,w. S:l^>- ^j^- ■■^■2l^::- 3#*<.-; c^-^ L .3 ■f LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THE TAXPAYER ANt> AN" ADDRESS DELIVERED ,TULY 2, 1891, BEFORE THE STATE teachers' ASSOCIATIOJSr OF NEW JERSEY BY Editor of flie School Bulletin. SYRACUSE, ]sr. Y.: C. .W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER. 1891. -THE SCHOOL BULLETIN PUBLICATIONS.- School Issues of the Day. 1. Denominational Schools. Discussion at the National Association, 1889, by Cardinal Gibbons, Bishop Keane, Edwin D. Meade, and John Jay. Pp. 71. 25cts. 3. The Educational Valve of Manual Training, by Wjt. T. Harris, LL.D., Commissioner of Education. Pp. 14. 15 ets. S. Art Education the True Industrial Education, by Wm. T. Harris, LL.D. Pp. 9. 15 cts. h. Methods of Intrudion.and Courses of Study in Normal Schools, by Thom- as J. Gray, LL.D., President Colorado State Normal School. Pp. 19. 15 cts. 5. Pedagogical Chairs in Colleges and Universities, by B. A. Hinsdale, Ph.D., Professor of Peda^o^y in the University of Michigan. Pp. 11. 15 cts. 6. Opportunities of the Eural Poor for Higher Education, hj Proi. James H, Canfibld, University of Kansas. Pp. 24. 15 cts. 7. Honorary Degrees as Conferred in American Colleges, by Prof. Chas. Foster Smith, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University. Pp. 9. 15 cts. S. The Present Status of the Township System, by C. W. Bardeen, Editor of the School Bulletin. Witli an appendix containing tlie Compulsory Law as introduced into the New York Legislature of 1890. Pp. 00. 40 cts. 9. Effect of the College- Preparatorij High School xipon Attendance and Scholarship in the Lower Grades, by C. W. Bardeen, Pp. 5. 15 cts. 10. " Organization " and " System " vs. Originality and Individuality in the Teacher, by Henry Sabin, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Iowa, with opening of the discussion by C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 9. 15 cts. 11. Examinations as Tests for Promotion, by Wm. H. Maxwell, Ph.D., Superintendent of Schools, Brooklyn, N. Y. Pp. 11. 15 cts. 12. Compulsory Laws and their Enforcement, by Oscar R. Cooper, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Texas. Pp. 6. 15 cts. 13. University and Sclvool Extension, by Wm. T. Harris, LL.D. Pp. 12. 15 cts. Ik. The General Government and Public Education tlvroughout the Country, by Wm. T. Harris, LL.D. Pp. 8. 15 cts. 15. Report on. Pedagogical and Psychological Observation, by Wm. T. Hak- Kis, LL.D. Pp. G. 15 cts. |^°" The 15 Numbers will be sent to any address on receipt of $1.50, or bound in half leather for $2.00. Nos. 1 \;o 7 were I'ead at the meeting of the National Association in 1889, and Nos. 9 to 15 at the meeting of the National Association in 1890. No. 8 was read at the meeting of School Commissioners and Superintendents in New York City, 1888. C. W. BARDEEN, Publislier, Syracuse, N. Y, THE TAXPAYER AND AIS" ADDEESS DELIVEEED JULY 2, 1891, BEFOEE THE STATE TEACHEES' ASSOCIATION OF KEW JEESEY BY ^ IV-' N'. •^ ./ u Editor of the School Bulletin. /^ SYEACUSE, ]S'. Y. : C. W. BAEDEEN, PUBLISHEE. 1891. r)t BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Some Facts about our Public Schools. A Plea for the Township System. An address be- fore the New York State Association of School Commissioners and City Superintendents, Feb. 20, 1878. 8vo, pp. 32, 25 cents. The Present Status of the Township System. An Address before the New York State Teachers' Association, July 10, 1878. {Not printed.) The Present Status of the Township System. An Address before the New York State Association of School Commissioners and City Superintendents, Jan. 9, 1889. With an ap- pendix containing the bill introduced in the Legislature of 1890. 8vo, pp. 60, 40 cents. Effect of the College Preparatory High School upon Attendance and Scholarship in the Lower Grades. An Address before the Department of Secondary Education of the National Edu- cational Association, July 9, 1890. 8vo, pp. 5, 15 cents. Educational Journalism. An Address before the New York State Teachers' Associa- tion, July 6, 1881. 8yo, pp. 30. {Now out of print.) Teaching as a Business for Men. An Address before the National Educational Associa- tion, July 17, 1885. 8vo, pp. 20, 25 cents. The Teach£r''s Commercial Value. An Address before the New York State Teachers' Association, July 9, 1885. 8vo, pp. 20, 25 cents. Th£ Ideal Teachsr. An Address before the New York State Teachers' Association, July 8, 1891. 8vo, pp. 24, 25 cents. " Organization " and " System " vs. Originality in the Teacher. An Address before the National Educational Association, July, 11, 1890, by Henbt Sabin, State Superintendent of Iowa, with opening of the Discussion by C. W. Baedeen. 