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THE 
 
 DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
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 " No man goeth about a more godly purpose tlian he that is mindful of the good bringing 
 up, both of his own and other men's children." — Socrates, as quoted by Roger Ascham in 
 Prejace to "The Schoolmaster." 
 
 " I sometimes am tempted to doubt, whether any one who tries to open people's eyes in 
 science, politics or religion, is to be reckoned as a sublime martj'-r or an egregious fool." — 
 Eobertson's Life and Letters, American Edition, vol. i. 157. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 1866. 
 
[.Cm 
 
 ■Ply 
 
NOTE. 
 
 It is in no carping or hypercritical spirit that we enter upon the present in- 
 quiry. If the DAILY PuiUjic SCHOOL in our country is not doing its appropriate 
 work well and thoroughly, it is clear that we are without any adequate barrier 
 to the prevalence of ignorance and superstition, radicalism and infidelity, how- 
 ever lavish may be our expenditures on higher grades of instruction. With so 
 large a liberty as we enjoy, the diifusion of intelligence, the cultivation of good 
 manners and due attention to moral and religious principle as the basis of 
 character, are indispensable to our safety.* 
 
 It is our firm belief that the confidence reposed in our present common school 
 system is delusive. And that while specific branches of knowledge have ad- 
 vanced in later years, and some spheres of education have been greatly widened 
 and improved, the work of preparing the great body of the school children of 
 the country for the duties and responsibilities of life, is very imperfectly done. 
 It is no ideal standard that is fixed arbitrarily and without regard to what is 
 practicable, to which we would bring the education of the daily public school. 
 There is a plain meaning to the phrase used in one or more of our school laws, 
 " thoroughly instructed ;" and it has no ambiguity when used concerning 
 other things. Everybody understands what " thoroughly instructed" means, 
 when applied to a shoemaker, a wheelwright, or an engineer. It- is tantamount- 
 to saying he is master of his business. Why should we not understand the 
 same phrase in the same way when applied by law to the art of reading and 
 writing? 
 
 The chief end of the present discussion will be answered if it shall lead our 
 fellow-citizens to consider, thoughtfully, whether the daily public school in 
 our regenerated Union, is fitting our boys and girls to be useful, intelligent 
 (not learned), practical, well-bred, patriotic and godly men and women. And 
 that we may the better accomplish our purpose in respect to the particular States 
 embraced in this survey, we have made the schools of each the subject of a dis- 
 tinct review. This necessarily involves some repetition which the reader will 
 notice, and, we hope, excuse. 
 
 * Oui- national life hangs upon our common schools. — Princeton Review, January, 
 1866, p. 39. 
 
THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 An outline of a proposed history of public education in the 
 United States, was published in the Annual Report of the Regents 
 of the Smithsonian Institute for 1863. It contemplated the fol- 
 lowing topics : 
 
 I. The necessity of universal education under free political in- 
 stitutions, and what should be its character and extent. 
 
 II. A connected sketch of the legislation of the country on this 
 subject from its beginning. 
 
 III. An abstract or synopsis of all laws now in force in the seve- 
 ral States touching public education, and of contemporaneous judi- 
 cial expositions of the law, so far as they affect the essential prin- 
 ciples of the system. 
 
 IV. A sketch of the present state of public education in the 
 country : 
 
 [a.) Of the division of territory for school purposes, what and 
 how made ? 
 
 {h.) Of the manner of raising money for the support of schools, 
 and the amount raised and expended in each decade of years, of the 
 present century. 
 
 (c.) Of the permanent revenue for the support of schools ; if de- 
 rived from a fund, when and how was such fund created, and what 
 is its amount and investment ? What portion of the annual school 
 expense is derived from it, and what is its effect to stimulate or de- 
 press the working of the system? 
 
 [d.) Of the number and average age of children under instruc- 
 tion, distinguishing the sex ; the number in attendance in propor- 
 tion to the whole population, and the average time of attendance. 
 
 [e.) Of the mode of employing teachers and determining their 
 qualifications. 
 
 (/.) Of the nu7nber of teachers employed, distinguishing the 
 sex ; the compensation allowed ; the average age of teachers, male 
 and female separate ; and the average amount of time employed in 
 
6 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 daily teaching, making distinct heads of summer and winter 
 schools. 
 
 [g.) Of the hranclics taught in the public schools, and the pro- 
 portion of time devoted to each. 
 
 [h.) Of the preparation and introduction of scJwol-booJcs ; charac- 
 ter of them in early schools — improvements in them ; expense of 
 them, and by whom borne ; and the number and variety of them, 
 in the different branches, which are in use in the different schools. 
 
 V. Of normal schools, number, when organized, how supported, 
 number of pupils, terms and conditions of admission ; what propor- 
 tion of pupils pursue teaching for a livelihood, and what proportion 
 of these succeed. 
 
 VI. Of school-houses, their number, average capacity, manner 
 and means of building, and improvements in respect to sites, venti- 
 lation, heating, furniture, out-houses, &c., &c. 
 
 VII. Of school-libraries, number of schools supplied with them : 
 how and by whoin selected ; funds to purchase, and the amount and 
 source of the same ; number and character of volumes ; cost, mode 
 of distributing, and preserving, and extent of circulation. 
 
 VIII. Of the religious element in public schools ; if less than 
 formerly, why? To what extent necessary and practicable? 
 
 IX. Of popular manners and customs in the schools ; habits of 
 thinking and acting ; domestic and social character, and qualifica- 
 tions for citizenship, as they are influenced by our systems of public 
 education. 
 
 X. Of physical education, what time appropriated to it ; what 
 facilities and encouragements are afforded ; what methods adopted, 
 as drill, gymnasium, or athletic games ; and what part teachers 
 take therein. 
 
 XI. Of infant-schools. 
 
 XII. Of iSunday-schools. 
 
 XIII. Of colleges and other public literary institutions, so far as 
 they afford aid to, or receive aid from, the public schools. 
 
 XIV. Of the comparative expense and value of public education 
 at different periods of our history. 
 
 XV. Of lyceums, mechanics' institutes, everiing schools, and other 
 methods of adult education, to make other means of education 
 available, or to compensate for the want or neglect of early advan- 
 tages. 
 
 XVI. Number of persons of school age that are under instruc- 
 tion, the proportion of the population that can both read and write ; 
 and the numbers of pupils, that, upon leaving school, may engage in 
 the active pursuits of life with a superior physical, moral and in 
 tellectual character. 
 
 The filling up of this outline would show in regard to all our 
 States, what the present publication attempts to show, in some par- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. T 
 
 ticulars, in regard to a portion of them. It has less of detail on some 
 points and is more diffusive in others, than would be proper in a 
 strictly statistical and historical treatise, but in its general features 
 it will serve to indicate the shape which the proposed work would 
 have, if it should be done, and the class of facts which it would 
 embrace. 
 
 On the first topic named above, there can be but one opinion. 
 People that choose their own rulers, should be intelligent enough 
 to determine who deserve their confidence. And only by being 
 intelligent can they escape the impositions which ignorance in- 
 vites and cannot resist. Our system of government is such as to 
 require a certain measure of popular education to be universal. 
 The people of ten States may have intelligence enough to qualify 
 them for the high privilege of voting for their rulers ; but if the 
 people of twenty other States are ignorant and for that reason 
 mere puppets in the hands of political wire-pullers, the curse of 
 their ignorance alights upon the whole country, in the form of an 
 unworthy Chief Magistrate, or an incompetent and vicious Congress. 
 Our State lines are like the wake of a vessel by which the waters 
 seem to be divided, while, in fact, they only mingle more perfectly. 
 Crime and ignorance do not respect or even recognize them. An 
 ignorant man or woman, dwelling under the folds of our national 
 flag, is a reproach, and, may be in some sense, a calamity to the 
 whole people. 
 
 Nothing human can secure the good order and prosperity of our 
 country for any length of time, but the diffusion of education, in- 
 tellectual and moral, among all classes and in all communities. We 
 have no foe to the permanency of our free institutions more terrible 
 than IGNORANCE. It breeds superstition, and against both the mother 
 and her offspring, a popular government is powerless. We owe 
 two-thirds of our crime, and we will not say how much of our 
 misery, to popular ignorance. Each succeeding census awakens 
 new anticipations of the greatness and glory of our country. But 
 if we could as accurately measure the progress of intelligence, vir- 
 tue and true independence, in the great body of the people, as we 
 can their numerical increase, we might find more ground for 
 anxiety than for exultation. When the masses are qualified to 
 judge intelligently of the principles and measures of the government, 
 the power to direct and control those measures cannot be in better 
 
8 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 hands than their own ; but a blind Samson shoukl not be intro- 
 duced into the temple of liberty even to make sport, lest he should 
 lay hold of its pillars and involve himself and the multitude around 
 him in a common ruin. 
 
 It has been asked — why, if the safety of the nation depends on 
 the education of the people, their education is not made a national 
 concern?* 
 
 Whatever might have been practicable and wise at the outset, 
 the time has probably gone by in which the jurisdiction of the 
 general government might be enlarged at the expense of State 
 power and privilege. There will never be less jealousy on that score 
 than there is now. And though perhaps under the power lodged 
 in Congress to " provide for the general welfare," this most im- 
 portant department of public economy would be legitimately com- 
 mitted to its oversight and direction, it might be found very diflBcult 
 to adapt any general system to the peculiar character and circum- 
 stances of the different sections of the country. But, so long as 
 the education of our children is conducted under the laws of the 
 separate States, without any homogeneousness in the methods 
 adopted for their sustenance and management, we shall lack a most 
 important auxiliary to a true nationality. This is so clearly and 
 forcibly set forth in a private letter from one of our most dis- 
 tinguished statesmen,"!" that we cannot refrain from using it. 
 
 The want has been incident to all confederated States in all 
 ages of the world. No mere league or treaty of alliance or fede- 
 ral compact has been able to give the whole people concerned, a 
 common country. Our Union has been more intimate than that of 
 any other States, and yet I fear I must say, it has as completely 
 failed in this respect, as it has in other countries in ancient or in 
 comparatively modern times. We are born in the States — the 
 State laws, l3earing upon our most intimate personal relations are 
 over us, and State officers are the agents for their enforcement. It 
 requires a higher view and more extended observation than the 
 young take, or than the course of education takes, to see and feel the , 
 bearings of the Union upon ourselves personally. I should almost 
 despair of our ever finding an effectual corrective if our domestic 
 institutions Avcre to remain permanently in the same condition, in 
 all respects, as they have been. Thus far, beyond doubt, the differ- 
 ences in certain of the State institutions have caused the greater 
 
 * North Am. Rev., July, 18G-1. 
 f Hon. Horace Binney. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 9 
 
 part of our troubles, and finally brought about the greatest. But 
 the wisest men do not see very far into the future, and we ought 
 not to despair under the good Providence that is over us, of reaping 
 the fruit of steady endeavour to do that which is right, as well in 
 the public as in the private relation. 
 
 Certainly one of the right ways is to accustom our children and 
 young people from early life, to have the whole country and nation 
 always before them, and to keep its symbol in their hearts by every 
 means which can associate it with our virtue, our honour, and our 
 public and domestic safety. The recent fearful conflict may be, for 
 aught we know, the intended instruction to this effect from the 
 Great Teacher. Our welfare at home and abroad depends, I be- 
 lieve, upon our feeding it well and constantly. 
 
 It is very easy to sketch a magnificent scheme of national in- 
 struction ; beginning with the infant school and terminating in a 
 colossal university ; assigning a fixed term of years and a corps of 
 teachers and professors to each grade, and drawing on the Treasu- 
 rer of the United States at the close of the year, for twenty or forty 
 millions to cover the expense. And it may be shown, moreover, 
 that such stupendous enterprises have been successful in Holland, 
 in France, and in Prussia. But we must never forget that with 
 them the people depend on the government, while with us, the gov- 
 ernment depends on the people. All our ministers of State and of 
 religion combined, cannot open a church nor close a grog shop 
 against the will of the people. It is one thing to lead a horse to the 
 brook, and another to make him drink. The idea of " American- 
 izing European philosophies," is as preposterous as that of oaking 
 a pinetree, or potato-izing a head of cabbage. 
 
 In such an inquiry as we now propose to make, there meets us at 
 the threshold the difficulty of establishing any standard by which 
 the proficiency of a child or a school in good learning shall be de- 
 termined. Each of the several States being left to adopt its own 
 scheme, and to determine what shall be the method and the mea- 
 sure of education, imparted at public expense, to all classes of chil- 
 dren and youth within its bounds, it is quite impossible to secure 
 that uniformity of method, or thoroughness of administration, or 
 strictness of responsibility which a well-managed national bureau 
 might achieve. The whole work is fragmentary and immethodical. 
 Each State must have a difi'erent standard, grade or measure of 
 school culture. It must have its own mode of preparing and em- 
 ploying teachers, of paying school expenses, supplying books and 
 
10 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 superintending the movements of the machinery. Some have 
 boards of education, some superintendents of public instruction ; 
 others manage their schools by committees, and in not a few cases 
 are they left in a great measure to take care of themselves. And 
 even when the reports of any two States happen to embrace the same 
 items inform, they are made up on different bases, and no compara- 
 tive deductions can be made from them. This will be obvious if 
 we contrast any of our State reports Avith the reports of the Com- 
 mittee of the Privy Council on Education in England, or of other 
 European countries, in which we have a single connected view of 
 the working of the whole machinery and all its connections and 
 results, as if it were the report of a parish or district school. What 
 disadvantages may result from such a concentration of the power 
 to superintend and direct the public education of the country, it is 
 not pertinent to our present object to inquire. 
 
 If we look over our vast territory, we shall find indeed a 
 very liberal expenditure in this department of public affairs, and in 
 many of the States an imposing array of functionaries charged with 
 the special . duty of making the schools prolific of w^se and good 
 men and women ; but if the details are investigated with candour 
 and thoroughness, it will be found, we apprehend, that the faculties 
 have been exercised very much at random, that what has been at- 
 tained has been almost as much the result of accident as design, 
 and that a dull routine has oftentimes weakened and wearied the 
 immature mind that should have been excited and led forward to 
 ennobling pursuits. 
 
 What the national mind produces, and what the national mind 
 craves and relishes, will indicate with tolerable accuracy how the 
 national mind is educated. If the periodical and permanent issues 
 of the press are to a large extent frothy, barren of thought, stimu- 
 lating the imagination or the passions, and imposing no task upon 
 the understanding, is it not a legitimate inference that the average 
 education of the people does not rise above this point ? 
 
 But there are various ways of testing more minutely the degree 
 of education in a community. If reference is had to the elementary 
 branches taught in our daily public schools, as orthography, reading, 
 writing, &c., the proficiency of any thousand country boys and 
 girls in them, would be seen in the letters they write and the way 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. li 
 
 in Avhicli they read a paragraph in the newspaper, or a passage of 
 Scripture in the Sunday-school or Bible-class. 
 
 Such observation as we have been enabled to make in inter- 
 views with many thousands of children and youth, satisfies us that 
 nine in ten of them are incompetent to read properly a paragraph 
 in the newspaper, to keep a simple debt and credit account in a 
 mechanic's shop, or to write an ordinary business letter in a credi- 
 table way, as to chirography, orthography or a grammatical ex- 
 pression of ideas. 
 
 The opportunity to know something of the average grade of 
 education in large masses, has been afforded by intercourse with 
 our late army. One of the most active, intelligent and faithful 
 chaplains, whose acquaintance was very extensive, tells us that 
 though he did not make it a subject of special inquiry while in the 
 service, he could not avoid some impression as to how well the 
 men had been educated in those things which a common school is 
 expected to teach; and by conversing with others, he found their 
 opinions coincided in the main with his own. "A very large ma- 
 jority of the soldiers born and brought up in the Northwestern 
 States," he says, " could read and write, but of these many could 
 read but very imperfectly, and composed a letter with great difii- 
 culty. Union soldiers from the slave States were deplorably des- 
 titute of common school education. Thousands of soldiers learned 
 to write letters while in the army. In my army Sunday-school of 
 150 to 250 from my own regiment, I found that a large number 
 were poor readers. They were very imperfectly taught in the 
 common schools. The same I found true of schools in other regi- 
 ments. The letter writing showed that the writers were very im- 
 perfectly instructed in orthography. The average age of the 
 soldiers I met, was certainly under thirty years. In a .word, our 
 soldiers in their education show that a great improvement is needed 
 in our common schools." 
 
 In the absence of any general law in our country requiring par- 
 ties to sign their names to a marriage contract,* we must resort to 
 incidental evidence of the same nature, such as the following. 
 
 * A report from M. Jules Simon, touching the interests of popular education in 
 France, informs us that of 100 people who present themselves for marriage, more 
 than 35 are unable to sign their names — that of the rest, many can write nothing 
 but their names. Of 100 of the age of 20, 27 could neither read nor write in 1862, 
 
12 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 At a public meeting at Cooper Institute, New York, last Oc- 
 tober, a member of the bar, largely conversant with all classes of 
 society, stated that the ability to read and write is by no means 
 so universal as is generally supposed, and in proof of it he men- 
 tioned that he had occasion to issue subpoenas to 40 persons, of whom 
 30 made their mark ! Reports from juvenile asylums and homes, and 
 houses of reformation, give abundant evidence of the failure of our 
 schools to educate those who most need their aid. 
 
 It may be supposed that these evidences of a low state of edu- 
 cation, are applicable only to the humbler classes of society, whose 
 opportunities of instruction are few and far between. But persons 
 who are employed in the various publishing houses of the country as 
 editors or collaborators, will tell us that the evidences of the superfi- 
 cialness of attainments in the elementary branches are overAvhelming. 
 There may be sensible thoughts and an exuberant fancy, but the 
 power of intelligible and proper expression has not been cultivated. 
 The meaning and force of words are totally misconceived, and their 
 collocation is anything but creditable. And we are not without 
 occasional proof of the like deficiency in the higher spheres of 
 society. Take as an instance the following, which is copied from 
 the Senate Journal of the State of New Jersey,* February 24, 
 1843. 
 
 Mr. Potter, from the Committee on Militia, presented the fol- 
 lowing report : 
 
 Capt. Daniel Baker : — We, the undersigned, joint Committee 
 of the Militia of Council and General Assembly of this State, from 
 the furtherance of our duties which led us to examine and pass in 
 review the state and condition of the armory and arsenal of this 
 State, now under your immediate superintendence, and can hereby 
 consider it our duty in expression of our delight, as was produced 
 upon said examination, to testify to you our expression of thanks 
 for the pride manifest in the good order, system and arrangement 
 discoverable in condition of arms, ordinance and accoutrements 
 entrusted to your care, and in this consideration would think it any- 
 
 * It is not irrelevant to state, that by the latest report of the New Jersey schools, 
 it appears that of 190,000 children of school age in the State, less than 29,000 were 
 in attendance upon schools during the year. The average attendance of those en- 
 rolled was less than 25 per cent., while 50,000 did not enter a school at all! The 
 number of teachers employed was one to about 100 pupils. The pay of males was 
 at the rate of f.TG per month, and the females a little over $22. Cost per head, in- 
 cluding all expenses, $3. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 13 
 
 thing but proper to withhold our approbation from this testimony of 
 our thankful obligations as due to you in the discharge and per- 
 formance of duties necessarily devolving on you, and made obliga- 
 tory for a proper discharge and performance of duty as required. 
 
 Signed by three members of Council and five members of As- 
 sembly. 
 
 There is very little reliance to be placed on general reports of 
 the state of education in any locality. We have sometimes seen 
 in census returns and tabular statements of prisons and reform 
 schools a column headed, "No. who cannot read or write;" but no- 
 thing can be more vague than the standard by which such returns or 
 statements are made up. If it were required to report the number of 
 persons in a given district whose clear annual income is known to 
 be over one thousand dollars, it might be done with considerable 
 accuracy, but if the inquiry were, how many persons in the district 
 were "well off," the task would be parallel with that of deter- 
 mining how many can read and write. We recollect that a repre- 
 sentative in one of the New England legislatures once remarked, 
 with considerable exultation, that there was no person over twenty- 
 one in his town. that could not read and write; but a conveyancer 
 who was present was able to name to him at least three of his own 
 constituents, who, in signing deeds a short time before, had made 
 their mark, and probably there were not twenty deeds made in the 
 town during that year ! Thus showing that one in seven of this 
 select class lacked this important accomplishment. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that we are treating in this connection 
 not of the state of education in our cities and principal towns, 
 where an extraordinary outlay of money and care is bestowed upon 
 the public schools (though we apprehend there are manifold deficien- 
 cies even there), but of the rural districts, where are found (say) 
 twenty-eight out of every thirty children in the United States. 
 
 This brief reference will perhaps suffice to show that educa- 
 tion in our country, at the present time, is neither in character nor 
 extent what our free political institutions demand to ensure their 
 continuance. That our requirements in this behalf are not ex- 
 travagant will readily appear from the following : 
 
 The idea I have set before myself as to the secular education 
 practically attainable by a labouring man's child is, that before he 
 leaves school he shall be able to read an ordinary newspaper para- 
 
14 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 graph at sight ; to Avrite a fair grammatical and well-spelled letter 
 on a common subject ; to work on his slate or in his head any such 
 ordinary sum as he might meet with in practical life, and to show 
 a fciir acquaintance with the geography of his own country and 
 neighbourhood.* 
 
 We should be quite willing to accept this as the measure of learn- 
 ing to which every child in our country should attain before leaving 
 school, but it by no means comprehends what we should regard as 
 a completed work. It has been said that a "man entering into life 
 ought accurately to know three classes of things : 
 
 "1. Where he is ; Avhat sort of a world he has got into ; what kind 
 of creatures live in it ; how large it is ; what it is made for, and 
 what may be made of it;" — and, we would add, who made it? 
 
 '• 2. Where he is going ; what chances or reports there are of any 
 world besides this, and what may be the nature of that other 
 world. 
 
 " 3. What he had better do under these circumstances ; what kind 
 of faculties he possesses; what is his place in society ; what are the 
 present wants of mankind ; what are his means of obtaining happi- 
 ness and diffusing it. 
 
 "The man who knows these things is educated; he who knows 
 them not is not educated, though he can talk in all the tongues of 
 Babel, "t 
 
 The world is full of wonders with which the proper use of our 
 senses would familiarize us without books or teachers. The flower, 
 the tree, the water, the insect, the light — who that is not blind but 
 feels some curiosity to know what is their nature and place among 
 created things ? 
 
 How few of the boys and girls who leave our schools have any 
 distinct conception of the movements of those immense wheels in 
 the machinery of physical nature that are constantly open to their 
 inspection ? The journey the earth makes round the sun, or that 
 the moon makes round the earth, or that the earth makes on its 
 own axis, or of the phenomena of night and day, cold and heat, 
 summer and winter, resulting from these revolutions? Who of them 
 notes the year, the month, and the day as divisions of time estab- 
 
 * Mr. Jackson one of the government Inspectors of Scotch schools. 
 t Ruskin. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 15 
 
 lished in the constitution of the world, and inscribed on the grand 
 dial-plate of nature ? 
 
 We may have an imposing array of educational institutions of a 
 higher grade, as colleges, academies, and high schools, in which a 
 few are introduced favourably into the marvellous exhibition which 
 science and art unveil to us, but the children of the United 
 States are not educated in them. Here and there one comes up 
 out of the common rank of school children into these higher spheres, 
 to become a man of mark and to exert a wide influence ; while the 
 vast multitude of men and women, the fathers and mothers, the 
 workers and voters, have their literary training almost exclusively 
 in those little one-story buildings by the wayside, that rarely at- 
 tract the traveller's notice except when they are more than usually 
 shabby or more than usually respectable. It is the "education" 
 given here, so far as the public purse is concerned, that forms the 
 "common mind" of our people, and determines the character, con- 
 trols the will, and shapes the destiny of the American nation. 
 
 The number of pupils in the colleges, academies and high schools 
 of Pennsylvania, for example, does not exceed eight thousand, or 
 one to eighty in the public schools ; and in Ohio the former do not 
 exceed three thousand six hundred, or one to 07ie hundred and ninety- 
 three in the public schools. The manners, habits, tastes, associa- 
 tions and aspirations of the million (that do not originate at home) 
 are to be traced directly to the daily public school ; and no person 
 of observation or reflection will deny that one of the most important 
 functions of that institution is, or should be, to counteract the in- 
 fluence of ill-governed, thriftless, and immoral homes. 
 
 For important as the school is among the agencies that serve to 
 educate a generation, it is comparatively a subordinate one. Un- 
 doubtedly by far the largest share of the work is done at home, 
 and that too not by direct intentional methods, but by the number- 
 less incidental influences which act upon the minds and hearts 
 of children as silently and mysteriously as light and air upon 
 vegetable life. No one can look back upon his own childish days, 
 however happy his home, without being reminded of a multitude 
 of instances in which some paragraph in a book or a newspaper ; a 
 picture, an anecdote, or a song ; a conversation overheard in a shop, a 
 bar-room, or nt the street corner; a scene or a suggestion of mis- 
 
16 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 chief — made a far deeper impression upon the mind and character 
 than a month's, nay, perhaps a year's schooling. 
 
 Who knows the individual hour in which 
 His habits were first sown, even as a seed ? 
 Who that shall point, as with a wand, and say, . 
 This portion of the river of my mind 
 Came from that fountain : that from this ? 
 
 And at the school itself there are agencies continually active in 
 the association of the pupils with each other, and in the personal, 
 unofficial, demeanour of the teacher, which are as far out of the 
 reach of school laws and committees and boards, as are the infinitesi- 
 mals floating in the sunbeam. The subtle, impalpable influence of 
 a teacher, or indeed any adult, in a group of children is rarely appre- 
 ciated, and how few who occupy such a position seem conscious of 
 the power that resides in voice and feature, as well as in act ! 
 
 Now and then a man rises up out of the great congregation of 
 nominal educators who seems to possess a magical power over the 
 minds of youth, and realizes an intimacy of communion with them 
 and secures such a measure of their confidence that they allow 
 themselves to be moulded very much by his Avill. To do this, how- 
 ever, he must be "so impressed with the dignity of his calling (and 
 what calling save the cure of souls is more dignified?); so full of 
 chastened respect for himself as to command the respect of his 
 pupils, though he may fail for a while to command that of the more 
 unthinking of the public." 
 
 In general terms, the teacher's work lies almost as much in 
 negative as in positive influences. As w^e have intimated, he has 
 quite as much to do in correcting habits of mind and body con- 
 tracted outside of the school-room, as in securing the positive results 
 of progress in good learning, and a due respect for authority 
 within. 
 
 Among the obvious advantages intended to be derived from the 
 daily public school are : 1, Employment, which keeps children out 
 of mischief and out of the parent's and harm's way ; 2. The ac- 
 quisition of useful knowledge ; and 3. Discipline, or the habit of 
 conforming to rules ; and in our country, where the prevailing ten- 
 dency is to "despise authorities," a good school is invaluable if 
 it were only for its disciplinary power. But our present purpose 
 requires a more particular specification of what our daily public 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 17 
 
 schools are supposed or expected to do towards preparing boys and 
 girls for their probable callings in our country and times. 
 
 As TO Boys. — What schooling does every American boy want, 
 which the community is bound to give, to fit him for the work 
 of his manhood? He is to be one of the "sovereign people," as 
 we are wont to speak of ourselves. He is to have a share in the 
 government of the country. He is to help in determining what 
 laws shall be made and who shall execute them. In a word, he is 
 to be one of a self-governed community. It must, of course, be of 
 the first importance that he should learn to control himself; and 
 especially that he should recognize the supreme authority which 
 alone gives force to all human laws and governments ; to which all 
 potentates and rulers are equally amenable with their subjects, and 
 before which colour, race or rank is of no significance. He is to be 
 a freeman. With intelligence, industry, skill and honesty, he can 
 Scarcely fail to obtain a competent livelihood, and a respectable social 
 position. As he has his share of the blessings of liberty, he is ex- 
 pected to bear his part in the duties and burdens of civil society. To 
 be "intelligent," in the sense we mean, he needs a good knowledge 
 of his native language, so as to speak, read and write it with pro- 
 priety ; and a sufiicient acquaintance with figures to do with ease and 
 accuracy the ordinary business that requires their use. He should 
 have a general knowledge of the various countries and populations 
 of the globe, and a special knowledge of the geography of his 
 native land ; beginning with his own neighbourhood as a centre, 
 and working outward to the bounds of county. State, country and 
 continents. This knowledge should be sufiiciently thorough and 
 minute to make ordinary geographical allusions in newspapers 
 and public debates intelligible. He should also know enough of 
 the peculiarities of our government to understand and appreciate 
 his privileges, rights and duties under it. And his personal habits 
 and manners should be so far regarded, in the progress of his school 
 life, as to prepare him to become a kind neighbour, a thrifty and 
 intelligent head of a family, and a quiet, courteous, loyal citizen. 
 
 As to Girls. — The work of the daily public school for girls is 
 in the main identical with that for boys. Indeed, in the great 
 majority of our daily public schools the sexes are educated to- 
 gether. This practice is not Avithout its disadvantages, and a 
 teacher needs good judgment and careful discrimination to adapt 
 
18 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 instruction and discijiline to those whose natural and moral tastes 
 and temperaments, as well as their duties in life, are so diverse. 
 At some stage in their school-going days, all girls should be in- 
 structed in the elementary principles of physiology and the general 
 rules for preserving health and promoting the comfort and thrift 
 of a household. It is also desirable that those who have no outside 
 means of acquiring the knowledge, should be taught the ordinary 
 arts of housewifery, so that whatever may become of rhetoric, 
 conic sections and constitutional law, the accomplishments needed 
 by a daughter, wife and mother, in the ordinary circumstances of life, 
 shall not be lacking. We would not be understood to advocate the 
 conversion of our school-rooms into cook-shops or sewing-rooms,* 
 but we would have the girls taught, what, as women, they will need 
 to know. We are free to say that no beau-ideal of a public school 
 for girls in our country, would require their teacher to be informed 
 on either of the following subjects : The apportionment of repre- 
 sentatives to Congress ; the constitutional rights of accused persons ; 
 how direct and indirect taxes are imposed in the several States ; 
 what are bills of attainder, or in what cases the Supreme Court has 
 appellate jurisdiction. f They should be able to read the Bible or 
 a newspaper with pleasure to themselves and others, to keep their 
 father's or their own accounts correctly, to write a creditable letter 
 to an absent brother, or husband (when they get one), and do the 
 needful service for the minds and bodies of such a group of little 
 children as God may commit to them. Such a training of a gene- 
 ration of girls, would introduce marvellous changes into many a 
 labourer's and mechanic's home. And it is only on the surface of 
 their girlhood that the lines of their womanhood are engraven. 
 
 No child should leave a daily public school in our country igno- 
 rant of the generally received principles of the Christian faith. 
 With millions of children's books and papers, and with their wide- 
 
 * In all tbe country elementary schools of Prussia, girls are taught sewing, knit- 
 ting and darning during two hours of the week, while all finer work, as embroidery, 
 is forbidden. 
 
 t These are among the questions lately submitted to a class of candidates for ad- 
 mission to one of our Female High Schools. "When the prediction of some of our 
 " woraen's-rights" women seem likely to be fulfilled, that tbe little girls now in our 
 primary schools will be appointed to seats in the Senate and on the bench, these 
 subjects should become quite prominent in their exercises. Till then they might 
 give place to more practical lessons. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 19 
 
 spread Scriptural instruction through Sunday-schools, it would 
 naturally be supposed that ignorance of the simple truths of religion 
 would be very rare. It is to be feared, however, that the same 
 superficial, immethodical, mechanical mode of dealing with minds 
 and hearts, prevails to as great an extent in these schools as in 
 others. The surface looks well, but too often a very slight exami- 
 nation discloses the shallowness of the work. 
 
 We were spending the summer in one of the most frequented 
 towns of New Jersey, and in one of our rambles we met three girls, 
 apparently 12, 10 and 8 years old. In conversation with them we 
 found they were in daily attendance on school, and were connected 
 with an "evangelical" Sunday-school. They all agreed in the 
 answer of one, that when people die all the body turns to dust — ex- 
 cept the bones. To the question, "With what do we think?" they 
 replied, "With the tongue, don't we?" And when asked where 
 wicked people go when they die, one said, quite seriously, " To the 
 old boy, I s'pose." 
 
 In both sexes the idea should be studiously inculcated, that 
 honest labour is honourable ; that wealth confers no meritorious 
 distinction any more than complexion or muscular strength — it is 
 simply an endowment to be accounted for; that social distinctions 
 are of no value or significance here, except so far as they arise 
 from virtue and intelligence. That the only true independence is 
 that which springs from a good conscience, a proper use of oppor- 
 tunities and a firm belief that God will help those who bravely 
 strive to do their duty. 
 
 It should also be a part of all school education, to set forth the 
 duty of cheerful submission to lawful authority. Obedience to the 
 Creator, to parents and to the government of the country, should 
 be required as the basis of any and every social organization. Love 
 of country and the desire to honour, vindicate and defend the en- 
 sign of national power and dignity, should be diligently inculcated 
 upon both sexes in the whole course of school-life. In no country 
 is this more needful than in ours, where, from the very nature of 
 our institutions, the external tokens or symbols of authority are 
 so rarely seen. We have no royal residence, no embodiment of 
 power in a crown and sceptre, no state pageants or titles of dignity, 
 to remind us of inequalities of rank. The greater therefore is the 
 necessity of enjoining upon our common school children a due re- 
 
20 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 gard for the supremacy of law and the duty of loyalty to the gov- 
 ernment as ordained of God. 
 
 It is admitted that in this sketch we content ourselves with a 
 very humble grade of education. But we make up in thoroughness 
 what we sacrifice in extent. We make the most of a garden-spot, 
 instead of half cultivating twenty acres. We insist upon having 
 good readers, spellers and writers, though we wait awhile for chem- 
 ists, astronomers and engineers. We will go all reasonable lengths 
 with the advocates of an enlarged system of popular education, 
 when " thorough instruction" is secured in the plain branches as- 
 signed to the daily public school. 
 
 As a weighty argument in favour of such " thorough instruction" 
 in these elementary branches, it should be remembered that the 
 utility and efficiency of other educational agencies depend very 
 much upon the faithfulness of this primary teaching. For example : 
 to persons of as much intelligence as any good common school could 
 scarcely fail to impart, the public ordinances of religion and the 
 better class of the current productions of the press, must be sources 
 of intellectual improvement and enjoyment. It is not possible for a 
 man or woman to be habitually present at a place of public worship, 
 Avithout hearing or seeing something to excite thoughtfulness. And 
 hence our inference, that no single change in the habits of a com- 
 munity would so soon and so disastrously affect its intellectual, not 
 less than its moral and spiritual welfare, as the general abandon- 
 ment of public worship. And is it not worthy of consideration, 
 whether, among the causes which prevent so large a portion of the 
 community from ever showing themselves in such places (except 
 where the ritual or form of worship appeals merely to the senses), 
 the want of sufficient education to enable them to understand or 
 be profited by the service, is either the last or least? 
 
 It must be understood between us and our readers, that we re- 
 gard the daily, common or public school, as an institution by it- 
 self. How we shall dispose of a boy or girl for whom such a school 
 has done all it can (though the question may have an occasional ref- 
 erence), is not within the scope of our present inquiry. Nor do 
 we concern oui'selves with the teaching and training of infants, 
 though any complete system of public instruction would properly 
 provide for them the very best culture of which they are capable ; for 
 there is no greater hinderance to the full success of our daily com- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 21 
 
 moil schools than what grows out of the moral, mental and physical 
 habits acquired before children are of an age to be enrolled. These 
 habits a good infant school might often prevent or correct. 
 
 But we are now to look at the public school as occupying an in- 
 termediate position between the infant school and the high school, 
 academy or college — like the section of a canal between ascending 
 locks. We do not mind, just now, from what lower level the freight 
 comes, nor to what higher level it is destined. Let us look care- 
 fully after it as it lies in the intervening space. 
 
 To accomplish the legitimate purpose of a daily public school 
 then, as we regard it, three things are obviously important. 
 
 1. A right popular appreciation of the ivork. It is not enough 
 that a great majority of children attend the schools for the re- 
 quired time, though that would be a great advance from our pre- 
 sent condition. Parents may bo very thankful to turn them 
 over to the care of others for six or eight hours a day, provided the 
 terras are cheap. At the^same time they may grudge every farthing 
 that is required to uphold the system ; they may do nothing to 
 favour the efforts of a teacher, not so much even as insisting on 
 regularity and punctuality of attendance,* and they may withdraw 
 their children as soon as their age makes their labour profitable, 
 without any regard to their school interests. What we mean by a 
 right popular appreciation of the public school will show itself (if 
 it exists) in the pride which every parent feels in having done his 
 and her share towards preparing a generation of intelligent, virtuous, 
 patriotic citizens to value, preserve and transmit (improved if pos- 
 sible) the institutions of a free government ; and at this point, we 
 apprehend, lies the vice of the whole system. The government, — 
 those Avho hold the municipal authority, — are bent upon educating 
 the people, when in truth the people do not want to be educated. 
 We set out a table,, furnish it with what we think wholesome food, 
 and ask them to come and eat ; but they loathe the food, or take it 
 with a weak and sickly appetite. The problem given us to solve 
 is, how to persuade Patrick Moran the drayman, and Peter Maho- 
 ney the cabman, and Charles Rothheimer the weaver, to send nine 
 of the thirteen children in each family to school, with clean faces 
 and hands and tidy clothes, in good season every day that the school 
 
 '" The whole number of scholars enrolled in Pennsylvania public schools in 1865 
 was 629,587, and the average attendance was 307,701 or less than half! 
 . 3 
 
22 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 is open. It is not needful that we should promise to teach them 
 philosophy or religion. The very best way to reach the sympathies 
 of their hard working (and too often hard drinking) parents, is to 
 send Pat or Tommy or Bridget home to read to them out of the 
 book or newspaper, or to write a nice little bit of a letter for them 
 as good as the Colonel's or 'Squire's little daughter could write. For 
 this purpose we want a man or woman that will furnish them, as soon 
 as may be, witli these accomplishments ; that is, no more, no less 
 than a plain common schoolmaster or mistress. All other arguments 
 to bring the public school into favour become flat and unprofitable by 
 the side of a good writer, reader, or reckoner — made such by regular 
 attendance at it. And these attainments Avere made as readily, 
 and we apprehend as thoroughly and generally in the daily public 
 school before high and normal schools, teachers' Institutes, State 
 funds, &c., were known, as they are now. Looking at the magni- 
 tude of our expenditures, the vastness of the numbers we foot up 
 upon our school rolls, the array of means for supplying teachers, 
 our body of school laws, and the size, furniture, and architectural 
 grandeur of our schoolhouses in a few localities, the impression is 
 naturally made upon strangers — if not upon our own citizens — that 
 we are doing the work of popular education on a grand scale. 
 Thus, in a recent public address by the President of a Board of 
 Education, the orator says : 
 
 We see the noble structure of public education becoming more 
 and more firmly fixed in the affections* of our people. Crowned 
 heads across the water are enquiring, through their envoys, into 
 the causes of the intellectual progress of our people, and these en- 
 voys point to the public school as the main-spring of our prosperity. 
 
 It is only when we look into details and analyze results, that we 
 realize how much of all this is but a magnificent show, and how 
 formidable and appalling is the mass of ignorance — ignorance of 
 the very things that our daily public schools are first and most of 
 all designed to teach — that has never yet been penetrated by 
 more than a feeble ray of light. The simple explanation is, — the 
 mass of the people and the daily public school are not walking in 
 the same direction. 
 
 2. Supposing the people to be in sympathy with the school, 
 
 * \Yc forbear to criticise the ficrurc. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. , 23 
 
 we want an enlightened liberal legislation, providing certain and 
 sufficient means for the erection of suitable structures, appropriate 
 in their form, size, situation and appurtenances to the uses for 
 which they are designed ; and means for the adequate compensation 
 of well qualified teachers. 
 
 What Frazers Magazine says of the parish schoolhouse should 
 be true, ^ar excellence, of the daily public schoolhouse. " It ought 
 to be the most comfortable, the prettiest, the most attractive build- 
 ing in the parish" (town). "To make it so, would be a burden 
 almost imperceptible to the parishioners" (population), " except in a 
 few very unfavourable and secluded situations. It is a case in 
 which, above all others, I can conceive charity ought to begin at 
 home, and one to which some foreign, more imposing projects of 
 very chimerical utility might, without any incalculable loss to the 
 community, give place. 
 
