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seminaries for teachers may be established, and all our schools, tion. To adapt the requisitions of school laws to the convenfurnished by them, we may partly console ourselves with the [ience of those who are affected by them, is generally doing an reflection, that a system has been in operation for some years, important service to education." Another great benefit may in which some of the most important ends of such seminaries also be secured by taking advantage of the peculiar facilities have been in some degree obtained; and, that, we may hope for the improvement of schools by a large and compact poputo select out of the thousands of Sabbath school teachers, some lation. hundreds at least, of male and female instructors for our common schools, who are prepared to favor improvements in edu

cation.

Some of the evils which commonly belong to the district system in this state, do not necessarily spring from the provisions of the laws, and yet are generally found to exist. Such features may be traced to long practised habits, or to opinions

HOW TEACHERS MAY BE INSTRUCTED BY FRIENDS OF which prevail in the minds of the public. Other evils, which

EDUCATION.

Two or three years ago it was mentioned in an European journal, that a Swiss clergyman living in a small town in one of the cantons, had offered to give gratuitous instruction to as many teachers as might choose to attend, during the month in which there was a vacation in the schools; and that many availed themselves of his offer, with evident advantage.

This gentleman, having the good of the public at heart, and through an acquaintance with the condition of the schools, their teachers, and the state of society, had useful suggestions to make, not merely of a general and theoretical character, but also such as were particularly applicable to existing circumstances. He made no pretensions to any great or extraordinary science; and probably had not time to prepare even a single written lecture; but he knew how the people might manage to instruct and govern their pupils better than they did, and he simply told them the way. He knew that the arrangements of the seats and desks in their schools might be improved; and, to make them understand his reasons, he could take the opportunity to give them a few important facts concerning the human frame and constitution.

A little reflection will convince the reader, that in the course of a month, the philanthropic man spoken of, might have communicated a large amount of useful instruction, and at its close must have had the minds of the teachers in an improved state, and prepared for future improvements. He might also have arranged for regular meetings of teachers, founded libraries, and sat on foot many useful plans.

we need not distinguish from the rest, seem to be the natural product of the system itself. We may here notice a few of both kinds indiscriminately.

One of the evils commonly is, that there is little or no concert of action beyond the limits of the districts. Those who have the appointment and supervision of teachers, should be in the way of extending their knowledge, and improving their views of instruction, as well as the teachers themselves. This cannot be done fast enongh, unless they occasionally associate in considerable numbers, and have opportunities to learn the opinions and practices of each other. It is highly useful, also, to have the schools which we superintend, inspected by friends who have other schools under their direction. They will commend what they approve, and suggest what we perhaps might not have thought of in years.

If we compare a school house which is liable to frequent inspection, with one which is known to be never visited, in what a different state do we commonly find the desks and benches, the floors and walls, the yard and the children! The teacher is incited to greater exertion. So is the Committee which superintends a district. If the members feel that they have no overseer to approve of their faithfulness, or to discover their negligence, they too often seem to strive to do as little as the laws require, and sometimes fall below its standard. But in places where they are associated with many more, and where an active system is in existence, they strive to do the most they can, and learn how to do many things which they would never have attempted alone.

By a close adherence to the district system in large towns, we fail to secure the advantages of well classified schools. Common education should not only be made universal: it should be elevated as high as possible. But it is the nature of the district system, when rigidly adhered to, to keep it limited. No single district perhaps, has the authority and the means necessary for the establishment and support of a high school; and the limited concert of action before spoken of, prevents an union of strength and resources. The low views of the grade of education desirable, at the same time, probably prevents the idea of a higher school from entering the minds of the officers and the public.

And how simple, cheap and efficient is such a plan! It is natural to enquire, after hearing of it: Had he not many imitators? Are not all the teachers in Switzerland favored with similar instruction? The next question natural to us, is: Why may we not have many imitators in our own country-especially in Connecticut? Between the time of engaging teachers for the schools in a given town or neighborhood, and the period when they are to commence their labors, how favorable an opportunity is sometimes offered, for any clergyman, or other friend of education, to invite them to assemble when and where their mutual convenience will permit, to hear a few familiar remarks on the importance of the station they are to occupy, and the means by which its duties may best be per-cing the number of schools for children of the middle age, in formed!

