e ■^o < ^^' ^-^, ^^ <^°^0' ■^"' .\^ ^^ "oo 3 N ° %f ^ -^^ ' O hO xO°^ d EDUCATION REFORM. REVIEW OF WYSE ON THE NECESSITY OP A NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION, COMPRISING THE SUBSTANCE OF THAT WORK, SO FAR AS RELATES TO COMMON SCHOOL AND POPULAR EDUCATION, r^ToF ^l^B. F. FOBTE '^ U.S.A. u S NEW-YORK: WILEY AND PUTNAM, 161 BROADWAY. 1837. ^ •-»-'^ V J 1;S'. ^\y\ iXW \ '^' -~> "^ N 'W-^ F-] " EVERY SCHOOL THAT IS ESTABLISHED, EVERY CHILD THAT IS EDUCATED, AND EVERY SCHOOL-HOUSE THAT IS BQILT, ARE NEW AND ADDITIONAL PLEDGES FOR THE PERPETUATION, THE GROWTH, AND THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF YOUR INSTITUTIONS." Kentucky Report. ADVERTISEMENT. The following sheets are, iu reality, not so lauch a Review of Mr. Wyse's work on Education Reform, as an attempt to lay before the reader that part of it, which is more particu- larly applicable to Common Schools. The defects in practi- cal education which the author so feelingly deplores, are such as our own countrymen have not been slow to discover, and we believe that neither to Prussia, Germany, nor Switzer- land, will they yield the palm in the earnest search for more approved means of general instruction. The question has of late been kept alive in the Union, by various publications and addresses ; both the legislature and the community are anxious, as we believe, for the application of some improved system, and will therefore be likely to give grave attention to a work put forth by one who has attained a well-earned cele- brity for his exertions in the cause, and whose opinions are listened to with profound respect, by persons of every political temperament. The work from which this summary is extracted is com- prehensive in its views, but extended in its details ; it is, therefore, one to which public men would at this juncture be hardly disposed to give so large a share of consideration as every part deserves ; and it contains some matters also, which, however important in the abstract, are not so immediately pressing as others. Those observations, hovvever, which have reference to Popular Education and its concomitants, come home to the bosom of every man, in every grade of so- ciety, and are vitally connected with good order, both moral and political, and therefore can be neither too early nor too generally diffused. But in particular to legislatorial and other influential persons do they commend themselves, and therefore the portions directly relating to this subject, and which stand detached from each other in the original, are here collected, with little farther remark than was deemed ADYERTiSEMENT. sufficient to connect the passages, and take away from the otherwise abrupt effect in perusal. This pamphlet then is respectfully submitted to members of the state legislatures, and to the friends of Education gene- rally, in the earnest hope that it may lead to matured con- clusions on the subject, and produce public enactments for carrying into practical effect, such measures as may be per- manently beneficial to future generations. It cannot be denied, that a warm interest has been mani- fested, in every section of our common country, for the cause of education, and that zealous efforts have been made to pro- mote it I the great defect however seems to be, the want of a uniform mode of communicating instruction ; a mode which, under proper regulations, would make it a National Educa- tion in the strictest sense, by the inculcation of the same gene- ral principles, the same tones and manner of thinking and acting, yet consistent with that liberality of sentiment towards others, which is the distinguishing mark between education and ignorance, freedom and slavery, morality and licentious- ness — which, whilst it would render us more emphatically one people, would give us increased respectability in the eyes of the whole world, as well as in thosfe of each other. It is in Common Schools that the great body of the people is mainly interested. It is here that a reform is needed. Popular edu- cation can never be perfect, until it become a national con- cern. Hence, it is important that its advocates should aim, in all their preliminary measures, at the establishment of " a National System of Education ;" nor need there be any appre- hension, that this object is unattainable. Patient, persevering, •well-directed efforts must, ultimately, succeed in providing for every child in this favored country equal access to useful knowledge, equal inducements to virtuous conduct, and equal means of happiness. The aim of this publication is public good, however imper- fectly the writer may have endeavored to promote it ; and the highest emolument he looks for on the present occasion is, the gratification of seeing the adoption of the general views herein contained, or of such others as these may suggest. 183 Broadway, New- York, B. F. P. December 2d, 1837, REVIEW. Education Reform ; or the Necessity of a National System of Education. By Thomas Wyse, Esq., M. P. Vol. I. d>vo. fp. 553. London : Longrnaji /se on Education Reform. 69 rial fruits of well applied labor, but it induces habits of regu- larity, industry, and content. Each, .being employed in the manner best adapted to his faculties and position, moves easily, produces the greatest quantity of advantage to himself and others, and can have no motive or tendency to move from it, by violent or capricious transition to any other. " The advantage of all this to the individual is obvious — is it of less advantage to the community ? The Intellectual Education suggested, seconds, in an effec- tive manner, this physical development, and offers additional advantages of its own. It does not limit itself to acquisitions j Its object is not knowledge only. It sees every human being endowed with intelligence— the more or less is dependent upon organization, but still more upon education. It seeks to de- velope to the fullest these energies in the first instance, and to apply them to the most useful purposes in the second. " These habits acquired, these instruments so prepared, it applies them not to purposes purely speculative, indifferent, or injurious. It uses these powers for the acquisition of know- ledge, but the knowledge it proposes for attainment is not merely theoretic, but practical — knowledge which gives new means, not merely of avoiding numerous evils, affecting both his physical and spiritual condition, but means also for indefi- nitely raising both in the scale of improvement and enjoyment. It teaches him where lie his true interests, how these interests may be best attained, and, when attained, how they may be best secured ; it gives him the power of self-conduct, and enlarged means of doing good ; it furnishes an inexhaustible source of true and pure pleasures, and extinguishes his taste for false and coarse ones ; in a word, it opens to him a new portion of his nature, and immeasurably enhances the value of the other. The physical man is of tenfold power in the hands of the in- tellectual. " The Moral and Religious education proposed in the pre- ceding pages, addresses itself directly to this purpose. It re- cognises in the will the determining cause of human action, but it sees the will itself under the influence of habits, as habits are under the influence of feelings and principles. It seeks to se- cure both. It insists on the essential impoitance of forming early and permanently these habits ; it calls in to its assistance, in their