At the meeting of the American Normal School Association last year at Trenton, N. J., when appropriate resolutions in honor of Horace Mann were under consideration, an eminent educator arose and said: "Mr. President, I owe it to Horace Mann, that I stand here to-night. A few words, which I heard from him in my boyhood, changed the history of my life. That address first inspired my mind with the desire and determination to secure a liberal education." The value of such an influence upon the youth of our Commonwealth cannot well be overestimated; compared with it, the cost of supporting such an agency sinks to insignificance. At the lowest estimate, an agent addresses more than ten thousand pupils annually. Who can estimate the worth of the impulse thus given to this multitude of juvenile minds?

2. He is to reach the teachers of the State. In schools, in town. gatherings, and in institutes, he is to consider, with teachers, the best modes of teaching one or more of the school studies, or the hinderances to success in teaching, the greatness and responsibility of the teacher's work, the high qualifications required, the demand for diligence in the daily preparation of lessons by the teacher, or the methods of interesting and occupying little children, object lessons, training the senses, the necessity and modes of physical training, etc. To the earnest and susceptible minds of teachers, a competent and judicious lecturer can give a new impulse in the work of professional improvement and enthusiasm, and stimulate them to task their invention to the utmost to increase their tact, power, and success in teaching.

Now, while many professional teachers are already thoroughly qualified, others greatly need such suggestions. Indeed, the most competent instructors are best prepared and disposed to appreciate and sustain those efforts which aim to increase the skill and efficiency of the profession. But more than seven thousand teachers are annually employed in this State, many of whomresorting to teaching as a temporary expedient in present emergencies have attended neither Normal Schools, nor Teachers' Institutes, nor enjoyed any opportunity for a course of professional study.

3. This agency is adapted also to reach school committees. In the rotation of office, they are not unfrequently without experience in their peculiar work, and often perplexed by doubts as to the nature and extent of their duties, in the organization, gradation,

and supervision of schools, and on a great variety of practical questions pertaining to the methods essential to the highest efficiency and success of our schools. The opportunity of conferring with one who has made these subjects a matter of careful investigation, and who is conversant with the laws and decisions of the supreme court in regard to school questions, and with the usage of other towns, and the results of their experience in all parts of the State, is cordially embraced. Questions also very often arise in these interviews, as to plans of school-houses, school furniture, apparatus, ventilation, etc. In 1853, the total value of school-houses, according to the returns then made, was $4,576,457.26. The amount now annually expended for the same purpose undoubtedly exceeds half a million of dollars. In 1853, Dr. Sears, after alluding to the influence of an agent in preventing injudicious arrangements and bad economy in the erection of school buildings, says: "It may safely be affirmed that ten thousand dollars have, in this way, been saved in one year, to say nothing of rescuing towns and districts from being committed to a bad system which otherwise, for a long time, would have remained like an incubus upon their schools. No one who is acquainted with the extent to which the injudicious erection of school-houses is now carried, can fail to perceive the great public utility of an agency established for the express purpose of carrying all the improvements connected with schools to every obscure town in the Commonwealth, aud especially visiting all those places which are contemplating changes in their system, and of giving all needful information to committees before their plans are matured and executed . . . thus demonstrating the great importance and utility of a permanent agency in the clearest manner."

4. Very much also remains to be done by lectures, to diffuse information on important points, awaken greater interest in schools, and secure a more cordial coöperation of parents with teachers, and to advance public sentiment in behalf of learning, and to preserve the people in sympathy with the educational spirit and movements of the age. While our system of public instruction, in its general and comprehensive character, holds a proud preeminence, and is the crowning glory of our State, and while in many towns and cities, there is steady progress, glaring defects remain in many others. There is still much infelicity in the details of the practical working of the system, which can never

be remedied, until the sympathies and intelligent convictions of all are enlisted in favor of wise improvement of the means of education. It is to this point that public attention should be turned. The present need requires that the cordial assent of the people be continued to those cardinal principles which have now stood the test of experience, and which have long since been recognized as fundamental with all true educators. But the work is the work of the people. It will approach to perfection just in proportion as it secures their general concurrence and efficient support.

Entertaining these views, the Board respectfully ask for an appropriation sufficient for the support of at least one Agent for the ensuing year.

