REPORT OF THE BOARD.

To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of Vermont:

GENTLEMEN :

In conformity to law, the Board of Education herewith submit their Eleventh Annual Report.

By several laws enacted by the Legislature of 1866, an unusual amount and variety of duties were required of the Board, to an account of the performance of which duties this Report is principally devoted.

One of those laws required the Board to arrange two courses of study, one of them including all the branches required to be taught in the Common Schools of the State, the other including, in addition to those, such higher English branches as the Board should decm best adapted for use in the advanced classes; and enacted that at each Teachers' Institute there should be held an examination, in either or both of these courses, of such persons as should present themselves for that purpose, who should receive certificates entitling them to teach in any part of the State, for the term of five or of fifteen years, as they should pass a satisfactory examination in one course or in both. As the sessions of Teachers' Institutes were to commence in December immediately after the passage of this act, it became necessary for the Board to hold a special meeting to arrange the prescribed courses of study, and accordingly a meeting was held at St. Johnsbury, on the 5th of December, 1866.

In view of a possible conflict in the practical working of this law and that for the establishment of Normal Schools, by reason of the provision that certificates of precisely the same character and scope might be granted at the Institutes as at the Normal Schools, the Board were unanimously and decidedly of the opinion that the examinations ought to be quite as rigid and exacting in the one case as in the other. The same courses of study were therefore arranged with reference to both classes of examinations, as follows:

For the first course, candidates must be examined in eight distinct subjects, and the examination in the first seven must be partly written.

The written exercises will also be regarded as exercises in spelling, composition, and penmanship.

1st. Arithmetic, with mental and written exercises.

2d. Geography, with map-drawing and the elements of Physical Geography.

3d. History of the United States.

4th. Geography and History of Vermont, with map-drawing. 5th. Constitution of the United States and of Vermont.

6th. Interpretation of sentences, including parsing, analysis, paraphrasing, and the definition of words.

7th. Book-keeping, through single entry.

8th. Reading, including the elements of elocution and vocal culture. For the second course, candidates, having passed a satisfactory examination in the first course, must be examined in

1st. Book-keeping by double entry.

2d. Algebra, to include at least ratios and proportions, quadratic equations, and the arithmetical and geometrical series.

3d. Physical Geography.

4th. Physiology.

5th. Elements of Botany, with drawings of forms. 6th. Natural Philosophy.

7th. A thorough analysis and explanation of one book of Cowper or Thompson.

8th. Some two of the following:-Geometry, Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology, Surveying, Zoology, Evidences of Christianity, Rhetoric, Intellectual Philosophy, Moral Philosophy.

9th. A Critical Exposition of Milton's Paradise Lost, or Bacon's Essays.

It being judged impracticable, not to say impossible, for the Board itself to make the selection of practical teachers, whom the law requires to be associated with the Secretary in conducting the examinations at Teachers' Institutes, the Secretary was authorized and directed to act in behalf of the Board in making such selections in the several counties. It is believed that this law has been of great value to the State, by bringing out in each County some teachers of more than average merit, to whose ambition a State certificate for a term of years appeared a prize well worth striving for; and of nearly equal value by revealing to many other teachers their real lack of qualifications for the responsible positions which they sought to occupy. For details of the practical working of the law, reference is made to the Report of the Secretary of the Board.

At the time of this meeting the Trustees of Orange County Grammar School had not voted to accept the act of the last Legislature transforming that institution into a Normal School. But in view of the strong probability that they would so vote, and of the fact that the Trustees of Lamoille County Grammar School expressed a desire

to put that institution upon a similar foundation, it was thought expedient to take action in regard to the prospective schools, as far as circumstances would now allow. Accordingly, regulations were established, for the admission, direction, and graduation of pupils in Normal Schools, as follows:

Classes, exhibiting the qualifications required to pass an examination for admission, may be admitted at the beginning of each Spring and Fall Term. Individuals may be admitted at any time, upon evincing qualifications corresponding to the attainments of existing classes.

