330 The Pennsylvania Schools. EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. The Fourth Annual Report on the Common Schools, Academies and Colleges of Pennsylvania, by Mr Burrowes, the Superintendent, is a document of great interest, (says the Sunday School Journal) prepared with great labor and care. It shows that the system of common schools which went into operation three years ago, was skilfully devised, and will fulfil the best wishes of its advocates. In addition to the primary and secondary common schools, the superintendent recommends institutes for the education of teachers, which would elevate the profession in efficiency and respectability. We were much impressed by the liberal views of this functionary in regard to the profession of teaching. He would have teachers liberally paid; and aims to place their profession among the most honorable in the community. Instead of fixing a maximum compensation which the pay of teachers should not exceed, he advises the Directors of the schools to establish, by all means, a respectable minimum, less thau which they should not in any case give the teacher of a full primary district.' The Report contains the following just sentiments on an evil we have long perceived, and have wished for a remedy. A most unjust difference prevails, in some counties, between the salaries of male and female teachers. The latter, though possessing equal, if not superior qualifications, are generally forced to be content with a third of the amount paid the former. This should not be. The fact is undeniable, that in the same number of male and female teachers, the greater portion of incompetency will be found among the males. 'The whole number of districts (townships, boroughs and wards) in the State, exclusive of the city and county of Philadelphia, and the city of Lancaster, as near as can be ascertained, is now 1,001; of these, 765 have accepted the terms of the law, and either have schools actually established under the system, or are providing for them. There were 4,089 primary schools taught in the districts which had made reports. The average number of scholars in each was about 42, the whole number taught during the year 182,355, at an average cost of 42 1-2 cents per month for each pupil. The whole number of young persons between five and fifteen years of age in the districts reported, is supposed to be about 200,000. $387,552 76, exclusive of $89,536 51 to Philadelphia, have been paid to the districts for the year. Upon the recommendation of the superintendent, appropriations have been made for ten years to the colleges and academies in the State:$1000 per annum to each college, having four professors and one hundred students; and $500 and $300 per annum, to the academies, according to the number of teachers and pupils. In the State are eight colleges in operation having 790 students. School Childrens' Associations. 331 'As much money,' says the zealous superintendent, as would annually construct half a mile of railroad, given each year to the colleges, and the cost of only one mile of canal, to the academies, will place both on a foundation of permanent security and usefulness. Will Pennsylvania rather increase her wealth, than educate her sons? She has shown, in her munificence to the common school system, that she will not.' EDUCATOR'S INSTITUTE, FRANKLIN. The semi-annual meeting of this Society was held at Franklin, on the 23d of May last, at which seven individuals were admitted to the society as qualified to instruct an English School, according to the requirements of the State. An address was given by the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and several honorary members admitted, &c. It was also voted by the Society to send a copy of the following questions to each of its members within the distance of thirty miles, with a request that an answer, at length, in writing, to at least one of the questions, be transmitted to the Corresponding Secretary, at, or before the next regular meeting; which we believe will be the last Wednesday of September next. 1. Have you been engaged in teaching, and if so, where, how long, &c.? 2. What are the chief discouragements and encouragements at present to the educator ? 3. How can parents be made interested in the success of their schools? 4. How can scholars be interested in their studies? 5. How can the teacher become interested in the good progress of his pupils? 6. Ought emulation in any form to be encouraged? 7. Is compulsion to study, or the learning of tasks, favorable in a moral point of view? 8. Can you suggest any improvement in the teaching of the Alphabet, of Reading, of Writing, of Spelling, of Geography, of Grammar, of Arithmetic? 9. To what extent, and in what manner, ought the Bible, to be made a text book in common schools? VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN. The Annual Report of the School Committee of Portland, for the year ending with March 1838, has been received. It is, as usual, full of interest. We are glad to find these reports so full; and that they point out defects as well as excellencies. We notice in the report, an account of the formation, among the scholars of one of the schools, of an Antiswearing Society. Great as is our abhorrence of this vice, and greatly in favor, as we are, of voluntary associations to put down great national 332 Making Children Happy. sins, we have many doubts of the propriety of encouraging, as the Portland School Committee do, the formation of associations of the kind among the children of Common Schools. CONNECTICUT REDEEMED, This was the title of a brief article in our last number, but it is still more appropriate as a caption to the following paragraph from the Connecticut Observer, of Hartford.—We understand that the Bill referred to, passed the Senate with almost as much of unanimity as it did the House of Representatives. 