"The child that begins the school course at six ought to complete it easily, and be ready to enter the high school, at the age of fourteen. In every grade, however, the average age is about one year higher than it ought to be. There is now a well ascertained consensus of opinion among educational authorities that this delay in reaching the high school--in getting at such disciplinary studies as languages, geometry, and natural science--is detrimental not only to the individual child but to the public welfare. In some cases this delay is doubtless caused by protracted illness or general physical weakness; in some, by the mania--I can call it by no other name--which some principals and teachers have for holding back pupils from promotion; in some, by positive dullness or slowness of wit; but in the majority of cases it arises from the crowded condition of the lower primary classes. Instead of accommodating more children by swelling the registers of these classes, we are accommodating fewer. The teachers in these classes, work as hard as they may, are able to prepare but a small proportion of their classes for promotion; while by reason of lack of proper teaching in the introductory classes--a lack which is not chargeable to the teachers--the pupils are less able than they otherwise would be to do the work of the higher grades as they advance. The consequence is that pupils are put through our schools more slowly and in smaller numbers than they ought to be. If in a piece of machinery or in a living organism a greater strain is put on any one part than it is able to bear, the strength and efficiency of the whole are proportionately diminished. Just so it is with our school system. The strain put upon the seventh primary teachers by choking up their classes impairs the efficiency of the entire system. The only rational conclusion is that _the number of pupils to a class must be limited_." The movement toward centralizing responsibility in the school principals began at this time to gather force. It was warmly supported by the superintendent. In the Girls' High School, in 1893, the number of registered pupils was 1626; in the Boys' High School, 692. The annual appropriation for schools in 1893 was $2,449,735.33; from the city, $1,996,500.00; from the State, $394,414.82; other sources, $58,820.51. A training school for teachers was established in 1885. From this admirable institution the graduates increased in number from 48 in 1886 to 70 in 1892.