The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-02-10
THE EVENING SCHOOLS.
What Good Work President Turner Says
They are Doing.

In communication addressed to Mr..
w. H. Brownson, chairman of committee
on evening schools, Principal Levi Turner
says:
From the great interest you have taken
in the evening school, and the marked
assistance you have been to its organiza-
ton and progress, feel it due YOU and
the other promoters of this new depart
ure that a brief statement should be
made at this time showing what ex-
perienees we have had in starting this
school. it's present condition and future
prospects. Exc lusive of the department
for ladies, we have registered the names
of 205 men and boys, ranging in ages
from II or 13 years old to 45 or so. The
large number of names registered indi-
Gates at once how many there are in our
| city who could be benefited by this
school, should they choose to avail them
selves of it's advantages. Of the number
registered about 125 attend with vary
| ing degrees of regularity, SO that on an
average we have from 80 to 80 in attend
ance every evening, and sometimes as
| high as 100. There are 80 or more upon
| whose presence every evening we can
count with certainty, and this number is
so evenly distributed through all the
rooms that each teacher is never without
sufficient pupils for good sessions
| work.
There was some little difficulty at first
in classifying, owing to the variety of
subjects desired to be pursued and the
diversity of attachments of the candidates
for the several classes. Inasmuch as
arithmetic seemed the favorite study of
the majority, a classification into four
divisions, using this study as criterion,
was made. In the first division 80 have
been registered; in the second, Sc; in the
third, 49, and in the fourth, 80. The first
division began at Properties of Numbers
in the advanced arithmetic and will prob
ably complete the manual by the end of
the term. The second division began in
the elementary treatise with the funda-
mental rules n review and are now at
work in fractions. The third division be-
gau at the first of the elementary work
and have worked over the fundamental
rules. The fourth division is made up of
those who could neither read nor write
at time of entering the school, of whose
progress I will speak later. The subjects
formally pursued and taught are as fol-
lows: Reading, spelling, perlnanship,
arithmetic and bookkeeping Besides
these regular incidentally with
readlng ana Spelllng-puncTuatlOn capl-
talization, and the elements of practical
grammar and rhetoric are taught, and
along with the instruction in penmanship,
an elementary knowledge of the more
common commercial papers and the prac-
teal part of the technique of letter writing.
The two hours from seven until nine
are divided into three recitation periods,
and SO earnest are our pupils for work
and so great are the opportunities for it
that there seems to be no demand or
necessity for respites or intermissions,
and SO we have none. desire to recog-
nize the good judgement of the School
Committee in seecting so able corps of
assistants for me.
In the school for young women, at the
Casco street school house, over fifty
pupils have been registered, but the
average attendance is not more than half
that number, owing to the cold weather
and the distance that many of the pupils
have to come. Some of the young women
are able to do questions in arithmetic
beyond fractions, while others are work
ing in multiplication and long division.
Still others. are diligently learning to
read, using the second and third readers.
The teachers are taking great interest
in their work and the pupils fully appre-
ciate the efforts made in their behalf.