LECTURES AND ESSAYS. 511 



schools which I think is generally unjust. I have a 19 year old daughter 

 who graduated through the regular course here in town a year or two later 

 than companions of her own age who had staid longer than she did in the 

 country district school. It seems tome that with all their shortcomings and 

 disadvantages, those ungraded or crudely graded schools develop a general 

 common sense thinking power that is often missed in the more artificially 

 elaborate systems of the city schools. 



FREE TEXT-BOOKS.; 



BY S. GORSLINE. 



Read at the AlbionJInstitute, Feb. 20, 1889. . 



"The district board shall prescribe the text-books to be used which shall 

 be uniform in each subject taught." 



When this law was enacted by our legislature, it was hailed by our 

 educators as promising a remedy for a great and increasing difficulty in 

 their successful work. That it has been almost a total failure, is known to 

 every one connected with our public schools. 



We find in the same township, and sometimes in a single district, so great 

 a variety of text-books used that no book-seller would undertake to keep a 

 supply. In this county we have in use ten different authors in reading ; 

 spellers, six; arithmetics, ten ; grammars, seven ; histories, eight; physiol- 

 ogies, ten; civil governments, five, and book-keeping, four. 



I need not stop here to enumerate the evils caused by this state of things; 

 the loss of valuable time to both teacher and pupil, the added expense to the 

 patron, the unsatisfactory work that at the best can be accomplished under 

 such circumstances are already well known. How may they be removed? 



By making text-books free, or furnishing them at cost. Supt. John 

 Jasper, of New York city, says: "The board of education furnishes all 

 pupils in, the public schools with books and school supplies free of expense, 

 and this meets the hearty approval of the citizens of New York city." 



State Supt. E. A. Apgar, of New Jersey, says: " Nearly all our cities 

 furnish text-books free of cost to the children. We have 1,500 school dis- 

 tricts in the State outside the cities. About 400 of these supply free text- 

 books. It is my endeavor to get all the districts in the State to adopt the 

 policy which now prevails in so many." 



At the California State Teachers' Association, C. B. Towle of Vallejo, was 

 appointed a committee to obtain information on the subject. He received 

 replies from thirty-five States concerning uniformity laws, free text-books 

 and text-books at cost. 



"The more the subject is studied, the more positive one becomes that, all 

 things being considered, the end of the text-book question will not be 

 reached until everywhere books are supplied free of cost to the pupils, 

 obtained by the city, town or district direct from the publishers." 



A gentleman connected with the schools in the Province of Ontario said 

 the board of education there prescribed and furnished at cost to all pupils 

 text-books used. They purchased the copyrights of all works adopted, and 

 then published them at government expense, and were furnished to pupils 

 a,t cost. When shown a book that retails here to our pupils at $1.40, he 



