Excerpt from Annual Report of School Committee: City of Boston 1912 Such, however, are the requirements of the Board, and failing, like all other examiners, in ability to comply with them, it was the endeavor of the Committee to conduct the examination in such a manner as would, under all the circumstances, enable them to form a well grounded opinion of the general scholarship and condition of the several schools, and of the system as a whole. To have confined their attention wholly or even chiefly to the first classes - to do which there is always a strong temptation - while it would have answered neither the letter nor the spirit of the requirements, would have been quite insufficient for the attainment of the end in view. Not unfrequently, when the class, which has passed its allotted time under the superior drill and instruction of the master, may present to the casual observer the appearance of finish and thorough training, the experienced eye may easily detect, under this seeming excellence, the almost ineradicable evils of previous defective instruction. Of the whole number too, who enter our public schools, and receive there the only instruction they ever get, comparatively few reach the highest classes. To most of the children, therefore, the advantages of the school which they may happen to attend must consist in the excellence of its lower departments, and the quality of the instruction, which is given to the younger classes in our schools, organized as they are, is, in reality, and should be considered, as much a criterion of the healthy condition of the schools, as that which is furnished to those who have at last come under the master's exclusive charge. 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.