The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 25, 1895, Page 17

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1895. 17 For ttough a dunce may doubtless be very devort, a cultivated intellect is essential to the deeper and higher exercise of re- ligious thought and feeling. Thisis why intel ectual training is accompanied with keener religious convictions than is the shoy, where the productive principle of division of labor tends to repression of thought and the reduction of man to a machine. The great religious reform of the eighteenth century came from Oxford and not from London. Chere is, then, even among Protestants, a demand for colleges which shall; at least, afford a moderate religious culture in a yositively religious atmosphere. This demand is met in California as well in the other States of our Union, almost together by denominationai schools, and these have much the same characteristics here aseast of the Rocky Mountains. The direct religious training which they offer consists usually in stated religious services and the study of the Bible about once a week in the regular curriculum. By inci- dental effort the necessity of vital faith and personal religious experience is im- pressed. If all the 'Protestant colleges in the State could be united into one institution it might easily become as powerful and attractive as its secular rivals. - The differ- ent sects are becoming tolerant of each other ana even moderately co-operative, as1s shown in the mpvement to give San Francisco a Bible school; but we have yet 1o see religious demominations unite in establishing a Christian university. Our magnificent State University thrives upon public funds gathered from the entire State, and the members of the churches bear their part of the burden of making this secular instruction free. Then if they want a religious college for their sons and daughters they must provide it at their own expense. This burden has been so great that free tuition in such schools has been found impracticable. Under these conditions many Christian parents, who think that they can give their boy or girl a liberal education with free tuition and not without, are practically excluded from the institution of their choice. The competition between the religious college and the State University is very unequal also because of the close alliance of the State University with the leading high schools of the State. The effort to promote directly from the accredited higk schools into the freshman classat Berkeley has been largely successful and is likely to succeed in the future not less than in the ast. 5 Another disability of the religious colleges is the instability of their teaching force. One essential of a strong college is that it shall secure the best available men for its faculty, pay them enough to make them content and keep them as long as possible. The permanent instructors con- stitute the strength and continuity of educational institutions and bind fast the friendship of the graduates as would be impossible if, on revisiting their alma mater, they should find themselves among entire strangers. Yet probably in none of the Protestant colleges of California can professors be found who have served as long a term of office as many in the vounger institution at Berkeley. A promi- nent cause of this instability in denomina- tional schools may be found in their ecclesiastical government though not essential to it. The very weakness of religious colleges is a source of some secular advantages. A paucity of the students enables the tesch- er to give more careful attention to the eeds of individual students. Lack of nds prevents the elective system beirg ried to excess. A college without millions of endow- ment is in no danger of maultiplying courses so as to draw students away to any great extent from the essentials of a liberal education. In times past the bach- elor’s degree has had definite significance as regards the acquirements and competency of the graduate. Now it may stand for nothing in particuiar above the high school course—except that whatever the student has done, the faculty under which he has worked judge it enough to occupy a man for four years. This makes good specialists at the expense of general cul- ture and sometimes of literary respecta- bility as well. The tendency of the hour is to set back four years the branching point where the student turns from his general education to preparation for his special calling— from the end to the beginning of the col- lege course. This is the usual American extravagance. We overdo many things. There is a need, already recognized by some educators besides President Eliot of Harvard, of some adjustment of college methods that wiil bring the student through his professionai studies a few years younger than the old curriculum permits. Possibly two years may be res- cued from his baccalaureate course with- out crippling his general literary com- petency. But when the great universities say that he may start as freshman upon his professional studies, the weaker college financially may take higher ground and gcon furnish more than its proportion of the statesmen and scholars of the future. This is easily within the reach of the de- nominational colleges of California, if they wiil but endow their chairs and in- sist upon the highest efficiency in their instructors. Beyond the college course proper the re- ligious attitude of instructors