The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-02-09

pressing neeQS or the SCHOOLS, tFudIllS and incorrigible children, and the Jamestown exhibit.
 Under the important subject of school accommodation reference is made to the opening of three new school build ings during the present school year, viz, the Scranton street school of eighteen rooms. the kimberly avenue school of eight rooms and the Wood i ward school of eight rooms. These school buildings have greatly relieved the congestion in quarters where they are located, so that there are at present fewer congested spots in the city than has been the case for several years. Notwithstanding the opening of these buildings this year, the report states that for the past seven years the in- crease in the number of pupils over the increase in provision made for pupils has been about LOGO At the present time eighteen outside rooms are in use. Provision has been made for an eight een-room building in the Winchester district which will make it possible to close nine of these out side rooms in that district. The report states that the an- nual increase in the number of children is about 7O0 and that a new school building every year is an absolute ne- cessity for the schools,
 In dealing with the contemplated building in the Wooster district the re- port speaks of the peculiar conditions existing in that section of the city. It is a foreign district with a rapidly-in- creasing population, and large school accommodations are needed to provide for the rapidly-increasing number of children. A new school building of eighteen or twenty-four rooms should be erected next year, so situated as to relieve the entire territory bounded by State street, Mill river and the water front. Owing to the peculiar conditions in this district the superintendent rec ommends that special provision be made in this building for meeting these conditions. Nearly all the children leave school at fourteen and go to work very few of them reach the high school. The education which they Ter ceive therefore, in the primary and grammar schools is practically all the COQNcllOl. lllClL llASy IGGEIfGs 1llG IG~ port recommends that in the proposed building provision be made for kin dergarten, and that there be provided manual workroom for boys, cooking room for girls, gymnasium, baths and an assembly room, All of these are important features for building in this district, and can be introduced without large additional cost
 In discussing the work of the public schools the report states that, although the work of the schools is very imper- feet and criticisms are frequently made, yet on the whole American con- munities are settling down to the belief that the present tendencies in school work are needful and wise, and that this work is being thoughtfully and lH Heonscientiously done. As evidence that \ the work of the schools of the present day is of better quality than that of the past, the report states that com parison recently made between sets of papers in penmanship collected ten years ago and sets collected very re- gently from the same rooms shows that the penmanship of the schools of to- day is much. superior to the work done a decade ago. College records also show that college students who prepare for college in the public schools do bet ter grade of intellectual work in college than those who prepare in private and endowed schools This is true in no particular institutions, but in colleges in general. President Eliot, of Har- ward, in a recent report, after speaking of the large number of honors taken at Harvard by graduates of public high schools, says:
 These facts, as far as they go, tend to prove that the product of the public schools has more character and power of work than the product of oth- CT schools"
 The report in its discussion cites an- other interesting incident in the his tory of school work. Not long ago there were found in the office of the superintendent of schools, Springfield, Mass, sets of examination papers in several different subjects given to pu- pills of the high school of that city in 1S46. With the questions were papers written by the pupils answering the questions. After the discovery of these papers the questions were given to the pupils in the ninth grade in Springfield, and short time ago the same ques- tions were given to all the eighth grade pupils in the schools of New Ha- ven.
 In spelling the pupils in the recent test stood considerably higher than the pupils Wh took the examinations in 1S46 Tn arithmetic, the examinations recently passed were greatly superior to those of the former date. After dis cussing at length this subject, the re- port says, After looking over tlfese re- suits, one cannot help feeling some doubt as to the superior work some- times said to have been done in arth- metic and spelling in the schools of the good old days" The report adds that evidence obtained shows that the schools of the present day are not only doing as good work in the three Rs as oldtime schools, but that also much additional work is being done, which is of great value and interest to the pu- pills
 Under Special Branches" the ques- tion is asked Are our schools at- tempting to teach too much?" the an- swer to this question is that no theor- etical answer can be given, but that practical experience in school work must decide. Allusion is made to the investigation in New York city last