to perform a duty of indispensable and paramount obligations; and under this impression I also recommend that provision be made for the gratuitous education, in our superior seminaries, of indigent, talented, and meritorious youth. "I consider the system of our common schools as the palladium of our freedom; for no reasonable apprehension can be entertained of its subversion, as long as the great body of the people are enlightened by education. To increase the funds, to extend the benefits, and to remedy the defects of this excellent system, is worthy of your most deliberate attention. The officer who now so ably presides over that department is prevented by his other official duties from visiting our schools in person, nor is he indeed clothed with this power. A visitorial authority for the purpose of detecting abuses in the application of the funds, of examining into the modes and plans of instruction, and of suggesting improvements, would unquestionably be attended with the most propitious effects." It will be perceived that the governor here shadows forth two of the greatest features of public instruction subsequently engrafted upon our system; the establishment of institutions for the education of teachers; and the appointment of visitors. On the 4th of February subsequently, Mr. JOHN C. SPENCER, from the literature committee of the senate, to which this portion of the message of the governor had been referred, made an able report, in the course of which he distinctly suggests the expediency and practicability of a plan of county supervision, without however, going into any specific details. Thus it will be perceived, that as early as 1826, several of the prominent features of the admirable system which has since prevailed, were brought to the notice and attention of the legislature, by two of our most distinguished and eminent statesmen; one of whom, (Mr. Spencer) fifteen years afterwards, aided in carrying into practical and successful operation, the very plan in substance, which he had suggested at this early period. In the mean time, however, a similar suggestion had been earnestly and urgently pressed upon the public consideration by another distinguished friend of the common school system-the Hon. JABEZ D. HAMMOND; who in 1837 published a series of numbers in the Cherry-Valley Gazette, from whence they were transferred to other periodicals, showing as well the practicability as the expediency of the adoption of the system of county supervision and inspection, and urging the abolition of the office of town inspector. Judge Hammond's plan was the appointment by the governor and senate, or by the State Superintendent, of a County Inspector of Common Schools, in each county, with power to license teachers and visit schools, and who should be required to report periodically to the Superintendent. This was, in substance, the plan afterwards recommended to the legislature by Mr. Spencer. The following extracts from the report of Mr. Spencer in 1826, to which allusion has above been made, will be found interesting: "The committee concur entirely in the sentiments expressed by the governor in relation to the importance of the vocation of a teacher, and to the propriety of occupying the time of the young in the higher branches of knowledge. The progress of improvement in the great business of education, must necessarily be slow and gradual. Our common school system is itself but of recent origin; and during the few years in which it has been in operation, incalculable good has been effected, particularly in causing the establishment of schools where none existed before, and where none would have existed but for its provisions. We cannot expect to make it at once perfect, but must content ourselves with remedies for the most obvious and important defects as they are discovered. From the observation of the committee, and from the best imformation they can obtain, they are persuaded that the greatest evils now existing in the system are the want of competent teachers, and the indisposition of the trustees of districts to incur the expense of employing those who are competent, when they can be obtained. It is a lamentable fact that from a mistaken economy, the cheapest teachers, whether male or female, and generally the latter, are employed in many districts for three-fourths of the year, and a competent instructor is provided for only one-quarter, and sometimes not at all, during the year. The state is thus made to contribute almost wholly to the support of teachers. This is a perversion of the public bounty; and its effect on the children, who ought to be provided with the means of instruction during the whole year, is most disastrous: for those above five or six years old are thus excluded from school three-fourths of their time, which must be spent in mental idleness, and thus the most precious time for education is utterly thrown away. The present arrangement of the authority to license and employ teachers, contributes to this result. Teachers are licensed by town inspectors, themselves generally and necessarily incompetent to determine upon the qualifications of candidates, and willing to sanction such as the trustees feel able or disposed to employ. This is essentially wrong; and the state, which contributes so large a portion of the compensation of the teacher, has a right to direct its application in such a way as to effect the object of procuring useful instruction. The remedy must be found in the organization of some local board, vested with the authority of licensing teachers and of revoking the license, and charged with a general superintendence of the schools within the prescribed limits. The division of the state into counties affords a convenient distribution of territory for these purposes. And if it be made a condition of receiving the public donation, that teachers thus authorized shall have been employed for a portion of the year, it is believed that the sure and inevitable consequence would be the employment of instructors much more competent than the average of the present teachers. In those counties where the population is small and scattered, the standard of competency will necessarily be low; but it will advance with the means of the districts and with the prosperity and intelligence of the counties. In other counties, where candidates were more numerous, the qualifications, would be higher. The teachers would become emphatically a profession; men would devote themselves to it as the means of livelihood, and would prepare