menu_book Chapter 1

Part 1. First Annual Report of the Board of Education, March 1838. The Board of Education, created by an act of the legislature, approved 20 April 1887, asked permission to submit their first annual report. The Board held its first meeting in the Council Chamber in Boston on the 29th June 1837, authority having been given, by the law creating the Board, to appoint a secretary, the Honorable Horace Mann,

late President of the Senate of the Commonwealth, was elected by ballot to that office. It being provided that the secretary should receive a reasonable compensation for his services, not exceeding $1,000 per annum, it was unanimously agreed by the Board that this sum should be allowed as his salary. It being understood that he should devote himself exclusively to the duties of his office. On this subject, the Board will ask permission to make a few observations in the sequel of their report.

The duties of the Board, as prescribed by the statute, are, first, to prepare and lay before the legislature, in a printed form, on or before the second Wednesday in January, annually, an abstract of the school returns received by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and, second, to make a detailed report to the legislature of all their doings, with such observations as their experience and reflection may suggest,

upon the condition and efficiency of our system of popular education, and the most practicable means of improving and extending it. The first duty has been discharged. The Board, at an early day, confided to their secretary the duty of preparing an abstract of the school returns. This abstract has been duly submitted to the legislature in a highly convenient form.

The recapitulation, at its close, supersedes the necessity of presenting in this place any summary of its contents. Imperfect as such a document must necessarily be, it comprises a great amount of valuable information. The Board are of opinion that, by such improvements as experience may suggest, it will be in their power, if authority is granted to them, to render it still more instructive and useful. It is respectfully recommended that power be granted to the Board by the legislature

to direct such amendments in the mode and time of making the returns, and in the mode of keeping the school register, as will more effectually answer the purposes for which the returns are directed to be made. It is made the duty of the secretary, under the direction of the Board, to collect information of the actual condition and efficiency of the common schools and other means of popular education,

and to diffuse, as widely as possible, throughout every part of the commonwealth, information of the most approved and successful methods of arranging the studies and conducting the education of the young. The limited powers conferred on the Board left them scarce any discretion in the choice of the means, by which they could enable their secretary to discharge his duty as thus prescribed. It was necessary to depend almost exclusively on the voluntary cooperation of the people,

and no way suggested itself in which this cooperation could be given so effectually as through the medium of conventions, called in each county of the commonwealth, to be composed of teachers, school committee men, and the friends of education generally, deputed from the several towns to attend these conventions. The conventions were so arranged as to time as to be held successively at convenient intervals throughout the state,

in order that the presence of the secretary of the Board might be given at each county convention. It was the purpose of the Board that these meetings should also be attended by such members of their own body as from their place of residence were able conveniently to be present, and this, when other engagements permitted, has been done. In pursuance of these views, an address was issued by the Board to the people of the commonwealth,

a copy of which will be found subjoined to the report of the secretary herewith presented. By way of preparation for the county conventions, a series of questions was prepared by the secretary, and widely circulated throughout the commonwealth, for the purpose of drawing forth and concentrating information on the most important points connected with the subject of education.

A copy of these questions is also subjoined. At the appointed time, the circuit of the county conventions was commenced by their secretary, and the Board feel warranted in saying that his attendance and public addresses at these meetings were productive of the happiest effects. Seconded by an enlightened zeal for the improvement of education on the part of those by whom these conventions were attended,

it is believed that his services and efforts have been highly instrumental in awakening a new interest in the cause of school education. At the semi-annual meeting of the Board, on the first day of the present month, a detailed report of his proceedings was submitted by the secretary, with various observations on the leading topics which had engaged his attention in the discharge of his duty.

This document will be found appended to the present report, and the Board refer to it with great satisfaction as a result of the organization of the Board of Education for the first year of its existence in the highest degree creditable to its author, and likely to prove equally beneficial to the cause of education and acceptable to the people of the commonwealth. It is not the province of the Board of Education to submit to the legislature,

in the form of specific projects of law, those measures which they may deem advisable for the improvement of the schools and the promotion of the cause of education. That duty is respectfully left by the Board with the wisdom of the legislature and its committees, on whom it is by usage devolved. Neither will it be expected of the Board on the present occasion to engage in a lengthened discussion of topics

fully treated in the secretary's report, to which they beg leave to refer as embodying a great amount of fact, and the result of extensive observation skillfully generalized. The Board ask permission only to submit a few remarks on some of the more important topics connected with the general subject. One, as the comfort and progress of children at school depend, to a very considerable degree,

on the proper and commodious construction of schoolhouses, the Board ask leave to invite the particular attention of the legislature to their secretary's remarks on this subject. As a general observation, it is no doubt too true that the schoolhouses in most of the districts of the commonwealth are of an imperfect construction. It is apprehended that sometimes, at less expense than is now incurred, and in other cases by a small additional expense,

