Whether any one has succeeded in developing a perfectly satisfactory one'I cannot say. I am sure that such is not the case in my State, for there exists constant dissatisfaction caused by the difference of opinion as to the authority of the chief school officer.

Every State should have a bureau of education, the chief officer of which should be the State superintendent of public instruction. This bureau of education could be called the State board of education, or any other appellation, provided it carried with it the proper significa tion. This State board of education should be clothed with absolute legislative power. The powers and duties of this board should be clearly defined by law, as follows: To prepare rules and regulations for the government of the common schools of the State, which should be adopted and enforced under the authority and direction of the county, city, or division superintendents in all cases where the school trustees have failed to enforce the same. It should, from time to time, select and adopt a proper course of study and a suitable list of text-books for all the common schools in the State, which text-books the trustees or directors of the various cities, towns, or districts should use in their respective cities, towns, or districts; provided said books be not changed oftener than once in four years. The said board of education should recommend suitable works for district libraries, and such standard works and professional aids for the teachers as it deems proper on educational science and the art of teaching.

The board should have the power to require the trustees or superintendents to report everything that, in its judgment, is necessary to further the interests of the common schools of the State.

The board should prepare for district school libraries a list of books suitable for such libraries, which might, from time to time, be amended, revised, and enlarged, and to prepare uniform rules and regulations for the government of same.

Absolute control being granted to this board of education, the important question arises, who should compose this board? I think the Governor and attorney-general should be members; the first, because he is the executive of the State, and directly interested in the success of every department of the State; the second, because he is required to be the legal adviser of the board. The State superintendent should be the executive of the board. The other members of the board should be the di vision superintendents.

The State should be divided into divisions, according either to area or population; over each division a superintendent should be placed; this officer could be called a division superintendent, or an assistant State superintendent; and should be, by virtue of his office, a member of the State board of education.

The General Assemby having determined how many divisions are necessary for a proper supervision of the State, it will become the duty of the State superintendent to present to the Governor the names of those

he desires to be appointed as division superintendents; the Governor, then, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, should appoint one division superintendent for each division, said person to be a resident of the division for which he is appointed.

The division superintendents, so appointed and chosen, should take the oaths required of State officers, and should hold office for four years, or in accordance with the constitutional term of office of the State of which they are residents.

The board so constituted should hold one regular annual meeting at the capital of the State, in the office of the State superintendent of public instruction, and such other meetings as occasion required.

Division superintendents should have general supervision of all common schools within their respective divisions, subject to all rules and regulations passed by the State board of education.

They should examine and certify to the qualifications of all applicants within their respective divisions, unless such applicants hold certificates from the State board of examiners. They should receive and transmit all reports from the board of school trustees to the State superintendent. They should make all arrangements for meeting teachers who are desirous of being examined, and for the transaction of all other business within their jurisdiction.

They should have the power to revoke the certificate of any teacher in the division for any reason that would have justified the withholding thereof when the same was given. They should, annually, make a report to the State board of education, containing a digest of the reports made to them by the local school authorities, and such other matters as they should be desired to report by the said local school authorities, and such as they, themselves, may think pertinent and material, and especially such as will show the condition of the schools under their charge.

They should, at all times, conform to the instructions of the State board of education as to matters within their jurisdiction, and should serve as the organs of communication between the State board of education, the State superintendent of public instruction, and the district boards of trustees. They should furnish the district boards of trustees or teachers with all blanks, circulars, and other communications which are to them directed, and should entertain and decide all appeals taken from the decisions of district boards of school trustees, which should be final, unless the appeal be carried to the State board of education before the expiration of thirty days. They should organize and conduct, once in each year, at such time, after conference with the State superintendent of public instruction, as may be designated, a teachers' institute, at some central locality, which is easy of access and where teachers will receive the encouragement of hospitality.

In this work the superintend ents should be aided by the professors of the State normal school, or some practical teachers appointed by the State superintendent of public instruction.

They should also encourage and assist at teachers' associations, to be convened frequently, urging the attendance of the teachers, for the purpose of mutual conference and instruction in their duties.

They should also report the number of private schools, academies, and colleges; the number of pupils, and all other information, in such form as the State superintendent may prescribe, so as to present a full view of their educational facilities.

State superintendent of public instruction.-The State superintendent of public instruction should be a constitutional officer, elected at the general election with other constitutional officers; his term of office should be for four years; his salary, commensurate with the dignity and requirements of the office; his office should be at the seat of government, in which should be filed all papers, reports, and public documents transmitted to him by the division superintendents of the several divis. ions, and by the boards of trustees, each year separately, and hold the same in readiness to be exhibited to the Governor, or to a committee from either house of the General Assembly, at any time when required, and should be required to keep a fair record of all matters pertaining to his office.

He should make a full report to the General Assembly at each session, which should embrace a statement of the condition of the common schools throughout the State, the number of pupils attending in the various towns and districts, and the condition of the public school libraries; also, a statement of all rules and regulations adopted by the State board of education, and whatever suggestions he may deem it expedient to offer upon the efficient working of the school law.