 " There ought to be, in the season for it, plenty of cheerful fires ; 
 plenty of sweet fresh air ; plenty of room, and plenty of light. 
 Every child should be able to sit with his feet reaching the floor, 
 and in an attitude of ease and comfort. It appears to me that 
 nothing which can conduce to cheerfulness and comfort, or at least 
 to the exclusion of every bodily discomfort, ought to be denied to 
 a schoolroom. There is no place where the little people immedi- 
 ately interested are so little fitted to battle with difficulties — none 
 from which it is more indispensable that all adverse influences 
 should be excluded. For little children from seven to twelve years 
 to dig at the bitter root of learning in wet clothes, with benumbed 
 feet and fingers, and crowded together in constrained attitudes, is 
 an inhumanity which, if African negroes had to undergo, would 
 cry not in vain for amendment. Then it might be asked, are the 
 children to be left lounging listlessly as they like ? Is there to be 
 no discipline, no order, no exactness ? So far from it I do not 
 know anything that leads to more irksomeness than disorder or 
 confusion — nothing that contributes more to comfort than exact- 
 ness of mechanical discipline, even to a point which might be called 
 regimental. I would keep them in their j)roper places, preserving 
 right lines, sustaining attitudes of attention, and not only attitudes 
 of attention, but testing, now and then, that it is attention itself. 
 Smart discipline is perfectly reconcilable with good temper, and I 
 believe it to be far more amusing than irksome, only it should not 
 
24 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 he too long sustained. ' Stand at ease' is one of the most frequent 
 regimental words of command, and some equivalent in schools 
 should very frequently be resorted to." 
 
 3. There should be such a system of control and superintendence 
 by competent men as shall not only insure thorough, systematic 
 and uniform instruction in the required branches, but shall also en- 
 force regularity of attendance during the required school term. 
 
 It will thus be perceived that our subject is restricted to very 
 narrow limits. It is simply what measure and quality of education 
 should be given in our daily public schools, and how nearly that 
 measure and quality are reached under our present system. 
 
 We start with the proposition that all the children between 
 certain ages, who are competent to learn, shall be well and 
 thoroughly taught in tlie art of reading, writing and spelling, and 
 in geography, grammar and arithmetic ; so that a broad and sub- 
 stantial foundation shall be laid for future advancement, if the cir- 
 cumstances and inclination of the individual shall favour it. 
 
 We shall not be understood as denying that instruction of various 
 and much higher grades than the daily public school supplies, should 
 be easy of access to all who are disposed to seek it, but we maintain 
 that this should be the natural outgrowth of the public school, and 
 should be sustained by other means than a general public tax.* The 
 
 * In confirmation of these views we give the substance of a debate in the popular 
 branch of the City Councils of Philadelphia, January 25, 1866. We have excluded 
 from the range of our discussion the school systems of cities and large towns, but 
 that our principle had staunch support even when applied there, strengthens our con- 
 fidence in its soundness in respect to rural districts. 
 
 The cjuestion was on tlie amount appropriated to the Controllers of the public 
 schools of the First District for 1866 ($887,811 9T). The first motion was to 
 strike out items referring to the boys' and girls' high school, yeas 15, nays 26. Then 
 came a motion to strike out the appropriation to the boys' high school. The mover 
 believed " that a majority of the citizens were in favour of abolishing the school. We 
 tax the people to give them an equal system of education, but only about four per 
 cent, of the pupils can be educated in the high school. Of those educated there, at 
 least seventy per cent, were drones upon the community. He was in favour of en- 
 couraging the grammar schools, by raising the standard of education." 
 
 Another member believed " the institution had done a great amount of good. 
 Many of the young men educated at the high school had become distinguished in 
 many walks of life. Many years ago we had to obtain teachers from other States, 
 but now our high schools give us teachers that do a credit to the city." 
 
 Upon being asked to name some of them, he replied " that he came from one of 
 the outside wards, and was not very well acquainted with the teachers, but he could 
 name at least a dozen that would not have been teachers but for the high school." 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 25 
 
 income from that source should be restricted to the thorough ac- 
 complishment of the preliminary work. Why should we not educate 
 machinists, engineers or farmers at the public charge as well as 
 bookkeepers and bank clerks ? 
 
 Many a man has lived and died a blacksmith or a shoemaker, 
 who, if he had been pushed or led onward, might have made a 
 learned lawyer, a useful minister, or a skilful physician. But who 
 knows, on the other hand, how many lawyers, ministers and doctors 
 would have been more usefully and creditably employed in handling 
 an awl or wielding a sledge than in dealing with law, physic, or 
 divinity ? We must not be told of prodigies of genius who have 
 emerged from poverty and obscurity and risen to the heights of 
 renown — of Burns reading at the plough tail ; Fei'gusson drawing a 
 map of the heavens on the hill-side ; Grifford working his problems 
 with his shoemaker's awl on a bit of leather, or Watt drawing dia- 
 grams on the floor with a piece of chalk. The^/ disclosed their claim to 
 special attention before they received it. The qualities of the plant 
 were ascertained before it was taken into the conservatory. As no 
 
 One member said "the high school costs a great deal more than it should for 
 the benefit derived from it. He was in favour of raising the standard of education in 
 the grammar schools, and abolishing the high schools." 
 
 Another insisted " that we should compel every child to attend school until a cer- 
 tain age. He thought the $27,000 asked for the high school would be of more ser- 
 vice if appropi'iated to educate those who now never go to school. The citj should 
 give a fair English education and nothing else."' 
 
 One was " in favour of education, but he doubted the propriety of maintaining a 
 college out of the money of the taxpayers. A good English education is all that 
 can be expected from the public schools." 
 
 Another said " that the education in the public schools was becoming so superior 
 to that obtained in the private schools, that the rich were monopolizing the schools 
 and keeping out the poor." 
 
 And still another said " the high school only gave the boys a smattering of learn- 
 ing, while it failed in giving them an education of a practical character. He was in 
 favour of abolishing the high school, because the grammar schools would then be 
 fostered, and the system of cramming a few pupils to get them in the high school 
 done away with." 
 
 The motion to strike out was negatived, 25 to 17. 
 
 There had been an earnest appeal made by the teachers of the public schools 
 for an increase of salary, and now came a proposition which touched the most sen- 
 sitive nerve in the body politic, and the disposal of which sharpens the point of the 
 preceding debate. 
 
 A member moved to add " 25 per cent, to the salaries of the teachers." Not 
 agreed to — yeas 12, nays 27 ! 
 
26 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 obstacle can repress such zeal for knowledge, if it is in them, so no 
 external influence or apparatus could inspire it, if it is Avanting. 
 
 We are well pleased to see the organization of schools for prac- 
 tical science, the mechanic arts and general literature for either 
 sex, all well supplied with a full corps of teachers and professors 
 of repute. The multiplication and ample endoAvment of classical, 
 polj'technic and commercial colleges of various grades, and especially 
 the recent princely private liberality by which such institutions as 
 Vassar College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and Lehigh University at 
 Bethlehem, Penna., have been brought into existence, afford abund- 
 ant opportunities to prosecute almost any branch of science for 
 which one has a taste, and that too at a very inconsiderable expense. 
 It must be a source of unfeigned gratification to every true Ameri- 
 can, NOW that the avenues to knowledge of the highest grade are 
 open to every class and colour, that in most of our colleges and 
 training schools for the professions, there is provision for the gratui- 
 tous education of promising young men who have not the means 
 to pay their expenses ; and various voluntary associations arc formed 
 to defray such charges where other means fail. So that, in fact, the 
 real educational wants of the country, in these higher grades, would 
 be well supplied without the elaborate and expensive machinery of 
 high and normal schools sustained at the public charge ; and there 
 is no principle sounder and moi;e practical, touching the functions 
 of government, whether civil or domestic, than that it should not 
 do for people what people can and should do for themselves. 
 
 So far as elementary teaching is concerned, school children must 
 be treated very much alike, though a wise educator, Avho detects 
 even in a young child a predominant inclination towards any par- 
 ticular pursuit or science, will not fail to regard it. The instances 
 in which such a taste for mechanics or the fine arts has been re- 
 vealed in the first five or six years of life are numerous and familiar. 
 A fondness for tools, for the sea, for natural scenery, for minute 
 investigation should never be slighted, but should be the teacher's 
 guide in the training of his pupils. It is the conviction that the 
 interests of this advanced class of schools has overshadoAved and to 
 a great extent absorbed those which it is the supreme duty of the 
 commonAVoalth to nourish and protect, and not any unfriendliness 
 towards them, that prompts the present inquiry. In the public 
 schools we have been both pupil and teacher. We have served in 
 
IN TtlE UNITED STATES. 27 
 
 various capacities in their direction and oversight, and have great 
 confidence in them, if properly sustained and conducted, to educate 
 the people of successive generations up to the required point. And 
 we disclaim any desire to abate in the slighest degree the interest 
 that is felt in the higher grades of schools. We have no controversy 
 with the friends and advocates of the largest liberality in dealing 
 with the whole subject of popular education. Let the superstructure 
 have whatever magnitude and fashion it may, — our eyes are just now 
 fixed on the foundation. Our fear (we may almost say our belief) 
 is, that through neglect of this and the desire to make a hasty and 
 imposing display in school architecture (material and metaphorical) 
 we shall find sooner or later that even if we have a reading,'^ we 
 shall not have an educated people. It cannot be denied that great 
 advances have been made in the methods of teaching; many intricate 
 sciences have been simplified, and improvements are seen in the 
 construction and use of text books; but all this avails little so long 
 as the hundreds of thousands of country, road-side schools are not 
 Avorking out the true end of their organization ; nor fulfilling the 
 reasonable expectations of the community. What that end is we 
 suppose to be well understood. It is answered only by the appro- 
 priate culture of all the faculties and gifts of our nature, by bring- 
 ing out in strength and harmony the elements of a child's character, 
 and preparing each individual for his or her duty, not only as a 
 member of the human brotherhood, but as a subject of God's moral 
 government. We do not say that the daily public school is to 
 COMPLETE such a grand work, but, in our country it is certainly 
 the chief or most ostensible agency in doing whatever is done to- 
 wards it. If it contents itself with imparting a superficial and 
 fragmentary knowledge of the rudiments of learning ; disregards 
 the» personal habits and manners of the pupils ; establishes no con- 
 trolling principles of action, and feels itself in no sense bound to 
 care for the moral and spiritual, nor even the social and civil obliga- 
 tions of the children in attendance, we should feel no great re- 
 luctance to see it exchanged for the old parochial system of Scot- 
 
 * "How few, even of those who have enjoyed the advantages of the most ad- 
 vanced education, are graceful and impressive readers ! It behooves the parents and 
 friends of the young to require that, while the more attractive and splendid subjects 
 of study are duly taught, the less imposing but no less essential arts and accomplish- 
 ments shall not be neglected." — Correspondence of English Journal of Educatian for 
 December, 1864. . 
 
^O THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 land, or the present govcrnment-grant-and-inspection system of 
 England. It never can fit a generation of boys and girls to act 
 well their part as American men and women. 
 
 In this elementary process nothing should be omitted which is 
 requisite to make the work complete. We should insist on the best 
 schoolhouses that could be constructed — not the most expensive, but 
 the best we mean for the purpose, regarding health, comfort, at- 
 tractiveness and adaptation to the wants of the pupils. We should 
 require the most eligible sites, w^ith ample space for play ground, 
 out-buildings, &c. We should ask that the furniture might be 
 suitable and substantial, not costly but in good taste and fitted to 
 make the apartment at least as agreeable as the best room in the best 
 home that any child in the school has left behind. Then would come 
 a call for skilful women and men, fitted in intellect, in purity of mo- 
 tive, patience and warm sympathy, to enter these little sanctuaries 
 of active, impressible, immortal beings, and draw out their minds 
 towards good learning and their hearts towards godly living. Here 
 should be found permanent employment for such as are qualified for 
 so high a vocation, and the remuneration should be such as to pre- 
 clude temptation from other quarters. The way being thus pre- 
 pared, all children of the State who are of proper age, and not 
 otherwise and better taught, should be required to attend for a 
 sufficient period to receive the needful instruction. For it should 
 be remembered that the obligation of the State to provide means 
 of educating all the children, implies a corresponding obligation on 
 the part of all the children to give their attendance.* The con- 
 tract between the citizen and the government is that if the former 
 pays the tax to support the schools, the latter shall see to it that 
 all the children avail themselves of the opportunity.! 
 
 * It is very doubtful whether more than three out of every seven children' of 
 proper age, are ever at one time in regular attendance at the common schools of 
 the United States. 
 
 t It is worthy of note that in his late letter to the minister of public instruction, 
 the (so called) Emperor of ^lexico says, " As a leading principle of your measures 
 take this : that education should be accessible to all, and in so far at least as 
 elementary education is concerned, gratuitous and obligatory." Except in four can- 
 tons, school education in Switzerland is compulsory. In the Canton of Berne, recruits 
 are required to read, to write a letter, to draw up a report, and to answer any or- 
 dinary examination in arithmetic ; and if the examination is not satisfactory, they 
 must attend the barrack school. Not more than from three to five per cent, fail to 
 pass. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 29 
 
 If sites, houses, books and teachers were what they ought to be, 
 there would be little need of compulsion to secure the children's 
 attendance. Lady Jane Grey tells us that her schoolmaster made 
 the acquisition of knowledge so enticing and pleasant to her that 
 she was always eager to escape from her parents and companions 
 to the society of her old teacher. So that she learned from the 
 mere pleasure of learning. 
 
 We do not suppose little children will be bewitched to get to 
 school by the process usually adopted to instruct them when there. 
 We fancy we see them on a bright summer's day arrayed before 
 "the mysterious engine" of their mental training. From dawn to 
 eve, as one says, they are committing to memory all words that end 
 in och, as coch, hnoch, block, roch, stock, smock, flock. In a few 
 weeks they will give undivided attention to words ending in dom^ 
 as kingdom, wisdom and beadledom. In due time their active and 
 inquisitive minds will be turned to words ending in itioii, as deglu- 
 tition, superstition, perdition, &c. ; and afterwards to words in 
 ation as trituration, botheration, &c. How many generations of 
 boys and girls have been "put through" such a senseless round as 
 this by those who were employed and paid as teachers ! Surely we 
 may say, "These are they that are not born school teachers, but 
 are made school teachers of men." 
 
 However it may be with children, we can scarcely expect that 
 parents will feel much interest in their schooling so long as they 
 perceive no special advantage resulting from it. Whe.n it is made 
 evident to them that they suffer serious disability from the failure 
 to obtain what the public school offers to confer, then they will 
 change both mind and manner. Hence it might be desirable were 
 it practicable to make the registry of a boy's name in some public 
 school, and his regular attendance for a given period, a pre -requi- 
 site to his enrolment as a voter upon coming of age.* 
 
 Before entering upon the investigation of our main subject, there 
 are three topics on which we have something to say ; for although 
 they are introduced and briefly commented on, here and there, in 
 the progress of the discussion, they are entitled to specific notice. 
 They are: 
 
 * The thoroughness of instruction in reading, spelling, writing and arithmetic in 
 the public schools of England, has been wonderfullj' increased of late, by making the 
 amount of grant from the government depend upon it. 
 
30 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 I. Normal schools and their results as bearing on the interests of 
 public schools. 
 
 II. Text books — their uses and abuses — and 
 
 III. The facilities of advanced education. 
 
 I. The theory of normal schools is sound enough, but their real 
 value as an agency for the good of the public schools is to be tested 
 by Avhat they do for them. If they turn out such an improved 
 corps of teachers as could not otherwise be had, whose labours and 
 a cquisitions are pledged permanently to the service of these schools, 
 it is a wise and economical employment of the public money to 
 maintain them for this Avork. Otherwise it is a misuse of the money, 
 and the tax imposed to raise it is unjust and unreasonable. Nor- 
 mal schools to qualify teachers for the proper work of our public 
 schools, need not be very expensively endowed, nor would they re- 
 quire learned professors. We might with equal propriety sustain 
 medical schools and theological seminaries at the public charge as 
 schools to fit teachers for their profession, if the daily public schools 
 have not the advantage of their training. The same link that con- 
 nects the public money-chest with a normal school, should connect 
 the teachers that are educated there with the daily public schools, — 
 by which we always mean the schools which provide the elementary 
 instruction required hy law. 
 
 As to their general influence, normal schools have doubtless done 
 good by elevating the standard of teaching, and here and there they 
 have probably developed teaching skill which might otherwise have 
 lain dormant (though no general assertions on this subject would be 
 conclusive) ; but, on the other hand, have they not forced up into 
 the sphere of teachers many that have proved neither helps nor or- 
 naments to it ? High schools (to which we shall refer soon again) 
 have doubtless done good in the same, way, and may have fitted 
 boys and girls for positions they would not otherwise have occupied; 
 but have the}'' not made as many or more dissatisfied with positions 
 which they suitably and usefully occupied ? 
 
 It admits of question whether the ranks of teachers (religious as 
 Avell as secular) have not been burdened with incompetent and of 
 course unsuccessful workers, in part because of the persuasives and 
 facilities presented to young persons to turn their minds in that di- 
 rection. If the public offer a training school, or if Christian people 
 open a theological seminary, and by their terras make the way into 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 31 
 
 the profession of teaching or preaching plain and easy, while the 
 mercantile, legal and medical professions must be entered by a 
 narrower and straighter path, should we not naturally expect more 
 incompetency and failure in the former professions than in the 
 latter ?* 
 
 We yield to no one in the importance to be attached to the ed- 
 ucation of a teacher for his work. We enter heartily into the 
 quaint, and still most just lament of the schoolmasterf of Queen 
 Elizabeth's day : 
 
 It is a pity that commonly more care is had, and that among 
 very wise men, to find out rather ; a cunning man for their horse 
 than a cunning man for their children. To the one they will gladly 
 give a stipend of 200 crowns by the year, and loath to offer the 
 olher 200 shillings. God, that sitteth in heaven, laugheth their 
 choice to scorn, and rewardeth their liberality as it should be, for 
 he suffereth them to have tame and well ordered horses, but wild 
 and unfortunate children. 
 
 Let it be observed that the complaint of this ancient schoolmaster 
 is, not that competent teachers were lacking, but that those who 
 needed them were too stupid or stingy to employ and pay them. 
 Have normal schools infused a more comprehensive and liberal 
 spirit into our communities generally ? The facts and comments 
 we shall present in this discussion will show. 
 
 Are we in error in supposing that comparatively few of the pupils 
 of our normal schools expect to give their life to the service of the 
 boys and girls that are gathered into our public school-houses ? Do 
 not many, if not most of them, enrol themselves as pupils with a view 
 to temporary employment with the laudable purpose, perhaps, of 
 obtaining means to pursue professional studies ? But '' of all men 
 who are unfitted, for the work of education — most of all are they 
 unfitted who enter it in early years, with the fixed determination 
 
 * A fond father placed his boy with a great artist, that he might become an his- 
 torical painter. The wishes of the father were not seconded by the taste or capacity 
 of the son, and the poor lad was found crying bitterly in the studio over his smeared 
 and clumsy drawings. "What is the matter, my dear fellow?" said the artist. The 
 kind question touched the boy, and he could no longer conceal his feelings. "Boo, 
 boo, boo," he cried, with a burst of tears and ingenuousness, " pa thinks I can draw, 
 but I wants to be a butcher!' His taste was not for portraying the human face 
 divine, or scenes of historic interest, but for killing beeves and cutting up mutton 
 chops. 
 
 f Roger Ascham, Latin Secretary to the Queen, 1560. 
 
32 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 to pass from it to something more lucrative and more honourable 
 in their eyes."* 
 
 If Ave are to have good teachers, they must be such, not only 
 by instruction, but by experience, by thought, by observation (we 
 might almost say), by instinct, that they may know the best methods 
 of getting at the human mind in its immaturity, and drawing out 
 and exercising its faculties healthfully and evenly. And they must 
 enter the profession with a resolution to remain in it, in order to 
 realize its nobility and its inestimable importance. 
 
 Who supposes that the young gentlemen and ladies, accustomed 
 for two or three years to the spacious halls, the airy lecture rooms, 
 the extensive grounds and the literary atmosphere of a State nor- 
 mal school, are to make their way thence down to those close^ 
 dingy, narrow pens, with their bare floors and walls, their rickety 
 benches and forlorn externals; there to receive, control and instruct 
 two or three scores of children six hours a day, for the pittance 
 of $15, $20, or even $30 per month ? 
 
 Is not this a just and pertinent inquiry, when we are looking at 
 the bearing of the normal school systems, on the interests of the 
 daily public school ? 
 
 To illustrate our position we may be permitted to cite the case 
 of New Jersey. It has a superior normal school which has been 
 "in successful operation" for ten years, and it is said that its "in- 
 fluence upon the public schools of the State has been widely felt 
 and productive of the best results. "f The same authority which 
 gives this high credit to the normal school tells us, in the same 
 breath, that the schools are left to the management of the teachers 
 engaged in them, and "in a majority of schools in the rural dis- 
 tricts they are young and inexperienced, and do not, when engaging 
 in the work, carry with them sufficient professional knowledge to 
 enable them to decide upon and put in practice those regulations 
 upon which the life of the school depends." 
 
 The burden of the complaint of the superintendent, in this so 
 recent a report, is the absence of proper local supervision. He 
 thinks that were proper authority vested in local officers its ex- 
 ercise would secure a corps of active and capable teachers, and this 
 would be felt in the communities as well as in the schools ; and 
 
 * English Journal of Education, May, 1805. 
 
 f Annual Report of Superintendent of Public Scliools, 18G4, p. 28. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 33 
 
 thus better buildings, better attendance, and greater uniformity and 
 efficiency would follow ; — most true and Aveighty words. He "does 
 not advocate the strengthening and expanding of the school system 
 for the purpose of enabling the pupils of the public schools to make 
 more extended acquisitions in the sciences, but rather that the 
 course of study in these schools may be more in harmony with the 
 wants of the children attending them ;" — a most judicious and 
 sensible distinction. But how is this local authority to produce 
 such desirable results? Let one of the town superintendents of 
 Burlington answer : 
 
 One can judge how unpleasant it is for the school superintendent 
 when young men and young women, with fine feathers and good 
 recommendations from some of our best schools, yes, and I am 
 sorry to say, from our Normal School too, are brought to the super- 
 intendent to get their license, and when asked a few simple questions 
 by him in geography or arithmetic they cannot answer them, but in 
 place of answering them, they will hand you a piece of paper, saying 
 that Professor Brown, or Professor Smith, or Professor somebody 
 else says that they think from their good scholarship, &c., theyAvill 
 make good teachers. But I have had to inform more than one that 
 I did not care anything about Professor Brown or Smith, that I did 
 not want to know what they had done, but what they could do now ; 
 and it was but a few days ago that I had to reject one on that ac- 
 count. She came with a good recommendation -but without an ed- 
 ucation, and she had so much confidence in her recommendation 
 that she came the second time, and insisted that if I would license 
 her that she would give satisfaction to the district, and yet she 
 could not answer one question that I asked her. I do believe that 
 this is the great cause why our schools are not in a better condition 
 than they are. 
 
 We do not suppose normal schools can create a public sentiment 
 that shall insist on the best of teachers, pay them the highest of 
 salaries, and assure them of the greatest honour and sympathy 
 from society. But if the public sentiment, the salary, and the hon- 
 our and sympathy are wanting, is not the normal school out of 
 place at present, at least so far as any material advantage to the 
 public schools is concerned ? It may be very useful in qualifying 
 men and women for obtaining a livelihood as teachers, but if it does 
 not contribute directly and sensibly to the improvement, elevation 
 and extension of the village and neighbourhood schools, to which the 
 millions resort for most of the knowledge of letters that they ever 
 
34 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 obtain, is it entitled to the importance attached to it in reports and 
 popular estimation, as part of the machinery of our public schools? 
 We would not have them abolished. We would not have their 
 number diminished. We would only have them maintained, as are 
 schools for the profession of medicine, law and theology, by private 
 beneficence, or by the fees of those who profit by their advantages. 
 
 II. Text-Books. — We are not about to launch a philippic against 
 school-book makers, publishers and sellers. They have their craft 
 and must get their living, — honestly if they can. Their's are among 
 the "many" books of the making of which the wisest of men says 
 " there is no end." Our concern is rather with the use that is made of 
 them, which we regard as very absurd and reprehensible. To show 
 this it might almost sufiice to give the bare definition of the term, as 
 thus : " A text-book is a classic author, written or printed, with 
 wide spaces between the lines to give room for the pupil to note 
 the observations and interpretations of the teacher or professor." 
 In appearance it would resemble the draft of a bill in the Legisla- 
 ture, with a wide margin and broad intervals between the lines to 
 insert amendments, &c. The term is also applied to books in which 
 the leading principles of a science are stated in proper order for 
 the help of the student. 
 
 We submit that from neither definition should we infer that the 
 text-book is the teacher s implement. His task is to present to the 
 minds of his disciples, from his oivn ample store, the principles or 
 maxims which he would have them receive ; while their duty is to 
 note such leading thoughts or terms as will aid them in recalling 
 and reflecting upon the subject. To ascertain the depth and accu- 
 racy of the impression made by the exercise, he frames interroga- 
 tories to embrace the points he has made in teaching, and so ascer- 
 tains if the principle and its application are comprehended. This is 
 obviously a simple and rational view of what should be the ordinary 
 exercise of a school or lecture room. But no one can examine the 
 school-books in common use, without perceiving at once that they 
 regard the teacher as acting a very subordinate |)art in the school- 
 drama. In a word, the book is the teacher and of course the 
 teacher is the book. 
 
 We take up, at random, on the counter of a school-book book- 
 seller, an approved text-book on physiology, for example. It has 
 page after page of the warmest commendations from presidents, pro- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 35 
 
 fessors and teachers, from the august LL. D.'s, to the humble A.M.'s 
 or B.A.'s. We open it, and the first sentence reads as follows : 
 
 All bodies in which evidence of life has been observed, possess 
 certain parts or organs which are essential to the existence of the 
 individual. A plant or an animal exists by means of its appropri- 
 ate organs ; and the matter of which they are composed is therefore 
 called organized or organic matter. 
 
 There is no sort of objection to this as the shape which this 
 physiological truth takes in the mind of a teacher. If he has judg- 
 ment and tact, he will readily adapt the idea embodied in it, to the 
 capacities and attainments of his, pupils. But, alas ! it is for the 
 pupil to take it just as it is, and make what he can of it. He is 
 told, to be sure, on the same page, what questions will grow out of 
 this exhausting sentence. Among them are these : 
 
 " What are essential to the existence of all living bodies ? What 
 is the matter of which such bodies are composed, called ?" It 
 AYOuld be strange if in a class of ten or fifteen ordinarily bright 
 boys or girls, some would not be able to contrive an answer to both 
 questions, while others are quite as likely to fail ; but whatever 
 their luck, they must pass on to the next section and to other ques- 
 tions, and so through the book. 
 
 Now suppose we take up the true idea of a text-book, and im- 
 agine the pupil to have had placed before his mind this general 
 principle in physiology. "All living bodies have parts or organs, 
 and hence are called organized bodies." The teacher is supposed 
 to be in a sufficient degree familiar with the science of which 
 this is a fundamental principle, to be capable of elucidating it in a 
 way adapted to the capacities of the class. His task is to put each 
 of them in possession of the true idea of an organized or organic, 
 in contradistinction to an unorganized or inorganic, body. They 
 may know that there is an organ in the church and an organ in the 
 street. A literary club has just been organized. The meeting was 
 organized by the election of Mr. Jones to the chair, and the chair- 
 man thereupon said, he should expect to be sustained as the organ 
 of the meeting. The doctor said that neighbour Smith died of 
 an organic disease. He asks, then, if all bodies composed of parts 
 are organic. This table has parts, legs, castors, a top, a drawer, 
 sides, hinges, — is it therefore an organized body ? He requires 
 them to separate the objects in the room into two classes — each 
 
36 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 pupil mentioning one of each class. Of course the teacher, in the 
 progress of this discussion, varies his illustrations to suit the men- 
 tal condition of individual pupils. Can any number or amplifica- 
 tion of printed questions do this ? Is it not perfectly obvious that 
 the book is obtruded offensively and needlessly upon the class, to 
 do what is tTie appropriate work of the teacher ? 
 
 The great purpose of modern school-book makers seems to be to 
 save the labour of teachers. Hence they leave scarcely an open- 
 ing for his ingenuity (if he has any) to exercise itself in his proper 
 sphere. Both what he shall ask and what his pupils shall answer, 
 are duly prescribed in the book.. 
 
 In one of the latest and most approved of modern elementary 
 grammars, we find the following : " What do you use when you 
 want to speak your thoughts?" The most natural and pertinent 
 answer Avould be, " JMy tongue, sir." But if this answer were 
 given, the pupil would be reproved, for the answer in the book is, 
 ''Words." Of course then when the question occurs, "What are 
 words?" the answer would necessarily be, "What Ave use Avhen we 
 Avant to s})eak our thoughts." By no means. The book says, " A 
 word is what is spoken or written as the sign of an idea." Then 
 words are what Ave use to Avrite or speak our thoughts? Not ex- 
 actly, for thoughts or ideas may be expressed by signs as well as 
 by words. Then Avords must be written or spoken signs of ideas ? 
 "But Avhat is an idea?" is asked by some quickwitted boy or girl, 
 to the utter confusion of the teacher, because the book-maker did 
 not think that that question would be asked, and therefore he has 
 not prescribed the answer ! We are not censuring the crutch- 
 makers. We are only admiring their skill in imposing them upon 
 persons whose limbs are sound, but who are too lazy to use them. 
 
 A very cursory examination of some of these dummies will 
 show hoAV imperfect they are as substitutes for the living teacher. 
 We have before us a series of the most attractive text-books (as 
 they are called), in geography. We open one entitled " First 
 Steps." The first question is, 
 
 " What is the earth ?" Ans. " The earth is the planet on which 
 Ave live." So far, so good. 
 
 The second of the series is an attractive book in square form and 
 profusely embellished with pictures. It is called the "Primary 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 37 
 
 Geography," and is supposed to be used a year or Iayo later in life 
 than " First Steps." The first question here is, 
 
 "What is the planet on which we live called?" Ans. " It is 
 called the earth," — not much in advance of "First Steps." 
 
 Then comes the "High School Geography," 400 pages, 12mo., 
 accompanied by an expensive atlas and intended for the most ad- 
 vanced classes. And here again the first question we meet is, 
 
 "What is the earth?" A71S. " The earth is the planet in the 
 solar system which we inhabit ;" leaving the pupil in painful doubt 
 whether he inhabits the earth or the solar system ! 
 
 We will add a question which is neither geographical nor arith- 
 metical, but which we think very pertinent in this connection. 
 How long would it take a stalk of grain to come to maturity, if 
 it should grow no faster than the mind of a school-boy would ad- 
 vance in the science of geography, by these three questions at 
 three successive periods of his school life, a twelvemonth apart ? 
 
 The burden of our complaint is, that instead of leaving upon the 
 teacher, where it belongs, the task of framing questions and adapt- 
 ing them to the constantly shifting attitudes of the pupil's mind, 
 it is all mechanically arranged, so that the teacher's duty is dis- 
 charged when he has done what his teacher — the author — tells him 
 to do.* 
 
 Now we contend that all the legitimate purposes of what are 
 called text-books would be served in schools of all grades by a 
 series of brief hand-books or manuals (which would occupy a fifth 
 or perhaps not more than an eighth part of the bulk of those now 
 in use, and be proportionably less in cost), containing the princi- 
 ples or outlines of a science, which are to be so explained and il- 
 lustrated by the living teacher, as that the pupil cannot fail, with 
 ordinary capacity and attention, to understand them and their ap- 
 plication to the business of life. 
 
 Thus while the latter is required to give heed to what is taught 
 and to store and arrange his knowledge so that it shall be available 
 in time of need, the former shall be responsible for adapting his 
 
 * JD'Aroj W. Thompson, in his " Day-dreams of a Schoolmaster," speaks of books 
 that "may help aa incompetent master over an occasional stile, but can only ener- 
 vate a pupil's brain, and transfer coin from the pocket of an exasperated parent to 
 the pocket of an undeserving publisher." He adds that a good Latin grammar might 
 be limited to 24 pages, and sold for sixpence. 
 4 
 
OO THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 instruction in form, manner and measure to the condition of his 
 class, and for ascertaining whether it is comprehended and ready 
 for use. 
 
 It is something in favour of such a reformation that it would 
 greatly reduce the expenses of our public schools. Somebody pays 
 not less than five or six millions of dollars, at the very lowest esti- 
 mate, every year for school-books, nine-tenths of which go to con- 
 vert the teacher into an automaton. We are told by one who had 
 the best possible opportunities to know that $20,000 is within the 
 mark for one year's expenses to introduce a geography. He adds, 
 concerning one set of geographies, that during the first five years 
 the outlay in advertising and pushing was so great that the firm 
 were very anxious to sell the books at cost. They looked upon it 
 as a very bad speculation. Yet they afterwards realized on those 
 same books a profit of ffli/ thousand dollars a year ! Who paid it ?* 
 
 * "While these sheets are passing through the press, there comes into our hands 
 a scrap of manuscript which is at least a quarter of a century old, and can therefore 
 have no relation, to any series of school-books now in circulation. It is so pertinent 
 to our purpose that we transcribe it : 
 
 A schoolmaster is tired of drudgery, and makes up his mind to become a pub- 
 lisher. It is as easy a matter to make a book as to make a shoe. It is in itself a 
 mere mechanical operation. 
 
 We start with a title — '' The Child's Help in his first effort to learn." By James 
 Smith, A.JI. That sounds well for a foundation. Then comes the alphabet, A, B, 
 C, ab, abs, words of one syllable, readings in one syllable, then in two, three, &c., 
 for 50, T5 or 100 pages, all adorned with a large number of pictures according 
 to the author's taste, and we thus have "Smith s Child's Help." 
 
 Mr. Smith is the Doctor Smith or Professor (as some called him), who taught the 
 town school for eleven winters. He goes to the School Committee, and to Judge 
 Jones, and to Rev. Mr. Smith (the same name but no relation), favours them 
 each Avith a copy of his new book, and obtains their signatures to a certificate as 
 follows : 
 
 " We take great pleasure in certifying, that Mr. Smith, the author of 'The Child's 
 Help,' has been long known to us as a very successful teacher, and we have no 
 doubt that the book he has prepared will be found to be, what its title imports, a 
 real ' Child's Help.' " 
 
 The book is approved by the committee, and introduced into the schoolsof that town 
 to begin with. A flaming advertisement comes out. A copy is sent to the printer of 
 the county paper, and Doctor Dai't (who is a friend of Dr. Smith, and married Dr. 
 Smith's wife's cousin, and is a friend of the editor of the county paper also), writes a 
 puff, and by and by the "Child's Help" is called for quite extensively beyond the town. 
 Dr. Smith is so much encouraged, that he proceeds in like manner and compiles a 
 series of books on the same plan, and then introduces to the favourable regard of the 
 public, "Smith's Series of Elementary School Books." He now goes to some exten- 
 sive city publisher, shows the evidence of his success and the reputation he has ac- 
 quired by his first effort, and proposes to him to " get out" the series, while he will 
 go abroad with certificates, advertisements, &c., and open the way for their general 
 circulation. Soon "Popular School Books — Siniih's Ekvienlar)/ Series," meeis the 
 eye in some conspicuous partof whatever newspaper we open, far and near, and un- 
 less the bookseller fails or quarrels with the author, or the golden egg is in some 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 39 
 
 The teacher should rely as little as possible upon the text-book 
 (sajs a late writer on the subject) ; as much as possible upon his own 
 oral expositions. Grammar cannot be properly taught without full 
 and often elaborate explanations, and these come far more eflFec- 
 tively from the living voice than from the dull and uninviting page 
 of a grammar book. The teacher should never alloAV the book to 
 supersede him, or exchange the function of an educator for that or 
 a hearer of lessons. The skilful teacher may conduct his pupils 
 through all the intricacies of grammar Avithout putting any book 
 into their hands but a set of exercises.* 
 
 Another and by no means inconsiderable advantage would result 
 from thus requiring the teacher to put himself, rather than a book, 
 into sympathy with the pupil. The work of the school would then 
 be confined to the school-room. We should no longer see children 
 lugging home their satchels or strapped packages of books, nor 
 would their domestic duties or enjoyments be curtailed by home 
 lessons. Would that our public schools could thus become attract- 
 ive and complete educators in the sphere they are designed to oc- 
 cupy, and not mere stupid passage ways to wider provinces of 
 learning ! Would that Ave could have good writers, spellers, readers 
 and accountants, though authors, orators and professional men 
 might be fcAver and farther betAveen. 
 
 That Ave do not exaggerate this evil will be obvious to any one 
 Avho will examine public documents. It is even considered by some 
 as the most serious drawback upon the usefulness of the schools that 
 comes under notice. It needs no laboured argument to show that 
 the amount of lost time, the useless expenditure of money, the 
 little progress of the children, and the low standing of the schools, 
 compared Avitli what they might be, even with the same amount of 
 labour and money, are the necessary results of this variety of 
 books. f 
 
 other Avay broken, " Smith's Elementary Series" is for years the source of regular 
 and abundant profit to all concerned. 
 
 Thus it comes to pass that parents and guardians or the public treasury, or both, are 
 obliged to shoulder the burden of all experiments of teachers, publishers and book- 
 sellers, and hence the vast accumulation of discarded school-books stored away on 
 upper shelves or in dark closets; — so vast that it may be safe to say, that if the 
 money that has been expended for them were refunded, it would amply support the 
 public schools of the largest State in the Union for a quarter of a century to come. 
 
 ^ English Journal of Education, December, 1865. 
 
 J Eleventh Annual Report of New York Schools, 104, 127. 
 
40 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 t 
 
 We come back then to the plain little country school-house. That' 
 ,it is not what it should be, all aclvnowlcdge. Will the people make 
 it better ? Not till they see the need and the good of it as plainly 
 as they see the effect of sun and shower on their fields and meadows. 
 We need a very different class of men and women for teachers. 
 Will the normal school give them to us ? No more than it will 
 give us poets or painters. It Avill help the very few who have a 
 love and aptness for teaching, and desire to follow it as a profession. 
 If Ave have good teachers, Avill we pay them ? — for not without a 
 higher rate of compensation can we expect them. Shall we risk a 
 higher school tax for this purpose ? The people will not bear it. 
 Already their indifference to school sites and buildings, to methods 
 of teaching and regularity of attendance, is too obvious to be mis- 
 taken. Let us try then to give them better schools for the same 
 or even less money. Let the income of our fund and tax be ex- 
 pended for the maintenance of the daily public school exclusively, 
 leaving high and normal schools to be sustained by those who can 
 share directly in their advantages. Let all our schools be commit- 
 ted to competent teachers, and as far as practicable to females, 
 and restrict the teaching to what is required by law. Let all 
 the children be well taught in the six fundamental branches of an 
 American boy's and girl's education : reading, Avriting, spelling, the 
 rudiments of geography, arithmetic and the art of expressing their 
 ideas with the tongue or pen ; and couple with all this a wholesome 
 moral influence, reaching not only to the outward habits and man- 
 ners, but to the conscience and heart ; and, with half our present 
 expenditure, we should have far better schools, and the people 
 would soon see the substantial advantage their children derive from 
 their attendance and then they will become the willing and staunch 
 supporters of the system. 
 
 We must add our deep and well considered apprehension that if 
 some great revolution is not effected in the management of our 
 daily public schools, their insufiiciency to do Avhat is expected and 
 required of them will soon be but too plainly revealed. We must 
 never forget that a boy or girl in the United States holds a very 
 different social position from one in Turkey, Italy, France, or even 
 in Great Britain. Education among us (we mean elementary, pri- 
 mary education) should brace up both mind and body to effort, to 
 courage, to self-control. It should eradicate the germs of indolence. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 41 
 
 and of dependence on others for what one can do for himself. A 
 school has been called the landing place from which we begin to 
 ascend the stairs of life. There must be a previous exercise and 
 invigoration of the muscles which the ascent will task. If the decay 
 of a tree is first betrayed in the young fruit, must we not regard 
 the absence of mental and bodily vigour in our boys and girls as 
 tokens of national degeneracy?* If we grudge the money and 
 labour that are required to form the basis of a substantial educa- 
 tion, or expend them upon something beyond, above, or outside of 
 this elementary process, we may indeed have wonderful develop- 
 ments of learning and science, but the mass of the people will re- 
 main in bondage to ignorance. " What will you charge to educate 
 my son?" said the wealthy Athenian to a philosopher. He named 
 a large sum. "Why," said the astonished father, "I can buy a 
 slave for that sum." " Do it," was the reply, " and you will then 
 have two !" Such is the genius of our government that every public 
 interest is staked on the intelligence and virtue of the masses. 
 