The Reports of the Visitors of the respective Schools, the Treasurer, and the Secretary, are also herewith submitted as approved.

NATHANIEL P. BANKS.

ELIPHALET TRASK.

ALONZO H. QUINT.

HENRY WHEATLAND.

ARIEL PARISH.

CORNELIUS C. FELTON.

WILLIAM A. STEARNS.

ERASTUS O. HAVEN.

DAVID H. MASON.

GEORGE S. BOUTWELL.

Report of the Visitors of the Normal School at Framingham.

The Visiting Committee of the Normal School at Framingham submit to the Board of Education the following report as to its condition during the past year.

The Committee have visited the school from time to time, without notice, and have listened to the performances of all the classes. They have found that the instruction given has been thorough, and the devotion of the pupils to their studies commendable and satisfactory. The order of the school, and the quict manner in which the work is carried on, have appeared to the Committee all that could be desired. The number of scholars belonging to the school has been 75, divided as follows: In the senior class, 20; in the second class, 34; in the junior, 21. Of these, 39 were admitted during the year; 27 have been graduated, and 7 dismissed. Nearly all who have been graduated from the school during the year, are now engaged in teaching, with a good degree of success.

Several courses of lectures have been delivered to the school. Mr. Leander Wetherell has given a course on Natural History, Mr. James C. Sharpe on Chemistry, Mr. John L. Russell on Botany, and Dr. Dio Lewis on the Laws of Health. Mr. Wetherell's course consisted of six lectures, Mr. Sharpe's of twelve, Mr. Russell's of five, and Dr. Lewis has given a series of lessons in Gymnastics, the expense of which has been partially defrayed by contributions among the pupils, and partly by an appropriation made by the Board. The committee have a very favorable opinion of the benefits to be derived from this system of physical training, and hope that some permanent arrangement may be made by which physical education may be made a permanent part of the training in our Normal Schools. The great advantages of a welldevised system of gymnastics are: First, that the exercises may be adapted to the development of every part of the physical system, or to any particular part of the system that needs to be strengthened. Secondly, that it is the most economical method of preserving the bodily health, in regard to the time necessary to be devoted to it. In ordinary cases, twenty minutes or half an hour daily is quite sufficient, if judiciously employed in vigorous gymnastic exercises, with no more complicated apparatus than a pair of light dumb bells, and a pair of Indian clubs, to maintain all

the functions of the body in healthy activity. But it should always be remembered that the object of such a system is not the development of an abnormal degree of physical strength, nor the formation of a class of athletes of either sex, but the maintenance of sound bodily health, to the end that the intellectual and moral powers may not be impeded by disease or physical weakness. There is a tendency to run into excesses on this subject-the natural reaction from the neglect of the laws of health, in past times. The tone of some of the recent lectures and publications on physical education seems almost to imply, not only that mind and body are identical, but that muscular development and religion are one and the same thing. Hence the prevalence and popularity of such phrases as muscular Christianity, an expression that has as little warrant in Scripture as it has in common sense. In schools and colleges gymnastic exercises should be under the direction of men who have studied the subject scientifically, and excesses of every kind should be most carefully guarded against, or the consequences may be demoralizing to character, and even. fatal to life. In the case of young ladies, especial care must be taken that the exercises be adapted to the peculiarities of the female constitution, otherwise serious injuries, instead of benefit, are likely to result.

The accommodations of the Framingham School are sufficient for a larger number of pupils than have ever yet attended it; but there are circumstances which tend to keep the numbers less than in the other Normal Schools. Among these, the principal one is probably the cost of living in the town. This is a difficulty which is likely to be permanent; and the visitors have no remedy to suggest.

The exposed position of the school-house is such, that in the coldest part of the winter it has been impossible to keep the rooms sufficiently warm to be comfortable. This has been partly remedied by setting double windows in the building during the winter months. It will be necessary before another winter to repair the furnaces, or to procure new ones; and it would be desirable to repair the house.

Donations of books have been received by the school from several distinguished publishing houses, as Messrs. Brown & Taggard, and Messrs. Gould & Kendall; also, from Leander Wetherell, sq., Prof. A. Crosby, Rev. John F. Bigelow, the Hon. Charles