, in the eye of God and
of the law, where the . may discover that they have com-
mon sympathies and a common interest, and where they
may unlearn that jealousy and fastidiousness which now
so often tempt men, women and children, in meeting
their fellow creatures and fellow citizens, to feel and act
upon the ungenerous sentiment, " I am better than
you." It will be a happy day in the annals of educa-
tion, when this picture shall be realized, and when the
children of all can thus be brought to meet, on the
ground of a common humanity.

This City has set apart, for Common School educa-
tion, property which cannot be worth much less than
a million of dollars, and taxes itself, in addition, to the

amount of more than two hundred thousand dollars
annually, for the same purposes. It is a startling
fact, if this vast outlay, and this continued expense, are
devoted to an institution, not only not good enough, not
the best for the accomplishment of its intended objects,
but actually of so low a character that a class of citizens,
all powerful in giving the tone, to the public sentiment,
avoid the use of it for themselves, as fraught with posi-
tive evil; and thus practically declare it adequate only
to raise up the masses, a few steps above that state of
deep ignorance, in which they would otherwise be in-
volved.

If our other great enterprise should fail ; if it
should prove that the long-wished-for supply of water
just about to 1be introduced, is fit only for the grosser
wants of the people, for the extinguishing of fires
and the cleansing of the streets, and the movement
of machinery, and altogether unfit for 'the more delicate
uses of life, a striking parallel between the two would
be maintained. Well may it be then said, that we have
toiled and embarrassed ourselves, for things which profit
us not. Let- us rather strive and wish for better issues,
and hail our two greatest enterprises, as the true sources
of our prosperity ; let us hope to find them both able,
not only to diffuse their plenteous and life-giving streams
through the lowly thoroughfares and humble dwell-
ings, but to raise them to the summits of our loftiest hills,
and to the halls of our most stately edifices. Then only
will they have attained in full measure, the objects for
which they were undertaken ; then only shall we derive
from the health of the soul and the health of the body,
which are imparted universally by them, the elastic
strength to enable us to sustain with ease the burdens
which they impose.

It is, however, too much to expect that parents
should send their children to the City Schools, from a
mere sense of public duty, if they think that a better
education can be obtained elsewhere. But they should
remember, that when they are making their election,
upon them rests the responsibility for the correctness of
their opinions. The most exaggerated of the objections,
which we have heard made to these Schools, such as
the necessary demoralization of the pupils, and their evil
career, we hold to be founded on mere idle prejudice.
The system is older than the memory of living men, —
and we should be glad, had we the means, to trace the
career of the pupils, and to examine the statistics of crime,
and see what portion of its subjects have also been the
subjects of our Common School system. But such objec-
tions as these we will not dwell upon. They are too
absurd to be in any degree injurious, and we can as well
afford to forgive and humor the good people who indulge
them, as we can, the old tory gentlemen and ladies who,
until within a very short period, after having grown old
under our republican institutions, were in the habit of
looking upon their neighbors, as traitors and rebels to
the British Crown. If such prejudice is worth a serious
remark, we would only say, in the language of Jefferson,
" That error may be safely tolerated while reason is left
free to combat it."

As to the allegations of the danger to the morals,
among the mixed multitudes congregated in the Public
Schools, the want of thoroughness of instruction and
the imperfection of discipline, the first is plausible, but
we sincerely believe not true. The others are neither
plausible nor true.

1st. As to morals and manners. No doubt among the
great numbers of children who are indiscriminately ad-

mitted to the Schools, there will be found many indi-
viduals, whose ideas of morals and standard of manners
are very low ; but this evil must have, of late years,
been very greatly mitigated, by the preparatory train-
ing of the Primary Schools. Its amount is very
much exaggerated at the present day. We do not
think that justice is done to the characters of the corps
instructif of our Schools, to their efforts or their suc-
cess. In our examinations and inquiries, both on the
Annual and the Sub-Committees, we have been made
acquainted with but one instance of crime, during the
past year, and have found the general moral tone of the
scholars to be satisfactory.

We have before spoken of the good relations existing
between masters and pupils. We consider this to be
almost proof positive, of a good moral condition of a
School; for such relations cannot exist, unless upon
the sure foundation of duties well performed, and of a
correct moral standard. Were a teacher deficient in
these particulars, the instinctive perceptions of chil-
dren would soon discover it, their own standard would
be immediately made to conform, and the consequence
would at once be seen in the want of respect, of
order, of diligence, of all that constitutes the good con-
dition of a School. On the other hand, in any case
where the children were glaringly deficient, the effect
would be shown, in the manner and bearing of the
master, this again having its adverse effect upon the
pupils. We say then, that we have satisfactory evidence
of the general good moral condition of the Boston
Schools. The danger of evil communication has been
very unduly exaggerated, as well as the amount of ex-
isting evil. People have been used to judge on this
subject, from what they have known of the Private

Schools, where children, whose position brings them
closely together, as well out of School as in it, form
strong ties of friendship and sympathy, and, whether
for good or evil, are very much under the influence
of each other's example. In the masses of a Pub-
lic School, the principle of association is not nearly
so strong. The children meet together for a common
object, but that strong tendency to cohesion, which ex-
ists in the Private Schools, is not found among them.
In the process of time, as the children in a class become
more known to each other, associations will, it is true,
be formed, but they will not and cannot be indiscrimi-
nate or general. They will be governed by affinities of
character and disposition, and thus the example of the
vicious portion is not so constantly forced upon the ob-
servation of others, as in the narrow circle of a Private
School, where the children, whatever may be their char-
acter, are constantly pressed together by the smallness
of their numbers and the similarity of social position.
Nor are the Private Schools free from their own vicious
members. It is impossible to keep out bad children,
from any place where children congregate. Was a Pri-
vate School ever heard of, that did not contain some pu-
pils of known bad character, who were regarded by
parents as the tempters and misleaders of their
children 1

2d. We believe that whoever thinks the discipline of
the Public Schools is inferior to that of the private,
is entirely in error. There cannot long be a lax
discipline or inattention to his duties, on the part of
the master of a Public School, without its being de-
tected, as well by the condition of the pupils, as by
the frequent and unannounced visits of the Sub-Com-
mittees. The supervision over both master and pupils
is minute, constant and frequent. The examination of

the pupils by other persons than the masters, occurs
monthly, quarterly, and yearly.