themselves accordingly. Their character would advance, and with it their usefulness and the respect of their fellow-citizens. Such is an outline of the first efforts, which, in the opinion of the committee, should be made to obtain able teachers. "The next object is to provide the means of qualifying the necessary number of teachers. By the report of the Superintendent of Common schools made in January, 1825, it appears there were then in this state 7,642 school districts. That, then, is the number of teachers now required; the best evidence that can be adduced to show that there must always be a sufficient demand for those who are qualified. It is obvious that the suggestion of the governor, in his message respecting the establishment of an institution especially for the purpose of educating teachers, will not answer the exigencies of the case. It is entitled to much weight, however, as a means, in conjunction with others, to effect the object. But in the view which the committee have taken, our great reliance for nurseries of teachers must be placed on our colleges and academies. If they do not answer this purpose they can be of very little use. That they have not hitherto been more extensively useful in that respect, is owing to inherent defects in the system of studies pursued there. When the heads of our colleges are apprised of the great want of teachers which it is so completely in their power to relieve,if not supply it, is but reasonable to expect that they will adopt a system by which young men whose pursuits do not require a knowledge of classics, may avail themselves of the talent and instruction in those institutions suited to their wants, without being compelled also to receive that which they do not want, and for which they have neither time nor money. "Our academies also have failed to supply the want of teachers, to the extent which was within their power; although it is acknowledged that în H L this respect they have been eminently useful. But instead of being incited "The committee have not been able to discover why, upon every principle of justice and of public policy, seminaries for the education of females in the higher branches of knowledge should not participate equally with those for the instruction of males, in the public bounty. "In connection with these, the committee admit that the establishment of a separate institution for the sole purpose of preparing teachers, would be a most valuable auxiliary, especially if they were to be prepared to teach on the monitorial plan. They hesitate to recommend its adoption now, chiefly because the other measures which they intend to submit, and which they conceive to be more immediately necessary, will involve as much expense as ought now to be incurred. But they fondly anticipate the time when the means of the state will be commensurate with the public spirit of its legislature, and when such an institution will be founded on a scale equal to our wants and our resources." The committee, after adverting to the embarrassments caused by the prevalent diversity of text books in the several schools of the state, recommend an appropriation for "the printing of large editions of such elementary works as the spelling book, an English dictionary, a grammar, a system of arithmetic, American history and biogrophy, to be used in schools, and to be distributed gratuitously, or sold at cost." "There can be no doubt," says the committee, "that a selection of such works as have been enumerated could be made by a competent board, excluding all sectarian views and tenets, as would be entirely satisfactory to the citizens of this state." On the 14th of February, 1826, AZARIAH C. FLAGG, of the county of Clinton, was appointed secretary of state; and the administration of the common school system consequently devolved upon him. The interests of public instruction had been ably and faithfully guarded by Mr. YATES, who seems to have united to eminent talents as an executive and administrative officer, a lively zeal for the promotion of education and the diffusion of knowledge among the great body of the people. His various reports exhibit an accurate practical knowledge of the working of the common school system, in all its departments; his decisions on the numerous appeals which were from time to time brought before him, were characterized by a sound discrimination; and his efforts for the improvement and advancement of the schools were earnest and indefatigable. The first annual report of Mr. Flagg as Superintendent of Common Schools was transmitted to the legislature on the 13th of March, 1826, from which it appeared that 425,350 children had been taught in the common schools during the year; being 22,410 more than were taught the preceding year, and exceeding by 29,764 the number between the ages of five and fifteen residing in the state. The whole number of organized school districts in the state was 7,773. The Superintendent alludes to the necessity of "some provision which should have a tendency to increase the number of qualified instructors," and adds: "It might be beneficial to offer facilities for the special education of common school teachers; and as the districts progress in wealth, and the donation of the state is increased, inducements will be furnished for a greater number of persons of competent talents, to engage in the business of teaching, as a profession." At the opening of the session of 1827, Gov. CLINTON thus eloquently alluded to the subject of popular education: "The great bulwark of republican government is the cultivation of education; for the right of suffrage cannot be exercised in a salutary manner without intelligence. It is gratifying to find that education continues to flourish. We may safely estimate the number of our common schools at 8,000; the number of children taught during the last year, on an average of eight months, at 430,000; and the sum expended in education at 200,000 dollars. It is, however, too palpable that our system is surrounded by imperfections which demand the wise consideration and improving interposition of the legislature. In the first place, there is no provision made for the education of competent instructors. Of the eight thousand now employed in this state, too many are destitute of the requisite qualifications, and perhaps no considerable number are able to teach beyond rudimental instruction. Ten years of a child's life, from five to fifteen, may be spent in a common school; and ought this immense portion of time to be absorbed in learning what can