Your Committee to whom was referred that portion of the President's address which discusses the course of study for ungraded schools, beg leave to report as follows: They endorse most heartily the statements of the President that “any and all attempts to prescribe a course of study for the ungraded schools become a matter of the highest importance, worthy of the best thought and effort of the best minds. I am firmly persuaded that such a course is practicable, desirable, and imperatively necessary in order to attain the highest efficiency and economy of our schools of this character." It will be remembered that this Association expressed at the last annual ses. sion, its views upon the pressing needs of inaugurating a system for the better organization of the ungraded schools of the State. A tentative course of study for these schools received at that time the approval of this body. At the last holiday session, the Association urged the revision of this course of study and its speedy introduction into our schools. Through other means has the attention of the people of the State been called the past year to this subject. At the recent annual meeting of the conductors of our institutes, as well as at their meeting a year ago, the necessity of using this course of study, especially in our country schools, and the instrumentalities for securing its introduction into these schools, were most carefully considered. No other topic elicited more earnest thought on these occasions. The Institute Com. mittee of the Normal School Board published this course of study in the insti. tute circulars for the past and present years, and distributed thousands of copies of these circulars among the county superintendents and the teachers of the State. The committee directed the conductors to explain the features of this course to the teachers in attendance upon their institutes. County superinten. dents have been advised to encourage their teachers to use this or a similar course in their schools. As a result of this agitation, some of the superinten. dents and a considerable number of the teachers in the country schools, have been testing the advantages of this scheme, and with excellent results. Your committee would urge the discussion of the subject during the coming year, and would suggest the following means as promoting this end: 1. The State Department of Public Instruction be requested to prepare and issue, as soon as practicable, a circular setting forth the necessity for the adoption of the proposed course of study in all the ungraded schools of the state, ex. plaining the different portions of this course, and suggesting the practical means by which such a course can be used at an early day in these schools. 2. The conductors of the institutes take great pains at the next series of their institutes to impress upon the minds of the teachers of our common schools, the utility of this scheme and the methods by which they can introduce it into their schools. 4. The county superintendents give increased attention to this subject in their instructions to the teachers under their charge, and in their interviews with the members of the school boards. On them more than on any other agency depends the final success of this movement. 4. A committee of five appointed by the president of this Association, be au. thorized to investigate further this subject, especially in its relations to the pres ent conditions of our ungraded schools, and the progress of this scheme in the W. C. WHITFORD, Committee. The report was adopted and the following committee appointed: W. C. Whitford, Robert Graham, J. S. Dore, T. F. Frawley, and Miss Betsey Clapp, to consider the subject recommended in the report. The treasurer's report was adopted and ordered placed on file, as follows: The treasurer of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association, respectfully submits the following report of the receipts, disbursements, and present condition of the finances of this Association, for the year ending July 11, 1879: DR. To amount received of ex-treasurer J. T. Lunn, July 18, 1878. $153 19 Amount realized from Geneva excursion.... 10 00 Annual dues of one hundred and seventy-three members of $1 each.. 173 00 Total receipts..... $336 19 CONTRA. By expense of lectures.. 33 80 Amount paid for printing. 140 53 Expense of Exhibitory Department. 28 70 Expense of railway clerk.... 17 14 General expense 6 10 Cash on hand.. 109 92 $336 19 T. F. FRAWLEY, Treasurer. The following resolution was presented by W. D. Parker, which was adopted: Resolved, That the Executive Committee of the Association is hereby author. ized to expend a sum annually, not exceeding $30, in publishing and mailing meritorious papers of the Association. On motion the expenses of the Exhibitory Committee were referred to the Executive Committee. Adjourned. W. H. CHANDLER, President. A. A. MILLER, Secretary. ON THE bank of the Nemadjin river, in Douglas county, is a white cedar, and which measures nineteen feet four inches in circumspiral grained but suumu, ference, two feet above the grouud. Its length is estimated to be seventy feet; it tapers from the base to the peak, and has no branches below forty feet from the ground. SUMMER AND FALL INSTITUTES. PLACE. TIME. W'ks CONDUCTORS. Manitowoc Aug. 18 2 1 2 1 1 2 Sept. 15 2 2 Rɔbt. Graham and W. A. Walker. Arcadia ..... Viroqua. ର ର ର ର ର ର ର ର ର ର ର MADISON, Wis., July 14, 1879. W. C. WHITFORD, Institute Committee. EDITORIAL THE ANNUAL MEETING of the Institute conductors at La Crosse, the second week in July, was both instructive and satisfactory. The papers read and the discussions fol owing them occupied two days and an evening. The attend. ance was large, ranging at each session from sixty to one hundred and fifty persons. Besides the