The only test of your knowledge of English pronunciation in this examination will be in your ability to write correctly the passage dictated. In preparing for the examination, therefore, I would advise you above all to practice the translation of simple sentences back and forth from Spanish into English and from English into Spanish, and to read as much as you can in the first and second Standard Readers to be found in your schools. You will be notified individually of the result of your examination by mail, and the mark which you obtained, although it may be as much as a month or more after the date fixed for the examination before these marks can be sent to you.

Come on June 7 with a feeling of assurance that, having done the best you can, you will cheerfully show us what progress you are making in English. Urge your friends to come and take the examination in the same spirit of loyal cooperation in what the department is trying to do for the good of the schools and for your good, and you will find the department loyal to you and to your personal interests.

Yours, very truly,

S. M. LINDSAY, Commissioner.

The spirit in which this examination was undertaken is indicated by the following, among many letters which were received by the commissioner:

BAYAMON, P. R., April 28, 1902. The teachers of the district of Bayamón are always ready. Those who have no cloaks weep much when it rains, but we are always ready for the examination. (Signed by 18 teachers.)

A second letter was headed "Forwards," and read as follows: The teachers of the municipality of Toa Alta are ready for the examination. We send you our regards and compliments.

A third letter, signed by the English class of the municipality of Corozal, read as follows:

DEAR SIR: The brotherhood of professors of this municipality return you our thanks, and promise that at the close of the year we will give a good account of ourselves in the English examination that is to come.

For the examination this year more elaborate plans have been made, and the following letter has just been sent out:

CIRCULAR LETTER

No. 110.

To the supervisors.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF PORTO RICO,
OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER,
San Juan, October 24, 1902.

GENTLEMEN: You are hereby informed that on Saturday, April 25, 1903, an examination in English will be held in all the towns where there is an English teacher. In order to give the Porto Rican teachers a fair opportunity to prepare for this examination, the English teachers are hereby directed to teach English three times a week during the last hour of the school day. These classes will be open free of charge to teachers and to members of the school board of the vicinity. Where there is more than one English teacher in a town, the work shall be equally divided by the supervisor of the district. If teachers desire to take lessons outside of the hours established, they must make arrangements with the English teacher or any other person, as a private teacher, at their own expense.

There will be three grades of examination: Rural, graded, and principal.

The examination for rural teachers will include exercises in translation from English into Spanish and from Spanish into English; questions in grammar selected from Lecciones de Lenguaje, Inglés-Espanol (published by the American Book Company); in addition to which rural teachers will be required to write a dictation exercise from the Standard First Reader.

The examination for graded teachers will cover, in addition to the foregoing, first, a dictation exercise from the Standard Second Reader; second, the writing of a composition of not less than 150 words on a theme selected from a list of five familiar topics relating to the geography of the United States, using Frye's Geografía Elemental in preparation for this work.

The examination for principals will include, first, the writing of an exercise dictated from the Standard Third Reader; second, questions in grammar and the use of words in English, basing the work on Welsh's English Grammar from lesson 56 to lesson 121, inclusive; third, translation from Spanish into English of an exercise selected from

El Lector Moderno No. 1; fourth, translation from English into Spanish of an exercise selected from the Standard Fourth Reader up to page 231; fifth, a composition in English of not less than 200 words on one of five given topics on the geography of the United States, using Frye's Grammar School Geography in English in preparation. All exercises for translation shall be taken from prose.

Supervisors will place a copy of the books mentioned in the hands of teachers requiring them for study. Where teachers do not have these books they should make requisition for them to their district supervisor.

In this examination all teachers are expected to attend unless previously excused by the department, on application through the supervisor. Teachers who fail to attend, or who fall below 50 per cent, will have this fact recorded and taken into consideration as a part of the teacher's record, governing the approval or disapproval by the department of his application for the renewal of his certificate for the following year.

Teachers are required to take the examination corresponding to the grade of the certificate which they now hold.

The last examinations in English were not satisfactory, and certain prizes which the department intended to offer from a small private fund, contributed by friends in the United States who are interested in the progress of Porto Rican schools, were not awarded.

The following prizes are offered for excellence in this examination:

First. A first prize of $25 in cash and a certificate of attainment in English, attested by the seal of the department, for the best examination in each grade. A first prize may be divided in case two or more teachers of any grade rank exactly alike, in which case each would receive a certificate.

Second. A second prize consisting of a silver medal, with an appropriate inscription, for the second best examination in each of the three grades, additional medals being awarded in case two or more teachers rank exactly alike.

All teachers having a standing of 50 per cent or over will have their standing recorded on their certificate for next year.

No prize will be awarded in either class where the first and second best examinations are not of sufficient excellence, in the judgment of the commissioner of education, to justify the awarding of the respective prizes.

Teachers who have had special opportunities for the study of English, such as a period of residence of one year or over in the United States, can not be awarded prizes. In cases where there are difficulties in determining whether a teacher has had special opportunities, the commissioner of education shall be the final judge. Respectfully, yours,

SAMUEL MCCUNE LINDSAY, Commissioner.