One may be inclined to say, I am not adequately prepared for the instruction of teachers; I have indeed been engaged in the instruction of men in law, in religion, or, as an editor, in the various branches touched by the press; but I have not so much as seen a teachers' seminary, and know not how such institutions are conducted. This objection is not to be regardied. Many a man in our country, many a man in every county n this state, is sufficiently well informed about school keeping, to talk a few hours, and even many, to the teachers of common schools, for their benefit, and the good of their pupils.

Let one man in each county or township propose one meeting, and if he please, engage some friend to assist him, and in many instances, we will almost promise, all present will urge another and another meeting. The perusal of any of the books from which our extracts are given in this paper, will suggest abundance of topics for lectures.

SOME MODIFICATIONS OF OUR DISTRICT SYSTEM
NEEDED.

The district system, as many of our readers probably well know, is liable to some great objections in certain cases, particularly when strictly adhered to in large towns. It is not improbable that many persons best acquainted with its operation under such circumstances, may, before this, have looked upon it as requiring modifications, or even a thorough altera

Now there are strong reasons to be urged, in favor of redu

some places, and establishing new ones for those below and above it. Many of those reasons apply more strongly to large towns than to any other parts of the state. The need is greater, and the facilities are superior. The influence of such improvements would also be more active and powerful elsewhere, if commenced in the large towns.

The deviations from the district system which we would first recommend, would therefore be the following: 1st. The combination of all the school officers of every large town, under one systematic and active plan of operations.

2d. The classification of schools under their direction, on broad principles, adapted to the general convenience and benefit of the inhabitants.

In organizing the system of supervision, the principal features of the public school society of the city of New York would probably be found best adapted to the objects in view. How changed for the better would the schools of Hartford or New Haven appear, or those of Middletown, New London, Norwich, Litchfield, or any other of the principal towns, if they were under the charge of an active and united society, consisting of the leading friends of common education around them; and if they were distributed, remodelled, and put on footing corresponding with the wants of the people and the in terests of the public! Primary schools on excellent plans ye unknown in Connecticut, would be multiplied;-secondar schools, less numerous than the present district schools, woul

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be opened for children of the middle age;-and one higher
school would finish the education of the most promising youth
of both sexes, and prepare and improve the teachers for all.
How soon would a more extensive correspondence and co-
operation then be established among the friends of education in
the state! To confer with others, to visit each others' schools,
to seek farther improvements, would soon become the pleasing
and honorable occupation of many hours, with many of our
most intelligent and virtuous citizens.

EDUCATION OF TEACHERS,

The leading article of the last number of the North American Review, is devoted to common school education, Its authorship we have seen attributed to R. Rantoul, Esq., member of the Massachusetts Board of Education. It closes with some considerations on the necessity of providing Normal schools, or Teachers' seminaries, for the better education of teachers, male and female, for our common schools, and quotes with cordial approbation, the following remarks of Dr. Channing:

"We need an institution for the formation of better teachers; and, until this step is taken, we can make no important progress. The most crying want in this Commonwealth is the want of accomplished teachers. We boast of our schools, but our schools do comparatively little, for want of educated instructers. Without good teaching, a school is but a name. An institution for training men to train the young would be a fountain of living waters, sending forth streams to refresh present and future ages. As yet, our legislators have denied to the poor and laboring classes this principal means of their elevation. We trust they will not always prove blind to the highest interest of the State.

