character it has previously maintained, the classification of the pupils, and the branches of study commonly taught. I hold it to be good philosophy to suppose a Teacher to be incapable of teaching grammar and the higher branches of arithmetic, when he has demonstrated his inability to pass an examination upon these branches. Such, at least, is the basis of all our examinations, and of the grades established. To ignore the grade of our certificates, and to consider them as passports to any School, without regard to the branches to be taught, would be to nullify their validity, and bring the whole system into ridicule. I think it would be proper, as a means of avoiding misunderstanding and of correcting abuses, to state distinctly that a certificate of any one grade shall not be considered valid for a School usually recognized as belonging to a higher. I have alluded thus far mainly to the country Schools, as being more immediately under my supervision. To the city Schools more than a passing notice is due. In their general management and in the profi ciency of the Teachers they have never been better than at the present time. The number of pupils in daily attendance during the year has been six hundred and eighty-four, and the percentage of attendance eighty-four. The duration of the Schools was eight months and twentyseven days. The Superintendent reports eleven Schools in successful progress, requiring the services of twenty-two Teachers and Assistants. The highest salary allowed is for the High School-one hundred and twenty-five dollars ($125) per month; the lowest, thirty dollars ($30) for the Assistants in the Schools of lower grades. Financially the School Department was never in so good a condition. By prudent management it has been relieved of the pressure of a heavy indebtedness, and has been brought, substantially, to a cash basis. At the last general election a special tax for School purposes was decided upon with a unanimity which attested the interest of the people in this important subject. It is believed that it will very materially facilitate the prosperous working of the system. Probably some four thousand five hundred dollars ($4,500) will be raised this year for the purpose, and hereafter an amount sufficient for the successful management of the Schools. The city has, within a few weeks, been unfortunate in the loss of one of its most convenient frame buildings by the act of an incendiary; and only a few days since the School-house for colored children was similarly destroyed. The latter, though not the property of the city, was well adapted to the purposes to which it was applied. The School was maintained under the direction of the City Board of Directors. The number of children of this class reported as belonging is forty-three. For the present prosperous condition of the City Schools amid so many unforseen difficulties the Board of Directors deserve much credit. The following brief summary of a few of the statistics of the year, having reference both to the city and county, may not be without interest: Total Expenditures... Other Expenses.. Expended for Sites, Buildings, etc... Paid for Teachers' Salaries......... Received from all sources.... Subscription and Rate Bills.. District Taxes.... County Fund...... ABSTRACT of Census and Trustees' Report, 1863. State Fund... $56 35 $37,674 56 $8,110 75 $12,949 30 $18,956 14 $6,256 69 $46,272 88 $26,981 49 $11,387 63 $4,216 04 $46,272 88 1,858 1,827 .81 Months.... Percentage of attendance-average... Average daily attendance.... Average belonging to Schools...................... Between 6 and 18 years, attending Public Schools.. Attending Private Schools. All ages, born in California......... Children between 4 and 18 years...... 6 5 1 CALAVERAS COUNTY. ROBERT THOMPSON, ...County Superintendent. For the fourth time I am called upon to make an annual report, as County Superintendent of Public Schools in Calaveras County. It has given me much pleasure to serve as Superintendent, and I shall ever look back upon my labors as among the most useful and pleasant of my life. As the ripple that surrounds the pebble thrown upon the water continues to enlarge, so every good impulse given to educational matters will continue to spread for all coming time, and he who gives that impulse can reasonably hope that his influence will outlive himself. We have a dread of being forgotten, but we must ever keep in mind that if we are remembered by those who come after us, it will be only in connection with the good we accomplish and the principles we advocate; correct principles are imperishable, and although they may be disbelieved for a time, they are certain, in the end, to gain the ascendency and gov ern mankind. The conquest of the sword may for a time be potent, but it is transient, while the conquest of correct principles is as enduring as mankind. We live in an age of progress. The arts of war and peace are progressing together. War, though an evil, will come, until mankind is so thoroughly educated, that his intellect will perceive and his moral power cause him to obey the spirit of that rule given by Christ from the Mount, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." The means by which this rule is to gain power is not to be expected so much from the pulpit as from the School-room. Both must act together, but the School-room will have the greater influence. The one acts five days in seven, and the other only one. The Teachers should exert a much stronger influence than the clergy, even in morals. The progress being made in matters pertaining to education is fast producing this result. The earnest workers for the cause of education sometimes get discouraged, but without reason. The last thirty years has shown more progress than any hundred before it, and the end is not yet. There is great reason to hope that the next thirty will show as much progress, if not more, than the last. Like developing a child's intellect, it is the work of time and patient labor, and the lovers of human progress are diligently to sow the good seed, remembering that in due time it will spring up and bear fruit. Educators should look well to the introduction of a systematic course of moral training in our Schools. This at present is too much neglected. Our youth are better mentally than morally trained in our Schools at the present day, and we should labor to introduce some general exercises in which the great moral principles essential to usefulness in life should be frequently brought to mind and thereby firmly fixed. A single allusion to these great moral principles may do some good, but it is the frequent interviews that leave an indelible impression. Like reading a good book, a moral lesson leaves its mark, but if followed by another, and still another, like a succession of good books, it forms and moulds the young mind while in its plastic state, and if so kept until age solidifies and fixes it, it will be likely