Sir-I have the honor to transmit herewith the annual report required of the Secretary of State as Superintendent of Commnon Schools. I am, very respectfully, [Assem. No. 6.] 1 Your ob't serv't, JOHN A. DIX. REPORT, &c. STATE OF NEW-YORK, } Albany, 4th Jan. 1837. TO THE LEGISLATURE. The Secretary of State, in the capacity of Superintendent of Common Schools, has the honor to present the following REPORT: 1. THE CONDITION OF THE COMMON SCHOOLS. There are in the State fifty-six organized counties, containing eight hundred and fifty-three towns and wards. The commissioners of common schools of all the towns in the State have made the reports required by law to the clerks of the counties, by all of whom copies of those reports have been transmitted to the Superintendent. An abstract of the reports of the commissioners is annexed, and marked A. The same matter, in a more condensed form, will be found in the annexed table, marked B. The reports of the commissioners exhibit the condition of the schools for the year ending on the 31st of December, 1835. The number of organized school districts on that day, was ten thousand two hundred and seven, showing an increase of seventyfive districts during the year reported. Of the whole number of districts, nine thousand six hundred and ninety-six made their reports to the commissioners of common schools of the towns in which they lie. There were, therefore, five hundred and eleven districts, which made no reports. In the counties of Orleans, Richmond and Yates, every school district has reported; in Kings, Rockland and Tompkins, all but one; in Clinton and Schenectady, all but two; in Albany, Cortland and Sullivan, all but three; and in Cayuga, Greene and Putnam, all but four. In the districts from which reports were received, schools were kept an average period of eight months during the year 1835, The whole number of children instructed within the year was five hundred and thirty-two thousand one hundred and sixty-seven. The whole number of children between five and sixteen years of age, residing in the same districts, as enumerated on the 31st Dec. 1835, was five hundred and thirty-eight thousand three hundred and ninety-eight. In last year's report, by reason of an error in giving the number of children between five and sixteen years of age in the city of Utica, the whole number of children in the State. between those ages, residing in the districts which made reports for the year 1834, was stated at five hundred and forty-three thousand and eighty-five, whereas the real number was five hundred and forty thousand two hundred and eighty-five. The number of children between the ages referred to, residing, on the 31st December, 1835, in the districts reported, would, therefore, appear to have been one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven less than the same class residing on the 31st December, 1834, in the districts reported for that year. This apparent discrepancy may be partially, if not wholly, accounted for, by the fact, that the number of districts which have reported for the year 1835, is relatively less, by fifty-five, than the number reported for the previous year, while there are seventy-five more organized districts in the State. The formation of new districts has not always the effect of exhibiting a greater number of children. A new district is usually formed by the division of another, and unless it embraces (as only happens when new neighborhoods are formed in unsettled parts of the State,) territory not before included in the bounds of any district, the combined results exhibited by both reports will be the same as those which were before exhibited by one. If, therefore, a hundred new districts are formed in any one year, and half of them do not report, there will be an apparent diminution, both of the number of children attending school and the number of the enumerated class between five and sixteen years of age. The number of children instructed during the year 1835, appears to have been nine thousand two hundred and thirty-four less than the number instructed during the year 1834. This diminu tion may be partially accounted for, by the same cause which has occasioned an apparent reduction of the number of children between five and sixteen years of age, residing in the reported districts. There is, however, no doubt, that the number of children actually instructed in 1835, was less, by several thousand, than the number instructed in 1834. By a careful examination of the reports of the commissioners of common schools, the diminution appears in some counties to be nearly uniform in most of the towns; and it cannot be otherwise accounted for, than by the prevalence, during the year 1835, of an absorbing attention, in a considerable portion of the community, to their pecuniary interests, rather than to the interests of education. School districts are usually formed with a number of families no more than sufficient to maintain respectable schools: and the loss of a few of their ordinary patrons often exerts a sensible influence upon them. Strong excitements in the community, especially when continued for a length of time, are in their nature unfriendly to the cause of education; and of such excitements, none is perhaps so much so, as that which is characteristic of periods, when fortunes are amassed without effort, and by the mere chances of speculation. That this cause has had its influence in particular sections of the State, can hardly be doubted on an inspection of the reports from the towns. In the town of Flushing, where the possession of an ordinary farm has during the last two years, been considered equivalent to the possession of a splendid estate, the average period during which the common schools were kept open, fell down in a single year from ten months to six. In the year 1834, the common schools were in better condition in all respects than they had been at any previous time; and as is well known, that year was distinguished by a serious depression in the business affairs of the country. The interests of education seem never to be better secured than in seasons when individuals are compelled to husband their resources, and when the highest as well as the most certain rewards are those which are the fruit of patient industry. No period seems less propitious to the promotion of those interests than that season of delusive prosperity in which multitudes are tempted by a few instances of wealth suddenly acquired, to lay aside their accustomed avocations and cmbark in the precarious pursuit of fortune. |