that schoolhouses much more conducive to the health and comfort and consequently to the happiness and progress of children might be erected. Nor would it be necessary in most cases, in order to introduce the desired improvements, that new buildings be constructed. Perhaps in a majority of cases the end might be attained to a considerable degree by alterations and additions to the present buildings. It is the purpose of the Secretary of the Board, as early as practicable,

to prepare and submit a special report on the construction of schoolhouses. When this document shall be laid before them, it will be for the legislature to judge whether any encouragement can with good effect be offered from the school fund, with a view to induce the towns of the commonwealth to adopt those improvements in the construction of schoolhouses, which experience and reason show to be of great practical importance in carrying on the business of education.

Very much of the efficiency of the best system of school education depends upon the fidelity and zeal with which the office of a school committee man is performed. The Board deem it unnecessary to dilate upon a subject so ably treated by their secretary. The difficulties to be surmounted before the services of able and faithful school committee men can be obtained, in perhaps a majority of the towns of the commonwealth, are confessedly great and various.

They can be thoroughly overcome only by the spirit of true patriotism, generously exerting itself toward the great end of promoting the intellectual improvement of fellow men. But it is in the power of the legislature to remove some of the obstacles. Among which not the least considerable is the pecuniary sacrifice involved in the faithful and laborious discharge of the duties of the school committee.

The Board have understood, with great satisfaction, that the subject has been brought before the House of Representatives. They know of no reason why the members of school committees should not receive a reasonable compensation, as well as other municipal officers, of whom it is not usually expected that they should serve the public gratuitously. There are none whose labors faithfully performed are of greater moment to the general well-being. The duties of a member of a school committee, if conscientiously discharged, are onerous,

and ought not to be rendered more so by being productive of a heavy pecuniary loss in the wholly unrequited devotion of time and labor to the public good. 3. The subject of the education of teachers has been more than once brought before the legislature and is of the very highest importance in connection with the improvement of our schools. That there are all degrees of skill and success on the part of teachers

is a matter of too familiar observation to need repetition, and that these must depend in no small degree on the experience of the teacher and in his formation under a good discipline and method of instruction in early life may be admitted, without derogating in any measure from the importance of natural gifts and aptitude in fitting men for this as for other duties of society.

Nor can it be deemed unsafe to insist that while occupations requiring a very humble degree of intellectual effort and attainment demand a long continued training, it cannot be that the arduous and manifold duties of the instructor of youth should be as well performed without as with a specific preparation for them. In fact, it must be admitted, as the voice of reason and experience,

that institutions for the formation of teachers must be established among us before the all-important work of forming the minds of our children can be performed in the best possible manner and with the greatest attainable success. No one who has been the witness of the ease and effect with which instruction is imparted by one teacher and the tedious pains-taking and unsatisfactory progress

which mark the labors of another of equal ability and knowledge and operating on materials equally good can entertain a doubt that there is a mastery in teaching as in every other art. Nor is it less obvious that within reasonable limits, this skill and this mastery may themselves be made the subject of instruction and be communicated to others.

We are not left to the deductions of reason on this subject. In those foreign countries where the greatest attention has been paid to the work of education, schools for teachers have formed an important feature in their systems and with the happiest result. The art of imparting instruction has been found, like every other art, to improve by cultivation in institutions established for that specific object.

New importance has been attached to the calling of the instructor by public opinion from the circumstance that his vocation has been deemed one requiring systematic preparation and culture. Whatever tends to degrade the profession of the teacher, in his own mind or that of the public, of course, impairs his usefulness and this result must follow from regarding instruction as a business

which in itself requires no previous training. The duties which devolve upon the teachers, even of our common schools, particularly when attended by large numbers of both sexes and of advanced years for learners, as is often the case, are various and difficult of performance. For their faithful execution no degree of talent and qualification is too great.

And when we reflect that in the nature of things, only a moderate portion of both can in ordinary cases be expected for the slender compensation afforded the teacher, we gain a new view of the necessity of bringing to his duties the advantage of previous training in the best mode of discharging them. A very considerable part of the benefit, which those who attend our schools might derive from them,

is unquestionably lost for want of mere skill in the business of instruction on the part of the teacher. This falls with a special hardship on that part of our youthful population who are able to enjoy but for a small portion of the year the advantage of the schools. For them it is of peculiar importance that from the moment of entering the school every hour should be employed

to the greatest advantage and every facility in imparting knowledge and every means of awakening and guiding the mind be put into instant operation. And where this is done, two months of schooling would be as valuable as a year passed under a teacher destitute of experience and skill. The board cannot but express the sanguine hope that the time is not far distant when the resources

