cation of moral instruction, interest felt by parents as shown by their visitations to the school, and usually concludes by such suggestions of improvement as their experience or reflection may authorize. Thus the real situation of these primary seminaries is portrayed in vivid and truthful colors. The citizens of the town are thus made acquainted with the manner in which the school fund is rendered useful or squandered. A spirit of wholesome emulation is also in this way stimulated into activity between the respective teachers and schools. Each school, as a whole, will strive to stand high when compared with others; each teacher will put forth strenuous efforts to acquit himself honorably. No harm will ever arise from this species of emulation.

are here offered, in the hope that further observations on the same subject may be drawn from abler writers.

Each town superintendent should provide himself with a blank book, in which he should keep a record of all his official acts; and the information obtained in his visits to the schools respecting their condition, management, studies pursued, progress of the scholars and various other points should be carefully noted down. "Henry's Field Book for Town Superintendents" exhibits a good plan for recording, in a tabular form, the information obtained in visiting. On the first view, I was inclined to think this form might be considerably abridged, without detriment; but a "sober second thought," has convinced me that the inquiries of the inspecting of ficer should extend to all the points named in the "Field Book." I should be pleased to see this

"The teachers' reports may be in writing, and preserved in the town clerk's office, as a permanent history of the schools in the town."Field Book," or something like it, in general Such a depository would be invaluable."

COMMUNICATIONS.

use.

It may be asked, what is the advantage of such a record? I reply by asking, what is the advantage of visiting the schools at all? Is it not to inquire into their condition and management? And if the information is worth inquiring for, is it not

THE following timely and judicious suggestions, should be carefully considered and ener-worth preserving? getically carried out. This is the commencement of a new school year, and such measures should now be taken as will make it a year of universal and inestimable blessings. The means are provided by our admirable school organization, and the united and cordial co-operation of its officers, might secure greater benefits to the state, than if they had power to give untold wealth to every family within its borders.

If each County Superintendent will arrange an early meeting of these town officers, and adopt such a plan of supervision, examination, drills and celebrations as shall wisely combine their joint labors, then, one year of well-planned, ani. ted effort will accomplish more than a decade of partial and independent exertions. Shall it not

be done?

Such a record would furnish the town superthe recommendation of the Department, to make intendent with a ready means of complying with annually to the county superintendent, "a detailed report of the character and condition of the the record of different years, we could judge, several schools within his town." By comparing with a great degree of accuracy, whether the schools were improving. On going out of office, record to his successor, and thus would be furthe town superintendent should hand over his nished an unbroken and minute history of primary education in the several towns. No doubt the to teachers; for when we are conscious that our course here recommended would act as a stimulus deeds are to be recorded in a particular manner, it is very natural to desire that such record should present us in a favorable light.

county should hold a regular annual meeting. The town and county superintendents of each County conventions should not be a transient af

fair;

the practice of holding them, at least once of such meeting should remain the same from a year, should always be continued. The time year to year; the day would then obtain notorie ty, and would not be easily forgotten. The con

Similar measures to those here recommended, have already been partially tested in the county of Albany, and we ask attention to the outlines of the plan there adopted, as given under our edi.vention should be held within a few weeks after torial head, hoping that it may excite attention to the means of giving the greatest possible efficiency to an excellent school organization.

then in the beginning of their term of office, and town meeting. The town superintendents are they would have time, before its expiration, to do much towards carrying out the plans adopted by opin-held near the close of their term, those officers the convention. But if the meeting should be might not be inclined to adopt very extensive schemes of improvement, on the ground that they might go out of office before much progress could be made in the execution of them.

We need hardly add, that we concur in the ion expressed of the value of Henry's Field Book, and wish it were in the hands of every town superintendent.

[For the Journal.] TOWN SUPERINTENDENTS. MR. DWIGHT-The substitution of one school officer for five, in each town, will not produce all the advantages expected from the measure, unless the town superintendents perform their duties with faithfulness and energy. Some hints relating to the duties of Town Superintendents,

I need not dwell on the advantages of these conventions. If the superintendents meet annu have the benefits of each other's observation ally for consultation and discussion, they will and experience, they will become better skilled in the performance of their official duties; plans of improvements embracing a whole county could be concerted, and united action would be secured.

