In a petition from Ohio County, during the same year, there is the following remark.

By the present system the Literary Fund seems to be directed to the two extremes of our population, the wealthy and the indigent. To the wealthy, in establishing the University and colleges, the advantages of which are almost exclusively enjoyed by their sons. To the indigent, in distributing a part of the Literary fund to the several counties to be applied exclusively to the aid of the destitute. While the intermediate and by far the largest and most useful portion of the community derive no direct benefit from this fund, though every principle of justice would give them an equal participation."

As a remedy and substitute for the present defective and insufficient system, the Convention propose the following plan.

First-To pass a law establishing and regulating common schools throughout the Commonwealth-requiring every county to be divided into school districts-providing for the erection of suitable school houses in each, located as nearly central as a healthful and pleasant situation can be obtained.

Secondly. The law should provide for levying and col lecting a tax which, added to the Literary Fund, shall be sufficient to maintain a school in each district.

Thirdly. There should be created by law a State Superintendent of Common Schools whose duty it should be to superintend the execution of the school laws-to furnish officers with necessary forms for keeping accounts and making statistical returns-plans and directions for the proper construction of district school houses for the comfort of the learners; and, in all places out of towns and cities requiring that school houses be suitably provided with grounds for gymnastic and other healthful exercises.

There should be a County Superintendent for each county, invested with powers appropriate to his jurisdiction, whose duty it should be to superintend the faithful execution of the laws.

When each county shall have been laid off into districts, the law should make it the duty of the inhabitants of each district to meet and organize, by electing three or five trustees. The trustees, when so elected, should be required to select a place, or piece of ground, for a district school house, and notify the county superintendent, who should visit and inspect it, and if he approve it, confirm their selection.

Should any district neglect or refuse to organize for the space of three years, then, and in that case, the money arising both from tax and the Literary fund: which would fall to such district, should be there after equally distributed among such districts as shall have organized until such district comply with the law.

Fourthly.-The public schools should be free to all the white youth within the districts of a proper age to go to school. This provision will be important to the success of the whole system. Unless the schools be free to all they cannot succeed. It will destroy the success of the whole system to allow any distinction between the rich and the poor. Should the rich pay any separate fees to the teacher, they would feel that they would be, on that account, entitled to more of his services, and without would not be satisfied.

Fifthly. The public schools must be good. They must be emphatically Colleges for the people. If they are not good enough for the rich they will not be fit for the poor. If made as good as the rich desire, wealthy citizens will have no inducement to send their children from home for education.If the schools be not good, those who are able will send abroad for education; and either condemn or oppose the public school system. The want of good teachers will be the greatest difficulty with which the system in its early stages, will have to contend, and will demand the prompt attention of the legislature. Properly qualified teachers have been furnished in other States and countries by what are called Normal schools. Your memorialists believe that Virginia may improve upon the plan for qualifying teachers, by aiding from the Literary fund such colleges and academies as will into their courses of instruction the

tice of making the higher classes teach the lower ones. This change in the plan of instruction would be highly beneficial to those engaged in performing the part of teachers in more ways than one. First, in more indelibly imprinting on their minds that which they had previously learned; and secondly,

this plan would daily train them in the art of teaching, and somewhat in the art of governing. This plan of qualifying teachers strongly commends itself on account of its simplicity and cheapness; and, if put in operation, could not fail of supplying, in a few years, a considerable number of well qualified teachers.

As connected with this subject, the Convention would respectfully suggest to the legislature the propriety of requesting Congress to apply the Smithsonian Legacy to the institution and support of Normal schools for qualifying teachers, as the most useful employment of this fund.

Sixthly. The State Superintendent should be allowed an adequate salary, and be required to devote his whole time to the interests of education. The County Superintendent should likewise receive an adequate compensation for the services required of him.

Lastly.-The Literary fund should be increased from time to time as the legislature may find means and the State's share of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, uuder a recent act of Congress, should be added to the Literary fund. The action of the State in the establishment of a literary fund with annual proceeds therefrom, as well as public opinion, so far as its expression has reached us, point to a permanent revenue devoted to that purpose. The greatest benefit to the whole people is then to be sought in the creation and establishment of an available fund. And it is submitted whether all the funds for the educational system should not be devoted to works of internal improvement, more especially to those country roads which will reach every portion of the State, and unite them in social and commercial intercourse-the State pledging an income equ to the interest on the capital thus devoted to common school purposes. The soul and the soil will then be culti vated, and taste and refinement reflect the improved condition of each.

