The courses of study are planned with the sole aim of qualifying teachers for the efficient performance of their duties. The faculty contains thirteen members, and their work is under the general supervision of the Board of Education, whose members are elected by the popular vote of the State at large. The Normal School diploma is made in itself evidence that the person holding it is fully qualified to teach. The enrollment of students at the close of the winter term in February, 1882, contained 425 names.

THE NORMAL SCHOOL FUND.

The current expenses of the Normal School are chiefly met by appropriations by the Legislature, and these amount to about $20,000 annually. It has a small endowment fund, the proceeds of a grant from the State of twenty-five sections of "salt spring lands." These lands have been sold and the amount of the trust fund realized is $69,126 on which the treasury pays interest at the rate of six per cent ($4,407) annually. The School is an important adjunct of the educational system of Michigan. It offers an opportunity for any one of fair attainments, no matter how limited in means, to fit himself or herself for the work of teaching at very small personal expense.

THE INSTITUTION FOR EDUCATING THE DEAF AND DUMB.

This is the oldest of what may be called the charitable educational institutions of the State. The act establishing it was passed in 1848, but it was not until 1854 t that it commenced operations. Originally the blind as well as the deaf mutes were received and taught within its walls, but in 1879 provision was made for a separate school for the former.

ITS LOCATION AND BUILDINGS.

The Institution for the Deaf and Dumb is located in the thriving city of Flint, situated sixty miles northwest from Detroit, at the junction of the Chicago and Grand Trunk and the Flint and Pere Marquette railways. Its grounds have an extent of 88 acres, and its three main buildings are well adapted to the uses of such an institution. The total value of the property, including furniture, is about $436,000. The governing body is a Board of Trustees appointed by the Governor, and its immediate managers are the principal, steward, matron, and their assistants, a faculty of twelve teachers, and five foremen of industrial departments.

THE PRACTICAL AIM OF ITS TEACHINGS.

The aim of the instruction given is to fit the pupils for the battle of life both by developing their general intelligence and by teaching them some useful trade. Besides the studies of an ordinary school, the boys are taught farming, cabinet making, shoemaking, and printing, while the girls learn sewing, knitting, printing, and household work. Special instruction is of course given in the sign language and also in articulation. In the latter branch results at once surprising and gratifying have been achieved. By watching and imitating the motion of the lips in talking, many mutes have learned to speak with sufficient accuracy to make oral communication with them possible. The number of pupils in attendance on February 1, 1882, was 249.

THE GENEROUS CHARACTER OF ITS PLAN.

The State maintains this institution by liberal annual appropriations, whose total has already passed $1,000,000. No charge is made to pupils from Michigan, and the trustees are authorized to assist those in indigent circumstances to the extent of $40

annually, to be used in providing them with clothing and meeting other necessary expenses. It is made the duty of local superintendents of the poor to send to Flint all deaf mutes of tender age who may come under their care. The State also takes steps to notify the parents and guardians of such children of their right to the benefits of this institution. Certainly no community could provide more efficaciously or generously for the care and relief of its unfortunate.

THE MICHIGAN SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND.

The foregoing paragraph is also applicable to the Michigan School for the Blind, which is still managed under the general regulations in force while it was yet a part of the Flint Institution. It is now located at Lansing, the capital of the State, and on February 1, 1882, had 59 pupils. So far as possible a practically useful character is given to the courses of instruction in this institution, and the children are taught broom and basket making, the girls also learning to sew, knit, and make bead work. Its buildings are three in number: a main edifice, one containing the work rooms and dormitories of the boys, and a laundry. The wisely liberal policy of the Legislature has made it certain that this school will continue to be, what it has always been, one of the most useful of the State institutions.

THE STATE PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR DEPENDENT AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN.

The State Public School of Michigan, one of the noblest and wisest charities of this or any country, was the pioneer institution of its kind. No government had, when it was established, ever attempted to care systematically for its dependent and neglected children. This fact and the success of the Michigan experiment have attracted attention in Europe as well as in the United States, and in an address delivered within a few years before the Institute of France the eminent French statesman, Drouyn de Lhuys, said of this institution: "Behold, gentlemen, the State of Michigan, only about forty years old, has the merit of being in advance of ancient Europe in the inauguration of a new era for indigent children."

NOT AN ASYLUM OR A REFORMATORY, BUT A SCHOOL.

The object of the School is to provide for the dependent children of the State, its pupils coming chiefly from the county poor-houses; to maintain and educate them while within its walls; and at the earliest possible moment to place them in suitable private homes. It is not an asylum nor a penal or reformatory institution. No taint of criminality attaches to it. It is a school supported by taxation, as are all the common schools, and planned to save dependent children from the evils of pauperism by giving them a temporary educational home and providing them with the means of becoming self-supporting and useful citizens.

SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT.

