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no interest in and no concern with the general movement. For if we are so unwise as to try the experiment we shall soon find the swelling tide rushing past us, leaving us hopelessly in the rear of smaller and feebler communities, who will claim the honors and advantages that were lost to us through our supineness and neglect. It is hoped that a word to the wise may be sufficient.

THE BRITISH NAVY AND CONNECTICUT SCHOOLS.

Our island The very best

Recent events in the Crimea have developed a shocking state of things in connection with the organization of the British Army. cousins are proverbially fond of precedent and routine. reason with them why a thing should be, is, that it has been. they are pattern conservatives.

In a word

Their men are perishing by thousands from wet, and cold, and hunger, and disease, while provisions by the cargo are rotting on the beach, and ships laden with building-materials are floating within their sight. And all because it requires the combination of some half-a-dozen different authorities to get them into camp. Lord Raglan orders a regiment to advance and encamp so and so. But some other Lord must order up their biscuit, another their tents, another their powder, &c. &c. The defections of any one of these "noble" officers paralyzes the regiment. Lord Raglan is in fact only a sham commander. The "powder-monkeys" and "beef-tenders" of the all his operahold a check army, tions. And yet the English nation hug their absurdities. Why? Because it is the old system, and Wellington approved it!

upon

We in this country show our relationship to John Bull in many ways, and in none more strikingly than in our imitations of his foibles. Connecticut is to-day cherishing a system of administration in her school affairs not a whit less absurd and injurious than that of the British Army. The business of managing the schools of any town or city is very simple. It consists in providing and maintaining school houses, in employing and paying teachers, and in superintending the studies and discipline of the schools. These things are closely connected. No man or set of men can properly perform one of the functions without the authority to perform them all. It is in vain for one committee to appoint and approve a competent teacher, if another committee refuse to pay him when appointed. It is in vain for one committee to devote their time and energies to the intellectual and moral elevation of the schools, while another committee, by providing only uncomforta ble and unsuitable school-houses, and employing teachers at the lowest pos

sible price, are blindly pulling them down. It is in vain that one committee seek to maintain discipline, while another are threatening the teachers with dismissal if they administer it. This is plainly one of those interests which cannot be properly cared for by a multitude of diverse and independent agents. Consequently in every State in the Union except Connecticut, if we are correctly informed, this educational administration is placed in the hands of a single body of men, commonly known as the School Committee, or Board of Education. In some cases the appropriations recommended by this Board are referred to a popular vote, in others to the City or Town authorities, in others the tax is levied by the Board itself. But in all other respects the entire administration of the schools is placed in their hands; and like other officers they render an account to their constituents on the day of the annual election, and their conduct is there approved or condemned by the ballot.

But a different system has become established in this State. Anciently, in the old colony times, when Church and State were united, the whole territory was parceled out and assigned to the religious societies which were located in it. The civil administration of the State was carried on in part through these societies. This system has been retained in connection with our schools, though in other respects abolished as anti-republican and absolute. This is the origin of the organization known as the "School Society."

But in process of time it was found that in our large and sparsely settled country towns, this society arrangement had become somewhat unwieldy. Accordingly the district system was engrafted upon it. The powers of the district are in most respects, identical with that of the school society. This will be seen by comparing the sections of the statute in which the powers of each are defined.

"Every school society as such shall be a body corporate, and respectively have power to establish and maintain common schools of different grades; to purchase, receive, hold or convey, any real or personal property, for school society purposes; to build and repair school houses to lay taxes; to sue and be sued; and to make all lawful agreements and regulations for the useful education of all the children of the society."School Laws, Ch. 2, Sec. 2.

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"Every school district shall be a body corporate, and shall have the power to sue and be sued; to purchase, receive, hold, and convey, real or personal property for school purposes; to build, purchase, hire and repair school houses, and to supply the same with fuel, furniture, and other appendages and accommodations; to purchase maps, globes, blackboards, and other school apparatus; to establish and maintain a school library; to employ one or more teachers, and shall be holden to pay the wages of any such teacher or teachers, as are employed by the committee of any such district in conformity to law; to lay taxes, and to make

all lawful agreements and regulations for establishing and conducting schools, not inconsistent with the regulations of the school society, to which such district belongs."-School Law, Ch. 2, Sec. 41.

Now here are two distinct, and in many respects independent bodies, having jurisdiction over the same territory (the districts being contained within the societies), and charged with essentially the same duties. This will appear if we ask what would be the effect of abolishing all the districts in any society. The statute gives to the society the most ample power to carry on the whole school system without any district organization at all. Now this double organization is, to say the least of it, clumsy and unwieldy. The result would be one of two things. Either these two rival powers will be at war with each other, or one will give up the whole business to the other and become itself a nullity. Instances have occurred of collision between the society and the districts. But the general result has been that the society has yielded the whole matter into the hands of the districts. Our school societies through the State do little else than to meet annually and appoint certain officers. The actual administration of the schools is in the districts altogether.

How is it now with the administration of school officers? We have already said that in all the other States the administration of the schools is in the hands of a single committee, who appoint from their own number the Clerk, Treasurer, and Sub-Committees.

