LB 695 
 
 M292 
 Copy 2 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 
 
 HON. HORACE MANN, 
 
 SECRETARY 
 
 Jttass(ut)U0ett0 Boarb of (Education. 
 
 
LB 695 
 .M292 
 Copy 2 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 
 
 HON. HORACE MANN, 
 SECRETARY 
 
 4Ma5sac[)U0eit0 Boarir oi Plication. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN. 
 
 1844. 
 
-e" 
 
 VP 21 »* 07 
 
 WM. A. HALL & CO., PRINTERS, 
 No. 12 Water street. 
 
NOTICE 
 
 The following remarks, suggested by the " Seventh An- 
 nual Report" of the Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary of the 
 Board of Education of Massachusetts, were prepared by a 
 committee of the " Association of Masters of the Boston Pub- 
 lic Schools," and were read before that body, by whom they 
 are now published. It is hoped they may help in some 
 degree to correct erroneous views and impressions, and thus 
 tend to promote a healthy tone in public sentiment in relation 
 to many things connected with the welfare of our common 
 schools. The teacher, who has stood for many years, " him- 
 self against a host" of five or six hundred children from all 
 ranks and conditions of society, thinks he may once ask a' 
 hearing before the public. We know that literary and moral 
 amateurs seem very often to repudiate the notion, that " expe- 
 rience is the best schoolmaster." We would not less eschew 
 impatience with such and the great community, than with the 
 children of our charge. We desire no assent to any thing 
 which is not right and reasonable ; but being of one mind in 
 regard to great cardinal principles, we shall once, at least, 
 venture " abroad " in their defence. We think it unreason- 
 able to expect that there would be no shades of difference in 
 opinion on some points, nor could it be supposed that so 
 many individuals would perfectly agree in taste about matter 
 and manner of illustration. We have no object in view, but 
 
the public good, and for that all are willing to yield things of 
 minor consideration. 
 
 Many of the best days of our lives have been spent in the 
 service of some of the schools of the commonwealth, and 
 every thing we hold dear and sacred is most deeply connected 
 with their present and future welfare. 
 
 BARNUM FIELD, Franklin School. 
 JOSEPH HALE, Johnson School. 
 SAMUEL S. GREENE, New North School 
 CORNELIUS WALKER, Wells School. 
 WILLIAM D. SWAN, Mayhew School. 
 WM. A. SHEPARD, Brimmer School. 
 A. ANDREWS, Bowdoin School. 
 JAMES ROBINSON, Bowdoin School. 
 WM. J. ADAMS, Hancock School. 
 PETER MACKINTOSH, Jr., Hancock School. 
 SAMUEL BARRETT, Adams School. 
 JOSIAH FAIRBANK, " " 
 C. B. SHERMAN, Eliot School, 
 LEVI CONANT, " 
 AARON D. CAPEN, Mayheiv School. 
 FREDERICK CRAFTS, Hawes School. 
 JOHN ALEX. HARRIS, " 
 ABNER FORBES, Smith School. 
 ALBERT BOWKER, Lyman School. 
 NATHAN MERRILL, Franklin School. 
 REUBEN SWAN, Jr., Wells School. 
 GEORGE ALLEN, Jr., Endicott School. 
 LORING LATHROP, 
 HENRY WILLIAMS, Jr., Winthrop School. 
 SAMUEL L. GOULD, » J " 
 
 THOMAS BAKER, Boylston School. 
 CHARLES KIMBALL, " " 
 
 JOSHUA BATES, Jr., Brimmer School. 
 BENJ. DREW, Jr., New North School. 
 J. A. STEARNS, Mather School. 
 JONA. BATTLES, Jr., Mather School. 
 
 Boston, August, 1844. 
 
REMARKS. 
 
 The present age has been peculiarly marked by change 
 and progress in the arts and physical sciences, and in every 
 thing that has received the attention of the public mind. 
 While the artisan and philosopher have been making their 
 successful conquests over time and distance, many lives and 
 much property have been sacrificed to new theories and in- 
 experience. Attempts at reform in education and ethics have 
 been carried, as to things relating to mind and morals, with 
 almost as little caution and reverence, as to matter in the 
 physical sciences. These hints are merely introductory to 
 the following remarks upon the Seventh Annual Report of 
 the Secretary of the Board of Education. This document, in 
 all its connection with the interests of education, and in all 
 its bearing upon the reputation and influence of numerous 
 teachers, is one of high importance. This importance is 
 greatly enhanced by the high official station, and the elevated 
 moral and literary character of its author. A sense of duty 
 alone, impels a public expression of distrust in its sentiments, 
 and dissatisfaction with many of its details and representa- 
 tions. 
 
 The school system of Massachusetts has ever been the 
 pride and glory of her children. Those Puritan fathers, who 
 founded a university in ten years after they landed upon 
 " New England's rude and rocky shore," also soon estab> 
 
6 
 
 lished the common schools, to whose influence the present 
 generation are greatly indebted for most of their preeminent 
 civil, social, and religious blessings. Most of those men, who 
 here sustained the burdens in the Indian, French, and Revo- 
 lutionary wars, could boast of no higher Alma Mater than 
 the rude room of some humble farm-house, in which, for a few 
 weeks in each season, were gathered the "flaxen-headed 
 urchins" of the scattered inhabitants. No apology is deemed 
 necessary for the character of the teachers and the poor ac- 
 commodations of the schools in the Bay State during the first 
 two centuries ; the teachers have left behind them monu- 
 ments which should excite feelings of gratitude, rather than 
 produce those of dissatisfaction. 
 
 From the necessity of the case, all the early institutions of 
 the Pilgrims in the wilderness were of slow growth, and, con- 
 sidering all the circumstances of a scattered population upon 
 a rough and barren soil, and the foes with whom they had 
 to contend, from civilized and savage nations, it is astonish- 
 ing that so soon, " a little one became a thousand, and a small 
 one a strong- nation." With all the rude fixtures and other 
 inconveniences for school purposes, an enlightened public 
 sentiment was early formed, which sustained the State legisla- 
 ture in giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to the colleges 
 and other seminaries of learning. After making allowance 
 for the social evils of war and intemperance, the progress of 
 education to the present time seems truly wonderful ; and 
 the good cause was never more prosperous than at the time 
 the Board of Education teas formed ; and the establishment 
 of such a body, with little or no opposition, certainly indicated 
 a Healthy tone in public sentiment. All the friends of the 
 common schools, from the governor to the most humble 
 citizen, felt a desire to see these institutions improved, and 
 their blessings extended to every child in the commonwealth. 
 The desire was for improvement, and not for revolution, in 
 " that ancient and cherished institution, the common schools 
 of Massachusetts." Little was it expected that, by means of 
 
experiments in new doctrines and theories, much reproach 
 would be directly or indirectly thrown upon one class of in- 
 dividuals, who had so long borne the burdens in the great 
 work, for the aggrandizement of another class, who are less 
 modest in their pretensions. But the new measures have 
 become matters of history. A sacrilegious hand was laid 
 upon every thing mental, literary, and moral, that did not 
 conform to the new light of the day. Fulminations of 
 sarcasm and ridicule, from the lecture-room and the press, in 
 essays and speeches, were the forebodings of the new era in 
 the history of common schools, and in the experience of 
 teachers. After Washington had crossed the Delaware, in 
 the darkest hour of the Revolution, congress gave him new 
 power, in consideration of the great work before him ; but it 
 seemed that before the teacher could be allowed to go on in 
 his great work of warring against ignorance, idleness, and 
 vice, his authority should be abridged, and all his acquired 
 reputation and influence forfeited, as would be the goods of a 
 contraband trade. All exaggerated accounts of cases in the 
 school discipline of some teachers, and the supposed dis- 
 qualifications of many others, seemed to be set forth to lessen 
 the authority, influence, and usefulness of teachers, and give 
 a new direction to public sentiment. 
 
 From the time of the formation of the city government in 
 the metropolis, after the party feeling that followed the war 
 had subsided, a fresh impulse was given to the interest in the 
 public schools; and the services of such men as Gould, Miles, 
 Bailey, Leverett, and the Emersons, gave a new character to 
 public instruction. The writings of those distinguished 
 educators, Russell and Woodbridge, in the Journal and 
 Annals of Education, and the formation of the American 
 Institute of Instruction, tended greatly to excite a deeper 
 interest in the cause of education, and demand new efforts in 
 the business of teaching. It is believed by many, who have 
 carefully watched all these matters, that the demands were 
 not in vain, in many schools. Gov. Lincoln, the Hon. James 
 
8 
 
 G. Carter, and the Rev. Mr. Gallaudet, were among the first 
 projectors of teachers' seminaries ; though it was left for others 
 to carry out their projects in the establishment of Normal 
 schools. 
 
 It was in the light of philosophy that Archimedes boast- 
 ed to the king of Syracuse, if he would give him a place 
 to stand upon, he would move the world; — and in the 
 light of new theories others have attempted to do things 
 equally as impracticable. In matters of education, how vain 
 and worthless have been spasmodic efforts and hot-bed 
 theories, in which the projectors have disregarded experience 
 and observation ! Of such vagaries, in the first place, may be 
 mentioned the infant school system, which, for a while, was 
 the lion of its day. The fond parent, the philosopher, and 
 the philanthropist, were equally captivated by the scintillations 
 of infantile genius. The doting mother, and the credulous 
 aunt, with rapturous delight told their friends of the rapid 
 progress of the prattling child ; and the learned president of a 
 New England college, w T hen he heard the little philosopher 
 say that the hat, including the ribbon and buckle, was com- 
 posed of parts of the three kingdoms of nature, the animal, 
 vegetable, and mineral, remarked that he then saw by what 
 means the world would be converted; and he seemed to 
 think that in Geology, Botany, and Zoology, there would be 
 no farther need of the services of Lyell, Gray, and Audubon ; 
 but the object of his mental vision proved an ignis fatuus. 
 The sister of a distinguished governor said, the whole affair 
 of infant schools reminded her of those youthful days, when 
 she planted beans in the garden, and soon pulled them up to 
 see if the roots had grown. 
 
 Next came Phrenology with all its organs and propensities, 
 rejecting all fear, emulation, and punishments ; but in this 
 country its great champions and advocates, who required 
 brick without giving straw, proved to be unworthy disciples 
 of Combe and Spurzheim. They had hardly told the fame 
 and wonders of this new science before they all fell, as in one 
 
night, into a mesmeric sleep. There have sprang up, at dif- 
 ferent times, a great variety of monitorial school systems, 
 promising much, but effecting little ; and it is hoped, in view 
 of the past, that experience, common sense, and honesty, will 
 soon be increasing in demand. The monitorialist proposed 
 to give, for any number of pupils on one day, as many 
 teachers on the next. Next, the antipodes to the monitorialist, 
 came the Normalist, who thinks there will not be good schools 
 in Massachusetts, till all the teachers shall be trained, for a 
 course of years, in some seminary for teachers. No one, who 
 has ever taught and who knows any thing of the teacher's 
 task, will lightly estimate opportunities for improvement of 
 any kind. But it is believed that too much has been claimed 
 for the Normal schools of Massachusetts in their infant state. 
 Such seminaries may be made highly useful in ihe great 
 work of enlightening the community, but the friends and 
 advocates of such institutions never can exclusively claim the 
 title of educators in free America ; others have found, and 
 they ever will find, equal means of doing good, while igno- 
 rance, vice, and idleness, prevail in the land. All the princi- 
 pals of the Normal schools, though in a high rank of scholars, 
 were comparatively inexperienced in public school-keeping, 
 when they entered upon their arduous work. They might 
 easily comprehend theories and systems of instruction, and 
 they might explain them to their pupils ; but that " practice 
 which makes perfect" can only be acquired by experience 
 and observation amidst the responsible duties of teaching 
 under a variety of circumstances, that can never be really un- 
 derstood in a model school of thirty very young children. 
 The average experience of Normal pupils in such a school, 
 cannot be more than two weeks, which must be regarded as 
 insignificant, by any one who knows much about the variety 
 of circumstances in which teachers are often placed in the 
 discharge of their duties. 
 
 It is believed no little injustice has been done to the general 
 character of teachers, by those who have been over-anxious 
 
10 
 
 for the reputation and success of the Normal schools. What 
 would be thought of a general who, with a most powerful 
 enemy before him, should publicly announce that his soldiers 
 were weak and inefficient, though they had shown themselves 
 powerful and effective, on great emergencies, in driving the 
 barbarians from the wilderness ? Did not Mr. Mann act in 
 such a manner, when, in his early reports, he said much of " in- 
 competent teachers," — " ignorance of teachers," — "depressed 
 state of common schools;" — and declared "that the schools 
 were under a sleepy supervision," — " and that the teachers of 
 the schools," — "in the absence of all opportunities to qualify 
 themselves," — "were" — "deeply and widely deficient in 
 the two indispensable prerequisites for their office; namely, a 
 knowledge of the human mind as the subject of improvement, 
 and a knowledge of the means best adapted wisely to unfold 
 and direct its growing faculties ; " and, consequently, " that the 
 common school system of Massachusetts had fallen into a state 
 of general unsoundness and debility ? " 
 
 There were persons, throughout the length and breadth 
 of the commonwealth, ready to echo these sentiments; and 
 they did so to the great injury of the general influence of 
 teachers. The " irksome task of public instruction " was, of 
 course, made doubly irksome by the loss of confidence in the 
 teacher. It has been well remarked — " The appeal ad invidi- 
 am is never powerless. There are always men enough under 
 any government to echo the notes of complaint ; " and "who- 
 ever would persuade men [or children] that they are not as 
 well governed [or taught] as they might be, shall never want 
 willing hearers." In many places, the parents neither re- 
 spected, nor did the children reverence, in the least degree, the 
 appointed guardians and instructers of youth, for it had been 
 affirmed, upon the highest authority, that all was rotten in 
 Denmark. Every teacher, in the towns, felt that his burdens 
 were increased by the demands of the age for greater profi- 
 ciency among his pupils ; still, his influence and usefulness 
 were much retarded and greatly abridged ; as all had been 
 
11 
 
 told that he was " deeply and widely deficient in the two 
 indispensable prerequisites for his office." A spirit of revolu- 
 tion was, consequently, abroad among the people, in relation 
 to the schools which, " for almost two hundred years, had 
 been honored and eulogized by the greatest and best men, 
 who, within all that period, had enlightened and blessed the 
 commonwealth." It seemed that some new law was about 
 to throw these " greatest and best men " into the same relation 
 to the truth, that the discovery of the Copernican system 
 threw those who had believed in that of Ptolemy. A spirit 
 of distrust in teachers was created through the State, before 
 the establishment of the first Normal school. How far the 
 public mind was thus moved in view of such an object, and 
 how far the end justified the means, others must judge. 
 
 None but teachers of observation and experience could 
 fully understand the consequences of creating such a " gen- 
 eral" distrust in the teachers, who were pronounced "incom- 
 petent," and in the system, which was said to be " under a 
 sleepy supervision." What would be the effect upon the 
 usefulness of the medical profession, if the public were in- 
 formed, in view of some new light of the day, by similar high 
 authority, that the physicians of the country were " incompe- 
 tent " to their duties, and '" deeply and widely deficient in 
 the two indispensable prerequisites of their calling? " It was 
 said, " without fault of their own," the teachers had been in 
 the absence of all opportunities to qualify themselves, which 
 could only be properly enjoyed at the Normal schools. 
 Would it be right and just to say of the ministry of two large 
 and influential denominations of Christians, because they had 
 no theological seminaries, and only one college in New 
 England, that " in the absence of all opportunities to qualify 
 themselves," they were "deeply and widely deficient" in some 
 of the " prerequisites of their office ? " Upon the same prin- 
 ciple, all religious denominations in this country had an 
 "incompetent" ministry for nearly«two hundred years. By 
 such reasoning, the Masons and Websters, who studied the 
 
12 
 
 laws and constitution of their country in some village in 
 New Hampshire, must be " incompetent " in the legal pro- 
 fession when compared with the students of Cambridge and 
 Litchfield, who have heard, perhaps, many principles ex- 
 plained in mock trials ; and further, without irreverence, Paul, 
 who was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, was less compe- 
 tent " to reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment 
 to come," than is the student from a New England divinity 
 school. 
 
 There has ever been something unique in the individual 
 character of the inhabitants of New England ; and one who 
 has written much upon the subject of education, well des- 
 cribed this peculiarity when he said : "A sturdy lad from 
 New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the pro- 
 fessions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, 
 preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to congress, buys a town- 
 ship, and so forth, in successive years, and always, like a cat, 
 falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of your city dolls. He 
 walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not study- 
 ing a profession, for he does not postpone his life, but lives 
 already." ' Self-reliance in the discharge of duty, and tact in 
 emergency, are worth more than all the untried theories in the 
 world ; and it may be said, without any disparagement to 
 literary and professional advantages, that the individual who 
 depends most upon his own judgment and exertions under 
 every variety of circumstances, generally excels in his under- 
 takings. 
 
 It was justly said by some one, that the man who under- 
 took to teach others before he had informed himself, deserved 
 " literary crucifixion." It needs no argument to prove that a 
 person cannot well teach what he does not fully understand 
 himself; but with an " aptness to teach," and requisite literary 
 qualifications, one will succeed in proportion to his good 
 judgment, benevolence, energy, and fidelity. Without such 
 qualifications, no Normal ^school can make a good teacher ; 
 and with them, experience alone can give one a high rank 
 
13 
 
 for usefulness and success. But it may be said, that new 
 light in morals and metaphysics, like the discovery of the law 
 of gravitation in philosophy, was destined to produce a new 
 era in the cause of learning ; and the Normal school was to 
 be the Propaganda from which this new light was to be 
 irradiated for the advancement of the moral and intellectual 
 welfare of coming generations. It is thought no exaggeration 
 to say such was the expectation of some. As facts will be 
 called for, the views of a few individuals most engaged in 
 advancing and sustaining the Normal schools must be given. 
 The quotations, though few and short, will be acknowledged 
 to be of the highest authority on this subject. They are as 
 follow : Dr. Howe, of the Asylum for the Blind, said of his 
 own school : " We need none of the stimuli which by some are 
 supposed necessary. We have no corporal punishments, no 
 prizes, no taking precedence in classes, no degradations. Em- 
 ulation there is and will be ; nature provides for this in the self- 
 esteem of each individual." The president of the American 
 Institute of Instruction said : " There is no other so ready a 
 way, I repeat it, to produce falsehood in a child as to doubt 
 his word. And it must be so. A doubter is a liar. One 
 who was himself perfectly true could never suspect. It is true, 
 that there is a distrust produced by the experience of other 
 men's falsehoods. But this belongs to the world. It cannot 
 be felt by a teacher towards a child." Mr. Pierce, the first 
 principal of the Normal school at Lexington, said: "And here 
 I would state that my theory goes to the entire exclusion of 
 the premium and emulation system, and of corporal punish- 
 ment." It is hard to conceive of any thing more radical and 
 less conservative, than such views, when considered in con- 
 nection with the administration of all the institutions of New 
 England, during the last two centuries. Nothing can be 
 more at war with approved principles. The soundness of 
 these principles must be discussed more at large in another 
 place. Is it uncharitable to suppose that Dr. Howe and the 
 President of the Institute, with their peculiar views, would 
 
14 
 
 look with more than parental fondness and indulgence upon 
 the results of Mr. Pierce's experiment at the Lexington Nor- 
 mal school? The public ought not to complain of this fond- 
 ness and indulgence, unless they were shown at the unjust 
 expense of those who had long and faithfully borne the heat 
 and burdens of the day, and who still had a great work to 
 perform. Invidious comparisons generally have but one 
 object and tendency. 
 
 In a short time after the establishment of the Normal 
 school at Lexington, it was visited by Dr. Howe, of the 
 Asylum for the Blind, of whom Mr. Mann afterwards said, 
 it is owing " to his judgment, his knowledge, and the energy 
 of his benevolent impulses," " that the institution over which 
 he presides has enjoyed such an unexampled degree of pros- 
 perity, as to be accounted throughout the civilized world the 
 first of its kind." This praise from Mr. Mann seemed due to 
 Dr. Howe, who had before said, in a letter to a friend, pub- 
 lished in the Common School Journal: "It has been in my 
 power to examine many schools in this country, and in 
 various parts of the world, but I am free to declare that, in my 
 opinion, the best school I ever saw in this or any other coun- 
 try is the Normal school at Lexington." " I prefer it, because 
 the system is based upon the principles that the young mind 
 hungers and thirsts for knowledge, as the body does for food ; 
 because it makes the pupils not merely recipients of knowl- 
 edge, but calls all their faculties into operation to attain it 
 themselves ; and, finally, because, relying upon the higher 
 and nobler parts of the pupil's nature, it rejects all addresses 
 to bodily fears, and all appeals to selfish feelings." " To me, 
 sir, it was delightful to see that they were becoming acquaint- 
 ed with the nature of the children's minds, before they under- 
 took to manage them ; and that they would not, like other 
 teachers, have to learn at the children's expense." " Perhaps, 
 sir, you, like myself, may have suffered, in boyhood, under 
 some usher, who was learning his trade by experimenting 
 upon you, as the barber's apprentice learns to shave upon the 
 
15 
 
 chins of his master's less-favored customers." The president 
 of the Institute also visited the school, with Dr. Howe, and 
 remarked : " Yet I am confident, from what I saw of their 
 modes of teaching, that those individuals will show the effects 
 of those few weeks of special instruction, all the remainder 
 of their lives. They can never teach in the blind and lifeless 
 way in which thousands of elementary schools are taught." 
 No remarks could have harmonized better with the secretary's 
 views if they had been made " to order," after what he had 
 said about the "general unsoundness and debility" of the 
 " Common School System of Massachusetts," and about the 
 teachers being " deeply and widely deficient in the two indis- 
 pensable prerequisites for their office." There is not the least 
 desire to detract from the literary merits of the Normal 
 schools, nor from the high character and reputation of any of 
 these gentlemen ; still, it is confidently believed, that the latter 
 are laboring under several mistakes of a practical and theo- 
 retical nature. These Normal pupils could not have made 
 such proficiency as to constitute the "best school" "in this or 
 any other country," " in a few weeks," without much previous 
 discipline and instruction. In theorizing in matters of edu- 
 cation, men always select pupils of the best minds and 
 morals, and they seem to forget that the " irksome task of 
 public instruction " is among the great mass of the popula- 
 tion. A common school is often a world in miniature. 
 Within the same walls there are often the children of the rich 
 and the poor, the idle and industrious, the moral and im- 
 moral. The diversity of the inhabitants of the burial places 
 near Constantinople, "whom death has continued to mow 
 down for near four centuries, in the vast capital of Islamism," 
 as described in Anastasius, is not greater than what some- 
 times exists among the parents of the children in one of the 
 cities or large towns. The United States has long been an 
 asylum for the whole human family, and consequently, there 
 are sometimes collected in the same school, children who 
 have come from all parts of the world, and who have the 
 
16 
 
 greatest diversity of character to be assimilated, before peace 
 and harmony can well reign among the " sovereign " people. 
 
 Had that " distinguished writer and educator," the president 
 of the American Institute, ever known by experience, any thing 
 of the trials of many teachers, he would not have made such 
 withering comparisons between theory under the most favora- 
 ble circumstances at the Normal school, which he had seen, 
 and " the blind and lifeless way," in practice, " of thousands 
 of elementary schools," which he had not seen. The truth of 
 the assertion, that "a doubter" of a child's word "is a liar," 
 can only be admitted by the teacher out of " the world," if 
 any dependence can be put upon the evidence of some of the 
 most prominent of the " five senses," which Mr. Mann says, 
 " abont twenty years ago, the teachers in Prussia made the 
 important discovery that children have." Besides, it is 
 thought, the sentiment that distrust "cannot be felt by a 
 teacher towards a child," is inconsistent with the later views 
 of the same individual, as expressed in that valuable work, 
 " The School and Schoolmaster," where he says, " children 
 are made liars by the examples set them from their earliest 
 days. They are coaxed by falsehood, by what are called 
 white lies, to get up and to go to bed: to go to play and-to 
 give up their playthings ; to give up food and take medicine. 
 They are even coaxed by falsehood into being good ! " 
 
 Mr. Pierce, of the Normal school, has somewhere said : 
 " Teachers create difficulties themselves, and then ask what 
 they shall do with them without the rod. They do not know 
 the depths of the human heart." Without reference to the 
 theological point which is here brought into view, or the 
 phrenological principle of self-esteem, or the non-resistance 
 doctrine of no corporal punishment, — the teacher must take 
 the world as he finds it. His labors have certainly been in- 
 creased, and his usefulness and influence have been greatly 
 diminished, by the new notions of modern times. Notwith- 
 standing, it was found, that " a large majority of the young 
 ladies " of the Lexington Normal school, under Mr. Pierce, 
 
17 
 
 " were of opinion, that it [the rod] should not be resorted to 
 in any case," experience, philanthropy, and wisdom, still dic- 
 tate the necessity of its use, or of the right to use it. It will 
 be perceived, from the sentiments of Mr. Pierce and some of 
 the friends of the Normal schools and the results of instruc- 
 tion, that views entirely radical are characteristic of the insti- 
 tution. The State seal gives these new doctrines an impor- 
 tance and consideration with some persons, which otherwise 
 they might not possess. The public mind has been so far 
 poisoned, that great distrust is felt in all teachers of the old 
 school. Already, in the metropolis, have members of the 
 School Committee been importuned to " come out " against 
 corporal punishment, and to give their influence for " non- 
 resistance," and " no government," which are synonymes of 
 " anti-corporal punishment." One gentleman inquired, if it 
 was believed that the city schools could be well managed 
 upon the " come out " plan ; and the reply was, that they 
 probably could not be, by the present teachers ; but, it was 
 thought they could be by others — [Normalites ! !!] Mr. 
 Mann's account of the Prussian schools, was cited in confir- 
 mation of such an opinion. By visionary notions of untried 
 theories, and hearsay and false testimony respecting the gen- 
 eral conservative practices of two hundred years, and by an 
 esprit du corps characteristic of all violent reforms, much 
 mischief has been effected, and much good prevented. Per- 
 sonalities, and impeachment of motives, are here entirely dis- 
 claimed ; still it must be admitted that the evil is no less when 
 the torch is applied by the deluded " monomaniac," than 
 when the fire is the work of the midnight incendiary. It is 
 believed that many of the new experiments have proved 
 failures, as shown by impartial testimony ; and that too 
 much has been claimed in official reports for the compara- 
 tive success of the Normal schools. There have been cases 
 of failure among those sent out from these schools. A clerical 
 gentleman of the highest respectability, from the centre of 
 the commonwealth, says : " A comparison between the stu- 
 
18 
 
 dents from Leicester Academy, and those from the Normal 
 school at Barre, in the examination of qualifications, or upon 
 trial, would be much in favor of the former institution ; and 
 many from Barre have failed in examination, and some 
 upon trial." Such accounts are coming from various parts 
 of the State. An extract from the report of the School 
 Committee of the ancient town of Yarmouth, shows the 
 statements on this subject are not made without good au- 
 thority. That report says : " In relation to the selection of 
 efficient teachers, the committee are at a loss to know what 
 course to recommend. They found those who came highly 
 recommended from our first seminaries of learning, as defi- 
 cient in a knowledge of elementary principles, as those whose 
 advantages of education have been limited to the public 
 schools, and were compelled to withhold their approbation 
 from an applicant who had been educated at one of the Nor- 
 mal schools ; and who came with testimonials of competence 
 from the teacher of that institution. To the Normal schools, 
 the committee had been accustomed to look with confidence, 
 as the source from whence we were soon to be supplied with 
 teachers, who had not only been prepared in the subjects which 
 they were to teach ; but had also been instructed in the best 
 method of imparting that knowledge to others. But, if such 
 candidates are permitted to leave the institution with the sanc- 
 tion of its officers, there is reason to apprehend, that their in- 
 fluence will be productive of more evil than good, by lulling 
 to rest the vigilance of committees; and, unless the Board of 
 Education are more careful to select officers who are more 
 thorough in their course of instruction, and more conscien- 
 tious in their recommendations, the whole project might as 
 well be given up, and the State preserved from what is other- 
 wise a useless expense." 
 
 Persons sometimes place themselves in such a position, that 
 they cannot well judge impartially ; and Mr. Mann has said, 
 " men are generally very willing to modify, or change their 
 opinions and views, while they exist in thought merely, but, 
 
19 
 
 when once formally expressed, the language chosen often 
 becomes the mould of the opinion. The opinion fills the 
 mould, but cannot break it and assume a new form." May- 
 it not be in accordance with such a principle, that Dr. Howe, 
 before the American Institute, in 1841, defended the Normal 
 schools in Massachusetts, with more than gladiatorial ardor ; 
 he having before spoken of the school at Lexington in this 
 manner : it is " the best school I ever saw, in this or any other 
 country." And does Mr. Mann wish to be made an excep- 
 tion to his own rule ; when, in his seventh annual report, on 
 his return from Europe, he says : " I have seen no Institution 
 for the blind, equal to that under the care of Dr. Howe, at South 
 Boston ; " which Mr. Mann had before pronounced " the first 
 of its kind " " throughout the civilized world." The Hon. Sec- 
 retary cannot complain, if those, of whom he expressed such 
 unfavorable opinions before he went " to some new quarter 
 of the horizon " for " a brighter beam of light," avail them- 
 selves in self-defence of his own rules to preserve their influ- 
 ence ; and to avert what otherwise might cause them to suffer, 
 from his sarcastic lash, in his unjust comparisons between 
 them and teachers in some of the countries of Europe. 
 
 The Hon. Secretary often alludes to his acquaintance with 
 men, and he seems to understand their principles of action ; 
 and he well knows that individuals are slow to change their 
 opinions respecting a subject, upon which they stand fully 
 committed. In legislative bodies, and among other associa- 
 tions of public men, the character of reports, upon interesting 
 subjects, may be generally anticipated with a great degree 
 of certainty, by those who understand the views, or party bias 
 of the individual to whom they are referred. Though Mr. 
 Mann may eschew party feeling, and previous opinions in 
 the examination of all subjects, as he does a spirit of emula- 
 tion among the young ; still, it is thought, that he may pos- 
 sess some of the infirmities of other men ; and that even the 
 emulous youth at school, might innocently remind him of the 
 fable of the crab and his son. The secretary has often repu- 
 
20 
 
 diated the general principle of emulation, and in his seventh 
 annual report, he is clearly understood, in some places, to ex- 
 press strong views of its odious tendency, and to appeal 
 to its influence in others. In speaking of the Prussian and 
 Saxon schools, he says, "emulation had been found an ad- 
 verse, and not favoring influence," and " the best authori- 
 ties throughout the country were discountenancing, rather 
 than encouraging it ; " and, in connection with the same sub- 
 ject, he inquires, " Ought we then to cultivate this passion, 
 [love of approbation,] already of inordinate growth, by the 
 use of emulation in our schools ? " Had the secretary for- 
 gotten that in a former part of his document, " the town of 
 Brighton" stood "at the head of all the towns in the Com- 
 monwealth, in regard to the liberality of its appropriations for 
 the support of schools," and that " the town of Dana," which 
 stood " at the foot of the list," had " resigned its place at the 
 bottom of the catalogue, to the town of Pawtucket." Is not 
 here a strong appeal to the principle of emulation in putting 
 " head " in such antithesis with " foot " and " bottom," and 
 in placing such emphasis on " Brighton," at the expense of 
 poor " Dana" and " Pawtucket " ? 
 
 It is not known that Mr. Mann had ever given much atten- 
 tion to the common school system, or that he had been in 
 any way very active, in the great cause of common schools, 
 before his appointment as Secretary of the Board. With little 
 practical knowledge, and without any fixed notions founded 
 upon experience and observation, it is not strange, perhaps, 
 that he did injustice to the school system, which had long 
 been justly regarded as the glory of the commonwealth. 
 Had Mr. Mann ever extended a warm sympathy to the 
 public teachers ; or had he ever taken an interest with those 
 who formed, and, for a long time, sustained the American 
 Institute of Instruction ; he might have put a higher estimate 
 upon institutions at home, and been less ready fully to com- 
 mit himself to the theory of those abroad, before seeing them. 
 In the secretary's second annual report, after his great dis- 
 
21 
 
 paragement of committees, teachers, and the condition of the 
 school system of Massachusetts, he says : " To expect that 
 a system, animated only by a feeble principle of life, and that 
 life in irregular action, could be restored at once to health and 
 vigor, would be a sure preparation for disappointment. It is 
 now twenty years, since the absolute government of Prussia, 
 under the impulse of self-preservation, entered upon the work 
 of entirely remodelling their common schools, so as to give 
 them a comprehensiveness and an efficacy, which would em- 
 brace and educate every child in the kingdom. In this un- 
 dertaking, high intelligence has been aided, at every step, by 
 unlimited power ; and yet the work is but just completed." 
 Since Mr. Mann had previously, in a most emphatic manner, 
 condemned so many things in Massachusetts ; and, since his 
 favorite beau ideal, as he thinks, characterized at least the 
 Prussian system, the following extracts from his " seventh 
 annual report," upon his return from Europe, though severe 
 in the extreme, contain such views as might have been 
 expected. Whether his views are just or unjust, the public 
 must judge after a proper examination of the case. The 
 secretary's report says : 
 
 " For the six years during which I have been honored with an 
 appointment to the office of Secretary of the Board of Educa- 
 tion, I have spared neither labor nor expense in fulfilling not only 
 that provision of the law which requires that ' the secretary shall col- 
 lect information,' but also that injunction, not less important, that he 
 shall 'diffuse as widely as possible, throughout every part of the 
 commonwealth, information of the most approved and successful 
 methods of arranging the studies and conducting the education of the 
 young.' For this purpose I have visited schools in most of the free 
 States and in several of the slave States of the Union ; have made 
 myself acquainted with the different laws relative to public instruc- 
 tion which have been enacted by the different legislatures of our 
 country, have attended great numbers of educational meetings, and, as 
 far as possible, have read whatever has been written, whether at home 
 or abroad, by persons qualified to instruct mankind on this [?] mo- 
 mentous subject. Still, I have been oppressed with a painful con- 
 sciousness of my inability to expound the merits of this [?] great 
 theme, in all their magnitude and variety, and have turned my eyes 
 again and again to some new quarter of the horizon, in the hope 
 that they would be greeted by a brighter [?] beam of light. Under 
 
22 
 
 these circumstances, it was natural that the celebrity of institutions in 
 foreign countries should attract my attention, and that I should feel 
 an intense desire of knowing whether, in any respect, those [?] insti- 
 tutions were superior to our own ; and, if any thing were found in 
 them worthy of adoption, of transferring it for our improvement. 
 
