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OUR 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS: 
 
 THEIR WANTS. 
 
 gin €nm, 
 
 BY GKOEGE BABITfGTON KTJjIOTT, 
 
 Graduate of McGill Normal School, 
 
 Contributing Editor Mainland British Columbian " Guardian," and Special 
 
 Ontario Correspondent of various Provincial Papers. 
 
 Formerly Professor of Mathematics and English in St. Paul, Minn., High School. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 
 PRINTED BY WM. LIGHTFOOT, 55 YON(iK STIILIET. 
 
 1872. 
 

 T) B D 1 C A T 1 O N 
 
 Dear Sin, — 
 
 1 have token the liberty of dedicating this and its successor 
 to yon. I have no other excuse to otter than that of an earnest anxiety 
 in tlxe advancement of the popular cause. 
 
 If you do not concur in the opinion thai the wh<.le system of Public 
 Instruction is wrong, no matter where pursued, you will at least tulniit 
 that Primary Instruction is sadly defective : that so long as par»;nts are 
 allowed tt) withdraw their children from the school-house upon every little 
 pretext of necessity, that we can never have very efficient primary training, 
 and hence our structure becomes defective, and our objects partly defeated. 
 
 I see no remedy except compulsion. The virord is not agreeable, but 
 its adoption for the spread of knowledge ought to b(; deemed an extt'usion 
 oi freedom instead of a contraction. 
 
 I am yours educationallj , 
 
 GEO. BABINGTON ELLIOTT. 
 
 To JAMES HODGSON, Esq., 
 
 Inspector Public Schools, Yorkvillo. 
 ToTioNTo, July 15, 1872. 
 
 'im 
 
 
f^mm^mfmmmmm 
 
 i 
 
 II I 
 
ONTARIO PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 Probably at no time since the organization of Provincial 
 Government has the great idea of popular education tal<eii so 
 deep a hold of the public mind as at the present. The beai'ings 
 of intellectual and moral culture upon the social well-being are, 
 to a considerable extent, understood, and the necessity of a 
 thorough system of universal education — one tiiat shall reach 
 the entire masses, and carry an elevating force to the lowest 
 conditions of society — is almost universally conceded. The <i iity 
 of the Government to make available every possible resource for 
 this purpose is recognized; while the histoiy of le:.',isliilio!i in 
 our Province shov^^s that the foundations of our l*u!>iic School 
 system have been laid with more lilwrality than wisdom. 
 
 And, as the superstructure rises in nKiJcstic and comely jwo- 
 portions by the untiring labors of those devoted to the w(M'k, 
 the question meets us at every stage of advancement — What 
 modifications are necessary to meet the constantlv increasing 
 and cumulating wants? For here, as in every great rol'oi tnatory 
 movement, the steps of embarrassment are driven on i>y i he ever 
 pursuing forces of necessity. We stand to-day upon a j»erio<l of 
 enlightened and expansive benevolence; but the stream widens,, 
 deepens into an unexplored sea, wliere new duties and nobler 
 sacrifices await those who reach its iroublod waters. 
 
 The great question for us is not so much what tbe future may 
 demand, as what is the present need — what changes in oin- soliool 
 
 W 
 
 e pui'|)ONe 
 
 system are demanded by present developments? 
 briefly to give an answer to these inquiries. 
 
 First, we remark, that frequent changes in any sysiiMu, wlic- 
 ther the result simply of custom or of legal enac-tnu^nl, are 
 always to be depj'ecated, even thougb such changes may intro- 
 duce desirable moditications. Better submit to inconvenient 
 
 *' 
 
 
(6) 
 
 I- 
 
 '■ I 
 
 I 
 
 ■I 
 
 enactmcntH than to endanger the success of the whole system by 
 unstable and capricious legislation. 
 
 Our system of Public Schools is so intimately connected 
 witli all of the interests of society, that any attempt at its revi- 
 sion should be made with great caution, aud the most enlight- 
 ened experience and well developed principles be brought into 
 re({uisition. : , , 
 
 There seems to be an impression in the minds of many earnest 
 educators in the Province, that the whole system of public 
 instruction is wrong — not only that the subjects presented are 
 too numerous, but that the text books are not at all adapted to 
 the conditions of the Public Schools. 
 
 As one model after another is brought forward for public 
 consideration, the impression is forced upon the mind that these 
 reforms depend for success upon the machinery of education as 
 well as upon the power which set it in motion. The laws which 
 govern the distribution of forces in physics should not be over- 
 looked in ethics ; and evils should not be ascribed to defective 
 machinery when there is a want of power to set it properly in 
 motion. 
 
 Our Public Schools extend over the entire Province. From 
 the great centers the ramifications run to the entire border, and 
 into the lour thousand school-houses scattered along these 
 branches are the children of the Province gathered for instruc- 
 tion. Now it is here, at these extremities — upon these primary 
 fountains^ — that agencies must be applied which shall send an 
 invigoratng and elevating force throughout the whole. It is in 
 vain to expect that power, howxvcr strongly applied to the 
 great centers, will traverse, unim])aired, the entire system, or 
 even prcjduce most desirable results in the imnicdiate proximity. 
 The best possible result will be a disproportionate development, 
 while the remote parts will become enfeebled by the extraction 
 of existing vitality. No error is more fatal to the interests of 
 univ(u*sal education than the attempt to sustain local institutions 
 tor privileged classes, and no more injudicious application of 
 public funds can be made than to lavish them upon such institu- 
 tions whose self-sustaining power is always sufficient for their 
 support whenever its necessity demands their existence. 
 