is regarded with comparative indifference. A man is never so old that he cannot become skepti- cal or immoral, but thongh Goethe’s Faust sold himself to the devil after taking his Ph.D., yet most students either sell them- selves earlier or no at all. If any of our bachelors of arts wish to pursue their professional studies under re- ligious auspices they usually patronize some university in the East, although California has theological schools which should not be ignored. The great univer- sities whose foundations the Catholics, Methodists and Baptists are iaying so broad and, deep at the National capital and at Chicago will soon offer graduate courses that Christian men are likely to | prefer to any other in the country. The Young Men’s Christian Association is a valuable agency of religious training, working with the churches and schools, but not as a part of them, though even the secular colleges have very helpful organi- zations of this sort among their students. The Salvation Army works on a lower plane and more remotely from educational -pims, but its reformatory and evangelical work is gaining an eficiency and appre- ciation which a few years ago seemed im- possible. This Christmas season, amid pleasurable festivities, reminds both small and great of the fall and redemption of our race. So the Thanksgiving and Easter holidays, the marriage and burial ceremonies, the christenings, the church bells, the judicial oaths and the chaplains in the army and navy and in our legislative halls, all tes- tify how deeply religion is inwrought in our National polity. Asa people we may not be very respectful toward the work (_wf our fathers, but these memorials of their piety tend potently to shape the faith and life of the rising generation. | annual OUR INSTRUCTORS. No State in the Union Can Boast a More Efficient Corps of Schoolteachers—Their Work Is a Monument. By PHILIP M. FISHER, Editor of the Pacific Educational Journal, Tue CAryL sends Christmas greeting to the teachers of the State. There is a host of them. The official report for the school year ending June 30, 1894, gives the exact number employed as At this writing the number is easily 6500. Not a few, as in other avocations, are unemployed. The young teachers come along so rapidly, the older ones get out of the way so slowly, that some are pushed out of the current. And the téachers who are not teaching are peculiarly uniortunate, as those who know them best are fully aware. They come from almost everywhere. Some are native to the soil and sky, others come from the States all along the way from Maine west- ward, from Canada and the States to the north. None come from the south, be- cause south of California they do not vet export the product; and to the west—well, we are the West. They are found wherever fifteen children, between 5 and 17 years of age, cluster; be- cause this is the number that the good mother, the State, has decided is neces- sary to justify the expense of maintaining a nurs For these she appropriates $400 y. If the number increases to twenty, she provides $500 for them. In the edge of the woods, deep in the shady can- yon, up on the breezy hilltop, out in the fertile valley, in village, town and city, with wide distances separating them, or thickly clustered, the California teachers are found. Working with the industry of the beaver, but to the results of the coral, enduring, hoping, succeeding; of the peo- ple, yet not of them; with their patrons and yet often opposing them; blending, yet leading; expressing public standards and forming them. This is their hazardous yet helpful place; unique, trying, not without per- sonal sacrifice, but rarely without the cheering reflection of the aggregate value of the common service. In some counties the variety is almost startling. In a visit to Modoc some yeafs ago I found Canada, France, Maine, Pennsylvania and Virginia touching elbow in the teachers’ institute. In San Diego last year it seemed that every State east of us had sent its repre- sentative as the trains went through. . Of these 6500 about 5200 are women, the ratio being 4 to 1, and increasing with the years. The schoolmaster of the Middle and South- ern States has given way to the school- mistress of New England. If she remem- bers him at Christmas he will be well re- membered. Should he in his gallantry undertake to remember her, where would it end? In respect to sex curious local conditions ap- pear. Look at some typical counties: San Francisco employs 74 men and 792 women, a ratio of 1 to 10; Los Angeles County, 100 to 440; Alameda County, 51 to 373; San Diego County, 33 to 162; San Luis Obispo, 34 to 96; Nevada, 21 to 60; Humboldt, 43 to 95; Colusa, 21 to 34; Modoc, 19 to 21; Sac- ramento, 12 to 166, a ratio of 1 to 14, the highest in the State; ou 45 to 45, an amicable division. It was reported to the writer a few years since that the city of San Diego, in a corps of 70 teachers, em- ployed one lone man, and he was at the head of the High School! About one- sixth of the number quit teaching in this State at the end of e: year. How are their placesfilled? There are three sources of supply. The semi-anual examination by the county boards of education (57 in all) of new apolicants for certification; second, the State normal schools and the State University; third, immigration. The first is the most convenient, least expensive, and therefore the most popular. It isnot difficult for