plained to the directors of the time spent in explaining words and vellers against the people of the United States, their manners and teaching objects as being "lost ;" and that the directors, to satisfy institutions, will not depreciate the character of their civilization in them, desired her to make them "read," and not to waste time in the judgment of reflecting men to one half the extent that will be giving explanations. She obeyed, and certainly the children read done by this document alone. It appears, indeed, to contradict with great fluency; but the meaning of the words is to a great ex- much that I have already said in favor of the American people; and tent unknown to them. In my lectures on education, I adverted to at the hazard of standing still farther condemned, I am under the errors of this mode of teaching, and told my audience that it the necessity of reporting that it found 182 individuals in the reminded me of the mode of teaching English in a certain High- house of Representatives of Massachusetts, the most enlightened of land school in Scotland. The children, whose vernacular tongue the States, to vote for its adoption. In point of fact, however, I have was Gælic, were taught to spell, pronounce, and read English cor- endeavored to convey the idea that there is a vast extent of ignorectly and fluently, and at public examination, they displayed such rance in the Union, and even in Massachusetts; and this report sig. proficiency, that the clergymen present were about to compliment nally sustains the assertion. But there is also another side to the the teacher publicly on his meritorious exertions, when a friend of picture. mine, one of the proprietors of the parish, struck by the mechanical tone of the reading, put several questions to the children regarding the signification of the passages which they had read. He found them ignorant of the meaning of the words. The teacher had omitted to translate the English into Gælic, and although they could read and pronounce the words, they did not understand the former language.

The minority of the committee, consisting of "Mr. John A. Shaw and Mr. Thomas A. Greene," gave in an admirable report in support of the Board of Education and the normal schools; some of the Boston newspapers warmly espoused their cause. Dr. Channing published in one of these an eloquent and cogent defence of them, and in the House of Representatives a highly interesting debate ensued on the merits of the whole question, the result of which was, that 248 members voted for the rejection of the first mentioned report, making a majority in favor of the Board of sixty-six mem. bers. One of the most uminous and effective speeches in support of education was delivered by a member who is well known as an able phrenologist.

AMERICAN CIVILIZATION AS INDICATED BY INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION,-In the United States the development of the mind of the mass of the people is accomplished by the following influences;-1st, by do. mestic education. 2dly, By district schools. 3dly, By religious instruction. 4thly, By professional instruction; and, lastly, By political action.