 " Accordingly, early last spring, I applied to the Board for per- 
 mission to visit Europe, at my own expense, during the then ensuing 
 season, that I might make myself personally acquainted with the 
 nature and workings of their [?] systems of public instruction, — 
 especially in those countries which had long enjoyed the reputation 
 of standing at the head of the cause." [?] — pp. 18 and 19. 
 
 " Among the nations of Europe, Prussia has long enjoyed the 
 most distinguished reputation for the excellence of its schools. In 
 reviews, in speeches, in tracts, and even in graver works devoted to 
 the cause of education, its schools have been exhibited as models 
 for the imitation of the rest of Christendom." — p. 21. 
 
 " Perhaps I saw as fair a proportion of the Prussian and Saxon 
 schools, as one would see of the schools in Massachusetts, who 
 should visit those of Boston, Newburyport, Lexington, New Bedford, 
 Worcester, Northampton and Springfield." — p. 70. 
 
 " Actual observation alone can give any thing approaching to the 
 true idea. I do not exaggerate when I say that the most active and 
 lively schools I have ever seen in the United States, must be regarded 
 almost as dormitories, if compared with the fervid life of the Scotch 
 schools ; and, by the side of theirs, our pupils would seem to be hyber- 
 nating animals just emerging from their torpid state, and as yet but 
 half conscious of the possession of life and faculties. It is certainly 
 within bounds to say, that there were six times as many questions 
 put and answers given, in the same space of time, as I ever heard 
 put and given in any school in our own country." — p. 62. 
 
 " Nor is this all. The teacher does not stand immovably fixed to 
 one spot, (I never saw a teacher in Scotland sitting in a school-room,) 
 nor are the bodies of the pupils mere blocks, resting motionless in 
 their seats, or lolling from side to side as though life were deserting 
 them." — p. 64. 
 
 " While attending to the recitation of one, his mind is constantly 
 called off, to attend to the studies and conduct of all the others. 
 For this, very few teachers amongst us, have the requisite capacity ; 
 and hence the idleness and the disorder that reign in so many of 
 our schools, — excepting in cases where the debasing motive of fear 
 puts the children in irons." — p. 84. 
 
 " A teacher who cannot answer all the questions and solve all the 
 doubts of a scholar as they arise, must assume an awful and myste- 
 
23 
 
 rious air, and must expound in oracles, which themselves need more 
 explanation than the original difficulty." — p. 128. 
 
 " Do we not need a new spirit in our community, and especially 
 in our schools, which shall display only objects of virtuous ambition 
 before the eyes of our emulous youth; and teach them that no height 
 of official station, nor splendor of professional renown, can equal in 
 the eye of heaven, and of all good men, the true glory of a life 
 consecrated to the welfare of mankind ? " — p. 83. 
 
 " I speak of the teachers whom I saw, and with whom I had more 
 or less of personal intercourse ; and, after some opportunity for the 
 observation of public assemblies or bodies of men — I do not hesitate 
 to say, that if those teachers were brought together, in one body, I 
 believe they would form as dignified, intelligent, benevolent-looking 
 a company of men as could be collected from the same amount of 
 population in any country." — p. 127. 
 
 These quotations are made to give the reader a clear, 
 general view of the object of the secretary's visit abroad, 
 and the result of his comparisons. The secretary having 
 designated "Boston" as one of the places in Massachusetts, 
 in comparison with those he visited in Prussia, the inquiry is 
 at once made, what does Mr. Mann know of the present 
 state of the public " Grammar and Writing Schools" of 
 Boston? "With one voice, the answer is, he knows compara- 
 tively nothing. It is not known to any of the masters that the 
 secretary has improved any opportunity, within five years, of 
 knowing any thing of the views of the Boston teachers, or 
 any thing of their plans, or the results of their instruction. 
 It will be seen, that Mr. Mann has alluded to " the law 
 which requires" that "the secretary shall collect information " 
 and " diffuse as widely as possible throughout every part of 
 the commonwealth, information of the most approved and 
 successful methods of arranging the studies and conducting 
 the education of the young." Though the secretary speaks 
 in some of his annual reports of holding meetings in all the 
 fourteen counties, still the teachers in Boston never heard of 
 more than one such meeting in Suffolk, and that was held 
 six or seven years ago ; and it is difficult for them to under- 
 stand how Mr. Mann could have " collected " or " diffused " 
 
24 
 
 any information in Suffolk, unless it was done by some mes- 
 meric process of which they know nothing. 
 
 It may not be improper nor immodest to say that the Boston 
 teachers, not receiving the sympathy and diffusive light which 
 have been so profusely extended to other parts of the State, 
 have done what they could among themselves to encourage 
 each other, and to " collect and diffuse " such information as 
 would best tend to advance the welfare of the schools com- 
 mitted to their charge. Many of these teachers have enjoyed 
 all the literary advantages of the college, or the university; 
 others have had opportunities, perhaps not less valuable ; 
 and all have had much experience. They have not forgotten 
 the apostolic injunction, and have frequently " assembled 
 themselves together;" and though it may not be said that 
 " they would form as dignified, intelligent, benevolent-looking 
 a company of men as could be collected," still they have 
 tried faithfully to discharge their duty, and have exerted them- 
 selves to advance the great cause of public instruction. 
 Within the two years previous to the time that Mr. Mann 
 made his late report, there have been delivered, by the mem- 
 bers, before the Association of Public Teachers of Boston, 
 lectures on the following subjects : " On Different Systems of 
 English Grammar ; " " Mechanical Teaching ; " " Elemen- 
 tary Principles of Reading ; " " Analysis of the Human 
 Voice ; " " Tones, Inflections, and Sentimental Expressions 
 of correct Reading ; " " Thorough Instruction ; " " The Influ- 
 ence of Teaching upon the Teacher's Mind;" "Legal and 
 moral Obligations of the Teacher ; " "A Day in the Schools of 
 Lowell ; " " Literary and moral Qualifications of Teachers ; " 
 "The Teacher's Task;" "The comparative Rank and Use- 
 fulness of Teachers; " " The Principles of Analysis in teaching 
 English Grammar ; " " School Discipline ; " " Duties and Obli- 
 gations of Parents to Pupils and Teachers;" " The Use of 
 Moral Suasion in Discipline ; " " The Routine of School Ex- 
 ercises ; " " Half a Day in School." Besides these lectures, 
 
25 
 
 several reports have been made, and many discussions have 
 been held on subjects connected with the business of teaching. 
 
 The Prussian school system is thought to be a proper 
 " model for the imitation of the rest of Christendom," and the 
 secretary complains that the " traveller, Laing, has devoted 
 several chapters " to its " disparagement," as he does not 
 believe that Laing " had ever visited the schools " he " pre- 
 sumed to condemn." It is known by the Boston teachers that 
 the Hon. Secretary has not, for several years, visited their 
 schools, and that he knows nothing, by observation, to warrant 
 his disparagement of them, in common with others, at the 
 present time. Should Mr. Mann say that a few visits to the 
 school-houses, soon after his original appointment as secre- 
 tary, and, perhaps, an occasional one since, were sufficient 
 upon which to predicate his remarks, every experienced 
 teacher will dissent from all decisions founded on such testi- 
 mony. It may be seen that the secretary makes hasty state- 
 ments and comparisons upon matters abroad and at home. 
 His most partial friends must admit the correctness of this 
 assertion. The North American Review says of his " seventh 
 report:" " It has some defects of arrangement, and some faults 
 of style; and the shortness of the time during which Mr. 
 Mann was abroad, has occasioned some mistakes. Several 
 assertions are too unqualified." 
 
 An able correspondent of the Mercantile Journal says, that 
 he is " apprehensive " that Mr. Mann's " remarks on the in- 
 struction of the deaf and dumb in Holland, Prussia, and 
 Saxony, are too sweeping, and may lead to incorrect impres- 
 sions." This writer, who seems a perfect master of his sub- 
 ject, thinks "it would not be at all surprising if even a 
 gentleman of Mr. Mann's intelligence, laboring under the 
 disadvantages of having no practical acquaintance with deaf 
 mute instruction, and, perhaps, not even acquainted with the 
 history and extensive literature of the science, should form 
 hasty and erroneous conclusions on a subject for the most 
 part, if not altogether, new to him." Charity for the secre- 
 4 
 
26 
 
 tary's want of " practical acquaintance " is often needed with 
 its ample mantle, amid the fog and mystification which he 
 seems to throw over matters of a practical nature connected 
 with the great subject of public instruction. 
 
 The secretary has a chapter upon music in the Prussian 
 schools; still it is not known to the teachers of music in 
 the Boston schools, that Mr. Mann was ever present to hear 
 the singing exercises in a half-hour's lesson in these schools. 
 He says, " in Germany, where the blind, like all other classes 
 of society, are taught music very thoroughly, I saw a common 
 mode of performance on the organ which is very unusual in 
 America. The organs were constructed with a set of keys for 
 the feet ; so that the feet could always play an accompaniment 
 to the hands." There are more than fifty such organs in 
 churches within sight of the State-house, in Boston, though 
 Mr. Mann says they are "unusual in America." 
 
 Mr. Mann's account makes the teachers and pupils of the 
 schools in Prussia and Scotland, " giants," and those of 
 Massachusetts, "pigmies" in comparison. Our schools, he 
 says, "must be regarded almost as dormitories," and "our 
 pupils would seem to be hybernating animals," by the side 
 of those of Scotland. With great apparent surprise, the 
 secretary does " not hesitate to say," that " those teachers 
 whom he saw in Prussia were as dignified, intelligent, be- 
 nevolent-looking a company of men as could be collected 
 from the same amount of population in any country." The 
 Prussian and Scotch teachers seem to be all Newtons, Me- 
 lancthons, Oberlins, and Mozarts, when compared with the 
 David Gamuts, Dominie Sampsons, Ichabod Cranes, and old 
 Squeerses, that the secretary had seen in Massachusetts. 
 
 It must not be denied that among the great amount of 
 matter in the secretary's report, there are many interesting 
 statements and disinterested remarks ; but in many of his 
 reflections upon some, of the institutions and citizens of the 
 country, it is thought that he is not less severe than Madam 
 Trollope herself. The secretary often admits the excellence of 
 
27 
 
 the Massachusetts free schools, but he thinks they were " dor- 
 mitories " when he first assailed their " sleepy supervision," 
 and the only legitimate inference to be drawn is, that without 
 his agency, all, ere this time, would have been in a state of 
 dilapidation and decay. But such insinuations should not 
 be made without the proof of their correctness, which must be 
 given. Mr. Mann seems to have formed a most unfavorable 
 opinion of the state of education in many parts of England. 
 In his Common School Journal, he says : " Let any one read 
 the reports of the English Factory Commissioners and 
 Factory Inspectors, and he will say that the Fejee Islanders, 
 the Caribs, or the most ferocious tribes of cannibals that 
 prowl in the interior of Africa, thousands of miles from the 
 confines of civilization, ought to send missionaries to Eng- 
 land, to raise, if possible, the English manufacturer to their 
 own level of humanity." In his reference to the present 
 deplorable state of things in England, in " consequence of 
 having no national system " of education, he says : " These 
 facts are full of admonition to us, for this is the state of 
 things towards which, eight years ago, [?] we were rapidly 
 tending." The inference is obvious, that the secretary thinks 
 he has saved Massachusetts from sinking to that deplorable 
 depth, so far below the "level of humanity" enjoyed by the 
 Carib, the Fejee, and the cannibal. Such intimations have 
 before been given, and the secretary, in his fifth annual 
 report, seems to date the advance of teachers' wages, the in- 
 crease of the length of schools, and the improved discipline, 
 from 1837, when he made his " first annual report." But it 
 is thought there were other causes that tended greatly to pro- 
 duce such results, which he did not duly consider and ac- 
 knowledge. The increase of population within the same 
 territorial limits, of course, would naturally increase the 
 number of annual schools, and, consequently, the average 
 length of the whole number of schools ; and the growing 
 prosperity, between the year 1837 and the year 1S42, would 
 also naturally augment the amount paid to teachers. The 
 
28 
 
 temperance reform has also had an undoubted influence in 
 promoting the prosperity of the common schools. In im- 
 proving school discipline, in promoting punctuality, and in 
 effecting the needed supply of clothing and books for children, 
 the labors of the temperance philanthropists have been para- 
 mount in the last seven years. Many of the active theorists 
 in the cause of education have been so visionary and im- 
 practicable that they have done comparatively little good, and, 
 in some respects, they have done not a little harm. It is 
 considered " censurable " that " the friends of the Secretary of 
 the Board of Education are endeavoring to convey the im- 
 pression that upon his exertions, mainly, depends the existence 
 and prosperity of our common schools. This is great injus- 
 tice to the five or six generations of patriots who liave de- 
 scended to their graves, and to whom we are really indebted 
 for this great boon." It is justly claimed, and confidently 
 believed, that "we always have had, and we always shall 
 have, good common schools in Massachusetts, whether we 
 have a Board of Education or no." 
 
 It was not the design of these remarks to make any refer- 
 ence to the Board of Education, but their secretary having, 
 through his report, given the good citizens of Boston such 
 reasons to be dissatisfied 'with their schools, a defence seems 
 imperiously demanded from some source, and were the 
 teachers to remain silent, it might well be supposed they have 
 neither the qualifications of teachers, nor the feelings of men, 
 and it seems that the secretary must have supposed them 
 destitute of both, or he would not have so trifled with public 
 credulity. It cannot be denied, and probably will not be, 
 that it was intended to include Boston among the places, 
 " where the debasing motive of fear puts the children in 
 irons ; " and where the schools " must be regarded almost as 
 dormitories; " the pupils as " hybernating animals " — " mere 
 blocks, resting motionless in their seats, or lolling from side 
 to side, as though life were deserting them;" and where the 
 teachers " stand immovably fixed to one spot;" and who, from 
 
29 
 
 ignorance, " assume an awful and mysterious air, and must 
 expound in oracles which themselves need more explanation 
 than the original difficulty ; " and who are consequently worse 
 than the dumb idols that cannot speak. " Boston " is not 
 only mentioned in connection with the " fair proportion " of 
 " Prussian and Saxon schools" visited, but it is the place of 
 the secretary's official residence, and where all his official 
 documents are issued. Who, at home or abroad, will not 
 think of the metropolis, when they read the secretary's reflec- 
 tions upon the teachers and schools of Massachusetts ? Mr. 
 Mann says, the traveller, Laing, knows nothing of the Prus- 
 sian schools, but he does ; and it is now said with equal 
 boldness, that the Hon. Secretary knows comparatively 
 nothing of the schools of Boston, but others do know much ; 
 and to them, and their testimony, an appeal in the defensive 
 must be made. Such an appeal is much needed to prevent 
 the corrosive influence of the secretary's sarcasms. 
 
 From the days of Mayor Quincy to the present time, the 
 Boston public school system has received the constant atten- 
 tion, and been under the vigilant supervision of some of the 
 most philanthropic citizens and distinguished scholars. Be- 
 sides the seven distinguished mayors, who have been honored 
 with a reelection, and who have exercised more than a 
 parental watchfulness over the school children of the city, 
 such men as Shaw, Savage, Pickering, Sumner, Bowdoin, 
 Hale, and Curtis, of the legal profession ; Warren, Hayward, 
 Adams, Famsworth, Stevenson, and M'Kean, of the medi- 
 cal; Pierpont, Wisner, Barrett, Gannett, Knowles, Croswell, 
 Lathrop, and Streeter, of the clerical, have been among the 
 enrolled and enlightened guardians of the city public schools. 
 These names, with a host of others not less worthy that 
 might be given, are sufficient to show that the Boston schools, 
 at least, have not been under a "sleepy supervision." It 
 may be confidently asserted, and, in the defensive with due 
 modesty, that, under the guidance of such men, the schools 
 in general have not been in the least behind other institu- 
 
30 
 
 tions in the community. Such an assertion is warranted by 
 the uniform opinion of the most competent judges who 
 have fostered the system, and of impartial and disinterested 
 witnesses who have had sufficient opportunity to understand 
 the principles of instruction and discipline, which wise, judi- 
 cious, and experienced men have directed and encouraged 
 the teachers to pursue, regardless of visionary notions and 
 Utopian theories. 
 
 James Stewart, Esq., of England, a distinguished traveller, 
 while in this country, (in 1829,) visited some of the city 
 schools, and in his " Three Years in North America" he says, 
 " The richer classes at Boston formerly very generally patro- 
 nized teachers of private schools, who were paid in the usual 
 way; but they now find that the best teachers are at the head 
 of public schools, and, in most cases, prefer them; the children 
 of the highest and lowest rank enjoying the privileges alto- 
 gether invaluable in a free state, of being educated together." 
 Now if this tourist was correct in his statements, is it reason- 
 able to suppose that " eight years ago " we were rapidly tend- 
 ing to the deplorable condition of things in England, as 
 described by Mr. Mann, and which he says, " is the natural 
 consequence of having no national system ? " This traveller 
 further remarks : " I had opportunities while I remained in the 
 neighborhood of Boston, of becoming acquainted with several 
 of the masters, and their modes of teaching, and I believe 
 there are nowhere better instructors to be found. Mr. *****, 
 
 the teacher of the free school, and instructor of Mrs. 
 
 P 's daughters, — both of whom are well educated, one of 
 
 them particularly so ; indeed, as well-informed a young 
 woman as is usually found in the upper orders in Britain, — 
 invited us to his school, where we had ample proofs of the 
 attention paid to the children, and of their acquirements. 
 Their general knowledge, and the celerity with which ques- 
 tions of some difficulty in mental arithmetic were solved, 
 surprised us. The progress of the females was especially 
 remarkable." 
 
31 
 
 Many competent witnesses might be produced to show 
 that the improvement and proficiency in these schools have 
 been in accordance with the onward movement of the times. 
 The Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, who was many years a member 
 of the Boston School Committee, and three years Chairman 
 of the Board, ever exerted a watchful eye over every thing 
 connected with the physical, intellectual, and moral welfare 
 of the rising generation ; and it was by his influence, through 
 an able report, that the subject of the ventilation of the school- ' 
 rooms here first received due attention, and that the physical 
 comfort and the health of the children were greatly promoted, 
 in breathing a better atmosphere. It was also mainly by his 
 influence, that instruction in music was so successfully intro- 
 duced. Mr. Eliot's services were commenced more than 
 " eight years ago" and at a much earlier period than the 
 time at which some have supposed reform was begun. In 
 1834, after a critical examination of all the grammar schools, 
 Mr. E. made the annual report, and the citizens of Boston 
 cannot have better evidence of the state of the schools at that 
 time, than may be found in his remarks. He then said : 
 " The general condition of the schools, both in regard to 
 discipline and instruction, is highly gratifying. So far as the 
 committee are enabled to judge by their recent examination, 
 the discipline of the schools is precisely what is most desira- 
 ble, that mixture of firmness and kindness which is, at once, 
 highly honorable to the instructors, and productive of the best 
 effects upon the children. The committee have no occasion 
 to qualify this remark or make any exception to it, with 
 reference to any one of the schools; the same system is pur- 
 sued by all, and apparently with equally beneficial effects. It 
 is hoped that the perseverance of the masters will secure to 
 them a similar commendation in future years. With regard 
 to the kind, and amount of instruction, also, the committee 
 perceived, as they thought, a much nearer approach to 
 equality than usual. Substantially, the same methods are 
 observed in all the schools, and the differences in the results 
 
32 
 
 are such only as are presumed to be unavoidable, as well 
 from the different powers of the pupils, as from the various 
 applications of the same principles by different masters." 
 . The Hon. Jonathan Chapman, the successor of Mr. Eliot 
 in the mayor's chair, who was justly celebrated for his almost 
 intuitive perceptions of the public welfare, after two years' 
 official observation, remarked, in his third inaugural address, 
 in 1842: " Our schools continue to maintain their wonted 
 character, and to show themselves worthy of the deep interest 
 that is felt in them by the government, and the ample provi- 
 sions made for their support." 
 
 The Hon. Martin Brimmer, who had been a distinguished 
 member of the city government before he was elected to the 
 office of mayor, in his first annual address, thus notices the 
 public schools : " If there are any institutions of which our 
 fellow-citizens may be justly proud, they are our public 
 schools ; and to them the credit is due, since, from the earliest 
 time, they have seen the immense importance of a sound 
 education for their children, and have never hesitated cheer- 
 fully to pay the tax requisite to accomplish it. Taken at the 
 tender age of four years, the son of the poor but respectable 
 individual may be advanced through all the steps of the pri- 
 mary and grammar schools, to the high school, where his 
 mind may be imbued with the higher branches of an English 
 education ; or, if it. is preferred, he may receive, at our excel- 
 lent Latin school, a thorough preparation for any university 
 in the country. Can any system be more beautiful? Can 
 any practice be more republican ? Happy the people whose 
 sons and whose daughters may be well instructed at the 
 public charge ; and happy, thrice happy that community, all 
 of whose children shall receive a physical, moral, and reli- 
 gious education, to the glory of God, and the service of the 
 state." 
 
 There could be no better exponent of the opinions and 
 views of the School Committee, as to the efficiency and 
 value of the school system, than the expressed sentiments of 
 
33 
 
 such presiding officers ; and if any thing can be wanting 
 to form a climax to the sentiments of the chief magistrates of 
 the city, already quoted, it may be found in the last address of 
 the present mayor, whose philanthopy and interest in the 
 cause of public instruction, have led the School Committee 
 to associate his name with one of the institutions of the 
 city, so that for centuries he will be known as the friend and 
 patron of the schools of Boston and the whole common- 
 wealth. Mr. Brimmer says : " The last subject to which I 
 propose to draw your attention is the condition of our public 
 schools, which, it is believed, was never more satisfactory 
 than at the present time. Under the instruction of able and 
 faithful instructors, the progressive improvement of the 
 schools is, from year to year, clearly perceptible. This im- 
 provement is attributable to the high order of principal and 
 assistant instructors in the several schools ; to the improved 
 condition and better preparation of the children on admission 
 from the primary schools ; and to the increased interest 
 which the parents take in the public schools, and in the edu- 
 cation of their children." 
 
 " At no time has the importance of our school system been 
 more fully appreciated ; if our city has been free, generally 
 speaking, from scenes of riot and confusion, it is mainly 
 attributable to our system of public education. It has been 
 truly said, that if any thing will preserve tranquillity and 
 order in a community, perpetuate the blessings of society and 
 free government, and promote the happiness and prosperity 
 of a people, it must be the general diffusion of knowledge 
 and of moral education." 
 
 "Will the Hon. Secretary say, that here is insufficient testi- 
 mony in the case ? He cannot say of Messrs. Eliot, Chap- 
 man and Brimmer, as he did of the " traveller, Laing," and the 
 author of " The Age of Great Cities," that he does not believe 
 they " had ever visited the schools " they presumed to com- 
 mend so highly. It has been a matter of much surprise with 
 many, that the secretary should speak with such emphasis 
 5 
 
34 
 
 against " Laing," and the author of " The Age of Great 
 Cities," and with such confident assurance in praise of the 
 Prussian schools in which all the exercises were in the Ger- 
 man language. He might not, under such circumstances, 
 judge as correctly, as he could of exercises in his vernacular; 
 but having once pronounced the Prussian school system 
 " completed," he would naturally think all was right which he 
 did not so fully understand. Mr. Mann speaks, in his fifth re- 
 port, of the " meetings which have now been held five succes- 
 sive years in the counties of the State," and which " have been 
 eminently successful in diffusing information." Nothing has 
 been heard of such meetings in Suffolk, and the secretary has 
 not thus diffused any information, in the metropolis, among the 
 public teachers, to whom, indeed, he has hardly made himself 
 officially known. Did he, in any of his annual circuits, 
 collect any information from the civil fathers of the city? Did 
 he know any thing more of their expressed views of the 
 schools, when he published his seventh report, than he did of 
 the views and services of the teachers ? If he did, and dis- 
 regarded them, by supposing these schools were, in common 
 with others, under a " sleepy supervision," he certainly ought 
 to have made himself, in some good degree, personally ac- 
 quainted with the schools and the teachers, before making 
 such odious comparisons. Has Suffolk, who pays, most 
 willingly, about one third of all the State expenses for educa- 
 tion, no claim upon the secretary's attention and courtesy? 
 Should it be said, though Mr. Mann may know but little 
 of the Boston schools, others in this country, certainly know 
 nothing of the schools in Scotland, and therefore the com- 
 parison may be just, in consideration of the superior character 
 of the Scotch schools ; it may be remarked, in answer to such 
 a plea, that some of the Scotch divines, who were lately in 
 this country, said Mr. Mann's account of their schools was 
 a " real caricature." " Caricature " means, according to 
 Walker, " any exaggerated character, which is redundant in 
 some of its parts, and defective in others." This definition is 
 
35 
 
 given for the information of " our " teachers, who " stand im- 
 movably fixed to one spot," and " must have text-books " with 
 " questions printed at full length ; " and who " hold on by 
 these leading-strings ; " and must " assume an awful and mys- 
 terious air, and must expound in oracles," and who, like 
 Ichabod Crane, whip their children over all the tall words. 
 
 It is as true of some generations, as of individuals, that 
 they are predisposed to favor novelties ; and they often mis- 
 take change for improvement. Many are inclined to think 
 that much wisdom was born with them ; and, with the 
 " scribes and pharisees," are ready to " say, if we had been 
 in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers 
 with them in the blood of the prophets." Historians and 
 philosophers have ever considered the peculiarities of an age, 
 as affording an apology for the individual ; and wisdom and 
 benevolence will ever justify such a course. Men, who aim 
 to please those " having itching ears," are often tempted to 
 give up " sound doctrine," and " turn away from the truth 
 unto fables;" but, highly favored is that community, whose 
 children can say, " the law was our schoolmaster." Let any 
 one read the writings of such eminent teachers as Page and 
 Abbot, in defence of authority, for the best good of the child ; 
 and he must admit, that those who prefer the mawkish senti- 
 mentalism of certain advocates of moral suasion, have given 
 up the " truth " for " fables." Let him read the common- 
 sense notions and experimental views of the Rev. Mr. With- 
 ington and the Rev. Joseph Emerson, in defence of the prin- 
 ciple of emulation, and not of the abuse of it ; and likewise, 
 Professor Stuart's interpretation of the scripture doctrine of 
 the same subject ; and, it is thought, he will have little respect 
 for the sentiments of those who are inconsistently declaiming 
 against such a principle. 
 
 The duties and obligations of the public teachers are not 
 properly understood by many well-disposed persons. It has 
 been asserted by some one, that the teachers in the common 
 schools " are the governors of men, in a far more extended 
 
36 
 
 sense, than are those legislators, who, with state and cere- 
 mony, convene in the hall of the metropolis, to enact and 
 promulgate laws. They are more than rulers, for he who 
 forms is greater than he who commands. "While other men 
 arrogate wisdom, and profess an ability to foresee, and predict 
 future events ; the teachers, by their influence upon the chil- 
 dren, are not uttering predictions, but, preparing fulfilment, 
 and predetermining of what nature the future event shall be." 
 This quotation is made, not to unduly magnify the teacher's 
 office ; but rather to remind him of the importance of his 
 calling, and the magnitude of his task. The office of school- 
 master is no sinecure, where the public interest is rightly un- 
 derstood, and duly regarded. 
 
 Some modern philanthropists seem to imagine, that " half- 
 hour systems," and clock-work machinery, like Mr. Brunei's 
 " epistolary engine," will greatly "relieve mental drudgery;" 
 and, that trick and flattery are safe substitutes for the wisdom 
 and implements of Solomon. Such persons suppose one pre- 
 scription will answer for all cases, and think the well-bred 
 child and the refractory dunce can be influenced by the same 
 high motives. But it is necessary to bear in mind, not only the 
 results to be produced, but the character of the material to be 
 wrought upon, when considering the " task of public instruc- 
 tion." It is one thing to give form and figure to the wax, 
 and quite a different affair to bring out the living expression 
 from the flinty marble, and worse than flinty granite. 
 
 What teacher does not tremble at the consideration of his 
 task and obligations, when he reflects how much, for " the 
 weal and for the wo " of individuals, depends upon his 
 labors. A teacher, who rightly understands his duties, and 
 feels the due responsibilities of his calling, will often endeavor 
 to raise the thoughts and aims of his pupils above things 
 of time and sense. A knowledge of all languages will not 
 compensate for the want of moral sentiment. He is poor in 
 the best of endowments, who has no benevolent feelings for 
 his fellow-men. The navigator, on the broad ocean, may 
 
37 
 
 calculate his relation to other objects, celestial and terrestrial, 
 and thus steer his ship amidst numerous dangers ; still, if he 
 understand not his relation to his Maker, and know not how 
 to quell the storms in his own breast, and has yet to learn, 
 
 To station quick-eyed prudence at the helm, 
 
 he wants a knowledge of the true compass, to carry him 
 through life, 
 
 " Midst constant dangers, to the destined port, 
 Unerringly secure." 
 
 The path of the public teacher of youth is one beset with 
 many and peculiar difficulties. In his most arduous and try- 
 ing labors, the recipients of his influence, during his war against 
 vice and ignorance, seldom appreciate his exertions. His obli- 
 gations and authority, in loco parentis, are not duly acknowl- 
 edged, and are reluctantly submitted to by many over whom he 
 is placed, and to whom he is bound by sacred and moral con- 
 siderations. Many of his most important duties are as sacri- 
 ficing to himself, as they may be unsatisfactory to the feelings 
 of his indolent and disobedient pupils. The practical teacher 
 learns by his daily experience, that the delicate relation of 
 parent and child, will often rise mountain-high before him, 
 when he feels his official duties the most obligatory. The 
 juvenile wanderer often finds the ready apologist in the 
 doting parent ; and the teacher, who would be true to duty, 
 as the needle to the pole, must rise above temporary con- 
 siderations, in view of his obligations to himself, the state, 
 and his God. Though he may often find himself a stranger 
 to sympathy and gratitude, still he may well afford to cast 
 his bread upon the waters, if he can be satisfied with the best 
 of all rewards, the consciousness of doing good to young 
 immortals ; and can live in the hope, " that our sons may grow 
 up as young plants, and that our daughters may be as the 
 polished corners of the temple." The situation of the public 
 teacher is peculiar in many respects ; his influence and exer- 
 tions must be with the human mind, under every variety of 
 circumstances; and, in this country, he works for a sovereign, 
 
38 
 
 who seldom acts alike at two given times, or in two different 
 places. This sovereign has as many faces as there are indi- 
 viduals in the community ; and though he temporarily dele- 
 gates his power, he requires of all his servants, a strict ac- 
 count of their stewardship ; and he often acts upon some 
 arbitrary principle, which is no part of the established law of 
 the family. The representative guardians of the public 
 schools, as they succeed each other from year to year, though 
 they wear the same mantle of power, often entertain very dif- 
 ferent views of the duties and obligations of the teacher. 
 What one may consider of paramount importance, another 
 may regard with light consideration ; and an individual may 
 acquire valuable experience, by the end of his official career, 
 when he gives place to another of dissimilar views, and of 
 no practical knowledge ; and thus the public teacher may be 
 subjected to the most vacillating authority. There is no 
 want of men of learning and benevolence ; but experience is 
 often the greatest requisite to aid the teacher; and, " happy, 
 thrice happy that community," who can boast of such a line 
 of civil fathers, as have blessed the favored city of Boston, 
 during the last twenty years. It may well be believed that 
 the schools of the metropolis of New England have long- 
 been under the guardianship of those, whose benevolence 
 and care have increased in proportion to the number of the 
 children. 
 
 And, it may be said, without disparagement to past chief 
 magistrates, that Massachusetts can now boast of one whose 
 philanthropy extends to every benevolent cause among the 
 people. By his example and eloquence, he has stood and 
 spoken before tens of thousands, in one of the greatest re- 
 forms of the present day ; and his influence has not been less 
 salutary as Chairman of the Board of Education, amidst 
 other official duties, in encouraging, by his visits, the instruc- 
 tors and pupils in some of the largest public schools in the 
 State. When public morals and public instruction are under 
 such guardians, well may teachers and pupils rejoice, and all 
 sav, Amen. 
 
39 
 
 PRUSSIAN MODES OF INSTRUCTION, AND USE OF 
 TEXT-BOOKS. 
 