When the system contemplated in this memorial shall have been sufficiently long in operation, it will furnish pupils to the academies and colleges, and to the University, neither of which are sufficiently supplied, for the want, as your memorialists believe, of good primary schools.

In conclusion, your memorialists would respectfully say, that should the legislature establish by law a system of public instruction on the foregoing principles, in a few years Virginia will be redeemed from the reproach so justly cast upon her for her neglect of this important interest.

EDUCATION IN NORTHERN EUROPE. From Baird's Travels.

DENMARK.

The Danes, are, in general, a well educated nation. Probably in no country in Europe, out of Germany, are the people so universally able to read. For a long period the government has encouraged education. But the present excellent state of things, as it regards Primary Schools, dates from 1814, when the late monarch directed that more systematic measures than had ever before been adopted, should be employed to secure the instruction of all classes of the people. To such an extent do the elements, at least, of a common education exist in this country, that it is very rare indeed to find a native Dane who cannot read. Many persons, of great respectability, have assured us, that they never have seen an adult person who was not so far educated as to be capable of reading, and but few who cannot write.

Primary Schools are established by law, all over Denmark, and are maintained by the parishes. Each parish is obliged to furnish the means of sustaining, within its limits, as many schools as are needed to give all the children within those limits an education. The parishes must erect,

And the stranger who journeys in this country cannot avoid being struck with the great number of schools which he sees as he passes from village to village.

The parishes are required to' pay the salaries of the teachers. This is done in a variety of ways. In the first place, almost every school house has adjoining to it, or at least not far from it, the house of the teacher, together with a few acres of ground which belong to it, and of which the teacher has the occupancy, as a part of his wages. In the next place, he receives a certain quantity of grain, and other productions, from the parish, also as part of his salary. In the third place, he receives sonie money, but in general not a very considerable sum; for the wages of teachers are low in this country, where living is cheap, and where salaries of all kinds are not great. All things considered, perhaps teachers are as well, or as sufficiently paid as they are in any other country in Europe, save Prussia. As a general thing, they pursue the business for life; and certainly no men render more important services to the state than those of them who are capable and faithful.

In all the primary schools in Denmark, the children are instructed in the elements of reading, writing, arithmetic, and the catechism. very many schools, grammar, history and geography, are also taught.

As the primary schools are maintained by the parishes, they are emphatically under the supervision of the pastor of the parish, who is required to see that suitable religious instruction be daily given to the children.

Normal schools, where teachers are educated, exist in different parts of the kingdom, and greatly contribute to elevate their qualifications and their characters, and thus improve the instruction which is given in the primary schools of the kingdom.

As we ascend in the scale, we next come to the Grammar or High Schools of the kingdom. Of these there are in all fourteen. They are situated in the chief cities and towns. They are well endowed in general-almost too much so; for until lately, they have been able not only to give free instruction to all who choose to attend, out also to give them a small premium for attending. At present, the pupils who can afford it, are required to pay something, but the sum is wholly inconsiderable. In these fourteen Grammar Schools we have not included a very celebrated and richly endowed school or academy at Soroe, which is far more elevated in its character than any of the fourteen of which we have just spoken. In all these schools or academies, the Latin, Greek, French and German languages are taught, besides the Mathematics, the Grammar of the Danish language, History, and Natural Philosophy.

There are also public schools of a high order for the education of girls-but we believe that, with few exceptions, the best schools for the education of females are sustained at private expense, as with us. There are private schools in all the cities and large towns for the youth of both

sexes.

[In addition to the above institutions there are two Universities, one at Kiel, and another at Copenhagen. The former has a library of 60,000 volumes, with forty three Professors and teachers; and the latter, a library of 80,000 volumes and thirty six Professors.]

NORWAY.