The children in the Philadelphia schools are to some extent in a similar condition: they read works on the history of America and other subjects, the language of which is so far superior to the ex. pressions contained in their domestic vocabulary, that, while unex. plained, it is to them a foreign tongue. I urged on my audience the indispensable necessity to the welfare of the country that the education of American children should embrace solid instruction in things, and not consist of words merely; and that training also, or daily discipline of the dispositions, should be regarded as of great importance to them. I earnestly advised them to invite Mr. Wild. erspin to visit their country, and to show them a few good infant and training schools in operation; after seeing which they would 1st, By Domestic Education.-The object of education in the fanot long tolerate their present inefficient system. I respectfully re.mily circle is to develope and regulato the affections, as well as to commend to the trustees of the Girard College, if they wish to instruct the understanding. So far as a stranger can discover by benefit Pennsylvania, to engage Mr. Wilderspin to spend six months observation, or learn by inquiries, the family education in the Uni.. in organizing an infant and training school in their seminary. In ted States is exceedingly various, and depends for its character much England, Scotland, and Ireland, the most efficient schools are those more on the natural dispositions of the parents, than on any system which embrace most of his principles and practice. of instruction. In general the parents are in easy circumstances, EDUCATION IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.-One of the most common are happily matched, are good natured, active and frugal; and these errors, in my opinion, committed by foreigners who write about qualities insensibly cultivate similar dispositions in the young; but America, as well as by the Americans themselves, is greatly to over there are of course numerous exceptions; and education has not estimate the educational attainments of the people. The provision in advanced so far among the masses as to render domestic training money made by the law for the instruction of all classes is large com. systematic, Every family has its own manners, maxims, and modes pared with such countries as Britain or Austria, but, contrasted with of treatment. Speaking generally, the faculties of the child are al. what is necessary to bestow a really good education on the people, it lowed free scope in the family circle, without sufficient enforcement is still very deficient. The farmers, for example, are indisposed to of self-denial, or of the subordination of the lower to the higher dispense with the services of their older children, during the busy sea-powers. The first useful lesson to a child is that of self-restraint, son of agricultural labor, nor are they generally in circumstances to or of foregoing a present enjoyment at the call of duty, or for the admit of it. It is extremely difficult, therefore, to keep open district sake of a higher, although more distant, good. Many American schools (except for very young children, taught by females for a be too little restrained in the manifestation of their propensities. children appear to be indulged in their appetites and desires, and to small compensation) for more than four or five months in the year. A school district in the rural parts of New York state contains only Egotism, or the idea that the world is made for them, and that other from ten to twenty families. Allowing $350 or $400 per annum to persons must stand aside to allow them scope, is a feature not unbe a moderate remuneration for a qualified teacher (and this is less frequently recognised. The consideration of the manner in which than a carpenter or blacksmith would earn,) it is nearly impossible their sentiments and modes of action, will affect other individuals of to raise this amount from so small a number of persons, most of well regulated and well cultivated minds, is not adequately brought whom are in moderate circumstances. At present, the sum raised home to them. In short, the active manifestation of the moral senfor the salaries of common school teachers is only $12 50 cents (or timents in refined habits, in pure and elevated desires, and in disin 21. 138.) per month for each teacher, this being, according to the re-mestic training. I speak of the masses composing the nation, and terested goodness, is not aimed at systematically as an object in doport of the superintendent of common schools, the average compensation given in the state of New York in 1836 to male teachers. If not of the children of well educated and refined individuals. the people would have properly qualified teachers, the sum that In intellectual cultivation, domestic education is still more defecwould need to be raised is from $70 to $100 per month, for each of tive, because in the masses the parents themselves are very imper. them, as the school term might be longer or shorter. This the peofectly instructed. ple will not pay, and the consequence is, that the education received by probably nineteen twentieths of the children, in the agricultural districts, owing to the condition of most of the common schools, is defective in the extreme; nor can there be any decided improvement in the condition of the schools without an improvement in salary, and in the literary attainments and professional skill of the teachers. The Americans need proper normal schools in which their teach. ers may be instructed in the philosophy of mind, and in the art of training and teaching, and they must also pay them hadsomely before they will command good education. If the Americans were animated by an enlightened patriotism, they would submit to a large taxation to accomplish this object, because on its fulfilment will depend the future peace and prosperity of their country.

On the whole, therefore, the domestic training and instruction ap. pear to me to be imperfect, viewed in relation to the objects of en. larging the mind's sphere of conferring on it the power of self-restraint, and also the ability to discover and successfully to pursue its own permanent welfare.

2dly, of Common School Education.-From the various remarks which have already been presented in these volumes, the reader will be prepared to draw the inference that, viewed in relation to the United States is also imperfect; I should say very imperfect. The three objects before mentioned, the common school education in the themselves education. If sedulously and wisely applied, they may things taught (chiefly reading, writing, and arithmetic,) are not in enable the individual to obtain knowledge; but the common schools stop short of supplying it. They even communicate very imperfectly the art of acquiring it; for some of the teachers are themselves ill qualified; their modes of teaching are defective, and the attendance of the children at school is brief and irregular. The addition of a library to each school district was dictated by a perception of the magnitude and importance of the deficiency in this department. It appears to me that besides great improvements in existing schools, still higher seminaries are wanted, in which the elements of natu

ral, moral, and political science, with their applications to the purposes of individual and social enjoyment, may be taught to the whole people.