 Nor do we believe the opinion correct which places the Uni- 
 versity. College and Academy, first in the list of agencies em- 
 
 cl 
 
 be< 
 wic 
 cai 
 
 [ra 
 
tern by 
 
 inected 
 tb revi- 
 mlight- 
 rht into 
 
 earnest 
 
 public 
 
 filed are 
 
 apted to 
 
 • public 
 lat these 
 ation as 
 kTs which 
 be over- 
 lefective 
 )perly in 
 
 3. From 
 rder, and 
 ng these 
 r instruc- 
 > primary 
 1 send an 
 It is in 
 ed to the 
 ystem, or 
 iroximity. 
 elopment, 
 extraction 
 iterests of 
 istitutions 
 ication of 
 ch institu- 
 for their 
 :e. • ■'-'-'■ 
 s the Uni- 
 mcies em- 
 
 (7) 
 
 ployed in the great work of education, especially when we 
 consider the fact that not more than one-tenth of the great mans 
 of mind can ever be brought under their influence. We cannct 
 subscribe to the doctrine advanced in the last report of Superin- 
 tendent Ryerson, which is substantially as follows: — In order to 
 realize this whole idea in a provincial s^-stem, the Academy must 
 be tirmly coupled with the prin\ury school, the University must 
 form a thorough connection with the Academy. Is this really 
 to be our position ? Is this our great system of Public Schocds 
 published to fame ? The tendency is to reduce us to a mere de- 
 pendency upon local institutions, richly endowed, and manifest- 
 ing strong centralizing tendencies, but which is barely able to 
 lift up its own unwieldy proportions. We cannot accept the 
 position at this progressive day. We claim for our Public 
 School system entire independence of any local institution. It 
 must be the foundation upon which all other educational struc- 
 tures rest; and while we admit the connection of higher insti- 
 tutions, we demand that the elevating force be here applied. 
 It must be vis a tergc — the engine must be placed at the other end 
 of the train — and the power thus applied will move the whole 
 superstructure forward and upward, svvee])iiig from its pnthwaj^ 
 the numerous local and partial institutions, and communi'-aling 
 an impulse to the Colleges and Universities they have never felt. 
 Such has been the result in other places. Public lligli Schools 
 hfve supplanted Private Academies, and Colleges have raised 
 their standard of qualitication for the admission of pupils. 
 
 We wish not to be misunderstood. We wage no warfare 
 against any educational institution. Let ju'ivate muniticence 
 seek such modes of manifestation as shall be desired ; we only 
 claim that public funds should be appropriated for the highest 
 good of the masses. 
 
 No truth is more evident than that successful reform must 
 begin with the primary schools. Here the foundation must be 
 wisely laid, and no future emliellishment of the uprising structure 
 can supply the defects of an insecure and unstable basis. 
 
 The deticiencies in primary culture can never afterwards be 
 supplied. All the care and skill of the academic teacher can 
 never wholly eradicate the evils of an improper primary 
 training. _ . 
 
 
 ii 
 
(8) 
 
 IM 
 
 ' 
 
 \\ 
 
 ■1. 
 
 ! 1 
 
 il 
 
 We purpose to review the present system from a teacher's 
 standpoint. Our experience enables as to enter into a comparison 
 involviiii;- the system of no fewer than fourteen States of the 
 American R<'i»ublic, together with the schemes, for they can 
 hardly he called ''systems," of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, 
 Quebec, Newfound land and Prince Edward Island. 
 
 Let us place ourselves in the Queen City. In the basement of 
 a larue two-story brick building is a large school-room, crowded 
 with cliildren of from four to eight years of age. The walls of 
 the room, not remarkably high, of course, for 'tis the basement, 
 are liung with two or three tattered maps, charts or pictures, 
 a) id u small black-board, innocent of chalk marks, hangs behind 
 the teachers desk. Besides these, not a solitary piece of appar- 
 atus oi- appurtenance of education of any kind can be seen. 
 
 Place yourself in imagination in this scliool-room ; watch the 
 teacher as she calls up her classes one by one, and goes through 
 tli(5 important facts that certan hieroglyphics are called by cer- 
 tain names, as a, b, c, &c. ; that certain combinations of these char- 
 acters are called by certain other names, as " cub," " man," and the 
 like; that certain combinations of these latter names, as two and 
 three, for example, are called by still other names, as five, six, &c. 
 But if you wait to see the children receive any idea from all 
 this, I tear you will wait long and get very little satisfaction. 
 Wof'ih arc [plentiful . but ideas or material representations of 
 names vo-y few. 
 
 IjoA Us as<^eiid to the upper story. Here we lind a spacious 
 air}' room. hands<;nu^!y and conveniently furnished. The walls 
 are covered with ma})s, charts, pictures, or black-boards. Closets, 
 shelves, oj- taltles, are loaded with all the apparatus and appli- 
 ances a teacher can desii-e, for carrying on the work of education. 
 The room is syiarsely tilled with pupils of from ten to twenty 
 years of age. The desk accommodation is ample and modern. 
 This room is ju'csided over by an a(;tive, capable, earnest teacher, 
 who lalxu-s diligently to interest his pupils in their work, and to 
 push them forward into the higher mathematics and the dead 
 languages. ... > 
 
 I Jjet us change the scene to a rural school-house in any school 
 section, uidimited to any locality. Is it necessary to describe 
 the internal scenwi-y? Should the i-eader be asked to wade 
 til rough the horn s of the Public School, in four thousand of 
 
 -a? 
 