 Ignorance would be no less destructive to us than vice. The daily 
 public or common school is our reliance for the general diffusion of 
 the elements of knowledge. The preparatory work, out of which 
 comes an enlightened, independent and virtuous generation, is sup- 
 posed to be done there. But we fear such a supposition is, to a 
 great extent, unwarranted. To show this, it is not needful to enter 
 upon an elaborate investigation of rej)orts and statistics. It is 
 enough to look at the requirements of the law and the spirit and man- 
 ner in which they are met. Nor is it necessary to embrace in our 
 inquiries all our States and Territories. Some of them are of too 
 recent organization to have any settled system of schools, and 
 others are just born into a new and untried life, and their institu- 
 
 * What more indubitable evidence of this degeneracy can be asked than our cur- 
 rent literature, that seeks and finds its chief market among those who have learned 
 to read in our public schools ? Inquire what reading matter is in the hands of five- 
 sixths of our people that occupy the middle sphere of society, between the learned 
 and the ignorant, and shall we not find it to be, if not the newspaper, the flashy 
 magazine or the dime novel ? Now and then a corner of the veil is lifted, and we 
 exclaim with horror at the revelation which some public trial makes of deep social 
 corruption. It is in the daily public school, if anywhere, that virtuous habits and 
 principles and pure tastes are to be cultivated in the mass of the population. If 
 the mind and heart are not well cared for there, they will be as " a garden whose walls 
 and hedges being broken down, is all grown over with thorns, and nettles covering 
 the face thereof." 
 
42 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 tions must, for some years at least, remain in an inchoate state. 
 Our end will be answered by a brief analysis of the legislation and 
 its fruits in the four States which, in the amount expended on pub- 
 lic schools, in the aggregate of children to be taught, and in the 
 machinery to secure their instruction, may be said to be leading 
 States. These are Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massa- 
 chusetts. They probably embrace as large a variety of people^ and 
 interests, and show as fair an average of wealth, virtue, intelligence, 
 and patriotism as will be found in a like area on this continent, 
 or on the globe. 
 
 In these four States we have, in round numbers, two and a half 
 millions of children under instruction, by sixty or seventy thou- 
 sand teachers, at an annual cost of some nine or ten millions of 
 dollars, or (say) $3 per head per annum. The ratio of teachers 
 to pupils, and the ratio of expenditures to both, is, however, worthy 
 of note. Without regarding fractions, we may say that Oliio fur- 
 nishes one teacher to every thirty-four pupils, at an expense of $4 
 for the year for each child. Pennsylvania allows one teacher to 
 every forty-three pupils, at $3 75 for each child. Neiu York gives 
 one teacher to every thirty-four pupils, at $3 each ; and Massa- 
 chusetts one teacher to every twenty-j&ve pupils, at $8 each. 
 
 After a general synopsis or abstract of the laws of each of these 
 States, we will look cursorily at the territorial divisions ; the arrange- 
 ments for the institution, superintendence, instruction and disci- 
 pline of the schools ; the school-buildings and their sites, and the 
 appendages of libraries, institutes, high schools, normal schools, 
 (fee. In this survey Ave shall confine ourselves almost exclusively 
 to those points which bear specially upon the interests of common 
 neighhourliood schools, in distinction from those in cities and popu- 
 lous towns ; and it will be remembered that our purpose is not so 
 much to controvert opinions or criticise practices, as to excite in- 
 quiry and reflection. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. — OHIO. 43 
 
 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL IN OHIO. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF THE SCHOOL LAWS OF OHIO. 
 
 Districts. — Every township constitutes a school district, and the 
 school districts (proper) are sub-districts. Each city and each in- 
 corporated village, which, with the territory around it, contains 300 
 inhabitants, forms a separate school district. 
 
 Officers. — Each sub-district has three school directors, who elect 
 one of their number to be clerk of the sub-district. The school 
 directors in the sub-district are to manage the schools under the 
 regulations of the township board, provide houses and fuel, employ 
 and dismiss teachers, visit and examine schools at least twice during 
 each term,* and make all other provision for the convenience and 
 prosperity of the schools. A census is taken by the sub-district 
 directors annually, in the month of September, of all resident, un- 
 married jvhite and coloured youth (noticing their sex and colour 
 separately), between 5 and 21. 
 
 Toivnship Board. — The township Board of Education (as it is 
 called) consists of the township clerk and that director of each 
 sub-district who is appointed clerk. It is a corporate body, holding 
 titles and custody of all school property, and it has the control and 
 management of all high schools and coloured schools; providing 
 buildings and employing teachers for the same, with power to dis- 
 miss. It is' to prescribe rules for the government of all the public 
 schools of the township, and provide schools for such as want to be 
 taught in the German language. f It is also empowered to assign 
 the limits to sub-districts and alter them. No district is to have 
 less than 60 scholars unless under special provision. 
 
 A school is to be established in every sub-district, of such grade 
 as may be required. The township board prescribes studies, books, 
 &c., and makes rules for using and preserving libraries. It is 
 
 * This provision is, however, a dead letter, 
 f A dead letter as to townships. 
 
44 THE DAILY PUELIC SCHOOL 
 
 also to report annually to the county auditor, the number of chil- 
 dren in the township between 5 and 21, number and grade of 
 schools, number and pay of teachers, length of terms, number and 
 condition of libraries, kinds of school books, expenditures, &c., &c. 
 The teachers are required to report to the township board the num- 
 ber of children admitted ; the average attendance, studies and text- 
 books, and such other information as the school commissioner of 
 the State may require. 
 
 High Schools. — ToM'nship boards, as we have seen, are empowered 
 to establish a higher grade of schools, to be known as high or 
 central schools ; the probable cost of organizing the same and the 
 rate of taxation to meet it, to be submitted to the qualified voters 
 of the township, and the board must be governed by their vote and 
 direction. 
 
 Tax. — The township board determines, annually, by estimate, 
 what amount is needed for schools and buildings, in addition to the 
 appropriation from the State school fund (which is applied exclu- 
 sively to the payment of teachers' wages), not exceeding three 
 mills on the dollar of the taxable property of the township ; and 
 is to certify the same to the county auditor, who is required 
 to assess the tax. If the township board fail to make a sufficient 
 estimate, the county commissioners may authorize an aidditional 
 levy. Should a tax greater than three mills on the dollar, be neces- 
 sary for schoolhouse purposes, an additional tax may be levied by 
 the legal voters. 
 
 Length of Sessions. — Schools must be sustained at least twenty- 
 four weeks in each year, and^ in case the township board fails to 
 provide adequate means, one year's appropriation from the school 
 fund is thereby forfeited, and the board is held liable for the loss. 
 
 Tax for City Schools. — Cities and villages can assess a school 
 tax of four mills on the dollar, and a higher rate for schoolhouse 
 purposes, by vote of electors. 
 
 Coloured Schools. — Separate schools are to be organized for col- 
 oured children, wherever twenty or more are enumerated. When 
 less than twenty, their full share of the school funds must be, in 
 some form, expended for their education. 
 
 School Fund. — There is a very curious history connected with 
 thf accumulation of this fund,* the avowed object of which is "to 
 * See 3d edition of School Lnws, l,S(i2, pp. 40-02. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 45 
 
 afford the advantage of a free education to all the youth of the 
 State." One of the tributaries to the fund is an annual tax of a 
 mill and three-tenths on every dollar of taxable property in the 
 State. The fund is distributed by the State auditor to the several 
 counties in proportion to its number of scholars, and by the county 
 auditor to the townships according to their returns. It is the duty 
 of the county auditor to make a report ot an annual return to the 
 State school commissioner of the school statistics of his county, on 
 which return the appropriation is based. There is also an irre- 
 deemable school fund arising from the interest on school-land funds, 
 amounting to upwards of $200,000 per annum. The entire fund of 
 the State, for school purposes, yields annually $1,500,000. 
 
 Board of Examiners. — To insure the exclusion of unworthy or 
 incompetent teachers, a board of three examiners is appointed in 
 each county by the judges of probate, to hold office two years, any 
 two of whom have power to examine and certify the qualifications 
 of teachers. Each applicant for a certificate pays a fee of fifty 
 cents as a prerequisite to examination, and the certificate is valid 
 only in that county, and there only for two years ; and may be 
 revoked at any time on proof of incompetency or negligence. 
 No teacher can be employed in any common school without a cer- 
 tificate of his good moral character, and of an adequate knowledge 
 of the theory and practice of teaching. 
 
 Branches. — The branches which such examination embraces, are 
 orthography, writing, reading, arithmetic, English grammar and 
 geography. For a higher grade of teaching, a higher grade of cer- 
 tificate is of course required. Most of the cities and other separate 
 school districts have a local board of examiners. A State board 
 of examiners is also appointed by the school commissioner, who 
 grant State certificates to teachers of eminent professional expe- 
 rience and ability, which are valid during the lifetime of the holder, 
 unless revoked. 
 
 Institutes. — The examination fees paid by applicants for certifi- 
 cates, constitute a teachers' institute fund in the several counties, 
 which can be appropriated to no other purpose, and is paid out of 
 the county treasury on the petition of not less than forty teachers, 
 who shall declare their intention to attend the institute. County 
 commissioners hnve power to make an appropriation not exceeding 
 
4G THE DAILY rUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 f 100, -when one-half of the amount required has been raised by 
 those who ask such appropriation. 
 
 Commisi<ioner of Seliooh. — The commissioner of common schools, 
 elected by the qualified voters of the State for three years, gives 
 bonds and takes an oath. He is required to spend at least ten 
 days in each judicial district, in visiting schools, superintending in- 
 stitutes, conferring with teachers, lecturing, &c. He is also charged 
 with the care and oversight of the school funds, and makes an an- 
 nual report to the Legislature. 
 
 City and Village Schools. — These are usually subject to special 
 legislation, and boards can levy a local school tax of four mills on 
 the dollar, a few of the largest cities excepted. 
 
 CONDITION OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 The cursory glance we have given at the legislative provisions 
 for bringing all the children in Ohio, of suitable age, under in- 
 struction, in comfortable houses, suitably furnished and supplied 
 with competent teachers, proper books and intelligent supervision, 
 prepares us to go among the schools, and taking the Annual Re- 
 port of the Commissioner for 1864 as our guide, we shall see how 
 far the grand end in view is accomplished. 
 
 Statistics of the Schools. — The number of persons in the State 
 between '5 and 21 years of age September, 1863, was 938,972. 
 Of these more than two-thirds were enrolled in the public schools; 
 and of those enrolled somewhat more than half attended at some 
 period, for once or more during the year. In other words, the 
 average daily attendance of the year was 57 per cent, of the 
 number enrolled, but only about 42 per cent, of the number enumer- 
 ated. If the whole number of children enrolled had attended on 
 any one day, the average to each schoolhouse would have been 61. 
 The actual average was about 34 to each school. The number of 
 different persons employed as teachers in the course of the year 
 was 20,658, or nearly double the number of schools. 
 
 Looking at these figures merely we should not regard the exhibit 
 as very flattering to the educational condition or prospects of the 
 State, nor will the picture be much brightened by a closer investi- 
 gation. 
 
 AVe find 1,361 townships, each with its separate Board of Educa- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 47 
 
 tion, acting under the general school law, and these are subdivided 
 into 11,850 districts, each with a board of directors, with 12,000 
 schoolhouses to provide and keep in order ; more than 20,000 
 teachers to employ and oversee, to whose care, instruction and in- 
 fluence nearly 700,000 children and youth are committed ; the • 
 whole machinery involving an outlay of nearly two and three-fourths 
 millions of dollars. 
 
 If we reflect for a moment on the fulness and minuteness of the 
 legislation, the precautions which are devised to secure qualified 
 teachers, and the care which is taken to bring a school to the very 
 doors of the people of every neighbourhood, what less could be ex- 
 pected than a rapid and thorough instruction of all the children 
 and youth of the State in useful learning, such as shall qualify 
 them for the ordinary occupations of life in our country and times ? 
 ■ Popular JEstimation. — But there is an anterior inquiry of great 
 force and pertinency. Is the disposition of the great body of the 
 people in harmony with the school laws ? Are they eager to avail 
 themselves of the privileges ofi'ered ? They may lay their tax of a 
 cent upon every dollar of their property without grumbling ; they 
 may meet and vote on all matters that require meeting and voting, 
 and have a good time of it ; and they may look with a misty, in- 
 definite respect upon the array of ofiicials, and the manifold in- 
 volutions of the red tape that connects them together, but all this 
 will not begin to compensate for the absence of a hearty good will 
 towards the school ; of a discriminating appreciation of its value to 
 them and their children, or of a disposition to co-operate actively in 
 measures which look to its efficiency and gradual improvement. 
 As a system it may have all other elements of success and grandeur, 
 and yet if it fails to commend itself to the people, when and where 
 the school is opened ; to awaken their sympathy and command their 
 intelligent support, it will be grand chiefly on paper. It is only 
 by their judicious co-operation that proper persons will be selected 
 to carry out the beneficent purposes of the Legislature.* 
 
 * " The people will sustain no better schools and have no better education than 
 they personally see the need of." — Life of Horace Mann, p. 148. 
 
 " Of all the difficulties which stand in the way of a national system of education, 
 one of the most conspicuous and important is the want of a due appreciation on the 
 part of the public of the real importance of the question." — Lord Advocate of Scot- 
 land, at the meeting of Social Science Association in Glasgotv, ISGO.—N'orlh British 
 Review, American Edition, May, 1861, p. 2G7. 
 
48 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 In this connection, it is notewortliy that the number of schools 
 was reduced from 15,152 in 1862, to 14,233 in 18G3, and to 
 11,661 in 1864. Admitting (what one of the reports alleges) that 
 the returns are inaccurate, and that some of the schools have been 
 merged in others, "\ve can scarcely suppose the large decrease of 
 nearly 3,500 in the three years can be so accounted for. As a 
 confirmation of the fact just stated, it may be observed, that the 
 number of pupils enrolled in 1864 was less by 55,495 than the 
 number enrolled the previous year, though this is also regarded as 
 in some measure the result of erroneous returns. But as a farther 
 item of evidence in the same direction, it appears" that the average 
 number of pupils in daily attendance (made up from the reports 
 of teachers) was 44,470 less in 1864 than in 1863. There is an- 
 other statement which bears upon the same topic ; we mean the 
 school term, to which we shall refer presently. 
 
 Drawbacks. — The choice of ^ub-district directors may fall on 
 competent men, and it may not. We all know what strange in- 
 fluences find their way into a popular election. Those who have 
 no children to send to the school will be very unlikely to concern 
 themselves with the choice of persons to take care of it, and others 
 may be governed by considerations that have not the remotest 
 bearing on the candidate's qualifications for the duties of the place. 
 Indeed, in most of the neighbourhoods which constitute these sub- 
 districts very few persons could probably be found capable of dis- 
 charging, intelligently, such duties as are required of school directors ; 
 and it would be an egregious mistake to suppose that the lot would 
 generally fall on such persons, were they within reach, without some 
 pains-taking to secure that end. We have known more than one 
 instance in Avliich a school director has been chosen in a city dis- 
 trict who could neither read intelligibly to himself nor to others, 
 nor write his own name ; and if this first or foundation stone in the 
 fabric of our public schools is defective or misplaced, what wonder 
 that disaster or disappointment should sooner or later attend what 
 is built thereon? 
 
 A single sentence from the annual report before us is as signifi- 
 cant and conclusive as a volume. " In 99 cases of every 100 not 
 a school officer qualified to detect and authorized to correct the mis- 
 chief" (of employing unqualified teachers) "ever enters the school- 
 room of our country districts" (p. 34), The stress which the com- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 49 
 
 niissioner's report lays on the importance of an intelligent local 
 supervision is not misplaced. As an inspector, he must needs know 
 what can and ought to be done in a school, and what tests are 
 proper to determine results. But such men are rare and not always 
 high in popular esteem. 
 
 Some compensation for the defects of local officers is supposed to 
 be found in the oversight of the county superintendents ; but ex- 
 perience has shown that political and private influences too often 
 succeed in introducing to that office also, persons incompetent both 
 intellectually and morally, to perform its most common duties. If 
 the judicious and intelligent men in a given locality, whether dis- 
 trict, township or county, would give time and earnest heed to the 
 subject, the schools might be protected in a good degree from the 
 intrusion of unqualified supervisors. But the general indifference 
 which we are lamenting allows the popular vote to drift as it will. 
 Sinister influences work their way into the polls, as living springs 
 into a bed of sand, and the office becomes a prize in a lottery open 
 to all adventurers. To avoid this dilemma, some of the States vest 
 the appointment of district directors in the township board ; but 
 this only removes the evil a step back, for who shall vouch for their 
 independence ? 
 
 As a matter of fact it is stated that where the election of county 
 superintendent has been in the hands of the township board, thus 
 removing it from the closer proximity to the people, the advantage 
 has been manifest at once. And yet one would think that in a 
 matter affecting so vitally the well-being of their children, the more 
 close the contact of the school officers with the individuals and 
 families who are to enjoy the advantages of the school, the surer 
 we should be to enlist their intelligent sympathy and co-operation. 
 "There is no feature of our school system," says the report for 
 1863, "so vital to its success as that which places at the door of 
 every school-room in the State a board of examiners to determine 
 who is worthy to enter there as a teacher and' guide of its youth." 
 Yet the tendency of later legislation in several States has been 
 rather to increase than lessen the distance between the school- 
 room door and the examiners. 
 
 Number of Teachers. — Assuming that the examiners have done 
 their duty, let us turn for a moment to the masters and mistresses 
 employed at their desks, and Ave find there are 7,882 of the former 
 
50 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 and 12,826 of the latter, or 20,658 in all. And we further learn 
 the interesting and important fact, that the percentage of female 
 teachers has advanced in two years from 42 to 62. It must be 
 conceded (the commissioner thinks), that in the great majority of 
 the schools women make better teachers than men. " The better 
 class of female teachers in our schools," he says, " are succeed- 
 ing just as well and often better than the average of male teach- 
 ers." And he cites the opinion of the commissioner of Rhode 
 Island, that " they are succeeding in that State oftener than male 
 teachers even in the management of turbulent boys, while in the 
 formation of the manners and the cultivation of the morals and 
 tastes of children, they are incomparably better teachers than men." 
 If these things are so, it Avould be difficult to assign even a plausi- 
 ble reason for denying or withholding from them equal or higher 
 compensation. 
 
 Qualifications and Compensation of Teachers. — To whatever au- 
 thority the people look to determine who are fit to teach, it is due 
 to applicants for employment, as well as to the public, that some 
 general standard of qualifications should be prescribed, and it seems 
 to be admitted, that, in fixing such a standard, reference should be 
 had to the general state of education in a given community. Hence 
 the examiners need to know somewhat of the locality in which the 
 candidate is to be employed before they can determine what grade 
 of qualifications in the teacher Avill meet its wants; — in other 
 words, to have the knowledge which an intelligent, observing man, 
 on the spot, is alone likely to have. That no uniformity of this 
 kind exists in Ohio is apparent from the fact, that in ten counties 
 4,455 persons applied for certificates, of whom 1,870 (or say tAvo 
 of every five) were rejected, while in ten other counties, of 1,743 
 applicants, only 47 (or say one in thirty-eight) were rejected. And 
 in the report of 1863, the significant opinion is expressed, that the 
 rejections might be increased thirty per cent, without detriment to 
 the schools. Of 24,895 applications during the year, about one- 
 fifth were rejected ; and with all this sifting, the present report 
 speaks of "hundreds of ill qualified" (male) "teachers that infest 
 the schools." 
 
 In this state of things, we do not wonder that the appointment, 
 by the general superintendent of schools, of three competent per- 
 sons, to constitute a board of examiners, under an act of the 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 51 
 
 Legislature passed March, 1864, is regarded as a very important 
 measure. So important, indeed, that the report made in August 
 following speaks of tliat and another contemporaneous provision 
 as " already infusing new life and energy into all the educational 
 interests," &c. 
 
 Of 19,342 certificates granted during the year, nearly one-half 
 were for the term of six months, indicating to how large an extent 
 the employment is regarded as merely temporary. Nor need we 
 be surprised at this, when we learn from the commissioner that the 
 compensation of public school teachers through the State has 
 probably at no previous time been so inadequate, being not one 
 per cent, more than in 1860-61, notwithstanding the advance of 
 the cost of living in the interim, at least 50 per cent. The 
 average wages of male teachers (1864) was $28 25 per month, 
 and of females $17 05, or about fifty cents a day ! We regard 
 this inadequate compensation of teachers as unequivocal evidence 
 that the great body of the people do not heartily concur in the 
 measures that the State adopts for the schooling of their children. 
 
 ScJiool Term. — The law requires the authorities of each town- 
 ship to see that the schools are continued for at least six months 
 in each year. During the period of five years last past, the aver- 
 age cf the term of school-keeping has been six months and four 
 days. It was naturally inferred that, with a general average so 
 near the minimum, some of the schools must fall below it; and on 
 inquiry it was ascertained that several townships evaded the law 
 which requires a local tax to be levied, and as soon as they had 
 expended their dividend of the public fund the school was closed ! 
 And it farther appeared that 2,040 (or nearly one in twenty of 
 all the sub-district schools in the State) were kept open less than 
 twenty-four weeks. The whole number of toAvnships in the State 
 subject to the general law is 1,351, and nearly half of them fell below 
 the legal requirement, — some remaining open for five months, 
 some for four, and some for only twelve weeks of the year ! 
 
 And it is not on any plea of the poverty of the people of the 
 districts in which these delinquencies occur that a defence can be 
 sustained. They must be traced, as the commissioner aflSrms, to 
 the indifference of school directors, which originates in the failure 
 of the people to appreciate the advantages of the education of 
 their children. 
 
52 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 And here tlie inquiry again meets ns, whether, if the fruits 
 of school teaching were as apparent to farmers and mechanics as 
 are the fruits of their own labour in the field and workshop, this 
 iiidiffcrence or "lack of appreciation" as it is called, would exist? 
 The prevailing systems under present review seek a remedy for 
 this acknowledged evil in "extraneous agencies." "A school 
 system left to itself," says the report before us, " soon relapses 
 into a state of inefiiciency, and becomes practically lifeless. It must 
 have vitality and progress constantly breathed into it" — (p. 17). 
 But is there not something in such a life closely resembling the 
 effects of the "extraneous agency" of galvanism on the dead 
 natural body ? The eyes of the unconscious subject may open 
 and shut, and other muscles may contract and relax, and possibly, 
 by sufficient power, even an erect posture might be produced.* But 
 the heart is still. The flesh is cold. The man is dead. "What- 
 ever importance we may attach to the methods of preserving life, 
 developing its functions and increasing their vigour, the life itself 
 precedes them all. We are persuaded that a candid review of the 
 condition of the schools of the State, as it is disclosed in this 
 report, would convince any intelligent man or woman that what- 
 ever progress has been made in the number and value of " ex- 
 traneous agencies" since the law of 1853, the popular appreciation 
 of the system has sensibly declined. 
 
 jSchoolhouses. — We would ask no more liberal provision for the 
 public schoolhouse than the Ohio commissioner grants. Ho would 
 have it an attractive and cheerful place, neat and commodious, its 
 furniture and conveniences equal at least to the average comfort 
 and taste of the community. He would have not much (if any) less 
 than an acre of ground for its site, enclosed with a neat substantial 
 fence, with wood-shed and other outhouses. He would have play- 
 grounds separate for boys and girls, and if shrubbery and flowers 
 are not to be had, shade trees must suffice. He is minute enough 
 in his inventory of appendages, to include door-mats and scrapers 
 for muddy shoes. It would surprise us to receive credible testi- 
 mony that one in a hundred of the country schoolhouses in the 
 State answers to this very modest demand. 
 
 It is however to the credit of the statistical bureau that there is 
 some sort of a report from every schoolhouse in the State, and 
 
 * A frog, just killed, Las been made to leap by the force of a galvanic baiter^-. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 53 
 
 equally to the credit of the people, that of so considerable a number 
 of them a somewhat favourable report may be made. While it is 
 doubtless true that neat and commodious schoolhouses can be seen 
 scattered here and there over the State, and that there is some 
 pride felt in having them, the traveller through numerous dis- 
 tricts, away from thoroughfares and populous towns, still sees 
 very striking excej)tions ; and even where the buildings may have 
 a respectable exterior, the arrangement, furniture and condition 
 within are anything but what they should be. 
 
 The average cost of the schoolhouses in the year 1863-4 was 
 $820, exceeding by $200 the average cost of those built in 1861-2. 
 But this excess might have resulted from a few very expensive 
 buildings, while their general character was but slightly if at all 
 improved. The commissioner deals gently with his constituents, 
 and gives them credit for having done many things well. He 
 thinks good houses the rule and poor houses the exception; but 
 admits that in " too many counties the great object seems to have 
 been to build cheap houses, and those only when absolutely neces- 
 sary." He also animadverts with deserved severity on the niggard- 
 liness that is too often shown in the selection of sites. "The 
 design," he says, "in many cases seems to have been to get the 
 schoolhouse" out of the Avay ; " to locate it where nobody will ever 
 wish to build anything else." In other cases, he informs us, the 
 schoolhouse stands in the centre of the district, though the centre 
 be a mudhole ; and in still other cases the site has been determined 
 by some citizen, who " to secure selfish ends has donated a few 
 square feet of clay for the purpose." 
 
 If we turn to the reports of county auditors, we shall certainly 
 fail to have our opinion of the Ohio schoolhouses raised. 
 
 Schoolhouses are improved as rapidly as the people will allow,* 
 — a very pregnant report. 
 
 Frame-houses generally in good condition — log-houses poor — 
 about one-half of each kind.f 
 
 Perhaps one-half of them are tolerably respectable houses. J 
 
 The schoolhouses are in bad condition. § 
 
 Tolerably good. Most of them are new, or nearly so, but not 
 properly cared for.|| 
 
 On an average the schoolhouses are in a pretty good con- 
 dition.*! 
 
 * Franklin. f Putnam. % Pike. | Union. || Warren. ^ Mahoning. 
 5 
 
54 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 Half in first-rate condition — one-fourtli passable — one-fourth 
 miserable.* 
 
 In the absence of any standard by "which to determine ■whether a 
 given l)uilding and its grounds are what they ought to be, "wc can- 
 not accept " averages," nor attach any very definite meaning to 
 "respectable," "tolerably good," " pretty good," &c., &c. The 
 reports being made with the certainty that they will be known to 
 the people whose delinquencies they record, will doubtless give the 
 most favourable representations; and no one can carefully scan 
 those from which we have made these brief extracts, without no- 
 ticing the equivocal and evasive phraseology which many (may we 
 not say most ?) of them employ in reference to schoolhouses. In 
 several instances where the houses are reported to be in bad con- 
 dition, the furniture is said to be good, while in others the furniture 
 is condemned ; and in one casef is " wholly unfit for the purpose 
 and conducive only to bad order and ill-health." 
 
 And in this connection again, there is forced upon our view the 
 lack of popular sympathy with the daily public school. The school- 
 house is rarely built while the job can be deferred with impunity, 
 and when built it is with a grudging economy. The site, as we are 
 told on authority, is usually most ineligible for that purpose, and 
 useless for any other. The quantity of ground is barely sufficient 
 for tbe building, and for a passage into and around it. If either 
 side of it can be made to serve for a length or two of fence, the 
 building is so placed as to do it. Many a school might feel highly 
 favoured if it commanded as much ground as "the pound," for the 
 custody of stray pigs and horses, often occupies ; and what could 
 express more emphatically the popular appreciation of the school 
 itself than such penuriousness in accommodating it ? Each town- 
 ship imposes such a tax upt)n itself as it thinks needful to pay for 
 ground, building, furniture, &c. They can have their choice of 
 sites. The sunniest or the shadiest, the loftiest or the lowliest — if the 
 people say so — can be had. Perhaps no public building is so highly 
 favoured in its possibilities, and certainly none is so wofully slighted 
 in its realities. The commissioner claims nothing beyond the 
 simplest riglits of children when he insists that their schoolhouse 
 shall be an attractive and cheerful place in keeping with its high 
 purpose; and its furniture and conveniences shall be quite e(|ual 
 ■■'■ iluron. f Washington. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 55 
 
 to the average condition of the homes around it. If the people 
 generally sit on hewn logs, eat from wooden plates, drink out of 
 gourds and sleep on a pile of chips or corn-stalks, let the children 
 at school be content with rude benches, bare walls, broken win- 
 dows, dirty floors, and do without out-house, play-ground, broom, 
 bucket, or cup. 
 
 How far the reports from the several counties of the condition 
 of schoolhouses are meant to embrace the not less important item 
 of out-houses, does not appear. We notice only one county in ivhich 
 a distinct reference is made to the subject, and in this the out- 
 houses are described as "a disgrace to civilization!" There will 
 be occasion to advert more at large to this subject in connection 
 with other States. 
 
 Libraries. — By the general law of 1853, it was required that one- 
 tenth of a mill on the dollar should be assessed on all the property 
 taxable for State purposes ; the proceeds to be applied to the pur- 
 chase of a library and apparatus for the common schools. The 
 selection was to be made by the State commissioner, and the books 
 and apparatus to be distributed by the county auditor, through the 
 township clerks, holding the local school authorities responsible for 
 their safe keeping and proper use. 
 
 In 1860 the law authorizing such an assessment was repealed, 
 and of course the continuance of the school library was left to the 
 voluntary motion of the people ; and so far as the present report 
 throws any light on the subject, the instances are very rare in which 
 the library is at present of any practical value. When the report 
 is "in good condition," it is added, "because not used," or "be- 
 cause locked up." One county auditor reports that "many of the 
 books still remain in the original packages, having never been 
 opened; while some are to be found in private libraries, where 
 they have remained for years."* "In many of the tovmships they 
 are regarded as worthless, and one or two townships have never 
 opened the packages, "f " The books amount to simply nothing in 
 this county. ;|;" 
 
 We do not refer to this as a matter of surprise. Those who have 
 
 had much experience in the selection of books for the young, need 
 
 not be told how perplexing and almost hopeless is the task when 
 
 the- number must embrace several hundred. When the habits of 
 
 * Fayette. f Licking. % Logan. 
 
56 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 cliildren are considered, and also the condition and customs of not a 
 few of the families represented in our common schools, it is obvious 
 that to maintain a system of school libraries, from year to year, 
 would require a degree of methodical and vigilant superintendence 
 which the law does not contemplate, and which the people could 
 scarcely be expected to provide. The fact is such an append- 
 age to the common school has no appropriate place or use, and no 
 act of legislation or device of hobby-riders will make it succeed. 
 
 Institutes. — The prominent if not the only agency for the im- 
 provement of teachers is the Institute. Its establishment was en- 
 couraged by an act of the Legislature in 1847, and its existence is 
 recognized by the act of 1853. A few public-spirited teachers en- 
 tered into the plan, paying the expense from their own purses. 
 The number of Institutes held in 1854 was 41, attended by 2,633 
 teachers in all, and the number in 1863 was 20, with less than 
 half the attendance of the previous year. The fees now paid to 
 examining boards by applicants for certificates are appropriated 
 to the support of Institutes, and the State is urged to make an 
 additional grant for the purpose of employing a corps of instructors 
 for them. We believe no normal school has been opened in Ohio, 
 though such a method of training teachers is regarded by the com- 
 missioner as exceedingly desirable. 
 
 We have thus briefly surveyed the arrangements for supplying 
 700,000 children and youth of Ohio with instruction in the six 
 elementary branches of learning required by law. The school tax 
 being paid in and the school fund distributed, there are supposed 
 to be adequate means of providing houses and supplying teachers; 
 and as a safeguard against the intrusion of unqualified persons to 
 this important i)OSt, examiners are appointed, without whose in- 
 dorsement they can neither be employed nor paid. We have 
 already adverted to the gratifying fact that a large proportion of 
 the teachers are females, and to the painful fact that their com- 
 pensation is comparatively so inadequate ; but the vital inquiry is 
 what is the measure of their skill, and what is actually accom- 
 plished by their labours, and of this we have unhappily no means 
 of judging. 
 
 The recent state of the country is supposed to account in most 
 cases for the acknowledged falling off in the character and eflBciency 
 of the schools, and the stereotyped report, " in a good condition," 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 57 
 
 or "as good as could be expected" seems not materially to aid our 
 inquiries. Conceding the largest reasonable credit which the daily 
 public schools of Ohio can claim for contributions to the "educated 
 labour" of the country, will it not still be found that the boys and 
 girls leave school with very scanty preparation for life's work ? 
 Is it not true that they scarcely begin to use their faculties natu- 
 rally and to good purpose till they turn their backs upon the school 
 and address themselves to the lessons of actual experience ? The 
 introduction to a printing oflBce, a store, a counting room or an 
 attorney's office will soon reveal to a boy how far his school life is 
 of real service to him. 
 
 The item of evidence we have introduced in another connection 
 from a chaplain in our late army* negatives the presumption that 
 any recent condition of public affairs will account for the deficiencies 
 in common school instruction, as that evidence applies to a period 
 prior by ten or fi^fteen years ; and it shows that in three of the six 
 branches required to be "thoroughly" taught in all the common 
 schools of Ohio, viz.: reading, writing and orthography, there is a 
 lamentable deficiency. 
 
 It will be observed that the aims and agencies of the school 
 system of Ohio are much humbler at present than those of the 
 other three States which we propose to review. No very general 
 or systematic plan has been adopted to elevate the calling of the 
 common school teacher into a profession. The inducements held 
 out to those who might be disposed to adopt the vocation are not 
 very powerful. Since the present system was inaugurated, teachers 
 were never so poorly compensated as they are now. In high 
 schools, and schools in which German and English are both taught, 
 the compensation is more liberal. It is quite evident that such 
 rates could not be expected to secure the services of men and women 
 of superior qualifications. And while so few avenues to respectable 
 and remunerative employment are open to women, we are not sur- 
 prised to learn that so large a proportion of teachers are of that sex. 
 But we can scarcely expect them to qualify themselves for the 
 duties of the place so long as the tenure is so uncertain, and the pay 
 but little more than that of a housemaid. 
 
 If the preceding sketch is not greatly overdrawn, it must be ad- 
 mitted that the six or seven hundred thousand children of the State 
 
 * See page 11. 
 
o8 Tin-; DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 who depend on the daily public school to fit them for the grand in- 
 heritance of liberty to which they are born, "will be very imperfectly 
 served; and it is to be regretted that in the commissioner's report 
 there is so little to guide us in estimating the actual efficiency of 
 the system. The very brief statements of county auditors embrace 
 the items of schoolhouses, libraries, schools and school returns, the 
 last occupying as usual as much room as the other three combined. 
 If the complaints which the county auditors make of the incom- 
 petency of township clerks are not greatly exaggerated, we should 
 not be disposed to place much reliance on their reports of the con- 
 dition of the schools or schoolhouses, nor indeed of anything else. 
 On the other hand, the township boards are here and there charged 
 with a neglect of duties, which if performed would aid the clerks in 
 the discharge of their's. The auditor of Coshocton County very 
 properly maintains that "there must jBrst be teachers who can 
 make reports, and then Ave want clerks who can tell Avhat a report 
 should contain." And the auditor of Hocking County is still more 
 emphatic; "I returned nearly all the reports for correction, and yet 
 they are disgustingly imperfect to one who is accustomed to doing 
 business correctly. * * * As a general thing, the majority of our 
 teachers are no more fitted for their calling than is the untutored 
 North American Indian for President of the United States." 
 
 The loose phraseology in which most of these official statements 
 are made, leaves the impression that no very minute investigation 
 is at the bottom of them. What definite notion can one obtain, for 
 example, from a report like this: "A majority of the school- 
 houses are pretty good, the minority not so good." Or this con- 
 cerning libraries: "In a good condition as a general thing; a 
 great many books are kept locked up in the library." Or this 
 about schools: "My personal acquaintance^ and knowledge of the 
 actual condition of the schools in this county is (are) too limited to 
 speak advisedly on this point," — the only point, by the Avay, on which 
 his official duty required him to speak at all. 
 
 We look in vain for any report from competent judges of the 
 proficiency of the schools in useful knowledge or of examinations 
 to test the fJtoroughness of the instruction, or of improvements in 
 books, discipline and methods of teaching, or in the character and 
 morals of the pupils. If such a report could be looked for from 
 any quarter, it would be from the office of the district school directors. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 59 
 
 whose business it is not only to establish the schools and build the 
 houses, but to appoint the teachers, fix their pay, prescribe studies 
 and text-books, and exercise a general supervision of the schools. 
 
 If we judge from the return of one of the county superintendents, 
 to whom the district directors are bound to report, we might infer 
 that the hope of much light from this quarter is delusive. After 
 adverting to sundry evils that flow from their neglect of duty or 
 want of qualification to attend to it, he sarcastically suggests as a 
 remedy that "some degree of moral and literary qualifications 
 should be made a condition of eligibility to the office." He com- 
 plains that from one-third of the districts the reports are unin- 
 telligible, if not illegible ; that in many instances the average at- 
 tendance reported exceeds the number enrolled, and in some in- 
 stances 50 per cent, more are returned as enrolled than are 
 enumerated as belonging to the district ! and when the report is 
 sent back for correction, its last state is worse, nine times in ten, 
 than its first. He justly concludes that no correction of this abuse 
 is practicable while men who cannot keep accounts or calculate 
 averages are put into such an office. 
 
 Grraded Schools-. — The practice of grading the schools — that is, 
 the very natural arrangement of them into departments, as pri- 
 mary, secondary, grammar, principal, &c. — has been introduced to 
 some extent in the larger towns, and is regarded with favour by 
 the school authorities of Ohio, but this orAj facilitates the work of 
 instruction ; it does not perform it. It rather embarrasses than 
 helps an incompetent teacher. It does not aid us to answer the 
 question. Do the daily public schools of Ohio take the children 
 of the people by the hand, and after a reasonable time, introduce 
 them into life endowed with such substantial advantages of educa- 
 tion that we may reasonably expect them to be " blessings to 
 society, adorning their various pursuits with, intelligence and vir- 
 tue — enriching them with discovexnes — elevating and equalizing 
 the rank and respectability of their widely diff"erent occupations — 
 making industry honourable, and securing to every form of honest 
 labour its proper dignity?"* Not less than this is theoretically 
 promised — not less than this is often passed to their credit in 
 stump speeches. Who has not heard the glowing, grandiloquent 
 * Eleventh Annual Report of Commissioner, p. 25. 
 
CO THE DAILY PUBLIC SCUOOL 
 
 panegyrics passed on the "people's colleges," as these schools are 
 called ? 
 
 Much is expected from a recent provision of law adding to the 
 necessary qualifications of teachers " an adequate knowledge of 
 the theory and practice of teaching." It is clear that such 
 knowledge does not come unsought. The "theory" is to be 
 learned by reading, observation, and instruction. But what man 
 or woman Avill spend the needful time and labour to possess them- 
 selves of the theory with the prospect of seventy-five cents, or 
 even twice that sum, for the practice, which is not less than six 
 hours close confinement at what is, to most persons, the hardest and 
 most wearing work that can be undertaken ? And how long will 
 the practice survive an opportunity to engage in something less 
 onerous and better paid ? There can be no doubt of the wisdom 
 of appointing a State board of school examiners, and investing it 
 with power to issue certificates of high qualifications to teachers 
 of eminent professional ability and experience. It is well to have 
 such teachers within reach whenever the interest of the people of 
 any town or district is sufficiently awakened to demand their ser- 
 vices. And we shall look eagerly for the reports from year to 
 year, to see how many of this higher order of certificates are 
 issued ; where the honoured possessors of them labour, and with 
 what eff'ect ; and how many of them will be found pursuing the 
 noble vocation from year to year at the head of some daily public 
 school in Ohio. 
 
 Reports of County Auditors. — But our present inquiry relates 
 to things as they are. What do the present schools and teachers 
 accomplish? We have already introduced one item of evidence. 
 In the absence of any common standard or criterion by which to 
 determine the acquisitions of the pupils, we must resort to what 
 we can glean from very general returns. The State commission- 
 er's duties (stationary and itinerant) are too numerous and harass- 
 ing to allow him to inquire very minutely into the methods of 
 teaching in individual schools, or into the attainments of the 
 taught. The general appearance and deportment of the school 
 will ordinarily indicate the presence or absence of disciplinary 
 tact or power, but no exercise conducted by the teacher, nor any 
 cursory examination of the school at large by. a visitor, will serve 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 61 
 
 to show tlie extent, accuracy or availability of what has been 
 learned. 
 
 The spirit of the returns of the county auditors is seen in such 
 expressions as the following: — "In some townships the schools 
 are in a prosperous condition, in others it seems there is no interest 
 manifested by either school officers or parents."* " Schools gene- 
 rally good — progress onward."t " The condition of our common 
 schools is, I believe, tolerable, and their progress proportionate. "J 
 "Schools in this county generally in a healthy condition." § 
 " Generally in good condition." || " Schools are progressing very 
 well — considerable interest is taken in them." ^ " Pretty fair." ** 
 "Reports indicate a tolerably prosperous condition of the schools, "ff 
 " Tolerably fair."|| " Township schools are slowly improving, but 
 many of these hardly deserve the name of schools." §§ We have 
 not selected these expressions from the best or the worst reports. 
 
