exercised also, in the rearing of esculent vegetables, ard in the pruning and grafting of trees. performance. The Imperial Government exhausted itself in efforts to regenerate the higher instruction, called secondary; but did nothing 10. They are accustomed to the drawing out of the simpler legal for that of the people. The restored Dynasty, up to 1828, expended forms and civil deeds. no more than 50,000 francs annually upon primary instruction. The A library for the use of the pupils is fitted up within the premises; Ministry of 1828 obtained from the Chamber a grant of 300,000 francs. and a sum is set apart every year for the purchase of such works as Since the Revolution of July 1830, a million has been voted annuallythe Council of Public Instruction may judge likely to be useful to the that is, more in two years than the restoration in fifteen. Those are young school-masters. The course of study is, for the present, limited the means, and here are the results. All of you are aware that primato two years, instead of three, which is the term ultimately contempla-ry instruction depends altogether on the corresponding Normal schools. ted as the most desirable. During the second of those years, instruc- The prosperity of these establishments is the measure of its progress. tion in the principles of the art of teaching is kept constantly in view; The Imperial Government, which first pronounced with effect the and for the last six months, in particular, the pupils are trained to the words, Normal schools, left us a legacy of one. The Restoration practical application of the most approved methods, by being employ-added five or six. Those, of which some were in their infancy, we ed as assistants in the different classes of the children's schools, which have greatly improved within the last two years, and have, at the same are invariably annexed to the Normal, and form part and parcel of the time, established thirty new ones; twenty of which are in full opera. establishment. The immediate control and management of the whole tion, forming in each department a vast focus of light, scattering its is committed to a director, who is appointed by the Minister of Public rays in all directions among the people. Instruction, upon the presentation of the Prefect of the Department and the Rector of the Academy. The director, besides general superintendence, is charged with some important branch of the instruction; the rest is devolved on his adjuncts, or assistant masters, who reside in the establishment. HOLLAND. PRIMARY NORMAL SCHOOL AT HAARLEM. The following interesting and important account of the Primary One of the most important features of the Normal system, is the part Education in Holland, from the pen of M. Victor Cousin, is the transperformed by the Commissions d'examen, or Commissioners of prima-lation of part of an article which appeared some short time ago in a ry instruction, whose office it is to conduct the examination of all the French periodical. pupils of the Normal schools, as they are called. They are composed "The Primary Normal School of Haarlem, in the centre of Holland, of seven members appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction, is an establishment of the Dutch government. From the circumstance upon the recommendation of the rector of the academy. Three mem- of having been founded so long ago as 1816, it has had sufficient time bers at least must be selected from among those who have already ex- to become settled, to develope itself, and to show how much it is capaercised, or are at the time exercising the function of public teachers, Lle of effecting. The reputation of its director, whom M. Cuvier has and who are most likely to unite ability and integrity. It is recom- already distinguished as an excellent master, and as an author of valumended that one of the seven be a clergyman. To act," says the able educational works, is very great; indeed he is held up as the Minister, in a circular addressed to each of the twenty-six Rectors, model of what a school-master ought to be. As an additional advan"to act in concert with the three members belonging to the body of tage, this Primary Normal'school has been organized under the eyes of Public Instruction in these Commissions d' examen, a minister of reli- M. Van den Ende, general inspector of primary instruction, the indigion will doubtless be summoned. The law has put moral and reli-vidual who, with the celebrated Orientalist, M. Van der Palme, was gious instruction in the foremost rank; the teacher, therefore, must mainly instrumental in arranging the law of 1806, and attended to its give proof of his being able to communicate to the children entrusted to execution; he is considered in Holland as one of the fathers of the edhis care, those important ideas which are to be the rule of their lives.ucation of the people. An interesting conversation took place between Doubtless every functionary of public instruction, every ther of a M. Cousin and M. Van den Ende, of which the following is a brief family who shall be placed on this commission by your recommenda- account:" tion, as rector of the academy, will be fully able to appreciate the moral "For fear of too much fatiguing M. Van den Ende, (who is aged and religious attainments of the candidates; but it is, nevertheless, fit and in delicate health,) I determined upon consulting his experience and proper, that the future teachers of youth should exhibit proof of upon a limited number of questions, among which I placed in the first their capacity in this respect, before persons whom their peculiar char-rank religious instruction in the primary schools. Upon this, as upon acter and special mission more particularly qualify to be judges in this all others, I found him greatly attached to the practice in Holland; matter." and he said, 'Yes, the primary schools ought to be in an extended sense Christian, but neither Protestant nor Catholic. They ought to belong to no particular sect, nor to teach any creed, in order that even the Jews, without prejudice to their faith, may attend them. A school for the people should be for the entire people. I do not approve of the master of the school giving any doctrinal instruction; it is the business of the clergy to impart instruction of this description out of school. I permit the master, in certain cases only, to have the catechism repeated; and even this not without inconvenience. You are in Holland, where the spirit of Christianity is widely spread, and still where great tolerance has existed for ages among the different sects.' He appeared to me to fear the intervention of the priest or clergyman in the inspection of the school; a matter to which they attach so great importance in Germany, and upon which I have myself so much insisted." "We then proceeded to converse with regard to the inspection of schools, and the mode of effecting it. As for that matter, said he, persons who undertake it as a profession are necessary. He regretted much that our law of 1833 had not instituted special inspectors, nominated by the