Page:Statistics of the colored people of Philadelphia.djvu/11

 teaching was introduced, they have become more efficient than ever before. None are admitted to the Men's School under 18 years of age.

The school taught by C. L. Reason happily supplies the wants of apprentices and others who cannot attend Day Schools, but are too young to enter the Raspberry Street School.

The teachers of the Institute for Colored Youth, and of all the private schools, are of their own complexion. All the others are white.

No register is kept in any school denoting standard of scholarship, nor is there any system of rewards for exciting emulation.

When the Sheppard School was established it was feared by some that the Coates Street School would be injured thereby, but the contrary proves to be fact. So, also, some feared that the Grammar Schools would be injured by the establishment of the Institute for Colored Youth, but the former were never so well attended, or in so prosperous a state as at present.

The irregular attendance of scholars, (unavoidable in a majority of cases) particularly in the larger and more advanced schools, imposes considerable extra labor upon teachers, prevents a thorough classification, and makes the recitations less spirited than they otherwise would be. Of all men and women who labor for the good of others, none are more deserving than the faithful teachers of these schools.

It would be interesting to know the amount of school tax paid by this people, but the expense already incurred by the Board is so great that it is not practicable to procure the information at present. The census taken by our Society in 1837–8 showed very clearly that they paid something more than their proportion of poor tax, and it is presumed that they have not been of late years, if ever, deficient in their proportion of school tax.

The number of children over 8 years of age, and under 18, not in school was found to be 1620. As the canvass was mostly made in the spring and summer, it is quite probable that the number is nearer 2000 during the fall and winter months.