Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-09-03
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Report Of Superintendent Lsath, Showing
Progress aad Present cObditlsa Of
the Public Schools In Memphis.
OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION,
MEMPHIS, July IL, 1870.

GonIlol0en OF me BOarU OF EOucatlO0:
The scholastic year of I869-70, which ter
minated on the oath OF Jun last, may be
considered in all respects az the most
prosperous which our city schools have
experienced since their organization in
1852. For the first time aimee l have been
acquainted with the financial condition
of the School Board, its treasury has been
in a state sufficiently sound and healthy
to pay off and discharge in full he pay
roll of its teachers and employees of the
year. This of itself Is a good cause tor
congratulatiOn.
I refer You to the tabulated statements
A, B, G and D, for the statistical infOrma-
ton in connection with our schools for
the past scholastic year. The total en-
rolInent has amounted to 1907. b av-
erage number belonging smounts to 1859;
colored schools, s4I. The per cent. of at
tendance has been S7.S3; coiorec schools,
S69. The per cent of absence was 12.27.
Average cost of each pupil, S2l 60. The
total amount of transfer, as per table c.,
was 4l26.
Table D exhibits the censu of the
scholastic population of Memphis, taken
by your Secretary since the dtmlnutiOn
of The corporation limits. Whites, 5II6;
coIored, zII9. Total, 7235.
The increased enrolment and average
attendance of pupils give gratifying evil
dence of the growing Importance, useful
ness and popular favor now enjoyed by
the schools under your charge. They
rave overcome in many instances strong
and deeprooted prejudices, and have
drawn pupils, male and female, from the
firesides ofthe best families in our city.
For the next year I anticipate an in
creased demand for seats in the public
schools, Notwithstanding the diminution
of our scholastic population, occasioned
by the recent curtailment of the corpora
ton limits. Some of the pupils thrown
out of the city limits will doubtless pay
tuition to return to the schools; and
these added to such new pupils within
the city AS may apply for admission into
them, may overcrOwd this year, as last,
some of the schools which are centrally
located. Often during the last year refu-
sails of admission had co be made to par
ems wishing to enter their children as
pupils of the Alabama, Adams and Court
street schools, owing Co the crowded con-
ditiOn of these schools. 1t is very dlsa-
greeable to be compelled to refuse tickets
of admission into our schools; and if the
applicant happen to be a taxpayer, it
provokes in his mind a sense of injustice
or wrong lone him by the Board or its
Superintendent.
The great and paramount consideration
for the Board is to furnish school build
ings of suitable sizs and style to supply
kAb AAIAEASALk otLoAoosAS ""AA1 "Ho W
mands of our citizens. The lot recently
purchased by the Board of DR.. Shanks'
estate, at the corner of Market and Third
streets, is a site eminently judiciOus for
school purposes; and the conversion Of
the building thereon into four school
rooms will afford some relief to the Ala
bama and other school rooms.
The last week of the year was devoted
to public examinations in both the white
and colored schools; and l am pleased to
say that much interest was manifested by
parents and the public in these scholastic
exercises. In many instances the aud
ence was much too large to be accOmmo-
dated by our contracted school rooms,
thereby rendering the visitors uncomfort-
able, and producing a state of unavoidable
confusion, very unfaVOrable to that
quietude and calmness which should pre-
vail in an examination room.
The committees appointed by the Board
The committees appointed by the Board
to visit the schools during the progress OF
the examinations Il am happy to repOrt)
performed their duties well and faithfully
and L refer to their report for a more full
account of the closing exercises of the
city schools.
Near the beginning of the last
scholastic year l furnished the most
of the teachers with a sup
,ay of merit certificates and cards TO
be issued by the teacher to pupils at the
close of each days exercises. according as
the merit account of each pupil stood for
the day. These certificates were forward
ed from the publishers, u. w. Schermer-
horn 81 Co., New York;, and were design
| ed as Aids to School Discipline, and a
Substitute for School Records, Reports
and Prizss." They have been used with
the best effect in the most of our school
rooms. On the day of examination,
medals and prizes in books were awarded
% those pupils in each school who held
the largest number of these certificates of
mer t for good attendance department and
| scholarship. One hundred and twenty
medals and about two hundred books, as
prizes, were thus distributed in b white
schools during the week of examination,
the medals being awarded to the juven-
ilss antthe books TO the more advanced
pupils.
Had the colorsd schools been under my
immediate supervision for the whole
year, the same system of awards would
have been extended to them.
The practice OF distributing annually
medals and prizes in all our schools,
white and colored, must exert a very
beneficial effect in securing a better at
tendance, better department., and better
progress among the pupils.
The excessive heat of June thinned u
ECnOOl-1OOllS 70 EuGu al bAloub bldL OA
the day OF examination many of them
had less than twenty pupils. 1t is to be
expected that such will be- the case every
wear, thus greatly diminishing the per-
eentags of attendance in the city schools.
I therefore invite the attention of the
Board to the following quotation from the
Report of the st. L0uis superintendent
for 1859:
1.-The climate is such here that the
H.. -o.- ID. Ia, vFanAaI yu9g "a han
eft beyond the middle of June, or COM
mencs before the first of September.
Forty weeks is, therefore, the length
fixed upon since 1861. In more northern
cities this may be increased by an addi-
ton of four or Eve weeks."-P. IL.
If the hot weather OF june furnishes
what may be termed a tOTTid argument
for terminating the scholastic year
of the St. Louis schools in the middle
of that month, how much stronger Ia for
ti0ri) is the reason for closing the Mem
phis schools at the same time, our lati-
ude being soont four degrees nearer to the
tOrTid zone?
1t is 10 behoped the Board will adoptthe
st. Louis rule, and terminate school
year by the middle of June.
Twelve months since, 1 recommended
tina tho study of the languages be ex-
cluded from the Male High School On Adj
ans street, and assigned to a Professor OF
Ancient and Modern Languages, in a
separate department or school room.
/ The experience of another year furnishes
accumulated evidence of the propriety of
such a change. During the last year,
Latin, Greek and English grammar, mem
tai and practical arithmetic, algebra,
geometry, triginometry, natural philOs-
ophy, reading, writing, ETC., ETC., were so
blendid and mixed togetheri in this school,
constituting a sort of OmnfEnI gatherWas
mass OF all studies, that no mortal man
could possibly do justice to any n of
them. The classes, as well as the studies,
were so numerous, hat out of sheer ne
cessity II supposed the Principal of the
High School had TO g young gentlemen
studying English grammar . of his
school-room for a great part of the ses-
sion, to recito to a young lady teaching a
primary grade in an adjoining room. The
result was, little or no progress made in
that important study.
Ihope the Board will decide either to
discard the languages altogether from our
schools (which I should regret), or pro-
vide a separate school for them, where
they may &c taught with more advantage.
The play grounds attaehedtoour school
buildings, where the sexes are mixed, are
mostly 80 arranged as to separate the
sexes in their recreatiOns; and strict care
is taken by the teachers that no improper
trespassing is made by the boys upon the
grounds assigned to the girls. In the
Linden schools last year the sexes were
separated into different school rooms
Except where the pupils we're very young
and small), so that two schools were or
ganized for the most advanced boys, and
Two for the most advanced girls. This
separation of the sexes into distinct de-
partments, when practicable, viii be
found to popularize the city schools, and
tend to preserve and cultivate the refine
ment of the pupils. Allow me to quote
on the subject Of the co-educstion Of the
sexss.from the last report of the Super
intendent of the San Francisco schools;
"As l predicted in my last annual report,
the separation of the sexes in all our