formation and direction, the culture of moral and reli- 10 70 Wi/se on Education Rtform. gious feelings, and the inculcation of a code of religious and moral duty ; for both it recurs to the Scriptures, but it renders scriptural injunction special, by applying it practically to every situation in life. It endeavors to carry the Gospel and its power into every condition, to give the moral, the mastery over the in- tellectual, as it gave the intellectual the command over the phy- sical portion of man. With this, with a wise and firm conscience at the head, it trusts implicitly to the government of the indi- vidual, all his sensibilities and all his powers, and fears not to raise them to the very highest degree of perfection of which they are susceptible. It considers that it thus fulfils the true end of all education. ' Knowledge is power,' says Bacon. Such an education would be power, wisdom, and virtue. " What is now the operation of this on society % The two great objects to which we have to look for the happiness and security of society, are its purity and good order. Which is most likely to attain both — this education, or the absence of this education ] Let us take two individuals — one educated, the other not — and contrast them. By narrowing our vision we shall see clearer ; what will be the condition of these individuals and their influence on the condition of society % " There are few villages in the country which do not present us specimens of the uneducated ; we meet him in the gin-shop and in the street — he is an idler, a drunkard, a quarreller — we hear of him in every riot, he is an aider and abettor in every outrage. His family are slovenly, reckless, debased, wretched, He is a quarreller, because a drunkard, and he is a drunkard, because he is idle. But why is he idle 'I Because he has never felt the value of labor — the pleasure of thinking — the joy of a good conscience. He has never been habituated to form judgments of these things. The powers necessary to form such judgments, have been neglected. He has never been taught to examine, to inquire, to attend. He has become passive. He feels the pres- sure of want brought on by his own habits ; but how does he try to remedy it ] All his life he has been taught to spare, as much as possible, his own exertions, and to hang, beggar-like, as much as possible, on those of others. He is the slave, from laziness, of authority. It is not in a sudden emergency he is likely to throw it off All his life he has sacrificed, with the short-sighted selfishness of ignorance, the future to the present, and every interest, public and private, to his own. He is tur- Wyse on Education Reform. 71 bulent, but not independent ; he talks of freedom, and is a slave to every man and thing around. But indolence is not a merely- passive vice. Better to ' wear out' than to * rust out,' has been truly said ; but he who ' rusts out' ' wears out,' too. No greater burthen than sloth ; no greater consumer of the spirit and body of man, than doing nothing, and having nothing to do. Every day spent in inactivity, renders action more difficult ; every hour which does not add, steals away some instrument of virtue and happiness, and leaves the sluggard more at the mercy of those visitations of sickness or want to which even the industrious are exposed. Nor is this all. Omission of duty, soon becomes commission of crime. Painful reflections now beset him. They are sought to be extinguished, but not by reform. Conscience drives him to fresh vice. This goes on for a time — but health, means, companions, must at last fail. Then it is that he sees, for the first time, how bootlessly he has squandered away the healthy morning-tide, the woi-king hours of life. Whither is he to rush for rescue from these encompassing evils ? The Gospel he never understood — and therefore never practised. His reli- gion is an hypocrisy, or a superstition. It affords him now no direction in his errors, no consolation in his afflictions. He finds in it neither warmth nor light. The religion he learnt never penetrated to the spirit ; it was a tinkling cym- bal — a jai-gon of meaningless and profitless words. But crime, which had long been ripe in thought, is at last on the point of bursting into act. He is at last ready for every despe- rate attempt. Education has been held up as the great principle of all modern restlessness and disorder. Is this the case ? Let facts answer. Here are men uneducated enough, ignorant enough, to produce the most perfect quiet, if ignorance and ab- sence of education could produce it. Yet is it from materials like these you are to expect the tranquillity and prosperity of a great nation ? Is it in the nature of things, that out of elements so utterly evil, peace and happiness should emanate % Private vice has but to make a few steps, and a few proselytes, and it becomes public corruption ; individual discontent wants only time and circumstance to spread out into general disorder. " But let us now turn a little to the reverse of this picture. Let us see what a good, sound, sufficient, and appropriate educa- tion, would produce. Let us take a pupil from one of these schools, educated, as much as possible, on the system we have 72 Wi/se on Education Reform. recommended. Let us suppose that he has been accustomed, from his childhood up, to attend to the common objects around him — to form clear conceptions of each— to combine them con- sistently — -to compare and weigh them, and never to take any thing for granted, never to adopt before he has first proved. Let us add to this, habits of labor and dexterity — whatever can give knowledge and confidence in his physical powers, and whatever can discipline him, by long practice and judicious instruction, to sound and national morality. Then set him abroad in the world, and see how he will act with this preparation, in his domestic and public capacity. He will be master of all his faculties — consequently, can wield them with suppleness to all the ordi- nary purposes of life. He will fully comprehend all the objects around him with which he ought to be familiar, and will thus be enabled to apply his knowledge with certainty and ease. He will not be discontented, because he will perfectly conceive how much his own happiness depends upon himself. He will under- stand that true independence is the child of good conduct, and that good character is in itself fortune. He will not be found trusting indolently to others for success : he will carve out that success himself He will not be disappointed by failures, which reflection must teach him to be inevitable, and experience has taught him to be remediable. " Moral Education has given him energy, has given him ' Will ;' and he not only exercises over himself all due control, but he fears not to interpose, in the enlightened spirit of true justice, between the public, and the corruptions and violence of indivi- duals. He is no intriguer with the overseer ; no weak protector of the insolent pauper ; no trafficker for personal profit, in any one sense, on the rights or property of the public. If not rich he is comfortable ; he knows the sweets of ' eating his own bread,' and ' walking up his own stairs.' Hence, you will not find the children of such a family wandering lazily from street to street, the associates of the unprincipled, the already mature pupils of infamy and crime. The 'lessons on Education' which the parents had received, are visible in the virtue and intelligence of their children. They know by what early discipline these tender beings may be preserved untainted to society ; they know what arts they must use, to prepare them for the same useful and happy race, which they are now running themselves : they are deeply impressed with the importance of these obligations ; Wi/se on EducafAon Reform. 