WHAT BECOMES OF ALL THE CLEVER CHILDREN?

From Chambers' Edinburgh Journal.

During a visit to a friend in the country, I was enjoying a walk in his garden before breakfast on a delightful morning in June, when my attention was suddenly arrested by the pensive attitude of a little boy, the son of my host, whom I observed standing before a rosebush, which he appeared to contemplate with much dissatisfaction. Children have always been to me a most interesting study; and yelding to a wish to discover what could have clouded the usually bright countenance of my little friend, I inquired what had attracted him to this particular rose-bush, which presented but a forlorn appearance when compared with its more blooming companions. He replied: "This rose-bush is my own; papa give it to me in spring, and promised that no one else should touch it. I have taken great pains with it; and as it was covered with beautiful roses last summer, 1 hoped to have had many fine bouquets from it; but all my care and watching have been useless; I see I shall not have one full-blown rose after all."

“And yet," said I, "it appears to be as healthy as any other bush in the garden; tell me what you have done for it, as you say it has cost you so much pains?

"After watching it for some time," he replied, "I discovered a very great number of small buds, but they were almost concealed by the leaves which grew so thickly; I therefore cleared away the greater part of these, and my little buds then looked very well. I now found, as I watched them, that though they grew larger every day, the green outside continued so hard, that I thought it impossible for the delicate rose-leaves to force their way out: I therefore picked them open; but the pale, shriveled blossoms which I found within never improved, but died one after another. Yesterday morning I discovered one bud which the leaves had till then hidden from me, and which was actually streaked with the beautiful red of the flower contained in it; I carefully opened and loosened it, in the hope that the warm sun would help it to blow: my first thought this morning was of the pleasure I should have in gathering my one precious bud for mamma-but look at it now?"

The withered, discolored petals to which the child directed my eye did indeed present but a melancholy appearance, and I now understood the cause of the looks of disappointment which had at first attracted my attention. I explained to the zealous little gardener the mischief which he had unintentionally done by removing the leaves and calyx with which nature had covered and inclosed the flower until all its beauties should be ready for full development; and having pointed out to him some buds which had escaped his care, I left him full of hope that, by waiting patiently for nature to accomplish her own work, he might yet have a bouquet of own roses to present to his mother.

As I pursued my walk, it occurred to me that this childish incident suggested an answer to the question asked by Dr. Johnson, "What becomes of all the clever children?" Too often, it is to be feared, are the precious human buds sacrificed to the same mistaken zeal that lead to the destruction of the roses which had been expected with so much pleasure by their little owner. Perhaps a few hints, suggested-not by fanciful theory, but by practical experience in the mental training of children-may help to rescue some little ones from the blighting influences to which they are too often exposed.

The laws by which the physical development of every infant,

during the earliest period of its existence, is regulated, seem to afford a striking lesson by the analogy which they bear to these laws on which the subsequent mental development depends; and by the wise arrangement of an ever-kind Providence, this lesson is made immediately to precede the period during which it should be carried into practice. On the babe's first entrance into the world, it must be fed with food suitable to its delicate organs of digestion; on this depends its healthful growth, and likewise the gradual strengthening of those organs. Its senses must at first be acted upon very gently: too strong a light, or too loud a noise, may impair its sight or hearing for life.