One, and probably the most important, element in an education calculated to fit an individual for becoming an accomplished member of the American democracy, is training the faculties to their proper modes of action. This can be accomplished only by calling them all into activity, and by communicating to the higher powers the knowledge and habit of governing the lower. Mere intellectual in. struction is not sufficient for this purpose; the propensities and sentiments must be trained in the field of life. This end will be best accomplished by communicating to children the knowledge of their own faculties, and of their spheres of use and abuse, by placing them in circumstances in which these may be called into action, and superintending that action in such a manner as to cultivate the powers of rapid judgment and steady self-control. The play-ground is an important field for conducting this branch of education. The principles and practice of it are explained in the works of Wilder. spin and Stow already referred to. This department of education is in a very humble condition in the United States; and yet to them it is all-important. Every one of their citizens wields political and judicial power; he is at once the subject of the law and its pillar; he elects his own judges, magistrates, and rulers, and it is his duty to obey them. If ever knowledge of what is right, self control to pursue it, and high moral resolve to sacrifice every motive of self interest and individual ambition, to the dictates of benevolence and justice, were needed in any people, they are wanted in the citizens of the United States. A well instructed citizen will consider the influence of any law on the general welfare before he consents to its enactment, and a well trained citizen will not only obey that law when enacted, but lend his whole moral and physical energies, if necessary, to enforce its observance by all, until repealed by consti. tutional authority. An ill instructed citizen will clamor for the en. actment of any law which promises to relieve him from an indi. vidual inconvenience, or to confer on him an individual advantage, without much consideration concerning its general effects; and an ill trained citizen will seek to subject the magistrates, judges, and the law to his own control, that he may bend them in subserviency to his interest, his ambition, or his inclinations, from day to day, as these arise and take different directions. The ill trained citizen takes counsel of his self will; and self will, uninstructed and un. trained to the guidance of moral principle, leads to destruction. Phrenology is calculated to benefit the people of the United States, by enabling both teachers and pupils to act with intelligence and co. operation in instructing and training. It presents views of each mental power, and of its spheres of use and abuse, so simple and intelligible that children can understand them, and teachers can act upon them.

After enumeration of some fifty or sixty town, county, state or national officers which are elected by the people and accessible to all, Mr. Combe proceeds:

On perusing the list of officers elected by the American citizen, and of whose proceedings he is the ultimate judge, we discover that there is scarcely an interest relating to human nature in this world, which is not directly or indirectly brought before him for consideration, and placed to some extent under his control. The institutions appear to me to develope the whole faculties of the indi. vidual with little modification. He is educated by them in the belief that he can control every thing but public opinion, and that little self denial is required from him, except in preserving a civil bearing in society. If, therefore, Nature has bestowed on an American citizen a large endowment of the animal organs with defective organs of reflection, and of the moral sentiments, he is speedily de. veloped into an audacious and accomplished rogue. If to the propensities she have added intellect, but still left the moral faculties deficient, he appears as a speculative merchant, an ambitious and unprincipled politician, or a dexterous and unconscientious lawyerin each character unscrupulously turning the institutions of his country, and the good nature of his fellow citizens, to his private advan. tage. If Nature have given the citizen a high development of the moral and intellectual organs, with subordinate propensities, the institutions of his country unfold the best of human characters; such an individual is a philanthropist, a man of practical sense, of ster. ling honesty, and sturdy independence; in short, an ornament to human nature. I have known many such. The American citizen whose mental endowments are naturally high, and whose education has been liberal, is reared in a noble field. There is no glare of aristocracy to obscure his moral perceptions and misdirect his ambition. There is no established church to trammel his religious sentiments and obstruct his path in following the dictates of truth. There is no servile class to corrupt his selfish faculties by obsequiousness and flattery. He is an excellent specimen of humanity, enlightened, benevolent, and just, and animated by an all pervading activity. There is another class of minds, by far the most common, on whom the three orders of faculties, animal, moral, and intellect. ual, are bestowed by nature in nearly equal proportions. The American institutions evolve their faculties almost in the proportion in which nature gave them. Men of this class are observed to be habitually selfish, yet occasionally generous; frequently cunning, yet often open and direct; at times carried away by passion and prejudice, but on other occasions manifesting sound judgment and honesty. If the common schools embued the youthful mind with a clear knowledge of its own faculties, of the laws appointed by the Crea. tor for their guidance, and also of the natural laws which regulate the progress of society, this information might come in place of mo. narchial and feudal institutions for the guidance of opinion, and might afford fixed starting points, from which the moralist and statesman, the divine and the philanthropist, could advance with safety, in their endeavors to check the people when bent on erroneous courses of action.

