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Various Duties of School Officers.

business. Among other things, it directs the studies to be pursued, with the single restraint that the English language must be taught. With this may be taught the German or any other language, at their discretion. The directors are supposed to be discreet men, and their general powers are much enlarged. Accurate records are to be kept, and annual reports made to the district meeting and to the township clerk.

The freeholders in each district are a body corporate, with power, at the annual or a called meeting, to vote taxes for purchasing buildings, and repairing school houses; and in all questions, a vote of the majority present decides the measure.

The township treasurer is also treasurer of the tuition school fund, thus saving to the district treasurers all trouble on that ac

count.

The township clerk is township superintendent, with important duties. He fills all vacancies in boards of directors, and should a board refuse to serve, or in case of no election, he appoints a board; and if the members thus appointed refuse to serve, he goes into the district and discharges all the duty of the board in person-prepares a house, secures a teacher, &c. &c. He takes the enumeration in all the districts, and makes all the returns for the districts to the county auditor; saving to the district officers an immense labor. He is required to estimate the amount of school fund needed to keep schools in all the districts in the township, at least six months in the year; and if the public provision is not sufficient, a vote is taken at the April election, and the people decide whether the additional sum shall be raised by taxes or not.

The county auditors are county superintendents. Their labor is lessened, but their responsibility increased.

The Court of Common Pleas appoint a board of county school examiners, who hold stated meetings for examining teachers. No teacher is allowed to teach in the common school, any branches other than those named in his certificate. This board has important duties to perform, and it is to be hoped that courts will be careful to select active and responsible men.

A State superintendent is appointed, with heavy and responsible labors. He is to publish a periodical six times a year for all the districts, containing the law, with forms for the district, township, and county school officers. He has a general supervision of the school funds and lands in the State; is to collect all information connected with his station, and report annually to the Legislature. It is expected that he will spend some days in each county in the State during the year. Every school teacher is required to keep an accurate journal, and report quarterly to the district clerk.'

Begin early, with Children.

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We have thus presented the prominent provisions of this important measure. It is believed that the law will secure, after next September, schools in every district in the State, for at least six months in the year. And should a majority of a township desire it, they have power by their vote, to raise means to continue the school a longer period.

The responsibility of carrying the law into effect, rests wholly with the people. The friends of the measure have greatly underrated the intelligence of the community, if the work, in future, is not well done.'

PARENTAL AUTHORITY EARLY ESTABLISHED.

(Extracted from Dr Witherspoon's Letters on Education.)

I WOULD recommend to every parent to begin the establishment of authority much more early than is commonly supposed to be possible; that is to say, from the age of eight or nine months. You will perhaps smile at this, but I do assure you from experience, that by setting about with prudence, deliberation and attention, it may be in a manner completed by the age of twelve or fourteen months. Do not imagine that I mean to bid you use the rod at that age; on the contrary, I mean to prevent the use of it in a great measure, and to point out a way by which children of sweet and easy tempers may be brought to such a habit of compliance, as never to need correction at all; and whatever their tempers may be, much less of this is sufficient than upon any other supposition. This is one of my favorite schemes: let me try to explain and recommend it.

Habits may in general be early formed in children. An association of ideas is as it were, the parent of habit. If then you can accustom your children to perceive that your will must always prevail over theirs, when they are opposed, the thing is done, and they will submit to it without difficulty or regret.

To bring this about as soon as they begin to show an inclination by desire or aversion, let single instances be chosen now and then (not too frequently,) to contradict them.

For example, if a child show a desire to have any thing in his hand with which he is delighted, let the parent take it from him; and whenever he does so, let no consideration whatever, make him restore it at that time. Then, at a considerable intervalperhaps a whole day is little enough, especially at first-let the same thing be repeated. In the mean time, it must be carefully

222

How to preserve our Authority.

observed, that no attempt should be made to contradict the child in the intervals. Not the least appearance of opposition, if possible, should be found between the will of the parent and that of the child, except in those cases, when the parent must always prevail.

I think it necessary that those attempts should always be made and repeated, at proper intervals, by the same person. also better that it should be by the father than the mother, or female attendant; because the latter will necessarily be obliged, in many cases, to do things displeasing to the child, as in dressing, washing, &c.; which spoil the operation. Neither is it necessary that they should interpose, for when once a full authority is established in one person, it can easily be communicated to others, as far as it is proper. Remember, however, that the mother or nurse should never presume to condole with the child, or shew any signs of displeasure at his being crossed; but on the contrary, give every mark of approbation, and of their own submission to the same person.