government, as in Holland and Germany, and as I pointed out in my report upon Primary Instruction in Prussia; and it was with great pleasure that he learned from me, that we had since supplied this deficiency, and that we now have an inspector of primary education in each department. But,' said he, 'your mutual instruction! what are you doing on this head? Do you hope, with such a mode of teaching, to be able to form men? For this is the true object of education. The different descriptions of knowledge imparted at school are but means, the value of which must be estimated by a reference to this end. If you would really attain it, mutual instruction must be given up; this may indeed impart a certain quantity of instruction, but never effect education; and let me repeat it again, sir, education is the object of instruction.' The most important of all the duties devolved upon these examining commissions, is that of conferring on the pupil, when he quits the institution, a brevet de capacité. Carelessness, partiality, or ignorance, in the discharge of it, would entirely defeat the main object of the law on Primary Instruction. This brevet, certifying the bolder's fitness to be a teacher, either in the lower or higher grade of primary schools, constitutes his passport to the labors and honors of his profession. With it and his certificate of good conduct in his pocket, he may carry his skill and industry to any market he pleases, without further let or impediment. One hundred and fifty-six of these Examining Commissions, which is not far short of two for each Department, have been in activity during part of the last and present year, (in 1833 and 34.) In that space of time they have issued 1891 brevets de capacité, 1655 for the lower degree, and 236 for the higher; and every one of both kinds characterised by the examiners as either tres bien, or bien, or asser bien; and upon these brevets appointments have taken place, within the same period, of 1074 masters to primary schools of the elementary class, and five to those of the superior. We have little doubt that when the Normal system is matured, and its organization complete, the principle of emulation among pupils subjected to its wholesome and invigorating course of discipline, will act so strongly, that the number of applicants for the inferior degree will be diminished, or that the qualification required for it, which, of necessity, is kept low at the outset, will be raised. M. Guizot, in concluding his able speech, thus expresses himself: In framing this bill, it is experience, and experience alone, that we have taken for our guide. The principles and practices recommended have been supplied to us by facts. There is not one part of the mechanism which has not been worked successively. We conceive that, on the subject of the education of the people, our business is rather to methodise and improve what exists, than to destroy for the purpose of inventing and renewing upon the faith of dangerous theories. It is by laboring incessantly on these maxims, that the Administration has been enabled to communicate a firm and steady movement to this important branch of the public service; so much so, that we take leave to say, that more has been done for primary education during the last two years, (1831, 1832,) and by the Government of July, than during the forty years preceding, by all the former Governments. The first Revolution was lavish of promises, without troubling itself about the Nothing is more evident,' I replied; and, for my part, looking upon the subject as a philosopher and moralist, I regard simultaneous instruction, when private instruction cannot be had, as the only method which is suited to the education of a moral being; but I am still constrained to avow, that mutual instruction has still, in France, a popularity which is much to be deplored.' 666 "Whence comes this;" said he, 'in a nation as intelligent as is yours?' From a fatal circumstance, of which the consequences are still affecting us. Under the Restoration, the government endeavored to place primary instruction hack into the hands of the clergy. The Op position went to the contrary extreme. Some individuals, well-inten- "2. Discipline.-This is what I was most anxious to study, more tioned, but superficial, and entirely unacquainted with the subject, hav- especially in a Normal School in which the pupils lodged out of the ing been by chance in England, in the half-barbarous manufacturing establishment. I had seen very fair schools of this description in Prustowns of that country, where, for want of better schools, they are but sia; but the best Primary Normal Schools, the admirable establishtoo fortunate to have the Lancasterian, mistook for a chef-d'arre that ments of Potzdam and Brühl, are boarding schools. In Prussia it is which was but the infancy of the art, and allowed themselves to be generally considered that a boarding school is the most favorable for the dazzled by the sight of innumerable classes directed by a single master, education of young masters; that the director can, under such circumassisted by little monitors taken from among the scholars. Some per- stances, exercise a greater influence, because it is more constant; and sons perceived a great economy in this mode of instruction; and then that in having one or two schools of different degrees attached to the the eye was pleased by the order and mechanism of the exercises. It Normal School, the scholars can be exercised, as well as in the schools was this instruction, completely material, that they opposed to the ec- of the town away from the establishment. They also lay great stress clesiastical schools of the Restoration. Unfortunately, mutual instruc- upon the rude discipline of the school as a preparation for the severe tion has survived the struggles which preceded 1830. Simultaneous in- life of a school-master. The ideas which M. Prinsen communicated struction, however, is making a progress step by step, and honest and to me upon the subject of out-boarders, are as follows: disinterested persons are commencing to be alive to it. In Germany "In the first place, the scholars enter the school voluntarily for the mutual instruction is held in little estimation; and I did not find in the sake of perfecting themselves in a profession which they purpose to whole extent of Prussia a single master who approved of it. Nor have follow, and which, consequently, is the great business of their lives. I seen a school for mutual instruction either at La Haye, or at Leyden.' They are themselves inclined to order, and have not need of the disci'You will not,' he replied, find a single such school in the whole of pline of a boarding school. Every pupil is, to use the expression, unHolland. And it is not that we are ignorant of what mutual instruc-der the discipline of the moral dispositions which he has brought with tion is; we have studied it, and it is because we have done so that we him to the school; those who have not these dispositions, or do not reject it. La Société du Bien Public, which