8vo, pp. 9, 15 cents. s t^ THE TAXPAYER AND THE TOWNSHIP SYSTEM. The first condition of progress is the recognition of settled issues. In wise minds debate precedes decision but never follows it. I have read of an old man who replied to a younger friend whous attacked one of his beliefs : '' Sir, my mind is weakened ; I am no longer able to argue with you. But when my powers were as vig- orous as yours are I studied this question carefully, and I reached a conclusion which experience has made a .conviction. I have no skill to defend it, but I have faith to trust it; I forget the solution, but I am sure the answer is correct." Life results in little to those who have not something of this spirit. The algebra of human thought must have some known quantities. The man who can never clear either side of his equation from x's will never advance. Education abounds in problems. Its nature, its applications, its methods are matters of question in every detail. No two of you would give the same definition of education, unless you had committed some one else^s to memory for use in an examination ; and as an assembly you would be divided and subdivided if it were asked whether mental arithmetic should form a special recita- tion, whether spelling should be taught orally, whether there should be a recess, whether the building should have as many class- rooms as teachers, or department and recitation-rooms. And yet well-read teachers know that some questions are settled. It is settled that reading should not be taught by the a, b, c method ; that light should come from the left and rear ; that drawing and form-study are an integral part of the common-school curriculum. If a man wants to argue on these topics, you refer him to discus- sions where his points were made a good deal stronger than he is making them, and finally answered. During the war, a Boston merchant was discussing with another some detail of the President's policy. Finding that they were reasoning from different premises, one said to the other, " Why, you are assuming that slavery is wrong ! " The other stopped short, looked at his companion in disgust, and said as he turned away, ''My friend, I am willing to contribute liberally for the general education of the masses, but I can't spend time to instruct an individual fool." If preponderance of opinion among those who are qualified to judge is the criterion, no educational question is more positively settled than the superiority of the township system. In the report of the New York Department of Public Instruction for 1889 may be found all the extracts from State reports referring to the township system, that a careful search had been able to gather. There are 152 of them, and every one, every one, is in its favor. There are also given in detail the 350 replies to 700 circu- lars sent out to the leading educational men of the country. These replies come from 37 State Superintendents, 40 Normal Principals, 118 City Superintendents, 66 High School Principals, and 83 County Superintendents. Omitting the village-school principals and school-commissioners of New York, and the county superintendents of Pennsylvania, as likely to have rather local than broadly representative opinions, adding the unclassified names of Henry Barnard, Wm. T. Harris, W. A. Bell, Geo. P. Brown, Wm. A. Mowry, Wm. E. Sheldon, ' Zalmon Richards, and John E. Park, and omitting answers where doubt is expressed, the verdict of 185 of the most prominent educators of the country is as follows : May it, in your opinion, be considered a principle fairly estab- lished by argument and experiment, that the township is preferable to the district system of schools ? Yes, by 156 to 5. Do you think the following advantages are justly claimed by the township system : {a) Equal school privileges ? Yes, by 150 to 5. {h) Equal taxation ? Yes, by 145 to 3. (c) Impartial selection of teachers ? Yes, by 144 to 9. {d) Higher education extended ? Yes, by 143 to 7. {e) Increased interest in and respect for schools ? Yes, by 140 to 5. (/) Economy of more wholesale and intelligent expenditure ? Yes, by 143 to 4. There is no going behind these returns ; indeed, when the replies are examined in detail the vote becomes even stronger, for as a rule the more prominent the man the more emphatic is his testimony for the township system, while the objections are almost without exception directed against unessential features of certain particular systems, as those of Pennsylvania or Indiana. The vote is on the whole stronger than if it were unanimous, for the few exceptions prove that it is a thoughtful expression of opinion. And it is the verdict of experience ; for 92 out of 163 had served as teachers or school-ofiQcers under both systems. It may be asked tlien why if educational men are agreed that the township system is desirable it is not already made universal ; why does not the practice of these educational leaders correspond with their theory ? To this it may be replied in the first place that the township system is constantly extending. To Pennsylvania and Indiana, which used to represent it, have been added Massachusetts, New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Alabama under compulsory laws, and Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut, as well as New Jersey, under permissive laws, with a constant increase in the number of towns adopting this system. Of the Dakotas the last Report of the Commissioner, of Education quotes from the State Superintendent as follows : '' Seventy-six counties of the Territory have the township sys- tem, and fifteen the district system. The two plans have been in direct contrast, and with the exception of the fact that the district brings the people into close relations with the schools, all the arguments are in favor of the township district. * * * It is very desirable that the Legislature place those fifteen counties under the township plan like the other seventy-six counties." In most other States