The little limbs of a young infant must not be allowed to support the body before they have acquired firmness sufficient for that task, otherwise they will become deformed. and the whole system weakened; and last, not least, fresh and and pure air must constantly be inhaled by the lungs, in order that they may supply vigour to the whole frame. All enlightened parents are acquainted with these laws of nature, and generally act on them: but when, owing to judicious management, their children emerge from boyhood in full enjoyment of all the animal organs, and with muscles and sinews growing firmer every day in consequence of the exercise which their little owners delight in giving them, is the same judicions management extended to the mind, of which the body, which has been so carefully nourished, is only the outer case? In too many cases it is not. Too often the tender mind is loaded with information which it has no power of assimilating, and which, consequently, it cannot nourish. The mental faculties, instead of being gradually exercised, are overwhelmed: parents who would check with displeasure the efforts of a nurse who should attempt to make their infant walk at too early a period, are ready to embrace eagerly any system of so-called education which offers to do the same violence to the intellect; forgetting that distortion of mind is at least as much to be dreaded as that of the body, while the motives held out to encourage the little victims are not calculated to produce a moral atmosphere conducive either to good or great mental attainments. Children are sometimes met with-though few and far betweenwhose minds seem ready to drink in knowledge in whatever form or quantity it may be given to them; and the testimony of Dr. Combe, as well as of many other judicious writers, proves the real state of the brain in such cases, and also the general fate of the poor little prodigies. Such children, however, are not the subject of these observations, of which the object is to plead for those promising buds which are closely encased in their "hard" but protecting covering; to plead for them especially at that period when the "beautiful red streak" appears; in other words, when, amid the thoughtless sports and simple studies of childhood, the intellect begins to develop itself. and to seek nourishment from all that is presented to it. There exists at the period alluded to a readiness in comparison, and a shrewdness of observation, which might be profitably employed in the great work of education. And here it may be observed, that as to "educate" signifies to bring out, the term education can only be applied with propriety to a system which performs this work, and never to one which confines itself to laying on a surface-work of superficial information, unsupported by vigorous mental powers. Information may be acquired at any age, provided that the intellectual machinery has been kept in activity; whereas, if the latter has been allowed to rust and stiffen from disease, the efforts of the man-supposing him to have energy

sufficient to make an effort to redress the wrongs done to the boy, will in most cases be vain. That self-educated men are the best educated is a trite remark; so trite, indeed, that it frequently falls on the ear without arousing attention to the apparent parodox which it contains; and yet there must be some reason well worthy of attention for the fact, that so many who, in early life, have enjoyed advantages, have, on reaching manhood, found themselves surpassed by others who have been forced to struggle up unassisted, and in many cases surrounded by apparent obstacles to their rise. It is obvious, that the point in which the latter have the advantage, is the necessity which they find in exercising their own intellectual powers at every step; and, moreover, for taking each step firmly before they attempt the next; which necessity, while it may retard the rapid skimming over various subjects which is sometimes effected, gives new vigor continually to the mind, and also leads to the habit of that "industry and patient thought" to which the immortal Newton attributed all he had done; while at the same time a vivid pleasure is taken in the acquirement of knowledge so obtained beyond any that can be conferred by reward or encouragement from others.

From these considerations, it appears that the most judicious system of education is that in which the teacher rather directs the working of his pupil's mind than work for him; and it must be recollected that such a system, compared with some others, will be Blow, though sure, in producing the desired result. Every one familiar with children must have observed with what apparently fresh interest they will listen to the same tale repeated again and again Now, if time and repetition are necessaay to impress on the young mind facts interesting in themselves, they are surely more necessary when the information to be imparted is in itself dry and uninteresting, as is the case with much which it is requisite for children to learn. The system here recommended is one which requires patience both on the part of parents and teachers; but patience so exercised would undoubtedly be rewarded by the results, one of which would be, that we should not so frequently see "clever children" wane into very commonplace, if not stupid men.

DUTY OF THE TEACHER IN REGARD TO THE MANNER OF THE STUDIES OF HIS PUPILS.

By the late DAVID P. Page, Esq., A. M., Principal of the New-York State Normal School, at Albany.]

1. The order of study. There is a natural order in the education of the child. The teacher should know this. If he presents the subjects out of this order, he is responsible for the injury. In general, the elements should be taught first. Those simple branches which the child first comprehends, should first be presented. Reading, of course, must be one of the first; though I think the day is not distant when an enlightened community will not condemn the teacher, if, while teaching reading, he should call the child's attention by oral instruction to such objects about him as he can comprehend, even though in doing this he should somewhat prolong the time of learning to read. It is indeed of little consequence that the child should learn to read words simply; and that teacher may be viewed as pursuing the order of nature, who so endeavours to develop the powers of observation and comparison, that words when learned shall be the vehicles of ideas.