you, without doubt, are manifest their existence during the first three months, are sent away. acquainted with through the report of M. Cuvier, proposed as a ques. Those who pass the period of probation know perfectly well that the tion the advantages and disadvantages of mutual and simultaneous in- least fault will be severely visited, that they depend entirely upon struction. The work which gained the prize examines with the great- the director, and that their dismissal would be caused by the slightest est minuteness the method of mutual instruction, and convicts it of in- disapprobation expressed by him. sufficiency upon all points where there is a question of education. The author of this work is M. l'Inspecteur Visser.'" Quiting M. Van den Ende, M. Cousin then visited M. Prinsen, the director of the Normal School. "I explained to him my object. I desire,' I said, in the first instance, to learn the constitution of the Primary Normal School of Haarlem, both its character and principles. I shall then beg of you to let me see it in action; allowing me in your company, to inspect it myself, first of all the rules, then the results. Can you communicate to me the rules of your school? There are no rules,' replied M. Prinsen. "The Primary Normal School of Haarlem is one in which the scholars are not boarded. Each pupil has a salary from the Crown, with which he provides for himself in town. No individual can be admitted who is not at the least fifteen years of age. Pupils come from all parts of the kingdom; they are admitted upon the reports of the inspectors, and nominated directly by the ministry. There are three months for trial, during which the director makes himself ac-out-boarding Primary Normal Schools in Prussia; and it may be quainted with the pupils, tests and judges of their capacity. After the lapse of the period of probation he makes a report to the minister, and upon this report the pupils are definitely admitted, when the real Normal School course commences. There are altogether forty pupils. The duration of the whole course is four years; it regards not theory only, but practice also; and as they there prepare the pupils to obtain the highest class in the examination of fitness (which answers to our highest degree of primary instruction,) and since in Holland this cannot be obtained before the age of twenty-five, it has been conceived that to M. Cousin, spoke to the same effect with regard to his own establishfour years were not too much for the purpose of following the whole course of studies and exercises necessary for the formation of an accomplished school-master. The greater part of the scholars remain four years at the Normal School; but they are not under the obligation to remain the whole of that time, for, although all prepare for the highest class, but very few pretend to it. The inferior schools are the great concern of the state; and it is for them that the Normal School labors, although it gives a higher education. "1. Studies.-Among the various objects of study there are three, viz., the Art of Instructing, History and Physics, which, being considered as more difficult than other subjects, are taught at two different times during the period of the Normal course. The others, such as Natural History, Geography, Calligraphy, Drawing, Singing and the Mathematics, are only taught once, and in succession. "M. Prinsen undertakes with a single assistant the most important lectures of the Normal School. These lectures take place for the most part of an evening; but it is not at that time when the true Normal instruction is effected. During the whole day the scholars are employed as assistants, and even as temporary directors in the various schools of the town, according to the degree of capacity at which they have arrived. "There are two thousand three hundred children in the Primary Schools of Haarlem, and they form permanent means of exercising the scholars of the Normal School. These two thousand three hundred children are distributed in a sufficient number of schools to enable the scholars of the Primary Normal.School to be exercised each in his turn. This number of schools is here necessary; elsewhere it is an advantage. The schools,' said M. Prinsen, and I was delighted to hear him say so, ought not to have too many scholars; for, when such is the case, the master cannot exercise such a direct influence over them as will enable them to receive a lively impression, and retain a clear recollection of what they have learned at school. Again, when each school has too many scholars, there are too few schools; and then the assistants, from the circumstance of being obliged to wait too long before becoming masters, are in their turn discouraged, fall into the routine, or abandon their profession." They are forbidden to frequent any place of public resort. If they are seen in a public house, they are subjected to a severe reprimand, and for the second offence dismissed. They cannot absent themselves from the town for a single night without the permission of the director. They do not choose their own lodging, the director does this for them. He even pays for their board. The families who receive these scholars as boarders, are themselves interested in entering into the views of the director. It is an honor and a profit for a family of small fortune to be made choice of for receiving the pupils of the Normal School; on the slightest suspicion the scholars are taken away. The scholars are not considered in the house which they inhabit as strangers; but as members of the family, submitting to all its rules and customs. It is the business of the family always to know where their boarders are at every hour of the day. The director visits these houses every fifteen days at the least. He is in communication with the police, who never fail to give him full information of all that falls within their observation.' "It may be perceived that this is precisely the mode of directing the seen with what difficulty the simple discipline of the boarding schools is supplied, how many precautions are necessary, the failure of one of which renders the whole machinery powerless. In speaking of the working of his own school, M. Prinsen said, 'Yes, with a safe conscience I declare, that in this school every thing goes on generally well; and that the examples of disorder are so rare, that they cannot be considered as resulting from the system." M. Schreuder, who is at the head of the Normal school of Sierre, and who acted as interpreter ment. "But," says M. Cousin, "with such directors as M. Prinsen and him, no system is bad. It is necessary also to take into account the tranquil dispositions of the young Dutch, and the Flemish character, which does not stand in need of a severe discipline. Both these gentlemen agreed, that the system of out-boarders only suited a small town; and M. Prinsen required a town or village of about two thousand inhabitants, which should have about three hundred children to send to school for the purpose of affording means of exercise to the Normal School; and both