constant effort is making in this direction. Michigan, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota are keeping the question before the people. The leaders of New York are thoroughly com- mitted to it by repeated vote of the association of school-officers, and by the active effort of the Department of Public Instruction. During the past year it has been quite a feature of the county- institute work to call together the trustees and discuss the ques- tion. In every instance, so far as I know, these men have come with prejudices based on ignorance of the system, and have gone away ready to vote for it. In short it is with us a campaign of education ; and when the rural voters of New York have learned what the township system is and what it will do for them we shall have it. But like all reforms it takes time to accumulate momentum enough to overcome inertia. The commonest objection is that the system is of little conse- quence anyway — it is the teacher that makes the school : an argu- ment often epitomized in President Garfield's statement that a bench in a log-cabin, with him on one end and Mark Hopkins on the other was as good a college as he cared for. This is plausible : in public gatherings it is usually applausible and applauded : and yet it will hardly bear analysis. 6 In the first place, though. Mark Hopkins sitting on one end of a bench could do much for a man, he could do more for him with the organization of a great institution — its buildings, faculty, library, and associations that in time make the very spirit of the place an education in itself. In the second place, though a bench with Mark Hopkins on one end and Jimmy Garfield on the other would be a good enough college for Jimmy Garfield, it wouldn^t be a good enough college for Mark Hopkins. What was there in the canal-boy to warrant a man like Mark Hopkins in sitting on a bench four years simply to talk to him ? You know the famous French picture of " The Education of a Prince." The youngster still in petticoats is rolling down soldiers with a tiny wooden ball, while lords and ladies look on as much interested in his strokes as though the fate of empires hung in the balance. But that won^t do here, where all our children are born princes ; there wouldn't be grandees enough to go around. So our babies have to set up their own nine-pins, and our Jimmy Gar- fields must take their chances with the crowd. And finally, if there had been only a log-cabin at Williamstown, Mark Hopkins would never have been there at all ; he would have been practising medicine in Springfield. It takes a great institu- tion to secure the services of a great man ; and the more perfect our system of public schools, the better teachers it will command. There are men who love the work so well that they would sacrifice the money and position and social advantages that other callings offer if only they could be sure of the necessary opportunities to do their best in the school-room ; but who are every year leaving the profession because of the ignorance, the indifference, and often the insolence of local trustees, elected at hazard because the inter- ests of a single school-district are considered too small to be worth the trouble of careful selection. It is an insignificant office, to be passed around among those who want it, if there are such, or if nobody wants it to be forced upon those least capable of making resistance. But what are the duties of a Kew Jersey board of school-trustees ? Mainly (1) to be the executive officers of the district, (2) to make rules and regulations, (3) to prescribe the course of study, (4) to suspend or expel pupils, (5) to employ teachers. (1) To he the executive officers of the district. They are to call special meetings whenever they deem it proper ; to purchase, build, repair, enlarge, furnish, insure, lease, mortgage or sell school-property^ with power to permit its use for other than school purposes ; to purchase personal property, and to receive, lease, and hold in fee, in trust for their district, any and all real or personal property for the benefit of their schools ; to provide books for indigent children ; and to make an annual report. All this requires exact, far-sighted business-men. Have you three such men in each of the fourteen hundred districts of the State who will give their time and attention to the distribution of the small sums involved — in more than a hundred districts 1275 or less ? Some years ago I was talking with President Milne of the Albany Normal College when the State Superintendent approached and asked if he should interrupt a private conversation. '^Not in the least," said Dr. Milne; ''we were just argreeing that of every dollar that New York spends for public education, seventy-five cents is wasted.