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 REPORT 
 
 AMERICAN SYSTEM 
 
 GRADED FEEE SCHOOLS 
 
 BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND VISITORS 
 
 COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 H. H. BARNEY, 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF THE CENTRAL SCHOOL. 
 
 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD. 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE DAILY TIMES, WALNUT STREET, ABOVE PEARL. 
 
 1851. 
 
V 
 
 / 
 
REPORT 
 
 ON THE 
 
 AMERICAN SYSTEM 
 
 OF 
 
 GRADED FREE SCHOOLS. 
 
 BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND VISITORS 
 
 COMMON SCHOOLS, 
 
 ^ X BY 
 
 H. H. BARNEY, 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF THE CENTRAL SCHOOL, 
 
 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD. 
 
 3 CINCINNATI: 
 
 rRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE DAILY TIMES, WALNUT STREET, ABOVE FBAfil. 
 
 1851. 
 
School Department. 
 
 Cincinnati, March 21, 1851. 
 Extracts from the Minutes of the Board of Trustees and Visitors, Jan'y 7, 1851. 
 Resolved, That H. H. Barney be requested to report to this Board upon 
 the History and present state of the different High Schools of the United 
 States, their mode of government, and manner of being conducted. 
 
 January 21, 1851, 
 A Report of Mr. Barney on the History, condition, and mode of govern- 
 ment of the different High Schools in the the United States, was received 
 and referred to the committee on Central Schools for examination and pub- 
 lication. 
 
 W. Leuthstrom, Secretary. 
 
 To the Board of Trustees and Visitors of Common Schools: 
 
 Gentlemen : —The commhtee on Central Schools having examined the 
 
 Report of Mr. Barney in relation to High Schools in the United States, find 
 
 It to contain a wide range of information pertaining to the government, 
 
 &c., of such Schools, and have therefore taken much pleasure in carrying 
 
 out the order of the Board to have tlie same published. 
 
 Wm. Goodman, 
 
 ,. , Chairman Com. of Central School. 
 
 CiNCTNNATi, March, 1851. 
 
PREFATORY REMARKS. 
 
 Before giving an exposition of the topics embraced in the resolu- 
 tion of the Board, it may be proper to say a word concerning the 
 origin of those efforts which have given such a wonderful impulse to 
 the cause of general education in this country, for the last fifteen 
 years. 
 
 Previous to 1 830, the common schools had remained almost sta- 
 tionary for several years; or, as Hon. Horace Mann remarked in his 
 first Annual Report, "the common school system had fallen into a 
 state of general unsoundness and debility; a great majority of the 
 school-houses were not only ill adapted to encourage mental eflFort, 
 but in many cases, were absolutely perilous to the health and symme- 
 trical growth of the children ; the schools were under a sleepy super- 
 vision ; many of the most intelligent and wealthy of our citizens had 
 become estranged from their welfare, and many of the teachers were 
 but poorly qualified for the performance of the delicate and difficult 
 task committed to their hands." The attention of the public had 
 not been called to the importance of having teachers specially trained 
 for their calling, nor of having some more effectual means for super- 
 vising their labors, and securing for them the co-operation of the 
 public, as well as the powerful aid of the government. The grand 
 idea seemed to have been overlooked, that the great end of public 
 instruction was not merely to have schools, but to have good schools ; 
 schools which should awaken mind and cultivate good principles. 
 
 The great and all-important fact had been almost entirely over- 
 looked, that a child has powers and sentiments which, when properly 
 cultivated, predestine him to advance forever in knowledo-e and 
 virtue, but powers which would be stifled and perverted in their very 
 infancy without proper culture. Indeed, every body seemed to acqui- 
 esce in the belief that the common schools were doing well enough, 
 or, at least, as well as they were capable of doing. 
 
[ 4 J 
 
 About this time, statesmen and philanthropists became impressed 
 with the belief that our civil and religious institutions were in danger; 
 that the political heavens were gathering darkness, and the moral 
 sky becoming daily more and more obscured. Eiirope was full of 
 commotion and fearful agitation. The iron heel of Russia was on 
 the neck of prostrate Poland ; France was a moral volcano ; the Ger- 
 man states were restless, and the Irish people were getting tired of 
 England's five hundred years of tyranny and misrule. The conse- 
 quence was, that Europe was pouring in upon our country an increa- 
 sing tide of her ignorant, superstitious, degraded and oppressed 
 population. Many thought a momentous crisis was at hand, and 
 that something should be speedily done to countervail the baleful 
 influences which appeared to be sapping the very foundations of our 
 institutions. 
 
 Public attention Avas naturally turned to our common schools as 
 the palladium of our liberties ; but, upon investigation, they were 
 found, as already stated, insufficient barriers against the destructive 
 tide that was i-olling in upon our country. 
 
 There was a want of interest in them on the part of parents and 
 others; the change of teachers was quite too frequent; the pecuniary 
 streno-th of the school districts was greatly impaired by an excessive 
 multiplication of them; the diversity and frequent change of text- 
 books was legion ; teachers were not qualified ; school sessions were 
 extremely short, and the vacations long ; a regular system of super- 
 vision was either entirely wanting or inefficient and sleepy; and, 
 above all, the schools were not distributed into grades or departments, 
 nor was a suitable course of study prescribed and adhered to. 
 
 The deficiencies and evils in the system being ascertained, and the 
 appropriate remedies clearly and eloquently pointed out by the great 
 pioneers in the good cause, Horace Mann, Bishop Potter, Henry Bar- 
 nard and others, the people began the work of reform in good ear- 
 nest, and a very high degree of success has thus far crowned their 
 efforts. A new and noble system has thus been wrought out within 
 the last fifteen years, which maybe denominated the "Republican 
 System of Union or Graded Free Schools," and which will be con- 
 sidered first in this Report. The most marked change which has 
 taken place in the educational system of this country during the 
 period just refered to, and to which more of its improvements are 
 owino- than to all other appliances combined, is the distribution of 
 our common schools into the following grades, viz: 1. Primary 
 
[ 5 ] 
 
 Schools; 2. Secondary or Intermediate Schools; 3. Grammar Schools; 
 4. Central High Schools — the whole denominated a Union School, 
 or a System of Graded Schools. 
 
 The origin, design, and advantages of a Union School system will 
 constitute the second topic in this Repoit, and, in discussing it, we 
 shall consider, at some length, the deficiencies and evils of the old 
 District system, and then endeavor to show how the new system 
 affords a remedy. As a Central High School is only a branch of 
 the Union or Graded School system, and as they originated about the 
 same time, and were designed to accomplish the same ends, we shall 
 discuss them together in this Report. A Union School, with all the 
 departments in one building, is particularly adapted to populous rural 
 districts, and towns and cities not exceeding six or eight thousand 
 inhabitants; and a Central High School, occupying a separate build- 
 ing, to the larger class of cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, 
 Boston, Cincinnati, Providence, <fec. A Union School is nothing 
 more nor less than a graded system of common schools, w4th a High 
 School Department attached; and they are generally preferred in 
 those villages and cities in which the pupils pursuing higher branches 
 are not numerous enough to warrant the expense of a separate build- 
 ing, and a separate corps of teachers. In a Union School, one teach- 
 er, and sometimes two, are employed in the High School Department. 
 A Central High School usually occupies a separate building and is 
 in charge of a distinct corps of teachers, as is the case in the Cincin- 
 nati, Columbus, Providence, and other High Schools. 
 
 There is a difference of opinion among those who are posted up in 
 such matters, in which of the eighty cities in the United States having 
 Central High Schools, the best model of a school system, and espe- 
 cially of a Central High School, is to be found. So far as I have 
 been able to gather up expressions of opinion on this subject, I am 
 inclined to think that the system of Providence, R. I., taken as a 
 whole, has generally received the preference. An outline of its 
 organization is subjoined to this Report. In some particulars, how- 
 ever, several gentlemen experienced in such things, and from eastern 
 cities too, have awarded the palm to the Cincinnati School system ; 
 I allude to the " Classification and course of study for the Common 
 Schools of Cincinnati," the manner in which promotions are made 
 from one department to another, and to the organization and general 
 regulations of the Central School. There is no Central School in the 
 United States organized precisely like that of Cincinnati. In Provi- 
 
[61 
 
 dence, male and female pupils, though occupying the same build- 
 ing, never recite in the same class. They are, however, brought 
 into the same room together for the purpose of certain general exer- 
 cises, and to receive lectures on some of the natural sciences. The 
 plan of organization is the " Horizontal System." The pupils remain 
 in the school throe years. During the first year they occupy the first 
 story of the building ; the second year, the second story ; the third 
 year, the third story ; and each class during the year makes all its 
 recitations to the same teacher. Hence the origin of the term " Hor- 
 izontal System ;" the school being divided, as it were, into three 
 grades, by horizontal planes, and each grade moving to a higher 
 plane once a year until it graduates. Female pupils recite exclusive- 
 ly to female instructors. 
 
 In the Hartford High School both sexes not only recite in the same 
 classes and to different teachers in different subjects of study, but are 
 even seated in the same grand room, from which they deploy to the 
 different recitation rooms during the day. In this school there is a 
 mingling of male and female pupils in the most extended sense of the 
 word. They enter the building, however, by separate yards and 
 doors, and have separate play grounds. The system of classification 
 and recitation is the " Departmental." 
 
 In the New York Free Academy and the Philadelphia High School, 
 the admissions are semi-annual, and the system in each is the " Depart- 
 mental." In Boston, Mass., the High School is virtually two schools, 
 viz : the Classical High School, and the English High School. In the 
 former the pupils are fitted for College, in the latter for the va- 
 rious avocations and industrial pursuits of life. The pupils are ad- 
 mitted on examination, at stated periods, from every part of the city, 
 whether they come from the common schools or not. The system 
 is partly "Horizontal " and partly " Departmental." 
 
 The organization and arrangement of the Cincinnati central school 
 difters in some respects from them all. Male and female pupils attend 
 the same school as in Hartford, are seated in separate rooms, as in 
 Providence, but, as in the Hartford high school, they recite in the 
 same classes, when the number of each sex pursuing the same 
 study, renders it practicable. In the distribution of the sev- 
 eral subjects of study among the teachers, and in the general 
 organization, the " Departmental" system, as in the New York Free 
 Academy and in the Philadelphia High School, has been preferred 
 and adopted. 
 
[7 ] 
 
 It seems proper in this connection to specify some of the peculiar 
 advantages claimed for each of these systems by their respective ad- 
 vocates. It is argued on behalf of the "Horizontal" system, that 
 the pupils, occupying the same rooms, i-eciting continually to the same 
 teacher, and subject to the same rules and principles of discipline for 
 an entire year, can be better managed than where they move from 
 room to room for the purpose of reciting to different teachers, as is 
 the case in the " Departmental" system. 
 
 " That having the High School thus divided intosia: small schools," 
 says the Principal of the Providence High School, "produces a 
 quietness favorable to the cultivation of good manriers, correct taste and 
 thorough discipline ; each pupil being desirous of promotion to a new 
 room and a new teacher, makes greater efforts to do well. Each 
 teacher being responsible for the cleanliness and order of one room, 
 he is more likely to be efficient, than when all are seated in one grand 
 room. We think we can, in this way, educate our pupils quicker, 
 cheaper, and belter. Other teachers entertain different opinions on this 
 point." 
 
 The advocates of the other system contend that, where the pupils 
 remain constantly in the same room, and recite to the same teacher, 
 there is a great tendency to relapse into dull and monotonous habits ; 
 that the ability to impart instruction in a lively and impressive man- 
 ner, is, to some extent, a natural gift, and that teachers often possess 
 this gift in a high degree, in teaching some subjects, but are 
 quite destitute of it in others ; that the "Departmental " system ena- 
 bles the Superintendent of the school to take advantage of this fact in 
 detailing the business for his assistants ; and that a change of rooms 
 and teachers imparts variety and spirit to the exercises, and promotes 
 the vivacity and energy of the pupils. 
 
SECTION 1. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM OF UNION, OR GRADED FREE SCHOOLS. 
 
 Have Americans any Educational System ? 
 
 The question may perhaps be asked, whether the people of the Uni- 
 ted States have any thing, in the matter of education, peculiar to them- 
 selves — any sj'^stem whose organization, means of support, and modes 
 of control, characterize it as essentially democratic ; and whose general 
 form would naturally spring from, and shape itself to, the republican 
 principles of their government. The qiiestion is a proper one, and 
 arises from the conviction that each distinct form of government, si- 
 lently, but irresistibly, moulds to itself all the institutions which ori- 
 ginate under it. The truth of this conviction is easily demonstrated, 
 so far as our own government is concerned, for our government is 
 wrought out directly from the will of the people, as are also all our 
 institutions. Springing from the same source, they must have many 
 other properties in common. All the features, therefore, which dis- 
 tinguish our government from others, we may expect to see distinctly 
 imprinted not only on our style of thought, our social manners and 
 habits of business, but also xipon all the schemes for educational im- 
 provement which engage the attention of our people. They all alike 
 originated from republicanism, and all alike bear its broad seal on 
 their front. 
 
 The settlement of its great political questions is the first labor of a na- 
 tion, but as soon as these are adjusted, its intellectual cultivation im- 
 mediately commences. Our intellectual culture, indeed, began with 
 our existence ; but it was not until within the last fifteen or twenty 
 years, that the spirit of democracy began sensibly to diffuse itself 
 through our educational schemes, and, at this day, we see, rapidly 
 developing itself, a general system of education, peculiar to us as a peo- 
 ple, perfectly symmetrical in all its parts, and in grand harmony with 
 the form of government we are proud to call our own. 
 
 This system we shall designate as the American System of Graded 
 Free Schools, though somewhat late in its development, it is the gen- 
 
[ 9 ] 
 
 uine production of our domestic principles. It i s the spontaneous effort 
 of American action to gather around itself a means of intellecual cultiva- 
 tion, extensive enough in its ramifications to come into contact with, and 
 satisfy every want, and flexible enough to satisfy eveiy desire, eman- 
 ating from the great body of the people. It is young America mov- 
 ing herself, and shakinor off the forms of education which the iron 
 monarchies of other days had fitted to themselves, and creating her- 
 self one which should perfectly embody her own free spirit, and per- 
 mit its minutest workings to be seen and felt in the loneliest corners 
 of the land. 
 
 For the outlines of this system, we naturally turn to our largest 
 towns and cities. There the freedom of thought and deed secured 
 hy law to a dense population, render the means of education absolutely 
 necessary, as a safeguard against anarchy — not such partial means 
 as private competence can procure, or as private munificence can be- 
 stow, or has been deemed sufficient in those countries where the pow- 
 er of the throne controls the will of the mass, but means ample enough 
 to stretch its arms from the son of the richest to the son of the beggar, 
 and noble enough to be a common pride to all. Our colleges and 
 other higher seminaries of learning, strange as it may seem, were 
 established, endowed, and conducted not with any particular view to 
 their adaptation to the republican system of which they were to form 
 a part, but rigidly after the models of Oxford University and other 
 European institutions, which leaning upon a royal purse and basking 
 in aristocratic smiles, were no better fitted to serve the interests of a 
 repulican nation, than a belief in the divine right of kings was to pro- 
 duce republicans. The establishment of our highest grade of schools on 
 a basis peculiar to themselves, with but little relation to the wants of 
 the masses, led to the adoption of that wretched, misshapen, loose 
 jointed system which is seen in the private schools, academies, 
 charity schools, denominational schools, and schools of all other kinds 
 t aken collectively. There is but little compactness or economy, or 
 beauty, or efficiency about it. It is an image with a head of brass, 
 thighs of iron and feet of mud. 
 
 If it be true that this system is ill suited to the genius of our people 
 and the spirit of the times, we shall expect to see some signs of decay be- 
 tokening its fall and the establishment of something newer and stronger. 
 Our colleges all over the country, are complaining of a want of patron- 
 age. While our population has been increasing with a rapidity almost 
 beyond precedent, the annual College Reports show that the aggregate 
 number of students has, during the last few years, remained stationary 
 
[ 10] 
 
 or retrograded. The late important changes in Brown University — 
 changes impeiatively demanded by the wants of a people conscious 
 that their hands and brains can never be sinecures to them — and the 
 great favor which these changes have met with from the guardians of 
 collegiate instruction in other places, show too plainly to be misun- 
 derstood, the drift of the educational movements of the day. In Mas- 
 sachusetts the entire system of Academies, which were in fact little 
 more than door steps to colleges, and which considered it a far more 
 glorious deed to send up a salutatorian than to impart intellect- 
 ual vigor and efficiency to a race of farmers and artizans, has dwin- 
 dled down to a shadow. In the rest of the New England States where 
 the spirit of educational progress has penetrated, academies and all 
 other schools which are dissevered, either by their grade or conditions 
 of attendance, from the schools for the masses, are fast passing away. 
 In the state of New York, the decrease in the number of Academies* 
 for the last si.v years has been more than thirty per cent. In Ohio, 
 whose educational demands have increased in unparalleled ratio with- 
 in the last five years, no new academies are being built, and the old 
 ones are rapidly giving way to a new better state of things. 
 
 We now naturally inquire what new agency has sprung up to sup- 
 ply the fast increasing educational want 1 The children have turn- 
 ed away from the dried breasts of the old collegiate system, and an- 
 other mother must give them nourishment. In the city of 
 Boston, the Common School, the American School, free as the air of 
 heaven, founded on the wants and hopes of the multitude, with its 
 grasp upon the myriad arms that move the government, has risen high 
 above all opposition and stands without a rival. Aristocratic schools, 
 denominational schools and all other schoiils not, like it, thoroughly 
 imbued with the spirit which animates our governmental institutions, 
 have moved from its path as from the tread of a mammoth. The 
 secret of their wonderful success is undoubtedly to be sought for in 
 their complete adaptation to the wants of a republican people. In the 
 Boston schools we see one of the finest developments of the 
 American Eucational System. So complete and symmetrical in 
 structure are they that the human being there receives the first rudi- 
 mental instructions, and is then led along and upward by gradations 
 as simple and beautiful as its own growth, until it steps forth an A- 
 merican citizen complete. Throughout Massachusetts and New Eng- 
 land generally, the system is developing itself in what are termed 
 Union Schools, which are rapidly spreading themselves on every 
 
[ 11 ] 
 
 side. By the promises now given, ihey will in a few years supersede 
 every other means of education, and give to the United States a sys- 
 tem eminently democratic in its origin and influence, peculiarly fitted 
 to the spirit of our people and the nature of our country, economical, 
 low enough to reach the lowest, and high enough to cover the tallest. 
 In Philadelphia, the system, headed by a Central High School, has 
 completely silenced all competition. All other schemes are like 
 sickly plants under the boughs of a majestic oak. 
 
