Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-20
NOT IN THE SCHOOLS.
Number Of Pupils Not in Line With
the Growth of Population,
PARTICULARLY IN THE CITIES.
Features Shown in the Report Of the State
Superintendent.
THE RECOMMENDATIONS THAT ARE MADE

County School Superintendent Hamilton
has received the annual report of State
School Superintendent D. ]. Waller, Jr,
and it contains considerable mental food for
digestion. The number of pupils in the
| public schools was 969, ,5o6, an increase of
4,O62, Notwithstanding falling off in Phila-
delphia of 2,0s3. This emphasizes the i'm
| portant fact that while the population of the
| State during the decade between 1880 and
1890 increased about % per cent and the
population of the cities nearly 43 per cent,
the increase in the public schools is but II
per cent
This moves the Superintendent to say that
'tthe dangerous disturbances arising from
rapid immigration. and from the crowding
of vast numbers of the disorderly and illit-
crate into our cities, make it one of the most
important duties resting upon our citizens
to have statute enacted meeting as far as
possible the difficulties always attending
compulsory attendance, but providing that
every child in Pennsylvania between and
16 years of age must be sent to school, or
have instructions and training equivalent to
that given in the public schools"
The number OF schools is @, 1884, an increase
of 519; the number of teachers, "a, 925, an in
crease of 432; the increase in the number Of
graded schools is 100; in the number of
schools supplying free text books, 391; in the
salary of male teachers, IS cents per month;
increase in salary of female teachers, 36
cents per month. The total expenditure,
including buildings, was S13,51S, ,7Os 9s, an
- H. %aI Ina
of public school property is $S5, s37 1894 "a.
One of the Difficulties Encountered.
Speaking of the difficulty of grading
schools where families and schools are
widely separated, Superintendent Waller
states that the plan now on trial in some
parts of Massachusetts, of having one central
building for all the schools of the district
and of providing conveyances at public ex-
pense for all children will be watched with
interest The friends of the experiment
assert that the expense of conveyance is
fully met BY the sum saved by consolida-
tion. He observes that while economy of
administration, etc, attend graded schools,
they are accompanied BY the special dangers
that always attend the fitting of free agents
and unequal minds into the same grooves and
molds. The interest of the individual and
the apparent interest of the system are
often at variance and the natural tendency
is toward the sacrifice of the former.
The failure of the bill in the last Legisla-
ture for an increase of superintendents is
deplored, as full supervision is impossible
where one superintendent has from 800 to
600 schools under his charge. There are
about the latter number in this county, and
the State Superintendent appears to have
heard of the condition of the roads near
Oakdale, where a milkman was prosecuted
last week for leaving the road and going
through field, and subsequently prose-
cuted by an agent of the Humane Society
for attempting to get his milk to the rail-
way station on a road on which taxes are
annually expendend. A school superin-
tendent travels at the risk of his life in dis
tricts where the oil drillers have been at
work. -
Directors organizations are encouraged
on the ground that two heads or more are
better than one, though some may be sheep
heads.
nly-ventilated Schoolhouses
There are still several thousand lily
ventilated school houses in the State and it
is suggested that, as in Massachusetts,
factory inspectors should be empowered to
require expenditure sufficient to provide
pure air.
Taking into consideration the increase in
the State appropriation it is regarded as a
fitting time to lengthen the school term.
The testimony shows that the average
attendance in 1887 with minimum attend
ance of five months, was exactly the same az
in 1890 with a minimum of months and
urged as complete refutation of the obiec-
tion that parents will not generally send
their children throughout the term.
if they can be proftably employed
at home. As to the distribu-
tion of State aid, it is urged
care of sparsely settled sections which are
not able to give the same advantages as
those densely populated. 1t is suggested
that more liberal provision may be made by
appropriating to each district levying tax
of at least 10 mills for school purposes a
fixed sum, 500 for instance, for each teacher
employed not less than six months at not
less than S25 a month, and distributing the
remainder on the present basis. 1t is held
that this arrangement would not work hard
ship to the populous districts, as Cameron
county education, with 1, 800 pupils and 63
teachers, at a cost of 81 20 per pupil per
would receive 81, $50 on the basis suggested,
while Allegheny county, with ~. 500 pupils
and 800 teachers, cost perpupil being 81 O8
per month. would get $500, 1000. '.If it be
objected that this basis will constitute a
temptation to employ more teachers than
are really needed. it may be replied that
sufficient check will be found in the tax
that would have to be laid to pay salaries
of S25 or more"
Tho Bane Of the System.
The Superintendent says the bane of our
system is the inadequate support of
good teachers. He advocates three steps
in the direction of reform; length
ening the term in short-term dis
tricts, raising salaries and restricting bv
statute the number of provisional certif-
Gates He quotes the father of the school
system: This certificate of incompetency
has been suffered to grow into graded
certificate of some respectability, and
teachers who were not fully competent were
thus permanently engrafted on the system.
County institutes are styled great educa-
tional revivals and the State normal schools
are recommended to the fostering care of
the Legislature. The extension of school
Libraries in sections where the English
language is not generally spoken is
recommended as bringing the minds
of the unassimilated under the influ-
ences of advanced thought, and calculated
to make them good citizens. Mr..
Waller has good word for manual train
ing, and fine text books, which he
regards as the most satisfactory So
luton of the problem of uni
formity of text books. The number of
from ]. .517 in 1890 to !, 9OS in 1891 The ad-
vantages cited are the diminishing of cost
nearly 80 per cent; the enabling teachers
to classify pupils readily and begin work
promptly, as we'll as facilitate progress bv
enabling the teachers to change them in the |