^' ''And why ?" he asked. "Because we have not learned to conduct our educational affairs upon a business basis." "Precisely what I said before the National Association," replied the Superintendent. "When I have hired a man to chop wood and he comes for his pay, I ask him to show me the pile of wood. But when the teacher calls for his month^s salary, and is asked whether he has put his scholars a month ahead in scholarship, mental growth, and general culture, all he can say is that he holds a certificate and has spent six hours a day in the school-room." How many of our present trustees are cajoable of finding out and will take the trouble to find out whether their teachers are putting their pupils a month ahead in scholarship, mental growth, and general culture ? But not only is money expended for useless teaching, — the ma- terial property of the district is grossly wasted. How many school- houses are to-day unfit for occupancy, useless for the purpose designed, and hence a waste of the money of the district, only because they were not properly built, or have not been kept in repair because no competent person has made it his business to look after them. In the furniture and apparatus of the school-room this wasteful- ness is appalling. Teachers frequently complain because the dis- trict will not purchase the needed globe and maps and dictionary, and attribute the refusal to penuriousness. Seldom, I believe, is this the real cause. There are few districts in this State which have not, under the inspiration of an energetic and successful teaclier^ provided liberally for school-room apparatus. While the energetic and successful teacher remained, the apparatus was in daily use and under excellent care. But this teacher was soon succeeded, under your system of hiring, by another who knew little of such appliances and cared nothing for them. No system of supervision held this teacher responsible for the apparatus, and he let it lie neglected, to be used only as playthings for mischievous boys. The district contributed freely to purchase it ; but when they saw how it was used, they felt themselves imposed upon, and resolved never again to be deluded into purchasing more than the barest necessities. Nay, the purchasing itself is often absurd and wasteful. The country trustee is the recognized prey of unscrupulous agents. He is deluded into buying, often led to believe that the law compels him to buy, charts and maps and apparatus either needless or at extravagant prices. This is a double calamity to the district, for it wastes their money at the time, and by reaction prevents subse- quent needed purchases. A burnt child dreads the fire. All this may be remedied simply by making the township the unit, instead of the district. Then you have a larger area to choose your trustees from, the interests become important enough to command the attention of the best men, and there is the general economy of wholesale purchase and care-taking. (2) To make rules and regulations. You all know how dijBBcult this is, and how much depends upon it. To be sure the trustees usually neglect it, leaving it to the teacher ; but the inexperienced teacher often needs the support of a wise system, and the capable teacher is often hampered by rules imposed upon him by those who know nothing of the needs of the school. (3) To prescribe the course of study. This duty is often neg- lected, but who would leave the classification of pupils, the methods of teaching, the very selection of subjects in which instruction shall be given, to the capricious will of inexperienced and con- stantly shifting teachers ? But are you likely to find in every district in the State three trustees capable of fixing a course of study, and willing to devote to it the labor required ? (4) To suspend or expel pupils. In a State where corporal punishment is forbidden this is the one final resort, the only basis of authority. But it is the most momentous question that ever arises in school government. On the one hand the boy's future may hang in the balance ; and even if the greatest good of the greatest number seems to require his expulsion, if he be a boy of 9 influence among his fellows it is to be considered whether he will not harm the school more on the outside than as a pupil. On the other hand, the teacher is wholly at the mercy of the trustee as to the sustaining of his authority. There is no effective law without a penalty, and here the final penalty of the school-law instead of being fixed is subject to the caprice of the trustees. To exercise this judicial function properly requires broad intelligence, and care- ful consideration of every case presented. Are you sure of these in the men elected trustees throughout the State ? (5) To employ teacJiers. Here is the fundamental question of success in school : as is the teacher, so is the school. But you, who have most of you had experience, know how difficult it is to predict who will be successful teachers. You know how little is implied in the grade of a certificate, and of what slight value are recommendations. Can three men be found in every district in this State capable to judge what kind of a teacher their school needs, and whether the applicant is that kind of a teacher ? capable to judge of his literary, moral, and social qualifications ? large- minded enough to judge him by what he is, and not by how little he will teach for ? These questions are self -answering. Men cannot be found in all these 1,400 districts capable of exercising these functions ; and if the right men were there they would hesitate to give their time to the care of so small a school. The three parties most interested in this question are the tax- payer, the teacher and the pupil. Let us consider how each in turn would be benefited by the township system. I. THE TAX PAYEE. It is the fundamental principle on which economy of expendi- ture depends, that you