consult my own feelings, and perhaps I may add, the dignity and forbearance which belong to a day of triumph, in passing by without remark. [This part of the history, however, was not allowed to be lost. As soon as the Secretary had taken his seat, the Rev. Mr. Waterston, who had been instrumental in getting up the subscription to erect the two school-houses, arose, and eloquently completed the history. He stated, in brief, that the idea of providing suitable buildings for the Normal Schools originated with some thirty or forty friends of popular education, who, without distinction of sect or party, had met, in Boston, in the winter of 1844-5, to express their sympathy with Mr. Mann in the vexatious conflict which he had so successfully maintained; and who desired, in some suitable way, to express their approbation of his course in the conduct of the great and difficult work of reforming our Common Schools. At this meeting, it was at first proposed to bestow upon Mr. Mann some token evincive of the personal and public regard of its members; but, at a subsequent meeting, it was suggested that it would be far more grateful and acceptable to him to furnish some substantial and efficient aid in carrying forward the great work in which he had engaged, and in removing those obstacles and hinderances both to his own success and to the progress of the cause, which nothing but an expenditure of money could effect. No way seemed so well adapted to this purpose as the placing of the Normal Schools upon a firm and lasting basis, by furnishing them with suitable and permanent buildings; and the persons present thereupon pledged themselves to furnish $5000, and to ask the Legislature to furnish a like sum for this important purpose. The grant was cheerfully made by the Legislature, whose good-will has since been further expressed by a liberal grant, to meet the expenses of those temporary Normal Schools, called Teachers' Institutes. Mr. Mann, who had not yet taken his seat, then continued as follows:] I have, my young friends, former and present pupils of the school, but a single word more to say to you on this occasion. It is a word of caution and admonition. You have enjoyed, or are enjoying, advantages superior to most of those engaged in our Common Schools. Never pride yourselves upon these advantages. Think of them often, but always as motives to greater diligence and exertion, not as points of superiority. As you go forth, after having enjoyed the bounty of the State, you will probably be subjected to a rigid examination. Submit to it without complaint. More will sometimes be demanded of you than is reasonable. Bear it meekly, and exhaust your time and strength in performing your duties, rather than in vindicating your rights. Be silent, even when you are misrepresented. Turn aside when opposed, rather than confront opposition with resistance. Bear and forbear, not defending yourselves, so much as trusting to your works to defend you. Yet, in counseling you thus, I would not be understood to be a total non-resistant,-a perfectly passive, non-elastic sandbag, in society; but I would not have you resist until the blow be aimed, not so much at you, as, through you, at the sacred cause of human improvement, in which you are engaged,-a point at which forbearance would be allied to crime. To the young ladies who are here-teachers and those who are preparing themselves to become teachers,-I would say, that, if there be any human being whom I ever envied, it is they. As I have seen them go, day after day, and month after month, with inexhaustible cheerfulness and gentleness, to their obscure, unobserved, and I might almost say, unrequited labors, I have thought that I would rather fill their place, than be one in the proudest triumphal procession that ever received the acclamations of a city, though I myself were the crowned victor of the ceremonies. May heaven forgive them for the only sin which, as I hope, they ever commit,-that of tempting me to break the commandment, by coveting the blissfulness and purity of their quiet and secluded virtues. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS BY HORACE MANN, LL. D. THE COMMON SCHOOL JOURNAL. 1839-1848. 10 vols., royal octavo. ANNUAL REPORTS (TWELVE,) AS SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION, from 1838 to 1849. SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT ON SCHOOL-HOUSES. MASSACHUSETTS SYSTEM OF COMMON SCHOOLS; vised edition of the Tenth Annual Report. 1849. LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 1845. pp. 338. 1838. being an enlarged and repp. 212. AN ORATION, DELIVERED BEFORE THE AUTHORITIES OF THE CITY OF BOSTON. July 4, 1842. pp. 86. A FEW THOUGHTS FOR A YOUNG MAN; a Lecture, delivered before the Boston Mercantile Library Association, on its Twenty-ninth Anniversary. 1850. pp. 84. A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE POWERS OF WOMEN. Two Lectures. 1853. pp. 141. DEDICATION OF ANTIOCH COLLEGE, AND INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF ITS PRESI 1854. pp. 144. DENT. BACCALAUREATE, DELIVERED AT ANTIOCH COLLEGE. 1857. pp. 61. DEMANDS OF THE AGE ON COLLEGES. Speech delivered before the Christian Convention, Ohio. October 5, 1854. pp. 86. We give below the titles of the pamphlets which we have had bound together and lettered "Mann's Educational Controversies." THE COMMON SCHOOL CONTROVERSY; consisting of three Letters of the Secretary of the Board of Education, in reply to charges preferred against the Board, with extracts from the daily press, in regard to the controversy. 56 pages. SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. (By Horace Mann.) January 1, 1844. pp. 188. Remarks on the Seventh Annual Report of the Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. By Thirty-one Boston Teachers. 