1861-1862 School Committee Report

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►+ 8 9 direct the teacher in that school to give instruction in these or in any other branches not prescribed by law, believing that there is full occupation for his time in attending to the studies that are required by law. On the other hand, they have not forbidden the introduction of any of them. The article refers to what is " usually " taught in grammar - schools. We suppose that the custom varies according to circumstances. In towns where no other opportunity is provided for attending to higher branches, some instruction in them is crowded into the grammar -schools; while in those towns where a higher school is maintained expressly for advanced studies, according to the second section of the same chapter of the statutes just referred to, the cus- tom is to confine the pursuit of these higher studies to the school that is devoted to them. Whether it is the custom or not, we have no doubt this is the course that is most expedient. Some persons have expressed an apprehension, that the effect of the institution of the High School is to de- grade the grammar -schools. It degrades them in precisely the same way that they degrade the primary -schools, and in no other sense. The whole tenor of observation and experience indicates the truth of this statement, that schools accomplish their work best when they are most completely divided into successive departments, each pre- paring the pupil for the next, and each being limited to its appropriate and specified work ; and also when each de- partment is most completely classified, each class forming a unit, and having its own fixed field of study for each term or year. All attempts to retain in any department the studies which are allotted to a higher are just so much done to impede, embarrass, and confuse the schools. There may be reasons for permitting this to be done in some instances ; but the Committee are thoroughly agreed in considering it an injury to the schools, and, of course, not expedient. Nevertheless, as there will always be some scholars, that, for good reasons, will not or cannot become members of the High School, and as it is important that all should have the opportunity to gain a good elementary education, it is to be desired that the studies should be so arranged, that those branches which are prescribed by law for the public schools generally should be completed in the grammar -schools. For this reason, as well as others, the Committee believe it to be expedient to carry the standard of admission to the High School considerably forward, so as to include in it a knowledge of the whole circle of elementary studies. This is already done with reference to geography and grammar. In arithmetic, as announced last year, the Committee of the present year require those who enter the High School to pass examination on more than half of that part which has heretofore occupied the first year in that school; and we are of opinion, that, as soon as may be deemed expedient, the remainder of arithmetic should be added, with some specified portion of the history of the United States, and a suitable increase in knowledge of grammatical analysis and parsing. GYMNASTICS. Those who attended the two examinations of the High School could not fail to be delighted with the physical exercises in which the pupils have been trained. In many of the remarks we have heard in relation to this matter, by those especially who take a more or less unfavorable view, there has appeared to be a misapprehension in regard to the objects aimed at in them. We suppose no one is in- clined to doubt that some bodily exercise is of real and very great importance to all, but especially to the young : there is no need to discuss that point. The question is, What kind of exercise is best adapted to the circumstances in each case ? What may be most practicable and useful in one would not answer in another. In the school, then, what kind of exercise will secure in the best way a proper amount for all the pupils, and with the least liability with 2