The State superintendent should be charged with the general supervision of all the division superintendents, and all the common, high, and normal schools of the State; and should see that the school system, as early as practicable, is carried into effect and put into uniform operation. With a general view to these special duties, he should meet the division superintendents at least once in each year, in each division, at such time and place as he may appoint, giving due notice of each meeting; and it should be the duty of the division superintendents to attend each meeting, the object of which should be to accumulate valuable facts relative to common schools, to compare views, discuss principles, and, in general, to listen to all communications and suggestions, and to enter into all discussions relative to compensation of teachers, their qualifications, branches taught, method of instruction, text-books, divisions, libraries, apparatus, and all other matters embraced in the common school system. He should visit such schools as he may have it in his power to do, and see the manner in which they are conducted. He should cause to be printed and distributed all acts bearing upon educational legislation, together with all forms, regulations, and instructions, among the division superintendents. He should also prepare and have distributed to the several division superintendents a

form of certificate in blank to be issued to teachers, and all other blanks found necessary to be used in carrying on the school system. He should make a report to the General Assembly and State board of education of the condition and needs of the schools of the State, annually or biennially.

The State superintendent and the division superintendents should be constituted a board of examiners, which should examine all teachers applying for State certificates. Said board of examiners should hold its session at the State capital once in each year, and the session should continue as many days as necessary to complete the work. The State superintendent, with the necessary number of division superintendents to make a majority, should be required to sign each certificate issued before it became valid.

They should not grant a certificate to any applicant until they became satisfied that he was possessed of a good moral character, a knowledge of the branches of study required in the common school course, together with physiology and hygiene, and a fair ability to teach and govern a school. The certificate should be good for five years, and if the holder teaches the five years continuously the said certificate should be renewed without subjecting him to another examination.

The State board of examiners should be instructed to recognize the diploma of the State normal or normals, and to issue a certificate to the holder without further examination.

These, gentlemen, are some of my views on what is necessary to develop the "best system of State supervision." I think the subject so important that, after the discussion, a committee should be appointed to which it should be referred, with instructions to report upon it at the meeting of the Department in Chicago.

Discussion on Mr. Easton's paper was opened by Dr. RICHARD EDWARDS, State superintendent of public instruction, of Illinois, who said: Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: The able and exhaustivė paper to which you have listened will make it unnecessary for me to give anything like a complete statement of the duties and powers of those officers whose duties and powers we are discussing-State superintendents of public instruction. I shall, therefore, be permitted to confine myself to a few of the points which, it seems to me, in the present exigency of our school history, require to be emphasized. The millennium is coming, and we shall have all these things to which our friend from the South has so ably adverted some day. We shall be kings and queens in the country one of these days, but for the present we are in the wilderness, we are only travelling towards the promised land, and I will call your attention to some of the things that we need just now on our way towards the results we seek.

In the first place, let me say that it is the duty of the State superin. tendent to collect statistics. We need them. We want to know some

thing about the onward march of the cause; to know how it stands this year as compared with last year; to see whether there is greater attention given to the necessities of different school communities. Are these parents more considerate of their duties towards their children and more careful of the attendance of children upon the schools? Are these taxpayers becoming more and more aware of the worth of the property on which they pay taxes of this institution of the public school, and are they, therefore, growing more liberal? And so with many other things. We need to know how things are going, and for that purpose we need the gathering of statistics from different parts of the State under the care and eye of this officer. I want to say that there is a point where statistics had better be dropped. Statistics are not a panacea for all the ills that flesh is heir to. We may go crazy over these things even. There is an old adage that we used to hear in my boyhood, that "Figures won't lie," but then you and I know that they will. They are just as unreliable as men are, and so in gathering statistics you must have an eye to what is real. There are a great many things that it is our moral duty not to know in this world. If I burden myself with all the things that are within my reach I should be crushed by the weight of my attainments, and I do not want to run the risk of it. And so there are many things that I leave, and I think it would be wise for us all only to collect those things that are applicable to, and that bear directly upon, the progress of our work. A State superintendent and all other State officers need to know the facts that can be used in presenting the claims of the free school to the pupil. Do I know of a district of country where they are growing lax, where the amount of money is failing, where the attendance is falling off? For in some of the school districts of this country I know there is a diminution of the school appropriations. Do I know where the attendance is falling off? Here is the thing I want to know. I want the fig ures for it in black and white, so that we can hold it up as a warning where a warning is needed. It is astonishing how much knowledge there is in this world. The State of Illinois has a great many people who do not know the provisions of the school law. Every day I have letters in regard to trifling matters. There are large numbers of copies of the school law printed and circulated, but they know nothing of it. They expect to write letters to me and to have their attention directed to the particular sections of the code, and so on. That is one of the things a superintendent has to do.

Another thing is to aid the Legislature by the aid of reasonable influences. For one I am not willing to have even an improvement in the school law effected except on the basis of a conviction in the minds of the Legislature and of the public. I want to know the ground I am standing on. I know several things in respect to which I would like to have the law changed, but I know that for some of them the public sentiment is not ready, and the effect of that would be disastrous to the free school enterprise, and so, therefore, I want legislation helped where 3536-No, 311