“DEERFIELD.

SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. * * The first and most obvious evil consists in a superabundance of school books, in relation to the same study.  This cannot but greatly perplex and embarrass the teacher, and prevent the successful operation of the school; it imposes, also, more than a unless tax upon the parents. * *

There is prevalent in the country great pride of authorship.  Every man of letters seems to feel authorized to publish a school book, or rather to compile one.  The country is absolutely flooded with school books; and every new book has a mighty superiority over its predecessor.  It is acknowledged that this evil cannot be expelled at once.  It would impose a tax upon the community, bearing too heavily upon those the least able to sustain it.  But it might, it can, and ought to be remedied, by a gradual, systematic and preserving action of the school committees.  * *

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.–Samuel Ware, Pomeroy Belden, J.A. Saxton.”

Reference Data:

Abstracts of the Massachusetts School Returns, by Massachusetts Board of Education, 1842, page 133