an expert teacher, who has probably been a member of a county board himself, to prepare a bright young man or woman to pass the local examination suc- cessfully. Indeed some great reputations have been made in this way by experi- enced teachers. These examinations have been the chief source of supply for years and will probably continue to be until the time shall come forthe legislation that shall require professional training., Graduates of the pedagogical department of the two universities of the State may be certificated without examination by county boards. This number has been small up to date and has gone mainly into the high schools; therefore the professional training falls largely upon the normal schools of the State, of which therc are three, named in the order of their establishment: San Jose, Los Angeles, Chico. Of the 6257 teachers of the State in 1894, 1366 were graduates of California State normal schools, 427 of normal schools outside of California; s total of 1793, or 28 3-10 per cent of the whole number employed. This percentage is steadily increasing. The experience of the teachers of 1894 may be judged from the fact that 982 held educa- tional diplomas, representing five years’ work, and 1426 life diplomas, representing ten years’ service. Their scholastic qnali- fication apvears in the fact that 473 held nigh school certificates, 4187 grammar grades and 1206 primary grades. Their spirit may be inferred from the further statistics that 5110 read some educational journal. Accepting the belief that the State should have professionally trained teachers, some interesting facts are re- vealed by the following table, in which the “Bay Counties”” are compared with those of *‘Southern California:” q = £ | =5 | s 2 B8 < lowie CouxTIEs. ey 2 i 2 i i YA R | 8§ o I alee 4 Los Angeles. . Bs0 | San Diego | 200 Orange.. Ha Riverside 110 | San Bernardino. 133 | 179 | | 708 158 214|478 | Av. W, Tke contributions that our normal schools make annually may be measured by the reports for 1894-95, according to which San Jose gradunated 156, Los Angeles 76, and Chico 36. The enrollment and teaching force of these schools for 1894-95 is indicated by the following table: Pupils in train-_ Teachers, Students. ingdept. Men. Women, n Jose. 21 1 14 Los Angel 33 8 22 Chico. 205 6 8 The apparent disproportion of pupils and teachers at Los Angeles is explained by the fact that the training classes are part of the city system and are subject to inspection and report by the City Superin- tendent of Schools. Nine of the thirty teachers belong to the city corps, receiving only §120 per annum each from the Nor- mal School funds, the major part of their salary being paid from the school funds of the city district. At Chico they have introduced the experiment of training classes, organized upon the plan of a typical country school. The San Francisco Normal School is maintained by the municipality. Its ca- pacity is limited to eighty, and it trains for service in the City schools. The course at the State Normal schools has been extended to four years. Connec- tion is made with the elementary schools by admitting pnpils who present diplomas of graduation from the highest grammar grade of any county. The high schools by furnishing academic instruction locally are enabling students to abridge this four years’ course to three, possibly twos The growth of these high schools throughout the State since 1891 has been phenomenal. In that year the union district and county high-school bills were passed by the Legislature. The two universities were ready, the time seemed propitious; weak districts united, ambi- tious towns and counties were aroused, and at the close of 1894 there vere eighty- three high schools in operation. The Leg- islature of 1895 strengthened the acts, and confidence and a new impulse have come and the outlook is most gratifying. The increase in the number and efliciency of these school ready havingitsinfluence upon the general teaching body as well as the general public. At this date the counties territorially best coverea by high schools are Alameda, | Solano, Los Angeles, Sonoma, iverside, | San Diego, Sania Clara, San Luis Obispo, Kings, Fresno, Del Norte, Nevada, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara and Orange. Nor is any enumeration of the agencies that mold ana equip the California teacher complete without mention, first, of the annual County Teachers’ Institute, pro- vided by law. Tt furnishes a common ground upon which teachers with pro- fessional training meet those fashioned in the school of experience. FEach learns of the other; eccentricities are softened or eliminated and the general level of el- ficiency is raised. Second—The State As- sociation, a professional organization, which meets annually and in a larger way performs functions somewhat similar to those of the local bodies. Working in connection with the associa- tion is the educational council, composed of fifteen members, three of whom are namea at each annual meeting by the ex- ecutive committee to serve for five years. The special business of the council is to discuss questions of administration and legislation and present to the general body carefully considered plans for improve- ment. The large membership, long terms and gradual change of the personnel of the council promise good results. The association holds its next session in Oakland January 2 to 4, inclusive, and a large