Next to Reading and its inseparable companions-Spelling and Defining, I am inclined to recommend the study of Mental Arithmetic. The idea of Number is one of the earliest in the mind of the child. He can be early taught to count, and quite early to perform those operations which we call adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. This study at first needs no book. The teacher should be thoroughly versed in "Colburn's Intellectual Arithmetic," or its equivalent, and he can find enough to interest the child. When the scholar has learned to read, and has attained the age of six or seven, he may be allowed a book in preparing his lesson, but never during the recitation. Those who have not tried this kind of mental discipline, will be astonished at the facility which the child acquires, for performing operations that often puzzle the adult. Nor is it an unimportant acquisition. None can tell its value but those who have experienced the advantage it gives them in future school exercises and in business, over those who have never had such training. Geography may come next to Mental Arithmetic. The child should have an idea of the relations of size, form, and space, as well

as number, before commencing Geography. These, however, he acquires naturally at a very early age; and very thoroughly, if the teacher has taken a little pains to aid him on these points in the earliest stages of his progress. A map is a picture, and hence a child welcomes it. If it can be a map of some familiar object, as of his school-room, of the school district, of his father's orchard or farm, it becomes an object of great interest. A map of his town is also very desirable, as also of his own county. Further detail will be deferred here, as it is only intended in this place to hint at the order of taking up the subjects.

History should go hand in hand with Geography. Perhaps no greater mistake is made than that of deferring history till one of the last things in the child's course.

Writing may be early commenced with the pencil upon the slate, because it is a very useful exercise to the child in prosecuting many of his other studies. But writing with a pen may well be deferred till the child is ten years of age, when the muscles shall have acquired sufficient strength to grasp and guide it.

Written Arithmetic may succeed the mental; indeed, it may be practised along with it.

Composition-perhaps by another name, as Description-should be early commenced and very frequently practised. The child can be early interested in this, and he probably in this way acquires a better knowledge of practical grammar than in any other.

Grammar, in my opinion, as a study, should be one of the last of the common school branches to be taken up. It requires more maturity of mind to understand its relations and dependencies than any other; and that which is taught of grammar without such an understanding, is a mere smattering of technical terms, by which the pupil is injured rather than improved. It may be said, that unless scholars commence this branch early, they never will have the opportunity to learn it. Then let it go unlearned; for as far as I have seen the world, I am satisfied that this early and superficial teaching of a difficult subject is not only useless but positively injurious. How many there are who study grammar for years, and then are obliged to confess in after life, because "their speech bewrayeth them", that they never understood it! How many, by the too early study of an intricate branch, make themselves think they understand it, and thus prevent the hope of any further advancement at the proper age! Grammar, then, should not be studied too early.

Of the manner of teaching all these branches, I shall have more to say in due time. At present I have only noticed the order in which they should be taken up. This is a question of much consequence to the child, and the teacher is generally responsible for it. He should therefore carefully consider this matter, that he may be able to decide aright.

2. The manner of study. It is of quite as much importance how we study, as what we study. Indeed I have thought that much of the difference among men could be traced to their different habits of study formed in youth. A large portion of our scholars study for the sake of preparing to recite the lesson. They seem to have no idea of any object beyond recitalion. The consequence is, they study mechanically. They endeavour to remember phraseology, rather than principles; they study the book, not the subject. Let any one enter our schools and see the scholars engaged in preparing their lessons. Scarcely one will be seen, who is not repeating over and over again the words of the text, as if there was a saving charm in repetition. Observe the same scholars at recitation, and it is a struggle of the memory to recall the form of words. The vacant countenance too often indicates that they are words without meaning. This difficulty is very much increased, if the teacher is confined to the text-book during recitation; and particularly if he relies mainly upon the printed questions so often found at the bottom of the

page.

The scholar should be encouraged to study the subject; and his book should be held merely as the instrument. "Books are but helps," is a good motto for every student. The teacher should often tell how the lesson should be learned. His precepts in this matter will often be of use. Some scholars will learn a lesson in one tenth the time required by others. Human life is too short to have any of it employed to disadvantage. The teacher, then, should inculcate such habits of study as are valuable; and he should be particularly careful to break up, in the recitations, those habits which are so grossly mechanical. A child may almost be said to be educated,

who has learned to study aright; while one may have acquired in the mechanical way a great amount of knowledge, and yet have no profitable mental discipline.