The discipline of our Public Schools must necessarily
be more perfect than that of the private, from the
simple fact, that the pupils are more numerous; on the
same principle that it is necessary that the discipline of
a large army should be more perfect, than that of a single
company — because, disorder in large bodies of persons,
being multiplied by the number, becomes such intoler-
able confusion, that it must be repressed ; whereas
many irregularities hurtful to the individual, might
occur in the smaller body without creating so much
annoyance, as to attract to an equal degree notice and
rebuke.

This is the theory of the discipline of our Schools,
and no one who has been present, at the laborious and
oft-recurring meetings of this Board, can doubt that it is
efficiently carried out in practice. The character of
this discipline, too, is of the best kind. There is no
motive to favoritism and partiality. The teacher has
little direct communication with the friends of the
individuals under his charge. A child is presented to
Mm, as a subject on which to exercise his office of train-
ing and education. What may be the condition of his
parents, it is not worth his trouble to inquire. He is
not directly responsible to them, but to the School
Committee, and to that he can only commend himself,
by a faithful, impartial, and just discharge of his duty.
He is elected annually. How different is the condition of
a private School! If the master chooses to be unfaithful,
how can it be speedily enough discovered to apply a
remedy % What supervision, what visiting, what jeal-
ous controlling power is exercised over the School?
None whatever. If such a master is faithful, it is a
fortunate accident. If he is unfaithful or partial in
his administration, it can be discovered only by the

often unheeded complaints of the pupil, and infinite
damage may be done to the mind and morals, to the
sense of justice and right, before it can be detected
or remedied.

3d. As to the amount and thoroughness of instruc-
tion. The same considerations which have been ad-
vanced with regard to the discipline, apply equally to
this topic. A public School cannot fall into the back-
ground without the fact being soon discovered and
remedied. If no complaint is heard, the School must
be in a good condition.

The surest way to obtain correct information as to
the comparative value of the public and private Schools,
is to examine their results. It has not been in our
power to do this, so thoroughly as could be wished.
The statistics requisite for a full view of this subject,
are yet uncollected, and they lie too widely scattered,
to be brought together, in the short space of time allot-
ted for the preparation of this Report. But some ex-
ertion has been made, to examine the condition of the
English High School and of the Latin School, and the
result has been a conviction, that in general the chil-
dren coming to those Schools from the public Schools,
show a higher average of intellectual training and at-
tainment, and are in a better state as to discipline, than
those coming from the private Schools, while in point
of moral character, they are at least equal. So that, in
short, the scholars from the public Schools are in a
better condition for entering those institutions than those
from the private Schools, and such we believe to be, in
general, the opinion of the teachers. We think we can
safely say, that under no form of examination of the
English High School and the Latin School, will it be
possible, for any candid inquirer, to form an opinion
favorable to the superiority of the preparation in the

private Schools, in any particular, and that no such opinion
will be given, by any teacher in those Schools. We hope
that in future, the statistics of this subject will be record-
ed, and made a branch of inquiry. The knowledge ob-
tained, will be sure to dispel the prejudices, which now
hang over the public Schools, so greatly impairing
their effective usefulness.

The professed object of education is to fit children for
sustaining well the parts to which, as men and women,
they are to be called in the future. Can there be
any doubt that the mental and moral training of a well
regulated Public School, will be more beneficial to them
than that of a Private one % We have somewhere seen
a great Public School called a Microcosm. It is, in fact,
in its influences and motives, in its equality, in its op-
ening the career to merit, and refusing countenance to
indolence, a type and prefiguring of what is to come in
after life. Now all the motives and influences, which
thus affect the world and the individual, are to be learn-
ed by children, at some time or other, unless they are to
be the mere drones of society ; and is it not much better
that they should learn them at first, while the mind is
plastic and impressible, than that they should wait until
the struggle actually begins 1 For all the future, this
training and preparation are necessary, just as the early
exercise of the muscles is requisite, for the proper and
graceful developement of the faculties of the body ; and
the Public School is the gymnasium where they are
to be acquired. No very high estimate should be plac-
ed on that kind of innocence, which has been defin-
ed as " happy ignorance." For a very young child it
is all that can be expected ; but fof a more advanced
stage of youth and manhood, there is no state which is
more exposed to temptation and to a fall. The true in-
nocence, which only will be the safeguard of all periods

of life, is like that of the lady in ' Comus,' which con-
sisted in a knowledge and understanding of all the
allurements which were offered to her, and in the rea-
soning and intelligent rejection of them. In the al-
most conventual seclusion of the Private School, there
is comparatively but little to be learned of that practi-
cal wisdom, which is derived from experience and ob-
servation ; — nothing but what is found between the
covers of the school-books. A limited number of chil-
dren of the same social rank are collected together, with
the same kind of ideas, with no knowledge, and no op-
portunity of gaining any, of the world of children who
are all around them, and with whom they must, if they
are to take any active part in life, be in some way con-
nected. With but little chance for the collision of mind
with mind, and the consequent brightening of the in-
tellect, they dream away the years of childhood, in utter
ignorance of every thing, except the studies they have
pursued, and are left to fight the battle of life against
their trained antagonists, with weapons which they
have not proved. This course of education is one of
the early causes of a result so frequently seen among
the inheritors of wealth. Kept from early childhood,
in the state of isolation we have depicted, they are never
able to divest themselves of the notions of exclusiveness
and caste, in which they have been educated. In ma-
turer life they feel an unwillingness to mingle with
those, with whom they have not been taught to have
any early sympathies, they pass through college, they
make the tour of Europe, and then come home to a
listless, dissatisfied, and inactive life.

