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REPORT OF C. N. KENDALL 
 
 Commissioner of Education of New Jersey, on 
 the Boise Public Schools, Submitted to the 
 Board of Education December 18, I9J0» 
 
 (From The Idaho Statesman of December 18, 1910.) 
 
 I beg to submit the following report of my inspection of 
 the Boise Public Schools during the week beginning Monday, 
 November 21, 1910: 
 
 I wish to say at the outset that every possible courtesy was 
 extended to me by Superintendent Meek and by the principals 
 and teachers. 
 
 I have long felt that the efficiency or value of a system of 
 schools is determined by five factors : First, the school build- 
 ing or school plant; second, the teacher; third, the course of 
 study; fourth, the organization of the schools; fifth, the atti- 
 tude of the community. Underlying all this is the considera- 
 tion of the question as to Avhat the schools are doing for the 
 individual child. The conservation of the individual is fun- 
 damentally the most important consideration in a system of 
 schools. 
 
 School Buildings. 
 
 I was much impressed with the appearance of the new part 
 of the high school. 
 
 I did not see about the yards of the elementary schools 
 any apparatus for playground or gymnastic purposes. A con- 
 
siderablc amount of playground or gymnastic apparatus, such 
 as parallel bars, swings, teeter boards, maypoles, etc., is neces- 
 sary if the playground is properly equipped. 
 
 T found good ventilation in the various buildings. In the 
 newer buildings the lighting is all that could be desired. 
 
 Your high school needs additional library facilities. The 
 suppy of books is not adequate by any means to the needs of 
 the school. I was glad to see that your elementary schools 
 are equipped with supplem'entary reading material. 
 
 Teachers. 
 
 So many factors enter into teaching that one can not judge 
 with a high degree of confidence, in a short time, the eflficency 
 of a teaching corps. However, I gained some general im- 
 pressions. I saw very little poor teaching. I saw much that 
 was good, and some that was excellent. I did not see any ap- 
 pearance of disorder or lack of discipline in a single room that 
 I visited. On the contrary, I gained the impression that both 
 teachers and pupils were at work, not some of the time, but 
 all of the time. There is an air of quiet, eflfective industry on 
 the part of the pupils and teachers in your schools. 
 
 I was impressed with the unusually large numbep of young 
 teachers in the schools. I saw few teachers who had been in 
 the schools, apparently, any considerable number of years. I 
 am of the opinion, and it is a very decided one, that if your 
 schools are to be brought to as high a degree of efficiency as 
 can reasonably be expected, an earnest eflfort should be made 
 to secure continuity in the teaching staflf. Of course your 
 schools will lose a certain number of teachers from year to 
 year by marriage and by removal to other places ; this is true 
 in any public school system in the country. Moreover, some 
 
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teachers will be found to be inefficient, and they should not 
 be retained in the schools, if the schools exist for the children. 
 Owing to the location of your city and to the fact that such a 
 large number of your teachers are necessarily from parts of 
 the country remote from Boise, there is danger, as I see it, that 
 teachers may remain with you only for a brief period and then 
 either move on to the coast or return to the east, thus necessi- 
 tating year by year a large number of new teachers in your 
 corps. 
 
 The evolution of a teacher, even though she be a normal 
 or college graduate, is a slow process. In a well administered 
 system much can be done in a single year for the improvement 
 of teachers, and much is being done by your superintendent 
 and his assistants, but more can be done in the development 
 of strong teachers and in creating the necessary esprit de 
 corps, if the teachers remlain for a considerable period of years 
 in the service. 
 
 A limited number of teachers with little experience in 
 teaching is not to be deplored, but the number must not be. too 
 large, if your teaching body as a whole is to attain a high de- 
 gree of efficiency. Character or distinction is usually given to 
 a system, of schools by those teachers who have had several 
 years of experience in the schools, who know something about 
 the traditions of the schools, if there are traditions, who are 
 in harnion}- with the spirit of the schools, and who are con- 
 scious of having contributed to whatever degree of success the 
 schools have attained. 
 
 Should Retain Teachers. 
 
 I think one of the serious problems necessary for you to 
 work out is to so administer the schools that you may be able 
 to retain year after year a large number of the teaching staff 
 
in the schools. In my judgment, one of the factors which will 
 contribute to permanency of the teaching staff is higher sal- 
 aries for teachers in the elementary schools. Your salaries are 
 low in comparison with cities on the Pacific coast with which 
 yoM must enter more or less into competition, and even in com- 
 parison with cities in the middle west, bearing in mind the 
 expense of living in your city and railroad fares. 
 
 I think that you have been wise in giving your superinten- 
 dent large latitude in the employment of teachers. I have 
 rarely seen such promising material, as a whole, in a teach- 
 ing corps, as I saw in the Boise schools. The teachers ap- 
 parently have been selected with care and discrimination. 
 
 Course of Study. 
 
 Not much needs to be said about the course of study. It 
 has been well and thoughtfully worked out. In the high 
 school I was particularly impressed with the work in the ag- 
 ricultural laboratory and by the practical character of the 
 work in the other biological science. 
 
 Need Industrial Training. 
 
 I have two or three suggestions to make relative to the 
 course of study. I think your most serious defect lies in the 
 failure to provide adequate industrial and hand training. This 
 kind of training is not so much in evdence in the Boise schools 
 as it should be. Many of the children are without this train- 
 ing, except the limited amount which they receive in the 
 instruction in drawing. In a word, in my judgment, there 
 should be more hand work in the primary schools, more 
 manual training in the intermediate schools, and more indus- 
 trial training in the higher grades of your grammar schools. I 
 
have used the terms hand training, manual training and indus- 
 trial training, but I do not mean too strict a classification on 
 this basis. 
 