 Perhaps, we shall not find anywhere a more complete develop- 
 ment of the American System than in the Public Schools of Phila- 
 delphia. There the system seems to have taken the precise form into 
 which the educational tendencies of the age, and the peculiar spirit 
 of our governmental institutions would mold it. In them, we see 
 the culmination of our educational strtiggle. In New Orleans, after 
 ineffectual efforts for several years to make the old system answer the 
 purposes of public education, the new one was introduced. Although 
 at first it seemed to languish, it gradually gathered strength, and now 
 the schools are rapidly coming up to the first rank. They have won 
 their way to general favor; and all other means of education are fast 
 dwindling away. In Missouri, there is something quite interesting 
 connecied with the progress of school education. The most strenu- 
 ous efforts Avere put forth, both by private individuals and the State, 
 to bolster up the old collegiate system. Thousands of dollars of the 
 public money were expended, year after year, to continue in active 
 and efficient operation its large class of seminaries of the highest 
 grade. The fact was overlooked, that plans of education, to be of 
 value, must include the great mass, and not be confined to that small 
 number whom ample pecuniary means, and abundant leisure time 
 enable to spend years and money in training the intellect. The 
 result, as a careful consideration of the intimate reladon springing up 
 between our educational schemes and our government, would have 
 disclosed, was almost a total failure. Th:- colleges would not live, 
 and the people would be educated. At present thn American system 
 is spreading with great rapidity throughout the entire State. It 
 seemed to rise almost spontaneously. No particixlar exertions were 
 put forth to set it in operation. The want seems to have been 
 generally felt, and by this means to have been completely satisfied. — 
 In St. Louis, the public schools do not hold the first place in the 
 public estimation. The reason that they do not, is probably due to 
 the fact, that before the educational tendency of the age had fully 
 
[12 ] 
 
 disclosed itself, an individual of high rank as a teacher, of great 
 energy of character, and invincible det; rminaii n, coupled with as 
 liberal views of education as private interest would permit, established 
 a private school, with almost princely accomodations, and main- 
 tained it at such a high degree of excellence in mental and moral 
 training, that th? patronage of the city was given to it. To go to 
 Wyraan's school, is to take beforehand, the strongest surety that 
 whatever of a man exists in the boy will be fttlly and properly devel- 
 oped. There can be little doubt, however, that the time is not 
 far distant when the public schools of St. Louis, — like those 
 of Philadelphia and Boston, will be supreme arbiters in mat- 
 ters pertaining to the intellectual and moral training of the great 
 mass. 
 
 The development of the American System is not confined any 
 longer to the cities alone. Throughout all the northern states, and 
 large portions of the West and Northwest, including all north of the 
 southern Virginia line, embracing no less than seventeen of the most 
 active, thriving of the United States, this system is showing itself 
 most palpably and promisingly. The detached and jealous districts 
 into which the towns, large and small, are divided, are beginning to 
 unite again, and consolidate their forces. They begin to see that 
 the strongest laws are those which education enacts. They begin to 
 take pride in providing accomodations which will invite their 
 children to learning, and make them dread the infamy of ignorance. 
 The teacher, instead of being continually made to feel that his occu- 
 pation is a sign manual that he is absolutely fit for nothing else, is 
 raised in his own estimation and that of others, and has the pleasure 
 of knowing that in the minds of the great and good his is a calling 
 worthy of all praise, and that to be a complete teacher is greater than 
 to be a king. 
 
 One of the strongest and most pleasing features of this system, is 
 its universality. Does our government dispense its blessings to all. 
 without regard to rank, or sex, or condition — so does this. The 
 great dispenser of the riches of freedom, it opens its treasures alike 
 to all ; and the rich and the poor — the native and the foreigner, may 
 come and take their fill. It is acknowledged to be an instrumentality 
 designed to secure the public good ; and hence it is supported at the 
 public expense. One important feature is its flexibility. Essen- 
 tially a means for securing the highest benefits to the individual and 
 to society, it is capable of assuming any particular form which shall 
 
[ 13 ] 
 
 adapt it to its end. If the pros[>erity of the man, and the general 
 interests of our particular form o ' government require the pupils to 
 understand something of ihe nature of our government, without the 
 necessity of studying the Greek of Plato's Republic, the po|)ular will 
 has only to announce it, and it is done If the progress of the sci- 
 entific world has disclosed a new branch of knowledge, the scholar 
 can at once he made acquainted with it, though the subtleties of 
 Aristotle may resist dislodgment from their ancient stand on the desk 
 of the student. Another prominent peculiarity is the scope which it 
 affords for the practical application to education of one of the grandest 
 characteristics of nearly all the departments of modern toil — we 
 mean the division of labor. To this, in a great degree, is due the 
 wonderful facility with which modern business corporations have 
 laid their hands upon every branch of human diligence, and be- 
 stowed upon the world the comforts and luxuries of life. Introduced 
 into our schemes for education, it produces results almost as aston- 
 ishing as the advent of the spinning jenny in the manufacture of 
 cloth. The small, low, four-roofed despicable building into which, 
 during three or four months of the year, dozens of shivering pupils 
 of all ages and attainments, are huddled together, is beginning to 
 give way to a structure on which the eye of the wayfarer may 
 dwell with pleasure and pride. The pupils are classified, and a 
 teacher procured, who is adapted to his duties, and chaos is re- 
 duced to order. 
 
 Another feature is the adaptation of this system to meet the wants 
 of our republican government. Hitherto the reciprocal influence of 
 our education, and our system of government has been too much 
 overlooked. It is not too much to say, that if the blessings of the 
 iree institutions we now enjoy are ever perpetuated, it will be by the 
 influence of our educational systems. The studies of our youth 
 press with startling rapidity upon the performance of our political 
 duties as men. To meet the wants of a people who make the laws 
 they obey, this system has sprung up, nor will it go down until 
 the stately columns of the American Anthroparchy have mingled 
 in despairing confusion with the similar remains of Greece and 
 Rome. 
 
SECTION II. 
 
 UNION OR GRADED SCHOOLS. 
 
 A Union School is so denominated from the consolidation of two 
 or more small school districts into one. The plan is admirably 
 adapted to large villages or towns, and to small cities ; it can also be 
 introduced into the more populous rural districts. In most cases a 
 Union School embraces four departments, or grades of scholars — 
 namely : Primary, Intermediate or Secondary, Grammar, and 
 Central or High School. 
 
 In general, but one building is provided for a Union School — the 
 four departments occupying different rooms in it. In some cities, 
 three grades of buildings are provided — one for the Primary, or 
 Primary and Intermediate together — one for the Intermediate and 
 Grammar, or Grammar alone — and another for the Central or High 
 School. In Cincinnati there are two grades of school edifices — 
 namely: the Common School Houses, in which are convened all the 
 grades of pupils, from the Primary to the Grammnr School inclu- 
 sive, and tlie Central School building. 
 
 In Buffalo, they have, at present, but one building for the four 
 grades ; but in Boston, Providence, and some other cities, there are 
 three grades of school edifices. 
 
 In the country towns and villages, they seldom have but one 
 building for the accomodation of a Union School, whether it embrace 
 three or four departments. In a few instances, however, where the 
 territory embraced by the Union district is quite extensive, there is 
 an edifice near the geographical center, for the accomodation of the 
 Grammar and High School departments, with small houses, or rooms, 
 for the Primary departments, near the extremes. It may be remarked 
 in this connection, that a school is just as essentially Union in its 
 character, whether each of the departments occupy the same, or a 
 diflTerent building ; the only difference being, that in one case, 
 when the pupils are promoted from one grade to another, they also 
 pass into a different building, instead of a different room merely. 
 
[ 15 ] 
 
 In discussing tlie merits of a Union or graded school system, we 
 shall make no distinction on account of this circumstance. 
 
 In a recent visit to the Public Schools of New York, Philadelphia, 
 Brooklyn, New Haven, Hartford, Boston, Providence, Albany, 
 Rochester, BuflPalo, and some of the larger towns and villages, in this 
 and other States, the advantages of the Union School system over 
 others, was carefully observed, with a view to discuss its merits, and 
 present its claims at the Annual Meeting of the Ohio State Teachers' 
 Association. 
 
 The superior order, arrangements, and discipline of Union Schools, 
 the thorough and systematic instruction, the accuracy and spirit of 
 the recitations, as well as the cheerfulness, animation, neatness, and 
 pleasing deportment of the pupils, confirmed our previous opinion of 
 the admirable adaptation of this system to cities, to the larger villa- 
 ges, and the more thickly-settled rural districts. Before proceeding 
 to specify, in detail, the peculiar advantages of this, over the common 
 district system, some of the disadvantages, or evils of the latter, will 
 be mentioned. The subdivision of territory into very small districts, 
 embracing but a very small number of inhabitants, draws after it the 
 calamitous consequences of stinted means, and, of course, cheap 
 schoolhouses, cheap teachers, short sessions, and poor schools. — 
 "Under this weakning process," says Mr. Mann, "many of our 
 children have fared like Southern fruits in a Northern clime, Avhere, 
 owing to the coldness of the soil, and shortness of the season, they 
 never more than half ripen. Immature fruits at the close of the 
 year, are not only valueless, but they sometimes breed physical dis- 
 eases ; but such diseases are a blessing compared to those moral 
 distempers which must be engendered, when immature minds, 
 fermenting with unsound principles, are sent forth into the com- 
 munity." 
 
 " Such a system," as is very justly remarked by Bishop Potter, 
 "appears to be obnoxious to the most serious objections. It calls 
 together in one apartment, and under the supervision of but one 
 teacher, children of every age and grade of attainment ; and these 
 so divide the labors and distract the attention of their instructor, 
 that a large portion of his energies is wasted." It tends to multiply 
 classes to such an extent that his whole time is frittered away in 
 hearing hurried recitations. No opportunity is afforded for explana- 
 tion and illustration; none for indirect, collateral and oral instruction; 
 none for pointing out the practical bearings and utility of the subject 
 
[16 ] 
 
 taught ; none for awakening and disciplining the mind of the pupil, 
 by a searching and skillful examination into the amount of his 
 knowledge, and the processes by which he acquires it. Under such 
 a system, the pupil's efforts are reduced to the mere act of remem- 
 bering, and the teacher's to that of hearing him repeat by rote ; many 
 exercises, admirably adapted to interest and improve small children, 
 are precluded by the presence of large scholars; — the discipline fails 
 in adapting itself with skill and precision to the wants and capacities 
 of those of any particular age, owing to the mixed and hetrogeneous 
 character of the school ; — many important and practical subjects of 
 study are shut out for the want of time to attend to them. There can 
 be no regular, systematic, permanent course of study, owing to the 
 shortness of the sessions, and the transient character of the teachers ; 
 young children are deprived, when most they need it, of the genial 
 influence of fema e care and culture, at least during the winter 
 months. The more respectable and affluent, on account of the low 
 condition of the schools under such a system, are induced, and, in 
 some cases, compelled to send their children to private schools, thus 
 separating in early life those who are destined soon to act together on 
 the great platform of equal rights and privileges, The standard of 
 instruction is not only deteriorated, but its expensiveness is materially 
 increased, by requiring three or four buildings to be erected and kept 
 in repair, when one would be sufficient, and three or four teachers, — 
 all males, perhaps, — to be maintained, when a less number, possessing 
 far higher qualifications, might be procured for a less sum in the ag- 
 gregate ; finally, under such a system, there can be no division of 
 labor, which is quite as important in education as in the production of 
 wealth ; for we might with as much wisdom require cotton to be 
 picked, cared, spun, woven, bleached and dressed, by one machine, 
 or by one person, as that children of different ages and attainments, 
 as well as dispositions, should be successfully governed and instructed 
 by one teacher, where all are thrown promiscuously together in one 
 room. The inconveniences, defects, and evils of the common district 
 system, msiy be summed up as follows: 1. Insufficient playgrounds. 
 2. Incommodious and unsightly school houses. 3. Inexperienced, 
 imcompetent teachers. 4. Short school sessions. 6. The introduc- 
 tion into a single room, of pupils of different ages, and far diffisrent 
 grades of attainment. 6. Great multiplication of classes, and con- 
 sequently, inefficient recitations. 7. The necessity of omitting many 
 exercises designed to awaken, interest and improve the minds of the 
 
[17 ] 
 
 younger pupils. 8. The impossibility of adopting a system of dis- 
 cipline suited to pupils so widely different in age and other circum- 
 stances. 9. The preclusion of important subjects of study on 
 account of the multiplication of classes. 10. The impracticability 
 of introducing a regular course of study, and a system of exercises 
 adapted to the different pupils of various ages and grades. 11. The 
 diminution of female teachers during the winter months, and the 
 consequent removal of very small children from under their kind care 
 and protecting guardianship. 12. The separation of the children of 
 the poor from those of the opulent, thereby giving to the latter the 
 additional advantage of a superior education ; for the opulent can 
 send their children abroad to school, and they will do it in mostca^es, 
 if the schools near home are of an inferior character. 13. The de- 
 pression of the standard of education, and an increase of its expen- 
 siveness. 14. Deprivation of the advantages of gradation, division 
 of labor, and the exciting stimulus consequent upon the hope and 
 desire of promotion, which are far greater in a properly classified 
 Union, than in an ordinary district school, however competent the 
 teacher maybe. 15. The dull routine, the mechanical methods, and 
 the repulsive monotony, which banish everything like an enthusiasm 
 for study, ambition of attainment, and a disposition for emulous, noble, 
 resolute, vigorous exertion. 
 
 "A judicious system of public schools," says Bishop Potter, " is 
 an essential agent of civilization, and especially of that modern re- 
 publican civilization, which aims at the greatest good of the greatest 
 number; and it is almost the only means by which its rich and 
 varied blessings can be preserved and perpetuated ; because it is only 
 under the guidance of knowledge that man's intellectual ;ind moral 
 powers can be duly developed and wisely applied, and himself pre- 
 pared to enjoy this improved civilization." 
 
 To withhold, then, from the children of this republic that intellec- 
 tual and moral training which would give them the full command of 
 every faculty, both of body and mind, which would call into play 
 their powers of observation and reflection, and give them objects of 
 pursuit and habits of conduct favorable to their own happiness, would 
 be to deny them access to a large proportion of the best and noblest 
 influences supplied by Christianity — by Science and the Arts. 
 
 Every child in the land has, therefore, the most undoubted right 
 to demand at the hands of government the establishment and main- 
 tanance of such a system of public schools as would give him a 
 2 
 
[ 18 ] 
 
 place where his mental and bodily powers, his manners and morals 
 can be trained up to a healthful, vigorous and graceful activity, and 
 the proper foundation be laid to make him a thinking, reasonable 
 being, an enlightened virtuous citizen. It is the duty, therefore, as 
 well as the noblest privilige of the Legislature, to establish a system of 
 public schools on such a broad and liberal foundation, that the same 
 advantages, without being abridged or denied to the children of the 
 rich, shall be open at the same tune, to the worthy children of the 
 poorest and humblest parent. 
 
 Select, or private schools, on account of their expense, are accessible 
 only to the children of the more wealthy ; and they must, on that 
 account, always cause inviduous distinctions between the rich and 
 the poor, which ought not to exist anywhere, and especially in our 
 own country ; because, destined as all are to meet on the broad field 
 of competition, and, at the same time, to labor together for the com- 
 mon weal, it is unwise to separate them in early life, and to make 
 our schools, which ought to be so many bonds of union, the occasions 
 of jealousy and inequality of privileges. 
 
 The peculiar advantages of Union and Central High Schools over 
 the "old district system,''' as well as over a large majority of select, or 
 private high schools, are the following : 
 
 1. By embracing a larger extent of territory, the pecuniary strength 
 of each school district is increased, thereby enabling the inhabitants 
 to procure a larger and more eligible site, to erect thereon a school 
 edifice more ample in dimensions, more attractive in external ap- 
 pearance, more convenient and pleasing in its internal finish and 
 arrangements, and surroimded with play-grounds more tastefully laid 
 out and more appropriately adorned with shade trees. Every expe- 
 rienced school visitor and teacher can attest how much these things 
 contribute to the physical, intellectual and moral development of 
 the pupils, as well as to the formation of habits of taste, neatness, order, 
 and other valuable traits which constitute a good character in the 
 largest and best sense of the term. 
 
 2. The new system reduces, especially in the country, the number of 
 school districts and the number of teachers in demand, thereby ena- 
 blino- the people to enhance their compensation and to procure better 
 ones, without materially adding to their own burdens ; thus the facility 
 for obtaining experienced teachers is increased in a two-fold ratio. 
 It brino-s under the direction and skilful supervision of a competent 
 Principal, the subordinate and inexperienced teachers, and thus pre- 
 
[19 1 
 
 vents many of the errors and blunders always incident to schools 
 which employ but a single teacher who is too often destitute of a 
 knowledge of the proper methods of imparting instruction, even in the 
 very rudiments of an education. It is surely a very great desideratum 
 for every school to be able to employ as its principal teacher, an indi- 
 vidual of fair scientific attainments, of large experience, and possessing 
 such enlightened views of the delicacy and responsibility of his voca- 
 tion, as will enable him to introduce at once into his school, a proper 
 system of discipline, to classify his pupils in a judicious manner, to 
 supervise with discretion and judgment the subordinate teachers, and 
 so to direct all the school exercises and studies in the lower depart- 
 ments as to prevent the necessity of his having to do the work over 
 again when the pupils shall have reached his own department. 
 
 3. Union and Central High Schools afford increased facilities for 
 the introduction of a judicious course of study, and secure a stricter 
 adherence to it than could be done under the old system. They in- 
 crease the chances for a selection of good text books, and prevent, 
 m a great measure, the frequent changes which used to be such 
 a great hindrance to the progress of the school, 'and such a burden 
 and annoyance to parents. They have also added greatly to the fa- 
 cilities of procuring district libraries and philosophical aparatus,and 
 in this way created a more general taste for reading, and secured more 
 thorough and practical instruction. 
 
 4. As they are susceptible of a division into departments or grades 
 they admit of a more economical classification of the pupils, and thus 
 allow the teachers more time for oral and collateral instruction, and 
 for pointing out the practical bearing and uses of the subjects taught. 
 
 5. They prevent, in a great degree, the unhappy consequences resul- 
 ting from the numerous errors which young and inexperienced teachers 
 are so liable to commit; for instead of depending upon a sort of guess- 
 ing process in devising their plans, arranging and conducting their ex- 
 ercises, as is too often the case when they operate alone without any 
 one to guide their efforts, they would, "in a Union school," be fur- 
 nished with a programme of exercises by the principal teacher, and be 
 daily enlightened by him as to the proper manner of conducting them; 
 and thus would all the pupils receive accurate and thorough instruc- 
 tion at the very outset of their course. 
 
