I.UPBESSIOXS OF AMERICA. 



213 



of " graduation." They examine candidates desir- 

 ing to qualify as teachers, and grant certificates 

 of qualification, which are of five " grades." Cer- 

 tificates of a "special grade" are issued by the 

 supervisors to " all instructors in special studies, 

 to all instructors in Kindergarten schools, schools 

 for deaf-mutes, etc." l 



The organization of the Education Board for 

 the city and county of New York is wholly dif- 

 ferent from that of the Boston board. During 

 the last quarter of a century it has been frequent- 

 ly changed. The present board is constituted 

 under an act passed in 1873/ Its members, de- 

 scribed as " commissioners," are nominated by the 

 mayor, and hold office for three years, a third of 

 the board retiring annually. The board appoints 

 trustees, five from each ward, who hold office for 

 five years, one retiring in rotation every year. 



The executive staff consists of a city superin- 

 tendent and seven assistant superintendents of 

 schools — corresponding to the Boston " supervi- 

 sors " — a superintendent of school-buildings, and 

 an engineer. There are also three inspectors ap- 

 pointed by the mayor ; these gentlemen have to 

 certify the necessity for new schools, to grant cer- 

 tificates to persons qualified to act as teachers, 

 and to determine whether the local trustees of 

 schools have acted rightly in dismissing any of 

 their teachers. The board has supreme control 

 over the whole educational system, including the 

 College of the City of New York, with its presi- 

 dent, fourteen professors, eighteen tutors, and 

 1,050 students. The trustees have a general over- 

 sight of the schools in their respective wards, and 

 nominate the principals and vice-principals of the 

 schools for confirmation by the board. 



If any body of trustees is guilty of neglecting 

 or mismanaging any school under its control, the 

 board can take the school into its own hands. 

 In 1876 the board had seventeen "standing com- 

 mittees," including Finance Committee, Commit- 

 tee on Teachers, on Buildings, on Supplies, on 

 Sites, on Study and School Books, on School Fur- 

 niture, on Warming and Ventilation, on Evening 

 Schools, Colored Schools, etc. 



In New York, as in Boston, the efficiency of 

 the whole system largely depends on the superin- 

 tendent and his assistants. The work of these 

 gentlemen seemed to me to be far less mechani- 

 cal than that of either her Majesty's Inspectors 

 or of the School Board Inspectors in England. 

 It is not their principal duty to " examine and re- 

 port ; " they are empowered and required to " pro- 

 mote the efficiency " of the schools. If a super- 

 1 "Regulations," pp. 31, 32. 



visor in Boston or an assistant superintendent in 

 New York, or the superintendent in either city, 

 thinks that there might be some improvement in 

 the existing methods of teaching reading, he is 

 able to get his improved method tried in one of 

 the schools, and he watches the results. If he 

 wants to make a still bolder experiment and to 

 give a special character to the discipline and teach- 

 ing of a whole school, he is able, within the limits 

 of the regulations of the board, to ascertain how 

 the experiment will work. When I was in New 

 York I visited a primary school in which one of 

 the assistant superintendents had made an exper- 

 iment in order to discover whether it was not pos- 

 sible to secure far greater promptness and accu- 

 racy in the intellectual activity of the children 

 than is common in schools of the same kind. The 

 principal teacher, a lady who gave me the impres- 

 sion that she possessed unusual ability and vigor, 

 entered heartily into his scheme ; her assistants 

 were equally zealous. The results, whatever their 

 merit, were certainly astonishing. The intellect- 

 ual drill of the children was absolutely perfect. 

 There was something almost preternatural in the 

 readiness with which they answered every ques- 

 tion that was put to them. They exploded as 

 soon as they were touched ; and the answers were 

 always as definite and exact as if they had been 

 revised by a committee of lawyers or mathemati- 

 cians. I watched several classes at work in dif- 

 ferent subjects — reading, spelling, arithmetic, and 

 geography — and what struck me as most extraor- 

 dinary was the fact that every child in every class 

 was equally keen, equally clear, equally exact, 

 equally alert. 



My friend, the assistant superintendent, who 

 went through the school with me, was a little dis- 

 appointed when I expressed the fear that in the 

 long-run the children might suffer from the ex- 

 treme tension to which their minds were subject- 

 ed. The mistress, who was naturally very proud 

 of the results she had achieved, was equally dis- 

 appointed. I argued that the atmosphere of the 

 school was so electric and so stimulating that the 

 children seemed to me to have lost the character- 

 istics of childhood. The lady replied : " They are 

 New York children ; this is the way we live in 

 New York." I rejoined that I had seen nothing 

 like it in Chicago, and that I supposed that Chi- 

 cago was as " alive " as New York. It happened 

 to be the first school I had seen in New York, or 

 I might have told her that in the schools of New 

 York itself I had seen no such extraordinary ac- 

 tivity elsewhere. To make my peace, and get off 

 with a moderate degree of credit, I was obliged 