In our remarks on this subject, it will be seen that
very little stress is laid upon the duty of the rich to
support, and perfect the public Schools, by not only
contributing from their wealth, but by sending their

children to receive instruction at them. Indeed, it is
too much to ask of any class, to sacrifice their children
to their public duty. The claims of private affection,
in such cases as these, are undoubtedly paramount. A
parent should seek the best education for his child,
wherever it is to be had. But the proposition is ad-
vanced and relied on, that the public Schools in this
City, are actually the best Schools, and we have at-
tempted to prove this by argument and such statistics
as were within reach. Of the truth of the proposition,
taken in all its bearings, we have no doubt. And if it
be true, or very nearly approximating to truth, the way
is open to an appeal to a sense of public duty. The
wealthier class, which, from its more abundant means,
has the power of imparting a higher and better tone to
society, is bound not to neglect the use of those means,
for the benefit of the whole. And there is no way in
which this power can be exercised more effectually,
than by their example in sending their children to the
public Schools. For their so doing would give them
an interest in these Schools, which would lead to turn-
ing their attention, to the study 'of the means of their
improvement. How many are there, who take any ab-
stract interest in their advancement % How many who
have no children in them, or are not officially con-
nected with them, know any thing about their or-
ganization, or condition, or progress? How many
who have contributed from their experience or re-
flection to their improvement? It is to be feared
that the number is very small. And yet the subject is
one that requires all the wisdom, all the attention, of
all and every class in the community, to be bestowed
upon it. The more we think, the more we know, the
more we feel, about the public Schools, the better we
shall make them. Their history has shown, here and

elsewhere, how they have languished from neglect ; and it
has also shown, that one of the main causes of neglect
has arisen from the erection and the preference of private
Schools. As one side of the balance ascends, the other
descends. A perfect system of public Schools will
nearly cause the private to disappear. If they deterior-
ate, or are neglected, the private Schools immediately
assume the ascendancy, and are increased in number.

We are enabled to illustrate this point, by facts which
have recently been communicated to us. The Wells
School for girls is one of the best in the City. It cer-
tainly has no superior. In the district which supplies
this School with pupils, there is no private School kept
by a master, and only one, and that a very small one,
kept by a female teacher. There are but fourteen girls
in this district who are known to attend private Schools
kept in parts of the City not within the district.
There may be two or three others, but if so, they are
not known to our informant.

The conclusion we draw from this statement is,
that the excellence of the Public School has abso-
lutely made it supreme, and destroyed competition.
It is true that this excellence may in some mea-
sure depend on the character of the population of
the district, which in general is removed from the ex-
tremes either of poverty or wealth ; but good ma-
terials alone will never make a good School, unless
the teachers also are competent for their duties. We
have taken this School to illustrate our subject, because
we happen to have been informed of the facts stated.
There may be other Schools and School districts in the
City of which a similar report might be made.

One object to be gained by the course here advocat-
ed, is to do away with the prejudice against the Public
Schools, merely because they are such ; to create a pres-

tige in their favor; in plain words, to make them fash-
ionable with all classes. In using this term we hope
not to be misunderstood.

The last thing that we should wish for our Schools,
would be to make them places for what is called a fash-
ionable education, a training in the mere showy ac-
complishments to the exclusion of what is really valuable.
But we wish to see them meet with support from those,
whose influence and example weigh so much with the
world. There are too many persons in every commu-
nity, who live in the opinions of others, even to the sac-
rifice of their own convictions. While the slightest
doubt rests upon the respectability or gentility of the
Public Schools, while they see that they are rejected
by their richer or more fashionable neighbors, such
persons will sacrifice every thing rather than permit
their children to enter them. We have seen something
of the operation of such feelings. We have seen the
scornful expression even on the faces of children, who
had imbibed vague and undefined prejudices as to the
Public Schools, when they chanced to be alluded to.
Now such feelings are pernicious in their results, to
all parties concerned. We may not care much for
opinions, which are based upon uninquiring prejudice;
but the practical support, the actual sustenance to be de-
rived from the attendance of all the children in the com-
munity, require that they should be overcome, and the
responsibility of removing them rests with that influen-
tial class, whose example has had so much to do with
their creation.

In connection with this subject of the duty of support-
ing our Public Schools, another consideration presents it-
self to the notice of the class for which these remarks
are intended. It is their interest to make these Schools
the best, and to do so in part, by sending then children

to them. The expense of our School system is enor-
mous. More than $200,000 were paid during the last
year for the mere current and constantly recurring
charges of tuition and its attendant expenses. This
money is raised by taxation, indiscriminate upon all
classes. Those who do not send their children to the
public Schools, or have none to send, receive no direct
equivalent for their proportion, (and it is a large one) of
this item of public expenditure. Those who send their
children to the private Schools, are obliged to pay, per-
haps, an equal sum for tuition, and are thus taxed twice.
The sums paid in this City, for private tuition, must
be very great.* We do not know how much. But all
this might be saved to those who pay it, by sending their
children to the public Schools, with benefit to themselves,
to their children, and to the public ; and if the sums
which are now paid could be added to the School appro-
priations, our educational system might be made as per-
fect as the present state of experience on the subject,
will allow.