must get what you pay for. If you build a house and the plumber's bill swells to four times the architect's estimate you feel like grumbling, but eventually you accustom yourself to it and if the plumbing proves a good job you grow to be rather proud of it. But if the next week after you pay the bill a faucet leaks in the bath-tub, followed by the freezing of the waste- pipe, the bursting of a water-back, the failure of a closet, and the final verdict of an expert that the enitre system is radically imper- fect and unsound, then it makes no difference whether you paid much or little — you have been cheated. Now I find in your last State report that Superintendent Gwynne's examinations show him that in some districts of Salem county no educational progress whatever has been made. He doesn't say 10 which districts, and we can't tell whether one of them is Harrison- ville, which pays a male teacher five dollars a week, and has 31 out of its 78 children of school age in average enrollment. But if Harrisonville is one of them, then that five dollars a week is worse than thrown away. It might be extravagant for that district to pay a teacher a hundred dollars a month, but if he gave them a school that was a school, it would be less extravagant than to pay five dollars a week for a school that was not a school. So the first question for taxpayers is not how much their school costs, but how much of a school it is. If it does not perform the functions of a school; if the children attend irregularly and get no profit when they are there, then at any price it is a shock- ingly bad investment for the district. ISTay, it may be worse than a useless expenditure. Ignorant trustees have now and then built school-houses in unhealthful localities, or without proper sanitary arrangements, where every day's attendance has sown the seeds of debility and death. Careless trustees have hired teachers who were a moral pestilence. In a discussion before the State Association of Michigan in 1888, Prof. Hinsdale pointed out that the purely democratic system of government had developed into the representative system in all its functions except two : maintaining schools and repairing roads. He concludes : " The district system of conducting common schools rests upon an idea, and proceeds by means of an organization, that has not been preserved by English-speaking people for any other purpose, save for the one to which I have just made reference — the roads. And it would be hard to say which are the worse managed — the schools or the roads." So taxpayers should welcome any system which will ensure them the worth of their money. This the township system will tend to secure by greater economy of business management, better care of school property, and more discriminating selection of teachers. Since there are no district lines to limit the attendance fewer school-houses will be needed, and these will be built more intelli- gently, more healthfully, and more economically. The text-book question will be simplified, since the books will necessarily be uniform for the town and are likely to be for the county ; and may be purchased by the town-board either for free use or for sale at cost. In like manner libraries, books of reference, apparatus, maps, charts, globes and the like, may be purchased for the entire town, and each district profit by the common expenditure. The expenses of administration will be less, taxes will be collected more 11 certainly and with less cost, wealthy men can no longer evade their just share of taxation by securing alteration of a fictitious district boundary, law-suits will be rarer, and in general there will be comparative protection from inexperienced and incompetent management. The same money will go farther ; taxpayers will be surer of getting what they pay for. Fortunately this argument is no longer merely theoretical ; it is supported by facts, where both systems have been tried together. In the 52d State Report of Michigan, Superintendent Estabrook " The reports from Alpena county furnish some significant facts bearing upon the equalization of school privileges and the cost of maintaining schools under the township plan. In this county five townships have their schools organized on the township plan by special legislation. Two retain the district system. The aver- age per capita expense of the schools in the township districts for the last school year, as shown by the reports of township boards of school inspectors was 113.71, and in those retaining the district system it was $14.80. The average length of school in the town- ship districts was 9 months ; in the others, 4^ months. In other words it cost 114. 