(9) 
 
 icher's 
 )arison 
 of the 
 ey can 
 iswick, 
 
 iiient of 
 rowded 
 walls of 
 semen t, 
 )ictiires, 
 
 behind 
 f appar- 
 
 en. 
 
 atch the 
 through 
 1 by cer- 
 ^ese char- 
 ' and the 
 
 two and 
 3, six, &c. 
 
 from all 
 tisfaction. 
 LutionK of 
 
 ti spacious 
 The walls 
 ,. Closets, 
 and appli- 
 education. 
 to twenty 
 id modern. 
 jst teacher, 
 ork, and to 
 id the dead 
 
 any school 
 to describe 
 3(1 to wade 
 tliousand of 
 
 which there is Ji perpetual ^ameness, ami i hat a dreary monot- 
 ony as deadly in its ctlocts to the mental strength as carbonic 
 gas is to the physical. Xoav and then we find a man, possessing 
 some talent and skill as a teacher, em])l<)yed in urging forward 
 the older and more advanced pupils, while he scorns and neglects 
 the abcedarians as beneath hi> notice. 
 
 Are not these faithful pictures? Do yon not recognize in 
 them the representative school of the town and t)f the country' ? 
 If 3'ou inquire for the result of this teaching, you will learn that 
 children who have read scores of schcol-reader.-;, containing a 
 large amount ;)f information, common and uncommon, have Jio 
 real knowledge of the thi'm/s they have read about. Children \vho 
 have "gone through geography," as the phrase is, }et cannot 
 describe the source, flow, and discharge of the nearest spring- 
 branch ; who can do every sum in arithmetic, yet In the counting 
 house are non-plussed at the tlrst settlement of accounts ; v,'ho have 
 learned by heart ever}' ]irinciple of grjimmar, yet cannot write 
 a page without a grammatical blunder, h is not that these sub- 
 jects are difficult, but the child has never been taught to obserre, 
 to express, his knowledge, and to apply it to the reality of life. 
 Tlie words of books may have Itecome familiai*, but the laniiuaii'e 
 of books has not been learned, simi)ly because no language can 
 be learned till the things, acts, and I'clations it rejire'cnts, cnn 
 be learned. iOvery where we find the younger children^ whose 
 ])lastic minils are so ready to receive im])ressif)ns — Avho could >o 
 easily, under wise and earnest teacher^, be led into virtuous 
 ways, and whose faculties could so readily be trairied and nuide 
 fit to receive instruction in the sciences, crammed with hard 
 words that stultify their intellects, and inured to vicious habits 
 of mind, body and heart, tha'. no amount of care, skill and talent, 
 on the jiart of the teacher of the higher school, can wholly irra- 
 dicate, but which (.leiiiand liis most ]iaticnt and ])erseverin"' 
 efforts in abating before he can fairly begin to teach ; whi' ■ in 
 the more advanced sclutols for the older ]iU]uls, who are supp( ^ed 
 to be able to think jjbstractly, material representations are some- 
 times furnished in abundance. 
 
 New, does it not occur, as we v/itness the increasing efficiency 
 and .excellence of the higher schools, to doubt the consistency 
 and \ isdom of this distribution of favors? We are awai'e that 
 the necessity of more efficient primary schools is no new idea. 
 
 I* 
 
i 
 
 f 
 
 
 'ii 
 
 (10) 
 
 We know that the eniph^yment of the best teachci-s in snch 
 schools has l)een iirujed, not only by philosophers and theoretical 
 et'ueators, but by many of the l)est practical teachers; Imt we 
 know also that the idea is extremely slow in beini;' ap;:reciated 
 and carried out by the ])eople. The mass of parents are not en- 
 liLChtened on such subic-cts. Verr manv mothers wish to make a 
 iuirserv of the school-room. They .'•end tlieir children to school 
 to be rid of tiiem, Their greatest care is .diat they iShall be kept 
 out of harm as lon<jj as possible, and they are apt to think that 
 any body can teach a primary scliool. 
 
 These sentimenis and desires, considering; that most parents 
 have cares enough independent of their children lo occupy them 
 during the day, are natural enough, and not altogether un- 
 reasonalde. Shall wj then contend against them? Can vve not 
 rather, with some moditicati(nis, at leart r-oncur with and provide 
 for them ? Why not nudce school, at least the primary branch 
 of it, more of a nursery, and take younger children, or at least 
 more of the minimum age. The objections to tliis course are 
 good only in our present circumstances, and with such schools 
 as we have; not against schools in the abstract. But are these 
 circumi-tances immutable? Do not these considerations suggest 
 l)oth the need ami direction of reform ? Thei'e is another in- 
 quiry tending to th'-o\\ light on this subject, and to assist in the 
 solution of the problem before us. What is the politico-social 
 condition oi'our peo])le? Do not a few ambitions leaders draw 
 after them the gi'eat mass of men — men who have no minds nor 
 will of their own, but meekly and i)lindly follow the lead of the 
 demagogue, wiio is shrewd enough to talk soft flattery in their 
 ears? Men generally take all truth upon trust. The shrewd 
 and ambitious few take advantage of this fact to impose upon 
 tlieir credulity, and to reduce them to the support of their own 
 sulrtsh purposes. Now, is it for a svant or knowleilge of chends- 
 try, latin, algebra, and the like, that the people are thus easily 
 duped? Will he devotion of means by the Lagislature to the 
 making of scholars of children in their teens be the best method 
 of securing that general intelligeiu'e an<l good sense that 
 would make the nuisses independent of theii self-imposed dic- 
 tators? The encouragement of high sidiools, and the maldngof 
 scholars in them, does not seem to us to effect the dosireil re- 
 sult, The masses are still left in ignorance. Tlie favored few, 
 
 w-i' 
 