 Passing from these reports of subordinate officers to that of 
 the State commissioner, who may be supposed to gather his opinion 
 partly from inspection, but mainly from the various concentrated 
 returns to his office, we find a different estimate of the condition 
 of the schools. He tells us that "one half" of the great outlay 
 of nearly three millions of dollars is turned in unskilful hands to 
 ashes instead of blessings; "and (what he thinks very surprising) 
 this startling disclosure is received by the people with comparative 
 indifference !" |||| And he adds, that "in ninety-nine cases out of 
 every hundred, not a school officer qualified to detect, and with 
 authority to correct the mischief, ever enters the school-rooms of 
 our country districts." * * * "What wonder is it," he asks, 
 "that the apple of instruction, so rich in promise, so often fills the 
 mouths of hungry souls with the ashes of ignorance. "'^^ 
 
 To make the deficiency more glaring, he fancies the marvellous 
 change that would be wrought if a school-inspector, possessing 
 proper authority and qualifications, were to enter one of "these 
 forlorn school-rooms," to test the value and thoroughness of the 
 instruction imparted — the discipline and classification, and all the 
 other elements of an efficient school.*** It would be difficult to 
 present in stronger contrast that which is and that which should 
 
 * Belmont. f Champaigne. J Columbiana. | Fairfield. 
 
 II Franklin. ^ Henry. ** Mahoning. f j Union. 
 
 XX Wyandot. §§ Huron. |||| Eleventh Report, p 34. 
 
 T[1[ Eleventh Report, p. 35. . *** Ibid. 
 
62 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 be. Nevertheless it is on the discreditable rcalitj", and not on he 
 reputable potentiality that the good people of Ohio depend for 
 educating nearly three-fourths of a million of its future popula- 
 tion — in other words, for moulding the intellectual and moral 
 character of the State for the coming generation, — and none can 
 tell for how many generations beyond. 
 
 We just now expressed a distrust of the ordinary reports of 
 public examinations. We have witnessed them in almost every 
 variety of schools, i^ublic and private, of academies and of colleges. 
 It is rare that an accurate impression is conveyed by them of the 
 true attainments of the pupils. We cannot better illustrate what 
 we mean than by citing two or three veritable cases. 
 
 An American tourist, specially interested in the subject of public 
 schools, came into conference with some of the friends and active 
 supporters of what is known as the British and Foreign School So- 
 ciety. Happening to be in the neighbourhood of a school organized 
 on the principles of that Society, and regarded by its patrons as a 
 model, the foreigner was pressed for an opinion of its merits, which 
 he was reluctant to give unless he could have an opportunity to test 
 the attainments of the pupils by a personal examination. Of course 
 this was readily afforded. Some ten or fifteen boys, whose profi- 
 ciency in the knowledge of spelling and parsing was most unques- 
 tionable, were assembled in a room by themselves. A monitor 
 proposed to accompany them but his presence was declined, and 
 the stranger was left alone with this group of school-boys. The 
 words to be spelled and parsed were written as they were given out, 
 together with the several answers, of Avhich no corrections were al- 
 lowed. Long before the examination was concluded, several of the 
 boys evinced great restiveness, and evidently felt that a method of 
 examination so unusual would not result to their credit. When the 
 task was completed, the record was read and corrections were per- 
 mitted if the record was erroneous. The principal of the school 
 was quite indignant that such a mode of examination should be 
 adopted, and was not at all surprised that under such circumstances, 
 shut up with a perfect stranger and plied with such questions, they 
 should have spelled beginning with one n, indelible with an a in 
 the third syllabic, clim-actcr with three r's, and opportunitg with 
 one p.* The parsing was not more creditable, to say the least. 
 
 •" It was in vain attempted to convince him that a fright would be as likely' to 
 laako a bad speller spell right as to make a good speller spell wrong. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 63 
 
 In another instance it was the fortune of the same person to visit 
 a somewhat famous school for the education of boys, in one of our 
 chief cities. A class was called for an exercise in rhetoric. As 
 this was an advanced branch for the class, he asked if they 
 were familiar with the principles of English grammar. " Cer- 
 tainly," replied the teacher; "they have been out of it some 
 months." The visitor said he had rarely found a class that were 
 masters of the ordinary rules of parsing, and he would be obliged, 
 if he might be allowed to take two or three of the choicest of his 
 pupils aside and examine them. This was courteously granted. 
 After a little chat to remove all embarrassment, the visitor said he 
 would give them a sentence from a familiar English author, and 
 would let them take each word consecutively, and he would write 
 their answers. The passage was, 
 
 " Shut, shut the door, good John," fatigued I said ; 
 " Tie up the knocker! Say I'm sick ! Fm dead !" 
 
 Only seven of the eighteen words were correctly parsed, their 
 own teacher himself being judge ! 
 
 It oftentimes occurs in a public examination, that questions are 
 pushed just to the point where blank ignorance begins. " The great 
 thing with knowledge for the young is, that it shall not be exter- 
 nal to their inner and real self; and therefore it is that the self- 
 teaching that a baby and a child give themselves, remains with them 
 forever. It is of their essence, whereas what is given them from 
 without — especially if it be received mechanically, without relish and 
 without any energizing of the entire nature — remains pitifully use- 
 less. Try therefore always to get the resident teacher, who is inside 
 the shin (and who is forever giving his lessons), to help you and be on 
 your side. If we could only get the knowledge of the school to go 
 as sweetly and deeply and clearly into the vitals of the mind as this 
 self-teaching has done, we should get rid of much of that dreary, 
 sheer endurance of their school-hours, that stolid lending of ears 
 that do not hear, that objectless looking without ever once seeing, 
 and straining the mind with an aim alternating, it may be, with 
 some feats of dexterity and effort like a man trying to lift himself 
 in his arms or take his head in his teeth, — exploits as dangerous as 
 ungraceful and as useless, except to glorify the showman and bring 
 wages in, as the feats of a rope-dancer. One who witnessed an 
 
64 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 examination of a public school in which the chief exercises were like 
 setting a mill agoing, compares the poor children to tubes through 
 which the master blows peas of knoAvledge into the faces of the spec- 
 tators. At such an examination a pupil was asked in the geogra- 
 phy class where Sheffield was, on the map. It was pointed out. 
 And then came a flourish. ^ And for what is Sheffield famous V 
 After a pause a word came out that sounded as much like ' cutlery' 
 as anything. But now for a puzzler. ' Ask the boy,' said a visi- 
 tor, 'what cutlery is ?' and he 'did, but it was an effectual poser. 
 The visitor thereupon took out a nice penknife with the Sheffield 
 stamp on it, and such excitement as it produced was quite wonder- 
 ful to the boys and girls in this ''aixlent cemetery of edication,' 
 as the orator of the day called it."* 
 
 There are three well-defined stages in school life. The first is 
 before we go to the schoolhouse. Then curiosity is wide awake ; ob- 
 servations are taken of real persons and things about us — the faculties 
 are quickened and exercised in a thousand natural ways, and the re- 
 buff "Wait till you're older and then you'll know," is received with 
 an ill grace. Then comes the artificial, mechanical stage in which 
 ideas, locked up in type-metal and covered over with paper and 
 leather, are to be ferreted out and put in methodical order for some 
 future, undefined occasion ; and this is to be repeated month after 
 month and year after year, until a given day, when the process is 
 authoritatively declared complete, and a scroll of parchment, gaily 
 adorned with ribands, attests the fact ; and then we reach the third 
 stage, which resembles the first in its real, matter-of-fact demands, 
 but at the same time applies an inexorably severe test to that inter- 
 mediate process called schooling. What the boy or girl knows is 
 not now so much the question as how far his or her knowledge can 
 be put to use. In most important respects true education now 
 begins. The stimulus of necessity, of pride, of ambition, or desire 
 of gain acts with prodigious force. We learn to do things because 
 we must, or because everybody else is doing the like. We en- 
 counter difficulties that must crush us if not surmounted. We 
 stumble upon problems which we must solve or else starve or freeze. 
 We may have been taiu/Itt before, but we are now educated. The 
 l)lain truth is that hosts of public school teachers are (as another 
 says) getting the public money for that which is not bread, and 
 
 ■'•" Jolm Brown, ]\r.D. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 65 
 
 giving their own labour for that which satisfieth not; industriously 
 making saw dust into the shape of bread, and chaif into the ap- 
 pearance of meal, and contriving, at wonderful expense of money 
 and brains, to show what can be done in the way of feeding upon 
 wind. 
 
 In the course of fifty years' pretty close observation of a great 
 variety of men and women, of diverse temperament, social relations, 
 capacities and pursuits, we have scarcely found one in a thousand 
 that could spell, read, write or speak their mother tongue with pro- 
 priety. Still w^e maintain that good (though "common") school 
 teaching should insure such an accomplishment in nine cases out 
 of ten, where there is no natural impediment or hinderance ; and yet, 
 could we collect together the children of Ohio who passed six 
 months of 1864 in the daily public school, we question very much 
 wl^ether a majority of them would show any material advance upon 
 the stock of this sort of school-knowledge with which they closed 
 the previous season. Not so with any six months preceding or 
 following the school-going period. Nature's school and the world's 
 school are wonderfully in advance of the schoolmaster's school. 
 
 All this we have said in view of the j^rovisions of the Ohio Legis- 
 lature to supply the children of the State with adequate means 
 of instruction in the elements of useful knowledge ; and we could 
 easily adduce abundant testimony to show that though of real value 
 so far as they go, the machinery and the expense of putting it in 
 motion are entirely disproportioned to what is accomplished. The 
 results are, to a great extent, unserviceable in the experience of life. 
 
 There is one cardinal point in the present inquiry which we have 
 purposely reserved to the last. We do not find it recognized very 
 distinctly, if at all, in the report; and yet surely it falls within the 
 legitimate province of the common school, in a country like ours, to 
 teach the principles of morality as well as the rules of arithmetic 
 and grammar. There can be no order without law. Submission 
 to authority is, or should be, a much earlier lesson than A, B, C. 
 The school is established by law. The teacher derives his authority 
 from law, and not an elementary science can be unfolded that does 
 not reveal the presence of law. He must be a skilful dodger who 
 can teach a group of children even for a few hours and not encoun- 
 ter some call for a recognition of law. 
 
 Lessons of duty to parents and schoolmates, to public authorities. 
 
66 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 and to the Supreme Lawgiver of tlie universe, enter into the 
 rudest idea of an American child's school education quite as much 
 as the aljjhabet and the multiplication table. And yet what medium 
 exists through which we may gain a correct idea of j^opular im- 
 provement in these respects ? The daily public school is the only 
 school of manners that multitudes of children ever attend ; and their 
 deportment, in and out of school, is to the credit or reproach of 
 their teachers. We do not remember any distinct allusion to this 
 branch of instruction in any of the reports, nor does it head one of 
 the columns of the blank forms. It is not regarded, we apprehend, 
 as an end to be sought, whatever individual teachers may see 
 fit to do towards it. And from whom could we expect to receive 
 reports on the subject ? No casual visitor would be competent 
 to judge. There may be a constrained decorum preserved by 
 the school during a visit and a very favourable judgment formed, 
 but if the boys and girls are followed to the playground (where 
 there happens, fortunately, to be one) or to their homes, and their 
 conduct towards those who have a right to their respect and obedi- 
 ence is observed, we shall soon see how far the moral discipline of 
 the school has been healthy and efiicient. It must be admitted 
 that, as a general thing, our youth evince very little of that docility 
 of temper and reverence for law and authority which any true 
 system of education is presumed to enjoin, and hence we can hardly 
 escape the inference that it is generally neglected in the adminis- 
 tration of the daily public schools of Ohio. 
 
 It should be remembered that no people on earth are so com- 
 pletely dependent on any of their institutions for national position 
 and character, as Ave are on our public schools for ours. In other 
 civilized countries the ruling classes are, numerically, a small 
 minority, but they give a tone to the manners and social habits of 
 the country. When corruption and licentiousness are rampant in 
 court circles, it is not long before their grosser forms are revealed 
 all the way down the social scale. Sometimes a single reign, like 
 that of Elizabeth or Louis XVI., works a revolution in the whole 
 character of national manners. 
 
 The degree of refinement or civilization to which a people have 
 attained is denoted by their use of language, the deportment of the 
 sexes towards each other, taste in dress, public amusements, archi- 
 tecture, the fine arts, domestic relations and usages, — in a word, the 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 67 
 
 general carriage of the people in their daily life. As we have said, 
 the existence of a "privileged class" may — nay must — give a tone to 
 society ; but withus the whole body of the nation is the privileged 
 class ; and hence the desirable diffusion of the influences of a high 
 civilization must be secured by some other, better and safer agency ; 
 and there is none known to us more general, appropriate and effi- 
 cient than our daily public schools. The influence of our colleges, 
 academies and high schools, though very important in this view, is 
 comparatively limited. Of whom shall we inquire what pains are 
 taken to cultivate good manners, and repress whatever is coarse, 
 boorish and barbarous, as well as vicious, in the boys and girls of 
 Ohio? What report of visitors, directors, auditors or commissioners 
 embraces such an item ? What care is taken that the teachers, 
 whose deportment is itself an educating influence in this direction, 
 are refined and well-bred men and women, or at least not rude and 
 clownish in their manners ? 
 
 We do not say that the deficiencies we have exposed are not in- 
 separable from the principles on which our American institutions 
 are founded. It may be that with free suffrage, a free press, and 
 a free religion, we must drift along with the tide of time, carrying 
 an enormous and constantly increasing load of foreign ignorance, 
 prejudice, poverty and crime, and take our chance for national 
 renown. But if it be true that the general prevalence of intelli- 
 gence and virtue is requisite to preserve us from disaster ; if such 
 institutions as ours will endure only so long as those who live under 
 them arc capable of appreciating and upholding them, then the chil- 
 dren of successive generations must be universally and thoroughly 
 instructed in the elementary branches of useful learning ; and if our 
 common schools are relied on to produce this result, we submit that 
 such reliance is not warranted by the condition of these schools, 
 if the survey we have taken of them is at all just. The law is all 
 that could be asked. Its requirement is that such provision shall 
 be made by the General Assembly as shall ^^ secure a thorough and 
 efficient system of common schools throughout the State." What 
 may or may not be done to further the interests of education be- 
 yond this, in cities and large towns, is a separate, independent in- 
 quiry. If the specific requisition of the law is honestly fulfilled in 
 the institution of a sufficient number of good common schools — 
 good in location, in accommodation, in furniture, in books, in- 
 
63 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 struction and discipline, — the commonwealth will not suifer serious 
 detriment, if higher advantages are attainable only at private cost. 
 If, on the other hand, the common school is not what it might and 
 should be, no expense or thought bestowed on higher institutions of 
 learning will avert fatal mischief to the general welfare. 
 
 We repeat a positive disclaimer of any kind or degree of hostility 
 to the most liberal expenditure of public money, or to any legislation 
 that secures the multiplication and improvement of daily common 
 schools. We heartily advocate any practical plan for preparing the 
 teachers of these schools for their work. We admit the full force of 
 the saying " the better the teachers, the better the schools ;" but Avhy 
 train astronomers at public expense, when astronomy is not one of 
 the branches of instruction in the public schools which they are to 
 teach? Let us direct our legislation, expenditures, thoughts and 
 sympathies to the grand duty of giving instruction to all children in 
 the branches of learning that are requisite to give them a fair start, 
 and the rest will take care of itself. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES PENNSYLVANIA. 69 
 
 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF SCHOOL LAWS. 
 
 School Districts. — A regular school district is a township, 
 borough, or city not divided into wards. It has corporate powers, 
 and acts through an elective board of six directors. Independent 
 districts may be formed separate from the ordinary school district 
 under proceedings in the courts of law, but only to protect and 
 promote education in localities that cannot be properly cared for 
 as township districts. The City of Philadelphia, and five other 
 cities or boroughs in the State are organized under special legis- 
 lation. School districts are empowered to hold such real and 
 personal property as is needed for school purposes. They may 
 borrow money to purchase sites or build houses to an amount not 
 exceeding one half of one per cent, of the assessed value of real 
 estate in the district. 
 
 Directo7'-s. — The directors of the schools are elected annually in 
 each district like other town officers, and may be removed for 
 cause. They serve gratuitously. They are required to establish 
 a sufficient number of common schools of different grades for the 
 education of all children in the district between six and twenty- 
 one, who may apply for admission, in the following branches, viz. : 
 Orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and gram- 
 mar, and such other branches as the directors may authorize, but 
 the county superintendent is to see that the branches named are 
 taught. The number of children to constitute a school is not 
 specified, but it has been decided that if there is not a school for 
 every fifty children, the spirit of the law is not complied Avith. 
 
 Coloured Schools. — The directors are empowered to open schools 
 for coloured children (negroes and mulattos) where twenty or more 
 desire to attend, and, when established, they are to be kept open 
 four months in the year ; and wherever such schools are opened, 
 the directors are not required to admit this class of children to the 
 6 
 
70 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCUOOL 
 
 public schools, nor are they prohibited from attending these schools 
 unless by implication. 
 
 Poivers of Directors. — The directors have the general superin- 
 tendence of the schools in the district. They are required to visit 
 each school once every month. They also appoint teachers, fix 
 their salaries, and dismiss them for cause ; prescribe branches of 
 study and text-books, and suspend or expel refractory pupils. 
 They are also required to grade the schools, and fix terms of 
 admission. 
 
 School Buildings. — The directors are required to procure suit- 
 able sites, purchase, build or rent schoolhouses, and supply the 
 same with proper conveniences, fuel, &c. The term " conveniences" 
 embraces desks for teachers and pupils, and whatever in the way 
 of furniture is needed for cleanliness, health, and comfort. 
 
 Plans. — Building plans are furnished by the State, having in 
 view good light and healthful ventilation. In a few counties, by 
 special legislation, suitable sites, not exceeding an acre in extent, 
 may be entered upon by directors against the will of the owner, 
 and appropriated to school buildings, proper compensation for the 
 same being made. 
 
 Boohs. — No person ofiicially connected Avith the administration 
 of the school system can be concerned in selling or promoting the 
 sale of books or school apparatus on pain of fine and imprison- 
 ment.* Immediately after the election of teachers, and before the 
 opening of the schools, the directors and teachers are required 
 to meet and determine what books in the different departments 
 shall be used. Books are to be provided by parents, and if they 
 neglect it their children can be excluded until compliance, except 
 in case of indigence. 
 
 Taxes. — The directors are required to determine annually the 
 amount of school tax necessary (in addition to the State appropria- 
 tion, and the income from other sources) to keep the schools open 
 from four to ten months of the year, and levy the same. They may 
 also at any time, though not twice in the same year, levy a special 
 tax, not greater than the school tax, to pay for buildings or sites. 
 
 Teachers. — In all contracts with teachers the school month is 
 twenty-two days. The county superintendent is required to ex- 
 
 * The practice of book agents in taking old books for the purpose of introducing 
 a new scries by a different publislier, is condemned. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 71 
 
 amine all candidates for the profession of teacliers, and to give a 
 certificate (good only in the county) specifying the branches the 
 person is qualified to teach, and in these branches only shall such 
 teacher be employed. A' new examination and a new certificate 
 are required if a new branch is to be taught. Persons who have 
 been at the normal school are to have certificates, stating the 
 branches in which they are qualified to teach, so far as the theory 
 is concerned.?^ 
 
 Teachers of common schools, who have taught three annual 
 terms consecutively in the same district, may be examined at the 
 same time, and receive similar certificates, as if from the normal 
 school. A normal school certificate shall be conclusive evidence 
 of scholarship to the extent set forth in it, in every part of the 
 State, without farther examination. To obtain a certificate of 
 competency in the practice of teaching by a normal school pupil, 
 he must have actually taught under the first certificate two full 
 annual terms, and must show a good mioral character, and a satis- 
 factory discharge of duty. 
 
 Institutes. — Institutes for the improvement of teachers may, at 
 the option of directors, be held in the district on any two Satur- 
 days of the month which they may appoint. These two days are 
 reckoned in the twenty- two days of the school month, when occu- 
 pied by institutes. 
 
 District Superiyitendents. — The district superintendent is not 
 recognized by the law, but is employed to visit schools and make 
 reports. He must be the secretary of the school directors, and 
 may receive compensation. 
 
 County Superintendent. — The school directors of the several 
 counties are required to hold a convention every third year at the 
 county seat, and appoint a person of literary and scientific acquire- 
 ments (meaning sufficient scholarship to enable the person to give 
 sound and thorough instruction in the branches required to be 
 taught in schools) and of skill and experience in teaching (mean- 
 ing a sound knowledge of the theory and actual experience of 
 teaching, as a professional, and not an occasional employment), 
 who is to be the county superintendent — to hold office for three 
 
 * There is no provision respecting who shall give a certificate of qualification so 
 far as practice is concerned, unless it is included iu the county superintendent's 
 certificate. 
 
72 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 years — his compensation to be fixed by the directors (ranging from 
 $300 to $1,500), to be sworn, and to receive Lis commission from 
 the State superintendent. He is not to be concerned in the selec- 
 tion of teachers or books. He is to see,*however, that the required 
 branches are properly taught, and if teachers are not competent 
 he is to notify the directors ; and if they do not obtain others, he 
 is to notify the State superintendent, who shall withhold the State 
 appropriation from the delinquent district. The county superin- 
 tendent may be removed for cause. 
 
 State Superintendent of Common Schools. — This officer is ap- 
 pointed by the Executive, with the advice of the Senate, for the term 
 of three years, at a fixed salary. His duties are specified by law, 
 and among them is that of attending Institutes and visiting nor- 
 mal schools. 
 
 Normal Sclwols. — The State is divided into twelve normal 
 districts. Thirteen or more citizens uniting for the establishment 
 of a school for the training of teachers may secure the benefits of 
 one such school in the district, to be under the direction of a board 
 of trustees, who shall report to the State superintendent. In 
 order to be accepted, the school must have ten. acres of ground, 
 and buildings, embracing a hall of sufficient capacity to seat one 
 thousand adults, with class-rooms, lodging-rooms, refectory, &c., 
 &c., for at least three hundred pupils — all the apartments well 
 lio-hted, lieated, and ventilated ; also a library room, cabinet, and 
 other apparatus. Each school is to have six professors, qualified 
 to fill the various departments, one of which shall be the theory 
 and practice of teaching. One of the six shall be Principal, in 
 whom the discipline and government shall be vested. Attached to 
 each school shall be one or more model schools, with not less than one 
 hundred pupils, so placed as to afford the pupils of the normal school 
 an opportunity to acquire a practical knowledge of the art of teach- 
 ing. Qualifications for admission to be prescribed at a meeting of 
 the principals of the several normal schools. They shall admit as 
 pupils one student annually (alternating the sexes) from each com- 
 mon scbool district within the limits of the normal district, at a 
 cost fixed by the trustees of the several schools, and paid in 
 advance by the directors Avho send them. Candidates for admis- 
 sion under this provision to be selected from male pupils of sixteen 
 or more, and females of fourteen or more, on examination by 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 73 
 
 directors, of such only as manifest a desire and capacity to make 
 teaching a profession. The persons trained in the normal schools 
 "shall be liable" to devote the three years next after leaving, to 
 teaching common schools in the district that paid for their train- 
 ing, if required by directors, and shall receive the medium salary 
 paid in such district. If not required there, they shall serve three 
 years in some other district — at what they can get. The obligation 
 to do this shall be one of the conditions of their admission to the 
 normal school. School teachers may also be admitted to the nor- 
 mal school on prescribed terms. Examinations to be conducted 
 by the principals of the several normal schools. 
 
 CONDITION OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 Some of the peculiar features of the school system of Pennsyl- 
 vcmia will be observed in the foregoing sketch of the School Law. 
 
 Oost. — The total cost of the common schools for 1864 (taxes and 
 State appropriations) was $2,381,173, of which $1,692,664 was for 
 tuition.* The whole teaching and building tax was less than one 
 cent on the dollar of taxable property. The average cost per 
 pupil was sixty-two cents a month, and the average length of the 
 school term five months and seventeen days. 
 
 The number of teachers examined in 1864 was 15,789, or less 
 by 1,839 than in 1863 ; and the number of candidates rejected in 
 1864 was 1,009 less than in 1862. The inferiority of the teaching 
 force for the year is ascribed (1.) to the depletion of the ranks of 
 male teachers, occasioned by the war, which took away over 3,000 
 or more, and made it necessary to supply their places with such 
 persons as were at hand ;t and (2.) to the fact that two-thirds of 
 the examiners were new men. Hence certificates of qualification 
 were granted to incompetent persons. Many boys who were too 
 young to be drafted have been placed in charge of schools, though 
 conscious themselves of their unfitness. And what is passing 
 strange, the superintendent assures us, that in the central and 
 southern counties of the State boys sixteen years of age, who 
 
 * The total expenditure in 1865-6 for tuition, fuel, and buildings (exclusive of 
 the first district, or Philadelphia) was $2,775,484 06. 
 
 f We presume this embraces a period of two or three years. 
 
74 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 never taught an hour in their lives, have been inducted into this 
 responsible office in preference to well qualified and experienced 
 female teacliers. 
 
 Of the 14,668 teachers in service in 1864, 7,765 "were females.* 
 The number of schools taught was 12, 566, f showing an increase of 
 405 schools over 1863, but an increase of only 206 teachers, and 
 these all females. 
 
 The increase in the cost of tuition in 1864 was a little short of 
 $200,000,1 and the average cost to each pupil per month 58 cents,§ 
 or 6 per cent, advance on the previous year. The average length 
 of the school term in 1864 was 5 months and 17 days. The aver- 
 age wages of male teachers in 1864 was $25 42, in 1865-6 it was 
 $31 82 per month, and of females in 1864, $20 16, and in 1865-6, 
 $24 21. 
 
 We cannot burden these fcAv pages with voluminous statistics, 
 and we take the return of one county at random as a fair average 
 in respect to the ages of teachers and the permanency of their voca- 
 tion. Of 189 teachers employed in Bedford County during the 
 year, 78, or nearly half, were from 15 to 20 years of age ; 49 
 from 20 to 80; 139 had previously taught from four to twelve 
 months, and nine of every ten regard the employment as tem- 
 porary. 
 
 Teachers. — It is an observable feature of the Pennsylvania re- 
 port that females have obtained so large a share of public confi- 
 dence. Though we are not informed what proportion of the teachers 
 examined and certified in 1864 were females, the superintendent 
 states that considerable pains have been taken by the department 
 to ascertain the comparative success of male and female teachers, 
 both in teaching and governing ; and he assures us that, with two 
 or thtee exceptions, the result has been to show that females have 
 succeeded quite as well as males when the amount of experience 
 was the same ; that in counties where both have been engaged in 
 schools of the same grade, and of equal size, the total failures have 
 been greater with the males, in proportion to the number employed, 
 than with the females ; and also that, as a general thing, female 
 teachers have been quite as acceptable to the public. He does not 
 recommend dispensing with male teachers in cities and large towns, 
 
 * Increased to 8,045 in 18G5-G. f In 1865-6, 12,548. 
 
 + In 1865-G it was increased ?p300,000. g G8, in 1865-6. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 75 
 
 thongli he is doubtless aware that some of the most skilful and suc- 
 cessful teachers and disciplinarians in the public schools and other 
 institutions of the city are females. 
 
 Nothing could be more discreditable to the domestic and social 
 training of our boys than to say of them that they are too rude and 
 insubordinate to be entrusted to those whose muscular strength 
 could not abide any struggle that a policeman might anticipate. It 
 would be better to establish a school here and there specially for 
 "roughs," and adapt the buildings and appurtenances as well as 
 the teacher to their peculiar needs. We have seen more than one 
 instance in which an overgrown boy — ill-governed, or ungoverned 
 at home — has kept a Avliole school in a turmoil, and worn a sensi- 
 tive woman's life out. Nothing is more obvious than the propriety 
 and justice of depriving such of the abused privilege. 
 
 In running our eye over the county reports, we notice that the 
 relative value and success of the sexes, as teachers, is frequently 
 brought to view : 
 
 A large proportion of the teachers employed the past year were 
 females ; and it is a gratifying fact that while they were fully equal 
 to the male teachers in point of qualifications, they proved them- 
 selves equally capable of teaching good schools.* 
 
 We have employed 83 teachers, 15 females and 8 males ; and 
 in the selection of them regard is had not only to the intellectual 
 acquirements of an applicant, but also the ability to teach and 
 govern. f 
 
 Females generally are as well qualified as males, and their 
 efforts are attended with as much practical success. J 
 
 In literary qualifications and ability to teach and govern, they 
 are, as a class, equal to males. § 
 
 We have of good teachers quite as many females as males, in 
 proportion to the numbers. || 
 
 The prejudice against female teachers is gradually giving way, 
 and the probability is that our schools in the future will be princi- 
 pally taught by them.^ 
 
 About two-thirds of the teachers employed during the last term 
 were females ; young and inexperienced as they were, they did ex- 
 ceedingly well.** 
 
 The number of well-qualified female teachers was never so 
 great as at the present time, and instances have not been wanting 
 where female teachers, having succeeded well, are taking the 
 places of male teachers, who have been dismissed for incapacity. 
 
 * Adams. f Berks. J Cambria. § Clearfield. 
 
 II Franklin. ^ Lawrence. ** Lycoming. 
 
70 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 Whatever may hitherto have been said respecting 'woman's sphere,' 
 it must now be conceded that the institution of common schools 
 depends mainly upon our female teachers for support. If the in- 
 stitution be sustained, to them will belong the glory.* 
 
 All the teachers employed gave good satisfaction except fifteen, 
 who should improve or quit the business. All the females em- 
 ployed were successful, "f 
 
 Many of our best female teachers are leaving the profession 
 for more remunerative employment. The numerous mantua, mil- 
 liner and tailoring establishments, together with printing offices, 
 artists' galleries and clerkships offer greater pecuniary inducements 
 than do our schools. J 
 
 There must always be a formidable obstacle to raising up a class 
 of men and women to be permanently occupied as teachers in Penn- 
 sylvania schools so long as a large majority of the schools are 
 in session for six months or less. If half the schools were kept in 
 summer and the other half in winter, so that with an ordinary vaca- 
 tion the same teacher might pass from one to the other, and so be 
 sure of remunerative employment for nearly or quite the entire 
 year, there would be some reason in asking him or her to make 
 teaching a profession. But even then much larger wages must be 
 paid, or all idea of competing with outside claims upon their ser- 
 vices, may be abandoned. "Excellent teachers, there being no 
 better in the State, taught last winter," says the superintendent of 
 Monroe County, '•'■for sixteen dollars a month and boarded them- 
 selves ; and to do this," he adds, "at a time when every branch of 
 human industry is so well rewarded, and the price of all the neces- 
 sities (necessaries) of life so high, is a shameful commentary on 
 the public spirit of our school directors. The consequence of such 
 a disgraceful state of things need not be told." 
 
 The prevailing tone of the reports of county superintendents, 
 though evidently guarded, forces us to the conclusion that a large 
 number of teachers known to be incompetent are employed ; that 
 with the majority it is a mere casual and temporary engagement; 
 that the compensation is inadequate to command the services of 
 qualified teachers, and that those who will work cheap are much 
 surer of employment than those who can work well. 
 
 One of the county§ superintendents laments the withdrawal from 
 the corps of teachers of its most valuable members, and he ascribes 
 
 * Tioga. ■\ Siiydcr. X Venango. ^ Lebanon. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 77 
 
 it to the insufficiency of their compensation. He states that the 
 school directors in most of the districts are accustomed to pay all 
 teachers the same wages without regard to qualifications. A teacher 
 who has had years of experience is placed on the same footing with 
 a mere novice. He puts the case of one who has spent time and 
 money to qualify himself for teaching as the work of his life, and 
 who is estimated at no higher figure than those who teach because 
 they have nothing else to do, and find it pleasant enough to spend 
 the cold winter in a comfortable schoolroom engaged in what they 
 call "school keeping," This state of things is certainly to be re- 
 gretted, but is it not probable that directors in many cases lack the 
 needful knowledge, or discrimination, or decision which would be 
 requisite to a reform ? Does not the radical defect, disclosed in this 
 and a thousand other forms, lie in the structure of the system ? 
 In the endeavour to make it harmonize as far as possible with the 
 character of our political institutions, do we not sacrifice the unity, 
 directness and energy which a successful scheme of public schools 
 demands ? We hear voices on every side like a multitude of waters, 
 exclaiming against the suggestion that the people are not to be 
 trusted to educate themselves. " If they have intelligence enough 
 to choose their rulers, are they not competent to choose teachers 
 for their children ?" it is asked. The little word if, in such a con- 
 nection, is very significant. Whence does popular intelligence in 
 our country spring ? Is it not from the daily public schools ? And 
 if these are entrusted to incompetent and accidental teachers, how 
 long will the stock of intelligence hold out ?* 
 
 The most frequent failures noticed in the reports, are in the mat- 
 
 * When Stouber, Pastor Oberlin's predecessor in the Ban de la Roche, first settled 
 in that district he found the schoolhouse a miserable cottage, the scholars a num- 
 ber of ragged children, and the master an infirm, crippled old man. Entering the 
 cottage, Stouber said : 
 
 "Are you the schoolmaster, my good friend?" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " And what do you teach the children ?" 
 
 " Nothing, sir." 
 
 "Nothing! How's that?" 
 
 " Because I knows nothing myself." 
 
 " Why then are you put here as a schoolmaster 1" 
 
 " Why, I had been taking care of the Walbach pigs for a great number of years, 
 and when I became too old and infirm for that, they sent me here to take care of 
 the children." 
 
lb THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 ter of discipline or government. And this is perhaps the most 
 difficult of all others to remedy. " The faculty to govern a school 
 well, is," as the superintendent of Lancaster County remarks, "a 
 rare possession. Observation and reflection Avill conduce to the 
 acquisition of it, but real excellence in it is shown only by those 
 Avho were 'born to govern.' " It is sometimes mentioned in the 
 county reports, that young teachers who have never taught before, 
 not unfrequently give better satisfaction to directors and parents 
 than the older and more experienced teachers. Their success may 
 be ascribed, sometimes perhaps, to the possession of this . faculty 
 which age and experience rather impair than supply. Another 
 observation of the Lancaster County authority is worthy to be 
 pondered, viz. : that a proper attention to the cleanliness and 
 cheerfulness of a schoolroom and a teacher's devotion to the interests 
 of his school Avill, of themselves, secure a considerable degree of 
 good order. It is surprising to what an extent order will beget 
 order, especially among children and youth. 
 
 Institutes and Normal Schools. — Among the agencies desio-ned 
 to aid teachers in preparing themselves for their work as well as in 
 prosecuting it, Pennsylvania has normal schools and institutes. 
 Whatever credit may be due to the public authorities for the exist- 
 ence of these agencies, they are not to be congratulated on their 
 efficiency or fruits. Perhaps if they were employed with more 
 energy and skill, we might see their suitableness and admire the 
 spirit that prompted them. The normal schools of Pennsylvania 
 are not under the control of the State. They are recognized as 
 means set on foot by private parties or corporations for the supply 
 of teachers, and they have received aid from the public treasury to 
 the amount of nearly fifty thousand dollars ; but they are in no 
 sense part and parcel of the government apparatus. And if they 
 were, they could no more make skilful and successful teachers than 
 theological seminaries can make successful ministers, or medical 
 schools successful doctors. If the poor duped school children had 
 the same choice of teachers that families have of a doctor or religious 
 communities of a teacher, we should find many a man and woman, 
 now lording it over a hplpless group of little ones in the cheerless 
 schoolhouse, earning an lionest living in the field or the workshop. 
 The most such institutions can do, is to afford candidates some facili- 
 ties for becoming skilful in their profession. They cannot gauge 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 79 
 
 their wits nor predict with any certainty who will succeed and who 
 will fail. 
 
 For many years the need of preparatory schools for teachers has 
 been asserted, and arrangements were made with several literary 
 institutions to organize a department for this purpose. The State 
 made annual grants to five colleges which were required to receive 
 a stipulated number of students and prepare them to teach in the 
 public schools ; but in point of fact they were incorporated with the 
 college, and received no special training to fit them for their pro- 
 posed employment. The beneficiaries under these provisions, were 
 required to be citizens of Pennsylvania or the sons of citizens, and 
 no advantages were extended to females. The experiment of a 
 very few years showed conclusively that no important improvement 
 would result from such an arrangement, and the organization of 
 one or more normal schools was urged as a matter of absolute ne- 
 cessity. 
 
 In process of time, three such schools were opened in diiferent 
 districts of the State, and we are told in the report for 1864, that 
 they are all in a flourishing condition, and that scores of well quali- 
 fied teachers are going out from them continually to take charge of 
 our best schools.* Applications for graduates are made months in 
 advance. Under the system of normal schools, large numbers of 
 our teachers are being improved and our schools are being elevated, f 
 and " the whole system is annually gaining in popularity." The 
 crowds of students who are in constant attendance at the school, 
 seem to indicate that it meets a great public want.J And it is 
 added that three more normal schools are in contemplation. 
 
 In the reports made by the trustees of these schools, we find 
 some interesting items. The total cost of buildings, ground, furni- 
 ture, &c., is over $123,000, and the incumbrances, $25,000. Of 
 one of the schools it is stated that the expenditures exceed the in- 
 come by about $1000, and of the other tAVO the remarkable fact is 
 stated that the income balanced the expenses to a cent ! 
 
 The number of instructors employed in all the schools is 30, 16 
 males and 14 females. Only two of the reports give the cost of in- 
 
 * Pages 31, 32. 
 
 ■j- We trust the normal school teachers will not allow any of their pupils to go 
 out until they covenant never to use, or countenance the use of the phrases we have 
 italicized, or their like. 
 
 % Report of Normal School, Second District, Oct. 1864. 
 
80 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 struction. The number of pupils registered in the three schools 
 during the year was 1,075. Only one of the reports distinguishes 
 the sexes, and that gives 175 males and 174 females. There is 
 nothing (so far as we notice) to show the capacity of the several 
 schools as to the number that could be received, nor what period of 
 time the registered pupils remained, nor what has become of such 
 as have left. One of the reports refers to the "ready employment 
 which the graduates of the schools find as principals and teachers 
 in prominent institutions of learning." And another mentions 
 "the demand for teachers educated there,'" as being "general in 
 almost all parts of the State." 
 
 Passing from this very flattering representation of the condition 
 of these training schools into the various districts of the State, we 
 naturally look for some evidence of the change produced by intro- 
 ducing into the lump some portion of such active leaven. We may 
 reasonably expect the reports of county superintendents to distin- 
 guish between the condition of schools and districts where this im- 
 proved class of teachers find employment, and that of schools and 
 districts not so favoured. But although nearly every one of the 
 superintendents of the sixty-four counties, makes the qualifications 
 and success of teachers a distinct item, the existence, within the 
 bounds of the State, of such an institution as a normal school is 
 scarcely recognized. 
 
 The report from Beaver has the following paragraph : " We 
 have some teachers at the normal school at Edinboro' now, and 
 others will go soon." The report from Fayette says : " The nor- 
 mal school at Millsboro' has been a profitable institution to us, not 
 for the great number of teachers that have attended it from our 
 county, but from the fact that most of those who have attended 
 have come away with much improvement by which they are enabled 
 to benefit other teachers in our institutes." Lancaster County 
 alone gives a decided testimony to the advantages of the normal 
 school at Millersville : "Many of our best teachers," says the re- 
 port, "have had a course of instruction." Allusion is made to 
 other special agencies for the education of teachers, of which five 
 are in Columbia, and four in Northampton County. The report 
 from Venango refers to the need of " good academics or schools in 
 the county for the instruction of teachers, and, in the absence of 
 these, urges teachers to attend the normal school," &c. Normal 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 81 
 
 classes are mentioned with favour in the Somerset County report ; 
 and a teachers' class in graded schools is referred to as a useful 
 educational agency in the report from Susquehanna. Without de- 
 tracting in the slightest degree from the value of the normal school 
 system, we confidently submit that if it is entitled to the place 
 which its friends claim for it in the educating machinery of this 
 State, its influence should be much -more generally felt and defi- 
 nitely revealed. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that the great end proposed by the 
 establishment of State normal schools is not the training of, here 
 and there, a superior teacher, but the elevation of the wJioIe corjjs of 
 teachers throughout the community. And for this purpose it is 
 wisely provided that the normal pupils shall be drawn from the sev- 
 eral school districts within the counties composing the normal school 
 district in an equal proportion of the sexes. Though this would not 
 equalize the privileges of the schools, it would secure a distri- 
 bution over the territory represented, of whatever benefits were 
 derived from attendance. It is obvious that pupils to be admitted 
 "on district account," were first in view, and yet so ftfr as ap- 
 pears not a single pupil had been received " on district account" at 
 either of the schools. It would seem natural to expect in the re- 
 ports from these schools, items like the folllowing : 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ""* 
 
 Mo . 
 
 bflO '^ 
 
 
 
 
 QJ J^ 
 
 
 
 
 000 
 
 .2 2 'S 
 
 
 
 
 .Q.2 
 
 
 S-3 
 
 — a; 
 
 ^ '"■So 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 S " .a 
 
 
 
 53 g 
 
 
 bSj si 
 
 ■^ '^ IV 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 ■5 
 
 
 Eh 
 
 II 
 
 P a'" 
 
 m 
 
 Males, 16 to 18 ... 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 18 months 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 " 18 to 20 ... 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 years. 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 '■' over 20 ... 
 