 In that chapter of the secretary's report, devoted to the 
 description of the Prussian system of education, there are 
 comments upon the mode of instruction and the use of text- 
 books, which we think must exert an influence unfavorable to 
 the interests of education. And since the high official station 
 occupied by the Hon. Secretary, must inevitably give great 
 influence to his opinions upon the subject of education, and 
 the extensive opportunities for observation which he enjoys 
 through the privileges of his office, must add, at least a seem- 
 ing authority, to his suggestions, — we deem it not unfitting, 
 that those who are not only deeply interested in the cause of 
 education, but who are themselves practical educators, should 
 bear their testimony on these subjects, to what they believe 
 experience has proved to be truth, in order that the attention 
 of teachers may be directed to a careful consideration of the 
 same, before they adopt opinions which may be injurious to 
 the interests they are laboring to promote. And in order that 
 we may not be placed too much at disadvantage, in differing 
 on questions of public education, from one whose opinions 
 on that subject bear with them the presence of such decided 
 authority as do those of the secretary, we deem it reasonable 
 also, that we should state, in the outset, what we believe to 
 be indispensable requisites to one who would decide upon 
 such questions, and the position of Mr. Mann, in regard to 
 such decisions. We doubt not that the Hon. Secretary is 
 fully aware of the great responsibility involved in the exer- 
 cise of the powerful and widely extended influence of his 
 office; and that it is his desire faithfully to acquit himself 
 in the discharge of that responsibility. But while we respect 
 
40 
 
 his motives, we are by no means bound to extend the same 
 courtesy to his opinions. 
 
 In the first place, it is plainly his duty to proceed in the 
 discussion of all questions of educational interest, with the 
 utmost caution and candor ; and more especially do we 
 deem it his duty, in all questions relating to the modes of 
 public instruction ■, to be guided rather by the results of ex- 
 perience, than by the theories of speculation. Further, in 
 examining the results of different systems of instruction, he 
 should separate, with impartial discrimination, the abuses of 
 any system or method, from its proper and legitimate use. 
 In these two points, we think the Hon. Secretary has, in more 
 than one instance, entirely failed. Yet we by no means refuse 
 him credit for entire devotion to the cause of education ; nor 
 would we in any degree underrate the strenuous efforts which 
 he has professedly, and we may say undoubtedly, made, in 
 behalf of the interests of that cause. But there is requisite 
 to one who would decide upon the comparative merits of 
 different systems of education or modes of instruction, a 
 thorough practical knowledge of their operation and results. 
 It is not sufficient that he may have observed in one instance, 
 the failure of one system, and in another, the success of an 
 opposite system ; for the failure of the one, and the success of 
 the other, might in several instances be the result of circum- 
 stances, and no exponents of the real merit of either. 
 
 It would not be just for him to condemn any method, 
 because he may have witnessed the injurious results of its 
 abuse ; nor candid for him, in the comparison of any two 
 methods, to notice only the faults of the one, and the excel- 
 lencies of the other. Now we believe the secretary has failed 
 of caution and candor in both of the above particulars. Yet 
 not through any want of zeal or attention toward the cause 
 for which he is so assiduously laboring, — but rather from a 
 want of that practical knowledge to which we have just 
 referred, and which is indispensable to the right discharge of 
 many of the duties which he has assumed. But to be satisfied 
 
41 
 
 more fully that Mr. Mann has mistaken the sphere of his 
 labors, and that we have not proceeded unfairly, basing our 
 decision upon what, to a hasty reader, might seem a mere 
 assumption of his ignorance of practical education, we will 
 state more carefully, what we believe to be requisite to a prac- 
 tical knowledge of the subject. 
 
 To teach upon the subject of public education, and to 
 decide upon the comparative merits of different systems of 
 instruction, or government, it is necessary to be acquainted, 
 not only with their apparent results, but also with the detail 
 of their operation, and their effect in forming the mental hab- 
 its of the pupils. To judge of this effect, and to decide upon 
 this merit, it is not sufficient to have collected the statistics of 
 a school's progress and condition, or to have witnessed its 
 arrangement and operation, even ; but it is necessary to have 
 become acquainted with the actual progress of the minds of 
 the pupils, and to have become sufficiently familiar with the 
 history of their advancement, to trace fully and fairly in its 
 character, the operation of that system under which they have 
 labored. Now this, we believe to be a task requiring too 
 much time and attention, to be performed by one who has 
 discharged duties so manifold and various, as those that have 
 been enumerated, from time to time, in the report of the Hon. 
 Secretary. He surely could not have devoted himself to that 
 long and patient investigation which is necessary, to observe 
 the effects of any system sufficiently to decide the question of 
 its merit. He might have observed the uniform accomplish- 
 ment of a certain amount of labor, or the attainment of a par- 
 ticular stage of advancement in study ; but either of these 
 results might be ihe product of tact and perseverance on the 
 part of the teacher, and in no way the result of that particular 
 method which he may have pursued. We would by no 
 means be understood to prefer the charge of ignorance, in 
 matters of practical education, as a reproach to the Hon. Sec- 
 retary. Indeed, we do not deem it any ground for censure, 
 that Mr. Mann should be unacquainted with all the various 
 6 
 
42 
 
 questions of educational interest; for the multiplicity and 
 importance of those questions would preclude the possibility 
 of such an attainment to one, the greater part of whose life 
 has been engrossed by the pursuit of other objects. But what 
 we most regret in the course of the secretary, is, that he 
 has suffered his zeal so far to outstrip his discretion, as to 
 induce him to undertake, not only the general supervision of 
 all the various departments of labor, but also to assume in 
 detail, the direction of the performance of that labor. And 
 we regret this still more, since, holding as he does the seals of 
 the highest official authority in the Board of Education, he 
 has suffered himself to affix them to his own teachings on 
 subjects of vital importance to the cause of education, yet, 
 upon which, above all others relating to that cause, he has had 
 the least opportunity to inform himself. 
 
 "Would he not have promoted, in a greater degree, the inter- 
 ests of education, and been more consistent with his own pro- 
 fessed principles, if he had devoted himself more exclusively 
 to awakening a feeling of interest in the cause throughout the 
 State ; to bringing more laborers into the field ; and, where he 
 found them weary and fainting, as he did in the poor town of 
 Pawtucket, had he enlivened them with the warmth of his 
 zeal and the inspiration of his eloquence ; and then, though 
 they commenced to labor even at the eleventh hour, had he 
 imitated the conduct of the worthy husbandman, and awarded 
 them the full penny of his approbation, rather than, by leaving 
 them like backward school boys in that disreputable position 
 at the foot of his list, to have awakened in them the evil and 
 bitter spirit of emulation, which he so much deprecates ? But 
 to substantiate the position we assumed in regard to the 
 opinions of the secretary, suggested in his remarks on Prussian 
 schools, we invite the attention of the reader, to that page 
 (133) of the report, in which Mr. Mann makes several state- 
 ments, of the truth of which, he says, there can be no doubt. 
 
 In paragraph numbered 3 on that page, he informs us that, 
 in the space of six weeks, he visited hundreds of schools, and 
 
43 
 
 saw tens of thousands of scholars. "We confess we are not a 
 little perplexed to understand how Mr. Mann could, in thirty- 
 six days, have visited so great a number of schools ; and the 
 problem becomes still more difficult of solution since, in the 
 paragraph introductory to those facts, upon which he placed 
 so much emphasis, he states that he entered the schools before 
 the first recitation in the morning, and remained until the last 
 was completed at night. This statement of the secretary, 
 reminds us of that facetious suggestion of his, on the 57th 
 page of his report, where, after lamenting the want of practical 
 mathematical instruction in our own schools, he says : " If a boy 
 states that he has seen ten thousand horses, make him count 
 ten thousand kernels of corn, and he will never see so many 
 horses again." We think that if the Hon. Secretary should 
 count in conjunction the number of days and the number of 
 schools visited, he would never visit so many schools again in 
 the same space of time. But supposing, for the sake of 
 argument, that Mr. Mann did visit hundreds of schools, and 
 see tens of thousands of scholars ; we contend that it would 
 be impossible, in observing the operation of any system in so 
 many different schools, in so short a period of time, to ascer- 
 tain with certainty, any thing of the real effect of such system 
 upon the minds of the pupils ; or to form any opinion even, 
 save what might be grounded upon inferences of the probable 
 results of the course pursued. Mr. Mann undoubtedly ob- 
 served (as indeed he has informed us in his report) sufficient 
 of the operation of the Prussian system of education, to answer 
 the inquiries suggested at the commencement of the chapter on 
 Prussian schools. He informed himself, unquestionably, of 
 the branches taught; the processes of instruction; the motives 
 employed to stimulate the minds of the pupils to action ; and 
 observed, no doubt, the apparent results of the whole. In- 
 deed, he seems to have been extremely expeditious in collecting 
 statistics of the condition and operation of the European 
 schools, and though we are not quite sure " to what extent " 
 so great haste might not have been at the expense of accuracy, 
 
44 
 
 yet he has presented in his report, an amount and variety of 
 information almost wonderful. But he could, in his hasty 
 review of schools, and scholars, form no just estimate of the 
 actual effect of the course of mental discipline there pursued, 
 upon the pupils. He witnessed the operation of a system 
 universally regulated by rigid legal restrictions, and he seems 
 to have been delighted to find the same causes leading 
 always to uniform results ; and it may be a merit in the 
 Prussian system, that such is the case ; for systematic action 
 is to be desired in all institutions, though it have no merit in 
 effect, save it be founded on correct principles, and subject to 
 a proper direction. We think Mr. Mann has failed of caution 
 in his estimate of the Prussian school system, and that the 
 favorable impression which he received of some of its promi- 
 nent characteristics, has been the only ground for pronouncing 
 the whole perfect. 
 
 In order, however, to decide more fairly upon this, let us 
 review, briefly, some of his remarks upon the subject. He has 
 given a description of the method of conducting a recitation 
 of an advanced class in reading, as he witnessed it in one of 
 the Prussian schools. He informs us that the teacher, in con- 
 nection with the reading lesson, delivered a " sort of oral lec- 
 ture" to his pupils, in which he entered, with the greatest 
 minuteness, into an explanation of all the subjects alluded to 
 in the lesson, enlarging upon the geographical references, 
 instituting comparisons between the foreign customs alluded 
 to and their own, and illustrating even the illustrations them- 
 selves, until he had consumed an entire hour upon six, four- 
 line verses. This method of instruction, the secretary evidently 
 refers to as a superior one, and as meeting his entire approba- 
 tion. Now we beg leave to differ from the opinion of the Hon. 
 Secretary, and to pronounce this method, inconsistent with 
 the purposes of public instruction, and by no means produc- 
 tive of the highest results. And in order to treat the subject 
 fairly, we will state our ideas of the object of public education, 
 and the ground upon which we have based our decision. 
 
45 
 
 The object of the elementary instruction of our public 
 schools, as we understand it, is, not alone to impart a certain 
 amount of knowledge to the pupils, but to give them more- 
 over such training, as shall enable them to pursue the subjects 
 which may afterwards claim their attention, successfully for 
 themselves ; 1o cultivate their powers of discrimination and 
 reflection, that they may observe and decide for themselves ; 
 in fine, to discipline and strengthen their minds, and prepare 
 them, as far as is possible, for that independent action, which 
 will be required of them in the discharge of the duties of life. 
 In order to accomplish these purposes, we believe the follow- 
 ing requisitions to be indispensable. First, that the mind 
 of the pupil be taught to grasp the object of its pursuit, with 
 constant and vigorous attention ; secondly, that the mind 
 be trained to habits of strict analysis in the investigation 
 of all subjects ; and thirdly, that it be taught to classify 
 and arrange properly, the subjects of its knowledge. The 
 first of these requisitions is necessary, that the pupil may 
 be able to master successfully, the difficulties of his studies, and 
 to retain what he acquires; the second, that he may have a 
 definite conception of what he learns, and understand the 
 various relations and dependencies of the subjects which he 
 investigates; and the third, that he may, when desirable, be 
 able to make a practical use of his acquisitions. Now in what 
 way does the method of instruction approved by Mr. Mann, 
 operate in establishing these mental habits ? That the method 
 pursued by the Prussian instructor, is calculated to interest the 
 mind of the pupil, we would not deny ; for the variety of 
 information and illustration must, without fail, gratify his 
 curiosity, and for the time arrest his attention ; but it will in 
 no degree induce that habit of patient and constant attention 
 to a subject, to which we have before alluded. On the other 
 hand, the variety of information presented, and the novelty of 
 illustration, would tend rather to dissipate, than to strengthen 
 the habit of calm and deliberate attention to a single subject. 
 And the mind of the pupil, instead of forming the habit of 
 
46 
 
 independent and individual effort, which is so necessary to suc- 
 cessful study, would become accustomed to act only through 
 the force of that excitement which is supplied by the teacher. 
 
 Here, lest we be understood to hold in light esteem, the 
 ability on the part of the teachers to arrest the attention, and 
 interest the mind of the pupil, we expressly state, that we not 
 only deem such ability of great importance, but that we con- 
 sider it one of the highest qualifications of the teacher, and 
 absolutely necessary to proper government and successful 
 instruction. We do not object to the exercise of such ability 
 on the part of the teacher, to arouse the mental energies of 
 his pupils, to interest them in the pursuit of knowledge, and 
 to call forth into action the higher qualities of their moral and 
 social natures ; but we do object to the exercise of that ability 
 to such extent, and in such manner, that the pupils be- 
 come accustomed to depend, for their motive to mental eifort, 
 upon that excitement alone which is furnished by their 
 teacher. We would have them stimulated to the pursuit of 
 knowledge, by a love of that pursuit for itself, and by a proper 
 appreciation of its results ; and not by that temporary interest 
 which is awakened by the pleasing manner or amusing speech 
 of their instructor ; for, the former influence, becomes a con- 
 stant spring of action in the mind, while the latter, depends 
 for its existence upon the presence of the teacher who exer- 
 cises it. Further, we believe that care is necessary on the 
 part of the teacher, lest the stimulation and excitement, 
 which the pupil experiences under his influence at school, 
 should be so strong, as to produce a reaction, and, when that 
 influence ceases, to leave the mind disinclined to exertion; its 
 energies exhausted, and its faculties deadened. This state of 
 mind must surely be most unfavorable to a perception of 
 those " social, every-day duties and obligations," to which 
 Mr. Mann very properly attaches so much importance. To 
 illustrate our meaning more fully, we invite attention to the 
 following description of Scotch schools, given on the. 66th and 
 67th pages of the report : 
 
47 
 
 " To an unaccustomed spectator, on entering one of these rooms, 
 all seems uproar, turbulence, and the contention of angry voices, — 
 the teacher traversing the space before his class, in a state of high 
 excitement, the pupils springing from their seats, darting to the 
 middle of the floor, and sometimes, with extended arms, forming a 
 circle around him, two, three, or four deep, — every finger quivering 
 from the intensity of their emotions, — until some more sagacious 
 mind, outstripping its rivals, solves the difficulty, — when all are in 
 their seats again, as though by magic, and ready for another en- 
 counter of wits. 
 
 " I have seen a school kept for two hours in succession, in this 
 state of intense mental activity, with nothing more than an alternation 
 of subjects during the time, or perhaps the relaxation of singing. 
 At the end of the recitation, both teacher and pupils would glow 
 with heat, and be covered with perspiration, as though they had 
 been contending in the race or the ring. It would be utterly impos- 
 sible for the children to bear such fiery excitement, if the physical 
 exercise were not as violent as the mental is intense. But children, 
 who actually leap into the air from the energy of their impulses, 
 and repeat this as often as once in two minutes, on an average, will 
 not suffer from suppressed activity of the muscular system." 
 
 These are the schools in comparison with which, Mr. Mann 
 says, the most active schools of the United States must be re- 
 garded almost as dormitories, and by the side of whose pupils, 
 our own would seem to be hybemating animals, just emerging 
 from their torpid state, and but half conscious of the possession 
 of life and faculties. Now we do not hesitate to say, that such a 
 state of mental excitement as Mr. Mann describes in the above 
 language, can not be healthful ; and that such extravagant 
 mental exercise is not conducive to the formation of those 
 thoughtful habits of mind, which alone can work out the re- 
 sults of reason. And we most earnestly pray that our country, 
 — whose citizens are already, to a great extent, destitute of 
 habits of independent thought and deliberate action, and too 
 much accustomed to think and act through the forced excite- 
 ment of motives that may be, and often are, supplied by wicked 
 and designing men, — may be kept forever safe from a sys- 
 tem of public instruction which we think calculated to aug- 
 ment so great an evil. And we trust that the energy and im- 
 pulsiveness of our noble-minded youth, may not be subjected 
 to a discipline, whose tendency must be to enfeeble, rather 
 
48 
 
 than to invigorate, their mental faculties ; and to render them 
 the weak subjects of passion, rather than rational freemen. 
 May our system of education be designed to cultivate the rea- 
 soning faculties of our pupils, and to render them not only edu- 
 cated, but thinking men, qualified to support the institutions of 
 our country, and to protect them against the invasion of mis- 
 guided enthusiasm and the treachery of political ambition. 
 But that we may not be charged with speaking from the authori- 
 ty of our own opinion merely, we will again turn to the report, 
 to substantiate our views. On the 176th and 177th pages, after 
 commending the efficiency of the intellectual trainingin a school 
 of high character in Edinburgh, and expressing his astonish- 
 ment at the familiarity of the pupils with the writings of the 
 New Testament, and at the wonderful facility with which 
 they recognised the chapter and verse of different passages 
 which he read to them, Mr. Mann makes the following 
 statements : 
 
 " Amazed at this command of the Bible by children so young, I 
 said to myself, How happy T if their ideas and sentiments of duty 
 correspond with their verbal knowledge of the great source whence 
 they derive its maxims." " I then asked the class what they under- 
 stood by the word ' honesty,' or, ' what it is to be honest.' After a 
 little delay, one of the class replied : ' To give money to the poor ;,' 
 and to this definition all assented. I then inquired what they under- 
 stood by the word ' conscience.' Several replied, ' It is the think- 
 ing principle.' I asked if all agreed to that, and all but one gave 
 token of assent. This one, a remarkably intelligent looking boy, 
 observing that I was not satisfied with the reply, said, ' Conscience 
 tells us what to do;' and when f rejoined, 'Does it not tell us also 
 what not to do ? ' he assented. I requested the class to give me an 
 instance of what was meant by 'lying.' All exclaimed, as with 
 one voice, 'Ananias and Sapphira;' but beyond this, though I pressed 
 them for some time, they could present no combination of circum- 
 stances which would answer the description of lying." 
 
 After giving an account of various other questions similar 
 to the above, Mr. Mann again says: "The children had been 
 admirably trained in most respects, but their minds seemed 
 not to have been turned in this direction." Now we cannot 
 think with Mr. Mann that those children " had been admira- 
 
49 
 
 bly trained ; " and we do think that their failure to answer 
 his simple questions, and the obtuseness of their perceptions, 
 plainly evinced by their inability to comprehend his repeated 
 suggestions, satisfactorily show, that it was not moral training 
 alone, which the pupils lacked, but intellectual; and, further 
 afford fairground for the inference, that the intellectual training 
 which they did receive was so mechanical and faulty, as to de- 
 prive the pupils, to some extent, of the power of exercising their 
 judgment, even in the ordinary decisions of common sense. 
 And we are at a loss to conceive, how any one who had the 
 least acquaintance with practical education, could have arrived 
 at such conclusions, as did Mr. Mann from such data as he col- 
 lected in the Scotch schools. He informs us that the exercises 
 in those schools were conducted in such manner, that not only 
 the mental, but the physical energies, of both teachers and 
 pupils were called into action so violent, that, at the close of 
 the exercises, they were all " glowing with heat," and " cov- 
 ered with perspiration." We must confess, that in read- 
 ing the secretary's account of what he witnessed in the 
 Scotch schools, we were not a little troubled to divest our- 
 selves of the idea that we were contemplating a vividly-colored 
 picture of the imagination, and that Mr. Mann was indulging 
 in a good-humored caricature of the modes of instruction in 
 those schools, rather than giving a correct description of their 
 actual appearance ; and we cannot conceive how any one 
 could have experienced any other sensation than that of being 
 amused, at beholding pupils, during- school hours, " actually 
 leaping into the air as often as once in two minutes," or rush- 
 ing up, all " covered with perspiration," after each successful 
 encounter of wits, to assume the station of honor at the head 
 of the class. But we will return to the train of our remarks, 
 upon the mode of imparting instruction to pupils, from which 
 we have been tempted somewhat to digress. We believe it 
 impossible, when the subjects presented to the mind of the 
 pupil are many and various, that he should retain, for any 
 length of time, what the teacher imparts to him. Hence, on 
 7 
 
50 
 
 this ground alone, there is a double argument against this 
 method of instruction. But, again ; this method, or rather I 
 should' say, this want of method, is entirely destructive of 
 those habits of analyzing and classifying, to which we attach 
 so much importance in the cultivation of mind. 
 
 We contend, that an allusion to a variety of subjects, in the 
 same connection with the one to which the attention of the 
 pupil is mainly directed, not only precludes the possibility of 
 his analyzing and classifying what is imparted to him, but so 
 confuses his mind, that he receives no distinct impression of 
 the subject of his regular study. We would by no means 
 deny, that an occasional reference to subjects of collateral 
 information, or a full explanation of what may be new or 
 obscure to the pupil's mind, may be proper or even neces- 
 sary ; and, as far as our observation has extended, every compe- 
 tent teacher supplies such necessity on the part of the pupil; 
 but we do deny, the propriety of making each geographical 
 reference, the subject of a lesson in geography, or of taking 
 every technical word or historical allusion, as the text of a 
 scientific or historical lecture. Such a course may amuse or 
 interest the pupil for a time, or even a spectator, as it did 
 Mr. Mann, who seemed particularly delighted with it ; but 
 it calls forth no active mental exertion on the part of the 
 pupil ; he sits the passive receiver of a variety of informa- 
 tion, which interests him sufficiently to arrest his attention 
 temporarily, or, perhaps, even to be mostly recalled at his 
 next recitation. But this method of mental discipline can 
 never form those habits of patient investigation and keen 
 discrimination, which are necessary to master science, or even 
 in order to arrive at any high results. But let us examine 
 still further. In speaking of the difference between the Prus- 
 sian method of teaching arithmetic, and our own, Mr. Mann 
 says, that they require a more thorough analysis of all 
 the questions than we do, but do not separate the pro- 
 cesses so much from each other. Surely, the above is 
 a most unfortunate comment upon the secretary's ability to 
 
51 
 
 judge of the different methods of imparting mathematical 
 instruction. If we rightly understand the matter, the analysis 
 of a question in mathematics, necessarily implies the separa- 
 tion of the different processes of its solution, and, a question 
 containing but one process, if it be properly stated, must 
 include the analysis of that process. We can easily conceive 
 that Mr. Mann, with a preexisting prejudice against the use of 
 text-books, might have been pleased with the Prussian method 
 of teaching arithmetic ; but we cannot conceive how he could 
 have formed his decision of its superiority, from notions so 
 imperfect, as to admit of his making such vague and unmean- 
 ing statements in regard to it. And yet, this is not the first 
 instance of inaccuracy to be found in the writings of the 
 secretary, on the subject of mathematical instruction ; in his 
 sixth annual report, after deprecating the study of algebra 
 in our schools, he proposes the following question: "Among 
 farmers and road-makers, why should geometry take prece- 
 dence, of surveying?" But, we leave this question to the 
 consideration of mathematicians, and return to the remarks of 
 the secretary, in his seventh annual report. He says further, the 
 youngest classes in the Prussian schools are taught Addition, 
 Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division, promiscuously; and 
 that, in later stages, this practice is enlarged in more than one 
 direction ; and in the same connection, he remarks to this effect 
 — that they teach more from the understanding than we do, and 
 less by rule, and that the difference results from their teaching 
 from the head, and our teaching from text-books. Now 
 we believe this to be one of the many instances in which the 
 Hon. Secretary has been led into gross error, by his want of 
 experience in education. Because he has observed the abuse of 
 text-books in some of our schools, he has condemned at once, 
 not only their abuse, but their use, also ; and adopted an 
 extreme which we believe must be more injurious in its influ- 
 ence upon the minds of pupils, than the greatest possible 
 abuse of text-books, because it is entirely wanting in their 
 method, and does not possess, in any degree, the same cer- 
 tainty of accurate information. 
 
52 
 
 But to show the way in which Mr. Mann has acquired his 
 prejudices against text-books, we will again consult the report. 
 On the 122d and 123d pages of. the report, Mr. Mann makes 
 the following comments : " With us, it too often happens that 
 if a higher branch — geometry, natural philosophy, zoology, 
 botany — is to be taught, both teacher and class must have text- 
 books. At the beginning of these text-books, all the technical 
 names and definitions belonging to the subject are set down. 
 These, before the pupil has any practical idea of their mean- 
 ing, must be committed to memory. The book is then 
 studied, chapter by chapter. At the bottom of each page, or 
 at the ends of the sections, are questions printed at full 
 length. At the recitations, the teacher holds on by these 
 leading-strings. He introduces no collateral knowledge. He 
 exhibits no relation between what is contained in the book, 
 and other kindred subjects, or the actual business of men and 
 the affairs of life. At length the day of examination comes. 
 The pupils rehearse from memory with a suspicious fluency ; 
 or, being asked for some useful application of their know- 
 ledge, some practical connection between that knowledge 
 and the concerns of life, they are silent, or give some ridicu- 
 lous answer, which at once disparages science and gratifies 
 the ill-humor of some ignorant satirist. Of course, the teach- 
 ing of the higher branches falls into disrepute in the minds of 
 all sensible men, as, under such circumstances, it ought to do." 
 We freely confess that there is ground for this charge of 
 the Hon. Secretary against the abuse of text-books, though 
 we think the case which he presents, an exaggerated one, and 
 one which, if it occurred in any intelligent community, 
 would at once condemn the teacher who should allow it, as 
 incompetent to his office. Yet we think the charge lies, in 
 effect, against the abuse of the text-books only, and not against 
 their legitimate use. We doubt not that, in some of the 
 numerous schools of our country, there may be found incom- 
 petent teachers, and that superficial and imperfect instruction 
 is imparted, as the necessary consequence; but if, in those 
 
53 
 
 schools, improper and unprofitable use be made of text- 
 books, that fact furnishes no argument against their proper 
 use, any more than does a poor school against the usefulness 
 of good ones. But notwithstanding their liability to abuse, 
 the secretary has evidently fallen into error, in his notion of the 
 extent to which text-books should be used, and in supposing 
 that accurate and well-digested scientific knowledge can be 
 obtained without pursuing, with care and attention, a rigid 
 course of study, in such a manner that the subjects of investiga- 
 tion may be presented to the mind for continued and vigilant 
 attention. We believe text-books to be necessary, not only as 
 the medium of distinct and accurate information, but also to 
 enable the pupil, (as we before said,) to acquire habits of dis- 
 crimination and patient investigation ; and we believe care to 
 be -necessary on the part of the teacher also, lest in his expla- 
 nations and assistance to the pupil, he should render his task 
 too easy. We would by no means deny the importance of 
 ample explanations and illustrations from the teacher ; but they 
 should be given, after the pupil has investigated the subject 
 attentively for himself, and has prepared himself, not only to 
 answer, but to propose questions. And the questions and 
 illustrations should be designed rather to call into exercise the 
 mind of the pupil, than to afford him a full and satisfactory 
 solution of each difficulty that he encounters. We can easily 
 conceive that children, in schools conducted according to 
 the description which the secretary gave of the Prussian 
 schools, would seldom be seen in tears ; and we venture 
 to assert, that the teachers of our own country, should they 
 pursue a system of instruction, requiring but little mental 
 exertion on the part of pupils, and one designed to amuse and 
 interest them, might avoid many of the occasions for punish- 
 ment which now occur, and present, nearly, if not quite as 
 much cause for gratification to the Hon. Secretary, as did 
 the Prussian instructors. Moreover, it is highly important 
 that all explanations and illustrations should be concise 
 and explicit, and not be encumbered with much form, or 
 
54 
 
 many words. To illustrate our idea, we will refer again to 
 Mr. Mann's pattern of excellence, — the Prussian method of 
 instruction. In his description of the Prussian instructors' 
 method of teaching a young class to count, Mr. Mann says : 
 "The teacher then asked, 'What is three composed of?' 
 A. ' Three is composed of one and two.' Q. ' Of what else 
 isjhree composed ? ' A. ' Three is composed of three ones. 
 Q. ' What is four composed of ? ' A. ' Four is composed of 
 four ones, of two and two, of three and one.' Q. ' What is 
 five composed of?' A. "Five is composed of five ones, 
 of two and three, of two twos and one, of four and 
 one.' " And thus he proceeds, giving a description of the 
 formation of several successive numbers, by all the possible 
 combinations of the different numbers of units contained in 
 them. Now we think it evident upon the slightest reflection, 
 that all this variety of exercise does not give the learner any 
 more accurate idea of the value of the different numbers which 
 he is counting, but tends rather to weaken, than otherwise, the 
 force of the simple method usually adopted. We think it 
 would be decidedly more forcible, and certainly more simple 
 to let the names of the numbers suggest their values, as they 
 were designed to do. A unit is the standard of measure in 
 numbers, and all numbers are named according to the number 
 of units contained in them. Hence, to give a pupil an accu- 
 rate idea of the value of numbers, it would surely be suffi- 
 cient to explain to him that their value always depends upon 
 the number of units which they contain. With all due defer- 
 ence to the opinion of Mr. Mann, we are not yet convinced 
 that the Prussian teachers have, in any degree, improved, in 
 their method of teaching to count, upon the idea of those 
 mathematicians who invented that system of numbers and 
 the modes of expressing them, now in use. 
 
 We think that we have witnessed, even in Boston, modes 
 of imparting mathematical instruction to the younger classes 
 of pupils, infinitely more simple, and surely more in ac- 
 cordance with correct principles of analysis, than that so 
 
55 
 
 highly approved by Mr. Mann. And we believe, had the 
 secretary made himself acquainted with the method of teach- 
 ing the higher branches of mathematics, pursued in that class 
 of schools in our own country, which holds the same relative 
 rank, as did those which he visited in Europe, that he would 
 have witnessed examples of teaching, equally worthy of com- 
 mendation with those of which he speaks in such high terms 
 of praise in his report. We have witnessed in several 
 schools which we have visited, even in the Commonwealth of 
 Massachusetts, instruction in the higher branches of mathe- 
 matics, which we think the secretary would have done well 
 to witness previous to his visit to Europe, not only that he 
 might have been better prepared to judge of the merit of the 
 schools which he saw abroad, but that he might have selected 
 and reported some of the examples of good teaching, from the 
 schools of his own country, — and thus encouraged those teach- 
 ers who are spending their lives in its service, by the " glad 
 tidings " of their own success, rather than to have discouraged 
 them, by comparisons which he is not yet qualified to make, 
 and which are as bitter as they are unjust. We have seen 
 not only " teachers standing before the black-board, drawing 
 the diagrams and explaining all the relations between their 
 several parts, while the pupils, in their seats, copied the figures, 
 and took down brief heads of the solutions," but we have 
 seen pupils at the black-board, constructing those same dia- 
 grams, on scientific principles, and in illustration of proposi- 
 tions drawn from their text-books ; further, even in these 
 ^dormitories " of ours, we have seen the " hybernating animals " 
 sent to the black-board to solve questions in geometry and 
 astronomy, original, with the teacher ; and with nothing given 
 but the simple data of the questions, we have seen them 
 construct original diagrams, and give accurate and concise 
 solutions of the questions. But we leave this subject here, 
 trusting that our remarks will lead to a careful consideration 
 of all questions of public instruction, on the part of those 
 immediately interested in the cause, and we shall have done 
 
56 
 
 all that we hoped to do, if we succeed in awakening in the 
 minds of those who are practical educators, a more earnest 
 attention to the subject of public instruction, and in inducing 
 them to come forth, and unite their efforts in contending 
 against that tide of theories, which is fast sweeping away the 
 landmarks of experience. And, however unwelcome the 
 contest, we trust, that in the defence of what they believe to 
 be truth, they will stand undismayed by the presence of 
 power, and unshaken by the splendid conclusions of those 
 imaginative educators, who would substitute the pleasing 
 fictions of speculation, for the sound and sober dictates of 
 reason. 
 
 MODES OF TEACHING CHILDREN TO READ. 
 
 Reading, justly deserves the first rank among the studies of 
 our schools. As an accomplishment alone, it possesses 
 intrinsic excellence ; but, considered as fundamental to other 
 departments of learning, its value cannot be too highly esti- 
 mated. In judging, therefore, of the merits of any system 
 by which this branch may be taught, remote, as well as im- 
 mediate effects should be duly regarded. A child, even at 
 the threshold of his education, should be subjected to any 
 delay, which the formation of correct habits may require. 
 He should never be hurried over difficulties, at first concealed, 
 yet, in his progress, unavoidable, simply to make his entrance 
 into the temple of learning, easy and agreeable. A system 
 of instruction is subjected to an unworthy test, when the chief 
 excellence claimed for it consists in smoothing the path of the 
 learner. To ascertain where the true path lies, and to exhibit 
 what, to us, seems erroneous, are the objects of the following 
 discussion. 
 
 Though differing from Mr. Mann, upon this subject, we 
 would, by no means, be supposed to undervalue his efforts in 
 
57 
 
 the cause of education, or detract aught from the benefits 
 his labors have conferred. Our dissent from his views arises 
 from an honest conviction that, if adopted, they would retard 
 the progress of sound learning. His opinions on the method 
 of teaching reading, may be learned from the following quota, 
 tions, taken from his second and seventh annual reports, and 
 from his " Lecture on Spelling-Books, delivered before the 
 American Institute of Instruction, August, 1841." 
 
 " I am satisfied that our greatest error, in teaching children to 
 read, lies in beginning with the alphabet ; — in giving them what are 
 called the ' Names of the Letters,' a, b, c, &c". . ."Although in former 
 reports and publications I have dwelt at length upon what seems to 
 me the absurdity of teaching to read by beginning- with the alphabet, 
 yet I feel constrained to recur to the subject again, — being per- 
 suaded that no thorough reform will ever be effected in our schools 
 until this practice is abolished." — Seventh Annual Report, pp. 91, 92. 
 
 " Whole words should be taught before teaching the letters of 
 which they are composed." — Lecture on Spelling-Books, p. 13. 
 