For this difference in children, the teacher is more responsible than any other person. Let him therefore carefully consider this matter.

INCONSISTENCY OF THE PEOPLE.
[By the Hon. HORACE MANN.]

The people do not yet seem to see that all the cost of legislating against criminals; of judges and prosecuting officers, of jurors and witnesses to convict them; of building houses of correction, and jails and penitentiaries, for restraining and punishing them, is not a hundredth part of the grand total of expenditure incurred by private and social immoralities and crimes. The people do not yet seem to see, that the intelligence and morality which education imparts, is that beneficent kind of insurance which, by preventing losses, obviates the necessity of indemnifying for them; thus saving both premium and risk. What is engulfed in the vortex of crime, in each generation, would build a palace of Oriental splendor in every school district in the land; would endow it with a library beyond the ability of a life-time to read; would supply it with apparatus and laboratories for the illustration of every study and the exemplification of every art, and munificently requite the services of a teacher worthy to preside in such a sanctuary of intelligence and virtue.

But the prevention of all that havoc of worldly goods which is caused by vice, tranfers only one item from the loss, to the profit side of the account. Were all idle, intemperate, predatory men to become industrious, sober and honest, they would add vast sums to the inventory of the nation's wealth, instead of subtracting from it. Let any person take a single town, village or neighborhood, and look at its inhabitants individually, with the question in his mind,-how many of them are producers and how many are non-producers; that is, either by the labor of the body or the labor of the mind, add value and dignity to life, and how many barely support themselves; and I think he will often be surprised at the smallness of the number, by whose talent and industry the store-houses of the earth are mainly filled, and all the complicated business of society is principally managed, Could we convert into co-workers for the benefit of mankind, all those physical and spiritual powers of usefulness which are now antagonists or neutrals, the gain would be incalculable.

Add the two above items together,—namely, the saving of what the vicious now squander or destroy, and the wealth which, as virtuous men they would amass-and the only difficulty presented would be, to find in what manner so vast an amount conld be beneficially disposed of.

When the city of Boston was convinced of the necessity of having a supply of pure water from abroad, for the use of its inhabitants; it voted three millions of dollars to obtain it; and he would be a bold man who would now propose a repeal of the ordinance, though all past expenditures could be refunded. Yet all the school-houses in Boston, which it has erected during the present century, are not worth a fourth part of this sum. For the supply of water, the city of New York lately incurred an expenditure of thirteen millions of dollars. Admitting, as I most cheerfully do, that the use of water pertains to the moral as well as to the ceremonial law, yet our cities have pollutions which water can never wash away,-defilements which the baptism of a moral and Christian education alone can remove. There is not an appetite that allies man to the brute, nor a passion for vain display which makes him more contemptible than any part of the irrational creation, which does not cost the country more every year, than such a system of schools as would, according to the evidence I have exhibited, redeem it almost entirely from its follies and its. Consider a single fictitious habit of our people,which no one will pretend adds any degree to the health, or length to the life, or decency to the manners of the nation,-I mean the smoking of tobacco. It is said, on good authority, that the annual expenditure in the country for the support of this habit is ten millions of dollars; and if we reflect that this sum, averaged upon all the people, would be only one half dollar a-piece, the estimate seems by no means extravagant. Yet this is far more than is paid to the teachers of all the Public schools in the United States.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND LECTURES.

[By O. S. FOWLER, Esq., A. M.]