 3 
 
 24 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 Full term 
 
 
 
 
 
 Females, 14 to 16 . . . 
 
 18 i 
 
 5 
 
 
 Full term 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 '' 16 to 18 . . . 
 
 21 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 18 months 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 " over 18 . . . 
 
 5 
 
 44 
 
 5 
 
 20 
 
 Full term 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 Such items would aid us in forming a correct judgment, not only 
 of the adaptation of such institutions to the real wants of the pub- 
 lic, but of the appreciation of them by the public. We should never 
 imagine, from the tenor of the county reports for 1864, that any 
 perceptible improvement has been wrought by such schools in the 
 great body of teachers, or that any is expected from them in time 
 to come. How far their influence may be felt for good by the few 
 
82 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCnOOL 
 
 thousands in the excepted districts is another question. Our ijresent 
 business is tvlth the scJiooIs that educate millions. 
 
 District Institutes. — There is another auxiliary agency on which 
 considerable dependence seems to be placed for the improvement 
 of public school teachers. We mean district institutes. In Penn- 
 sylvania, " the district institute is now as clearly a part of the 
 machinery of the common school system as is the school itself."* 
 If the Legislature regarded it in this light, it has been singu- 
 larly remiss in making provision for its organization except that 
 " two Saturdays of each month shall be appropriated to exercises 
 or institutes for the improvement of the teachers of the district." 
 The number of institutes organized in 1864 was six less than in 
 1862, and from the superintendent's report for the former year, we 
 infer that the obstacles to their success are by no means trivial. 
 The law contemplates the opening of an institute in every district 
 except where the number of teachers is too small, and then two 
 districts may be combined. On the other hand, when the district 
 is large or "broken by natural impediments," two institutes may 
 be held. It is suggested by more than one county superintendent, 
 that the school month is shortened by appropriating two Saturdays 
 to this object, and that no corresponding advantages result to the 
 schools. Such a suggestion implies rather a low estimate of the value 
 of the institute. But even so small an abridgment is worthy of 
 consideration if the whole term of the teacher's service to the Com- 
 monwealth is to be only four or five months — while if the occupation 
 is to be more permanent, so that his acquirements will enure to the 
 public benefit, then whatever advantages the institute confers, 
 would be well worth what it costs. Another suggestion of some 
 weight is made, viz. : whether the institute might not better be 
 continued for several successive days, and thus save the expense of 
 time and money in frequent journeys. 
 
 County Institutes, as they are called, are continued through 
 several days, and seem to have been much more successful; but we do 
 not find any provision of laAV authorizing them or directing the mode 
 of conductinij them. A "normal institute" is also mentioned as 
 a successful experiment, and a library is by several reports included 
 in the appendages of an institute. Besides the implied distrust of 
 
 * Common School Laws of Peiinsylvauia, with the decisions of the Supeiintcu- 
 dents, &c., 1862, p. 18. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 83 
 
 the efficiency of the district institutes to "vvhich we have referred, 
 we should judge from the tenor of the reports of county superin- 
 tendents that they were neither very useful nor very popular, though 
 where they are conducted with tact and intelligence, and teachers 
 go into them with a will, they can scarcely fail to bn profitable. 
 Erom one county* we learn that "fully one-half of the institutes 
 were practically failures," but the failure is ascribed "not to the 
 system or the directors, but to the teachers, who could not appreciate 
 the advantages to be derived" from them. They could scarcely be 
 expected to appreciate that of the value of which they have had no 
 opportunity to judge. If an institute is properly organized and 
 conducted with skill, no teacher in attendance, who is worthy of 
 the name, will need an exhortation to induce him to attend an- 
 other. "Good wine needs no bush" says the proverb. 
 
 Some of the reports refer to the mode of conducting institutes 
 as being too often left to young and inexperienced teachers, the 
 time being employed in drilling the members in a mechanical 
 routine rather than in the theory and practice of teaching. To 
 some boards of directors the utility of institutes is so doubtful that 
 they would have the law modified, so as to make the holding of 
 them optional with the directors. It is stated that in districts 
 where a forfeiture of one day's wages is incurred by absence, the 
 attendance is generally regular. " Where the dollar fine is imposed, 
 the teachers always attend,"f but where there is not this incentive 
 "it is in some cases quite impossible to secure an attendance suffi- 
 cient to enter into any exercises. "J 
 
 Some would increase the penalty for non-attendance by dis- 
 qualifying the delinquent from further employment in the district; 
 but the only practical and efficient method of bettering the system 
 is to make the institutes more plainly useful, and to adopt and 
 rigidly maintain a standard in examinations for a certificate, 
 which shall render the use of the institute or some equivalent means 
 of improvement, indispensable to success. People are not apt to 
 love to do what is against their will. Where there are true teachers 
 there seems to be no difficulty in awakening an interest; but, un- 
 fortunately, they are not the parties that chiefly need the stimulus 
 of such means. 
 
 * AUcgban}'. -}• Montour. J Bucks. 
 
84 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 One director betrays the need of a lesson or two in grammar 
 when he tells us that " of the institute as an efficient agency in 
 bringing out the teacher few if any venture to dispute." The dol- 
 lar agency would probably beat it. In another report we have the 
 singular statement that there is "a disposition on the part of some 
 of the best qualified teachers so to perform the duties appertaining 
 to the institute as to turn the whole thing into a farce."* It would 
 not surprise us to learn that the farce was the production of more 
 responsible parties, while the teachers were involuntary spectators. 
 
 From one county comes the complaint that while institutes have 
 been held in about half the districts the time of the teachers has 
 been mostly spent in gossip. f Some of the reports refer to the 
 poorer districts, where the schools are open but for a short time 
 and under the care of inferior teachers, as chiefly deficient in the 
 proper appreciation of institutes ; but others charge a like or 
 greater indifference upon favoured districts. " The only districts 
 known to have neglected the institute wholly or in part, are of that 
 class in Avhicli the teachers enjoy the advantages of the longest 
 term and highest salaries in the county. "| " They (the institutes) 
 have proved a failure in every district except one in the county."§ 
 The expression is quite frequent in the reports from county officers 
 that the system of institutes is not regarded favourably by the 
 people and that the imperative requirements of law alone keep them 
 in existence. " Public oj^inion is against them, and but for the 
 law they would be abandoned. "I| In some instances they are dis- 
 couraged and oi^posed even by boards of directors.^ 
 
 Upon a review of all that the reports disclose touching this 
 item, we should infer that very decided advantages might be de- 
 rived from the organization of institutes where the number of 
 earnest, enterprizing and intelligent teachers rendered them least 
 necessary ; and where some leading spirit can be found to give order 
 and life to them. Often, however, they would need to be conducted 
 without aid or countenance from the school authorities of the 
 district and in spite of their indiiferencc, if not in opposition to 
 their wishes. The spirit of the body of teachers must be buoyant 
 enough to endure some personal sacrifice and inconvenience, or 
 their organization will be worse than useless. As at present con- 
 
 * Chester. f Luzerne. J Northumberland. 
 
 ^ PiliL", II Sullivan. f Venango and Wayne. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA, 85 
 
 ducted, with some very notable exceptions, we think no one could 
 regard them as entitled to reliance for the improvement and eleva- 
 tion of the methods of teaching. So that neither normal schools 
 nor institutes — however useful in theory — seem to have been thus 
 far of great value in preparing any considerable number of teachers 
 of the daily public school of Pennsylvania for their work. 
 
 SclioolJiouses. — Perhaps a still more pertinent test of the popu- 
 lar estimation of the public schools of the State is found in the 
 character and condition of the sclioolhouses and thein appendages. 
 And 
 
 1. As to site. This, as we have seen, is determined by the board 
 of directors, who have sole authority in the premises ; and although 
 it is obviously proper to ascertain and to respect public sentiment 
 in the matter, there is no obligation to do so. The taste, intelli- 
 gence and judgment of each board of directors have, therefore, a 
 fair field to manifest themselves, and the site is quite closely con- 
 nected with the success of the school itself. The aggregate expense 
 of schoolhouses in 1863-'64 was little short of $400,000, which was 
 $20,000 less than in 1863. 
 
 To afford every facility to those entrusted with providing build- 
 ings, a system of schoolhouse architecture has been prepared and 
 published at the expense of the State, which it is supposed will be 
 consulted of course as to the style of building, &c. Yet it is the 
 subject of bitter complaint that schoolhouses are often put up with- 
 out the remotest regard to the comfort, health or pleasure of the 
 children; while the site itself is selected without the slightest re- 
 gard to salubrity or attractiveness. Sometimes it is a bleak hill- 
 side, hot in summer and all but inaccessible in winter ; sometimes 
 it is in a swampy ; here on waste land, or in some useless angle of 
 the highway ; and there in a corner of a field, without a foot of 
 playground, or an inch of room for an out-house or a place on which 
 to deposit fuel; the lots unfenced, and not a thought bestowed on 
 the question whether site or building is agreeable or healthful to 
 teachers or pupils. 
 
 The difficulty of obtaining a suitable site, even when the people 
 would like one, is also very formidable in some districts. Owners 
 of land are said to regard it as "a desecration of the soil" to build 
 a schoolhouse upon it ! The consequence is that it is often thrust 
 into some gap in the fence, opened for that purpose upon the 
 7 
 
86 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 premises of some magnanimous citizen upon stipulations like the 
 following: 1. That as soon as the house is completed, the fence 
 shall be joined thereto so that the house shall form a part of the 
 fence, and thus save one or two lengths of rails, which will be use- 
 ful somewhere else on the farm. 2. No pupil to be allowed to climb 
 over the fence; throw stones at the apple-trees adjacent to the 
 same; or pick up any of the fruit that may chance to fall on the 
 schoolhouse side ! 3. At the expiration of 33 years the land to 
 revert to the^owner or his representatives with the building thereon 
 "to have and to hold."* 
 
 The State superintendent's report does not dwell much in detail 
 on this topic, but we gather sundry interesting facts from the re- 
 ports of county superintendents, some of whom evidently entertain 
 just and liberal ideas on the subject; but their constituents, in many 
 cases, either misapprehend the use to which the buildings are to be 
 put, or they are too close-fisted to provide such as are adapted to 
 it. We start with the opinion of the superintendent of Alleghany 
 County that "if there is one public building in the district more 
 pleasantly located, more comfortably arranged, better Avarmed and 
 more attractive in its general appearance and more elevating in its 
 influence than diny other, that building should be the district school- 
 house." The site and out-buildings have almost as much to do 
 with these features as the main structure, but our extracts will 
 embrace both. 
 
 During a large portion of the time the schools are open the mud 
 around nearly all the houses is too deep for the comfort, cleanliness 
 or health of teachers or scholars. f 
 
 About 80 (of 183) houses are deficient and unhealthy in their 
 construction. J 
 
 There are 173 (school) houses in the county, and at least 75 of 
 them occupy sites that are entirely unsuitable. They seem to have 
 been placed where they are, because the ground they stand on could 
 be put to no other possible use. The health of pupils, beauty of 
 location, convenience of access, shade and suitable playground, 
 have been entirely overlooked or uncared for; and all over the 
 county, on bleak hill-tops, or steep mountain-sides, in rugged ravines 
 or swampy flats, may be seen these monuments to the carelessness 
 or incompetency of those who placed them there. It may be re- 
 garded as a fortunate fact that most of them are rotting down, and 
 must soon be replaced by new ones.§ 
 
 * Luzerne. f Armstrong. J Beaver. ^ Bedford. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 87 
 
 Nearly half the schoolhouses stand on ground of which the pre- 
 sent boards of directors have no title papers ! Only five deeds of 
 school property are recorded in the county.* 
 
 There are ,120 schoolhouses in the county, 30 of which are so 
 totally unfit that the comfort, health or convenience of the pupils 
 attending them is scarcely consulted in a single respect. Only 30 
 of the 120 are provided with the necessary out-buildings ; 31 are 
 partially provided, and 50 are without any.f 
 
 Of 336 schoolhouses in the county, 35 are unfit for use, and 112 
 are poor.!| 
 
 Sixty-four houses are very poor, and at least 30 of them are 
 entirely unfit to be occupied. § 
 
 Whole number of schoolhouses in the county 148 ; unfit for use, 
 16; unsupplied with means of ventilation, 122; unprovided with 
 out-buildings, 101. || 
 
 Of 295 schoolhouses in the county, 47 are very good, 55 good, 
 89 middling, 62 poor, and 42 very poor and unfit for use.T[ 
 The number of buildings entirely unfit for use is about 35.** 
 There are ten schoolhouses unfit for use and positively injurious 
 to both pupils and teacher. The number not provided with out- 
 buildings of any kind is 31; with indifferent ones, 38; and with 
 suitable ones 29.f -f 
 
 Twenty-four houses are unfit for school purposes, if it is con- 
 sidered that disease, deformity and disordered intellect is (are) the 
 result of crowding from 50 to 80 children into a small, cold, dark, 
 damp^ ill-ventilated and dreary looking hovel. Some of the out- 
 are in a most shameful condition. J J 
 
 Of 172 schoolhouses in the county, 57 may be considered good, 
 60 middling, and 55 poor or unfit. §§ 
 
 A number of schoolhouses in the county are in a miserable con- 
 dition — a disgrace to their respective neighbourhoods. Some, of 
 these are in prominent places, surrounded by a thrifty, aye, 
 wealthy community. What a tale they tell to travellers passing. 
 , them!|||| 
 
 Number of schoolhouses unfit to be occupied about 25. ^"[f 
 Of 204 school- buildings, 93 are medium and 31 unfit for the 
 schools they are intended to accommodate.*** 
 
 We have 65 schoolhouses in the county, 30 of which are unfit 
 for school purposes.ftt 
 
 Three new schoolhouses were built last year after models fur- 
 nished by the State on good and valuable lots, but the only out- 
 building to either of them is a coalhouse.JJJ 
 
 * Bedford. f Blair. + Bradford. § Bucks. || Cambria. 
 
 ^ Chester. ** Clarion. ff Clinton. JJ Cumberland. §| Dauphin. 
 
 ;||| Erie. f^ Fayette. *** Franklin. fff Fulton. JJJ Jefferson. 
 
88 TUE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 Of the 01 sclioolliouses in the county, 33 are good, and 28 wholly 
 unfit.* 
 
 Entirely unfit for school purposes, 19. f 
 
 Whole number of schoolhouses in the county, 230.; unfit to be 
 occupied, 75. J 
 
 Only 33 per cent, of our schoolhouses are fit for use. In Middle 
 Smithfield and Eldred there are 20 schoolhouses, of which 18 are 
 unfit for the use intended. It is a disgrace to those districts that 
 such nuisances should exist.§ 
 
 Fifteen of the schoolhouses are positively unfit for use. One 
 district is unfortunate in not having a single respectable school- 
 house in the whole township, though ranking among the first in 
 the county in point of resources. One schoolhouse is nothing more 
 than a heap of stones and mortar. Only one of the nineteen school- 
 houses in one township has the necessary out-buildings. A similar 
 defect exists in several other districts. || 
 
 If these out-buildings are essential to the cultivation of habits of 
 propriety and delicacy among children of the same family, how can 
 they be dispensed with at the public schoolhouse, where 40 or 50 
 children of different families daily associate ? 
 
 Eleven houses are unfit to be occupied as the training places of 
 youth, five of which may be regarded as nuisances.^ 
 
 The number of worthless schoolhouses is very large. Out-build- 
 ings are entirely wanting to at least half of the schools. Standing 
 at the doors of some of the miserable hovels where children are kept 
 housed six hours a day for six months of the year, I have beheld 
 elegant farmhouses surrounded by hundreds of broad and fertile 
 acres, or beautiful village lots and storehouses, valued at thousands 
 of dollars apiece. And should not good, comfortable schoolhouses, 
 with grounds properly fenced and properly improved, be provided 
 for all our children?** 
 
 A school lot, neatly fenced, with suitable out-buildings upon it, 
 "Avould be a novelty in this county. When shall we sec the neat, 
 commodious house, nestled among the trees, protected and cared 
 for, instead of the sun-burnt, neglected and dilapidated fabric which 
 has stood the base assaults of many a jack-knife and 3'oung cata- 
 pult ?tt 
 
 Between 15 and 20 schoolhouses are unfit for use.:[:t 
 
 Fifty-eight houses are unfit to be occu23ied.§§ 
 
 Twenty-two houses unfit for usc.|||| » 
 
 Thirty-three houses unfit for school purposes. ^'^ 
 
 This brief survey of the condition of the school-buildings in dif- 
 
 * Juniata. f Lycoming. J Mercer. ^ Munroc. || Northampton. 
 
 ^ Pilve. ** Tioga. ff Venango. J+ Warren. §| Washington. 
 
 nil Wayne. 1[T[Wyoming. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 89 
 
 ferent parts of the State, indicates Avitli considerable accuracy the 
 popuhir appreciation of the schools themselves. Of course there 
 are reports from the same or other districts of improvements, often 
 highly creditable. But suppose the edifices for the celebration of 
 religious worship were, to the same extent, allowed to stand from 
 year to year unfit for use, what would be thought of our religious 
 habits and sympathies ? Or what of our judicial tribunals if our 
 courthouses were equally neglected? Or of our domestic duties and 
 enjoyments if a similar report could be made of our private dwell- 
 ings ? Are not the encomiums passed so frequently in these reports 
 upon the public spirit and forethought which have now and then 
 been shown in the erection of a respectable schoolhouse on a suit- 
 able site and with proper appendages, a tacit charge of a want of 
 these virtues or graces upon the numerous districts whose school- 
 houses are publicly stigmatized as nuisances ? 
 
 Visits hy Parents and others. — -And in this connection we may 
 as well say what we have to say respecting the indifference of 
 parents to the prosperity of the schools in their neighbourhood, 
 which the report before us laments and reproves. The State super- 
 intendent dwells on this topic at great length, and does not hes- 
 itate to say that "the common schools are suffering for want 
 of parental co-operation, perhaps more than from any other cause." 
 The importance of such co-operation in securing the punctual and 
 continuous attendance of their children can scarcely be exaggerated. 
 It can hardly be expected, however, so long as neither the school- 
 house nor the school has attractions to their eye ; but would 
 be absolutely repulsive if it were not that it serves as a cage for the 
 children while they are out of harm's way. Make the schoolhouse a 
 cheerful, wholesome, attractive place, well furnished with suitable 
 out-buildings and sufficient room for needful recreation; and let an 
 intelligent, skilful, conscientious teacher take the charge of 40 or 
 50 of the children of the neighbourhood, and there will be little need 
 of stimulating the co-operation of the parents. They would not be 
 able to coax their boys and girls to stay at home. Attract the 
 lamb and the old sheep will be sure to follow. 
 
 But as to the stress which is laid on the visits of parents to the 
 school we cannot bring ourselves to believe that it is not widely 
 misplaced. The superintendent thinks if parents would visit the 
 schools frequently they would know whether they are what they 
 
90 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 should be; whether the teachers should be commended and sup- 
 ported or -whether their course should be disapproved.* And the 
 report of one of the countyf superintendents speaks of the great 
 good that might be accomplished " if parents would visit the schools 
 for a few hours in each month of the session by observing the 
 method of teaching and the conduct of the pupils, and by en- 
 couraging the teacher in his arduous duties," &c. 
 
 That an occasional call at the public school by intelligent and judi- 
 cious persons who have the capacity to discriminate between teachers 
 who know their duty and do it and the empirics and impostors who 
 palm themselves off for that service, knowing themselves to be en- 
 tirely unfit for it, — would be of great value, no one will deny. And 
 doubtless the infrequency of calls by such persons results from the 
 general impression that the system has its appointed administrators, 
 and that a visit, however well meant, might be an intrusion. The 
 great majority of parents would find it very awkward to make their 
 appearance in a school while in session unless it were to upbraid 
 or pommel the teacher for some wholesome discipline of a pet boy ; 
 and few comparatively would be able to judge, and still fewer would 
 be disposed to express a judgment, of the methods of teaching or 
 government, or to advise or suggest improvements, however de- 
 sirable they might seem. The truth is that children should come 
 from home to school with the principles of subordination to authority 
 well established, and with such dispositions towards others that the 
 teacher's task in the regulation of his little commonwealth should 
 be comparatively light. Here is the proper province and function 
 of the parent, and not in the schoolroom. The teacher's ofiice is 
 to instruct and exercise the intellectual faculties a-nd combine, in 
 proper vigour and harmony, the elements of future character. And 
 one would almost as soon think of urging parents to look well to 
 the prescriptions of their physician, and be present Avhen he ex- 
 amines the patient in order to throw in a word of counsel if he 
 betrays any Avant of skill, as of summoning parents to the school- 
 house to look after a teacher, who, by the proper ofiicers, and (as 
 we must presume) after proper scrutiny of his fitness, has been ap- 
 pointed to teach "the young ideas" of their children "how to 
 shoot." 
 
 We apprehend that ninety-nine teachers in a hundred would tell 
 * Report, p. 30. f Elk. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 91 
 
 US that if parents will send their brood to school punctually and 
 regularly, with clean faces, hands, feet and clothes, and well trained 
 to habits of obedience, they will cheerfully absolve them from any 
 obligation to attend the school in person, and will moreover engage 
 to teach their offspring as faithfully and treat them as kindly as if 
 their parents were sitting beside them. If the positive requisitions 
 of law are met by duly elected officers, as much visiting will be done 
 as is for the welfare of the school. 
 
 The exhortation to clergymen to resume the habit of visiting the 
 public schools, which has been of late years relinquished, would 
 probably fail to produce the effect which the superintendent antici- 
 pates. There was a time, undoubtedly, when clergymen concerned 
 themselves largely in the oversight of the public schools, and in 
 some parts of the country they are still selected for examiners and 
 visitors. But since the system has become incorporated with the 
 government machinery, and is open to the jealousy that so sen- 
 sitively watches all approaches of the ecclesiastical to the civil 
 power, their influence has very naturally been somewhat neutral- 
 ized. It is not to be supposed that the religious impression made 
 by a clerical visit should be otherwise than superficial and transient. 
 If the teacher's daily deportment and conversation do not confirm 
 and deepen such an impression, it will be found like the morning 
 cloud and the early dew. On the other hand, if the teacher is im- 
 bued with proper reverence for God and His ordinances, his influ- 
 ence will descend on the youngest heart in the school like the small 
 rain upon the tender herb. 
 
 Ciraded Schools. — One of the means much relied upon for eleva- 
 ting the standard of instruction, is grading the schools — that is, 
 organizing two or more departments under a general principal, with 
 a teacher for each department, so that pupils may be advanced from 
 a lower to a higher grade according to their proficiency. The 
 power to establish schools of different grades is vested in the direc- 
 tors and controllers of districts, and in the interpretation of the 
 law by the superintendent, the duty to establish them is as obliga- 
 tory as the duty to establish any schools at all. 
 
 There can be no doubt that a much more systematic and thorough 
 course of instruction may be given to 100 children by assigning to 
 one the whole work of teaching the art of reading and spelling, 
 to another the whole work of teaching writing ; to a third the 
 
92 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 wliole work of teaching geography, and so of grammar and arith- 
 metic, instead of committing them to one teacher and expecting 
 him or her to instruct in all these branches. And a still farther 
 advantage would result from their occupying separate rooms for 
 the purpose. But the practical question is whether the branches 
 required by law to be taught in the public schools, cannot be taught 
 with sufficient system and thoroughness by competent teachers 
 under the ordinary arrangement of classes? If cities or populous 
 towns are able, by self-imposed taxes, to maintain schools in wdiich 
 the highest attainments in literature and science are brought within 
 reach of the pupils, no one can reasonably object. But the obliga- 
 tions of the law fall much short of such a system. A certain mea- 
 sure of education is assumed to be indispensable to the public 
 welfare under such political institutions as ours, and to secure it the 
 Legislature has imposed on the people at large the duty of providing 
 gratuitous instruction for all who will receive it in six specified 
 branches, though other branches may be introduced by directors or 
 controllers. We apprehend that if all the academies, normal 
 schools, high schools and graded schools in Pennsylvania were 
 abolished to-day, and the public schools of the State could at once 
 be put into the hands of a body of teachers competent (in the full 
 sense of that word) to teach the six required branches, viz. : or- 
 thography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography and 
 arithmetic, and these only, the true and legitimate purposes of our 
 system of public education would be farther advanced in the next 
 twelve months, than it will be in five years with all the superior 
 grades of instruction in existence, and the great body of common 
 schools continued under their present auspices. In other words, 
 what the laAV contemplates and requires is very imperfectly and 
 superficially done, while the interest and glory of our educational 
 schemes are concentrated in the few higher organizations whose 
 direct influence is at least greatly circumscribed. 
 
 When the ordinary public school was the " people's college," a 
 good knowledge of these elementary branches was generally diffused 
 throughout the community. Here and there one head towered 
 above the rest and was marked for the academy and college. But 
 when it came to be thought important that our boys and girls should 
 be educated at the public charge in the languages, in philosophy, 
 in political economy, in short in the highest branches of learning, 
 it is not perhaps surprising that the humble service of the public 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 93 
 
 school should fall far in the rear, and Avhile, in the country at large, 
 there may be ten men and women now that can read Latin and 
 French and interpret the Federal Constitution where there was for- 
 merly but one, there are probably a hundred now that cannot write 
 a letter correctly, where there were ten before. So that, in fact, 
 the people's colleges have not proved colleges for the people, but 
 only for a privileged few, — the tax for their support being imposed 
 alike on us all. 
 
 We shall not be understood to complain of any measure of liber- 
 ality in encouraging all classes of people to seek the highest im- 
 provement of their capacities. The only question we raise is whether 
 it shall be at the expense of the public at large, while comparatively 
 few are able to share the advantages, or whether the main strength 
 of the government and its deepest sympathy shall be given to im- 
 prove the ordinary daily public school to the highest degree, while 
 private interest and munificence are made responsible for the higher 
 grade ? Were it clearly shown that the public schools reap the 
 benefit of the high and normal school in any good measure proportion- 
 ate to their cost, the view just taken might be modified, but no such 
 benefit is disclosed in the report before us. Ifc may be very true 
 that it would be " cheaper to build one house large enough to accom- 
 modate 100 pupils and employ teachers for them when properly 
 graded, than it is to purchase ground, erect and furnish two houses 
 that will be convenient for fifty pupils, each with a teacher compe- 
 tent to teach well all the branches from the alphabet to the sciences, 
 and the higher departments of mathematics."* But the great end 
 contemplated by the law is to diffuse a knowledge of elementary 
 branches. It is to furnish a schoolhouse and a teacher to every 
 neighbourhood where there are a sufiicient number of children to 
 constitute a school. It is that every individual, between 5 and 21, 
 may have the opportunity to be ivell taught in reading, spelling, 
 Avriting, grammar, geography and arithmetic. So that so far as 
 these branches are essential to the discharge of the ordinary duties of 
 life, no one shall be without a knowledge of them who is willing and 
 capable to be taught. Hence to afford the means of acquiring such 
 knowledge is properly regarded as an obligation of the Common- 
 wealth. If this elementary work is well done, we shall have an in- 
 telligent community ; and there will be no lack of means for those 
 who are disposed to go farther or look higher. What we maintain 
 * Superintendent's Report, p. 29. 
 
94 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 is, that the expense of their advancement should not be charged to 
 the great body of citizens. 
 
 Text-hooks. — The law, as we have seen, makes it the duty of the 
 directors or controllers to meet annually before the opening of the 
 schols to decide not only what branches of learning shall be taught, 
 but what books shall be used and as " uniformity in text-books is 
 essential to successful teaching," it is obvious that this is one of 
 the most important of their duties. There is nothing to prevent a 
 change of text-books every year, nor to prevent a different set of 
 text-books in each district. And as the expense of providing such 
 books is thrown upon the parents (except when too indigent to 
 furnish them), the door is opened for great abuses. When it is con- 
 sidered how ingenious and (often) unscrupulous are the shifts to 
 which publishers and venders of school books resort, and how sharp 
 is the competition to obtain a foothold for a new series of readers, 
 geographies or arithmetics, we may be pardoned for doubting 
 whether the barrier which most boards of directors present to impo- 
 sitions in this form, is of much value. The wholesome provisions 
 of the law touching the sale of books by school officers are sufficiently 
 peremptory, but those who are familiar with the subject need not 
 be told how easily they may be evaded if the disposition exists. 
 Directors have many interests outside of their school duties ; and 
 "log-rolling," as it is called, has found its way even into their 
 precincts. 
 
 If the history were written, of the introduction to our schools of 
 books out of the profits of which many a fortune has been made, it 
 would disclose a network of wires which only very cunning hands 
 know how to pull. 
 
 It was the conviction of several persons, many years ago, that 
 the only way to check the growing evil of an endless variety and 
 multiplication of common school text-books,* was for the State to 
 
 * " Many years since," says a correspondent, "it became my duty as a citizen of 
 this free republic (the highest offices being open to the most obscure individual) to 
 serve on the School Committee of a country town. There were 59 scholars enrolled, 
 and the book account stood thus — arithmetics 29, of 7 varieties, viz. ; — 
 
 Daboll, ........ 7 
 
 Smith, ........ 7 
 
 Pike Abridged, . . . . . . .5 
 
 (-olburn, ....... 3 
 
 Title page out, . . . . . . .3 
 
 Title page out, but a different book, .... 2 
 
 Title page out, but a different book, . . . .2 
 
 Reading books, thirteen varieties ; spelling books, eleven, and grammars, four." 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 95 
 
 take the matter into its own hands ; and we believe a plan was 
 sketched with some care for accomplishing the object. It embraced 
 only the six elementary branches (as we learn), which are contem- 
 plated by the school law. The title, size and price of each book 
 was fixed upon an estimate. Proper persons were to be employed 
 to make the books and to adapt them to the schools of the State, 
 familiarizing the pupils, by reading lessons, with its history ; begin- 
 ning their geographical inquiries at home, and making reasonably 
 sure of a knowledge of things around them, in their daily life, how- 
 ever ignorant they might be of the interior of Africa or of the 
 moon. The State was to own the copyright, plates, &c., to have 
 the manufacturing done by contract and the stock deposited in some 
 central depot from which alone the books could be supplied and 
 that at the mere cost of making and selling. The interdiction of 
 the use of any other books of *the same class or kind in the public 
 schools to be peremptory, and thus shut the door against all abuses 
 and impositions in this form. 
 
 If our memory is not at fault, this scheme was broached to G-ov- 
 ernor Porter, who then occupied the Executive chair, and by him 
 regarded favourably, but referred to the Secretary of State, who was 
 ex-officio superintendent of public schools. That gentleman was 
 unfortunately possessed with the idea that it was a new scheme of 
 some shrewd Yankee to foist his wares upon the department, and 
 he would not lend an ear or an eye to it. " Yes, yes, I know all 
 about it," said the impatient official. " We have these applications 
 pressed upon us every day." In vain was it said, " but, Mr. Secre- 
 tary, this is apian for avoiding such annoyances." "Ah yes," 
 " that's the story they always tell, and I do not wish to hear another 
 syllable on the subject." So ended the interview and so ended 
 what was and is believed to be a feasible and sensible scheme for 
 effecting an important reform in our school economy. 
 
 It is scarcely to be believed that one in ten of the persons to 
 whom the duty of prescribing studies and selecting text-books is 
 referred, is in any degree qualified for such a service. True, they 
 .are expected to consult with teachers, but when it is considered how 
 large a proportion of teachers are novices, few of them having ever 
 had occasion or opportunity to examine and compare books, or ex- 
 perience to guide them to any just judgment of the requisites of a 
 text-book on any subject, we may well question whether their aid 
 will express any more than a cipher added to a cipher. 
 
96 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 Morals and Iteligion. — The county returns present the somewhat 
 remarkable statement, that the reading of the Scriptures has been 
 discontinued in 1377 schools in which they were read in 1862. It 
 would be worth something as an item of experience if 1377 teachers 
 of only ordinary intelligence would give us their reason for laying 
 aside such a practice, if indeed it is of their own motion and not an 
 authoritative suggestion or command. We must suppose that the 
 reason assigned was the same in a large proportion of cases, and 
 we cannot flatter ourselves that where Scripture reading is for any 
 cause abandoned, some other method of moral teaching is perhaps 
 substituted, for we are expressly told that the number of schools in 
 which moral instruction was given in 1864 by otlier means than 
 Scripture readinf/, was nearly 1700 less than the number in 1862. 
 We are inclined to think that even the foregoing statement gives a 
 larger place to Scriptural instruction than it really occupies, for in 
 the reports of county superintendents, we notice this item is fre- 
 quently entirely omitted. In others a somew^hat loose phraseology 
 is employed, such as, " The Bible is read in about four-fifths of 
 our schools ;" "in all but a very few;" " in nearly all the schools," 
 &c. We are left in doubt whether the 72 schools in Adams County 
 for example, in which " the Scriptures arc occasionally read either 
 by teachers or pupils," would be regarded as Scripture-reading 
 schools as well as the ten in which that service is had every morn- 
 ing accompanied with prayer. How would the schools of Green 
 County be ranked of which it is said, " Moral instruction prevails 
 to some extent in many schools, but Ave regret that so important a 
 part of our education does not receive a higher degree of atten- 
 tion?" 
 
 We are far from regarding the reading of the Scriptures or prayer 
 as exercises, necessarily and of themselves, conducive to the moral 
 improvement of a daily public school. On the contrary, we have 
 no doubt that oftentimes the irreverence and frivolity which are 
 allowed when the reading occurs, and the inappropriate manner 
 and matter of the devotional exercise produce a very unhappy im- 
 pression. No public school teacher is fit for his place, in our country, 
 who does not recognize the Supreme Being as the only proper 
 object of religious Avorship, and Holy Scripture as the revelation 
 of His will. The "understanding" Avhieh he is called to educate, 
 is "given" by "the inspiration of the Almighty." The child's 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 97 
 
 intellectual and spiritual natures are inseparably one. Not a day 
 will liis pupils pass under his instruction that some lasting impres- 
 sion will not be made on this complex being, — now a heedless, play- 
 ful child, or a giddy, self-confident youth ; but far out on his or 
 her future life, present school incidents of an apparently trivial 
 nature, will be seen to have given shape to the character and di- 
 rection to the career of each individual. 
 
 If the teacher feels in any proper degree the responsibleness of 
 his position, he will gladly avail himself of the most powerful mo- 
 tives and principles that can influence the human heart, and which 
 are revealed to us only "in the volume of the book." He w^ill 
 carefully select and reverently read or cause to be read, such por- 
 tions of it as are best adapted to the purpose in view, and he will 
 so open to their minds the reasonableness and satisfaction of seek- 
 ing help from the Omnipotent, wisdom from the Omniscient, and 
 protection and blessing from the Omnipresent, that they will not 
 only kneel with him before the throne of grace, but will unite in his 
 simple and well considered petitions for "♦such things as are requi- 
 site and necessary as well for the body as the soul." An exercise 
 of this kind, rarely occupying more than from three to five minutes 
 and perhaps a verse or two of a hymn in joyful notes, could never 
 fail to have a most auspicious influence on the docility and disci- 
 pline of a school, which would be diffused thence through the whole 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 There may be difficulty in supplying all our schools with teach- 
 ers who would be competent (were they disposed) to give proper 
 prominence to the religious elenient ; but that is no argument against 
 making the possession of both the disposition and the qualification 
 a point of inquiry where a teacher applies for a certificate, leaving 
 the measure of its importance to those Avhom the law and the voice 
 of the people have entrusted with the ofiice of examiners. 
 
 The influence of this kind which is so desirable, is not to be de- 
 rived from any extraneous sources. The teachers and they alone 
 can exert it. And it must be, not simply the punctual observance 
 of a season, but the natural development of a, feeling predominant 
 in their life and evinced in a consistent Christian example and a 
 gentle, persuasive carriage day by day. "We may add in this con- 
 nection, that in what we have said on the subject of clerical visits, 
 Ave shall not be understood as detracting from their value. But we 
 
98 • THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 apprehend the professional character of such visits would give them 
 a perfunctory aspect, and, as before intimated, it would be no easy 
 matter to avoid what savours of sectarian predilections. 
 
 The grand agencies by which society is moulded and preserved, 
 are very distinctly defined. The Home provides for the earliest 
 physical and moral wants of the human being ; gives the first lessons 
 in all knowledge, and generally determines the complexion of the 
 after-life. The State being interested in the intelligence, order, 
 industry and thrift of all its citizens, requires places of instruction 
 to be provided in which every child may obtain such a share of good 
 learning as is needful for the ordinary business of life, and it ex- 
 pects such principles to be inculcated as will make them submissive 
 to lawful authority, and sober and exemplary in their civil and 
 social relations. To this end they should assuredly be taught that 
 the supreme authority is in the Creator and Governour of the 
 world, and that earthly potentates are but his vicegerents and 
 subject to his law. Whatever inspires the youthful mind (and es- 
 pecially the American youthful mind) with deference to authority, 
 obedience to conscience and the cultivation of a lofty principle of 
 integrity and social obligation, is a most essential element of our 
 daily public school instruction. 
 
 Entertaining these views and considering the meagreness of the 
 County reports on the subject, we are agreeably disappointed to ob- 
 serve here and there in them, the most unqualified testimony to 
 the importance of mingling religious and moral with secular in- 
 struction. 
 
 The school in which no moral ihstruction is given is very de- 
 fective. Without this element in education, it will be a curse in- 
 stead of a blessing to its possessor.* 
 
 Our schools must be nurseries of religion and morality, and to 
 this end we must seek as instructors of the youth, those who are 
 thoroughly imbued with religious feelings and sentiments. f 
 
 The fact that the moral culture of youth determines, to a great 
 extent, the use to be made of the increased power for good or evil 
 gained in the acquisition of knowledge, cannot be too fully impressed 
 upon the minds of all.| 
 
 The Scriptures are regularly read in every school in the 
 county as a devotional exercise, being the first lesson in the morn- 
 ing. When done, as it should ahvays be, in a proper manner and 
 spirit, it never fails of producing good results, and is one of the 
 
 * Beaver. f Butler. X Bradford. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 99 
 
 most effectual means of developing the intellectual faculties. It 
 should take precedence of all other instruction.* 
 
 The importance if not the absolute necessity of a system of re- 
 ligious training in our public schools, becomes every year more 
 apparent. * * * The clashing of different religious creeds and the 
 risk of sectarian discussion is far less to be feared than the absence 
 of all religious instruction, f 
 
 We are happy to add that the reports from the Counties of Erie 
 and Lancaster show an increase of the number of Scripture-read- 
 ing schools. 
 
 We take our leave of the daily public schools of Pennsylvania 
 with the irresistible conviction that they are not contributing their 
 share to the virtue and intelligence of the country. | Our survey 
 has not embraced the districts under special legislation, but we 
 apprehend their influence is scarcely felt upon the educational in- 
 terests of the State at large. If we cannot raise the daily public 
 school to a position that shall win the respect and confidence of 
 the great body of the people, we shall have a steady increase of 
 ignorance and its inseparable companions — vice and poverty. If 
 it can be shown that the multiplication of high and normal schools 
 in a few localities will inspire the mass of the community with 
 warmer sympathies towards the schools in their respective neigh- 
 bourhood, and excite a heartier co-operation in making them all 
 that they should be, so far they should be recognized as auxil- 
 iaries to the great work of the Commonwealth ; but the report before 
 us affords no sufficient ground for such a recognition at present. 
 
 * Lawrence. f Huntingdon. 
 
 J Fer contra. — One of our most influential city newspapers speaks (January 15, 
 1866) of "our common school system as modelled on such an excellent basis, and 
 so successful that liberal appropriation should be made to sustain it." 
 
100 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL IN NEW YORK. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF LAWS. 
 