80 to give each child 4|- months' schooling in the towns retaining the district system, while in those operated under the township plan the cost per pupil for 9 months' schooling was $13.71.'' But the township system will do more than make better bargains : it will remedy a great deal of manifest injustice. The principle that to him who hath shall be given has never been better illus- trated than in our present educational expenditure. The current of American life is toward the cities ; every year the villages grow larger, the rural districts lose population. Hence it is constantly easier for the villages and harder for the rural districts to maintain good schools. You can select two districts in New Jersey where a tax of a half of one per cent will provide a better school in the one than a tax of five per cent will in the other. Your State is in advance of most others in making the minimum appropriation of State money to each district $275, and to this extent you equalize these disparities. But still it is absolutely impossible for many rural districts to raise by tax an additional sum sufficient to main- tain a good school. I find there are a hundred districts in your State which do not raise any tax additional to this $275, and one entire town, Paha- quarry in Warren county, where not a single district even spent so much as the $275 it received from the State. 12 In this town the two men teachers were paid an average of not qviite $7.00 a week, and the woman teacher $7.50. Of the 78 children enrolled, 4 attended eight months, 9 six months, 19 four months, 46 less than four months, and the average number enrolled was 38. How can our schools be called public schools when a child born in Pahaquarry is at such a disadvantage as compared with a child born in Asbury Park ? Fundamentally, the whole matter rests upon a simple principle, that every child of the State has an equal right to the education provided by the State. If we tax for public education at all, we must not offer one kind of education to the city child, and an inferior kind to the country child. The boy born on a bleak hill- side farm is entitled to equal opportunities with the millionaire's son in the city. You must not fill up your high-school faculties with Ph. D.'s, and leave your back districts to the teaching of half- fledged amateurs. '*But," interposes an objector, with a wise smile, '^if your principle is sound, why not carry it further ? You say education must be open to all on equal terms. Now, however good schools you provide, not all children can live equally near to them. "Why not send around a carriage every morning, to bring to school those who would have too far to walk ? " He is quite right ; the principle leads logically to this conclusion. But instead of being as he supposes a reducUo ad ahsurdum, it is a sensible and practicable proposal, already widely adopted in Massa- chusetts, and emphatically insisted upon by Dr. Harris, Commis- sioner of Education, as the most economical as well as the most equitable plan for sparsely settled districts. *' But this involves large outlay on the part of cities and villages for the benefit of their poorer neighbors." No doubt ; so does the State tax, which in our neighboring Pennsylvania has just been increased from two millions to five. An enormous amount of that five millions will be paid out by Philadelphia for the benefit of the back country districts. But Philadelphia can afford it. What makes her a great city but her great men ? And where do those great men come from but from these back country distrticts ? Stop the inflow to that city of the health and energy and intelli- gence of country boys, and grass will grow on Chestnut street. The trouble has been in all our great cities that these boys have brought more of health and energy and native intelligence than they have of thorough education. They have been keen, but they have been narrow ; they have brought force, but they have lacked 13 refinement ; often they have brought more shrewdness than prin- ciple, more regard for the end than for the means. Power com- mands respect ; we cannot dispense with the self-made man even if he does worship his creator. But well could our cities and vil- lages afford to pay for a public education so thorough, so compre- hensive, and so universal that it should be sure to make sound and symmetrical the characters of these exceptional boys and girls who are bound to make their mark, and eventually to become control- lers of public affairs. And this suggest the question of compulsory education. In principle the right of the State to tax for public schools does not depend on the desire of the taxpayers to have their children well- educated, but upon the necessity to the State of self-protection from ignorance and vice. But without a compulsory system the very children most likely to be dangerous to the State may get none of the education the State pays for, and the fundamental purpose of the law fail of accomplishment. Now no compulsory law could be devised that would work effectively in the present school-districts of New Jersey. A prime essential to its success would be the adoption of the township system. As regards the taxpayer, then, the case seems simple. He is paying and he must continue to pay a great deal of money for public schools. If he wants to be sure to get the most for that money, he must vote for the township system. II. THE TEACHEE. In looking over the last report of your State Board of Educa- tion I find Superintendent Morse complaining because trustees lack discernment in hiring teachers ; Sup't Wilbur reporting a district where the teacher was discharged on the principle of Methodist itineracy merely because she had been there two years ; while Sup't Lockwood reports several districts where one year in a place is considered quite enough for a teacher. Surely this is not likely to secure the best teachers, or to inspire to their best efforts such teachers as are secured. The two great requisites to a profession