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lic opinion evolved by the free institutions of America, were enIn short, if the gigantic regulating and controlling power of pub.

Lecturing to the people in lyceums is extensively practised in the United States, and as a mode of public instruction it is well calcula. ted to advance their intelligence; but hitherto, owing to the defects of their education in the primary schools, it has not yielded half its advantages. As formerly mentioned, the lectures delivered in lyceums are generally of a miscellaneous character, developing no subject systematically, and sacrificing profound interest to variety and temporary excitement; yet no other lectures would attract persons of mature age, whose minds had not been opened up, in their ele-lightened and guided by the principles of Christianity and Science, mentary education, to the value of scientific knowledge. If the sim. pler elements of the natural sciences were taught in childhood, the mind, when it expanded into vigor, would long for fuller developments of their principles, and the lectures in the lyceums might then assume a high character of usefulness.

Vieving the object of education, then, to be to communicate knowledge by which the sphere of the mind's action may be enlarg. ed-to train each individual to self control and the love of goodand to enable hin, by these means combined, to pursue successfully his own welfare, the educational institutions of the United States ap

pear generally to be defective.

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5thly, By Political Institutions.—The American Declaration of Independence announces that "all men are created equal," a proposition which, however liable to be disputed in some respects, has (leaving out of view the African race) been practically adopted as the fundamental principle of all the institution and legislation of the United States. It is the most powerful maxim for developing the individual, in all his faculties and functions, that has ever been promulgated, and it has certainly produced great results. It is probably the first abstract proposition that is clothed with an intelligible meaning in the mind of the American child, and it influences his conduct through life. It sends for the young citizen full of confidence in himself, untrammelled by authority, unawed by recognised superiority in others, and assured of a fair field for every exertion. When he attains to the age of twenty one years, the institutions of his country provide him with the following arenas of political influ.

ence and exertion.

instead of being left to act impulsively and as it were blindly, it would prove itself not a tyrant, but a protector to virtue, law, order, and justice, far more efficient than any that has hitherto been dis covered. It would leave thought and action absolutely free, within the legitimate limits of all the faculties, (which none of the guides of opinion erected by human invention has ever done); while it would apply an irresistible check at the very point where alone a check would be wanted-that which separates the boundaries of good and evil.

philosophy to the wants of the American people as a guide to opinWhatever estimate may be formed of the adaptation of the new which should command respect and pervade the Union, would be ion, there can be little doubt that some general moral influence highly useful. The division of the country into states, and these into counties and townships, each of which becomes an absorbing fovaluable knowledge, and to some extent paralyses moral effort. I cus of interest to its own inhabitants, retards the diffusion of much met with highly intelligent persons in Connecticut, interested in edu. cation, who knew nearly nothing of the organization and action of the board of education in Massachusetts, although this state is di vided from Connecticut only by a line. Not only so, but before I left the United States, the Common School Journal of Connecticut had ceased to be published, owing to the want of subscribers. It was a very ably conducted, useful, and cheap periodical, but it did not discuss politics, nor theological controversy, nor news; it was full only of high moral and practical information relative to the improvement of education; and this object interested so few persons that it could not find subscribers sufficient to support its existence.

VOL. III.

