The fame of the Quincy Schools, near Boston, attracted us thither, and we spent a delightful morning listening to lessons in the primary and grammar grades of one of the best. It was of course a mixed school, and every class had a large room to itself with a continuous blackboard, all round the walls, of which constant use was made either by teacher or scholars. These blackboards are an essential part of school-room furniture in America, and without them a great deal of the teaching could not be carried on. The teacher begins at one end of the board facing the class, and can work right along the side of the room, thus being able to leave all her drawings, etc., unerased during the lesson. She can also send any or all of the children to the blackboard at once to work sums, write or draw. It was at Quincy that Colonel Parker (now at Cook County Normal School) began his work as school superintendent, and through him the Quincy methods of teaching attained an almost world-wide fame. The little town of Milton, a few miles out of Boston, among the Blue Mountains, was also a place of interest. We there visited the Milton Academy, an endowed school, chartered as far back as 1798, and opened in 1807. It is a school for boys and girls, although there is only a boarding-house for boys. The Academy much resembles an English High School, in that it provides education for children between the ages of eight and eighteen, and has an upper and lower school. It is really a preparatory school for Harvard, the courses in the upper school being determined by the requirements for the Harvard entrance examination.