 " The mode of teaching words first, however, is not mere theory ; 
 nor is it new. It has now been practised for some time in the pri- 
 mary schools in the city of Boston, — in which there are four or five 
 thousand children, — and it is found to succeed better than the old 
 mode." — Common School Journal, Vol. I. p. 326. 
 
 " During the first year of a child's life, he perceives, thinks, and 
 acquires something of a store of ideas, without any reference to 
 words or letters. After this, the wonderful faculty of language begins 
 to develop itself. Children then utter words, — the names of objects 
 around them, — as whole sounds, and without any conception of the 
 letters of which those words are composed. In speaking the word 
 ' apple,' for instance, young children think no more of the Roman 
 letters which spell it, than, in eating the fruit, they think of the 
 chemical ingredients, — the oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, — which 
 compose it. Hence, presenting them with the alphabet, is giving 
 them what they never saw, heard, or thought of before. It is as 
 new as algebra, and, to the eye, not very unlike it. But printed names 
 of known things are the signs of sounds which their ears have been 
 accustomed to hear, and their organs of speech to utter, and which 
 may excite agreeable feelings and associations, by reminding them 
 of the objects named. When put to learning the letters of the alpha- 
 bet first, the child has no acquaintance with them, either by the eye, 
 the ear, the tongue, or the mind ; but if put to learning familiar 
 words first, he already knows them by the ear, the tongue, and the 
 mind, while his eye only is unacquainted with them. He is thus iri- 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 troduced to a stranger, through the medium of old acquaintances. It 
 can hardly be doubted, therefore, that a child would learn to name 
 any twenty-six familiar words, much sooner than the twenty-six un- 
 known, unheard, and unthought-of letters of the alphabet." — Ibid. 
 
 " The practice of beginning with the ' Names of the Letters,' is 
 founded upon the idea that it facilitates the combination of them [?] 
 into words. On the other hand I believe that if two children, of 
 equal quickness and capacity, are taken, one of whom can name 
 every letter of the alphabet, at sight, and the other does not know 
 them from Chinese characters, the latter can be most easily taught to 
 read, — or, in other words, that learning the letters first is an absolute 
 hindrance.". . . " The ' Names of the Letters ' are not elements in the 
 sounds of words ; or are so, only in a comparatively small number 
 of cases. To the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, the child is 
 taught to give twenty-six sounds, and no more." — Seventh Annual 
 Report, p. 92. 
 
 " But, not only do the same vowels appear in different dresses, 
 like masqueraders, but like harlequins they exchange garbs with each 
 other." — Ibid, p. 95. 
 
 " In one important particular, the consonants are more perplexing 
 than the vowels. The very definition of a consonant, as given in the 
 spelling-books, is, ' a letter which has no sound or only an imperfect 
 one, without the help of a vowel.' And yet the definers themselves, 
 and the teachers who follow them, proceed immediately to give 
 a perfect sound to all the consonants. If a consonant has ' only an 
 imperfect sound,' why, in teaching children to read, should not this 
 imperfect sound be taught them ? And again, in giving the names 
 of the consonants, why should the vowel be sometimes prefixed, and 
 sometimes suffixed ? " — Ibid. 
 
 " For another reason, the rapidity of acquisition will be greater, if 
 words are taught before letters. To learn the words signifying objects, 
 qualities, actions, with which the child is familiar, turns his attention 
 to those objects, if present, or revives the idea of them, if absent, 
 and thus they may be made the source of great interest and 
 pleasure." — Common School Journal, Vol. I. p. 326. 
 
 For the sake of distinction, and from its recent origin, this 
 mode of teaching reading is called the new method. To 
 whom belongs the honor of its discovery seems not to have 
 been fully ascertained. Miss Edgeworth, in the opinion of 
 Mr. Pierce, was the first to recommend it. " It is practiced," 
 he says, " by Mr. Wood, late principal of the Sessional 
 school, Edinburgh ; by Jacotot, the celebrated teacher of the 
 
59 
 
 Borough school, and others. It is founded in reason and 
 philosophy ; and it must become general." 
 
 The plan of teaching, as developed by the publications of 
 the secretary, by Mr. Pierce's " Lecture on Reading," and by 
 various other publications, is substantially as follows : whole, 
 but familiar words, without any reference to the letters which 
 compose them, are first to be taught. The alphabet, as such, 
 is kept entirely concealed. Some three or four words are 
 arranged on a single page of a primer prepared for the 
 purpose, or are written on the black-board several times, and 
 in various orders, as follows: cat — dog — chair; dog — cat 
 — chair; chair — cat — dog. These are pointed out to the 
 child, who is required to utter them at the teacher's dictation, 
 and to learn them by a careful inspection of their forms, as 
 whole objects. After these are supposed to be learned, new 
 words are dictated to the pupil, in the same manner as before. 
 This process is repeated, till the child has acquired a sufficient 
 number of words to read easy sentences in which they are 
 combined. To what extent this mode of learning words 
 should be carried, is, nowhere, definitely stated. Mr. Pierce 
 says : " When they are perfectly familiar with the first words 
 chosen, and the sentence which they compose, select other 
 words, and form other sentences ; and so on indefinitely." 
 He then proceeds to recommend several books, as containing 
 suitable sentences for this purpose. Of these, one prepared 
 by Miss Peabody, now Mrs. Mann, contains, he says, " a full 
 illustration of the whole method, with words and sentences." 
 Since this book is also recommended, by the secretary, as con- 
 taining the best exemplification of the whole plan, it may be 
 taken as a standard, by which to form an estimate of the extent 
 to which the friends of the new system would carry this pro- 
 cess of teaching words. 
 
 More than a hundred words, having little or no apparent 
 connection with each other, and arranged in the manner 
 above described, occupy the first twenty or thirty pages. 
 Then follows a reading lesson, in which these words, with 
 
60 
 
 many more, are joined together in sentences. Subsequent 
 to this lesson, and arranged as before, is another set of words 
 followed by another reading lesson, and so of the remaining 
 part of the book, save some . fifteen pages containing the 
 alphabet, a few lessons in spelling, and a few cuts for 
 drawing. The whole number of words in this " Primer" does 
 not differ materially from seven hundred. Derivative words, 
 though differing but slightly from their primitives, are, in this 
 reckoning, to be counted, because this minuteness of dif- 
 ference enhances the difficulty of acquisition. " When the 
 scholars," says Mr. Pierce, " have reached this stage of 
 advancement," by which, it is supposed, he means, have 
 learned all the words contained in this or other books which 
 he recommends, " you may teach them the name and the 
 poiver of the letters, especially the latter ; though I can con- 
 ceive no great disadvantage from deferring it to a still later 
 period ; " that is, till they have learned more words. It ap- 
 pears then, that at some period in the child's progress, after 
 learning either seven hundred, a thousand, or two thousand 
 words, he is to commence the laborious and unwelcome 
 task of learning " the unknown, unheard, and unthought-of 
 letters of the alphabet." Here, if ever, it is supposed, he 
 begins to learn how to combine letters into words ; that is, 
 learns how to spell ; and thus, by a new process, acquires the 
 power of uttering words, without having them previously 
 pronounced by the teacher. 
 
 As this system is somewhat new, and has not been well 
 tested by experiment, although its immediate adoption is 
 earnestly recommended by high authority, it cannot be 
 reasonably supposed that a system by which the present 
 generation were taught to read, a system as prevalent as is 
 the mode of alphabetical writing, and one which, from its 
 long and uninterrupted use, has become venerable with age, 
 will be abolished, unless good and substantial reasons can be 
 given for such change. Indeed, change itself, is undesirable. 
 If the new system can be shown only to be equally as good 
 
61 
 
 as the old, no change should take place. Positive proof of 
 its superior advantages alone, should be considered, or, at 
 least, the probabilities of a successful issue, should so far 
 exceed the chances of a failure, as to amount to a good 
 degree of certainty. As, until quite recently, the secretary 
 has presented, rather than strongly advocated the claims of 
 the system, his opinions, have called for nothing more than a 
 passing consideration. But, as his personal and official influ- 
 ence is now exerted for its adoption, that our silence may not 
 be construed into assent, we feel impelled to express a respect- 
 ful dissent from his views. 
 
 Aware that his position is to be sustained against prevailing 
 usage, he has given his reasons for believing, " that no 
 thorough reform will ever be effected in our schools until this 
 practice [of beginning with the alphabet] is abolished." These 
 reasons are drawn, 
 
 1st. — From what he conceives to be the natural order of 
 acquisition. 
 
 2d. — From the anomalies of the alphabet. 
 
 3d. — From an impression which he has, that " the rapidity 
 of acquisition will be greater, if words are taught before 
 letters." 
 
 With us, as teachers, the main question is, whether or not 
 we approve of the new system, and can recommend its uni- 
 versal adoption. 
 
 In assuming the negative of the question, it is first to be 
 shown that the arguments urged in favor of the system, fail to 
 make it even equal in value to the old, much more superior ; 
 and, then, that there are reasons of a positive character, which 
 are adverse to it, and serve to show it vastly inferior to the 
 old system. 
 
 Before entering upon a consideration of the separate argu- 
 ments which have been urged in its support, some general 
 remarks will be necessary, in order to remove whatever is 
 irrelevant to the question, and to restrict it within its appropri- 
 ate limits. 
 
62 
 
 1st. — Whether words should be taught before letters, is a 
 question which should be confined strictly to written language. 
 
 That much irrelevant matter, employed in the secretary's argu- 
 ment, arises from confounding written with spoken language, 
 appears from the following passage in his lecture : " The advan- 
 tages of teaching children, by beginning with whole words, are 
 
 many What is to be learned is affiliated to what is 
 
 already known." So in the quotation at the beginning of this 
 article, he says : " But if put to learning familiar words first, he 
 [the child] already knows them by the ear, the tongue, and the 
 mind, while his eye only is unacquainted with them. He is 
 thus introduced to a stranger, through the medium of old 
 acquaintances." The principle here' claimed for the new 
 system, is that of passing from the known to the unknown. 
 The principle is good ; it is of its application that we com- 
 plain. The secretary speaks of "familiar words;" the ques- 
 tion arises, What is familiar? What is known? When we 
 speak of words, we may mean either the audible, or the 
 written signs of our ideas. The term word is, therefore, am- 
 biguous, unless it be so qualified as to have a specific 
 reference. In speaking of familiar words, nothing can be 
 meant except that the child can utter them ; he knows them 
 only as audible signs. To say that printed words are familiar 
 to a child's tongue, can have no other meaning than that he 
 is accustomed to the taste of ink ; to say that such words are 
 familiar to his ear, is to attribute to that ink, a tongue ; and 
 to say that they are familiar to the mind, is to suppose the 
 child already able to read. Now, as reading aloud is nothing 
 less than translating written into audible signs, a knowledge 
 of the latter, whatever may be the system of teaching, is pre- 
 supposed to exist, and is about as necessary to the one learn- 
 ing to read, as would be a knowledge of the English lan- 
 guage to one who would translate Greek into English. 
 
 To illustrate. Take the printed word mother; when pro- 
 nounced, it is familiar " to the ear, the tongue, and the mind." 
 Does this familiarity aid the child in the least, in comprehend- 
 
63 
 
 ing the printed picture ? Can he, from his acquaintance with 
 the audible sign, utter that sign by looking upon the six un- 
 known letters which spell it? 
 
 The truth is, in all that belongs, appropriately, to the 
 question under consideration, the word is unknown ; un- 
 known as a whole, unknown in all its parts, and unknown 
 as to the mode of combining those parts. The question, when 
 restricted to its appropriate limits, is simply this ; ' What is the 
 best method of teaching a child to comprehend printed words?' 
 All that is said about the familiarity of the child with the audi- 
 ble sign, and the thing signified by it, is claimed in common 
 by the advocates of both systems, and is, therefore, totally 
 irrelevant in the discussion of this question ; since what be- 
 longs equally to opposite parties can have no influence in a 
 question in which they differ. 
 
 What though " printed names of known things are the 
 signs of sounds which their [the children's] ears have been 
 accustomed to hear, and their organs of speech to utter, and 
 which may excite agreeable feelings and associations, by re- 
 minding them of the objects named?" Is the rose any the 
 less agreeable to the mind of the child, or, is the word rose, 
 when pronounced, any the less familiar to his organs of 
 speech or to his ear, because its printed sign is learned by com- 
 bining the letters r-o-s-e? Or does the mere act of telling 
 the child to say rose, while pointing to the picture, formed of 
 four unknown letters, in any way enhance its agreeableness? 
 
 The question, then, is not whether a child shall be " intro- 
 duced to a stranger through the medium of old acquaintances," 
 for, in fact, by the new system, this introduction is made 
 through the medium of the teacher's voice. 
 
 The true question at issue is, whether the child shall be 
 furnished with an attendant to announce the name of the 
 stranger, or whether he shall be furnished with letters of intro- 
 duction by which, unattended, he may make the acquaintance, 
 not of some seven hundred strangers merely, but of the whole 
 seventy thousand unknown members of our populous vocab- 
 ulary. 
 
64 
 
 2d. — The question must be confined not merely to written 
 language, but to written language of a particular species. 
 
 When the secretary, in speaking of a child after the first 
 year of his life, says that, then, " the wonderful faculty of lan- 
 guage begins to develop itself," he undoubtedly refers to 
 spoken language. And well may that be called a wonderful 
 faculty by which, through the agency of the vocal organs, we 
 can so modify mere sounds, as to send them forth freighted 
 with thoughts which may cause the hearts of others to thrill 
 with extatic delight, or throb with unutterable anguish. And 
 no wonder that there should have existed, early in the history 
 of the world, a desire to enchain and represent to the eye 
 these evanescent messengers of thought. Hence the early and 
 rude attempts at writing, by means of pictures and symbols. 
 But these, unfortunately, were representatives of the message, 
 not the messenger ; of the idea, not the sound which con- 
 veys it. At length arose that wonderful invention, the art of 
 representing to the eye, by means of letters, the component 
 parts of a spoken tvord,so that now, not merely the errand, but 
 the bearer stands pictured before us. The grand and dis- 
 tinctive feature of this invention is, that it establishes a con- 
 nection between the written and the audible signs of our 
 ideas. It throws, as it were, a bridge across the otherwise im- 
 passable gulf which must ever have separated the one from the 
 other. The hieroglyphics and symbols of the ancients, per- 
 formed but one function. To those who, by a purely arbitrary 
 association, were able to pass from the sign to the thing signi- 
 fied, they were representatives of ideas — and ideas merely; 
 hence they are called ideographic characters, and that mode of 
 writing has been denominated the symbolic, and is exemplified 
 in the Chinese language. 
 
 On the other hand, words written with alphabetic characters 
 perform two functions. Taken as whole pictures, they, like 
 Chinese characters, represent ideas ; but taken as composed 
 of alphabetic elements which represent simple sounds, they 
 conduct us directly to the audible sign which, in the case 
 
65 
 
 of common words, we have from childhood been accustomed 
 to associate with the thing signified. Owing to the last office 
 which these words perform, namely, that of representing sounds, 
 this mode of writing is called the phonetic. It has been said with 
 truth, that " the art of writing, especially when reduced to sim- 
 ple phonetic alphabets like ours, has, perhaps, done more than 
 any other invention for the improvement of the human race." 
 If any one wishes still further to be convinced of the differ- 
 ence between the two, let him compare the figure 5, which is 
 purely a symbol, with the written word Jive; the one gives no 
 idea whatever of the spoken word, whereas the other conducts 
 us directly to it. Here the contrast is too striking to be mis- 
 apprehended. A person might read Chinese, without knowing 
 a single sound of the language, simply because Chinese 
 characters were never intended to represent sounds. 
 
 The new system of teaching reading, abandons entirely this 
 distinctive feature of the phonetic mode of writing, and our 
 words are treated as though they were capable of perform- 
 ing but one function, that of representing ideas. The lan- 
 guage, although written with alphabetic characters, becomes, 
 to all intents and purposes, a symbolic language. Now we 
 say, as ours is designedly a phonetic language, no system of 
 teaching ought to meet with public favor, that strips it of its 
 principal power. And we confess ourselves not a little sur- 
 prised that the secretary, who cherishes such correct views of 
 the inferiority of the Chinese language, should urge us to con- 
 vert ours into Chinese. He says, in his second annual report, 
 ( Com. Sch. Journal, Vol. L, pp. 323, 324 : ) "It is well known 
 that science itself, among scientific men, can never advance far 
 beyond a scientific language in which to record its laws and 
 principles. An unscientific language, like the Chinese, will 
 keep a people unscientific forever." Besides losing the van- 
 tage ground which we now possess, of passing with ease 
 from the visible to the audible sign, and the reverse, we meet 
 with another objection to the proposed change. As our lan- 
 guage was written with alphabetic characters, our words 
 9 
 
66 
 
 are too long and cumbrous for becoming mere symbols. A 
 single character would be vastly superior to our iris syllables 
 and polysyllables. If the new system prevails, we may soon 
 expect a demand for reform in this respect. As it now is, the 
 child must meet with all the difficulties that necessarily accom- 
 pany the acquisition of the Chinese language, and these 
 greatly increased by the forms of our words. 
 
 The defenders of the new system seem to lose sight of the 
 nature and design of the alphabetic mode of writing, as an 
 invention. To understand an invention, we must first know 
 the law of nature, which gave rise to it, and then the several 
 parts of the invented system, as well as the adaptation of these 
 parts, when combined, to accomplish some useful purpose. 
 Thus, to explain the steam-engine, the chemical law by which 
 water is converted into steam must first be understood, and in 
 connection with it, that of elasticity, common to all aeriform 
 bodies. Then follows — what constitutes the main point in 
 this illustration — the explanation of the several parts of the 
 machine, with the modes of combining them, so as to gain 
 that immense power, which is found so valuable in the arts. 
 Take another illustration, more nearly allied to the subject 
 under consideration. It was discovered a few years since, 
 that a piece of iron exposed, under given circumstances, to a 
 galvanic current, would become a powerful magnet, and that 
 it would cease to be such, the instant the current was inter- 
 cepted. Little was it then thought, that this simple discovery 
 would give rise to an invention by which the winged light- 
 ning, fit messenger of thought, could be employed to enable 
 the inhabitants of Maine to converse with their otherwise 
 distant neighbors in Louisiana, with almost as much ease, 
 as though the parties were seated in the same parlor. 
 
 Now, no one will pretend, that to make use of the steam- 
 engine successfully, all that is necessary is to gain an idea of 
 it, as a whole. The several parts, with their various relations 
 and combinations, must be explained. Equally necessary is 
 it, in managing the magnetic telegraph, for the operator to 
 
67 
 
 be familiar with the laws of electricity, and the adaptation of 
 the several parts of the machine, to accomplish, by means of 
 that agent, the object proposed. But who would think of in- 
 terpreting the results of its operation, the dots, the lines, the 
 spaces, by looking upon them as constituting a single picture ? 
 To apply these illustrations. It was discovered, ages ago, 
 that Nature had endowed the organs of speech with the power 
 of uttering a limited number of simple sounds. From this 
 discovery originated the invention of letters to represent these 
 elementary sounds. Letters constitute the machinery of the 
 invention. They are the tools by which the art of reading 
 is to be acquired; and a thorough knowledge of letters bears 
 the same relation to reading, as does a thorough acquaint- 
 ance with the parts of a steam-engine, or of the magnetic 
 telegraph to a skilful use of these instruments. The new 
 system proposes to abandon, for a time at least, all that is 
 peculiar to this invention ; all that distinguishes it from the 
 rude and unphilosophical systems of symbolic writing, which, 
 centuries ago, gave place to it, throughout every portion of 
 the civilized world. Now, since such an estimate was placed 
 upon this invention by the ancients, as to secure its adoption to 
 the exclusion of all other methods of writing ; and since a 
 trial of many centuries has served only to confirm mankind 
 in the belief of its superiority over every other system ; we 
 can but protest against the adoption of a mode of teaching, 
 that subjects the child to such inconvenience and loss. 
 
 3d. — Mr. Mann has not been more unfortunate in blending' 
 spoken with written language, than in confounding the names 
 of letters with their powers. 
 
 All his remarks, therefore, which proceed upon the suppo- 
 sition that the defenders of the old system advocate a plan of 
 teaching, by which the name-sounds of letters are to be joined, 
 as " 1-e-g " into " elegy," can have no weight in the discus- 
 sion of this question. 
 
 The word letter, as applied to the alphabet, is ambiguous, 
 
68 
 
 unless accompanied by some term, or explanatory phrase, 
 to show what is intended. In referring to one of the elemen- 
 tary sounds which enters into the formation of a spoken word, 
 we call that sound a letter ; so, in speaking of the conventional 
 sign, which represents that sound to the eye, as the character h, 
 seen in a printed word, that sign we call a letter; both the 
 sound and the sign, take the name aitch, for example ; this 
 name, in turn, is called a letter. Now, to prevent confusion, 
 these three things, the power, the character, and the name, 
 should be kept entirely distinct from each other. In a spoken 
 word, elementary sounds are combined ; in a ivritten word, 
 elementary characters ; in neither written nor spoken words, 
 are the names of letters joined, except in those instances, 
 where the name and power are the same, as in the case of 
 the long sounds of the vowels. 
 
 A perfect alphabet would require that the thirty-five elemen- 
 tary sounds of the language, as given by Dr. Rush, should 
 have each one representative, and no more. With such an 
 alphabet, the transition from the written, to the audible sign, 
 would be made without the possibility of a mistake ; and, 
 equally certain would be the passage from the sound of a 
 word, to its written sign, in which consists the art of spelling. 
 But we have not such an alphabet. Ours is imperfect. A 
 single letter has several different sounds ; the same sound is 
 represented by different letters and combinations of letters, and 
 many of the letters in some of their uses become silent- 
 These anomalies are the cause of inconveniences as sensibly 
 felt by the defenders of the old system, as by those who, to 
 effect, for the child, a temporary escape from one difficulty, 
 would thrust him into others equally great. The defenders 
 of both systems agree that these difficulties must, at some 
 time, be met and mastered. 
 
 Were a language reduced to writing by means of a perfect 
 alphabet even, it is not difficult to see how, in time, that alpha- 
 bet would become corrupted. It is probable that, at the time 
 of the invention of letters, it was intended that each character 
 
69 
 
 should represent but one sound. But, as the sounds of the 
 language to be written were better analyzed, either new letters, 
 as among the Greeks, were added, or, the same letter was 
 made to represent more than one sound. 
 
 Again, different nations have adopted the same alphabetic 
 characters ; but in applying them to the elementary sounds 
 of their respective languages, the rules of uniformity were 
 disregarded ; thus, the sound represented by e in English, 
 is represented by i in French, and so of others. Then, as 
 the words of one country, like its citizens, may emigrate to, 
 and become naturalized in another, retaining, in the latter, 
 their original orthography and pronunciation, new sounds 
 must inevitably be attached to the same letter ; hence, the 
 French sound of i in fatigue. In the same way, many equiv- 
 ocal words have been introduced into our language ; thus, 
 bark, derived from a Saxon word, means the noise made by 
 dogs ; so, again, the same word, derived from the French 
 barque, signifies a vessel, while the Danish word bark, signi- 
 fying the covering of a tree, has been introduced, unchanged, 
 into the language ; all of which give three widely different 
 meanings to the same word. Add to these circumstances, 
 the mutations to which every language is subject, from age to 
 age, and it is easy to account for such changes as are seen in 
 the words, could, ivould, should, and others, in which the I 
 was sounded by the generation before us ; so also, usage 
 requires us to retain the silent letters of such words as catarrh, 
 phthisic, and many others derived from the ancient languages, 
 that their etymology may not be lost. 
 
 These various changes have created the necessity of refer- 
 ring to the same alphabetic character and name some two, 
 three, or more elementary sounds ; thus ce is the name of the 
 character c; to this name and character we are obliged to 
 refer a hissing sound, which is also represented by s; another 
 sound represented by k ; and still a third, represented by z. 
 Another evil arising from such mutations, is, that many 
 letters, having become silent, must be retained in the forma- 
 
70 
 
 tion of the written sign, although worse than useless in deter- 
 mining the audible. 
 
 Such being the three-fold meaning to be' attached to the 
 word letter, and such being the condition to which various 
 circumstances have conspired to reduce our alphabet, let us 
 inquire, if Mr. Mann has not been led astray, by neglecting to 
 make these necessary distinctions. 
 
 He says, on page 92 : 
 
 " The advocate for teaching the letters asks, if the elements of an 
 art or science should not be first taught. To this I would reply, 
 that the ' Names of the Letters ' are not elements in the sounds 
 of words ; or are so, only in a comparatively small number of 
 cases. To the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, the child is taught 
 to give twenty-six sounds, and no more. According to Worcester, 
 however, — who may be considered one of the best authorities on 
 this subject, — the six vowels only, have, collectively, thirty-three 
 different sounds. In addition to these, there are the sounds of twenty 
 consonants, of diphthongs and triphthongs." 
 
 Before proceeding to show that the secretary has con- 
 founded those things which should be kept distinct from each 
 other, it is necessary to correct an erroneous statement which 
 he has made, respecting the number of different sounds in 
 the language. It is not true, nor does Worcester, anywhere, 
 as we can find, assert, that " the six vowels only, have, col- 
 lectively, thirty-three different sounds." It is true that he 
 assigns to a, seven sounds, — to e, five, — to i, five, — too, 
 six, — to n, six, — and to y, four ; and that these several num- 
 bers when added, amount to thirty-three. But if any one will 
 take the pains to compare the sounds of y with those of i, 
 those of a with those of e, and so on, he will find an illustra- 
 tion of what we have already said ; that the same sound is 
 represented by different letters ; and if he will go still further, 
 and select from Worcester's table of vowel sounds, the different 
 ones only, he will find less than half thirty-three. A little 
 further on, he proceeds to say that " it would be difficult, and 
 would not compensate the trouble, to compute the number of 
 different sounds which a good speaker gives to the different let- 
 
71 
 
 ters, and combinations of letters, in our language, — not includ- 
 ing the changes of rhetorical emphasis, cadence, and intona- 
 tion. But, if analyzed, they would be found to amount to hun- 
 dreds." Here, it seems, he has fallen into the same error ; and 
 his statements are calculated to mislead the reader. The great- 
 est number of elementary sounds in our language does not ex- 
 ceed forty-three. Barber gives the number forty-three ; others, 
 forty-one. But Dr. Rush, who probably gave more time and 
 thought to the analysis of the human voice, than any other 
 person, fixes the number at thirty-five. Never, before, have we 
 known it placed as high as hundreds. We have been the more 
 careful to make these corrections, that the reader may see how 
 much weight to attach to Mr. Mann's remarks on the 97th page 
 of the report, where he makes use of these erroneous statements, 
 to show a want of analogy between teaching reading, on the 
 one hand, and written music, on the other. He says : 
 
 " Some defenders of the old system have attempted to find an 
 analogy for their practice, in the mode of teaching to sing by first 
 learning the gamut. They compare the notes of the gamut which 
 are afterwards to be combined into tunes, to the letters of the alpha- 
 bet to be afterwards combined into words. But one or two con- 
 siderations will show the greatest difference between the principal 
 case and the supposed analogy. In written music there is always a 
 scale consisting of at least five lines, and of course with four spaces 
 between, and often one or two lines and spaces, above or below the 
 regular scale ; and both the name of a note and the sound to be 
 given it can always be known by observing its place in the scale. 
 To make the cases analogous, there should be a scale of thirty-three 
 places at least, for the six vowels only, — and this scale should be 
 enlarged so as to admit the twenty consonants, and all their combi- 
 nations with the vowels. Such a scale could hardly be crowded 
 into an octavo page. The largest pages now used would not contain 
 more than a single printed line each ; and the matter now contained 
 in an octavo volume would fill the shelves of a good-sized library. 
 If music were taught as unphilosophically as reading; — if its eight 
 notes were first arranged in one straight vertical line, to be learned 
 by name, and then transferred to a straight horizontal line, where 
 they should follow each other promiscuously, and without any clew 
 to the particular sound to be given them in each particular place, it 
 seems not too much to say that not one man in a hundred thousand 
 would ever become a musician." 
 
72 
 
 Here the reader will see that Mr. Mann has compared an 
 erroneous conception of the elements of our language, with 
 an erroneous conception of the elements of written music. 
 A scale of thirty-three places, at least, for the six vowels 
 only ! And this scale so enlarged as to admit the twenty 
 consonants, and all their combinations with the vowels I It 
 will suffice to say, concerning this scale, that it must be very 
 much reduced ; so that he need not be alarmed at the cum- 
 brous size to which our books may attain. But, Mr. Mann 
 seems to be entirely unacquainted with the nature and diffi- 
 culties of written music, or, at least, he has given, if any at 
 all, a very imperfect and erroneous exhibition of them. 
 
 In the science of Music, the Natural or Diatonic scale, con- 
 sists of eight sounds or tones. The five intermediate tones 
 furnished by the Chromatic scale, added to these, increase the 
 number to thirteen different sounds. 
 
 The compass of the human voice, if cultivated, is sufficient 
 to embrace about two and a half octaves, or from thirty to 
 thirty-five different sounds. With instruments, the number 
 of different sounds may be extended almost without limit. 
 We are concerned, however, with the human voice. It will be 
 seen that the number of sounds which are to be represented 
 by visible symbols, in music, is about the same as the number 
 of elementary sounds in our language. It will be seen, 
 moreover, that it is not one " scale," [staff ?] with its added 
 lines, that can represent these thirty or thirty-five different 
 sounds. There is a staff 1 for the Base, one for the Tenor, 
 and one for the Alto and Soprano. Besides, it should be 
 understood, that a note on a given line or space, affected by a 
 flat or sharp, is sounded in the former case, half a tone higher, 
 and in the latter, half a tone lower, than it otherwise would 
 be ; or, in other words, it can have, without changing its posi- 
 tion in the staff, three different sounds. But, it is not in 
 this particular, that the principal difficulty consists. A note 
 placed on the letter C, for example, will, in all cases, receive 
 the same absolute sound. It now stands as 1, or the key 
 
73 
 
 note, and the syllable do, is applied to it. Let F be sharped, 
 and then, although this note still has the same sound as be- 
 fore, its relation to the other notes is entirely changed. It 
 now becomes 4 of the scale, and the syllable fa is applied 
 to it. Let C now be sharped, and the note still remains un- 
 changed on the staff, but the original sound is lost from the 
 scale ; the note which then represented it, becomes 7 of the 
 scale, and is called si. Next, let D be sharped, and a similar 
 change takes place, and so on, till all the notes are sharped. 
 Again, taking the scale as at first, let B be affected by a 
 flat, and the original key-note becomes 5 of the scale, and 
 is called sol; then let E be flatted, and so on, till all the 
 notes have been flatted, and changes of relation will take 
 place for every successive flat. Now, a change of this kind, 
 affects the relation, not of one merely, but of every note 
 of the scale, and the number of changes far exceeds the high- 
 est number of sounds attached to any letter of the alphabet. 
 If any one will take the trouble to estimate the whole number 
 of such changes, for all the notes, he will discover some of the 
 difficulties to be overcome by ihe pupil in this branch of 
 science. Each transposition of the scale is equivalent to 
 giving a new sound to each note ; it does give a new name, 
 and a new relation. The only point, therefore, in which the 
 analogy fails, is this : the number of changes which a note 
 may undergo, is much greater than the number of sounds 
 represented by any letter ; and the labor of acquiring the notes 
 of music, is very much greater than that of learning the letters 
 of the alphabet. Such, certainly, is the opinion of the ablest 
 professors of music in our country. 
 
 In respect to emphasis, pauses, and expression, reading and 
 music are analogous ; and so, in regard to the elements, in all 
 essential points, they resemble each other So much has been 
 said, to correct an erroneous statement, and the conclusion 
 drawn from it. Let us now inquire, if the secretary has not 
 fallen into an error, equally inexcusable, from a misconception 
 
 of the several functions of a letter. We understand him tacitly 
 10 
 
74 
 
 to concede the principle, that " the elements of an art or 
 science should be first taught." But, in his subsequent 
 remarks, if we comprehend their design, he denies, that the 
 defenders of the old system are entitled to this conceded prin- 
 ciple, because the names of the letters are not elements in the 
 sounds of words. We never supposed, nor do we know 
 of a single advocate of the old system, who ever supposed, 
 that the names of letters, entered into the formation of words ; 
 as, h-a-t, into aitchaitee ; " 1-e-g," into " elegy." 
 
 Names were not given to letters for such a purpose. They 
 were assigned to them, for the same reason that names are given 
 to other objects, to aid us in referring to the objects themselves. 
 One would scarcely expect to convince even a child, that there 
 was neither pastry, fruit, cinnamon, nor sugar, in the pie he 
 was eating, by telling him that pies are never made of such 
 names as pastry, cinnamon, &c. 
 
 We agree with Mr. Mann, when he says that, with the 
 exception of the long sounds of the vowels, " the ' Names of 
 the Letters' are not elements in the sounds of words;" but we 
 differ from him, if he denies that the characters, called letters, 
 are elements in printed words, or that the sounds which they 
 represent, are elements in spoken words. One, or both of 
 these two things are implied, when it is asserted, that letters 
 are elements in the formation of words. 
 
 The question then returns. Should not letters be taught be- 
 fore words ; since, in two important respects, they are elements? 
 
