1855-1856 School Committee Report

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10 the donors. The question presented to the town is, whether these valuable aids to such a school shall be forthwith pro- vided with suitable cases and closets at the town's expense, or whether they shall continue to be deposited on chairs, settees, tables, and the floor, as they now are, till the school becomes a fixed fact, or till the town provides for it a new and spacious building, embracing recitation -rooms, library, laboratory, &c. Should these contributors provide, that, in case the High School should be discontinued, this collec- tion should go to the town, as a nucleus for a public library, the town could with propriety and gratitude make provision for it, without incurring the risk and expense of procuring a casket, with the uncertainty of a jewel to put in it. TEXT—BOOKS. The Committee, mindful of the great expense and incon- venience of a frequent change of text -books, have, they think, exercised great toleration, and have only substituted Dr. Cartee's " Physical Geography" in place of Mrs. Somer- ville's, not as a better work in itself, but a better book to teach from, and for the class of schools for which it appears to be designed. The grammars and geographies now in use in our Grammar Schools we think too voluminous, and too copious in detail, not to mention some lesser objections. It is said of an illustrious Athenian general, that he was able to call all his soldiers by name; but where is the scholar that can recall all, or even one-half, of the unimportant names or circumstances mentioned in common school geographies ? We regret, too, that the reading -books should give the text of authors in a garbled form. We think there is about as much beauty, accuracy, or force, in the expression, — I'll speak to it, though earth itself should gape," &c., as there would be in another author, where we read, " The rich man also died, and was buried ; and in earth he lifted up his eyes," &c. We have no sympathy with this and similar liberties. 11 We rejoice at the general interest parents take in our schools, and the increased frequency in their visits to them ; and we hope that the result of each successive year will encourage and strengthen it, till every facility for moral, intellectual, and social improvement is freely enjoyed and fully appreciated. One marked instance of a parent's not only hearing the advance and review lessons of his own children by the evening fireside at home, to evince his sym- pathy and interest in their to -morrow's success, but also of his encouraging other youth, and enlisting the co-operation of their parents, separate from his personal liberality in the same direction, has excited our particular admiration. We hope that provision will soon be made for instruc- tion, by a competent teacher, in vocal music, at least once a week in every school : it could be had at a small expense. And evening schools for adults, for the purposes of general education, have been established in many places with good success, during the long winter evenings. They would do a positive and a negative good here. We earnestly hope, also, that teachers of every grade will spend a just propor- tion of their time in the moral culture of their scholars, and that the duty of teaching " good behavior" will receive all the prominence which the laws of our Commonwealth designed it to have. Lexington is an agricultural town, and was incorporated in 1712-13. It was the field of the first battle for Ameri- can Independence, April 19, 1775. It is about six miles in length and four in breadth,* and contains 10,390 square acres, or about sixteen and one-fourth square miles. In 1850, its population amounted to 1,894 ; and in 1855, its population was found to be 2,549 ; of whom 608, or one-fourth, were foreigners. In May, 1855, it contained 393 children between the ages of five and fifteen years. Its share of the income from the State School Fund, for 1855, was $89.91, and for the preceding year, $92,40; which, by a standing vote of the town, is annually divided equally * The mean. breadth is less than three miles.