Not to speak of other advantages, it seems to us that the habits, mental and moral, which the Kindergarten tends to form, will constitute a better preparation for subsequent entrance into the Primary and Grammar school, than that which most children will acquire elsewhere.

We think that it may likewise help to answer this question, "How shall we educate those who, leaving school at fourteen or fifteen years of age, will have to get their living by the labor of their hands?" Froebel appears to have had this inquiry in mind. He does not educate the head solely. He remembers that his pupils have hands also. And it is not too much to say that in helping to make the hand of the boy skilful, and his eye accurate, and in teaching the girl the rudiments of nice needle work, designing, and other feminine accomplishments of a thoroughly useful nature, the preparation of the Kindergarten will reach in its results far beyond the after experiences of the schools.

An admirable condensed statement of the advantages of this mode of instruction by "Miss E. E. Peabody," is appended to a lecture by Cardinal Wiseman (edited by her), which we trust all interested in the subject will read.

It remains for us only to express our hearty concurrence with the views therein presented, and our hope that the School Committee will take measures to establish a kindergarten school in connection with our other public schools.

The Schools for Deaf Mutes, and Evening Schools

have thus far proved a decided success; and, without doubt, time and experience will increase their perfection to such an extent as to prove the wisdom of the Board in their establishment. The matter of Free Books has also been strenuously urged by some members of our Board, and facts have been introduced showing that in other cities, where this system is carried out, it meets with the approval of those who are interested in education. Your Committee would suggest, therefore, that the experiment be tried if possible to bring about this change.

Industrial Schools have also claimed some sympathy from the Board by petition and otherwise, and time may develop some plan by which this system can be advantageously introduced. Its advocates are many, and only by a well regulated persistency can any new measure be introduced.

SCHOOL DISCIPLINE.

The abolition of corporal punishment is a matter which for several years has been presented to the Board, and there is no doubt but the members generally desire some change, but feel at a loss to know what form of punishment should be used in its place. Your Committee (with but one exception) think the time has arrived, when, to say the least, the experiment should be tried to dispense altogether with this form of discipline. The spirit of the age seems to demand it. Improvements are constantly made in other matters relating to schools, why not in this? Would it not be better for teach

ers as well as scholars? The Hon. S. S. Randall,* in his Report for the school year ending Dec. 31st, 1869, on this point says: "It appears from the official reports made to this Department, for the year ending on the 1st of November last, that in twenty-three of the forty-eight Male Departments, in which alone such punishments are permissible, no corporal punishment has been inflicted; and that the average number per month in the remaining twenty-five departments has been only thirty. It is satisfactorily established in my judgment, that no absolute necessity exists for a continuance of this mode of discipline, so liable to abuse, so repugnant to every sensibility of our nature, and so at variance with an enlightened system of public instruction, and the dictates of a sound public opinion. I cordially congratulate the Board, therefore, on its entire abolition, and respectfully recommend the enactment of suitable provisions for the suspension or expulsion of incorrigibly vicious or contumacious pupils, and their exclusion from any public school, except upon satisfactory assurance of future good behavior. It seems to me high time that this barbarous relic of antiquity had ceased to find a place in our modern institutions of learning; and that the pupils of our public schools should be placed upon the same footing in this respect, as they occupy in all the other relations of life, outside of such domestic circles as possessing the sole right to resortto

*NOTE.--It will be noticed in this Report that the views of this gentleman are even more radical than those expressed in a letter written to Dr. Ordway in 1868.

this mode of punishment deem it most efficacious in the moral culture of their children.

"More than thirty years since, General Dix, then State Superintendent of Common Schools, officially decided that the practice of inflicting corporal punishment upon scholars, in any case whatever, has no sanction but usage. The teacher is responsible for maintaining good order, and he must be the judge of the degree and nature of the punishment required, where his authority is set at defiance; at the same time, he is liable to the party injured for any abuse of a prerogative which is wholly derived from custom' (Com. School Decisions, 1837, p. 102). This decision has never since been questioned or overruled by the Department, or, so far as I am aware, by the courts. For a period of over twenty years, this method of punishment has been prohibited in the evening schools, the pupils of which are certainly not more amenable to discipline than those of the public schools; and no complaint has at any time been made that such prohibition has, in any respect, been injurious to the prosperity of these schools. In the Primary departments and schools, comprising more than one-half of all the pupils in the city, no corporal punishments are permitted, and no complaints of relaxation of order or discipline have as yet been heard. In the female departments of the Grammar schools it is unnecessary to say this 'relic of barbarism' has never obtained a footing. In nearly one-half of the male departments it has been wholly discontinued, with a visible improvement in the order

and discipline of the pupils. Why, then, should it be longer retained in any? It is not denied that there is a period in early childhood, before the development of the intellectual and moral faculties, when corporal chastisement may be necessary and even beneficial. But when the child is of sufficient age to be separated from his parents and to participate in the instruction of our public schools, both these faculties are capable of cultivation and should alone be appealed to. The infliction of physical punishment in any and every case is brutalizing; degrading to the child — necessarily and instinctively calling into exercise the worst passions of his nature— necessarily cultivating a spirit of vindictiveness and revenge or at best of moroseness or sullen obstinacy and not unfrequently invoking a corresponding feeling on the part of the teacher. No such resort to personal violence would, for a moment, be tolerated in any other place, outside of the domestic sanctuary. If a child misbehaves himself, or creates any disturbance in the Sunday school, in the church, at places of public amusement, in the lecture-room, or any other social gathering to which he may be admitted, prompt and effectual measures are taken for his exclusion. Why should it be otherwise in our public schools? These institutions are organized and designed for the sole and especial purpose of instruction, and mental and moral cultivation.

"Why should not every pupil and his parents or guardians be informed on his entrance that every facility would be afforded him for this object, so long