'The Bill creating a Board of Commissioners for Common Schools, passed the House with only one dissenting voice. The bill provides for the appointment of eight persons, one from each County, who in connection with the Governor, shall constitute a "Board of Commissioners of Common Schools." This Board is to report annually to the legislature the condition of every Common School in the State, the means of popular education generally, and to suggest such plans for the improvement of common schools, and for promoting popular education, as they shall deem expedient. To enable them the better to discharge their duties, the Board are authorized to appoint a Secretary, who shall devote his whole time, if required, to ascertain the condition, increase the interest, and promote the usefulness of Common Schools, and who shall be compensated for his services from the Treasury of the State.' GRAND RIVER INSTITUTE. This institution is located in a pleasant and healthful situation, in Austinburg, Ashtabula County, Ohio. There is belonging to it an excellent farm of 225 acres; one half, at least, of which is under good improvement, and furnishes to the students opportunities for labor in the different departments of agriculture. Students are expected to labor, when the weather will admit, not less than three, nor more than four hours daily; and are compensated according to their power, skill, and industry. Convenient situations for prosecuting different branches of mechanical labor are also furnished to such as are accustomed to the use of tools, and it is designed that the facilities and advantages of an efficient manual labor systein shall be rapidly and constantly increasing. The objects of the institution are mainly to assist in training young men for the gospel ministry, and to benefit mankind by preparing any who enjoy its privileges for vigorous and healthful action upon the mass of mind around them. The building of the Institute will accommodate 75 students. Tuition $15 a year. Board, exclusive of washing, about $1,00 to $1,25. Notices of Books. 333 NOTICES OF BOOKS. HINTS FOR THE YOUNG, on a subject relating to the health of body and mind. Boston: Weeks, Jordan & Co., 1838. pp. 60. Some portions of this work have already appeared in the form of essays, in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. The author, however, the worthy Superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane at Worcester at the request of many friends of education, has at length consented to present them in a more popular form, for the benefit of parents, teachers and youth. In consenting to the publication of this little manual, Dr Woodward has rendered a great public service. The evil to which he alludes is far more common and destructive than is generally supposed. Thousands believe, or feign to believe, that Mr Graham and others, have either unintentionally or with design, exaggerated it. We hope the work before us will serve to convince—if aught can do it,' — the most skeptical, that it is high time to understand this matter, as it is; and to take such measures in reference to its prevention, as the nature of the case and the circumstances may admit. The closing remarks of Dr W. may give the reader some idea of the general character of the work. 'I have purposely selected a class of most respectable individuals who have been the victims of this vice, because I believe that in our High Schools, Academies and Colleges, the evil is as alarming, or more so, than amongst an equal number of young men in the humble walks in life. I am confident that the sedentary and inactive are more commonly its victims than the laborious and active. The idle, sedentary, and those who pursue light employments, have more frequently come under my observation, and are most likely to suffer serious injury, -young men who congregate together, more than those who labor secluded from associates; students, merchant's clerks, printers and shoemakers, more than those young men who labor at agricultural employments, or active mechanical trades. 'Labor in the open air conduces to sound sleep, and invigorates the physical powers; in this way tends to prevent the practice, and in some measure fortify the constitution against its effects;-at least, the same indulgence will produce less perceptible influence;-but no means will secure any person from danger, for no class of the young is exempt from the most melancholy and fatal results, who are to any extent in the habit of this secret vice. 'I am aware that full credence is not given by all to the extent of the evil which results from this cause. My own knowledge is almost ex clusively derived from observation. I was not sensible of the extent and universality of the practice, nor of the disastrous effects which followed from it, till circumstances placed me in the way of extensive experience. For the last four years, it has fallen my lot to witness, examine and mark the progress of from ten to twentyfive cases daily, who have been the victims of this debasing habit, and I aver, that no cause whatever, which operates upon the human system, prostrates all its energies, mental, moral and physical to an equal extent. I have seen more cases of idiocy from this cause alone, than from all the other causes of insanity. If insanity and idiocy do not result, other diseases, irremediable and hopeless, follow in its train, or such a degree of imbecility marks its ravages upon body and mind, as to destroy all the happiness of life, and make existence itself wretched and miserable in the extreme.' THE HAWAIIAN SPECTATOR, Vol. I., No. 1. Conducted by an Association of gentlemen. Jan. 1838. Honolulu, Oahu, Sandwich Islands. 8vo. pp. 112. Who could have thought, twenty years ago, that a handsome quarterly of 112 pages, would soon spring up in the far distant isles of the sea? And yet such a quarterly is before us. The following is a list of its principal articles. 1. Introductory Observations; 2. A sketch of Marquesian character; 3. Marquesian and Hawaiian dialects compared; 4. The Oahu Charity School; 5. Female Education at the Sandwich Islands; 6. Account of the Russians in, Kauai; 7. Decrease of Population; 8. Sketches of Kauai; 9. Foreign Correspondence; 10. Phenomena of the tides. The fourth and fifth articles embrace many important facts in relation to the education of both sexes at the Sandwich Islands, and much val uable information in regard to the condition and character of females there. We should be glad, had we room, to transfer several paragraphs from the Spectator to our own pages. It would not be necessary to go farther than Hawaii, if human testimony can ever be relied on, to show that the sins of parents-the physical sins at least-are visited upon children through many subsequent generations; and that no permanent introduction of christianity can be effected, which does not contemplate physical as well as moral and intellectual improvement and elevation; in other words, that we must attend closely to the physical frame and its laws and relations, in every effort at human improvement, renovation, or redemption. THE YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER, or Thoughts on Food and Cookery. By Wm. A. Alcott. Boston: George W. Light. 1838. 16mo. pp. 424. This the author claims to be a work on education, in two respects:~~~ |