We want better teachers, and more teachers, for all classes of society, for rich and poor, for children and adults. We want that the resources of the community should be directed to the procuring of better instructers, as its highest concern. One of the surest signs of the regeneration of society will be, the elevation of the art of teaching to the highest rank in the community. When a people shall learn that its greatest benefactors, and most important members, are men devoted to the liberal instruction of all its classes, to the work of raising to life its buried intellect, it will have opened to itself the path of true glory. This truth is making its way. Socrates is now regarded as the greatest man in the age of great men. The name of king has grown dim before that of apostle. To teach, whether by word or action, is the highest function on earth." There is also an extract from a Report of the Committee on Education to the Legislature of Massachusetts, in 1837, recommending an appropriation of ten thousand dollars for the establishment of a Teachers' seminary. The language of this extract would become our own State.

"That the highest interest in Massachusetts is, and will always continue to be, the just and equal instruction of all her citizens, so far as the circumstances of each individual will permit it to be imparted; that her chief glory for two hundred years, has been the extent in which this instruction was diffused, the result of provident legislation, to promote the common cause, and secure the perpetuity of the common interest; that, for many years, a well grounded apprehension has been entertained, of the neglect of our common schools by large portions of our community, and of the comparative degradation to which these institutions might fall from such neglect; that the friends of universal education have long looked to the legislature for the establishment of one or more seminaries devoted to the purpose of supplying qualified teachers for the town and district schools, by whose action alone other judicious provisions of law could be carried into full effect; *** that, although much has been done within two or three years, for encouragement of our town schools by positive enactment, and more by the liberal spirit newly awakened in our several communities, yet the number of competent teachers is found, by universal experience, so far inadequate to supply the demand for them, as to be the principle obstacle to improvement, and the greatest deficiency of our republic."

"1. Educate teachers, and the compensation will be increased. If you furnish better teachers for the public schools, private schools will be discontinued, and leave at liberty a fund for public teachers. *****

"2. If female teachers can be educated in the most perfect manner, they would be employed with great advantage in many of the schools now kept by men. *****

It

"3. The calculation does not stop here. It is true economy to buy an article that is worth your money, and many have been ruined by buying cheap pennyworths in education, no less than in trade. A good master will teach and benefit a school more in two months, than a master poorly qualified, in a year. will be found much cheaper to employ the best teachers. A boy kept till he is eighteen in an ordinary district school, and then sent for three years to a common country academy, is not so well fitted for active life at twenty-one, as every boy might be at sixteen, in such a school as ought to be kept in every district in the Commonwealth, and well might be, if we had our essential Normal schools in full operation. Whoever, therefore, will be still content to give his son no better education than we have mentioned, may have it at less than the present cost, by employing the best teachers, and his son produce an income, instead of requiring an expense, for the last five years of minority. But he who gives his children a comparatively superior education in the present state of things, would not rest satisfied till he had educated them in the same degree above the improved standard. And, in so doing, he would not depart from the strictest economy; for an enlightened community produces and accumulates wealth faster, in a vastly greater ratio, than the proportionate additional cost of their education. A million of dollars a year, judiciously applied to the improvement of young heads and hearts, for the next thirty years, would not merely be refunded, but the state would be much more than thirty millions richer in visible property, at the end of the period."

"The Normal school must begin with females, because there is more unappropriated female talent than can brought into action; because females can be educated cheaper, and, in the first instance, quicker, and better, and will teach cheaper after they are qualified; because the primary schools, which properly belong to females, are in the worst condition, and need most to be reformed, and because, by reforming these, we thereby improve all the higher schools. By raising up the foundation we necessarily elevate the superstructure. An improvement in the rudiments of education, among children of from four to ten years of age, would be felt through all the schools, as these young scholars passed into higher classes. The public would perceive the benefit, and enter with alacrity into the measures necessary to carry out a thorough reformation."

We should hail the establishment of such a seminary in the state of Connecticut as the dawning of a new era in common school education.

EARLY ASSOCIATIONS.

The pleasing recollections connected with the homes of our childhood, often influence our conduct as well as our feelings, in after life. Men who travel or reside abroad for many years, often, perhaps always, feel strong inclinations to return to their birth-places. Many such return; while multitudes never change their homes, because they are bound there by such interesting connections.