(11) • 
 
 whose talents, leisure, or means, enaMe tliem lo reach the hit^h 
 schools, are not at all the proper sul)jects of Provincial care. 
 Thei/ are destineJ for an elevated social ])osit#on. -whatever rnay 
 happen. By aidini^ them we only help to stren^'then the power 
 ofleachirs whom the blind masses follow. Lei the educational 
 energies of the commonwealth be directei into the prinuiry 
 school, and demagoguism, now so fostered by educating the few, 
 must diminish and die out. AVe wage no war against higdi 
 schools, but with the limited means appropriated by the Prov- 
 ince for elucation, it is impossible io make primary schools what 
 they should lie witliout curtailing the expenses of the high 
 schools. Besides, the latter do not so much need leuislative aid, 
 since a much greater jiroportion of those vrho would attend them 
 than of those who attend primarv schools, c;ui afrbrd, and are 
 willing to pay the expense of tuition in private instituti(Mi ; while 
 thousands of young childi-en are wasting their youth in idleness, 
 or worse than Avasting it, in dens of mental and physical disease, 
 because there are no proper schools provided foi* them. The 
 same children, when a little oldei-, cannot be spared from the 
 labors of the farm, the house, and the shop, to go to school ; and 
 if the}^ do go, they are set to the study of sciences I ej'ond their 
 comprehension, l)ecause their unlrainel facnltie-^ have been 
 allowed to waste in their tender infancy. 
 
 The spirit of the School Law, not founded in chiin'tij, but in 
 profound pi'ovincial policy, contemplates the training of rt^/ chil- 
 dren in such wise that the greatest pos.dble numl'cr of them 
 shall l»ecome good citi?.ens; >Jot scholars, nor teachers, nor far- 
 mers, any more than (loctoi's, divines, or luerchants; but mem- 
 bers of the commonwealth, (pialiHe I to perlbrm their ])arts in 
 the m ichinery of society, not merely as voters and government 
 officials — for these are onlv subsidijirv lo the ends of society — 
 l)u.t as men and women, cjipablo, by iheir own good sense, goo;l 
 morals, kindly afl'ections, and skilful hands, of adding something 
 to the general happiness. Of learning in the school-room sense 
 of the word, Very little is necessary; but of the cultivation of 
 the powers ly which we learn a training of the faculties to 
 habits of observation, reflection and independent judgment, and 
 of the muscles to healthy and active usefulness, much moi*e is 
 needed, than is generally accpiired even in the highest schools. 
 
 To ellect such a chango as we propose, not only must the in- 
 
 i ,/ 
 
 -i / 
 
f^mt 
 
 't 
 
 ti! 
 
 ii! 
 
 I I 
 
 (12) 
 
 tiro |>€rsonno] of the instructive profe.-<.'=^ion be changed, but the 
 modus must i>e completely revolutionize.!. 
 
 Society h an organic structure lil^e the human body. Tlie 
 elementary particles of our bodies are arranged in filaments — 
 filaments constitute fibers — fibers, tissues — tissues, organs and 
 a combinati.)n of organs — each adapted to its place and functions 
 — may be said to constitute the human frame. Individual per- 
 sons constitute tlie original element in society'. Of these are 
 formed the lesser circles ; the lesser constitute larger, &c., 
 through various steps and gradations, and all together constitute 
 a nation. 
 
 As in the human system, there are organs whoso functions 
 seem more or less important, and are therefore deemed more or 
 less honorable, 80 in society, there are circles holding positions 
 more or less useful, and consequently are regarded wkh more or 
 less esteem. The honor ascribed to an organ of the body is 
 justly derived from its importance to the physical structure; but 
 the honor ascril/od to a person or circle in society should be de- 
 riveil from two sources: first, from the good accomplished, and 
 secontily, from the difficulties surmounted in securing that good. 
 To those wiio through unwitting chance make great discoveries, 
 or otherwise accom])lish great good without labor, there is often 
 given n\uch undeserved honor ; and also to those wh j perform 
 great feats which are without good, and perhaps evil in result. 
 A youth once received honor because he could stand upon one 
 foot longer than any other person in Greece; but the philoso- 
 ])her replies, "I have a goose that can stand longer than he." 
 Pugilists and warriors — although tl;o philosopher calls them 
 dogs and murderers — often receive the most enthusiastic praise. 
 Ten thousand people rush to the rivers bank to see a man ])lay 
 the fool ui)on a tight rope; and ten times ten thousand shout 
 with cap in air at seeing one throw a triple sommerset upon a 
 (diess-boai'd, because lie is a very great antl successful gambler. 
 But not so with tlie educator: he buys his honor, he earns a 
 name, hu surmounts great difiiculties, and achieves gi-eat good. 
 
 The teacher evidently constitutes an originally designed mem- 
 ber in the social structure; for of all animals man possesses the 
 least mitui-al knowledge or instinct, and infinitely the greatest 
 by cultivation. Without culture he renmins almost a more ani- 
 mal : through culture he may rise almo>t to the dignity of »in- 
 
(13) 
 
 gels. The instructor of youth, therefore, occupies a position 
 originally marked out by the Creator, and this position is of vital 
 importance. It is to the social body what the eye is to man. 
 A nation without instructors is like a man without a mind. 
 The education gives l)ent to youth, and " As the twig is bent the 
 tree is inclined." To Icnow the child is to know the man : to 
 guide the child guides the man : to wish the child is to wish the 
 man — for from youth flow the impulses of old age. The teacher, 
 therefore, is the ongineer who manages the gun that gives direc- 
 tion to the ball. In fact, the world is just what the educator 
 makes it. This holds true, for although the judgment cannot be 
 so changed by education that right in all cases will appear wrong, 
 or truth falsehood, or the opposite, yet the ill taught gives no 
 heed to the dictates of truth or justice, and to the world is as if 
 he were without the knowledge of these principles. So, in truth, 
 as our harve:>t depends on what we sow — our fruit on what we 
 plant — our lives on what we live — the world depends on what 
 we teach. 
 
