OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
NORTH CAROLINA.
1889=1890.
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OP-1S906
BIENNIAL REPORT
SUPERINTENDENT
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
OF
NORTH CAROLINA,
FOR THE
SCHOLASTIC YEARS 1889 AND 1890.
RALEIGH:
Josephus Daniels, State Printer and Binder.
PRESSES OF EDWARDS & BROTJGHTON.
1890.
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA,
Department of Public Instruction,
Raleigh, October 1st, 1890.
To His Excellency Daniel G. Fowle,
Governor of North Carolina.
Sir :—In accordance with Section 2540 of The Code, I have
the honor to submit my report for the biennial term ending
June 30th, 1890.
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
S. M. FINGER,
Superintendent Public Instruction.
•J
Index.
INDEX.
Page.
Superintendent's remarks and recommendations - ix
Table comparing school finances of all the States - xiii
Summary of receipts for 1889 and 1890 xvi
Summary of expenditures for 1889 and 1890 xvi
Comparative statistics for seven years, 1884-1890 xvi
Census from 6 to 21 xvii
Enrollment for seven years, 1884-1890 xvii
Average attendance for seven years, 1884-1890 xvii
Average length of school terms for seven years, 1884-1890 xvii
Average salary of teachers for seven years, 1884-1890 xvii
Value of public school property, 1888-1890.-. xviii
No. of public school-houses, 1888-1890 xviii
No. of public schools taught, 1888-1890 xviii
No. of districts, 1888-1890 xviii
Statistics of normal schools (colored), 1888-1890 xix
Normal schools and teachers - xix
County superintendency xx
Confusion of ideas about moral and religious training xx
Enrollment and attendance xxii
Compulsory education - - - xxiii
Text-books and libraries . . xxv
Manual and industrial training xxvii
Committeemen xxviii
Examination of teachers and list of questions xxix
Peabody fund and scholarships at Nashville, Tenn xxxv
City schools ...- xxxvii
Higher educational institutions xxxviii
Croatan Normal School xl
The Negroes xl
Notes upon school revenue xliii
Constitutional provisions xliii
Funds raised in the counties and retained xliv
Funds that go into the State Treasury for schools .
.
xlv
Application of the funds xlvii
Funds from special local taxation xlviii
Institutes , xlix
What we aim at in the Institute work 1
Houses and furniture lv
Inspiring confidence in public schools lvi
vl Index.
Page.
Help of influential citizens - lvi
Increase the funds -- ^v"
Statistics of Institutes l viii
Reports of Institute Conductors:
Report of Prof. E. A. Alderman 1
Report of Prof. C. D. Mclver 15
Report of Prof. J. Y. Joyner, 1889 and 1890 21-24
Report of Prof. M. C. S. Noble, 1889 and 1890 28-31
Report of Prof. E. P. Moses, 1889 and 1890 - 33
Report of Prof. Alex. Graham, 1890. - 34
Report of Profs. E. L. Hughes and J. J. Blair, 1890 36
Statistical Tables:
School fund received, 1889 ---- 59
School fund received , 1890 - 65
School fund disbursed, 1889 - 62
School fund disbursed, 1890 68
School census, number enrolled, average attendance and Insti-tute
statistics - - 71
Number of districts, schools taught, school-houses, etc - - 74
Number of teachers examined and approved, 1890.. 77
Attendance of pupils of different ages and number of pupils
studying different branches - 81
Money apportioned to white and colored; assessed value of prop-erty,
white and colored ; insolvent polls ; poll-tax levied
and amount of poll-tax applied to schools - 84
Normal Schools for the Colored Race :
Boards of Directors and Superintendents 38
Fayetteville, 1889 38
1890 -- 40
Franklinton, 1889 - 42
1890.-. - -'. 43
Plymouth, 1889 - -- -- 47
1890 - 48
Goldsboro, 1889 - - --- 51
1890 —- --- 52
Salisbury, 1889 • --- 55
1890 - 56
Croatan Indians - 57
Private schools in the several counties - - 88
List of Boards of Education --- 106
List of County Superintendents - -- i13
Appendix :
Public school law with Superintendent's notes. . - - - 1-52
List of text-books ... - - - - 58
Index. rii
Appendix—Continued : Page.
Arrangement for purchasing text-books 59
Questions and suggestions for school officers and others 53
Committeemen - - - 53
County Boards of Education 53
County Superintendents - 54
Teachers - 54
Opponents of public education -. -- 55
Justices of the Peace and County Commissioners 57
Plan of school-house 60
Form of contract. - - 61
BIENNIAL REPORT
Superintendent of Public Instruction
FOR THE
SCHOLASTIC YEARS 1889 AND 1890.
SUPERINTENDENT'S REMARKS AND RECOM-MENDATIONS.
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE NOT SATISFACTORY.
1. In the beginning of this report I desire to say, with as
much emphasis as possible, that our schools, except in a few
of the cities, are not satisfactory to any class of our citizens.
As everywhere, we have in North Carolina people who either
want no public schools, or if any, only a sort of charity
schools for the poor. For such people we have already too
much tax for public schools.
We also have many people, and the number of such is
rapidly increasing, who believe in liberal education for all
the people for the people's benefit and for the safety of the
State. To such people, many of whom are entirely depend-ent
upon the public schools for the education of their
children, the schools are unsatisfactory because of the small
amount of money applied and the consequent shortness of
annual terms and want of proper qualifications on the part
of many teachers.
THE SCHOOLS ARE DOING MUCH GOOD.
2. It is not my purpose to underrate the good the public
schools are doing. I wish to bear testimony to the fact that
2
X Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
they are doing much good ; that there is continual improve-ment
in the teachers and in public sentiment ; but it is
simply idle to expect satisfactory schools with our average
annual terms of sixty days, and with an expenditure of
money amounting to forty-four cents on each of the federal
population (each man, woman and child), and only one
dollar and twenty-two cents on each of the school popula-tion
from six to twenty-one years of age.
PUBLIC EDUCATION MUST ADVANCE.
3. Public education is a part of modern civilization, and
it cannot be dispensed with or successfully resisted—it must
go forward. How fast it is to advance is the question, and it
is one to be decided by the people. Complaint is not made
here against the people; my desire is to do my duty as their
agent by way of informing them and the General Assembly
as to the exact status of their schools and leave the matter
with them.
THE SCHOOL FIND MUST BE INCREASED.
4. The amount of money must be doubled before we can
expect[satisfactory schools, and even when that shall have
been done, we will have no longer school terms than some
of our sister Southern States.
The table on page XIII will enable all to see what each
of the States is doing in public education. No better measure
of the educational force of a State can be found than the
per capita amount of money expended per annum, and the
average annual length of school terms. It will be seen that
North Carolina expends 44 cents to each man, woman and
child, while the average in the fifteen Southern States is 98
cents, and the average in the United States is $2.05.
North Carolina's annual school term is sixty days, while
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xi
the average in the Southern States is 101 days, and in the
United States 135 days.
The property of the fifteen Southern States, as assessed for
taxation, is $4,418,844,711, their school fund $22,033,849;
the property of the Northern States is about $20,000,000,000
(few of the States not included in this table), their school
fund $110,113,976.
The school fund in North Carolina amounts to 34 cents
on the $100 of her assessed valuation, while in the Southern
States it is 45| cents, and in the Northern States 55 cents.
These figures, deduced from this table, and a careful study
of the table, comparing North Carolina with each of the
other States, show the necessity of an immediate increase of
our school fund.
Under our Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme
Court in Barksdale v. Commissioners of Sampson County,
93 N. C. Reports, the practicable way to increase the general
school revenue, is by increase of the tax levy by the General
Assembly. There is no doubt as to their authority to do
this.
Prior to that decision it was the policy of the State to
require each county to supplement the State lev}7
. That
policy was defeated hy this decision of the Court, which was
to the effect that the county authorities could not add to
the total State levies a rate of taxation that would make
the total State and County taxes more than 66| cents on
$100 of property, and $2.00 on poll ; and that the county
authorities had the discretion to prefer other county matters
to schools. In most counties the whole margin of taxes left
to the County Commissioners by the General Assembly is
exhausted before the school question is considered, and so
the schools have had no additional funds from county levies,
except in a few instances. It is, however, within the power
of the* General Assembly to require the County Commis-sioners
to levy school taxes before they provide for other
county matters If the Assembly would pass an act to this
.'//' Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
effect, and margin enough should not be left to meet other
necessary expenses of county government, it is thought that
there is authority under sec. 7, Art. VII of the Constitution,
to levy taxes for all necessary expenses. This section is as
follows : " No county, city, town, or other municipal corpora-tion
shall contract any debt, pledge its faith, or loan its
credit, nor shall any tax be levied, or collected by any officer
of the same, except for the necessary expenses thereof, unless
by a vote of the majority of the qualified voters therein."
If it should be held that the levy cannot be made under
this section, it is believed that there is no constitutional
difficulty in getting a special act to meet the necessary
expenses of the county.
After the Assembly shall have gone to the utmost extent
they are willing to go, either by levying the additional taxes
themselves, or commanding the counties so to do, sections
2654 and 2655 should be so amended that ai^ county, town-ship,
city, or town shall be allowed to vote upon the question
of taxing its people, keeping up the equation between the
property-tax and poll-tax, to such extent as they deem
desirable, in order to meet their educational wants.
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. .nil
xiv Hi port of Superintendent of Public Instruction
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Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xv
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I-
Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
SUMMARY OF STATISTICS.
^Summary op Receipts for 1889 and 1890.
1889. 1890.
General poll-tax $241,866.36 $271,344.88
General property tax (12*) 258,826.86 281,096.26
Special poll-tax 5,104.19 2,631.85
Special property tax 10.688.04 3,700.02
Special property tax under local acts 3,950.16 14,806.37
Special poll-tax under local acts 3,200.83 840.80
Fines, forfeitures and penalties 14,915.26 24,207.97
Liquor licenses 55,406.64 74,290.43
Auctioneers.- 17.16 31.21
Estrays ..'... - 9.86 51.47
Other sources --- 18,165.95 19,691.66
State Board of Education 29,063.46
Totals $612,151.31 $721,756.38
*SUMMARY OF EXPENDITURES FOR 1889 AND 1890.
1889. 1890.
Tuition for whites ....$283,665.74 $366,737.23
Tuition for colored - 143,106.94 189,246.82
Houses and sites for whites 34.599.98 52,165.34
Houses and sites for colored 17,026.06 21,454.59
County Superintendents 12,011.39 18,762.78
County Institutes for whites - 445.97 2,538.52
County Institutes for colored 249 50 787.00
Treasurer's commissions-- 13,448.01 14,171.70
Mileage and per diem of Boards of Education.-- 4,995.14 7,543.34
Fuel for Boards of Education, stationery and
postage^ 898.44 2,367.55
Other purposes 16,412.00 42,450.73
Total expenditures - $526,849.17 $718,225.60
Comparative Statistics for Seven Years, from 1884 to 1890 inclusive.
Receipts for 1884... - $580,311.06
Receipts for 1885. - 631,904.38
Receipts for 1886 670,671.79
Receipts for 1887 ---- 647,407.81
Receipts for 1888 ---- 670.944.73
Receipts for 1889 (8 months) 612,151.31
Receipts for 1890 721,756.38
*Owingtoa change in the date of the beginning- of the fiscal school year, the
figures for 1SS9 are for 8 months only.
Scholastic Years 18S9 and 1890. XVII
Census from 6 to 21 Years of Age.
For 1884 321,561 whites and 193,843 colored.
For 1885 330,890
For 1886.. - 338,059
1887.. 353,481
1888 363.982
199,237
209,249
212,789
216,837
For
For
For 1889—Not taken.
~ 1SQn \ Males ...190,423 \ „~n 1A± j Male ...108.707 ) 01fi ,o , For 1890
j Females _ 179,721 \
°' 0Mi
\ Female. 107,817 }
216> 534
Enrollment.
For 1884 170,925 whites and 113,391 colored.
For 1885 185,225
For 1886 188,036
For 1887... 202,134
For 1888 211,498
For 1889
For 1890 i
Male "
"
- 107 ' 073 *or lSJU^ I 905 844 Female _ 98771 j- --- -05,844
112,941
117,562
123,145
125,884
j Male ...55.455/
{ Female .61,234 J
116,689
Average Attendance.
For 1884 . _ 106,316 whites and 66,679 colored.
For 1885... 115,092 " " 70,486
For 1886 117,121 " " 68,585
For 1887... ..124,653 " " 71,466
For 1888.. 133,427 " " 75,230
For 1889.
For 1890 134,108 " " 68,992
Average Length of School Terms.