For a long period a certain amount of education was very considerably diffused in Norway. The practice of the Lutheran Church, in receivng to its communion the youth at the age of fifteen or sixteen years, almost infallibly secured some degree of instruction in the elements of an education.

But the present more efficient educational arrangement dates from the year 1814, when the establishment of a Constitution in Norway infused new life into this as well as every other branch of the public interests. We shall not go into extended detail on this subject. It would only be to repeat much of what we have said in relation to the school system of Denmark. We will merely state, that the parishes are required by law to have schools in sufficient numbers, to have good school houses, and to pay the schoolmasters their salaries. A small poll-tax is paid by every adult person, amounting to about eight cents of our money, to support schools. The householders pay a light assessment for the same object. The salaries of the rectors, as the schoolmasters are called, vary much, according to the different circumstances of the country. Usually each school district has a house for the teacher

adjoining the school; and in addition to his salary in money, pay him in kind, or nature, as it is termed, a portion of the productions of the ground, or other means of their wealth. In general the teachers are enabled, from their various incomes, to live with a good degree of comfort.

The compulsory system of Prussia prevails in Norway. Parents are required to send their children to school a certain portion of every year, until they attain the age, we believe, of sixteen years. And this law, we were told by wellinformed men, is enforced. The consequence is, that few children in Norway are now growing up without receiving a considerable amount of instruction, in reading, writing, arithmetic, the history of the Sacred Scriptures, and the catechism. In many of the schools, perhaps we might say in most of them, especially in the cities and villages, geography, grammar and history, are added to these primitive and fundamental elements of instruction.

For the sparse population of the North, where along many a fiord a few families only are scattered, itinerating teachers are employed, who spend a month in one neighborhood, and a month in another, so that by this,―inadequate, certainly, to accomplish all that is desirable, but yet eminently important, the ability to read and write, and some knowledge of figures, are imparted to the youth in the course of a few years. Were it not for this plan of ambulation on the part of the teachers, primary school instruction would be impossible in many parts of Norway.

Normal schools, for the instruction of school teachers, have been established in several points of the kingdom. In almost every case these schools are in the country, in the vicinity of some chief place, and not in the crowded city or town. This we think to be a decided improvement upon the Prussian and Dutch plans. It is more economical, more congenial to the futute position of the pupils, and more conducive to health. It

SWEDEN.

It is a remarkable fact, that although the Government of Sweden has, until this day, done nothing for the promotion of primary schools, yet it is supposed that it is not possible to find one grown person out of a thousand who cannot read. This statement, it is probable, is somewhat too strong; but there is no doubt that there are very few, comparatively, who do not know how to read, and almost all know how to write. And yet this has not been so much the result of instruction in schools, as at the fire side. Parents have taught their children, and from generation to generation this has been so. They have felt that this was as much a part of their duty, as to provide food and clothing for their offspring. Necessity has also cooperated to bring about this result; for in the sparsely settled portions of the kingdom, it has been difficult, if not impossible, to maintain schools, save upon the peripatetic method which now exists in Norway, and is wholly a modern invention.

This general diffusion of elementary instruction among the people, is justly ascribed to the laudable zeal of Gustavus Wasa and his immediate successors. John III. ordered that the nobleman who was unable to read should forfeit his nobility-a law which exists until this day. And Charles XI., in 1684, required the clergy to see that every individual in their parishes shonld be taught to read. He also made it a law, that no marriage should be celebrated, unless the parties had previously taken the Lord's Supper and that none should partake of this ordinance who could not read, and who was not instructed in religion. The law still stands which requires every one to present himself to the pastor of the parish in which he resides, in order to receive the

sary instruction for coming to the commun

ion table, or for making his first communion, as it is usually called. And, in case he does not, the civil authorities, upon information given by the pastor, may send a constable to bring him? It does not follow, that he will be admitted to the communion immediately upon his presenting himself; but he must present himself for the necessary instruction. All this renders elementary teaching absolutely necessary. No man can bear testimony in a court of justice, unless he has received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper within one year before the time of giving his testimony. All these regulations, however unreasonable some of them are, and injurious to religion, have operated to the universal diffusion of elementary education.