attendance is expected. The third source of snpply, immigration, is no longer a strong factor, except as some able teacher or superintendent called to a prominent place in the State makes | his influence felt. Yet, granting that the | doctrine of strict exclusion is neither sound nor wise as enforced against other localities of our common country, it is largely true that California is to-day pre- pared to supply its own teachers. Having thus briefly sketched the field of | opportunity and indicated tbe avenues of preparation it may not be amiss to ask the question how the teacher feels when the holiday season comes? When the heart is quickeped and the responsive hand opens in the gracious act of giving, can he affora to give as prompted, or does his poverty seem to grow with each recurring Christmastide? This opens a train of practical questions, of which this article will admit the consid- eration of but a few. Theaverage school term in the State is 7.95 months. This leaves from two to six months for exper- sive vacation or temporary change of re- munerative labor. There is no tweive months’ employment, except in some of the northern counties, where the climatol- ogy admits of a six months’ summer term in the mountains and a six months’ win- ter term in the valleys. Indeed, some thriity teachers have in this way taught thirteen months in a year, and they loaned their savings years azo at one and even two per cent a month and grew well-to-do. Others, caught in the whirl of the common mania, bought lots and farms and houses. Many attempted the costly experiment of planting and cultivating an orchard or vineyard by proxy. In the City they bought lots; in the vaileys, ranches and fruit farms, usually upon a falling market, because their preoccupation precluded quick movement. In the mountains they located placer and quartz claims. “What are you all doing with your mining claims?” was asked of a party of lady teachers at a social gathering during a mountain institute. *“Waiting for an Englishman,”’ was the grim reply. It may be safely said that there are few teachers employed in the State during the past ten years who have not invested in real estate. Special colonizatiom and co-operative schemes were got up for their benefit. All are the wiser for the experience. Some are sadder. Few express any doubt but that success would have come could they but have given the investment per- sonal attention. Such is the average teach- er’s confidence and optimism! Not a few in the cities and in the hot and treeless valleys turn with hopeful longing to the snow line of the Sierras on whose middle slopes lies the quarter sectior: of sugar pine holding sweet promise of future compe- tency. How about the recognition of real ment and the tenure of place? The bow of promise is in the skies. No better indica- tion appears than the report adopted by the Stockton Board of Education last sum- mer. It is well worthy of record here as expressing the high tide of the best senti- ment upon the qualifications of teachers: 1. A general education equivalent at least to that afforded by 3 high school of good standing. . 2. A course of professional training in a State Normal School or university, or in equivalent at least two years successful experience in training. 3. A reasonable amount of current profes- sional study, sufficient to keep the teacher in living touch with the educational move- ments of the day. 4. A kindly regard for children, a knowl- edge of the workings of the young mind, and a successful degree of tact in manag- ing classes. Added to this, a moral char- acter above reproach, and a sufficient de- gree of social culture to afford the pupils 2 desirable example in dress and bearing. b. A capacity for vrofessional improve- ment and an earnest desire to improve. Your committee are in favorof retaining the teachers already in service wherever these qualifications are present in prefer- ence to considering fresh applicants. —yr— NORMAL SCHOOLS. This Branch of Our Educational System Is Yearly Ex- tending Its Great Power and Its Wide Influence. By Mrs. E. A. WILSON, Trustee of the State Normal School. The establishment of pedagogical de- partments at our two umiversities has re- | sulted in increasing the demand for teach- of the fundamental principles of the science and art of education. ment incluaes al<o a comprehensive knowl- A full equip- | 1ts influence is threefold in character, Vi this higher course, one-third of the amount reserved is refunded. The evenings are devoted from 7 to9 o'clock to study and preparation for the normal course. ‘A pupil graduates from _this institution not only qualified to earn his hivelihood as a teacher of his own race, but also actually prepared to work at his trade if necessary. Closely ailied to the subject of manual training is drawing, as it cultivates the sense of form, trains the eye to be ac- curate, steadies the hand and renders it skillful. Many of the drawings and patterns used as working models are also rased upon the principles of geometry, and the working out of these models in the workshop clearly demonstrates many a difficult proposition over which the pupil has ab- AL { stractly struggled. erswho have a philosophical understanding |~ 1 15 ulmost i1 It is almost impossible to estimate the value of drawing as an educational factor. Its esthetical value as a civilizing and re- edge of the leading educational authori-| fining factor; its