FACILITIES FOR STUDY are every way inferior, whereas they ought to abound. Books should be multiplied a thousand fold, till they become the great commodity of traffic and commerce. But most of all they require to be IMPROVED. Trashy novels require to be superseded by works full of sound sense, excellent instruction, and scientific knowledge. Yet they should not be dry and plodding but filled, not merely with all that halo of beauty which clusters around every right exhibition of the works of nature-because around the works themselves-but with all the elegance of diction and charms of style which appertain to language. A clumsy or inspid style in a scientific work, is like rags on the goddess of beauty. How pre-eminently does the subject allow and require all the excellencies and ornaments of style so abundant in the very nature of language! Every child's school-book should equal Irving's "Sketch Book," for felicity of diction. Dress up all the inherent beauty of nature in all the charms of a truly splendid style -blend the useful with the rich-and such books as mortal eyes never yet beheld, would render reading far more enchanting than the ball-room.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES.-These books, thus splendid in composition, should be accessible to all. Private libraries are eminently useful, but public vastly more so. The poor require reading material equally with the rich. Let it be furnished, and crime, generally associated with ignorance, would thereby be prevented. Let governinent advance funds for this purpose, and they will have less requisition for jails and hangmen. As you EDUCATE THE PEOPLE you proportionally diminish crime. A hundred fold more effectual preventive this than punitive measures. In fact, unite physical and intellectual with moral training, and you head off crimes almost together. If men knew the consequences of violating law, they would sin less. Public reading-rooms are of course recommended as a part of public libraries; and so are circulating libraries. But we especially require FEMALE reading-rooms. Women love to read, and should have equal access to this means of mental culture.

PUBLIC LECTURES will be found still more promotive of public intelligence and virtue. Let every village and neighbourhood have a splendid public room, attractively arranged and fitted up, and capable of holding "all the region round about," and the let government employ and support lecturers, in part, at public expense, as it now does teachers, furnished with splendid apparatus for illustrating the respective sciences on which they lecture; and let them spend their lives in the service. Let one man have manikins and anatomical models, drawings, and preparations, and occupy a given section, say one or more counties, which he should visit at stated intervals, so that all could hear as they are growing up. Let hin teach anatomy and physiology; especially the young the value of health, means of preserving it, and causes of its destruction. Pay five dollars to this object, where hundreds are now paid to physicians for TRYING to cure, and few would be sick, and those who were would be able to doctor themselves. Strange that doctors have not enlightened the people touching the laws of healh, long before this. But their neglect will prove their ruin, which many of us will live

to see.

Let another public Lecturer be fitted out with a phrenological apparatus-drawings, paintings, animal and human casts and skull. and whatever else will illustrate or enforce his subject, and pass around his circuit periodically, lecturing on this science of mind, and telling parents how to manage this child, govern that, and educate the other, and in what occupations they will each succeed : as well as pour forth that perpetual stream of ADVICE which Preuology gives in such rich abundance and personal applicability. Let him also add the MENTAL PHILOSOPHY, and MORALS and ethics, of this science of man, so that the entire body politic shall not only be treated to the rich intellectual repast which it serves up, but become imbued with its purifying, elevating doctrines; and a powerful check would thus be given to vice, and incentives to public virtue ard improvement be propounded for general emulation. Say, reader, has not this science purified your own feelings, and unproved your MORALS as well as intellects? It will do this for all.

Kindred lecturers should be employed and fitted out with abuda t apparatus for illustrating chemistry, natural history, geolegy, chro

nology, natural philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and every other department of science and nature. The expense would not be great, and would save a hundred fold in cost of the criminal calendar alone.

These lectures should be especially adapted to the juvenile mind; and what is well adapted to the young, is also adapted to adults.

I world not, however, recommend every mountebank because he can be hired for twelve dollars per month; but splendid lecturers -well informed on all scientific matters, and perfectly familiar with that on which they lecture; and instead of those who lisp, or squint, or violate both grammar and rhetoric, or deform their matter by defective delivery, I would recommend splendid orators-good-looking, noble and commanding in appearance, dignified, impressive, fluent, felicious in style, and altogether captivating; so as to draw out all classes, especially the young, in delighted throngs to hear them discourse learnedly and eloquently on nature and her laws, and incite in these youth an ardent desire still farther to prosecute these thrillingly interesting subjects. Think you our youth, thus educated, would throng the country carouse, the disgusting groggery, or the demoralizing theatre,-those nurseries of vice ?

Especially would I recommend lectures on elocution. Lt children be taught to SPEAK-taught by example, und by those after whom they may safely pattern. I would make them all GOOD

SPEAKERS.