agreed that such a school should have but a moderate number of scholars. I must not here omit to mention one of the best reasons which was given by these two intelligent individuals in support of a school of out-boarders. You say,' said they to me, that the boarding school with its severe discipline, is a better preparation for the life of a school master. On the contrary, we are convinced that a young man who has passed several years in a Normal School of boarders is extremely embarrassed when he leaves it, and becomes sole director of his own actions; whereas, in our system, a young man learns to conduct himself, to deal with mankind, and the life which he leads is an apprenticeship for the life which he is about to enter upon.' This reason has weight, and I concede that examples are not wanting of young men who, after having been saints in the boarding school, when they have once quitted it, knowing no longer how to conduct themselves, commit follies, or at any rate are incapable of moulding themselves to any other description of life than that of their convent. But I do not conceive myself called upon to decide between the two systems: each is good, regard being had to the country, the age, and, above all, to the individual whose business it is to put it into action; for I shall never cease to repeat, As is the master, so is the school. But the director of a Normal School of out-boarders ought to be a person of extraordinary merit, or there is an end of the establishment. The expense of the Primary Normal School at Haarlem costs the country 10,000 florins per annum-or about 8101.-for forty scholars; in this sum every expense is included,-the repair of the buildings, the furniture, and the salary of M. Prinsen, which is 1600 florins, or a little more than 1341. per annum. The director has, in addition, an excel the west, south, north-east, and north-west of the island shall have the means of obtaining good masters, and you will yearly qualify 500 persons fitted for diffusing a perfect system of instruction all over the country. These Training Seminaries would not only teach the masters the branches of learning and science they are now deficient in, but would teach them what they knew far less-the didactic art-the mode of imparting knowledge which they have, or may acquire-the best method of training and dealing with children, in all that regards both temper, capacity, and habits, and the means of stirring them to exertion, and controlling their aberrations. lent lodging at the Normal School. Such is the constitution of the outboarding Primary Normal School at Haarlem. We must now make known the results, and conduct the reader in the same manner as I myself was conducted by M. Prinsen and Schreuder through the schools of the town where the young masters are exercised. I saw there young men employed in the different duties of primary instruction. They were exercised under the direction of the masters of each school, who, most of them, are old scholars of the Normal school of M. Prinsen. We went through the different degrees of primary instruction. In the first instance a poor school, that is to say, an elementary gratuitous school; then two Tusschen-schulen, the same as our ele- I had lately an opportunity of observing what is now doing in almentary schools, supported by the payment of the scholars; and then most every part of France, for the truly paramount object of making at the last the schools called French, that is to say, private schools, education good as well as general. Normal Schools, as they are called, which answers nearly to our Ecoles primaires supérieures, the Bur-places of instruction for teachers,-are every where establishing by ger-schulen of Germany. I was much pleased at the activity and in- the government. This happy idea originated with my old and venertelligence of these young masters; but what most struck me was the able friend, Emanuel Fellenberg, -a name not more known than honauthority of M. Prinsen. As director of the Primary Normal School, ored, nor more honored than his virtuous and enlightened efforts in the he commands these young men,-as inspector of the district of Haarlem, cause of education and for the happiness of mankind deserve. Five he commands the masters themselves, and all these schools, scholars, and-twenty years ago he opened a school for the instruction of all the and masters, of all degrees and all conditions, are under him, as an teachers in the Canton of Berne, of which he is a patrician. He rearmy under its general; all obey his voice, all are inspired by his ceived them, for the vacation months, under his hospitable roof, and spirit and character. The method for teaching to read, of which he is gave them access to the lessons of the numerous learned and scientific the author, is ingenious (but I could not well enter upon it here,) and is professors who adorn this noble establishment at Hoffwyl. I blush that which is universally made use of: the nine graduated tables which for the infirmity, the imbecility of the order he and I belong to, when I are made use of for carrying it into effect, are hung up in the school; add, that the jealousy of the Bernese aristocracy prevented him from and, absent or present, M. Prinsen is always there. continuing this course of pure, patriotic, and wise exertion. But the fruits of his experiment, eminently successful as it proved, have not been lost. In other parts of the Continent Normal Schools have been established; they form part of the Prussian system; they have been established in other parts of Germany; and I have seen and examined them in all the provinces of France which I visited last winter. I have seen twenty in one, thirty or forty in another, and as many as a hundred-and-twenty in a third Normal School,-all teachers of youth by profession, and all learning their invaluable and difficult art. In fact, the improvement of the quality of education has everywhere, except in England, gone hand-in-hand with the exertions made for spreading it and augmenting its amount, and has never been overlooked, as often as any Government has wished to discharge one of its most important and imperative duties,—that of instructing the people. "I had seen in Holland primary schools of all sorts, with the exception of village schools. M. Prinsen proposed showing us some during a walk which we made in the neighborhood. Both going and returning we visited several schools, and I must here avow that I was more surprised by them than by the town schools. I believe, indeed, that M. Prinsen had not chosen the worst to show to us; but whether chosen on purpose, or offered by chance in the course of the walk, it is certain that neither in Prussia nor Saxony had I ever seen, I will not say better, but as good village schools. Imagine in a house of modest aspect, but of an exquisite and truly Dutch cleanliness, divided into two parts; on one side, a room sufficiently large to contain nearly all the children of the village, girls and boys, old enough to go to school; on the other side, the apartments of the master