THE PAGE. Portrait,.. PREFACE-Labors of William Russell,........ 1. NATIONAL Organization of THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING.............................. An Address before the National Convention of Teachers in 1857. By Wm. Russell, II. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF TEACHERS IN PHILADELPHIA, Call for the Convention,............... Remarks of T. W. Valentine-explanatory of the Call,...... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE FIRST PRESIDENT-Z. RICHARDS,. 22 22. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE THIRD PRESIDENT-J. W. BULKLEY,.. Portrait,...... Constitution of the National Teachers' Association,.......... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE FIFTH PRESIDENT-W. H. WELLS,... IV. NATURE AND OBJECTS OF THE NATIONAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION,................................ Introductory Discourse by the President, J. D. Philbrick,.... VIII. OBJECT LESSONS, OR THE Method of Nature IN EARLY TEACHING. BY E, A. IX. CONDITIONS OF ADMISSION TO THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY AT WEST 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 profession 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 every 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 Lancaster, Mass., since published in Barnard's "American ournal of Edu cation," 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 carried 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." |