Parish schools are by no means very numerous. Wherever there are lands or funds bequeathed to their support, and in some other places, they exist. In most places they are fixed; and in some they are ambulatory, as in Norway. The total number of these schools is, however, unknown. In the province of Wexio-lan, in eighty six parishes and sub-parishes, there were lately but twenty nine schools of all descriptions, for giving elementary instruction; and yet in that province, out of 40,000 people, only one adult person was found who could not read. It is supposed that one half of the parishes in the kingdom have no schools-the children being taught by their parents at home.

Above the common, or primary schools, there are Gymnasia-twelve or fourteen in numberthough not equal to the best of them, particuwhich answer, in some respects, to our colleges, larly in the mathematical and physical branches.

There are also what are called Trivial Schools, which answer nearly to our High Schools, and exist in a number of the largest cities and towns. In the Trivial Schools, besides instruction in the higher branches of a common Swedish education, the elements of the Latin and Greek languages, and some knowledge of mathematics, are taught.

There are two Universities in Sweden; one at Upsala, and the other at Lund.

There are 47 Professors at Upsula, and 60,000 volumes in its library. At Lund there are 24 Professors and a library of 70,000 volumes.

The Connecticut Common School Journal.
EDITED BY

HENRY BARNARD, 2ND.

Secretary of Board of Commissioners of Common Schools. TERMS.-Fifty Cents per Volume or for twelve numbers of at least 100 pages.

Printed by W. S. WILLIAMS, 184 1-2 Main St. Hartford, to whom all Orders for the Journal may be addressed, post paid.

VOL. IV.

HINTS AND METHODS FOR THE USE OF TEACHERS.

We shall devote this and the succeeding number of the Journal, to such extracts from recent publications, ás seem calculated to be of use to teachers in our common schools. As we have occupied portions of the former volumes, with original and selected articles of a similar character, we shall refer the reader to them in the proper place.

BOOKS FOR TEACHERS.

Every teacher should read, and if possible, possess a few of the best books on education, and especially, of that class which relate to improved methods of school instruction and government.

To the catalogue published in No. 3 of the Third Volume of this Journal, we add the following, which we have received and examined since the publication of that number. AN OUTLINE of the GenerAL REGULATIONS AND METHODS OF TEACHING IN THE NATIONAL MODEL SCHOOLS, (Ireland), Dublin, 1840, pp. 48.

THEORY OF TEACHING, with a few practical illustrations, by a Teacher. Boston: E. P. Peabody.

If our teachers could imbibe the spirit of the lady who wrote this book, if our schools could be filled with teachers with but a tithe of her love of the beauty of the external world, of her lofty conceptions of the true dignity and worth of her vocation, and of her knowledge of the best methods to wake up the spiritual nature of children, our most exalted anticipations of what our common schools might become, would be realized.

THE BLACK BOARD IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. Boston: Perkins & Marvin, 1841.

If the district committees and teachers will read this little work, the former will see that a black board is placed in every school room, and the latter would no longer be iguorant of a few at least of its manifold uses. The publishers deserve great credit for the style in which this little manual is got up.

SLATE AND BLACK BOARD EXERCISES.-This is the title of a work which will soon go to press by the author of an article in the second volume of this Journal," On the Modes of Instruction adapted to Summer Schools." It is much more complete than the above treatise, and will prove the most valuable contribution which has been made to the Teacher's Library for years.

THE SCHOOLMASTER, 2 vols. London.

This work contains some very valuable articles which we shall transfer to our columns. The most valuable portion, however, is republished from the Lectures of the American Institute of Instruction.

DUTCH AND GERMAN SCHOOLS, by W. E. Hickson. London. 1840.

There are many precious thoughts scattered through this work, a portion of which has been republished in this country, in the 66th Number of the Westminster Review. MEMOIRS OF PESTALOZZI, and his Plan of Education, by Dr. Beiber. London.

An abridgement of this octavo volume is all that has been given to the American public. If we could afford it, we

No. 3.

would republish it entire. No person is fit to be a teacher, who is not, by original reflection, or careful study made himself familiar with the Life and Principles of Pestalozzi. WHAT DR. FELLENBERG HAS DONE FOR EDUCATION. London. This little work is understood to be the production of Lady Byron. A notice of it, with extracts, may be found in Littell's Museum, January, 1840. Lady Byron has done the cause of education an immense service by the establishment of the Industrial School at Ealing,

AN ACCOUNT OF THE GLASGOW NORMAL SCHOOL, by Prof. Cunningham. Glasgow.