and his family: the room in which the school is held is lighted from above, with ventilators on the two sides; a certain number of tables, where the children are distributed according to their proficiency; a space between each table, sufficient to permit the master and scholars to move about with facility. On the walls are hung the nine tables of M. Prinsen, a large black board for the exercises, a model of the different weights and measures according to the decimal system, and that which I had not always seen in Germany, a second black table, upon which are traced some lines for receiving music, and the notes which it is necessary to write upon them for the singing lessons. I "I cannot express how much I was touched to hear them, in the little village schools, repeat at the music lesson the national air which had already heard in the schools of La Haye and Haarlem. It is simple and noble, it rouses a love for one's country and king, and inspires the soul with many exalted sentiments. Every great nation ought thus to have a national air, which can be sung from the great theatres even to the humblest village schools. The God Save the King' of the English is a noble song of this description. The national song of the Dutch is an imitation of it, and this is an inconvenience. "I attach so much importance to the cultivation of the sentiment by music, that, if I was a minister, I would not hesitate to propose a prize for the best national air suitable for the schools of the people." ENGLAND. B. F. DUPPA. LORD BROUGHAM AND TEACHERS SEMINARIES. In 1835 Lord Brougham introduced into the British House of Lords a series of resolutions, which looked to the establishment of a System of National Education for England, among which was the following. That for the purpose of improving the kind of education given at schools for the people at large, it is expedient to establish in several parts of the country, seminaries where good school-masters may be trained and taught the duties of their profession. These resolutions were prefaced by an able and eloquent exposition of the whole subject. On this particular point he remarks: The seminaries for training masters are an invaluable gift to mankind, and lead to the indefinite improvement of education. It is this which, above everything, we ought to labor to introduce into our system; for as there are not more than two as yet established by the exertion of individual benevolence, and as, from the nature of the institution, it is not adapted to be propagated by such efforts, no possible harm can result from the interposition of the Legislature in this de partment. Place Normal Schools-seminaries for training teachers-in a few such places as London, York, Liverpool, Durham, and Exeter-so that The same views are presented in a late number of the Edinburgh Review, in an article from Lord Brougham's pen, on National Education, in England and Ireland. After commenting on the necessity of establishing a Board of Education, to whose superintendence the whole subject should be committed, he goes on to speak of the duties of the Board: The next function of the Board, and one of the most important, is the improvement of teaching. For this purpose, there will be established under superintendence, schools for training teachers-what are called on the Continent Normal Schools. For the establishment and regulation of those, the greatest care is required; and the expense, for some years, at least, must fall upon the State. A year's instruction at least, with the help of a good model school, will be necessary to qualify teachers. If these have not already made some progress in their studies, two years may be required for this purpose. There seems no reason to apprehend that any want of competitors for the places of pupils at these Normal Seminaries will be experienced. In the Boroughroad school in London there are always more applications for places than can be granted; and the advantages will be considerably greater of those who attend the public establishment. It is caculated that for £20,000 a-year, 500 teachers may be maintained and completely qualified to perform their duties. As soon as this system has been established, it is to be expected that at least as many more will flock to take advantage of it, without any additional cost to the public. Now if the Board can thus furnish a large supply of accomplished teachers, it is manifest that all schools established by individual exertion, all in which the children, will, if left to themselves, and without any interference instruction is now supported by subscription, or by payments from whatever from the Board, be disposed to take teachers from the Normal Seminary. The improved tuition at these schools will infallibly increase the number of children attending them, and the funds to be obtained for their support; and thus, without any further operation on the part of the Board than the establishment and careful superintendence of the Normal Seminaries in London, and in two or three other places, a prodigious improvement will be effected in the education of the people within the space of a very few years. SCOTLAND. HER PAROCHIAL SCHOOL SYSTEM, AND A GLASGOW NORMAL SEMINARY. Scotland claims for herself a merit of having, by her act of 1616, originated the first school system, ever established for the education of the entire community. This act however, was inoperative until 1646, when a law was passed laying a tax for the support of a school house, and the payment of a school-master's salary, upon every parish in the kingdom. This law, too, did not do its beneficial work long, for it was repealed by Charles II., in 1660, but was restored in 1696, and is still the basis of the present Parochial School System of Scotland. passed through a regular course of training for teachers in 1835-36, in The most important peculiarities of this system are, that the Bible and the Westminster Shorter Catechism must be taught in the school; and this must be taught in conformity to the Confession of Faith, which the school-master is required to subscribe. This part of the School System is under the inspection and control of the minister. The next point is, that provision is made "for acquiring a knowlmentary knowledge is ascertained, and proofs of their moral character edge of the Latin tongue," and "the sciences," and the amount and variety in their studies are to be determined by the lay heritors, sitting together in council. The next feature is, that in order to secure a low rate of school fees for the working and poorer classes, (generally about fifty cents quarterly,) the landed proprietors are obliged by law to provide and main tain, in addition to a school-house, a dwelling house for the master, with a fixed minimum salary, varying from one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars. On their admission, they are examined, and the amount of their elepresented. In addition to their exercises in the practical department of the two Model Schools, they have received one hour's instruction lessons also, of late, in