Sixth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of California

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Excerpt from Sixth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of California: For the School Years 1874 and 1875On the other hand, there is a decrease of 82 per cent in the enroll ment of census children in public schools, a decrease of per cent in the average number of census children belonging to public schools, a decrease of per cent in the number of census children in daily attendance at public schools, and an increase of 9l per cent in the number of census children who do not attend school during the school year. Again, while the total number of children - including those over seventeen years of age - who have attended public schools at any time during the school year, is twenty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-seven more than in eighteen hundred and seventy-three, yet the average number belonging, i. 3. Children who attend school long enough that they can be considered as pupils, is increased by only eight thou sand two hundred and forty-two, and the average daily attendance is increased by only eight thousand five hundred and sixty-six!In relief to this showing of our educational statistics, I must note a great advance in the number of first grade schools, i. E., high schools, grammar schools, and schools in which high school and grammar grade studies are taught in addition to the lower grade studies, the greater number of teachers holding high grade certificates, in the better sala ries paid to lady teachers, in the greater amount of funds spent for school apparatus, one half of our districts being now supplied, at least partly, with apparatus. Much remains yet to be done, however, in the equip ment of school houses, for one fifth of our districts have not yet even the outhouses demanded by decency, three fourths of the districts have not suitably improved school grounds, one half of the districts do not furnish their schools with the necessary apparatus, and nearly one half of the districts have not furnished their school-rooms with improved furniture.On the whole, however, the statistical exhibits are very satisfactory and encouraging. There are limits beyond which statistics cannot go. To paraphrase a saying of Napoleon I, Statistics mean the keeping of an exact account of the cost of education, but no statistics will show the educational outcome realized from our system. It is, therefore, not strange, that whilst our statistics show remarkable progress, there is, on the other hand, a very general impression abroad, that in the vital part of our system - the education of our children - there is no progress, and that no progress is possible until a radical change has been made in our system of education. I have, therefore, devoted considerable space to the discussion of the changes, as I see them, necessary to be made in our system of instruction. I have done more, I have for very many subjects given an extended description of the method of handling the subject. The opinion gains daily more ground, that an educational report should, in addition to the necessary statistics. Give an account of the education demanded by the wants of the age, the correct methods of handling the different subjects of instruction, in short, that a report should be a hand-book for educators. Hence it will be found that our State reports leave the more or less sterile discussion of statistics, and turn their attention more and more to the internal economy of our schools: the qualification of our teachers, the subjects of study taught, and'the manner of teaching them, the text-books required, the adapting of our instruction to the every-day wants of life, etc.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com