 6. They afford facilities for carrying out in school keeping, or rather 
 for exemplifying the truth of that important maxim, to which a cele- 
 brated general of antiquity referred, when he said that an army of 
 
[ 20] 
 
 sheep with a lion for a leader, was preferable to an army of lions with 
 a sheep for a leader; for one competent teacher with several inexpe- 
 rienced ones imder him, will accomplish vastly more than an equal 
 number of moderately qualified teachers, operating in separate schools, 
 without any enlightened supervision. 
 
 7. They tend to prevent the manifold evils resulting from short ses- 
 sions, and from a frequent change of teachers ; for though changes 
 should take place in the subordinate departments, yet the district being 
 able to pay the prmcipal such a salary as would secure his services 
 permanently, he would of course remain, and prevent any change in 
 the general plan and operations of the school. This is a considera- 
 tion that should not be overlooked by parents and school committees ; 
 for it saves to the pupil much valuable time, and to the parent much 
 expense. 
 
 It is hardly possible to overrate the evils consequent upon a frequent 
 change of teachers, for scarcely any uvu persons have the same 
 methods, and the one who follows has no opportunity to become 
 acquainted, by actual observation, with the condition of the school, 
 or the methods- of his jjredecessor. The one has departed, before the 
 other arrives. He enters the school a stranger to the children and the 
 parents, unacquainted with the relative propensity and aptitude, the 
 disposition and habits of the different scholars, ignorant of the course 
 pursued by former teachers, and with the prospect, probably, of retir- 
 ing himself at the end of three or four months. The progress of the 
 school must, therefore, be delayed, while he is learning his position; 
 the work which was begun by his predecessor will be arrested, in 
 many cases, perhaps, be performed over again, and thus the children 
 will often spend the whole period of his term, in retracing their steps 
 in a new book, or according to a new plan. Under such a state of 
 things, there will be movement, but little real progress. Scarcely less 
 will be the injurious consequences resulting from frequent interruption 
 in the session of the school, and from long vacations, which render 
 it necessary to dwell much longer on the different subjects of study. 
 
 8. They prevent the necessity of private schools, and bring into the 
 same school, the children of all ranks and classes of people, where 
 they can be educated together, and be prepared in some good degree, 
 to act together as citizens. They afford parents the opportunity also, 
 of educating their children near home, where their morals and health 
 may be constantly under parental supervision and watchful solicitude. 
 
 9. " Union Schools," admitting of a thorough classification of 
 
[ 21 1 
 
 the scholars, and of a subdivision into departments, occupying sepa- 
 rate rooms, many useful exercises can be introduced into the depart- 
 ment composed of none but small children, admirably adapted to in- 
 terest and improve them, which, in a school composed in part of large 
 scholars, would be quite out of place. They obviate many faults, re- 
 medy many defects of the old system ; in which the prominent ones 
 were, that the pupil was advanced too soon, took up many branches 
 before he was prepared for them, and pursued too great a number a 
 the same time. The result was, his mind was distracted, no one of 
 his studies was thoroughly mastered ; one text-book having been dis- 
 patched, another, perhaps on the same subject, was introduced, and 
 the pupil was in effect, occupied during most of his school life, in re- 
 tracing ground over which he had already traveled, — doing it however, 
 in such a manner, that his interest was deadened, his powers of dis- 
 crimination impaired, and his mind fixed, and almost petrified in 
 habits of torpid and vacant listlessness. 
 
 10. They render it practicable to employ a greater number of fe- 
 male teachers, especially in the winter season, and to assign to them a 
 more appropriate sphere of operation, and thus secure to young child- 
 ren, when they most need it, the genial influence of female care and 
 culture. Females make better teachers for young children than the 
 other sex, for they have more talent for conversational teaching, more 
 quickness of perception in seizing difficulties by which the mind of a 
 child is embarrassed, and more mildness of manner in removing them. 
 They are ingenious in introducing little d.evices calculated to animate 
 and encourage children, and to relieve the monotony of school exer- 
 cises. They attach more importance to the improvement of morals, 
 are more attentive to cleanliness and good manners than men ; they 
 have a peculiar faculty for awakening the sympathies of children, and 
 inspiring them with a desire to excel. Possessing warmer affections, 
 higher purity, more delicate taste, greater confidence in human nature, 
 more untiring zeal in behalf of the objects they love, they will find 
 out where a child's mind is quickest, they will follow it in its move- 
 ments more readily, and if it has gone astray, they will lead it back 
 into the right path more gently and kindly than men. Surely woman 
 is the natural guardian, the intended guide, forechosen by Providence, 
 for children of a tender ao-e. 
 
SECTION. III. 
 
 OPINIONS OF STATE SUPEEINTENDANTS, SCHOOL VISITORS, AND OTHERS, 
 ON THE UTILITY OF CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 In this article it is proposed to speak more particularly of some of 
 the benefits of a judiciously organized Central High School ; and this 
 will be done by extracts from the annual Reports of a large number of 
 the Public Schools of other cities, and from the written and published 
 opinions of those who are eminently qalified to pass a correct judg- 
 ment on the subject. Before proceeding to give these, it may not be 
 inappropriate to state how the expenses of schools of this grade are 
 defrayed ; for nearly all of them are free schools. Most of them are 
 sustained by a tax on the property of the city or town in which they 
 are located. Some of them, however, are the recipients of the annual 
 proceeds accruing from " Trust Funds," donated by individuals for 
 the support of schools in particlar localities long before Central High 
 Schools were thought of. A single case deserves to be mentioned. 
 In the year 1664, the " Worshipful Mr. Edward Hopkins of Connec- 
 ticut, under his will bequeathed five hundred pounds for the establish- 
 mentof a Grammar School" in the town of Hartford. The Hartford 
 Central High School established in 1845 is now the recipient, in part, 
 of the proceeds of that " Trust." Though originally given for main- 
 taining a '• Grammar School," yet it was not considered by those who 
 had the charge of it, a perversion or misuser of it, to bestow the avails 
 as just stated. The educational archives not only of Hartford, but 
 of several towns and cities in New England, furnish many interesting 
 facts connected with the mode of applying the annual income from 
 funds bequeathed for the founding of schools for the education of or- 
 phan children, and of those whose parents were in destitute or mode- 
 rate circumstances. There is, however, one remarkable fact connoted 
 with all the Central High Schools receiving aid from such " Trusts," 
 and that is, not one of these passed from under the control and super- 
 vision of the Common School Board in order to become such recipients. 
 As the Common School System of this country has changed, the mode of 
 
[ 23 ] 
 
 applying the proceeds of such " Trusts " has also changed. Those to 
 whom their management and distribution were confided, never doubted 
 that they could exercise a sound discretion in the matter. The main 
 consideration with them has been, how would the donor, if alive, pro- 
 bably apply them under present circumstances 1 
 
 But it is time to consider some of the more important advantages 
 resulting from a Central High School to the Common School System, 
 to the community, and to the pupils who attend it. On this subject 
 Mr. Henry Barnard, State Superintendant of Public Instruction of 
 Connecticut, and formerly of Rhode Island also, has published an 
 elaborate article. The following extracts are taken from it : 
 
 " Every thing which is now done in the several district schools is 
 better done, because the teachers are relieved from the necessity of 
 devoting the time and attention required by a few of the older and 
 more advanced ptipils, and can bestow all their time and attention 
 upon the preparatory studies and the younger children. All this is 
 done under the additional stimulusof being early and thoroughly fitted 
 for the Central High School. Ii equalizes the opportunities of a good 
 education, and exerts a happy social influence through all the districts 
 of the city. Without such a school, the children of families in hum- 
 ble circumstances are doomed to rely exclusively on the district 
 school, are isolated and condemned to an inferior education, both in 
 quality and quantity. They are cut off from the stimulus and sym- 
 pathy which the mingling of children of the same age from different 
 parts of the city would impart. 
 
 The privileges of a good school are not only brought within the 
 reach of each district, but of all classes ot community, and 
 are actually enjoyed by the children of the same age, from families 
 of the most diverse circumstances as to wealth, education and occu- 
 pation. Side by side in the same recitations, heart and hand in the 
 same sports, pressing up together to the same high attainments in know- 
 ledge and character, are found the children of the rich and the poor — 
 the more and the less favored in outward circumstances, without know- 
 ing or caring for the arbitrary distinctions which classify and district 
 society. With nearly the same opportuniues of education in child- 
 hood and youth, the prizes of life, its fields of usefulness, and sources 
 of happiness, are open to all, whatever may have been their accidents 
 of birth or fortune. From many obscure and humble homes, are 
 called forth and trained, virtue, talent, productive skill, intellectual 
 taste, and noble benevolence, which enrich our cities, multiply our 
 
[ 24] 
 
 work-shops, and carry forward every good work which aims to bless- 
 purify and elevate society. 
 
 The influence which the annual examination of candidates for ad- 
 mission into the central high school exerts, operates as a powerful 
 and abiding stimulus to exertion throughout all the schools. 
 
 Its privileges are held forth as the reward of exertion in the common 
 schools proper; and promotion to it based on the result of an impar- 
 tial examination, forms an unobjectionable standard by which the 
 relative standing of the different schools can be ascertained, and 
 also indicates the studies and departments of education, to which the 
 teacher in particular schools should devote special attention. 
 
 This influence upon the common schools, upon scholars and teach- 
 ers, upon those who reach, and those who do not reach the high 
 school, is worth far more than all it costs, independent of the 'advanta- 
 ges received by its actual pupils. 
 
 While the expenses for public or common schools are necessarily, 
 increased by the establishment of a central high school in addition to 
 those now supported, the aggregate expenditures for education in the 
 city, including public and private schools, are greatly diminished. 
 Many private schools of the same relative standing are discontinued 
 for want of patronage, while those of a higher grade which are really 
 called for by the educational wants of the community, are greatly im- 
 proved. Healthy competition has sprung- up, and the schools which 
 did not come up to the highest mark, have gone down in public esti- 
 mation. Other things being equal, viz : school houses, teachers, clas- 
 sification, and the means and appliances of instruction, the public 
 school is always better than the private. It may be safely stated that 
 the annual saving in the expenses of education to the city of Hartford, 
 in consequence of the new system, is about five thousand dollars. 
 
 The establishment of the high school, by improving the whole sys- 
 tem of common schools, and interesting a larger number of families 
 in the prosperity of the schools, has created a better public sentiment 
 than heretofore existed. The schools are now regarded as the com- 
 mon property, the common glory, and the common security of the 
 whole city. 
 
 The wealthy feel that the small additional tax required to establish 
 and sustain such a school, if not saved to them in diminished tuition 
 for the education of their own children in private schools at home and 
 abroad, is returned a hundred fold in the cnterprize which it quickens, 
 in the increased value given to property, and in the number of fami- 
 
[ 25 ] 
 
 lies which have resorted to their city or town, as a desirable place of 
 residence, because of the facilities enjoyed for a good education. 
 
 The poor feel that whatever betide them, their children are born 
 to an inheritance more valuable than lands or shops, in the free 
 access to institutions where as good an education can be had as money 
 can buy at home or abroad. 
 
 Such results have been realized in more than fifty cities and towns 
 in New England, and it is not known that in a single instance a 
 school ofthis grade has been abaiidonel after a fair trial. 
 
 Before producing other extracts corroborative of the opinion of Mr. 
 Barnard, it may be proper to state that one important incidental ad- 
 vantage growing out of the establishment of central high schools, as 
 the highest in grade in the common school system, is, that they 
 constitute a sort of standard by which the school systems in ditTcrent 
 cities can be compared. This circumstance and the fact that they 
 are rendered very conspicuous by the rank which they occupy in the 
 systein, have compelled, as it were, those standing at their head 
 to spare no pains or expense in their efforts to introduce into 
 them all the improvements in the way of organization, instruction and 
 dii^cipline known in any part of the country. They have there- 
 fore become the general distributing agents of important improve- 
 ments on the subject of teaching. 
 
 A gentleinan from Brattleboro. Vermont, writes thus : " The high 
 school is now based upon a foundation not to be shaken, for it has 
 taken deep root in the affections of the community, and is sustained 
 and cherished by the most ardent exertions and wishes for its prosper- 
 ity and perpetuity. 
 
 " In the same school-room, seated side by side, according to age 
 and attainments, are eighty children, representing all classes and con- 
 dit ons in society. The lad or miss, whose father pays a tax o' thirty- 
 five dollars, by the side of another whose expense of instruction is five 
 cents per annum. They play cordially and happily on the same 
 grounds, and pursuse the same studies — the former frequently incited 
 by the native superiority and practical good sense of the latter. While 
 the contact corrects the factitious gentility and ialse ideas of sujieri- 
 ority in the one, it encourages cleanliness and good breeding in the 
 other. There are exceptions, of course, but such is the general etFect, 
 according to my observation and general remark. Envy, jealousy, 
 and contempt have given place to kindness, confidence and respect. 
 Such, sir, was not the case, when we had four select schools in this 
 
[26 ] 
 
 village, not one of which now remains. The central school belongs 
 to each parent in the village — a patrimony which they leave to their 
 children — an inheritance indefeasable except by their indifference ; 
 and that it may not depreciate in value, they are constant in their vis- 
 its and attention. Its influence has collected a well selected and 
 much read library of nine hunered volumes, and created a taste for 
 reading among all classes. It has secured a corps of competent and 
 permanent teachers in the primary schools, and insured uniformity 
 in books and the course of study, Teachers from other towns visit 
 the Central School, to witness the modes of instruction, and School 
 Committees to obtain the improvements in construction of houses, 
 seats, laying out grounds, &c. The effect upon the whole community 
 has been favorably felt in directing attentijn to the subject of educa- 
 tion." 
 
 The principal of the Boston High School, thus speaks of the state 
 of his School in relation to the occupations, position, and wealth 
 of the parents of its pupils : 
 
 "Those of us who were brought up in the Public Schools, never 
 asked whose sons our companions were ; but whether they were clever 
 and good. Mr. Otis' son, or Mr. Winthrop's or Mr. Perkins' went 
 for no more than the son of the carpenter who repaired the school 
 house, or the son of the man employed to sweep the building, unless 
 he were in truth a better scholar, or a more obliging companion. In 
 reality, all met on a common level, so far as outward circumstances 
 came into consideration. 
 
 There is no instiiudon so truly republican'as such a school as this. 
 While we, the present teachers, were under graduates of the School, 
 rich men sent their sons to the School, because it was the best that 
 could be found. They learned that it was not a source of contamina- 
 tion, but that their sons learned how to compare themselves with others, 
 and to feel the necessity of something more than mere wealth to gain 
 consideration. At the same time poor men sent their sons here be- 
 cause they knew that they would get that education which they could 
 not afford to give them in any other way. They gained too by inter- 
 course with their wealthier mates, a polish of exterior manners and 
 an intellectual turn of mind, which their friends could appreciate and 
 perceive, although they could not tell what it was that had been ac- 
 quired. Oftentimes also the poor boy would take the lead of his pam- 
 pered class-mate, and take the honors of the school in preference to 
 him. To us, therefore, thus prepared by our own education to refute 
 
[ 27 J 
 
 the assertions that the ricl. will not use the Public Schools of a high 
 order, and that the poor cannot practically have access to them, it 
 seems strange that there should be any question about the matter. 
 In a class lately belonging to the School, there were two boys, one the 
 son of a man of extreme wealth, whose property cannot be less than 
 $500,000, and the other the son of an Irish laborer, employed by the 
 city at a do.lar a day to sweep the streets. The latter boy was the 
 better scholar. The list of one of my classes lies before me. In that 
 class there are three boys whose parents are very wealthy ; three whose 
 parents are poor, but not laborers, and ten whose parents are in mod- 
 erate circumstances. All these are looking forward to a collegiate 
 training. Of the the three who are brought up in great affluence, 
 neither is among the best scholars. One might be so, if he would take 
 the pains, but he will not. Of the three denominated poor, two are 
 very good scholars, and one not good. The best scholars are among 
 those whose parents are in moderate circumstances. 
 
 I have heard it said by men of wealth within a few years, that they 
 could not afford to send their sons to other Schools to be fitted for col- 
 lege, because they could not buy letter fitting for them than they could 
 get here." 
 
 The Principal of the English High School remarks : 
 
 "At present about one-third of my pupils are sons of merchants ; 
 the remaining two-thirds are sons of mechanics, professional men and 
 others. Some of our best scholars are sons of coopers, lamplighters, 
 and day laborers. A few years ago, he who ranked as our third scho- 
 lar was the son of a lamplighter, and worked three nights in the week 
 during his whole course, to save his father the expense of books, &c., 
 while at school. This year my second, if not my first scholar, is a 
 cooper's son. We have several sons of clergymen of distinction, and 
 lawyers of eminence. Indeed, the School is a perfect example of the 
 poor and the rich, meeting on common ground and on terms quite de- 
 mocraiic." 
 
 A member of the School Committee of Nantucket, speaks of 
 the operation of the Public High Schools in that town in the follow- 
 ing language : 
 
 " Our Public High School has been in operation about ten years, 
 and has during the whole of this lime, been highly useful in many 
 ways. It has been a stimulus to exertion, to the scholars of the lowet 
 Schools, and has furnished us with well educated teachers in our gram 
 mar schools. 
 
[28 ] 
 
 "Before the establisliment of our High School, we had several pri. 
 vatc schools, where the children of the wealthy received an education 
 beyond the reach of the poorer classes, who, although they had the 
 interest and desire, had not the means to obtain it. When the school 
 was first established, many kept their children away ; but we were 
 foriunate enough to obtain a teacher — now the Principal of the State 
 Normal School, at West Newton — whose success was such that soon 
 the Public Schools took the lead, and private institutions almost wholly 
 ceased. All cheerfully sent their children to the High School as soon 
 as they were qualified for admission, and very many who had patron- 
 ized private schools, when they found their children failed in the ex- 
 amination for admission into this school, from superfical teaching, 
 sent them into the Public Grammar School, where no favor was shown 
 and no glossing over was tolerated; and there they fought their way 
 up side by side, with their poorer school-mates, learning many 
 good lessons besides those in the exact sciences. The whole amount 
 of money expended for schools has been much diminished by the sub- 
 stitution of public for private sc :ools, and the teaching has been much 
 more thorough in the former than it was in the latter, as the tempta- 
 tion is not so strong with the teacher of the public schools to force 
 children forward in order to please parents and fill his school. The 
 general interest in schools is much increased, and the admittance to 
 the High School is valued by all, the rich as well as the poor." 
 
