THE SCHOOL YEAR.

Much inconvenience and, at times, confusion arise from the fact that the prescribed School Year does not correspond with other annual periods fixed by legislation. The School Year proper continues from September 1 till the closing of the schools in June following. The Board Year begins at the organization of the Board on the third Monday of April and ends in the succeeding April at the next organization. The Fiscal Year begins September 1 and terminates August 31, of the next calendar year. The Library Year reaches from July 1 to June 30: and, finally, there is the Calendar Year, commencing January 1 and ending December 31. This complex and useless arrangement might be simplified by legislation, requiring the Fiscal, School, Board and Library years, each to correspond with the Calendar Year. If uniformity in this respect was secured, its advantages would soon become apparent, and the transaction of business pertaining to school affairs would be greatly facilitated. Under the present law the Board is organized on the third Monday in April, and the Annual Report is issued for the Fiscal Year, which ends August 31, so that the reports of all officers elected at its organization show their own work for only about four months--the remaining eight months, included in the reports, representing the work of their predecessors in office. In consequence of this unfair arrangement, it may happen that a school officer receives praise when he deserves censure; or, vice versa, he may be blamed for the faults of his predecessor.

Legislative enactment, such as I have recommended, should be coupled with a provision te elect the Board at the fall election, instead of in the spring. As it is, the interval between election and time the trustee enters upon his duties, is too brief a period within which to inform himself concerning the duties which he is about to assume; other and more important reasons for electing the Board in the fall, will suggest themselves on reflection. Elect, then, the members at the October election; make the School, Fiscal and Board years begin January 1, and then each Annual Report will show just what each Board has done, instead of (as now) showing one-third of the work of the present and two-thirds of that of the preceding Board,

OBLIGATIONS OF THE PEOPLE TO OUR PUBLIC

SCHOOLS.

Members of the Board of Education are not the sole parties owing duties to our free schools. The people themselves should take greater personal interest in their management, visit them, and, by their occasional presence in the school-room, encourage both teacher and pupil. But I desire to speak more particularly of the active interest they should manifest in securing the very best available talent to represent them in the Board. It is not true that the best men will not serve if elected; but it is true that the best men will seldom resort to the unpleasant political work too frequently essential to success. When a man of integrity, industry and intelligence has served in the Board of Education, he should be returned to that body so long as his consent can be obtained. His place is no sinecure that others need covet. To perform aright the duties of the School Trustee consumes more time than the active business or professional man can spare without interfering with his usual vocation. Hence, when a man of character has been found who consents to this sacrifice the public should see that he is retained.

The duties incumbent upon a member of the Board can not all be learned in a single term, and the longer he serves the more valuable he becomes to the schools. It is a duty that the people owe to themselves and to the schools, that they select as their representatives men of ability, character and intelligence, and that they retain their services as long as possible.

COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

A few years since, the Legislature enacted a law for enforcing attendance at school, for a period of at least twelve weeks, of all children between the ages of eight and fourteen years. This, like many other laws that burden the pages of our statute-books, remains a dead letter. Its provisions are not very stringent, and it recites so many circumstances excusing the pupil from school attendance, that even its rigid enforcement would add but little to the total enrollment. However, imperfect as is the law, steps should, nevertheless, be taken toward its enforcement.

CHILDREN WHO ATTEND NO SCHOOL WHATEVER.

From the last school census, it appears that a large percentage of children in Cincinnati attend no school whatever. These statistics, published in our papers without explanation of their injustice, have been copied by the press all over the country, accompanied by editorial comments not at all flattering to the educational interests of our city. Our State law fixes the school age at from six to twenty-one years, whereas the maximum should be fifteen. Before the age of twentyone many youths have graduated; many young men have by that time entered upon business or a profession, and many young ladies have entered upon some vocation before attaining that age. Yet in each of these cases the party must, under the law, be enrolled among those not inattendance at any school whatever. The Report of the Superintendent shows the fallacy of the school census in this particular, and estimates very closely the number of children not attending any school, public, private or parochial.

Many valuable things are embraced in the report of Superintendent Peaslee a report to which attention is particularly invited. The method of teaching History by Biography, pursued in our schools during the past few years, continues to be productive of much better results than were obtained under the former process of compelling pupils to commit to memory their text-books.

The celebration of the birthdays of distinguished authors has become an established feature of the Public Schools of Cincinnati. Authorial birthday celebrations consume but little time, and, under the Superintendent's directions, are accomplishing the objects for which they were initiated. Children will read, and such celebrations constitute one means of interesting them in good literature, thereby preventing the formation of a taste for reading of a pernicious and sensational type.

In addition to birthday celebrations, there was celebrated during the past year, in the High Schools only, Pioneers' Day. The date of the original settlement of Marietta, April 7, was appropriately chosen for this purpose. Concerning the whole subject, it is believed that when limited to two, three, or, at most, four celebrations annually,

they will accomplish their proper objects; more than this number would not increase the interest of the children, and might, to some degree, interfere with the regular course of study. Birthdays of eminent statesmen and scientists will eventually be celebrated as well as those of distinguished writers of prose and poetry.

LENGTH OF DAILY SESSIONS.

With many misgivings, the Board, about seven years since, shortened the Daily Sessions of our schools. Experience shows the wisdom of the change, and those who were then opposed to abbreviating the length of the Daily Sessions, now admit that it has been productive of the best results.

THE DAY BEQUEST.

The Bequest made by the late Timothy C. Day is bearing good fruit. During the last year the income from this source has purchased tickets in the Mercantile Library for 175 pupils of the Intermediate and High Schools.

PHYSICS.

The Board ought, by all means, to provide suitable apparatus for giving instruction in the subject of Physics. At present it is taught only by definitions and such apparatus as the teacher may have the ingenuity to improvise. Of course, good results can not be expected in this branch, unless the Board furnish proper means for experiment and illustration.

GERMAN INSTRUCTION.

It appears that more than one-half of the pupils, or, to speak more accurately, 52.3 per cent., take up the study of German. Upon comparing examinations of children in schools where both English and German are taught, with those in which English instruction only is given, it does not appear that the study of an additional language hinders the progress of the pupil. On the contrary, the discipline of the mind involved in the study of a foreign language, as well as the novelty and freshness attending a change from constant study of the English branches, seems to improve the child's mental aptitude for