making it pleasant to be associated with him and to those having occasion to call at the department, his tireless industry, his patient and thorough investigation of the many perplexing legal questions, his sound judgment and broad scholarship, relieving the head of the department of much worry and care, have contributed greatly towards whatever degree of success my work may be entitled. Miss Kate M. Jones, the office secretary, is deserving of equal credit for her ability and her quiet methodic work in successfully looking after the many details entrusted wholly to her care to my entire satisfaction, and for compiling, almost alone, the excellent Arbor Day Souvenir for 1893.

name.

CONCLUSION.

It is not the function of an official report either to minify defects or to magnify the virtues of our school organization. Nor is there reason to be pessimistic or overflowing with eulogies. The state school system has many excellent features. It is not without its defects. The schools have done much to give the state a good We expect them to do more. While measurably satisfied with the present, let us strive for still better results in the future. Let us work for conditions that will make it possible for men to follow teaching, even in the country, without discouraging women as teachers, since they are equally efficient, but more temporary. Let good teachers be retained in the same school year after year, and poor ones be weeded out altogether. Let every teacher be employed for a year at a time-not less-and we shall have taken a step forward. Let every school adopt a well balanced course of study, not hurrying to get through school and yet not overloading with too many or too heavy studies. Let proper authorities in rural schools adopt the one sent out by the department, since this is as far as the department can go in the matter. Let teachers and county superintendents endeavor to secure its adoption. Then let there be a more perfect and permanent connection between the country schools and the high schools, between the latter and the state university or normal, so that pupils completing the work in one of the lower may be accepted in the next higher.

The enrollment and attendance as well as school property have kept pace with the general growth of the state in other respects. In fact the per cent of attendance on enrollment, as ordinarily computed, was larger for 1892 than for previous years.

The requirements for state diploma have been made somewhat more exacting, and the questions for state certificate made more severe. The work has been still more systematized so that each member of the state board votes independently and intelligently on issuing or refusing to issue a certificate or diploma to the respective applicants, without being called to meet for that purpose.

The university and the normal school have proven their popularity, and have exceeded all former enrollments. But they have practically reached the limit of their growth under existing conditions. They must receive more liberal support at the hands of the legislature than in the past or remain stationary, cease to expand, and see themselves far outstripped by similar institutions in neighboring states.

The rural schools have all been again supplied with a printed course of study, and a number kept on hand to supply future needs. The influence of this department has always and everywhere been thrown in favor of its formal adoption by boards and enforcement by teachers. Lessons of patriotism have been encouraged until now fully 25 per cent of the schools own an American flag.

A few complaints have come to the department from directors that the county superintendent had not promptly distributed the school laws sent him from the department as instructed to do. A few complaints have reached us to the effect that books had been adopted and teachers employed to conduct the school in somewhat sectarian channels.

Without making extended remarks on the past two years, or offering a single apology, it may be fairly said that no individual in a position of this kind can do his best work in a first and single term. Besides familiarizing himself with details and carrying on the work as he finds it, he will map out his own new lines of policy for the future, which he may or may not have opportunity to carry into execution.

My worthy successor, Hon. Henry Sabin, is already so well and favorably known that he needs no introduction, no encomium at my hands. The work falls into safe, competent and experienced hands. He already has the confidence of Iowa educators.

It remains only to say that the relations between him and myself are and have been those of warm personal friendship and mutual regard, wholly unmarred by having twice been political opponents.

VIEWS BY COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS.

In the autumn of 1893 blanks were sent out to county superintendents asking for certain information, and also asking for suggestions on educational matters to appear in this report over their own signatures. Only four responded to this invitation. Three of these are given on the following pages, one being omitted for the reason that it covered substantially the same ground as one of those here given. They will be found worthy of perusal:

SOURCES OF SUPPLY OF TEACHERS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

E. P. FOGG, COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT, MARSHALL COUNTY.

A careful examination of the answers to preliminary questions made by teachers of Marshall county for the last year reveals the following conditions: Graduates from the State Normal School, 4; who have attended but not graduated, 20; from the State University, 1 graduate, 1 under graduate; from the Agricultural College, 1 graduate, 2 under graduates; from other colleges in Iowa, 6 graduates, 25 who have not graduated; from outside the state, 9 graduates of colleges, 21 who have attended but not graduated; 62 graduates: 26 from Marshalltown, 15 from State Center, 5 from Gilman, 2 from Rhodes; 14 from outside high schools; 56 who are not graduates of any school but have attended some high school It will be noticed from this showing that very few of our teachers have had any normal training except that which they have secured in the county normal institutes; that the greater portion of these who are teaching were educated in some of the graded schools, and while their scholarship is excellent, the fact that they came from a graded school and for several years have seen and known only the teaching of the higher classes has tended to unfit them to do the lower grade work. For the sake of the country schools, if not of the town schools, there is need of careful training of those who are to teach, so that they shall know how to teach the primary and intermediate pupils; that they shall understand the best methods of dealing with the immature mind; also in matters of government and discipline, the same difficulty exists. It is true that in many cases applicants do not succeed in passing a satisfactory exami

nation in all of the common school studies. This is frequently due to the work in higher studies for two or three years which has covered up and caused forgetfulness of the common branches; passing over or possibly some failure or neglect on the part of teacher or pupil in making common school studies clearly and thoroughly understood.

The greatest difficulty with the country school, so far as the teaching is concerned, is to secure teachers who enjoy teaching little children, and understand how to do it. It is natural that no one should enjoy that which he does not understand how to do, and it is quite natural that those who have come out from our high schools and colleges without preparation for dealing with primary work, should frequently say, as they many times do, that they enjoy teaching older classes better. If we could have some attention paid to didactic work in our high schools, and have those, who intend to teach, prepared for this work, both by study of theory and practice of teaching, and by going out to country schools where they may see the work as it actually is, and bring in reports to those competent to criticize such work, we would make one step in advance. If our normal institutes could do less academic work and devote more time to methods of dealing with elementary instruction, we would be a second stop in advance, and when we can make it compulsory on the teachers of the state to attend a good normal school, which shall have as a part of its curriculum, work in training classes for primary pupils, we shall be many steps in advance. It is almost useless to discuss the matter of progress in teaching in the country schools, or expect to better their condition, either in attendance or interest, until we help our teachers to a broader and better knowledge of what and how to teach in the first four or five grades of school work. We hope the time will soon come when some of these reforms shall be made available to the teachers of our state.

In a newly organized district in Marshall county a school was opened December 1, 1890, with an enrollment of twenty-five pupils.

The school house was an unplastered, one-roofed, board shanty, eighteen feet long and ten feet wide. Its furniture was a few old seats and a broken stove, once used by another school in the township, other seats made from rough boards, and a kitchen chair and table. The black-board was three unpainted pine boards about five feet long, nailed against the studs at one end of the room. The school was an experiment. It had been predicted that it would live but a few weeks. If it should prove a success, better accommodations would be given. It continued through the winter with an average attendance of nineteen. Before the spring term commenced the house was enlarged and a rough desk made. In the fall the house was plastered, and a small part of the wall at one end painted black for a blackboard. Six terms were taught in this building, the seventh was held in a new school house nicely finished and furnished. During the seven terms, taught by the same teacher, the attendance was good. One term, with an enrollment of twenty-three, had an average attendance of twenty-one. The ast term there were twenty-eight enrolled. Some of the pupils were from milies where the parents could neither read nor write, while the children,

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and girls from ten to thirteen years of age, could not so much as talk

The pupils were from five to seventeen years of age, many of them