and an ultimate loss of all the restraints in social and civil relations which come from a recognition of inoral obligation and spiritual destiny in human life. Let us hope that the few who by unwise utterances of avowed skepticism and derision of well-nigh universally accepted faiths have aroused antagonism to this system, are not the exponents of the legitimate fruits of these institutions; that our private and denominational colleges will so continue to hold up the high ideals of life as embodied in the culture of the higher as well as the lower - the moral and spiritual as well as the intellectual faculties, that they shall challenge the admiration and competition of all who labor for the weal of the state, and lead them to measure all intellectual strength by its power for usefulness. The year now passed.

It has not been without its memorable incidents. Some of the conspicious and widely-known workers, wont hitherto to walk and work with us, will do so no more. Some equally prominent as teachers, but who trod other paths and were not identified with this Association, but who walked by the same rule and in the same spirit, have ceased from labor, and the places that knew them will know them no more. By your request and by my invitation, other and abler pens have written tablets in memoriam. Many humble, patient, honest toilers, strangers to fortune, and to fame unknown, have passed away. Individually as we know them, we do them honor; collectively, publicly, we record our sincerest conviction, that the state suffers no greater loss than when a true, devoted, efficient teacher leaves the corps for other avocations, or for the dreamless sleep. The year to come.

What shall its record, its harvest, be? Appropriating the language of an associate, for many years, in one of his public addresses, whose recent death abides with me as a personal bereavement, I say, to you teachers of the state, the state confides an important trust, and I tender you the possibilities of this coming year; to you, an army whose mission is peace, and whose battle-cry is progress. Not to the boards alone who employ you, are you responsible for faithfulness to this high trust; but to every earnest young man or young woman who may come to you for inspiration and discipline, and to every child whose spirit is to be quickened or deadened by the agencies which you shall set in motion. The work of the teacher requires infinite patience, and well it may, for it bears infinite results. Be not weary in well doing; for no richer or riper fruit can age pluck from the fruitage of life, than the consciousness of lasting good, accomplished in the present, and for the future.

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One year ago this association, by resolution, declared in favor of incorporating a kindergarten with one or more of the normal schools of the state, and directed the President to communicate the resolution to the Board of Regents. At a meeting of the Board in February last, the subject was carefully considered, the Committee on Teachers making an elaborate report and favoring the experiment. The Board ordered an inquiry by a committee on the feasibility of immediately incorporating such a department with the school at Oshkosh. At the recent meeting the committee reported that there were present local reasons for not making such an experiment. The Board thereupon voted to put into each school a selection of kindergarten literature, and a set of kindergarten material, and also appointed a special committee to prepare and report, at the next meeting, a plan for a building for this purpose, at Platteville, the cost of the same, and of equipping and supporting the school at that place.

Learning that the Minnesota Teachers' Association proposed holding an annual meeting at Winona during the summer, I corresponded with the President, Professor 0. Whitman, of Red Wing, with a view, if found practicable, to hold the meeting simultaneously with our own, and having one day of joint session of the two Associations. This arrangement was not made, but I am happy to welcome the President of that Association here to-day, in your behalf, as well as representatives of the normal schools, county superintendents, and public schools, of that great state. No less it is a pleasure to greet visitors from Iowa, here to-day, and to accord one of its distinguished workers a place upon our programme. If in the years to come, that enterprising state shall need fresh, vigorous blood for university or other departments of educational work, we invite her to forage liberally among Wisconsin reared and trained teachers.

In making preparation for this meeting of the Association, my labors have been made comparatively light by the cheerful and hearty co-operation of all who were invited to contribute in any manner to the exercises. Thankful for this spirit, I trust we shall respond to it by attendance and attention to the close of the meeting. The public spirit, and systematic and efficient arrangements of the citizens of the city, for our entertainment and pleasure, have relieved me of nearly all care, attention, and even correspondence upon that part of this subject, and are deserving of all praise and gratitude. Surely, if this meeting fails to be an occasion of recreation and personal enjoyment, the causes must be sought in ourselves, and not in our hosts, or in their lack of regard and provision for our comfort and pleasure.

THE TEACHERS INSTRUCTED IN OUR INSTITUTES.

[Paper read before the Annual Meeting of the Institute Conductors, at La Crosse, July 8, 1879,

by Hon. W. C. WHITFORD, State Superintendent.]