ethical influence becausc ties of the past and present ana an acquaintance with the order in which the different powers of the mind are awakened and the time best adapted for their devel- opment, All applicants presenting diplomas from grammar schools, no matter how deficient in scholarship or how physically unfit to become teachers, have been accepted, with but few exceptions, in the past. Naturally there is a wide difference in the qualifications of such pupils, owing to the variety of instruction and the lack of any uniform course of study in the differ- ent counties. The result has been that after a few weeks or months many are obliged to drop out and return to their homes. The formation of union high schools throughout the State will probably afford | | a solution of this problem, as graduates from these schools would require less time | for academic work, and-would, therefore, | be better prepared for a more purely pro- fessional training. of the inherent necessily for correct repre- sentation, and, lastly, its value merely as an income-producer. Take the interior of any well-appointed living-room s an illustration of the above. The paper ‘that covers the wall, the frieze work upon the ceiling, the gasjet, the carved mantel and framework:- of the chair in which you sit and the designs of its softly padded cushion, the carpet upon which your feet rest, the pattern of your dress and the pictures upoa the wall, that please and rest your eye, are all the prod- uct of drawing. The new education also calls fora very | different line of language work from that required in the past. In place of a list of such subjects as Hope, Faith, Benevolence, the lessons, etc., given in former years to the bewildered pupil from which to make his selection, a systematic line of nature-study is pursued, each grade basing 1ts language work upon actual observation and experiment. Children readily explain in simple lan- Great stress is laid upon the necessity | guage the result of personal investigation, for teachers being physically strong and | and thus greater freedom of expression is free from any serious defects of the senses, | attained. as they are expected to represent ideals to the youth of our State. Their hands are also trained at this early stage in “‘the art of experiment’’ and The effect of the constant intercourse of 'the innate love of children for birds, PROFESSOR W. C. SAWYER. [Drawn by a “Call’” artist from a photograph.] delicate, sensitive children with teachers | flowers, insects, etc., becomes a source of afflicted with tuberculous diseases, certain | purest happiness and yields a most bene- afflictions of the nasal and respiratory pas- sages, which are considered contagious, : has become a serious question with parents and our more intelligent boards of education. Advocates of manual training claim that any system of education is one-sided that provides for-a purely mental training and will inevitably fail to produce the most syrametrical character, as the pupil has learned merely to think and not to act. The study of botany without the an- alysis of the plant, of zoology without dis- section or of chemistry without laboratory work can never be mastered thoroughly. Manual training, like the kindergarten, is based upon object teaching; that i teaching with the things themselves in- stead of their symbols. Crities justly charge that our system of education is superficial; that our city schools are fitting our boys for colleges and not for artisans; that our pupils havea decided prejudice against industrial work in spite of the fact that a large percentage of our people are engaged in the useful arts. 1t is also claimed that the storing up of knowledge without any practical applica- tion to the useof things is a waste of power and that the cultivation of the absorbing side of the brain without the expression side results necessarily in a one-sided de- velopment. It is only a question of time before the work in our public schools will be broad- ened by the general adoption of a system of manual training in connection with the mental work, and then the charge will cease to be heard that there are no Amen- can craftsmen. It has been demonstrated that the boys who spend half the day in the workshop and laboratories, working out the truths they are learning, attain fully as high a standing in their studies as those of equal ability who spend the entire day in study and recitation. How much better equipped to cope with the world is the boy who leaves school familiar with the use of the principal tools and with an understanding of the subjects taught from ascientific and practical standpoint! Aside froin the purely socialistic side of this question is the influence upon char- acter. The concentration of thought, steadi- ness of nerve acquired, the patience exer- cised in working for days upon some model to iliustrate some mathematical truth, the judgment developed which will prepare the pupil for a truer moral esti- mate of life, are only a few of the moral results of manual training. The Hampton Normzl School 1n Glouces- ter County, Va., founded by General Arm- strong for Indian and colored students, has more nearly attained a practical stan- dard than any other institution of its kind in the united States. Previous to entering the normal proper, the student is expezted to work in the shops from 7 A. M. to 5 P. M., where the various trades are taught. After the first month