The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-04-20
Notes on Education.

The kindergarten system has been in
troduced in the government schools for
girls in China.
BILLS are now pending in the Ohio
Legislature to prevent the too frequent
change of text in the public schools.
THE Minnesota Legislature has passed
a bill providing for uniform system of
textbooks in the public schools, and
giving the monopoly for fifteen years to
any publisher who shall give assurance
of furnishing books to every scholar at
half the present trade prices.
THE bill for compulsory education has
passed the Ohio Legislature. The law
will take effect on the 1st of next Septem-
Der, and compels all children in the State
between and IA years of age to attend
school at least 10 weeks in each year. not
less than 6 weeks of such attendance to
be consecutive.
MIR. ARUNAH HUNTINGTON, of Brant-
ford, Ontario, a native of Vermont, died
few days ago and left most of his prop
erty for the support Of the common
schools in his native State. An inventory
of the estate just made indicates that the
property is worth about 100000, but as
$4,000 of it or more are invested in real
estate, it is doubtful whether, by the old
English law, it can be devised for the
purpose mentioned in the will.
THE report of Superintendent Riddle
on the condition of the public schools
of New York City, makes strong show
ing against the efficiency of the Com
pulsory Education act. The average
salary of the $500 teachers employed in
the public schools Of that city is $S43,
and the highest salary which the most
accomplished and thoroughly qualified
principal can reach after years of labor
is $4,000. AT present there are 40 male
principals who receive the maximum
amount.
THE University Of South Carolina, at
Columbia, is sadly neglected. The pleasant
grounds are untidily kept, two or three
of the main buildings are fast going to
ruin, doors and windows are broken, and
some of the rooms are abiding places for
the owls and the bats. The white stu
dents all quit it when, a few years since,
the first colored student was admitted.
Meanwhile, the black Legislature, which
has it in charge, seems to forget that
education is not won with an admission
paper to college.
E. d. MANSFIELD, Ii. D., writing in
the Cincinnati Gaxette on compulsory
Education" says of the $4,000 voters in
Ohio who cannot read: 1--WE can find
twice $4,000 who are far more dangerous
men than. they are. We venture to say
that every man engaged in the Cincinnati
frauds can read and write we'll and un-
derstands the constitution and laws of
election quite as we'll as some Cincinnati
lawyers. We do want education. We
want it higher and better; but we want
the education Of moral obligation more
than we do that of good handwriting
or treatise on bookkeeping"
The Harvard Faculty are discussing at
the present time a radical change in the
requirements for admission. Heretofore
candidates for admission have been
obliged to read prescribed amount of
classic literature before entrance, and the
particular authors-as Virgil, six books
of the Eneid; Homer, three books
of the Iliad, etc.-have been desig
mated. 1t is now proposed that to
enter college students must be able to
answer test questions and to read at sight
from Homer, Virgil, Ovid, and similar
writers, without reference to the actual
work they may have done to tit them
selves for admission.