Published under the direction of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools.

ABSTRACT

OF THE

HARTFORD, JULY 1, 1841.

RETURNS OF SCHOOL VISITERS

for 1840-41.

CONTENTS.

177

NO. 14.

Instead of the blank forms heretofore sent to school visiters,
to be filled up and returned, agreeable to the provisions of the
Act of 1838, the following Circular was addressed to them
by direction of the Board:-
:-

CIRCULAR TO SCHOOL VISITERS
GENTLEMEN :

In place of the statictical information in the manner and form heretofore required of school visiters, you are requested to communicate to the Board your views respecting the pres179 ent condition of the common schools, together with plans and 180 suggestions for their improvement, in all or any of the follow180 ing particulars.

181

181

183

185

1. PARENTAL OR PUBLIC INTEREST.

Under this head you are requested to state what proportion 183 of the parents or legal voters of the society or districts, attend 184 the annual or other school meetings: the amount of money 184 raised by tax or otherwise to support the schools in addition to 185 the avails of public funds: the considerations which seem to govern in the seletion of teachers, and in determining the 186 length of the school: the amount of parental visitation to the 186 schools while in session, and any other facts which will indi187 cate the state of public or parental interest in the welfare of 188 the common schools. In this connexion you are requested to 188 notice whether recent legislation, and the measures recom188 mended or prosecuted by this Board, have thrown any light on the condition of these institutions, increased the interest 189 of parents and the community in them, and in any way pro189 moted their usefulness.

189

190

199

200

Salisbury,

Pomfret,

197

Litchfield 2d, or South Farms,

198

New Canaan,

East Hampton,

Clinton,

Mansfield 2d, or North,

Tolland,

III. SCHOOL HOUSES.

Any facts as to the location, construction, size, internal arrangement, light, ventilation, temperature, seats and desks of 200 the district schoolhouses, which will show their influence in 201 these or in other particulars on the health, comfort and success201 ful study of the children, together with a particular descrip201 tion of such as are very good or very bad, are requested. The consequences of not having appropriate out-buildings, and play-grounds, for both sexes, on the morals, manners and 202 health of the scholars, should not be omitted.

201
202

203

204

204

204
205

IV. ATTENDANCE AND NON-ATTENDANCE.

After stating the whole number of children of the proper school age, you are requested as far as practicable to say how 206 many are in regular attendance in the district schools during the time they are severally kept; how many attend for periods equal to six, four, and two months, and how many have attended in no school public or private, and what can be done to secure the regular and punctual attendance of children at school for a suitable period of time. Under this head you are requested to notice such objections as have been made to - 208 the introduction of a register on the ground of expense and 212 trouble, and the advantages which might be derived from one

206
207
208
208

accurately kept, not only as the source of all authentic returns apart from private libraries, you are requested to state the difto the legislature and reports to the school society, but as an ficulties in the way of establishing libraries of well selected aid in securing the attendance of children at school, and ex-books, to be owned by each district, or by the society or town, posing the neglect of parents and guardians in this particular. and to pass in succession through the several districts.

V. EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS AND SUPERVISION OF
SCHOOLS.

Under this head you are requested to notice any defect in the law, or its administration, as to the mode of ascertaining the qualifications of teachers, and of visiting the schools, and to propose any alterations which will give greater efficiency to this branch of our school system, such as county or senatorial district boards or superintendents.

VI. TEACHERS.

XIII. LECTURES AND OTHER MEANS OF POPULAR

EDUCATION.

instruction which have been accessible and enjoyed, in your Under this head you are requested to notice any means of society, which are not before included, such as lectures, debating societies, classes for mutual improvement, &c., and their influence, with the practicability of increasing them and making them more useful.

XIV. CONTROVERSIES AND LITIGATION.

troversies or legal disputes, which disturb the harmony of the Under this head you are requested to mention any local consociety or the district, cause expense, and impair the advantases of the children, and to propose some way of settling them as they may hereafter arise.

