We find by looking over the Teachers' and Trustees' reports, that our average School term this year would have been longer than the last if the School year had not been shortened. The attendance is better; more interest is manifested in furnishing School-rooms with apparatus, and in building new School-houses. Much, however, is needed in fencing and improving playgrounds. The revision of the School Law has remedied many defects.

We have tried, as far as practicable, to comply with the recommendation of the State Board of Education in regard to text books. In many districts the new books are used with satisfaction, but others wish to be excused until the desired change can be more conveniently made.

STATE TAX.

The anticipated State Tax for School purposes we commend. The only objection we have heard is, that it is not enough. The Trustees "We are in favor of the contemof one district write as follows:

plated appropriation for School purposes, but it should be two mills, instead of half a mill. Our School system can never become what it should be, until it is made self-sustaining by taxation that will reach the purse of every person who receives the protection of our Government. At least ten per cent of foreign miners' tax should go into the School Fund. We would earnestly request the State Superintendent to visit our county, and deliver half a dozen lectures at different places where the least interest is manifested. Such a course would, in my opin ion, awaken an interest that would otherwise lie dormant for years to come, and would be of great advantage to the rising generation."

BASIS OF APPORTIONMENT.

The present one is preferable, and more just, than the one founded on the percentage of attendance. If the Schools were free, there would be more justice in it; in either case, we consider the present system better. Important changes in any law should not be made unless great benefit is to result.

TRUSTEES-HOW THEY PERFORM THEIR DUTIES, ETC.

Trustees have done well. Many of our School officers have exemplified praiseworthy conduct in advancing the interest of the Schools under their supervision. All the districts, except one, have organized under the new law. From the knowledge we have of those elected, we have reason to believe that they will keep a correct record of their transactions, and that they will be the means of raising our Schools to a high standard of excellence.

TEACHERS.

Our Teachers, as a general thing, are doing a good work. We have been well pleased, when visiting their Schools, to find such good order and so much interest manifested by the pupils in their studies, and the Teachers absorbed in the welfare of those under their charge. I need not say these Schools prosper. If all were like some which we have witnessed, the masses would cling to them as the earth clings to its centre, and its beneficence would permeate every avenue of life.

SCHOOL-HOUSES.

Two School-houses have been built, and one completed from last year. Much credit is due the Trustees and others of Fiddletown District for their indomitable energy and perseverance in prosecuting the work to completion, of building and furnishing one of the best School-houses in the county, the furniture of which will compare favorably with any in the School-rooms of the metropolis.

APPARATUS.

You will see that we have quite an increase in the expenditure for this necessary appliance in the School room.

LIBRARIES.

In a few Districts a nucleus is formed.

TOTAL EXPENDITURES FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES.

Exceeds that of last year by about one thousand and six hundred dollars, ($1,600,) besides leaving a balance in the Treasury of fifteen hundred and eleven dollars and twenty two cents, ($1,511 22.) This speaks well for our citizens. With the present amount on hand and the existing County tax, we have a prospect ahead of an average term of eight months for the School year of eighteen hundred and sixty-four.

MINERALOGICAL CABINET.

We believe in the formation of one in every district where there would be a sufficient interest felt to keep it in good order; and it should be encouraged by the State. Its credit could not be used to better advantage, under proper restrictions, for this is, and is likely to remain, one of our greatest interests.

GENERAL REMARKS.