 But it may be said that the cost of buildings, and the annual tax for 
 supporting such schools, must be paid mainly by a few wealthy indi- 
 viduals, who receive in return no direct benefit from the schools. To 
 this it may be replied, without dwelling upon the increased security of 
 property and person in a well educated community, that the tendency 
 of establishing good schools in any place, will be to increase the activity 
 and enterprise of its citizens, and to lead others, not only laborers, but 
 persons of fortune who have families to educate, to make it their resi- 
 dence : the legitimate result of this will be to increase the value of real 
 estate, to raise the price of rents, and thus to remunerate the tax payer. 
 In proof of this we quote the following : The President of the North 
 Weste.n Educational Society, Wm. B. Ogden, Esq., stated some 
 months since, that "he was entrusted with the sale of numerous lots in 
 the city of Chicago, belonging to non-residents, and that he sold hun- 
 dreds more, and fifty per cent, higher than he could have sold but for 
 the free public schools of the city." In a debate on this subject in the 
 Legislature of Rhode Island, the Hon. Mr. Potter remarked : " I am 
 
[29 ] 
 
 in favor of establishing schools. I know how beneficial free school.-? 
 have been to this town (Providence). The houses here rent for fifty 
 pcr cent, more than they would if there were no public schools. A 
 mechanic can afford to pay it because he more than saves it in educa- 
 ting his children. It is owing to this that the town of Providence has 
 been getting away the population from the rest of the State." 
 
 In conclusion, it may be remarked that all the arguments here offered 
 in favor of the establishment of Union Schools, apply with equal force 
 in favor of classified Public Schools in cities too large to be accommo- 
 dated by a single school ; and that the benefits of a Free High School 
 are greater and more apparant, in places sufficiently large to warrant 
 the erection of a separate building for this department. 
 
 The Principal of the Central High School, at Hallowell, Maine, 
 thus writes : — "In it are taught all the higher English, and also the 
 Classical studies are pursued systematically far enough to qualify 
 youth for practical business or for College. The influence of this 
 school is decidedly manifest in elevating public sentiment in refer- 
 ence to the advantages of Common Schools, and the value of general 
 education. It presents also a powerful stimulus to the children in 
 the lower schools, to greater diligence and effort to qualify them- 
 selves to gain admission ; so that even our grammar schools now, 
 are far better than our best schools, public or private, before this 
 system was introduced. The effect is also visible in removing the 
 necessity of Private Schools, the children of all classes vieing with 
 each other on a common level for elevation, and the only ground of 
 distinction being good scholarship and correct deportment. Nor can 
 the benevolent mind contemplate without high satisfaction, its results, 
 in imparting a gratuitous education of an elevated character to hun- 
 dreds of children, whose pecuniary means are totally inadequate to 
 secure it in Private Schools. 
 
SECTION IV. 
 
 FINANCIAL BEARING OF THE MODERN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 
 
 The design of this article is to iUustrate the financial advantage of 
 substituting public for private schools to the greatest possible extent, 
 and the influence which Central Schools have exerted in this regard ; 
 and as historical facts are more interesting, as well as more conclu- 
 sive on this subject, than mere speculation or abstract reasoning, a 
 large number of them will be given. 
 
 The following communication, from a gentleman of Providence, 
 R. I., shows the operation of the High School in that city : 
 
 " The High School was the only feature of our system which en- 
 countered much opposition. When first proposed, its bearings on 
 the schools below, and in various ways on the cause of education in 
 the city, was not clearly seen. It was opposed because it was "aris- 
 tocratic," "because it Avas unconstitutional to tax property for a city 
 High School," "because it would educate children above working 
 for their support," and for all svich contradictory reasons. Before it 
 became a part of the system, the question of its adoption, or rejection, 
 was submitted to the people, who passed in its favor by a vote of 
 two-thirds of all the legal voters in the city. Even after this ex- 
 pression of popular vote in its favor, and after the building for its 
 accommodation was erected, there was a considerable minority who 
 circulated a petition to the City Council against its going into opera- 
 tion. But the school was opened, and now it would be as easy to 
 strike out the whole, or any other feature in the system, as this. 
 Its influence in giving stimulus and steadiness to the workings of 
 the lower grade of schools — in giving thoroughness and expansion to 
 the whole course of instruction — in assisting to train teachers for our 
 city and country schools, — and in bringing together the older and 
 more advanced pupils, of either sex, from families of every profes- 
 sion, occupation and location in the city, many of whom, but for the 
 opportunities of this school, would enter on the duties and business 
 of life with an imperfect education. The success of the school has 
 
[ 31 ] 
 
 demonstrated its own usefulness as a part of the system, and has 
 converted its opponents into friends. The regular number of pupils 
 is 120 boys, and 120 girls. 
 
 " There were in the city of Providence, in 1847, thirty-nine Public 
 Schools, containing 5,319 pupils. These schools are distributed into 
 four grades, as follows : — 20 Primary Schools, 10 Intermediate 
 Schools, 7 Grammar Schools, 1 High School, with a male and female 
 department. The course of instruction extends from the simplest 
 rudiments to a preparation for any of the various industrial pursuits, 
 or for College. The schools are open to the children of all classes, 
 from every part of the city, without partiality, and free of any charge 
 for rate-bills or tuition, being supported throughout by a property tax, 
 which is paid as cheerfully as a tax for any other purpose. The an- 
 nual expense of the system for the instruction of 5,319 pupils, for 
 1846, was f 4,67 per scholar. Before our system was reorganized, it 
 was ascertained, by a Committee of the Mechanics' Association, that 
 more than $20,000 was expended for the tuition of children in pri- 
 vate schools, which the same Committee pronounced "the heaviest 
 burden put upon the middling classes." Under the operation of our 
 improved system, nearly all the private schools, [all except a very 
 few of the very highest grade, ) have been discontinued ; and although 
 these improvements in the public schools have been attended with a 
 necessary increase of the aggregate expense, (making the expense 
 per scholar less,) still a saving of at least $10,000 in the aggregate 
 expenditure for education in the city has been annually affected." 
 
 The operation of a Central School, as a part of the Common School 
 system, of the city of Worcester, Mass., where a Free Common 
 School for the more advanced scholars of either sex, of the whole 
 town and city, has been for years supported by a town tax, will be 
 seen from the following extract : 
 
 "The town of Worcester is divided into thirteen districts, — the 
 city constituting district No. 1, in which there are four grades of 
 schools. The High School of the city district is, however, blended 
 with the " Town School," which thus becomes the English and 
 Classical High School, designed for the youth, not only of district 
 No. 1, but of that and the twelve country districts, so far as they are 
 found qualified, on examination, to enter it. When there are more 
 applicants found qualified, than there are vacancies, it is a rule of 
 the Board to give a preference to those who are presented from the 
 country districts, over those from the city. As might be expected, 
 
[ 32 ] 
 
 there are children from every part of the town, and from families re- 
 presenting every occupation and profession, and every degree of 
 wealth and poverty." A member of the School Committee, writing 
 on this latter point, says : — "I suppose the people of this city are 
 thought to be as aristocratic as in other cities of its size and wealth. 
 Be that as it may, our High School is exceedingly popular with all 
 classes, and in the school rooms and on the play grounds, the child- 
 ren of the richest and poorest mingle with perfect equality. No as- 
 sumption, — no jealousy are seen among them. I have been charmed 
 with this republican and christian character of the school. I have 
 seen the children of parents whose wealth was estimated by himdreds 
 of thousands, in the same school room with children, (and the last 
 among the best scholars of their classes, ) whose parents have been 
 assisted, year after year, by individual charity. The manners, habits, 
 and moral sentiments of this school are as pure and high as in any 
 academy or female seminary of the same grade in the commonwealth. 
 " Come and visit our school, — and you will find the desks without 
 a mark or an ink-spot, — the floor without a stain, — the walls, inside 
 and out, and everything appertaining to the building, without a de- 
 facing line or blemish. There has been no home of comfort, or re- 
 finement, in the city or town of Worcester, kept more free from this 
 abuse, than has been the High School building. This proves that a 
 public school can be pervaded by high, refining, elevating moral 
 influences. This school seems to be like a large christian family, 
 and I would beg any of your people who have doubts about the 
 practicability of such a school, to come and look at it, and I am sure 
 their doubts and opposition will vanish. Our school Avas at first 
 opposed by a considerable minority, but the success of the school in 
 the new building, and under the new organization, has charmed away 
 all hostile feeling, and more than realized the expectations and 
 jiromises of those of us who labored for its accomplishment. To 
 the improvements of our public schools, which have been going 
 steadily forward since 1825, does this city owe more of its prosperity, 
 — its large accession of families from abroad, especially of industri- 
 ous and skillful mechanics, than to all other causes combined. As a 
 mere investment of capital, men of wealth everywhere cannot do 
 better with a portion of their property than to build elegant and at- 
 tractive school houses, and open in them free schools for the highest 
 order of instniction. They will then see gathering around them men 
 it may be, of small means, but of practical skill, and moral and in- 
 dustrious habits, — that class of families who feel that one of the great 
 ends of life is to educate their children well. 
 
[ 33 J 
 
 "In this city the largest tax payers, instead of contending against 
 the constitutionality of paying tax for a High School, not only pay 
 their taxes cheez-fully, but that one of them, W. J. Salisbury, Esq., 
 not only paid a large tax towards the annual expenses of the public 
 schools, including the High School, but, in connection with another 
 individual, has presented the same High School with a philosophical 
 apparatus which cost -f 1300. The Governors, and Ex- Governors, of 
 the same town, as well as physicians and other educated men, are 
 found not only among the advocates of liberal grants in support of 
 public schools, but such men as Governor Lincoln, and Governor 
 Davis, never sent their children to any other schools. A son of Gov. 
 Davis was, a few years since, an assistant teacher in the High 
 School." 
 
 Dr. Woodward remarks, "giving this school, — the High School, — 
 so high a character, has cheapened the means of education so much, 
 that I have kept tAvo and three sons in it, by paying an annual tax 
 of less than ten dollars." 
 
 The liberality of men of wealth, and even of men not wealthy, 
 towards public schools, is not confined to Worcester, or Hartford, or 
 Providence. 
 
 Hon. Stephen C Phillips, of Salem, late member of Congress, ap- 
 propriated his entire salary, as Mayor of the city of Salem, for three 
 years, (S2,300,) towards the fitting up of the. Latin and Englisli 
 High School. John Chase, Esq., the eminent machinist of Cabot- 
 ville, made a donation of $1,000 towards the High School building 
 of that village. Edward Harris, Esq., of Woonsocket, R. I., gave 
 one acre of land, valued at $1,000, for a Central High School at that 
 place. 
 
 The following extract from the Annual Report of the School Com- 
 mittee, of Salem, Mass., drawn up by the Hon. S. S. Phillips, shows 
 the financial bearings of good public schools. In the Salem system, 
 there is^n English and Latin High School for boys, and another for 
 girls: "In the year 1836-7, previous to the estabhshment of the 
 High Schools, there were ascertained to be in the city seventy private 
 schools, containing 1590 scholars, educated at an annual expense for 
 tuition, of $22,700 — averaging $14,27 per scholar, while in the year 
 1844, and after the establishment of the High Schools, it was ascer- 
 tained that there were but 35 private schools, containing 775 scholars, 
 supported at an expense for tuition, of $10,098 — averaging $13 per 
 scholar. It thus appears that 2826 children were educated in the 
 3 
 
[ 34 ] 
 
 city in 1836-7, (both in public and private schools,) at the cost of 
 ^31,355-87— averaging $11,09 per scholar— and that 3263 children 
 were in like manner educated during the year 1844, at the cost of 
 $24,434-21 — averaging $7,48 per scholar. Had private schools con- 
 tinued to receive as large a portion of the children as formerly, and 
 had the average rate of instruction in both classes of schools remained 
 the same that it was in 1837, the whole cost of the education of all 
 the children in the city must have been, during the year 1844, al- 
 most $12,000 more than it actually proved to be. In 1850, about 
 4,000 scholars were educated during the year in the public schools, 
 at the cost of $18,613-75— averaging $4,65 per scholar. This is the 
 true economical result of the changes that have been introduced into 
 the public schools ; and, the more closely it is analyzed, the more 
 strikingly it will illustrate the financial advantage of substituting 
 public for private schools to the greatest practicable extent." 
 
 John H. Shaw, Esq., Chairman of the School Committee, Nan- 
 tucket, Mass., thus Avrites: — "None now question the utility of the 
 High School, which is very great not only in furnishing a great num- 
 ber of our children with a superior education, but also, in stimulating 
 the children in the other schools, with the hope of promotion to the 
 Hiffh School. At the commencement of this school, some of our 
 good people did oppose it ; some, no doubt, Avho did not wish to pay 
 the tax ; but they were few, and now not to be found. It is now 
 generally conceded, that no money is better expended than that which 
 now supports our public schools. Indeed, the duty of the public to 
 p-'ive every child a good education, and his right to claim it at the 
 public expense, is not with us denied. And if we look no higher 
 than the preservation of our institutions, the future safety of life, 
 property, and all that makes this life desirable, Avhat can insure it 
 better than this general system of public school instruction ?" 
 
 L. Andrews, Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools, Massillon, 
 Ohio, thus writes: — "Our free schools seem to be popul* because 
 our citizens consider them the best schools they have ever had, and 
 because they now educate all the children of the town at a less ex- 
 pense than they formerly educated a part. Our heavy tax payers 
 o-enerally favor bur schools ; indeed, some of their most active sup- 
 porters are large-hearted, wealthy men, who have no children to send 
 to scliool." 
 
 A. Wheeler, Esq., Principal of the Central High School, Worces- 
 ter, Mass., thus writes: — "There Avas no serious opposition to the 
 
[35 ] 
 
 establishment of the High School, and even what there was has long 
 since subsided. Our wealthiest citizens, and heaviest tax payers 
 were, in the main, in favor of it. The improvement of our school 
 system is believed to have enhanced very considerably the value of 
 taxable property in this city." 
 
 Spencer Smith, Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools, St. Louis, 
 Mo., thus writes : — "At the last election concerning the tax for the 
 support of our schools, there was very little opposition, and less from 
 the rich than the poor." In reference to the importance of a public 
 High School, he says — " There can be no doubt that it is essentially 
 necessary to a complete system of public instruction." 
 
 S. G. Mead, Esq., Chairman of School Committee, Brattleboro, 
 Vermont, thus responds to the interrogatory propounded to him on 
 this subject: "There is among our citizens a very strong, and, I 
 may say, growing attachment to our school system. The schools 
 under the new plan have made their mark upon the character and 
 intellects of our youth ; and we have no doubt of their decided effect 
 in raising the value of Real Estate in our place. Many families 
 have come to reside among us professedly with the view to enjoy the 
 benefits of these schools. The High School is under the instruction 
 of a thoroughly educated gentleman, and in it are taught all the 
 branches usually taught in the best New England Academies. Our 
 new system had not been in operation a year before all the private 
 schools in the town disappeared, and such has been the success of 
 the system that we have never had nor felt the need of any other 
 than the public schools among us. The system, at first, met with 
 opposition, from a fear that it would be very expensive ; but since 
 we got over the expense of fitting up a High School building, and 
 putting our other houses in good order, it is found that our schools 
 now cost less than the same number of Common Schools of the old 
 stamp, taught by males one-half the year, and by females the other 
 half; — to say nothing of the private schools that were saddled upon 
 us, — from the whole expense of which we have been relieved by the 
 new system." 
 
 A gentleman of Dayton, Ohio, thus speaks of the public sentiment 
 of that city in regard to their public free schools: "There was, at 
 its first organization, a very strong opposition to our new school sys- 
 tem, but this opposition has been gradually decreasing, and, indeed, 
 I may say, has totally ceased. For this change in public sentiment, 
 the following reasons may be assigned, viz: 1st., the decided supe- 
 
[ 3C ] 
 
 riority of the schools under the present system, and 2nd., the in- 
 creased interest manifested by parents in said schools. The High 
 School, which was established last spring, has never, it is believed, 
 encountered any opposition. So anxious were all classes for its es- 
 tablishment, that the Trustees and Stockholders of the Dayton Acade- 
 my made a donation of the Academy building to the Board of Mana- 
 gers of the public schools, upon the single condition that a High 
 School should be kept up, and that it should be accessible to all the 
 children of the city possessing the requisite qualifications. The ad- 
 vantages accruing from the High School are — 1st, the strict super- 
 vision to which the school is subjected by the Board of Managers, 
 who require everything to be taught in the most thorough manner : — 
 2nd, the separation of dull, indolent and laggard pupils from the 
 active and diligent, since none are permitted to enter the High School 
 except upon a rigid examination, and none are permitted to retain 
 their connection with it only upon the conditions that they are orderly, 
 industrious and prompt in the discharge of the duties required : — 3rd, 
 through this school an opportunity is afforded to all, who possess the 
 requisite ability and industry, of acquiring a thoi-ough English and 
 Classical education, and at a far less expense than it could be obtained 
 in private schools: — 4th, it gives unity to the whole system, and 
 stimulates to greater exertion the pupils in the schools below." 
 
 The School Committee of Lynn, Mass., thus report: "The influ- 
 ence exerted by the establishment of the High School has been, 
 during the year, very marked and beneficial. It has caused a gen- 
 erous emulation, and elevated the standard of education. It has 
 produced a greater degree of thoroughness, and a better attendance 
 among the first classes in the principal schools. It opens to the 
 poorest child an avenue by which he can be admitted to the realm of 
 knowledge, not as a charity but as a right. It opens to all, those 
 advantages which hitherto money alone, or humiliating dependence 
 could obtain. It remains now for a people who know how to avail 
 themselves of their rights, to establish in the Commonwealth a free 
 College, or free Colleges, where, at the public expense, merit and 
 talent shall receive that encouragement, and be instructed in those 
 arts and sciences, which belong to them. It is not in harmony with 
 our democratic institutions, to have the highest education depend 
 upon the length of the individual purse. It is for the advantage of 
 all, that those who have the talents should be put where they can 
 learn to use the tools. Let our town lead the way, by petitioning 
 
[ 37 ] 
 
 for the establishment of free Colleges, which shall be maintained at 
 the expense of the State. Without the free College, the system of 
 public instruction, which is our greatest glory as a people, remains 
 without a suitable head. Its form is imperfect, as long as private 
 institutions are alone the avenue where the highest and most scien- 
 tific education can be obtained." 
 
 Another gentleman, residing in an Eastern city in Avhich they have 
 had a Central High School for the last twelve years, writes as fol- 
 lows : "In regard to the feelings of our heavy tax payers respecting 
 our public schools, and the High School in common, if not in par- 
 ticular, I have to state, that one of our citizens who pays an annual 
 tax of some Si 300, said to me a few days since, 'I pay my propor- 
 tion of the school tax as cheerfully as I pay for my dinner.' The 
 Chairman of our School Committee, is one of our heaviest tax pay- 
 ers. Our wealthy citizens think it cheaper to support schools than 
 jails, and while we have comfortable school rooms well filled, we have 
 old, dila2:)idated jails entirely empty." 
 