How strange it seems, at first thought, that so few ever should admit that they have any pleasing associations with their school-houses! Yet how true it is; and plainly it is proved by the reluctance shown by parents to visit the schools! If we had associations of decided pleasure connected with the schoolhouse, should we not regard it with lively interest, while the resort of our children?

A lady of this State not long since remarked in conversation, that she could not pretend to have a single agreeable recollection connected with her school-house; and a gentleman, while urgently arguing in favor of an immediate and general improvement in seats and desks of the Connecticut common schools, declared that he never thought of that which he atIn reply to the objection, that it would be useless to educate tended in his boyhood, without a lively remembrance of the teachers, because the compensation is too small to insure young prolonged weariness and pains he suffered, during his confinemen of talent to enter into the profession, the Review says:ment there, on high benches without backs.

seminaries for teachers may be established, and all our schools, tion. To adapt the requisitions of school laws to the convenfurnished by them, we may partly console ourselves with the ience of those who are affected by them, is generally doing an reflection, that a system has been in operation for some years, important service to education. Another great benefit may in which some of the most important ends of such seminaries also be secured by taking advantage of the peculiar facilities have been in some degree obtained; and, that, we may hope for the improvement of schools by a large and compact poputo select out of the thousands of Sabbath school teachers, some lation. hundreds at least, of male and female instructors for our common schools, who are prepared to favor improvements in edu

cation.

Some of the evils which commonly belong to the district system in this state, do not necessarily spring from the provisions of the laws, and yet are generally found to exist. Such features may be traced to long practised habits, or to opinions

HOW TEACHERS MAY BE INSTRUCTED BY FRIENDS OF which prevail in the minds of the public. Other evils, which

EDUCATION.

Two or three years ago it was mentioned in an European journal, that a Swiss clergyman living in a small town in one of the cantons, had offered to give gratuitous instruction to as many teachers as might choose to attend, during the month in which there was a vacation in the schools; and that many availed themselves of his offer, with evident advantage.

This gentleman, having the good of the public at heart, and through an acquaintance with the condition of the schools, their teachers, and the state of society, had useful suggestions to make, not merely of a general and theoretical character, but also such as were particularly applicable to existing circumstances. He made no pretensions to any great or extraordinary science; and probably had not time to prepare even a single written lecture; but he knew how the people might manage to instruct and govern their pupils better than they did, and he simply told them the way. He knew that the arrangements of the seats and desks in their schools might be improved; and, to make them understand his reasons, he could take the opportunity to give them a few important facts concerning the human frame and constitution. * A little reflection will convince the reader, that in the course of a month, the philanthropic man spoken of, might have communicated a large amount of useful instruction, and at its close must have had the minds of the teachers in an improved state, and prepared for future improvements. He might also have arranged for regular meetings of teachers, founded libraries, and sat on foot many useful plans.

And how simple, cheap and efficient is such a plan! It is natural to enquire, after hearing of it: Had he not many imitators? Are not all the teachers in Switzerland favored with similar instruction? The next question natural to us, is: Why may we not have many imitators in our own country-especially in Connecticut? Between the time of engaging teachers for the schools in a given town or neighborhood, and the period when they are to commence their labors, how favorable an opportunity is sometimes offered, for any clergyman, or other friend of education, to invite them to assemble when and where their mutual convenience will permit, to hear a few familiar remarks on the importance of the station they are to occupy, and the means by which its duties may best be performed!

One may be inclined to say, I am not adequately prepared for the instruction of teachers; I have indeed been engaged in the instruction of men in law, in religion, or, as an editor, in the various branches touched by the press; but I have not so much as seen a teachers' seminary, and know not how such institutions are conducted. This objection is not to be regardjed. Many a man in our country, many a man in every county n this state, is sufficiently well informed about school keeping, to talk a few hours, and even many, to the teachers of common schools, for their benefit, and the good of their pupils.

Let one man in each county or township propose one meeting, and if he please, engage some friend to assist him, and in many instances, we will almost promise, all present will urge another and another meeting. The perusal of any of the books from which our extracts are given in this paper, will suggest abundance of topics for lectures.