of public or private liberality will be applied in Massachusetts for the foundation of an institution for the formation of teachers in which the present existing defect will be amply supplied. There is no doubt that if neat editions of books suitable for common school libraries were published and sold at a very moderate rate, plainly and

substantially bound, and placed in cases well adapted for convenient transportation, the number of books that were published and sold at a very moderate rate would be extremely high. If the library was to be used for transportation and afterwards to serve as the permanent place of deposit, it would induce many of the districts in the

commonwealth to exercise the power of raising money for school libraries. A beginning once made, steady progress would in many cases be sure to follow. Where circumstances did not admit the establishment of a library in each district successively, but it would be highly desirable that each school house should be furnished with a case and shelves suitable for the proper

arrangement and safekeeping of books. The want of such a provision makes it almost impossible to begin the collection of a library, and where such provision is made, the library would be nearly sure to receive a steady increase. Although the board are of opinion that nothing would more promote the cause of education among us than the

introduction of libraries into our district schools, they have not deemed it advisable to recommend any measure looking to the preparation of a series of volumes of which such a library should be composed and their distribution at public expense. Whatever advantages would belong to a library consisting of books and books of its own purpose, obvious difficulties and dangers would attend

such an undertaking. The board deem it far more advisable to leave this work to the enterprise and judgment of publishers who would no doubt find it for their interest to make preparations to satisfy a demand for district school libraries in the way above indicated. In this connection, the board would be of the opinion that good might unquestionably be affected by the publication

of a periodical journal or paper of which the exclusive object should be to promote the cause of education, especially of common school education. Such a journal, conducted on the pure principles of Christian philanthropy, of rigid abstinence from party and sect, secretly devoted to the one object to collecting and diffusing information on this subject, to the discussion of

the numerous important questions which belong to it, to the formation of a sound and intelligent public opinion and the excitement of a warm and energetic public sentiment in favor of our schools, might render incalculable service. The board are decidedly of the opinion that a journal of this description would be the most valuable auxiliary which could be devised to carry into

execution the enlightened policy of the government in legislating for the improvement of schools, and they indulge a sanguine hope that its establishment will shortly be witnessed. The subject of school books is perhaps one of the more immediate and pressing interest. The multiplicity of school books and the imperfection of many of them

are the greatest evils at present felt in our common schools. The board know of no way in which this evil could be more effectually remedied than by the selection of the best of each class now in use and a formal recommendation of them by the board of education. Such a recommendation would probably cause them to be generally adopted,

but should this not prove effectual and the evil be found to continue, it might be expedient to require the use of the books thus recommended as a condition of receiving a share of the benefit of the school fund. The foregoing observations are all that now occur to the board of education as proper to be made to the legislature in connection with the improvement of

our common schools. They beg leave to submit an additional remark on the subject of their own sphere of operations. The board is confident from the nature of the case that much of the efficiency and usefulness of the board must depend on the zeal and fidelity of its secretary and that it is all important to command in this office the services

of an individual of distinguished talent and unquestioned character. No other qualifications will inspire the confidence generally of the people, and without that confidence it is impossible that his labors or those of the board will be successful. The board asks permission to state that they deem themselves very fortunate

in having engaged the services of a gentleman so highly qualified as their secretary to discharge the interesting duties of his trust, and they respectfully submit to the legislature the expediency of raising his compensation to an amount which could more fairly be regarded as a requirement of all of his time.

The board also think that a small allowance should be made for the contingent expenses of the secretary in the discharge of his duties, such as postage, stationary, and occasional clerk hire. It is just, however, to add that this proposal for an increase of salary is made wholly without suggestion on the part of the secretary.

In conclusion, the board would tender their acknowledgments to their fellow citizens, who, by attending on the meetings of the county conventions, or in any other way, have afforded their cooperation in the promotion of the great cause of popular education. At most of these meetings, permanent county conventions for the improvement

of education have been organized. Spirited addresses have in almost every case emanated from the county meetings, well calculated to impart vigor and warmth to the public interest and influence to the cause of education. On the whole, the board have reason to hope that an impulse has been given

to the public mind on the subject of education from which valuable effects may be anticipated. It will be their strenuous effort, under the auspices of the legislature, and as far as the powers vested in them extend, to encourage and augment the interest which has been excited.

The board will be very pleased to hear that, as they shall acquire experience, that their labors will become more efficient. They do not flatter themselves that great and momentous reforms are to be effected at once. Where the means employed are those of calm appeal to the understanding and

the heart, a gradual and steady progress is all that should be desired. The schools of Massachusetts are not everything that we could wish, but the reason will not be uttered in vain. Experience, clearly stated in its results, will command respect, and the board entertain a confident opinion that the increased attention given to

the subject will result in making our system of common school education fully worthy of the intelligence of the present day and of the ancient renown of Massachusetts. All which is respectfully submitted by the board.