Other signs of the progréss being made in English are not wanting, both with respect to teachers and pupils alike. One supervisor writes of the work in Sabana Grande that the English work in the graded schools is worthy of special notice:

The pupils of the fifth and sixth grades converse well, and the fourth class will be a better class next year than the present fifth grade. The second and third grades are doing surprisingly well. Whatever the pupils read they understand when they hear it spoken and they are rarely at a loss for an answer to a question. Conversational work is not confined to the reading lesson alone, but is spread out to cover any topic. I attended a ball in the town hall Thursday and the children, from the little tots to the young ladies, fired English at me the whole night. It has been a long time since I have spent a pleasanter evening.

Some of the efforts of individual pupils are almost pathetic. One boy who is studying with the hope that he might be sent to school in the States had to earn his living during the day and had only his nights, without the aid of a teacher, in which to study and acquire a knowledge of English. In writing to the department for advice he wrote in English as follows:

It is true, I am in a position with the San Juan Light and Transit Company, but I can too little that scarcely it is not sufficient for me to address myself. I have prepared myself to can be a teacher the next time for being not able to pay one who could give lessons to me. This letter will not be correct but it is a sign of my progress in the English language. I wait for a satisfactory answer, for I go every time foward and foward. I spend some hours at night in studying alone, by that reason all that I study I try to understand it well for I have no other man who can explain me that I study at night. That is the poor life. At the end of September I will be 16 years old.

Plans are being considered at this time by which the work in the Insular Normal School may be carried on exclusively in English. We have had several graded schools from the lowest to the highest grades, and two high schools, where the work is carried on exclusively in the English language, and Spanish is taught merely as one subject. In the practice school in connection with the normal school it is probable that all the work will be done in English. It will not be long before English text-books can be used and the bulk of the instruction in all subjects in the town schools and graded schools can be given in English. It will require probably several years before the same can be said of the rural schools. This will not mean more American teachers, but that Porto Rican teachers have been trained to be efficient teachers, making use of the English language.

PORTO RICAN STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Forty-five students, boys and girls, are now studying in the United States at the expense of the Porto Rican government. Twenty of these received an allowance of $250 a year and are located in the industrial and manual-training schools, the majority of them being at Tuskegee, Ala., preparing for careers as artisans. Twenty-five receive an allowance of $400 per year and are preparing for college and for the various professional schools. They are scattered throughout the smaller colleges and the best preparatory schools in the States, where they receive careful attention and cordial assistance in their work. The reports from the principals of the schools indicate that these boys are doing well. Some of them stand relatively high in their classes. Several will be ready for college and some have already entered college. The legislature appropriated $15,000 last year to continue these boys for another year. That amount will be needed annually if these boys are kept in the States for the period of four or five years, respectively, specified in the laws under which they were sent. The general public has been greatly disappointed that additional boys were not sent during the past year. There was a general impression that the legislature intended to send each year, for a series of years, 45 boys, maintaining those who had been sent in previous years until they completed their allotted term of study. The department has therefore on file many urgent applications of parents who are anxious to have their children sent to the States. Of course none of these can be granted unless there is a vacancy by death or resignation in the ranks of those now in the States, or unless the legislature makes additional provision for others.

PORTO RICAN AND AMERICAN TEACHERS.

The strength and value of any school is measured in the last analysis by the character and efficiency of the teacher. The most difficult task in the development of the American school system in Porto Rico, as all those who have had any experience in this work testify and all competent observers know, is to secure a sufficient number of well-qualified teachers. Considerable improvement has been made in this direction during the past year. We have at the present time in the employ of the department about 1,200 teachers, of whom 121 per cent are Americans and 874 per cent Porto Ricans. An exact statement of the number of teachers, the salary of each, and the classification of the total number into those who were citizens of the United States and those who were citizens of Porto Rico was made at the request of the committee of the legislature in March. This showed 123 Americans, receiving the total annual salary of $67,195, and 837 Porto Ricans, whose total annual salary amounts to $231,735. Thus the greater part of the work is done by Porto Ricans and the greater part of public money expended for salaries of teachers goes to native teachers. Of the American teachers almost all of those who came as adventurers or because they had been rejected in the States have been weeded out of the service and the ranks of the American teachers now contain many of the best equipped and most devoted

