Volume 107, Page 1747 View pdf image (33K) |
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79 each for the second ten, and so on to the maximum number. The rule adopted for the distribution of Books is to sell them, except in such cases as are otherwise provided for by the law. The aggregate amount paid for salaries during the term ending November 15th, was thirty-two hundred and eighty-seven dollars and fifty cents. The amount paid for incidental expenses was seven hundred and seven dollars and thirty-two cents. We think the New School Law a good working system, and most admira- bly adapted to the ends proposed. It is a good working system, because what it conceives in theory, it provides the most suitable means for carrying out in practice. The modes of supervision we think most beautifully and admirably adjusted—showing a complete-adaptation of means to ends. The requirement that the President shall visit each school every term, or as often as practicable, and that each Commissioner shall do the same as regards each School in the District, is well calculated to give vitality and energy to the Teachers and Scholars—it awakens a sense of responsibility on the part of the Teacher that will net suffer him to slumber at his post and must ultimately tell on the progress of the Schools and the interest of public instruction in the County. This is not a mere speculative view—it is the result of my late experience when visiting the Schools of the County. I am hardly prepared to suggest any alterations or amendments to the law, but it seems to me, among so many excellent provisions of the law, it should have provided for an annual gathering at some central point—say the County town—of all the Scholars, attended by their Teachers. On this occasion there should be suitable refreshments for the children, as an additional induce- ment for them to look forward to it with pleasure. The time might be so arranged as to make it convenient for the State Superintendent, if not the State Board, to be present, who might improve the occasion by a suitable address to the Teachers and Scholars. It would be an interesting occasion to all parties to review a procession of two thousand children—to myself it would be an occasion of very deep interest. It is a question with me, whether it would not be expedient to provide by law for a compulsory attendance on Schools during a certain part of the year. There are very many parents who will not send their children to any School, without some well regulated legal compulsion. I know many such— reprove then) for it, and their reply is, that they are so poor they can't dispense with the services of their children, even for a short time—that con- stant labor is indispensable to make bread for their necessary support; but the truth is, much of their time is spent in idleness. We regret to inform you that our late Board of County Commissioners failed to .do their duty by not levying the local School tax of twelve cents in the one hundred dollars. The law requires it to be collected for two years, and after January 1st, 1867, to be continued; provided the people so determine at their general election in November, 1866. On what pretext these gentlemen justify the course they have pursued we are at a loss to determine. We think their conduct unjustifiable, whether considered with reference to their omission to perform a plain duty under the law—the rights of the School Commissioners, or the spirit which dictated it. The effect is—they have taken the the responsi- bility of withholding from fifteen hundred to two thousand poor children of the County from two to two and a half months of necessary instruction to which they were justly entitled, in direct violation of a well defined i public law. We have received from the late Treasurer of the School Fund five thousand four hundred and thirty-eight dollars and five cents; from the Clerk of the County for Dredging Licenses, one hundred and seventy-eight dollars and seventy-five cents:—assuming that we shall receive from the State Treasurer, |
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Volume 107, Page 1747 View pdf image (33K) |
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