For 1884 11^ weeks for whites and llf for colored.
For 1885 12 11|
For 1886.... llf
For 1887 .12
For 1888 .12.8
For 1889.
For 1890 11.85
12
12
12.3
11.81
Average Salary of Teachers.
For 1886
xviii Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Value of Public School Property.
1888—For whites . . $505,291 .90
1888-For colored 230,218.68
Total in 1888.... f735,510.58
1890—For white 612,303.51
1890—For colored 240,402.60
Total -. $852,705.11
Number of Public School- Houses.
3—For whites... 3,779
1888—For colored 1,766
Total houses 1888 5,543
1890—For white - 3,973
1890—For colored ....1,820
Total houses 1890 5,793
Number of Public Schools Taught.
1888—For whites 4,438
1888—For colored 2,317
Total for 1888 6,755
1890—For whites 4.508
1890—For colored 2,327
Total 1890 - -.6,835
Number of Districts.
1888—For whites 4,763
1888—For colored 2,031
Total 1888 - 6,794
1890—For whites -- ...4,893
1890—For colored 2,289
Total 1890 7,182
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xix
Statistics of Normal Schools for 1889 and '90, for Colored Race.
1889. 1890.
Attendance at Fayetteville.. :.. 153 145
Attendance at Salisbury 106 119
Attendance at Franklinton 245 275
Attendance at Plymouth 106 123
Attendance at Goldsboro 109 115
Total attendance 719 777
NORMAL SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS.
5. We must have Normal Schools or Training Schools for
teachers before our teachers will be fully abreast with modern
progress. We have many good teachers who attended the
old summer Normal Schools and the County Institutes, and
who have, with the facilities at command, done well in pre-paring
themselves in the science and art of teaching and
governing. It must, however, be said, that a very large
proportion of our public school teachers are young men and
young women who, if prepared on subjects, are without ade-quate
knowledge of proper methods of teaching and of organ-izing
and governing their schools. It must not be forgotten
that we will continue to have such teachers as long as our
school terms are so short as not to justify persons in making
teaching a profession. Teaching must become a profession
just as the ministry of the gospel, the law, medicine, etc., are
professions. The teachers must be able to live by their pro-fession
before they can devote their best energies to their
work.
One of the strange things is the failure of many people to
recognize the importance of trained professional teachers.
In matters where money and physical life are involved, the
people employ the best trained lawyers and physicians, but
when the training of the immortal minds of their children
is to be attended to, any novice is thought by so many people
good enough for this most important work. It is hoped that
xx Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
the General Assembly will not be again appealed to in vain
on tins subject.
COUNTY SUPERINTENDENCY.
*
6. In many counties we must have more active work by
County Superintendents. No money spent for public schools
is so well spent as that paid to competent and active Super-intendents.
In some counties we have such active and
competent supervision, and in no county, where it has been
tried, has it failed to make great improvement in the schools.
In such cases the Superintendents not only instruct their
teachers and make addresses to the people, but they also
know all about their teachers and their methods, the kind
of school-houses in their county, the furniture in them, and
the}T can give the County Boards full information about
suitable men for committeemen, proposed changes of district
lines, etc.; they are always ready to correct abuses and inform
and advise the Boards.
But in many counties the Superintendents do not visit the
schools. Perhaps they are not allowed by their Boards to
do so. Perhaps the pay is so small that they cannot afford
to visit the schools and do the active work necessary to be
done. A little consideration of this subject will convince
any intelligent man that active and competent superiutend-ency
is the life of the system. When we shall put enough
money into our system to make it what it ought to be, the
county superintendency will demand the whole time of a
competent man.
CONFUSION OF IDEAS ABOUT MORAL AND RELIGIOUS
TRAINING
7. We must have less opposition by many good people
who seem to mistrust the public schools in their bearing
upon the morals and religion of the children. There is
Scholastic Year* 1889 and 1890. xxi
much misapprehension and confusion of ideas on this sub-ject,
The Constitution and Statutes require the inculcation
of good morals, but forbid the use of any sectarian text-books.
This is as it should be; the church and State are separate in
this country. The church can educate only a very small
part of the people; she has not the means to reach the
masses even with elementary education.
But ignorance is slavery of some kind, whether it is found
in individuals, communities, States, or Nations. To be rid of
this slavery and to lessen crime, the universal attendant of
ignorance, the people must be educated. When the State
takes hold of this work, she must, therefore, by the inculca-tion
of good morals, lay the foundation of good citizenship
and the foundation of good Christian character. Allowing
that the home is the proper place for the inculcation of good
morals—truth, justice, honor, fidelity, integrity, purity, etc.,
that character work so essential to the State's welfare—yet
there are so many fathers and mothers who are thoughtless,
careless, ignorant, aimless, and so many who are degraded
and vicious, that it must be acknowledged that this home-work
must be supplemented by the State.
There seems to me to be in the minds of many good
people much confusion as to what the State can and ought
to do on the subject of moral and religious training. I hold
that the highest morality of any people is the highest religion
of that people. In a State whose people, as a whole, are
guided by the truths of Christianity, public sentiment will
compel the teachers of the public schools to inculcate that
morality which is based in Christ's teaching and example.
It seems to me that it matters but little whether we have in
our schools special text-books on morals. I believe that the
very best possible way to teach morality is by the example
of the teacher and the actual friction of the school-room and
school-life. This is teaching in the concrete. Besides, we
have in our school-books, especially Readers, precept upon
precept and the very best illustration of practical morality.
.r.rli Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
This kind of daily illustration of good morals by the exam-ple
of teachers and by the practical lessons in the books in
the public schools throughout this nation, is building up
substantial, moral and Christian character, and preparing
the people of the country for such definite tenets as the dif-ferent
denominations may desire to impress.
As a matter of fact, the public-school teachers of this State,
speaking of them as a whole, are a body of noble Christian
men and women. I think that even among intelligent
people—Christian people—there is much ignorance of public-school
matters, and by them much injustice is often done to
the public school workers. I will add, that I believe much
damage is done to the cause of Christianity by the opposi-tion
that is manifested by some, if not many, leaders in
church matters. Such men's lives are as cities set upon hills,
and it should not be forgotten by them that their mistakes
shine no less conspicuously than their virtues.
There are some things that are axiomatic, one of which I
think is, that education is better than ignorance, even if it
is only intellectual education, which I think it is impossible
to give without, at the same time, imparting some moral
training. I think it may also be considered settled that
general education cannot be imparted by private or church
enterprise, and if the masses of the people in any country
are to be educated, that result must be effected mainly by
the State. It is high time, in the blazing light of the close
of the 19th century, that good people everywhere recognize
these truths and lend a helping hand to the State in this
great work instead of opposing it.
ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE.
During the year ending June 30th, 1890, the enrollment
of white children was 55 per cent, of the school census, and
the average attendance 36 percent., while the enrollment of
colored children was 54 per cent., and the attendance 32 per
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xxiii
cent. I was unable to get the enrollment in the private
schools in the following (24) counties : Burke, Camden,
Cherokee, Cleveland, Craven, Davidson, Edgecombe, Gates,
Halifax, Harnett, Henderson, Lenoir, Madison, Pamlico,
Richmond, Robeson, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Tyrnell,
Wilson, Yadkin and Yancey. At the proper place in this
report there will be found a list of the private schools and
colleges of 72 counties, which shows an enrollment of 24,301
white and 4,413 colored, Estimating a proportional number
for the counties not reported, the total enrollment of whites
would be 32,402, of colored 5,884. Owing to the fact that,
under Section 2591 , there is, in many cases, a union between
the public and private schools, quite a number of children
are evidently counted twice, to-wit, in the public school
enrollment and in the private school enrollment. I think
it is safe to estimate that there were last year enrolled
25,000 white children in the private schools who were not
enrolled in the public schools, and 5,000 colored children
enrolled in the private schools who were not enrolled in the
public schools. It is a fact worthy of notice that the enroll-ment
in the private schools and colleges increases as the
public schools are made more efficient. It must not be
inferred that, although the enrollment was only 352,533 out
of 586,068, the remaining 234,135 have never been in school,
and never will be. Many of this 234,135 are considered too
young to attend school, but they will attend later on; and
many others are in active life-work, having gone to school
more or less, and are still within the school age, and, per-haps,
30,000 are in the private schools. But the fact does
remain, nevertheless, that a large number of children do not
attend school at all.
COMPULSORY EDUCATION.
Section 15, Article 9, of our State Constitution is as follows :
" The General Assembly is hereby empowered to enact that
xiv Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
every child, of sufficient mental and physical ability, shall
attend the public schools during the period between the
ages of six and eighteen years, for a term of not less than
sixteen months, unless educated by some other means."
The same principle that justifies the State in providing
the means for public education justifies her in requiring the
people to avail themselves of it. Instruction is so much
needed by each citizen for his own sake, and for that of
society, that the father who neglects to provide for his child's
instruction sins against the child and against society, and
the State has a right to punish him. The difficulty lies in
the enforcement of a compulsory law. Some people are so
poor that it seems they cannot provide for their children
suitable clothing and books, even if they desire to do so
When the children of such persons do find their way into
the schools they do not find among many other children
such forbearance and sympathy as to make the school a
desirable place, and consequently school is no pleasant place
for them. If parents refuse to send to school and a compul-sory
law is to be enforced, it must be done by punishing the
parents by fine or otherwise. I am not sure that this would
be a wise course to pursue, at least in the present condition
of our school matters. About half of the States have no
compulsory laws, and those that have them have not been
able to enforce them writh much success.
I suggest that children under 14 years of age ought not to
be employed by any manufacturer unless they can read and
write. If manufacturers would take the matter in hand and
say that they would employ no person under this age who
could not read well and write a respectable hand, more good
would be done than by any possible compulsory law, so far
as their employees are concerned. Of course reasonable time
would have to be allowed to work up to such a requirement
Indeed, I am inclined to the opinion that, at least in our
present condition, more will be done to secure the attend-ance
of poor people's children, and the children of others
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xxv
who do not send to school for reasons otlier than extreme
poverty, by persuasion and the active influence of commit-teemen
and others, than by an attempt at compulsion by
fines and other penalties.
A compulsory law will promise better success when we
shall have worked up a stronger sentiment in favor of better
public schools among all classes of our people, especially
among the more intelligent.
There are not many opportunities for charity by the
Church and by individual Christians that promise more good
than work for the children of parents who are either too
poor to send to school or who are so debased as not to care
for the elevation and education of their children. Not
unfrequently, especially in cities, the children are in dens
of vice and immorality, and unless they are rescued by some
agency other than the public schools, and are in some way
prepared for entrance to the schools, they will almost neces-sarily
grow up into the vices, immoralities and contagions
of their parents. Vice and crime are specially recruited
from the children born and reared in the debased homes
which the \ ublic schools cannot reach. As this is so, special
agencies and work are here indicated as necessary work that,
unorthodox as the statement may seem, the public schools
cannot do.
TEXT ROOKS AND LIBRARIES.
The books recommended by the State Board of Education,
which are required by statute to be used in all the public
schools of the State, are now largely used in the country
schools. The Histories, Geographies and Arithmetics are
almost exclusively used, and the others are rapidly going
in, so that the State is almost uniformed, and much money
is saved the children by the use of these books.
More than one-half of our list in value is published by
the University Publishing Company, and about one-fourth
3
xxvi Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
(the Arithmetics) by the J. B. Lippincott Company. These
books are all of Southern authorship, as are also our North
Carolina Histories, published by A. Williams & Co , and our
United States Histories. These are all good books, ami free
from anything objectionable to our people.
One of the most serious questions that confronts theSuuth
is the character of schdol books. The book-houses are
making a great fight over the introduction of books, some
of them going so far as to make combinations, or syndicates,
or trusts, and to offer to swap eveu for all old books, and,
indirectly, if not directly, to use money to control the judg-ment
and action of school boards and teachers. If our
Southern people are wise they will look carefully after the
books that are put into the hands of their children.
So far as the distribution of the books is concerned, our law
contemplates that each child shall own his books. I
believe this is better than any other plan that can be adopted.
The possession of a book causes the child to take better care
of it, and really to take more interest in studying it than he
would if it were lent to him by the school committee for the
term, or distributed daily in the school-room from a common
stock. Besides, there are other objections to the promiscuous
use of books by different children, connected with their
health and cleanliness.
It might be well for the statute to allow ommittees to
donate books in the elementary branches to a few children
that, in their judgment, are not able to purchase them, but I
would go no further.