The annual reports of the county superintendents show that only about one-half of the teachers employed in our public schools receive any instruction in our institutes. The absentees can be divided into at least three classes. The first embraces those at work in most of our city schools. They have the opinion that the teaching given in these institutes is not adapted to their needs. It is admitted that the teachers of our country schools are the ones selected to be most benefited by these institutes; but still, the few attending from our cities find that they are greatly aided, especially in the charge of the lower departments of their graded schools. An attempt has been made this year to interest more teachers in some of the city schools in the institute work, but the results thus far have not been altogether satisfactory. The second class is composed of those who have been engaged for several years in teaching in the ungraded schools. They are so wedded to the old-fashioned methods of conducting schools, or they have already been so drilled in the institutes of former years, that many of them have no desire for further improvement. It is useless to say here that such do not exhibit the true spirit of their profession. While we commend their practice of teaching longer than a few terms, we know that they must ultimately be crowded out of the school rooms by those who make their work fresher and more closely related to the recent progress in the management and instruction of the schools. The third class includes a portion of our most transient teachers. They are employed in our schools on an average less than two years of their lives. As is evident, they have not sufficient interest in school keeping to meet the expenses necessary to attend yearly the institutes, and to acquire the valuable information there imparted. Since no other class of our teachers need so imperatively the training furnished by the institutes, the problem before us for solution is, what plans must be adopted to induce a larger number of this class to be enrolled each year by our conductors.

Must our institute instruction be made more attractive and more practical? It is conceded that it is not surpassed elsewhere. Can it be made more exactly and completely adapted to the wants of this class? There is no dispute but that our institute system is a growth and that it seeks chiefly to satisfy the requirements which these teachers furnish. But the defect does not lie in this direction. We demand more stringent regulations for securing the attendance of this class, and also the members of other classes. The inducements offered by the county superintendents have no influence over them. They disregard his arrangements to give them credit on their examination papers for their attendance. They are fortunate enough to obtain usually the six months' license to teach, without the percentage granted sometimes for appearing at the institutes. As long as this appliance is indispensable to prepare the great body of our teachers in our public schools for performing the best work, they should be compelled by statute to receive its advantages, and school districts should allow them full wages for the time in which to attend, when their schools are in session. Since this non-attendance of teachers is due occasionally to the indifference of the county superintendents to the work of the institutes, these superintendents should be requir’d, under stringent provisions of law, to labor with their teachers to secure their enrollment in these institutes.

There are two fundamental reasons for the organization and continuance of the institute work. One is the instability of teachers in their calling, requiring annually a large and fresh supply to take the the places of those who abandon teaching. The other is the incapacity of our normal schools to train all or even a majority of the public school teachers. In exemplification of the former it may be stated that the members of our institutes who have been teachers, have not taught on an average more than twenty-two months, and jf the whole number attending the institutes each year, one-fourth have never been engaged in teaching. This condition of affairs is not likely to change very rapidly. So the instruction given in our institutes will be largely elementary for some time to come, as it has been in the past. The same points in reference to the management and classification of the pupils ; the same rules for securing good order, attention to study, and patient industry in the school room ; and the same methods for conducting recitations, will have to be discussed season after season by the conductors. It will have to be line upon line and precept upon precept, expecting the advancement made to be here a little and there a little. To satisfy the more intelligent teachers at the institutes, and to avoid the monotony and tread-mill routine of this work, it is necessary, as we have found, to introduce also the newest suggestions in reference to the common branches, and to adopt the latest improved plans for the organization of our schools. We cannot expect to exhaust this subject in our life time.

It is idle to think that an institute is a substitute for a normal school, and still it aims to accomplish a portion of its work. It strives to produce a more lively interest in the elementary studies of the public schools. It helps the teacher in detecting his deficiencies in understanding these studies. It enables him to grasp more clearly the important connections between the different subjects presented in any one study, and between the studies themselves. It guides his mind to inquire after the principles which underlie the operations of his school room. It suggests to him the means by which he can economize his time and efforts in hearing recitations. It leads him to manage his temper, to cultivate his love for children, to arouse quick thought and earnest feeling, and to meet the solemn obligations resting upon him in his position, so that he may be a successful teacher. We admit that these results can be obtained by far more perfectly in a school where the teacher receives a professional training; but until we can depend upon schools of this kind to supply most of our teachers, we must resort to the institute to meet the immediate and pressing demands upon us.

It seems to me that we should soon secure the attendance of more teachers at our institutes, who are better informed on all the subjects embraced in the common school branches. This year the outline of the studies taught in our institutes was published early, and copies of it have been sent to the county superintendents to be distributed among those who purpose to attend the institutes, so that the particular points presented in the outline might be carefully examined beforehand, and the teachers might grasp more readily the instruction imparted by the conductors. Our institutes should, in my opinion, be relieved of a great portion of their labor in simply teaching the rudiments of common school learning. In time a knowledge of these should be required for admission to our institutes. Then more attention could be given to the discussion of the principles and methods of school keeping. It is safe to say that at least one-third of the labors of our teachers in the country schools, is lost from a want of the knowledge of the best plans for classifying the pupils and for attaining proper results in the recitations. With a more definite conception of the essential principles and of the best methods of applying those principles to the conditions of the school room, our teachers could more readily acquire skill and confidence in their work. The

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