Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1861-04-06
srATrsrrCs OF EpUCATIoN.

The twenty fourth annual report of the
board of education was few days since pre-
scented to the legislature, and is now before
the public. The report of the secretary and
the summary of returns constitute its leading
AMI most interesting features, The former is,
in great part, manual based upon the exist.
ing laws, and prepared with special reference
to the wants Of persons engaged in the probes
sion. The ample design of the secretary is
fully carried out, and furnishes a complete
and very desirable illustration OF the cha acter
and merits of the school system OF Massachu-
sets. The following table presents the lead
ing and most important facts of the schools -
Number of towns in the commonwealth, 334.
Number of public schools, 4491; increase Tor the
year. 3d. 80,
Number of scholars OF all ages in all the public
schools in summer, 2O7 $780, increase for the year.
30l4
Ratio Of the mean average attendance to the whole
number of children between five and fifteen, eX-
pressed in decimals, IA.
Number of teachers in summer, males 424 females
4677 total SOL. Increase of males, 30 females 65
total increase, 50.
Number of teachers i'll winter, males 14S4, females
3726 total 52l0. Decrease of male teachers in win
ter las; increase of females, 15S; total increase,
Average wages of male teachers per month"; in
Guiding board, $50 56 increase for the year, 81 &C.
Average wages of female teachers per month, ill.,
Guiding board S19 9S; increase Tor the year. SO cts
Amount raised by taxes for the support of public
schools, including only wages board, fuel and care
of fires, 81 42S 46 OF; increase for the year. $685.,
093 66.
Aggregate returned as expended on public schools
alone, exclusive of expense of repairing and erect
ing schoolhouses and of the cost of school books,
Sl,565, 103 rs; increase for the year. S45 9S2 AZ.
The sum appropriated by the state for each
child between five and fifteen years, was
Sc AZ; amount raised by taxes, ST ,42S, 476 OF;
number of children between five and fifteen
years of age, 229,714. In reference to the
sum appropriated for each child, Suffolk coun-
ty, with her great army of children, stands
easily first, giving them $40 so each. Little
Nantucket, with but little more than 1900,
appropriates 50 OIL each. Worcester county,
with 29, 5S2 children, gives 81 70. Berkshire
county gives So l9-the least of ALL Of the
towns, ambitious Brookline stands at the head
giving each child $40 05. The other towns in
the immediate vicinity of Boston also make
very liberal appropriations. Worcester the
same year appropriated $7.57, and of the 334
towns was the 10Th in rank. Harvard was the
only town in this countyawhose appropriation
was above the average OF the state. The
smallest average expenses were made by the
distant mountain towns Of Berkshire. In this
county, after Worcester and Harvard, the
towns of Barre, Clinton, Southboro', Fitch
burg, and Uxbridge, are among the first
Southboro' rises from the 22d in rank in 1853
TO the 9th in 1859-60. The four towns
which appropriate less than So for each child
are West Boylsion, Berlin, Dana, and Holden
The rank of the towns is very different when
the appropriations are considered with refer
ence to their taxable property. In this re.
spect Somervipe holds the first rank in the
state. and ford in the county.
attendance TO the whole num-
Der of children in tAa setween five and
fifteen years of age was 70 per cent. Dukes
presents the highest record at 80, and Middle
sex next at 80. Worcester is fifth in rank at
.78, and Berkshire last Six towns in the
state have ratio of more than 100 per cent.
reckoned of course, upon a basis including
pupils of ages outside of the privileged decade
between five and fifteen. Dunstable holds the
highest place in the commonwealth, with
ratio of 113-39. Athol is sixth in rank at
1.00-31. The towns of Upton, Boylston
Royalston, Templeton, and Barre immediate
ly follow. Harvard is thirty-third in rank,
scarborough forty-third, and Worcester
which has greatly reformed since this record
was made up--the two hundred and ninth.
Every town in Worcester county, except
thirteen, shows a ratio of attendance higher
than the average ratio of the state, and the
whole county exhibits manifest relative i'm
provement upon former years.
The secretary remarks, in relation TO the
ravages made upon the general ratio by the
incipient crime of truancy, that there is no
more important duty connected with the ad-
ministration of law than its suppression, and
that the public should not rest satisfied till the
average attendance upon the schools is ten
per cent. greater than it is at present. The
law of the commonwealth upon the subject is
reproduction of an act of 1912, by which the
general court of the colony instructed the
selectmen of every town TO "haye vigilant
eye over their brethren and neighbors, to see
first that none of them shall suffer so much
barbarism in any of their families, as not to
endeavor to teach by themselves or others,
their children and apprentices, so much learn
ing may enable them to read the English
tongue, and obtain a knowledge Of the capt.
tai laws" Surely there ought to be equal
solicitude now to avert fro.:. society the "bar.
bafism'' which our ancestors could not suffer.
Rhode Island.