Every district ought to have a library. It would very much
encourage investigation and general reading, not only among
the children, but, also, among their parents. It is hoped
that our school fund will be so increased as to justify the
application of some money in this direction. But whether
public funds can be so applied or not, certainly something
can be done by private individuals and by the efforts of
enterprising teachers to supply good books for general read-
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xxvii
ing. Certainly, every town can have a library, and it will have
it, if the people see the importance of it, and at what small
expense it can be had. Some of our city schools have
already established libraries, and all of them should take
steps at once to do something in this direction
MANUAL AND INDUSTRIAL DRAINING.
"In the sweat of thy face shaltthou eat bread " is the lan-guage
of the Bible. "The gods have placed sweat in the
pathway to all excellence " is the language of the old Greek
poet, Hesiod. These sentences teach that, in accordance
with Divine law, and also the experience of mankind, labor
is the normal condition of all men. I believe it may be
said with strict truth that the father and mother, no matter
what their circumstances may be, who fail to teach their
children to do some useful labor commit a wrong against
their offspring and lay their lives open to trying temptations.
But, so far as the State is concerned, the main aim is to
impart such instruction as should be possessed by all good
citizens of whatever calling. North Carolina has not yet
nearly reached this aim. She must have intelligent, moral,
self-sustaining and law-abiding citizens, but she cannot
instruct all her citizens in trades and professions. What
she can do, beyond the education that should be common to
all her people, can reach in a direct way only a small
number of persons in her University, the Agricultural and
Mechanical College, and in a few other labor schools which
she may establish for men and women. The few persons,
however, thus educated in such institutions will, in an
indirect way, be teachers and examples to the great body of
the people. One good mechanic and one good farmer will
teach many more in the active work of life; one ripe and
cultured scholar from our University will be of much value
to his neighbors and his State.
The great mass of the people must depend, for industrial
xxviii Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
training, up in the farms, work-shops, and factories. This
source of industrial training is open to all, and may be
learned on the farms, in the household, and in the shops.
under the guidance of persons trained in different kinds of
work; and when it is thus learned it will be of the most
practical kind. The day will not soon, if ever come, when,
in the public schools except in the cities, even manual
training can be taught'to the great body of the children.
Wherever it can be taught it ought to be taught It not only
dignifies labor, but it is very valuable, both as an educa-tional
factor and as a preparation for practical, self-sustaining
citizenship. A result specially to be aimed at in the educa-tion
of children is to get them to think for themselves. Per-haps
the very best way to do this is to put them at some
kind of manual labor which will necessarily require them
to think, and to depend upon themselves.
Drawing and modeling are closely allied to manual train-ing,
and are not only valuable educational helps, but they
are among the very practical branches which can be and
ought to be taught in all schools and to all children.
COMMITTEEMEN.
There are three committeemen for each district, It is
difficult to get three competent men to serve, and in many
cases, if not in most cases, they do not meet and organize,
as the law directs, nor do they in their organized capacity
employ teachers. In most cases I think the teacher seeking
employment goes first to one and then another of the com-mitteemen,
and in this irregular way gets the individual
consent of each committeeman to teach the school.
I suggest whether it would not be better to have but one
committeeman for each district, and give him and the
County Superintendent the employment of the teacher and
the transaction of all business pertaining to the district,
under the supervision of the Board of Education. If this
Scholastic Yean 1889 and 1890. xxix
plan were adopted I feel sure more competent committeemen
could be secured. The County Superintendent could, at his
examinations, learn where each teacher desired to teach,
and, if his judgment approved, he could indicate this
approval, and the teacher could secure the school by seeing
the committeeman.
One of the fertile sources of trouble is the employment of
persons who are of near kin to the committeemen. This
should be forbidden.
EXAMINATIONS OF TEACHERS.
For the examination in September, 1890, I sent out the
following set of examination papers, coveriDg the principal
subjects contemplated in our public school law :
Raleigh, N. C, August 25th, 1890.
Superintendent of Public Instruction of. County :
In conducting your next examination of candidates for teachers' cer-tificates,
you are requested to use the following questions and adopt the
following rules :
1. The questions should not be made known to any one until the time
specified for the beginning of the examination on each subject. The
questions on one subject at a time will be given the candidate.
2. No candidate will be permitted to leave the room after a subject
has been assigned without depositing his work with the Superintendent.
In no case shall papers, once deposited, be returned to the candidate.
3. During the examination all books, maps, globes, or other aids must
be removed from the observation of the candidates.
4. Every candidate supplies himself with paper, pens and ink. If any
corrections are necessary the candidate shall not erase, but shall draw a
single mark over the error, that the Superintendent may see the error
as well as the correction.
5. The name of the candidate shall be written at the top of each page.
6. No books shall be consulted, no communication permitted during
the examination.
7. All candidates shall commence each subject simultaneously, and
the Superintendent shall state how much time will be allowed. When
this time is out the examination shall be closed.
8. I have endeavored to so grade the questions on all the subjects that
xxx lh port of Superintendent of Public Instruction
they may be used for examination for all grades of certificates in accord-ance
with Section 2566.
9. At the close of the examination, I advise that you have each appli-cant
write on his examination papers and sign the following pledge: "I
certify that in this examination I have neither received nor given help."
10. Please send me the best set of examination papers with each ques-tion
marked with the value you attach to the answer. Also state the
number of teachers examined on these questions, and the number of
certificates of each kind issued.
11. On Reading and Penmanship, you will please make your own
examination.
12. I cannot send examination papers for all of your examinations
during the year, and these are sent with the hope that they may be a
guide to some extent to uniform the examinations throughout the
State.
Very respectfully,
S. M. FINGER, Sup't Public Instruction.
SPELLING.
1. Do you think rules are of any use in learning to spell ? If so, state one
such rule, with two applications.
2. What do you think of having pupils spell a few words in every branch
at the beginning of the recitation '(
3. Why do you think some pupils learn to spell so much more easily
than others?
4. Spell the following words correctly:
1.
Scholastic Years 1SS9 and 1890. xxxi
GEOGRAPHY.
1. Give the width of each zone in degrees.
2. Of what value is map drawing?
3. What geographical features make New York the Metropolis of the
United States ?
4. Locate the following, and tell what they are : Samoa, Aspinvvall,
Ceylon, Rio Janeiro, Yosemite, Cape Colony, Rhine, Azores,
Berlin.
5. Of what use is a globe in teaching Geography ?
6. What mountains between Spain and France ? Between Italy and
Switzerland ? Between Europe and Asia ?
7. Name the five principal rivers in North Carolina, and locate its five
most important cities.
8. State the causes which modify the climate of a country.
9. What important cities could one stop at in going by boat from Pitts-burg,
Pa., to New Orleans?
10. How- could you go by water from the United States to Italy without
crossing any part of the Atlantic Ocean ?
ARITHMETIC.
1. Divide 9f X %° by f +f. Substract 2^ from the sum of 8£, 3£, 7£, 8^.
2. Divide 2 gals., 2 qts., 1 pt. into 2,000 equal parts.
3. Find six per cent, interest of $4,352.50 for one year, three months
and thirteen days.
4. A man having $2,025 in the bank drew out $1,560. What per cent.
did he draw out?
5. A pile of 4-foot wood 24 rods long contains 100 cords. What is its
height ?
6. A man sells pens at £ cent apiece above cost and makes 20 per cent.
What do the pens cost him apiece ? At what price per dozen does
he sell them ?
7. A man sold 16 horses at $200 each ; on one-half he gained 10 per
cent., and on the other half be lost 10 per cent. Find net gain or
loss.
8. A rectangular park, the sides of which are respectively 45 rods and
60 rods long, has a walk crossing it from corner to corner. How
long is the walk ?
9. From the unit of the third order substract the sum of .371 and sixty-five
ten thousandths, multiply the remainder by three-tenths, and
divide the product by five millionths.
10. What sum must be invested in 7 per cent, bonds at 10H per cent, to
vield an annual income of $980?
.r.rxii Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
NORTH CAROLINA HISTORY.
1. State, briefly, what you know about Sir Walter Raleigh's effort to
make a settlement in North Carolina.
2. What King granted North Carolina to "The Lords Proprietors?"
3. About how long did "The Lords Proprietors" govern North Carolina ?"
4. How did the government of "The Lords Proprietors" come to an
end?
5. Who was the first Governor under the King, and who were some of
his successors prior to 1776 ?
6. Who was Lord Granville, and what was his connection with our
colonial history ?
7. Who were the Regulators ?
8. Give some account of their grievances, and the Governor's treatment
of them.
9. During the Revolutionary war what battles were fought in North
Carolina V Give some account of them.
10. Name some of the Governors of North Carolina, and what events of
note took place under the administration of any of them.
U. S. HISTORY.
1. What were the prime causes of the war of 1812?
2. What is meant by "a Congress of the United States"? How are the
members chosen ?
3. Of what nationalityVvas De Soto? What discovery did he make?
4. WThy was Virginia thus named, and where was its first settlement ?
5. In what colony and in what year was slavery introduced into the
United States?
6. Who was William Penn? What State did he found ?
7. Name four distinguished generals who afterward became Presidents
of the United States.
8. Who were the Hessians who took part in the Revolutionary war ?
How came they here ?
9. Who was President of the United States during the war of 1812?
The Mexican war ?
10. WThat is meant by the "Centennial Year"? What event was spe-cially
celebrated ?
GRAMMAR.
There is a realm where the rainbow never fades ; where the stars will
spread out before us, like islands that slumber on the ocean, and where
the beautiful beings which here pass before us like shadows, will stay
in our presence forever.
The first six questions refer to the above st lection.
Scholastic Year* 1889 and 1890. xxxiii
[Note.—In naming a clause, include only its simple subject and
simple predicate.
In giving the syntax of a noun or pronoun, give only the case and the
reason for it.
By phrase is meant a preposition and its object. In naming a p>hrase
give only the preposition and its simple (unmodified) object.
A modifier may be a icord. phrase or clause.
Infinitives are classed as modes of the verb.]
1. What four modifiers of realm?
2. Parse the words of "will stay in our presence forever."
3. Name two relative pronouns, and state what the clauses in which
they occur modify.
4. What are the modifiers of pass ?
5. Give the syntax of realm.
6. Parse which.
7. Define voice. By example illustrate both voices.
8. Give an example of the regular comparison of an adjective, and the
irregular comparison.
9. Define a common noun.
10. Write a sentence containing a verb in the potential mode and a verb
in the infinitive mode.
PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE.
1. Name and locate ten bones in the human skeleton.
2. What is a gland'? Name and locate four.
3. What is a muscle, and what is it for? How can it do this?
4. What is the diaphragm, and when is it put into action ?
5. Trace a drop of blood from the right auricle through its complete
circulation.
6. What does the blood circulate for ?
7. What injury with regard to the saliva may result from using
tobacco ?
8. What are the kidneys for? What injurious effect upon them is
frequently produced by the excessive use of alcohol ?
8. Why are not stimulants, inasmuch as they stimulate, a good thing
for the nervous system ?
10. How does the action of narcotics differ from that of stimulants?
Why are they called narcotics ?
QUESTIONS ON PAGE'S THEORY AND PRACTICE.
For First Grade Teachers Only.
1. State what acquirements are necessary to fit a person to teach.
2. What must be the spirit of the true teacher ?
xxxiv Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
). What should be the personal habits uf a teacher ?
4. What is the "pouring in" process, and what the "drawing out'
process ?
5. How much should teachers help the pupils in their studies?
6. State some requisites on the part of a teacher to enable him success.
fully to conduct a recitation.
7. State some incentives to study.
8. State some requisites in the teacher for good government.
9. State some means of securing good order.
10. What are some rewards of the teacher ?
With the force in my office I cannot prepare sets of papers
for all of the examinations, but this set was sent out with a
view of setting a standard for the guidance of the County Su-perintendents
and of uniforming the examinations through-out
the State. I find among the County Superintendents a
diversity of opinion as to this set of questions. Some of the
Superintendents say that they are about as difficult as they
are in the habit of giving, while others think they are too
difficult and will reduce many first-grades. One Superin-tendent
says that the teachers say this is the " roughest
examination " they have ever had ; another says that the
examination should be searching, but if some leniency is
not exercised, he will not have a colored teacher in his
county ; another says, " I think if all the teachers should
have been put on examination, there would not be a first
or hardly a second-grade in the county ;" while another
thinks it is not too difficult, but more difficult than has been
used in his county.
Perhaps one failure in our management is granting first-grades
to persons who really are not worthy of them, and so
allowing higher salaries to such persons than they should
have. I think it would be better if all questions were sent
out by the State Superintendent, especially for examination
for first-grades. Most of the County Superintendents seem
to desire that the questions be sent out from the State Super-intendent's
office. Upon examinations conducted in this
way, the first-grade certificates should be made good for a
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xxxv
term of years. I submit farther, that annual certificates
should issue at the option of the County Superintendent to
persons who hold regular diplomas from colleges, and that
some provision should be made for granting permanent cer-tificates.