 The argument, found upon the next four or five pages of 
 the report, proceeds upon the supposition that the name-sounds 
 of letters, are combined into words ; and if it will avail the 
 secretary anything, we are ready to grant that he has fully 
 shown, what would have been most cheerfully admitted at 
 the outset, that " the names of the letters, are not elements in 
 the sounds of words." But when he, in apparent triumph, 
 says, "this, surely, is a most disastrous application of the 
 principle, that the elements of a science must be first taught," 
 we cannot resist the conviction, that his is a most disastrous 
 
75 
 
 application of logic, to the true question at issue. That the 
 fallacy in his argument, consists in confounding the names 
 and powers of letters, is obvious from the following : " To 
 the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, the child is taught to 
 give twenty-six sounds, and no more." Now, if he means 
 that he has discovered the fact, that instructers, everywhere, 
 have fallen into the palpable error of teaching children, that 
 to the twenty-six alphabetic characters, only twenty-six ele- 
 mentary sounds are attached, the wonder is, since he believes 
 there are hundreds of such sounds, that he has not, by his 
 journal, or otherwise, sought to correct such defective instruc- 
 tion. But, if he means, by the " twenty-six sounds, and no 
 more," merely the sounds given to the names of the letters, 
 he has either accused the teachers of this country of totally 
 neglecting one essential function of the letters, or else, he 
 himself has failed to make the proper distinction between 
 the name of a letter, and its power. If the former is the 
 meaning, and if he intended the above remark as a rebuke to 
 teachers for neglecting to give the elements of sound, as well 
 as the names of letters, we reply that, though it may, to some 
 extent, be deserved, it is too unqualified. There are not a few 
 instructers, w T ho teach the children to associate together, the 
 names, the forms, and the powers of the letters. But, what 
 surprises us most, if this be the meaning, is, that Mr. Mann 
 should discover from such defective instruction, reasons for a 
 total neglect of the alphabet, till after the child has learned to 
 read. Some teachers may neglect to require the meaning of 
 words. Is this a reason why words should be entirely set 
 aside, till the child can first read whole paragraphs ? 
 
 The most probable interpretation of the passage, is, that 
 Mr. Mann did not have in his mind a clear perception of the 
 difference between the name-sound of a letter, and its power. 
 This explanation is rendered still more probable from the 
 following allusion to the Greek letters : " Will the names of 
 the letters, kappa, omicron, sig-ma, mu, omicron, sigma, make 
 the word kosmos?" Has any defender of the old system 
 
76 
 
 ever asserted that they would ? Yet, would the secretary 
 have us suppose that if those names should fall upon the ear 
 of one familiar with the Greek alphabet, he would notj at 
 once, utter kosmos as the combination of the elementary 
 sounds which those letters name. 
 
 If these quotations fail to convince the reader ; let him 
 take the following passage on the 33d page of Mr. Mann's 
 lecture : 
 
 " The faculty of judgment, the power by which we trace relations 
 between causes and effects, and by which we expect the same results 
 from the same antecedents, will be perpetually baffled if we attempt 
 to spell words according to the vocal power, or name sound, as it is 
 sometimes called, of the letters as presented in the alphabet; or, 
 if we infer, that one word should be spelled so or so, because 
 another is spelled so or so." 
 
 Here it will be seen that he makes the vocal poiver of a 
 letter, and its name-sound identical ; that is, he has defined 
 the meaning of vocal poiver, as he understands it. The 
 name-sound of a letter is the sound given to its name, as the 
 sound of the syllable be, ce, em, &c. ; whereas, the vocal 
 power of a letter is the sound that letter receives in combination, 
 as the sound of b, in b ut, &ate. The reader can determine the 
 sound, by directing the attention to what precedes the sound 
 of ut, in the former, and ate, in the latter example. In this 
 instance, the blending of the name and power is not left as 
 a matter of inference. Let any one carefully examine the 
 pages of the secretary's report, from the 92d to the 99th, and 
 he will find many other examples of the same error. 
 
 But, we apprehend that Mr. Mann has been induced to 
 bring forward, once more, his theory of teaching words 
 before letters, from what he saw in the Prussian schools. He 
 says : 
 
 " When I first began to visit the Prussian schools, I uniformly 
 inquired of the teachers, whether in teaching children to read, they 
 began with the ' Names of the Letters,' as given in the alphabet. 
 Being delighted with' the prompt negative which I invariably received, 
 
77 
 
 I persevered in making the inquiry, until I began to perceive a look 
 and tone on their part not very flattering to my intelligence, in con- 
 sidering a point so clear and so well settled as this, to be any longer 
 a subject for discussion or doubt. The uniform statement was, 
 that the alphabet, as such, had ceased to be taught, as an exercise, 
 preliminary to reading, for the last fifteen or twenty years, by every 
 teacher in the kingdom. Whoever will compare the German lan- 
 guage with the English, will see that the reasons for a change are 
 much stronger in regard to our own, than in regard to the foreign 
 tongue." 
 
 Now, we have supposed the word alphabet to be a generic 
 term, including all the letters of the alphabet; and that each let- 
 ter has the three-fold meaning already attached to it. But, if 
 in Prussia, it signifies simply the names of the letters, we will 
 endeavor to bear that in mind. If we compare the Prussian 
 mode of teaching children to read, as described by Mr. Mann, 
 with the following portion of the above statement, it will be 
 seen that alphabet, as there used, can mean nothing more than 
 the names of the letters. " The uniform statement was," he 
 says, " that the alphabet, as such, had ceased to be taught as 
 an exercise preliminary to reading, for the last fifteen or 
 twenty years, by every teacher in the kingdom." According 
 to his description of their method of teaching children to 
 read, it appears that the forms of the letters were first 
 taught, then their powers, and finally the art of combining 
 the forms into written words, and the poivers into spoken 
 words ; so that nothing can be left for the meaning of alpha- 
 bet, as here used, but the names of letters. But, we ask, if 
 teaching the forms and powers of the letters, is not teaching 
 the alphabet, or all in it, that is absolutely essential to read- 
 ing? To teach the whole alphabet, as we understand it, is 
 to teach all that belongs to it, not omitting the names of the 
 letters, as do the Prussian teachers, at first. 
 
 It appears from the last sentence of the above quotation, that 
 Mr. Mann thinks, if such a change as the omission of the 
 names of letters was needed in Prussia, a comparison of the 
 German and English languages will show a greater demand 
 for a change in the latter. What change, we ask ? Such an 
 one as theirs ? 
 
78 
 
 Let the following passage answer : 
 
 " There are two reasons why this lautir, or phonic method, [that 
 is, the method of the Prussian and Saxon teachers, just described,] is 
 less adapted to the English language than to the German ; — first, 
 because our vowels have more sounds than theii-s, and secondly, be- 
 cause we have more silent letters than they. This is an argument, 
 not against their method of teaching, but in favor of our com- 
 mencing to teach by giving words before letters. And I despair 
 of any effective improvement in teaching young children to read, 
 until the teachers of our primary schools shall qualify themselves to 
 teach in this manner; — I say until they shall qualify themselves, 
 for they may attempt it in such a rude and awkward way as will 
 infallibly incur a failure. As an accompaniment to this, they should 
 also be able to give instruction according to the lautir or photric 
 method." 
 
 Now, how the secretary could discover, from the purely 
 alphabetic and elementary method of teaching which he wit- 
 nessed in Prussia, reasons for such a change, one which 
 converts our language into Chinese, we cannot easily con- 
 ceive. It is true, that he adds, " as an accompaniment to 
 this, they [teachers] should also be able to give instruction 
 according to the lautir or phonic method." But this seems to 
 be only a secondary consideration ; they should be able to do 
 it. Besides, from the description of the new system which he 
 has given, and sanctioned as given by others, it would seem 
 that this kind of instruction could not well be given till the 
 child can read easy sentences. Were it not for two reasons, 
 which affect the question in degree, only, not in kind, Mr. 
 Mann, it appears, would recommend that we adopt the Prus- 
 sian method. But these reasons shall be considered in their 
 appropriate place. 
 
 Mr. Mann has been led, as we believe, to recommend anew, 
 this system of teaching words before letters — a system as wide 
 asunder from the Prussian, as are the poles from each other — 
 imply from confounding the names of letters with their powers. 
 They, at first, omit the names of the letters, or, as he affirms 
 that they say, " the alphabet." But they teach every thing 
 else that belongs to a letter, and, probably, soon after, the 
 names themselves. 
 
79 
 
 And, now why should the name be omitted ? To neglect 
 the names of letters is to destroy, at once, one of the most im- 
 portant exercises of the primary school ; that is, oral spelling. 
 That letters must have names to aid us in referring to them, 
 no one will deny. Otherwise, how could Mr. Mann have read 
 such a passage as the following from his lecture ? " Ph is f; 
 and c is uniformly concealed in s, or sacrificed as a victim to 
 k or zP Bid he give simply the powers of the letters/, c, s, k, 
 and z ? or, did he hold up a card and point them out ? or, did 
 he speak their names 1 . If, then, letters must have names, 
 why should the child be kept in ignorance of them ? One 
 of the first inquiries of a child, on seeing a new object is, 
 " What is it?" " What do you call it?" or, in other words, 
 "What is its name?" Shall such inquiries be silenced, when 
 made respecting the alphabet? 
 
 Besides, the names of the letters, in most cases, must, when 
 spoken, differ from their powers ; that is, the name of a letter 
 and its power cannot be identical. Yet, it is evident, from the 
 following quotation from the 96th page of the report, that there 
 exists in the mind of the secretary an impression that the use- 
 fulness of the alphabet, in teaching reading, is very much di- 
 minished, from the want of a perfect coincidence between the 
 powers of the letters and their name-sounds : " I believe it is 
 within bounds to say, that we do not sound the letters in read- 
 ing once in a hundred times, as we were taught to sound 
 them when learning the alphabet. Indeed, were we to do so 
 in one tenth part of the instances, we should be understood by 
 nobody. What analogy can be pointed out between the 
 rough breathing of the letter h, in the words ivhen, ivhere, hoiv, 
 &c, and the ' name-sound,' (aytch, aitch, or aych, as it is 
 given by different spelling-book compilers,) of that letter, as it 
 is taught from the alphabet?" Will the secretary give a 
 name to A, or p, orb; or indeed to any of the consonants, which 
 shall sound exactly like the power of the letter ? We mean 
 one that can become sufficiently audible to subserve all the 
 purposes of a name ; one that can be represented to the eye, 
 
80 
 
 like the name of any other object ? Why should not a letter 
 have a name, as well as a peach ? And if so, why should 
 the name of the letter resemble that letter, any more than 
 the name of the peach should resemble that fruit ? We can 
 see no necessity for such resemblance. True, the name of a 
 letter, when uttered, is a sound ; and the power is a sound ; 
 and for the most part, a different one ; so is thunder itself very 
 different from the sound of its name ; yet we never complain 
 of that name as inadequate to call to mind the idea of thunder. 
 The Greeks have nowhere, as we have seen, complained of 
 any difficulty in associating their dissyllables, alpha, beta, 
 gamma, delta; and trissyllables, omicron and omega, with 
 the elements of sound to which they refer. Yet how untoward 
 are these names, compared with ours. The resemblance be- 
 tween the names of most of our letters and their powers is so 
 marked, as to afford no little assistance in combining letters 
 into words. The dissimilarity, of which so much complaint 
 has been made, might never have been mentioned, had it not 
 been for such resemblances as now exist. The names of the 
 vowels, and their long sounds, with the exception of y, are the 
 same. The names of most of the consonants contain the ele- 
 mentary sound joined to a vowel, which either precedes or 
 follows it. And here, we see again, the same want of dis- 
 tinction as before. " And again," says Mr. Mann, " in giving 
 the names of the consonants, why should the vowel be some- 
 times prefixed, and sometimes suffixed ? " So on the 98th 
 page, he says : 
 
 " There is one fact, probably within every teacher's own observa- 
 tion, which should be decisive on this subject. In learning the 
 alphabet, children pronounce the consonants as though they were 
 either preceded or followed by one of the vowels ; — that is, they 
 sound b, as though it were written be, and /, as though written 
 ef. But when they have advanced ever so little way in reading, do 
 they not enunciate words where the letter b is followed by one of 
 the other vowels, or where it is preceded by a vowel, as well as 
 words into which their own familiar sound of be, enters? For 
 example, though they have called b a thousand times as if it were 
 written be, do they not enunciate the words ball, bind, box, bug, &c. 
 as well as they do the words besom, beatific, &c ? They do not say 
 be-all, be-ind, be-ox, be-ug, 4*c." 
 
81 
 
 Since it is not the name, but the power, which enters into 
 combination, of what consequence is it, whether the vowel is 
 prefixed or suffixed ! We might as well have eb as be ; me 
 as em ; le as el. Whatever be the name, whether eb or be, 
 it does not enter into the formation of words, as eb-ug, or 
 u be-ug;" so h, when represented to the eye as aitch, is the 
 printed sign, or to the ear, as when pronounced, is the audible 
 sign, of a rough breathing. 
 
 We cannot believe that even Mr. Mann himself would so 
 disgrace the alphabet, as to reduce it to a file of anonymous 
 letters, merely because their real names do not, at once, dis- 
 play all their virtues. 
 
 Such are some of the errors, at least as it seems to us, into 
 which Mr. Mann has fallen, from a misconception of the 
 offices performed by the letters of the alphabet. 
 
 \th. — Whatever the secretary has said by way of ridicule, 
 calculated to disparage the alphabet, ought to receive no con- 
 sideration in the discussion of this question. 
 
 It is somewhat amusing that Mr. Mann should indulge in 
 occasional merriment, even in the midst of so much confusion. 
 We do not complain of it, but simply ask that it may receive 
 no weight, when indulged in at the expense of the poor alpha- 
 bet. In speaking of the devices which some humane teachers 
 used to practice, he says in his lecture, page 17th : " He [the 
 teacher] used to tell us that a stands for apple, to call o, round 
 o, s, crooked s, t, the gentleman with a hat on;" and adds, 
 " What manner of ejaculation would that be, which, instead 
 of the unvarying sound of the word ' sot,' for instance, should 
 combine the three sounds which the child had been taught to 
 consider as the powers [?] of the letters composing it; viz. 
 'crooked s, round o, gentleman with a hat on ? '" " Yet, this 
 is the way," he adds, " in which many of us were taught to 
 read." A more grave assertion. 
 
 So, in his last report, he says : " If b, is be, then be is bee, 
 the name of an insect ; and if I is el, then el is eel, the name of 
 11 
 
82 
 
 a fish; " that is to say, if the object named, is the same as the 
 name itself, then that name becomes the name of an insect, or 
 of a fish. Surprising! 
 
 All printed names of objects are formed from printer's ink. 
 Bee is the printed name of an object; and since the object 
 itself is the same as its name, it follows that this insect is only 
 printer's ink. It is, therefore, harmless, unless it is that re- 
 markable bee that has three stings ; for we are told that — 
 
 ' No bee has two stings ; ' and that, ' one bee has one more 
 sting than no bee ; ' therefore, it would seem that one bee 
 (and perhaps, this one) has three stings. 
 
 As for the eel, fit emblem of the logic that caught it, we 
 will leave it to hands best able to retain it. 
 
 In his lecture before the American Institute, he says, page 
 16th, after giving an analysis of the sources of pleasure to a 
 child, among which he includes form, " In regard to all the 
 other sources of pleasure, — beauty, motion, music, memory, — 
 the alphabetic column presents an utter blank. There stands 
 in silence and death, the stiff perpendicular row of characters, 
 lank, stark, immovable, without form or comeliness, and, as to 
 signification, wholly void. They are skeleton-shaped, blood- 
 less, ghostly apparitions, and hence it is no wonder that the 
 children look and feel so death-like, when compelled to face 
 them." 
 
 This, truly, is a dismal picture. How much less do the 
 characters employed to designate numbers, deserve ? And 
 shall we neglect to teach them to children, because they are 
 thus " bloodless " and " skeleton-shaped ? " 
 
 So, again, if such a reform is called for on account of the 
 " bloodless " forms of our letters, we should suppose that it 
 ought to be extended to music, requiring a similar change in 
 teaching that science ; such, for example, as teaching whole 
 measures, or whole tunes, before notes. For, after applying 
 nearly all the chilling epithets, which Mr. Mann employs in 
 reference to the letters of the alphabet, one might go on 
 further, and say of those used in music, that while some have 
 
83 
 
 from one to four fangs, others are tadpole-shaped, and there- 
 fore disgust by calling to mind loathsome reptiles; some 
 are bound together in little groups, showing a degree of so- 
 cial affinity; others refuse all alliance whatever, and stand 
 aloof from each other in wilful solitude ; and even if they had 
 any kindred feeling, they are kept asunder by immovable 
 bars. The faces of some are white, while those of others are 
 black; and these two classes are mingled together without dis- 
 tinction of color. Besides, some, in their pride, rear their 
 heads above the lines assigned to the common classes, while 
 others are depressed as far below the ordinary ranks of the 
 social scale ; and it is not surprising that the children, on 
 beholding such distinctions, express themselves in high tones 
 of indignation at the arrogance of the former, and in deep- 
 toned sympathy at the sufferings of the latter. 
 
 Now, how can a child, whose ear is charmed with sweet 
 sounds, and in whose soul melody is seeking for utterance, 
 turn with other than " death-like " feelings, to such loathsome 
 and revolting pictures, as salute his eyes in written music ? 
 Would it not be the dictate of kindness, to endeavor to make 
 the path of the learner more easy and pleasant, by allowing 
 him to read whole measures, or whole tunes, before learning 
 the notes of which they are composed? But whether the 
 child, after all, in reading whole words or whole tunes, will 
 entirely escape from these " ghostly apparitions," we will 
 leave for others to decide. 
 
 5th. — As a final consideration, by way of restriction, let it 
 be suggested, that the mere promotion of a child's pleasure 
 should never form the basis of any system of education. 
 
 If such considerations, as making the path of the learner 
 pleasant and easy, have not formed the basis of the new 
 system, they have, at least, had great weight in the minds of 
 its defenders. 
 
 Let the reader refer to the whole paragraph on the 16th 
 page »f Mr. Mann's lecture, containing the last quotation, and 
 he will see reasons for believing that a desire to promote the 
 
84 
 
 pleasure of the child, lies at the foundation of the system. 
 The letters of the alphabet, " bloodless, ghostly apparitions," 
 should at first be omitted ; because, " having dimensions in a 
 plane," merely, they are capable of affording only a small 
 amount of that pleasure which arises simply from the love 
 of form ; a source of pleasure which, at best, he says, 
 " is the feeblest of all." Such, certainly, seems to us a nat- 
 ural inference from this paragraph ; and if such a principle in- 
 duces him to urge the adoption of this system, it is hoped that 
 every practical teacher, and every friend of thorough instruc- 
 tion, will enter against it his solemn protest. The child's 
 pleasure to be consulted at the expense of order! at a sacri- 
 fice of first principles, the only basis of a thorough education ! 
 Nothing has been more productive of mischief, or more sub- 
 versive of real happiness, than mistaking what may afford the 
 child present gratification, for that which will secure for him 
 lasting good. 
 
 It would seem that the child, in his ignorance and devo- 
 tion to pleasure, is allowed to judge what is best, what is 
 proper; what, on the whole, will result in the greatest amount 
 of good. " How," inquires Mr. Mann, " can one who, as 
 yet, is utterly incapable of appreciating the remote benefits, 
 which, in after-life, reward the acquisition of knowledge, 
 derive any pleasure from an exercise, which presents neither 
 beauty to his eye, nor music to his ear, nor sense to his 
 understanding ? " And since the child cannot " appreciate 
 the remote benefits " of learning the alphabet, must his 
 caprice govern those who can, and determine them to aban- 
 don, even for a time, what they know is all-important in 
 teaching him to read ? A child is sick, and cannot appre- 
 ciate the remote, or immediate benefits of taking disagreeable 
 medicine. Will a judicious parent, who is fully sensible of 
 the child's danger, regard, for one moment, his wishes, 
 to save him from a little temporary disquietude ? A child 
 has no fondness for the dry and uninteresting tables o£ arith- 
 metic. Shall he, therefore, be gratified in his desire to hasten 
 
85 
 
 on to the solution of questions, before acquiring such indis- 
 pensable pre-requisites ? We have been accustomed to sup- 
 pose that the responsibilities of the teacher's profession, 
 consist, mainly, in his being required to fashion the manners 
 and tastes of his pupils, to promote habits of thinking and 
 patient toil, and to give direction to their desires and aspira- 
 tions, rather than to minister to the gratification of their pas- 
 sion for pleasure. 
 
 If we mistake not, it was this same pleasure-promoting prin- 
 ciple, that led Mr. Mann to interpret, as he did, the relation 
 subsisting between the pupil and the teacher in the Prussian 
 schools ; on the part of the pupil it was, says Mr. M., " that of 
 affection first and then duty." Here, it seems, Mr. M. would 
 have the teacher first amuse the child, so as to gain his good- will, 
 at any expense, and would, then, have him attend to duty 
 as a secondary matter. This is reversing the true order of the 
 two. Duty should come first, and pleasure should grow out 
 of the discharge of it. We wish to be distinctly understood 
 on this point. The teacher ought, when compatible with duty, 
 to awaken in the child, agreeable, rather than painful feelings. 
 He, who delights in seeing a child in a state of grief, is unfit 
 for the teacher's office. On the other hand, he, who would 
 substitute pleasure for duty, or would seek to make that sweet, 
 which is of itself bitter, and to make that smooth, which is 
 naturally and necessarily rough, is actuated by a misguided 
 philanthropy. Hence, we dislike all attempts to make easy, 
 and to simplify, that which is already as easy and simple as 
 the nature of the case will allow. 
 
 The grand mistake lies in the rank assigned to pleasure. 
 To gratify the child, should not be the teacher's aim, but 
 rather to lay a permanent foundation, on which to rear a noble 
 and well-proportioned superstructure. If, while doing this, 
 the teacher is successful in rendering mental exertion agreea- 
 ble, and in leading the child from one conquest to another, 
 till achievement itself affords delight, it is well ; such pleasure 
 stimulates to greater exertion. But if, to cultivate pleasure- 
 
86 
 
 seeking is his aim, he had better, at once, abandon his profes- 
 sion, and obtain an employment in which he will not endanger 
 the welfare, both of individuals and society, by sending forth 
 a sickly race, palsied in every limb, through idleness, and a 
 vain attempt to gratify a morbid thirst for pleasure. 
 
 But even if the promotion of pleasure were the aim of the 
 teacher, the new system of teaching reading, is a most 
 unfortunate mode of securing it. Pleasure, springs from an 
 active, rather than a passive state of the faculties. 
 
 The new system proposes to afford the child pleasure in 
 the exercise of reading words; yet, instead of requiring him 
 to exert, in the least, his mental faculties, in combining the 
 elementary parts of these words, the teacher gives merely the 
 result of his own mental processes, and exacts nothing 
 from the child, but a passive reception of the sound, which is 
 to be associated arbitrarily, with the visible picture, pointed 
 out to him. 
 
 To this, the reply will, probably, be made, that the idea, 
 not the mere act of passing from the visible to the audible 
 sign, affords the pleasure. Such a reply is cut off by our first 
 and second restrictions. The pleasure arising from the idea, 
 can be urged, with equal force, by both parties. Therefore, 
 in determining to which of the two systems belongs the greater 
 pleasure, no account whatever can be made of that which 
 arises from the meaning of words. We submit the ques- 
 tion to any candid mind, which system is adapted to afford 
 the grealer amount of pleasure? We will now grant to the 
 defenders of the new system, for the sake of argument, all the 
 advantage which they claim, from the association of interest- 
 ing ideas, with the words which convey them. All that they 
 can then mean, is, that the idea throws such a charm around 
 those "bloodless and ghostly apparitions" which constitute 
 words, that the "death-like" feeling, with which the child 
 would otherwise "face" them, is now converted into pleas- 
 ure. According to the plan of teaching, already described, 
 however, the familiar word is first pronounced to the child ; 
 
87 
 
 the idea is then in the mind, as soon as he hears the word 
 uttered. Having received the idea, and all the pleasure it 
 can afford, does it seem reasonable to suppose he will interest 
 himself much, with the "ill-favored" forms that represent it 
 to the eye ? There is a little nut enclosed in a prickly en- 
 casement. The nut itself is very agreeable to children; so 
 agreeable as to induce them, at the expense of some pain, 
 to try their skill in removing this unfriendly exterior. Re- 
 peated trials, with the stimulus afforded by a desire to gralify 
 the taste, gives them skill; till at length, they can obtain the 
 nut without much suffering. Now, suppose some "humane" 
 person, desirous of aiding the child in acquiring this kind of 
 skill, and of making his task, at the same time, more 
 pleasant, should begin by removing the troublesome covering 
 with his own hands, and suffer the child to surfeit himself, 
 without any effort on his part. Would he, in the first place, 
 secure the object of giving the child skill? and in the second 
 place, will the child, having obtained the nuts, derive much 
 pleasure from handling the vacant burrs ? and, finally, does 
 not pleasure itself become vitiated and morbid, when unat- 
 tended with effort? This illustration, will, at least, apprize 
 the reader, of our reasons for the opinion, that the new system 
 is the result of a misguided effort to make that pleasant, 
 which, to some extent at least, must be disagreeable ; to make 
 that easy, which, from the nature of the case, is beset with 
 unavoidable difficulties. 
 
 Having fixed what seem to us, the necessary limitations 
 of the question, we will now consider whatever of argument 
 remains in favor of the system. 
 
 The first consideration seems to arise from the fact that the 
 child learns to utter whole sounds, the names of objects, 
 without attending, in the least, to the elements which compose 
 them. The following quotation from the 14th page of Mr. 
 Mann's lecture, will explain what he means : " When we wish 
 to give to a child the idea of a new animal, we do not present 
 successively the different parts of it, — an eye, an ear, the 
 
88 
 
 nose, the mouth, the body, or a leg ; but we present the whole 
 animal, as one object. And this would be still more neces- 
 sary, if the individual parts of the animal with which the 
 child had labored long and hard to become acquainted, were 
 liable to change their natures as soon as they were brought 
 into juxtaposition, as almost all the letters do when com- 
 bined into words." So, we are to understand that printed 
 words, in like manner, should be learned as whole objects, 
 though composed of elementary parts. 
 
 So far as this argument receives any force from its refer- 
 ence to the fact, that the child utters words, as whole sounds, 
 we have no more to say, but would refer the reader to the 
 first restriction of the question. All that remains to be con- 
 sidered under this head, is that part of the argument contained 
 in the last quotation, the general principle of which, seems 
 to amount to this ; that whole compound objects should first 
 be taught, and made use of, as if understood ; at some future 
 period, the unknown elements which compose them, should 
 be given, with the modes of combining them. 
 
 According to this, in teaching Numeration, all numbers, 
 like 349, 8764, 97635, &c, should be given to the child as 
 single objects. It is true, Mr. Mann denies the pertinency of 
 this comparison, on the 98th page of his report ; yet, it is im- 
 possible for us to see how he can escape it. The comparison 
 fails only in one respect. ' Some of the letters of the alphabet 
 do not, with unerring certainty, guide to the proper sound, 
 while the forms and places of the figures, taken together, are 
 an unfailing index of their value. Now, if our alphabet 
 were what we have denominated a perfect one, the forms of 
 the letters could never fail to lead to the correct sound. 
 With such an alphabet, the comparison would fail in no 
 material point. 
 
 But, if there is any meaning in the above quotation, Mr. 
 Mann would recommend this mode of teaching words, even 
 if they were written with a perfect alphabet. " Still more," 
 he says, " would this be necessary if the individual parts of 
 
89 
 
 the animal, with which the child has labored long and 
 hard to become acquainted, were liable to change their na- 
 tures as soon as they were brought into juxtaposition, as 
 almost all the letters of the alphabet do, when combined 
 into words ; " that is, whole words should be taught first, 
 if each letter had but one sound ; " still more," a fortiori, is it 
 necessary so to teach them, since such is not the fact. And 
 hence, we say, if words should be taught in this way, num- 
 bers, music, and every other art and science should be taught 
 in the same way. If Mr. Mann still denies the aptness of 
 the comparison, he makes the argument, drawn from the 
 " natural order," as it is called, rest entirely on the imperfec- 
 tions of the alphabet, which forms one of the distinct argu- 
 ments to be considered hereafter. The only difference which 
 he has pointed out, certainly comes from that source ; as any 
 one will see by referring to the 98th page of the report. A 
 denial, therefore, of the pertinency of this comparison, is equiv- 
 alent to giving up that part of the argument now under 
 consideration. If, on the other hand, he acknowledges the 
 aptness of the comparison, and recommends that the decimal 
 system of numeration be treated in this manner, every one 
 will see, that it loses all that gives it a superiority over the 
 Greek or Roman numerals. The evil which would result, 
 from the extension of this principle, to other branches of 
 knowledge, could not be estimated. 
 
 Moreover, the illustration drawn from the animal, or a tree 
 which is more commonly given, fails, we think, to meet all 
 that is required in teaching a child to read. Grant, that he 
 does not, in learning to distinguish a tree from a rock, or 
 any other dissimilar object, form his idea of it, by inspect- 
 ing the parts separately, and then by combining trunk, bark, 
 branches, twigs, leaves, and blossoms. In learning to read, 
 however, he is to distinguish between objects which resemble 
 each other; and in many instances, very closely, as in the case 
 of the words, hand, band; now, mow; form, from; and scores 
 of others. To make the illustration good, it would be neces- 
 12 
 
90 
 
 sary to place the child in a forest, containing some severity 
 thousand trees, made up of various genera, species, and vari- 
 eties, among which were found many to be distinguished only 
 by the slightest differences. Or, if it will suit the case any 
 better, let him be placed in a grove, containing seven hun- 
 dred trees, having, as before, strong resemblances ; if, then, 
 this general survey of each of them, as a whole object, will 
 enable him to distinguish them rapidly from each other, 
 whatever may be their size, or the order in which he may 
 cast his eyes upon them, we will acknowledge the aptness of 
 the illustration. Primary school teachers, who have tried the 
 system, testify, that when children have learned a word in 
 one connection, they are unable to recognise it in another, 
 especially if there be a change of type. 
 
 As Mr. Mann has, virtually, denied the right of extending 
 the principle of teaching a compound first, and the elements 
 subsequently, to music and numeration, and, as his reasons 
 for that denial are drawn from the present imperfect state of 
 the alphabet, we may infer that he relies, mainly, if not solely, 
 on the latter branch of the argument. 
 
 We will, therefore, next consider the second reason urged 
 in favor of the new system. It may be thus stated. ' Such is 
 the imperfect condition of the alphabet, that the letters, when 
 combined into words, do not, with certainty, lead the learner 
 to the correct pronunciation ; whereas, by teaching words 
 before letters, all this uncertainty is avoided.' 
 
 That the alphabet is imperfect, we have already conceded. 
 The nature of these imperfections, we will repeat. 1st. — A 
 single character may represent several different sounds. 2d. 
 — A single sound, may be represented by several different 
 characters, either separate or combined. 3d. — A letter may 
 be silent. These anomalies are, to children, a source of 
 much perplexity and doubt. We fully appreciate the diffi- 
 culties arising from them, and as heartily deplore their exist- 
 ence, as can the authors of the proposed remedy. And here, 
 two questions arise. The first is this ; ' Is the condition of 
 
91 
 
 the alphabet a sufficient cause for any material change in the 
 modes of teaching children to read ? ' And the second, ' Does 
 it afford sufficient reasons for such a change as the one pro- 
 posed ? ' 
 
 In answering the first question, we are prepared to say un- 
 hesitatingly, that the mode of teaching letters before words, is 
 the only true and philosophical one. Letters, as we have al- 
 ready shown, are elements in the formation of words. That 
 the elements of an art or science should first be taught, no one 
 in the least acquainted with teaching, will pretend to deny. 
 To proceed from known elements to their unknown combina- 
 tions, is natural and easy ; it is the only course that will ensure 
 a thorough acquaintance with any subject. Hence, we say, 
 no material change should take place. But in making the 
 child acquainted with the letters and the modes of combining 
 them, we are not sure that the best methods have always been 
 adopted. A letter is not understood until its visible symbol, its 
 name and its power, are associated together. It is the custom, 
 in many primary schools, to teach at first, only the name and 
 symbol, and to leave the power to be learned by imitation or 
 inference, when the child begins to combine letters into sylla- 
 bles or words. For example ; the learner readily pronounces 
 the names of the letters h-i-v-e, but being ignorant of their 
 powers, he hesitates ; the teacher says, pronounce ; the child 
 still hesitates ; the teacher utters hive, as the combination of 
 these four letters, and the child is then left to receive only a 
 .twilight conception of the powers of those letters. The Prus- 
 sian method, it appears, consists in presenting the symbol and 
 the power, leaving the name to be learned afterwards. This 
 method has the advantage of bringing the powers of the let- 
 ters, at an early period, to the notice of the child, in a manner 
 so distinct and vivid, as to impress them indelibly upon his 
 memory ; and must give him great facility in the process of 
 mental combination. The omission of the name, however, 
 lies at the root of oral spelling, and endangers the acquisition 
 of that important branch. 
 
92 
 
 A third method, and one which will, we think, commend 
 itself to the favorable regard of all who examine it, is that in 
 which the three attributes of a letter are at once associated 
 together. The advantages of this method, and the modes of 
 interesting children in it, are topics which will be more fully 
 discussed in another place. While we deny, therefore, that 
 any material change should take place, we cheerfully admit, 
 that some such improvements as named above may be made 
 in the manner of teaching the letters. 
 
 The second question is, ' Do the imperfections of the al- 
 phabet afford sufficient reasons for such a change as the one 
 proposed ? ' We have already said, that no material change, 
 in our opinion, should take place. But others think differ, 
 ently, and have proceeded both to devise, and strongly recom- 
 mend, the plan under consideration. To this method of 
 teaching we are opposed, for the following reasons : 
 
 1st. — Teaching whole words according to the new plan, to 
 any extent whatever, gives the child no facility for learning 
 new ones. Every word must be taken upon authority, until 
 the alphabet is learned. 
 