 But numberless are educators. Every father, everj' mother, 
 every living thing, every rising sun, every star, every breeze, 
 every storm, winter, summer, blossom, good or ill fortune — all 
 are educators. But this is not enough : the teacher must be set 
 apart to accomplish the work that nature and chance fail to do. 
 He must act as pilot; he must make use of all other educators, 
 and turn every stroke to account, as the sailor does the wind, 
 which of itself would surely thrust the ship upon the rocky 
 shore, but, when properly employed by the mariner, always 
 drives to a safe harbor. 
 
 But who is the true teacher ? who are the called ? All are not 
 teachers that occupy the teacher's chair. It does not make a 
 man a general to sit on a general's horse, or a soldier to wear a 
 uniform, or a scholar to bear a diploma. When schools are put 
 up at auction, the rush of voices is almost equal to the shouting 
 of New York omnibus drivers; some cry two shillings, some 
 one, and some will ovc!i keep school for nothing, if they can live 
 by boarding around. Thus the real toachei* is ke])t out of his 
 place, and the rcsil talent tor teaching is buried. 
 
 There is a time when a youth is neither one thing nor the 
 other — neither boy nor girl, man nor woman — .00 proud to act 
 the part of a child, unable to cope with men. These are days of 
 
(14) 
 
 leisure — days of waiting. During this period a 3'outh can afford 
 to sell his +ime for little — for less than would be necessary to 
 meet the demands of sterner 3^ears of life, when come deeper 
 cares and broader interests. To this age of unsettled talents, of 
 undefined principles, and undeveloped faculty, and to that class 
 of talent that can afford to compete with it, we intrust the vital, 
 the immortal spark, that liberty so dear to all — the future desti- 
 ny of all our cherished institutions, and, to a great extent, the 
 present and future happiness of ourselves and our children: and 
 all this on the principle of the poor man's economy, merely be- 
 cause such experience and talent are cheap. 
 
 A cloud of wickedness and the resulting evils continually hang 
 over us; but we perceive not whence it comes: we appear to 
 strive against it, but, as it were, cut off the blaze without putting 
 out the fire — dip out the stream without stopping the fountain. 
 When we feel the rod of oppression, we war against it; when 
 liberty is gone, we fight for it; we mourn over the growth of 
 intemi)erance ; weep over poverty; become excited over the 
 meanness of tattlers, and th clies of slanderers; get mad over the 
 deceitfulnessof evil speculators, and the lawlessness of politicians 
 — yet seek no preventive, nor lay the axe to the root of the evil. 
 Men may play the hypocrite, yet they cannot hide hypocrisy — 
 they ultimately show what they are — what they are educated to 
 be. Character is a thing of development, and of exceedingly slow 
 growth; and what that character is the life w411 show. "From 
 the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Had the cow 
 a lion's teeth she would live on prey; had the gazelle a poison- 
 ous fang it would bite like a viper; nor does a man lie with- 
 out lios in his heart. 
 
 Now, we believe it is universally acknowledged that to train 
 up children in ways of wisdom to pursue happines;; where it can 
 be found, is the most difficult task recpiired of man, except that 
 of self-control. And still the multitude do not see the necessity 
 of seeking talent for that purjwse, and cannot, with any degree 
 of clearness, see the difference between a good and u poor school. 
 The following lines express truly a verj^ common idea of teach- 
 ing, us compared with other occupations: 
 
 A ditcher's a ilitcher, and a tonchor's a teacher ; / 
 
 The one is a worker, and the other a creature : 
 It' the ditch is digged, it's digged, and the water '11 run through it, 
 If the Hchool is teached, it's touched, no matter how you do it. 
 
(15) 
 
 There is a great difference between an image hewn out with a 
 common axe and Power's most celebrated work, and that di Ter- 
 ence is easily seen : and there is no less diiterence between the 
 poorest and the best school ; but the common eye does not dis- 
 cover it. There is a wide difference between brittania and plati- 
 num, imitation and pure gold, though it requires an experienced 
 eye to see it. There is a wider ditterence between a good and a 
 2)Oor school ; and more skill is required to perceive it. A i)low- 
 man once picked up two beautiful stones; he was pleased with 
 botli for their brightness, and preserved them ; but in them saw 
 no special excellence nor any ditl'erence. Years roll away : the 
 farmer's son, with more discerning look, perceives instinctively 
 marks of wealth on one. They are passed to a learned chemist, 
 and are pronounced one a quartz and the other a diamond — the 
 one not worth a dollai-, the other not less than two hundred thou- 
 sand. Thus with the plowman, in diifeience and blindness, do 
 we pick up our teachers, and look upon our schools ; and while 
 riches, true riches, are even in our hands, we are poor. We re- 
 gard quartz and diamonds both as almost equally worthless 
 stones, and generally seek quartz, because it is common and 
 cheap, to occupy places that diamonds only can occupy with 
 profit. As poor rouglt stones are the jjoorest things of earth, as 
 it were, the lowest grade of earthly matter, so the fruits of a bad 
 education fill up the lowest atriita of Hades ; and as diamonds are 
 the richest gems of earth, so the fruits of a good and complete 
 education fill up the highest strata of Heaven. As Hades is be- 
 neath the earth, so are the stones of Hades beneath the stones of 
 earth ; and as Heaven is above the earthy so are the jewels of 
 Heaven above the jewels of earth. Instead of exaggerating the 
 differences between good and bad schools — a true and a false 
 education — we have not, and cannot I'cach them. The fruits of 
 evil training are envy, malice, hypocrisy, lying, thifts, adultery, 
 murders, meanness, poverty, shame, debauchery, drunkenness, 
 insanity, nnuluess, death, antl a home mid terrors and the lilack- 
 ness of darkness, where there is weej)ing and wailing andgnasli- 
 ing of teeth. Ah! says the sluggard and the fool, these are all 
 vain imaginations and figures of s])eech, while, as it were, half 
 the reality is before his eyes. Were I a brute I woukl die with 
 blinders on : were 1 a man I would live with my eyes wide open. 
 
