for the various grades of certificates provided for by law, throughout the State, so that the holder of a license of a certain grade would receive another of like grade upon passing into another · county.

In view, then, of the supreme importance of able and experienced teachers; of the immediate and urgent need of a greatly increased supply of such teachers; of the admirable adaptation of the plan of county normal schools to meet that want; of the value of such institutions, dispersed throughout the State, in quickening and enlightening public sentiment in behalf of common schools; of the reflex influence of county normal schools upon the State Normal University, in lifting it to a higher and broader sphere of professional instruction and culture-in view of all these most weighty considerations, added to the fact that three large, populous, and influential counties of the State have already successfully established each a county normal school, thereby demonstrating the feasibility of the thing, and removing it from the domain of mere untried and doubtful experiment, I earnestly advise and recommend that a general law be enacted, under the provisions of which the board of supervisors, or county court, as the case may be, of any county, or group of counties conjointly, may proceed to establish a county normal school, and to appropriate funds or levy taxes for the support and maintenance of the same. The details of such a law would be few and easily adjusted. It would be simply a permissive or enabling act, removing such legal impediments as may now exist, and preparing the way for any county that chooses to act in the premises. The chairman of the board of supervisors might be, ex officio, a member, and the county superintendent of schools, secretary, ex officio, of the normal board provided for in the act.

A bill, embracing the provisions necessary to carry into effect this important measure, has been prepared by gentlemen of eminent legal ability, and its passage by this General Assembly, or some other bill of similar import and effect, as the Legislature may see fit, will be earnestly requested. It is not believed that any serious objections can or will be urged against the proposed legislation, since it is only designed to confer powers to be exercised, or not, at the discretion of the authorities of the respective counties. And in the firm belief that the passage of such an enabling act would be of great and lasting benefit to the common schools

of the State, and that very many counties would soon avail themselves of its provisions, and establish normal schools for the hometraining of teachers for their district schools-I respectfully commend the whole subject to the favorable regard of the General. Assembly.

THE STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

This body, organized at Bloomington, December, 1853, has convened, annually, ever since, bringing together earnest workers in the educational ranks, to compare views, and consider the new problems coming up every year for investigation. Organized at a time when there was scarcely a permanent teacher in the public schools of the State; gathering value and influence from the increase in the number and stability of the public schools, and by the careful examination and cautious testing of principles, this society of the friends of education, uniting in kindly discussion and friendly effort, the laborers in all parts of the field, public and private-in the colleges, the high schools, and primary schools-deserves the credit, in large measure, of the advanced position which our common school system has attained.

The meetings at Galesburg, in 1867, and at Peoria, in 1868 were enthusiastic assemblages of men and women anxious to do the most judicious things, in the best way, and adding, by their concurrence. and approval, the highest practical weight to the suggestions elsewhere made in this report. It is not improbable that the increasing difficulties of assembling in mass meeting, in so large a State as ours, may ultimately lead to the organization of coöperative and constituent local associations, thus rendering the State Society, in time, a delegate body, composed of representatives from numerous smaller societies dispersed over the State. The Association recently formed in and for Southern Illinois, of which mention has been made, is a movement in the direction above indicated. Should the State Association ever assume the form of a delegate body, it might not inaptly be termed the Illinois Congress of Teachers, and its power of usefulness would be enhanced by the greater compactness, manageableness, and homogeneousness that such a form would ensure.

THE ILLINOIS TEACHER.

This journal still retains its place as the leading common school advocate and general educational periodical of the State-a position which it assumed at the commencement of our history as a free-school State. It has been from the first a distinct and positive power in the discussion and determination of questions and problems affecting the interests of public education in Illinoisalmost always arrayed on the right side, and greatly helping to mould public opinion in favor of wise and progressive measures. It has for the most part been conducted with signal ability and dignity, never descending to clap-trap, or depending for success upon superficial and sensational writing. In the quality, variety, and amount of well-considered articles, and of well-digested educational intelligence, which it regularly contains, it is surpassed by no similar journal received at this office-while in mechanical execution and appearance it is, and has always been, a model of neatness, taste and accuracy. It remains under the editorial charge of the accomplished teachers and able writers who have so successfully conducted it the past two years-Prof. William M. Baker, of the Illinois Industrial University, Prof. J. V. N. Standish, of Lombard University, and Mr. Samuel H. White, late of the Brown School, Chicago, now Principal of the Peoria County Normal School. It ought to have ten thousand regular subscribers and attentive readers in Illinois. I commend it, with great pleasure, to all teachers, school officers and friends of education in the State.