 State Siqjerintendent. — This officer is elected by joint ballot of 
 the Senate and Assembly for three years, at a salary of $2,500 per 
 annum. He may appoint a deputy at a salary of $1,500, and three 
 clerks whose united salaries shall not exceed $3,000. The super- 
 intendent is required to visit schools, and certify the qualifications 
 of teachers, and his certificate shall be conclusive evidence of moral 
 character, learning and ability to teach. He may issue temporary 
 licenses to teachers, restricted to a particular district, and for a 
 period not exceeding six months. He may, for cause shown, annul 
 certificates of district school commissioners and normal school di- 
 plomas, and may remove any school officer for sufficient cause. He 
 apportions and distributes the moneys appropriated by the State for 
 the support of schools; examines the apportionments made to 
 the districts by the school commissioners ; sees that each dis- 
 trict has its proportionate share, and that the same is expended 
 according to law. He gives advice and direction to school officers, 
 teachers and inhabitants upon all questions arising under the 
 school laws; establishes rules and regulations concerning appeals; 
 hears and decides all appeals involving school controversies that 
 are brought before him, and his decision is final ; establishes rules 
 and regulations concerning district school libraries, and is required 
 by law to visit the institutes, and to advise and direct concerning 
 their proper management. 
 
 District Commissioners. — These are elected trienially by each of 
 the 113 county assembly districts in the State at the general 
 election of county officers. They are sworn and receive a salary 
 ($500), paid out of the public fund; but it maybe increased by vote 
 of a majority of the town supervisors. The expenses of the com- 
 missioners (not exceeding $200 per annum) are to be assessed on 
 the property of the district. Their duty is to visit schools, and to 
 inquire into and supervise everything that concerns them — build- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. 101 
 
 ings, grounds, instruction, discipline, &c. In concurrence with 
 town supervisors thej may condemn a schoolhouse, and cut off sup- 
 plies during the continuance of the sentence. Thej may grant 
 certificates of qualification to teachers not possessing a certificate 
 from the State superintendent nor from a normal school ; and may 
 also annul certificates by whomsoever granted. They are required 
 to make an annual report to the State superintendent, embracing 
 returns of trustees, &c. Being concerned in any agency in aid of 
 booksellers or publishers, subjects the offender to removal from 
 office by the State superintendent. 
 
 Funds. — The means for sustaining the public schools are de- 
 rived from a tax of three-fourths of a mill on every dollar of real 
 and personal estate, to be paid into the State treasury and drawn 
 thence on warrant of State superintendent. This tax is to be paid 
 prior to any aid from the State fund. The proceeds of this tax, 
 the income of the United States deposit fund and of the school 
 fund, constitute the school moneys of the State, which (after being 
 charged with some special appropriations) are to be apportioned 
 one-third to the school districts and two-thirds to the counties, ac- 
 cording to population.* To entitle a district to a share of this ap- 
 propriation, it must appear that a common school has been taught 
 by a "qualified teacher" during the preceding year twenty-eight 
 weeks of five school days to each week; and for any additional 
 qualified teacher actually employed during twenty-eight weeks of 
 the year a similar appropriation shall be made. The moneys so ap- 
 propriated to be paid to the county treasurer; the commissioners 
 to certify to the supervisors what is the share of each district, and 
 the supervisors to receive and expend the money. The supervisors . 
 are to pay "qualified teachers" only, and upon the written order 
 of trustees, and for their disbursement of other school moneys on ^ 
 sufiicient warrant they are duly to account. 
 
 Trustees. — The trustees are in closest proximity to the schools. 
 They are to make out tax lists and issue warrants to collect the 
 same ; to purchase or lease sites for buildings ; to hire or build, 
 keep in repair and furnish schoolhouses ; have the custody of the 
 same, and supply fuel and needful appendages, not exceeding $50 
 
 '"'■ This aiDportionment, from and after the curreut year, 1866, is to be made upon 
 the basis of the average daily attendance of the pupils resident in the district between 
 5 and 21 years of age, at their respective schools during the preceding year. 
 8 
 
102 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCnOOL 
 
 per annum, without vote of the district. They may expend $20 a 
 year in repairs, and supply broom, pail, &c., to keep the house 
 *' clean and comfortable." 
 
 They are also to employ teachers and pay them by orders on the 
 supervisor. No teacher to be employed who is within two degrees 
 of relationship to any trustee without the approval of a majority 
 of the district. The trustees are to ascertain from the teachers' 
 lists who have sent pupils, with the number of days of their at- 
 tendance, and charge such persons (unless excepted for indigence) 
 a proportionate share of what is required to pay the teachers be- 
 yond the amount of public money, and make out rate-bills for the 
 same. 
 
 A "qualified teacher" is one who holds a State normal school 
 diploma, or the certificate of the State superintendent, or of a school 
 commissioner of the district in which he or she is employed. The 
 wages of a teacher not qualified in this sense cannot be paid out of 
 the school moneys or by rate-bills. 
 
 Districts. — The districts being divided by commissioners so as 
 best to accommodate the population, the qualified voters (being 
 every male inhabitant of the district who is of age and possesses 
 certain specified property qualifications, or who has paid a rate-bill 
 within one year) shall choose one or three trustees and other dis- 
 trict ofiicers. 
 
 Union Free ScJiooIs. — Union free schools are such as are main- 
 tained by a union of districts, subject to special regulations, and 
 supported by public school moneys, as other schools, and by tax for 
 the balance of wages, &c. They are formed by a vote of the in- 
 ■ habitants, and the trustees of them (not less than three nor more 
 than nine in number) constitute a body corporate, called the board 
 of education. They grade and classify the schools ; prescribe terms 
 of admission, course of study, text-books, &c., and pay teachers 
 (who shall be not less than one to every fifty pupils) ; levy and col- 
 lect school tax; visit schools at least twice in each quarter; make 
 reports, &c. The State superintendent is supervisor of the boards 
 of education, and may remove any member of them. 
 
 Teachers' Institutes. — School commissioners are required to or- 
 ganize every year in each district (or in concert mt\i the commis- 
 sioners of one or more districts in the same county) at least one 
 teachers' institute, and under the advice and with the co-operation 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YOKE. 103 
 
 of the State superintendent to fix the times of holding them; em- 
 ploy persons (for suitable compensation) to conduct or teach them, 
 and determine the basis on which to distribute the money appro- 
 priated to them. Teachers are to be allowed for the time spent in 
 attending upon institutes; and certi^cates of qualification to be so 
 framed or regulated as to operate as an incentive to attendance. 
 . Libraries. — Libraries are maintained by a tax imposed on each 
 district by the inhabitants of the same, not exceeding ten dollars 
 in the year. A State fund, amounting to $55,000, is distributed an- 
 nually for the like purpose. When the number of volumes in a library 
 exceeds 125 to 50 children between 5 and 16, or 100 volumes to 
 less than that number of children, the district may, by vote, ap- 
 propriate the library money to the purchase of globes, &c., or (with 
 the approbation of the State superintendent) to the payment of 
 teachers' wages. The library is in the custody of the trustees to 
 preserve and keep in repair, and they are liable to their successors 
 in ofiice for a loss or waste of the books. Rules for the manage- 
 ment of the libraries are prescribed by the State superintendent ; 
 who, upon request, shall select books for the same. 
 
 Admission to the public schools is free to all persons over 5 and 
 under 21, residing in the district, or (with consent of trustees) 
 residing out of it. Separate schools are provided for coloured 
 children. 
 
 CONDITION OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 The school system of the Empire State has a high and not 
 undeserved reputation. In reviewing it we will advert first to 
 interesting items in the superintendent's report, and will modify, 
 explain or amplify them as the reports of the district commissioners 
 may give us the means. 
 
 The scale on which the system is administered is indicated by 
 the fact that in the last decade of years more than six millions of 
 dollars have been expended for schoolhouses alone, with their sites 
 and appurtenances. It is observable, however, that the number of 
 districts were 29 less in 1863 than in 1862, and 17 less in 1864 
 than in 1863. The consolidation of schools or districts may per- 
 haps account, in part, for this. Another significant item is that 
 the expenditure for school buildings in cities was nearly $150,000 
 
104 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 less in 1863 than in 1862, while for buildings in rural districts it 
 was only §24,000 less. If this denoted the proportion of public 
 interest that is felt for the two classes of schools, we should think 
 it a very hopeful sign. 
 
 The number of children reported between 4 and 21, in 1863, was 
 1,357,047, and between 5 and 21, in 1864, it was 1,307,822, show- 
 ing a decrease of nearly 50,000, which was probably owing to the 
 exclusion of children between 4 and 5. The superintendent dis- 
 trusts the accuracy of the returns for 1863, which gave an increase 
 of 31,224 over the preceding year, though he thinks they were not 
 too large. Of the 1,357,047 not two-thirds were at school any 
 portion of the year. An average based on a period of five years 
 "shows that a majority of pupils attend school but a very short 
 period each year." The attendance fell off largely in the last year. 
 
 To show the distribution of the juvenile population and the pro- 
 portion of teaching and taxing, as it affects the cities and rural 
 districts, respectively, the following table will suffice : 
 
 1S63. 1S64. 
 
 Rural p... Rural 
 
 Districts. '"""'^- Districts. 
 
 No. of cliildren 453,798 903,249=1,357,017 447,469 860,353=1,307,822 
 
 Ko. of teachers employed 6 months ) g ^so 12 423 3 408 12 399 
 
 or more at same time S •- ' t -t 
 
 Teachers' wages $1,294,871 $1,431,015 $1,554,212 $1,539,248 
 
 Raised by tax 1,592,728 503,181 1,993,479 674,599 
 
 Add to the taxes raised in the rural districts the amount raised 
 by rate-bills, and we have a total there of $1,104,492. 
 
 It appears from this statement that in 1864 3,408 teachers were 
 employed, at an expense of $1,554,212, to instruct 447,469 children 
 in cities, while 12,399 teachers were employed at an expense of 
 $1,539,248, to instruct 860,353 country children. It also appears 
 that the number of teachers for city schools was increased, while 
 in the country districts it was reduced. We could not frame an 
 argument more pertinent and conclusive to establish our position 
 that country schools are ovcrshadoAved and neglected, while the 
 advanced grades of education in cities and populous towns absorb 
 a large share of public interest and support. 
 
 Of $162,671 expended for libraries and school apparatus during 
 the year, upwards of $100,000 was from voluntary taxation, and 
 more than four-fifths of the total expenditure were for apparatus, — 
 less than $30,000 being for libraries. 
 
 To show to how great an extent the proceedings in these humble 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. 105 
 
 one-story, out-of-the-way edifices are our reliance for popular educa- 
 tion, it is stated that 90 per cent, of pupils in the State, including 
 colleges, academies and private schools, Avere assembled in them.* 
 On the other hand, we have an item going far to show how mis- 
 placed is this reliance for a thorough knowledge of the elementary 
 branches of instruction. It is, that while nearly 900,000 are at 
 school some portion of the year, more than half are there less than 
 11 weeks, and nearly a fourth of them 8 weeks or less ! Add to 
 this brevity of the term the great irregularity of attendance, which 
 is a matter of almost universal complaint, and we may more readily 
 estimate the inherent virtue or vice of the system. 
 
 Parents. — We find here, as elsewhere, a prevailing apathy on 
 the part of parents. If the schools are not attractive enough to 
 prompt the willing attendance of children (and very few of them 
 are), regularity of attendance must come through the influence or 
 authority of parents. And when we consider how few parents 
 have sufficient control of their children to secure their obedience in 
 matters out of school, we cannot wonder at their neglect or failure 
 to secure a compliance with school regulations. 
 
 To do some paltry errand or to save a few steps in drawing water 
 or getting wood, thousands of parents do not hesitate to sacrifice 
 the privileges of half a day's schooling, and contribute what they 
 can to the disorder and inefficiency of the school itself. If they 
 had more palpable evidence that there is any privilege in it, they 
 might feel and do differently. 
 
 The law to make attendance the basis of the distribution of the 
 public money was urged, under the natural impression that the 
 pocket is peculiarly susceptible, and that if the appropriation to a 
 school district were likely to be curtailed, there would probably be 
 a spasmodic effort to swell the number in attendance. But such a 
 motive would not be likely to survive, very long, the occasion which 
 gave it birth, and we must come back to the plain, honest truth 
 that the people are, to a large extent, indifferent to the schools and 
 look upon them as something outside of their sphere, like banking 
 or telegraphing. 
 
 * More than 90 per cent, of all the children and youth who receive scholastic in- 
 struction, go only to the common schools. In view of this fact, and of the intimate 
 dependence of good government upon the education of the people, these institutions 
 are of paramount importance, and provision for their liberal support and prosperity 
 cannot be safely neglected. — Message of Governor to Legislature, January, 1866. 
 
lOG THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 Teachers. — The whole number of different teachers employed 
 during the year was" 26,213 (or two hundred and eighty-seven less 
 than the i^receding year), of whom four-fifths Avere females. 
 
 District Libraries. — The district school library does not seem to 
 have taken a very strong or extensive hold upon popular favour, 
 and from the nature of the case, as before intimated, we should ex- 
 pect no better result. The reports of county commissioners show 
 clearly that the value of such an appendage to a public school must 
 depend upon the skill with which the library is made up, and still 
 more upon the judgment with which the books are distributed. No 
 little time and trouble must be required for both these processes, 
 and teachers generally are not tempted by the liberality of their 
 wages to give time or take trouble in discharging duties outside of 
 their appropriate sphere. A very little reflection must satisfy any 
 one that the scheme is, in almost every aspect of it, impracticable. 
 
 The books in many cases are scattered over the district or hid 
 in some corner where rats, mice and spiders are the only visitors. 
 Almost every family is supplied with other reading.* 
 
 The school libraries have outlived their usefulness. The peri- 
 odical and the newspaper take their place. f 
 
 The newspaper and the periodical constitute the staple reading 
 of our community. The district library is consequently supplanted 
 and fallen into disuse. | 
 
 Their day I think has passed never to return. § 
 
 They fail in accomplishing their mission in the intellectual ad- 
 vancement of the masses. I j 
 
 The number of volumes in the district school libraries in 1858, 
 was 1,402,253. In 18G4 it was 1,125,438, showing a decrease of 
 nearly 300,000. The plan of such libraries was set on foot first in 
 this State, but without much reference to its practicability.^ The 
 
 * Bi-oome. f Cattaraugus. +Carugii(l). ^Dutchess. || Erie. 
 
 ^ A more striking contrast could not be eusilj^ formed between what theorists 
 propose and what the people accept, than is presented in this passage of the school 
 history of New Yorli. 
 
 The project of district school libraries was broached in t833-4, by the report of 
 the superintendent of public schools, and in 1835 authority was given to school dis- 
 tricts to raise by tax $20 for this purpose. But the school district had not asked 
 for any such authority, nor did they want it. Offers were made by individuals to 
 pay one-fourth of the amount to districts who would raise three-fourths, but no 
 coaxing would do. Public lectures were given to persuade the districts to adopt 
 the measure, but all in vain. In 1838, on the Governor's recommendation, a law- 
 was passed called " the glorious library law," ai)propr)ating $53,000 annually for 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES NEW YORK. 107 
 
 experiment had been tried by individual enterprise in one or two 
 towns, and, under the intelligent, personal oversight of parties in- 
 terested, it worked well for a time ; but when a market was opened 
 for some ten or twelve thousand libraries of one or two hundred 
 different books in each, of suitable size and character for the chil- 
 dren and youth of a daily public school, it is no wonder that authors 
 and publishers were stimulated to make a rush for its supply. At 
 first there was doubtless some degree of supervision exercised over 
 the introduction and replenishment of these libraries, but the cata- 
 logues which have fallen under our observation do not indicate an 
 approach to the needful discrimination. The truth is that books 
 for children have, of late years, become a drug. They have multi- 
 plied in number almost as rapidly as they have deteriorated in 
 quality, and they have been diffused so abundantly (in our older States 
 at least) as rather to dissipate than instruct the mind and to beget 
 habits of superficial and thoughtless reading if nothing worse. It 
 can be no cause of wonder, therefore, that those district school libra- 
 ries have fallen into neglect and decay, and they will probably soon 
 disappear entirely. 
 
 Normal Schools, ^c. — Among the agencies for the training of 
 teachers are, 
 
 1. The State normal school, which had ,279 pupils in attendance 
 during the year 1863, of whom 218 were females. Sixty pupils 
 left the school, of whom 45 were females. There were in attend- 
 ance at the date of the report before us 219,* of whom 170, or 
 about four-fifths, were females. 
 
 Though the normal school is once or twice incidentally recognized 
 in the school law of the State, we do not perceive any provision for 
 
 three years (extended in 1839 to five years), to be distributed to schools that 
 raised an equal amount by tax for school libraries. During the year 1840, nearly 
 $100,000 were expended for such libraries, and the report of the superintendent of 
 public instruction pictures in glowing colours the "two millions of valuable books 
 that will be in circulation at the end of five years, among those who most need 
 them and are most unable to procure them, whose minds will thus be diverted from 
 frivolous and injurious occupations, and employed upon the productions of the wise 
 and learned of all ages." And he thinks it will be impossible "to set bounds to the 
 mighty influence that will operate upon the moral and intellectual character of the 
 State." 
 
 It is difScult to persuade ourselves that so grand and hopeful a theory has proved 
 so utterly delusive in practice. 
 
 ^" The number in 1865-6 was 222. 
 
108 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 its establishment, nor any legislation touching its organization or 
 functions. Perhaps it is regarded as a self-constituted agent for sup- 
 plying an obvious want.* The normal school receives here and there 
 a casual notice in the county reports, but it is not uniformly compli- 
 mentary either to the skill or success of those who have attended it. 
 
 The graduates of the normal school do us but little good ; the 
 gents go to our own or Western cities, and the ladies generally find 
 their fine education no hinderance to their beauty, and sensible 
 young men seem to appreciate the one as well as to admire the 
 other.f 
 
 While wc have had some whose success has been creditable, and 
 whose influence is marked, we have had many also Avho have ex- 
 hibited neither ability nor industry, and whose influence has been 
 consequently small. | 
 
 From an inspection of these voluminous reports, our conviction 
 is much strengthened that all the normal schools in the country 
 cannot make a man or woman a successful teacher where there is 
 not a natural aptness to teach, and where this exists it will find its 
 way to some group of children to their great profit and joy, whether 
 the advantages of a training school are at hand or not. 
 
 2. Teachers' classes in academies, embracing at the date of the 
 report 1,562§ pupils, of whom 1,243, or four-fifths, Avere females. 
 
 3. Teachers' institutes, which are regarded as a cheap and effi- 
 cient method of improving teachers. As at pre-requisite to the ap- 
 propriation of public money to their support, 30 persons employed 
 in teaching or giving satisfactory evidence of their intention to 
 teach, must attend for at least ten working days. The appropria- 
 tion is increased in the ratio of numbers in attendance and the 
 length of the session. As a motive to teachers to avail themselves 
 of such opportunities, the commissioners make a distinction in 
 awarding certificates in favour of those who attend. Fifty-five of 
 these institutes were held in 1863, and they were attended by up- 
 wards of 9,000 teachers, II or about two thirds of the whole number 
 
 * The Executive Message, January, 1866, suggests the propriety of establishing 
 other normal and training scliools, and of giving additional facilities and support to 
 those already in operation. 
 
 f Oswego (3). I Rockland. 
 
 § In 1SG5-6, the number of teachers instructed in " Teachers' institutes " was 
 8,741. The Executive Message (January-, 186G) suggests that as the annual call 
 is for 20,000 teachers, these training agencies should be largely multiplied. 
 
 II It was 1,586 in 186,5-G. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. 109 
 
 employed during the year. The amount appropriated to this object 
 from the school fund was less than $10,000, or a fraction over one 
 dollar for each teacher, — a cheap work certainly, if well done. 
 
 4. Voluntary associations of teachers have also proved beneficial in 
 elevating the standard of acquirements and exciting to the discus- 
 sion of educational topics. 
 
 We turn to the record of the year to see how far this machinery 
 for providing competent teachers accomplishes its end. How far 
 may we be reasonably assured that the way to the schoolmaster's 
 desk is guarded from the intrusion of ignorant, unskilled persons ? 
 
 The State superintenderit of public instruction, and the authori- 
 ties of the normal school, we may suppose, exercise a due degree of 
 care in certifying the qualifications of teachers. And of the 26,000 
 and more employed during the year, one in 26 received a certificate 
 from one or the other of these sources, while upwards of 25,000 
 were examined and their competency certified by local commission- 
 ers, whose qualifications for such a duty are much more proble- 
 matical. 
 
 Those who know anything of the character of popular elections 
 and of the influences which are often brought to bear on them in 
 the most favoured districts, need not be told how an office of this 
 kind, with somewhat indefinite duties and a salary of $500 for per- 
 forming them really or nominally, would probably be filled in a 
 large majority of cases. It has been well said, that " the office of 
 school commissioner should not be elective in the present state of 
 popular education." 
 
 The majority of the people prize party, as yet, more than edu- 
 cation. " There is as much wire-pulling and pipe-laying to win 
 the office, as any other of equal or greater dimensions."* To say 
 nothing of moral fitness and capacity, which is one branch of in- 
 quiry preliminary to a certificate, how few men, in any rural com- 
 munity, are in any sense judges of the acquisitions, manners, habits, 
 temperament and aptitude which must be combined in a competent 
 teacher ? It may not be practicable to improve the system in this 
 particular while the examiners are appointed by a popular vote, 
 but the safeguard which their intervention supplies against the em- 
 ployment of unfit teachers, must be comparatively very weak and 
 untrustworthy. 
 
 * Report from Steuben County, First District. 
 
110 TUE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 Popular Estimation. — If we glance at the reports of the county 
 commissioners, we shall have perhaps a more accurate idea of the 
 condition of the daily public schools of New York, and the popular 
 estimate of them. The following are extracts : 
 
 In many cases parents instruct the trustees to have school only 
 so long as the public money lasts.* 
 
 The cry is continually going up, " Give us a cheap teacher."t 
 
 There is nothing so much dreaded in our school districts by 
 those who patronize schools, as rate bills. Trustees (especially of 
 country districts) very often take pains to procure the services of 
 teachers at so low a rate as to require but little more than the pub- 
 lic money to pay the school bill. J 
 
 The wealth of the county, always sensitive and nervous upon 
 the questions of taxation, is not arrayed in hostility to our present 
 system of schools as it would be were taxes alone relied upon.§ 
 
 How can Ave "run" our schools six months with just the public 
 money, is a question as familiar as are common household words. || 
 
 Many parents keep their children at home as soon as they as- 
 certain that the public money will not defray the expenses of the 
 school. There appears to be an increasing determination on the 
 part of trustees to reduce the expenses of the school so as to cover 
 them with the public money. "^ 
 
 I am of opinion that should the public money be wholly Avith- 
 held, two-thirds of the schools would be permanently closed, not 
 because the people are not abundantly able to maintain them, but 
 on account of a want of interest in educational matters.** 
 
 Then as to attendance — 
 
 Sixty-seven per cent, of the children attended school only four 
 months or less during the year. 
 
 On days of visitation during the year, I found enrolled on the 
 teachers' books 6,225 names, and at the same time I found but 
 3,884 present.ft 
 
 Without any hesitation, I affirm that not 50 per cent, of the 
 children of school age in this Assembly district, have entered a 
 schoolhouse for the purpose of receiving instruction during the year, 
 and that of the number who have been in school, no more than 25 
 per cent, have attended for a longer period than two months. |J 
 
 Of more than 8,000 children in the district, only a little more 
 than half, as appears from reports, are ever taught at all, and a 
 large proportion but a few days or weeks in a year.§§ 
 
 Such is the irregularity of attendance that it takes an average 
 of lOJ years to give 3|- years' schooling. |||| 
 
 * Broome. f Cayuga, 2(1 District. % Herkimer. ^ Oswego, 3d District. 
 
 II Wyoming, 2d District. ^Cattaraugus. ^^^ Suffolk (lltla Rep.), 
 ft Chenango. ++ SuiTolk. ?? Ulster (rid Dist.). |||| Westcliester. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. Ill 
 
 If we were required to show that parents are not sufficiently in- 
 terested in the education of their children to be willing to pay for 
 it, what would be better evidence than the fact that " they are will- 
 ing their children should attend four months in the year (only) if the 
 public money lasts so long?" And if a school is wanted for six 
 months, they would lower the grade of teaching till tbe teachers' 
 wages reach the level of the appropriation. If the expense can be 
 defrayed otherwise than by taxing them, tbey will accept the oppor- 
 tunity and send their children two, four or six months accordingly. 
 While, and so far as, this spirit pervades the mass of families in a 
 district or State, the daily public school can never serve the pur- 
 pose for which it is organized. There may be much that is imposing 
 in the machinery of legislation and in the parade of official over- 
 sight and statistical returns, but so long as the advantages of the 
 schools are not worth to the people aW they ought to cost, — themselves 
 being judges, — there is a radical defect in the system. 
 
 The idea is frequently presented in the reports that irregularity 
 of attendance would be at once checked if absence involved any 
 pecuniary loss. In other words, if an appreciable privilege were 
 contingent on a certain measure of attendance (such as eligibility 
 to some lucrative' place or office), taxes would be cheerfully borne. 
 Theoretieally a public school confers a more valuable privilege. 
 
 SchooUtouses, ^c. — In respect to schoolhouses and out-buildings, 
 the reports are not silent. Many, perhaps most of them, refer in 
 terms of warm commendation to changes for the better. We are 
 disposed to think their condition is represented quite as favourably 
 as facts will justify. 
 
 Fully one-half the schoolhouses have only the highway for a 
 playground, and all the surroundings are gloomy and repulsive. 
 Some are entirely destitute of out-buildings.* 
 
 Of 53 schoolhouses in this district, 14 are, in structure, in lo- 
 cation, in furniture, a disgrace to an intelligent community. The 
 people in these districts make much better provision for their cattle 
 than for their children. f 
 
 Of 80 schoolhouses in Greene County, one-third are reported as 
 "superlatively bad. Out-buildings scarce and in bad condition." 
 
 The general character and condition of the schoolhouses in this 
 county, with some few exceptions, are extremely bad. A large 
 number of them are old and shockingly out of repair. ;{; 
 
 * Broome. f Cayuga (First District). J Hamilton. 
 
112 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 Of 92 schoolhouses in Onondagca County, 64 are unprotected by 
 a fence. 
 
 The location of sclioplhouses would seem to have been decided 
 in far too many cases by the cheapness rather than the suitableness 
 of the site. They are placed either upon some high rocky hill too 
 barren for tillage and too bleak for any agricultural use, or else 
 upon some low, swampy, spongy bog, where nought but alders or 
 rushes can grow and pleasant or healthy to nothing but musquitoes 
 and frogs.* 
 
 Many of the old, shabby, ill-looking houses are still in being. 
 Pity it is that the elements would not rise in honest indignation, 
 and with a hurricane raze to the ground these stumbling blocks, 
 which a professedly enlightened humanity cannot see it for its 
 interest to do.f 
 
 Of 164 schoolhouses, about 25 are good; 50 may be termed 
 passable; the remainder (89) I would prefer to call "teach-pens." 
 Seventy per cent, are ventilated by means of knot holes, cracks in 
 walls or ceilings, worn-out sills, broken window panes, and by rais- 
 ing the window-sash. J 
 
 In at least one-half the districts the schoolhouses are very in- 
 ferior and in no respect adapted to personal comfort or conveni- 
 ence. § 
 
 There are about 25 pleasant, commodious schoolhouses in the 
 district, about 40 more which are in a decent condition, and 60 
 which are a disgrace to the county. || 
 
 Text-hoohs. — In respect to text-hooks and apparatus the county 
 reports are by no means satisfactory. In very few, if any, of them 
 is the subject treated with the fulness which its importance de- 
 mands. Several of them do not allude to it at all. 
 
 The pupils select, by the merest lottery of choice, the branches 
 they desire to study, so that there are, many times, more classes 
 than pupils.^ 
 
 In consequence of this diversity (of text-books), we find no school 
 with less than 15 and in some 51 different classes !** 
 
 I have seen Pelton's elegant and useful outline maps, which 
 cost this district $25, hung up for window curtains or to cover 
 defects in the wall.f f 
 
 We have found Pelton's large series of outline maps stowed 
 away in the woodhouse or hung up at the windows for curtains. * * 
 As scholars notice their entire neglect, they soon obtain the idea 
 that they are worthless, and either the mountings get torn off or a 
 knife finds its Avay across them or a mouthful of tobacco saliva 
 from an embryo loafer is ejected upon them.^'J 
 
 * Oswego (3). t Suffolk. J Sullivan. ? Tioga. || Washington (2). 
 •[Broome. ** Eleventh Rep. Cayuga. ff Cayuga (2). JJ Cayuga (1 ). 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. 113 
 
 In a school at Carterville, consisting of only 30 scholars, the 
 commissioners of Oswego County found in use in one district 11 
 different readers and 5 different arithmetics, besides primers and 
 spelling books. In the report from Sullivan County are mentioned 
 
 5 spellers, 6 readers, 9 geographies, 9 arithmetics, 4 algebras, and 
 
 6 grammars. 
 
 Of school books we have a much greater variety than is profit- 
 able for the pupils or pleasant to teachers. I have not the cour- 
 age to attempt to report their names.* 
 
 Teachers and their qualifications. — In respect to the qualifica- 
 tions of teachers the general bearing of the county reports corre- 
 sponds with that of Cayuga County, Second District: "It is safe 
 to say that a large majority of teachers in rural districts make no 
 special preparation whatever for their business. They hasten in 
 the fall from the cornfield and the workshop to the schoolroom, 
 with preparations vastly inadequate for the responsible duties 
 before them. As commissioners, Ave see their shortcomings, but 
 how can we remedy them ?" 
 
 There are two very observable features in the reports of county 
 commissioners on this point. 1. That the same teacher is rarely 
 employed more than one term in the same school; and 2. That 
 the great majority of teachers are females. We cite a few brief 
 sentences : 
 
 It is a settled practice in most districts to have a new teacher 
 every term. * * * Of the teachers employed, 47 were males and 
 196 females. t 
 
 Of the teachers, 22 per cent, have been males and 78 females. 
 Generally they (teachers) make the employment a stepping-stone 
 to something that pays better. J 
 
 Out of 170 teachers employed, not more than 20 make or in- 
 tend to make, teaching a business. § 
 
 About one out of ten make teaching a profession; the others 
 teaching during a part of the year when they can make it pay 
 better than anything else.|| 
 
 Teachers that can be procured for the least wages are in 
 greatest demand,^ 
 
 The whole number of teachers employed in the several gram- 
 mar and primary schools of the city does not vary much from 
 2000, of whom 1800 are females.** 
 
 * Westchester. f Broome. % Cattaraugus. § Cayuga (2). 
 
 II Columbia. *\ Greene. *■'* Now York City. 
 
114 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 Of 178 teachers employed during the year, 35 were males and 
 143 females. About 50 per cent, follow teaching as a permanent 
 employment until they have a chance to keep house where there is 
 (are) only two in a family.* 
 
 Of the persons employed as teachers last year, 48 were males 
 and 175 females, and the proportion of female teachers is increas- 
 ing.f 
 
 The language employed by several of the commissioners when 
 treating of the qualifications of teachers and the motives which 
 prompt them to become such, is quite ambiguous, though with 
 some it is sulEciently explicit. 
 
 The experience of some districts has shown that high wages do 
 not always secure first-class teachers ; and the defects most fre- 
 quently mentioned are in the very branches which the law puts 
 first, viz.. Orthography and Reading. Where a deficiency in 
 these branches is specifically noticed, it is not because the com- 
 missioner has stumbled on an unusual number of teachers distin- 
 guished for this failure, but because he happened to strike that 
 range of inquiries, while other commissioners have pursued an- 
 other. Hence we may infer that there is not much uniformity in 
 the standard itself, nor in the mode of ascertaining the measure of 
 conformity to it. One tells us of teachers who did not know how 
 to look for a word in the dictionary, and of one who had taught 
 school seven terms, and had received two first grade certificates 
 from the commissioners of an adjoining county, who did not know 
 that the earth revolves round the sun ! 
 
 If poor teachers must be supported at public expense I say do 
 it, but keep them out of our schools. We cannot support them 
 and spoil our children too. It would be better and cheaper to 
 support them out of the schoolhouse than in it.| 
 
 A great majority of our teachers are barely passable. § 
 
 Of 320 teachers (69 males and 251 females), 5 of the former 
 and 15 of the latter follow teaching as a permanent employment.|| 
 
 The proportion of male to female teachers is about 1 to 7, 
 with only 20 professional teachers in 91 schools. Of 5 out of 6 it 
 is said that while they give a very good rote illustration in figures 
 and know well the relative geographical positions of this earth (?), 
 they have no acquaintance with history or general literature, no 
 thought beyond the frivolities of life ; in short, they want tiiat 
 
 * Oswego (2). t Oswego (3). | Oswego (2). ^ Suffolk (1). 1| Sullivan. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. 115 
 
 thought, learning, and preparation which alone can fit them for 
 their high trust.* 
 
 Of the 217 teachers employed during the year, 55 were males 
 and 162 females. Twenty-eight of the 217 may be said to follow 
 teaching as a profession. I have known a first-class teacher lose a 
 situation because a young and inexperienced girl would serve for 
 two shillings less per week.f 
 
 Of the teachers in this district last year, 74 per cent, were 
 females. It is almost, not quite, literally true of them all, that the 
 females teach until they can find husbands, the males till they can 
 find some more profitable employment.! 
 
 During last year I have refused twelve applications (for licenses). 
 My observation during the past summer in visiting the schools, 
 leads me to believe that it would have been better had I refused at 
 least three times that number. § 
 
 Most of the teachers are young and inexperienced. |j 
 
 In reading, more of them (the teachers) make bad readers than 
 there are who teach to read well.^ 
 
 Nearly two-thirds of the female teachers are quite too young 
 for the business. They teach only in the summer, and do the chea'p 
 teacldng for the six month school.** 
 
 Teachers'' Institutes. — Considerable interest seems to be mani- 
 fested (according to these reports) in the teachers' institutes held 
 during the year. They are supposed to be conducted by some 
 mature and experienced teacher, and oftentimes persons versed in 
 various branches of learning attend and give lectures, which can- 
 not fail to profit, more or less sensibly, those who attend. We ap- 
 prehend, however, that too little of the labour and responsibility of 
 making them useful and attractive devolves on the members. List- 
 ening to half a dozen skilful lecturers may do good, but to make 
 the work thorough, some test like that of a catechetical exercise 
 seems necessary, to measure, not only the knowledge possessed, but 
 the skill of the possessor to make it available in the j)rocess of edu- 
 cating others. There seems to be no certain or uniform provision 
 for securing the proper and profitable conduct of the institute. If 
 the school commissioners have discrimination to select, and influence 
 to secure the services of suitable persons to interest, stimulate and 
 instruct a mixed body of teachers who may voluntarily assemble 
 for the purpose, good results would doubtless be witnessed. But 
 lectures are the most superficial of all modes of imparting instruc- 
 
 * Ulster (1). f Washington. J Westchester (3). § Eleventh Report, Essex. 
 II Franklin. f Greene. ** Jefferson. 
 
116 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 tion, and considering the great diversity in the minds and attain- 
 ments of those who are addressed, much of the best lecture must be 
 as water spilled upon the ground. 
 
 So far as the reports are concerned, we fail to see any decided 
 testimony to the value of this agency, With, here and there, a 
 general reference to the good influence of such conferences, the 
 gist of the information relates to the places where they are held, 
 the length of sessions, the number in attendance, and the names of 
 the lecturers. But the preponderance of the testimony, such as it 
 is, is favourable, and were the same teachers employed from year to 
 year and a succession of well conducted institutes were attended by 
 them, we cannot doubt that a marked improvement would be seen 
 in schools. We should require some better proof of it, however, than 
 the opinion of a district or county commissioner who may be as in- 
 competent to judge of the qualifications of another as he is to teach 
 himself. 
 
 This glance at the leading topics of interest in these official re- 
 turns, does not leave the impression that the daily public schools of 
 New York are doing the work assigned to them. The legislative pro- 
 visions seem to be wise and ample, the corps of officials numerous 
 and the expenditures liberal ; but the working force is altogether 
 inadequate, parents are indifferent, and, in a word, the popular heart 
 is not in them. They show none of that vitality which gives prom- 
 ise of a vigorous growth, stability and fruitfulness, such as the im- 
 posing and expensive array of means would lead us to expect ; and 
 until this aspect of the institution is essentially changed, there will 
 be a perceptible deterioration of public manners, and a positive and 
 rapid increase of ignorance and crime. A proposition to abolish 
 the daily public school, would receive a loud and universal nega- 
 tive. How much better than its abolition is its present low, grudged, 
 extorted support ? 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 117 
 
 DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OE LAWS. 
 
 Board of Education. — The Board of Education was established 
 in 1837, and is composed of the governor, lieutenant-governor, and 
 eight persons appointed by the Executive for the term of eight 
 years, one member retiring annually, and his place supplied in the 
 same way. The duty of the Board is to prescribe blank returns, 
 appoint a secretary, and collect and diffuse information to insure the 
 best education. The incidental expenses of the Board are paid 
 out of the public treasury. 
 
 Secretary. — The duty of the Secretary of the Board (whose 
 salary is $2,500, and |400 for travelling expenses) is to visit 
 schools, and use means to give a harmonious and efficient action 
 to the machinery, and, once a year, to make a report of his 
 doings. 
 
 Agents are also appointed by the Board to visit, lecture, &c., 
 spending a day or more in each town, examining the schools in 
 the afternoon, and lecturing in the evening. 
 
 Institutes. — Institutes were first organized in 1846, and may be 
 established where fifty or more teachers desire to unite in sustain- 
 ing one. Three thousand dollars a year are appropriated from the 
 school fund to pay for the maintenance of institutes, though the 
 apportionment cannot exceed $350 to each. Sessions are limited 
 to five days. 
 
 County Associations. — County associations of teachers are also 
 encouraged by an allowance of $25, provided they hold a session 
 of two days in behalf of the interests of public schools. 
 
 School Fund. — The school fund was established in 1835. One 
 and a half millions were received from the sale of Maine lands ; 
 from the payment, by the General Government, of claims for ser- 
 vices during the war of 1812, and from subscriptions to the stock 
 of the Western Railroad ; and by a provision of 1854 it was made 
 $2,000,000. One-half of the income is appropriated to support the 
 public schools, and the other half to '■'other educational purposes." 
 
118 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 The principal of the fund, January 1, 1864, was $1,870,970 90. 
 The amount divided on the 10th of July, 1863, was $49,044 09, 
 or (say) twenty-one cents to each child between five and fifteen. 
 To secure this a sum must be raised by tax equal to three dollars 
 for each person between those ages, to pay for the wages and board 
 of teachers, for fuel and for schoolrooms. Another pre-requisite 
 to a share of the State fund is, that the schools shall be kept open 
 at least six months, and the high schools maintained according to 
 law. The expense of schoolhouses and repairs is to be defrayed 
 by an assessment on the property of the district. 
 
 State Scholar ships. — These constitute a peculiar feature of the 
 system, and are designed to aid in qualifying principals for the 
 high schools existing in the State. Forty-eight young men can, 
 on certain conditions, receive $100 per annum from the State 
 towards the expenses of a full four years' course at any college they 
 may select Avithin the State. To equalize the privilege over the 
 whole territory, it is divided into sections and classes. School 
 committees, in conjunction with a competent teacher, certify that 
 A. B. will be fitted for college at the ensuing commencement ;* and 
 upon examination, if satisfactory, he is admitted, and if in good 
 standing at the close of each successive year, he receives the stipulated 
 sum. After leaving college he is required to attend at least one 
 term at a normal school, for which he shall be allowed fifty dollars. 
 
 A person receiving State patronage is required to teach in the 
 public schools of the State for a length of time equal to that for 
 which he received aid, and for neglect must pay $100 per year 
 from the time he graduated, till the whole amount is returned, 
 with interest.f No provision is made here for the training of 
 female teachers, on whom the chief burden of primary instruction 
 rests ; but it is supposed that teachers' institutes, held in all parts 
 of the State, and the normal school, will meet this want. 
 
 * By a late law, this act is so amended as to provide that the State scholars, in- 
 stead of being selected by examination before entering college, are selected after 
 they have spent one year in college, on an inspection by the Board, of the certifi- 
 cates of the Faculty as to good conduct, scholarship, and health, and any other tes- 
 timonials they may furnish. 
 
 f It is worthy of remark that very few (two or three perhaps) availed themselves 
 of the normal school privilege. It is now made imperative on them to attend. IVe 
 do not find any detailed report of the number of these State beneficiaries who have 
 served, or are serving out their time faithfully in the public schools, nor of the 
 measure of their success, compared with those who have enjoyed no sucli advantage. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 119 
 
 Teachers. — The schools are to be sufficient in number, and to be 
 ■supplied with teachers of competent ability and of good morals, who 
 shall instruct all children who may legally attend, in orthography, 
 reading, writing, English grammar, arithmetic, the history of the 
 United States, and in good behaviour. Other branches may be in- 
 troduced at the discretion of the school committee. All these 
 branches, except history, were required by the old law. 
 