 The Controllers of the Public Schools of the city of Philadelphia, 
 thus speak of the benefits accruing from the Central High School of 
 that city : 
 
 " The High School continues to make its influence usefully felt 
 upon the other schools of the city, and seems to answer all the rea- 
 sonable expectations of its founders. A careful examination of the 
 facts connected with the school, establish these important points, viz : 
 That the pupils of the High School are educated, and to a considera- 
 ble extent, fitted for business life. That their qualifications are the 
 legitimate fruits of the public school system. That a taste for litera- 
 ture and useful science has been widely disseminated through parts 
 of our community not ordinarily possessed of the means of acquiring 
 it. And that but for the existence of the High Schools, full three- 
 fourths of those who have been its pupils would, most probably, 
 never have enjoyed the opportunity of imbibing more than the lowest 
 rudiments of knowledge. These are the results which should surely 
 commend the Institution to the calm judgment and decided support 
 of the great mass of our community, and indeed of every philanthro- 
 pist." 
 
SECTION V. 
 
 COURSE OF STUDY FOR CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 In arranging a School System, as well as in establishing a particu- 
 lar School in that system, it is the part of wisdom to gather up all the 
 light furnished by the experience of the past, to ascertain what plans 
 are fulfilling ptiblic expectations, and to anticipate as far as possible, 
 not only the wants of the present generation, but also the exigencies 
 of those who shall fill our places many years hence. Those whose 
 duty it is to build up a noble system of public instruction, should seek 
 to give greater scope and impulse to the sublime law of human pro- 
 gress. They should not limit their observations to the passing hour, 
 but look before and after them, and see what the great interests of 
 humanity, in the aggregate, demand. 
 
 In the matter of schools, as in the case of legislation, true pliilan- 
 thopy, as well as sound policy, require that we should endeavor to es- 
 timate carefully the probable effect of our schemes or legislation, not 
 only upon the risen and rising, but also upon future generations. 
 
 In this Section, it is proposed to discuss the question of the pro- 
 priety or impropriety of introducing into a Common Central High 
 School, a full collegiate course of study in the Ancient classics. 
 
 There are now lying before us reports, letters, and other documents, 
 from nearly every Central High School in the United States; and, with 
 a single exception, none of them propose to advance their pupils fur- 
 ther in the ancient classics than to give them a thorough preparation 
 for College. To those who have niven careful attention to the educa- 
 tional movements of the day, it must appear evident that the tenden- 
 cies are, not to multiply subjects of study, but rather to diminish them ; 
 not to impose upon any one school in the system, such an amount of 
 work that nothing can be done thoroughly ; but so to grade the schools, 
 and adapt the subjects of study, that each may perform his allotted 
 work in the best possible manner. Acting under this impression, 
 those who organized some of the High Schools already referred to. 
 
[39 1 
 
 excluded from them the ancient classics. The opinion is now 
 pretty generally entertained that to require a Central High School to 
 perform the work of an Academy and College too, would over-burthen 
 it with a task not coming legitimately within its scope, and compel it, 
 to some extent, to do all its work more or less superficially. It is 
 quite important to understand what the true American System re- 
 quires in this regard, and to what its established practice and uniform 
 success have given their sanction. The following are the grades or 
 departments into which the "American School System" has been 
 very generally divided, viz: 1. The Primary School. 2. The 
 Intermediate, or Secondary School. 3. The Grammar School. 
 4. The Central, or High School. And it is confidently expected 
 by those who are competent to judge, that we shall see, in a few years, 
 the College, or University, as the Fifth, or highest Department, in 
 the great Republican System of Education. 
 
 Hear what the Trustees of the Newburyport (Mass.) High School 
 say on the subject of not imposing upon the School a greater amount 
 of work than it can perform consistently with accuracy and thorough- 
 ness, 
 
 " One of the pi'ominent objects of the system of instruction adopted, 
 will be to teach the pupils to think for themselves. Intellectual dis- 
 cipline will always be regarded as a higher and more worthy ob- 
 ject of attainment than the mere acquisition of knowledge ; and to 
 this end, a few subjects practically and thoroughly wrought into the 
 understanding of the pupils, will contribute more than a score of sub- 
 jects superficially skimmed over.'' 
 
 From this School the Latin and Greek languages are excluded. 
 
 The able Superintendent of the Public Schools of Connecticut, and 
 formerly of Rhode Island also, Mr. H. Barnard, under whose wise 
 and skillful guidance, both States are in possession of a school system 
 surpassed by that of no State in the Union, used the following lan- 
 guage in reference to the design and utility of the Hartford High 
 School — a school, by the way, in respect to its edifice, organization, 
 discipline and instruction, and in all other respects, worthy of its dis- 
 tinguished projector. 
 
 " By a PubUc or Common High School, is intended a Public or 
 Common School for the education of the older and more advanced 
 children of the society, in studies which can be more profitably pur- 
 sued there than in the District Schools — a School as Public or Com- 
 mon to all the older and more advanced scholars of each and everv 
 
[ 40 ] 
 
 district in the society, as the District School is to the children of the 
 district to which they belong — subject, as in the case of a district, to 
 such general regulations as the management and administration of 
 the school may require. It is a Society Common School for the older 
 and more advanced scholars. 
 
 " As the proposed plan requires the co-operation of the whole So- 
 ciety, the course of instruction should be such, as when added to the 
 discipline and attainments secured in ihe District Schools, shall afford 
 to all the older and more advanced scholars of either sex, the means 
 of acquiring that education which shall fit them to enter with hope 
 upon the duties of life — an education, equal in extent and value at 
 least to what is now given in any Private School, Academy or Female 
 Seminary in the city or country. There is no reason why the sons 
 and daughters of every family, in or out of the city, within the limits 
 of this Society, should not have access to schools as good and cheap 
 as experience has shown can be established in other communities not 
 more favorably situated than our own for this purpose. The advanta- 
 ges of the proposed school should not be confined to our sons. 
 
 "Our daughters need to have their minds disciplined and their 
 knowledge enlarged. We ought to be able to traiij up among our- 
 selves both male and female teachers for <ur own schools, and not de- 
 pend on other towns and other States for our supply. The great in- 
 fluence of the female sex, as daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, com- 
 panions and teachers, in determining the manners, morals and intel- 
 ligence of the whole community, leaves no room to question the ne- 
 cessity of providing for them the best means of intellectual and mo- 
 ral culture. At the present time this education cannot be had for 
 the boys or girls, except at an expense which in the circumstances 
 of many families, in and out of the city, is a virtual denial of its ad- 
 vantages to their children, and in many more, is a serious and bur- 
 densome sacrifice. Let the course of instruction embrace the first 
 principles of natural and mechanical philosophy, by which inventive 
 genius and practical skill in the useful arts can be fostered ; — stich 
 studies as navigation, book-keeping, surveying, botany, chemistry, 
 and kindred studies, which are directly connected with success in the 
 varied departments of domestic and inland trade, with foreign com- 
 merce, with gardening, agriculture, the manufacturing and domestic 
 arts — such studies as astronomy, physiology, the history of our own 
 State and Nation, the principles of our State and national constitu- 
 tions, political economy and moral science — in fine, such a course. 
 
[ « ] 
 
 of suidy as is now given in more than fifty towns and cities in New 
 England, and which shall prepare every young man, whose parents 
 may desire it, for business or for college — and give to every young 
 woman, a well disciplined mind, high moral aims, refined tastes, gen- 
 de and graceful manners, practical views of her own duties, and those 
 resources of health, thought, conversation and occupation, which 
 bless alike the highest and lowest station in life ; — so that the same 
 advantages, without being abridged or denied to the children of the 
 rich and educated, shall be open, at the same time, to the worthy and 
 talented children of the poorest parent." 
 
 A score of extracts of similar import might be given, not only from 
 the writings of able and experienced individual educators, but also from 
 the reports of School Boards, occupying a high place in public esti- 
 mation. 
 
 These all tend to establish the fact, that the apjjropriate sphere of a 
 High School, is between the Common School and University ; that ii 
 should not enfeeble itself by seeking to do the work of a Univergity ; 
 nor, in the language of the able Report of the Executive Commiuee 
 of the New York City Free Academy, " usurp the province of the 
 Common Schools. It should receive no pupils who have not reach- 
 ed, in the branches designated as the subjects of examination for ad- 
 mission, the highest point that can be attained in the Common 
 Schools. It would be doing them injustice and defeat the aim of 
 improving the character of the instruction in them, which is one of 
 the great advantages anticipated from the establishment of the higher 
 seminary. In the second place, unless the scholar has had his un- 
 derstanding developed and cultivated in the prosecution of his studies 
 in the school below, in a thorough manner, and attained the full mea- 
 sure of the staiidard, he is not prepared for the difficitlt subjects that 
 are to be pursued in the Free Academy. It should be remembered 
 that the Free Academy is accessible only to the pupils of the Public 
 and Wards Schools of the city of New York ; and hence the anxiety 
 of the Board of Control to have it subserve their advancement, by 
 keeping within its proper province." 
 
 " The instruction in the New York Free Academy receives its 
 general shaping with reference to the fact that it is the head of the 
 Common School System of a great commercial city. The design ol 
 the power that gave it existence — the voters of the city — is that it 
 shall qualify boys to take an active, intelligent and successful part in 
 the great life struggle of commercial enterprise and practical in- 
 
[42 ] 
 
 dustry. It was certainly never contemplated to form of the students 
 of the Free Academy a corps of men of letters, to fill the various 
 learned professions, or to pursue, through a life of devotion to science, 
 for the love of science itself, a train of investigations hegun within 
 its walls. The system of instruction should not, therefore, be 
 modeled upon those institutions now known as universities. It should 
 be comprehensive, varied and thorough, and, at the same time practi- 
 cally useful and available.". This, then, seems to be the sum and 
 substance of the general proposition in regard to Free Central or High 
 Schools, as a branch of the common school system, viz: to give to 
 all the children in the public or common schools, who have the 
 desire, industry and ability to acquire it, that education which will 
 qualify them to enter with success upon any desired business, avoca- 
 tion, profession, employment, or industrial pursuit in life ; in short, to 
 give them the same special education with reference to success in the 
 great life-struggle of practical industry, that is given at West Point to 
 qualify young men to become intelligent, scientific and efficient 
 military ofticers and engineers. As the grand developement of educa- 
 tion there is mathematical, in strict accordance with the end in view, 
 viz : strategy, tactics and military engineering — sciences founded on 
 mathematical principles — so in a Central High School, education 
 should be shaped, so far as practicable, to the great end in view — a 
 special preparation for any of the leading industrial pursuits de- 
 manded by the nature of our political institutions and the condition of 
 our people. 
 
 It is very generally conceded that education, in our common 
 school system, should be so shaped as to accomplish industrial and 
 utilitarian ends in the highest degree consistent with the proper de- 
 velopement of the mind itself. The present age is one of peculiar 
 advantages. It enjoys the concentrated light of nearly sixty cen- 
 turies. The arts and sciences have arrived at a high degree of 
 perfection; and their applicaiion to the practical purposes of life de- 
 mand a withdrawal from the ancient classics a portion of the time 
 formerly devoted to them. 
 
 But to proceed with the extract in relation to the Free Academy of 
 New York city. 
 
 " It is obvious xhai a thorough maihematical training, not necessarily, 
 however, a very extended one. should be among the prominent con- 
 stituents of the course of study in the Free Academy. 
 
 " The authority of ancient usage is strongly in favor of the rela- 
 
[ 43 ] 
 
 tive depreciation of the modern tongues in comparison with the 
 ancient classics; but this is not to be wondered at, since the force of 
 old prejudice is so powerful ; but the administration of the Free 
 Academy ought not to foster this prejudice by creating an inviduous 
 distinction between the two branches of study. Now, as mental dis- 
 cipline depends much more upon the method of study, and upon a com- 
 petent variety of studies, than upon the intrinsic nature of the thing 
 studied; and as the desirableness of a study in the Free Academy 
 is therefore righdy tested by its positive after value in practical, every- 
 day life, it would undoubtedly be better not to assign to the ancient 
 classics a higher rank than the German, French and Spanish lan- 
 guages. We are not disposed to deny the positive value of a know- 
 ledge of the elements of Latin, or even of Greek. 
 
 But the whole matter should be made a subordinate study. In all 
 soberness, a serious determination to devote a good part of each day 
 to the study of the ancient classics during four years in such an insti- 
 tution — the head of the Common School Popular Education in a busy, 
 commercial city — smells rather too much of the cloister. We are 
 well aware that an exact and thorough acquaintance with the living 
 and continenial languages of Europe — French, Spanish, and espe- 
 cially German, constitutes a capital stock of positive knowledge of no 
 mean value in the possession of any one, and that the demand for 
 them is rapidly increasing. Nations wtU be jostled together during 
 the next generation as promiscuously as neighborhoods now are. The 
 manners and modes of thought of one nation can never be appreci- 
 ated by another until its language is understood. There are, probably, 
 not ten grown men or women in the city who are endeavoring to re- 
 pair the defects of their early education — to mend the blunders of 
 their parents and guardians, by commencing the study of Latin and 
 Greek, while thousands, probably lens of thousands, are making c?«^7y 
 rxndi painful efforts to do so by learning German, French and Spanish. 
 This fact, alone, is conclusive as to the relative practical value of 
 the ancient and modern languages. But to be thorough, a school 
 must not undertake to go over too much ground, nor embrace subjects 
 of study out of its proper sphere." 
 
 Hear Hon. Horace Mann on this subject, to whom the modern 
 educational movemr/nt is more indebted than to any other individual 
 in the United States. " Thoroughness, therefore, — thoroughness, and 
 again I say, thoroughness, for the sake of the knowledge, and still 
 more for the sake of the habit, should, at all events, be enforced; 
 
[ 44 ] 
 
 and a pupil should never be suffered to leave any subject, until he 
 can reach his arins quite around ii, and clench his hands on the op- 
 posite side. Those persons, who know a little of everything, but 
 nothing well, have been aptly compared to a certain sort of pocket- 
 knife, which some over-curious people carry about with them, which, 
 in addition to a common knife, contains a file, a chisel, a saw, a 
 gimblet, a screw-driver, and a pair of scissors, but all so diminutive, 
 thai the moment they are needed for use, they are found to be qtiite 
 useless. It seems to me that one of the greatest errors in education, 
 at the present time, is the desire and ambition, at single lessons, to 
 teach complex truths, whole systems, doctrines, theorems, which 
 years of analysis are scarcely sufficient to unfold; instead of com- 
 mencing with simple elements, and then rising, by gradations, to 
 combined results, all is administered in a mass. We strive to intro- 
 duce knowledge into the child's mind, the great end first. When 
 lessons are given in this way, the pupil, being unable to comprehend 
 the ideas, tries to remember the words, and thus, at best, is sent away 
 with a single fact, instead of a principle, explanatory ol a whole class 
 of facts. The lessons are learned by rote ; and when a teacher 
 practises upon the rote system, he uses the minds of the pupils, just 
 as they use their own slates, in working arithmetical questions ; 
 whenever a second question is to be wrought, the first is sponged 
 out, to make room for it. What would be thought of a teacher of 
 music, who should give his pupils the most complicated exercises, 
 before they had learned to sound the simple notes? The points to 
 which I would invite the regards of the whole community, is, whether 
 greater attention should not be paid to gradation, to progression in a 
 natural order, to adjustment, to a prei)aration of a child's mind for 
 receiving the higher forms of truth, by first making it thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with their elements. The temptation to this error is per- 
 haps the most seductive that ever beguiles a teacher from his duty. 
 In his desire to make his pupils appear well, he forgets that the great 
 objects of their education lie in the power, and dignity, and virtue of 
 life, and not in the numhcr of their recitations at the end of the 
 quarter." 
 
SECTION VI. 
 
 REASONS FOR HAVING BOTH SEXES ATTEND THE SAME HIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 The almost unprecedented success which has characterized the 
 introduction of the Union School System into Ohio and the neigh- 
 boring States, has conferred great importance upon the decision of 
 the question respecting the expediency of bringing the sexes together 
 in the school room. The question is one which admits of many rea- 
 sonable doubts, even in the minds of those whose experience would 
 seem to have settled the matter conclusively. Sides are taken on it 
 by those of the best ability, and the purest intentions, and that too 
 at extreme distances. Even those who strenuously advocate the util- 
 ity of bringing the sexes together for the purpose of dei'iving there- 
 from additional stimulus for study, admit that the experiment should 
 be tried guardedly — that the teacher under whose supervision they 
 are to labor should be watchful, judicious, and lynx-eyed, to detect 
 danger at a distance. They admit that the state of public morals 
 may be such, that except under the most stringent regulations, the 
 experiment would, in all probability, be a disastrous one. What- 
 ever may be the intrinsic merits of the affirmative or negative of this 
 question, it is quite certain that mere external circumstances, which 
 are liable to be quite different in different places, may make it very 
 proper or very improper to mingle the sexes in the school room. 
 Provided the population of a town be large and compact enough to 
 support a Union School in which boys and girls may study and re- 
 cite In the same room, the character of the teacher, the number of 
 scholars, the arrangement of the rooms, play-grounds, etc., and the 
 general moral bearing of the parents and pupils might render it 
 highly improper for them to be mingled together, and vice versa. 
 
 To these varying and unmanageable circumstances we do not pro- 
 pose to turn our attention, but rather to some of the general princi- 
 ples which lie at the base of the question, and are the same at all 
 times and in all places. 
 
 In answering this question to ourselves, we naturally inquire : — 
 
[40 ] 
 
 " Is tliere any fundamental difference in tlie constitution of the mo- 
 ral and mental faculties of the male and the female being? " If the 
 one is on a different plan from the other ; if one possesses any facul- 
 ties or intellectual forces, entire and distinct, which have been denied 
 to the other, or if they both possess faculties of the same kind but so 
 modified in degree, that the training best calculated to develop the 
 one, is not best calculated to develop the other, then certainly no 
 advantage would be gained by attempting to educate them together, 
 for it would be subjecting to the same process, things which are 
 radically different, for the purpose of bringing about the same 
 end. Whatever transcendentahsts may say about the essential 
 distinction between the male and the female spirit, we believe that 
 the great majority of enlightened individuals allow to both the 
 same power of memory, of reason, of conscience, of imagination, 
 and of will, and deny to the one the faculty which is not possessed by 
 the other. They are both endowed with memory and reason, which 
 are often of great value in the practical aflfairs of life ; and of con- 
 science, and imagination and will, which are frequently quite useful. 
 All these powers are to be developed and clothed with knowledge to 
 perform the duties of human life, and we have not yet heard any one 
 assert that the study of language, history, mathematics, etc. etc., 
 makes the best preparation for the one, and not for the other. With- 
 out any further consideration on this part of the question, we shall 
 take it for granted that in the intellectual organization of the sexes 
 there exists no rational ground whatever for devising radically differ- 
 ent methods of training them, or for separating them during the pro- 
 cess of school education. From this source, likewise, can be drawn 
 no argument against their being educated apart : so that so far as 
 intellect alone is concerned, it cannot be determined whether they 
 woiild secure the best development separate or commingled. 
 
