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improvement is noticed, both in conduct and study. Sixty per cent. are orphans. In nine cases out of ten their parents had been criminals or intemperate. Their early associations and surroundings were vicious and corrupting. The results prove the necessity of such an institution.

STATE REFORM SCHOOL.

The whole number of boys who have been in this school since its opening is 1,811. Results show the necessity of the recent enlargement of the buildings. The school work of the year, with improved rooms and additional teachers, has been unusually satisfactory. Financially, the school is very successful. The net earnings of the boys in the chair-shop and on the farm were about $12,000 for the last year. This does not include the large amount of work done in the shoe and tailor shops and the various departments of domestic work. While some of the boys after leaving this school have returned to evil ways, the majority have been reformed, and the success of the school is all that could reasonably be expected.

THE CONNECTICUT SOLDIERS' ORPHAN HOME.

There have been 68 children in the Home during the year. The branches of study are the same as are taught in the public schools, and, like those schools, it is under the supervision of the school visitors, receiving its share of the public money.

SCHOOL FOR IMBECILES.

Twenty of the pupils of this institution are beneficiaries of the State to the amount of $3 per week. There are now on hand 63 applications for admission. The school has been prosperous and the work of instruction very successful. It is estimated that there are over 1,000 imbeciles in Connecticut, and it is urged upon the State to make further provision for the wants of this class.

THE AMERICAN ASYLUM FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

This was long the only institution of the kind in this country. It is now not only the oldest, but the most truly national. It is supported in part by each of the New England States, and during the year has had private pupils from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and California. Of the pupils of the last year, the State of Maine supported 59; New Hampshire; 22; Vermont, 19; Massachusetts, 109; Rhode Island, 10; Connecticut, 60. Nearly two thousand pupils have been trained in this institution during the last fifty-six years. Instruction in articulation and lip-reading has been regularly given during the last year to a class of twenty-five semi-mutes.

SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF YALE COLLEGE.

This school has never had so large a number of scholars as during the present year. Its funds are gradually increasing; there has also been an increase in the number of professors, and the library and various collections have been enlarged. A gift of £5,000 has been received from an English lady, for the chair of dynamic or mechanical engineering. Mr. Joseph Sheffield has added largely to his previous gifts in money, and has begun the erection of a second building for the use of the school. Its estimated cost, aside from the land on which it stands, is not far from $100,000. A generous gift has been made by Hon. O. F. Winchester, by which au observatory for astronomical and physical researches will be established in connection with Yale College, the advantages of which will be shared by the Sheffield Scientific School.

CONNECTICUT COLLEGES.

In the colleges and professional seminaries of Connecticut there are 1,137 students, coming from thirty different American States and Territories and six foreign countries. There are in colleges 791, in theological schools 130, and in other professional schools 196. Only 125 sons of Connecticut are reported in colleges out of the State. In proportion to its population, no other State is educating so large a number of college students.

NEW HAVEN.

SCHOOL ACCOMMODATIONS.

The territorial enlargement of the school district, by the annexation of Fair Haven, is an important event in our school history, and increases largely the number of pupils. Twenty rooms have been completed during the year, eighteen of which have been occupied. The increase of seats, however, is hardly equal to the increased number of scholars.

SUPERVISION.

The change made during the year in the system of supervision marks a new era in the administration of the schools. The instruction of the grammar schools has been left chiefly to a female teacher, thus leaving the principal at liberty to devote himself to the duties which he alone can perform, not only in his own school, but in all the schools in his district. The new vigor infused into many of the schools fully warrants a continuance of this arrangement.

DRAWING.

The system of drawing, commenced several years since, has been steadily pursued with most satisfactory results.

The upper classes in the grammar school have reached the higher numbers of Bail's charts. Steadiness of hand and accuracy of eye have been generally noteworthy, and in many cases quite remarkable. Professor Bail has prepared a manual for teachers which makes the method of teaching so plain that one with the least experience will be able to direct a class.

EVENING-SCHOOL.

The character of the members of this school for stability, earnestness, and application to their studies appears to improve each year. Some remarkable cases of proficiency have occurred. One man over thirty years of age, who did not know a letter of the alphabet when he began, was able to read with considerable fluency by the end of the term. During the last half of the winter session, Professor Bail gave (without charge) a course of lessons in drawing to the young men engaged in mechanical pursuits. This is the fourth series he has given.

UNGRADED SCHOOL.

A little more than a year has elapsed since this school was opened, and the results have been such as to leave no doubt of its usefulness.

The number of cases which, under former regulations, would have resulted in "suspension" has been reduced to about half the number of the previous year. The number of cases of truancy has been less than the previous year, though the daily attendance was one thousand greater. The number of "subordinate" pupils has diminished. A considerable number of boys out of employment have voluntarily come into the school and improved their time, and many who, but for fear of arrest, would never have been seen in school, have attended quite regularly.

HARTFORD.

CONDITION OF SCHOOLS.

The schools are, on the whole, in a very satisfactory condition. The truant law is doing a vast amount of good in the central schools, and in several instances officers have been sent into the rural districts with most beneficial effect.

GERMAN.

