Book Description

Excerpt from Annual Report of the School Committee: Of the City of Boston 1878 A year is so short a period in the history of a school system dating back some two centuries, that an annual report can be expected to do little more than to indicate the gradual development of what, from its very nature, must be slow, and in many cases difficult to estimate by any well-recognized standard. The requirement of such a report, however, seems a wise provision, as a constant reminder that the system is a living organism, and that growth is a necessary condition to prevent decay. Our schools are better this year than the last, or they are not so good. This consideration would seem to justify an annual enumeration of the doings of the year, whether to remove the dead wood or to promote growth. But, though growth is essential as a constant element, its processes may be most operative and vital when least seen; and perhaps it is only by taking the salient points on which to institute comparison that we can justly estimate progress in the system. The reorganization of the School Board, and more ample means for the supervision of our schools, may be regarded as one of these points in the history of the school system. Nor should the changes introduced by the new order of things be considered necessarily as a criticism on the past. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.