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trict meeting it shall be determined otherwise; but the Board is to have full power to exclude all such meetings during the five school days in each week of a school term.

Section 71 was so amended as to provide that no district organization shall be destroyed in the alteration of districts without the consent of the taxpayers.

Section 84 was so amended as to provide for equalizing the assessment of property in districts lying in two or more counties by the town boards.

The Legislature meets biennially. The last session was in 1873.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS DURING TEN YEARS.

The following table of statistics shows the relative educational progress made by Michigan during the past ten years:

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Number of graded schools......

Number of qualified male teachers

employed......

Whole number of children attending
school during the year......
Average number of months school...
Number of volumes in town libraries,
Number of volumes in district libraries

Value of school-houses and lots.....$2,085,372 00....$8, 105,391 00

215,736....

324,615

6.2....

7

58,524...

49,291

96,403....

115,331

$13,005 70.... $18,835 52

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$210,091 16.... $685,720 64

$381, 204 17....$1,079,348 95 $250,380 67.... $465,912 84 .$1,009,318 93....$3,743,352 20

Total expenditures for the year...... 8871,671 21....$3,148,885 52

MINNESOTA.

HORACE BROWN WILSON, Superintendent of Public Instruction, was born in Bingham, Somerset County, Me., May 30, 1821, and attended the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, located at Kent's Hill, Readfield. His father being in limited circumstances, young Wilson supported himself during the four years he attended this seminary. Graduating in the summer of 1841, he left Maine and went to Cincinnati, where he taught in the Second District School a year. He then removed to Lawrenceburg, Ind., and for two years was in charge of the Dearborn County Seminary. While at Lawrenceburg he studied law, and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced under his certificate. In 1844 he was married to Miss Mary J. Chandler. The same year he moved to New Albany, Ind., took charge of the public schools there, and organized the first graded school in that city. He superintended the educational interests there until 1850, when he was elected City Engineer, and for six years performed the duties of that office, superintending all public improvements of an architectural and engineering character. Mr. Wilson emigrated to Red Wing, Minn., in April, 1858, having previously been elected Professor of Mathematics and Civil Engineering in Hamline University in that city. The same year the Indiana Augsburg University conferred on him the title of M.A. He occupied the above professorship, as well as that of Natural Sciences, for four years. In 1862 he enlisted in the Sixth Minnesota Regiment, and served three years, being engaged in several battles with the Sioux Indians on the frontier, and a number of engagements with the Confederates in the South. In 1866, Professor Wilson was appointed Superintendent of Schools for Goodhue County, and held that position until August 1, 1870, when he was appointed State Superintendent of Public Instruction, which he has held since, having been reappointed April 1, 1871, and April 1, 1873. During his term as such he has been very successful.

EDUCATION, PAST AND PRESENT.

THE Constitution with which Minnesota was admitted into the Union (1858), provided for a general and uniform system of public schools in each township, by taxation or otherwise, and a University for the State.

In 1873 the Legislature thoroughly revised the school code, making numerous changes and improvements, which give general satisfaction.

The State Superintendent is appointed by the Governor for two years, and receives an annual salary of $2,500. He takes charge of the Teachers' Institutes, establishes Normal Training Schools, semi-annually apportions the current school funds in the State treasury among the several counties, in proportion to the number of persons between five and twenty-one years, grants State certificates of eminent qualifications to teachers, and administers the School Law of the State generally.

County Superintendents are appointed, paid, and removed by

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the County Commissioners. They examine and license teachers, annul certificates for cause, and make annual reports to the State Superintendent of the condition of affairs within their jurisdiction.

The officers of each school district are a Director, a Treasurer, and a Clerk, all elected for three years. They have charge of the general interests of schools and school-houses in their respective districts, employing teachers, arranging the expenditures, etc.

Any city, town, village, or township, may be organized as an independent school district, with six Directors constituting a Board, who shall take the place of trustees, and exercise their functions, employing teachers, prescribing text-books, and superintending and managing, in all respects, the schools of their districts. This board likewise appoints three School Examiners, who conduct the examinations of persons applying to become teachers.

The School Fund is derived from, the proceeds of the sale of school lands in the State, the interest of which is called Current School Fund, and is distributed to the counties in proportion to the number of children between five and twenty-one years old. Up to 1872 the Permanent School Fund had realized $2,532,351. The estimated apportionment for 1874 was $196,065.

The Superintendent of Public Instruction, the President of the University of Minnesota (which is a part of the school system of the State), and the Secretary of State, are constituted a Board of Commissioners to recommend text-books to be used in the common schools of the State. They receive no compensation for that service.

Average wages of winter schools: males, $36.90; females, $29.04. Summer schools: males, $38.78; females, $25.40.

Two hundred and twenty-eight new school-houses were erected during the year ending September, 1873, at an aggregate cost of $203,311.81.

Teachers' Institutes were held during the year in sixteen of the sixty-seven counties. They were attended by one thousand and fifty-three teachers, and their aggregate expense to the State was $1,847.43. The State Superintendent is, by law, given charge of each institute.

NINE YEARS' PROGRESS.

The following tables show the educational progress Minnesota has made during the last nine years:

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EDUCATION is free to all students in the University of Minnesota. A nominal charge of $5 per year for janitor is made, and this, with the price of the books used, is all the expense the student incurs. Departments of elementary instruction, science, literature, art, mechanic arts, and agriculture are in working order. Feminine and masculine students enter on the same qualifications and requirements, pursue the same courses, and receive the same degrees.

SUCCESS in teaching, says a recent writer, must depend, in a large measure, upon love for the work. If you have no pleasure in the work, the sooner you get out of it the better for yourself and probably for the public.

MISSISSIPPI.

T. W. CARDOZA, State Superintendent of Public Education in Mississippi, was born in Charleston, S. C., December 19, 1838, of a white father belonging to the aristocracy of the State, and a slave mother, who, however, had been liberated previous to his birth. When nineteen years of age, he took his mother to Cleveland, Ohio, and obtained employment for himself in New York State. He entered the Newburg Collegiate Institute as soon as he had saved sufficient funds, expecting to complete his studies at Dartmouth or Harvard. But the war came on, and he was obliged to resort to teaching again. He taught schools at Stapleton, Staten Island, and Flushing, Long Island, being remarkably successful at the latter place. Two weeks after its fall, he was sent to Charleston, S. C., by the Freedmen's Society, to organize schools among the colored children. He gathered one thousand children into the schools under his immediate charge within a short time. Desiring a permanent home in the South, he selected Mississippi, where he found a congenial climate and a wide field for his favorite occupation. He took an active part in the organization of the school-work of the State, and in November, 1873, was elected to the position of State Superintendent of Public Education by the largest majority, excepting one, of those on the ticket with him. His term of office is four years from the first Monday in January, 1874.

EDUCATION IN THE PAST.

THE following paper has been written for the ANNUAL by the State Superintendent:

Mississippi was admitted into the Union in 1817, with a Constitution containing the following clause: "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government, the promotion of liberty, and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." Previous to the war, however, there was no well-regulated system of Public Schools in Mississippi. Counties in which cities were situated had a local system, but rural towns derived no benefit from it. Immediately after the fall of Vicksburg, philanthropic societies of the North extended their field of operations into the State, and nearly every town enjoyed the benefit of the Public Schools. They were opened to all; but very few white children availed themselves of the opportunity. These schools were continued until 1869-'70, when, under the Reconstruction Acts, the Legislature enacted a code of laws for the inauguration and government of a system of Public Schools (amended in 1873).

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