An important lesson may be learned by the children of
the rich by observing and sympathizing with the struggles
and aspirations of poverty in the City Schools. Some of
the best scholars in them are among the children of the
very poor. We have seen the son of a laboring Irishman
coming daily from the upper room of a poor tenement, in
an obscure street, with his clothes ragged but clean,
bearing all the marks of extreme but honest poverty,
taking his rank with the highest of his companions as a
scholar, and receiving unvarying good reports of his in-
structor, for the correctness of his conduct. The hearts
of children are open to the influences of such an exam-
ple as this, and it is not a solitary one. While it teaches
them to appreciate and improve their own greater ad-
vantages, it shows them there is something to value and

respect, even among the very poor; that wealth and sta-
tion are not the only aims of life ; that not upon them,
but upon the exertion of their faculties, independent of
them, are to depend the rewards of childhood, and, by the
operation of the same unvarying laws, the honors of ma-
turer age.

We have heard of another incident which is not with-
out its moral. A gentleman of this City, in affluent
circumstances, sent his son to a Public School, where he
became one of the Medal Scholars. On the exhibition
day this gentleman saw his son occupying the same form
with a poorly clad Irish boy, and on inquiry found that he
was a Roman Catholic, very poor, but very intelligent,
and one of the best boys in the School, and also a medal
scholar higher in rank than his son. Shortly after, the
master received a letter from the boy whose father had
made these inquiries, enclosing fifty dollars, with a re-
quest, that it might be appropriated to aiding the Irish
boy, in his future education, and an intimation that a
further supply would be ready, when needed for the same
purpose. It is well said that " it is more blessed to give
than to receive;" but such an incident as this must have
a good effect upon the hearts of both giver and receiver.
The training that produced it was that of our Public
Schools, and we trust it will have its weight in showing
to the public, the true influences that are there at work
upon the minds of the children of Boston.

Whatever prejudice may exist in any quarter against
our Public Schools, is to be attributed principally to a
want of knowledge of their character. It is much to
be wished that intelligent observers, who have so deep
an interest in the subject, would visit them frequently
and examine them minutely. On application to any
member of this Board, the school-house doors would
be. most gladly thrown open to inquirers. We propose

the severest test to which the School can be subjected,
and we do it in perfect confidence that the result would
be a conviction that our Common Schools afford the best,
the cheapest and the safest means of moral and intellec-
tual education, that are to be found within the limits of
New England.

By the considerations we have now offered, we do not
intend to make any imputations, upon the actual character
of our private Schools. They are no doubt as good as
any Schools of that class. But we are speaking of the
system of private instruction in general, and comparing it
with that of the public. The evil we complain of, and the
prejudice from which it arises, are yielding by degrees, as
better information with regard to our School system is dif-
fused. The Latin and English High Schools have already
attained their proper place in the public estimation. They
are confessedly the best Schools in the city, for the higher
branches of education. We believe the public Schools
are really the best for their intended objects, and that no
wealth can purchase, elsewhere, such means of education
as are there in operation, and that the time will come
when their value to all classes in the community will be
practically recognized and established.

We do not intend to enter upon the topic of the edu-
cation of the children of the poorer classes, in the Public
Schools. For these, the question is not as to the choice of
Schools, but between the Public Schools and no education
at all. It is obvious that measures should be taken and
inducements held out, to bring all such children within the
influence of education, and to secure their attendance at
the Public Schools. This 'is of far greater importance,
than the other point which we have discussed. But the
argument on the subject has recently been set forth with
great ability, in the eleventh Annual Report of the Secre-
tary of the Board of Education, and we can neither add

to nor amend it. We must beg leave, however, to express
our doubts whether the public mind is ready for any
legislative coercion to secure such attendance, and short
of that, we do not know that any measures are left un-
tried to effect it, though they have not thus far met with
entire success. The work is one of time, and to time and
perseverance we must leave it.

In compliance with a recent vote of the Board, the
results of the examination with printed questions are
not introduced into this Report. They have however
been arranged in a tabular form, and will be submitted
to the disposal of the School Committee whenever they
shall be called for.

For the Annual Examining Committee.

JOHN CODMAN,

Chairman.

EXAMINATION OF THE SEVERAL SCHOOLS.

We now proceed to state the results of the examination of the in-
dividual Schools. They are arranged according to the order of time
in which the Schools were visited. Most of the notices were writ-
ten immediately after the respective examinations, and convey the im-
pressions of the moment.

LYMAN SCHOOL,

EAST BOSTON.

H. H. Lincoln, Master of the Boys' Department.
Aaron L. Ordway, Master of the Girls' Department.

The Boys' Department of this School was visited and the first class
examined in all the studies, on the 17th of May, A. M. by the Chair-
man, and Messrs. Wigglesworth and Spence ; and the Girls' De-
partment on the 18th of May, A. M., by the same persons. The ex-
amination, each day, occupied about four hours, from 8 to 12.

The appearance of this School in both Departments was highly
satisfactory.

It was the first School examined, and consequently there had been
no notice and no time for preparation and review. With very few
exceptions the pupils of both sexes had made good use of their op-
portunities, and the defects appeared to have arisen rather from the
character of the individuals, than from any want of attention on the
part of the teachers.

The master of the Boys' Department informed the Committee that
there was great irregularity in the attendance, and that truancy pre-
vailed to an extent that was much to be regretted. The relations be-
tween the masters and pupils in both departments appeared to be as
good as possible ; but with respect to the Girls' Department in par-
ticular, the Committee cannot refrain from noticing the admirable

manner in which, by tempering authority with kindness, Mr. Ordway
appeared to have won the respect and affections of his pupils, and to
have succeeded in securing their attention to their studies, by the in-
fluence of their better feelings, instead of the fear of punishment.

The number of pupils in attendance on this School is greater than
can be accommodated in the building, and rooms in the neighborhood
are taken to receive the surplus.

