Record of Merits, Demerits, &c. for May, 1826.

Naines. Punctuality | Merits for Exercises. | Merits as Monitor. | Demerits.

Some may prefer a head for each branch Each demerit is equal to a merit. Therefore at the end of the month add up the merits, and deduct the demerits. You will then have a pretty fair statement of what every scholar has done.

If an injudicious parsimony but too common in those who manage our district schools, can be induced to unbend a little, a few dollars distributed quarterly in rewards will do more towards maintaining the necessary discipline, and encouraging industry, than any species of punishment by the master or the committee. Indeed, as we have observed in regard to other points, although our system may be carried on by the barbarous practice of flogging the body, without attempting to correct or improve the mind, we declare it to be the result of our experience with the worst as well as the best class of our population, that if a child cannot be improved by motives addressed to his moral feelings, corporeal punishment will only make him worse. It is true he may be compelled to submit for a time, but it is with a spirit full of revenge, anger, and other bad passions, which will stifle every good principle he may have possessed, or burst forth again at the first opportunity. We never yet found an advocate of castigation who was not willing to allow that the good effects of it were doubtful, and that 'the more one flogs the more one may.'

When it is ascertained how much money may be expended in prizes, find the value of every merit, and distribute the money, or prizes to that amount, in proportion to the number of merits each scholar has obtained during the month or quarter. This is preferable to fixing a certain value to every merit at first, for you cannot tell how many merits there will be nor what sum it will require to redeem them.

By punctuality in our class list, is meant a regular appearance at the hour for opening school. This should always be insisted on, especially in regard to monitors. If a reward for punctuality do not produce an early attendance, let those who come fifteen min

utes too late receive a demerit or be sent home. Habits of punctuality are of the highest importance to the young, but in many of our common country schools, the master can seldom proceed to business untill an hour after the hour set for opening the school. In one flourishing village of Massachusetts the children, in winter, carry each a stick of wood to school, nor is there any fire in the school room untill a sufficient number of sticks has been collected by this daily contribution. These things ought not so to be.

We shall conclude with one word of advice to school committees. As the success of any system depends upon an impartial exercise of it, and as the system proposed in this manual requires more exercise of the judgement of children than any other, it must be your endeavor to second the exertions of the master. Encourage him to deal impartially with all. Submit your own children entirely to his guidance; allow them no distinction to which their merit does not entitle them. The aristocracy of cities is proverbial, but you must have seen that few country schools are free from family influence. The squire's child must not be in the class of a poor man's son, the clergyman's son must be a monitor whether qualified or not. Frown upon all such distinctions, and recollect that undeserved promotion will not excite your own children to exertion, but will discourage those who have nothing beside their own exertions to depend upon, and who keenly feeling their wrongs, will entertain but a poor opinion of your justice. Be generous towards the teachers you employ. Be careful to select a man of mild temper, and pure morals; and when you have found such a one, let not the whole term of his service be embittered by the reflection that his services are undervalued. How can you expect a man to devote himself to the school under such circumstances? Depend upon it he will give you only the money's worth of his time and exertions, and this is all you can reasonably expect. We mention the subject of salaries, because we believe they are generally too low to induce a gentleman of talents to undertake the charge of a village school, and because to this circumstance, more than to any other, (if we except the short term for which a male teacher is employed,) may be attributed the low standard of education in our common schools. If you cannot afford any additional expense, let a small piece of ground be cultivated annually for the benefit of the school, or let the clergyman and selectmen see that those who have nothing to spare to educate their children, spare nothing for indulgence of some useless or pernicious habit.

THOUGHTS ON THE EDUCATION OF FEMALES.

WE happily do not live in an age, when it is necessary to prove either the importance of education, or the propriety of extending it to females. The days are past, when a knowledge of tent-stitch, and the composition of a pudding or cordial was esteemed the chief glory of half the creation. Scarcely more desirable was the opposite era, which enforced the drudgery of accomplishments, often pursued at the expense of true taste and rational knowledge; accomplishments, eventually sacrificed to the household deities, as the axle-tree of the nuptial chariot of the Grecian bride, was anciently broken when she crossed the threshold of her husband. These dynasties reversed each other's decrees,-one, like the Egyptian house of bondage, demanding "brick without straw," and the other satisfied with straw instead of brick. The females of the present generation, may boast, in the language of judicial astrology, a most auspicious nativity. Science allures them to her temple, and virtue commands them to dedicate to her altar, that influence which they derive from the courtesy of refined society. The genius of their country, as well as the spirit of the age, supplies another stimulant, prompting them to become worthy of a name among the dignified and enlightened daughters of the greatest republic on earth.