The School receives dependent children of sound health and free from contagious diseases between the ages of three and twelve, and it is made the duty of officers administering the poor laws to send all such children to it. The pupils are divided into what are called "families" of about thirty each, and are cared for in separate cottages under the charge of "cottage managers," these positions being filled by cultivated women. They are comfortably clothed, kept clean, and provided with wholesome food. As a means of preserving industrious habits rather than for profit each

child of sufficient years is required to work three hours a day. Some labor on the farm, some in the dining room and kitchen, while others make shoes, knit, or work in the bakery, engine room, or laundry. They attend school five hours per day, and receive regularly non-sectarian religious instruction.

LOCATION AND BUILDINGS.

This institution is located on a farm of 72 acres, one mile north of the city of Coldwater, 132 miles southwest from Detroit, and on the line of the Lake Shore & Michi

gan Southern railroad. Its buildings comprise a central structure, hospital, laundry, and nine cottages. All are neatly furnished, warmed with steam, and lighted with gas, and possess not only a substantial but a home-like appearance. On February 1, 1882, they contained 320 children, being about the full capacity of the institution. The value of the property is estimated at about $180,000. Its immediate officers are twenty-one in number, and its governing body is a board of control appointed by the Governor. Experience has shown that the cost of maintaining children at this School and in the county poor-houses is not materially different.

SUCCESSFUL RESULT OF THIS EXPERIMENT.

Over 500 pupils of the State Public School have been placed in families in various parts of the State with satisfactory results in a large percentage of cases. This is done under contracts requiring that the child shall be treated as one of the family and shall be sent to school at least three months in each year. In case the contract is violated, or the child proves unmanageable, return to the School follows, and another home is found or special training in obedience and good behavior is given. Supervision over these indentured children is exercised through county agents, and prompt action is taken in all cases when required by the welfare of these "wards of the State." The founding and maintenance of an institution so beneficent in its aims and so successful in its results afford strong evidence of the enlightened, liberal, and humane character of the public spirit of this commonwealth.

DENOMINATIONAL AND PRIVATE COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS.

There are maintained in the State eight colleges, embracing in their curriculum of study full academic courses, which are either distinctively or quasi denominational in their character. They are as follows:

Statistics of the Denominational Colleges of Michigan in 1881.

Adrian College..

Albion

Adrian

Battle Creek College Battle Creek. Seventh Day Ad- A. McLearn..

ventist

Methodist Epis- L. R. Fiske...
copal..
(a)

20 217 $170,000

$50,000

D. S. Stephens..

(a) Undenominational, but controlled by the Methodist Protestant church. (b) Management Baptist, but nothing denominational in its constitution.

(c) Undenominational, but controlled and supported mainly by Presbyterians and Congregationalists.

Grand Traverse College, located at Benzonia in Benzie county, is a Congregational institution, with as yet only its preparatory department established. In 1881 it had four instructors and eighty-two pupils, and its property was valued at $40,000.

In most of these colleges the dormitory and boarding system prevails, and women are admitted to all of them except Detroit College. Their charges are uniformly low.

PRIVATE AND OTHER SCHOOLS.

There are in Michigan a number of female schools under private control, of much merit. The Catholic church maintains parochial schools in all of the larger towns. The Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake, near Pontiac, is a private institution for boys, whose academic course includes instruction in military tactics, and which is annually inspected under State authority. The Michigan Medical College and the Detroit Medical College, both located in Detroit, and both controlled by physicians of the "regular school," give instruction in medicine. There are a number of private institutions throughout the State, specially devoted to commercial training. The number of private schools in the State reported to the Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1881 was 252, giving instruction to 19,788 pupils.

REFORMATORY AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

THE REFORM SCHOOL FOR BOYS.

The history of the Reform School illustrates the progressive character of the ideas that have controlled Michigan's policy towards its institutions. It was first established as a "House of Correction for Juvenile Offenders," and was essentially penal in its character. Its inmates were sent there under sentence for various offenses and were dealt with as prisoners who were to be secured by bolts and bars and watched by guards. In 1859 its name was changed to "The Reform School," and within the last few years all the penal features have been discarded from its management. There is now no confinement under lock and key; no walls or barred windows suggest the shame of imprisonment; for the vigilance of watchmen has been substituted the quiet surveillance of the higher officers of the institution. This transformation from a prison to a home, and this substitution of reformatory for punitive aims, have been attended by successful results. Attempts at escape are exceedingly rare; the appeal to the honor of the boys is found to arouse the better instincts of their natures, and the discipline and general tone of the institution have materially improved. This change was a long step in advance of the reformatory work of similar institutions, but there is no lack of facts to sustain the assertion of its Board of Control that the success of the experiment "is being constantly attested by assurances from county agents and parents and guardians of boys who have been submitted to our care and discharged and entered upon new spheres of usefulness greatly improved by their residence with us, and giving promise of lives of usefulness in the future." This institution is pleasantly located on a hill in the city of Lansing, one mile from the capitol. Its main building is large, and near it are the chapel (containing also a large reading-room with an excellent library), the necessary shops and barns, and three brick cottages known as "family houses," where the better class of inmates are cared for as a reward of merit, enjoying privileges which are not possible under the congregate system. The farm connected with the School contains 224 acres, nearly all under cultivation. The time of the boys, with liberal allowance for amusements,

*

*

is divided between work and the school-room. The only regular industry is the