PEABODY FUND AND SCHOLARSHIPS AT NASHVILLE, TENN.
The State has at the Normal College, Nashville, Tenn ,
fourteen (14) scholarships, worth each $200 per annum, for
two years, and tuition. At the recent meeting of the Trus-tees,
the annual allowance to each student, after this year,
was reduced to $100 and traveling expenses.
These scholarships are filled by the State Superintendent
under regulations made by the institution. Examinations
are held upon questions sent out by. the President of the
College through the State Superintendent, The questions
now embrace the branches named in our school law and
Elementary Algebra. The President is trying to raise the
standard of scholarship, and it is probable that hereafter
some Latin will also be required.
The State Superintendent has no option to select the stu-dents
from the different counties, so as to give all the coun-ties
in turn the benefit of this fund, but he must be guided
by scholarship as shown by the examinations, and by the
physical health of the applicants and their purpose to make
teaching their regular profession. The object of the College
is to provide proficient teacheis, and no one need apply who
has not a well determined purpose to make teaching a life-work
and, to be successful, he must promise to teach at
least two years in the State.
The following persons are now at the College:
1. Those whose two-year course terminates May, 1891:
Miss Viola Boddie, Nashville, Nash County, N. C.
Miss Josephine Coit, Salisbury, Rowan County, N. C.
xxxvi Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Miss Fannie R. Scales, Reidsville, Rockingham County,
N. C.
Miss Minnie E. Sparm, Henderson ville; Henderson County'
N. C.
Miss Eleanor S. Smith. Scotland Neck, Halifax County,
N. C.
Mr. T. C. Amick, Crystal, Guilford County, N. C.
Mr. M. L. Earnhardt, Norwood, Stanly County, N. C.
Mr. G. N. Bennett, Fines Creek, Haywood County, N. C.
Mr. W. F, Davis, Cana, Davie County, N. C.
Mr. J. S. Mcintosh, Taylorsville, Alexander County, N. C.
Mr. D. M Weatherly, Greensboro, Guilford County, N. C.
2. Those whose two-year course terminates May, 1892:
Mr. M. A. Griffin, Eagle Rock, Wake County, N. C.
Mr. E. R.Harris, Rutherford College, Burke County, N.C.
Mr. J. R. Mosley, Boonville, Yadkin County, N. C.
3. Those who have just (Oct., 1890,) entered at their own
expense, except that books and tuition are free to them :
J. U. Gibbs, Whittier, Swain County, N. C.
E. W. Gudger, Trail Branch, Madison County, N. C.
Fred. S. Crawford, Statesville, Iredell County, N. C.
W. P. Dunlap, Cedar Hill, Anson County, N. C.
C. M. Jones, Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N. C.
' S. V. Chamblee, Rosinburg. Wake County, N. C.
Philip E. Shaw, Hartshorn, Alamance County, N. C.
Catalogues can be had from the State Superintendent or
from I)r W. II. Payne, President, Nashville, Tenn.
In addition to the §2,800 per annum thus given the State
at Nashville, the following amounts have been given during
the last two vears :
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xxxvii
1889.
Reidsville City Schools $ 750 00
Asheville City Schools 750 00
Greensboro City Schools 250 00
Salisbury Colored Normal School 125 00
Goldsboro Colored Normal School 125 00
Plymouth Colored Normal School 125 00
Greensboro Colored Normal School 50 00
County Institutes, white 965 00"
Total 83,140 00
1890.
Reidsville City Schools $ 750 00
Asheville City Schools 750 00
Salisbury Colored Normal School 125 00
Goldsboro Colored Normal School 200 00
Franklinton Colored Normal School 125 00
Plymouth Colored Normal School 125 00
Greensboro Colored Normal School 100 00
Greensboro City Schools 250 00
County Institutes, white 1,470 00
Total $3,895 00
The regulation in reference to assisting public schools now
requires the voting of a tax sufficient to put the schools on
a permanent basis. In case this is done, within the limits
of the fund, any community can get help to assist in starting
the school. Without this, application is useless.
CITY SCHOOLS.
The cities named below have, most of them by special
taxation, schools for both races from eight to ten months per
annum, some with high-school departments. The highest
xxxviii Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
rate is 30 cents on $100, and 00 cents on polls ; the lowest is
10 cents and 30 cents. Wilmington, Tarboro and Fayette-ville
have no special taxes for schools. The general school
tax is sufficient to support the Wilmington schools. In
Tarboro and Fayetteville the general school fund is supple-mented
by private subscription, which is not satisfactory,
because the amount is less certain than it would be by taxa-tion,
and because taxation is more just. I understand that
these cities and others will apply to the next General As-sembly
for special acts of Assembly allowing them to vote a
sufficient amount of money to support their schools.
Sections 2G54 and 2655 ought to be- so amended as to
render it unnecessary to apply for special act of Assembly
when any community wishes to take a vote on an amount
that will be necessary to support the schools for such time
as may be desired.
Wilmington—M. C. S. Noble, Superintendent.
Goldsboro.—J. Y. Joyner, Superintendent.
Tarboro.—C. J. Parker, Superintendent.
Raleigh.—E. P. Moses, Superintendent.
Durham.—E. W. Kennedy, Superintendent.
Greensboro.— G. A. Grimsley, Superintendent,
Reidsville.—E. L. Hughes, Superintendent.
Winston.—John J. Blair, Superintendent.
Salisbury.—R. G. Kizer, Superintendent.
Asheville.—P. P. Claxton, Superintendent.
Fayetteville— B. C. Melver, Superintendent.
Charlotte.—Alex. Graham, Superintendent.
HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
The University, the Agricultural and Mechanical College,
the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, and
the Oxford Orphan Asylum, all of which are supported in
part by appropriation from the State Treasury, make no
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. x.r.rix
reports to the Department of Public Education. Their con-dition
and needs are set forth in special reports.
The University is the State's property. It is a valuable
property, but it does very much need an appropriation to
repair the old buildings and to furnish water and lighting
facilities, in order to put it more in touch with modern pro-gress
and demands It is hoped that the Assembly will
take this matter into earnest consideration.
It is a matter of congratulation that all of our colleges, for
both males and females, are so well patronized ; their enroll-ment
and course of study show a rapid improvement in our
higher educational work.
Successful efforts are being made to increase the endow-ment
of all our colleges for young men, and to endow a
Chair of History in the University. It is to be hoped that
the day is not far distant when tuition can be free in these
institutions to all young men who are not able to pay for it.
But neither the State nor the Church has done much for
the higher education of young women. The State has done
nothing at all for them in this respect, except the scanty
provision as to Institute instruction; and the church noth-ing,
I think, except what those denominations have done
that have some endowment for their colleges whose doors
are open to both sexes. This question is being agitated, and
it is hoped and believed that both the State and the church
will soon do something more for the young women. Why
is it that we do not see the same efforts put forth to raise
endowment funds for colleges and institutions for females as
for those devoted to the education of the male sex? Why
does the State provide a University for the young men and
refuse to provide even a training-school for the young
women? Why do men endow colleges for males rather
than females? Why is higher education for young women
made more costly in the State than higher education for
young men ? Asking these questions is suggestive.
While we are struggling to endow our male institutions,
xl Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
let us also endow the female institutions, to the end that
higher education for young women may be as cheap in the
State as for young men, and as cheap as it is anywhere else.
CROATAN NORMAL SCHOOL.
I call attention to the report, in its proper place, of the
Trustees and Principal of the Normal School for the
Croatans. These people seem to be so much divided, from
causes stated, that the school is not as effective as it ought
to be. I respectfully suggest that, inasmuch as the appro-priation
of $500 is annual, the Assembly pass an act allow-ing
the State Board of Education to exercise their discretion
as to future expenditures for this school.
The school was provided for by chapter 400, Laws 1887,
which was amended by chapter 60, Laws 1889.
THE NEGROES.
I cannot do better thafi in part repeat what I said in last
report about the negroes. There is much opposition to public
schools in the State, and in the South generally, because of
the small amount of the taxes paid by the negroes The
opposition is intensified by the belief, that is more or less
prevalent, that education spoils the colored people as
laborers, to their own damage and the damage of the white
people. It is said that when you "educate a negro you spoil
afield hand."
On this point it may be said with truth that the negro's
sudden freedom and citizenship, for which he was unpre-pared,
the privileges of education, and all the new expe-riences
he had at and soon after the war, including much
bad leadership, completely turned his head, so to speak.
Forced labor to him had, during slavery, been his peculiar
hardship. In his ignorance he thought the new conditions,
and especially the privilege of education, were to relieve him
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xli
from this curse of labor. The old negroes went earmstly to
work to learn to read. They failed, but attributed their
failure to lack of early opportunities But they resolved
that they would secure education for their children, and with
this special end in view, the escape from manual labor. The
present generation of younger negroes has been educated
too much with this purpose in view, and, because of this
wrong idea, it is true that a smattering of education to many
of them has caused idleness and laziness. If education is
to be given them in any liberal sense by the State they
must show a much higher appreciation of it. They must
recognize it not as a means of relief from labor, but as a help
to successful labor.
Many of their best teachers are striving now, by precept
and example, to correct these wrong ideas as to what educa-tion
is to do for them, and my earnest advice to school com-mitteemen
is that they do not employ teachers who are
above manual labor A man or a woman who depends upon
the money he can make by teaching a three or four-months
school per annum, and will not apply himself to some useful
labor during the balance of the time, is not fit to direct the
education of children, and should not be employed to teach.
The colored people must not lose sight of the fact that
manual labor is the lot of almost all people, white and col-ored,
and that this is now and will be their lot to a larger
degree than that of the white people, because of the peculiar
conditions and circumstances that surround them. The
destiny of the negroes of the United States is in their hands,
with the powerful help of the white people as they may show
themselves worthy of it, Let them pay their taxes and show
that education does not spoil them as laborers, at least to
any greater degree than it does the whites, but that it does
add to their efficiency as laborers and to their usefulness as
moral and upright citizens, and all the help they need that
the State can, in her financial condition, reasonably afford
will be extended them.
4
xlii Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
The white people must not lose sight of the fact that it, is
the labor of a country that makes its wealth, and that,
therefore, the education and elevation of the children of the
laborers is a proper charge upon the property of any country.
If we did not have the negroes we would have some other
poor people, whose children would have to be educated in the
public schools. But, whatever may be said about educating
the negroes, we cannot afford not to improve our educational
facilities, whether we consider our financial condition and
progress, or the perpetuation of our civil and religious
liberties.
If it is said that we are too poor, then I reply that the way
to get rich is to educate our people intellectually and indus-trially,
so that they may be able successfully to apply labor
to the development of our many resources. The history of
the world points out this wray, and we cannot fail if we walk
in it. With good schools in the country districts there will
be less incentive for the country people to crowd into the
cities and towns to educate their children, much of the dis-content
and restlessness will disappear, and better success
will attend their labors.
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. aiiii
NOTES UPON SCHOOL REVENUES.
C< NSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.
•'Article 5, sec. 1. The General Assembly shall levy a cap-itation
tax on every male inhabitant in the State, over
twenty-one and under fifty years of age, which shall be equal
on each to the tax on property valued at three hundred
dollars in cash, * * * and the State and county capita-tion
tax combined shall never exceed two dollars on the
head."
"Art. 5, sec. 2. The proceeds of the State and county
capitation tax shall be applied to the purposes of education
and the support of the poor, but in no one year shall more
than twenty-five per cent, thereof be appropriated to the
latter purpose."
"Art. 9, sec. 1. Religion, morality and knowledge being
necessary to good government and the happiness of man-kind,
schools and the means of education shall forever be
encouraged."
"Art. 9, sec. 2. The General Assembly, at its first session
under this Constitution, shall provide by taxation and other-wise,
for a general and uniform system of public schools,
wherein tuition shall be free of charge to all the children of
the State between the ages of six and twenty-one years. And
the children of the white and the children of the colored
race shall be taught in separate public schools; but there
shall be no discrimination in favor of, or to the prejudice of
either race."
"Art. 9, sec. 3. Each county shall be divided into a. con-venient
number of districts, in which one or more public
schools shall be maintained at least four months in every
year : and if the commissioners of any county shall fail to
comply with the aforesaid requirements of this section, they
shall be liable to indictment."
xliv Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Under the provisions of article S, section 14, the county
boards of education were created by act of the General
Assembly.