Examinations of such as have completed the courses of study shall be held at the close of each Spring and Fall Term. Candidates for graduation must, at the time of graduation, be examined through the entire course in which they wish to graduate.

The certificate of graduation must be signed by the President of the Board of Trustees, the Principal of the School, and by the Secretary and visiting member of the Board of Education.

Pupils will not be permitted to study branches in the higher course until at least six of the subjects of the first course have been completed to the satisfaction of the teachers of the school; nor then to the neglect of the subjects not so completed.

No studies not laid down in the two courses of study shall be pursued in the Normal Schools.

Rev. Pliny H. White was appointed as special member of the Board to act in conjunction with the Secretary in visiting the Normal Schools, and the visitors were instructed to make the examinations for admission to said schools an occasion for visiting them.

The Board then passed to the consideration of their duties under the law requiring them to select, on or before July 1, 1867, a list of text-books to be used in the Common Schools of the State. It was decided that such selection should be based entirely upon the judgment of the Board as to the intrinsic merits of the books examined. To facilitate the examination, and to make the best avail of the advice of the eminent practical teachers whose assistance the Board were required to procure, the text bocks were divided into three classes, each of which was assigned to a committee, consisting of two members of the Board and two teachers. The first class, including mathematics, was assigned to Messrs. Conant and Ross, with whom were associated Messrs. L. F. Ward of Westminster, and Judah Dana of Rutland. The second class, including readers, spellers, and grammars, was assigned to Messrs. Gorham and Clark, with whom were associated Messrs. B. F. Bingham of Brattleboro and C. D. Mead of Swanton. The third class, including geography, history, and natural philosophy, was assigned to Messrs. White and Sanborn, with whom were associated Messrs. S. H. Pearl of Johnson, and J. S. Cilley of Williston. These committees were instructed to give special attention to text

books in the classes severally assigned them; and the Board then adjourned, to meet at Waterbury on the 18th of Febuary, 1867.

At that time and place the Board re-assembled, and proceeded to complete the laborious task in which they had been engaged much of the time since the former meeting. Numerous publishers, agents, and other persons variously interested in text-books, were in attendance, and desirous to be heard in behalf of their various books. It was deemed advisable to give them all a hearing, and thus secure for every book a full exhibition of its peculiar excellences, by a person thoroughly acquainted with and qualified to point out all its merits. No other limitation was imposed than this, that each person should confine himself to the merits of his own book, and should wholly abstain from criticism or disparagement of any books with which it came in competition. Several days were occupied in these hearings, and it is believed that substantially all that could be said in behalf of any of the books that were before the Board was said on that occasion. Then, after due deliberation and careful weighing, as well of the reasons offered by publishers or their agents, as of the opinions of the prominent teachers whose advice had been sought, and whose opinions are published in the appendix to this Report, the selections were made. The reasons which govern the action of the Board are herewith subjoined, in compliance with the law to that effect.

Town & Holbrook's Progressive Speller was adopted, for these reasons, among others: because, it is Websterian in spelling, syllabication, pronunciation, and definitions, and thus conforms to the standard generally received in Vermont; because it contains the words in most common use, so classified as to adapt it to both primary and advanced classes, thus avoiding the necessity of a primary speller, and saving a considerable item of expense; because it has the valuable feature, that it regards and treats words as the signs of ideas, and teaches at the same time the sign and the thing signified; because it contains a larger number than any other speller of words of like or similar pronunciation, but of different orthography and signification, which are classified, and defined by phrases, and then further illustrated by "dictation exercises;" and, finally, because in it the analytic method of defining derivative words by their uses, and the practical application of the rules for spelling, are fully and clearly set forth.

The revised and improved edition of Town & Holbrook's Progressive Series of Readers. with the exception of the Intermediate Readers, was adopted, to displace the old edition which has hitherto been in use. This edition retains all the valuable features of the former, and contains several new features that make it superior to that. It differs from that by excluding a portion of the matter, and introducing considerable new matter, while at the same time the new matter is so arranged that the two editions can be used by the same classes without serious inconvenience. Among the reasons which led to this