conductors, other leading teachers in the state participated in the exercises. Every topic assigned on the programme was presented generally in a brief, thoughtful, and vigorous paper. All the remarks on each topic were animated, pointed, and courteous. Incorrect views were met with prompt denial and the reasons therefor. The leading subjects embraced in the syllabus for Iostitute work this year, passed under review; and their salient points were carefully examined, and impressed with great clearness upon the minds of all present. The character of the instruction given the past two or three years in the institutes, the different classes of teachers in attendance upon these institutes, and the future plans and methods of work, were all discussed with candor and just discrimination. The meeting was engaged an evening and a portion of an afternoon in the earnest consideration of the better organization and management of our country schools, and of the relations of this subject to the institute work. The main features discussed are the adaptation and introduction of a course of study for our ungraded schools, and the changes in the operations of these schools demanded by this course. The conclusion was reached that the conductors should fully explain this movement in all the institutes held this summer and fall, and urge the teachers and county superintendents throughout the State to give it practical effect in their schools. THE FOUR LEADING CONDUCTORS of our institutes held a meeting at La Crosse, in connection with the State Teachers' Association, and divided among them. selves the preparation of the subjects to be embraced in the institute syllabus for the next tbree years. They propose to hold a session for one day with the winter meeting of the State Association, and discuss their scheme in all its parts. Tbis course will enable each conductor to understand and use more efficiently the outlines of work furnished by the others. No other body of teachers in the State exhibit greater zeal, carefulness, and intelligence, in pro. moting the valuable interests committed to their charge. THE BOARD OF NORMAL REGENTS elected, at their annual meeting last month, Prof. A. J. Hutton the conductor of Institutes for the Platteville Normal School. He fills the place made vacant by the promotion of Prof. D. McGregor to the presidency of that school. Prof. Hutton is a graduate of the Platteville School, and has been engaged for several years as the principal of a high school in the city of Eau Claire. He has given instruction for some time in our institutes. As a teacher and a conductor he has shown himself to be vigorous, direct, well-informed, discrete, and popular. Many of the o'd graduates of the Platteville School, and other prominent teachers in the State, united in petitioning members of the Board to appoint Prof. Hutton to this position. WE EXPECT quite a large attendance of applicants for State certificates, at the examination held at Madison the second week in this month. Several of those who did not complete their work last year intend to be present. A few from adjoining States will appear among the candidates. Some of the principals in charge of the high schools of the State, and not graduates of our Normal Schools and State University, desire to gain the honor of holding the unlimited State certificate. The Board of Examiners are deservedly popular for their efficiency and courtesy in this work. AMONG THE PROCEEDINGS of the State Teachers' Association which appear in this number, will be found the brief report of the Committee on the Course of Study for the Ungraded Schools. Rarely has any other feature of public in• struction ever made so rapid progress in such brief time as this has since it was before the people. It has come to be an absorbing topic in all our general educational gatherings. The main points in this course are accepted by all, the differences of opinion exist in reference to its details and the best methods for securing its adoption. As usual, some are impatient at the seeming delays and needful caution employed in establishing so large a movement. They should remember that it has taken twenty-five years to introduce the present system of graded schools, and this under much more favorable conditions. The State Superintendent has, during the past year, reflected more upon this subject than any other coming to his attention. He has presented in that time, its principal points in at least thirty public a idresses. He has written a large number of letters to teachers and county superintendents, explaining the course and urging its introduction into our country schools. He has visited some of our most experienced and intelligent superintendents, and examined with them the items of the course, and studied under their guidance the practical means to secure its adoption. He has corresponded with prominent school officers out of the state, who have attempted to place in operation similar schemes in their own schools. He has made already considerable preparation for issuing a circular such as is described in this report of the committee. In 20 other enterprise connected with general education in the state is he so deeply interested. The key note of his administration was sounded at its opening, – the best improvement of our upgraded or rural schools. He conceives tbat the modifications in our school work required by the use of this course of study, will supply a considerable portion of this needed improvement. We have no doubt but that this subject will be thoroughly discussed by the conductors of the forth-coming series of institutes. The State Teache's' Association urged at its last session that they take great pains to impress upon the minds of the teachers of our common schools, the utility of this scheme and the |