After stating the whole number of male, and of female teachers employed during the past summer, and the winter, you are requested to state your views as to their moral and intellectual qualifications, age, previous education, experience in teaching, their compensation, and success; also, the evils, if any, of changing teachers from male to female, and female to male, every season, and the remedy, and the advantages of employing female teachers for the year round for the small You are further requested to propose any specific alterations in children. In this connexion, your views on the policy or ne- the organization or administration of our common school syscessity of seminaries for the training of teachers, of libraries tem, in the following or any other particulars :—as and associations for their special improvement, are desired.

VII. STUDIES.

XV. ALTERATIONS OF THE SCHOOL LAW.

1.

School Societies, their limits, powers and duties.

School Districts, their formation, alteration, limits, powers and duties.

2.

Here you are requested to name such studies as are taught in all the schools, and such as are pursued in but few, and the 3. extent to which they are pursued; the evil, if it exists, of neglecting the primary studies, and crowding children for-4. ward in the more advanced. Any peculiarity in the methods 5. of teaching any of the common school studies, and especially such as lead to correct habits of observation, reflection and judgment, and to a practical knowledge of the great instruments of self culture, and of business, the English language both in speaking and writing, and mental and written arithmetic.

VIII. BOOKS.

After specifying the number of different books used in the different studies, and the evils and expense attending the multiplicity and change of books in the same school your are requested to propose a remedy.

X. GRADATION OF SCHOOLS.

6.

7.

8.

9.

School Society Committee, their number, appointment, powers

and duties.

Length of school, in summer, and in winter.

10. Attendance of children at school under 16 years of age, and
especially of those engaged in factories, or as apprentices.
11. Distribution of public monies, with or without condition, ac-
cording to the number of children in the society or district, or
in the schools for a certain length of time, &c., &c.
You are further requested to invite teachers, and other per-
the more extensive usefulness of the common schools, to com-
sons practically acquainted with the subject, or interested in
municate their views to the Board, who are anxious to gather
the suggestions and plans of the wise and experienced of their
fellow citizens in every part of the state.

All communications in reply to this circular can be trans-
mitted directly to the undersigned at Hartford, as early as your
office early in April.
convenience will allow. To be of service to the Board and
the Legislature at the ensuing session, they should reach this

By order of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools.
HENRY BARNARD, 2D., Secretary.

Hartford, Feb. 15, 1841.

You are particularly requested to consider the practicability out of the variety of ages, studies and books, of preventing of reducing the number of classes in any one school, arising the too common neglect of primary branches and the children, and of securing a greater permanency in the office young of teacher, by placing the younger children in the primary studies by themselves under female teachers, and the older children under male teachers qualified to teach the more advanced studies, and how far this can be done, 1. by employing two teachers in the populous districts; 2. by a union school the towns in the State, but many of them at so late a period, for the older children of two or more adjoining districts, leav- that they could not be examined in season to admit of extracts ing the younger children in the present district schools; or 3, by a central school, or schools for the older children of the whole society.

XI. PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

Under this head you are requested to include the number, origin, studies, expense and influence on the common schools, and the community generally, of that class of private schools, that occupy the same ground which every complete system of common schools should cover.

XII. SCHOOL DISTRICT OR SOCIETY LIBRARIES. After stating the number of books and the terms on which they are accessible to the older children, and adults generally,

Returns have been received from about two thirds of all

being made for the use of the Board, although the results have been embodied in the Annual Report to the Board.

In making the extracts which follow, the object has been to present the testimony of intelligent and practical men in different sections of the State, as to the actual condition of the school system in several important particulars, in their several school societies. The returns are in most instances made out in the name of the school visiters, although signed, and probably drawn up in their behalf, by the chairman, or sub-committee of the board. These extracts therefore present the most full and precise evidence of the general condition of the

selectmen.

common schools of the State, which has been thus far col-dren of vicious and intemperate parents should be provided for by the lected, and the suggestions of many intelligent men, practically acquainted with the schools as officers, teachers and parents, as to their improvement.

