Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-06-10

vices of those best fitted for this impor-
tant work. The constant desire for pro-
motion to grades which have a living
salary, draws away those who
would attain distinction if
they could afford to make primary work
special study. The appointment of a
primary principal for each building, in
addition to supervising principal, is a
step in the right direction, and gives us
none too much supervision. 1t is the
next best thing to the selection OF the
most refined and cultured teachers for
the lowest grades, and if these places are
properly filled it gives one teacher of
marked ability in each building, whose
influence can be felt in every primary
school.
Our school accommodations, which
have been sorely taxed for the last few
years, will. when the buildings now in
process of erection are completed, be ade-
quate to our present needs. The Board
is building this summer, including the
High school and building in Terry's
addition, five school houses. These will
add twenty eight school rooms, and over
fifteen hundred sittings to our school ac-
commodations. With the present growth
of the city, however, these buildings will
not be sufficient for any great length of
time. Next year provision should be made
| for the erection of larger building in the
| Rice school district, another school
house in the Sixth ward, and one in the
| Fourth precinct of the Fourth ward, west
of the track of the Short Line railroad.
Our enrolment is increasing about 800
pupils annually and while this continues
| tl,o Doord y,,I,cf oynoct N hI1i1H at least
one large school house each year, in order
to supply proper facilities to ALL AS the
new buildings will not be completed at
the time fixed by the rules for the open
| ing of the schools in the autumn, as the
Franklin school will not probably be
ready for occupancy, and the Adams
will he demolished preparatory to the
erection of the new High school, the
propriety of opening the schools at as late
period as possible consistent with fin
ishing the school year by the first Of July,
1882, is suggested.
The year Just closing has been pros
porous one for our schools. That they
are improving and doing better work
year by year, is confidently asserted. Our
plan of frequent Redistribution is be-
lievcd to be in accord with the latest de-
velopments of educational science. No
pupil is prevented from advancing when
prepared for further progress, and our
classes are arranged with short intervals
between them, so that Individual promo
lions are possible, and as matter Of fact
are frequent. Thus our schools are re-
deemed from the prevailing tendency to
mechanism and routine which is the bane
of the graded system. The experiment
| ~ &c l., arfr, Af al
music into our course, made one year
ago, has been successful With
all the difficulties attending the
introduction of new branch OF
study, many of which will not exist an
other year, the progress made toward a
systematic course of vocal training Is
commendable. Vocal music is and will
continue to be part of the daily pro-
gramme of every well conducted school
Under the supervision of competent
special teacher this feature of the eXer-
cises of our schools is made profitable
and at very slight expense we ensure
much better results than when it is left
to the unskillful efforts of the grade
teacher Without any additional expense
to the Board, under the supervision OF
the superintendent of penmanship, be-
ginning has been made in instruction il
drawing, with most satisfactory results
Without the adoption of any regular sys
tenn, work was commenced with such ma
terial as was at hand. The original de-
signs of pupils which have been PLACED
on exhibition in the rooms of the BoarC
of Education compare favorably Will
any that [ have seen from Othel
cities where the facilities are much bet
ter, and in several instances they have
fur missed copies to artiZans of our city
for their work. At time when the pop
ular feeling is so strongly in favor OF
whatever seems to fit children for indus
trial pursuits, little need be said of the
practical Importance of a training thai
. conditions complete success in any man
ual employment. In order that our work
in this direction may be more systematic
some system of drawing should be adopt
cd and with this done, the instruction
may be continued for another year, as il
the past, without the expense of a special
teacher. 1t is well in planning course!
ofstudy for our public schools, TO guard
against the tendency to attempt toe
much but certainly the culture of the
eye and the hand, which must precede
all mental discipline, does not savol
of undue expansion. Music and draw
ing, as taught in our schools, are practi
cal and not ornamental branches. In the
words of DR.. A. D. Mayo, of the Neu
England Journal Of Education, "Tht
truth is, that the introduction of music
and drawing was not originally the at
tachment Of an ornamental appendage tt
the old, but the dawning of new system
upon the schools of America 1t meant
that, henceforth, the exclusive attention
to drill and cram in school-book knowl-
edge should be gradually enlarged into
the attempt to awaken the latent powers
of the mind, heart and imagination; tc
thoroughly arouse the whole boy or CIR
to the love and pursuit of truth, and tc
begin that training of the finer elements
of character which lifts mere information
into the realm of culture. Even in the
imperfect and impractical way IN which
these branches are taught in some quar-
tiers they still stand to the children for 9
new life in the barren old school-room-
a life in which flowers, and
sunshine, and fresh air, and song,
and beautiful faces, and Christian disci-
pine take the place of force and druid
gerry and the mere stimulation of the in
telect. The change brought in by the
advent of these ornamental branches,
is precisely equivalent to the change pro-
duced in the health of a family in some
of our western cities, by removing from
a house upon the shady side of the street
to a home on the sunny side. The whole
morale of the school life has thereby been
lifted up, and school keeping has become
a higher and better thing than of old
So when, now a-days, grad-grind pol
icy of economy or materialistic
theory of education casts the school back
upon the old methods, change comes
over the scholars and the teachers like
that from breezy and sunny forenoon
on the coast, to an afternoon of leaden
cloud and east wind And since, of all