The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1866-09-06
Annual Report of the Superin-
Gendent of Common Schools
of Cambria County.

ments OK the Act or Assembly, nave
the honor to transmit to you my annual
report for the year ending June 4th, 1866
HOUSES.
The number of houses built during
the year is greater than that for the two
former years next preceding. While it
must be admitted that these new houses
are much superior to many now in use,
and perhaps above the average, it is to be
regretted that they are not still better
adapted to school purposes. In their
construction three very important points
have been overlooked. refer to location,
ventilation and furnishing. A number
of the new houses have not sufficient play
grounds, and are located too near the
loadsiGes, thus compelling the children,
| if they play at all, to appropriate the
public highways for that purpose, to the
great Inconvenience of travellers and dan
ger to themselves. In many cases our
directors, in the construction of school
| houses, seem to have ignored the fact that
! air is essential to human life; and have
made no arrangements for insuring a
! supply, thus leaving the children to inhale,
over and over again, a vitiated atmos-
phere, poisoned by the exhaations from
the skins and lungs of large number of
/ Gin some cases) not over cleanly children,
to the great detriment of their health
! In the matter Of furniture, there has been,
! perhaps: more improvement in the new
| houses than In either of the other partic-
ularS referred to- In the furniture of
the old houses there has been but little
improvement. In many of these the seats
and desks are entirely too gh aud with
| OUT supports for the backs of the pupils.
APPARATUS. Estrsa.
/ There have been but few accessious to
the apparatus of the schools. \ large
number is supplied with outline maps
an9 few have globes. There are still a
/ few without black boards and there is
! also a number of others whose amount of
! black board surface is very limited.
! The necessity of providing suitable
| apparatus cannot be too strongly urged
upon directors.
There is one point in connection with
| this subject, that I can not refrain from
noticing here. It is the almost entire
| absence of dictionaries from the schools
There is not a single school in the county
which is supplied, at the expense of the
district with dictionary. A few teachers
were found to have and use the dictionary
as part Of the machinery Of the school
room, but their number was very limited.
Every school should oe supplied, at the
expense Of the district, with a copy of
some good unabridged dictionary, for the
use Of the school and the teacher should
encourage the use of it both by precept
and example. No one, not verSed in
.l I oI, ~
amount Of time wasted by parrot-like
and unintelligible method of study and
recitation, caused by the want of knowl-
edge of the meanings Of ctr common
Engllsh words and none, perhaps, knows
better than the experienced teacher, how
serious an obstacle to mental Improvement
is presented by this tendency to ignore
the use of the dictionary as an aid in the
school room.
SCHOOLS.
The advau Cement made during the
year, while 1t was perhaps as good as thai
!or any former year, was less than should
have been expected. This failure to full
ly meet the wants of the public in thi:
respect, was due to tie following causes
lst. Want of sufficient number Of vel
qualified teachers.
I'd. Shortness of school terms.
Sd. Want of parental cooperation.
These, it must be admitted, are seriou:
obstacles, though by no means new ones
they having always been the chief diff
culties in the way of the COM plete success,
of the system, not only here, but else
where. We must not, however, ignor,
their existence because they are common
and of long standing, but rather make
more vigorous exertion to overcome
them.
The first of these evils will be noticed
under the head of teachers"
1t gives me pleasure to state that there
has been some improvement in attend
ance during the year, the percentage fol-
the whole county being 68, to 90 las
/, year.
|. may here remark that great pain!
have been taken TO ascertain, with accu
racy, the attendance and average age O
pupils. The increase in the percentage
OF attendance, as beSore remarked, wa
satisfactory; though there is still room
for Improvement and particularly is thI
the case when We take into consi deratior
the fact that, after excepting few of th,
/, boroughs, our districts have but fou
months school annually. Sixty eight pc
. cent OF iour months attendance (about 2!
> months) Is by far too little time annually
9 liz which to secure a common education
: and when 1t Is taken into consideration
that the average age of pupils, as ascer
: tanned from careful examination of th
monthly reports of nearly every school il