 If then there be no essential difference between the minds of males 
 and females, so as to require different appliances for their development, 
 we shall next inquire whether the practical duties of coming life, the 
 future pursuits, vicissitudes, trials, etc., etc., require, on the part of 
 the male, a cultivation of different faculties, or of the same faculties 
 in a different way, from those of the female. 
 
 If the object of giving instruction to both sexes up to the period of 
 choosing a professsion, is simply to impart a limited and imperfect 
 knowledge of those branches of learning which are indispensable to 
 all, even to the lowest classes of enlightened beings ; if it be to give a 
 boy so much of arithmetical knowledge as will enable him to keep 
 
[ 47 ] 
 
 accounts, and to perform other numerical calculations required by the 
 necessities of actual life, and to give to the girl so much as will 
 enable her to keep the market bills, and reckon the cost of anew 
 dress, etc. ; if it be desirable during the days of their pupilage to im- 
 part to each, only so much of the different branches of knowledge as 
 the experience of others has shown will be actually necessary in prac- 
 tice, then as the boy is to act in a different sphere from that of the 
 girl, the acquirements most needful for his future success are not the 
 acquirements most needful for the girl, and tliey are striving to attain 
 different ends, there can be no advantage in bringing them together 
 beyond that of mere convenience. But the mere acquisition of that 
 knowledge, which shall be directly useful in practice alone, is not the 
 great purpose which a well devised scheme of education seeks to se- 
 cure. It labors after something higher and more (snduring. Acqui- 
 sitions in history, geography, arithmetic, grammar, etc., may lie un- 
 used, may slip from the memory and be lost in oblivion, but the train- 
 ing which the mental faculties received during the process of their 
 acquirement, will not go with them. The reason, trained to strength 
 and activity, the memory rendered ready and retentive, the iniacina- 
 tion chastened and enriched, will remain through all the scenes of 
 life. If the future man needs a knowledge of the structure of lan- 
 guage, so does the future woman ; if one needs to have the logical 
 powers sharpened to pierce the difficulties which beset our pathway, 
 so does the other. If one needs the wisdom of history, or of philos- 
 ophy , or of mathematics, so does the other. Destined to pass through 
 life together, and to share in its joys, in the performance of its duties, 
 and in the endurance of its trials, they both need all the clearness 
 which study can give to the judgment, and all the wealth which learn- 
 ing can bestow upon the memory. Their wants are one. Up to the 
 age of seventeen or eighteen, the means of mental cultivation are 
 the same for both. The same teachers, the same text books, the 
 same habits of study and recitation, are required by both. If, then, 
 what we have advanced above be true, no argument drawn from the 
 nature of the human mind, and no consideration deduced from the 
 different spheres in which the sexes act, can be adduced against the 
 scheme of educating them together, if there be no reason why they 
 should be educated separately. If there be any reasons why they 
 should not study nor recite in the same room, these reasons must be 
 drawn from the danger of attachments and connections being formed, 
 which dash the best hopes of parents and blast the best prospects of 
 the parties concerned — such things have happened in schools which 
 
[ 48] 
 
 were supposed to be conducted with the utmost care and foresight. 
 We know of no reas ns why the sexes should be shut up from each 
 other, during their education, hke monks and nuns of old, except 
 those drawn from these considerations, and these all disappear when 
 a teacher of calm judgment and vigilant eye, presides over the school, 
 assisted by an arrangement of rooms, play-grounds, etc., suited to 
 the composition of his pupils. 
 
 Whenever the sexes are brought together in the study or recitation 
 room, under influences suitable to restrain each witliin its proper 
 sphere, who has not witnessed the increased harmony, the greater ex- 
 ercise of mental effort, the impulse given to every noble aspiration, 
 and the corresponding check imposed upon every thing rude and 
 coarse ? 
 
 ^Nevertheless, theories, however well founded and beautiful, can- 
 not carry with them the weight of influence which follows the suc- 
 cessful trial of a single experiment. We will, therefore, introduce 
 the testimony of individuals under whose supervision the experiment 
 has been made. 
 
 Mr. J. H. Shaw, Chairman of the School Committee, in Nantucket, 
 Massachusetts, thus writes us in regard to the High School in that 
 place : 
 
 "Both sexes attend it. sit in the same room, recite together in the 
 same classes, and pursue the same studies, as they do in all the 
 schools — tints growing up together, and as we believe, much better 
 prepared to live happily as men and women, later in life, than they 
 would be if separated in childhood." 
 
 Mr. A. Morse, Principal of the above school thixs writes : 
 
 " Both sexes attend the same High School, recite in the same clas- 
 ses, and sit in the same room, when reciting. They enter the room 
 at difi'erent doors, have separate yards for exercise, are separated 
 from each other while in the school room by an aisle, four feet in 
 width, and sit on different benches while reciting. I know of no dis- 
 advantages resulting from this arrangement, when the discipline and 
 order of the school are of the riafht character. The advantages are 
 essentially the same as realized from female influence in the subse- 
 quent periods of life," 
 
 Mr. A. Parish, of the Springfield (Massachusetts) High School, 
 thus writes : 
 
 " Both sexes attend the same school, sit in the same school room, 
 and recite in the same classes. They are not allowed to associate, 
 
[ 49 1 
 
 vir engage, in any way, in amusement together, or do anything which 
 would be unbecoming young persons of their age, in genteel com* 
 pany. They are under such discipline, and so much under the eye 
 of their teachers, that no complaint has ever been made, or objection 
 raised by parents. The advantages in favor of this feature are many 
 and great; and an experience of fifteen years, in three schools, (of 
 some note,) in which I have been engaged in that time, tends to con- 
 Jirm my favorable opinion, that it is the true mode. The manners of 
 boys may be softened and their character refined — their self-respect 
 cultivated by the mere presence of the other sex. Girls may be 
 taught to avoid that species of coyishness to which a majority, per- 
 haps, are subject — of speaking without embarrassment, when they 
 should, while they increase not a whit in that unbecoming boldness, 
 rudeness I may say, which is so repulsive in the other sex. Indeed 
 my experience leads me to believe that there is no place so favorable 
 under the judicious management of the teacher, to cure a hoydenish 
 girl as where she is made to feel that she is observed and estimated in 
 all her movements by a large number of both sexes. But the great 
 argument is — children are to be educated for future intercourse in 
 society. Is not this one of the first and most important lessons they 
 can be called to learn and practice? The teacher is in loco parentis 
 — and the school only a large family — if what it should be — organi- 
 zed for the specific purpose of establishing right principles of action, 
 and preparing the child in all respects for the sober realities of the 
 future. Until the course of nature is changed, and all shall be bro- 
 thei-s without sisters, or sisters without brothers, in the same family, 
 my opinion will remain, I think, unchanged. One important condi- 
 tion however, is indispensable. Success depends almost wholly on 
 the sound judgment, good taste and tact of the teacher, to direct the 
 movements of the school. The teacher must be qualified for his post, 
 or he may be the cause of infinite mischief by either neglect or mis- 
 judged action." 
 
 Mr. A. Wheeler, of the Worcester, Mass. High School, thus 
 writes : 
 
 "Both sexes attend our High School, study and recite in the same 
 rooms, and in the same classes. The advantages of this arrange- 
 ment are such as would suggest themselves to any reflecting mind. 
 Our scholars are from twelve to eighteen years of age. They are 
 under the eye of their parents till the hour of school arrives, and 
 again after the school is closed for the day. The two sexes enterthe 
 4 
 
[ 50 ] 
 
 house at the extreme ends, by entrances specially appropriated to- 
 their respective use, and carefully guarded as such by the teachers. 
 They have no intercourse except under the eye of the teacher. Un- 
 der these restrictions the sexes are believed to be as important to 
 each other at this, as at any other time of life. It is believed that a 
 very natural, and a very strong desire to secure the respect of the 
 other sex, will, in either case, induce greater carefulness in their de- 
 portment, increase self-respect, refine the sensibilities, elevate the 
 taste, and improve the manners. And such we believe to have been 
 the practical workings of the system. The discipline required for a 
 mixed school, thouo-h milder, is much more effective for oood." 
 
 L. Andrews, Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools, Massillon, 
 Ohio, thus laconically writes: "Our male and female pupils, of the 
 same grade, recite together and sit in the same room. We prefer 
 this, — 1st, because we thus secure a better classification ; and 2nd, 
 because the Girls humanize the Boys ; and the Boys impart to the 
 Girls a manly intellectual independence and vigor." 
 
 James Campbell, Esq., Principal of the Dayton, (Ohio,) High 
 School, thus writes : " As the result of my experience, I would say 
 that I am in favor of seating both sexes in the same room, and of 
 having them recite in the same classes. Particular attention should 
 be paid to their deportment, and no communication should be allowed 
 between them at school, or in going to or returning from the same, 
 I have not found this a difficult matter to enforce, and have never 
 had but two or three pupils of either sex, who were at all trouble- 
 some in this respect, and they were easily managed, having erred 
 more through impulse than intention." 
 
 To the foregoing reasons in favor of educating both sexes in the 
 same Central High School, we would subjoin the following consider- 
 ations, viz : 
 
 It is a fact, and one pretty generally admitted too, that in most of 
 the Female Seminaries of this country, there is a strong tendency to 
 shun, or to teach superficially, the solid branches, and a proneness 
 to attach an undue importance to what are styled the ornamerdal 
 branches, or the accomplishments, as they are sometimes denominated. 
 We allude to painting, drawing, penciling, mezzotinting, embroider- 
 ing, &c.; to music upon the harp, guitar, piano, &c., &c.; which are 
 quite as frequently introduced into these seminaries by those who 
 have them in charge, as a sort of ad capiandum means to attract 
 patronage, as with a view of adding valuable accomplishments to the 
 
[ 51 ] 
 
 young ladies who attend tliem. And such is the morbid state of 
 public sentiment on this subject in many localities, that it is seri- 
 ously doubted whether Female Seminaries would be well sustained 
 without these appliances ; although the result has been, in many in- 
 stances, to substitute for a thorough and practical education, one ex- 
 ceedingly flimsy and artificial, and to fill these seminaries with a 
 species of educational foppery. Even in female schools, where the 
 nccomplishtnents, as they are called, are not introduced to an unrea- 
 sonable extent, and are not allowed to take precedence of more im- 
 portant subjects, girls do not seem to manifest the same interest lu 
 the solid branches, nor pursue them with the same rehsh, nor grasp 
 them with the same vigor, nor master them with the same facility, 
 that they do in schools composed of both sexes. The general opinion 
 expressed on this subject by those who have had favorable opportu- 
 nities for forming a correct judgment, seems to be, in substance, as 
 follows : 
 
 Belonging to the same school, pursuing the same studies, and re- 
 citing in the same classes, it is quite natural for females to feel a 
 strong desire to measure themselves intellectually with the other sex. 
 In civilized lands, woman has ever evinced an ardent wish to establish 
 the fact that she is endowed with mental faculties and capabilities 
 equal to those of man ; and when a fair field of competition has been 
 opened, she has been the last to shrink from the trial. It is so in the 
 school, in the recitation room, when both sexes are brought togethei?.- 
 In their emulation to excel, giris lose, in a measure, that overweening 
 desire for music and painting, and all that superficiahty and foppery 
 of education, so often manifested in female seminaries. The exam- 
 ination of candidates for admission to more than thirty High Schools, 
 and the annual examination of classes in those schools, show con- 
 clusively how anxious giris are, and how diligently and perseveringly 
 they will labor, to show that the mind of the female is naturally pos- 
 sessed of as high an order of faculties as that of the male. 
 
 In another regard, there is an advantage in having both sexes at- 
 tend the same High School. It needs no argument to establish the 
 fact, that in order to have a school accomplish its full measure of 
 benefit, it is important that it should stand high in public estimation, 
 be frequently visited by the friends of the pupils, and by citizens and 
 strangers ; but in order to induce such visits, the school should be 
 able to exhibit not only a judicious organization, an efficient super- 
 vision, a high degree of excellent discipline, great thoroughness and 
 
[ 62 ] 
 
 accuracy of teacliing, and great energy and spirit on tlie part of the 
 scholars, but also a large variety of useful and interesting exercises ; 
 and it is much easier to have these in a mixed school, Avithout re- 
 sorting to what we have denominated the glossings and fopperies of 
 education, than in a school composed entirely of one sex. 
 
 We have gone more fully into the discussion of this topic, because 
 we believe that the softening and refining influence of woman, in 
 girlhood, should not be lost in our schools; and because we do not 
 think that God has created the world of mankind, male and female, 
 under svich circumstances of temptation, that they cannot safely min- 
 -gle in the common sympathies of the school-room. Besides, the new 
 -system of public schools, especially Union and High Schools, now 
 rapidly advancing into popular favor, has given to this question an 
 increased importance. And when we consider the mighty influence 
 which modern civilization and modern morality have placed in the 
 hands of woman, the question whether the sexes should mingle in 
 study and recitation as they do in the family circle, and as they will 
 izi after life, becomes intensely mteresting. No department of human 
 exertion should attempt to shake off the grasp of her power from its 
 springs of action. And our system of public schools, above all other 
 schemes for the amehoration of the race, needs her genial influence 
 as teacher and pupil, as well as friend and patron. 
 
 We all know that the mutual desire to excel and win each other's 
 approbation, is one of the strongest incentives which can be brought 
 to bear upon the minds of young students ; that the tendency of boys, 
 in schools, to rudeness and clownish manners, can be most effectually 
 counteracted by study and recitation in the presence of the other sex ; 
 that feminine delicacy and morbid sensibility need the influence of 
 masculine vigor and activity to induce a healthy tone and prepare 
 their possessors for the rough conflicts of life ; that each growing up 
 in the presence of the other, insensibly acquires a keener discrimina- 
 tion and a truer appreciation of the mental and moral character of the 
 other, than could be gained in any other way ; in short, that as in the 
 creation they were made male and female, and must together act the 
 great drama of life, there is no paramount, controlling reason for ex- 
 cluding them from each other while attendir^ school. 
 
SECTKiN VII. 
 
 OPINIONS OF STATE SUPKRINTENDENTS AND PRESIDENTS OF SCHOOL 
 BOARDS ON THE SUBJECT OF FREE HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 On the occasion of the opening- of the Free Academy of the city of 
 New York, Hon. Robert Kelly, President of the Board of Education, 
 remarked as follows : 
 
 " The history of this project can be told in a few words. The 
 Board of Education took the first action in reference to it, by the 
 adoption of a resolution, introduced by Commissioner Townsend Har- 
 ris, July 27th, 1846, raising a Committee to report upon the subject. 
 January 20th, lo47, a report was presented by Messrs. Harris and J. 
 S. Bosworth, of said Committee. February 10th, 1847, the report 
 was considered, and a Committee appointed to memorialize the Legis- 
 lature, consisting of the same gentlemen, with Commissioner J. L. 
 Mason. May 7th, 1847, the act was passed, imder which the institu- 
 tion is established, with the provision, that the question should be 
 submitted to the people, at the ensuing school and judicial election. 
 The election occurred on the first Monday of June, 1847, and the 
 result of the vote was, 19,404 in favor of establishing the Free 
 Academy, to 3,409 against it — giving the enormous majority of 
 15,995. The excavation for the foundation of this edifice was com- 
 menced in the end of November, 1847. January 15th. 1849, the 
 institution was opened for the examination of pupils. January 27th, 
 1849, we are met to exchano-e cono-ratulations. 
 
 " The establishment of this institution is an interesting circumstance. 
 as connected with the subject of education. It is an important step 
 forward, in this great cause. Our system of public education has 
 been confined, hitherto, to Common School instruction. Something 
 has been done for the advancement of higher education, in existing 
 institutions, not strictly of a public character. The academies and 
 colleges throughout the State have been aided by Legislative appro- 
 priations, and they have thus been enabled to extend their usefulness, 
 and bring the means of education they afi'ord within the reach of a 
 
[ 54 ] 
 
 larger number, than would have been practicable otherwise. But 
 this is the first attempt that has been made in our State, to introduce 
 academic instruction as a part of the system of popular education. A 
 narroAv view of the subject might lead some to suppose, that, inas- 
 much as the main purpose of a public system of education is to ele- 
 vate the mass of the population, all the means which can be con- 
 trolled for educational purposes should be confined to the support of 
 common schools, and that any sums, applied to the aid of higher 
 seminaries of learning, are so much diverted and abstracted from 
 that object. But those who have examined the subject most care- 
 fully, unite in the opinion, that there is an intimate connection 
 between the general education of the whole population, and the diffu- 
 sion, to some extent, throughout society, of higher and more exten- 
 ded culture. The larger the proportion of well-educated, intellegent 
 men, there is in a free community, the wider, as a general rule, will 
 be the diff"usion of popular education ; the more will its Avant be felt 
 by those whom it is to benefit, and the more Avill it receive of effort 
 on the part of those who guide public opinion. The effect of such 
 institutions, as this one, upon the cause of general education, will be 
 peculiarly happy, in the influence that will be exerted by the gradu- 
 ates, all of whom will have received the solid basis of their educa- 
 tion in the common schools. 
 
 " The close connection between the Free Academy and the Com- 
 mon Schools, is an important circumstance in its influence on popular 
 education, and will, it is hoped, be productive of immense advantage. 
 Being established as a part of the system of public education, the 
 Free Academy is necessarily united with the Common Schools. The 
 act gives the Board of Education poAver to establish a Free Academy 
 ' for the purpose of extending the benefits of education gratuitously 
 to those who have been pupils in the Common Schools of the City and 
 County of New York.' The qualification for admission into the 
 former is a thorough knowledge of the branches taught in the latter. 
 The education is continued onward, branching, as it proceeds, toward 
 the various divisions of the field of knowledge, as the purpose of the 
 pupils may lead them. Together, they are to form a complete edu- 
 cation. It should be the effort of all concerned, to make it so com- 
 plete and so valuable, that it will be sought by all classes of the com- 
 munity, as the best that can be obtained. All will then receive the 
 benefits of the education provided at the common cost, and will feel 
 a united interest in the welfare and best management of the entire 
 
[ 55 ] 
 
 system- The standard of instruction in the Common Schools may be 
 gradually advanced, and the teachers will occupy, more fully and 
 prominently, the position which their ability and general intelligence 
 qualify them to occupy. They will have an important part to per- 
 form in the accomplishment of this grand purpose. 
 
 " The reciprocal action of the Academy and the schools will be 
 highly advantageous to both. It is on the mental discipline, imparted 
 in the Common Schools, that much of the success of the Free Acade- 
 my will depend. And it will benefit them, by the introduction of 
 greater uniformity, by exhibiting in immediate comparison the skill 
 of the teachers, as evidenced in the preparation of the candidates they 
 will furnish for entrance into the Academy; by raising up from 
 among the people a body of teachers, to recruit their ranks and in- 
 crease their numbers, and by the incitements it will constantly present 
 to the industry of the scholars. If these advantages should result 
 from this Free Academy, it will have accomplished a public good, 
 that will be a full equivalent for the cost of its establishment and 
 support. 
 