"Art. 9, sec. 4. The proceeds of all lands that have been
or hereafter may be granted by the United States to this
State, and not otherwise appropriated by this State or the
United States: also, all moneys, stocks, bonds, and other
property, now belonging to any State fund for purposes of
education ; also the net proceeds of all sales of the swamp
lands belonging to the State, and all other grants, gifts or
devises, that have been or hereafter may be made to this
State, and not otherwise appropriated by the State, or by
the term of the grant, gift or devise, shall be paid into the
State treasury ; and, together with so much of the ordinary
revenue of the State as may be by law set apart for that
purpose, shall be faithfully appropriated for establishing and
maintaining in this State a system of free public schools,
and for no other uses or purposes whatsoever."
-Sec. 5. All moneys, stocks, bonds, and other property
belonging to a county school fund ; also, the net proceeds
from the sale of estrays; also, the clear proceeds of all pen-alties
and forfeitures, and of all fines collected in the several
counties for any breach of the penal or military laws of
the State; and all moneys which shall be paid by persons
as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, shall
belong to and remain in the several counties, and shall be
faithfully appropriated for establishing ami maintaining
free public schools in the several counties of this State:
Provided, that the amount collected in each county shall
be annually reported to the Superintendent of Public
Instruction
"
FUNDS RAISED IN THE COUNTIES AND RETAINED.
1. At least three-fourths of all State and county poll-tax.
In most of the counties the total poll-tax amounts to $2.00
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xlv
per capita, $1.50 of which must be and is applied to schools.
From this source we get about 40 per cent, of our school
fund.
2. The General Assembly in the school law levies 12|
cents on .$100 worth of property. From this source, and
including a small amount of property tax levied in a few
counties by the county commissioners, we get about 43 per
cent of our funds —just about as much as from poll-tax.
3. From liquor license we derive about 13 per cent, of our
fund. Twenty-five counties of the ninety-six have no
liquor license.
4. From fines, forfeitures and penalties we get about 3^
per cent.
From these four items, viz. : poll-tax; 12?, cents property
tax and special levies of property tax ; liquor license; and
fines, forfeitures and penalties, we get 00] per cent., or about
all of the general public school fund
5. The* only other sources from which anything is derived
are tax on auctioneers, estrays, dogs, and on acts of incor-poration
by Superior Court Clerks. The amount received
from these sources is a mere trifle.
FUNDS THAT GO INTO THE STATE TREASURY FQR SCHOOLS.
1. From entries of public lands. This item amounts to
only, say, $5,000 per year. It is a variable quantity, and as
the public lands are almost all taken up, it gradually
becomes less, and very soon it will amount to almost nothing.
2. In 1825, the Legislature set apart all the vacant and
unappropriated swamp lands for schools. While the Board
of Education (Literary Board) about 1S40 spent about
$200,000 in an effort to ditch and reclaim these lands, and
while at other times considerable sums have been spent in
surveying and reclaiming them, not much money has ever
been received from them. Occasionally some of them are
sold, but the prices obtained are always small, so that the
xlvi Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
sums realized can hardly be counted at all as a present help
in augmenting our school fund.
3. To the State school fund belongs $99,250 of North
Carolina four per cent, bonds, from which the distributive
fund receives as interest §3,970 per annum.
It will therefore be seen that the amount per annum from
this State school fund is not more than, say, $8,000 to
$10,000, unless the State Board of Education sell some of
the swamp lands, and this is not often done for want of pur-chasers
at sufficient prices. Owing to the small receipts a dis-tribution
to the counties, as provided for in the general
school law, is not made every year. It is made only when,
in the judgment of the board, there is a sufficient accumu-lation
to justify the distribution. Even when a distribution
is made, it amounts to only a few cents to the pupil. The
total annual accumulation, unless swamp lands are sold, is
less than two cents per pupil of school age.
So, virtually, all the money any county gets is what is
raised under the general law on polls, property, etc., as
above enumerated, and paid over to the County Treasurer
for schools. The State fund is hardly to be taken into con-sideration.
Some counties have a larger fund proportional to number
of children than others. This results from the following-causes:
(1.) A difference in valuation of property in the different
counties.
(2.) Closer collections of school funds by officers of some
counties than of others.
(3.) Receipts .from license of retail liquor dealers, which
are large in some counties and small or nothing in others.
(4.) Special levies for schools by some county commis-sioners
and none by others.
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xlvii
APPLICATION OF THE FUNDS.
Between the ages of six and twenty-one years, we had by
last census 5S6,668 children — 370,144 whites, and 216,524
colored. This shows 63 per cent, to be white and 37 per
cent, colored, or about § white and J colored.
In 1890 we spent for the whites $475,177.63, and for the
colored $242,047.77. This shows 66 per cent, of the funds
spent for the whites and 34 for the colored. The average
amount on each child throughout the State is $1.22, and on
the total population only 44 cents.
The average salary of white teachers is, males, $25.80;
females, $22.95. Of colored teachers it is, males, $22.72;
females, $20.36. Last year the average length of school
terms in the State was, for whites, 11.85 weeks; and for col-ored,
11.81 weeks.
The number of colored polls returned for taxation (not
near all are returned) is 66,594. A large proportion of these
polls that are returned are never paid. From reports from
the different counties I estimate that 50,000 of them are paid.
This would showT that, counting $1.50 on each, the school
fund gets from colored polls $75,000. If the colored people
pay their proportional part of liquor license, and fines, for-feitures
and penalties, and of receipts from other sources than
property tax, it would amount to $44,000 more, which would
increase the amount paid by the colored people for schools
to, say, $119,000. Last year their part of the expenditure
was, as I have said, $242,047.97, about double what they are
fairly estimated to have paid.
Our funds do gradually increase, as the officers—sheriffs,
justices of the peace and clerks of the courts—look after
collections more closely, and as the county commissioners
use economy and find it possible to levy some additional
tax within the constitutional limit of 66f cents on prop-erty
and $2 on polls.
.i-l ri li Il<purl of Superintendent of Public Ins\'ruction
FUNDS FROM SPECIAL LOCAL TAXATION.
Art. 7, section 7 of the Constitution is quoted on page xii
of this report.
If any community desires longer school terms than can
be had with the money raised under the general law, and
within the constitutional limitation of taxation, authority
to vote additional money, as much as they desire, can be
obtained by applying to the General Assembly for a special
act.
By such special legislation public schools are on a perma-nent
basis, their terms extending to eight or nine months
per annum, in Goldsboro, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro,
Winston, Reidsville, Salisbury, Charlotte and Asheville.
If any township, city or town desires to increase the gen-eral
school fund not more than ten cents on $100 of property
and thirty cents on polls, the following law may be put into
operation without asking for special legislation, and the only
or principal reason for asking special legislation is to secure
a larger tax than ten cents on property and thirty cents
on polls
:
Sec. 2654 <>f The Code, as amended by the laws of 1889. In
every township, or in every city or town, one-third of the
freeholders therein may apply by petition, in writing, to the
board of commissioners of the county in which said town-ship,
city or town is situated, asking that an annual tax be
levied for the support of one or more graded schools therein,
whereupon, on or before the next regular meeting of said
board, but not oftener than once a year, they shall order
that the question, whether such tax shall be levied, be sub-mitted
to the vote of the qualified voters of such township,
city or town, at the different wards and election precincts
therein, as prescribed in the chapter entitled "Elections
Regulated."
Sec. li\7)'). \\\ case a majority of the qualified voters at
such election are in favor of such tax, the same shall bo
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. xli
levied and appropriated in such township, city or town, in
the manner prescribed for the levying and appropriation of
other school taxes: Provided, that the taxes so levied and
collected shall in no case exceed one-tenth of one per centum
on the value of property and thirty cents on the poll."
These sections, 2654 and '2055, are so restricted that they
have not proved of any advantage. They should be
amended so that it will be less difficult to get to a vote, and
so that a larger amount can be, voted upon.
INSTITUTES FOR WHITES.
ANNUAL APPROPRIATION $4,000- CHAPTER 200, LAWS OF 1889.
This statute repealed the statute under which the eight
Summer Normals were held, and appropriated the $4,000
which formerly went to them to the County Institutes under
the direction of the State Board of Education.
Instead of the old plan of County Institute work, which
was done mainly during July and August, the State Board
of Education decided to select two competent men as Insti-tute
Conductors, and make this Institute work their regular
work under the supervision of the State Superintendent.
It was also decided that the duration of each Institute should
be one week.
The Board elected Prof. Chas. I). Mclver and Prof. Edwin
A. Alderman, and fixed their salaries at $2,000 each per
annum, they to bear their travelling expenses. It was found
that it would be impossible to hold an annual Institute in
every county, unless the services of other persons could also
be employed. Dr. J. L. M. Curry, agent of the Peabody
Fund, kindly put at the disposal of the State Superintendent
funds by which he was enabled to employ Superintendents
M. C. S. Noble, J. Y. Joyner nnd E. P. Moses during July
and August, 1889, and the same persons and Superintend-ents
Alex. Graham, John J. Blair and E. L. Hughes in July
and August, 1890.
/ Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
I invite special attention to the reports of these gentlemen,
which will be found in their proper places in this report, To
all these Institute Conductors I wish to express my apprecia-tion
of their most excellent work. To them and to the
County Superintendents and County Boards of Education
are due thanks for co-operation in carrying out the wishes of
the State Board. Before starting upon their work I had per-sonal
interviews with these gentlemen, and had printed for
their guidance and for distribution in the counties, the fol-lowing
suggestions:
WHAT ARE WE TO AIM AT IN THE INSTITUTE WORK?
1. The improvement of the teachers, mainly in the
methods.
2. The improvement of school-houses and furniture.
3. Inspiring confidence in, and making friends for, public
education.
4. Securing the active help of influential citizens in all
the neighborhoods.
5. Inducing the people to add to their school fund by
either private or public subscriptions.
It is proposed that the Institutes shall be of only one
week's duration. In that time of course not a great deal can
be done in teaching subjects, nor do I think it necessary or
desirable that much should be done in this line. Schools
are plentiful in which any person of even ordinary talent
and energy may secure knowledge of the common school
branches.
The Summer Normal Schools labored to teach subjects and
methods. They accomplished but little in subjects, but very
much in methods. They accomplished but little in subjects
because the sessions were short, and so time was wanting for
such work, and specially so when most of the teachers could
attend only a few days during the session.
Very much was accomplished in methods, because what
is so often called the new (ducat ion — a term which ought
not to be used —has special reference to methods. The
science of mind-development and of teaching, and the art of
imparting information and governing children, cover, in the
main, what is called new in education. For this reason, the
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. II
influence for good by the Normals was specially felt along
the line of methods in both teaching and governing. This
was the field ripe for the harvest, Many of' our teachers in
private schools and colleges, as well as many of our public
school teachers attended these Normals and were much
aided. The results are that the methods in our private
schools, as well as in many public schools, are improved.
The private schools furnish many of the teachers of the pub-lic
schools, and these teachers of the public schools imitate
methods they saw illustrated in the instruction given them
in the private schools. In this way, if not in a more direct
way, almost every neighborhood has felt the good influence
of the Normal Schools.
But while good has been done in this way, these methods
have not been introduced into our schools in any very sub-stantial
way. Good methods must &< more fully introduced.
This is one of the main things to be aimed at in the new
system of County Institutes. These instructors go to every
county, and the teachers are required to attend.
In these Institutes there is, therefore, opened up to the
Institute Instructors and the County Superintendents a
splendid opportunity for usefulness.
1. They will show the teachers of the country schools
how to organize their schools; how to classify or grade their
pupils, and how to make out a regular daily programme,
so that everything shall proceed from day to day uniformly
and without loss of time. Proper organization is half the
battle, not only in successfully teaching the pupils, but also
in the ease with which the teacher can do even double the
amount of work that he could otherwise do.
2. They will teach the teachers how to govern their
pupils by inspiring them with a thorough interest in their
studies, and by showing such zeal for their progress and
Avelfare in every way as to command obedience by respect
and love, rather than by fear. No doubt it will be insisted
upon that, while corporal punishment is necessary for some
children, such as have had bad raising or bad inheritances,
the best teacher is the one who can "command obedience,
good morals and good work with the use of the least amount
of Hogging or other corporal punishment.
3. They will be expected to take the State list text-books,
from the primer recently placed on the list up through the
higher books, and show the teachers how most successfullv
to use these books.
Hi Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
This one cardinal principle will be insisted upon: The
sooner the children can bi taught to get for themselves infor-mation
out of books the better. This is so whether we have
regard merely to storing the mind with useful facts or
whether we consider the discipline and strengthening of the
mind. While reading charts and other charts, in the hands
of expert teachers and under proper conditions, may be
helps, they, in the very nature of the case, can contain very
little of the great range of information which the children
must have, and so the hooks must soon be resort d to.