The need of another School house at East Boston, to supply the
wants of the rapidly increasing population of that part of the City, is
manifest, and we commend the subject to the early attention and ac-
tion of this Board.

Both Departments in this School have made some progress in the
study of Physiology. The appearance of the classes in all the studies
was very good, but less so in History than in any other, owing to the
difficulty as to text books, which has already been mentioned.

ENDICOTT SCHOOL,

COOPER STREET.

J. F. Nourse, Master of the Boys' Department.
Loring Lothrop, Master of the Girls' Department.

This School was visited and the first classes examined by the
Chairman, and Messrs. Wigglesworth, Spence and Streeter, on the
1 9th of May. The Boys' Department in the morning and the Girls'
in the afternoon.

The result of the examination of the Boys' School was not satis-
factory.

There was a marked superiority in the first division over the re-
mainder of the class, but in no part of it, with individual exceptions,
was the average equal to that of the other Schools of which the Chair-
man has had any knowledge hitherto.* The appearance of the first
division was respectable in all the studies. The class was not so
far advanced as the corresponding one in most other Schools, and
there did not appear much desire to press on it the attainment of
knowledge. This may be in part accounted for by the materials of
which the School is composed, and by the fact that the master is new
in office, and has not yet had full opportunity to show what can be
done with his pupils. His fidelity and attainments are unquestiona-
ble. He informed the Committee that truancy prevails to a very
great extent. The relation between the master and pupils was not
what could be desired.

* This was written immediately after the examination.

This Department is deficient in recitation rooms and furniture, and
has no Globes or Outline Maps. Its condition requires the serious at-
tention of the Committee.

The condition of the first class in the Girls' Department was highly
satisfactory. The reading was excellent, and the Grammar parsing
and analysis showed an appreciation of the beauties, as well as a
knowledge of the structure of language.

The appearance in History was very good, but not quite so per-
fect as in the branch last mentioned.

The proficiency in Arithmetic was satisfactory.

The Chairman did not remain through the examination in the
other branches, but from the report of the other members of the Com-
mittee, it was very good.

The relation between master and pupils was as good as could be
wished. There is no recitation room, except a small one that cannot
be warmed in winter, and can accommodate but a very small number
of the pupils at any time, neither is there any place beyond the walls
of the School-room for leaving the hats, bonnets and other garments
of the pupils.

The writing was good, and a very respectable proficiency in book-
keeping was manifest on the inspection of the writing-books.

PHILLIPS SCHOOL,

PINCKNEV STREET.

S. S. Green, Grammar Master.
Samuel Swan, Writing Master.

This School was visited and the first class examined by the Chair-
man, and Messrs. Wiggles worth and S pence, on the 20th of May.
The whole appearance of this School is good. The masters, whose
fidelity and ability are unquestionable, have the affection and con-
fidence of their pupils, and they work together in the best spirit.

The Grammar Master has introduced his own system of analysis,
and the pupils exhibited great proficiency in the logic and philosophy
of language. Their attainments in all the studies were satisfactory,
though, from the necessary rapidity of the examination, there were
many failures and errors. It was remarked, however, that whenever
any part of the examination was made more minute and rigid than
the usual course, the result was that the pupils' pi'oficiency became
more manifest. The Chairman being also the Chairman of the Sub-
Committee on this School, had obtained a more thorough knowl-
edge of its condition than that of any other except the Mayhew, and

from the appearance of the boys at this as well as at the monthly and
quarterly examinations, he is satisfied that the masters have suc-
cessfully labored to impart a knowledge of principles, rather than to
make showy exhibition Scholars. Considerable attention has been
paid to map drawing, and the specimens exhibited were very credita-
ble. In particular, one Chart of the Northern Celestial Hemisphere,
as a work of industry and talent, reflected great credit on the boy who
drew it, and is entitled to high praise.

Some alterations might be made in this School house, which would
greatly benefit both the masters and the pupils, in particular, by cut-
ting down the window stools, which are now so high above the floor,
that the passage of light and air is greatly obstructed, and a cheer-
less appearance given to the rooms.

WLNTHROP SCHOOL,

EAST STREET.

Samuel L. Gould, Master of the Southern Department.
Henry Williams, Jr., Master of the Northern Department.

This School was visited on May 22d, and the first class examined,
by the Chairman, and Messrs. Wigglesworth and Spence. The
Southern Department in the morning, the Northern in the afternoon.

In neither department of this School, is the first class so far ad-
vanced as in some of the other Schools for girls, but this is in a great
measure to be attributed to its recent disarrangement and new or-
ganization. Until recently it was a mixed School, but the boys
have been taken from it and the girls divided, according to their resi-
dence, between the two departments. As usual, the first divisions
were much further advanced than the others. The relations between
the masters and the pupils were good, and the duties of the former
appeared to be faithfully and intelligently performed.

The Reading, Parsing and Analysis were good, but not so perfect
as in some other Schools. The recitation in Geography showed
careful instruction in the text book, and the classes were well ac-
quainted with the principles of Arithmetic as far as they had ad-
vanced. The recitation in Natural Philosophy, evinced a tolerable
acquaintance with its principles, to the extent of the instruction given.
In this study the Southern Department was rather more advanced
than the Northern, but the reverse was the case in the other branches,
which was very candidly ascribed by Mr. Williams, to some casual
advantages which he had in the division of the School. There was
no preparation and in consequence no examination in History. This

was accounted for by the fact that there had been some difficulty in
procuring the new text book, and it was not thought right to compel
the classes to purchase the old one, which was soon to be superseded.
This School enjoys the great advantage of being divided into four
rooms in each department, in which the several classes can pursue
their studies and perform their duties without disturbing or being
disturbed by the different occupations of the others. A brief visit
was made to the lower classes in both departments, and their appear-
ance was very good. The writing was good, and some instruction
had been given in drawing.