This experiment frequently repeated, will, in a little time, so perfectly habituate the child to yield to the parent whenever he interposes, that he will make no opposition. I can assure you from experience, having literally practised the method myself, that I never had a child of twelve months old, but who would suffer me to take any thing from him or her, without the least mark of anger or dissatisfaction, while they would not suffer any one else to do so, without expressing the bitterest complaints. You will easily perceive how this is to be extended gradually from one thing to another, from contradicting to commanding. The parent who would preserve his authority over his children, when he has once acquired it, should be particularly watchful of his own conduct. You may as well pretend to force people to love what is not amiable, as to reverence what is not respectable. A decency of conduct, therefore, and dignity of deportment is highly serviceable for the purpose we have now in view.

Lest this, however, should be mistaken, I must put in a caution that I do not mean to recommend keeping children at too great a distance, by a uniform sternness and severity of carriage. This, I think, is not necessary, even while they are young; and to children of some tempers, it may be hurtful when they are old. But by dignity of carriage, I mean the parents' always showing themselves cool and reasonable in all their conduct, and prudent and cautious in their conversation with regard to the rest of mankind; not fretful, nor impatient, nor passionately fond of their own peculiarities; and

Commanding Children—not begging of them.

223

though gentle and affectionate to their children, yet avoiding levity in their presence. I would have them cheerful, yet serene. Their familiarity should be evidently an act of condescension. That which begets esteem will not fail to produce subjection. Every expression of affection and kindness to children is proper when it is safe; that is to say, when their behavior is such as to deserve it. There is no opposition at all between parental tenderness and parental authority. They are the best supports of each other. It is not only lawful, but will be of the greatest service, that parents should discover the greatest fondness for children in their infancy, and make them perceive distinctly with how much pleasure they gratify all their innocent inclinations. This, however, must always be done when they are quiet, gentle and submissive in their carriage.

Some have found fault with giving them for doing well, little rewards of sweetmeats, playthings, &c., as tending to make them mercenary; but this is refining too much. The great point is that they be rewarded for doing good, and not for doing evil. When they are cross and froward, I would never buy peace, but force it. Nothing can be more weak and foolish, or more destructive of authority, than when children are noisy or in ill humor, to give or promise them something to appease them. When the Roman Emperors began to give pensions and subsidies to the northern nations to keep them quiet, a man might have foreseen, without the spirit of prophecy, who would be masters in a little time. The case is exactly the same with children; they will soon avail themselves of this easiness in their parents, and command favors instead of begging them, and be insolent when they should be thankful.

The same conduct ought to be uniformly preserved, as children advance in understanding. Let parents try to convince them how much they have their real interest at heart. Sometimes children will make a request, and receive a hasty or forward denial; yet upon reflection, the thing appears not to be unreasonable, and finally it is granted; and whether it be right or wrong, sometimes by the force of importunity, it is extorted. If parents expect either gratitude or submission for favors so ungraciously bestowed, they will find themselves egregiously mistaken. It is their duty to prosecute, and it ought to be their comfort to see the happiness of their children, and therefore they ought to lay it down as a rule, never to give a sudden or hasty refusal; but when any thing is proposed to them, consider deliberately and fully whether it is proper, and after that, either grant it cheerfully or deny it finally.

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A Beautiful Theory.

HOW TO SECURE UNIVERSAL EDUCATION.

[THE bearing of the following article, extracted from the 'Christian Advocate and Journal,' of New York, on the subject of Universal Education, will, we think, be obvious. We present it, without note or comment.]

'There is a beautiful theory, based upon the doctrine of human equality, which contemplates every man as the performer of his own labor. By distributing the whole amount of labor necessary for human happiness, among all who come in to share in its results, it proposes to take away a part at least of their time for idleness, from all who indulge in it, and to extend to all who are deprived of them, opportunities for leisure and mental improvement. It does not interfere with the division of labor into distinct departments, by which every man has his peculiar occupation. Nor does it regard nothing as labor which is not performed by the hands.

Labor of the mind is as necessary for the well-being of society, as labor of the body. Its chief difference from other systems of political economy, consists in its not regarding wealth as the great object of labor and of life. It looks upon all men as having interests other than pecuniary-higher and more sacred interests-which demand some part of every day's attention.

Facilities for securing these, it would offer to all. It sees no justice in any man's so overworking himself or his laborers, as to unfit them for mental and religious improvement. And it severely reprobates that policy by which hundreds and thousands are confined to unremitting service in the sickly atmosphere of manufactories, shutting out from them every thought of intellectual elevation, all for the sake of enriching the lordly few,' who abound in splendor and idleness.

·

It would by no means discountenance or hinder improvements in art, which seem to have become almost dependent on the monopolists by whom, in so many cases, they have been brought forward, lest it would rather accelerate invention by calling into activity that mass of intellect which is now chained down to the monotonous jar of machinery, without knowing a principle on which it acts. It proposes to equalize the benefits arising from discoveries in nature and in the arts, not among speculators, but by conferring their results upon the world in reducing the amount of manual, labor, and increasing the time for intellectual and moral. It would see mechanical invention turned to the advantage of operatives, in furnishing them leisure and facilities for improvement, instead of diminishing their wages, and making