Besides, all the elementary books and others adopted by the
State Board of Education are constructed upon the new
and most approved methods, and they contain the pictures,
script, elementary reading, etc.,— all that the charts do and
very much more — and all teachers should he made to feel
that with proper desks for the children, and with these books
and with slates in their hands, success must attend their
teaching. It is easily possible in the very beginning of
school life to interest children in these books at their seats.
The desirability of doing this, especially in the ungraded
country school in which the teacher can give comparatively
little attention to the little children, is evident.
They will show how cruel and discouraging it is lo punish
a child, anyone, but especially a child, by requiring it to
spend months if not years, as is often the case now. in learn-ing
merely to spell words the meaning of which it cannot
understand and is not expected to understand. They will
show that it is not necessary for the child to he able to spell
in-com-pre-hen-si-bil-i-ty before it reads in the first, second or
third reader, or to spell any other word before it is ready to
use it in a sentence and make it a part of its vocabulary.
4. They will show that the beneficial effects of these better
methods is seen specially in the earlier school days of the
children, and that by the proper use' of them the children
are advanced much faster, and that much valuable time
can be saved.
5. They will show that reading understandingly, and writ-ing
letters and other compositions, simple in their nature.
are far the most important and valuable part of a practical
education: and that in order to read well and understand-ingly,
the children must have a vocabulary.— the power to
use words freely.— and that the way to get the use of words
is not by learning definitions from a dictionary, but by the
actual use of them in conversation and in writing, and in
Scholastic Year* 1889 and 1890. liii
the exercises of some well-arranged book like Harrington's
Spelling Book. If this course involves a condemnation of
Webster's Spelling Book, so much the better. The use of
this old book has dwarfed and damaged many a child.
Think of a child who has been accustomed at home to learn
to attach a meaning to all words, after it has spent perhaps
weeks in learning the names of the letters, which to it have
no significance, trying to spell the first three hundred and
seventy-live words in this old book, and finding only about
thirty-five to which it can attach any meaning at all ! Of
the first three hundred and seventy-five words, only about
one in ten or twelve is a proper word at all. In the time
that it takes to put the child through this process, it can bo
taught not only to read through an ordinary primer or
Holmes' First Reader, but also to write the words, too, as
well as to spell them.
This old book ought to be banished from our school-rooms.
There ought to be substituted for it the bright new books con-structed
on sci ntific principles, and contemplating that the
child shall learn to spell and write the words at the same
time it learns to use them in its reading lesson.
6. In arithmetic, a'so, they will show how easy and inter-esting
the learning of numbers and their application to
practical problems of every-day life can be made by proceed-ing
in a natural way. They will show how great folly it is
to put an arithmetic in the hands of a child and require
him to attempt to study it before he has a sufficient vocabu-lary
to understand the language in which it is written. In
addition to the application of numbers to practical problems,
it will be insisted that learning by continued practice rapidly
and correctly to add, subtract, multiply and <liri<lr are of very
great practical importance. Want of facility in these funda-mental
operations is the cause of a loss of much valuable
time to people engaged in the every-day business of life, and
not unfrequently it causes young people to lose or fail to
secure positions of trust that would be valuable to them in
starting life.
7. They will likewise show the folly of putting grammars
in the hands of pupils and requiring them to try to use them
before they are far enough advanced to understand them.
They will show how to develop children in the use of proper
language by the use of language lessons, and by encouraging
them to write their thoughts and experiences on their slates
and on paper. They will emphasize how valuable an acqui-
///• Report of Superintendent of Public Inst ruction
sition it is for any one to be able to express his thoughts in
writing. Children like to use a slate, and the slate properly
used, even by little children, is a most valuable means of
education.
8. Geography and history in many, if not in most, schools
are dry and uninteresting studies. They ought not so to be,
and in these Institutes it will be shown how these branches
may be really clothed with beauty, and be made not only
intensely interesting to the children, but also of very great
value.
I trust the teachers will be made to see most clearly that
while books are necessary and must be used, they have
a much wider and more important duty to perform than to
assign lessons and hear recitations; and I trust that they
may be inspired with higher appreciation of their vocation,
and that they may become more and more living examples of
good morals and good manners. The teachers will be made
more fully to realize that not only is "character greater
than intellect," but also that example is manifold greater than
precept.
This is the age of cheap books. Books are everywhere.
Even the poorest people may have an abundance of reading
matter. To one who can read well, all the avenues of
knowledge are thrown wide open. Almost all books of value,
ancient and modern, are either translated into the English
language or are originally written in English. Teach a
child to read English well, teach him how to use an English
dictionary, and teach him to love books and to love to read
them, and you have started him on the r.oad to intelligence,
no matter whether he finds his labor on the farm, or in the
workshop, or in what activities of life he may engage. This
is a lesson to be learned by the teachers and to be impressed
by tbe Institute work. Would that all teachers might adopt
and impress upon the children the language of Petrarch,
when he said of
nook's.
'"I have friends whose society is extremely agreeable to
me; they are of all ages and of every country. They have
distinguished themselves both in the cabinet and in the
field, and obtained high honor for their knowledge of the
sciences. It is easy to gain access to them, for they are
always at my service, and I admit them to my company, and
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. Iv
dismiss them from it whenever I please. They are never
troublesome, but immediately answer every question I ask
them. Some relate to me the events of past ages, while
others reveal to me the secrets of nature. Some teach how
to live, others how to die; some by their vivacity drive away
my cares and exhilarate my spirits; while others give forti-tude
to my mind, and teach me the important lesson how to
restrain my desires, and depend wholly on myself. They
open to me, in short, the various avenues of all the arts and
sciences, and upon their information I may safely rely in all
emergencies. In return for all their services, they only ask
me to accommodate them with a convenient chamber in
some corner of my humble habitation, where they may
repose in peace ; for these friends are more delighted with
the tranquility of retirement than with the tumults of
seciety."
Perhaps something can be done by way of suggesting
books to be kept by booksellers especially for children, and
by way of influencing parents to buy them. The reading-habit,
after all, is the most important acquirement to be
aimed at.
2. HOUSES AND FURNITURE.
The second object to be aimed at I have said is the
improvement of school-houses and school-furniture. It is
to be hoped that not only teacriers and members of the
County Boards of Education, but also committeemen and
other citizens, will attend the Institutes; and that it will be
shown how cruel it is and how detrimental to health it is to
put children into uncomfortable, small, and poorly venti-lated
houses, and seat them upon such benches as are now
found in so many of our houses. ' Not only so, but it must
be made apparent that such treatment of children renders
it impossible for them properly to advance in their studies,
no matter how efficient the teacher may be; that uncomfort-able
houses and seats are necessarily loss of time to the
children ; that good methods of teaching require that every
child must be provided with a comfortable seat with a
writing-desk attached ; that such seats cost but very little
and may be made by any carpenter; that plenty of black-board
surface is absolutely necessary; that an uncomfortable
school-house and uncomfortable furniture are inexcusable
and a reproach to any district.
hi Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
3 INSPIRING CONFIDENCE IN" PUBLIC schools.
What we lack perhaps as much as anything else is a want
of confidence in public education. So many people look
upon public schools as objects of charity, and what support
they give them is simply on the ground of charity. As
charity institutions they regard them as proper schools for
the poor, but not for the rich. They place upon the public
schools the badge of inferiority and so fail to patronize
them or provide in any liberal way for their support. To
whatever extent this false estimate exists there must be a
revolution. It muet be seen that the State supports schools
not at all on the ground of charity, but as a preparation for
citizenship to the end that the government may be rendered
safe and the life and property of her citizens be rendered
sate. Public schools must be made good enough for any
and every family's patronage — the high and the low, the
rich and the poor. The Institutes must strive to inspire
confidence in the safety and efficiency as well as in the
cheapness of public schools.
4. HELP OF INFLUENTIAL CITIZENS.
It is hoped that the Institutes may do much toward secur-ing
the active interest and help of influential citizens in all
the neighborhoods in the £>tate. Without such help in the
district no district school can be what it ought to be.
Every school must have an intelligent and interested com-mittee
to manage it. If it has not. it is very probable that
an inferior teacher will be employed because he can be had
cheap, and so the school bean inferior school, not worthy
of the patronage of anybody. If influences can be brought
to bear to secure intelligent management of the money
appropriated to the different districts, where such manage-ment
has not already been secured, old, inferior houses and
furniture and incompetent teachers will disappear, and good
houses and furniture will take their places, and the system
be more effective in the education of the children and in
better repute and more cheerfully supported by the tax-payers.
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. Ivii
5. INCREASE THE FUNDS.
Our school fund is small and it ought to be increased in
every district, This would be done in many cases, perhaps
in most cases, if the public school could be surely made to
meet the wants of all the residents of the district. If the
people had confidence in the teacher, and if the house
and furniture were comfortable, many a district school would
not only be patronized by people who do not now do so, but
it would be prolonged by private subscription. And as the
schools are made better in the various neighborhoods of any
township or county or town, the people will willingly tax
themselves by vote to prolong their schools, and the county
commissioners will economize at every point in order to
place as large a sum of money to the credit of the school
fund as possible.
In the directions I have indicated and in other ways, such
as uniforming certificates as far as possible by conferring
with County Superintendents ; explaining the school law of
this State; comparing our schools with those of other States;
discussing text-books and showing the necessity of using the
books on our State list as required by law, these Institutes
may accomplish very great good. The extent of the good
will depend much, of course, upon the zeal and efficiency of
the Institute Instructors selected by the State Board of Edu-cation,
but perhaps it will depend more upon the hearty
co-operation of the County Superintendent and the County
Board of Education. Let all work together for the accom-plishment
of whatever good is within our reach.
The work has gone on according to the plan above out-lined,
and has done very much good by way of inspiring the
teachers, informing the people, and creating a sentiment
more favorable to public schools.
After much correspondence the State Superintendent
makes the appointments for the Institutes in as convenient
circuits as possible, and at as convenient times in the differ-ent
sections as possible. He owes much to the accommoda-ting
spirit manifested by the County Superintendents and
Boards of Education by which he has been so much aided
Iviii Report of Superintendent of Public TnstrucUon
in carrying forward this difficult but important work, and
also to the newspapers, for giving publicity to the appoint-ments
and for their words of approval and encouragement,
During the year from June 80th, 1889, to July 1st, 1*90,
Institutes were held in eighty-four counties, and in July,
August and September, 1890, fifty-one Institutes were held.
Up to this date, October 1st, 135 Institutes have been held.
During the fifteen months in which this work has been
prosecuted, the total number of teachers in attendance was
about 5,775.
As there have been two Institutes in a large number of
counties, in the number 5,775 many teachers are included
twice. I estimate that about 4,000 teachers have really been
touched by these Institutes during the fifteen months cov-ered
by this report, I think it would be within bounds to
say that the addresses on Fridays were listened to by at least
50,000 people, among whom were many of the most intelli-gent
citizens. They were, as I know by personal attendance
upon many of these Friday meetings, much impressed in
favor of improving our schools by the very earnest and
learned advocacy of public education by these Institute
Conductors and others.
About 300 State certificates were issued, good for three
years. I did not instruct the Institute Conductors to report
the names to this office of those to whom they issued certifi-cates,
and some of them did not do so. I cannot, there-fore,
present a full list These examinations by Institute
Conductors, in connection with County Superintendents,
have done much to uniform certificates in the different
counties.
In addition to these Institutes, there were held under the
statute (section 2567), seven for the whites and twenty-one
for the colored. S. M. FINGER,
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
REPORTS OF INSTITUTE CONDUCTORS.
REPORT OF Prof. E. A. ALDERMAN.
To the Honorable S. M. Finger, Superintendent Public Instruction
:
Sir—I have the honor to submit herewith, in accordance with your
request, a report of the work done by me as Institute Instructor from
July 1, 1889, to July 1, 1890.
An analysis of the table hereunto annexed will reveal the fact that I
conducted thirty Institutes, each of one week's duration, for white
teachers, at the places and times indicated. In order to reach these
widely scattered localities, extending from Ashe to Carteret, it was
necessary for me to travel 3,100 miles, 2,625 by rail and 475 by private
conveyance. The number of teachers in the counties visited by me, as
reported by the County Superintendents, was 1,548—881 males and 667
females. The number of teachers in continuous attendance upon the
Institutes was 1,335—767 males and 568 females. The enrollment inclu-ded
only those teaching in the public schools, or preparing to teach in
the public schools. It thus appears that eighty -six per cent, of the bona
Jide teachers of these counties attended and partook of the benefits of
the Institutes. It should be borne in mind, however, that the teaching
force of the counties changes quite rapidly. Indeed, it is probable that
owing to the slight pecuniary inducements offered, at present, in that
line of work, the entire personnel of each corps of teachers changes every
four or five years.