A very earnest wish exists among the German citizens to have the German language made one of the regular studies in the larger schools. In the Brown School, German has been taught for the past three and a half years, with very gratifying results. During the year 240 children, 92 of whom were American and the rest German children born in this country, have studied German in this school.

EVENING-SCHOOLS.

An appropriation of $2,000 was made by the town for the expenses of an eveningschool. A second school is entirely supported by Messrs. Cheney Brothers. The statistics of these schools show that they are no longer an experiment. The number in attendance has been much larger, the average attendance much higher, and the progress greater than ever before. A valuable addition to the studies of the evening-schools would be a class in mechanical drawing.

MERIDEN.

TRUANCY AND ABSENTEEISM.

The school visitors say our schools continue to suffer from irregular attendance. Hardly a day passes in which children may not be seen patrolling the streets in school hours, wasting their time and preparing their minds for the growth of those crimes which are the offspring of idleness and evil companionship. Excuses, frivolous and selfcontradictory, are offered in endless profusion and apparent variety, but most of them indicating the same feeling, that the least important of all duties that may devolve upon childhood is regular attendance at school.

DRAWING.

This branch has had a place in our programme of studies nearly two years, but its progress has been unsteady and unsatisfactory. The inequality of teachers, in imparting instruction in this department, is probably greater than in most other studies, because less time has been given to drawing, inasmuch as this has not, till recently, been regarded as one of the required branches of school study. Miss Loring came here last year and visited all our schools, and gave a course of practical introductory lessons in drawing, creating considerable enthusiasm among the scholars. In February of this year, Miss Mary J. Dyer, an excellent teacher of drawing, visited our schools and explained the Bartholomew system of teaching drawing. In order to make drawing a successful study, it is necessary that we should have a competent drawing-teacher to give instruction to teachers and scholars.

SINGING.

Singing is taught successfully in some schools; in others there are great deficiencies and a corresponding want of interest. It is so because many of our teachers are ignorant of singing and insensible to the advantages of music. We are convinced beyond a doubt of the satisfactory influence of music, and strongly recommend its further culture in every school.

EVENING-SCHOOLS.

The evening-school in the town-hall met sixty evenings, from 7 to 9 o'clock. The aggregate attendance was 75; the average, 50; the average age of pupils was twenty years. The branches taught were reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic, to all pupils; book-keeping to 25, English grammar to 5, and algebra to 1. Perfect order characterized the school. The average attendance at the Prattsville evening-school was 25.

MIDDLETOWN.

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

The board say in regard to this that the idea should constantly be kept before the child that attendance on the school is not to cease until the prescribed course shall be finished, and that this is just as important as to remain through a whole term, or to be faithful in attendance during a single day. In this expectation the pupil will be less uneasy, more studious and obedient, and will come to regard education as the proper business of youth.

The example, ouce set, will have a powerful influence upon others. Our schools would thus be increased in dignity and excellence, and the money and labor expended in this field would produce a more bountiful harvest.

VOCAL MUSIC AND DRAWING.

The board renew their expressions of confidence in the study of vocal music and drawing, not merely as accomplishments, but as furnishing a part of education that can be turned to great profit in after life. It is to be regretted that the past year has not been marked with much success in the study of music, and that no systematic instruction has been given in drawing, but the arrangements now made for the ensuing year promise to give greater opportunities than any before offered for the prosecution of these studies. The board urge parents to give their children all the facilities and encouragement possible for their improvement in these branches, with the belief that the results will afford them the highest gratification, and prove to be of great value.

NEW LONDON.

ATTENDANCE.

The average attendance in the schools has been continually improving. An opportunity will be afforded during the present year to note the effect of a compulsory system of education, since the new law provides a penalty for parents and guardians of children between the ages of 8 and 14 years who neglect or refuse to cause such children to attend school at least three months in the year.

ORAL INSTRUCTION.

In regard to this subject the school visitor says: "In a former report I suggested the giving of oral instruction upon subjects other than those of the text-books. Some quite successful attempts have been made by some of the teachers. The objects to be aimed at by the teacher in any such course of instruction are to awaken the perceptive and observing faculties of the children and to put them in possession of valuable information to make them observant and intelligent.

"The teacher must be fully prepared to explain the topics discussed with the scholars, so that they will be completely understood. Visible objects brought in by the scholars, or pictures of objects, should be made use of as much as possible. Compositions may be written upon the subjects by the older scholars. There should be some regular system adopted by all the teachers..

"I would suggest the use of Hooker's Child's Book of Nature, a work that has during the year been put into nearly all the school libraries. A half-hour each week may be thus employed more profitably and more pleasantly than any half-hour now given to the regular studies."

INSTITUTIONS.

YALE COLLEGE.

The statistics of the college and its various departments will be found in their appropriate tables at the end of the volume.

The departments of instruction are comprehended under four divisions, as follows: the faculty of theology, of law, of medicine, of philosophy and the arts. Under the last-named faculty are included the courses for graduate instruction, the under-graduate academical department, the under-graduate section of the Sheffield Scientific School, and the school of the fine arts, each having a distinct organization.