to remain so through life. The youth that is gov erned by good moral principles until he leaves School at twenty-one, will generally continue to be for life. This healthy moral tone is not given by any one great effort, but by daily bringing around the child a moral atmosphere in which shall float moral precepts, potent, though unseen. This is the work of years, and it will not do to depend on an occasional effort. Systematic training should be introduced. Each day should have its moral as well as its intellectual lessons. Mental training gives power, but simply intellectual culture does not give moral worth. We have a moral and an intellectual field before us, and although the cultivation of one may aid the cultivation of the other, still they are separate fields. Both must be cultivated or our youth will not be fitted for usefulness in life. Some of our Teachers look well to the moral as well as mental culture of their pupils, but large numbers neglect the moral culture almost entirely, and seem to think that it belongs to the Church and Sabbath School entirely. We are making rapid progress in education matters. Compared with the age of our State, we have not been excelled. Still there is a great work to be done, and the friends of education must not falter. Rate bills are to be done away by raising a property tax large enough to support the Schools generally. School Libraries are to be placed in each School-house, containing books for reference. The standard of Teachers' qualifications is to be raised, and also their wages, that there will be an inducement to make teaching a permanent profession instead of a mere makeshift until something better turns up. Teachers' Institutes are to be established and well attended in the different counties of the State. Educational periodicals are to be more generally disseminated, and a better system of moral training introduced into our Schools. These, and many other matters, require the attention of the friends of education in our State, until these changes are brought about, and our Schools are what they should be as good as any in the world. We have much to encourage us every year. More competent parties are becoming interested and taking charge of our Schools. One improvement after another is being made, and the time is not far distant when our Schools will compare favorably with those of the older States. I have removed for a time from Calaveras county, and on closing my labors as Superintendent, I am pleased to be able to say that for the last four years I have had the hearty co-operation of Teachers, parents, and the friends of education. I leave the county and the position of Superintendent with many regrets, and I shall ever remember the many friends I leave behind with pleasure. I leave, as Superintendent, an able and faithful successor, whose years of experience will render him of great value to the Schools of the county, and enable him to more than fill my place. HENRY GADDIS..... YOLO COUNTY. ...County Superintendent. The State of California, in providing for a system of public instruction, has wisely adopted the principle so long recognized by some of her elder sisters, that the property of the State shall educate the children of the State; yet, up to the present time, adequate measures have not been and adopted to carry this principle into full operation. It is the right of our youth to be educated by the State, as it is the right of the State to be protected by her children. Money is said to be the sinews of war, it is no less so of Schools. No tax is more cheerfully paid into the Treasury than the School tax, and of none is the use made by the stewards of the public more satisfactory to them. I have conversed with many tax payers in this county upon this subject, and am well convinced that a large majority of them are in favor of the small State tax sought to be levied; for after we have exhausted all the means that the present law places within our reach, the consummation so much to be desired, Free Schools, will be almost as much an incidental matter as before. On the present basis of apportionment, a yearly revenue of at least twelve thousand dollars, ($12,000,) or nearly double that of the past year, would be required to give even our village districts a fair endowment, or to make one fourth of the Schools of the county free, in the proper sense of the term. I do not think that a change from the present system of apportionment to that of "Attendance," would produce any very beneficial result. It does seem, however, that a vigorous effort made by a popular and energetic Teacher in a sparsely settled district, should receive a corres ponding encouragement, but in such case the duration of the School term should be combined with the "Attendance," and this would make the disparity of apportionment much greater in some cases than that which now exists. Such a change would, I am afraid, operate injuriously to the poorer districts, where money is most needed. Several important and salutary amendments have been incorporated in the Revised School Law; those which provide for the collection of a rate bill by a summary process, and for the payment of Teachers when acting as members of the County Board of Examination, were imperatively demanded as acts of mere justice. The School in Cacheville has already been furnished with the text books prescribed by the Board of Education, and most of the others have substituted them in place of the old books as soon as new ones have been required. I have heard little complaint with regard to the quality of the new series of books, although a diversity of opinions still exists, and will continue to exist on this subject among our best Teachers. Willson's Readers are generally preferred before Sargent's, but many are unwilling to admit that Quackenbos is the best author on Grammar. Uniformity in text books was urgently needed as a mere matter of economy in expenditure, and still more so for the practical efficiency of the advantages to be derived from our Common Schools. The subject of education opens to us a boundless field of thought, so vast and varied, that when we try to contemplate it, it seems inexhaustible. The very word seems like a fountain springing up with neverending supplies. Every word we utter, every act we perform, have their influence upon us for good or evil. By our thoughts, words, and actions, we are cons antly exerting an influence on those around us, and are in turn influenced by them, though we may not be conscious of it. There are many things that influence us that are never clothed in language at all. The world is full of the various systems of education, but one thing may be considered as certain: none can be permanent or lasting that does not inculcate a proper moral training. One of the most important agencies in the education of the young lies in the genial influences of home. It is there that the education of the heart should begin. It may |