Not that I would not recommend any local teachers. They are indispensable. But I would create a new profession-that of lecturing. By a law of mind truth can be TALKED into mankind, especially into juveniles, which no other form of teaching can posPibly convey. To this law of mind I would adapt instruction. The Persian teachers LECTURE to their scholars. This is the great method of instruction. This is right. This is the most powerful means of conveying instruction in the world. Let GOVERNMENT therefore furnish these educational facilities.

Your fellow-citizens and townsmen have elected you to a trust the most important and responsible; and the School Act invests you with ample powers to fulfil that trust, so as to extend the facilities of a sound education to each child in every city and town in Upper Canada. On you will rest the responsibility if any of the Schools under your charge is inefficient, whether from the employment of an improper teacher, or from the want of a proper School-house, or proper furniture or text-books, or if a single child be unprovided with the means of education; and to you will appertain the satisfaction and honor and gratitude, which shall never die, it each school over which you are placed be a living fountain of knowledge and virtue, and if each child within your jurisdiction have unobstructed access to that fountain. Water and bread and clothing are not more needful for the health and growth and comfort of the body, than are the food and pulsations of knowledge to the vital energy and divine distinction of mind. The uneducated child grows up into a mere animal of bones and sinews, with tastes and sympathies and habits as degraded and pernicious as they might be exalted and useful. The destiny of each child in each city and town -especially of the more laborious classes-is, in a great measure, in your hands. You are its chosen educational guardians; and as such you have the power of training and sending him forth an intelligent and useful citizen, or of neglecting and turning him out both a victim and instrument of the worst propensities of our na

ture.

Our cities and towns are the centres and hearts of large sections of country, and radiate influences, for good or for evil, which are felt over the whole areas of the surrounding circles. This is especially the case in Upper Canada, where domestic relations and every variety of social and business intercourse between town and country er so numerous and intimate.

In your new and responsible position, the first subject which wil naturally engage your attention is the nature of the work which lies before you. It is to provide primary instruction for children from five to eight years of age-intermediate instruction for those from eight to eleven years of age-and higher instruction for youths from eleven to fourteen. The nature and classification of subjects contained in this course of instruction, need not be here enumerated or stated; but they will at once suggest the proper gradation of schools, and the several departments in the same school, when established upon a large scale and including several teachers.

The providing proper School-houses, furnished with maps, apparatus, and the needful text-books for the pupils, the employment of efficient Teachers, the appointment of an able and active Superintendent, and the selection of an intelligent and faithful local Committee for each School or ward, together with the estimate and provision for the support of Schools, will next engage your earnest attention, and constitute the principal subjects of your future solicitude and labours. A division of labour will be one of the most convenient, if not essential, means of accomplishing these purposes with any degree of facility and success: such as the appointment of a Committee on School-houses; a Committee on the qualifications, employment and salaries of Teachers; a Committee on textbooks and apparatus; a Committee on examinations and discipline; a Committee of Ways and Means, and another on Accounts. In smaller towns and incorporated villages, so minute a division of labour among the Members of the Board of Trustees will not be necessary. Most of these Committees should report once a month at the monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees; the Committee on School Examinations should attend the Quarterly Examinations of the Schools, and should report the result of examination in each School. The local Superintendent (who should be a practical Teacher, a man of virtue, a lover of youth, and an ardent friend and promoter of knowledge) should visit each of the Schools and report on their state and progress at least once a month; and his report should specially include, among other things, a statement of the manner in which the School Registers are kept, and the character of attendance of pupils, as well as the character of organization, classification, teaching and discipline in each school. He should have Quarterly Meetings of the Teachers, to interchange views on various points of instruction and discipline, in order to promote barmony of action, and cause the whole system of schools in each city and town to tend towards a high and uniform standard of excel lence.