I consider the above per cent, of attendance a most satisfactory one
—
in fact remarkable: and a certain impressiveness and dignity is added
to it when one reflects that that number of men and women have under
their care and tutelage about seventy-five thousand children—a grand
army—who, a generation hence, will inevitably give shape and ten-dency
and character to our State and its movements.
The Institutes have met with a most cordial reception from school
officers and citizens wherever they have been held. County Superin-tendents,
as a rule, have left no effort untried to make them occa-sions
of real and genuine profit to the teachers, and citizens of all
classes have contributed the support of their presence, endorsement and
good will, without which, being a new departure in our educational
policy, the Institutes could not have fulfilled so effectively the purposes
of their establishment. The preliminary work of the County Superin-tendent,
in a great measure, determines the success or failure of the
Institute, after the arrival of the Instructor. The increased and marked
? Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
success of the Institutes held since July 1. 1890, proves this, experience
having introduced greater effectiveness into the preparatory arrange-ments.
I desire to record my deep sense of personal obligation to County
Superintendents, school officers and citizens of the territory through
which I have gone, for their unvarying kindness and helpfulness. It
might not be invidious or improper to make mention of the special excel-lence
and completeness of the Institutes held in Henderson, Cleveland,
Cabarrus, Stanly, Ans.on. Union, Lenoir, Pitt, Beaufort, Polk and Wayne.
In Pitt the teachers were entertained free of cost by the citizens of
Greenville, a noteworthy thing, and the only instance of the kind in my
experience.
The Institutes under the law had at least three very definite purposes:
1. It was desired to carry to the people, whose property the public-schools
are, and without whose desire and consent they cannot be made
better, definite knowledge of the educational work resting upon the
public schools; their condition; their necessities; the means feasible
and available for their betterment and the fundamental reasons for
their existence and for the widening of the area of their influence.
2. It was desired to carry to the doors of the five thousand public
school teachers, who could not seek it, definite instruction as to the
meaning of teaching and the teacher's office, training in scientific
methods of teaching; in school government; in organization; in the
details and arrangements of schools; and by suggestion and exhorta-tion
to create a more intelligent notion of the teacher's work, and to
cause parents to have a wider and truer idea of the qualifications neces-sary
to conduct the intellectual operations of childhood, and. perforce,
affect its character.
3. It was desired that the Instructors should make such suggestions
as would tend to perfect and increase the efficiency of the system.
THE INSTITUTE AND THE PEOPLE.
Any school system is a growth, not a creation. No system of public
schools can be better than the people wish it to be. The people are here
to rule, not to be ruled. They must be trained for this sovereignty. The
State must provide this training, or confess its inability to preserve its
existence. No other agency can accomplish it so cheaply or so well.
All other agencies combined barely touch the outer rim of the great
necessity. The public schools are imbedded in the Constitution and
entrenched in the convictions of the people. A vast educational respon-sibility
rests upon them. By actual statistics, seventeen out of every
eighteen educable children are dependent upon them for all school train-ing.
Fourteen-fifteenths of our population live in the country. To this
large rural population, the properly equipped public school is, at once,
their first necessity and their only hope.
Scholastic Year* 1889 and 1890. 3
It is not desirable that any State should force the alternative between,
deserting the farm and seeking the town, or leaving the child untrained
and untaught. From this predominant class the State must expect to
derive its greatest forces, its strong men, the salt that must savor its
society and give color to its civilization in the years to come. A State
will always have need for trained men. It needs no prophetic power to
foretell that our State will have such a need—in the industrial, social
and economic changes gathering about us—men who cannot be bought,
nor cheated, nor scared. Our schools last, on an average, sixty
days. They are held in inadequate school-houses, though it is pleasant
to report that there is a marked and steady improvement along this line.
They are conducted by ill-paid, and, therefore, for the most part, un-trained
teachers. They offer to men and women of talent and ambition
three months' employment and seventy-five dollars in wages. Two
courses of action suggest themselves to the mind. The schools cannot
be abolished. Therefore, we can either endow them with a pale, feeble,
ineffectual existence, or we can give them power and effectiveness and,
under God, change, in a measure, the face of our society. Merely reme-dial
measures, the patching up of things, will no longer avail. Some-thing
radical must be done. The people alone can do radical things.
An untrained community is in a state of industrial and political servi-tude
to trained communities. Intelligence is the true money-maker,
not by extortion, but by increasing the productiveness of labor and by
diminishing pauperism, which is both a cause and an effect of crime.
Our money flows in a golden stream to the people to the North of us,
whose skill enables them to make things that we need and cannot make.
Four-fifths of the improvements in machinery is the result of their
trained mental acuteness. Among them an inventor is an ordinary
citizen. Among us he is a celebrity. Their per capita wealth indicates
prosperity. Ours indicates poverty. We have brains, character, soil,
climate, homogeneity. We lack s£ill. Training produces skill. They
spend money for training. Our expenditures barely keep pace with the
increase of population. Being poor, we cannot afford for this to con-tinue.
The Farmers' Alliance understand this. They ask for adequate
schools. These will cost money, but how can men spend money better
than for their own benefit. The farmers know that if they gain their
desired economic legislation and leave their children ignorant, the fruits
of their victory will be wrested from their. descendants. The immense
energy put forth to perfect this great organization will have been j ustified,
and it will deserve to rank among the great industrial reform move-ments
of history, if by its exertions there shall be brought to the throng-ing
children of the commonwealth the opportunity to think and to do
for the State's good and their own.
In view of all these things, by your direction and advice, the morning
hours of Friday of each week have been devoted to addresses to citizens
4 Report of Snperinti-uririit /if I'uhlic Instruction
oh these matters. These addresses, as a rule, have been generously
attended, and the newspapers have kindly given the matter of them
cordial endorsement and wide currency. I feel that the cause of popu-lar
education in North Carolina owes a debt of gratitude to the press of
the State for its active zeal and intelligent co-operation with the Instruct-ors
in carrying to the thousands what otherwise could have reached
only the few. The table shows that I spoke to 8,500 citizens on these
subjects. In seven other addresses, and in my daily talks, it is fair to
claim that I reached 3,500 more, making a total of 12,000. My largest
public audiences were in Union and Wayne. My leading idea in these
addresses has been to show the need and duty of a State to educate its
children; the absolute right of every child to the privilege of an edu-cation:
training as an essential condition of all progress; to show that
education in a free government is legitimately a tax on protected
property: to plead for more money, longer terms, better teachers and a
training school for women.
It has been far from my purpose to underrate and I have not underrated
in any way what we are doing in this State for education. No State, in my
opinion, expends what she has more wisely. We are poor, and, in pro-portion
to our assessed wealth, compare favorably, perhaps, with most
of the States in our educational efforts. A great war fell upon us a
generation ago and carried away in its tide the arts and implements of
our civilization, and left us with a changed social and industrial order.
Granted that we have done what we could, this stern condition con-fronts
us. The children of North Carolina have a less number of days
in public schools than the children of any other State. Can we not
strain a point and do better for them V We must educate in order to
grow rich. Can we not, ought we not to have a five or six months' school
term, in a comfortable school-house, under a good teacher? To realize
this more money is needed. I have spoken to 641 committeemen in the
various counties, and have sought to impress them with the paramount
importance of their work in the economy of the system and to demon-strate
that, at least, they had three very definite duties to perform—
1. To secure a comfortable school-house supplied with cheap home-made
desks, black-board and chalk.
2. To secure the best available teacher and not to hire the one who
would work the longest for the least money.
3. To give such a teacher latitude, confidence and co-operation, and
to judge him or her rigidly by results. It is my belief that the commit-teemen
will take greater and more intelligent interest in the schools
in proportion as the schools continue longer, become of more importance
and bring more satisfactory results. This is natural. The average
attendance by the county upon the Institutes up to July 1. 1890, was:
teachers 45, committeemen 22, citizens 288. The average attendance
since July 1, to October 1, owing to the impetus given by the Institutes,
has been, teachers 68, committeemen 27, citizens 375.
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. -5
THE INSTITUTE AND THE TEACHERS.
While 1 have considered it, in a sense, of first importance to instruct
and arouse the people to the point of wishing and demanding better
school facilities, I have endeavored to keep steadily in view the present
and urgent necessities of the 1,335 teachers who have come under my
instruction, who are now at work training for life about 75,000 North
Carolina children. It has been my desire and ambition to be of real,
practical aid to them, not to criticize them, or to ply them with methods
of ideal excellence for which they are not prepared. As a condition
precedent to doing them actual good, I have realized that I must know
their conditions, their limitations, their environment, and must apply
my instruction in the light of this knowledge. I*have made it a point
to know them personally, and to get as near them professionally as was
possible. Let me say, in the first place, that I have never failed to find
in any county some teachers seeking the light, earnest, thoughtful,
effective, and, at times, showing rare and unexpected skill. Let me say
further, that the entire force that I have met, as a rule, has been an
eager, sober, receptive and prompt body of men and women, realizing
more or less keenly their shortcomings and their responsibilities. Self-sufficiency
and false pride does not distinguish them. On the contrary,
a certain fine humility and patient questioning of theirs has so impressed
me as to win my enduring sympathy and regard.
As may be seen from the table, the teachers are young people, their
average age being twenty-six—males twenty-eight, females twenty-four.
One seldom sees middle-aged folks, among the men at least. They
largely belong to the extremes of life, youth and old age. Young men,
farmer lads frequently; young girls, middle-aged women, old men, make
up the force.
It has not been an inviting work in which to spend one's days of
strength. During nine months of the year another sort of work must
be done in order to live. In my circuit I found about one fourth more
men than women in the work.
In Cumberland, Richmond, Craven, Wayne, Beaufort, Lenoir and
Pitt the women were largely in excess. In the two latter counties they
were five to one. In Montgomery, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Harnett
and Carteret the men largely predominated. From careful estimates
made in twelve representative counties, I estimate that twelve per cent,
of the teachers spend six months of the year in the business of teach-ing,
and about the same per cent, teach continuously in the same dis-tricts
for three terms. From autobiographical sketches of their lives,
written to me in nearly all the counties. I find that only a small fraction
of the teachers have had the advantages of any ampler training than
that afforded by the public schools, not then so efficient as now.
Teachers teach as they were taught. Hence, remote from one another,
6 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
unable to compare methods, to discuss ways and means or to enkindle
enthusiasm, they perpetuate the errors and, of course, the excellencies
of their own instruction. Of professional training for their difficult
work they have had little. About twelve per cent, of them have
read a technical work on teaching. This per cent, is increasing quite
rapidly since July 1, 1890. About eight per cent, read regularly some
school journal. I have sought to impress the necessity of a change in
these matters, and, I believe, with some success. An agent of a good
school journal usually does a thriving business among them.
The teachers are stronger in arithmetic and technical grammar than
in other subjects; and weaker in the use of their language, both oral
and written, and in history. One generally magnifies one's strong
points. The immense utility of the slate and blackboard is rather slowly
coming into general recognition, though this is due less perhaps to the
wish of the teacher than to the conservatism and folly of school officers
and patrons. Our teachers do not read much. They do not know books.
The reading habit has not fastened itself upon them. The bright and
splendid land of fancy and fiction, of poetry and imagination, of history
and biography has not revealed itself to their eyes. They teach an art
which they do not practice. I have looked carefully into this matter.
Of course, notable exceptions exist, generally among the women. I
recall a simple country girl who enumerated among the books she had
read, Dickens's " Dombey and Son and David Copperfield,'' Scott's
"Ivanhoe," Holmes's "Autocrat," "Ben Hur," "Little Lord Faunt-leroy,"
Charles and Mary Lamb's " Prose Tales," and, she added naively,
that Scott had been "the joy of her life." Others find it difficult to
recall three books which they have read. This is, perhaps, their mis-fortune,
rather than their fault. Lack of leisure, lack of opportunity,
and ignorance of where books might be gotten have produced these
results. The teachers have been the prey of the subscription agent, with
his costly book full, not infrequently, of rather pithless matter and
highly-wrought engraving. Much attention has been given by me to
the necessary details and machinery of school- life and to proper methods
of punishment. Purely physical punishments are much in vogue. The
purposes of punishment, wise and just methods, are not yet clearly
understood. Youth knows little of self-control, and many of our teach-ers
are youths. Still there is a growing sentiment against the lash, and
the use of corporal punishment, as an habitual corrective, is slowly but
very surely fading from our schools. One cannot scourge young children
up the hill of learning. Slavish physical discipline makes slavish tempers.