or so, he is paid an amount not to exceed $i8 per month, out of which he receives a certain per cent for current exvenses, and the balance is retained to defray a three years’ normal course. If he fails to take ticial moral influence. The introduction also of myths into the work adds to their vocabulary, stimulates the imagination, widens their information and places before them many noble ideals. Preparation for this work is also one of the requirements of our normal schools. Attached to each normal school is a training department, consisting of all the grades of a primary and grammar school. Student teachers are obliged to practi- cally apply in these grades, under the sa- vervision of the critic teacher, all theo- retical knowledge obtained from their normal teachers. Each Normal teacher, in addition to her class work, should be required to carefully observe the working out of her methods of instruction by these student teachers, and secif they are successful in practice. The @ritic teachers also have charge of the government, classification, reports, etc., but the teacher at the head of the pedagogical department is expected to su- pervise the method work and direct the practice work of the critic and student teachers. The subject of physical training is such a serious one that it must not be omitted. This department should be in the charge of one who understands not only the principles of physical exercise, but also one who has had a professional train- ing in some first-class medical college. Pupils have been permanently injured by many of these so-called physical exer- cises, and only by the greatest wisdom can such disastrous results be prevented. There should be apparatus in each gym- nasium for testing and recording respira- tory movements, circulation, etc., and the effects of exercise on these processes should be carefully watched. There should be methods of measuring, testing ana examining to determine the fitness of any pupil for any given exercise. A careful study must also be made of any emotional disturbance or excessive mental strain. Tests of sight and hearing are necessary, as many times these defects are the cause of apparent stupidity. The growth of children at different ages and their mental and moral states at these periods if carefully noted would be of great pedagogical value. The time is not far distant when every pupil in the State will be as familiar with shorthand as he now is with his alpbabet. What a pleasure will it then be to take notes of an interesting lecture! Three exercises per week during the last five years of the primary and grammar hool work would so familiarize the pupil with shorthand that he would use it un- consciously; it would become by force of habit a part of him. Add to this type-writing, which is easily acquired, and the great mass of pupils who never reach the high schools would be prepared to take an active part in life. This is one more subject for the progres- sive normal student to master. A GRAND SYSTEM. California’s Public Schools Sys- tem Ably Discussed From a Financial and Sta- tistical Point of View. By SAMUEL T. BLACK, Superintendent of Public Instruction. In treating this question I shall do soon a financial and statistical basis chiefly. as it occurs to me that the people prefer ac- curate information on all public questions to elaborate articles made up of theories and the opinions of writers. In traveling over the State I find that there is consid- erable misapprehension regarding the rela- tive cost of higher and elementary educa- tion and the salaries paid to the teachers in our common schools. Herewith is sub- mitted exact information on these points. The public school system proper consists of the elementary (that is, the grammar and primary) schools, but for the purpose of this articla the normal schools and the State University, together with the local high schools, are included. It must be remembered that the high schools receive no aid whatever from the State, being sup- ported entirely by local taxation. The normal schools are largely technical in their nature, being designed solely for the preparation of teachers. Under present conditions it is deemed necessary to ad- mit to these schools graduates of gram- mar schools, hence professional training must be supplemented by much academi- cal study, thus making necessary a four years’ course. Were it possible to require a high school preparation for admission to the normal schools much of the academic work might be dispensed with, the course shortened by at least two years and the expense of maintenance materially re- duced. Besides these advantages these schools would become what they ought to become, purely professional schools—just as much so as law schools or schools of medicine, ‘With regard to the State University, no account is taken of the affiliated colleges in San Francisco, which receive no State aid. The school census of the State incluaes ail children between the ages of 5 and 17 vears, and is designed solely as a basis for the distribation of school funds to the various counties and school districts, and ought not to be taken into consideration in connection with school attendance. The schools are open to all persons be- tween the ages of 6 and 21 years—a period of time one year shorter at one end and four years longer at the other than that which determines the school census. In cities where the kindergarten has been established children may be admitted at 4 years of age. chool Census. 