Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1893-11-21
FREE SCHOOLGIRLS.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE UNIQUE sYs-
TEN OF BROOKLYN.

The Board of Education of the City Spends
Nearly 500. 900 Every Year In Fitting
Out Pupils For Their st1dIes-How the
Regulations Are Made Up
The thanks of nearly 100, 600 public
school pupils of Brooklyn and their par
ents are due to the board of education
for at least one Of the features of that
body's administration-the free book
system 1t is fact not commonly known
that the pupils of the public schools in
this city are furnished with all the outfit
of books, states and paper necessary
throughout their course at school free Of
charge. To do this entails an expense of
about 800, 900 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. Tho system has been in vogue in
Brooklyn for some years and is found to
be so satisfactory that no change is ex-
pected or even considered at all.
The books used in this citys schools
are selected by the board of education's
committee on studies. who report their
selections to the full board for confirlna-
ton before the books are finally listed.
There are now on the catalogue of text
books and works of whatever sort for
which need is found to exist in the
schools upward of 1000 different kinds
of books ranging from primers to alb
struse works on philosophy. The list
f,,rlr,Iaa sa+. - oil, ar.&hr,,a-
tics, books On astronomy, bookkeeping,
chemistry, civil government, compost
ton and rhetoric, dictionaries in Eng
hsh and several other languages, books
on elocution, etymology, geography, ge-
ometry, grammar. 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
Elementary readers.
The modrs operandi of getting the
right books in tine right quantities to the
several schools is this: The principal of
a school makes up from reports furnished
by his subordinates requisition which
is written out on blank form with the
titles of the books, grades for which they
are to be used, and the price of each book,
and the total for the whole reQuisition.
Demands for maps, globes, charts, die
tionaries, blackboards, janitors' supplies,
etc, must be approved by the chairmcn
of the local committees. The reQuis;-
lions after passing the committee on il
braries are sent to the secretary of It's
board of education. George G. Brown.
who controls the distribution of the sup
plies for the schools.
The acquisitions are tabulated once d
week, and upon the basis of the result
of the tabulation orders are made out
upon the publishers. Lack of room for
the storage of the supplies and scarcity
| of money forbid any considerable guam
tity OF books being carried in stock. An
the books are delivered at the boo1room
| in the office building of the board of cd
I ucation, where they are counted. and
each one is stamped Property Board OF
Education. City of Brooklyn" and En-
/ tered on the receiving book. The clerks
make up the orders for the several
schools, and the packages are sent to
/ their destinations by express.
] \ separate account of books received
and returned is kept at the headquarter.
| of the board of education with each
! school The books are charged 10 the
! principals, who in turn charge them &c
the teachers, the latter keeping track OF
| the disposition Of the volumes among
the pupils, When the books become IN
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 reminding or not, must be returned
3 81, -
willfully destroy them, they are Obliged
to pay for others 10 replace the books de
| stroyed. In the case of books lost by
/ pupils the teachers are vested with Ger.
! tain degree of discretionary power
touching what measures if any shall be
I taken to make good the loss
How long the average schoOlbOOk lasts
! is matter for speculation The life OF
/ the average book differs with the locality
/ of the school and the character of the
pupils. In some sections, for instance
the books are converted into playthings
/ for the baby at home. while in Others
the greatest pride is manifested in pre-
serving the books clean and unimpaired
So, too, u geography of a good kind
will last frequently several years, while
one season of work Is generally the limit
/ OF endurance Of n primer. Whatever
may be the total number Of books used
up in year, it is certain that the EN-,
| ployees of the board who handle them
haven't an overplus of leisure From
the middle of January till March thres
express wagons are kept constantly or
the move distributing the packages tC
. the schools.
The number of pupils on register !:
about 96, coo. SO that the Per capita cost
for books is only little over 81 per year
In the primary grades, where a largt
portion of the total registry is found
many of the youngsters require only
states and primers. Higher up. however
in the grammar schools and high school:
the cost Of books for each pupil. if il
were not borne by the board. would
range from 50 or 81 to 81 or s. per year
so that the free book system is universally
regarded as boon TO the public schcO
extraordinarily Eagle
| Cranks HaireuttinE-
The crank On the subject IF haircut
ting-you've all met him' The worst
form of haircutting crankism is proba
bly, the man with 4 PCeTical fancy, whC