HANCOCK SCHOOL,

BETWEEN RICHMOND AND PRINCE STREETS.

George Allen, Jr., Grammar Master.
Peter Mackintosh, Writing Master.

This School was visited and the first class examined in the morning
of May 23d, by the Chairman, and Messrs. Cruft and Pickering.

It labored under the disadvantage of the illness and consequent ab-
sence of the Writing Master,* and the examination in the studies of
his department was conducted by Miss Pierce, who was called upon
unexpectedly, and entered upon such an unusual duty with very
natural reluctance.

The pupils showed that they had been well instructed in the usual
branches, and the highest division had made some progress in Alge-
bra. There was some backwardness, probably from diffidence in the
pupils, in volunteering answers to questions proposed to the whole
class, but when called on individually, they showed that this did not
arise from ignorance.

A marked distinction between the first and other divisions existed.

Mr. Allen appears to be perfect master of his School, and to com-
mand the respect and affection of his pupils.

* Since the above was written Mr. Mackintosh has died. It would be unjust
to conclude our remarks on this School, without noticing the high character
he has borne for faithfulness, ability and integrity, during a period of more
than thirty years, which he has spent in the public service as a teacher in
the Boston Schools.

WELLS SCHOOL,

mc'lean street.

Cornelius Walker, Grammar Master.
Reuben Swan, Jr., Writing Master.

This School was visited, and the first class examined, May 23d
P. M., by the Chairman, and Messrs. Cruft and Pickering.

It is in excellent condition. The pupils had made greajt advances
in their studies, and showed vivacity and readiness in answering.

The appearance in all the studies was highly satisfactory. A great
advance had been made in Book Keeping, Arithmetic and Algebra.
In the opinion of the Committee, a part of the time devoted to the last
named study might have been more profitably employed in acquiring
the principles of Physiology. We feel compelled to repeat the com-
plaint made as to this School in former reports, that the reading is too
artificial and rhetorical.

If the accommodations of a School were to be increased in pro-
portion to its merits, great changes would be made in this one. It
is arranged on the ancient plan. The seats are old and withqut
backs, there are no recitation rooms, the outside garments of the
pupils are hung up in the School-room, in the places that should be
occupied by black boards, and, as the Committee were informed, very
little had been done for the increase of its accommodations for many
years. There is land enough adjoining the building to admit of im-
provements so much wanted, and the attention of the School Com-
mittee is respectfully called to the subject*

The Ventilation is good, otherwise the rooms would be untenantable.

As special mention of the excellence of this School has been made
in the body of the report, in justice to the other Schools, it should be
stated, that the average age of the pupils of the first class at the time of
the examination was fifteen years, which we presume is rather above
that of most others.

* An order has recently been passed in School Committee to remedy these
deficiencies.

SMITH SCHOOL,

BELKNAP STREET.

A. Wellington, Master.

This School was visited May 24th, A. M., by the Chairman, and
Messrs. Cruft and Pickering.

There was but one individual remaining in the School belonging to
the first class. As the spring approaches the children are liable to
be called away to service of various kinds, and the effect on the ap-
pearance of the school is bad. An examination was made of the
most advanced of those present. The reading was very good, not
rhetorical, but with such inflection and emphasis, as to show that the
pupils read understandingly. An examination was made in Arithme-
tic, some of the pupils solving problems on the black-board, and others
explaining the reasons of the process orally. A slight advance had
been made in Natural Philosophy, and the class was well acquainted
with the leading facts and principles of Geography, and especially
they showed a very fair practical knowledge of the geography of the
United States. There had been no progress made in History, and of
course there was no examination.

We consider the condition of this School most hopeful. There was
no attempt at brilliancy and effect, but the attainments of the pupils
were such, as will probably be of service to them in life, practical and
useful, and as far as they had gone they were thoroughly instructed.
Their appearance in reading would have been creditable to any class
in any Grammar School in the city, We think that the peculiar cir-
cumstances in which Mr. Wellington is placed, allow us to speak of
him, without being open to the accusation of making invidious distinc-
tions. And certainly we cannot too highly respect and praise the
motives, which appear to actuate him in his labors. We cannot over-
estimate the effects which (judging from the traditions of former years)
have been produced by his judicious administration.

The school house itself is discreditable to the City, and only sup-
portable because habit has hardened the pupils and instructers to the
endurance of annoyances, which made the Committee rejoice, that the
class was small and the examination short.

* The notice of the Smith School was written immediately after the exami-
nation and while the impressions left by it were still unimpaired A move-
ment has recently been made among our colored population, which indicates a
state of feeling different from that to be expected from the perusal of this notice.
The complaints which have been made respecting the Smith School have been
referred to the Sub-Committee of that School, and subsequently to a special
Committee, and the evidence collected has been laid before the Board. It is
not such as to induce us to alter our opinions or report.

DWIGHT SCHOOL,

CONCORD STREET.

George B. Hyde, Master.

This School was visited, and the first class examined, May 25th,
A. M., by the Chairman and Mr. Cruft.

There were no girls in this school old or far advanced enough to
be in the first class, and the examination was therefore confined to
the boys.

The class was not quite so far advanced in Language, Parsing and
Analysis as the corresponding classes of some other schools, but its
appearance in these branches was very good.

In all the other branches the examination was most satisfactory.
A very thorough knowledge of all had been acquired. The reading
was excellent, and the pupils, so far as the Committee pursued the
examination, could give an intelligent account of the topics mentioned
or referred to in their reading book. The general knowledge of this
class was very remarkable. The master informed the Committee
that the classes had made a free and good use of the books within
their reach, which were owned principally by him and the other
teachers. A school library is much needed here, and we are sure
from what we saw, that in no school would one be more used, or more
highly appreciated.