 To encourage the introduction of female teachers into the public 
 employment, schools having fifty or more scholars are required to 
 employ one or more female assistants, unless the town shall vote 
 against it ; and in his report for 1861, the Secretary of the Board 
 proposed to use the word "teacher" instead of "master" wherever 
 it occurs, so as to admit females into high schools as teachers, 
 as " in many cases they have exhibited abundant fitness for the 
 work." 
 
 High Schools. — High schools are authorized in all towns, and 
 are required in towns containing 500 families. They are to be 
 kept open ten months in the year. In theory all the inhabitants 
 of the town are to have the benefit of this school for instruction in 
 the higher branches of learning. In towns containing 4,000 in- 
 habitants, such a school is be taught by persons competent to 
 instruct in the Greek and Latin languages. Adjoining towns, 
 neither of which have the requisite number of families, may unite 
 to sustain a high school.* 
 
 Adult Schools. — Adult schools are authorized by law, to be 
 taught gratuitously. 
 
 Moral Instruction. — The law provides that teachers shall im- 
 press upon the schools "the principles of piety, justice, and a 
 sacred regard to truth." By a recent act the Bible is required to 
 be read daily in the schools without oral or written comment ; but 
 no child shall be required to read in a version against which the 
 parent or guardian shall express objection. 
 
 School Committee. — The immediate oversight of the schools is 
 entrusted to a committee consisting of three (or some multiple of 
 three), one third of whom are chosen annually. They are invested 
 Avith plenary powers to arrange, classify, and grade schools — to 
 examine and employ teachers who are furnished with proper cer- 
 
 * By the census of 1860 it appears that 128 towns were required to lieep a high 
 school. In 18C4 118 schools of this class were open ; some of them, however, for 
 a less term than ten months. 
 
120 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCUOOL 
 
 tificates of qualification. They are also to visit the seliools during 
 the first and last week of every month of each session. Their' 
 compensation is fixed by law. When the town shall so elect, cer- 
 tain functions of the school committee may be performed by one 
 called "superintendent of public schools," who is to act under 
 "the committee's direction, and to receive a fixed salary. 
 
 Taxes. — Taxes required for school purposes are assessed, like 
 other taxes, at the rate of $3.00 for each child betAveen the ages 
 of five and fifteen. A failure to raise this amount works a for- 
 feiture of the ai^propriation from the State, and a failure to keep 
 the schools open for the time required by law subjects the delin- 
 quent town to a penalty. 
 
 School Books. — Books are furnished to pupils at cost, and can- 
 not be changed but by the unanimous consent of the committee. 
 When changes are made, pupils are to be furnished with the sub- 
 stitute at public expense. Poor children are furnished gratui- 
 tously. 
 
 Sclioolhouses. — Suitable houses are to be provided by the seve- 
 ral towns, sufficient in number and capacity to receive all who have 
 a right to be taught in them. Land may be taken for the site not 
 exceeding eighty square rods, exclusive of buildings, paying the 
 owner a fair equivalent. 
 
 Attendance. — The law peremptorily requires the attendance 
 upon some public school in the city or town where they reside, 
 of all children between eight and fourteen for at least twelve 
 weeks in the year (where the schools are so long open), six of 
 Avhich shall be consecutive, except in cases of extreme poverty, 
 or where the child has or has had the like or better advantages 
 elsewhere, or is incapacitated in body or mind to attend. Unvac- 
 cinated children are not admitted to any public school, but neither 
 race, colour, nor religious opinions exclude any one. 
 
 No child under twelve years of age can be employed in a fac- 
 tory more than ten hours a day, and there is special provision on 
 the subject of employing unschooled children there, at all. 
 
 Truancy. — There are wholesome laws respecting truancy, which 
 the towns are required to enforce. 
 
 Normal Schools. — The first normal school was opened in 1839, 
 and two others in a space of about a year after. The fourth was 
 opened in 1853. Two of them are for females exclusively, and 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 121 
 
 the other two for both sexes. Tuition is free in them all. Females 
 are admitted at sixteen, and males at seventeen, and every candi- 
 date must give an assurance of his or her purpose to teach in the 
 public schools of the State. There is an annual appropriation of 
 $2,000 to aid those Avho need aid, and to equalize the expense of 
 attendance. Teachers of normal schools are appointed by the 
 Board of Education. The course of study extends through two 
 years, four classes of pupils in each school, and six months' term 
 of study for each class. 
 
 It is to the credit of the bureau that the Twenty-seventh Report con- 
 tains a return from every town in the Commonwealth (333) and they 
 show the number of schools to be 4,626. The number of children 
 returned between 5 and 15, May 1, 1862, was 238,381. The num- 
 ber of scholars of all ages in all the schools in winter was 227, 252, 
 and nearly the same number in summer ; and the average at- 
 tendance was about four-fifths of the number returned, which is 
 certainly a very creditable ratio. The number of different persons 
 employed as teachers during the year was 7,332, of whom four- 
 fifths were females. The average length of school term was 8 
 months. The wages of both male and female teachers were less 
 than in the year previous. The amount received in taxes for pub- 
 lic schools was $1,434,015, and from State fund, $49,044. Ex- 
 pended on public schools, exclusive of houses and books, $1,566,949, 
 being a decrease of $68,676. 
 
 CONDITION OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 More than two hundred years ago the principle v/as incorporated 
 into the legislation of Massachusetts, that the whole people must 
 be educated to a certain degree at the public expense, irrespective 
 of any social distinctions. Schools established by ecclesiastical 
 authority, and conducted under ecclesiastical supervision, were not 
 free schools in the sense in which we use the term. 
 
 The law makes it the imperative duty of every town to organize 
 and support a certain number and grade of schools, and authorizes 
 the imposition of a tax sufficient for that end. An annual appro- 
 priation is made by the vote of every town for school purposes. 
 
 The provision of the school fund in 1834, and the organization 
 of the Board of Education three years afterwards^ have, of course. 
 
122 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 wrought manifold chan2;es in the instruction and oversight of the 
 public schools, but not greater perhaps than have been wrought iii 
 the general condition of the community. There are ten news- 
 papers and twenty books now where there was one of either then, 
 and the advance in various branches of knowledge has been 
 still more vast. We are by no means prepared to admit, how- 
 ever, that the schools of to-day make better readers, spellers, 
 and writers than were made by the same class of schools forty or 
 fifty years ago. The modes and instruments and grades of in- 
 struction have doubtless greatly improved. There are fifty school 
 books now where there was one then. Such atlases and beautifully 
 illustrated geographies as are now common were then unknown. 
 
 But what was lacking in facilities was largely made up in applica- 
 tion and pains-taking. The young mind was not distracted with a 
 score of diff"erent studies. Nobody dreamed that rhetoric and philoso- 
 phy, political economy and constitutional law had a place in the 
 daily common school. The aim of teachers was to give the boys and 
 girls a good knowledge of such branches as an American man or 
 woman needs to know, in order to discharge creditably the duties of 
 ordinary life. To be able to read the Bible, the newspaper, and the 
 ballot; to keep an accurate account of debt and credit ; to express 
 legibly and intellegibly one's ideas and wishes in a letter, was the 
 main end in view. If individuals, here and there, aspired to some 
 higher attainments, the grammar school and the academy (or high 
 school) were accessible on reasonable terms ; and beyond these, for 
 the few who purposed entering into one of the learned professions, 
 or who had the inclination and means of pursuing literature for its 
 own sake, was the college. 
 
 The schoolmaster ranked with the minister and the squire. The 
 school, like the church, was in immediate contact with the popular 
 heart. The inordinate lust for office and place — the dexterous man- 
 ipulations of political jugglers, and the shifts to eat and not work, if 
 not unknown, were shamefaced ; and as to the diffusion of useful 
 learning, we doubt much if the juries summoned from the " Bay State" 
 to-day are more upright, intelligent, and discriminating than the same 
 number from the same class of the community were then. The arts 
 and sciences have advanced marvellously, but whether the people 
 more justly appreciate their social and civil privileges; whether the 
 virtues of honesty, industry, temperance, and reverence for the au- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 123 
 
 tliorlty of God or man are as conspicuous now in the mass of the com- 
 munitj as they were then, is very questionable. And surely if the 
 science and practice of education, in any proper sense of the term, 
 had advanced, as have the science and practice of agriculture, com- 
 merce, and the mechanical and manufacturing arts, the fact would 
 he revealed more or less distinctly in the prevalence of the virtues 
 and graces just enumerated. 
 
 Indeed, if we take the standard prescribed in a report of one of 
 the commissioners, now before us, we gravely doubt if any ma- 
 terial progress could be shown. 
 
 All children should be taught in school what they will most 
 need in the world to prepare them for honourable, useful, virtuous, 
 and happy liv^es. This proposition embraces their being taught 
 to live religiously, to think carefully, to reckon accurately, to read 
 and converse well, and to write a correct business letter. * * 
 The culpable neglect of the New England schools in teaching their 
 pupils how to write a letter is proved a hundred times every year 
 in the letters we receive. Men and women in respectable situa- 
 tions write us letters which disgracefully abound with false gram- 
 mar, bad spelling, and worse punctuation.* 
 
 Popular Estimation. — The Board of Education, with its Sec- 
 retary or executive officer, the school fund, and the normal 
 schools, are the chief features of the present system in this State. 
 The report before us refers to sundry " measures adopted by the 
 Legislature from time to time in aid of the efficiency of the system 
 of common schools," objections to which are regarded as indi- 
 cating a false and fatal economy, and a very inadequate appre- 
 ciation of the advantages of a school ; and it adds, " with all 
 the agencies which have been thus created, the eifort to keep 
 up the public interest to its proper tone is often inadequate and 
 ineffectual, and to remove these agencies would be to suffer the 
 whole system to relapse into a state of but little better than sus- 
 pended animation, "f 
 
 Is it not a fair inference, that however curious and imposing the 
 machinery, the daily common school is not imbedded in the popu^ 
 lar sympathy ? Were the interior life and spirit what it should be, 
 might not this constant pressure from, without be lessened, if not 
 withdrawn ? We cannot clothe our idea in more appropriate lan- 
 guage than we find prepared to our hand in the sensible report of 
 * Medford. f Twenty-seventh Report of Board, page 6. 
 
124 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 the school committee of Haverhill, — a. fair specimen of a thrifty 
 New England town. 
 
 Even here is danger that in his appreciation of what the State 
 is doing for him the individual will content himself with doing 
 nothing. "Why," he may be tempted to exclaim, "how blest am 
 I ! with nothing to do but look on and see how smoothly and suc- 
 cessfully the State operates her educational machinery." * * * 
 What though the State legislates a school into a neighbourhood, 
 builds the house, hires the master, and foots the bills ; a school 
 is nothing without life ! And that school must be as cold and dead 
 as a Pharisee's prayer unless the neighbourhood gives it inspiration. 
 Like a young tree, its vitality must come from the soil in which it 
 is set; its fruitage depend on the nursing and pruning it receives. 
 The State can provide the altar, but not the incense — give the 
 form, but not the power. It can compel the children to belong to 
 the school, but it can neither inspire the love of study nor secure 
 the punctuality on which improvement depends. This is individual 
 work — home work — the work of parents. 
 
 Nothing can give us good schools if the people forsake them. 
 The wisest provisions of law, the most liberal appropriations of 
 money, and most pains-taking supervision of the proper authorities 
 cannot compensate for that. The very breath is gone if the at- 
 mosphere of public interest be wanting.* 
 
 We are convinced that no selection of teachers and appropria- 
 tion of funds, however liberal, will raise our schools to the rank 
 they ought in justice to attain, without the aid of other powerful 
 agents, the most prominent of which is an undivided public 
 interest. t 
 
 All machinery is useless if we have not the motive power. 
 You may have the best of railroad tracks laid down, bridges 
 built, grades proportioned, summits levelled, valleys lifted, passen- 
 ger cars of completest structure, locomotives of perfect play, you 
 need one thing more, viz. : steam. You may set in motion all 
 sorts of institutions, apparatus, appliances and instrumentalities 
 for the education of your children — all is in vain without the earn- 
 estness of the parental soul which keeps the engine in motion. J 
 
 Similar language occurring at short intervals in the reports of 
 committees seems to indicate the continuance of a " tendency" to 
 the same practical lifelessness which the Board charge upon the 
 institution "when left to its intrinsic merits" as it was before what 
 is called the reform in the system "began twenty-five years ago." 
 
 There is, moreover, an item or two of positive evidence that the 
 
 * Marlborough. f Boylston. J West Springfield. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 125 
 
 interest of the people in the subject, if not sensibly diminished, 
 suflfers perilous alternations. The sum raised for educational pur- 
 poses was less last year than the year before ; the length of sessions 
 and the average attendance -were less. The average wages of both 
 male and female teachers were reduced, though the expenses of 
 livinof had increased ; and of the fourteen counties of the State, 
 thirteen decreased the amount raised by taxation for support of 
 public schools. 
 
 A single fact is worth a score of speculations. A law of the 
 State prohibits the employment by manufacturing establishments 
 of children who have not a certain measure of schooling ! So much 
 more value did sundry parents attach to the muscles than to the 
 minds of their children, that they actually removed from the State, 
 that they might be at liberty to keep their children at work the 
 entire year, losing no time for their schooling ! This withdrawal 
 so depleted the force that the managers concluded to disregard the 
 law, and employ little hands, whatever become of little heads and 
 hearts.* 
 
 Teachers. — Eight-tenths of the teachers are females, and a large 
 proportion of them endeavour to qualify themselves for their work as 
 aprofessio7i. It is stated that "large numbers"t of these have gone 
 through a course of instruction in academies and normal schools, 
 and the compensation they receive is less than half what is paid 
 to male teachers for inferior services, and scarcely more than the 
 wages of a porter or a hod-carrier. We do not wonder that the 
 Secretary of the Board animadverts with considerable severity on 
 this rank injustice. A case is cited from a sister State, in which 
 a male teacher, at a salary of $700 or more, resigned his place. 
 For the sake of the experiment a female teacher was elected to 
 the vacant post, though at only half her predecessor's pay. She 
 gave entire satisfaction to her employers, and modestly asked to 
 have her salary raised. Her request was declined, and she relin- 
 quished the school. The report alludes to this case as a sample of 
 injustice to female teachers. We use it to show the low popular 
 appreciation of the public school. 
 
 * Twenty-seventh Annual Report, p. 211. 
 
 f So indefinite a phrase should not be employed on a point of such importance. 
 We suppose it is as easy to keep a record of the number of pupils from a normal 
 school that are employed in teaching, as of the number of ministers or doctors from 
 a college class. 
 
126 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 Though the Ia^Y is imperative that a sufficient number of schools 
 for the instruction of all the children who desire to attend shall 
 be kept open for at least six months of the year, it is stated that 
 nearly one third of the towns failed to conform to it, and among 
 the delinquents are some of the most thriving towns in the State. 
 The secretary urges the consolidation of districts whose number of 
 children is comparatively small, as a method of improving the 
 schools and reducing the expense. 
 
 There is no doubt that one good school in a town is better for 
 those who can attend than half a dozen poor ones, nor that a much 
 more advanced grade of instruction might be introduced- into this 
 better or higher school, but it must be borne in mind that the le- 
 gitimate purpose of a free school system is, to supply a measure of 
 instruction to all ; and this end is more likely to be secured by 
 carrying the school into each neighbourhood than by summoning 
 the children of several neighbourhoods to a central point, though 
 perhaps to a better school. Such observation as we have been able 
 to make inclines us to the belief that it would be safer and better, 
 as well as more consonant to the end in view, to have a lower 
 grade of instruction accessible to all, than a higher grade, re- 
 stricted by local circumstances to a favoured few. 
 
 High Schools. — The argument in favour of high schools in which 
 Latin and Greek are taught, has much popular force. The term 
 " People's Colleges," suits the ears of a multitude, and the mechanic 
 and day labourer rejoice in the idea of giving their sons " college 
 learning" at the public expense, so that they shall not be a whit be- 
 hind the chiefest of those who expend large sums to obtain a imi- 
 versity education. And lest there should be invidious distinctions in 
 phraseology, the terms "commencement," "graduates," "degrees," 
 " diplomas," "alumni," &c.,are employed to describe the parties and 
 proceedings that distinguish the close of an academical term. It is 
 very true that a law of Massachusetts, two centuries old, required 
 towns having one hundred* householders to maintain a grammar 
 school, as it was called, and to employ a teacher competent to fit 
 pupils for the university ; but it must be borne in mind that the 
 public school and the minister's study furnished most of the in- 
 struction of which the people could avail themselves. Academies 
 and private institutions are things of a later period, and though the 
 * Two hundred by a law of 1789. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 127 
 
 ability to prepare pupils for college was required in the teacher 
 of these grammar schools, it is very evident, from the annual ac- 
 cessions to that classic community, how few availed themselves of 
 his services. 
 
 The modern high school is required in every town of five hun- 
 dred families or householders. It is to be open ten months of the 
 year to all the inhabitants, and the teacher must be qualified to 
 instruct in general history, bookkeeping, surveying, geometry, 
 natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, the civil polity of the Com- 
 monwealth and of the United States, and the Latin language. All 
 this will not fit the pupil for the university, however, and the school 
 which embraces this extensive course of instruction, is regarded as 
 the lowest of the high school class. In a town of 4,000 inhabit- 
 ants, there is to be a first-grade high school in which Greek and 
 French as well as Latin are to be taught, if required, and also as- 
 tronomy, rhetoric, logic, intellectual and moral science and political 
 economy. 
 
 Of sixty-eight towns required to maintain a high school of the 
 lower grade, thirty-five, or more than half, decline to comply ; and 
 of the sixty cities and towns required to establish a high school of 
 the first grade, eleven refuse or neglect to comply. Among these 
 delinquent towns are " some of the most prosperous and flourishing 
 in the Commonwealth." Considering that the support of all the 
 schools of this class which the law contemplates would require (ex- 
 clusive of buildings) an average increase of less than one-tenth of 
 a cent on a dollar to the year's taxes, some cause must be assigned 
 for the neglect, aside from the cost. Is it not possible that there 
 is a surfeit of school privileges which is working a distaste for them, 
 and that all which modern legislation proposes beyond the routine 
 of the good old-fashioned grammar school is for the advantage of 
 the few in central and populous localities, while the out-lying dis- 
 tricts are scarcely recognized as objects of public concern?* 
 
 That persons can be found qualified to teach, in addition to the or- 
 dinary elementary branches, fifteen distinct sciences (some of them 
 the most abstruse and difiicult that can be named), and three lan- 
 
 * The newspapers tell us that in a late public lecture by the Secretary of the Board 
 of Education, he stated that there are seventy-five high schools in the State, in 
 which children can get a better education than Harvard College furnished when 
 Edward Everett and William II. Prescott were there. 
 
128 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 giiagcs beside, <all for an average salary of $800, is scarcely credi- 
 ble. At all events Ave may predict a sore disappointment if any 
 academics or normal schools now established, are relied on to fur- 
 nish teachers of such accomplishments. 
 
 Normal Scliools. — The board of education regard the normal 
 schools as indispensable to the success of their system, and the 
 confidence of the secretary of the board in their usefulness is very 
 strongly expressed. Their agency in elevating the character and 
 aspirations of the great body of teachers he thinks is invaluable. 
 It has been found that eighteen months' pupilage in a normal school 
 is not sufiicient to accomplish the end, and the term is now extended 
 to two years. All needful preparation "in the elementary branches, 
 including thorough drill in the best method of teaching them, occu- 
 pies six months, leaving under the former provision, only twelve 
 for a wider range of scientific and classical culture, for which 18 
 are wanted." From this it would appear that three-fourths of the 
 normal school training have respect to the higher grade of schools. 
 It only contributes indirectly, if it contributes at all to improve 
 the modes of instruction in the ordinary branches of reading, writ- 
 ing, spelling, arithmetic, geography and English grammar, the 
 specified branches which it is the special purpose of the daily public 
 school to teach. Some conceit of this incongruity may possibly 
 have prompted the official visitors to the normal school at Fram- 
 ingham to say, " We hope the range of instruction in our pub- 
 lic schools will be confined more particularly to the elementary 
 branches, such as reading, spelling, writing and arithmetic." And 
 again, "We believe it is far better to seek for improved methods of 
 teaching elementary studies to the youth of our public schools, than 
 to labour to introduce and make easy the higher branches for 
 which they are generally unprepared. We are to educate the. 
 masses." These most important ends of the public school might be 
 answered, one would think, without any extensive " classical cul- 
 ture," and even without a very thorough knowledge of chemistry, 
 natural philosophy and logic. 
 
 The number of pupils admitted to the four normal schools in the 
 course of the year was 275. Their average age on admission was 
 19| years, and the expenses (independent of building, repairs, &c.) 
 were a little short of $50 per head. The report of one of the visit- 
 ing committees to these schools, unfolds to us their character and 
 scope as follows : 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 129 
 
 " The normal school should be pre-eminently a school of train- 
 ing, of discipline of the moral, mental and physical powers. The 
 teacher who has acquired a high ideal of excellence, and has the 
 power of independent thought, the capacity and the habit of ex- 
 amining, comparing and deciding for himself, is likely to succeed. 
 These qualities make him suggestive, fruitful of expedients, and 
 capable of adapting himself readily to circumstances ;" and it is 
 added, " that the education which the normal school imparts, is 
 eminently calculated to develope these high qualities if they exist." 
 Aye, if they exist ! and it is their existence that makes the sort of 
 man who is described; but the work of the normal school, though it 
 may aid their improvement, cannot supply their absence. " Every- 
 where, throughout creation, we find faculties developed through the 
 performance of those functions which it is their office to perform, 
 not through the performance of artificial exercise devised to fit them 
 for these functions."* Pregnant words — these. 
 
 We are without the means of judging how large a proiDortion of 
 the young men and women who enter the normal schools possess 
 these peculiar qualities, nor are we informed how many prove sus- 
 ceptible of the desired improvement. We are told, however, that 
 only about four per cent, of the teachers employed in the State 
 have been under normal school instruction. We do not remember 
 any intimation of the number of normal school graduates employed 
 within the State, nor for what length of time nor with what success. 
 In the reports of school committees, there is rarely an allusion to 
 these schools or to their influence. Were it practicable to trace the 
 758 individuals who have left the normal school at Salem since it 
 Avas opened, ten years ago, so as to show how many have followed 
 teaching as a profession in Massachusetts or elsewhere, for what 
 period and with what reputation, we should have some data, that 
 we have not now, by which to determine the positive advantages it 
 has conferred on the community. Or, if all along through the re- 
 ports of the school committees we should see a hundred or even a 
 score of incidental allusions to the spring which was given to the 
 schools in this, that, and the other town by the introduction of a 
 teacher from one of the normal schools ; or if they should describe the 
 contrast which Avas observable between him or her and the best 
 
 * Herbert Spencer, quoted in the report of the school committee of Salem, — the 
 scat of one of the normal schools ! 
 
130 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCUOOL 
 
 teacher they had known previously, a like judgment might be 
 formed. For example, the committee of South Danvers tell us of 
 an "entire revolution eiSected by the employment of a really compe- 
 tent teacher, where it is a luxury to spend an hour listening to the 
 extremely accurate reading of the little scholars," and much more 
 to the same effect. Now, if it could have been added, " and for this 
 
 teacher we are indebted to the normal school at ," it would have 
 
 been just one of the items which we have in mind. 
 
 Nothing is clearer than that normal schools can no more make 
 good teachers than military schools can make brave and skilful 
 generals, or theological schools learned and eloquent preachers. 
 Young men and women may select teaching as an honourable and 
 useful method of obtaining a livelihood, and it may be not less to 
 their credit than their advantage to attend the required term at 
 some normal school and obtain a certificate of qualification, and 
 after all they may be quite incompetent to do justice to a very ordi- 
 nary primary school. And while we are not disposed to question 
 the high praise bestowed on these schools or to deny them the im- 
 portance which the Board and Secretary claim, we do not perceive 
 that evidence of their practical value which justifies it. Possibly 
 the higher class of schools may have reaped advantages from them, 
 and in this indirect way the public may receive a full equivalent 
 for its outlay. But our present inquiry, it must be remembered, is 
 restricted to the interest of the daily public school, — the educating 
 agency for seven or nine tenths of the community that are educated 
 at all. And we do not trace such improvement in the qualifications 
 of teachers /or this class of schools, as the province they occupy de- 
 mands, a province of much higher importance, we humbly conceive, 
 than that which the teachers of high schools occupy. " We do not 
 undervalue that higher, more generous culture, the worth of which 
 those who lack can measure by their wants as well as those who 
 possess can by their enjoyment. * * * But Ave speak of the legiti- 
 mate purpose of our common grammar schools, not their exclusive 
 but their primary, paramount and essential function."* For these 
 humble nurseries of the bulk of our population, we need high attain- 
 ments but not the high grade of attainments which normal schools 
 arc supposed to supply. 
 
 In closing a bargain for a teacher, other things being equal, 
 
 * Salem. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES— MASSACHUSETTS. 131 
 
 prefer a man of common sense without great scholarship to a 
 learned man without common sense ; prefer those who have some 
 love and enthusiasm for their calling ; prefer those who have 
 shown themselves skilful in inventing ways and means to interest 
 children ; prefer those who have originality enough not to be 
 tied down to the questions and answers in the school books ; pre- 
 fer such as are polite, pleasing and neat — last, not least, prefer one 
 who can sing.* 
 
 Age, experience and common sense, as well as education, are 
 qualifications for teachers of youth, and they are not acquired at 
 a normal school.! 
 
 The Framingham report, from which the following passage is 
 cited, contains a thorough analysis of the teaching work, and shows 
 how important are the qualifications which pertain to the tempera- 
 ment and constitution of the teacher, and can never be imparted. 
 Framinsham is the seat of one of the four normal schools of the State ! 
 
 Professional enthusiasm is essential to high success in teaching. 
 This remark applies, in a sense, to all professions, but has special 
 significance as applied to the work of the schoolroom. 
 
 But enthusiasm is not a gift that the normal school can confer, 
 nor can it refuse to receive a pupil who lacks it. 
 
 So much prominence is given to the normal school feature of the 
 Massachusetts system, that we dwell upon it more in detail. The 
 position we assume is that however valuable in themselves may be 
 the instruction and training they give or however advantageous to 
 the pupils in attendance, their claim to be regarded as an essential 
 part of the machinery of public education, rests on the positive and 
 palpable advantages which the daily public school (to which the mul- 
 titude resort) derives from them. Take a single branch — reading 
 for example, which is said to have fallen into much neglect and to 
 which special attention has been paid by the normal schools. Prizes 
 have been oflFered to stimulate competition, and awarded to those 
 who, at the examination for admission, distinguished themselves by 
 excellence in reading. The preparatory instruction, received pre- 
 vious to the age required for admission to the normal school, must 
 of course be from such teachers as are found in the common school. 
 The rules which are prescribed for reading and by which the merits 
 of the candidate are determined are singularly exacting. 1. A nat- 
 ural or acquired " fulness of voice to enable him or her to fill without 
 
 * Sterling. f Snugus. 
 
132 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 apparent effort the room occupied by the class." 2. " Perfect dis- 
 tinctness of articulation." 3. " Correct pronunciation with that 
 roundness and fulness of enunciation and sweetness and mellowness 
 of tone which only can charm the ear and reach the heart." 4. " In 
 the reading of poetry the tones must be those of unaffected emotion, 
 free at once from the tameness of prose, and from the too measured 
 cadence of verse." Do we hazard anything in saying that not one 
 in thousands of those who are accustomed to read in public, — clergy- 
 men, lawyers, secretaries, clerks, &c., — even approaches the standard 
 here prescribed ? But admitting that to give the needful instruction 
 in this branch the teacher must be a good reader in the spirit of 
 these rules, who is to judge whether the person who offers him- 
 self as a teacher is one ? The Mr. Russell who lectures so accepta- 
 bly on the subject to the normal schools ? No. The Mr. Lee who, 
 impressed with the general neglect into which this branch of ele- 
 mentary instruction had fallen, generously offered prizes for excel- 
 lence? No. It must be the examining school committee who is 
 expected (theoretically at least) to guard the public school against 
 the entrance of any one " who is not himself a very good reader." 
 
 To teach reading requires, it is said, "on the part of the 
 teacher the rare quality of good taste, that is, delicacy of feeling 
 under the guidance of good sense highly cultivated." This rare 
 quality being possessed, the teacher will require the pupil to "read 
 naturally and with proper spirit and feeling. * * * To this end two 
 things are requisite: 1. The pupil never should be permitted to 
 read aloud what he does 7iot fully U7ider stand.''' The italicising 
 is not ours. 2. The other requisite is "a full possession of the 
 sentiment under which the passage was written." 
 
 However wise and sensible these requisites may be, they seem 
 almost ridiculous when we think of the materials of which our 
 reading books are made and of the average capacity and attainments 
 of the teachers and pupils who handle them. We well remember 
 visiting a school, having the average reputation of public schools 
 as they were thirty years ago, and when one of the reading classes 
 had exhibited their skill in reading prose, they were put upon an 
 extract from Milton, which they read with considerable fluency 
 though not with "good taste," as our extract defines it. It Avas 
 the passage in Paradise Lost in which the poet describes the em- 
 ployments of Adam and Eve in the garden- — 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 133 
 
 For neither Yarious style 
 Nor holy rapture wanted they, to praise 
 Their Maker in fit strains — pronounced or sung; 
 * ' ^- -;«■ * * 
 
 These are thy glorious works, Parent of Good ! 
 
 At the close of the reading they were requested to lay aside 
 their books, and were asked what the poetry was about that they 
 had been reading. They promptly replied, "About Adam and 
 Eve, sir." 
 
 "Well, what about them?" 
 
 After a few moments' pause, one of them timidly answered — 
 
 "How they fit!" (fought). 
 
 Her associations with the word "fit" were far enough from har- 
 monizing with the occupations of our first parents — or " with the 
 sentiment under which the passage was written." The truth is, that 
 neither child nor teacher had any conception of the meaning of the 
 words which were read, — and who was at fault ? - 
 
 We might infer that cases of equal or greater deficiency are not 
 rare now unless we misinterpret one of the reports of the School 
 Committees : 
 
 The style of reading in most of our schools is below even re- 
 spectability. It is utterly beneath the dignity and claims of such 
 an exercise. It is difiicult quietly to listen to the careless, sense- 
 less and stupid mutterings that are sometimes wrongly denomi- 
 nated reading.* 
 
 Would that normal schools or some other instrumentality might 
 succeed in making good readers for religious assemblies, town 
 meetings, or the fireside. As it is now, a good reader is almost as 
 rare as an honest politician. 
 
 We trust the spirit of these strictures will not be misapprehended. 
 We are aware of the difficulties which all reforms must encounter. 
 We give full credit for all that is accomplished. But we cannot 
 resist the conviction that a grade of instruction, far in advance of 
 what the spirit of the law and public policy demand, engages the 
 attention and the means of the Massachusetts Bureau of Education, 
 and that while ten of the children and youth are favoured at public 
 expense with superior advantages, the one hundred or the one 
 thousand that are entitled to be thoroughly taught to read, write, 
 cipher, and behave themselves, are left in the background. The 
 
 "^' Amesbury. 
 10 
 
134 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 last ought to have been done even though the other -were left un- 
 done. Nor are we alone in this judgment : 
 
 We think it a fault quite too common that 'many of the pupils 
 of the present day are passing superficially over the elementary 
 branches, ambitious to take algebra, geometry and the other higher 
 studies ; thus slighting the most essential rudiments necessary for a 
 good practical education, and to prepare a person to perform all 
 common operations faithfully and well. Reading and spelling — 
 subjects connected with the very foundation of our own Common 
 School System, we deem of the first importance.* 
 
 There is a tendency in some of the schools to pursue the more 
 advanced studies suited to the high school or academy to the neg- 
 lect or total exclusion of those primary branches which our school 
 system contemplates and which our statute law expressly re- 
 quires, f The italics are in the report. 
 
 Teachers' Institutes. — For teachers who are not in circumstances 
 to avail themselves of the normal school, institutes have proved a 
 valuable help, and have resulted in awakening a new interest in 
 the schools. Fifteen hundred, or about one in five of the teachers 
 returned for the State, were in attendance on one or more of the 
 eight institutes that were organized during the year. The reports 
 of the School Committees, in whose districts these meetings were 
 held, refer to them in general terms of commendation; but where, 
 by whom, or in what way their advantages are brought home to 
 the schools is very vaguely shown, if at all. If they were more 
 clearly exhibited, it might stimulate others to seek them. 
 
 We have thus far had before us the report of the Secretary of 
 the Board — in connection with which we have occasionally referred 
 to the reports from the local authorities. We turn now, for a 
 more specific purpose, to the abstracts of the reports of School 
 Committees, which evince much intelligence and discrimination. A 
 cursory glance through them will bring to our view sundry very 
 important suggestions. Indeed a very valuable manual concern- 
 ing the instruction and discipline of our public schools could be 
 formed from these reports. Their practical character and breadth 
 of view are quite remarkable, and they afford us a better insight 
 into the real popular appreciation of the school system than can 
 be looked for in the mere formal report of the functionary who ad- 
 ministers it. We will advert to a few of the leading topics : 
 
 * Ashbiiriihiiui. f Bhiudford. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 135 
 
 1. Reading. — The importance of the art of reading is frequently 
 recognized, and we are pleased to see that the "word-method," as 
 it is called, or something near akin to it, is not unknown. One 
 report speaks of requiring pupils to study the form of a letter to 
 know its name and then to imitate the sound of it. They are then 
 required to find it on a page or card, then to imitate its shape with 
 a pencil on their slates. And when thus made familiar, the letters 
 are combined into a word, which is made part of a sentence. The 
 old method of teaching column after column and page after page 
 of unconnected and (to the child) meaningless syllables, we are 
 happy to learn, has been discarded in many primary schools. The 
 opinion has been expressed that no books at all should be used in 
 the instruction of children under eight years of age, but it is be- 
 lieved that children of six and seven are not too young to learn to 
 read with ease. Our own observation and experience conduct us 
 to the conclusion that a knowledge of the form and sound of letters 
 is easily attainable at three or four years of age by means of 
 wooden blocks, with the letters of the small and large alphabets 
 printed or painted on them in connection with some word in which 
 the letter appears, the word to express some animate or inanimate 
 object with which the child is familiar — as hat, cat, hed, hoop, 
 door, &c. In this way he unconsciously acquires a degree of 
 knowledge which kindles a desire for more, and before he is aware 
 of it, his primer or picture book becomes at once an amusement 
 and an employment, to the great relief of the mother or other 
 caretaker. 
 
 It is very rare to find a pupil in a public school who can read 
 well, and the predominant reason is, that he reads what he does 
 not and cannot understand, and therefore might nearly as well at- 
 tempt to read in an unknown tongue. A boy who is ignorant of 
 the meaning of Latin words, should not undertake to read them, 
 for it would be difficult, if not impossible, for one who understands 
 that language to understand his reading of it. For the same cause 
 and to the same degree an English sentence, read by a boy or girl 
 who does not understand the meaning and relation of the words, is, 
 to a great extent, unintelligible to such as know English. 
 
 It is worse than useless to burden a child's memory with words 
 and sentences which cannot be comprehended.* 
 
 '" Littleton. 
 
13G THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 Scholars must understand and feel an interest in the piece 
 read, and desire to awaken this interest in the reader in order to 
 become good readers.* 
 
 It is no uncommon thing for scholars to commit to memory 
 lessons by frequent readings, to be unable to read properly one- 
 half those sentences. f 
 
 Before an arithmetic or a geography is put into a child's hands, 
 he must be taught to read intelligibly and with ease.| 
 
 The preliminary exercises in the books in regard to varied 
 tones, inflection, emphasis, key of the voice, &c., are almost wholly 
 neglected. Reading must be taught, and the least possible care 
 on the part of the teacher for the most difiicult of all the daily 
 exercises will not bring success. § 
 
 It will not be supposed that the passages Ave cite from these 
 reports indicate the general current of them. But we apprehend 
 that it is only where a very faithful and discriminating investiga- 
 tion is made that defects appear, and only obvious and very grave 
 defects are noticed, and these only by fearless reporters. 
 
 2. Attendance. — In two or three reports there are intimations 
 favouring the compulsory attendance of children at the public 
 schools. If the State provide the means of educating every child 
 who is of age and capacity to learn, it is asked with great perti- 
 nency, " If there is not a corresponding obligation on the part of 
 the child or its parents to the State, and should there not be some 
 way of enforcing this obligation for the public good?"|| 
 
 Some parents positively refuse to send their children to school. 
 " Such should be reminded that there is authority to enforce at- 
 tendance under a penalty."^ 
 
 What we most complain of is irregularity of attendance, amount- 
 ing in some cases to a sort of " I don't care whether school keeps 
 or not."** 
 
 The attention of teachers has been called to it (irregularity 
 of attendance), but they have failed in many cases to check it. 
 Its magnitude has been computed in numbers and brought before 
 you. Still the object is not attained. * * * "yyg j^^.g qqj^. 
 vinced that no selection of teachers or appropriation of funds, 
 however liberal, will raise our schools to the rank they ought to 
 attain without the aid of other powerful agents, the most promi- 
 nent of which is an undivided public interest, ff 
 
 So long as fifty per cent, of money raised for the support of 
 
 * Ilardwick. f Ware. J Milton. | Oukbam. || Danvers. 
 
 ^ Chester. ** Barre. f f Bo^iston. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 137 
 
 schools is wasted by fifty per cent, of the scholars being allowed 
 to absent themselves, we cannot ask for any larger appropriations 
 until the people more fully peform their obligations to themselves 
 and to their own children.* 
 
 3. ll^nners and Morals. — The importance of cultivating good 
 manners, in the largest acceptation of the phrase, is earnestly 
 urged in several of these reports, and it cannot well be exagger- 
 ated. As we have not given it much prominence in our survey of the 
 other three States, we must crave some indulgence here. It is as 
 legitimately a specific branch of public school instruction as gram- 
 mar or arithmetic, and much more essential to "getting on" in the 
 world. It includes " respectful and modest demeanour, simplicity, 
 purity, and truthfulness in thought and speech." "Has not 
 this branch of common school instruction, as a direct aim, been too 
 little kept in view?"t I* i^ certainly not the fruit of any such 
 cultivation that a person passing by the schoolhouse, must " whip 
 up his horses for fear of stones or snow-balls," nor that rude words 
 or gestures should characterize the group that surround it. The 
 impression is not more general than just, that "the present genera- 
 tion is declining in good manners. Direct instruction on this sub- 
 ject is of vast importance."! 
 
 Here (in the primary school) is the point where the education in 
 manners and good behaviour must begin, if not already commenced 
 at home; and where it can most readily be remedied if it has been 
 begun in an uncouth or untidy way.§ 
 
 When decay of reverence in the young is loudly complained 
 of — when bad books are doing in angel dresses what Satan did in 
 Paradise — when profaneness and obscenity are heard in our streets 
 — when licentiousness is fevering the blood, and intemperance is 
 maddening the brain of virtuous youth who come from the country 
 into the cities — when our criminal courts send out statements of 
 youthful corruption that stagger belief, should not something extra 
 be done to protect our rising generation from pestiferous exam- 
 ples ?|| 
 
 We suppose the larger part of the youth, whose immoralities are 
 here exposed, have been at some period under the care of common 
 school teachers, or have received other and higher instruction. 
 
 How shall " good behaviour" be taught in our public schools ? is a 
 question which more than all others puzzles the educator. That 
 it should be taught practically none will deny. * * As an im- 
 
 * Adams, f Nahant. J Dana. § Marblehead. || Medford. 
 
138 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 portant though minor matter, we hope that none of our teachers 
 will forget to enforce, by example as well as by precept, those small ' 
 proprieties of manner, and that scrupulous regard for neatness in 
 every particular which children are so prone to neglect.* 
 
 - We call to mind a public school which we visited not many years 
 igo in the south-eastern part of New Jersey. It was at the mid- 
 dle of a warm summer afternoon. The school building was very 
 dirty, and Avas filled with that unwholesome, suffocating atmosphere 
 which so many of our boys and girls are doomed to breathe. The 
 teacher, a man of sixty perhaps (said to be a convert to Mormon- 
 ism) was barefoot, and the legs of his pantaloons rolled up half way 
 to the knees, exposing a surface unused to water. His whole appear- 
 ance was slovenly and forbidding in the extreme, and what wonder 
 that the group around him were dirty, ill-mannered, and ignorant. 
 