of teaching are discrimi- nation in hiring, and permanency of appointment. Both of these are promoted by the township system. Instead of a multitude of ignorant or indifferent trustees, unacquainted with other schools than their own, and hiring a teacher as they would stick an old hat into a broken window-pane, merely to stop a chink, choosing him instead of some other because he happens to chime in best with their whims or to be a cousin of a deceased wife's uncle, there 14 would be a town-board of considerable permanence, accustomed to compare the work of the teachers in the various schools, and com- petent to dismiss or promote according to the work really done. The schools, instead of being, as Prof. Barr says, a rope of sand, would have organic connection, and form part of a system in which each would get help from all the rest. A common course of study and common examinations would provide for just comparison of the work done by the different teachers, leading to healthful emu- lation and to the deserved reward of superiority. Hence the wages of efficient teachers would rise, while the inefficient would be gradually dropped from the ranks. In short the tendency of the township system would be toward the development of a profession of teaching, where unprepared novices would have no foothold, and experts would command the respect and the salary their ability deserves. County superintendents would be gainers in every way. They would escape the frittering away of their time upon district boundaries and other petty details, would have fewer and more intelligent school-officers to deal with, could secure the statistics needed for accurate reports, could make the school law better understood and enforced, could introduce considerable grading into the county schools, and give much more time to visitation. The office would gain both in dignity and in efficiency. III. THE PUPIL. Finally the pupil would for the first time enjoy in fact what he has always enjoyed in theory, — an equal right to a thorough edu- cation with every other pupil in the State. The rural schools would have practically the advantages of village schools, a town- ship high-school would bring secondary education within the reach of every farmer's boy, and no imaginary district-boundary would send a child a mile away to school when there was a good school near home. "But why do all of these advantages happen to depend on the township system ?" some one asks: " what is there in the town- ship that happens to make it just the right size for a unit of school management ?" As a Yankee, let me reply by another question : " Why are the rails of the Pennsylvania road four feet eight and one-half inches apart ?" Originally the distance might have been four feet six or four feet ten, and it would have made little difference. But four feet eight and a half inches happened to be the size that Eobert Stevenson first employed so that his cars would hold just so many 15 tons of coal ; and that size is now so universally in use and with such general satisfaction that roads which have varied from it have had to lay their rails over. So with us the township is an established unit in such general use and with such fixed boundaries that it is not likely to be dis- turbed. Experience proves that the county is too large a unit, the district is too small, but the township is just about large enough to ensure economical and intelligent administration, without los- ing local pride and interest. New Jersey has adapted all her rail- roads to the standard gauge, and it is time for her to fall into line with her sister-States in the adoption of the standard school-unit as provided by the Township System. -THE SCHOOL BJILLETiy PUBLICATIONS.- Biographies of Noted Educators. 1. Pestalozzi : his Aim and Work. By Baron De Gumps. Translated by Margaret Cuthbertson Crombie. Cloth, 12mo, pp. 3.36, $1-50. " A teacher knowing nothing of Pestalozzi would be like the lawyer that has never hoard of Blackstone. "SVe commend this book strongly as specially adapted to younger students of pedagogy." — Ohio EdH Monthly, June, 1889. " To those who seek to know how one of the world's greatest reformers planned and executed his work, how this and that grand principle was wrought out, how truth was dissociated from error, this volume will be a delightful treasure. And there are many such who are not content to know the name and nothing more, but seek to understand the man and the motive. To such this book is indispensable." — Educational Courant, July, 1889. S. Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel. Translated and annotated by Emtt.te Michaelis and H. Keatlet Moore. Cloth, 12mo, pp. 183, $1.50. " fle vsrites so simply and confidentially that no one can fail to under- stand everything in this new translation. It would be of great benefit to American youth for fathers and mothers to read this book for themselves, instead of leaving it entirely to professional teachers."— ^'eio York Herald. Aug. 4, 1889. 