EDUCATION IN KANSAS. . 57 ceiving, both from the State and the people, that care and attention which it so justly merits. To show how it is progressing, as well as to show to what proportions the Free School system has already grown, I compile the following table from the Sixth Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Institutions. By it, at a glance, the reader may note the progress made in a single year: — 1865. 1866. Increase. Number of Districts . . . . 721 871 150 Number of Teachers : . 2 899 1,086 89 Number of Scholars enrolled . . 26,341 81,258 4,917 Teachers’ Salaries . . . . . $86,898 115,924 $29,026 Value of School-Houses . . . 122,822 318,897 196,075 Assessed in Districts for School Purposes, 106,589 192,620 86,031 In addition to these there are 83 Select Schools, with 113 teachers and 3,228 scholars; three Academies and Institutes, nine Colleges and Universities, numbering 89 Professors and Teachers, and 958 students. Two of these are Commercial Colleges. All of these are private or denominational institutions which have received no aid from either the State or the National Government. Still additional to these are three higher State institutions, viz., The State Normal School at Emporia, in Lyon county, about sixty miles southwest of Lawrence, with three Professors; the State Agri- cultural College, with five Professors, situate on a beautiful eminence overlooking Manhattan ; and the State University at Lawrence, which went into operation in September 1866. Of these three last-mentioned institutions I am able to speak somewhat more particularly. STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. The primary object of this school is the education of teachers. It had been in operation about two years when the report of 1866, now before me, was made. It is one of the most cherished and highly valued institutions in the State. ‘Not merely to learn the lessons of the day, but to learn how to teach it to others, is the object definitely aimed at,’ say the visitors in their report. Of the system or plan of teaching in that school the report gives so clear and graphic an account that I know not how I can interest the reader more than by copying an entire paragraph :— “ One of the most noticeable points was the rigid persistence with which the topical system of recitation was enforced. The old stereo- typed system of “questions and answers” was utterly discarded. Topics, oftener than otherwise consisting of a single word, were as- signed to the pupils, and each, without the slightest reference to text-