73 they feel fully both the nature and necessity of the trust. Thus, already have they preluded, by giving them early habits of ' ac- tivity,' 'attention,' ' order,' ' truth,' ' religious feeling,' to the edu- cation of the Infant and Primary school, and sown the seeds of a new and better generation than that, which is now hastening away. Nor is it easy to say, to what degree of social ameliora- tion, this early maternal culture, steadily and judiciously pur- sued, in all ranks of life, will ultimately lead. Each succeeding age will more and more facilitate, by such preliminary attention, the intellectual and moral development of the public school, and thus lay a much surer and broader foundation for the entire superstructure of Education. " But he has other duties to perform. He is a citizen. For these duties, he is also prepared. He is obedient to the laws, but his obedience is not founded upon ignorance. Short, in- deed, and precarious, is the submission of a fool — at the mercy of every sophism of passion or wickedness, which may choose to seduce, or assail it. He knows his rights, but he also knows his duties, and his interests. He has not studied the constitu- tion and legislation of his country, elementary as the study may have been, merely to rail at it. The structure of society, the principles of social happiness, are familiar to him. He sees the value, the necessity, of different grades, for each, and for all. He does not look with envy, but neither with servility, upon the higher orders of society : he respects them, but he respects him- self more ; he has learnt, in all things, and at all times, ' to venerate hiniself a man,' and to bless Heaven, every morning, on his knees, that he was born in such a country, and in the midst of the light and liberty of such an age. He is ready, at any risk of life or fortune — (it was a part of his ' moi'al and religious education') — to repel real aggression upon his chartered franchises ; he has been too well taught to appreciate the value of the institutions he enjoys, to bear tamely a diminution of the blessing ; but he is not for that less sensible of the importance of order and tranquillity, less alive to the necessity of maintaining general confidence between all orders, less convinced that out of such alone can proceed public security, and that without public security there is no stimulant for private exertion, or hope for private good. He has been 74 Wif'se on Education Reform. taught (in his elementary lessons on ' economics' and ' legisla- tion') the nature of the reciprocal position of governor and go- verned, of master and laborer, of buyer and seller; whilst he boldly insists that governTTient should do all it can, he knows well that government cannot do every thing ; that each man must add his contribution ; that it is his duty, if it were not his interest, to do so ; that the self-guidance, and self-control, of the individual are, after all, the great sources of the happiness and prosperity of the commonwealth at large." We have brought up, iiifcopious extracts, the author's main intent so far ; and have refrained from breaking their con- nexion unnecessarily, because they will thus explain them- selves more clearly than we could point them out by obser- vation. One principal object, it will be seen, is that of effect- ing a thorough reform in popular ediicatlon. He insists, and with great propriety, that verbiage and mere abstract learning- is of little avail to the great purposes of ordinary life. He wishes to see physical, intellectual, and moral education, forming the three integral parts of a general system, so that the mind may be healthy together with the body, and the moral and religious principles may be the capital of the so- cial column. In order to effect so important a result, he is anxious that the young and ardent soul shall not be wantonly degraded, and rendered callous by frequent and unworthy punishments. He is of the humane and sagacious opinion, that prevention is better than cure, and in accordance thereto, would have the teacher one who has sagacity enough to trace the springs of action in his pupils, patience to watch them, skill to direct them, and industry to cultivate them. These are important requisites, seldom found, but all essential : and in these also he wishes to effect a reform. He begins right to do this. Let schools for teachers be instituted, that they may know how to communicate k?iowledge to others. Let them remain during a noviciate, and go through a probation. Let none but such as shall be found duly qualified have the charge of a school, and then let every energy be used to elevate the character of the office to its proper level. This last is indeed an important requisite. How is the Wi/se on Education Reform. 75 child to treat with respect the teacher whom he sees subjected to contumely by his parents or by the world ? How shall the teacher enforce his instructions where he cannot command respect? And how shall persons worthy of respect be found for the office, who know, beforehand, the unworthy treatment to be expected? Our author reminds us that the teacher should be much with his pupils at other seasons besides the usual hours of study. This is true ; but it pre-supposes a decent and honorable maintenance for him, and a security from the uncertainties of declining years. More than this would be extravagance, less than this would be injustice; but, so provided, the faculties and attainments of the teacher should be devoted to the advancement of the pupils in wisdom and goodness, " in season and out of season ;" and it will ever be found that friendly and familiar colloquy, and information given incidentally in discourse, will not only be the most lasting in recollection, and most clear to the understanding, but may be made subservient to the main plan of conduct in pursuing a system of education. Hitherto, Mr. Wyse has touched but very slightly upon one particular aid to popular education, upon which however he is in earnest, and concerning which he treats more at large in a part of his work which we shall note hereafter. We allude to school and village libraries ; and next to a good plan of education and a competent teacher, we do assuredly believe this to be the most efficient assistant. It answers so many useful purposes, it furthers the great end of education in so many ways, that it mxay well deserve to have a section to itself.' This will, perhaps, be most appropriate, after we have attend- ed to what Mr. Wyse says on the subject. We shall, there- fore, defer it until then, premising that we consider it to be the fourth integral branch of popular education. The second branch of Mr. Wyse's book, commences with the principle, that "national education should be universal." " There are four distinct opinions on this question : 1. Those who think that education is not necessary or useful to certain classes, the poor, &c. — the ordinary religious instruc- 76 Wyse 07i Education Reform. tion, and the example of their superiors, in their opinion, suffice. 