This account, in a letter to George Combe, has been widely circulated in his Notes of a Phrenological Tour in the. United States. We shall publish it entire. REPORTS ON THE TRAINING OF PAUPER CHILDREN, (England), by Dr. Kay. London. 1841.

If the district schools of Connecticut were taught after methods, and by teachers, one half as good as in the school of Industry at Norwood, according to the Report of Dr. Kay, we should be satisfied. An account of the school referred to, may be seen in the second volume of this Journal, page 262.

EDUCATION FOR THE PEOPLE, by Mrs. Tuckfield. London.

THE EDUCATOR, or Prize Essays. London.

PERIODICALS DEVOTED TO EDUCATION. The following historical notices of the various Educational Journals which have been, or are now, published in this country may not be uninteresting to teachers.

The AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Boston. Published monthly in numbers of sixty four pages octavo. Commenced in 1826, and merged in the Annals of Education in 1831. The set consists of 5 vols.

AMERICAN ANNALS OF EDUCATION AND INSTRUCTION, BOSton. Commenced in 1831, and discontinued at the close of 1839. The set ebraces 9 vols. It was Edited at diffierent periods by W. C. Woodbridge, Dr. Alcott, and other able writers on Education.

The above works were the able pioneers in the cause of Educational improvement. Nearly all of which has been accomplished within the last fifteen years, was first sugges ted through the columns of the Journal and Annals of Education. The above 14 volumes constitute now a valuable series, which all who are interested in school improvement, can read with great advantage to themselves. They should form a part of every Teacher's Library.

The REPORTER AND JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Boston, 1832.

We have never seen but two numbers of this work. The COMMON SCHOOL ASSISTANT, Albany and New York, Edited by J. Orville Taylor. Commenced in 1836, and discontinued in 1840.

This cheap periodical was widely and powerfully instrumental in waking up a lively interest in the subject of common school improvement.

The EDUCATOR, Easton, Penn., Edited by Robert Cunningham; then a Professor in Lafayette College, Easton, and now the Principal or Rector of the Normal School of Glasgow Scotland.

Prof. Cunningham came to this country with the view of establishing a Normal School on a liberal scale, but he found after years of trial, that his views were greatly in advance of public opinion and liberality on this subject.

The Educator was commenced in April, and discontinued in August 1839.

The OHIO COMMON SCHOOL DIRECTOR, Columbus, Ohio, Published by authority of the General Assembly of Ohio, and Edited by Samuel Lewis, Superintendent of Com mon Schools.

The Director was commenced in March, 1838, and was discontinued in November 1838.

It was the first periodical established under State authority, and was highly useful in organizing the new system of Common Schools established in the winter of 1838.

The MICHIGAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. Detroit, Michigan, Edited by John D. Pierce, Superintendent of Public Instraction. Commenced in March 1838, and discontinued in February 1840.

An attempt is now making by the present Superintendent of Public Instruction, to review this publication.

The CONNECTICUT COMMON SCHOOL JOURNAL. Hartford, Conn. Published under the direction of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, and Edited by HENRY BARNARD 2nd., Secretary of the Board.

This Journal was commenced in August 1838, and is now n the fourth year of its age. Although it has been published as dead by some of its contemporaries, and has indeed announced its own expected mortality several times, it still lives, and the Editor hopes during the present winter to add another volume to the three already published. It has been his aim heretofore to publish mainly documents, and articles on Education of a permanent interest and usefulness and it is gratifying to learn in various ways that in this he has not been disappointed.

"Three volumes have been published which contain the most valuable collection of important thoughts, reports, publications and results of experiments on the subject of Common Education, of any publication before this country." Taylor's Common School Almanac for 1842.

"We know of no work, in which so great a variety of information, useful to our county Superintendents, may be found. And although we have drawn freely for our own Journal, yet it will be found to contain much valuable intellignce in regard to foreign systems of education, which will be useful to the deputies, and yet is too voluminous to appear in the columns of the District School Journal." New York District School Journal.