STATE TEACHERS' CERTIFICATES.

The first act providing for the granting of State Teachers' Certificates, was passed February 22, 1861. It was the result of much previous discussion by the teachers of the State, and was supposed to express their views and wishes. It had long been considered as unreasonable, if not an indiguity, to demand of veteran teachers, of tried ability and power, a renewal of their professional license every two years, if they remained in the same county; or a fresh examination and licensure, if they passed into a different county. Assuming that teaching, in its true natureits real subjective requirements and conditions, and its objective aims and purposes-was both a science to be comprehended and an art to be practically acquired-demanding as careful and exten

sive a preparatory training, and as large endowments of intellectual force and skill, as any other of the recognized professions-it was not seen (and it never will be) why such an accomplished professional educator should be biennially subjected to the humiliation of a reëxamination, on pain of forfeiture of all legal right to exercise the functions of his calling. And then, the examination, or reëxmination, was seldom by his peers-often by persons having no qualifications whatever for that duty except their official commissions. What, it was asked, would be thought of a law under which the licensures of clergymen and lawyers, the diplomas of physicians, or the tenures of college presidents and professors, should lapse every two years, and the holders be obliged to hurry off to the various tribunals to renew their credentials, or become disqualified for further service? By arguments, considerations and analogies such as these, the force of which is palpable, the teachers of the State, in their associations, conventions, institutes, and other organizations, as well as through their educational journals and the public press, brought to bear a force sufficient at length to secure the desired legislation.

By the act of February 16, 1865, the law in relation to State Certificates was so amended as to require a public examination in all cases, as a condition of receiving a State Diploma; and the President of the State Normal University was associated with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, in arranging for and conducting the examinations. These provisions are still in force, and it is not seen why the present law in relation to State Certificates should not command the respect and confidence of all professional teachers. Its guarantees of all the conditions and qualifications that can reasonably be required, are ample. If this feature of our system has not accomplished all that was expected from it, its vitalizing influence has nevertheless been very great, and is steadily extending. The influence of this provision of the law upon the teachers of the State is not to be measured alone by the number of certificates granted. Its greatest power lies in the silent unconscious effect produced upon the many who have not yet ventured to appear as candidates-holding up a higher standard of professional excellence and reward to be attained, and thus awakening resolutions and impelling to efforts towards personal improvement, which are not lost even though they do not culminate in applications for the diploma. This latent influence of the legal provi

sion in question, has undoubtedly contributed much to the extraor dinary impulse towards a higher culture that has become apparent among the better classes of our teachers. There is every indication that this really excellent provision of the school law will be more and more appreciated, and that the number of applicants will hereafter steadily increase, until a strong and influential body of earnest, high-toned and accomplished teachers shall be organized by the holders of State Certificates, who will coöperate heartily in all well devised efforts for the advancement of popular education. The value of the State professional diploma has been recognized in almost every form through which the judgment of the friends of education in the State could be pronounced. The Board of Education of the City of Chicago has heartily endorsed the plan in the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That all persons holding State Certificates shall be entitled to certificates from this board without further examination, whenever they shall apply for positions as teachers in our schools.

Resolved, That we recognize the State Certificate to be a means for raising the standard of scholarship among teachers; for awakening a greater interest on their part in the cause of education, and for securing greater efficiency and a higher standard in the instruction given in the schools of the State; that the plan adopted by the State Superintendent for carrying out the State law meets with our hearty approval, and that we recommend the subject to the favorable notice of school boards and teachers throughout the State."

Similar action has been taken by the school boards of the other principal cities of the State whose school departments are organized under special acts and charters, so that a State certificate is a passport not only to any school under the general law, but also to schools under the care of boards having power to prescribe their own conditions of licensure and employment.

The Board of Education of the State of Illinois unanimously adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, That the plan of examinations for State Certificates, set forth in the circular of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, h s the hearty concurrence of this board. That we believe it embodies the true intent and spirit of the law, and is what is needed to organize a powerful body of superior teachers, whose influence shall be felt in the direction of the great educational enterprises of the State.

The plan has also received the repeated endorsement of the State Teachers' Association, of the State Association of County Superintendents, and of educational conventions and teachers"