 " But there are other public benefits which it will render, if pro- 
 perly and successfully managed. It will take the children of the 
 people, and send them out into life, endowed with such eminent ad- 
 vantages of education, that they will be a blessing to society, adorn- 
 ing their varied pursuits with their intelligence, enriching them with 
 their discoveries, elevating and equalizing the rank and respectability 
 of their widely different occupations, making industry honorable, and 
 securing to labor its proper dignity. It will bring out genius, that 
 otherwise might be lost forever. It will pick up, perhaps out of the 
 very kennels of the city, many a gem of priceless value, and will 
 polish it, and set it on high, that it may shed its luster upon the 
 world. 
 
 " The advantages of this institution, as its name imports, are free 
 to all. It presents, to rich and poor alike, an open and an even field. 
 Intellect, industry, and good conduct, are to win the prizes in this 
 course." 
 
 On the same occasion, Hon. F. Havemeyer, Mayor of the City, 
 thus eloquently addressed the President of the Board of Education, 
 and those who had assembled to witness the ceremonies : 
 
 "Mr. President: — I have witnessed the interesting ceremonies of 
 this occasion with much gratification, and I am sure this gratification 
 is shared by the members of the municipal government, and the large 
 
[ 5C ] 
 
 number of our fellow-citizens now present. I cannot, therefore, for- 
 bear to express, in their behalf as well as my own, to the gentlemen 
 of the Board of Education, who have had charye of the oroanization 
 of this institution, our thanks for the fidelity, energy and spirit — at 
 once judicious and liberal — with which they have fulfilled so impor- 
 tant a trust. If there be any case in which government may safely 
 and properly extend its action beyond the simple function of adminis- 
 tering justice between man and man, it is for the purpose of instruct- 
 ing and educating the citizens, on whom, in our country, must 
 ultimately rest the responsibility for the wise and just exercise of all 
 the delegated powers of society. The Common Schools are the basis 
 of the system which seeks to accompish this great object — they 
 reach the whole mass of the people — they put within the power of 
 the humble and the poor the means of securing good instruction. 
 
 " By an influence co-extensive with universal suffrage, they not 
 only aim to tit the people to discharge the duties of citizens having 
 an equal voice in the government of the country, but they tend to les- 
 sen the inequalities of the social condition, by enabling all to enter 
 with equal advantages, as far as education is concerned, upon all the 
 competitions of life. To hold out the strongest of honorable incen- 
 tives to diligence, in improving the opportunities afforded by the 
 Common Schools — to generate a salutary emulation among the vast 
 numbers whose education is to be received, and whose characters are 
 to be formed in them, is an object of the greatest importance. And 
 how can this be so fitly or so wisely done as in the manner proposed 
 by this institution ? Not by prizes or distinctions, which are epheme- 
 ral in everything, except in the flattery they administer to the vanity ; 
 but by holding out the assurance that those who avail themselves 
 most faithfully and effectually of the advantages offered in the Com- 
 mon Schools, shall have the opportunity of gratuitous instruction in 
 the higher departments of education. This institution, while it 
 surmounts the Common School system, strengthens and adorns 
 it. If wisely administered, it will act most beneficially upon the 
 whole mass of those who are embraced in the inferior depart- 
 ments. For my own part, I cannot regard with indifl^erence anything 
 which is calculated to improve our system of public instruction. It 
 is our chief security for good government, and the protection of the 
 rights of person and property. 
 
 " Our Public Schools are now forming the characters of those who 
 will, in a brief period, supersede us in the active duties of life, and 
 
[ 57 J 
 
 in exercising the powers of government. Our country is advancing 
 in a career of accumulating wealth, population and power, which has 
 no parallel. The influences of our Common Schools go wherever the 
 foresight of our government extends our jurisdiction, or the adven- 
 turous spirit of our people pours the tide of emigration. Amid the 
 social and civil revolutions which are convulsing other parts of the 
 world, our country is proceeding on its march to greatness, not only 
 undisturbed, but with accelerated rapidity The imagination fails to 
 anticipate what is to be the meridian of that age of Avhich this gene- 
 ration sees but the dawn. Whether that meridian shall- be overcast 
 by gloom and doubt, or shall be resplendent as its present promise, 
 must depend upon the intelligence of the people. To have been even 
 an humble instrument in founding or carrying forward systems of 
 instruction which are materially to affect such a future, is no common 
 honor; and this edifice, to-day consecrated to purposes so high and 
 noble, will be a monument of the enlightened labors of you, sir, and 
 your associates, as well as of the beneficence of our citizens, which 
 has aided and sustained you in the accomplishment of the work." 
 
 Extract from an Address delivered at the first Anniversary of the 
 Free Academy, by Hon. Erastus C. Benedict, President of the Board 
 of Education : 
 
 "Fellow Citizens: — The deep interest, which, as citizens of New 
 York, we all feel in this novel institution, renders unnecessary any 
 apology for addressing you, on its first Anniversary, in relation to its 
 interests and its prospects. I call it novel — but as a mere seminary 
 of learning, it is by no means a novelty. The same sciences, here 
 as elsewhere, are made the foundation of a thorough and well- 
 balanced education, and the same literature and art, give to the use- 
 ful the solid and the practical, the forms and grace of the agreeable 
 and the beautiful, in intellectual and moral culture. But in some of 
 its a.spects, it is new. No incorporation — no board of trustees — no 
 stereotype charter — no ancient statutes — no antiquated formularies — 
 no secluded cloisters — nor yet any speculative scheme of- untried in- 
 ventions, crudities and novelties are a part of our system. Intoler- 
 ance does not frown upon us, as we enter these halls ; nor bigotry, 
 with sightless eye-balls insist upon our following her guidance. Infi- 
 delity does not here sneer at any man's worsliip, nor ineligion 
 trample on what any of us hold sacred. The pupils come to this 
 building only for the purposes and during the hours of academic in- 
 struction. They reside with their families, and are thus constantly 
 
[ 58 ] 
 
 enjoying the sweet influences of home, and are under the affectionate 
 care of parental responsibility. They worship the God of their fathers, 
 at the altars where their families kneel, and they receive their reli- 
 t^ious instruction and their ecclesiastical care, from the sacred teach- 
 ers whom they have been taught to love and revere. 
 
 "Candidates for admission to the Academy, are subjected to no test 
 of faith, or lineage, or nation. Influence cannot facilitate their ad- 
 mission, nor prejudice hinder it. They are required to be not less 
 than twelve years cf age — to have been at least one year in the com- 
 mon schools of the city — to pass a good examination in spelling, read- 
 ing, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and the liistory 
 of the United States." 
 
 ******* 
 
 " It is a pviblic seminary, established by the government, for ex- 
 tending, freely, the advantages of tlie highest education to all — not to 
 the poor alone, nor to the rich alone — but to all alike. It is but a 
 characteristic function of our government — manifesting, preserving 
 and inculcating that republican equality, and generous freedom, which 
 experience has shown to be the strength as well as the beauty of our 
 institutions. The body politic here acts. The People, at their an- 
 nual elections, choose their representatives for this purpose, as they 
 choose their servants for other public duties, and these representa- 
 tives, as an organized Board of Education — a sort of Academical 
 Senate — appoint the professors, and establish the rules and regulations, 
 from time to lime, as the lights of experience, or the wants of pro- 
 gress, call for modifications and changtis ; and all the expenses of 
 education are paid from the public treasury — as well for books, ap- 
 paratus and stationery, as for the buildings and for the salaries of the 
 instructors. 
 
 "With the city for its founder, the public treasury for its endow- 
 ment, the popular voice for its encouragement, and the popular 
 sovereignty as its visitor, it should be what it is, the Free Academy — 
 Free to all. A free fountain, where all may slake their thirst for in- 
 tellectual and moral ctdture, in the pure and living waters of mere 
 academic learning. 
 
 " The results of our brief experience have met our highest hopes 
 and removed all doubt as to the practicability, as well as the expe- 
 diency, of establishing the institution. Every circumstance has been 
 fortunate for its infant life, and has seemed to show that a kind 
 Providence called it into being and has hitherto guided its steps. It 
 
[59 ] • 
 
 was subjected to a popular vote in a heavily taxed community, and it 
 was approved by more than five to one. It was fortunate in the Ex- 
 ecutive Committee that gave form and direction to its first measures — 
 Robert Kelly, my immediate predecessor, Thomas Denny. Joseph S. 
 Bosworth, Samuel A Crapo, William T. Pinckney — in whom were 
 combined liberal education, sound discretion, knowledge of the past, 
 hope for the future, the strongest popular sympathies, the most abiding- 
 faith in progressive republican institutions, with great practical wis- 
 dom and the most conscientious devotion to their trust. It is fortu- 
 nate in a well-situated and a well-constructed building, not without 
 architectural beauty, yet simple, economical and permanent, an object 
 of respect and pride to the pupils and to the citizens. It is fortunate, 
 also, in a Faculty of professors, not only ripe and good scholars, in 
 the departments of ancient learning and thoroughly furnished in the 
 wider range of modern science and its more diversified applications 
 to practical pursuits, but apt to teach, sure of the confidence and af- 
 fection of the pupils, and fully impressed with the dignity and impor- 
 tance of their task." 
 
 * * ***** 
 
 " The practical effects of the Institution are already felt. The 
 community has received a new educational impulse. The high as 
 well as the low, the rich as well as the poor, now seek, for their 
 children, the first vacant seats in our too crowded schools, not only 
 to obtain the excellent tuition which is given there, but also that they 
 may be admitted here. The schools themselves are greatly improved, 
 a higher tone is given to their instruction, and a more careful finish 
 to its details. This influence upon the schools is worth more than all 
 the Free Academy costs." 
 
 * * * * * * * 
 
 " Many of us remember the opposition with which the introduction 
 of Common Schools in this State was met. That opposition led to 
 discussion, which but endeared the system to the people. None of 
 us have forgotten the circumstances under which the system was ex- 
 tended to this city, and the fearful agitation, which almost maddened, 
 the community. That agitation only fortified the new order of things, 
 and the schools are already a just object of pride, as well as of affec- 
 tion to the whole people. The change from expensive private schools, 
 accessible to but few, and schools established and sustained by charity, 
 to schools established and supported by the public will, at the public 
 expense — the equal right of all — has demonstrated that the charity 
 
[ 60 ] 
 
 system is antagonistical to our institutions, and cannot thrive under 
 them, while the present system is the proper growth of them, and 
 partakes of the prosperity and growth of the community. So the few 
 objections to the Free Academies will but exhibit the exceeding sim- 
 plicity and transpari^ucy of the principles on which it is founded, and 
 reveal its excellence. Their gentle friction will keep the chain bright 
 which binds the Instilutiou to the inner heart of our people." 
 ******* 
 "If the State must supply schools for the people, surely it must be 
 schools which will give us the education that we need in our peculiar 
 circumstances — schools tha t will fit us for what our institutions re- 
 quire us to do. All admit, that, of necessity, the American citizen 
 must be a man of all work, and fit for all work. That is his charac- 
 teristic distinction from the people of all other nations. To fulfill all 
 his duties, he must be thoroughly furnished to every good work, and 
 he must expect to hear the calls of enterprise, of ambition, of quiet 
 usefulness, and of distinction, and he must be able to answer those 
 calls. He steps from the work-shop to official station — from the uni- 
 versity to the counting-room or the manufactory — from the plough 
 and the anvil to the Senate House and back again — and all the time, 
 all the people are expected to give an intelligent look to the foreign 
 and domestic policy of the Republic, the making of her laws, the 
 vindicating her honor, and contributing to her glory and strength, 
 and annually, at least, to pass judgment upon her public functionaries. 
 He is in fact, as he is in law, a portion of the sovereignty of the na- 
 tion. The child that is born to-day in the palace of civilization or in 
 the hut of want and obscurity, — what will he be ? In other countries 
 there are probabilities. The one has a noble name and cultured lands, 
 and will live in ease, a hereditary legislator and ruler. The other 
 will be sent to the poor-hou.se or made a beast of burden in subter- 
 ranean mines, or grow up in ignorance, brutality and crime. But 
 here, the wisest of us may well hesitate before he can decide whose 
 final lot of the two he would prefer. Here, no one is surprised tliat 
 a mill boy should achieve fame in his youth, and never pale his in- 
 tellectual fires, even after he has left three-score yeai-s and ten behind 
 him. No one thinks it strange that a poor boy of foi'eign parentage, 
 should, against all obstacles, rise to the highest honors as a soldier 
 and a statesman, wield tliis great nation at his w411, and engrave his 
 name indelibly on its history. A farmer's boy leaves the plough, 
 and he soon stands alone, outshining all Greek and Roman fame, in 
 the profoundness of his thought and the massive power of his elo- 
 
[ 61 ] 
 
 quence. A wagon boy quits his team, and in middle life he has been 
 
 Governor, Senator, Minister of State, and all along he has seen his 
 
 rivals and his enemies, as well as his friends, hang in admiration on 
 
 his lips." 
 
 ******* 
 
 " Who can fail to see in the destiny of our institutions, as well as 
 in their nature and history, that the education which the public should 
 offer, to all alike, should be — not merely reading, writing, and cypher- 
 ing — they are not education — but that which cultivates and invigorates 
 the whole man, sharpens every faculty, strengthens all his powers, 
 and multiplies his resources, — such diversified and thorough educa- 
 tion as this Institution is intended to give. When we were of the age 
 of these young gentlemen, the proud Old World beyond the deep, 
 laughed at the vanity with which we spoke of our future. History 
 has already recorded the progress, which hag far outstripped the 
 loudest boast of our most sanguine fathers, and the little band that 
 stood up to their destiny, in 1776, and wrought out a revolution, pre- 
 dicted to fail by half the world, has become one of the greatest nations 
 of the earth. Spanning across 17 degrees of latitude, and 60 degrees 
 of longitude, it has become the nearest maritime neighbor of the 
 oriental world and the islands of the Pacific. Providence has given 
 to our teaching the great truths of republican liberty. Shall not every 
 citizen be at least a silent practical teacher of our political creed '? 
 Our whole history is but an example of the safe conservatism which 
 it gives to progress. Changes that have been resisted with all the 
 power of eloquence, and all the discipline of party, have succeeded 
 each other with all the rapidity and surprise of the shifting scenes of 
 the theater, — and the gi-eatest surprise of all has been the salutary 
 result of such changes, and the harmony with Afhich all have ac- 
 knowledged the wisdom of Providence in directing our destiny. What 
 are to be the changes of the next 25 years ? The human mind is not 
 able to conceive them. Long before that time, this city will be the 
 center of the world, with daily mails to every continent, and daily 
 news from the ends of the earth. Proud republican cities on the Pa- 
 cific shall send the influence of our principles over all the East. What 
 American heart does not swell with delight in the hope that this na- 
 tion will be one day known among all the nations, as the vmiversally 
 educated nation; and American Literature, American Art, American 
 Intelligence and Cultivation, shall go wherever American Commerce 
 shall carry our flag. Then shall the nations know the value of Free- 
 dom, as, in our noble vernacular tongue, she proclaims the increase 
 
[ C2 ] 
 
 of national glory, and wealth, and power, that come in the train of 
 that intelligence, which is the necessary result of the constant ming- 
 lin<>' of educated minds with educated minds, in all the acti^-e and 
 productive pursuits of actual labor, as well as of skill and mere intel- 
 ectual effort. Avarice will then join with Ambition and Patriotism 
 in celebrating the triumph of this experiment. It is with feelings that 
 I cannot express, that I look upon the course which the cause of pub- 
 lic education is taking. It is beginning its march through the nations. 
 It is with pride that I see our own proud State and this noble city of 
 our affections taking a position among the first, in a cause so full of 
 hope to humanity. Here immigrants receive their first impressions. 
 Here departing travelers take their last look. We are a city set on a 
 hill. I rejoice that we cannot be hid. I exult that it is my lot to-day 
 to address these words of congratulation to the first audience assem- 
 bled to witness the first literary anniversary of this Free Academy, 
 I seem to see in it the beginning of a great movement, forward and 
 upward, to that period, foreseen by the sacred prophets, when in 
 their divine frenzy they were rapt into future times, and saw human 
 society in the ultimate glory of its earthly destiny." 
 
 The following extract is taken from the Thirty-second Annual Re- 
 port of the Controllers of the Pubhc Schools of the City and County 
 of Philadelphia, for the year ending June 30, ] 850 : 
 
 "None of the operations of the school are of a greater importance 
 than the examinations for admission. The reasons for this are suffi- 
 ciently obvious. No private school in the city offers such advan- 
 tages as those to be obtained in the High School. The student who 
 is admitted to it enjoys privileges which elsewhere would cost him 
 not less certainly than one hundred dollars per annum, and some af 
 which could not be procured elsewhere at any cost. It is, therefore, 
 not surprising that the examination, on which the question of admis- 
 sion depends, should be regarded with a pervading interest, affecting 
 the candidates themselves, their friends, their teachers, and the 
 schools to which they belong. No candidate can be admitted or re- 
 jected without affecting seriously the feelings and interests of an 
 extensive circle ; and as the number of applicants is about three hun- 
 dred and fifty annually, and these applicants come from no particular 
 sections, but are found distributed very nearly in the ratio of popula- 
 tion, the interest in the examination necessarily pervades every part 
 of the city and county. 
 
 " At the time when the High School was organized, the questioii 
 
[ C3 ] 
 
 was raised, whether candidates from private schools should be admit- 
 ted to the examinations. Had the decision been different from what 
 it was, the public schools would probably never have risen much aboye 
 the low condition in which they had previously been, and the High 
 School itself would never have been more than one of the many 
 similar institutions, with little comparative importance or influence. 
 After considerable discussion of the question suggested, the Con- 
 trollers at length unanimously resolved to I'estiict the admissions to 
 pupils of the Public Schools. The result has been a greater and 
 more beneficial change in the character of the lower schools than was 
 ever effected probably in any similar institution in the same space of 
 time. No one can read attentively the records of the Controllers 
 without concurring in the opinion expressed by them in their Twenty- 
 Sixth Annual Report, in which they say ' the influence of the insti- 
 tution upon the other schools is believed to be worth more than all 
 that it costs, independent of the advantages received by its actual 
 pupils.' This influence is exerted solely through the examinations 
 for admission. The privileges of the High School are held forth to 
 the pupil as the reward of successful exertion in the lower schools. 
 They are kept constantly and distinctly in his view, and operate as a 
 powerful and abiding stimulus to exertion through all the sviccessive 
 stages of promotion, from the lowest division of the Primary to the 
 highest division in the Grammar School. The influence is felt by 
 those who do not reach the High School quite as much as by those 
 who do. It is an influence pervading the whole Public School 
 system." 
 