sacred music and marching airs, thrice a week. daily in grammar, roots of words, or Scripture history and geographyThe students also, in addition to this, have been examined and criticised twice a-week, in rotation, at which the Secretary has presided. Two afternoons are appointed for this exercise, one in the Infant and the other in the Juvenile School, weekly. The lessons are given with the whole scholars seated in the gallery. One of the four lessons given on each This school-system regenerated Scotland. In less than a half cen- occasion is from Scripture, and the other three vary-sometimes an obtury, instead of being, as it was in 1698, the theatre of lawlessness, and ject or a word, a noun, adjective, or adverb, &c., in grammar—a quesof all sorts of immorality, it was made the abode of an orderly, indus-tion from the Catechism-light-heat-gravitation, or any other scientrious, thrifty, and religious people. Her farmers were intelligent, her tific subject-a geography lesson, or one in reading-sometimes mental artizans ingenious, and her merchants enterprizing, beyond any found arithmetic, or, it may be, the formation or furniture of the school-room, in the rest of Europe. For this, she was indebted to her parochial or physical exercises in school or in the play-ground. Four students schools. The best and greatest men whom Scotland produced during give a lesson in succession: a limited period is allowed to each. When the eighteenth century, according to a distinguished author of that this is expired they stop; and after the children have sung a few lines country, received their education at these schools, and nothing for a suitable to the subject, the student gives way to another, and so on, unlong time, was associated with stronger feelings of gratitude and rev-til the four exhibitions are completed. The whole students immediateerence in the minds of her people, than these humble institutions, from ly retire to the class room, where, from notes taken down or from memwhich so much of their own happiness and prosperity, as well as theory, each is required to give his opinion frankly of the exhibition of each wealth and genius of the nation proceeded. For one hundred and his attitude, manner, tone of voice, enunciation, grammar, and the seven years, from 1696 to 1803, nothing was done by law to give in- whole subject and treatment of the lesson. When all the students have creased efficiency in extent, to her school system, and, as might be sup-given their opinion, the chairman criticises both the lessons and the posed, it did not keep pace with the general progress of society, and its criticisms, and also, occasionally, enlarges upon some particular part usefulness has greatly diminished, and the public interest in it has or other of the system, suggested by the lessons previously given. The greatly declined. Private schools arose to supply the deficiencies of results of these stated criticisms have been both striking and useful; the public institutions, and the best teachers finding pleasanter em- and many, who fancied themselves almost perfect in teaching, have ployment, and better compensation in the former, in a great measure been somewhat humbled when their companions proved they could abandoned the latter. According to returns of the condition of not train. education, made a few years since, it appeared that there were about Previously to receiving the Society's diploma or certificate, the Nortwice as many persons taught at private schools as at the public es-mal students have been examined, both on the theory and practice of tablishments-and more than fifty thousand who were receiving no training. education, in either public or private school. In consequence of this Each model school, of which there were forty-one in all, (embracing growth of ignorance, there has been a corresponding increase of vice seventeen infant and twenty-four juvenile schools,) and capable of edand crime in Scotland, within the last half century, altogether in an ucating and training about 6000 children, are furnished with a school advance of her increase of population. This brief sketch of the School history of Scotland, is full of in-room, class room, play ground, with visible illustrations, maps, &c.and are supported by small fees from the parents of the children, and struction to Connecticut. She, too, commenced a school system in an by private subscription. age of darkness and poverty, and by means of it has enjoyed peace and prosperity and republican equality within her own borders, and poured out a tide of intelligence, of enterprize and activity, which has enriched the whole length and breadth of the land. But she has gone to sleep on the good works and glorious honors of her fathers. School System is no longer such, in reference to the circumstances of the times, as to do away with the necessity of private schools; neither does it secure the universal education of all the children of the State. It becomes her then to ascertain her precise condition in reference to education—to see if her school system does not need revision, to be adapted to the present demands of society, and new vitality infused into some of its inefficient parts. She must cease to slumber over her "The training of teachers has been too long neglected. An apschools, with a half patriarchal, half self-complacent dream that comes over her, when she thinks of their cherished time-honored offspring of master? We would not employ a shoemaker, a gardener, or an hostler, prenticeship is required in every art-why not in that of the schoolher wise policy, and must do something effectual to revive them. In 1803, Scotland did something to increase the salary of the teach-unless he were trained. How infinitely more important is training to ers, and to introduce a classification, a gradation of schools, by author-one, to whose care, for several hours a day, the minds and manners of izing the employment of assistants. But the law did not reach the seat time, work out a system of their own; but how often do they blunder young immortals are to be entrusted. Many teachers, in the course of of the evil. It did not go far enough to place the parish school on a footing with the private, in the particular of well qualified and well paid teachers; and of course, they have not been able to come up to the demands of the age, and that portion of the community who know and value a good education for their children, will not give up their own private establishments. Her In the last eight or ten years, however, public attention has been turned to the subject, and from the "Report of the Glasgow Educational Society's Normal Seminary, for 1837," which we have before us, it would seem, that in the absence of efficient legislative action, that private benevolence was doing something effectual in the way of beginning to engraft some of the real improvements which the advancing intelligence and experience of modern times has devised, upon the School System of Scotland. In 1836, the plan of the Society was still further extended. The Seminary now consists