92 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
off. We have this attempted supervision, which is all right among the actual private 
schools. 
The schools started by one gentleman or one lady have no supervision at all, other 
shan a voluntary submitting of their pupils to outside examination. They often choose 
to do that in order to have a little outside light thrown into the school. We feel that 
that is not quite enough, and not quite the right thing, because it disturbs the school- 
work to have to send the pupils to an examination where some one else chooses the course 
of study. But more and more we are trying to get better graded work, and trying to 
ead pupils on from one class to another. I do think that instead of having to send the 
supils to these outside examinations, if we could have a little more supervision in the 
school itself we should be benefited very much. 
Frank PLUMMER, of Des Moines, Iowa : In the main I desire to indorse the spirit of 
this paper. The fact that one of the leading educators, now our president, in connec- 
tion with the Commissioner of Education, Mr. Harris, has selected this subject for gen- 
eral discussion, shows that it has merit. That being true, I take the stand, because of my 
sxperience, to say that supervision is absolutely necessary. This is an age of combina- 
tions and supervision, and if anything needs it, it is our schools. But how to get it is 
another question. 
I wish to take exception to one remark in the paper. The speaker had something 
to say about teachers’ bureaus not being necessary. I presume he meant at that ideal 
time when we should have proper supervision. Possibly then they will not be neces- 
sary, but teachers now get places in hap-hazard way. If bureaus can come in and sys- 
‘ematize things so that the teachers will get in the right place, then the bureaus may 
se useful. 
W. T. POYNTER, Principal of Science Hill School, Shelbyville, Ky. : I am connected 
with a private school, entirely private. Nobody has any interest in it except my- 
self. I own the building and employ the teachers, and am responsible to nobody ; 
consequently it may be proper for some one just in that condition to speak at this 
moment. The whole paper resolves itself into one question, and that is, whether the 
sovernment shall do all that is done in the question of education, or whether it shall not. 
That is the whole point in that paper. 1f you propose to say that the government com- 
missioners shall come to me and supervise my school, I say that is an impertinence. 1 
say it is as much an impertinence as if you would send a commissioner to investigate 
the editorial of the newspaper. The only question is, Shall the government supervise 
over education or not, and shall private schools exist ? That is a question for the public 
schools and not for us. 
R. E. CurLer, of the Northwest Division High School, Chicago: There is one 
aspect of the question that has not been presented; that is the influence of the people 
of the community. We have all heard of the influence that the New England town 
meeting has had on making the American citizen. If the people have become more 
intelligent and more interested in their own affairs, it is because they come out and take 
a, part, at least once a year, in the legislation concerning their own local affairs ; they 
earn thus something of government. A part of my lifetime has been spent at work in 
:he high-schools of Chicago. If municipal government is the topic under consider- 
ation, 1 think we have it in Chicago, and I don’t see how we could get alcng without it. 
Mr. Boltwood mentioned some of the evils that we were made to suffer in Chicago on 
account of the supervision of the schools being all under the same regulations, and yet 
aot all of them being under the same conditions. A part of my lifetime has been in 
she charge of schools of a smaller town, and I have had a chance to study this question 
as presented there. I have had an opportunity to see how the people of a village take 
oride in their schools, or, as they call it, *‘ our high-school,” and how they have watched, 
with jealous interest, ‘‘our high-school,” and how they have looked to see whether the 
results were praiseworthy or not ; and how they considered what they wanted in their 
high-school in order to meet the wants of the young people who are growing up in their 
particular community. If we have State supervision, this thing will be taken out of the 
hands of the people of the town or village, and, as a matter of course, they will lose some 
of their interest. This reflex influence by the school upon the people, causing the 
seople to have an interest in the school, it seems to me would be lost by State super- 
vision, or anvthing outside of the village or town corporation supervision. 
W. H. BArTHOLOMEW, Principal of High School for Girls, Louisville, Ky.: I think 
here is a danger lying along certain lines, and that danger is this, a tendency to get 
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