The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1876-01-27

enrolled has risen in one year from
So-51 to SlO.57, and the average COS
per capita OF daily attendance from
Sl4.I5 to SI7.29.
THE STATE BOARD.
The subject Of the State Board o
Examiners and their examination j,
treated 81 much length, aad the con.
ciusiOns seec1 t. be that Sss.s exSmi.
nations can not and should no. be sub.
stituted for local examinations; thai
successful and long-eCntiuued expe-
rience In teaching ana generally recoe,
niZed professional eminence should Be
the sole grounds for the granting oi
State life certificates and that the
members Of the board should be al
lowed some compensation for their
services.
Mr.. Smart also discussed the evils
and defects Of the present system OF
4 county examinations, aud suggested
as remedial, first, the appointment of
teachers (ex-parte) only on examining
boards ; second, Intelligent county
supervision.
ISDUS-EIAL !TRAIsISG.
The large portion OF the report de-
voted to the advocacy OF some indus.
trial training Of pupils in the public
schools, Is worthy of profound consid-
eration, and Is highly creditable to
the Commissioner. "rhe schools
should not educate the youth Of the
country beyond or aside from the in
elinatiOu aud ability to work with
their hands" These are words worthy
OF being hung up in every school,
house in the land.
Mr.. Smart next dWells at great
length upon his proposed plan for
reorgauizing the schools of OiiO O-the
plan of abOlishing sub-districts and
establishing County Superintendent
He contends that the money saved by
his plan will pay the salaries of the
eighty-eight County Superintendents
required, and the State still save from
$100, COO to SS00, 900 annually.
Briefly stated, this plan will abolish
Rll district and sub-districts except
city, village, and township districts.
The State will thus be organized for
school purposes into city, will age, and
township districts.
The city and village districts will
be as now. The township districts
will be sll tA3 territory within the
limits of each township, exclusive of
oity and village districts. The qusli-
fed electors OF each township district,
as the qualified electors of the city
and village districts now do, will
elect directly competent and judicious
persons to serve IS members Of the
Board OF Education, two fer one year,
two for two years, and two for three
years, and each succeeding year elect,
say, two, sto. Tnen each TOWNSHIP
BOsrd OF Education shall select one
of their number as S committeeman
who shall represent the township
district In the County Committee, or
board, composed Of one from each
township Board of Education in the
county. This County Committee, or
board, shall employ Superintendent
to supervise the township districts
within the county shall fix his SAL
ary and the levy to pay him and the
superintendent so employed shall be
to the County Committee as any 9TH
er emplOye TO his employer. The
County Superintendent shall hold a |
certificate Of extraordinary qualifiea-
ton, indicating scholastic attain |
ments and successful experience,
from the State Board OF Examiners,
which oertihcate will be valid only |
when eOqnteFsigned by the State |
Commissioner of schools.
YOUTH NOT IN THE SCHOOLS.
TWenty-four per cent. OF the youth |
OF school age in the State are, the |
Com missioner thinks, without school |
privileges that is "A per cent. do not
avail themselves of what is
held out to them. Toremedy
this Mr.. Smart advocates eoer.
Give education, aud argues the
matter with fuIlness and in extent. |
He recognizes the right OF the parent
to direct the course OF life the child
shall pursue, but as q certain amount
Of mental training and book knowl-
edge Is essential to success in any
course, he thinks the State should
compel that much to be given the |
child,
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. /
Under this head the Commissioner
says:
The school is department OF the
home, or q branch OF the family, and
the public school Is under the control
OF society or the St6te, inasmuch as
society or the State supports and fos-
ters II. II the public schools be as
nearly secularized as possible, they
will not be goddess In the sense the
charge is sometimes made. The dis
cipline received in the schools, in
culcating habits Of order and regular
ity, continuity Of effort, obedience to
authority, perseverance,,
etc., is something GER
tainly Of q basis upon which religious
character may be built.
Besides the development Of these
habits, the school, as nearly secular
lied as possible, may develop and
and fix the characteristics
Of truthfulness, self-relisnce, honor,
patience, ETC., and they thus go far !
toward laying the sure foundation up
on which the Church oan safely
build.
The public schools should OF be re- ,
4uired to do the work that telong
peculiarly to the Church.
1t seems quite an impossibillty in
his age for q public school to be with
but moral influence. II there should
sxist in any community school
which exeIts no moral influence, and !
IN which no moral instruction Is given /,
,uch school Is an injury to that COM !
and to all communities, since !,
he power Of influence reaches out
without limit. The public schools
Ihould impart moral instruction but :
moral instruction Is not religious in ;
truction. The former has to do with =
he relation OF man to his fellow, the J
after with the relations OF man to the :
iod Of his .aith, the God he wOrships. ;
The Church has to do with matters :
II faith, the schools with matters 90
.ial. Both grow out Of the necessities
Il the family.
Mr.. Smart would have been glad, l
loubt not, il he could have added the :
.rOwning feature to his otherwise no. .
lie report, by saying boldly that he
vas In favor OF q system Of morality =
)eing taught In schools, and OF the use 4
" the Bible as the best textbook on
morality; that religion Is as essential =
% the prosperity OF the State as
and that every days in I
truction Of the child should add some 7
hing 70 its religious life T; that our ;
athers, when they planted side by )
ide the altar and the school, placed
he Bible iu one as we'll as in the
,ther; and that their descendants, >
eeing in that Bible the fountain Of all :,
heir civil, social, and religious liberty, !.
hould solemnly maintain its honor, :
md suffer II TO be driven neither from =
he family, the Church, nor the =
choOl. 7. 8. :