I have a copy of the annual report for the Hamilton Public Schools for the school year ending August 31st, 1893. It stated that all teaching applicants were required to go before the Hamilton Board of City School Examiners, and they had to pass a satisfactory examination in the following named branches of study, as required by Ohio School laws: Orthography, Reading, Penmanship, Arithmetic, Geography, English Grammar and Composition, History of the United States (including the Constitution), Physiology and Hygiene, Music, Drawing, and the Theory and Practice of Teaching. Applicants for positions in the High School, or German-English classes, were examined in such additional branches as they were required to teach. All special teachers were examined in their specialties, and in the Theory and Practice of Teaching. There were four different grades of teaching certificates issued; and no certificates were granted to any applicant whose general average fell below 80% or whose grade in any required branch fell below 60%. In 1892-93, 8 gentlemen and 77 Ladies applied for certificates; of those 85, 23 of the Ladies and none of the Gentlemen were rejected. [The book includes the questions submitted to the applicants of 1892-93. E-mail me privately if you would like me to e-mail you a copy of those questions.] note: Orthography = Spelling p.s. -- If anyone has an obit for a graduate of the High School in Hamilton, please consider sending a copy to be included in the obit section of HHS.Alumni.net as we are currently in the process of adding these earliest grads to our obit database. Diane Beaty Blankets for America Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation Before us lies a new day, and in the distance a new world, ours to create by the strength of our faith.