There is a remarkable coincidence of views as to existing defects and proposed remedies, in these various returns, which cannot fail to impress every one with the pressing necessity there is for a general effort to improve the whole framework of our time-hallowed system of common schools.

The extracts here given do not amount to one tenth of the original communications.

HARTFORD FIRST SCHOOL SOCIETY.

1. Parental or public interest.—The interest of the community or of parents in the common schools, as indicated by attendance on school meetings, by expenditures on schoolhouses, apparatus and books, or by visits to the school and general co-operation with the teacher, is very low. Not more than twelve persons have attended the annual Society meeting, and till within two years the business has been done by three or four persons only. At special meetings the attendance is greater, but it is composed principally of those who are interested for or against some local question. The district meetings are more fully attended, especially within a few years, but even at these meetings; unless there is a notice of an impending tax, not one fourth of the legal voters are present. With the exception of one or two districts, but few parents ever visit the school except at some public examination, or exhibition. No tax is levied by the society, but in all the districts there are "quarter bills," which amount annually from $2 to $1 per scholar, but as these are abated in case of the poor, the burden falls, not on the town, for the selectmen have refused to form the Board, authorized by the act of 1839, nor on the society, or the district, but on those who send to the public schools and are just able to pay their own. The condition of the schools, and of public feeling in regard to them, is improving, and is now much in advance of what it was three years since. There is a larger number of children in regular attendance, the wages and qualifications of teachers are better, the schoolhouses have been improved, the variety of school books is less, and a spirit of inquiry into the causes of the present state of things, and the means of improvement is now abroad in the community.

5. Examination of teachers and visitation of schools.-This duty was assigned to a sub-committee of two, with directions to comply with all the requirements of the law; this has been done. Each iters to visit once a month. If the commissioner of the county, or a school was also assigned to one or more members of the Board of visperson practically acquainted with the subject, could visit every town, inspect the schools, inquire into the application of the public money, meet with teachers, parents and school officers, disseminate a knowledge of all desirable improvements, it would arouse public interest and enlist public effort in behalf of common schools. A county or senatorial board of examination, would give a happy and powerful impulse to teachers.

6. Teachers. It is believed that a greater number of well qualified teachers were never engaged at the same time in our schools, or with better success. Most of them have had previous experience, and many of them have taught in the same school for several years. The soci ely made a small appropriation for the purchase of books on education, which was expended by the visiters, and the books deposited in the library of the Young Mens Institute, the committee of which institution have given free access to all books relating to education, to all of the teachers of common schools. Teachers were recommended to meet together as often as convenient, and to visit each others' school, which has been done to some extent.

There can be no doubt but what a seminary for the training of teachers, especially of female teachers, with a model school attached, in tion could be seen and practiced, would do an immense and immediate which the best methods of school arrangement, discipline and instrucgood. From it, would go forth teachers who would themselves make model schools wherever they went, and thus directly and indirectly extend the advantages of the seminary.

district, and in the city districts, by means of the better classification, a 7. Studies.-All the studies named in the statute are taught in every much more extensive range is thoroughly attended. The primary studies here receive unusual attention, but are still very superficially of the harmonious development of all the powers of the mind, is not taught in some instances. In all, the great object of mental discipline, sufficien ly reached. The method of teaching geography by outline maps, of spelling, by writing the more difficult words, of composition, by familiar letters, and school journals, of speaking, by exercises in declamation, and of vocal music in some of the schools, have had a very happy effect.

8. Books.-There is still a great diversity of school books. Steps recommend it, as may be deemed best. This diversity of books, comhave been taken to select a series for all the schools, and to prescribe or bined with the want of them in some instances, leads to the multiplication of classes, destroys the power of the teacher, and weakens the principle of sympathy, arising from numbers of the same age and proficiency pursuing the same study in the same class.

all the schools in various ways. Small children are now very gener9. School apparatus.-The blackboard is used very extensively in ally supplied with the slate for drawing, printing, writing an or useful purposes. In the city districts there are globes and maps; but in none is there an orrery, and other useful apparatus.