 But, behold the fruits of true cultivation: Kindness, charity, 
 
(16) 
 
 I 
 
 
 love, long-suffcrini,', perseverence, faith and good works, moral 
 and intellectual greatness, riches and honor, hope, purity, life 
 immortal, and a home mid pleasures forever moi'c, and jo>' that 
 eye hath not seen nor ear heard. But all this, in the balances of 
 the materialist and worldl3Mvise, will not weigh with gold and 
 silver. A madman once went to a I'ivcr's bank, fastened his own 
 feet together, pounded his head furiously with a stone, and then 
 threw himself into the deep flowing water. Being rescued, he 
 said he designed to have struck harder, and to have left life 
 enough to destroy himself b}^ falling into the water. ^V^ith the 
 same blind and dogged perseverence do we chase the life of the 
 school ; first fetter it with poverty, and then otherwise circum- 
 scribe its sphere of action till it just knows enough to kill itself. 
 We call a man a fool that buys wooden nutmegs for his own 
 use because they are cheap, and a man insane that destroys him- 
 self by putting out his eyes, that it may cost him nothing for the 
 gratification of sight, or that cuts his palate lest he pay some- 
 thing for appetite. 
 
 It has been said that the teacher has no right to consider what 
 will be for the good of the pupil, because men differ in regard to 
 what good is, that he must teach the letter according to the let- 
 ter of the law. Many are the sympathizers with this notion, and 
 the path of the Public School teacher is so circum>cribed — made 
 HO narrow — that it is vevy generally thought that the fool need 
 not err therein. 
 
 So we look for grapes and find wUd grapes — instead of the 
 educator find the lad that should only hold his candle. The 
 teacher's chair is occupied by those who are guided by no special 
 training ; marked by no natural aptness. In the old world the 
 youth who learns a craft must, under a guide, experiment upon 
 usyless matei-ial. We permit youth, without a guide, to learn to 
 teaeh by teaching; to experiment ujion our children ; to *' teach 
 the young idea how to shoot," while they themselves 3'et aim 
 and shoot with their eyes shut; who feel as much out of place as 
 an awkward boy with his first quill, in his first attempt with the 
 carpenter's adz, or a woman throwing stones. 
 
 Still, monej' thinks such fit to keep school, and engages such 
 to tattoo the immortal face — to stick the immortal soul full of 
 poisoned arrows, ever to fester, and bleed. 
 A man of experience is sought to fit a shoej a skilful man — a 
 
 -•i*-'4, 
 
 ; 
 
moral 
 ,life 
 
 ' that 
 
 cs of 
 
 iiiid 
 
 own 
 
 then 
 
 (I, he 
 
 trained man — to fit a garment for the bo<h^ ; l;ut the young, an lio 
 have merely seen others clothe their mine';-, are deemed able to 
 p'n fig-leaves together to cover the shame of ignorance. Could 
 we but behold the intellect grown up under such awkward, hkii- 
 less guides, we would see a visage branded and tattooed worse 
 than the wild African: it anouUI appear like a wall built by a 
 blind man, or the garden of the sluggard. 
 
 But the true, the real school-master is abroad, and may be 
 found though he walks in other circles, and mingles in other 
 pursuits, and wanders like birds driven from their nests by evil 
 birds. John and Judas appeared alike to tho^e who weighed not 
 with spiritual scales; so men fitted by nature for the various 
 callings appear alike to those who weigh not with the philoso- 
 pher's scales, while they are as unlike as the pebles and the 
 sand. As the machinist prepares each piece, bolt and sci-ew, 
 for its place, so nature adapts men to their various occupations : 
 the shepherd with his crook is at home with his flocks ; the far- 
 mer with his plow; the mechanic with his plane; the merchant 
 with his goods ; the physician with his lancet ; the lawyer with 
 his client; and no less the teacher with his pupil. God has not 
 forgotten that which is most needed. The peculiar natural fit- 
 ness of a teacher appears in a full even organization, and, to a 
 certain extent, he would be adapted to any place ; for he must in 
 measure be able to educate others for every place, and he leaves 
 his own impression upon his charge. Many that hold the teach- 
 er's wand feel and act as much out of place as fishes in air — ha 
 birds in water. They look as anxiously tor the end of a term iis 
 an ill child for the end of a weary night. But diffidence in thv», 
 school-room, weariness of teaching, and ill success in the cidling, 
 do not always foreshadow a lack in natural gilts. Nature's song- 
 sters do not all sing, nor her musicians all play upon instruments. 
 All must be taught. 
 
 We ciinnot here enter into an argument to show the necessity 
 of more training schools for teachers. All the training schools 
 in the world cannot make a teacher. Nature furnishes the ma- 
 terial. It is the duty of Art to select and improve it. 
 
 In addition to natural and acquired qualifications, there should 
 bo promoted that interest in the cause — that love for its advance- 
 ment — which is engendered by a dedication to the calling: thus 
 
 i r 
 
(18) 
 
 n 
 
 j i 
 
 ^ !: 
 
 1 * 
 
 vrc would i^ocure a new profession, which at least should be equal 
 to, if not in advance of all others. 
 