2. Those who think education, in the abstract, useful, but dangerous, at certain periods, and to certain bodies or individuals, 3. Those who think education so necessary and useful, that it ougJit to be given to all, and to the utonost possible extent. 4. Those who think, that not only should education be given, but that it can no longer be loithheld. He then proceeds to examine the first of these positions, but as his observations are altogether local, and have re- ference to England, Scotland and Ireland, we pass them by for the present, although abounding in sound argument. But the following exception is of more general application, and deserves to be seriously considered. " The great majority of the country (England) is favorable to the utmost extension of education amongst the Upper and Mid- dle classes. Not so when there is question of the education of the Lower. Here every shade of opinion is observable, from those who would give them the most unlimited share of infor- mation, to those who would give them none at all. The objec- tions to the education of the People appear formidable when thus taken in mass; when reduced separately to their true dimensions, their importance vanishes. They may be classed under the five following heads : 1. The lower classes are disqualified, by their position, from acquiring knowledge. 2. They have not sufficient time for acquiring it. 3. They have no use for it, when acquired. 4. It is not only of no utility, but of positive injury, to the lower classes. 5. It is not only of injury to the lower classes, but to the other classes of the state. 1. They are disqualified hy their 'position. To make and keep -the people stupid, and then maintain, because they ere stupid, they should not be taught, is about as rational a position as to maintain, because we have made men slaves, we ought not now to make them free. Had such argument been listened to, there would not, at this moment, be a free nation on the earth y had such reasoning been applied to instruction, thei'e would Wi/se 071 Education Reform. 77 scarcely be an enlightened one. At one period or other in the history of every nation such objections have been urged. But the enjoyment of freedom and of knowledge fortunately fit for the proper exercise of both. Men do not walk, but by trying to walk. A nation, no more than an individual, is to be instructed by theory. If the laborer were to be left in ignorance until he should become sufficiently enlightened to desire knowledge, he would probably die as he had lived, and generations would perish like individuals. Pushed to its extreme point, it would leave the savage in the forest, and the slave in the mine ; the man of the nineteenth century would be little better than the uncivilized cotemporary of the Egberts and Harolds. And if we are not to push it to this extreme, I should like to know at what point we are to stop. Where is the precise boundary between enough and too much ? Is it a matter of hours or acres — of this latitude or that — of taxes or governments ? a matter of accident, and not determinable by the natural capabilities of the human mind 1 It may be difficult, indeed, to bring grown-up men to such disci- pline — their minds are often as callous as their hands ; but the * boy,' physically and mentally, is yet tender ; and with boys, and not with grown-up men, has education to do. The disquali- fication asserted, is mere assumption. -Disqualified for what? It is not proposed to teach the laborer Latin and Greek, He is not to be surfeited with the useless and difficult. Nothing but what is easy to any human being, nothing but what is useful to every human being, is to be his lesson. He is to be made, not a had scholar, but a good lahorer. It is surely no great task, to do by rule, what one must otherwise do at random ; it is no great draw upon mental exertion to learn the simplest and most certain processes of practising one's own trade ; of giving greater value to one's own industry ; of putting to greater profit one's own economy. To enable him to do this, and to do it promptly and well, is the object of intel- lectual training. But intellectual training, though important, is not the main object of education. The main object is moral training. Is the laborer disqualified, by his position, for this % Is he too stupid to comprehend the distinctions between vice and virtue, the nature of his private and public duties, the import- ance of exertion, the happiness of good conduct, the respecta- bility of honesty and principle % If so, why does he go to church % The same obtuseness which disqualifies the boy for the school, 11 78 Wyse on Education Reform. must equally disqualify the man for the sermon. If the daily teacher cannot succeed in inculcating these doctrines and enfor- cing these habits, what can be hoped from the weekly preacher % The argument, in consistency, ought to abandon him solely to himself. But what would be the result of such abandonment % The mind and jnental faculties, from want of exercise and nou- rishment, would fall asleep. Every day he would more and more degenerate ; more and more approximate to the beast j more and more appear disqualified by his position for instruc- tion. But from what would all this have proceeded ] From any inherent incapacity in the laborer himself? No; but from the absurd belief that such incapacity originally existed. We first take every pains to create the defect, and then complain that it is incurable ! 2. " They have not sufficient time. — What is the time which a child requires for labor, what for instruction 1 This depends on circumstances. A child, from the age of six to ten, cannot be employed on field labor fifteen hours per day. His health would suffer, and the work would be ill done. Judicious arrangement is necessary, not only to economize the animal machine, and thus preserve it for future exertion, but also for the better manage- ment and apportioning of the work itself: both are materially served by occasional relaxation. The laborer works harder, though for a shorter time ; the work is better and more quickly done. But what is to be done with these hours of relaxation ] hov/ are they to be employed % Why not at school 1 But school is not relaxation. Why not % it depends solely upon the manner of conducting the school. Where the school is well conducted, it is, as it ought to be, a place of pleasure, and not of pain. But these surplus hours, spared from labor, will not be suflScient for instruction. Why not ? the same principle which regulates the application to labor should regulate the application to instruction. Two hours per day have been found sufficient, when properly employed, in Switzerland. Where is the child who, out of fif- teen hours per day, has not two hours to spare ? 3. " They have no use for instruction. — This depends upon the nature of the instruction. If it be not calculated to improve the condition to which society destines them, if it be inapplicable to- their every day wants, if it does not give them greater skill and steadiness in the management of their domestic concerns, if it does not better qualify them for the discharge of their private and Wyse on Education Reform. 