of Infant, Juvenile, and Commercial Schools, a Female School of Industry, with a class room to each model school, and thirteen for training teachers. Each of the model schools is to have a play ground for healthful exercise, and moral superintendence. about 45,000, not including the purchase of all the apparatus, there In these buildings, which from the report were estimated to cost will be accommodation for the daily training of 100 teachers and above 1000 children, with every arrangement fitted to render the Seminary a complete School Master's College, for the cultivation and training of teachers of youth. on, for months, nay for years, to the injury of their pupils, before experience enables them to work out a system; and then, how unequal is the mode of teaching throughout the land! In education, as in every business affair, a good article will bring a good price. At present the office of school-master is not sufficiently valued: a higher the same time, we must require that they, one and all, be men of sound rate of wages must be obtained, by endowment or otherwise; and, at principles, and practically trained to the art." The Institution is now under the superintendence and management of Mr. John McCrie, a son of the celebrated Scotch clergyman, who, to the advantage of a superior education, and of fine natural talents, is practically acquainted with the Normal Schools, in Teachers Semi naries, of France and Prussia. The Report concludes with the following remarks on the Training This Society was established many years ago, for the purpose of System, as pursued in this Seminary. While it embraces the best elegiving an increased efficiency to the Sabbath School, as a moral reno-mentary and scientific instruction, its foundations are laid broad and vation of Society, by introducing infant week day schools, especially deep in the Scriptures of Divine truth. among the poorer and more neglected classes of the community. Å model infant school was established for the purpose of illustrating the "It takes a cognizance and superintendence of the habits as well as best modes of conducting such institutions, and of training up teach- the principles of the children. It is not merely teaching but training; ers to go elsewhere. By degrees, their plan was enlarged, so as to emit furnishes an acquaintance with things that add to a man's happiness brace a model juvenile school, and the training of teachers for juvenile and comfort here, and his enjoyment through eternity-it is a training of schools. More than two hundred teachers were regularly admitted, and the whole man—a carrying out the family training into the school—a sup planting of the immoral training of the street, and the perfect and pow-refered to a Committee, of which the Hon. John A. Dix, was chairman, erful sympathy of companionship there, for the equally perfect sympathy to prepare a plan for carrying into operation its provisions. The reof the school play ground, under the superintendence of the master. It port was submitted in January, 1835, and the plan which the Commitis a truth founded on the most enlarged experience, that man arrives at tee submitted was embodied in an ordinance of the Regents and has been the highest intellectual elevation of which he is capable, through the for four years in operation to the manifest improvement of the Common cultivation of his moral affections. The understanding alone is too Schools. As this Report is a very able exposition of the whole subject, cold a soil whereby to arrive at our highest intellectual dignity. and from its length cannot have been very widely circulated in that This Society, from its commencement to the present day, has en-state, we shall give copious extracts from it. deavored to act on the principle of the Divine command, "train up a child in the way he should go," not the head of the child merely, but the child-and not merely tell the child how he ought to walk in the way, but train him in the way, in real life, of course, which necessarily implies personal superintendence and example; and where is the real life of a child so well exhibited as freely at play, among companions, and where, except at home, can he be so well superintended and trained as in a school play-ground? The Report sets forth "the leading and acknowledged defect of the Common Schools of New York, to be the want of competent teachers." Without able and well trained teachers, no plan of instruction, however excellent, no selection of books, however judicious, no system of inspection, however rigorous, no pecuniary provision, nowever liberal, can realize the grand results which the Law, providing for popular Education, aims at. To cure this defect, "in other countries, seminaries for the Education of Teachers, have been deemed an essential part of the In order properly to appreciate this system, we have only to con- system of primary instruction." The Committee however, regard the trast the habits and manners of children on the street, and of children success which has marked the introduction of teachers department into on the play-ground of a training school. The child, under the training the Academies named above, especially the St. Lawrence Academy, system, leaves the premises of the school and returns to his parents, and the favor with which that experiment was received by the public, improved not simply by the instruction he has received, but by the as settling the policy of the state-and they therefore devote the rest of training of the play-ground in conjunction with the school gallery; the report to an examination of the best plan for organizing and giving whereas, when left to amuse himself on the streets, with street com-efficiency to these departments of instruction. panions, unsuperintended, as when there, they all must necessarily be, he returns home more rude and worse in morals than before; whatever increase he may have received of intellectual knowledge. God alone can change the heart; but our duty is, to seek his blessing on the use of means; and if HABITS are a "second nature," how important must be the system under consideration. In the play-ground of several of the Infant and Juvenile training schools, situated in the most degraded districts of our city population, flowers have grown untouched-peas have been permitted to grow, and strawberries and currents to ripen, amidst the hilarity and joy of 150 children, daily and hourly at play. They propose therefore to select one Academy in each of the eight senatorial districts, of the State, to give five hundred dollars to each for the purchase of a Library and apparatus adapted to the use of those who are preparing to be teachers, and from the annual surplus revenue of the Literature Fund to appropriate four hundred dollars to each of the Academies, to provide a special course of instruction in the art of teaching. This amount we believe was much augmented by the act of 1838, appropriating "the income of the United States Deposite Fund, to the purpose of education and the diffusion of knowledge." We shall present the views of the Committee as to the organization of these departments more at length. 