SOME MODIFICATIONS OF OUR DISTRICT SYSTEM NEEDED.

we need not distinguish from the rest, seem to be the natural both kinds indiscriminately. product of the system itself. We may here notice a few of

One of the evils commonly is, that there is little or no concert of action beyond the limits of the districts. Those who have the appointment and supervision of teachers, should be in the way of extending their knowledge, and improving their views of instruction, as well as the teachers themselves. This cannot be done fast enongh, unless they occasionally associate in considerable numbers, and have opportunities to learn the opinions and practices of each other. It is highly useful, also, to have the schools which we superintend, inspected by friends who have other schools under their direction. They will commend what they approve, and suggest what we perhaps might not have thought of in years.

If we compare a school house which is liable to frequent inspection, with one which is known to be never visited, in what a different state do we commonly find the desks and benches, the floors and walls, the yard and the children! The teacher is incited to greater exertion. So is the Committee which superintends a district. If the members feel that they have no negligence, they too often seem to strive to do as little as the overseer to approve of their faithfulness, or to discover their laws require, and sometimes fall below its standard. But in places where they are associated with many more, and where an active system is in existence, they strive to do the most they can, and learn how to do many things which they would never have attempted alone.

By a close adherence to the district system in large towns, we fail to secure the advantages of well classified schools. Common education should not only be made universal: it should be elevated as high as possible. But it is the nature of the district system, when rigidly adhered to, to keep it limited. No single district perhaps, has the authority and the means necessary for the establishment and support of a high school; and the limited concert of action before spoken of, prevents an union of strength and resources. The low views of the grade of education desirable, at the same time, probably prevents the idea of a higher school from entering the minds of the officers and the public.

Now there are strong reasons to be urged, in favor of reducing the number of schools for children of the middle age, in some places, and establishing new ones for those below and above it. Many of those reasons apply more strongly to large towns than to any other parts of the state. The need is greater, and the facilities are superior. The influence of such improvements would also be more active and powerful elsewhere, if commenced in the large towns.

The deviations from the district system which we would first recommend, would therefore be the following: 1st. The combination of all the school officers of every large town, under one systematic and active plan of operations.

2d. The classification of schools under their direction, on broad principles, adapted to the general convenience and bene. fit of the inhabitants.

In organizing the system of supervision, the principal features of the public school society of the city of New York would probably be found best adapted to the objects in view. How changed for the better would the schools of Hartford or New Haven appear, or those of Middletown, New London, Norwich, Litchfield, or any other of the principal towns, if they were under the charge of an active and united society, The district system, as many of our readers probably well consisting of the leading friends of common education around know, is liable to some great objections in certain cases, par- them; and if they were distributed, remcdelled, and put on ticularly when strictly adhered to in large towns. It is not footing corresponding with the wants of the people and the in improbable that many persons best acquainted with its opera-terests of the public! Primary schools on excellent plans ye tion under such circumstances, may, before this, have looked unknown in Connecticut, would be multiplied;-secondar upon it as requiring modifications, or even a thorough altera-schools, less numerous than the present district schools, woul

be opened for children of the middle age;-and one higher school would finish the education of the most promising youth of both sexes, and prepare and improve the teachers for all. How soon would a more extensive correspondence and cooperation then be established among the friends of education in the state! To confer with others, to visit each others' schools, to seek farther improvements, would soon become the pleasing and honorable occupation of many hours, with many of our most intelligent and virtuous citizens.

EDUCATION OF TEACHERS,

The leading article of the last number of the North American Review, is devoted to common school education, Its authorship we have seen attributed to R. Rantoul, Esq., member of the Massachusetts Board of Education. It closes with some considerations on the necessity of providing Normal schools, or Teachers' seminaries, for the better education of teachers, male and female, for our common schools, and quotes with cordial approbation, the following remarks of Dr. Channing:

"We need an institution for the formation of better teachers; and, until this step is taken, we can make no important progress. The most crying want in this Commonwealth is the want of accomplished teachers. We boast of our schools, but our schools do comparatively little, for want of educated instructers. Without good teaching, a school is but a name. An institution for training men to train the young would be a fountain of living waters, sending forth streams to refresh present and future ages. As yet, our legislators have denied to the pror and laboring classes this principal means of their elevation. We trust they will not always prove blind to the highest interest of the State.