teachers to be found any place in the United States. We have on file at all times many applications, some of them from graduates of our best colleges, representing all States in the Union, of young men and young women willing to take up the work of teacher in the schools of Porto Rico. Many of these are eager for the opportunity of service in a good cause. Some are influenced by the desire to see something of life in a tropical country and to equip themselves for larger work in the States by acquiring a knowledge of the Spanish language. At the same time they are prepared to give honest and efficient service, and while they probably do not desire to remain more than two or three years at the most, they are in no wise disqualified by this secondary motive from being considered valuable material for our schools. We have, therefore, abundant material from which to select enough American teachers of English to equip all the schools we are able to open. These American teachers, however, should not be called upon to make so great a financial sacrifice as they must necessarily do in order to accept these appointments. The salary paid to an American teacher of English is only $50 a month for a nine-months term, amounting to $450 a year, in addition to which there is an allowance by the local board amounting to $54 as a minimum and ranging from that figure up to $135 for the school year. There are few cases, however, in which the maximum allowance is paid. Practically, therefore, most of the teachers of English have to reckon on a total annual income of $504, out of which they must pay their transportation to and from Porto Rico and provide themselves with subsistence and clothing for an entire year. The transportation expenses are at least $100, and in some cases, where teachers come from the interior of the United States, considerably more than that sum. The expenses of living in Porto Rico for such teachers is necessarily high, and the result is that after one year of experience they are therefore unwilling to remain. The schools suffer a great loss on this account, because the value of an American teacher to the school the second year is nearly double that of the first in which she is getting aquainted with the people, the local conditions, and the language. We ought to be able to hold our best teachers here for a series of years by offering a higher salary at the outset in order to secure the best talent and by offering a progressive increase for each additional year of service. Formerly the United States Government furnished free transportation, when the army transport system was in operation between New York and Porto Rico, but now that the transports have been discontinued no provision has been made to pay the traveling expenses of teachers from the States and they have suffered a corresponding diminution in their net income.

The Porto Rican teachers are working hard to equip themselves for the best positions by familiarizing themselves with the English language and with the methods of the American school system. Most of them have had few opportunities. The majority of thein are married and have large families to support. They are extremely poor, and as a rule are unable to leave their homes for any length of time in order to avail themselves of any opportunities for study or for self-improvement. We shall have to be patient with them and do all in our power to aid them by efficient supervision of their work, by the loan of books and such direction of home study as the department and the Insular Normal School can give, and we hope soon to have a plan in operation by which some instruction at least in the methods of teaching, and perhaps in the matter of physical training in the schools, can be given by an instructor in the normal school visiting from time to time those schools where the need is greatest.

The department is doing everything possible to maintain a high standard of honor and efficiency among the teachers and to develop the spirit of professional pride and mutual criticism, rivalry, and encouragement among the teachers themselves. Those who willfully neglect their work, close their schools before the regular hour for closing, neglect to open them at the proper time, sham sickness, and in general

do as little work as possible when the supervisor is not in sight, are dealt with severely when they are found out. We have taken the responsibility of closing some

schools altogether by suspending over twenty-five teachers for serious cause. In some of these cases the work of the teacher in the schoolroom was efficient, but the private life of the teacher and his moral influence in the community was not above reproach. We must not place the lives and training of innocent children in the hands of any teacher whose life is not clean, wholesome, and earnest. We would better have fewer schools and apparently take a step backward-which in the end would mean a long step forward-than to tolerate in the rank of teachers those who can not command the full respect of the communities in which they live.

The younger teachers are responding nobly to the demands of the department in all respects. Year by year as the normal school turns out additional classes the effect of this well-trained and enthusiastic body of young persons in the corps of teachers will make itself increasingly felt. Some of the younger teachers are making great sacrifice in order to save money and spend their vacations in the States, where they can study our American schools at first hand and perfect themselves in the knowledge of our language. There are, therefore, no lack of signs to encourage, especially when we consider how few have been the opportunities in the past and how great has been the change in spirit with which the Porto Rican teachers have welcomed the new school system and adjusted themselves to it.

THE INSULAR NORMAL SCHOOL.

From what has just been said it is evident that the key to the educational situation is the Insular Normal School. About 100 pupils have been in attendance during the past year, and over 125 are in attendance this year. They do better, harder, and more work than most students in the best school in the States. They now have a new building, which was dedicated on the 30th day of May with appropriate exercises, in which the governor, the chief justice, and other prominent officials participated. In this large and commodious building the pupils find every appliance of the best modern schoolroom to aid them in their work. The building is beautifully located on a tract of about 50 acres of land situated in Rio Piedras, 7 miles from the capital and accessible by a trolley line. In this building are large and airy class rooms and an auditorium that will seat 300 persons; two gymnasiums-one for boys and one for girls-equipped with shower baths and lockers and all necessary appliances for physical training; laboratories will be installed as they are needed; there is a room devoted to the purposes of a library, and already we have the beginning of the equipment of a school library. The work in this school is for the most part done in the Spanish language, although great stress is laid upon the study of English, and the pupils in this school have made so much progress in English that most of them can understand an address given in that language. This condition of affairs must continue for a time during this transition period until enough pupils from the lower grades of the public schools reach the point where they can take up their studies in the normal school and pursue them with instruction in English. We are making every effort to bring that about next year, and when it is possible the efficiency of the work in the normal school can be almost doubled. Pupils and teachers alike can have the advantage of a wider range of choice in the selection of text-books and works of reference bearing on the course of study.

Sufficient funds have been allotted to add to the equipment of the normal school a principal's house and a practice school, and both of these buildings are nearly completed. We shall then have in connection with the normal school a model agricultural rural school, a model kindergarten, four or five model grades of the regular school work, as object lessons in which the normal school pupils can receive instruction by observation and experiment and by the most approved methods. No labor