 2d. — Since the alphabet must, at some period, be acquired, 
 with all its imperfections, it is but a poor relief, to compel the 
 child, at first, to associate seven hundred different, arbitrary 
 forms with the ideas which they represent, and then to learn 
 the alphabet itself. 
 
 Mr. Mann was sensible of this objection to his new theory, 
 when he said, in his second annual report, (Common School 
 Journal, Vol. I. page 327,) 
 
 " There is a fact, however, which may, perhaps, in part, cancel 
 the differences, here pointed out. The alphabet must be learned, 
 at some time, because there are various occasions, besides those of 
 consulting dictionaries or cyclopaedias, where the regular sequence 
 of the letters must be known ; and possibly it may be thought, that 
 it will be as difficult to learn the letters, after learning the words, as 
 before. But the fact, which deprives this consideration of some 
 part at least of its validity, is, that it always greatly facilitates an 
 acquisition of the names of objects, or persons, to have been con- 
 versant with their forms and appearances beforehand. The learning 
 of words is an introduction to an acquaintance with the letters com- 
 posing them." 
 
93 
 
 To learn to associate readily the form of a word with its 
 meaning, is as difficult a task, for aught we can see, as it 
 would be to associate the form and name of a letter with its 
 power. It will be said that the former exercise affords the 
 learner pleasure, and therefore attracts his attention and in- 
 terests him. We have already expressed our sentiments on 
 the policy of consulting the pleasure of a child, at the expense 
 of his real good. If it can be shown, however, that, of two 
 methods equally good in other respects, one has the addi- 
 tional recommendation of pleasing the child, and the other has 
 not, we should, by all means, choose the former. But all 
 these remarks about the pleasure resulting from the new mode 
 of teaching, grow out of the supposition, that learning the 
 alphabet is totally destitute of interest. 
 
 This impression is not correct. And it is somewhat sur- 
 prising, that the defenders of the new system do not see, when 
 speaking of the alphabet, as destitute of interest, that a striking 
 analogy exists between the power of a letter and its visible 
 symbol, on the one hand, and the meaning of a word and its 
 symbol, on the other. 
 
 That children are constantly uttering the elementary sounds 
 of the language, before learning the letters, is obvious to every 
 one. They must have some knowledge of them. So says 
 Mr. Mann, on page 93 of the report : " Generally speaking, too, 
 before a child begins to learn his letters, he is already acquaint- 
 ed with the majority of elementary sounds in the language, 
 and is in the daily habit of using them in conversation." It 
 may be said of a letter, then, with as much propriety as of a 
 word, that it is " familiar to the**ear, the tongue, and the mind." 
 The eye is not acquainted with the visible symbol. If, then, 
 such old acquaintances can introduce the child to the stranger 
 (the visible representative) in one case, why not in the other ? 
 If the one exercise affords pleasure, why not the other? The 
 latter may not to the same extent, as the former. We 
 have made these comparisons for the benefit of those who 
 insist so much on pleasing children. 
 
94 
 
 But in interesting children, much depends upon the modes 
 of teaching. It is not necessary to teach the alphabet invaria- 
 bly from the vertical column. Letters may be made upon the 
 black-board ; and the children may be allowed to make them 
 on the slate, or on the board. Again, the teacher may be sup- 
 plied with small pieces of card, each containing a letter ; or, 
 with metallic letters, which may be handled. Let these be 
 kept in a small box or basket, and when a class is called upon 
 to recite, let theteacher hold up one of these letters. One of 
 the class utters its name ; let him then be required to utter its 
 power also. The same should afterwards be exacted of the 
 whole class, in concert. The teacher should then give the 
 letter to the successful pupil. Let this exercise be repeated 
 till all the letters are distributed. The pupils now, one by 
 one, return the letters to the teacher, who counts the number 
 belonging to each, and awards praise where it belongs. Chil- 
 dren may be deeply interested in exercises of this kind, and at 
 the same time be laying the foundation for a thorough course 
 of instruction in reading. Then, let the teacher present some 
 two or three letters, so arranged, as to spell a familiar word ; 
 as ox, cat, dog. The pupils should be required first, to utter the 
 names of the letters thus arranged ; next, their powers ; then, to 
 join those powers into the audible sign which will call to mind 
 the object named. 
 
 3d. — Another objection to converting our language into Chi- 
 nese, arises from the change which must inevitably take place in 
 the modes of associating the printed word with the idea which 
 it represents, when the child is taught to regard words as com- 
 posed of elements. Children, at first, learn to recognise the 
 word, by the new method, as a single picture, not as composed 
 of parts ; and for aught we know, they begin in the middle of 
 it and examine each way. It is not probable that they pro- 
 ceed invariably from left to right, as in the old mode. How- 
 ever that may be, an entire change must take place when they 
 begin to learn words, as composed of letters. The attention, 
 then, is directed to the parts of which words are composed. 
 
95 
 
 While the eye is employed in combining the visible charac- 
 ters, the mind unites the powers which they represent, and the 
 organs of speech' are prompt to execute, what the eye and the 
 mind have simultaneously prepared for them. The mode of 
 association in a symbolic language, if we mistake not, is this : 
 The single picture is associated arbitrarily, yet directly, with 
 the idea; the idea is then associated with its audible sign ; this 
 sign being familiar to the child, is readily uttered. In a pho- 
 netic language, it is different. The attention being directed to 
 the letters and their powers, the child is conducted immedi- 
 ately to the audible sign ; this when uttered, or thought of, sug- 
 gests the idea. Whether or not these are the correct views, is 
 immaterial to the argument. All that is claimed is, that a 
 change takes place in the modes of association, as soon as the 
 child begins to combine letters into words. It is of this change 
 we complain. All will acknowledge the importance of form- 
 ing in the child, correct habits of association, such as will not 
 need revolutionizing at a subsequent period in life. On this 
 point, we cannot forbear quoting the excellent remarks of the 
 secretary, relating to the subject of spelling. After recom- 
 mending a certain natural and simple mode of classifying 
 words, he proceeds to say :* " On such lessons as these, schol- 
 ars will very rarely spell wrong. * They can go through the 
 book twenty times while they would go through a common 
 spelling-book once ; and each time will rivet the association, 
 that is, it will make an ally of the almost unconquerable force 
 of habit. A connection will be established between the 
 general idea of the word and its component letters, which it 
 will be nearly impossible to dissolve. In pursuing any study 
 or art, it is of the greatest importance to have the first move- 
 ments, whether of the eye, the hand, or the tongue, right. 
 The end will be soonest obtained to submit to any delay that 
 exactness may require. We all know with what tenacity first 
 impressions retain their hold upon the mind. When in a 
 strange place, if we mistake the points of compass, it is almost 
 
 * In this quotation, the italicising is our own. 
 
96 
 
 impossible to rectify the error; and it becomes a contest which 
 of the two parties will hold out longest, the natural points of 
 the compass, in their position, or we in our false impressions. 
 So if, in geography, we get an idea that a city is on the west 
 bank of a river, when it is on the east, it is almost as practica- 
 ble to transfer the city itself, bodily, to the side of the river 
 where it seems to belong, as it is to unclench our own impres- 
 sions, and make them conform to its true location. These 
 illustrations might be multiplied indefinitely." It seems to 
 us that, as one of these illustrations, the subject under consid- 
 eration must be legitimately ranked. 
 
 4th. — The new system fails to accomplish the object which 
 it proposes. The main design of this mode of teaching seems 
 to be, to escape the ambiguity arising from the variety of sounds 
 which attach to some of the letters, as well as from the variety 
 of forms by which the same sounds may be represented. 
 
 The defenders of this system seem to forget, since these 
 anomalies are elementary, that they must be carried into the 
 formation of words. Thus, we can represent a single elemen- 
 tary sound, first by a, then by ai, and again, by ei; hence, we 
 can form three different words ; as vane, vain, vein. In a simi- 
 lar manner we have, rain, reign, rein; ivright, write, right, rite; 
 and hundreds of others. If will be seen at once, that it must 
 be as difficult for a child to attach the same sound to four differ- 
 ent pictures called words, as to four different pictures called 
 letters. Hence, it is plain, that we have " harlequins" among 
 words ; as well as among letters. The only difference is, that 
 the former are more numerous, yet the legitimate offspring of 
 the latter. We have " masqueraders," too, among words. Le t 
 the sound represented by the four letters, r-i-t-e, fall upon the 
 child's ear, and he may think, either, of a ceremony, of making 
 letters with a pen, of justice, or of a workman. Again, let 
 either the printed or spoken word pound, for example, be given ; 
 and he may think of an enclosure for stray cattle, of striking 
 a blow, of certain weights, as avoirdupois, apothecaries', or 
 Troy weight, and also, of a denomination of money. To illus- 
 
97 
 
 trate the difficulty arising from this equivocal word, or from 
 any other one of the hundreds in the language, we will pur- 
 sue a course similar to that in which Mr, Mann shows the 
 child's perplexity with the letter a, on page 93 of the report. 
 Pound has more than seven different meanings, if we take 
 into the account all the various weights, and moneys. But 
 we will suppose it to have only seven. Now, if the sentences 
 in which this word occurs be equally divided among these 
 seven meanings, we have only to use the words sentence, 
 ivord, and idea, instead of word, letter, and sound; and the 
 secretary's own language will bring us to a result as deplora- 
 ble as that to which he arrives ; namely, " that he [the child] 
 goes wrong six times in going right once." 
 
 But what shall be done, since words, as well as letters, may 
 become " masqueraders," and "harlequins?" Shall some en- 
 thusiastic reformer, some Miss Edgeworth, come forward and 
 tell us that no thorough reform can be effected, till the prac- 
 tice of teaching words, before whole sentences, is abolished ; 
 intimating, that at no distant period children will begin with 
 whole paragraphs, and, if very small, with whole pages ? 
 
 Thus, it would seem that the advocates of this system, in 
 attempting to shun Scylla are falling upon Charybdis. But it 
 will, probably, be said in reply, that the connection will aid 
 the child in determining the meaning of such words. This 
 we willingly grant, and at the same time, claim, what is some- 
 what similar to it, in teaching the use of the letters ; namely 
 that simple analogies may be pointed out to the child, which 
 will aid him, not a little, in determining the correct sound to 
 be given to the letters. In monosyllables ending with e mute, 
 the vowel, almost without exception, is long, or like the name- 
 sound. So when a syllable ends with a vow T el, especially if 
 accented, that vowel is long. The vowel a, in monosylla- 
 bles, ending with //, has, generally, the broad sound. A mon- 
 osyllable, ending with a single consonant, contains, usually, a 
 short vowel. These are only a few of the various analogies 
 
 13 
 
98 
 
 which may be pointed out, and which will enable the learner, 
 in most cases, to give the correct sound. 
 
 5th. — It introduces confusion into the different grades of 
 schools. 
 
 The elements must be taught somewhere. If neglected 
 in the primary schools, they must be taught in the grammar 
 schools. And thus the order of things is reversed, and disar- 
 rangement introduced into the whole school system. The 
 teacher who is employed, and paid, for instructing in the 
 higher branches, is compelled to devote time and attention to 
 the studies appropriately belonging to the schools of a lower 
 grade. This is found to be the case, to too great an extent, in 
 the schools of our city. "We do not say this to the disparage- 
 ment of the primary school teachers, or from the belief, that 
 there is a want of fidelity on their part. We believe it to be, 
 in part, at least, owing to the system of teaching, or rather 
 want of system, in the primary schools. The books used 
 in these schools, according to the author's own account of 
 them, are adapted to either system. This is equivalent to 
 saying that they are adapted to neither ; for it is impossible 
 to see how two methods, so entirely different from each other, 
 as those under consideration, can be embraced in one series 
 of books. After repeated inquiries made in many of the 
 primary schools of the city, we are persuaded, that the teach- 
 ers have taken the full amount of license allowed them, by 
 the author of the books which they use. Some begin with 
 the alphabet ; others require the children to learn eight or ten 
 Avords, from which they teach the several letters, though not in 
 the order in which they are arranged in the alphabet. Some 
 carry the process of teaching words to a greater extent, yet 
 require the child to learn to spell, before teaching him to 
 read. Others, as will appear, teach the children to read, 
 without making them at all acquainted with the letters. One 
 evil, resulting from this want of system, is a great neglect of 
 spelling. It is the opinion of those masters who have been 
 longest in the service, and can therefore compare the results 
 
99 
 
 of the two systems, that in respect to spelling, among the 
 candidates for admission from the primary schools, there has 
 been a great deterioration during the trial of the new system ; 
 a period of about six years. The following instance, which 
 occurred a few weeks since, though perhaps, an extreme case, 
 well illustrates a large class of cases, in which there is a 
 deplorable neglect of spelling. A girl in her tenth year, 
 presented herself for admission into one of the grammar 
 schools, with a certificate of qualification from the district 
 committee. The master gave her to read, the sentence be- 
 ginning with the words, " Now if Christ be preached," &c. 
 The third word, she called " Jesus," and persisted in saying 
 it was so pronounced. She was requested to spell it ; the 
 master, at the same time, pointing out the first letter. This 
 letter, she called " Jesus." The first letter of the alphabet 
 was pointed out; the pupil uttered "and"; the second letter 
 was shown her ; " but," was her response. The letter m, she 
 called " man." She was sent to the assistant teachers of the 
 school, who found her totally ignorant of the alphabet. The 
 master sent her back to the primary school, with her certifi- 
 cate endorsed, " not qualified ; can be admitted only by the 
 authority of the sub-committee of the grammar school." 
 
 And, here we may remark, that the testimony of able pri- 
 mary school teachers themselves, who have tried both sys- 
 tems, is adverse to this mode of teaching reading. They 
 declare that in the end, nothing is gained, but much is lost ; 
 that the task of teaching the alphabet, and the art of combin- 
 ing letters into words, are more difficult, and less satisfactory, 
 than if the child had begun with the letters. 
 
 6th. — It cherishes and perpetuates a defective enunciation. 
 
 Children so universally come to the school-room, especially 
 from uneducated families, with habits of incorrect articula- 
 tion, that the efforts of the teacher, at an early period, should 
 be directed towards the correction of these habits. The only 
 sure way to accomplish this, is to drill the pupils on the 
 elements of sound. The errors in enunciation consist, chiefly, 
 
100 
 
 in giving either an incorrect sound to, in suppressing, or in 
 mingling, the vocal elements. A forcible enunciation of these 
 elements, separately, will direct the attention of the child to, 
 and correct, those which are uttered improperly; will bring out 
 those which have been omitted, or too feebly expressed, and will 
 tend to keep separate those, which, from early habit, have been 
 blended together. Nor is this all. Reading may be divided 
 into two departments, which may be called the mechanical 
 and the intellectual. The latter embraces all the higher ex- 
 cellences of reading ; such as emphasis, inflection, pauses, and 
 what is comprehended in the term expression. To prepare 
 the pupil for this department of reading, it is of paramount 
 importance, that all which is embraced in the former, should 
 first be carefully taught. In this discussion, we are con- 
 cerned especially with the mechanical part of reading. It 
 includes two particulars ; first, a skilful use of the tools em- 
 ployed in Ihe art, that is, the ability of uttering with fluency 
 the sounds of the words, while the eye passes rapidly over 
 the letters which represent them ; and, secondly, such a 
 thorough training of the organs of speech, as will enable the 
 pupil to give those sounds with clearness and force. By the 
 new system, neither of these particulars can, to any great 
 extent, be attended to ; for they both involve a knowledge of 
 the elements. To be able to utter the elements forcibly, when 
 taken either separately, or combined, is not unlike the acquire- 
 ment of skill on an instrument of music. That a performer 
 can pass over rapid and difficult passages with ease and 
 gracefulness, is the surest proof that he has been thoroughly 
 drilled, on every note of those passages. He did not acquire 
 them all in a mass, as a whole ; and that by some fortunate 
 movement of the fingers which cost him no effort. Such skill 
 must have been the result of patient toil, which was but 
 gradually rewarded with success. What if one desiring to 
 become a skilful player upon the piano-forte, yet impatient 
 to play a tune, because more agreeable, should, at first, omit 
 the lessons for practice, and place the fingers upon the keys, 
 
101 
 
 regardless of order, or the rules contained in the " Book of 
 Instructions?" The bad habits, thus acquired, might last him 
 through life, and ever prove an obstacle to his success. But 
 what would be thought of a professor of music, who should 
 allow of such a disorderly beginning ? Still more, of one who 
 should recommend it, and affirm that no thorough reform 
 could be effected without it? A defect in the enunciation of 
 the elements, is a radical one, and the new system is directly 
 calculated to perpetuate it. If there was no other argument 
 against the system, this, of itself, would be sufficient to show 
 its utter futility. 
 
 The third and last argument for the system, in the words of 
 the secretary, is, that " the rapidity of acquisition will be 
 greater, if words are taught before letters." This is a ques- 
 tion of fact. It either is so, or it is not so ; and facts alone, 
 can sustain the position which Mr. Mann here assumes. If 
 he could have adduced facts to sustain the assertion, and then 
 have said, I know, instead of saying, as he does on the 92d 
 page of the report, " I believe that if two children, of equal 
 quickness and capacity, are taken, one of whom can name 
 every letter of the alphabet, at sight, and the other does not 
 know them from Chinese characters, the latter can be most 
 easily taught to read," such facts would have done much 
 towards effecting the desired change in the State. But where 
 are the facts ? We have seen none. It is true, the secretary 
 does allude, in his second annual report, to the introduction 
 of the system into the Boston primary schools, and says, " it 
 is found to succeed better than the old mode." Here, let the 
 reader first inquire, What is the system in the Boston schools ? 
 Is it precisely the one which Mr. Mann recommends ? And in 
 the second place, What is the opinion of practical teachers con- 
 cerning the results of the nearest approaches to this system, as 
 seen in the Boston schools for the last five or six years ? And 
 thirdly, let the reader be informed that " The Mother's Primer" 
 which begins with words, was introduced, as appears from the 
 vote of the Boston Primary School Committee, Nov. 7, 1837, 
 
102 
 
 and that the second annual report of the Secretary of the Board 
 of Education, bears date Dec. 26, 1838, leaving an interval of 
 about one year only, for the trial of the new system. Whether 
 a trial during so short a period, amidst the novelty always 
 attending a change, is sufficient to warrant the assertion that 
 " it is found to succeed better than the old mode," we will 
 submit to the judgment of any candid mind. 
 
 It is supposed, that the secretary, when he affirms that " the 
 rapidity of acquisition will be greater, if words are taught 
 before letters," intends to include the acquisition of the alpha- 
 bet, with the modes of combining letters into words ; other- 
 wise the whole matter is unworthy of the attention of the 
 friends of education. Such being the case, the question 
 stands thus. Two children, in like circumstances, in every 
 respect, commence learning to read ; the first learns some 
 seven hundred different words, as he would so many different 
 letters ; having acquired no more ability to learn the seven 
 hundred and first, than he had at the beginning ; afterwards 
 he learns the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, including all 
 the " harlequins " and " masqueraders," and finally the art of 
 combining the letters into words. The other learns first, the 
 letters; then, the art of combining them; and finally makes use 
 of this knowledge, to acquire his seven hundred words. Now 
 by what rule of arithmetic, or of common sense, it is ascer- 
 tained that the former will advance more rapidly than the 
 latter, is to us entirely unknown. 
 
 Such are the reasons that have compelled us to dissent from 
 the opinions of the secretary, on this branch of education. 
 The main question at issue, we are constrained to answer in 
 the negative ; because such a change, as that proposed by Mr. 
 Mann and others, is neither called for, nor sustained by sound 
 reasoning. The arguments adduced in its support are, as 
 we believe, inconclusive. The plausibility of some, arises 
 from considerations wholly irrelevant ; others are fallacious ; 
 and others still, are based upon false premises. 
 
 On the contrary, the reasons brought against the change, 
 
103 
 
 and in favor of the prevailing system, are of paramount im- 
 portance. Therefore, as conscientious and faithful servants in 
 the cause of education, we feel bound to adhere to the path of 
 duty, rather than yield to the opinions even of those who are 
 high in authority. 
 
 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE. 
 
 In remarking upon those parts of Mr. Mann's report, which 
 relate to school discipline, we shall attempt to show, that 
 having, in the commencement of his career, in behalf of 
 common schools, set out with the notion, that appeals to the 
 baser motives, can gradually be refined out of use, he has 
 steadily kept that idea before his mind ; always granting the 
 right, and the rare necessity of using corporal punishment, " in 
 the present state of society," and with the present corps of teach- 
 ers, but confidently expecting and ever predicting, as being 
 near at hand, the day of its total disuse; that by such a course, 
 he has been able to keep alive in the public mind, to some 
 extent, the belief that it may gradually disappear, as the sci- 
 ence of teaching advances ; and that at length, in his last report 
 especially, he seems, upon cursory examination, to present the 
 practical fruits and realization of this long-cherished notion, 
 by exhibiting the results of experience in certain schools 
 which he has visited abroad. 
 
 Two classes of these schools, we think, cannot properly be 
 compared with our common schools. The first, embracing 
 those which we shall denominate sanative schools, because 
 they are designed for the benefit of those individuals who are, 
 in some way, disabled or diseased, either physically, men- 
 tally, or morally ; the second, embracing foreign schools, 
 especially the Prussian, in which the school authority and 
 officers are wholly governmental, and independent of the 
 people ; while in this country, they are, and, by the spirit of 
 our institutions, must be, almost as directly, in the hands of 
 
104 
 
 the people. We shall admit that, in the first class of schools, 
 kindness is the appropriate, and should be the almost exclu- 
 sive means of influence. And we shall admit, in regard to 
 the second class, that awe for the strong arm of a government 
 beyond the control of the people, may enable judicious and 
 accomplished teachers to avoid, in a great measure, the 
 necessity of an actual appeal to force. 
 
 A third class of schools to which reference has sometimes 
 been made, though not in the report now under examination, 
 is the model schools connected with the Normal schools. 
 We shall argue that their results are unsatisfactory, being the 
 results of moral experiments, made under limited and con- 
 trolled, not to say, selected circumstances ; and shall venture 
 to advance the opinion, without meaning to imply any bad 
 faith, or want of sound sense in the experimenters, that they 
 are, from the nature of the case, in great danger of mistaking 
 particular cases for general rules, and supposing a theory 
 established, when it has been but partially tested ; so prone 
 are we, in moral subjects, to suffer our wishes to guide our 
 belief. 
 
 After having disposed of those cases which are set forth as 
 most forcibly illustrating the strength of unaided love, or, as 
 Mr. Mann expresses it, " the all but omnipotent power of 
 generosity and affection," in supporting law and order, we 
 shall attempt to show that all school order, like that of the 
 family and of society, must be established upon the basis of 
 acknowledged authority, as a starting-point; and shall en- 
 deavor to maintain, not only the right, but the duty to 
 enforce it, by an appeal to the most appropriate motives, 
 that a true heart and sound mind may select, among all 
 those which God has implanted in our nature ; preferring 
 always, the higher to the lower ; but rejecting none, which 
 circumstances may render fitting ; not even the fear of phys- 
 ical pain ; for we believe that that, low as it is, will have its 
 place, its proper sphere of influence, not for a limited period 
 merely, till teachers become better qualified, and society more 
 
105 
 
 morally refined, but while men and children continue to be 
 human ; that is, so long as schools and schoolmasters and 
 government and laws are needed. 
 
 Our first position, then, we think, will readily be admitted 
 by all, who have examined the subject carefully ; namely, 
 that, notwithstanding Mr. Mann's opinion in support of the 
 doctrine of corporal punishment, his avowal of which we 
 claim, his seventh annual report, no less than the general tenor 
 of his Common School Journal, is calculated, on the whole, 
 to beget in the mind of the reader, a total distrust in its effi- 
 cacy, under any, and all circumstances. He brings out into 
 the strongest light, all cases of its extravagant abuse, and, for 
 contrast, gives the most prominent relief to those successful 
 results which have been obtained entirely without it ; thus 
 instituting forced comparisons, which strike the mind more 
 by their effect of contrast, than by their just and apposite 
 analogies. 
 
 True, when he assumes the unwonted style of grave argu- 
 ment, he does indeed admit the necessity of a very rare resort 
 to it in extreme cases ; but even this bare admission, he makes 
 with an ill-concealed reluctance, and seems to regard such 
 necessity, not as inherent in the nature of things, but only as 
 a temporary evil ; he speaks of corporal punishment, as " a 
 relic of barbarism," fast disappearing, and tolerated any longer 
 upon the list of means, rather because teachers are incompe- 
 tent, than because pupils are incorrigible. Thus the whole 
 force of his rhetoric is aimed to bring, not merely the abuse of 
 the rod, but its legitimate use, into disrepute ; to give false im- 
 pressions of its real value, as a means of discipline ; and, 
 without unequivocally assuming to exclude it, to cast reproach 
 and odium upon all those who openly resort to it, or profess 
 any faith in its good effects. 
 
 We shall here present, as the ground of what we have 
 
 advanced in regard to Mr. Mann's position, some extracts 
 
 from the Common School Journal, embodying his own 
 
 opinions, and, as introductory to, or explanatory of these, we 
 
 14 
 
106 
 
 shall of necessity present a few, embodying the opinions of 
 others. 
 
 A writer over the signature P. C, addressing himself " to 
 females purposing to become teachers," holds the following 
 language. 
 
 " Teachers have greatly degraded their office, by consenting to 
 turn flagellators for the parish. It is a degrading, hateful office. 
 As you would respect the character of teacher, have nothing to do 
 with it ; " — " dismiss the refractory boy ; " — " there is great objec- 
 tion to turning boys into the street ; " — " but there is greater, in my 
 opinion, either to retaining them in school to the injury of others, or 
 to keeping them in subjection by the terror of the rod. The rod 
 poisons the very atmosphere of the schoolroom, and creates more 
 moral evil than can accrue from turning out a single pupil." — Com- 
 mon School Journal, Vol. III. p. 153. 
 
 The editor, after saying that, were the use of corporal pun- 
 ishment abolished, " greater curses would come in to supply 
 its place, and that instead of the one devil of the rod, which is 
 cast out, we should have the seven devils of anarchy, hasten- 
 ing in to take its place," remarks, 
 
 " Nor are we able to discover any principle or precept, that 
 would prohibit the use of punishment, in school, which, if carried -out 
 to its legitimate consequences, would not also prohibit it, in society. 
 Indeed, this is the abyss of folly into which the thorough and con- 
 sistent non-resistants blindly plunge." — Ibid. p. 154. 
 
 Here is a distinct avowal of the doctrine of physical punish- 
 ment, accompanied by an unanswerable argument in favor of 
 it ; an argument founded upon the palpable absurdity to 
 which its denial would lead. This is all very well ; the doc- 
 trine is admitted and defended. But, as introductory to the 
 above, he says, 
 
 "We are willing to concede to our friend, that the use of the rod, 
 in school, is twice cursed, — cursing him that gives, and him that 
 takes, — nay three times cursed, if he pleases, for it often leads the 
 inflictor and sufferer to curse each other." — Ibid. 
 
 Thus, in the preface to his argument, the practical applica- 
 tion of the very doctrine he defends, is crippled with more 
 than double cursing. 
 
107 
 
 Take another illustration of the same idea. The Committee 
 on Education, in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 
 appointed to consider the expediency of a law by which 
 school teachers shall have power to dismiss scholars from our 
 town schools, for bad behavior, in their report say, 
 
 " Though your committee think that this power is already pos- 
 sessed, they think at the same time, that it ought to be sparingly 
 used ; for those who are excluded from the privileges of a school 
 under its operation, are almost always such as most need them. A 
 wholesome discipline ought to be maintained ; and such measures 
 ought to be carried into effect, if possible, as would extend the 
 benefits of a school to all within its territorial limits. Legislation 
 cannot provide against all the evils that may chance to disturb a 
 public school, any more that it can reach all the troubles of an ill- 
 governed family." — Ibid, Vol. III. pp. 65, 66. 
 
 The editor, after cordially concurring in the opinion of the 
 committee, remarks, 
 
 " The candidates for expulsion will generally be turbulent, refrac- 
 tory scholars ; and these are the very ones who most need a subju- 
 gation to authority. If they defy the control of the teacher and 
 committee, when young, will they not bid defiance to society, and 
 the laws of the land, when old ? Suppose only one school in ten, 
 among all the schools in the State, should expel a scholar for muti- 
 nous conduct, or general bad behavior ; this would form a body of 
 more than three hundred expelled scholars ; or rather an army of 
 more than three hundred picked men, to carry on a guerilla warfare 
 against all the interests of society." 
 
 " The family, in the first instance, is the place where the bad 
 passions of children are to be brought into subjection. If not done 
 there, it becomes so much the more important that it should be done 
 in the school." — " We abhor corporal punishment, but we abhor the 
 halter and the State prison more ; and, in the present state of society, 
 it is our belief, that if the first be not sometimes used, the last must 
 be."— Ibid, Vol. III. pp. 66, 67. 
 
 Here again, is an excellent and conclusive argument ; and 
 had the matter been left thus, it would have been well settled. 
 But, in immediate connection, as if alarmed lest the force of 
 his own reasoning might prove fatal to his long-cherished 
 faith in the sufficiency of unaided love, he introduces the 
 usual accompanying safeguard and corrective to his argu- 
 
108 
 
 ment. With the decision of the Committee, in which he has 
 just concurred, and with his own admission even, " that if 
 corporal punishment be not sometimes used, the halter and 
 the State prison must be," fresh in his mind, he yet adds, 
 
 " The great desideratum is, to find teachers who can manage and 
 govern a school, without resorting to physical force ; if this is not 
 done, or cannot be done, then the next step is to prepare such teach- 
 ers, as fast as time will allow. But in the interim, the schools must 
 be continued." " We hold, therefore, that although cor- 
 poral punishment is a great evil, — and almost a shame to all parties 
 concerned in it, — yet that it is not the greatest of evils." — Ibid, p. 67. 
 
 Shame properly attaches to the guilty offender, not to the 
 inflicter of punishment, whose only legitimate object is, to 
 deter from guilty offending in future. We cannot refrain 
 from saying, in this connection, though it be thought " almost" 
 or even quite " a shame" for teachers to strive, by a whole- 
 some application of the rod in youth, to save their pupils 
 from the dungeon and the halter in maturer life, may the 
 day be distant, when New England teachers, forgetting the 
 stern virtue, and inflexible justice, and scorn-despising firm- 
 ness of the Puritan founders of our free schools, shall be 
 ashamed to incur such a false-called shame as this. May 
 their firmness of principle be commensurate, at least, with 
 their sensitiveness to reproach ; so that, however much they 
 may suffer in their feelings, from the contemptuous sarcasm of 
 those who denounce them as brutes and barbarians, they may 
 yet stifle feeling, and, listening rather to the dictates of con- 
 science and duty, be guided more by the fixed principles of a 
 true scriptural philosophy, than by the changeful notions of 
 fluctuating experimentalism. 
 
 But, to return to our subject. There stands the doctrine, 
 again well argued and maintained, unmoved and unmova- 
 ble ; and there too, stands the practice, disgraced and de- 
 graded, signalizing its followers, in the Hon. Secretary's 
 opinion, as the rear guard of retreating barbarism, and 
 sinking them to the level of brutes. Who, that thinks closely, 
 needs be told the tendency of all this? And yet, to the 
 
109 
 
 cursory reader, it is not so apparent. It is gravely hinted, at 
 least, that though, for the present, such violent measures must 
 be tolerated, for the want of teachers sufficiently skilful and 
 refined to do without them, yet the time is at hand, when ihe 
 search for those who can discipline their pupils entirely 
 without the rod, will not be in vain. " In the interim, the 
 schools must be continued." That is, the present incum- 
 bents, whose minds are dark, must be allowed to compromit 
 their dignity and honor, and bring shame upon themselves, 
 by what their vilifiers are pleased to call a needless appeal 
 to base and unworthy motives ; but their reign of terror is to 
 last, only till their more worthy successors shall be ripe and 
 ready for their places. 
 
 The preceding extracts are from the Common School 
 Journal, and exhibit the Hon. Secretary in the twofold rela- 
 tion of a defender of the doctrine of physical coercion, and 
 an opposer of its practical application. Hereafter, we shall 
 quote from his seventh annual report, where we may look in 
 vain, for any sympathy or support for either. 
 
 " I have seen countries, in whose schools all forms of corporal 
 punishment were used without stint or measure ; and I have visited 
 one nation, in whose excellent and well-ordered schools, scarcely a 
 blow has been struck for more than a quarter of a century. On 
 reflection, it seems to me that it would be most strange if, from all 
 this variety" — "of the discipline of violence and of moral means, 
 many beneficial hints for our warning or our imitation, could not be 
 derived." — Seventh Annual Report, p. 20. 
 
 " On reviewing a period of six weeks, spent in visiting schools in 
 the north and middle of Prussia and Saxony, I call to mind three 
 things, about which I cannot be mistaken." 
 
 Of these, the third, which is the only one pertinent to our 
 present purpose, is thus stated ; 
 
 "Though I saw hundreds of schools, and thousands, — I think I 
 may say, within bounds, tens of thousands of pupils, — / never saw 
 one child undergoing punishment, or arraigned for misconduct. I 
 never saw one child in tears from having been punished, or from 
 fear of being punished." — Ibid, pp. 132, 133. 
 