"It (the Conn. C. S. Journal) was a very ably conducted, useful and cheap periodical, but it did not discuss politics, nor theological controversy, nor news; it was full of high moral and practical information relative to the improvesient of Education." Combe's Notes on the United States,

The following publications among others are received at the office of the Connecticut Common School Journal. and are open to the examination of all friends of education. The COMMON SCHOOL JOURNAL; published semi-monthly by Marsh, Capen, Lyon & Webb, No. 109 Washington St., Boston, Mass. HORACE MANN, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Price, One Dollar a year. This Journal was commenced in November 1838, and embraces all the official documents of the Board of Education, and their Secretary. The Fourth Volume commences with January, 1842.

The DISTRICT SCHOOL JOURNAL for the State of New York, published monthly at Albany, and edited by FRANCIS DWIGHT, Esq. Price, Fifty Cents a year,

This Journal was commenced by Mr. Dwight at Geneva, in March, 1840. Under the authority of An Act, passed in

the State, and made it his official organ of communication with the officers and inhabitants of the several districts the publication office was removed from Geneva to Albany in June 1841, where it is now printed by C. Van Benthuysen The SUNDAY SCHOOL JOURNAL, published semi-monthly by the American Sunday School Union, Philadelphia, 146 Chesnut Street. Price, One Dollar a year.

The ILLINOIS COMMON SCHOOL ADVOCATE, published inonthly under the auspices of the Illinois State Education Society, by Edmund R. Wiley, Springfield, Illinois. Price, One Dollar a year.

This Journal was commenced in May, 1841.

The JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION, AND FAMILY AND SUNDAY SCHOOL VISITER, published monthly by the general Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union, New York, and Edited by the Rev. B. O. Peers, and the Rev. B. I. Haight. Price One Dollar a year, paid in advance. The LIBRARY OF HEALTH, and Teacher of the Human Constitution, published monthly by G. W. Laight, No. 1, Cornhill, Boston, and Edited by William A. Alcott.Price, One Dollar a year.

The YOUTH'S CABINET, for Families and Schols, is published weekly at No. 9, Spruce St. New York, and No. 25. Cornhill, Boston, and Edited by N. Sonthard. Price, One Dollar a year.

The CULTIVATOR. published monthly by Jonathan Buel & Co., Albany, N. Y. and Edited by Gaylord & Tucker.Price, One Dollar a year.

The CONNECTICUT FARMERS GAZETTEER, and Horticultural Repository, published once a week by William Storer, Jr. No. 9 Glebe Building, New Haven. Price, One Dollar a year.

The MUSICAL VISITER, published semi-monthly, Boston. Price, One Dollar a year.

HAZARD'S UNITED STATES REGISTER, published once a week, No. 112 Chesnut Street, Philadelphia, and Edited by Samuel Hazard. Price, Five Dollars a year. The COMMON SCHOOL ALMANAC FOR 1842, by J. Orville Taylor, published by Clement & Packard, 180 Pearl St. New York, and sold by Belknap & Hamersley, Hartford, Ct.

TEACHER'S DUTIES BEFORE AND OUT OF SCHOOL.

The teacher should always be in the schoolroom some time before the hour for opening. He may thus prevent many and serious evils which the boys would be tempted to commit if they knew he was not habitually present at that time. He should have one or more boys appointed to oversee in his absence, if he has reason to think he may in any case be detained.

Bad conduct near the school is properly considered as a thing for which the master is in a great degree responsible. He is reasonably supposed to have the power to prevent it; and it will be immediately presumed that the school cannot be well conducted when the children are not restrained within his sight. Irregularity about the school-house will be annoying, and probably injurious to the near neighbors if there be any; and conspicuous from a distance if there be none.It requires peculiar boldness to do wrong near the school; and if permitted, the children will think the teacher feels unable to restrain them.

The teacher should set a good example of neatness, propriety, and order, in habits, manners, and dress. Little faults in these points may produce considerable evils. He should have re

as well as in it. His manners should be friendly and easy, with nothing careless or low. He