1895. Boy 163,074 Girls| 1600056 Totals... .1 Increase. .ee...9,403 As the following statistics are for the vear ending June 30, 1895, the census taken April, 1895, must not be taken into ac- count: Total number of pupils enrolled. age daily attendance. Total current expenses. Average cost per pupil Amount paid for teachers’ salaries. Number of male teachers employed Numberof female teachers employed. Average annual salary per teacher. .. $647 32 Average monthly salary per teacher (1 monihs)....... 5394 As teachers must live twelve months during the year—they cannot hibernate during vacations—it is the only fair basis on which to compute the average monthly salary. Now, San Francisco, Oakland, and a few other places pay higher monthly salaries than are paid elsewhere, and pay for twelve months cach year. Were they stricken from the list, this already small average would be materially decreased. Again, strike from the list also the teachers in our larger towns, where longer terms prevail than in the rural schools, and we find that the average annual salary of the country teachers of California is (ap- proximately) $435, or a trifle over $36 per month for twelve months in the year. In the face of these figures, then, it is no wonder thatso many bright young men use teaching as a mere stepping-stone to some more remunerative calling, leaving the important business of teaching our children largely in the hands of inexperi- enced girls. Notwithstanding these un- favorable conditions it is an acknowledged fact that the rural schools of California are the best in the United States. This is largely due to faithful and conscientious 20 . 4,081,340 44 -1,188 ,117—6.305 ) supervision on the part of the County Su- perintendents, many of whom are men (or women) of education, ability and pro- gressive ideas. The teachers, as a class, even the inexperienced girls referred to above, are faithful and conscieatious. Again, the gathering of teachers together in teachers’ circles, institutes, associa- tions, etc.,, when they come in contact with the best educational thought of the State, has had a wonderful stimulating effect on the teachers as a body. Of the total number of teachers em- ployed—6305—only 1633, less than 25 per cent, are graduates of normal schools. Of these 1326 are from the normal schools of this State. The records show that 583 teachers in the elementary schools hold high- school certificates, 4591 hold grammar- grade certificates and 1131 hold primary- grade certificates. Total number of school districts 3,182 Total number of schools .. 3 Total number of schoolhouses. The average number of months schools have been maintained is 8.71, ranging all the way from 6 months in some of the thinly settled counties to 10 months in many of the cities and larger towns, RECEIPTS FROM ALL SOU Amount received from State. 829,005 74 ‘Amount received from connty taxes. 1,675,451 50 ‘Amouut received from district ta. 797,088 91 ‘Amount received from misc eons sources.. 62,427 18 lan- Amount received from sale of bonds for building purposes. Total receipt Valuation of scl -$16,408,629 00 720,824 Number of volumes in librerie Amount expended for building and furniture. . s -...$698,215 59 Under the laws of this State each school district having ten to twenty census chil- dren 1s assured of $400 per annum. Dis- tricts having twenty to seventy census children are assured of $500. Each addi- tional census child between seventy and ninety 1s worth $20 per annum to the dis- trict. Districts with ninety children re- ceive $1000, and so on, there being an ad- ditional $500 for each additional seventy children. These are the minimum amounts. In addition, there is a pro rata apportionment on the averag. daily at- tendance, which very materially increases these amounts, particularly in the larger districts. There were in California in 1894-95 eighty- seven high schools, employing 315 teach- ersat an average annual salary of $1029, . From the special fund. or $85 75 per month, still counting twelve months to the year. These high schools have in the way of buildings, sites and equipment property worth $1,573,053 5. The total current expenses for the past year amounted to $425,174 20, of which $324,342 was paid for teachers’. sala- ries. The number of pupils attend ing the high schools was 9379. Divid- ing the total expenditure by the num- ber enroiled gives $4533 as the aver- age annual cost per pupil in the high schools of California, which is a little more than double the average annual cost per pupil in the elementary schools. The average daily attendance in these sec- ondary schools is 7183—nearly 77 per cent of the total number enrolled, whereas, in elementary schools the average daily at- tendance is not quite 71 per cent of the to- tal enrollment. Asstated hefore, these high schools receive no State aid—the constitu- tion providing that all State and county school moneys shall go to the support of elementary schools exclusively. Those communities that have thus voluntarily taxed themselves in the interests of their sons and daughters are casting bread upon the waters that shall return, not only to them, but to the State and Nation after (not) many days. The high school idea is growing in California, and the time is not far distant when the State will come to the assistance of this much needed secondary education, as it has already