110 
 
 We readily concede that, for reasons which will hereafter 
 be considered, the occasions for using blows, or even harsh 
 words, in the schools here referred to, may be rare. But our 
 judgment, in regard to the degree of severity resorted to, in 
 these schools, compared with that exercised in our own, might 
 be better founded, if the Hon. Secretary had informed us, in 
 how many instances he has witnessed biotas, and angry 
 words, and tears, " during the time he has spent in visiting 
 schools " in this country. But the disuse, or even the infre- 
 quency of the punishment, cannot safely be inferred from the 
 fact, that no evidence of its occurrence was presented to a 
 distinguished visitor. It is the opinion of the best judges, 
 that punishments should generally be administered in private. 
 Teachers therefore do not make an exhibition of them. To 
 do so, would be unpleasant to themselves, unkind to their 
 pupils, and discourteous to their visitors. Should the Prus- 
 sian Minister of Public Instruction see fit to honor the 
 schools of this country, with a visit, we presume he would 
 not be shocked with a single exhibition of cruelty or anger. 
 The teachers, we doubt not, would find other means of enter- 
 taining him. And even if some thoughtless pupil should 
 need a word of caution, it might effectually be given, without 
 appearing to a stranger, and especially to a foreigner, as an 
 angry word. The mildest terms may portend dire conse- 
 quences to the disobedient. 
 
 Again, speaking of the Prussian teacher, the secretary re- 
 marks, 
 
 " The zeal of the teacher enkindles the scholars. He charges 
 them with his own electricity to the point of explosion. Such a 
 teacher has no idle, mischievous, whispering children around him, 
 nor any occasion for the rod. He does not make desolation of all 
 the active and playful impulses of childhood, and call it peace ; nor, 
 to secure stillness among his scholars, does he find it necessary to 
 ride them with the nightmare of fear." — Ibid, p. 135. 
 
 " The third circumstance I mentioned above, was the beautiful 
 relation of harmony and affection, which subsisted between teacher 
 and pupils. I cannot say that the extraordinary fact I have men- 
 tioned, was not the result of chance or accident. Of the probability 
 
Ill 
 
 of that, others must judge. I can only say that, during all the time 
 mentioned, I never saw a blow struck, I never heard a sharp rebuke 
 given, I never saw a child in tears, nor arraigned at the teacher's bar 
 for any alleged misconduct. On the contrary, the relation seemed 
 to be one of duty first, and then affection, on the part of the teacher, 
 — of affection first, and then duty, on the part of the scholar." — 
 Ibid, p. 137. 
 
 We like the structure and antithesis of that last sentence 
 very well ; but shall have occasion hereafter, to object to the 
 final clause, as containing an unsound theory. But further, 
 
 "I heard no child ridiculed, sneered at, or scolded,[for making a 
 mistake." — Ibid. 
 
 "No child was disconcerted, disabled, or bereft of his senses, 
 through fear." — Ibid. 
 
 " What person worthy of being called by the name, or of sustain- 
 ing the sacred relation of a parent, would not give anything, bear 
 anything, sacrifice anything, to have his children, during eight or ten 
 years of the period of their childhood, surrounded by circumstances, 
 and breathed upon by sweet and humanizing influences, like these ! 
 
 " I mean no disparagement of our own teachers, by the remark I 
 am about to make. As a general fact, these teachers are as good as 
 public opinion has demanded ; as good as the public sentiment has 
 been disposed to appreciate ; as good as public liberality has been 
 ready to reward ; as good as the preliminary measures taken to 
 qualify them would authorize us to expect. But it was impossible to 
 put down the questionings of my own mind, — whether a visiter could 
 spend six weeks in our own schools, without ever hearing an angry 
 word spoken, or seeing a blow struck, or witnessing the flow of 
 tears." — Ibid, p. 138. 
 
 How grateful should our brethren of the rod and ferule be, 
 for the generous admission, that they have done as well as 
 they knew how, and as well even as a benighted public 
 opinion would warrant ; and, as they retire into merited 
 banishment to give place to persons possessing those higher 
 qualifications, which an enlightened public sentiment and an 
 enlarged public liberality are to bring into requisition, it will 
 be some reward for their unblessed efforts, to call to mind the 
 gentle admonitions, the courteous advice, the kind instructions, 
 the encouraging aid, the respectful language, they have re- 
 cieved, from those who have led on the reform, and swept 
 
112 
 
 away their dynasty of misrule. Can we ever forget the soft 
 reprovings, by which these reformers have so often tried to 
 win us from the error of our ways ? But enough of irony, if 
 we may be pardoned for indulging in it even once. 
 
 A few more extracts, to give the subject a full hearing. 
 
 " In Holland, corporal punishment is obsolete. Several teachers 
 and school-officers told me, there was a law prohibiting it in all cases. 
 Others thought it was only a universal practice founded on a univer- 
 sal public opinion. The absence of the Minister of Public Instruction, 
 when I was at the Hague, prevented my obtaining exact information 
 on this interesting point. But whatever was the cause, corporal 
 punishment was not used. In cases of incorrigibleness, expulsion 
 from school was the remedy. 
 
 " One of the school magistrates of Amsterdam, told me, that, last 
 year, about five thousand children were taught in the free schools of 
 that city. Of this number, from forty to fifty were expelled for bad 
 conduct. This would be about one per cent." — Ibid, p. 160. 
 
 " The schools of Holland were remarkable for good order, — 
 among the very best, certainly, which I have any where seen." — 
 Ibid, p. 161. 
 
 We should think that an expulsion of one scholar in a 
 hundred, might establish tolerable order amongst the remain- 
 ing ninety-nine. This ratio of expulsion, would give, in the 
 city of Boston, about seventy-five outcasts annually. A 
 noble return it would be, for her munificent expenditure of 
 over two hundred thousands of dollars in public instruction, 
 to cast back upon her hands, unimproved, those very subjects, 
 the neglect of whose proper training, must inevitably endan- 
 ger the welfare of her citizens, and the safety of their property. 
 The community have a right to expect that the pupils of the 
 public schools shall be really taught and governed within 
 them ; and even the capital which is taxed for the support of 
 these schools, may justly claim that they inculcate in all the 
 young, and especially in those who are most exclusively 
 dependent upon them for instruction, and who most need it, 
 that respect for law, and order, and the rights of property, 
 which, more than any thing else, gives permanent value to 
 wealth. The public schools then, especially, are forbidden, by 
 
113 
 
 the true spirit not only of moral, but of civil and mercantile 
 law, to turn back their worst materials, unwrought, upon 
 society. 
 
 "In England, as there is no National system, nor any authoritative 
 or prevalent public opinion towards which individual practice natu- 
 rally gravitates, a great diversity prevails on this head. In some 
 schools, talent and accomplishment have wholly superseded corporal 
 punishment ; in others, it is the all-in-all of the teacher's power, 
 whether for order or for study. I was standing one day, in conversa- 
 tion with an assistant teacher, in a school consisting of many hundred 
 children, when, observing that he held in his hand a lash or cord of 
 Indian rubber, knotted towards the end, I asked him its use. Instead 
 of answering my question in words, he turned round to a little girl,— - 
 sitting near by, perfectly quiet, with her arms, which were bare, folded 
 before her and lying upon her desk, — and struck such a blow upon 
 one of them as raised a great red wale or stripe almost from elbow 
 to wrist ! " — Ibid, p. 163. 
 
 We are left in doubt as to the character of those schools In 
 which " talent and accomplishment have wholly superseded 
 corporal punishment ; " whether they were large or small, 
 high or low, public or private. At any rate, a wanton act of 
 violence like that just described, in whatever school it occurred, 
 could excite no feelings but those of unmingled indignation ; 
 and conclusively proved, that its author was totally unfit to be 
 trusted with power; but it has the same want of pertinency as 
 to the question of abolishing corporal punishment altogether, 
 that any argument, drawn from the abuse of a thing, has, 
 when adduced to show the necessity of its total disuse. 
 
 "We next proceed to consider, in their bearings upon the 
 general subject of school discipline, the results obtained, by 
 mild treatment wholly, in certain schools which we have 
 denominated sanative, because they are designed to heal and 
 restore to society those who, either from the misfortune of an 
 imperfect physical organization, as in the case of the blind, 
 and the deaf and dumb, or from some peculiar moral or social 
 debasement, privation, or disability, as in the case of the 
 pupils of the " Redemption Institute," are excluded from the 
 full enjoyment of its privileges. 
 15 
 
114 
 
 " The school of Mr. J. H. Wichern is called the ' Rauhe Haus,' 
 and is situated four or five miles out of the city of Hamburg. It 
 was opened for the reception of abandoned children of the very 
 lowest class, — children brought up in the abodes of infamy, and 
 taught, not only by example but by precept, the vices of sensuality, 
 thieving and vagabondry." — Ibid, p. 73. 
 
 No philanthropist can read, without emotions of heartfelt 
 gratitude, the account given of the influences of this institu- 
 tion. It is delightful to learn of the triumphs of unaided 
 Christian love, when acting in its proper sphere, which is " to 
 bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to ihe captives, 
 and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; " but 
 we err in expecting that the same agencies will produce similar 
 results, under circumstances which are widely different. 
 
 Now, whatever may be said of the needlessness of com- 
 pulsory, or retributive discipline, in institutions for the blind, 
 the deaf and dumb, the insane, the imprisoned for past crime, 
 and in charitable institutions for relieving the wants and bet- 
 tering the condition of the poor, and, in short, in all institu- 
 tions for elevating those who have become depressed below 
 the common level, either by misfortune or voluntary vice, it 
 can have but a very partial bearing upon the question of dis- 
 cipline, in our common schools. 
 
 The very condition of the unfortunate, is one of depen- 
 dence and privation. The feelings they naturally excite in 
 the mind, are those allied to compassion. And, on the other 
 hand, a sense of their own dependence, and of their necessary 
 indebtedness to those whose faculties and freedom are unim- 
 paired, naturally awakens in their minds, habitual emotions 
 of gratitude. Our relation to them, is essentially one of 
 sympathy with suffering; and their relation to us, one of 
 grateful dependence. Surely the occasions must be rare 
 indeed, for inflicting chastisement upon those, whose whole 
 life, compared with that of others, may be regarded as disci- 
 plinary ; they are subdued by the very condition of their 
 being. 
 
 It is to be regretted, that the Hon. Secretary could not pass 
 
115 
 
 from this subject, without giving another of his characteristic 
 thrusts, however far-fetched, at the crabbed and old-fashioned 
 disciples of Solomon. We merely quote the passage, and 
 leave it without comment. 
 
 V Who can reflect upon this history, where we see a self-sacri- 
 ficing man, by the aids of wisdom and Christian love, exorcising, as 
 it were, the evil spirits from more than a hundred of the worst 
 children whom a corrupted state of society has engendered ; — who 
 can see this, without being reminded of some case, perhaps within 
 his own personal knowledge, where a passionate, ignorant and per- 
 verse teacher," — " has been put in possession of an equal number 
 of fine-spirited children, and has, even in a shorter space of time, 
 put an evil spirit into the bosom of them all ? "-^Ibid, p. 8L 
 
 Though it may seem a digression, we shall here notice the 
 manner, in which the Hon. Secretary has compared the Ger- 
 man schools for deaf mutes, with common schools. 
 
 ** The success in teaching the deaf and dumb in Germany, and 
 the means by which it is accomplished, furnish some invaluable 
 hints in regard to the teaching of other children. 
 
 " 1. In teaching these children to speak, if difficult and complicated 
 sounds are given before easy and simple ones, some of the vocal 
 organs will be at fault, in regard either to position or motion ; and 
 if the error is continued but for a short period, false habits will be 
 acquired, which it will be almost impossible for any subsequent skill 
 or attention to eradicate. No uninstructed person, therefore, should 
 tamper with this subject. No one should attempt to teach the deaf 
 and dumb to speak who has not carefully read the best treatises upon 
 the art, or witnessed the practice of a skilful master. The effect of 
 false instruction in regard to the voice-producing muscles, furnishes 
 a striking analogy to that false mental instruction given by incompe- 
 tent parents and teachers, by which all the intellectual and moral 
 fibres of a child's nature are coiled and knotted into a tangle of 
 errors, from which they can never be wholly extricated even by a 
 life of exertion." — Ibid, p. 34. 
 
 Surely, " no one," we admit, " should attempt to teach 
 the deaf and dumb to speak, who has not carefully read the 
 best treatises upon the art." The wonder is, that they can be 
 taught to speak at all. Was there ever such an artificial 
 process of training ; such an extensive substitution of one 
 sense for another ? Besides being able to produce articulate 
 
116 
 
 sounds and modulated tones, without the faculty of hearing, 
 as a guide, think of a deaf mute's reading the language of 
 another, by watching with the eye the muscular movements 
 of his lips, and, what is far more astonishing, even doing the 
 same in the dark, by feeling those motions with his hand 
 placed upon the speaker's lips ! We know not that the history 
 of education furnishes such an example of the triumph of art, 
 over the defects of Nature. It equals, if it does not surpass 
 the triumphs of modern surgery, in furnishing new noses, 
 and artificial limbs, and false palates. The educator here 
 seems to take Nature into his own hands, and, therefore, 
 needs to be skilful, and to proceed in precisely the right way. 
 Wonderful, however, as are these results, they are by no 
 means new, nor have they been thought, by many of the 
 most competent judges, to possess sufficient value to repay one 
 for the laborious process, by which they must be attained.* 
 The deaf and dumb pupil, in learning to speak, must 
 
 * " About ten years ago, several of the institutions of the deaf and dumb 
 in Germany, were visited by the celebrated Degerando, than whom, no 
 man living is more capable of forming an intelligent opinion on this 
 subject, in company with one of the instructors in the Paris institution. 
 Among others, they visited the school at Gruund, which, perhaps, has no 
 superior in Germany. They report they gave is as follows: 'Truth com- 
 pels us to say, that the success of articulation is by no means general. Of 
 the thirty-three pupils, of the school at Gruund, two or three speak with 
 facility and surprising neatness. About the same number are unable to 
 speak intelligibly, and the great body articulate painfully, and often with 
 contortions, which it is distressing to witness.' f Dr. Milnor noticed the 
 same fact in England. In the latter country, it would appear, that teaching 
 the deaf and dumb to speak is going out of use. The more recent insti- 
 tutions prefer to direct their efforts towards making their pupils acquainted 
 with the English language, the store-house of knowledge, rather than 
 merely to teach them the power of articulation and reading on the lips." — 
 Mercantile Journal. 
 
 "Among other subjects of inquiry, Mr. Weld has been instructed to* 
 make a very critical and thorough investigation, with regard to the extent, 
 and degree of success, which attend the plan of teaching deaf-mutes to artic- 
 ulate, and in return, to understand those who speak to them. Every one, the 
 
 f Quatrieme circulairo de l'institut royal des Sourds-muets de Paris, p. 53. 
 
117 
 
 receive every item of guiding from his instructor. He cannot 
 proceed a single step without him ; nor can he judge of the 
 success of his own efforts ; having no test in his own con- 
 sciousness, by which to try his accuracy ; since he is devoid 
 of the very sense of perceiving sound. 
 
 If therefore, he is to produce definite sounds, significant of 
 thought, it must be, by imitating certain muscular movements 
 revealed to him through the medium of sight and feeling. 
 But that these movements do produce these sounds, he neither 
 knows, nor can know, of himself ; for this, he must rely en- 
 tirely upon the authority of his teacher. Now, the Hon. 
 
 least acquainted with the history of their instruction, knows that this has 
 been attempted, for a long course of years past, in some parts of Europe, 
 both by private teachers and at public institutions, and that greater or less 
 degrees of success have been claimed to be reached, in its practical 
 results, by those who have adopted it. It is equally well-known, also, that 
 its introduction into the schools for deaf-mutes, as a part of the system of 
 education, has been strenuously opposed by a great number of the most 
 distinguished teachers, and that it is not pursued at some of the most 
 prominent and successful European institutions. 
 
 It is proper, then, to inquire, whether the amount of its practicability 
 and usefulness may not be exaggerated ; whether those who adopt it are 
 not naturally led to make the most of it ; and whether from the force of that 
 prejudice which often attends the ardor with which a favorite object is 
 pursued, they may not overlook the great sacrifices in the other depart- 
 ments of the education of deaf-mutes, which the laborious and very tedious 
 process of teaching a certain portion of them to articulate, and to under- 
 stand those who speak to them, necessarily demands. 
 
 Hasty conclusions ought not to be formed on a subject which, to say the 
 least, has been matter of long and grave discussion among scientific 
 individuals, and practical instructors in Europe, and to examine which 
 thoroughly, so as to become acquainted with it in all its bearings, requires 
 much practical experience in the instruction of deaf-mutes ; a full and fair 
 comparison of the whole course of education, and its results, at those 
 institutions where articulation is taught, and at those where it is not; and 
 a vast deal more of careful scrutiny and patient investigation, than can 
 possibly be employed in a few short visits at a few of such schools." — 
 Twenty-eighth Report of the Directors of the American Asylum for the Deaf 
 and Dumb, at Hartford. 
 
118 
 
 Secretary, it seems, would have us think, that there is a 
 "striking analogy" between the effect of false instruction in 
 this process of teaching, and that of false mental and moral 
 instruction in forming the characters of the young generally. 
 Yet it seems perfectly plain that, in one case, the teacher's 
 efforts do every thing by a mechanical and artificial process, 
 the pupil blindly following, knowing nothing of his own 
 success, except from the testimony of his teacher ; while in 
 the other, that is, in imparting moral and mental culture, the 
 teacher's influence may be modified by a thousand varying 
 circumstances, both seen and unseen, external to the child, 
 and inherent in him, over which the teacher can exercise but 
 a very limited control. We can never say, in the moulding 
 of character, these are our materials, and these are our circum- 
 stances, and such and such will be our results. Education, 
 here, with all her boasted powers, must 
 
 "Learn to labor and to wait;" 
 
 leaving much, in faith, for the child to work out himself, with 
 fear and trembling. We have dwelt so long on this point, 
 because we think, that from such seeming resemblances, the 
 Hon. Secretary is prone to draw unsound conclusions him- 
 self, and thus to mislead others. But we proceed to consider 
 the second hint furnished by the success in teaching the deaf 
 and dumb. 
 
 " 2. After a few of the first lessons, it is ordinarily found that the 
 keenest relish for knowledge is awakened in the minds of the pupils. 
 They evince the greatest desire for new lessons, and a pleasure that 
 seems almost ludicrously disproportionate, in the acquisition of the 
 most trivial things. This arises, in the first place, from that appe- 
 tite for knowledge which nature gives to all her children ; and, in 
 the second place, from the teacher's arranging all subjects of instruc- 
 tion in a scientific order, and giving to his pupils, from the beginning, 
 distinct and luminous ideas of all he teaches. Were instruction so 
 arranged and administered, in regard to other children, we might, as 
 a general rule, expect similar results." — Ibid, pp. 34, 35. 
 
 Very much, indeed, depends, for the interest and progress 
 
119 
 
 of pupils, upon a judicious course of study, and proper classi- 
 fication. But no skill in the arrangement and adaptation of 
 instructions can insure to the teacher of a common school, 
 especially in a large city, that constant, eager attention, and 
 unabated thirst for knowledge, which seems to be here ex- 
 pected. His pupils hold fall communion with the external 
 world, independently of him. They have much knowledge 
 to acquire and more amusement, from their own cursory 
 observation, both by seeing and hearing ; and this facility of 
 intercourse, with whatever is about them, must endanger their 
 fixedness of attention to him. On the other hand, the teacher 
 of the blind, and of the deaf and dumb, is eyes to the one, and 
 ears to the other; of course then, they will naturally be atten- 
 tive to see and hear through him ; and this they may the more 
 easily do, since casual incidents cannot, from the nature of 
 the case, arrest their attention. We must remember, in 
 making comparisons, that circumstances alter cases. 
 But the third hint has more bearing upon our subject. 
 
 " 3. Perhaps no relation in life illustrates the necessity or the 
 value of love and confidence between teacher and pupil, more 
 strikingly than this. Conceive of a child placed before his teacher, 
 watching every shade of muscular motion with his eye, catching the 
 subtlest vibrations with his hand, and expending his whole soul in 
 striving to conjecture what muscles are to be moved ; and then sup- 
 pose the feeling of shame or mortification, of fear or fright, to be 
 superinduced, withdrawing all attention from eye and hand, choking 
 the utterance and paralyzing all the faculties ; and were the pupil to 
 remain in this state till he became as old as Methuselah, he would 
 never succeed in uttering even an elementary sound, — unless it 
 might be that of the interjection O ! Such, though to a less extent, 
 is the obstruction which fear, or contemptuous manners in a teacher, 
 opposes to the progress of all children." — Ibid, p. 35. 
 
 What a violent supposition ! Why imagine that any teacher 
 might wish to superinduce fear, or shame, or mortification, 
 under such circumstances, and without any possible reason 
 for it? Here seems to be a gratuitous attack upon the use of 
 fear and contempt and shame, as motives, where no one, 
 possessing a moderate share of judgment and humanity, 
 
120 
 
 would think of resorting to either. We complain of this 
 disposition, to render necessary but irksome measures, more 
 irksome and even odious, by thus dwelling upon and exag- 
 gerating their abuses. 
 
 We come now to consider briefly the Prussian schools. 
 In contrasting the school discipline of Prussia, with that of 
 our own country, we must keep in mind the difference in the 
 political institutions of the two countries. In Prussia, the 
 government is far removed from the control of the people ; 
 here, it is almost directly in their hands. In Prussia, the 
 schools are entirely regulated by the national government ; 
 here, all school regulations, appointments, and emoluments, 
 are decided by a body, created directly by the votes of the 
 people. There, the distance and awe of Monarchy, naturally 
 constrain old and young to habits of external courtesy ; here, 
 republican notions of freedom and equality discourage, too 
 much, perhaps, those outward expressions of respect, which 
 are due from the young to superior age and attainment. A 
 single extract will show the dignity and strong power of 
 Prussian school authority. 
 
 " Over all these intermediate functionaries is the Minister of Public 
 Instruction. This officer is a member of the king's council. He 
 takes rank with the highest officers in the government ; sits at the 
 council board of the nation with the minister of state, of war, of 
 finance, &c, and his honors and emoluments are equal to theirs." — 
 Ibid, p. 146. 
 
 " After a child has arrived at the legal age for attending school, — 
 whether he be the child of noble or of peasant, — the only two 
 absolute grounds of exemption from attendance, are sickness and 
 death. The German language has a word for which we have no 
 equivalent, either in language or in idea. The word is used in 
 reference to children, and signifies due to the school; — that is, 
 when the legal age for going to school arrives, the right of the 
 school to the child's attendance attaches, just as with us, the right of 
 a creditor to the payment of a note or bond attaches, on the day of 
 its maturity. If a child, after having been once enrolled as a 
 member of the school, absents himself from it ; or if, after arriving 
 at the legal age, he is not sent there by his parents, a notice in due 
 form is sent to apprize them of the delinquency. If the child is not 
 
121 
 
 then forth-coming, a summons follows. The parent is cited before 
 the court; and if he has no excuse and refuses compliance, the child 
 is taken from him and sent to school, the father to prison." — Ibid, 
 pp. 146, 147. 
 
 " One school officer of whom I inquired, whether this enforced 
 school attendance were acceptable and popular, replied, that the 
 people did not know any other way, and that all the children were 
 born with an innate idea of going to school." — Ibid, p. 148. 
 
 Here is the coercive power of school law, with a ven- 
 geance ! What need of paltry rod and ferule to deter a child 
 from infringing rules, the violation of which may lodge his 
 falher in a dungeon ! The high sheriff in our own court rooms, 
 needs not the terrors of the visible birch, to keep the boys in 
 order. " They '11 take you up," said a little boy to another, 
 who was climbing upon a stately gate, to pluck a tempting 
 flower ; and the little trespasser dropped, and scampered 
 home, with the fancied tramp of the police-man, sounding in 
 his startled ears ; and even the assurance of his father, scarcely 
 persuaded him that he was safe. Yet perhaps the same law- 
 less urchin, the next day, attempted to baffle his teacher's 
 efforts to subdue him with the rod, by the astounding threat, 
 " 1 1 11 tell my mother of you." So conscious are our children 
 of the supremacy and potency of parental protection, and so 
 little do they witness of the tyranny of law, that in scenes to 
 which they are accustomed, they are not easily alarmed. 
 Children are not awe-struck by the penalties of the school- 
 room, as they are by those of the civil code. They are 
 familiar with the teacher, and know the worst of him ; and as 
 they are not to be alarmed with images of a gigantic power 
 beyond the precincts of the school-room, they, whose fears 
 need to be addressed at all, may fortify themselves with the 
 conviction, that there is no great danger after all. They soon 
 learn that powder without balls cannot hurt them ; and as 
 there are no unseen and imagined terrors to awe them into 
 submission, we have no alternative but to present to their 
 senses, in tangible shape, the actual rod. 
 16 
 
122 
 
 In commenting upon the results of model schools, as affect- 
 ing the general question of school discipline, we shall admit, 
 that these schools, in some respects, bear a nearer resemblance 
 to our common schools, than do either the Prussian, or those 
 that we have denominated sanative. They are composed of 
 children having full possession of their faculties, and taken 
 from the people at large, promiscuously ; for we will not sup- 
 pose them culled. They are American schools, and that is 
 saying that they are filled with free-born pupils, who know 
 not the cramping trammels of political disfranchisement and 
 disability. They are maintained moreover, at the public 
 expense ; and yet they have not the same relation 1o the peo- 
 ple, that our common schools have. They may be said to 
 resemble slightly the Prussian schools, in being supported and 
 controlled by a remote power. Though they may not be 
 wholly paid for from the state treasury, they are yet regulated 
 by state authority, and are therefore independent of the peo- 
 ple in whose immediate neighborhood they may be located. 
 They are not, like the common schools, accessible, by neces- 
 sity, to all within certain territorial limits. They may there- 
 fore, say what you will, be more select in their character. 
 They are schools of wide fame ; state institutions, visited 
 from far and near, by fostering and refining influences ; novel 
 schools, and therefore popular ; pointed at as the patterns for 
 imitation ; model schools ; their very name is a douceur to 
 vanity. We think it will be conceded, on all hands, that 
 these schools are much less subject to disturbing influences, 
 than schools which are obliged to receive all the children of a 
 certain district, and to which such encouraging sympathies as 
 we have alluded to are seldom proffered. We should there- 
 fore be cautious in making their success, the measure of our 
 expectations in common schools ; and in supposing them 
 proper places for testing theories of general school discipline. 
 We cannot safely reason from the one, to the other. 
 
 Conclusions drawn from moral experiments must always be 
 extremely unsafe ; because numberless modifying circumstan- 
 
123 
 
 ces, greatly affecting the results, may not be known, much 
 less defined. In physics, experiment is a sure test. Nitrogen 
 and oxygen, combined in the proper proportions, form atmos- 
 pheric air ; and oxygen and hydrogen, water ; you can com- 
 bine your simples, and be sure of your compound ; all foreign 
 substances may easily be excluded from it. But as you 
 advance from mere inorganic matter to even vegetable life, 
 you must count upon your results with less of certainty. Of 
 two plants, apparently alike, and nurtured with equal care, 
 one may flourish, the other wither and die ; and for reasons 
 which you cannot explain. As you rise into animal life, the 
 difficulty increases. A young student in medicine having an 
 English patient laboring under a fever, allowed him chicken- 
 broth, and he got well. He made a memorandum in his 
 case-book, " chicken-broth cures a fever." He soon after had 
 a French patient, similarly sick ; the same prescription was 
 ordered, and he died. He then entered in his case-book, 
 " though chicken-broth cures an Englishman in a fever, it 
 kills a Frenchman." The young disciple of Galen did not 
 take into view quite all of the circumstances in the case. 
 
 As you advance still higher, from animal, to a study of 
 intellectual and moral existence, mere experiment, becomes 
 more and more, an unsatisfactory guide. While therefore, in 
 chemistry, and natural philosophy, we may safely infer a 
 general principle or rule from a limited number of facts, and 
 sometimes even from a single fact, yet in the science of 
 mind and ethics, it becomes us to use great caution in reason- 
 ing from a part to the whole. 
 
 Such then being the vague nature of moral reasoning, it is 
 the very region for self-deception ; the region in which the soul 
 is in danger of being led away from innate truth, by the be- 
 wildering sophistries of misapplied logic. A man's opinions 
 are a part of himself; the outward manifestation of his own 
 mind ; and if he is sincere and earnest, he will love them as 
 himself. Now self-love distorts the mental vision, so that 
 objects seen through that medium, being divested of their true 
 
124 
 
 proportions, present a false aspect. For this reason, the law 
 wisely presumes that no one can be a just judge in his own 
 cause. It also, without implying any venality or bad faith in 
 individuals, provides that near relationship to either party, 
 shall disqualify a man to sit in judgment ; and even that the 
 having expressed an opinion necessarily affecting the decision 
 of a case at issue, shall exclude a man from a jury. This 
 precaution is dictated by a true view of the short-sighted selfish- 
 ness ol human nature. It is equally philosophical to suppose, 
 that any theorist is in danger of taking partial and favoring 
 views of the operations of his own theories. 
 
 It is of the last importance then, that Normal schools should 
 be based upon sound principles of teaching and governing, 
 and a true philosophy of the human mind. For as they may 
 be engines of great good, and a means of valuable reform, 
 when thus based, so they may, on the other hand, become the 
 propagators and disseminators of false and subversive notions, 
 when guided by the partial views of an unsound philosophy. 
 He who teaches others, should be himself well taught. And 
 especially should those who teach teachers, and, a fortiori, 
 those who give law and expound doctrine to the teachers of 
 teachers, have their minds deeply imbued with truth ; and we 
 know not whence this truth is to be obtained, but from a close 
 introspection of our own internal modes of being, guided 
 through faith, by the Divine teachings of inspiration. Col- 
 lateral aid may indeed be derived from a close and searching 
 study of the elements of character, as they are developed and 
 manifested in the actions of others. We think we have 
 shown, however, that the last is not alone sufficient to settle 
 our conclusions. 
 
 We come now to consider the question, what is proper 
 school discipline, and upon what is it based ? The funda- 
 mental principles upon which it is established, are of more 
 importance than the details of any method for applying those 
 principles in practice. If our theory be sound, common sense, 
 rendered skilful by practical experience, will suggest the 
 
125 
 
 means best adapted to suit particular cases, without a descrip- 
 tion of those cases, infinitely varied as they must be. But, on 
 the other hand, if our theory be false, however many facts we 
 may bring to its support, it must work mischief in the main. 
 For the good which it seems to effect, in those instances that 
 do not fairly test it, is out-balanced by the evil it occasions in 
 those which do show its deficiencies. Besides, though good 
 may come out of evil, we are commanded not to " do evil 
 that good may come." We may indeed arrive at truth 
 through error ; still it is the truth, and not the error, which is 
 the vital principle of good. The idea we wish to advance is, 
 that we must not forsake the guidance of an internal light, 
 and infer too much from apparent results. 
 
 A ship with no compass may keep her way secure, when 
 near the shore, with beacon-lights and land-marks to guide 
 her. But at sea, with trackless water around her, and dark- 
 ness overhead, she is blind, without that inner light, to point 
 her to the pole and designate her path. The deceitful whirl 
 of external objects may make the north seem south, and east 
 seem west ; but a glance at the faithful needle banishes all 
 doubt and confusion, and, with adjusted helm, she in an 
 instant finds her track, and onward presses to her destined 
 port. Nature is the compass to guide us through the mazy 
 track of training childhood up to that condition of healthy 
 thoughtfulness and steady self-control, which should be the 
 destined aim of education. If we leave out from our philo- 
 sophy, any of the constituent elements of human nature, we 
 destroy the equilibrium, and well-balanced character cannot be 
 formed. We must take human nature as it is. Mr. Mann, 
 after describing what we consider the abuse of emulation in 
 one of the Pensions, or Boarding Schools, of Paris, says, 
 
 " It may be said that this has a good effect, because it searches out 
 the latent talent of the country, and suffers no genius to be lost 
 through neglect. But here, as every where else, the great question is, 
 whether the principle is right, for no craft of man can circumvent 
 the laws of nature, or make a bad motive supply the place or produce 
 the results of a good one." — Seventh Annual Report, p. 16'6. 
 
126 
 
 Surely nothing can circumvent divinely-ordained law. We 
 can neither by assertion and argument add to, nor by denial 
 and objection, remove from nature, a single element. Educa- 
 tion can neither create nor destroy ; but only develop and 
 construct character out of what previously exists, and all the 
 constituents of human nature may come in to help in the 
 formation of any individual character. In truth, all real 
 knowledge, and all real character, are from within. Educa- 
 tion, and in that term we include all reciprocal influences 
 whatever, education draws out from the individual, (as the 
 primitive word educo, to draw out, implies,) whatever intrinsic 
 results it produces. It is the occasion, and not the cause of 
 thought. It furnishes aliment as something foreign, which 
 the mind, by its own inherent energy, must digest and assimi- 
 late. Its office is to strengthen by exercise and culture, that 
 which is too weak, and to weaken by disuse and opposition, 
 that which is too active and strong ; to subdue the lower to 
 the higher principles, and to produce thus the most perfect 
 and harmonious whole. We trust the pertinency of these 
 remarks will appear, from the great importance which we 
 have urged, of taking human nature as it really exists, rather 
 than as our vain wisdom may, from partial and distorted 
 views, wish to make it. If we move all mind to action by an 
 appeal to one motive mainly, we distort character greatly ; if 
 we appeal to a few leading motives, we distort it, though 
 less ; if we adopt the principle of overlooking a single one 
 even, we may, and, in many instances, unquestionably shall 
 come short of the best results. Every thing is to be used as 
 not abusing it. Nothing is to be despised. Emulation, alone 
 or principally, for all minds, is very objectionable ; so is fear ; 
 so is sympathy ; so is the pride of intellect ; or the pride of 
 virtue. So are any or all of them combined, to the exclusion 
 of some other principle which as really exists as any of these; 
 for that one, whatever it may be, has its uses, and may 
 in certain individuals be the very one which needs strength- 
 ening. 
 