 In this we ask what we ought to have — not what we expect to 
 obtain at present. Unless we strive we certainly shall not con- 
 quer — unless we labor we shall die as we have lived. We must 
 demand what we need, and get what we can. We do not expect 
 to ascentl like a balloon, with rapid motion; but like the growth 
 of the oak. We are too much oppressed for a sudden reform. 
 AYheii the king is but one, reforms may be rapid ; but when eve- 
 ry inan is a king, reforms and great changes must move on with 
 the mighty tide, and come with the elevation and enlightenment 
 of the pultjic mind. Public opinion is proverbially slow, especi- 
 ally in reforms; but we have no right to hide behind our faults, 
 and make a virtue of sloth. It is our duty to stand in the front 
 ranks, and nasten forward with that persevering spirit which 
 never loiters nor yields till the victory is won. We have exceed- 
 ingly great obstacles to overcome; and if the Prince of the 
 House of Persia withstood the angel one and twenty days, we 
 shall be withstood one and twenty years. As a generation of Is- 
 rael died in the wilderness, so must we wait and die before the 
 promise fully comes. We must commence our work with self- 
 examination and improvement. 
 
 In olden times leaders were if tchers, and teachers were the 
 leaders of the people. In Israel, prophets were instructors; in 
 Greece and Eomc, their great meii. Nations never became ele- 
 vated above their teachers. But the times have changed. The 
 s]iirit of freedom has opened the way to self-culture. The 
 man has a right to the throne who first reaches it. The world 
 to the world lies open, and all men are invited to strive for the 
 ])alm. The swift no longer wait for instructions, and, unless 
 instructors rise with the flight of the world, pupils, by the aid of 
 books, rush up the hill, and leave them in the smoke and fog at 
 the base. Formerly teachers led the people through life, and 
 their ipse dixit was the end of dispute ; but now lads of twelve, 
 who have idled away more than half their school days, often 
 strike out, pass their teachers, and leave them to paddle on in 
 their waicc, while there is no ijjse dexit this side of heaven in 
 whicli thoy deign to aclvuowledge any confidence. 
 
 The people begin to see with their own eyes, and judge for 
 themselves. The more thoy are educated by teachers, by self- 
 
(19) 
 
 culture, and b}^ experience, the more they see tiie emptiness oCa 
 one-sided education — tlie fault of our general s^-istem. TJiov see 
 that teachers often possess little more knowledge or jskiil than 
 those under their charge. Every man and woman, therefore, 
 feels perfectl}' competent to direct; and as none of them, neither 
 patron nor teacher, are competent to ('Irect mi matters of educa- 
 tion, there of necessity, will be as many opinions as peo^jle, and 
 the teacher especially will find himself standing on live coals. 
 
 The people have discovered that he who gathei's together a 
 few elementary pi-inci])les of science : wdio runs as he reads, and 
 reads as he runs : who has digged a stone out of a mountain — 
 hewn a stick of timber — laid up a stone Avail — faced a winter's 
 storm half clad — struggled with want — mashed his fingers with 
 a stone hammer — unnailed his toes wMth a beetle — beeii buried 
 under a load of hay — thrown over the cart wheel into ''le n~ d — 
 kicked by the world, and gored by hard fortune : they ha\c seen 
 a youth thus educated undertake life's battle with the collegian, 
 and Avin the prize. The}' have seen the one strong and vigorous, 
 and the other feeble: the}'- have buried one in the meri<lian of 
 life, the other in gray hairs. They have sec* one every where 
 a i^ractical man, and at home every where ; the other lost if 
 but off his line. They have seen the one kill a bear before the 
 other could bethink himself to run. Jn terrors, and troubles, 
 and billows, and storms, and battles, they have often seen the 
 man schooled in the school of real life and action out-hero the 
 collegian. 
 
 Our colleges, our public schools, and our high schools, must be 
 im^^roved, and our teachers elevated, else the common people 
 will rise above us and tread us down, and we shall neither receive 
 nor merit honor. 
 
 What we do is rarely well done, and what is well done is of 
 little use for want of more. An eye without the pupil is useless ; 
 a single bolt taken from a steam engine might render the whole 
 useless : so a man with a mighty intellect, stored with all scien- 
 ces, is but a wreck. On every side we behold the want of com- 
 pleteness of culture ; and every Avhere the crooked tree tells of a 
 crooked twig. Tattered clothes, shattered walls, and weedy, 
 stony gardens, show ill culture. The imprint of a man in the 
 mud of a ditch, the dens of drunkenness, debauchery, and ill- 
 fame, mathematics and sensuality without sense; heads without 
 
I 
 
 ' 
 
 \i 
 
 i i 
 'I 
 
 III 
 
 
 r > 
 
 (20) 
 
 eyes, and bodies without heads — all shew that youth is not 
 trained in the way he should go. 
 