5. A Memoir of Roger Ascham, by Samuel John-son, LL.D. ; and Selec- tions from the Life of Thomas Arnold, by Dean Staxlet. Edited, with Introductions and Xotes by James S. Caeusle. Cloth, ICmo, pp. 252, $1-00. Besides the biography of Ascham in fuU this volume contains selections from " The Scholemaster," with fac-simile of the ancient title-page. From Stanley's " Life of Arnold " those chapters have been taken which refer to his work as a teacher, and are published without change. Thus the book gives in small compass and at a low price all that is most important in the lives of these two great teachers. A. John Amos Comenius, Bishop of the Moravians ; his Life and Educa- tional WorJcs. Cloth, 12mo, pp. 223, Sl-00. Our recent republication of his famous OrMs Pictus has added interest to the life of the famous reformer. 5. Essays on Edncational Peformers. By R. H. Quick. Cloth, 16mo, pp.331, S1.50. Much the best edition of this famous work, which its vivacious style makes the most interesting of educational histories. 6. Pedagogical Biography. A series of reprints from Quick's " Educa- tional r.efornier.?," giving the most important sketches separately, in pam- phlet form, at a uniform price of 15 cts. each. There are 7 numbers, as follows: I. The Jesuits, Ascham, Montaigne, Eatich, iMUton. II. John Amos Comenius. HI. John Locke. IV. Jean Jacques Kousseau. V. John Bernhard Basedow. VI. Joseph Jacotot. VII. John Henry Pestalozzi. C. V/. DARDEEN^, Publisher, Syracuse, N. Y. School Bulletin Teachers' Agency. ZSIoT ONE desirable place in fifty is filled now-a-days except directly or inairectly through the medium of a Teachers' Agency. Nearly all teachers holding responsible positions are themselves enrolled in some Agency and give to this Agency immediate information of prospective changes. Hence an outside teacher has no chance to learn of vacancies. Before he hears of them they have been filled by candidates notified by the Agency. A pro- gressive teacher could afford the annual fee for enrolment in an Agency for the infonnation alone. He miiSrht not care to use it, but it is worth two dol- lars a year to be sure he has missed no opportunities he would like to know of. The Best Agencies, however, do not depend on information alone. By repeated successes, by fair dealing and through the influence of the teach- ers tlaey have placed, they have won the confidence of many school boards and employing principals. There are hundreds of schools that systematically engage all their teachers through an Agency and will not consider applica- tions from any other source. ,The Fact is, matters do not go so much by chance as they used to in fill- ing vacancies. Time was when nothing was said or thought of changes till the end of the year, but nowadays teachers and school boards both have their eyes wide open. We happen to know as we write that a man now principal of a $1600 school will before the end of the year be appointed teacher in one of the normal schools. We are pretty well satisfied that a man now getting $1400 will have the $1600 place. If he gets it we have our eye on another man now getting $1100 who will be glad of the $1400 place : in every case because these men are especially fitted for these places and desirous of them. All this in January. Now next June some principal who saves his two dollars by not registering in an Agency will read in the morn- ing newspaper that Principal So-and-so has been appointed to such a chair in such a normal school, and will pack his valise, take the train, and hurry off to Principal So-and-so's present place to apply for his position before anyone else gets there. It will surprise him to learn that the vacancy was provided for six months before— if he does find it out. He has saved his two dollars registration fee but he has lost his time, his car-fare, and whatever chance he stood of the place. One year we sent Principal Poland to the Jersey City high school at $2500 ; that left a vacancy at Ilion which we filled by sending Principal Win- ne at $1600 ; that left a vacancy at Canastota which we filled by sending Principal Ottaway at $1200; that left a vacancy at Amsterdam Academy, and so on. Did you ever see people stand in line at the post-office waiting for their mail? As each one is supplied he goes away, giving place to the next, and so there is a continual moving-up ; the man who keeps his place in the line will eventually get to the head. In no profession is there so frequent and so rapid moving-up as in teaching. To get to the top, do your work well where you are and keep registered. Presently you will be the man that fits and will be elected, and if you do fit when you get there the Agency will keep its eye on you for the next fit. Try it. It is Important, however, not only to register, but to register in the Agency most likely to help you. Without reflection upon others it may be said with confidence that the School Bulletin Agency is safe and trustworthy. Aaron Gove, superintendent of schools in Denver, Colo., and late president of the National Teachers' Association, said in the Colorado School Journal for July, 1890: "The ScJwol Bulletin, edited, owned, and conducted by C. W. Bardeen, at Syracuse, N. Y., is an old and reliable school .iournal. Its proprietor is a school man and understands his business He is also at the head of an ed- ucational bureau As at present advised, we are suspicions of bureaus unless we knoiu the man at the head.'" " The man at the head " of the School Bulletin Agency makes personal selection of every teacher recommended. Send for circulars. "C. W. BARDEEN, Proprietor, Syracuse, N. Y. ?%'5~^ _r-«-El«*7^:^ .•-5^.->-"^^ ^ fii^m, .'^^ ^^ :-i/ *^-^'