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CIRCULARS AND DOCUMENTS

REFERRED TO IN

REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION.

1867-68.

1

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,

Washington, March, 1867.

For convenience of communication with many individuals interested in the same subject, (either of inquiry, or of reply,) in different parts of the country, the Commissioner of Education has adopted the publication of a Monthly Circular. Each number, as issued, will be forwarded by mail to persons supposed to be interested in the subject to which it is devoted. In addition to such Circulars, and information relating thereto, as the Commissioner may find it necessary or convenient to issue in these monthly numbers, he proposes to give, from time to time, as he may find space:

1.

Acknowledgment of the receipt of all books, documents, and donations, of any kind, forwarded for the use of the department.

2 The contents of all educational, literary, and scientific periodicals which the publishers may send regularly to this office.

3 Notice in advance of the anniversaries or special meetings of educational associations, when authoritatively advised of the same.

4. Abstract of the proceedings of educational meetings when officially communicated.

5. Discussion and action of constitutional conventions, legislatures, municipal bodies, boards of education, and school committees, relating to schools and education.

6. Statistics, benefactions, and reliable items of educational movements in different States and countries.

HENRY BARNARD,

Commissioner.

SECOND EDITION.

Having occasion to re-issue the original Circulars, giving information of the "Act to establish the Department of Education," and the Schedule of Information sought by the Commissioner, together with the first of a series of articles on the successive efforts to secure from Congress the recognition of Education as a great national interest, the Commissioner adds a documentary history of the American Journal of Education, with a Classified Index of its contents, with a view of eliciting an expression of opinion as to his continuing his editorial charge of the same, until the original purpose of its publication is more fully attained, and as a repository of such official papers as may be in harmony with its original plan.

H. B.

I. EDUCATION:-A NATIONAL INTEREST.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS.

MEMORIAL TO THE HONORABLE THE

SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES.

AT a meeting of the National Association of State and City School Superintendents, recently held in the City of Washington, D. C., the undersigned were appointed a committee to memorialize Congress for the establishment of a National Bureau of Education.

It was the unanimous opinion of the Association that the interests of education would be greatly promoted by the organization of such a Bureau at the present time; that it would render needed assistance in the establishment of school systems where they do not now exist, and that it would also prove a potent means for improving and vitalizing existing systems. This it could accomplish:

1. By securing greater uniformity and accuracy in school statistics, and so interpreting them that they may be more widely available and reliable as educational tests and measures.

2. By bringing together the results of school systems in different communities, States, and countries, and determining their comparative value.

3. By collecting the results of all important experiments in new and special methods of school instruction and management, and making them the common property of school officers and teachers throughout the country.

4. By diffusing among the people information respecting the school laws of the different States; the various modes of providing and disbursing school funds; the different classes of school officers and their relative duties; the qualifications required of teachers, the modes of their examination, and the agencies provided for their special training; the best methods of classifying and grading schools; improved plans of school-houses, together with modes of heating and ventilation, etc..-information now obtained only by a few persons and at great expense, but which is of the highest value to all intrusted with the management of schools.

5. By aiding communities and States in the organization of school systems in which mischievous errors shall be avoided and vital agencies and well-tried improvements be included.

6. By the general diffusion of correct ideas respecting the value of education as a quickener of intellectual activities; as a moral renovator; as a multiplier of industry and a consequent producer of wealth; and, finally, as the strength and shield of civil liberty.

In the opinion of your memorialists, it is not possible to measure the influence which the faithful performance of these duties by a National Bureau would exert upon the cause of education throughout the country; and few persons who have not been intrusted with the management of school systems can fully realize how wide-spread and urgent is the demand for such assistance. Indeed, the very existence of the Association which your memorialists represent is itself positive proof of a demand for a national channel of communication between the school officers of the different States. Millions of dollars have been thrown away in fruitless experiments, or in stolid plodding, for the want of it Your memorialists would also submit that the assistance and encouragement

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