 I shall not attempt to outline the sort of work which I 
 believe you should do. I am simply making a statement and 
 not filling in the outline. I think you have made a good be- 
 ginning, however, in the work in cookery and shop work in 
 the higher grades, but your industrial courses do not reach 
 a sufficiently large number of pupils. 
 
 I am also of the opinion that you should give miore atten- 
 tion to physical training. The health of children should be 
 conserved in the schools. I think you are doing admirably in 
 the high school, but in the elementary schools there should be 
 not merely formal gymnastics, but games and plays in the 
 primary grades should be more in evidence. In my judgment, 
 you could profitably employ a well-trained young woman to 
 look after the physical development of the children in the 
 elementary schools, in accordance with modern methods. 
 
 A systematic medical inspection of school children should 
 be established at the earliest practicable moment. 
 
 Organization. 
 
 As to organization in the schools, I was pleased to find that 
 there were practically no crowded school rooms in Boise. 
 
 "I wish to indorse your plan of departmental schools in the 
 higher grammar grades. In my judgment, this plan of organ- 
 ization must continue, owing to the scarcity of fine teachers, if 
 the efficiency of the schools is to be kept up. 
 
 I was glad to know, too, that you have provided for efficient 
 and competent supervision. 
 
 You have in some school rooms children who are consid- 
 erably over age or behind in their grades, and who conse- 
 
quently are a drag upon the progress of normal pupils and 
 upon the energy- of teachers. 
 
 These pupils are commonly called 'iaggards" or "retarded" 
 pupils. They are not only retarded themselves, but their con- 
 tinued presence in the regular classes operates to retard other 
 pupils, because the teacher is forced to give these children 
 more time than rightly belongs to them. Some of these pupils 
 in the higher grades are not fitted to carry on the conventional 
 bookish courses of study. If possible, they should be given an 
 extra amount of industrial training to meet their individual 
 needs, and in order that they may be saved to society, speak- 
 ing economically. 
 
 I believe that one or two ungraded or special teachers 
 should be employed to teach these pupils, as individuals, in 
 the standard school subjects, such as reading, the writing of 
 English, penmanship and arithmetic. These pupils could by 
 this means be taught as individuals and not in classes, or at 
 any rate in very small classes. The purpose of this special in- 
 struction would be, as the expression is, to bring the child up 
 to the grade, and to relieve the regular teacher from the neces- 
 sity of giving these children more than their due proportion 
 of the school time. The employment of a sympathetic, skillful 
 teacher would be a good investment, for by this means many 
 of these children could be brought up to the* grade where they 
 properly belong. 
 
 It is not my purpose to discuss at any length the question 
 of the support of the school by the community. If there is 
 any evidence of a lack of interest on the part of the community 
 in the work of the public schools, I was unable to discover it 
 during my six days stay in Boise. I do not think I have ever 
 seen a more encouraging situation in this respect than exists 
 today in your city. As an evidence of this, I mention the at- 
 
titude of your Commercial Club towards the schools. The club 
 evidently realizes that a good system of schools is an asset. 
 I do not mean merely a moral or educational asset, but I mean 
 a commercial asset. In the large territory of which Boise is 
 the center and the capital, large numbers of persons will be 
 attracted to the city as a place of residence because they will 
 realize that their children will have the advantage of an ex- 
 cellent system of schools, and if they do not have children, they 
 will prefer to live, all other things being equal, in a community 
 where there are good schools. 
 
 In conclusion, I wish to thank the board and Superinten- 
 dent Meek for the opportunity to spend the six days in your 
 
 schools. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 C. N. KENDALL. 
 
 Along the line of Commissioner Kendall's report, the Board 
 of Education, at its monthly meeting in May, 1911, authorized 
 the Superintendent to employ the following special teachers : 
 
 One additional teacher of sewing for the girls of the fifth and 
 sixth grades ; a teacher of industrial arts for the boys of the 
 fifth and sixth grades; a shop instructor for the boys of the 
 seventh and eighth grades; a cooking teacher for the girls of 
 the seventh and eighth grades ; a playground director for the 
 elementary schools ; a school nurse ; and two additional indus- 
 trial teachers for the High School. 
 
 In addition to the regular music supervisor, a man has been 
 engaged to devote his time exclusively to music instruction in 
 the High School. The course includes band, orchestra, choral 
 work, musical history, theory and harmony. Credits are given 
 in these subjects just as in other High School lines. 
 
 In June, 1911, the board also purchased a forty-acre central 
 
playground and athletic field, for which they paid $16,000. A 
 thirty-acre demonstration farm has recently been acquired and 
 is now being farmed under the direction of the Agricultural 
 department, with an expert farmer taken from the government 
 experiment station. On this a poultry ranch has already been 
 established ; a green house will be built and a model dairy in- 
 stalled. 
 
 One ungraded room has been established for retarded pupils, 
 and the plan is to add others immediately. 
 
 Along the line of Commlissioner Kendall's suggestions, the 
 salaries of teachers in the elementary schools were increased 
 from ten to twenty per cent. 
 
 These enlargements of school activities have added twen- 
 ty-five per cent to the budget without any complaint from 
 taypayers. 
 
 CHAS. S. MEEK, 
 Superintendent of Schools. 
 
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