We have given you a partial outline of our progress in School affairs. We think it quite encouraging; yet we have much to do to come up to a proper standard. We must have ornamental playgrounds, and Schoolrooms made attractive to pupil and patron. To bring this about, we must have more Teachers who are educated to teach. We must place in the School-room something for them to work with, to change the monotony, and present knowledge in attractive forms so as to make its acquirement pleasurable. Then there will be a probability that education shall not cease when Schooldays end. The most important of the new practices that have grown up during the decline of old ones, is the systematic culture of the powers of observation. Our conceptions must be erroneous, our inferences fallacious, and our operations unsuccessful, without an accurate acquaintance with the visible and tangible properties of things. The method of Nature is the archetype of all methods. The system of object lessons shows this. The leaving of generalizations until there are particulars to base them on, the disuse of rule teaching, and the adoption of teaching by principle, show this. The rudimentary facts of exact sciences should be learnt by direct intuition, by employing the ball frame for the first lessons in arithmetic, and of the actual yard and foot, pound and ounce, gallon and quart; and let the discovery of their relationship be experimental, instead of the present practice of learning the tables. Manifestly, a common trait of these methods is, that they would carry each child's mind through a process like that which the mind of humanity at large has gone through. The truths of number, of form, of relationship in position, were all originally drawn from objects, and to present these truths to the child in the concrete, is to let him learn as the race learnt them. Abstractions have no meaning for him, until he finds that they are but simple statements of what he intuitively discerns.

We do not believe the child must be driven to its task, nor do we believe the child will, at all times, be inclined to wisdom's ways, even if it has been instructed in the most approved manner. The truth is, harshness begets harshness, and gentleness begets gentleness; children who are unsympathetically treated, become relatively unsympathetic. It is with family or School government as with political: a harsh despotism itself generates a great part of the crimes it has to repress; while, conversely, a mild and liberal rule not only avoids many causes of dissention, but so ameliorates the tone of feeling, as to diminish the tendency to transgression.

The babe commences its education, even as soon as its eye beholds surrounding objects, and its tiny hand can grasp the coral. Gesture, motion, and sound, are soon copied. Now is the time the child should receive its proper training. Then, with Teachers educated to teach, we shall have more interesting Schools. The State has commenced right in giving life to its Normal School. Let her appropriate with a bountiful

hand. In every School-room a Mineralogical Cabinet should be encouraged. We believe this would aid materially the system foreshadowed in these few lines. The child is dependent on its mother for a period; after this must have its food administered; must, after it has learned to feed itself, continue to have bread, clothing, and shelter provided, and does not acquire the power of complete self-support until he is in his "teens." Now, this law applies to the mind as to the body. For mental sustenance, also, the child is dependent on adult aid. The babe is as powerless to get material on which to exercise its perceptions, as it is to get supplies for its stomach; unable to prepare its own food, it is in like manner unable to reduce many kinds of knowledge to a fit form for assimilation.

It is the chief function of the parent to see that the conditions requisite to mental and corporeal growth are maintained. Just as food, clothing, and shelter are given for the body, so should the proper aliment be given to the mind, in the form of sounds for imitation, objects for examination, books for reading, and problems for solution. If these should be presented in an acceptable manner, an approximation to the desired end will be attained.

"To prepare the young for the duties of life is tacitly admitted by all to be the end which parents and Teachers should have in view."

F. W. HATCH...........

SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

..County Superintendent.

In reviewing the past, there is every reason for congratulation and satisfaction. The progress of the system has been steadily onward, and, though many of its features need improvement, and a lack of true, stirring, and effective energy has been sometimes exhibited in a few localities, I believe it may be truly said, that in practical utility, in the zeal of those immediately engaged in the work, in the fidelity and fitness of the Teachers, as well as in real, permanent advancement, amid so many trying and adverse circumstances, our Schools may compare favorably with those of other sections.

The returns submitted are as complete as they can be obtained. The census has been thorough, embracing every district; the Teachers have generally complied with the law by transmitting their reports, and only a few of the Trustees have neglected to send in their usual statement of the condition of the Schools. Wherever this duty has been neglected, I am confident that it has arisen from a misunderstanding of the law, than a wilful omission of duty. The change in the School year, breaking in upon an old established custom, might well be expected to produce some confusion.

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This has also had the effect of somewhat shortening the School term. It will be observed that two of the districts have failed to maintain their Schools a full term of three months, the close of the year two months earlier than usual having deprived them of the advantages they might have had under the old law. These Schools are now in progress, and will have completed the requisite number of months before the anticipated expiration of the year.