Arizona silver belt., 1893-09-16
FREE SCHO0LBOOKS.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE UNIQUE sYs-
 ITEM OF BROOKLYN.

Out Pupils For Thoir stpdios How the
 Requisitions Are Biade Up,
 The thanks of nearly 100000 public school pupils of Brooklyn and their par eRts are due to the board of education for at least one of Che features of that body's administration--the free book system. Itis f fact tnotcommonly known that tho pupils of the public schools in this city are furnished with all the outfit of books, slates and paper necessary throughout their course at school free of charge. To do this entails an expense of about $1O0,0 every year and vast deal of work in procuring and distributing the required supplies Only one other city in the state, that of New York, treats its school children as munifcent- ly. The system has been in vogue in Brooklyn forsome years and is found to be so satisfactory that no change is ex- peoted or even considered at all
 The books used in this city's schools are selected by the board of edueation's committee on studies, who report their selections to the full board for confillna- tion before the books are finally listed. There arc now on the catalogue of text books and works of whatever sort for which need is found to exist in the schools upward of ,000 different kinds of books ranging from primers to ab- struse works on philosophy The list includes a variety of nlgebras. arithme- tics, books on astrohuny, bookkeeping, chemistry, civil government, compost tion and rhetoric, dictionaries in Eng lish and several other languages, books on elocutiou, etymology, geography, ge- onetry, grammGr, history, languages, literature, methods of teaching, physiol- ogy, readers, maps, charts, copy books, drawing books, music books and charts, science and natural philosophy and sup plementary readers
 The modus operandi of getting the right books ill the right quantities to tho several schools is this; The principal of a school makes up from reports furnished by his subortiinates a requisition which is written out on blank form with the titles of the books, grades for which they are to beused. and the price of each book, and the total for the whole acquisition, Demands for maps, globes, charts, die tionaries, blackbowds, jauitors' supplies, etc.. must bo approved by the chairnon of the local committees The Iequisi- ! tions after passing the committee on li- 1 braries arc sent to the secretary of the board of educatiou George c. Brown, who controls the distribution of the sup | plies for the schools.
 The acquisitions arc tabulated once q week, and upon tue basis of the result | of the tabulation orders are made out l upon the publishers. Lack of room for 1 the storage of the supplies and scarcity 1 of money forbid any considerable quan- ! tity of books being carried in stock. All the books are delivered at the boolzroom i in the office building of the board of ed ucation, where they Rre counted, and each one is stamped Property Board of 1 Education, City of Brooklyn" and en- i tered on the receiving book. The clerks make up the orders for the several schools, and the packages are sent tc | their destinations by express.
 A separate account of books received and returned is kept at the headquarters | of the board of education with each school. The books are charged to Che principals, who in turn charge them tc the teachers, the latter keeping track oi the disposition of the volumes among | 4La ,.,.s1, NNTy.,, 4k, 1,r-l-, l,,,.,,,,,, ,,., fit for use, they are turned in and re, bound if expensive, and if cheap sold for waste paper. All books when they cannot be used any longer, whether fl ] for rebinding or not, must be returned | to the board of education. If pupils willfully destroy them, they are obliged to pay for others to replace the books de. stroyed In the case of books lost by pupils the teachers are vested with a cer. tain degree of discretionary power touching what measures if any shall bC taken to make good the loss.
 How long the average schoolbook lasts is a matter for speculation. The life oi the average book differs with thelocality of the school and the character of tht l pupils. In some sections, for instance j the books are converted into plaything. | for the baby at home. while in other' the greatest pride is manifested in pre- serving the books clean and unimpaired So, too,. a geography of a good kinC will last frequently several years, wlilC one season of work is generally the limit of endurance of primer Whatever ] may be the total number of books usei up in a year, it is certain that the em ployees of the board who handle theu haven't an oyerplus of leisure. From the middle of January till March three express wagons are kept constantly or the move distributing the packages t. the schools,
 Tine number of pupils on register i hbsut 96,C00, SO that the per capita cos for books is only little oyer@l per year Tn tho primary grades, whore 3 iarg portion of the total registry is found many of the youngsters require only sl2tes Gad primers Higher up, however in the grammar schools and high schools the cost of books for each pupil, if i were lot boIue by the board, wouli range from S3 or $4 10 S7 or &8 per year sothat the free book system ia universally regarded as boou to tho public schoo children Brooklyn Eagle.
 CfaGis on IlairoHtJng.
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