79 public duties, if it does not infuse a more enlightened and active spirit of religion and morality, if it does not develope usefully their understanding and their feelings ; in fine, if it be an educa- tion totally unfit for the people, it may certainly be admitted, that of such education the people can have no earthly use. But such, surely, is not our education. The very first essential of the education for w^hich we are contending is not its extent, nor its elevation, nor the number of things learned, nor their seeming importance, nor their facility — though all this be worth attend- ing to — but, above all things, and in all things, its applicability. Let the peasant have the peasant's education ; and the gentleman the gentleman's : that is, in plain phrase, an education which will teach each to do better what they otherwise may do ill, or, at least, what they cannot do so well without, as with it. To say that such an education is of 'no use' is a contradiction in terms. Whether such an education can he given, is another question. May not this apparent impracticability arise, not from the nature of education itself, but from our want of knowledge, our want of means, our want of exertion in conducting education ] Have we examined what other countries have done ] Have we ascer- tained bow other countries have succeeded ] Is there any reason why we should not succeed also ] Their habits are not ours- True ; but it has not been shown that the difference between us is so radical as to preclude us from applying, to the instruction of our laborers, expedients which have been applied with such ad- mirable results to theirs ] Until such assertion can satisfactorily be maintained, we are not entitled to assume that education is * of no use' to the people. " But, even were these results less conspicuous, we should pause before we doom so large a portion of our species to so great a privation as that of moral and mental light ! The Peo- ple, even in the rudest societies, are surely something more than a mere animated piece of mechanism. They are something more than a mere flesh and blood machinery, for the purpose of elaborating so much surplus gratification for the exorbitant de- sires of the few. Are they, then, to be limited irredeemably and exclusively to mere bodily operations % Is the spirit to be starved in the midst of matter and material processes ? Is the mammonite philosophy of the age to allow them no place at the intellectual banquet ? Why debar that immortal nature, which they possess in common with the proudest in the land, from its 80 Wyst on 'Education Reform. natural pasture ] Why incapacitate the peasant from filling up, with mental pleasures, the interval, at least, of his bodily exer- tions ? If such be the inheritance to which they are inevitably doomed, Heaven has given its glorious light to few. But surely this is a strange blasphemy ! God is the Father of «Z^ his crea- tures : the Giver oi good gifts has given nothing in vain. " As long, then, as education can give pleasure, without injury to the individual or to the public — as long as it innocently en- hances enjoyment, or diminishes pain — it is not a matter of in- difference ; it is a substantial benefit— it is of use. The pains of the laboring classes are already too many, their compensations too few, to justify the slightest unnecessary interference with so scanty a stock of happiness. Strong, indeed, must be the case, imminent the danger, evident the injury, which can thus autho- rize us to take up the square and balance. Is this the case with Education 1 Do these evils and dangers march in its train ? 4. " Education is of injury to the lower orders. — It distracts the laborer, it is alleged, from his manual pursuits — it gives him a distaste for labor, a presumptuous opinion of his acquirements, an erroneous estimate of his power, and of society — it renders him discontented with his condition — indolent, envious, reckless, vicious. Were such the results of Education, little doubt could be entertained of its pernicious and perilous tendency. But are they not rather the results of its abuses or defects 1 Do they even exist 1 If they do, may they not arise from sources totally different from those stated % Is it just, until these points be as- certained, to sit down, and, with our arms crossed, as if each had been fully proved, to anathematize Education % " The fact is, all these evils arise, as has been already said, not from the gift, but from its privation ; not from its qualities, but from deficiency in these qualities. Why does the laborer form an erroneous estimate of himself, and of society ] Not because he knows something of either, but because he does not know enough ; not because he has been educated, but because he has not heen properly educated. " Create prohibitions, and you create distinctions, and with distinctions presumption. You produce the very evil you wish to suppress, or you produce nothing — your laws are either bad, or ineffectual. The wiser course would be, to consult first with human nature, and then to legislate under her inspiration and inspection. Make Education as universal as the light, as neces- Wyse on Education Reform. 81 sary as the air ; make it the common enjoyment of every human being, and we shall then hear nothing of ' distinction.' Let there be no privileges, and there will be no presumption. " If all laborers be instructed, the laborer will cease to be presumptuous. If the laborer be not presumptuous, he will soon cease to be ' discontented.'' Continue to raise the other classes in proportion as you raise his, and you will keep all so- ciety in its original relative position. The whole shell will swell out simultaneously. There will be no jagged prominences. No one body will be elevated into an unjust pre-eminence over others ; but the entire mind, character, resources of the country will be enlarged. The laborer will see others before him still, higher places filled, competition as active as ever, competitors as superior to their predecessors as he is to his. If a momen- tary vanity should urge him to aim at situations beyond his pow- ers, experience will soon correct the illusion. Where this ex- perience is general, it is just as probable that the merchant, who has passed through an university, will throw by his ledger in dis- gust, because he cannot be a peer, as that the laborer and opera- tive, who have passed through the ' town' or ' country' school, will infallibly strike, because they cannot attain the station of a merchant. If Education has any thing to do with the opinions or conduct of either, it is only on the side of good ; but the fact is, necessity, iron necessity, is the great reconciler in the matter. The tide, which the sudden force of Education carries towards certain professions, will, at first, flow rapidly ; but as soon as these professions shall be fully supplied, it will gradually return to its accustomed bed, and society be again restored to its equi- librium. Neither is there any thing in the condition of the laborer, more taxing to human exertion, more detracting from honorable self-respect, than any other occupation ; on the con- trary, agriculture, if we reason from realities, and not preju- dices, is the truly noble occupation of life. The laborer finds in his habits another principle of adhesion ; the impulsion which could dislocate such a class must uproot the whole of his nature, cut off all associations, break down existing connexions, and produce a revolution in comparison to which changes of consti- tutions, and cashiering of sovereigns, are mere trifles. " But if the tendency of popular instruction, it may perti- nently be asked, be to disturb and excite the people, why allow their children to read the Gospel ] Of all instruction, the Gos- 82 Wyse on Education Reform. pel, under