seen the neces- sity of aiding the elementary schools, the normal schools and the university. Free States, to be lasting, must educate their future citizenship--their very existence depending wpon the intelligence and patriotism of the masses. California supports three normal schools, located at Chico, San Jose and Los An- geles. The number of students enrolled for the last fiscal vear was 1383, taught by sixty teachers. The total current expenses amounted to $104,146 38, and the average cost per pupil was $7530. In connection with each of these schools there is a train- ing school, where the students do practice teaching under the guidance of expert or critic teachers. These training schools cost the State little or nothing. In Los Angeles they are a portion of the regular public school system of the city, and are taught by teachers engaged and paid by the City Board of Education. In San Jose and Chico these training schools are sup- vorted largely by tuition fees, and are in charge of teachers selected by the respec- tive boards of trustees of these normals. The State thus recognizes the fact that the highest form of skill comes by combining theory and practice. There were graduated from the three schools last year 187 teachers, of whom 19 were men, a trifle over 10 per cent. The total amount paid for salaries was $89,158 32, being an average of $1485 97 per annum, or $123 83 per month. COST OF BUILD! San Jose Normal. . Los Angeles. . Chico. THE There were vear of 1894-95 enrolled during the fiscal at Berkeley (the university proper) 1027 students, and the current ex- penses were: From the general fund . -$264,545 53 . 46,032 48 Tota-“roon Loy -..3310,578 01 Of this amount $182,545 95 was for sala- ries of professors, etc., including those em- ployed in the Lick Observatory. The av- erage annual cost per student was $302 Recapitulation of total current ex and the average annual cost per pupil: Current Expenses. 875 5 425,174 10 104,046 58 310,578 01 Average Cost per Pupil. $20 21 nses Elementary schools High schools. . Normal school: State Universi From what Source State, County, I Normal scnools—State. ... State University—State and special The course of study for the elementary schools must include (I quote the exact language of the law) ‘‘reading, writing, orthography, arithmetic, geography, grammar, history of the United Stateg, ele- ments of physiology and hygiene, with special instruction as to the nature of ai- conolic drinks and narcotics and their ef- fects upon the human system; vocal music, elementary bookkeeping, industrial drawing and civil government: provided, that instruction in civil government, physiology and hygiene, and elementary bookkeeping may be oral, no textbooks on these subjects being required to be pur- chased by the pupils. . “Other studies may be authorized by the Board of Education of any county, city, or city and county; butno such studies shall be pursued to the mneglect or ex- clusion of the studies in the preceding sec- tion specified.” Among the “other studies” many of the schools have added a little constructive geometry and some elementary algebra, and in still others some general history and experimental physics and some form of manual training. The course, as a gen- eral thing, covers nine year’s work, but in several counties, where longer terms pre- vail, the course is finished in eight years, while a few devote ten vears on account of the shortness of the school terms, caused by a lack of school funds, which isun- avoidable in counties covering a large ters ritory sparsely populated. The high-school course covers a period of three or four years, and the curriculum is such that the graduates are prepared to enter the State University. The univer- sity has issued a skeleton curriculum cov- ering the actual requirements for ad- mission, which gives ample room for the insertion of such additional branches as the local conditions may demand. thus making the high school the “People’s Col- lege,” as President Kellogg would say. In regard to the various courses in the State University, it is not necessary to go into detail, as any one desiring complete information on this point can obtain it by writing to the recorder of the faculties at Berkeley. So high is the standing of the university that President Eliot of Harvard has placed it among the first six great schools of America. The ethical side of education is not lost sigbtof in our admirable school system. Section 1702 of the Political Code, which is just as binding as the statute providing for scholastic work, is as follows: It shall be the duty of all teachers to endeavor to impress upon the minds of the pupils the principles of morality, trath, justice and patriotism; to teach them to avoid idleness, profanity and falsehood, and to instruct them in the principles of a free government and to train them up to a true comprehension of the rights, duties and dignity of American citizenship.” I must not close this article without re- ferring to the inspiration our elementary and secondary schools are deriving from the two great universities and three Nor- mal schools, particularly from the peda- _gogical departments of these institutions. The influence of these departments is being felt in the remotest districts of the State through the teachers’ institutes, in nearly all of which are found one or more professors representing the highest and best educational thought of the day.