To enter into a minute detail of all the regulations and proceedings which must be adopted in order to establish and maintain a proper system of schools in each city and town, would entirely exceed the limits of this circular. The importance, objects and peeuliar features of this system of schools, I explained, at some length, in a circular addressed to the Heads of City and Town Corporations in January, 1848, on the introduction of the City and Town School Act, 10th and 11th Vic. chap. 19, and which will be found in the first volume of the Journal of Education, pages 16-24. And the economy and great practical advantages of this system of schools in cities and towns where it exists in the neighbouring States, are shewn in the same volume of the same Journal, pages 121-123, and 150-153.

Under these circumstances, it would be superfiuous for me to dwell at length upon the subject anew; but to aid you as far as in my power in the great work on which you are now entering, I have purchased, and I hope soon to be able to place into the hands of the Board of SchoolTrustees foreach city and town in Upper Canada, Mr. Barnard's unrivalled work on "School Architecture-an octavo volume of nearly 400 pages, containing upwards of 300 illustrations, and embracing all the important improvements which have been made in the last few years in the construction of school-houses for schools of every grade, from the infant school to a Normal School, with suitable plans for the construction and arrangement of seats, desks, and for warming and ventilation, for appendages, grounds, &e." I will also endeavour to procure for each Board of School Trustees, whom I am now addressing, a copy of the "Rules and Regulations for Public Schools" which have been adopted by the Boards of Education or Trustees in the cities of Boston and Providnce (Rhode-Island), and under the operation of which the most complete and efficient system of Schools has been: matured which, I thiur, exjets in any city or town, either in Europe or America. Gur

School Law confers upon you all the powers of establishing and maintaining your schools (Classical as well as Common,-see 12th section, 4th clause) which are conferred upon the School Corporations of the cities referred to; and my earnest desire and prayer is, that you may be disposed and enabled to exercise these powers with like wisdom, patriotism and success.

It is in the character and facilities of public school education in their cities and towns that our American neighbours far excel us. I think our rural schools, as a whole, are advancing more rapidly than theirs; but in each of their cities and towns they have in efficient operation an uniform and magnificient system of schools, the advancement of which is the highest ambition of their highest citizens, and which offers FREE education to the poor as well as the rich-to all classes upon equal terms according to property. In all our cities and towns we now have substantially their school law; and I fervently hope we shall soon have as good, and even better schools. It is with the elective Board of School Trustees in each city and town in Upper Canada to say whether this shall be so or not. I have the honor to be, Gentlemen,

Your most obedient servant and fellow-labourer,

E. RYERSON.

P. S.-It may be proper for me to make an explanatory remark on the nineteenth section of the School Act, authorizing, under certain circumstances, the establishment of Protestant and Roman Catholic Separate Schools. In my late Circular to Township Councils, I have remarked upon this provision of the Act, and shown that it is no new provision, but one which has existed upwards of seven years since the commencement of our present. Common School system. has clearly been intended from the beginning as a protection of the minority against any oppressive or invidious proceedings on the part of the majority in any School division, in addition to the ordinary provision of the Act, prohibiting the compulsory attendance of any child upon a religious exercise, or reading a religious book, to which his parents or guardians shall object. The existence of so few separate schools (only about fifty in all Upper Canada, and nearly one-half of them Protestant), shows that the provision for their establishment is rarely acted upon,-as the local school authorities seldom find occasion for it. And as there can be no Separate School in a school division, unless the Teacher of the mixed school is of a different religious persuasion from the applicants for such Separate School, the local Board of Trustees can always, if they think proper to do so, make such a selection of Teachers as will prevent the establishment or continuance of separate schools.

[OFFICIAL.]

E. R.

Notice to the Local Superintendents of Schools, and the Trustees of District Grammar Schools throughout Upper Canada.

EDUCATION Office,

Toronto, 8th October, 1850.

By the 28th section of the School Act, 13th and 14th Victoria, chapter 48, the Board of Trustees of the Grammar Schools and the Local Superintendents of Schools in each County or Union of Counties, are constituted a Board of Public Instruction for such County, or Union of Counties; and under the authority given in the 35th section, and 3rd clause of said Act, I hereby appoint the first meeting of each County Board of Public Instruction to be held on Thursday, the fourteenth day of November next, at 10 o'clock, A. M., at the place of the last meeting of the Council of such County, or Union of Counties. When once assembled, the law authorizes each County Board to appoint the times and places of its own meetings.