We

"We want better teachers, and more teachers, for all classes of society, for rich and poor, for children and adults. want that the resources of the community should be directed to the procuring of better instructers, as its highest concern. One of the surest signs of the regeneration of society will be, the elevation of the art of teaching to the highest rank in the community. When a people shall learn that its greatest benefactors, and most important members, are men devoted to the liberal instruction of all its classes, to the work of raising to life its buried intellect, it will have opened to itself the path of true glory. This truth is making its way. Socrates is now regarded as the greatest man in the age of great men. The name of king has grown dim before that of apostle. To teach, whether by word or action, is the highest function on earth." There is also an extract from a Report of the Committee on Education to the Legislature of Massachusetts, in 1837, recommending an appropriation of ten thousand dollars for the establishment of a Teachers' seminary. The language of this extract would become our own State.

"That the highest interest in Massachusetts is, and will always continue to be, the just and equal instruction of all her citizens, so far as the circumstances of each individual will permit it to be imparted; that her chief glory for two hundred years, has been the extent in which this instruction was diffused, the result of provident legislation, to promote the common cause, and secure the perpetuity of the common interest; that, for many years, a well grounded apprehension has been entertained, of the neglect of our common schools by large portions of our community, and of the comparative degradation to which these institutions might fall from such neglect; that the friends of universal education have long looked to the legislature for the establishment of one or more seminaries devoted to the purpose of supplying qualified teachers for the town and district schools, by whose action alone other judicious provisions of law could be carried into full effect; *** that, although much has been done within two or three years, for encouragement of our town schools by positive enactment, and more by the liberal spirit newly awakened in our several communities, yet the number of competent teachers is found, by universal experience, so far inadequate to supply the demand for them, as to be the principle obstacle to improvement, and the greatest deficiency of our republic."

"1. Educate teachers, and the compensation will be increased. If you furnish better teachers for the public schools, private schools will be discontinued, and leave at liberty a fund for public teachers. *****

"2. If female teachers can be educated in the most perfect manner, they would be employed with great advantage in many of the schools now kept by men. *****

"3. The calculation does not stop here. It is true economy to buy an article that is worth your money, and many have been ruined by buying cheap pennyworths in education, no less than in trade. A good master will teach and benefit a school more in two months, than a master poorly qualified, in a year. It will be found much cheaper to employ the best teachers. A boy kept till he is eighteen in an ordinary district school, and then sent for three years to a common country academy, is not so well fitted for active life at twenty-one, as every boy might be at sixteen, in such a school as ought to be kept in every district in the Commonwealth, and well might be, if we had our essential Normal schools in full operation. Whoever, therefore, will be still content to give his son no better education than we have mentioned, may have it at less than the present cost, by employing the best teachers, and his son produce an of minority. But he who gives his children a comparatively income, instead of requiring an expense, for the last five years superior education in the present state of things, would not rest satisfied till he had educated them in the same degree above the improved standard. And, in so doing, he would not depart from the strictest economy; for an enlightened community produces and accumulates wealth faster, in a vastly greater ratio, than the proportionate additional cost of their education. A million of dollars a year, judiciously applied to the improvement of young heads and hearts, for the next thirty years, would not merely be refunded, but the state would be much more than thirty millions richer in visible property, at the end of the period."

"The Normal school must begin with females, because there is more unappropriated female talent than can brought into action; because females can be educated cheaper, and, in the first instance, quicker, and better, and will teach cheaper after they are qualified; because the primary schools, which properly belong to females, are in the worst condition, and need most to be reformed, and because, by reforming these, we thereby improve all the higher schools. By raising up the foundation we necessarily elevate the superstructure. An improvement in the rudiments of education, among children of from four to ten years of age, would be felt through all the schools, as these young scholars passed into higher classes. The public would perceive the benefit, and enter with alacrity into the measures necessary to carry out a thorough reformation."