Second

How is it with us? First, the school society chooses a clerk, a school committee of three, a board of school visitors of nine, a treasurer, and a collector: that is five distinct officers or sets of officers. ly, the school districts choose a district eommittee of three, a treasurer and collector; three in all. If there are six districts in a society there then will be no less than twenty-three distinct and independent officers or sets of officers, composed of forty-five men, to do business which is ordinarily assigned to a single Board, composed of six to nine persons. We will notice some of the practical results of this system, more at length next time.-Norwich Examiner.

THE DARK SIDE.

I wish for your sake, fellow teachers, for education's sake, and for posterity's sake, I had the power of presenting to your mind's eye, a certain school just as I saw it a few days since-a Connecticut school it was too. Ah, my native State I blush for thee. There are many good schools, many really excellent schools in Connecticut, and these are taught by whole-souled, working teachers. There are also, (and we

regret to say it) many poor schools, miserably poor ones; schools that would be a disgrace to any place. Of this latter class is the one I am about to describe. It is located-well no matter where. Suffice it to say, it's in the land of "steady habits." The building denominated the school house, is probably as uninviting, and uncleanly a structure, as was ever honored with the title, house. What the fingers of time have failed to do in demolishing it, the mischievous fingers of the school boys have nearly accomplished, and it shows not half so plain the print of the "gnawing tooth of time," as the marks where those same roguish, untamed boys have tried and proved the virtue of their jack-knives. In short, it is a low, narrow, dark, ill-ventilated, unfurnished, uncomfortable prison, where the children of the village are kept a certain number of hours each day, and expected to perform a certain amount of mental labor, under the guidance of an incompetent instructor, a man entirely unfit to be trusted with the training of those young minds. Now just listen to his apology for the dis-"quiet that reigned supreme," in his room while I visited it—and, by the way, permit me to say that it is an excuse which is too often made by teachers, most generally, however, by poor teachers. It is this, "I found my school so disorderly and uumanageable, when I commenced teaching in it that I've hardly got matters regulated yet." This was in substance, what that man said to me, and which I managed to hear by standing very close to him, and giving the strictest attention. Such an excuse is but a miserable pretext to conceal one's own want of management, and lack of skill in government. Let a teacher come out and say his school is not what it should be, he doesn't know what to do with it, but is anxious to improve it in some way, let him ask advice of competent advisers, and we have good reason to hope and believe, that such an one may, at no very distant day, stand foremost in the ranks of educators of the young; but this trying to put one's own faults on to the shoulders of a predecessor, this trying to draw a veil over imperfections which are thereby rendered only the more glaring, is the extreme of folly. But my visit, or rather my description of it, to that Connecticut school is not yet finished. While the teacher was talking with me, the pupils were amusing themselves in almost every conceivable way. Some seemed suddenly gifted with the power of speech, and were continually crying out for permission to warm themselves, get water, go out, &c., &c., to all of which the teacher at first responded, no; then the scholars, by some very significant gestures would express their belief that, if they kept teasing, they should gain their wishes, and so it eventually proved.One little fellow, however, who was too impatient to wait till the mas

ter said, "yes you may go if you'll stop your noise," quietly slipped out of the window, but a second, in attempting to follow, was brought back to his senses, and his seat, by a smart blow from the ruler which the master invariably carried under his arm. One boy was carving a ship with his knife, on the desk, while another was drawing the master's profile and I actually tried in vain to find a place, either upon the desks or benches, sufficiently large to lay my open palm, that had not ben disfigured by hacking. Two of the largest girls were reading novels, while little Susan, and Jemmy, the boy who had to sit next to her, because "he'd been a naughty boy," were trying to exchange a piece of chewed india-rubber, for two marbles. At recess, which most of the scholars chose to take in the house that day, some of the boys smoked, while others chewed the "weed," and spittoons being minus, the floor, of course, presented anything but a neat appearance. The recitations I will not attempt to describe; they were what one might expect to find in such a school, poorly prepared, and worse recited. After having spent nearly a half day there, I departed heart-sick, and head-sick. I subsequently visited a school of an entirely different character, which I shall take pleasure in describing to you at some future time. AN OBSERVER.

ARITHMETIC.

TEACHING RULES.

Often has the question been asked me "do you have your pupils commit to memory the rules in Arithmetic?" And not seldom when I acknowledge the fact that it was my practice, have I seen an expression of astonishment flit across the face of the questioner, which plainly said “I didn't think you had so much 'old fogyism' left." Still I continue the practice and instead of an argument in defence of it, will present an illustration of the method pursued. For this purpose Addition will serve.

The class have been well drilled in Numeration, and its co-ordinate Notation, and are ready to begin Addition to-morrow. It is the hour for recitation—but being satisfied that they are sufficiently acquainted with their lesson, it is briefly passed over, and the scholars are requested to open their books in which is the following Rule:

“Place units under units, tens under tens, &c. Add the column of units, and if the amount is less than ten set it under the column; if it is ten or more set down the right hand figure and carry the remaining

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