The teachers, as a rule, are people of very good moral character, faith-ful
and duty-doing. Indeed, it is their strongest point, and this is as it
should be. The pedagogical and disciplinary value of attractive open-ing
exercises—readings, music and the like—has not been duly appre-ciated.
A school where the children never sing, must be a dreary sort
Scholastic Years 1880 and 1890. 7-
of place. In a factory the 'hands" go, without ceremony, to their
joyless work. The school is not that sort of a factory.
The methods employed to teach the subjects are very similar every-where.
Some have learned, through Normals and Institutes, truer ways
of doing things. Some have fought their way into the presence of the
truth. The majority teach as they were taught. Five types or products
of the schools have continually presented themselves to me :
1. The child who could not read, but had •'spelled" through the
Speller.
2. The child who could read, but could not write.
3. The child who could write, but wrote poorly.
4. The child who knew more or less of grammar, but could not write
simple English decently.
5. The child who had " been over" the arithmetic, but had no grasp
upon the simple essentials of that science.
I have sought to change these types, for they are the result of wrong
notions, of irrational ideas. A child ought to be taught to read, write
and spell at the same time. A child ought to know the use before he
knows the science of his language. A child needs to know the essen-tials
of arithmetic in a masterful way. A change along these lines-would,
in my opinion, partially revolutionize our schools and greatly
increase their power.
The following is a skeleton outline of the work attempted by me.
though, as you may imagine, it necessarily varied with the character of
the teachers :
f 1. His daily preparation.
I
2. His professional preparation.
1. The Teacher: -[ 3. His general preparation.
| 4. His social preparation.
I 5. His moral preparation.
1. Attendance.
2. School-room.
3. Text-books.
2. How to Organize : ',- 4. Classification.
5. Opening Exercises.
6. Programmes.
7. School Devices.
( 1. Discipline.
3. How to Govern : - 2. Punishments.
( 3. Purposes of Punishment.
f f 1. Reading.
j
2. Spelling.
4. How to Teach: -j Methods in
\ f ^Kftlc.
j 5. History.
{ 1, 6. Geography.
S Report of 8uperititmdmt of Public Instruction
Each subject was presented for treatment and discussion under five
heads, as for example .
Arithmetic.—1. What is arithmetic?
2. Why do we teach arithmetic ?
3. What are its essentials ?
4. What is the rational method of teaching arithmetic?
5. The best books on arithmetic?
Five hours—three in the morning and two in the afternoon, were given
to the work of the Institute. The teachers were required to provide
themselves with note-books and pencils, and to take notes and copy all
blackboard work. The lecture method of teaching was largely used,
though the Socratic method was resorted to whenever feasible. Teach-ers,
I believe, teach as they are taught, not as they are taught to teach.
Hence, the lecture method is not an ideal method of instruction. It
was the only way available for this work, however, considering the
shortness of time and the nature of the work to be done. My work was
mainly in methods, not subjects. It was my desire to present and dis-cuss
the vital points in the work of that complex organism that we call
a school, and to reclaim veterans and start tyi-os along a right track.
This idea dominated my conduct. I sought to ascertain, in regard to
the branches of study, what the teachers spent most of their time, under
the necessities of their situation, in trying to do. I then spent most of
my time in trying to show them how to do those things in a rational and
scientific way. I did not seek to cover the wide regions of pedagogics,
but to focalize the work upon pressing necessities.
I shared the fear of some, at the outset, that little could be accom-plished
in so short a time. My actual experience showed me that much
could be done. The work of the Institute proper was varied by music,
written exercises by the teachers, historical and geographical games,
and by addresses by prominent people. I wish to return my obligations
to yourself for material and valuable aid given in the counties of Gaston,
Anson, Alamance, Orange, Lincoln, Catawba, Davidson and Rocking-ham.
The greater part of Thursday was devoted to the non-compulsory
examination of teachers for the three-year State certificate. The exami-nation
was both written and oral, comprehended the common school
branches and the Theory and Practice, and while not difficult, was justly
comprehensive and testing. Seventy-nine teachers—fifty-one males and
twenty-eight females—out of the 1,335 who came under my instruc-tion,
received this certificate. This means that six per cent, of the
teachers, and the best generally stood, won this distinction. Many of
the questions given were taken from examinations given to twelve-and
thirteen-year-old children in our city graded schools. Their names and
localities are herein submitted. I find that many of the brightest of
those who received certificates from my colleague, Prof. Mclver, have
Schohtstic Ymrs t889 and 1890. 9
moved away or quit the business. This would seem to indicate that in
order to command good talents we must give due compensation.
Cleveland County received the largest number of certificates given
by me.
There are no such uniform and stubborn truth-tellers in the world as
facts. That only six out of one hundred teachers in the counties
visited by me could exhibit sufficient excellence to obtain this first grade
State certificate, establishes the fact, for this territory at least, that the
great body of the children are under the tuition of teachers unprepared
for the work. Indeed, it is the simple truth, to say that a large part of
our public school money is expended on teachers whose geography does
not extend much farther than their localities and horizons ; whose
science is the multiplication table and simple arithmetic ; and whose
language, history and belles lettres are about comprised in Webster's
Spelling-book, technical grammar, and, at times, a meagre historical
compendium.
Among the causes operating to render the work of the public schools
defective, I submit the following as the most prominent
:
1. Bad school-houses, deficient as to size, light, private arrangements
and accommodations.
2. Schools too large, requiring too many daily recitations and irregu-larly
classified. No arrangements made for profitable seat-work.
3. Incompetent teachers, occasioned, 1st, by inadequate compensa-tion;
2d, by the want of suitable provision for training competent
teachers.
4. Lack of uniformity in text- books, occasioned, 1st, by the parsi-mony
and ignorance of parents ; 2d, by lack of vim and desire by the
teacher. There is much improvement in this matter, owing to the reso-lute
action of the last Legislature. Many teachers have practical uni-formity.
5. Want of interest in the parents, resulting in part from existing
evils in the system, and, at the same time, enhancing those evils.
6. Want of interest by committeemen, honorable exceptions existing
of course.
7. Perpetual change of teachers, and the teachers so changing leave
behind them very meagre and unsatisfactory reports of the work done
during their encumbency. Teachers should be required to leave behind
them a record of their work.
8. Want of a general supervisory power in some individual, of suitable
qualifications and fitly compensated, for each county. This is not
intended to reflect upon the County Superintendents. Their work is
largely clerical at present.
The great desideratum for the realization of an adequate public school
system in North Carolina is more money—an increased appropriation
to that end. We need a six-month school in every one of the 7,064
10 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
school districts. Money alone cannot make good schools, but good
schools cannot be made without money. Under the energizing stimulus
of adequate appropriations, so given as to call into play the principle of
active local self-help, many of the evils that clo« and beset our public
school system in its course towards a proper conception of its work,
would be overcome and dissipated. Good talents could be attracted and
given steady employment. The peripatetic teacher would be supplanted
by the permanent one. Time would be afforded to pursue definite aims
and to attain definite results. The necessity for text-book uniformity
would become apparent to the wayfaring man. The people, for whom
schools exist, would taste for the first time the fruits of really good
school work, and having once tasted, as the history of the growth of
common schools shows, would never again be content to live on meaner
food. Interest in schools and care about schools would be enkindled
among parents and school officers. Our public schools would become to
be looked upon as an active, saving, renovating force among us, not as
among many now, a scorn, a shaking of the head, and a hissing. All
this would not materialize in the twinkling of an eye, but it would
come to pass. It is for the wisdom of the Legislature to devise the ways
and means of raising this needed money. Taxation is unquestionably
a burden to all men. North Carolina has shown her aversion to it
throughout her history. We have never been a heavily taxed people.
Our schools received their first impulse from a government grant, and
our leading public school—the University—up to 1880, had not received
but $17,000 in direct money grants from the State. Our rate of taxa-tion
on property for schools is less than any State that I have knowledge
of, being 12£ cents on the $100, or $1.25 on the $1,000. If we are the
poorest of the States, which I do not believe, so much the more reason
whv we should, by the investment of education, emancipate ourselves
from this poverty.
Nor should the negro be permitted to block the way. Having citizen-ship,
he must be trained for it. He pays in money for one-half what he
gets. He does our labor and his home is among us. Our refusal to help
further to train the negro, and it cannot be said that we have treated
him unjustly, means our refusal to train the white child.
Whatever is sown to one is reaped by the other. A system of public-schools
necessitates a training school for teachers. The men can get
normal instruction at the University and the colleges. The women have
no place to go. A majority of the public school teachers will be women
—
surely they ought to be. We must for years to come look to the women
for our most skilful work in the schools, as we must rely upon them to
preserve and advance whatever is highest and best in our civilization.
There are now practically no endowed schools for women save among a
few wise but small sects. Neither the State nor the Church has provided
any adequate means whereby they can be fitted for motherhood or for
Scholastic Years 1889 and 1890. 11
life, with its contests and work. An army of bright young women in
our State are clamoring to be allowed a chance to work in fields fitted
for them, and these fields daily widen. The difficulties that bar the
way of young white women of moderate means to a higher training in
North Carolina, are greater than those confronting all the other educa-ble
subjects in our population—red, black, or white males. No just
reason can be given for this. It is simply an inherited wrong in our
State life. We have drifted along unmindful of its meaning. An un-taught
woman is the most sadly marred of God's creatures. The women
are not mere onlookers in life. They have a great part to play. It is
their part to bear the children of the commonwealth and to teach them
the duties of life. This is serious work, and the State that leaves it to
untrained women robs itself of its highest possibilities.
A century ago the women of our State gave of their time and money
to fit the University—our highest public school—to train its long line of
illustrious sons. Again, in 1875 the women gave of their time and money
to rehabilitate its dismantled halls. It is the men's turn now.
President Caldwell, of the University of North Carolina, sixty five
years ago, eloquently urged this great need of the State. The Teachers'
Assembly, through its committees, have plead for it for six years. They
will again plead for it. With an increased power in the public schools
themselves ; with a school established for the training of those desiring
to teach ; with agencies at work carrying instruction to those now at
work, the dream of the fathers who drafted amid uncertainty and gloom
the Constitution of 1776, will be in a fair way of realization, and every
child in our State can be enabled to make out of himself for the State's
sake, and his own sake, everything that can be made.
Respectfully submitted,
EDWIN A. ALDERMAN.
LIST OF THOSE WHO RECEIVED THE THREE-YEAR STATE CERTIFICATE.
Henderson County.—A. Osborne, J. H. Merchant and Miss Kate
Logie.
Transylvania County.—
Polk County.—A. L. Rucker, D. T. Morrow, Jas. H. Smith and Miss
Evie J. Boone.
Cleveland County.—Miss Addie Gardner, Miss Cleo Gardner, Miss
Olive Gardner, Miss Etta Curtis, J. H. Quinn, F. V. Falls, A. T. Gantt,
and J. B. Philbeck.
Rutherford County.—W. T. R. Bell, James L. Green, B. H. Bridges
and C. C. Gettys.
1% Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Gaston County.—Jno. F. Bradley and L. C. Glenn.
Mecklenburg County.—S. M. Davidson.
Cabarrus County.—H. T. Baker and D. J. Little.
Stanly County.—J. A. Bivens, R. L. Smith and E. F. Eddins.
Montgomery County.—
Anson County.—W. S. Clarke, L. C. Smith and J. C. Hines.
Union County.—T. T. Hasty. J. A. Williams. C. B. Ashcraft and
T. C. Benton.
Alamance County.—W. J. Thompson.
Orange County.—John Thompson, D. S. Parker, Miss Maggie E.
Forrest and Miss M. F. Kenion.
Cumberland County.—E. R. McKethan, D. P. McDonald and Mrs.
S. P. Bryan.
Robeson County.—Miss D. E. Marsh and A. A. McMillan.
Richmond County.—
Wayne County.—Miss Eliza Robinson. E. T. Atkinson and Mrs. L. T.
Oates.
Harnett County.—D. B. Parker and Mrs. Anna B. Withers.
Nash County.—S. E. Eure and Miss Laura Boddie.
Lenoir County.—Miss Gertrude Bagby, Frank C. McCoy, Miss Lena
Spain and Miss Fannie Kilpatrick.
Craven County.—Miss Annie D. Chadwick, Daniel Lane and Geo. S.
Wilcox.
Carteret County.—Miss Julia Read, B. B. Arrington and W. Q. A.
Graha