It has been remarked in the address contained in the first number of this Journal that "there is already a deep and strong tide of opinion, undermining all that is useless and cumbrous in instruction." Still, with regard to the education of females, theory has outrun practice; and we apprehend that a philosophic eye would discover in the plan of their best seminaries, much which is capable of amendment. But to establish a system of rules, equally applicable to the different meridians of our country, would be impossible. Studies considered requisite to the sex, and methods of pursuing them, must follow in some measure the varying standard of taste, rank, and circumstance. Yet if fashions vary, radical principles are immutable. It would always be safe for the instructer of females to keep steadily in view, the practical results of education, to study the mental structure of the pupils, and to blend the good sense of the agriculturist, with the tenderness of the florist, and the spirit of the christian.

To tax the memory, is usually the first step in the rudiments of education. Beside the importance of this faculty in every stage of intellectual progress, it has a separate value to females from its agency in what the immortal poet denominates "household good."

To classify minute, and almost interminable details, and to elicit order and beauty, from what a novice might deem a chaos, is a desirable art. This may be facilitated by the same course of study which is prescribed to remedy a defect of the retentive power, a course of patient demonstration, and regular induction. Thus, those branches of science, which might at first view be pronounced useless to females, rise into importance from the habits of mental discipline which they establish. It was formerly too much the custom to strengthen memory at the expense of understanding, by requiring long lessons verbatim, or more properly, parrot recitations. But a dropsical habit, instead of vigorous health was thus produced:-one power was made to start forth in incorrect proportion, and the symmetry of the mind destroyed. That act of memory which brings readily into use the treasures which it has amassed, should be early cultivated in females, because one important point of their ultimate destination is to be intelligent companions. The classic recollections of a well-stored mind, are powerful adjuncts in conversation, and to habituate them to promptness at every call, the instructer should allow short intervals for rational discourse with the pupils, where the subjects, arguments, and authorities quoted, can have no aid from pre-meditation.

The instructer of females should endeavor to advance their knowledge of human nature. We do not, of course, mean that kind of knowledge which is acquired by a painful observation of vice, or an intimacy with scenes that shock the finer feelings of the soul. From these, it is their privilege to be secluded. But as in the domestic province, they may sometimes be called to manage obdurate materials, to reduce obliquities to the right line of reason, and to soothe discordant spirits to harmony, their task will be greatly facilitated by habits of reverting to those latent springs of action, which unlock the idiosyncrasies of character. Teachers may render the study of history subservient to this point by connecting it with the exercise of divesting the actors on the great map of man, of all factitious ornament, and by a systematic dissection presenting faults, virtues, and probable motives in the simple prominence of truth. This exercise will also be an auxiliary in the formation of a correct judgement, a possession of more intrinsic value to a practical being, than rapid perception, or brilliant fancy. Without it, both intellectual attainments, and fashionable accomplishments, will be as 'sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.' Self-culture, or the voluntary effort of mind, is necessary to all who would profit by the discipline of education. It would be in vain that the physician prescribed appropriate medicines, if the patient neglected to observe the correspondent regimen. Self-culture, should be particularly encouraged in females, because its legitimate basis is that self-con

trol which has affinity with many of their virtues, and most of their duties. To aid it, the instructer should require perseverance, repress irritability, and idle curiosity, and by teaching the mind the pleasure of surmounting obstacles in the path of knowledge, lead it to a more sublime victory over its internal foes. The danger of being superficial is to be guarded against, because its tendency is to nourish vanity, that indigenous production of the heart's light soil.' Some have supposed that by substituting the solid pursuits of science, for the tinsel of showy accomplishments, all undue effervescence of mind will be effectually checked. Yet we apprehend that a young lady may be as vain of repeating the technical phrases of the professor, or of chattering in a foreign language, as of rattling the keys of her piano in the finest style, or dancing with the grace of Vestris. In each case the passion for display is gratified. The antidote will be found less in the nature of her studies, than in the depth of her knowledge.

Yet it will usually be of slight avail for the instructer of females to devise the most judicious system, or with consummate skill adapt it to varieties of taste, temper and talent, unless there exists some degree of domestic co-operation. To elevate the mind for a few hours, and then plunge it into an atmosphere where frivolity reigns, is like training the young vine upward, and then unclasping its tendril to cover it with dust. A powerful intellect may indeed conquer this revulsion, and secure both developement and nurture. Yet still it is to the sanctuary of home, where the elements of character in all stages of their combination are exhibited without disguise, that we are to look for the culture of the affections, and the regulation of moral principles. Without these, we see only a tree unstable at the root, a fruit unsound at the core, the watering of Apollos, or the planting of Paul, without the increase of God.

It is also in the domestic sphere, that physical education generally receives its principal attention. We know not why it should ever be disjoined from intellectual and moral culture, or why it so often knows no longer date than those anxieties which the helplessness of infancy, or the dangers of early childhood create. Great sufferings frequently ensue, from the neglect of those early habits which increase strength, and fortify the constitution. The unfeminine character of those gymnastic exercises which in Europe have been so successfully pursued by male students, entirely preclude females from their benefits. Yet regularity, or at least some appearance of system, may be given to those exercises which are congenial to their state. Health of body has in their case not only the same influence over vigor of mind, as in that of the lordly sex,' but is moreover enhanced by that class of considerations which