The examination in History was confined to modern history. The
class had liot studied ancient history enough for examination. The
relations between teachers and pupils are as good as possible, and the
effects were constantly shown in the good appearance of the class.
Several of the teachers give gratuitous instruction in music and
drawing. Many specimens of the latter were shown to the Com-
mittee, and were very creditable to the young artists. The situation
of the school house for the present, is very good, being airy and
open, but this will not probably be of long continuance. There
is no place out of the school rooms for the reception of cloaks, bonnets,
shawls, etc. This evil might easily be remedied, and ought to be,
forthwith.

MATHER SCHOOL,

SOUTH BOSTON.

Josiah A. Stearns, Grammar Master.
Jonathan Battles, jr., Writing Master.

This School was visited May 25, P. M., and the first class exam-
ined by the Chairman and Mr. Cruft.

The Reading, with some few exceptions, was fair, but the examin-
ation on the whole, was not a very satisfactory one, and the pupils did not
appear to be far advanced in their studies or very thorough in them.
The girls, we believe, hardly did themselves justice. They appear-
ed timid and diffident, and not very ready to volunteer their answers.

JOHNSON SCHOOL,

TREMONT STREET.

Joseph Hale, Master of the Southern Department.
Richard G. Parker, Master of the Northern Department.

This School was visited, and the first class examined, May 26th,
A. M.,by the Chairman and Mr. Cruft. It was not very much ad-
vanced, nor did there appear any great degree of energy or interest
on the part of the pupils. There was no examination in History, as
there had been a difficulty in procuring the new text-book. The
Northern department was more advanced and more thorough, than the
Southern, though it did not appear equal to some of the other Schools
for girls. There appeared a backwardness in answering, such as has
been remarked upon in some of the other Schools. That this did not
arise from ignorance, was shown from the fact that pupils who had made
no effort to answer when the whole class was addressed, would, when
singled out and urged, give answers which showed a very fair ac-
quaintance with the subject inquired of.

The materials of both Schools appear to be above the average, and
the relation between the masters and pupils, to be very good.

MAYHEW SCHOOL,

HAWKINS STREET.

William D. Swan, Master.

This School was visited, and the first class examined May 26th,
P. M., by the Chairman and Messrs. Willis and Jenks. It is in a
very good condition in every respect, though the class did not appear
so well as it has at some of the monthly and quarterly examinations.

Great attention is paid in this School to giving the pupils a practi-
cal knowledge of such of the simpler operations of business as they
may be called upon to perform in maturer life, such as learning the
forms of promissory notes, bills of sale, &c.

HAWES SCHOOL,

SOUTH BOSTON.

Frederick Crafts, Master of the Girls' Department,
John A. Harris, Master of the Boys' Department.

This School was visited, and the first class examined May 27th,
by the Chairman and Messrs. Willis and Jenks of the Examining
Committee, and Mr. Bosworth of the Sub- Committee of the School.

In both departments it is in very good condition. The pupils are
not so far advanced as in some other Schools, but there was a gen-
eral air of intelligence throughout, and the Committee were entirely
satisfied with the result of the examination, with perhaps the single
exception of the appearance of the Writing books, which did not
show as good specimens of penmanship as might have been desired.
The boys in this School have had their attention called to exercises
in those practical forms of business which will be useful to them on
leaving School, for their various pursuits in life.

BRIMMER SCHOOL,

COMMON STREET.

Joshua Bates, Grammar Master.
William A. Shepard, Writing Master.

This School was visited, and the first class examined May 29th,
A. M., by the Chairman and Messrs. Wigglesworth and Spence.

The appearance of this School and the relations between the in-
structers and the pupils are as good as can be desired. It is in all
respects in a most satisfactory condition. Map drawing is carried to
great perfection. The writing master has a class in Geometry and
Algebra.

The neatness and good personal appearance of all, even the young-
est children, were very striking. It is one of the best Schools in the
City.

QUINCY SCHOOL.

IN THE BRIMMER SCHOOL HOUSE.

«/. D. Philbrick, Master.

The first class of this School was visited and examined May 29th,
P. M., by the Chairman and Mr. "Wigglesworth.

No part of this School, except the first class, was visited, as the
lower divisions are scattered about in different places. No opinion
can be formed of the merits of the School, from the present examin-
ation. It has been in operation less than a year. The age of the
pupils is probably below the average, and the materials have not yet
had time to be fused together.

BOYLSTON SCHOOL,

WASHINGTON PLACE.

Thomas Baker, Grammar Master.
Charles Kimball, Writing Master.

This School was visited and the first class examined May 30th,
A. M., by the Chr irraan, and Messrs. Willis and Jenks.

The reading and explanations of the allusions were good in the first
division, but the girls were more advanced than the boys. Both were
examined in the same room and on the same lessons, which had been
lately read by the girls, and not by the boys. The Reading of the
second division was also good. That of the third indifferent. The
Spelling in the first division was very good, but not so in the others.
The instruction in Arithmetic was good and thorough, though not
so far advanced as in some other schools.

Only the first division had studied Natural Philosophy, and ap-
peared well acquainted with the subject as taught in the text-book.
The study of History had been confined to the same division, about
twenty-four in number, which had obtained a very good knowledge
of it.

The proficiency of the class in Writing and Book-keeping was
very great. The writing was remarkably beautiful. The appear-
ance of the School was satisfactory. There are no recitation rooms
suitable for the exigencies of the school.

FRANKLIN SCHOOL.

WASHINGTON STREET.

Barnum Field, Grammar Master.
Nathan Merrill, Writing Master.

This School was visited and the first class examined, May 30th,
P. M., by the Chairman, and Messrs. Jenks and Willis.