certain points of view, is the most likely to render them discontented with their situation. In no one book is the original equality of man more strongly inculcated, contempt for the rich more prominently put forward, feelings leading to the most extended republicanism every where more discoverable. The ' powers of this world' are as dross before the ' children of light ;' it is to be despised of the earth, to ' the poor in spi- rit,' to ' fishermen,' to ' publicans,' and not to the Prince, nor to the High Priest, nor to the Doctor of the law, that the secrets of the kingdom of God are confided. The very essence of early Christian government, in conformity with the Gospel spirit, was ' equality and fraternity;' the first professors formed, in the heart of a gigantic despotism, a free, if not an independent state. But do we therefore prohibit the Gospel % Do we fear to place it in the hand of our peasantry % Assuredly not. There are doctrines in the same sacred pages, which constitute these very safeguards. If the Gospel be read, as it ought to be, with due attention to these, danger need not be apprehended. True it is, that the peasant can scarcely guide that attention himself; but there are others who can. We therefore call them in to assist him ; but this assistance once given, we are no longer doubtful of the results. Here is instruction, here is enlightenment, from which we expect the most salutary fruits. Why, then, do we shrink from education ? What is it, but another modification of the same process % If, with a judicious instructor. Gospel teach- ing does not infuse dissatisfaction, why, with similar precautions, should any other branch of education 1 " That idleness should follow from discontent, is quite natu- ral ; that increase of crime should follow from both, is not less so ; but that both necessarily proceed from, or are unchecked by education, is an assumption absolutely gratuitous. If the positions in the preceding pages be just, it will be difiicult to show any connexion between education and vice — certainly none between good education and vice. It is just as impossible it should exist, as between true religion and vice. It may be true, indeed, that neither interpose as strong barriers as could be desired ; but, because they do not effect as much as we desire, it is no proof that they effect notJdng, The fair way to judge both would be, to see what the same nation, religious and irreli- gious, educated and uneducated, but in other respects, as nearly as possible, under the same circumstances, would produce ; I Wyse on Education Reform. 83 say under the same circumstances, because, reasoning of their operation under different, is reasoning of different operations. This would, at once, enable us to ascertain what really pro- ceeded from education, and what did not ; it would point out what other producing causes intervened, the amount and extent of their several actions, and to which the aggregate effect was mainly to be set down. Until this can be done, we have scarcely a right to take a general vague fact, concomitant with, or exist- ing, perhaps, in despite of education, as the consequence of edu- cation. It would be just as reasonable to suppose, in an alge- braic equation, that a quantity, absorbed by a greater, was the chief producing cause of a result ; yet, in the practical part of the work, we shall see how frequently this has been done. The presumed augmentation of crime in Engiand has been held forth as a direct argument, not only against education in England, not only against education as it now exists, but against education elsewhere, against education generally, wherever and whenever applied to the People. On inquiring more minutely and more extensively, we shall be led to very different conclusions. Not only have erroneous deductions from facts been hazarded, but the facts themselves been misstated. Were both otherwise, it would still be difficult to deny that Education, though inefficient, had not exercised a considerable resistance. This resistance is so much detracted from the force of vice ; its diminution, or re- moval, would be so much added. If the resistance be not com- mensurate to what it has to resist, the fault is ours, and not that of our instrument. By many of our habits and institutions we add new energies to vice, but abstain, at the same time, from proportionally strengthening and improving education.* * The more we reflect on the nature of Education and Crime, the more we shall be convinced that there is no true eradicator of crime, but Education. Severe penal codes, active police, poor laws on the most liberal scale, are all substitutes and palliatives. The eye of the ruler is not all-seeing : the most active executive cannot be at all times, and in all placesj^ with its people. To check crime, we must check the disposition to crime : to prevent act, we must generate an omnipresent control over thought, set up the man in watch over himself, and make conscience the universal keeper. This is not attainable by mere Punishment, From the extreme difficulty of graduating and applying it (its intensity depending as much on the individual as on the punishment itself;) from the uncertainty of its application even when well graduated (the innocent suffering for the guilty, and thus inflicting a double injury on society;) from its inefiiciency in attacking innumerable forms 84 Wyse on Education Reform. " To him who admits the preceding positions, it will scarcely be necessary to proceed farther. If the education of the laborer be of no injury to the laborer himself, it can surely be of none to of vice (which cannot, it is true, without producing still greater injury, be sub- jected to legislation, but which are not less amongst the most active principles of depravity and disorder;) — Punishment, even in its most preventive form, has not yet materially reduced, and it is very doubtful whether it ever will re- duce, the large sum of moral evil under which society groans. In its present state, it is infected with abuses, which render it quite as much the teacher of new vices to the young, as the reformer of old vices in the old. Vigilance police affects more the preventive and precautionary character ; but it is still, at best, much more the application of a physical than of moral power, and demands sacrifices much too large for any blessing. It interferes with the rights and comforts of the well conducted, on the plea of defence against the aggressions of the bad. The fact is, we commit two radical mistakes; we allow nothing for the influ- ence of mental habits on crime, or of education on mental habits. Crime is not abrupt impulse, nor inexplicable instinct. In some rare cases, it may be organization ; but in the vast majority of instances it is the exhibition, in act, of long indulged desires, settled by indulgence into passions. Where organi- zation is the cause of crime, punishment, of course, is cruel and absurd : to punish a lunat c, is a sort of lunacy itself; it is raging against an irresponsi- ble agent. Many of the most marked atrocities of all times may rank in this category. Crime, in such cases, is disease; a monomania which the hand of justice is called on, not to chastise, but to cure. The works of Pinel, Georget, De la Broussais, Spurzheim, on the Continent; at home, those of ConoUy, Barrow, Combe ; have placed this matter beyond doubt. But if the Penal law be ineffectual, not so is Education, [f the monomaniac is not to be