of experienced, skilled, and competent teachers, whose whole attention is their uninterrupted and exclusive privilege.

So obvious and important was the need of simplifying this complicated and time-wasting arrangement of classes, that the attention of several local committees was soon directed to the matter. Without awaiting the movement of the Board upon the subject, the Lyman District Committee, in East Boston, classified six schools in that district by arranging them in six different grades or classes, virtually making one school of the group, only a principal with full control over all the classes, and the name, being wanting to make it complete. This was in 1856. A few other District Committees followed their example, but the change was at first quite gradual, and met with some opposition. In May, 1857, the present Superintendent submitted his first quarterly report, in which the need of more thorough classification in the Primary Schools was referred to at length, and several of the more prominent of the defects of the prevailing system were very distinctly set forth.

"Another general defect," says this report, "is the want of profitable employment for the children, especially in the lowest classes. Go into any of these schools at any time of day, and in nine cases out of ten, if not in forty-nine out of fifty, three fourths of the pupils will be found without profitable employment. Thus the time of these children is wasted, for precious months and years in succession. But this great waste of time is not the only evil arising from this defect. Many bad habits are formed. The strength of the teacher, which should be expended in teaching, is necessarily taxed to a great extent by the incessant vigilance and care requisite to keep these idlers

out of mischief, and to secure some reasonable degree of

stillness.

"Without attempting an exposition of the causes of these defects within the narrow compass of this report, I must content myself with a brief statement of what, upon careful deliberation, appear to be the best remedies.

"1. A classification of all these schools. The superiority of the classified schools is very evident. The theory is sound. No doubt there are objections to it, as there are to every possible arrangement, but they are believed to be outweighed by the advantages gained," &c.

At the next meeting of the Board, held May 18, the suggestions of the Superintendent, in regard to the classification of the Primary Schools, were adopted in an order, "Recommending to the District Committees to classify the Primary Schools in their districts, as far and as fast as circumstances permitted."

It appears by the Annual Report for the year 1857, that this recommendation of the Board had then been carried out in cight of the nineteen districts, and that only fifty-five schools had been thus classified. In one district, in which every Primary School had been classified, the report of the sub-committee stated that;

"Thus far, in the opinion of the Committee, the experiment has succeeded very far beyond their anticipations. The objections to this classification which suggested themselves in advance of the trial, were, the separation into different schools of members of the same families; the frequent changes of pupils from one room to another, and the comparative short time they were subjected to one influence; and the additional

burden thrown upon those to whom were assigned the younger classes. These have not proved to be so serious as were anticipated. Where several schools are thus grouped these separations are more nominal than real, while the difficulties of teaching large classes who are learning the alphabet have yielded to the tact, patience, and assiduity of the teachers. The benefits derived from the change have been apparent and gratifying. There has been, on the part of both pupil and teacher, a manifest increase of interest and zeal'; and, in all respects, the trial has thus far been most satisfactory."

In 1858, as appears by the report of the Superintendent, eighty-five, or about one third of the Primary Schools, had been classified.

In 1862, it appears by the printed tabular report of the Superintendent, that the whole number of Primary Schools in the city were, at that time, two hundred and forty, and the whole number of pupils attending them, thirteen thousand three hundred and sixty. Ninety-nine schools had then been classified with one grade, or class, to a school, -ninety with two classes to a school, nineteen with three classes, and ten with four classes, leaving thirty-two with the old arrangement, or six classes to a school. In the tabular statements, given clsewhere, it will be seen that the present proportion of classified schools is yet larger, and that only a very small proportion of these schools remain ungraded. These are almost exclusively insulated schools, which, either by their distance from other schools or for want of other conveniences, are compelled to retain the original arrangement.

The whole number of Primary Schools in August, 1863,

classified with one class to a school, was

one hundred and twenty-two, or nearly one half of the whole number; the number of those with two classes to a school, was ninety, showing, numerically, no change; the number with three classes to a school had been reduced to fifteen, with four classes to eight; three schools had five classes, and only sixteen were left with the original six classes, a reduction of one half. This exhibits, perhaps, quite as much progress in the right direction as should be expected, especially when we take into consideration the important fact that the grouping of many of the Primary Schools do not favor their classification into perfect systems, or with one class to a school.

The question of classification, in some respects, remains to this day in a transition state. There does not appear to be that complete harmony and uniformity of views which a larger experience must create. In the minds of some members of the Board, the question is far from being satisfactorily decided whether the arrangement of these schools with two classes to a school or that with only one class is preferable. And while one District Committee has, during the past year, so far departed from the general plan of classification as to rearrange the schools in that district with two classes to a school instead of one, another District Committee has proceeded in exactly the opposite direction, separating schools already classified with two classes, giving to each only a single class. This diversity of opinion and divergence of system is hardly desirable. It must be obvious that only one of these systems can be the better. It is to be hoped that when these several experiments in classification shall have been sufficiently

tried that the Board will adopt some general plan from which there will be no departures, except for reasons satisfactory to the whole Board. If two classes to a school shall be found to be on the whole a superior arrangement to that with one, or if, on the other hand, the one-class arrangement shall prove to be the better, let the approved plan become the universal one. It is perhaps premature for this Committee to express decided views as to which plan should be the chosen one. It will not however be out of place here to state that the larger proportion of the schools are now successfully arranged upon the one-class plan; that, in certain parts of the city, the disproportionate size of the sixth classes makes any other arrangement inconvenient and almost impossible. The division into schools with more than one class to each school has at least this great objection, the facility and the temptation thereby given to teachers, who are not perfectly conscientious, to avoid the promotion of dull and backward pupils. Even in cases where the positive good of the child demands the teacher's additional labor and zeal to assist the promotion she may be tempted to spare herself the extra effort necessary to meet such cases by keeping them back in the lower of her classes.

The disproportionately large size of the sixth classes in a portion of the graded schools, and especially in those arranged with one class to a school, has been frequently found to be a great obstacle to an equal distribution of the pupils in classes. It is not uncommon to find, just before the semi-annual promotions, the sixth class become nearly or quite twice as large as any one of the higher grades. The cause of this apparent anom