nia cannot be overrated, and no doubt will command the assent and support of all who give to this subject any consideration. Senate Bills Nos. 16 and 120, relative to the subjects treated on in this report, in relation to the National Guard of California, meet with the approval and indorsement of your committee, and they respectfully recommend and urge their immediate passage. MR. PRESIDENT: Your Committee on Education, to whom leave was granted to visit the State University, and the State Normal School at San José, submit the following: Your committee visited the University at Berkeley, and met a cordial reception from President Holden and the heads of the several departments. In the short time allotted to our examination, we visited the Departments of Agriculture, Mechanics, Mining, Civil Engineering, Chemistry, and the College of Letters. As a whole we are able to commend the general management of this State institution, and believe the various departments to be in charge of able and experienced professors. The University is still in its infancy, and the great purposes of its organization are scarcely felt, yet it is preparing young men and young women in that technical and advanced education which will enable them to become leaders in the economic development of the great resources of the State. We can especially commend the Agricultural and Viticultural Departments as of unusual merit, and which are destined to reach with their results into every part of the country. The experimental tests made, and the information disseminated by means of bulletins, compensate many fold for the endowment which this department receives. We find many departments only partially equipped with apparatus, but the Regents have gone as far as the appropriations would permit. The Museum and Chemical Laboratory are both crowded for room. The Botanical Garden is an important feature and might profitably be greatly extended. And the same might be said of the Observatory and Meteorological Department. The prominence of this State institution, and the plan upon which it has been organized, and the results to be expected therefrom, suggest that, financially, the University should be liberally endowed with a permanent annual income, and not rely solely upon the pleasure of State Legislatures in making appropriations. STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. Your committee visited the Normal School at San José. We found President Allen and a full corps of instructors busy training teachers for school-room work. Permission was given the committee to examine the school-room works; also, the magnificent Normal School building, and the financial account for the past two years. We find this institution well managed, and heard no cause of complaint. Herewith we append a short outline of Prof. Allen's report to your committee:: "The total number of pupils in attendance is seven hundred and Of these, five hundred and forty-two are students of the Normal School proper; forty-five are in the Preparatory Department, and one hundred and fifteen are in the Training Department. All students apply. ing for permission to attend the Normal are requested to sign a statement that they desire to fit themselves for teaching, and also bind themselves to teach school after leaving the institution. The Preparatory Department is of a more recent creation. There were many students, we found, who would come from a long distance, and when examined for admission. would fail in one or perhaps two branches, or, it might be, would not be quite sixteen years of age. These are now received in the Preparatory Department, and, as the law directs, are charged a tuition fee of $30 a year until they are admitted regularly into the Normal proper. The Training Department, consisting of three grades, is where the students of the Senior class are trained to teach. Each member of that class is required to teach five months during the year, and this is as much a part of the Normal course as that of studying and reciting lessons. And in granting diplomas, the record in the training school is equally as impor tant as that of the class-room. In many cases it is more so; for every year we are compelled to deny diplomas to two or three members of the Senior Class, whose scholastic averages are excellent, but who strand in the Training School. These often go out and teach one, two, or three years, then return and satisfy us of their ability to properly conduct a school, when the diploma is given. The five hundred and forty-two stu dents are divided into fifteen classes, the number of each class varying from thirty to forty-seven, and in one class reaching as high as fifty-six. Once a week-usually on Saturday afternoon-all the classes are given. special instructions in the art of teaching. Each year we are devoting more and more attention to this essential branch of the work." Respectfully submitted. GESFORD, Chairman. ACCIDENTS ON STREET CABLE RAILROADS. |