The instruction of graduate and special students having become a marked feature of Yale College, the following summary of these courses of instruction is taken from the last catalogue:

College graduates, and other persons of liberal education, are received for longer or shorter periods, with or without reference to the attainment of a degree. An executive committee, designated by the faculty, has a general oversight of the students in this department. Instruction is given partly by lectures, partly by recitations and by oral and written discussions, partly by directing courses of reading, and partly by work in the laboratories and with instruments.

The fees for instruction in the scientific school are $150 per annum; in the other sections of the department, $100 per annum.

The degree of Doctor of Philosophy is given to those who, having already taken a Bachelor's degree, engage as students in this department for not less than two years. A satisfactory oxamination must be passed, and a thesis presented which must give evidence of high attainment in the studies pursued. A good knowledge of Latin, German, and French must be acquired.

The courses of instruction given in the department may be grouped as follows:

I.-Political science, history, philosophy, and English literature.

President Porter will instruct in psychology and philosophy, in the history of philosophy, and in ethics.

Ex-President Woolsey will instruct in special cases in international law.
Professor Hadley will give a course of lectures on Roman law.

Professor Wheeler will instruct in the constitutional history of England and the United States, and in the general history of Europe in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

Professor Sumner, will instruct in political economy.

Mr. H. A. Beers will instruct in Anglo-Saxon and the history of English literature. Courses of lectures will be given this year by Mr. David A. Wells, ou special topics in political economy, and by Mr. E. L. Godkin, on social science.

II.-Philology.

Professor Thacher will give instruction in Latin authors not usually read in college; and, in particnlar, will go over selected plays of Plautus and Terence, with special reference to early Latin forms, constructions, and meters.

Professor Hadley will teach the structure of the Greek language, as viewed in the light of comparative philology. He will instruct in special Greek authors, as Pindar, Aristophanes, Theocritus, Plato, and Aristotle; also, in Gothic grammar and the Bible version of Ulfilas.

Professor Whitney will instruct in the first year in the general principles of linguistic science, and in the second year in the comparative philology of the Indo-European languages. He will also teach the Sanskrit language, in a course of study extending through both years.

Professor Packard will instruct in the Greek tragic poets and in the history of Greek literature.

Mr. Van Name will teach the elements of the Chinese and Japanese languages. Professor Lounsbury will give instruction in the Anglo-Saxon language, and in the early forms and literature of English.

Professor Coe will teach the relations of the modern Romanic languages, especially the French to the Latin, and will give assistance to students of the old French language and literature.

The Hebrew and other Semitic languages may be pursued under Professor Day, of the theological departinent, either in connection with his regular classes or otherwise.

III.-Mathematical and physical science.

For the instruction given to graduates and special students in the Sheffield Scientific School, (see college catalogue, pp. 61, 62.) The courses there specified may be variously combined with those here announced, or the student may occupy himself in either section exclusively, according to his circumstances and plans.

Professor Loomis will teach meteorology, with especial reference to the making and reducing of meteorological observations.

Professor Dana will instruct in crystallography.

Professor Newton will instruct, the first year, in the calculus, in analytic statics, and in the dynamics of a particle; the second year in the lunar and planetary theories and in the higher geometry.

Professor Gibbs will instruct in the laws of vibratory and undulatory motion, with especial reference to light and sound; in the combination of observations by the method, of least squares; in the potential function, with its application to the theories of electricity and magnetism; and in capillarity.

Professor A. W. Wright will instruct in heat, light, and electricity, with practical instruction in the management of apparatus.

IV.-Fine arts.

In drawing, painting, and modeling, the school offers a systematic course of instruction. It affords the special art student a thorough acquaintance with the theory and practice of art, and combines with this a knowledge of its history and philosophy. Its museum contains a large and increasing collection of casts and paintings, and the collections are open to art students, for purposes of art study, at all hours. In connection with the practical instruction of the school, lectures on the theory, practice, and history of art will be delivered in regular course by its professors. The noble art building is in every way well adapted to its purpose.

The statement made by the executive committee of the society of the alumni, dated June 1, 1872, shows that in every department there had been progress during the year, and also that in addition to the special and so far successful effort making by the alumni to raise the "Woolsey fund," so named in honor of ex-president Theodore D. Woolsey, D. D., LL. D., for which the sum of five hundred thousand dollars is sought, and which is to be applied to the general uses of the college in all its departments, there have been many generous special gifts to the various departments.

To the academical department, Mr. Buchanan Winthrop, of New York, of the class of 1860, gave $5,000 as a fund, the income of which is to be given in two prizes to the members of the junior class who, at the annual examination to be held in the third term of the collegiate year, shall exhibit the most thorough acquaintance with the Greek and Latin poets, six months' previous notice being given of the authors required, which shall be chiefly selected from those not used in the college course, and particular attention being paid to elegance of scholarship and appreciation of the spirit of the poetry. Mr. Morris W. Lyon, of New York, has made a fourth gift of $1,000, the income to be used for paying tuition of indigent students. Mr. Samuel Holmes, of Montclair, New Jersey, has given a scholarship fund, the income to be paid to students from certain specified towns in Connecticut.

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