2. Districts.-There is a great inequality in the territorial extent, population, pecuniary ability, parental interest, wages and qualification of teachers, and attendance of children in the different districts, which results in vast inequalities of education. The principle on which the public money is distributed, operates also very unequally. It gives to schools in the city districts nearly $1 per scholar, and in the outer district less than $2 per scholar, and in no case leads to corresponding efforts on the part of districts or parents. These inequalities of advantages can be in a measure remedied by administering the common school system on a more broad and liberal principle. It must be settled that a sufficient number of schools, in healthy, commodious and attractive schoolhouses, taught by teachers properly qualified, for at least ten months in the year, for all the children of the proper school age must be maintained, and to do this. the small and poor districts must be assisted out of the common treasury of the society. 3. Schoolhouses.-Great improvements are already visible in schoolhouses. The interior arrangements of the middle district school have for eight or ten years been better than any common schoolhouse in this vicinity, although the location of the house is very objectionable, and the means of ventilation imperfect. The interior and external arrangements of the North Middle and South district schoolhouses have been greatly improved, and may be safely pointed to as models in most particulars. Arrangements are now making for the building of two or three new schoolhouses, which it is hoped will embrace the recent improvements in schoolhouse architecture. The out buildings in most of the districts are exceptionable. There can be no doubt but what the health, morals and manners of children are not unfre, two or more secondary schools for those between the ages of 8 and quently sacrificed in consequence of neglect in this particular. The first ideas of indelicacy, the early habits of impropriety and indecency

are formed here.

4. Attendance &c.-The whole number of persons over 4 and under 16, in August, 1810, was 2533. The greatest number, of all ages, re gistered in all the schools, as in attendance last winter, was 1312. The average attendance was less than 1000 It is estimated that there are about 700 children in private schools, orphan institutions, &c., which will leave nearly 500 children over 4 and under 16, in no school. One half of their number are probably between 4 and 6 years of age, and will probably attend school in the summer. After making all proper deductions, it will be safe to say that there are between 200 and 300 children of the proper school age who do not attend any school public or private.

10. Gradation of schools.-In the three city districts the scholars are divided into different departments, according to age and progress, to the manifest improvement of these schools. This was first accomplished in the Middle district many years since, but has since een introduced into the other two. Female teachers are employed in all the primary departments, and as assistants in the higher. In two of the other districts a female teacher is employed to teach the younger children.

There is a difficulty in organizing union schools out of the city, or of establishing a high school for the whole society, although it would give the older scholars in those districts much better opportunities than they now enjoy. There can be no doubt of the practicability and expediency of uniting the three city districts into one, and placing the management of all the schools under one board, with power to establish as many primary schools as may be needed for the education of children under

12, and a high school with two departments, one for boys and the other for girls over 12 years. Such an arrangement, judging from the success of similar plans in other cities would greatly increase the numbers attending the common schools, by drawing in some who attend nowhere, and many more who now go to private schools, increase the range of instruction, and enlist more parental and public interest in their support.

11. Private schools.-Private schools abound in the city districts to the manifest disadvantage of the common schools. While there are 3 district schools with 18 teachers, for about 1000 scholars enrolled, and less than 900 in regular attendance, there are 16 private schools with more than 30 teachers for less than 500 or 600 scholars. And in the latter for tuition alone more than double the amount is expended than on the public schools for all purposes whatever. These schools have The establishment of pri nary schools for young children in the city their origin in part in the defective organization and arrangements of the districts, and of a high school for the older boys and girls, would pro- public schools. The schoolhouses at present will not accommodate more bably increase the attendance on common schools one half. The chil-children than are now enrolled in them, which is not equal to half the