 Nothing more surely indicates the national character than the 
 personal temper and demeanour of the people in social life. In- 
 deed, among the characteristics by which we distinguish nations 
 are frivolity, reserve, cunning, coarseness, sensuality, &c., and these ' 
 traits are wrought into the very texture of society. An import- 
 ant feature of the public school teacher is, to mould the habits and 
 manners of the multitude of children who have few advantages of 
 moral or intellectual culture outside the schoolroom, into har- 
 mony with what is pure and good and true. No one who is fami- 
 liar with the ways of a large majority of our boys from fifteen to 
 twenty years of age, not in our cities and populous towns only, but 
 in rural districts that are not very remote from business centres — 
 would suppose that they had ever been conversant with precepts 
 or examples of pure speech or courteous manners. Where more 
 properly than in a schoolroom, and upon whom more fitly than 
 upon a group of children, may the duty be enjoined of being tem- 
 perate in their meats and drinks, and of avoiding all filthy and un- 
 wholesome habits, and especially those to which the people around 
 them are most addicted? 
 
 Then there is the habit of punctuality in fulfilling engage- 
 ments. How common is it to promise work and not have it done 
 in season, or to engage to pay a debt and not pay at the time ! The 
 habit of frugality in the use of money, books, apparel, is another. 
 We have often admonished children who were making a foot-ball 
 
 * Salem. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 139 
 
 of a cap, or draggling a shawl in the mud, or tossing a package of 
 books into the air, that caps and shawls and books cost money, 
 and should not be abused. This was the teacher's office, not ours. 
 Principles of economy, too, cleaidy belong to the teaching of the 
 schoolroom. Where as there and when as then can the maxims 
 be so thoroughly inculcated to live within one's means, not to 
 buy a needless article because it is cheap, not to be surety for 
 others, never to spend money that is not one's own, &c., &c. ? 
 
 But these constitute a very elementary branch of moral education. 
 In its wider sphere it embraces whatever pertains to the highest 
 state of civilization. To take but an item or two from the catalogue 
 of virtues which it should inculcate, we may name simplicity of 
 SPEECH. Who has not observed the reckless exaggeration which cha- 
 racterizes much that is spoken or printed in our day ? To say 
 nothing of the deliberate and atrocious deceptions which are practised 
 upon the credulous in advertisements of nostrums and public shows, 
 how rarely are the ordinary items of intelligence in public newspapers 
 to be received without large deductions ! How few of the opinions 
 of men and measures and books are expressed with that strict regard 
 to their truthfulness which the "yea, yea" and the "nay, nay" of 
 the New Testament require ! What evasions and subterfuges are 
 employed to attract an audience, to excite sympathy in a benevo- 
 lent object, to secure patronage for a school or a place of honour or 
 profit for one's self or friend ! What is more common than 
 misrepresentations (often almost caricatures) of the views of an op- 
 ponent in politics or religion, and what bitter and lasting enmities 
 are engendered by them ? If we may not ask common school 
 teachers to guard the minds of their pupils from these more pal- 
 pable forms of duplicity in their intercourse with others, we may 
 at least urge them to be truthful and sincere in their own dealings 
 with children, and to remember that a deception practised upon a 
 parent or casual visitor, or an official examiner, with their knowl- 
 edge or connivance, is an irreparable wrong to them and to the 
 community. 
 
 Another scarcely less important virtue which should be earnestly 
 cultivated in our public schools is, self-conteol. How few are 
 taught the necessity of this virtue, in circumstances of sudden peril 
 or alarm by night or day! Look at the occupants of a crowded 
 public hall, when a cry of fire or of a falling wall is raised. What 
 
140 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 insane disorder seizes the assembly, and how blindly they rush 
 from a possible death in one form to all but certain death in an 
 other ! What is not this virtue worth in a teacher when such a terror 
 seizes a group of two or three hundred children ? How many 
 lives and limbs depend upon that self-possession of voice and man- 
 ner which is to a great extent the fruit of cultivation ? 
 
 So of the habitual motives of conduct. How unspeakably im- 
 portant is it that our boys and girls should be accustomed in their 
 school life to act from princij)le ! What dark, damning deeds of 
 corruption, fraud, and duplicity might have been left undone had 
 the maxim been impressed on the childhood and youth of the per- 
 petrators, never to do what they would be ashamed or afraid to 
 have known abroad ! In estimating the safeguards of public virtue 
 and prosperity, what but the fear of God could possibly take pre- 
 cedence of this principle, firmly imbedded in the hearts and minds 
 of a generation between five and fifteen? 
 
 Nothing is further from our minds than a mechanical formal re- 
 hearsal at stated intervals, of the rules or laws that should govern 
 our conduct. There are silent, subtle influences emanating from 
 parents, teachers, and associates, that insensibly shape the moral 
 character, not so much by interfering with or repressing, as by guid- 
 ing and opening paths for natural impulses. 
 
 4. Text-Books. — No more important subject is brought to view 
 in these reports of the Massachusetts school committees than the 
 use and abuse of text-books. Perhaps no feature of our public 
 school system in all the States is left so entirely to take any shape 
 it pleases as this. We have already alluded to it more than once. 
 It would require a volume to give in detail a history of the rise and 
 progress of school-book manufacturing and engineering. The enor- 
 mous tax imposed to sustain it is so equally diffused, that no indi- 
 vidual feels it enough to cry out, even where the duty of furnishing 
 books devolves on the parents. Every batch of new books has the 
 claim of novelty, at least in title, and the machinery employed to 
 foist them upon the schools is too powerful and complicated to be 
 opposed with success. 
 
 The size and character of so many of the school books, too bulky 
 (and therefore costly) by one-half, are objectionable. " When will 
 the makers of books give us this desideratum, books containing the 
 essentials of the subject and no more? Let what is necessary be com- 
 pressed into small compass, not scattered through pages of matter 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 141 
 
 Avearying to the eye, useless to young scholars, and perplexing the 
 very attempt to learn, jewels buried in what (to such) must appear 
 one hopeless mass of mud."* 
 
 We have too little oral instruction and too much confinement to 
 text-books in our schools. Those teachers are always the most suc- 
 cessful who have each branch of study so much at command that 
 they can make themselves the text-books. As the forms in all or- 
 ganized existence (quoting Coleridge), so must all true and living 
 knowledge proceed from within, that it may be trained, supported, 
 fed, excited, but can never be infused or impressed.f 
 
 Any one can hear a lesson recited from a book. It is the duty 
 of the true teacher to turn the rules, principles and data of that 
 text-book into living practical power.| 
 
 What is in the book is usually only an outline, a small part of 
 all that should be taught. There should be vastly more of discus- 
 sion, of questioning in various ways, of explanation, of collateral 
 instruction, exciting curiosity, stimulating thought, extending the 
 range of mental vision, intensifying and fixing all impressions in- 
 tended to be made.§ 
 
 Teachers should not be satisfied simply with the recitation of the 
 look lesson by the pupil ; the treasures of knowledge, things new 
 and old, should be found, out of the teacher's storehouse, to illumi- 
 nate the text and fix it permanently in the learner's mind.jl 
 
 Teachers should not be confined to text-books, lest the school 
 become a monotonous routine of exercises, devoid of interest.'^ 
 
 Fi'om day to day the drill in the exercises of the text-books, 
 never anything outside, is untiring and unsparing. Memory alone 
 of all the faculties is crowded and stimulated. Then comes the 
 goal of his ambition, a splendid exhibition called by the committee 
 "an examination." The machine is wound up, and whiz and whirr 
 go the wheels. Never judge of the goose by the stufiing, said the 
 English engineer Stephenson. * * * What we want are not mere 
 school keepers to hear children repeat words from a text-book, but 
 teachers.** 
 
 Some experienced teachers would dispense with books entirely in 
 the instruction of children under eight years of age.tf 
 
 A teacher who only goes through a certain routine, is a speaking 
 automaton, asking questions and hearing answers, having the same 
 dead uniform round of duties, never enlivening a recitation with 
 even a stray thought. J| 
 
 5. Teachers. — One of the most notable revolutions in public 
 sentiment connected with the school system in this State is, in re- 
 
 * Newburyport. f Hopkinton. % Medford. f Melrose. 
 
 II South Reading. ^ Russell. ** Walpole. ft South Danvers. 
 
 XX Grafton. 
 
142 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 lation to the employment of females in winter schools, and oven 
 where large boys are in attendance. 
 
 In the 15 years ending in 1851, the decrease of male teachers 
 througliout the State of Massachusetts was 1012, and the increase 
 of female teachers about 2000. The day is not far distant when 
 females will have charge of all the district schools in the State.* 
 
 There is a natural flexibility in the female mind — an " aptness 
 to teach " (not inherent in the stronger sex), peculiarly adapted to 
 elementary instruction and to pupils in our district schools. We 
 think farther that in a winter school and with large scholars, a 
 female, in most cases, Avill govern as well or better than a male.f 
 
 As a remedy for the " great evil" of a frequent change of teach- 
 ers, it is proposed that " a selection of competent female teachers" 
 be made to conduct permanent schools the year round. We hesi- 
 tate not to say, that as a class they are the best as well as the 
 cheapest teachers. * * We speak of the general system for the 
 education of children between 5 and 15 years of age.| The same 
 position is taken in several reports. 
 
 lie is a dull observer (says lion W. H. Seward, as quoted in 
 the Longmeadow report), who has not learned that it was the in- 
 tention of the Creator to commit to them (females) a higher and 
 greater portion of responsibility in the education of youth of both 
 sexes. 
 
 We have scarcely a school, even in winter, which a good female 
 teacher cannot manage successfully.! 
 
 6. Primary Teachers. — Reference is made in several reports to 
 the comparative inferiority of the teachers of primary departments, 
 and hence it comes to pass that much time and patience are re- 
 quired at the subsequent stages of instruction to correct the faults 
 of an earlier period. 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that any one is competent to be a good 
 primary teacher. On the contrary, we think it is quite as difficult 
 to find first rate teachers for this department as for the interme- 
 diate schools, as much general knowledge being required for the 
 former as the latter, and perhaps even more. We think the im- 
 portance of securing well educated teachers for the lower depart- 
 ments is not appreciated as it should be.|| 
 
 In my judgment it requires at least as high an order of talent 
 fvo^erhj to govern and instruct a class of pupils of five years as 
 one of twelve years. Upon the efforts of primary teachers we must 
 very much rely to elevate a standard of popular education. ^ 
 
 * West Newbury. f Princeton. J Longmeadow. \ Oakham. 
 
 11 South Danvers. ^ Maiden. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 143 
 
 From an oflBcial connection and a somewhat. intimate acquaint- 
 ance "with teachers of this class of schools in Massachusetts in past 
 years and in some other States more recently, we are prepared 
 to give full force and credit to these views. Now and then a dis- 
 trict is fortunate enough to secure the services of a teacher of in- 
 genuity and enthusiasm in her work (for it is rarely that a male 
 teacher succeeds in this stage of the process), and she contrives 
 means of amusing, instructing and guiding her little flock with the 
 best results. But for the most part they only introduce the chil- 
 dren to a dull and' senseless routine, and to habits which, as we 
 just said, years of labour are required to correct. 
 
 7. Changing Teachers. — One of the most obvious causes of the in- 
 efficiency and defects of the public schools of Massachusetts, which 
 are so justly deprecated, is the frequent change of teachers. It 
 might be supposed that the establishment of normal schools would 
 bring into employment a body of professional teachers, who, if 
 qualified for their work, would be engaged from year to year in 
 the same school or district, thus giving uniformity and permanency 
 both to the discipline and instruction. But the reports before us 
 do not justify this expectation. Even of the small number of per- 
 sons who pass through the normal school, many seek and find more 
 lucrative employment. The increasing preponderance of females 
 in the teaching ranks, promises more for the accomplishment of the 
 desired result than any other means we have seen noticed. It is often 
 regarded as sound economy to employ male teachers at a salary of 
 $45 per month in winter, and females at a salary of $19 per month 
 in summer. The idea has been (if it is not now) widely entertained 
 that a winter school, embracing the older class of youth who are 
 otherwise occupied in the summer months, must have masculine su- 
 pervision and instruction, while a summer school may safely be com- 
 mitted to, the gentler sex. Without inquiring into the justice of 
 such a distinction between the two classes of teachers, we receive 
 from many of the reports of the school committees the clear impres- 
 sion that the superiority of males to females at any season and in 
 any school, is an open question. If it should appear that in point 
 of fact females do exercise as wholesome discipline, and do impart 
 instruction with equal skill and thoroughness as males, the apology 
 for frequent chnnges must be put on some other footing. Mean- 
 
144 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 time is not an apology due for making so wide a difference in the 
 compensation of services so nearly if not quite equally valuable ? 
 
 In one district during the last seven years, a female teacher has 
 been employed summer and winter. In another, females have been 
 employed in summer and males in winter (having had about 14 
 different teachers); and it is a fact apparent to any one who has ex- 
 amined the two schools, that the former, in average scholarship, 
 is at least two years in advance of the latter. The reason is no 
 mystery. It arises from the simple facts of longer schools, better 
 average teachers, and no time lost by the semi-annual change of 
 teachers.* 
 
 One great obstacle in the Avay of the progress of our schools, is 
 the frequent change of teachers. No two teachers, who may be 
 equally successful, have the same habits in the schoolroom or the 
 same mode of imparting instruction. And when a scholar is under 
 the direction of a new teacher each term, he cannot acquire any 
 fixed habits of study or deportment. No scholar can make rapid 
 progress or be well disciplined under such circumstances. f 
 
 Our teachers are constantly changing. It is an exceptional case 
 if one remains in the same school more than one or two terms, 
 oftener but one. * * With every change the new teacher has to be- 
 come established in her new situation, to become acquainted with 
 the scholars, &c.'l 
 
 Two or three teachers in several instances have successively con- 
 ducted the same school in the short period of one year. The re- 
 sults must be bad, for education is progressive, like the steps of a 
 ladder, a series of processes, one depending on another. You waste 
 time and mind in constantly changing the ladders and making the 
 children so often begin again at the foot and climb over the great 
 gaps of long vacations. No two teachers employ the same methods. 
 The pliant minds of the children are baffled and confused. § 
 
 Each teacher has a way of his own, and must sjiend half a term 
 tearing away the superstructure of his predecessor, and rearing 
 another which is not perhaps superior to the one superseded, and a 
 great loss of time to the school is the only result. || 
 
 Frequent changes of teachers in schools is (are) condemned by 
 experienced educators. They tell us that the services of a good 
 teacher are much more valuable the second time than the first. ^ 
 
 The question may be pertinent Avhether we can expect qualified 
 teachers would do such preliminary work well ; whether they would 
 be satisfied with confinement to this elementary sphere ? If not 
 ambitious of promotion, would they not soon grow weary of the 
 
 * West Newbury. f Mansfield. :j: Braintree. 
 
 ^ Longmeadow. || Peru. ^ Lincoln. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 145 
 
 monotonous task and abandon it for something more lucrative, if 
 not more agreeable ? The inquiry has great weight. Very few, 
 it is to be feared, enter upon the work with any just apprehension 
 of its immeasurable importance and delicacy. How few teachers 
 manifest any more concern to draw out in strength and harmony 
 the powers of a human understanding and the affections of a human 
 soul, than the trainers of horses, dogs and monkeys show, in teach- 
 ing dumb animals to do their bidding ? There is a temple grand 
 and glorious beyond human conception. Its grandeur rises and 
 its glories multiply with every advancing step, and will rise and 
 multiply through endless ages. Who would ask or desire a hap- 
 pier or n6bler appointment than to stand at the door of entrance 
 to such a temple, and introduce hundreds and thousands of 
 little strangers to the wonders within ? When the dignity and 
 blessedness of such a service is fully apprehended, the question 
 of dollars and cents Avill become comparatively insignificant. Till 
 then we would reverse the ratio of compensation, and make the 
 work of the daily common school teacher the best paid work of 
 the country, but it should be the best done as well as best paid. 
 
 8. Schoolhouses. — We have already said that there is no surer 
 test of the estimation in which a common school is held by a neigh- 
 bourhood than the character and condition of the schoolhouse. No 
 one passes a barn, having large gaps in the roof, boards hanging 
 by a nail, doors swinging on one hinge and open to wind and 
 storm on all sideSj without a persuasion that the owner cares very 
 little if the poor, dumb creatures that occupy it freeze or starve. 
 Not less evident is the indifference of parents to the schooling of 
 their children and to the comfort and usefulness of the teacher, 
 when the schoolhouse is cheerless, dilapidated and unfurnished. 
 And, on the contrary, a tasteful, commodious schoolhouse, and 
 tidy outbuildings, eligibly situated, with grounds fenced in and 
 fitted for recreation, well ventilated, wholesomely heated and sup- 
 plied with appropriate furniture for body and mind, speaks elo- 
 quently for the public spirit and wise forecast of the neighbourhood. 
 
 Why (we cannot but ask) are parents so content to have their 
 children occupy, for six hours of the day during six months of the 
 year, buildings and seats which do little more than torture the 
 fathers and mothers at the half-day examination ? They who like 
 an easy chair, balanced on two legs, "with cushioned seat and 
 
146 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 back," should not be uncharitable enough to wonder that the chil- 
 dren love their school hours so little.* 
 
 While we are improving our dwellings both internally and ex- 
 ternally, most of our schoolhouscs are, year by year, growing 
 worse. Few scholars would be attracted by an old, dilapidated 
 building, destitute, externally, of paint, except perhaps a dingy 
 coat of red, the playgrounds crowding so closely on the highway 
 that it is impossible to distinguish one from the other ; with no 
 shade trees except perhaps the use of one borrowed of some neigh- 
 bour across the way, with an interior begrimed with the smoke and 
 dust of the last twenty years, rickety seats and desks, pannel-less 
 and latch-less doors, chairs broken and perhaps Avithout backs, and 
 everything offensive to the eye.f 
 
 A little reflection will show to parents, we think, that there is 
 in reality no way in which they can invest a portion of their earn- 
 ings at so large a percentage of profit to their children as in fur- 
 nishing them with neat, inviting, and comfortable schoolhouscs. 
 Why is it that so many parents Avill consent to subject their chil- 
 dren to such physical sufferings as they must endure while seated 
 upon some of the old, high, narrow, and cramped-up seats found 
 in some of our schoolhouscs, — physical sufferings which, if inflicted 
 by the teacher, would almost instantly cause his summary expul- 
 sion from the school. | 
 
 Rarely will a child tire of a school when the fixtures and sur- 
 roundings of the schoolroom give evidence of liveliness in the cause 
 of education. § 
 
 Let us as parents and committees see to it that we do not by our 
 neglect subject ourselves to the charge of being the murderers of 
 the innocents. II 
 
 9. Religious Teaching. — Few subjects connected with our com- 
 mon schools have excited more discussion and jealousy than the 
 extent to which religious teaching can be carried consistently with 
 the avowed pledge of neutrality towards all Christian denomina- 
 tions, and the remark is especially applicable to Massachusetts. 
 Is there a broad ground of Christian ethics on which our secular 
 schools can rest for this important and essential element of true 
 education? Or must we be driven to the alternative of rejecting 
 all religious influence or adopting and enforcing the dogmas of 
 this or that communion ? We once put the question to a direc- 
 tor of the public schools of one of our chief cities, whether he 
 supposed a teacher would be justified, when rebuking a couple of 
 boys for fighting, if he referred to the words of Christ touching 
 
 * Sterling. f Southwick. J RoL-licster. l Haverhill. || Diacut. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 147 
 
 our conduct under provocation, as the words of a divine being ? 
 He replied that he was " inclined to think it would not be al- 
 lowed." Books teaching the doctrine of the endless punishment 
 of the finally impenitent, have been rejected times without number 
 as contraband in these schools. 
 
 There was comparatively little controversy on the subject of re- 
 ligious teaching under the old system in Massachusetts. The 
 functions of the State were at an end when suitable legislation 
 had provided for the establishment of a sufficient number of 
 schools. The money to support them was to be raised by the 
 several towns and expended by the districts, and whatsoever the 
 majority tolerated or prohibited was the law for their district. 
 But when the State became not only the legislator but the educa- 
 tor, then arose the question of its right to authorize any religious 
 teaching which is not as agreeable to all Jews as to all Christians — 
 to Turks and Infidels as to Protestants and Papists. The law of 
 the State requires, as Ave have seen, ''the daily reading of some 
 portion of the Bible in the common English version." And an- 
 other provision enjoins it on " all instructors of youth to exert 
 their best endeavours to impress on the minds of children and youth 
 the principles of piety and justice."* The idea of conducting the 
 education of a moral and spiritual, as well as an intellectual being 
 without employing any moral and spiritual influence which does 
 not receive universal concurrence, would seem as preposterous as 
 the attempt to restore suspended animation by the exclusion of air 
 which everybody has not breathed ! 
 
 When foreigners investigate our educational institutions, they 
 almost uniformly express their surprise at the absence of all re- 
 
 * We gladly repeat a quotation often made from the pen of one of the most dis- 
 tinguished jurists of the country and the age (the late Mr. Justice Story), in his 
 elaborate work on the Constitution : 
 
 The promulgation of the great doctrines of religion — the being, attributes and 
 providence of one Almighty God, the responsibility to Him for all our actions 
 founded upon moral freedom and accountability, a future state of rewards and pun- 
 ishments, the cultivation of all the social and benevolent virtues, — these can never be 
 a matter of indilierence in any well-ordered community. It is indeed difficult to 
 perceive how any civilized society can well exist without them. And, at all events 
 it is impossible for those who believe in the truths of Christianity — as a divine re- 
 velation — to doubt that it is the special duty of Government to foster and encour- 
 age it among all the citizens and subjects. 
 
 If this is sound doctrine, it is surely pertinent to inquire when or where the 
 truths of a divine revelation are to be instilled in the minds of a generation of our 
 citizens, if not in the daily public school? 
 
148 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 ligious teaching. And when they are told that Sunday-schools are 
 mainly relied upon to supply it, they are not less surprised that 
 so insignificant a portion of time as an hour or two in the week, 
 and such an irresponsible, hap-hazard agency (for so they regard 
 it) should be considered sufficient to fill -so wide a gap in the 
 routine of the daily public school. The laxity of moral principle 
 which of late years has been observed by many with alarm, but by 
 most with indifference, betrays the general neglect into which this 
 cardinal branch of popular education has fallen. The late Ex- 
 Governor Clifford, of Massachusetts, gives the following testimony 
 touching this subject : 
 
 I can safely say, as a general inference drawn from a long fa- 
 miliarity with the prosecution of crime both as District Attorney 
 and Attorney General, that as flagrant cases and as depraved cha- 
 racters have been exhibited amongst a class of persons who have 
 enjoyed the ordinary elementary instruction of our New England 
 schools — and in some instances of the higher institutions of learn- 
 ing — as could be found by the most diligent investigation among 
 the convicts of Norfolk Island or of Botany Bay. 
 
 We cannot avoid the conviction that under political institutions 
 so free as ours, and with a population so heterogeneous, the exclusion 
 of systematic, judicious, thorough religious instruction from the pub- 
 lic schools is a radical, and, we fear, fatal defect. It is not the read- 
 ing of the Scriptures, nor a devotional service, nor an occasional 
 recognition of moral obligation, however desirable these may be, 
 that is " to establish in our youth the principles of piety and jus- 
 tice and a sacred regard to truth." The conscience must be awak- 
 ened ; the recognition of an infinitely perfect law, binding upon all 
 moral and intelligent beings, must be inculcated. The right of 
 'government, divine and human, and the duty of obedience and the 
 consequences of disobedience must be set forth, not in formal ex- 
 hortations, perhaps, but incidentally and naturally in the daily 
 order of school life. It must be incorporated with studies, pas- 
 times, commendations and reproofs. It must have its time and 
 place, even in the playground. The sacred influence should distil 
 from the temper, tone of voice, gentle demeanour and tender sym- 
 pathy of the teacher upon the young hearts about him. If he ap- 
 preciates the responsibility of his post and comprehends the true 
 end of educating a child, he will have no difficulty in mingling the 
 precepts of morality and the principles of piety with the current 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 149 
 
 of daily instruction and intercourse with boys and girls ; and that 
 too without trespassing on the rights of conscience or stepping a 
 hair's breadth out of his proper province as a servant of the State. 
 Where else but under his tuition are the teachings of the street 
 and the evil communications of companions to be counteracted, or 
 the deficiency of domestic instruction and example to be supplied ? 
 "The moment we prevent the teacher from exciting these (religious) 
 influences, we narrow his work and it is shorn of all its original 
 greatness."* 
 
 Knowledge is power, but it may be devoted to bad as well as 
 good uses. An expert in penmanship, without moral control, may 
 become an adroit forger or counterfeiter. Our system of educa- 
 tion must welcome an alliance with virtue and be vitalized by a 
 moral and spiritual influence.f 
 
 Education moulds the heart. Its mission is not only to impart 
 good gifts but to ennoble and elevate the soul. The trained i-ntel- 
 lect may be an engine of destruction if the heart be corrupt. We 
 should say that the tendency of the general drift and current of 
 the education in our schools is to give prominence to the culture 
 of the intellect without a corresponding culture of the heart. | 
 
 The moral training of our children and youth should receive in- 
 creased attention in our public schools. The young greatly need 
 moral training. Moral character should stand higher than intel- 
 lectual attainments. They should be led to entertain a profound 
 reverence for the teachings of the Bible. § 
 
 More importance should be attached to this branch of education, 
 so that children may come to really aWior lying and deceit, and be 
 made to feel the power of those eternal truths which distinguish 
 between good and bad, right and wrong, especially when it is so 
 easy, without any hinderance, to teach these principles in the school- 
 room. || 
 
 The teacher's work is not completed, the child is not educated, 
 till he has woven into the web of his intellectual development some- 
 thing of moral principle. If 
 
 While keeping at the utmost distance from sectarian bigotry and 
 party issues of every kind in conducting the public schools, we 
 must carefully avoid every approach to moral laxity.** 
 
 * Rev. R. 0. Waterston. -j- Newton. % Braintree. § Hardwick. 
 
 II Monson. ^ East Bridgewater. ** Dana. 
 
 11 
 
150 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL, 
 
 In revie^ving the preceding sketch of the legislation and ma- 
 chinery of these four leading States of our Union as they bear on 
 the daily public school, it is not an easy matter to detect any 
 grand controlling advantage which either has over the rest, in diffus- 
 ing the elements of good learning throughout the masses of children 
 and youth. The higher grades of schools and of instruction "which 
 may be observed in some and not in others ; the provision for in- 
 struction in politics, astronomy, rhetoric, philology, &c., and the 
 more systematic training of teachers, however incidentally valu- 
 able in raising the standard of instruction in the public schools, 
 are by no means essential to the accomplishment of the legitimate 
 purpose of such schools. The highest grade of instruction needed for 
 this is prescribed by law. It embraces speaking, reading, writing, 
 (and, of course, spelling) the English language correctly, such a 
 knowledge of the elements of arithmetic as shall answer the common 
 business of life ; a general idea of the grand divisions of the globe, 
 their relative position and character, and of the extent and general 
 features of the different sections of their own country; and so much 
 knowledge of its government and laws as shall acquaint them with 
 the privileges, rights and obligations of a citizen ; the whole crowned 
 with faithful instruction in such moral and social duties as are incum- 
 bent on a husband or wife, a parent, a neighbour, and a citizen. 
 
 Were the legislative and municipal provisions of the several Com- 
 monwealths under review pared down so as to include only what is 
 popularly understood by the "common branches," though there 
 might still be an obvious difference between the schools of Ohio and 
 New York, and between those of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, it 
 would be produced by the general character of the people of the 
 several communities rather than by the laws or machinery govern- 
 ing the schools. Were the provisions common to all the four States 
 for protecting the schools from incompetent teachers carried out with 
 equal intelligence and efficiency ; were the schoolhouses in each of 
 them equally commodious, well situated and furnished, and the at- 
 tendance equally good, it would doubtless be found that up to the 
 stage or step in the process of education where the office of the daily 
 public school ends, the difference in the average attainments of the 
 pupils in the several States would be loss than between two schools 
 of the same grade in the same town. But above that stage or step 
 the difference would, perhaps, be very wide and definite. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 151 
 
 We had intended to compare the school systems which have been 
 now considered with those of Europe, and especially of England, 
 and their results ; but a cursory examination of the subject, soon 
 satisfied us that for any practical use it would be superfluous. The 
 difference in our populations and political institutions is radical. 
 Among monarchical and despotic rulers the question is not what 
 the people will like, but what their masters think they ought to 
 like. With us, the question is (at least theoretically), what is the 
 will of the people, and this governs the people's servants. We 
 cannot /orce schools, nor attendance, however liberal our expendi- 
 tures or superior our teachers. In a word, if the people choose 
 that their children should be ignorant, ignorant they must be ; and 
 when they choose to have them educated, educated they will be. 
 
 Hence our earnest plea for more care and labour to make the daily 
 PUBLIC SCHOOL a happy, busy, attractive place to the boys and girls 
 that we want to see there, and of course attractive to their parents. 
 We would have the public eye withdrawn for a season if need be, 
 from the palatial structures and imposing grandeur of high and 
 normal schools, and fixed upon the actual condition and practical 
 value of that humbler grade on which nine-tenths of the people 
 must depend for education. We must not be told that these supe- 
 rior seminaries are needed for the very purpose of energizing and 
 improving the daily public school, unless upon better evidence of 
 their adaptation and actual availableness to this end, than is fur- 
 nished by these reports. 
 
 Whenever the daily public schools have a measure of vitality and 
 vigour that can no longer be confined to the narrow dimensions of the 
 country schoolhouse, but must have room to expand, by all means, 
 afford it. But let us not deceive ourselves with the fancy that the 
 tree will grow downwards. The intelligence on which our institu- 
 tions rest is very humble in degree, but, such as it is, it must be 
 thorough and widely diffused, or it will not avail. And we cannot 
 afford to lose much time in correcting what is amiss and strength- 
 ening what is weak. Each successive uneducated generation in- 
 creases the stock of ignorance and diminishes the power and the 
 practicability of enlightening it. Let every good citizen, then, 
 look into this matter calmly and without prejudice, and give such 
 heed to the plain suggestions, which one of their number has ven- 
 tured to make, as befits the importance of the subject. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Army, our late, degree of education in . . . . .11 
 
 Ascham, Koger, a wise saying of his . . . . . 31 
 
 Attendance on public schools should be obligatory ... 28, 29 
 
 ■what it is, in the United States .... 28 
 
 Athenian father's estimation of education . . . . .41 
 
 Authorities, submission to, a cardinal point in public education . . 19 
 
 Binney, Hon. Horace, letter from . . . . . .8 
 
 Boys, American, what should be their education . . . . 17 
 
 Butcher, not born to be a painter . . . . . .31 
 
 Children of the United States, where educated . . . . 15 
 
 how mis-treated in primary schools, . .29 
 
 how relieved of home tasks . . 39 
 
 Colleges and Academies, what part they have in public education . . 15 
 
 commercial, polytechnic, &c., their value . 26 
 
 Crime and ignorance, not a local calamity ..... 7 
 
 Daily public school, how far the educating agency of the country . 13 
 the main point of interest . . .20, 67, 105 
 
 due appreciation of, essential . . . . 21 
 
 what is meant by it . . . . .21 
 
 what will bring it into favour . . . 22 
 
 what it should do .... 40, 65 
 
 influence on manners and morals ... 66 
 
 abridged, and how . 92 
 
 designed to diffuse, not concentrate learning . . 93, 126 
 
 District Libraries. See Libraries. 
 
 Education, public, in the United States, outline of history of . ' '. . 5 
 
 in a measure, must be universal .... 7 
 national, system of, why not provided .... 8 
 
 want of, how disadvantageous ... 9 
 
 State, responsible for, how far . . . . . 13, 98 
 
 foreign systems of, inappropriate to the United States . . 9, 151 
 
 of the national mind, how tested . . . . 10;. ^1 
 
 of the mass of people in common branches, how shown . 11 
 grade of, what it should be ..... 40 
 
 primary, what it should do .... . 40 
 
154 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Education, in four of the States, general statistics of . 
 
 of manners, its necessity 
 Eulogiums on our jniblic schools, misplaced 
 Examinations, public, their inconclusiveness 
 
 illustrations of 
 
 Foundation work, what it should be . . . 
 
 France, popular education in, state of, (note) . 
 Funds. See Statistics of different States. 
 
 
 PAQE 
 
 
 
 42 
 
 G7, 
 
 9G, 
 
 146 
 22 
 62 
 
 
 63 
 
 64 
 
 
 11 
 
 41 
 11 
 
 Girls, American, what should be their education 
 Graded schools, their advantage 
 
 policy of . . . 
 
 18 
 
 50, 91 
 
 91 
 
 High Schools, whence they should come, and how be sustained 
 two aspects of their agency 
 no hostility to them in their place . 
 how their absence may be more than compensated 
 
 Home, its educating power ..... 
 
 Infant Schools, their place and use 
 Ignorance, popular, its progeny 
 proofs of . 
 
 not confined to the humbler classes 
 Inside teacher, importance of his co-operation 
 Institutes, limited power of 
 
 utility of . 
 
 defects of . . . 
 
 how maintained . 
 
 how far of use 
 
 Knowledge, of three classes of subjects, necessary to everybody 
 
 Latin grammar, size and price of ... . 
 
 Libraries, district school, condition of . . . 
 
 history, and prospects of, in New York 
 
 20 
 . 25 
 
 68 
 . 92 
 15, 98 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 11 
 12 
 63 
 
 134 
 
 82 
 
 83 
 
 108 
 
 115 
 
 14 
 
 37 
 
 55 
 106 
 
 Massachusetts schools, synopsis of laws .... 117,121 
 
 requisitions of . . . . . 121 
 
 school system changes of, in the last thirty years . . 122 
 
 compared with a former period . . 122 
 
 popular estimation of . . . .123 
 
 indispcnsableness of external agencies . 1 23 
 
 inference there- 
 from . . 123 
 indications of want of popular sympathy, home 
 testimony . . . . .125 
 
INDEX. 
 
 155 
 
 Massachusetts, teachers, and their compensation .... 
 
 High Schools, where required .... 
 
 how far provided .... 
 
 branches taught in . 
 Normal Schools, number of pupils in . 
 
 for what class of schools they train teachers 
 what a Normal School should be 
 vagueness of reports about their fruits . 
 what they ought to show 
 singular requisites in one branch of instruction 
 their inappropriateness to practical purposes 
 Teachers' Institutes, their success . 
 reports of School Committees on reading 
 
 on attendance 
 
 on manners and morals 
 
 on text-books 
 
 on teachers 
 
 on primary instruction 
 
 on changing teachers . 
 
 on schoolhouses 
 
 on religious teaching 
 
 PAGE 
 
 125 
 127 
 
 127 
 12T 
 128 
 128 
 129 
 129 
 131 
 131 
 133 
 134 
 135 
 136 
 137 
 140 
 141 
 142 
 143 
 145 
 146 
 
 New Jersey, condition of schools in 
 
 what is wanted to improve it 
 Normal School of, its value to daily public school 
 New York school laws, synopsis of 
 
 general statistics of schools 
 
 in rural and city districts, instructively compared 
 
 cost of schools . 
 
 attendance at schools 
 
 parental co-operation deficient . 
 
 number of teachers . 
 
 district libraries . 
 
 history of . 
 likely to disappear 
 Normal School, attendance at 
 
 its position in the reports 
 teacher's classes in academies 
 Institutes, how maintained 
 
 far of use 
 teachers, qualifications of 
 
 how certified of 
 important deficiencies of 
 popular estimation of them 
 radical defect in system 
 schoolhouses and out-buildings 
 their condition 
 
 100- 
 
 12 
 32 
 33 
 -103 
 103 
 lOG 
 lOG 
 105 
 105 
 106 
 106 
 1C6 
 107 
 107 
 108 
 108 
 108 
 118 
 109 
 113 
 116 
 110 
 111 
 111 
 112 
 
156 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 New York, text-books, and evils of their multiplication 
 
 popular heart not in the schools 
 Normal Schools, test of their value to the daily public school . 20, 81 
 
 general influence of ... . 
 
 possible disadvantages .... 
 
 graduates of, attractions of daily school to them 
 when they are out of place .... 
 how regarded in rural districts . 
 for what class of schools they train teachers 
 what one should be ... . 
 
 vagueness of reports about .... 
 Ohio, daily school, synopsis of laws .... 
 
 general statistics ..... 
 expectations excited by . . . 
 
 popular estimation of ... . 
 
 comparative views of . 
 
 incompetent local officers .... 
 number of teachers in ... 
 
 qualifications and compensation of teachers 
 brevity of school term and cause 
 schoolhouses ..... 
 
 cost of . 
 condition of . 
 Libraries, condition of . . . 
 
 Institutes, number and value 
 defects of general system 
 
 unfitness of teachers .... 
 
 imperfection of returns and causes of it 
 graded schools, their advantage 
 new guards against incompetency in teachers 
 what the reports of County Auditors show 
 State Commissioner's appreciation of the system 
 morals and manners in . 
 
 neglect of 
 Order in school, one secret of . 
 
 Parents and others, their visits to schools, are they desirable 
 
 how they can do most for the daily school 
 Pennsylvania, school laws, synopsis of . 
 schools, statistics of . 
 attendance on public schools 
 teachers, number of, pay, and permanency 
 male and female compared 
 incompetent, largely employed 
 system defective in structure 
 
 Institutes and Normal Schools .... 
 
 their limited power 
 
 PAOU 
 
 . 113 
 
 IIG 
 
 131, 133 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 32 
 
 33 
 
 108 
 
 . 128 
 129 
 
 . 129 
 
 43, 46 
 4G 
 67 
 
 52, 6T 
 48 
 49 
 49 
 50 
 51 
 52 
 53 
 56 
 55 
 56 
 51 
 58 
 59 
 59 
 60 
 CI 
 Gl 
 68 
 68 
 
 . 78 
 
 89 
 
 90, 91 
 
 69, 73 
 
 73 
 
 21 
 
 . 74 
 
 75 
 
 76 
 
 77 
 
 . 78 
 
 78 
 
 experiments in training teachers 
 
INDEX. 
 
 157 
 
 Pennsylvania, Institutes and Normal Schools, condition and fruits of 
 
 testinaony from districts 
 their true office 
 
 how their fruits should be 
 shown 
 District Instithtes ..... 
 
 component parts of machinery 
 County Institutes . . ... 
 
 Institute system not successful .... 
 
 methods of improving 
 schoolhouses, general infelicity of site 
 
 regarded as a "desecration of the soil" 
 singular stipulations about one 
 what one should be 
 condition of, as reported 
 comparison of, with other public buildings 
 importance of visits by parents and others, 
 over-rated .... 
 
 graded schools, policy of .... • 
 
 what is the obligation of the State 
 
 multiplicity of text-books, evil of ... . 
 
 plan to remedy, how defeated 
 moral and religious instruction . . . . 
 
 appreciated in some districts 
 general conclusion respecting 
 People's Colleges, not colleges for the people .... 
 
 Philadelphia, City Councils' action on High Schools . . . . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 79 
 80 
 81 
 
 81 
 82 
 
 . 82 
 82 
 
 83, 86 
 8, 36 
 85 
 85 
 86 
 86 
 
 87, 88 
 89 
 
 90 
 91 
 93 
 
 94 
 95 
 96 
 98 
 99 
 93 
 24 
 
 Popular estimation of public schools 
 
 21, 47, 52, 99, 105, 110, 122 
 
 Reading, singular requirements in teaching 
 
 and not understanding, illustration of 
 
 Religious teaching in schools, what it should be 
 
 what it is in Pennsylvania 
 in Massachusetts 
 
 Reports, vagueness of, in respect to reading and writing 
 
 . 131 
 132 
 
 18, 91 
 96 
 
 . 146 
 13 
 
 School, its impalpable influences 
 
 what are its chief advantages 
 Schoolhouses, what they should be 
 condition of, in Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 compared with other public buildings 
 their condition in New York 
 
 Massachusetts 
 School life, three stages of . . . 
 
 State, its obligations in the matter of education 
 Stouber and the schoolmaster in Walbach school 
 12 
 
 13 
 ^3 
 
 . 22 
 
 54 
 86, 88 
 
 89 
 
 . 112 
 
 148 
 
 64 
 
 98 
 . 77 
 
158 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Teachers, where their work lies ..... 
 who are made suck of men, not born 
 temporary, most unqualified, and why . 
 male and female compared .... 
 obstacles to making teaching a profession 
 how their influence is exerted 
 Text-books, what they should be . 
 
 what they are ..... 
 
 their proper use .... 
 
 annual expenses of .... 
 
 speculation in . 
 
 their preparation, sketch of . . . 
 
 cost of their multiplicity . . : . 
 
 illustration of . 
 plan to check, how defeated 
 no competent tribunal to judge of their fitness 
 Thoroughness of education, the chief aim 
 
 39. 
 
 94. 
 
 20, 9: 
 
 PAGE 
 16 
 
 29 
 31 
 
 . T5 
 76 
 
 . 97 
 . 34,37 
 35 
 37 
 38 
 38 
 
 . 38 
 113, 140 
 
 . 94 
 
 95 
 
 95 
 
 !, 93, 151 
 
 AVorship, public, why not more generally frequented 
 
 20