It must be remembered that the total number of seats, if evenly distributed over the city, need not be greater than twothirds the entire number of pupils enrolled, for the reason that only 67 per cent. of the pupils enrolled are found belonging on an average at any one time. Consequently the present number of seats-25,750-would accommodate an annual enrollment of nearly 34,000 pupils. Two small buildings are in process of construction in Carondelet-one for a colored school and the other to relieve the Blow school-and one large building in the north part of the district of the Webster school. The alteration of the Franklin school building, as recommended in my last report, has not been undertaken, possibly from fear of weakening the building. So long as such illconstructed buildings are used it will be impossible to conduct our schools on an economical plan. About $6,000 are worse than wasted each year solely for the reason that the Franklin building is not constructed according to enlightened views as to size and shape of rooms, position of windows, &c. In another part of my report I shall recur to the subject of school. architecture. TABLE II, PAGE CX APPENDIX. Enrollment and Attendance of Pupils. Total number enrolled, (different pupils received during year), day schools...... 30,294 High school-boys 186; girls 222-total. ...... Number of pupils who attended 200 days....... 115 ..... 408 302 .27,901 1,568 4,137 758 ..10,527 34,431 200 3,743 41 41 46 48 .... 7 Not absent... Cases of tardiness. ....100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 50 50 55 57 58 56 52 62 62 268 213 182 224 265 205 200 140 119 116 120 118 97 90 The best feature Nearly two-thirds In the above tables will be noted a constant decrease in the percentage of tardiness from year to year. of our statistics is this item of punctuality. of our pupils were not tardy at all, and the remaining one-third were tardy on an average only three times during the year. The number "not absent during their enrollment" for 1870, was 916; for 1871, was 1420; for 1872, was 2046. In my last report I discussed at length the importance of moral education, and pointed out the means by which it is accomplished in our public schools. It is not possible, as some suppose, to secure a moral education by sentimental moralizing on the part of the teacher, nor by the abstract study of ethical principles, nor yet merely by the application of a constraining force from without. Moral education is a training of the will and not of the intellect, consequently, it relates to the formation of habits. The duties of (1) punctuality, (2) regularity, (3) silence, (4) truth, (5) industry, (6) respect for the rights of others, are enforced continually in and about the school as indispensable to the management of it. Individuals cannot combine in large numbers to achieve a common result without the observance of these duties, and hence they form the indispensable moral groundwork for life. In the discussion alluded to, I have endeavored to point out the general correlation of these duties, their genesis in the school, and their difference from the fundamental basis of all obligation as it exists in religion; also the distinction between crime and sin-the former a transgression against the laws of right, the latter against the mandates of religion; crime is defined by the civil government and sin by religion-the former has its punishment measured by the scope of the effects of the crime, the latter cannot have a finite measure, for all sin is infinite; hence any intermingling of the spheres of Church and State results in destroying justice or in corrupting religion-in introducing extravagant measures of punishment for various crimes and in creating a large category of crimes having relation to the "freedom of conscience," or else in sapping the foundations of religion by letting in the practice of measuring by a finite standard the guilt of sin and thus allowing of penances and other forms of atonement for sin than the utter consecration required by pure religion. I entered so much into the details of this investigation in order that I might point out the justification of the complete secularity of our schools. I cannot find that our schools have ever since their foundation in 1838 permitted so much as the reading of the Bible in them. I believe that this perfect secularity has done much to bring about the perfect intermingling of all denominations in our schools which has existed for so long. In the report of the past year evidence is furnished of the increasing attendance of pupils under seven years of age. This has been encouraged for reasons of morality such as I advanced in last year's report. From his third year the child begins to widen the sphere of his activity so as to extend it beyond the family influence. Through play he comes in contact with. children belonging to other families, and soon after this commences, he needs the counter-balancing influences of the school. Through contact with other children in play-especially where, as usually happens in cities, the street is the place of this association--his will develops powerfully and something more is needed for its culture than the mere family nurture. The more general regime of the school is needed to prevent arbitrariness and caprice and to secure the growth of proper respect for elders and for moral and civil ordinances. That three-fold reverence of which Goethe speaks as the basis of all higher life—reverence for superiors, for equals and for inferiors, is very difficult to inculcate if the child remains too long under the street influence without the training of the school. The school discipline is found to be far more potent when applied at the age of five years than at the age of eight. It has not been possible as yet to institute the experiment of a Kindergarten in some densely populated locality of our city, where the evil influence of the street tends to corrupt children |