INTRODUCTION.

WE shall devote the whole of the first number of this volume, (for 1864,) and a portion of each succeeding number, until we have finished the subject, to a condensed summary of the proceedings of the various Associations, which have been organized in this country on a National or State basis, to advance the cause of education generally, and particularly to give increased efficiency to the profess ion of teaching. We begin with the NATIONAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, the latest formed, and which promises to enlist a large number of American teachers in a work which is peculiarly their own. The nature and objects of such an organization are admirably set forth in the Address prepared by Professor Russell, for the Convention in which the Association originated, and with which we shall introduce the subject-after devoting a few words to its author.

WILLIAM RUSSELL, the early, constant, and able advocate of the professional organization and action of teachers, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1798. Educated in the Latin School and University of his native city, and thoroughly imbued with the spirit and philosophical views of Prof. George Jardine, (author of "Philosophical Education,") he came to this country in 1817, and commenced his life-long work of teacher and educator, in Georgia. In very place and state where he has since lived, he has labored with pen, voice, and personal influence to bring teachers together for consultation and united action. By his "Suggestions on Education," published in New Haven, in 1823, while he was Principal of the New Township Academy, and the Hopkins Grammar School; by his "Manual of Mutual Instruction," in 1826; by the "American Journal of Education," Boston, 1826-9, his advocacy of "Teachers' Associations," before a county convention of teachers at Dorchester, (Mass.,) in 1830, and of "Infant and Primary Schools," in Boston, in the same year; by his "Journal of Instruction," in 1831, the organ of the Philadelphia Association of Teachers, which he projected during his connection with a School for Young Ladies' in Germantown, and afterward in Philadelphia; by his "Lectures on Normal Training,"

in his Normal School at Reed's Ferry, in New Hampshire, and at Lan caster, Mass., since published in Barnard's "American Journal of Education;" by his "Address on the Education of Females," at Andover, Mass., in 1843; by his "Suggestions on Teachers' Institutes," first issued in 1846, and his annual labors and instructions in those eminently professional schools for twenty years past; by his published lectures on "Duties of Teachers," in 1850, on the "Encouragements of Teachers," in 1853, and on the "Organization of Teachers as a Profession," before the New Hampshire State Teachers' Association, in 1849, and the Massachusetts State Teachers' Association, in 1856, and the National Teachers' Convention, in 1857, Professor Russell has done noble service to the cause of American education, and earned the profound respect and gratitude of every American teacher. How touchingly does he allude to himself and his compeers, in the closing paragraph of his address at Philadelphia, in 1857.

"To have dwelt so long on a single point, amid the many to be car ried by the establishment of a national association of teachers, may be pardoned to one who, when he looks round such meetings as the present, in search of those with whom he may most intimately sympathize, finds them few and far between, and all among fellow laborers of forty years' service in the occupation. To himself and his "co-mates" any personal considerations of honor to be derived from the business of teaching becoming an acknowledged profession, can be but small inducement to move in this proposal. To him and to them the lease of active life is drawing to a close. But the sight of so many young and earnest faces, on occasions like the present, with all the bright associations which they suggest in reference to coming years, seems to make it worth while to put forth the hand with what energy is left it, toward the accomplishment of an object in which the prosperity of the future is so largely involved, for the capable and the faithful teachers who are now commencing their professional career."

1858

CINCINNATI

ZALMON RICHARDS.

ZALMON RICHARDS, the first President of the NATIONAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, was born in Cummington, Mass., August 11, 1811. After attending an ordinary District School of the town, until he was fifteen years of age, he enjoyed the instructions, for two terms, of the Rev. Roswell Hawks, in the Academy, which the enterprising citizens of Cummington, had established to meet the demands for a higher education. At the age of seventeen, he commenced his career as a teacher, in a small, but difficult District School in the town of Savoy, where his success was such as to inspire him with a determination to continue his studies through even a college course, and earn the means to meet the expense by teaching a portion of each year. The scanty remuneration paid to teachers in the country towns of Massachusetts, did not allow of much, or rapid accumulation, so young Richards, in addition to his winter's teaching, worked three summers as a mason, to obtain the preparation for entering the Freshman Class of Williams College, in the winter of 1832-3. By teaching every winter in District and Select Schools, and Cummington Academy, he met the expenses of his college residence, and graduated in August, 1836, having maintained a high position in his class, obtaining the prize for elocution during his junior year, and being one of the speakers in the exercises of commencement. During his senior year, he enjoyed the high advantage of the instructions of President Hopkins.

After graduating, Mr. Richards declining other invitations, took the charge of the Academy at Cummington, in which he continued for two years-assisted for a portion of the time, by his wife, he having married Miss Minerva A. Todd, of Chesterfield, Mass., in 1837-a lady of congenial tastes, who was educated in the Female Seminary at Charlestown, Mass., and was, for two years before her marriage, the successful Principal of the Female Academy at Harvard.

In 1838, Mr. Richards became Principal of the Academy at Stillwater, New York, and while there, he conducted the first and second Teachers' Institutes, organized for the county by the County Superintendent. His success in this difficult and delicate work, led to his being employed by Gov. Eaton, Secretary of the Board of Education in Vermont, to take the charge of eleven Institutes, and to his being urgently invited to establish a Normal School in that State.

In December, 1848, he became Principal of the Preparatory Department of Columbian College, in Washington, D. C., in which he continued to labor until 1851, when he established the Union Academy in the same city. Although laboring earnestly and faithfully in his own school, in which he has been greatly assisted by his wife, in the Female Department, he has devoted much time to the Public Schools of Washington, and was chiefly instrumental in organizing the first Teachers' Association in the District, and in establishing and conducting the exercises of the first Institute of the teachers of the Public Schools.