We should hail the establishment of such a seminary in the state of Connecticut as the dawning of a new era in common school education.

EARLY ASSOCIATIONS.

The pleasing recollections connected with the homes of our childhood, often influence our conduct as well as our feelings, in after life. Men who travel or reside abroad for many years, often, perhaps always, feel strong inclinations to return to their birth-places. Many such return; while multitudes never change their homes, because they are bound there by such interesting connections.

How strange it seems, at first thought, that so few ever should admit that they have any pleasing associations with their school-houses! Yet how true it is; and plainly it is proved by the reluctance shown by parents to visit the schools! If we had associations of decided pleasure connected with the schoolhouse, should we not regard it with lively interest, while the resort of our children?

A lady of this State not long since remarked in conversation, that she could not pretend to have a single agrceable recollection connected with her school-house; and a gentleman, while urgently arguing in favor of an immediate and general improvement in seats and desks of the Connecticut common schools, declared that he never thought of that which he atIn reply to the objection, that it would be useless to educate tended in his boyhood, without a lively remembrance of the teachers, because the compensation is too small to insure young prolonged weariness and pains he suffered, during his confinemen of talent to enter into the profession, the Review says:ment there, on high benches without backs.

Make the schools comfortable and pleasant, and we shall soon have a generation grown up, with prejudices not against them, but in their favor.

Several of the distinguished South Americans are friends of religious reformation; and, among the Protestant principles which they have in their hearts adopted, is that the Bible ought to be freely distributed, and familiarly read in school. Santander and Mosquera are Vice-Presidents of the American Bible Society; and Rocafuerte, the President of Equador, was imprisoned in Mexico, a few years since, for his bold and pub

IMPROVEMENTS IN EDUCATION IN SOUTH AMERICA.
The year 1810 may be regarded as the commencement of
the Revolutionary war in most parts of Spanish South Amer-lic expression of Protestant principles.
ica; and from that period the history of improvements in edu-
cation may be dated. All the States or nations which about
that time began to claim an independent existence, aimed at in-
tellectual as well as political improvement; and, indeed, to a
greater or less degree, there was a tendency showed to religious
liberty. However, they all have been content, for the present,
with some encroachments on the government of the priest
hood, though they have established their political independence.
They have also made exertions for general and extensive sys-
tems of education, honorable to the character of some of their

statesmen.

In most instances, however, the plans adopted have proved inappropriate to the state of things; and although great things have been talked of, there has been a want of spirit, and but little has been accomplished. New Grenada, however, has the honor of persevering in this great enterprize, with a spirit and success far superior to the others; and the results are highly creditable and gratifying. Happily the most patriotic and influential statesmen of New Grenada, have been decided friends of education, excepting that period when Bolivar, after his return from Peru, exercised an influence of a contrary character. The scattered population, with their hereditary ignorance and debasement, throw obstacles in the way of multiplying and improving schools, which would have disheartened men less intelligent and devoted than Presidents Santander and Mosquera, and their chief coadjutors in their noble enterprize. In our country, and especially in our own State, we have had no experience in many of the difficulties which they had to encounter; and yet, by exerting all their strength, and using means appropriate, they have accomplished much, and are continually doing more.