1844. pp. 144. Reply to the "Remarks" of Thirty-one Boston Schoolmasters, on the Seventh Annual Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. By Horace Mann. 1844. pp. 176. Rejoinder to the "Reply" of the Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education to the "Remarks" of the Association of Boston Masters, upon his Seventh Annual Report. 1845. By the "Thirty-one Schoolmasters." pp. 55. Rejoinder to the Second Section of the "Reply." By Wm. A. Shepard. March, 1845. pp. 56. Rejoinder to the Third Section of the "Reply." By S. S. Greene. March, 1845. pp. 40. Rejoinder to the Fourth Section of the "Reply." By Joseph Hale. April, 1845. pp. 64. Answer to the "Rejoinder" of "Twenty-nine" Boston Schoolmasters, part of the "Thirty-one" who published "Remarks" on the Seventh Annual Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. By Horace Mann. 1845. pp. 124. Penitential Tears; or a Cry from the Dust. By "the Thirty-one," prostrated and pulverized by the Hand of Horace Mann, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. 1845. pp. 59. "Penitential Tears!" By Massachusetts. Observations on a pamphlet, entitled "Remarks on the Seventh Annual Report of the Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education." By G. B. Emerson. pp. 16. Mr. Bumstead's Defense of his School-books, in reply to Mr. S. S. Greene. July, 1845. pp. 8. Report of the Special Committee of the Primary School Board, on a portion of the Remarks of the Grammar Masters. Boston: 1844. pp. 13. Report of a Committee of the Association of Masters of the Boston Public Schools, on a letter from Dr. John Odin, in relation to a Report of the Special Committee of the Primary School Board. Boston: 1845. pp. 18. School Discipline. By Anti-Busby. The Schoolmasters' Review of Mr. Mann's Report. By Luther. REPORTS OF THE ANNUAL VISITING COMMITTEES, OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE CITY OF BOSTON. 1845. pp. 168. Review of the Reports of the Annual Visiting Committees, of the Public Schools of the City of Boston, 1845. By Scholiast. pp. 58. The Scholiast Schooled. An Examination of the Review of the Reports of the Annual Visiting Committees of the Public Schools of the City of Boston, for 1845, by Scholiast. By A Bostonian. 1846. pp. 65. Address to the Citizens of Boston. By S. G. Howe, William Brigham, J. L. T Coolidge, and Theophilus Parsons. March, 1846. pp. 12. THE BIBLE, THE ROD, AND RELIGION, IN COMMON SCHOOLS. The Ark of God on a new cart: A Sermon, by the Rev. Matthew Hale nith. A Review of the Sermon, by Wm. B. Fowle, publisher of the Massachusetts Common School Journal. Strictures on the Sectarian Character of the Common School Journal, by a Member of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Correspondence between the Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary of the Board of Education, and Rev. Matthew Hale Smith. Boston: 1847. pp. 59. Sequel to the so-called Correspondence between the Rev. Matthew Hale Smith and Horace Mann. surreptitiously published by Mr. Smith; containing a letter from Mr. Mann, suppressed by Mr. Smith, with the reply therein promised. Boston: 1847. pp. 56. Reply to the Sequel of Hon. Horace Mann; being a supplement to the Bible, the Rod, and Religion, in Common Schools. By Matthew Hale Smith. Second edition. Boston: 1847. pp. 36. Letter to the Rev. Matthew Hale Smith, in an answer to his "Reply" or "Supplement." By Horace Mann. Boston: 1847. pp. 22. Horace Mann and Matthew Hale Smith. April 30, 1847. pp. 8. OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION. TO THE HONORABLE THE LEGISLATURE OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. THE directors of the American Institute of Instruction beg leave to present their memorial, praying them to consider the expediency of appointing, for a term of years, a superintendent of the common schools of the Commonwealth. And, in presenting this memorial, the directors of the Institute beg leave to state some of the circumstances and reasons which have led them to feel the importance and necessity of such an officer, and which have determined them to offer to the legislature the request which they now lay before them. Of their impression of the immeasurable value of the free schools of the Commonwealth, as an instrument of good to its citizens, your memorialists hold it unnecessary to speak at large. Thy confidently believe that upon the importance of an institution which, in its action, comes home to the mind and heart of every child of the Commonwealth, which does, or may do, more than any other to bring out his powers, to furnish him with good knowledge, to form his character, to give him noble aims, and to fit him in all ways for his duties as a citizen and a man, and for his whole future existence, any statements they cou'd make would alike fall far short of the truth, and of the convictions of the wise and patriotic citizens who represent the people of the state. They believe that in no way can so much be done to benefit the whole population of the Commonwealth, as by improving the condition of the common schools. They believe, and have long believed, that in many respects these schools need improvement. One of the objects had in view in the formation of the American Institute of Instruction, was to reach these schools, through their teachers. If these could be brought together, even once in a year, or once in a few years, it was confidently hoped that they could not fail of receiving an useful impulse. And your memorialists trust that some good has in this way been done. Their hopes have not been entirely disappointed, their exertions have not been altogether unavailing. A few, out of the great number of teachers in the Commonwealth, have annually met together, and stimu'ated and encouraged each other, and made report, and borne testimony of a gradual and partial improvement. They have annually reported much, however, of a different complexion. They have reported, with melancholy unanimity, and we fear that every member of the legislature, acquainted with any