 Hon. Charles McClure, Superintendent of Common Schools of 
 Pennsylvania, after a visit to the Public Schools of Philadelphia, 
 thus writes to the President of the Controllers of said schools : 
 
 " Sir : — I embrace the earliest opportunity in my power to express 
 to yourself individually, the members of the Board over which you 
 preside, and the Directors of the several school sections in Philadel- 
 phia, my grateful acknowledgments of the kind attention bestowed 
 upon me during my recent visit to the public schools of the first dis- 
 trict. To you and them I am much indebted for the means so readily 
 furnished to facilitate the attainment of my object, which was a more 
 intimate acquaintance with the arrangement and mode of instruction 
 in practice in the schools. 
 
 " A due regard for the cause of popular education, as well as jus- 
 tice to those who have the care and management of your public 
 
[64] 
 
 schools, forbid that I should withhold the expression of my opinion 
 respecting them. 
 
 " Previous to my visit, I had learned enough in relation to thern to 
 induce me to form a very high estimate of their character. A more 
 intimate acquaintance with them, derived from personal observation, 
 convinces me that I had not entertained too high an opinion of their 
 excellence. Those who have been instrumental in framing and intro- 
 ducing the admirable plan upon which the schools of Philadelphia 
 are conducted, seem to have happily avoided the defective and im- 
 proved the good features of the best systems of education adopted in 
 parts of our own country and in Europe. The result, I apprehend, 
 has been the establishment of one of the most perfect systems for the 
 instruction of youth to be found in any community. 
 
 " The plan of educating the youth of our State at public schools 
 free to all, without distinction between the rich and poor, is most in 
 keeping with republican principles, and best adapted to promote their 
 dissemination and the perpetuity of the happy form of government 
 under which it is our good fortune to live. It furnishes one of the 
 greatest securities to the fortunate wealthy for the peaceable enjoy- 
 ment of their possessions, while it extends the blessings of education 
 to many who otherwise would be doomed to lives of ignorance and 
 vice and crime. With my visit to the Central High School I was 
 particularly gratified. The proficiency exhibited by the pupils in 
 the various branches of instruction — their strict propriety of conduct, 
 and the great desire manifested by them to acquire learning, are suf- 
 ficient to convince the most skeptical of the ample qualifications of 
 the professors and the superior excellence and ability of this school. 
 These gentlemen richly merit the high reputation they have attained, 
 and may justly claim for the institution tinder their care a rank amono- 
 the best in any country. The development and improvement of the 
 moral and intellectual faculties of the hoy, and the preparation of 
 him to assume and discharge in a proper manner the responsibilities 
 that will devolve upon him in manhood, I presume should be the 
 leading object of his education — this end is most successfully attained 
 by the mode of discipline and instruction in practice in the Central 
 High School. While the most efficient means are used to give the 
 pupils a knowledge of history and geography, and an introduction to 
 the principal branches of science, they are at the same time taught 
 their responsihility as reasonable beings. Their minds are imbued 
 with the importance of law and order, and a proper respect for the 
 
[ 05] 
 
 opinions and rights of others. They learn to depend on the cultiva- 
 tion of their mental powers for honorable distinction, and to seek for 
 happiness at its true source, in the control of the evil passions of our 
 nature and a strict adherence to the pi'inciples of morality and 
 justice. 
 
 " The influence exercised by the High School upon the oth(!r 
 schools of the district, is very apparent and hi^'hly beneficial. From 
 these, it obtains its supply of scholars, and in their admission favor- 
 itism and partiality are effectually excluded. The pupils of the lower 
 schools look forward to admission into it as a most desirable promo- 
 tion, which operates as a stimulus to excite them to an earnest appli- 
 cation to the acquisition of learning. This influence pervades all 
 the other schools, and without it I cannot believe the school system 
 could be so eminently successful as it now is in Philadelphia. A 
 strong argument in support of this opinion is found in the fact ascer- 
 tained from the several reports of your Board, that in the first nine- 
 teen years after tlie introduction of public schools into your district, 
 up to the establishment of the High School in 1837, there were but 
 seven thousand pupils ; whereas, in six years from that time, the 
 number of pupils is increased to nearly thirty-five thousand. A 
 knowledge of this truth is sufficient to dispel any doubt that may exist 
 of the beneficial influence of the High School upon the system, Avhile 
 at the same time it elicits the highest encomium for the Controller? 
 and Directors of your schools.'' 
 
 On the importance of a system of Graded or Classified Schools, 
 terminating in a High School, Rev. Barnas Sears, Secretarj'' of the 
 Board of Education of Massachusetts, thus writes : 
 
 "Besides the intellectual excitement, resulting from studying to- 
 gether in regular classes, there is one of a diff"erent kind, arising 
 from a uniform gradation of the classes, and extending through all 
 the grades of schools. In the ordinary district school there is but 
 little steady influence exerted upon the pupils by the prospect of pro- 
 motion. There is but one such school in the district; and this is 
 entered by scholars promiscuously when the term begins, and left in 
 the same way when it ends. There is no examination at the close, 
 which entitles one to a certain place in the next school. When he 
 enters another school, he is disposed of, in a class or not, as the 
 teacher finds most convenient ; and then he has the prospect of re- 
 maining in that condition to the end, unless the shifting scene shall 
 chance to throAV open some other gap, which he can better fill. As 
 5 
 
[ 60 ] 
 
 the seasons revolve, the same scene is acted over and over again, as 
 nearly in the same way as the semi-annual migration of the teachers 
 will allow. The monotony of a ten years' sojourn in such a district 
 school, aside from the sports and adventures accidentally connected 
 with it, is such as none can adequately conceive who have not expe- 
 rienced it. How different from all this sameness, and these endless 
 repetitions, is that chain of advancement, with every link brighter 
 and brighter, by which a child is conducted through a system of 
 graded schools ! As he enters the lowest class of the primary school, 
 he sees an unbroken series of promotions before him, till he shall 
 have finished his course in the high school. From beginning to end, 
 his ambition, without resort to personal rivalry, is appealed to, and 
 he is every moment made conscious that his rank is fixed by none but 
 himself. To those who are fully aware of the degree of sluggishness 
 and intellectual stupor there is to be overcome in the majority of our 
 district schools, it cannot appear unimportant to employ those natural 
 and healthy stimulants which, by the arrangement here suggested, 
 can easily be introduced and made to extend through the whole 
 period of attendance on the schools." 
 
 " It would seem superfluous to show how much better it would be 
 for the community, if all would unite in the support of Public Schools 
 of a high order, than to attempt to sustain a two-fold system of edu- 
 cation, — Common Schools for the children of the poor, and acade- 
 mies and private schools for the children of the rich. The children 
 of the afl^luent ought, for their own sakes, to learn early, before their 
 minds are vitiated with ideas of fictitious distinctions, to take their 
 position according to personal merit alone. As this is the standard 
 by which every one must stand or fall, the sooner he takes his proper 
 place upon the true platform of American society, the better will it 
 be for him and his country. It is equally important that the child of 
 poverty early feel the genial influence of our free institutions ; that 
 he learn even in the primary school, that the road to usefulness, 
 honor, and happiness, is alike open to the meritorious from every 
 class of society. Besides, divided as the people are in social life, in 
 politics, and in religion, they need just snch a bond of union as can 
 be easily formed in the school-room, and perpetuated through life. 
 This is nearly the only ground that can be made common to all classes. 
 Heaven forbid that it should be needlessly surrendered ! To secure 
 all these ends, it will be necessary to relinquish the private school, 
 and establish a system of Public Schools, with such gradations as 
 the wants of the people demand." 
 
[ 67 ] 
 
 Extract from the Annual Report of Hon. Joseph McKeen, Superin- 
 tendent of Common Schools, for the city and county of New York : 
 
 " The doctrine that the property of the State must pay for the edu- 
 cation of the children of the State, is a sort of admitted truism, which 
 is susceptible, however, of sundry explications. To say that one man 
 has a right to another man's money, to educate the children of tho 
 former, or for any other purpose, is not true ; but for the State to say 
 that property shall be taxed for the benefit of the community in which 
 it is, and to increase the security of the property itself, is true beyond 
 all dispute. 
 
 " There is no one item, in all our catalogue of public burdens, which 
 ouo-ht to be hailed with so much tolerance and favor as that which 
 goes to educate the youthful population. Education prevents and 
 diminishes crime, gives security to property , lessens the expense of 
 poor-rates, hospitals, prisons, and police establishments. It dispels 
 the gloomy superstitions of ignorance ; it evokes the innate energies 
 of genius ; it quickens and refines human enjoyments ; and it subor- 
 dinates the mighty physical agencies of nature, which it finds out and 
 applies to the service and comfort of man. 
 
 " A liberal policy would then seem to commend itself to every good 
 citizen in behalf of this beneficent instrumentality. It is the behest 
 of wisdom that the common elements of necessary knowledge be made 
 universally free. This is the common sentiment of the people of New 
 York. The light of Heaven and the pure water from the mountain 
 are free, both for man and beast, in all parts of the country where the 
 works of God remain undisturbed. In this crowded city, the princely 
 tax payers delight humbly to imitate the munificence of Heaven; and 
 we see, when night comes on, a bright artificial light in all our streets; 
 the pure gushing waters are in the free hydrants at the corners ; and 
 the free schools are telling, day and night, in all parts of the city. No 
 rich man sleeps the worse for his liberality; and every poor man loves 
 his county the more by reason of its unsurpassed privileges." 
 
 Hon. Christopher Morgan, Superintendent of Common Schools of 
 the State of New York, thus eloquently writes : 
 
 " The idea of universal education is the grand central idea of the 
 age. Upon this broad and comprehensive basis, all the experience 
 of the past, all the crowding phenomena of the present, and all our 
 hopes and aspirations for the future, must rest. Our forefathers have 
 transmitted to us a noble inheritance of national, intellectual, moral, 
 and religious freedom. They have confided our destiny as a people. 
 
[ 88] 
 
 to our own hands. Upon our individual and combined intelligence, 
 virtue, and patriotism, rests the solution of the great problem of self- 
 government. We should be untrue to ourselves, untrue to the memo- 
 ry of our statesmen and patriots, untrue to the cause of liberty, of 
 civilization and humanity, if we neglected the assiduous cultivation of 
 these means, by which alone we can secure the realization of the 
 hopes we have excited. Those means are the universal education of 
 our future citizens, without discrimination or distinction. Wherever 
 in our midst, a human being exists, with capacities and faculties to be 
 developed, improved, cultivated and directed, the avenues of know- 
 ledge should be freely opened and every facility afibrded to their unre- 
 stricted entrance. Ignorance should no more be countenanced than 
 vice and crime. The one leads almost inevitably to the other. Ban- 
 ish ignorance, and in its stead introduce intelligence, science, know- 
 ledge and increasing wisdom and enlightenment, and you remove in 
 most cases, all those incentives to idleness, vice and crime, which 
 now produce such a frightful harvest of retribution, misery and wretch- 
 edness. Educate every child, " to the top of his faculties," and you 
 not only secure the community against the depredations of the ignor- 
 ant and the criminal, but you bestow upon it, instead, productive 
 artizans, good citizens, upright jurors and magistrates, enlightened 
 statesmen, scientific discoverers and inventors, and dispensers of a 
 pervading infltience in favor of honesty, virtue and true goodness. 
 Educate every child physically, morally and intellectually, from the 
 ao-e of four to twenty-one, and many of your prisons, penitentiaries 
 and alms-houses will be converted into schools of industry and tem- 
 ples of science ; and the immense amount now contributed for their 
 maintenance and support will be diverted into far more profitable 
 channels. Educate every child — not superficially — not partially — but 
 thoroughly — develop equally and healthfully every faculty of his 
 nature — every capability of his being — and you infuse a new and 
 invigorating element into the very life blood of civilization — an ele- 
 ment which will diffuse itself throughout every vein and artery of the 
 social and political system, purifying, strengthening and regenerating 
 all its impulses, elevating its aspirations, and clothing it with a power 
 equal to every demand upon its vast energies and resources. 
 
 These are some of the results which must follow in the train of a 
 wisely matured and judiciously organized system of universal educa- 
 tion. They are not imaginary, but sober inductions from well authen- 
 ticated facts — deliberate conclusions from established principles, sanc- 
 tioned by the concurrent lesdmony of experienced educators and emi- 
 
[69 ] 
 
 nent statesmen and philanthropists. If names are needed to enforce 
 the lesson they teach, those of Washington, and Franklin, and Hamil- 
 ton, and Jefferson, and Clinton, witii a long array of patriots and states- 
 men, may be cited. If facts are required to illustrate the connection 
 between ignorance and crime, let the official return of convictions in 
 the several couris of the State for the last ten years be examined, and 
 the instructive lesson be heeded. Out of nearly 28,000 persons con- 
 victed of crime, but 118 had enjoyed the benefits of a good common 
 school education; 414 only had what the returning officers charac- 
 terize as a "tolerable" share of learning; and of the residue, about 
 one-half only could either read or write. Let similar statistics bo 
 gathered from the wretched inmates of our poor-house establishments, 
 and similar results would undoubtedly be developed. Is it not there- 
 fore incomparably better, as a mere prudential question of political 
 economy, to provide ample means for the education of the whole com- 
 munity, and to bring those means within the reach of every child, 
 than to impose a much larger tax for the protection of that community 
 against the depredations of the ignorant, the idle, and the vicious, and 
 for the support of the imbecile, the thoughtless, and intemperate ? 
 
 Every consideration connected with the present and future welfare 
 of the community — every dictate of an enlightened humanity — every 
 impulse of an enlarged and comprehensive spirit of philanthropy, 
 combine in favor of the adoption of this great principle. Public senti- 
 ment has declared in its favor. The new States which, within the past 
 few years, have been added to the Confederacy, have adopted it as 
 the basis of their system of public instruction; and the older Slates, 
 as one by one they are reconstructing their fundamental laws and 
 constitutions, are engrafting the same principle upon their institu- 
 tions. Shall New York, in this noble enterprise of education, retrace 
 her steps ? Shall she disappoint the high hopes and expectations she 
 has excited, by receding from the advanced position she now occupies 
 in the van of educational improvement? Her past career, in all those 
 elements which go to make up the essential wealth and greatness of a 
 people, has been one of progress and uninterrupted expansion. Her 
 far-seeing legislators and statesmen, uninfluenced by the scepucism of 
 the timid, the ignorant, and the faithless, and unawed by the denun- 
 ciations of the hostile, prosecuted that great work of internal improve- 
 ment which will forever illustrate the pride and glory of her political 
 history. The rich results of the experiment thus boldly ventured 
 upon have vindicated their wisdom. Is the development of the intel- 
 
[ 70 ] 
 
 lectual and moral resources of millions of future citizens an object of 
 less interest, demanding a less devoted consecrauon of the energies of 
 her people, and worthy of a less firm and uncompromising perseve- 
 rance? 
 " Disregard ng the feelings of the present hour, and looking only to 
 
 the future, will the consciousness of having laid the foundation for the 
 universal education of our people be a less pleasing subject of contem- 
 plation than that of having aided in replenishing the coffers of their 
 wealth? 
 
 In conclusion the Superintendent cannot feel that he has fully met 
 the responsibility devolved upon him by his official relations to the 
 schools of the State, were he to fail again urging upon the Legislature 
 the definite adoption of this beneficent measure. Let its details be so 
 adjusted as to bear equally upon all, oppressively upon none. Let 
 every discordant element of strife and passion be removed from the 
 councils of the districts, let the necessary assessment for the great 
 object in view, be diffused over the vast aggregate of the wealth and 
 property of the State. Then let teachers, worthy of the name, teachers 
 intellectually and morally qualified for the discharge of their high and 
 responsible duties, dispense the benefits and riches of education, 
 equally, and impartially, to the eight hundred thousand children who 
 annually congregate within the district school room. 
 
 The children of the rich and the poor, the high and the low, the 
 native and the foreigner, will then participate alike in the inexhausti- 
 ble treasures of intellect, they will commence their career upon a 
 footing of equality, under the fostering guardianship of the State, and 
 will gradually ripen into enlightened and useful citizens, prepared for 
 all the varied duties of life and for the full enjoyment of all the bless- 
 ings incident to humanity." 
 
GENERAL SUMMARY. 
 
 From the facts and opinions embraced in this Report, the follow- 
 ing conclusions may fairly be drawn, viz : 
 
 1. That there is now springing up in this country, and rapidly de- 
 veloping itself in beautiful and harmonious proportion, a system of 
 education in perfect accordance with the genius of our government 
 and the free spirit of our people. 
 
 2. That the system of Graded Free Schools is the only scheme 
 which can satisfy the wants of the great body of the people, and give 
 them that intelligence so much needed to guide them in their untried 
 political voyage. 
 
 3. That it is not to be restricted to the mere rudiments of a Com- 
 mon School education ; for, in numerous towns and cities, it already 
 embraces Central High Schools, and must ultimately include the 
 College and the University. 
 
 4. That it far surpasses all other schemes in symmetry, efficiency 
 and economy; for, the educational statistics of a large number of 
 States, cities and towns, prove that to educate a child under the new- 
 system, costs only about one-third as much as is iisually paid in 
 select or private pay schools. 
 
 5. That like the rains and dews of heaven, it confers its benefits 
 and its blessings equally upon all. It proposes to take the industrious, 
 talented and worthy children of the humblest as well as the richest 
 parent, and lead them along and upward by simple and beautiful 
 gradations, developing in harmonious proportion their intellectual 
 and moral nature, till they step forth American citizens complete. 
 
 6. That it secures the services of teachers of more extensive scien- 
 tific attainments, of more general intelligence, and of greater practical 
 experience, than were usually employed under the old system ; be- 
 cause, under the new system, the selection is made by an experienced 
 and efficient Board of Controllers. 
 
 c .... 
 
[ "2 ] 
 
 7. That it insui'es greater zeal and fidelity on the part of the teacher 
 in the discharge of his duties ; because his labors are now watched 
 with greater solicitude, superintended Avith a more enlightened in- 
 terest, and far better appreciated and rewarded, than they formerly 
 were. 
 
 8. That it creates a powerful and abiding stimulus to exertion on 
 the part of both teacher and pupil ; for, being a graded system, it 
 constantly encourages the hope of promotion, and thereby holds out 
 one of the strongest incentives to diligence in improving the oppor- 
 tunities which it affords. 
 
 9. That this system of Graded Free Schools, emanating from the 
 republican principles of our government, is destined to prevail over 
 all others ; because it will give us the education that we need in our 
 peculiar circumstances, — an education that will lit us for what our in- 
 stitutions require us to do, — not merely reading, writing and cypher- 
 ing, they are not education, — but that which cultivates and invigorates 
 the whole man, sharpens every faculty, multiplies his resources, and 
 makes him a man of all Avork, and tit for all work. 
 
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