1. As to the course or subjects of study. From the facts that have come to our knowledge, during the last few years, and from the united testimony of more than 800 parents, we are "In determining the course of study, the committee have thought it fully entitled to assume, that were the whole population of our city lanes, wynds, and vennals, brought under this moral training, we proper to designate as subjects to be taught, all which they deem indiswould tell our city rulers, that such seminaries would be the cheapest pensable to be known by a first rate teacher of a common school. police, and, by the blessing of Heaven, do more to prevent, consequent sirable to raise it as high as possible; for the qualifications of those who "In fixing a standard of requirement in any pursuit, it is always dely to diminish crime, within ten years, than all our prisons, or bride-follow it, will incline to range below and not above the prescribed standwells, or penitentiaries, or houses of refuge have done, or possibly can do, in one hundred. No maxim is sounder than this, "Prevention is better than cure." PROVISION FOR THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS IN New York deserves the credit for taking the lead in making any legislative provision for the Education of Teachers for her Common Schools. The subject was presented to her Legislature many years ago by De Witt Clinton, in the following manner. ard. In this case, as the principal object is to influence public opinion by exhibiting the advantages of that practical skill, which may be gained by proper training, care should be taken that those who are relied on to exert the influence referred to, should be made fully adequate to the task. "It is proper to premise, however, that no individual should be admitted to the teachers department until he shall have passed such an examination as is required by the following extract from the ordinance of the Regents of the University to entitle students to be considered scholars in the higher branches of English education. "No students, in any such academy, shall be considered scholars in "Our system of instruction, (he remarks,) with all its numerous ben- the higher branches of English education, within the meaning of this efits, is still, however, susceptible of great improvements. Ten years ordinance, until they shall, on examination duly made, be found to have of the life of a child, may now be spent in a common school. In two attained to such proficiency in the arts of reading and writing, and to years the elements of instruction may be acquired; and the remaining have acquired such knowledge of the elementary rules or operation of eight years must be spent either in repetition, or in idleness, unless the arithmetic, commonly called notation, addition, subtraction, multipliteachers of common schools are competent to instruct in the higher cation and division, as well in their compound as in their simple forms, branches of knowledge. The outlines of Geography, Algrebra, Min- and as well in vulgar and decimal fractions as in whole numbers, toeralogy, Agricultural Chemistry, Mechanical Philosophy, Surveying, gether with such knowledge of the parts of arithmetic commonly called Geometry, Astronomy, Political Economy, and Ethics, might be commu- reduction, practice, the single rule of three direct, and simple interest, nicated in that period of time by able preceptors, without essential in- as is usually acquired in the medium or average grade of common terference with the calls of domestic industry. The vocation of a teacher schools in this state; and until they shall also, on such examination, be in its influence on the destinies of the rising and all future generations, found to have studied so much of English grammar as to be able to has either not been fully understood or not duly estimated. It is, or parse correctly any common prose sentence in the English language, ought to be, ranked among the learned professions. With the full ad- and to render into good English the common examples of a bad grammission of the respectability of several, who now officiate in that ca- mar given in Murray's or some other like grammatical exercises; and pacity, still it must be conceded, that the information of many of the in- shall also have studied, in the ordinary way, some book or treatise in structors of common schools, does not extend beyond rudimental edu-geography, equal in extent to the duodecimo edition of Morse's, Cumcation, that our expanding population requires constant accession to ming's, Woodbridge's, or Willet's geography, as now in ordinary use. their numbers, and that to realize their views, it is necessary that some Subjects of study.-1. The English Language. 2. Writing and new plan for obtaining able teachers, should be devised. I therefore re- Drawing. 3. Arithmetic, Mental and Written; and Book-keeping. commend a Seminary for the education of teachers in the monitorial 4. Geography and General History, combined. 5. The History of system of instruction and in those useful branches of knowledge, which the United States. 6. Geometry, Trigonometry, Mensuration and Surare proper to engraft on elementary attainments." veying. 7. Natural Philosophy and the Elements of Astronomy. 8. The first act was passed in 1827, adding one hundred and fifty thou- Chemistry and Mineralogy. 9. The Constitution of the United States sand dollars to the capital of the Literature Fund, for the avowed ob- and the Constitution of the State of New-York. 10. Select parts of the ject of promoting the Education of Teachers. This sum was distribu- Revised Statutes and the duties of Public Officers. 11. Moral and Inted among the several Academies in the state without sufficient restric- tellectual Philosophy. 12. The Principles of Teaching. tions to its application. The St. Lawrence, Oxford, and Canandaigua THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. This branch constitutes the most exterAcademies, however, each established a course of lectures and exercises sive, and perhaps the most important, field of instruction for a teacher. for the preparation of teachers, and with the most happy results. The Unless the pupil is thoroughly master of his own language, he cannot demand for teachers educated at these academies, to go into the district be a competent instructor. The utmost pains should therefore be taken schools in the neighborhood, was greater than could be supplied, and the to give him an accurate knowledge of it; and the proper process of incompensation of such teachers was cheerfully advanced. struction is that, which it will be his business to employ in giving instruction to others. In 1834, the Legislature authorized the "Regents of the University," to apply a portion of the income of the above Fund, to the more specific purpose of the preparation of Common School Teachers. The act was He should be made familiar with the best methods of teaching the alphabet and the stops, by which children can be conducted, with the |