 Let us cast our eye on the great panorama of the world. Here 
 is a ])icture of shy, lean, haggard poverty, lingering with her 
 ignoble progenitors, sloth, drunkenness, and gluttony — all foul 
 children of an evil school. Here is grim, ghastly, ghostly Dis- 
 ease, nourished by ignorance and evil habits leading the pale 
 horse. Here is a company of giddy youth, full of rioting and 
 profanity, blind with sensuality, contident in the hope of materi- 
 alism, running swift in pursuit of the foolish woman as fools to 
 the correction of the stocks. They know not that the dead are 
 there, and that her guests are in the dej^ths of hell. There are 
 mothers weeping over the erring, and fathers whose gray hairs 
 come down to the grave in sorrow, lamenting the evils that have 
 bereft them of their children, and put out the light of hope. 
 Then among the gloomy crags, in the deep shade in slimy pits, 
 in dark, gloomy hauntod caverns, when closel}^ pursued, tiees 
 the burglar, the incendiary, the assassin. Here they hide their 
 ill-gotten gains, and secrete their implements of wickedness. 
 Here are the tears of the Christian martyrs ; there the blood of 
 patriots ; these ai'e tyrants that tremble over the spoils of the 
 innocent; those half-clad laborers are slaves; here are idolaters; 
 here are tliev that deal in men's souls, and make merchandise of 
 the weak; these are politicians exhibiting to the people large 
 advertisements, bearing upon the outside retrenchment, reform, 
 liberty for all, while upon the inside are a school of tishes, a 
 gold-headed cane, and silver plate. There is a tumultuous mob, 
 and yonder the smoke of a terrible battle ; there horses stand in 
 blood up to their bridles, nnd widows and orphans till the earth 
 M'itli mourning. 
 
 The ancient world tells that what is has been. The rude heaps 
 of crumbling, dingy, time-worn walls, the massive broken col- 
 umns, the moss-covered towers, the ivy-grown palaces, the pyra- 
 mids and fallen idols — tell that myriads sleep who were struck 
 down by the bolts of the Almighty for the very sins that rest so 
 heavily upon us. Each nation that has passed has looked upon 
 its own greatness, and blessed itself with the cheering words — 
 "This kingdom is without end." We cherish the same idea, 
 that we are to become an extraordinary people, whose course is 
 onward and upward without bound, but still the same mighty 
 
 u.| 
 
(21) 
 
 hand rules, and the same cursins^s and blessings are placed be- 
 fore us. The last word of that book of books, that hath stood 
 while nations have been scattered and laid in ruinous heaps, and 
 that, although heaven and earth shall puss away, shall stand, 
 are ominous words. " Behold I will send Elijah, the prophet, be- 
 fore the coming of the great day of the Lord, and he shall turn 
 the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite 
 the earth with a curse." 
 
 Considering these things, what is befitting ? Can a people be 
 moved that these truths will not move ? Is there motive enough 
 in all this to arouse us ? To whom shall we intrust our children ? 
 To whom our happines, our homes, our liberties, our institutions, 
 our lives, and our new nation ? If there is a wise man on earth 
 let him be sought for an educator of youth ! 
 
 We doubtless feel the heavy burden that rests upon us. In 
 our experience we have learned that children care but little for 
 their own elevation : it is not in the nature of things that they 
 should. We have seen, too, that parents care but little : for if it 
 is true that men go where their hearts are, it can be no less true 
 that parents' hearts are not in the school-room. Again, we have 
 learned that those who liv« among us — who are neither parents 
 nor guardians — care only to see the gulf that, as they say, 
 swallow up their riches, swept away. Again, therefore, we say, 
 that we must apply ourselves to self-examination and self- 
 improvement. 
 
 The teacher must be a physiologiist, that he may prune the 
 youthful stalk and ward off disease, and cultivate vigor and life 
 in the clay-house of the soul. It is his duty to give his pupil a 
 knowledge of the demands of the physical nature, and send him 
 out of the world not a decaying skeleton, but a man, reposing in 
 strength and symmetry. We are too apt to pursue one motive 
 or idea to the neglect of the others; but this leads to insanity — 
 so doing, we pursue the way of the monomaniac. One nation 
 cultivates merely the animal, another the mental, while indeed 
 few individuals even have equally develoj)ed the animal, mental, 
 moral and spiritual. All experience shows that as a body with 
 out a head, a head without an eye, or an eye without a pupil, so 
 is man deprived of any of his component parts. 
 
 The teacher must be a metaphysician, and, as far as possible, 
 understand the length, breadth, and depth of the intellect, and 
 
(22) 
 
 is > 
 
 ill 
 
 ,l i 
 i» ! 
 
 
 
 the hidfleii powc 's of the 80ul. He must understand human na- 
 ture, and the human character. How can a man build that 
 which he does not comprehend, or cultivate that whose nature 
 he does not know ? We would not trust a child to manage a 
 steam-engine, because he lacks in judgment, and knows not the 
 power and action of machinery. We would not trust a " land- 
 lubber" with the helm of a ship in an ocean storm, for his want 
 of knowledge; but the child can as well guide the engine, and 
 the land-lubber the ship, as the untutored mind the mind. 
 
 Every teacher should be a moralist and theologian, and possess 
 a heart in which morality — pure Christian morality — is estab- 
 lished in the love and fame of the Omnipotent. The school that 
 is wanting in the influence of such a heart, is without the vital 
 spark. We ask not for sectarianism — it is the bane of true mo- 
 rality and religion. Neither do we ask for that moral instruc- 
 tion or religion that comes in the cold formal prayer. It is that 
 religious morality which acts in every action, breathes in every 
 breath, lives in every life — that which from its abundance in the 
 heart flows in every vein, and lends its sweet and benign influ- 
 ence all around — that should adorn the teacher's instruction : 
 nor should the Word of God be misapplied. Let Nature speak 
 in her thousand ways, and let the teacher be her interpreter. 
 
 Thus we have said sufficient for the Theory of Education. Let 
 us be excused for dismissing this, and taking up the Practice as 
 jjursued in our Public Schools, the text books, the system, and 
 the various vexata questio to which they give rise. , 
 
 If a few weak-minded teachers have condemned us against the 
 sacrilege of criticising the system, ice do not apivehend the result.