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478

School under a Tree.

NEW INSTITUTIONS.-NEW COLLEGE IN MISSOURI.

We have received the Prospectus of a new College at Columbia, Boone County, Missouri, of which Rev Luther H. Van Doren is to be President, and Rev Robert J. Thomas, and Mr David Dunlap, Professors in the various departments. Connected with the College is also a Preparatory Department, of which Rev E. P. Noel is the Teacher. The course of studies proposed for the former, appears to be thorough; that of the latter consists of those branches which are usually taught in common English Schools.

There has also been lately erected here and elegantly furnished, an InStitution for young ladies, of the most respectable and desirable kind. We rejoice that these Western institutions are continually rising; and hope they will prove as efficient as they are numerous.

THE ABBOT FESTIVAL.

The papers are teeming with accounts of the late festival at Exeter, N. H. The circumstances were interesting, but we dislike these festivals, especially where wine and toasts are introduced; and we are astonished that the good sense of our New England communities should continue to tolerate them. The following is a very brief account of the material facts-dinner, evergreens, processions and fine speeches, of course excepted.

The meeting of the Alumni of Phillips' Exeter Academy, for the purpose of paying a tribute of respect and affection to the venerable Principal of the Academy, Benjamin Abbot, LL. D., who has just completed his fiftieth year of arduous and honorable services in that station, took place on Thursday, 23d inst. (August.)

The total number of students in the school since its formation exceeds two thousand, of whom almost the whole have been pupils of Dr. Abbot -he having become the head of the institution within a few years after it was founded. About four hundred of these students were present upon this occasion. The meeting between the venerable preceptor and his grateful scholars, was exceedingly affecting.'

If we recollect rightly, the venerable Mr Woodbridge—father of the former Editor of the Annals of Education,-was once the principal of Phillips' Exeter Academy. If so, it is worthy of remark that Mr W. also lived to be a teacher, in various parts of the United States, for fifty years. Such instances of longevity in American teachers are rare.

SCHOOL UNDer a Tree.

A late number of the Youth's Friend, relates the following anecdote in regard to teaching the children of the convicts at Botany Bay, in New Holland.

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'An English captain who visited the colony in the year 1837, that there was no school in a place called Adelaide, and that the children were growing up neglected and ignorant. He determined to begin a school, and as there was no room or house for such a purpose, he gathered the children under a shady tree, which was large enough to protect a hundred scholars from the heat of the sun, which is very great in that country. On the branches of the trees he hung the cards, from which he taught the young colonists to spell and read. He taught them also to sing, and very often the whole school would stop their other lessons, and join together in a cheerful hymn. There were several sorts of beautiful birds in the tree, and notwithstanding all the noise that the children made with their lessons and singing, the old birds continued to occupy the nests and to feed their young. What a delightful schoolroom this must have been in a warm day, and how sweet to have the birds singing and flying about the branches, and the little ones, too weak to leave their nests, chirping over the heads of the school!

When this school was well established, the captain obtained a pious woman, the wife of a cooper, to take charge of it, and since that an excellent teacher has been sent from England.

GOOD HEALTH THE RESULT OF EDUCATION.

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In Goodrich's Fireside Education,' at page 76, we find the following important and valuable sentiment. The italicising is, however, our

own.

'It may be supposed that a good constitution is not at the command of the parent. But let him devote his attention to this as a point of duty. as a thing of high interest; let him pursue it with the sagacity, practical good sense, and energy with which he pursues his ordinary business, and, in nine cases out of ten, he will secure his object. The truth is, that feeble constitutions are, in most cases, the result of neglect or mismanagement. The parent, therefore, may usually decide the physical character of his child for life.:

NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The long-neglected subject of Normal Schools, or seminaries for the preparation of Teachers for this country, is now fairly before the community. We hope it will sleep no more till something efficient is accomplished.

We have been led to this remark, by seeing in the papers an account of a meeting of the Plymouth County Association, at Hanover, Mass., on the 3d of Sept. last. The meeting was addressed in the forenoon by Mr Mann, Secretary of the Board of Education, who spoke with much ability on the subject of the special training of teachers, and presented many able arguments in favor of the establishment of Normal Schools.

480

My First School Book.

In the afternoon, a resolution for the establishment of a Normal School in Plymouth County, was ably and thoroughly discussed, by Rev Mr Brooks, of Hingham, Ichabod Morton, Esq., of Plymouth, Robert Rantoul, Jr. Esq. of Gloucester, Rev Mr Putman, of Roxbury, Hon. John Q. Adams, of Quincy, Hon. Daniel Webster, of Boston, and Rev. Thomas Robbins, D. D.; and finally passed by a unanimous vote.

We confidently expect, ere long, says the paper whence we have made this extract and we expect the same-to see Normal Schools in successful operation not only in Plymouth County, but in every county in the State.

MY FIRST SCHOOL BOOK.

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This is the singular title of a new first book for children, published by Perkins and Marvin of this city. At least this is the principal title. The whole title reads thus: My First School Book, to teach me, with the help of my Instructor, to read and spell words and to understand them. By a Friend of Mine.' Appended to the title is also the following motto from Miss Edgeworth. We think that nine tenths of the labor and disgust of learning to read may be saved; and that instead of frowns and tears, the harbingers of learning, cheerfulness and smiles may initiate willing pupils in the most difficult of all human attainments.'

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We are the more interested in this little work, because it is, the very school book which we ourselves have long contemplated; and of which we have given some hints in the former numbers of the Annals of Education; and which in fact we had long ago commenced. Among its leading improvements of the work are the arrangement of the words in families, without reference to their length, instead of grouping them together in an arbitrary manner and the omission of that chaotic mass of fragments of words,' with which the first pages of many spelling books are crowded to no purpose but to perplex, and confound, and disgust the learner.

This book, small as it is, though it may be too good to find favor at first, is probably destined, ere long, to produce an entire revolution in our schools. Without detracting from the merits of other authors and discoverers, we believe we hazard nothing in saying that no school book which has appeared within the last twenty five years-Colburn's First Lessons in Arithmetic and Woodbridge's Rudiments of Geography not excepted, has done so much to bring about a new era in the history of elementary education, as will ultimately be done by My First School Book ;' and we congratulate the teachers on this important accession to their instruments of instruction.

We purpose in our next number to give a more full account of this exceedingly valuable and timely little work.

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