considerable portion of the schools, must confirm the truth of their report, that very many of the common schools, in all parts of the Commonwealth, have yet felt no impulse, have made no advancement, have undergone no change. The very schools which most need, and which should most feel, the fostering care of benevolent attention, those in every county, situated in the remote, and poor, and thinly-peopled districts, remain unimproved, and apparently unregarded. We believe that the buds of genius are scattered as bountifully in these remote districts as elsewhere; that on the rough hills, and among the sterile fields, the noblest of plants, the human soul, springs with as divine capacities, and, if kindly and skillfully nurtured, will expand with as large and vigorous a growth, as in any of the most favored region; nay more, that the very absence of the softnesses and luxuries of life, will give an inward vigor and sturdiness, most favorable to the highest talents and the best virtues. But a kindly nurture they require. Good schools they must have. How shall these schools be reached? The Institute can not reach them, it can not visit them. We have not sufficiently exact information in regard to their condition, to enable us to communicate with them, in such manner as to be sure to benefit them. Their teachers can not visit us. They do not meet with our Institute, or with any institute or association, nor are they subject to any influence which shall awaken them to greater zeal, or give them better knowledge in regard to education. They are so numerous and remote, that the whole time of one individual would be no more than sufficient to obtain a knowledge of their state and wants; and, without this knowledge, nothing can be wisely suggested, or satisfactorily done to improve them. What we see ought to be done, what we want the knowledge and ability to do, we come to pray the legislature to cause to be done. We can not for a moment doubt that the legislature is entirely disposed to do whatever can be done for the common schools. We dare not impute to them the inconsistency of making a liberal provision for the development of the material resources of the state, in its mineral and vegetable treasures, and yet remaining indifferent to the infinitely greater treasures, the whole intellectual and moral resources of its future population; we are not willing to believe that the state will do more to bring to light the marble and granite of its hills, than the genius of its children. There is a very general conviction that something more should be done for the common schools; and we believe that a chief reason why so little has hitherto been done is, that the information essential to a wise action upon the subject has not been collected and presented in a strong light to the legislature and the public. We believe that an individual, competent to this work, and faithfully devoted to it, under the direction of the executive, or any other authority the legislature might see fit, in its wisdom, to appoint, would be able to collect information in regard to the schools, and lay it, in an annual report, before the legislature, which would enable them to act with complete knowledge of the whole subject. We, therefore, think that the condition of the schools demands the appointment of the superintendent. And we beg leave further to state, particularly, some of the ways in which such an officer, if appointed, could act directly for the good of the schools. 1. He could devise means for the improvement of the teachers. We hold it an evident and important truth, that no school can be essentially improved, but by the improvement of its teacher. All other things are, in comparison, of very little consequence. Children of the best parents, in the best constructed schoolhouse, under the most favorable circumstances, will lose, and more than lose, their time, if given over to the management of an incompetent teacher. This improvement is, therefore, at the bottom of every other. Now there are various ways in which a superintendent could minister to this. By calling conventions of teachers in the different counties, he would awaken an interest which could not fail of doing good. There are, we trust, no sections of the state, in which there are not to be found excellent schools, managed by skillful and abundantly capable teachers. But they are now isolated. They act little on each other, and still less on the numerous schools about them. The improvements that are made by individuals, in arrangement, in discipline, in the choice of things to be taught, and in the modes of teaching, are not indeed lost, for they act on the immortal minds within the influence of him who makes them. But they are usually confined to his immediate sphere; they go not abroad, to stimulate and enlighten his fellow-workers in the same cause; they are not recorded for the benefit of his successors; they cease with their author. If what is best in each, could be added to the common stock of all, all would become respectable; and such a communication, long continued, would at length render all, who were capable of it, excellent. But such a system can only be begun, and successfully continued, by the influence of some common friend. A superintendent, visiting all the schools, would find many instructors, of good capacities, failing for want of experience, and the knowledge of various methods. To such, how often would a few suggestions be of the greatest advantage. 2. He could devise means for the formation of better teachers. It is well known that a large portion of the schools are taught by persons who have recourse to instruction for a temporary employment, in the intervals of other pursuits, or while in preparation for another calling, without especial taste or suitableness for the vocation. In some degree, it will probably be always so; it is to be hoped, in a far less degree hereafter than at present. If the schools |