punished, it does not follow that the monomania may not, by timely and proper attention, be mitigated or prevented. Much of this seeming organization is of gradual growth. It lies for a long time in germ. In the child it is a predisposition. A " folic raisonnante," as Pinel calls it, if unchecked, will soon soon run into an " irresponsible mania." No one, as Locke observes, is altogether exempt from such tendencies. The influence of circumstance and things, in calling them thus into action, is immense. Education can wield mental habits as it pleases. A greater proof cannot be given, than the very objection urged against it ; than the present state of Eng- land itself Crime, it is stated, has not materially decreased ; juvenile crime is now more than ever notorious. The innumerable instances of thieving, shop- lifting, profligacy, drunkenness, amongst children of from three to ten years old, given by Wilderspin and others, leave little doubt upon the subject. All this co-exists with Education, but an education which touches them not, an education which passes them by. Their education is of a different complexion. Bad instruction at home, bad examples of bad parents, or of bad managers for bad parents, wicked associates of all ages, and in all crimes, abroad, — these are their teachers. Where such is the preparation, all other education usually comes too late. It does not take up the child of nature, but the child of man — diseased in heart and head. The evils, which are sure to follow, are set down to educa- tion, and not to that which prevents education from working The stream must Wyse on Education Reform. 85 the other orders. It is on this, indeed, that the anti-education- ists build their chief ebjection. But they argue in a vicious cir- cle. They first contend that because it is injurious to the other orders, it must be injurious to the laborer ; and then, because it is of injury to the laborer, it must be of injury to the other orders. The progress of popular Education is not abrupt, neither are the effects of its progress injurious to the other orders. Neces- sity on one side, and the natural tendencies of knowledge itself be taken higher up. It is mvich easier to guard, than to rescue. It is some con- solation to find that this can be done ; that if these young spirits are so easy to be perverted, they are not less easy to be protected from perversion. Infant schools have produced, and are producing, not miracles, but the natural results of good means. In the establishments of Mr. Wilderspin, there is an almost total exemption from the very vices which have just been described. Crimes against the person gradually diminish with the advance of civilization ; crimes against property are often found, comparatively, to increase. This is supposed inevitable. The supposition is hasty. There is no reason why one class of vices should not be repressed, as well as another. In Mr. Wilderspin's schools, dishonesty and falsehood are quite as rare as violence and inhumanity; the out- door education is fully overcome. Nor is its influence limited to the rising generation. The child reforms the parent. Instances the most striking of this salutary power may be found in the Report of the Edinburgh Infant School Society, 18th of May, 1832, and especially in the Appendix which accompanies it; in Wilderspin's Infant System. " But early education will prove inadequate without early occupation. The idleness which often svicceeds application, on leaving school, is of all others the most dangerous. Evil society is always ready to seize upon the idler. The indulgence of a few weeks scatters the discipline of years. The state should not quit its guardianship at this most critical period. It should, on mere policy and economy, continue its education. A part of this is useful employment. It should protect society against idle children, if it does not wish to have to con- tend against reckless and desperate men. " If Infant schools, and constant occupation, be good preventives of crime, Reform schools, on a good system, are not less excellent, both as preventives and correctives. The impression which the company of adult criminals pro- duces, even upon adults, is most powerful; what must it then be upon an age in which the propensity to imitation is tenfold stronger 1 A better classifica- tion in prisons in some degree remedies this, but it can scarcely ever be so pre- cise as to secure against all its evils. A boy may be a man in crime, though a child in years. Here age, and even delinquency, aiford insuflicient data for separation. We want something more. The principle upon which prisons are chiefly permissible, is their power of reclaiming. If they do not reform, they do little. For this, the^^^s^ indications of vice should be attacked, and not allowed to consolidate, by repetition, into character. The true remedy, there- fore, is not so much chastisement, as habits. But habits are the work of train- ing. If, then, they have been neglected, they must be formed ; if lost, they must be renewed. This is to be attained by the establishment of ' Reform houses,' forming the connecting link between Schools and Prisons." 12 86 Wyse on Education Reform. on the other, guard against these consequences. A class of labor- ers, or operatives, like a single laborer and operative, as soon as they find out that all the world read and write, and that men must do something beside reading and writing to earn their livelihood, will feel little inclination to sacrifice their livelihood to reading and writing. A workman is not less inclined to manage a steam- engine, nor a farmer to conduct the succession of his crops, be- cause he knows something o^ the principle upon which he prac- tises. On the contrary, the conversion of a mechanical into a rational agent greatly lightens even the mechanical labor. But the great fallacy of all this is, that there is no fair consideration of the whole question. The accounts are not balanced, there is no per contra, not a word of the evils of ignorance, as a set-off against the evils of knowledge. It is taken for granted, that an ignorant population must necessarily be a submissive one ; that stupidity and moral order go hand in hand. The whole expe- rience of history protests against this monstrous assertion ; but were it as true as it is false, dearly indeed would such brute sub- mission be purchased. What would become of all the arts of life ? Who would most suffer by their diminution, or restric- tion ? Is the upper class less interested in their preservation and advancement than the lower ] Assuredly not ; and yet we attempt to reconcile this undoubted fact with our hostility to popular instruction. Do we not know, that the wider and more numerous the chances of improvement, the greater likelihood of improvement itself; and that every restriction upon moral or mental culture is a direct restriction of these chances ? We can- not tell, ' a priori,' who are to be the luminaries or the block- heads, any more than we can tell who are to be the future bene- factors or criminals, of the country. We are not justified in dooming, heforehand, any individual, much less any class, to ine- vitable ignorance. "But if the dangers apprehended were at all probable, still should such dangers be fearlessly encountered. Is the state, so anxiously sought to be preserved, a happy or a wholesome one] Is it not a state of constant social malady ? If our public policy be only to prolong this tottering existence, miserable indeed is all its boasted art. It cures us of some evils, to give us others ; it suspends anarchy, but fears to make us free ; it multiplies means, but spends men, things, and time, at downright loss, ^uch a policy does not so much defer dissolution, as make us Wt/sc Oft Education Reform. 