127 
 
 The following passage from an able writer,* fully expresses 
 our views on this subject. " The conclusion then to which 
 we come is — that it is not a question whether emulation is to 
 be admitted into schools, for it will exist there whether we 
 will or no. Non scripta ; sed nata lex ; quam non didicimus, 
 accepimus, legimus, verum ex natura ipsa arripuimus, hausi- 
 mus, expressimus ; ad quam non docti ; sed facti ; non insti- 
 tuti; sed imbuti sumus ; — that since nature has admitted its 
 existence we are to allow it ; but always to apply it where 
 most needed and to endeavor to combine it with higher 
 principles. Finally, to direct it only to worthy objects, and 
 teach it to submit to the regulations of a sagacious justice. In 
 a public school, every boy has a share of reputation, which 
 can be measured out to him with almost mathematic certainty; 
 let him take it and therewith be content. Within these 
 bounds emulation may fire the genius, {JEmulatio alit ingenia) 
 without inflaming the passions or corrupting the heart." 
 
 But upon what shall school discipline be based ? We 
 answer unhesitatingly, upon authority as a starting-point. As 
 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of divine wisdom, so 
 is the fear of the law, the beginning of political wisdom. He 
 who would command even, must first learn to obey. We 
 object then, as we have said we should, to the idea, that the 
 relation of a pupil to his teacher is one " of affection first, and 
 then duty." We would rather reverse the terms ; and though 
 this is Mr. Mann's language, we will quote his own authority 
 for reversing it, where he says of the German schools, 
 
 " Until the teacher had time to establish the relation of affection 
 between himself and the new-comer into his school, until he had 
 time to create that attachment which children always feel towards 
 any one who, day after day, supplies them with novel and pleasing 
 ideas, it was occasionally necessary to restrain and punish them." — 
 Seventh Annual Report, pp. 140, 141. 
 
 Another opinion of Mr. Mann's we are happy to quote and 
 respond to. 
 
 * Rev. Leonard Withington. Lecture on Emulation in Schools, before 
 the American Institute of Instruction, in 1833. 
 
128 
 
 " That there must be governors or rulers where there are commu- 
 nities of men, is so self-evident a truth, that it is denied only by the 
 insane. 1 ' — Ibid, p. 186. 
 
 And that implicit obedience to rightful authority must be 
 inculcated and enforced upon children, as the very germ of 
 all good order in future society, no one, who thinks soundly 
 and follows out principles to their necessary results, will pre- 
 sume to deny. Yet, it is quite offensive now-a-days to ears 
 polite, to talk of authority, and command, and injunction. 
 We must persuade, and invite, and win. Respect for law is 
 hardly sufficient to insure the infliction of its severer penalties. 
 Thus the restraining influence of fear is ineffectual where 
 most needed. Penalties, being too much dreaded by the inno- 
 cent, are, for that very reason, too little dreaded by the guilty; 
 who soon learn to avail themselves of the protecting shield 
 that overstrained mercy casts before them. 
 
 The present is an age remarkable for the ascendency of sym- 
 pathy over the sterner virtues. Kindness, powerful, overwhelm- 
 ing in its proper sphere, has assumed a false position ; has 
 stepped beyond the limits of ils legitimate control, and, having 
 wrought such mighty magic with human misery and guilt 
 through the benevolent labors of Howard, Fry, Dix, and a host 
 of others less widely known but equally deserving, seems almost 
 ready to be crowned the omnipotent regenerator of the race, 
 to purge the heart from sin and sanctify it unto holiness. But, 
 in our admiration of the efficacy of one agent, we must not 
 despise or overlook the value of others. Kindness cannot sup- 
 ply the place of authority, nor gratitude that of submission. 
 "We admit that the easiest, and where the doctrine of sub- 
 ordination is not questioned, the best way to gain a com- 
 pliance with our wishes is, to allure to it by kind treatment 
 and agreeable manners ; but we deny that such compliance is 
 any test of the spirit of obedience. True obedience is a hearty 
 response to acknowledged authority. It does not voluntarily 
 comply with a request, but implicitly yields to a command. 
 When the mandate has gone forth, obedience does not obtain, 
 
129 
 
 till the will of the subject is merged completely in the will of 
 the ruler. Sympathy may render obedience a pleasant act, 
 and indeed may alone produce a prompt compliance, when 
 simple authority would be powerless. Care should be taken 
 not to confound generosity with justice, voluntary consent 
 with unconditional surrender. External actions which are 
 alike, often spring from motives which are widely different, 
 and even opposite. Obedience recognises the existence of 
 abstract authority ; and all authority originates in the highest 
 source. St. Paul writes to the Romans, " Let every soul be 
 subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of 
 God ; the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever 
 therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." 
 It is here plainly shown to be the bounden duty of all, to 
 recognise and obey rightful authority wherever it exists in the 
 great chain, from the highest to the lowest; and distinctly as 
 authority ; not waiting for the dictates of inclination or feeling; 
 not demanding to know the reason of the command, as a 
 necessary condition of obedience ; but simply asking if it be 
 really the voice of rightful authority that speaks. On the 
 other hand, this duty on the part of the subject, clearly implies 
 an equal obligation on everyone in whom authority is vested, 
 firmly to maintain it, to insist upon obedience, and to accept 
 no substitute, unless he feels an honest necessity for doing so. 
 The ruler is to demand submission, not to himself, from a 
 feeling of personal superiority, but to the station he fills, from 
 a respect in his own mind for the abstract relation of order 
 and authority. His own right he may waive, " not rendering 
 evil for evil, but contrariwise blessing." But the authority 
 vested in the relation he sustains, he may not thoughtlessly 
 yield up ; it is not at his disposal. He governs not for his 
 own sake, but to teach obedience to others. The governed, 
 on his part, is not, from sympathy, and affection, and har- 
 mony of opinion, to obey the individual, but the authority 
 residing in him rather, from a sense of obligation. These dis- 
 tinctions are especially important, in dealing with children ; 
 17 
 
130 
 
 because they are apt to be led by caprice. Moreover, since 
 dependence is the distinguishing feature of childhood, the 
 kindred doctrine of unconditional subordination is more easily 
 taught, the earlier it is attempted. Probably few persons, who 
 have not noticed children expressly for the purpose, have dis- 
 covered what a modifying influence it has upon a child of 
 strong will, to establish in his mind the necessity of yielding 
 to the will of another. It is common to sneer at this idea of 
 subjugation, and to call it " breaking the will," and destroying 
 the free spirit; and we often hear the proud boast, "you 
 may coax, but you cannot" drive me." This means, I am 
 weak enough to be wheedled by your arts, but have not the 
 strength of purpose to subject my will to your authority ; in 
 other words, I acknowledge that my principle is the victim of 
 my feeling ; that it is safer to appeal to my caprice, than to 
 my good sense. We cannot do better than to quote here 
 from an eloquent writer* of the highest authority. 
 
 " The first step which a teacher must take, I do not mean 
 in his course of moral education, but before he is prepared to 
 enter that course, is to obtain the entire, unqualified submis- 
 sion of his school to his authority. We often err when de- 
 signing to exert a moral influence, by substituting throughout 
 our whole system persuasion for power ; but we soon find 
 that the gentle winning influence of moral suasion, however 
 beautiful in theory, will often fall powerless upon the heart, 
 and we then must have authority, to fall back upon, or all is 
 lost. I have known parents, whose principle it was, not to 
 require any thing of the child, excepting what the child could 
 understand and feel to be right. The mother in such a case, 
 forgets that a heart in temptation is proof against all argu- 
 ment ; and I have literally known a case where the simple 
 question of going to bed, required a parental pleading of an 
 hour, in which the mother's stores of rhetoric and logic were 
 exhausted in vain. Teachers sometimes too, resolve that 
 
 * Rev. Jacob Abbott. Lecture on Moral Education, before the American 
 Institute, in 1831. 
 
131 
 
 they will resort to no arbitrary measures. They will explain 
 the nature of duty, and the happiness of its performance, and 
 lead their pupils to love what is right without bringing in the 
 authority of arbitrary command. But the plan fails. How- 
 ever men may differ in their theories of human nature, it is 
 pretty generally agreed by those who have tried the experi- 
 ment, that neither school nor family can be preserved in order 
 by eloquence and argument alone. There must be authority. 
 The pupils may not often feel it. But they must know that 
 it is always at hand, and the pupils must be taught to submit 
 to it as to simple authority. The subjection of the governed 
 to the will of one man, in such a way that the expression of 
 his will must be the final decision of every question, is the 
 only government that will answer in school or in family. A 
 government not of persuasion, not of reasons assigned, not 
 of the will of the majority, but of the will of the one who pre- 
 sides." 
 
 Authority, then, is clearly the starting-point in all government; 
 the corner-stone of all order. Remove it, and the reign of 
 anarchy and chaos instantly succeeds. 
 
 "Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly, 
 Planets and suns run lawless through the sky ; 
 Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd, 
 Being on being wreck'd, and world on world, 
 Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod, 
 And nature trembles to the throne of God." 
 
 Let us beware, then, how we worship more advanced and 
 refined elements, to the exclusion of those, which, though 
 lower and of earlier development, are equally general and 
 primarily more important, inasmuch as they are the first to be 
 recognised. The doctrine of allegiance and subjection to that 
 which is above us, is the central essence of all real order. 
 We may unconsciously deny it, and practically oppose its 
 claims, and it is the dictate of human pride and weakness to 
 do so ; but before we can really and understandingly, and in 
 
132 
 
 full view of all our relations and destinies, renounce the doc- 
 trine of unconditional submission to that which we feel to be 
 rightful authority, we must declare an individual indepen- 
 dence, and take for our motto, 
 
 " Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." 
 
 It being conceded, however, that authority must not be 
 denied, a beautiful plan is contrived for escaping its exercise, 
 by adroitly evading all occasions for its use. Always tell 
 children to do what they like to do, and you will not need 
 authority. In this way, at least, it may become obsolete. 
 The secretary remarks, 
 
 " Take a group of little children to a toy-shop, and witness their 
 out-bursting eagerness and delight. They need no stimulus of badges 
 or prizes to arrest or sustain their attention ; they need no quickening 
 of their faculties by rod or ferule. To the exclusion of food and 
 sleep, they will push their inquiries, until shape, color, quality, use, 
 substance both external and internal, of the objects, are exhausted ; 
 and each child will want the show-man wholly to himself." — 
 Seventh Annual Report, p. 136. 
 
 This may be quite pretty while the novelty lasts. But how 
 can each child have the show-man wholly to himself? Indeed, 
 it would not be strange, considering the peculiarities of chil- 
 dren, even those of a large growth, if each one should want 
 the prettiest toy to himself. We should pity the hapless wight, 
 whose office it might be to decide the momentous question of 
 preference between them, especially if they had never learned 
 any thing but how to be amused. However true it may be, 
 that a thing ceases to amuse when it ceases to instruct, the 
 reverse surely is not true, that there can be no instruction 
 without amusement. Education should indeed aim to give 
 us the art of making an amusement of our business ; but it 
 should warn us against the fatal error of attempting to make 
 a business of our amusements. Since its influences are 
 artificial and reforming, it does not merely follow impulses 
 and inclinations, but chiefly resists, and corrects, and trains. 
 Though neccessarily relying upon nature, it is not to be 
 
133 
 
 wholly passive, but to strengthen, and modify, and improve 
 nature. Its legitimate sphere is, to help nature follow out the 
 processes of art, to profit by past experience, and to train the 
 mind to investigate principles and resolve things into their 
 constituent elements. The school is to fit us for the world ; 
 and life is more a season of discipline than of amusement. 
 Discipline is the rule ; pleasure the exception. The present 
 president of Geneva College* once observed, 
 
 " Let it be remembered, that the most attractive is not 
 always the most useful study. ' Nil sine magno vita labore 
 dedit mortalibus.' It is in study, as in trade, — we get nothing 
 for nothing. We must make sacrifices and efforts for valua- 
 ble attainments. Use — laborious use, must give vigor to our 
 intellects, if we would make ' men understanding.' ' "What 
 young men require,' says an eloquent living philosopher,! 
 'are books learned and profound, and even somewhat diffi- 
 cult ; that they may be accustomed to encounter difficulties, 
 and that thus they may serve their apprenticeship to labor and 
 to life; but it is really a pity to distribute to them, in the 
 most reduced and slightest form, a few ideas without any 
 real substance, communicated in such a manner, that a boy of 
 fifteen years of age may learn the little book by heart in a day, 
 may be able to recite it from beginning to end, and thus be 
 induced to believe that he is not ignorant of humanity and of 
 the world. No, men of energetic minds are formed by ener- 
 getic studies.' But if pupils are put upon the study of some- 
 what difficult books, another question arises of special im- 
 portance to the teacher, how he may awaken their interest and 
 excite them to the requisite exertion ; — and this question ap- 
 pears to me more important than any one, which belongs to 
 the mere technical part of instruction. An excited mind dis- 
 dains difficulties, and in overcoming them acquires new 
 
 * Benjamin Hale, D. D. Lecture on Natural Philosophy, before the 
 American Institute of Instruction, in 1833. 
 
 f Cousin. Linb erg's translation, p. 357. 
 
134 
 
 power and confidence ; and the teacher accomplishes more 
 for the benefit of his pupil, if he excites him to surmount an 
 obstacle by his own efforts, than if he makes him an inclined 
 plane and a rail-road, and lands him so gently on the other 
 side, lhat he knows not where it was." 
 
 It may strike some as singular, and yet it is perfectly philo- 
 sophical, that while truth, though containing many seeming 
 paradoxes, has no real ones, error, on the contrary, though 
 appearing to have none, does in reality contain many. For 
 instance, those who have the most faith in education and ex- 
 pect from it the most wonderful results, forget, in iheir self- 
 gratulation on what has been achieved, how gradual and toil- 
 some has been the process of its achievement; and flatter 
 themselves that they may bring others to the same high attain- 
 ments, without so much expense of labor and discipline. 
 They therefore attempt to leave out of education, that very- 
 artificial training which constitutes essentially the whole of it; 
 and at the moment when they claim to be independent of 
 nature, come back to follow almost entirely her mere inclina- 
 tions ; to lean upon the experience of others, to notice merely 
 the superficial relations of things, and to trust for knowledge to 
 the easy process of cursory observation. Now this propensity 
 to observe without analysis, nature provides for without any 
 artificial aid. Indeed, it predominates in children and savages ; 
 while in its most external form, which is mere physical vision, 
 it possesses in some beasts and birds of prey a keenness and 
 quickness which seem almost magical. The deception may 
 be explained, perhaps, upon the principle, that as the forms 
 of knowledge and thought become abundant and widely 
 diffused, they are mistaken for the reality ; and imitative 
 rehearsal of words is taken as evidence that the ideas they 
 are intended to represent are fully comprehended. It is for- 
 gotten, that to skim the surface adroitly shows an incapacity 
 and disrelish for looking far beneath it. That the paradoxes 
 of truth are apparent, and those of error real, should establish 
 
135 
 
 in our minds the consoling conviction, that while truth is im- 
 mortal, error contains the seeds of its own dissolution. 
 
 It being admitted, then, not only that authority must be 
 recognised to exist, but also that there will be occasions 
 for calling it into active use, we are brought at once to the 
 evident necessity, in case of resistance or non-compliance, 
 either of abandoning it, or providing ihe means of enforcing 
 it by actual compulsion. In instances iherefore, where, either 
 from the peculiar condition of the subject, or the degree of 
 temptation, the spirit of opposition is too strong to be over- 
 ruled by those higher and more refined motives upon which 
 we should always rely when they are active, we are left with- 
 out resource unless we appeal to fear. Now the lowest kind 
 of fear has for its object physical pain. It is this that prompts 
 us, in the earliest stages of our development, to the use of 
 care to protect ourselves from harm. Deprive a child of the 
 fear of receiving injury, and, if he were allowed freedom of 
 action, his physical existence even, would be constantly en- 
 dangered. We see then how indispensable is this sentiment, 
 at that early age, to preserve one safe till the period arrives 
 when he will be fitted for the exercise of those of later devel- 
 opment, and which as life advances are to connect him with 
 higher and wider relations. In seeking to promote the wel- 
 fare of a whole, we must have reference to all its parts ; and if 
 it is in its nature progressive, we must deal with each element 
 at the proper time of its development, and to such a degree as 
 the case demands. We must begin at the foundation and 
 work step by step along, keeping as far as possible the end in 
 view, but always adapting our means to present conditions. 
 The loftiest and most beautiful edifice owes its firm and 
 steady position to much deep and toilsome digging into the 
 unsightly earth. In the construction of character too, we may 
 come in contact with much that is irksome and vexatious ; 
 yet we must not pass from it slightly ; it forms the basis of 
 our future structure. Now, as iu the former case the founda- 
 tion-stones are more securely, as well as more easily laid, 
 
136 
 
 while the weight of the superstructure is not pressing upon 
 them, so in the latter, the first principles, among which, if not 
 beneath all, is that of subordination to authority, are more 
 easily established, while those that are afterwards to constitute 
 the more visible adornments, exert but little active force ; here 
 too, future beauty and usefulness depend upon a sure and 
 good foundation. The fear of doing wrong is compatible 
 with, if not inseparable from, the most dauntless courage to 
 do right. Since, then, fear is most predominant in childhood, 
 being the natural concomitant of weakness and dependence, 
 we should take advantage of it, and make it subservient to 
 good ends. 
 
 But if we admit the use of fear to secure obedience, we 
 must consequently admit the use of punishment ; for nothing 
 can exist in an active state without an object upon which to act. 
 Thus, there can be no fear of that, in the existence of which 
 there is no belief. Here, then, we arrive conclusively at the 
 decision of the great question at issue ; namely, that the doc- 
 trine of the use of physical punishment has its foundation in 
 nature and necessity. 
 
 Before proceeding any further, we wish, in order not to be 
 misunderstood, to restrict the word punishment to its proper 
 signification ; namely, the legitimate infliction of a penalty for 
 wrong-doing, with a view to promote the good, either of the 
 individual upon whom it is inflicted, or the general good of 
 the community of which he forms a part, and to whose wel- 
 fare as a whole, his own must be, in some sense, subservient. 
 All capricious and vindictive acts of violence, therefore, under 
 the name of punishment, we set aside as foreign to our sub- 
 ject ; inasmuch as they constitute the abuse, rather than the 
 use, of what we defend. 
 
 We anticipate the most difficulty, in showing the connection 
 that necessarily subsists between the physical and the moral ; a 
 connection which must be admitted, since we have both a physi- 
 cal and moral nature. So far as we have become acquainted 
 with the objections of those who deny, in all cases, the good 
 
137 
 
 effects of the rod, and of course the moral right to use it, even 
 in the family, (for there are a few such,) we have found them 
 to contain one or both of these two general ideas ; namely, first, 
 that mutual love is the only governing law of our nature, and 
 therefore alone sufficient to sway any individual who has not 
 been impregnated with evil from without ; and second, that 
 whether our nature be originally simple, or composed of two 
 opposite moral elements, physical compulsion not only is not 
 immediately productive of moral obedience, but has no ten- 
 dency directly or indirectly to lead to it; in other words, that 
 means in ihemselves physical cannot produce moral results. 
 We will say no more of the palpable absurdity of denying a 
 connection that we cannot comprehend, than to ask, if all 
 mutual influences, both intellectual and moral, are not exerted 
 by the mediate agency of some physical sense ? Of what use 
 are speaking and writing and acting, if moral and intellectual 
 impulses can as well be made without their intermediate use? 
 We may as well abjure our physical nature at once and deny 
 that we are in the body. But the most singular paradox, in 
 regard to these Utopian theorists, is that they seem uncon- 
 sciously to worship what ihey most abjure. While they 
 profess to elevate themselves above the region of physical in- 
 fluences, and to scorn their control, it is this very physical 
 organization that they appear most anxious to protect from 
 outrage. They seem willing to forego that sound moral and 
 intellectual training, which they so fully appreciate and so 
 truly prize, rather than to receive it, through the degradation 
 of that lower nature which they affect to despise. They for- 
 get that the susceptibilities of a lower nature are properly 
 subservient to the noble purpose of developing and perfecting 
 a higher ; the integrity of the soul is to be maintained at the 
 expense of the suffering of the body. In thus denying the 
 existence and use of any thing base in ourselves, we are left 
 at last, in our efforts to maintain the purity of the whole, to 
 identify our dignity with the most external part of our nature. 
 We have here another instance of the self-destroying tendency 
 18 
 
138 
 
 of error. We see how extremes meet ; and that they who 
 seek to rise upon false principles, are sure to fall. 
 
 Punishment is of various kinds. It may be a look only ; 
 it may be a word more or less severe ; or it may be a priva- 
 tion ; or a task ; or a restraint upon personal liberty ; or a pecu- 
 niary forfeiture ; or a blow. Whatever it be, it must be disa- 
 greeable to the receiver, in order to constitute it punishment. 
 Being not persuasive, but compulsory and retributive, it is at 
 first regarded and treated as an enemy ; it thus finds the 
 whole nature in a state of rebellion, and inclined to resist ; 
 consequently the infliction of the penalty is immediately fol- 
 lowed by the vexation and chagrin arising from offended 
 pride ; the necessity of yielding ; the mortification of being- 
 conquered. Thus far nothing has been done but to develop 
 and bring to light latent evil, and reveal it more clearly to ihe 
 consciousness of its possessor ; but the final good is not yet 
 attained. At length the unpleasant scene is past ; the pain 
 subsides; the blinding influence of passion ceases ; the quick 
 instinct of self-defence settles into quiet calmness ; and after a 
 hasty attempt at self-justification, succeed reflection, deliberate 
 thought, unwonted self-examination, and finally, if all is right, 
 conviction of wrong-doing, sincere humiliation, repentance ; 
 which is the true moral fruit. " No chastening for the present 
 seemeth to be joyous, but grievous ; nevertheless, afterward it 
 yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which 
 are exercised thereby." We see here the true moral of the 
 scourge. We see here how one person, duly responsible 
 for using means to advance the welfare of another beneath 
 him, inflicts physical evil to produce moral good ; the 
 act is evil in relation to the physical nature merely, but 
 good in relation to the moral. Now since by the law of 
 precedence, the former is verged in the latter, the violence of 
 the act is only apparent ; it is really a moral act, as it springs 
 from a moral motive in the doer, and aims at a moral result 
 in the subject. It is too common to speak of corporal punish- 
 ment as violence and outrage. But it is as much an abuse of 
 
139 
 
 language, as it would be to call it an act of outrage to rouse an 
 invalid from a refreshing sleep, in order to save him from 
 being consumed by the flames. A contest between two for 
 mastery, where neither has the right to rule, is an exercise of 
 brute force, and may properly be called violence and outrage. 
 But the true use of the rod, so far from being similar to this, 
 is its direct opposite. It aims to prevent violence, by teaching 
 the necessity of subjection. Physical coercion is but the final 
 appliance of moral suasion ; a means of arousing the atten- 
 tion to those expostulations which should always precede? 
 accompany, or follow it, and of thereby saving them from being 
 disregarded. 
 
 Indeed, all government must end, if need be, in a resort to 
 physical force. This idea is so beautifully and strongly illus- 
 trated by a writer already quoted, that we cannot refrain from 
 borrowing his thoughts again. Mr. Abbott says, 
 
 " The government of the United States employs its hun- 
 dreds of workmen at Springfield and at Harper's Ferry in the 
 manufacture of muskets. The inspector examines every one 
 as it is finished, with great care. He adjusts the flint — and 
 tries it again and again until its emitted shower of sparks is of 
 proper brilliancy, — and when satisfied that all is right, he 
 packs it away with its thousand companions, to sleep proba- 
 bly in their boxes in quiet obscurity forever. A hundred 
 thousand of these deadly instruments form a volcano of 
 slumbering power, which never has been awakened, and 
 which we hope never will. The government never makes 
 use of them. One of its agents, a custom-house officer, waits 
 upon you for the payment of a bond. He brings no musket. 
 He keeps no troops. He comes with the gentleness and 
 civility of a social visit. But you know, that if compliance 
 with the just demands of your government is refused, and the 
 resistance is sustained, force after force would be brought to 
 bear upon you, until the whole hundred thousand muskets 
 should speak with their united and tremendous energy. The 
 government of these United States is thus a mighty engine, 
 
140 
 
 working with immense momentum, but the parts which bear 
 upon the citizens conceal their power by the elegance of the 
 workmanship, and by the slowness and apparent gentleness 
 of their motion. If you yield to it, it glides smoothly and 
 pleasantly by. If you resist it, it crushes you to atoms. Such 
 ought to be the character of all government." 
 
 The responsibilities then, of parents, and guardians, and 
 teachers, with such powers in their hands, are momentous. 
 We here clothe the teacher with parental authority, not only 
 because he stands in loco parentis by consent of law and 
 common opinion, but because we know not how else to regard 
 him. We admit that the teacher's authority is naturally de- 
 rived from the parent. But to refer all the petty punishments 
 of little children to the parents, besides being impracticable, 
 would imply want of confidence in the teacher, and weaken 
 the tie that binds him to the pupil. Moreover, without reliev- 
 ing the. teacher, it would impose upon the parent a task that 
 does not belong to him ; and needlessly tempt the child to 
 misrepresent his case. There is much sound philosophy in 
 the old-fashioned threat, " If I know of your being whipped 
 at school, I '11 whip you again when you get home." This 
 firm support of the teacher has a far better effect upon the 
 child, than the opposite course of listening to complaints and 
 nurturing in his mind disaffection and distrust. It begets 
 parental interest in the teacher, and filial affection in the pupil. 
 Teachers ought to be worthy of such support and confidence. 
 Indeed, worthy or unworthy, we cannot help trusting them, if 
 we commit our children to their care. They will make their 
 own " mark upon them," if they make any, guard their influ- 
 ences as we may. Children will, at least so far as their own 
 susceptibilities favor it, and to some extent despite of them, 
 imbibe the real sentiments of their teachers. For, though like 
 men and women they are immediately influenced and con- 
 trolled by superficial manner, they have much discrimination 
 of motive. How important, then, that both parents and teach- 
 ers should be faithful and true, not only as regards instruction, 
 
141 
 
 but discipline ; faithful to counsel, and reprove, and punish 
 even. If a child is beset with temptation that is likely to 
 prove too strong for him, how cruel, from indolence, or fear 
 of offending, or a perverse and doting fondness for some 
 mild theory, to abandon him as its victim ; when a little reso- 
 lute exercise of authority would restore his mind to its bal- 
 ance, and strengthen his power of self-conlrol. Is our ward 
 hungry, let us feed him ; is he disconsolate and depressed, let 
 us comfort and encourage him ; is he struggling with the 
 raging violence, or the sullen obstinacy, or the cool determina- 
 tion of an indomitable will, let us help him all in our power 
 to resist and control it. As the rightful depository of authority 
 in such a case, we are false to our trust if we do not fulfil the 
 relation we sustain between God and our charge, and use all 
 reasonable means in our power to inculcate the most impor- 
 tant lesson of life. Remember the judgments that came upon 
 Eli, " because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrain- 
 ed them not." 
 
 In conclusion, we cannot but believe that the Hon. Secre- 
 tary himself, in his zeal for a theory, is unconscious what 
 thrusts he has made at the whole body of professional teach- 
 ers ; for many of his strictures are general. We do not object 
 to a proper and dignified course of criticism, or even censure. 
 If teachers need discipline, let them have it ; if rightly received 
 it will, according to our theory, do them good. Only let it 
 proceed from a good motive, be properly applied, and have a 
 worthy object. If abuses exist, let those who commit them 
 answer for it. Let reform be attempted by representing things 
 in their true light, without overstating them. Loose declama- 
 tion and wanton ridicule have a tendency to retard rather than 
 to help forward reform. Distorted pictures, abounding in 
 exaggerated coloring, may indeed produce a striking effect 
 upon the cursory observer, but they tend to mislead the mind 
 and corrupt the taste. While teachers hold their office let 
 them be treated with the respect that is due to the station. 
 The tendency of undermining their authority is well set forth 
 
142 
 
 in the following extract from the report of the school commit- 
 tee of Westborough, 1838-9. 
 
 " It is a loose, or rather a false notion, respecting the authority with 
 which the law of common sense, as well as the statute, invests the 
 teacher, viz., an impression that he has no right to enforce obedience, 
 — which, more often than any thing else, occasions the necessity of 
 any violent or physical measures, to secure obedience. When the 
 pupil, who has violated the wholesome regulations imposed upon the 
 school, is called to account for his disobedience, he sometimes feels 
 aggrieved and disgraced ; his dignity is insulted by such an infringe- 
 ment of his right of self-control ; and he immediately assumes the 
 altitude of defence, and resistance of authority. He stands upon his 
 rights, and claims the privilege of doing as he pleases in school. He 
 comes to school to learn, not to he governed. Now if such a spirit 
 of anti-government receive the countenance of — if it be not frowned 
 upon by — the parent or guardian, the authority of the teacher is 
 nullified, and disorder and confusion are introduced into the school. 
 And if the teacher still asserts his authority, and because his school 
 is but one body, claims that it shall be no monster, and therefore 
 shall have but one head, he maintains authority at the expense of the 
 love of the governed, so essential to improvement, and is denominated 
 a tyrant. 
 
 " But let every child enter the school-room with the indelible im- 
 pression from his parent, that the authority of the teacher is necessary, 
 and right, and legal, and must and will be sustained ; let the parent 
 require, on pain of his own displeasure, as if he had himself been 
 disobeyed, that his child shall submit to all the regulations of the 
 school, and that no infraction of them can be countenanced or palli- 
 ated ; and this impression would forestall all necessity of that rigid, 
 despotical authority, and those severe penalties, which, without it, are 
 often indispensable. No teacher would maintain a despotism, but in 
 peril of the greater evil of anarchy. But he is sometimes compelled 
 to rule with a rod of iron, because his pupils have imbibed the 
 notion that he has no right to rule at all. 
 
 " If a teacher abuse the authority vested in him, there is always a 
 remedy. But to make such abuse the occasion of infusing into the 
 mind of the child the mania of anti-government, or the idea that he 
 may resist any authority which lie may deem exorbitant, instead of 
 remedying, aggravates the evil. Instead of removing abuse, it de- 
 stroys all wholesome government." — Common School Journal, Vol. 
 11. pp. 15, 16. 
 
 We respond heartily to such sentiments as these. There is 
 no surer way to diminish the amount of punishment in 
 schools, than to give countenance and support to the teacher. 
 But we tremble for the effect of those misguided notions 
 
143 
 
 which make corporal punishment synonymous with brutality ; 
 the prevalence of which has sometimes been evinced in news- 
 paper paragraphs, and placards, and petitions for restraint upon 
 the use of the rod. We cannot bat hope, however, that such 
 scenes as have been enacted in Philadelphia will warn the 
 public against the dreadful tendency of resisting legal force. 
 When we once violate a principle it is impossible to know 
 where the consequences may end.* Philadelphia, the city of 
 Brotherly Love ! how sadly has she illustrated the danger of 
 elevating sympathy above justice. We forsake authority be- 
 cause we dislike its sterner aspect, and side, perhaps uncon- 
 sciously, with anarchy. Rather than arm the law with execu- 
 tive terrors to resist and subdue the guilty, we leave to the 
 cruel mercy of lawless violence the lives and property of the 
 innocent. Thus, shrinking from necessary evils, we plunge 
 into greater and worse ones which might have been shunned. 
 Says Mr. Mann, 
 
 " — the pensioned advocates of despotism stand, with listening ear, 
 to catch the first sound of lawless violence that is wafted from our 
 shores, to note the first breach of faith or act of perfidy amongst us, 
 and to convert them into arguments against liberty and the rights of 
 man. There is not a shout sent up by an insane mob, on this side of 
 the Atlantic, but it is echoed by a thousand presses and by ten thou- 
 sand tongues, along every mountain and valley on the other." — 
 Seventh Annual Report, pp. 197, 198. 
 
 * "A most unpleasant circumstance in the late riots at Philadelphia, was 
 the presence of a great number of large boys, who seem to have been 
 among the most active of the rioters. This would doubtless be the case, 
 to a considerable extent, anywhere, but it seems to have been particularly 
 so in Philadelphia. A curious inquiry might be made, as to how far this 
 unpleasant circumstance was caused by the mode of discipline adopted in 
 the public schools of that city, which, if we are rightly informed, is pecu- 
 liar. We understand that no punishment is allowed in the public schools, 
 but that the scholars who deserve it are dismissed, and thus thrown idle 
 into the streets, unless sent by their parents to private schools. This 
 places a mass of boys, of the most unpromising character, in the position 
 of all others where they will be sure to grow worse, to develop their own 
 bad propensities, and to corrupt their associates. (If we are misinformed 
 as to the fact, some of our Philadelphia friends can correct us.")— Provi- 
 dence Journal of July 25. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 019 878 248 8 
 
 144 
 
 What responsibilities do these thoughts suggest. How 
 careful should men of influence be to guard against encoura- 
 ging that excessive love of freedom which can brook no re- 
 straint. Those who know not how to be governed, are surely 
 incapable of that self-government which is the very essence of 
 freedom. If children are brought up with the notion that ihey 
 are never to be restrained by force, they are in great danger of 
 becoming the victims of lawless and ungovernable passions. 
 
 We have to say, finally, that as we came forward reluctant- 
 ly to the task of publicly expressing our dissent from some of 
 the sentiments advanced, and plans of teaching proposed by 
 the Hon. Secretary, in his Report, we take leave of the sub- 
 ject with the satisfaction which springs from the conscious- 
 ness of having discharged a duty which we owed alike to 
 ourselves, to the public, and to him. Though it has cost us 
 much time and labor, time that was due to relaxation from 
 the severe toils of the school-room, and labor that we were ill 
 able to bear, we shall be happy if what we have said may be 
 humbly instrumental in advancing the important cause of 
 
 SOUND POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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 019 878 248 8 • 
 
 Hollinger Corp. 
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