The first class read very well and gave ready and intelligent aa-
swers to the questions put to them as to the meaning of the allusions,
etc. in their reading lessons. The Spelling was not very good. The
class had very good knowledge of Grammar and Language, and was

well instructed in History, in which the examination was very
minute.

The most advanced part of the class had gone in Arithmetic, nearly
through Emerson's Third Part, with the omission of some rules.

The class was well acquainted with Natural Philosophy, and there
was also an examination in Natural History, a volunteer study, in
which the pupils appeared very well.

The Writing was very good, equal to any except that in the Boyl-
ston School.

Since the examination, Mr. Merrill, the Writing Master, lias sent
in his resignation on account of continued ill health. He retires
from a station in which he has labored faithfully and well, and carries
with him the respect and esteem of all with whom he has been con-
nected in his office.

ADAMS SCHOOL,

MASON STREET.

Samuel Barrett, Grammar Master.
Samuel W. Bates, Writing Master.

This School was visited and the first class examined by the Chair-
man, and Messrs. Willis and Jenks, on 31st May, A. M.

The Reading of the first division was good, that of the remainder of
the class careless. The understanding of what was read was good.

The Parsing was neither bad nor very good.

The knowledge of Arithmetic as far as it went was thorough. The
instruction appeared to have been very competent and faithful.
There was just enough of imperfection to show that the examination
was a fair one.

In History the class was not far advanced, but was thoroughly in-
structed. Thoroughness is rather the characteristic of the instruction
than great advancement.

The writing was not equal to the best, but very respectable.

In Geography the class appeared very well, and also in Natural
Philosophy.

The lower and younger division was not so perfect as the higher.
Several specimens of very good map drawing were exhibited.

ELIOT SCHOOL,

NORTH BENNETT STREET.

William 0. Ayers, Grammar Master.
Levi Conant, Writing Master.

This School was visited and the first class examined, by the Chair-
man, and Messrs. Willis and Jenks, on the 1st of June, A. M.

The Reading of the first division was good, that of the rest in-
different. The Spelling was poor, below the average. Not one
pupil was entirely without error in spelling eleven words.

The grammar was not more than passable in the first division, and
in the others very poor.

The progress in History was very limited : the first division had
studied American History and English History to the reign of
Charles 1st, and the second, American History down to the Revolu-
tion, and was very imperfect. There had been the same trouble
as elsewhere about obtaining Mr. Parker's book.

The Geography was limited in extent and very imperfect. Some
boys were very bright and prompt, but these were exceptions.

The class was not far advanced in Arithmetic, but the instruction
was thorough. In Natural Philosophy the examination was very
satisfactory. The proficiency in the Writing was greater than in
the Grammar Department.

The relations between the pupils and teacher in the Grammar De-
partment of the School, did not appear to be good, and it was not in a
satisfactory state of progress. We are informed by the Sub- Commit-
tee, however, that the department is in a far better state than it was
when Mr. Ayers came into it, and we do not therefore ascribe its con-
dition to any fault on his part.

65
OTIS SCHOOL,

LANCASTER STREET.

Isaac F. Shepard, Grammar Master.
Benjamin Drew, Writing Master.

This School was visited, and the first class examined, June 1st,
P. M., by the Chairman and Messrs. "Willis and Jenks.

It was in very good condition. The Reading was very good, also
the understanding of what was read. The Spelling on slates was
pretty good, but not the best. The Parsing and Grammar very ex-
cellent, as good as any we have heard. The History was not good,
there having been the usual difficulty about books. The Geography
was very good and far advanced ; some questions in Mathematical
Geography were answered that were not answered in any other
School where they were asked. The Writing was good, but not the
best. That of the Girls was better than that of the Boys.

In Arithmetic the class had not advanced beyond cube root, but
was thoroughly instructed. In Natural Philosophy, the class showed
a tolerable knowledge of definitions from the book, but nothing more.

A great improvement must have taken place in this School on its
condition, as described in preceding reports.

BOWDOIN SCHOOL,

MYRTLE STREET.

Abraham Andrews, Grammar Master.
James Robinson, Writing Master.

This School was visited, and the first class examined, June 2d,
P. M., by the Chairman and Messrs. Willis, Wigglesworth, and Reed.

The Reading and understanding of what was read, was very good.
The Spelling about as good as the average. The Parsing and Gram-
mar were very good, and also the Geography, in which great pro-
gress had been made.

In History, the first division was very thorough, and the whole class
appeared well. In Arithmetic and Natural Philosophy, the class
appeared very well.

The School is in a vex*v satisfactory condition.

Semi-annual Return of the number of Pupils and of the
average attendance in the several Grammar and Writ-
ing Schools of the City of Boston, August 1st, 1 848.

Names.

Boys.

Girls.

Total.

Average Attendance.

Adams, - -

371

. .

371

288^ 1

Boylston, - -

284

226

510

432f

Bowdoin, - -

. .

474

3531

Brimmer, - -

420

. .

420

360"

Dwight, - -

265

135

400

364

Eliot, - - -

450

. .

450

384^

Endicott, - -
Franklin, - -

204

206
412

410
412

£^,190 |372
Boys, 182 j
3371

Hancock, - -

, .

483

362

Hawes, - -

233

281

514

434f

Johnson, N., -

. .

276)
217]

. .

165 }360

Johnson, S., -

. .

493

Lyman, - -
Mather, - -

312

244

381
242

693
486

549

448

Mayhew, - -
Otis, - - -

407
188

187

407
375

326i
314}

Phillips, - -
Quincy, - -
Smith, - - -

372

404

'55

372
404
124

325±

354"

Wells, - - -

. .

375

2971

Winthrop, N.,
Winthrop, S.,

173)
178 j

351

148"
167

Total, - - -

4,223

4,301

8,524 j

7,045£

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Full text of "The report of the annual examination of the public schools of the city of Boston"

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