New Grenada, young as the Republic is, and extensive as is her territory, has been for some years under an uniform and organized system of education. Each department has an university, each province a college, and subordinate to these are high schools in greater numbers, and common schools which now educate a great part of the children. All these institutions have their appropriate officers, who are required to make regular reports through designated channels to the Governors, who transmit them to the Minister of Instruction. His orders, with the measures adopted by the general Congress, are communicated through the same channels. The annual reports, which are published, show that the branches are all in active operation. Many of the common schools are conducted on the simultaneous and mutual system of instruction. At Bogota, the capital, is a female college, established by the gov ernment, with a lady for President. Within a few years, the old Spanish plan of education in the colleges and universities has been almost entirely superseded.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON EDUCATION. We give below short extracts from several books, pamphlets, and periodicals, on different branches of education, and chiefly relating to schools, that we may in this brief manner acquaint our readers with the titles, authors, and some of the opinions of the publications, which we consider worthy of their attention. In future we may pursue this plan still farther. IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED IN OUR COMMON SCHOOLS. (From Mrs. Sigourney's "Letters to Mothers," 240 pages 12 mo. 1838.-Page 135.)

We propose to notice hereafter, a few leading facts connected with the establishment and sustaining of common schools in ation. The education of their teachers is often exceedingly "Our primary district schools stand most in need of reformthat quarter of our continent, with the hope that the examples defective. In every age, even among the heathen,' said Luof the distinguished men by whom they have been fostered, ther, the necessity has been felt of having good tutors and may stimulate many of our readers with their generous spirit, schoolmasters, in order to make any thing respectable of a naand unconquerable perseverance. For the present, however, we will only add, that the gentlemen above mentioned, as well tion. But surely we are not to sit still and wait until they as several of their most enlightened countrymen, and others grow up of themselves. We can neither chop them out of God will work no miraof a kindred character, from different parts of South America wood, nor hew them out of stone. and Mexico, resided some time in New York, where opportucles to furnish that which we have means to provide. We nity was found to become acquainted with their views and must therefore apply our care and money to make them.' abilities; and a correspondence with some of them since their "The establishment of Normal schools would be a blessing return, enables us to speak with confidence and some famil- to our country. Well chosen libraries, connected with the iarity, of recent as well as former events in those extensive re- It is obvious that the character of our schools should keep schools in our remote villages, are a desirable appendage. *** gions. One of the most interesting men alluded to above, is Gene- pace with the spirit of our very advancing age. This must be ral Herran. He joined the Patriot army at the age of four-done, by demanding of teachers high degrees of intellectual atteen, but was soon made prisoner by the Spaniards, in whose tainment, of moral principle; and of that deep religious feelhands he underwent severe privations. From his release tilling, which shunning sectarian barriers, incorporates itself with the end of the war, he was constantly engaged in active ser- every imparted rudiment of knowledge. When they are thus vice in Colombia and Peru. After its close he spent several elevated, let them be held in honor. Let the statesman conyears in Europe, where, meeting with Mosquera, and being sider them as his coadjutors. Let jurisprudence view them as persuaded by his eloquent appeals as well as his example, he having power to check crime in its earliest germinations, and determined to devote himself to the improvement of public to diminish the population of our prisons, more than all the education at home; and employed the remainder of his time terrors of the penal code. Let the guardians of virtue and piein Europe and this country, in inquiries and observations con- them with marked respect, and foster in their children the noty, take them into hallowed brotherhood. Let parents uphold cerning books, laws, and methods of instruction. General Herran's observations while in New York, made ble sentiment of Alexarder: "I am indebted to my father for him a decided friend of Sabbath school and Temperance So-living, but to my teacher for living well!' cieties; and after his return to Bogota, the capital of New Grenada, he assiduously devoted himself to the establishment of similar associations among his fellow-citizens. In this he has met with considerable success.

With great judgment, and in a manner highly creditable to themselves, the Congress, at their last session, appointed Geaeral Herran Minister of the Interior and of Instruction. This office places all the school system in the whole of that extensive Republic, at his direction; and he will doubtless introduce improvements as fast and as far as the state of things will permit.

tion for many years, should receive marks of distinction from "Those who have faithfully labored in the work of educathe community."

ANNALS OF EDUCATION.-Seats and Writing Desks. We have received the October number of this valuable Journal, which our school societies should take as a part of the "Teacher's Lessons," or the teachers themselves should unite and take it together.

In an article on Luther's Writing Desk," the writer, who speaks with the experience of twenty years as a teacher in

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