be acquired in a short period? Perhaps one-fourth of our population is annually instructed in our common schools; and ought the minds and the morals of the rising, and perhaps the destinies of all future generations, to be entrusted to the guardianship of incompetence? The scale of instruction must be elevated; the standard of education ought to be raised, and a central school on the monitorial plan ought to be established in each county for the education of teachers, and as exemplars for other momentous purposes connected with the improvement of the human mind. * Small and suitable collections of books and maps, attached to our common schools, and periodical examinations to test the proficiency of the scholars and the merits of the teachers, are worthy of attention. When it is understood that objects of this description enter into the very formation of our characters, control our destinies through life, protect the freedom and advance the glory of our country, and when it is considered that seminaries for general education are either not provided in the old world, or but imperfectly supplied by charity and Sunday schools, and that this is the appropriate soil of liberty and education, let it be our pride, as it is our duty, to spare no exertion and to shrink from no expense in the promotion of a cause consecrated by religion and enjoined by patriotism; nor let us be regardless of ample encouragement of the higher institutions devoted to literature and science. Independently of their intrinsic merits and their diffusive and enduring benefits, in reference to their appropriate objects, they have in a special manner, a most auspicious iufluence on all subordinate institutions. * * * "They give to society men of improved and enlarged minds, who, feeling the importance of information in their own experience, will naturally cherish an ardent desire to extend its blessings. Science delights in expansion, as well as in concentration and after having flourished within the precinets of academies and universities, will spread itself over the land, enlightening society and ameliorating the condition of man. The more elevated the tree of knowledge, and the more expanded its branches, the greater will be its trunk and the deeper its root." On the 21st of February, MR. SPENCER, from the literature committee of the senate, to which had been referred that portion of the message of the governor relating to common schools and the providing of competent teachers, brought in a bill, entitled, " An act to provide permanent funds for the annual appropriation to common schools, to increase the literature fund, and to promote the education of teachers," which, with some slight amendments, became a law on the 13th of April following. This bill transferred to the common school fund the balance due on the ban of 1786, together with $100,000 of bank stock owned by the state: and to the literature fund, from the canal fund, the sum of $150,000; the income of which, together with that of the $95,000 formerly belonging to the fund, was required to be annually distributed by the Regents of the University "among the incorporated academies and seminaries of this state, other than colleges, which are subject to the visitation of the said Regents, &c., in proportion to the number of pupils instructed in each academy or seminary for six months during the preceding year, who shall have pursued classical studies, or the higher branches of English education, or both." From the report accompanying the bill the following extracts are taken, with the view of showing the design of the legislature in thus increasing the literature fund. "Another object of still greater importance is the furnishing of competent teachers for the instruction of common schools. In vain will you have established a system of instruction, in vain will you appropriate money to educate the children of the poor, if you do not provide persons competent to execute your system, and to teach the pupils collected in the schools. The message of the governor and the report of the Superintendent concur in pressing this subject upon our attention with the most anxious solicitude; and every citizen who has paid attention to it, and become acquainted practically with the situation of our schools, knows that the incompetency of the great mass of teachers is a radical defect, which impedes the whole system, frustrates the benevolent designs of the legislature, and defeats the hopes and wishes of all who feel an interest in disseminating the blessings of education. There are 8,114 organized school districts in this state; and if there be added the schools in the city of New-York, in Albany, Troy and Hudson, not included in the returns, and the private schools which are established in almost every county, we shall be justified in estimating the number of teachers required to carry on the business of instruction, at not far from ten thousand. This result places in a strong view the vast importance of the subject. From what sources can this supply of teachers be obtained? And how can the great body of this multitude be rendered competent to their stations? In a free government resting upon the intelligence of its citizens, these questions are of vital importance. "The governor has recommended the establishment of central schools upon the monitorial plan for the instruction of teachers. From the best consideration which the committee have been able to bestow upon the subject, and from all the information which they can collect, a doubt is entertained whether the monitorial plan is adapted to small schools in the country, or to the higher branches of education. The means of instruction in the ordinary mode must be provided. The colleges and academies ought to furnish competent instructors, and indeed to them we are indebted, but chiefly to the academies, for the qualified instructors now employed. While academies are instituted, and by proper encouragement may supply our wants, the committee would doubt the policy of establishing central schools in their vicinity, which would necessarily divert from them much of their present support.' After referring to the location of the several academies in different parts of the state, with the view of showing that in this respect they were capable of meeting the wants of the community, and that but few portions of the state were not adequately supplied with these institutions, provided they were suitably encouraged, the report proceeds to recommend a different standard of apportionment than the 1 |