E. RYERSON, Chief Superintendent of Schools, U. C. Circular from the Chief Superintendent of Schools to each of the County Boards of Public Instruction in Upper Canada. EDUCATION OFFICE, Toronto, Sth October, 1850.

GENTLEMEN

[OFFICIAL.]

I transmit you herewith a copy of the Programme for the Examination and Classification of Teachers of Common Schools, which has been adopted by the Council of Public Instruction, as required by the School Act, 13th and 14th Victoria, chapter

48; and I think it proper, at the same time, to make a few explana tory and practical remarks on the subject.

1. You will observe that the standard of qualifications prescribed for each class of Teachers, is extremely low-lower indeed, than in strict propriety it ought to be-lower than it is for Common School Teachers in Ireland-lower than it will doubtless be in Upper Canada in the course of three or four yesrs. The standard here laid down for first class Teachers, will probably soon be applied to second class Teachers, and that of second, applied to third class Teachers, and no persons will be admitted into the public schools as legally qualified Teachers whose qualifications will not enable them to secure a second class certificate according to the accompanying Programme. But the Council of Public Instruction has had regard to the present circumstances of the country, to the fact that this is the first step which has yet been adopted for establishing an uniform standard and system of examination of teachers throughout Upper Canada. It is painful to think, that there should be a necessity in any part of the Province, to license persons as teachers with no higher qualifications than those required of third class teachers in the accompanying Programme; but it is hoped such a ncessity will not long exist and every teacher of this class should be impressed with the consideration, that if he wishes to be recognized in future years as a legally qualified Teacher of Common Schools, he must apply himself diligently to the acquisition of higher qualifications. The profession of School-teaching can only be efficient, and influential, as the qualifications and character of its members are respectable and elevated. The accompanying Programme states the minimum of qualifications required for each class of certificates.

2. But the first, and perhaps most important duty which devolves upon you, is that which precedes an examination into the intellectual qualifications of candidates. The law expressly declares, that "no certificate of qualification shall be given to any person as Teacher, who shall not furnish satisfactory proof of good moral character." This is a vital point on which you are called to pass a conscientious and impartial judgment, before you admit any candidate to an examination. The law of the land thus makes you the moral guardians of the children and youth of your respective counties, as far as depends upon the moral character of their Teachers, the same as the Divine law makes you the guardians of your own children; and you should certainly license no character to teach the former, whom you would not permit to teach the latter. Many representations have been made to this Department respecting, intemperate, and profane, and Sabbath-breaking Teachers. To what extent these representations are well founded, is not for me to say. But when so many parties have been individually authorized to license Teachers, it were not surprising if isolated individual firmness should be overcome by the importunity of a candidate in some instances, backed by requests of inconsiderate Trustees. Now, however, you meet in Council; the candidates come before you on common ground; you judge of the "moral character" of each by a common rule; you are less liable to those plaintive appeals and pleas which have so often been pressed upon the feelings of individual Superintendents and Visitors. I can not but regard it as your special mission to rid the profession of common school teaching of unworthy characters and of wholly incompetent persons, to protect the youth against the poison of a vicious teacher's example, and to lay the foundation for greatly elevating the profession of school teaching, and greatly increasing the efficiency and usefulness of Common Schools. The moral character of teachers involves the deepest interests of our offspring, and the widest destinies of our country. No lax expediency or false delicacy should be permitted to endorse a person of irregular habits or doubtful morals as a "good moral character," and let him loose upon society, authorized and certified as a duly qualified Teacher of its youth. I am sure you will agree with me, that your certificate should state what you believe to be strictly true, and therefore be a guarantee to Trustees of Schools and parents of children, in regard to the moral character and intellectual qualifications of every Teacher whom you shall license.

3. As to your examination of candidates in the several subjects mentioned in the Programme, I had at first intended to have prepared som general questions on each subject, as hints both to examiners and candidates for certificates of different classes; but on further consideration, I found it would occupy too much space, and might probably be better left to the discretion and judgment of