87 feel it beforehand : our ministers, instead of governors, become ' gardes-malades ;' our whole effort is, not that we may live, but that we may not die. But of what use is it, to make corpses walk ? what we want is living, active men. If the frame of our society be thus rickety, the sooner we are compelled to break it up, the better. If our lower orders, the moment they read and write, are to dash all our institutions to pieces, all that still re- mains in our power is, to see tliat they begin their mob-work in a manner to themselves, and to their country, the least injurious. Under such circumstances, it is idle to dispute of more or less ; unless we extinguish Education altogethei', we do nothing. But this is not in our ppice?- : in a despotism it would be difficult ; we live in a free state. If our society be thus crazy, the fear of touching it will not prevent it from falling to pieces. If Educa- tion be an overwhelming torrent, it is not by attempting to dam it up in certain state will save much time both to teachers and scholars. Gerard Bdshnell. JVorwich, (Conn.) February 6, 1836. My opinion of " Foster's Elementary Copy-Books," is decidedly favor- able. The excellencies of this system consist, in the first place, in teach' ing the young •pupil the correct use of the pen. The second peculiar ad' vantage is, they guide the young beginner. This is in accordance with nature. The parent leads the child in its first efforts in walking. Why not guide its hand in its first efforts in writing .-' At least, why not guide the pen until it shall be so habituated in making the letters as to contract no bad habits ? The reeded lines in these Copy-Books, serve as a guide^ which, if obeyed, will lead to skill in the art of Penmanship. John Stores. Norwich Female Academy, Feb. 6, 1836. 4. AN ALPHABETICAL SET OF SMALL HAND COPIES, adapted to Foster's System of Penmanship ; designed and engraved in a superior style. 5. THE CLERK'S GUIDE, OR COMMERCIAL COR- RESPONDENCE ; comprising Letters of Introduction, Letters of Credit, and General Business, with forms of Invoices, Bills Parcels, Bills of Exchange, Account-sales, and an Appendix, containing Advice to young Tradesmen and Shopkeepers, Equa- tion of Payments, Commercial Terms, &c. By B. F. Foster. 1 vol. 12rao. TESTIMONIALS' Extract from the Report of a Committee appointed to award premiums for Penmanship in the Albany Academy. In awarding the premiums, the committee experienced much embarrassment from the almost equal proficiency exhibited by the pupils. It is in fact impossible, without denying the evidence before us, to dispute the advantages of the system taught by Mr. Foster, and the committee recommend it as superior to all others with which they are acquainted, Richard Yates, \ Theodore Olcott, > Committee. Henry Bartow, j Extract from the Report of a Committee appointed to attend the examination of the pupils in the Albany JFemale Seminary. The specimens of writing exhibited, afford the most satisfac- tory evidence of improvement in this art, and tend at once to confirm the opinion now nearly universal, of the great superiority of the system pursued by Mr. Foster, and to advance his high reputation as an accomplished teacher. Alfred Conkling, \ Edward C. Delavan, > Committee. Samuel S. Fowler, ) Mr. Foster is unquestionably the first writing master in this city, — if not in this country, — and so far as much observation, and an acquaintance with him and his system, authorize us to speak, — utterly free from that humbug and quackery which dis- grace not merely the profession, but, in some of its results, the whole Christian community. Writing is an art valuable in itself, beyond what most persons are ready to admit. And it is not only valuable in itself, but the easy, elegant penman will extend his order and neatness into the whole circle of his habits, — intellectual, social and moral ;— at least such is the tendency. He who effects a reform in this department, will, in our view be a great public benefactor. — Boston Moral Reformer. We are personally acquainted with Mr. Foster, and take great pleasure in recommending his establishment to the notice of our fellow-citizens. We have examined his system in detail, — have observed his mode of instruction in full operation, — and are fully impressed with the practicability and utility of his plan. It facilitates beyond all other methods, the attainment of a free, elegant, and rapid business hand. — Boston. Republican. /^ "^ ^-"^^ji^^ ^ EDUCATION REFORM. I ih REVIEW OF WYSE jON THE NECESSITY OF A NATIONAL SYSTEM OP EDUCATION, COMPRISING THE SUBSTANCE OP THAT WORK, SO FAR AS RELATES TO eOMjMOW; SCHOOL ANP POPULAR EDUCATION.. BY B. F. FOSTER S NEW-YORK: WILEY AND FUTNAM, mx BROADWAY. 183X. This pamphlet containa T.sheets the postage on which will be, if not over 100 miles, 10 centf i if over 100 miles, 17 cents. Juai published, andjbr sale at 183 Broadway, THE COUNTING-HOUSE MANUAL, or, Merchant's, Banker's, and Tradesman's Assistant. By B. F. Foster, Accountant. Author of a new " Treatise on Commercial Book-keeping," " The Clerk's Guide," &c. Frieze $1 25. , ■ From tjie Evening Post. This is a convenient manualyccmtaimng'riiueh useful informa- tion, -which men of business find it indispensable to obtain from some quarter. The first part embraces a sumraai-y of the laws and usages relative to bills and notes, intending to guard the merchant against the losses aud litigations, frequently arising from inattention or want of proper information ; showing the proper steps to be taken to preserve the legal claim on dr-awers, acceptors, endorsers, &c. Next follows tables for ascertaining instantly, by inspection, when any bill or note will fall due, drawn or accepted any day of the year ; together with informa- tion respecting the modes of conducting business generally— the value of foreign monies, and a system of rules for the equa- tion of payments. From the New- York Albion. A remarkably useful and well arranged compendium of in- formation upon the subject of which it treats. There are the laws and usages of bills of exchange, with the requisite features of these documents ; some curious and important circumstances with regard to the maturity of bills and notes ; tables showing when notes become due at any date commencing in any month ; rates of commissions ; various other tables of importance ; and rules for the equation of payments. All these appear to have been prepared with great care and accuracy, and we believe will be found extensively useful in every counting-house. From the Neio- York Sun. Here is a work of evident utility, convenience and acquracy containing a series of tables, showing when notes, though dated on different days, fall due on the same, and when one day's difference in date will make several in the time of payment ; to- gether with amass of information relative to exchange, value of money, &c. We should judge this to be an invaluable assistant for those for whom it was prepared. In size it is convenient, in arrangement for reference clear, and in mechanical execution neat. WSLLUM 03B0RN, FRIJMTER, 88 WILLIAM-STHEET. -->o*'"° v^*.-'. "> ^ <^^ '^--^ -0 c " A^' "^ ^