I cannot doubt that each town is able to furnish at least one competent individual, who has public spirit enough faithfully to attend said conventions. And if a person chosen to the of. fice of town superintendent, has so little regard for the cause of education that he will not attend, the people should turn him out, and fill his place with some one who is more worthy. A. R. Dutchess County, N. Y.

[For the District School Journal.] GOOD MANNERS.

The convention should appoint one of its num-pline that had unconsciously formed her habits ber, Recording Secretary. He should be provi- of mind-that to do good, she must first please; "It is high ded with a substantial blank book, at the ex- that she must predispose those whom she would pense of the members, and in this, all the reso-serve, to the reception of benefits. lutions, discussions, and proceedings should be treason against virtue to be good and disagreerecorded. The convention would then present able," said the accomplished Elizabeth Smith. "Trumpery etiquettes are going out of use," the appearance of a permanent body, assembling at stated intervals, to deliberate upon the said Sir Walter Scott, and he was right. But great subject of popular education. Its endu-hollow forms of artificial society make no part ring records might furnish valuable materials for of that inbred civility, which truly grows out of brotherly kindness-that forbeareth in lovethe future historian. that seeketh not its own, but being clothed in humility, postpones its own claims, in all small matters, to others better entitled to precedence. So careful are the French in this matter, that for two centuries they have used a little book called "Civilité du premier age." It teaches the child how to conduct himself at table, at church, and in all the ordinary intercourse of life. It may be urged that example and oral instruction ought to do this without books, and we admit the obligation. But if neither the example nor instruction of home are afforded, as they are not, to multitudes of children, may not the school-book, and the school-master, or school-mistress, do something for the neglected child?-Or, if he be not neglected, will "line upon line, and precept upon precept," be super THE cultivation of good manners is an essen-fluous to him, whose early virtue has been fostial part of education. "Evil_communications tered where character, of necessity, takes its corrupt good manners," says the Apostle. He first impressions? probably meant, by "good manners," the whole outward life. His notions of virtue were extended beyond dispositions and principles, to outward manifestations; for when he says, "Be In truth, pitiful," he adds, "be courteous.” the outward act-the observance--operates upon the inward mind, as the disposition does upon the ordinary demeanor. Europeans universally remark upon the want of veneration, common to the Americans. Veneration is not mere awe and admiration for proper objects of religious sentiment, but it is respect to superiority. In a republican country, we do not recognise any inferiority of one person to another on account of the station or the wealth of the more favored; but who contends that all men and women, and all ages of life, and all modifications of charac-please-can serve, or injure?" is an inquiry ter dependent on condition, are equal?

By the Author of the "School Friend."

Lessons," &c.

"Popular

"We live by admiration, hope, and love," says Mr. Wordsworth. All elevated and worthy life, is exalted by the former sentiment, in "Honor all men"higher or lower degrees. "in honor preferring one another," are among the good counsels of the great teacher above quoted, and we wish to urge upon the cultivators of the young, to make practical use of his injunctions.

"Good breeding has been well described, as the art of rendering to all what is socially their due." Selfishness, or more properly, exaggerated self-importance, and apathy, are occasions of rudeness and incivility. Politeness is the lowest form of virtue; but it is, nevertheless, a form of virtue; an expression of respect and concern for others. Madame Roland, a French woman of the last century, distinguished by the largest benevolence, and the highest self-cul. ture, thus briefly describes herself in her childhood. "My only desire was to please, and to do good." She knew intuitively-or she did not distinguish first nature from the early disci

We remember that forty years ago the little children of the country doffed their hats, and dropped their curtsies on meeting a stranger in the highway. This practice has long been dis continued; but there was something amiable in it. Under instruction of the good Oberlin, the people of the Ban de la Roche, though they always remained extremely poor, became remarkable for their graceful politeness. An English traveller who visited them, was charmed with the polish, the mutual deference of their manners. The teacher of a school, who disciplines the manners of his pupils, does much for their hearts, and for the beauty of society. He sets up a rule of action above and beyond self-love. "Are there none whom I can please, or dis

constantly to be set before the mind of a child; and Miss Hannah More has answered this question, in saying,

"Few can save or serve, but all can please." To all who live in society, the good opinion of others is necessary-necessary in some sort, to success in life-necessary to a cordial and satisfactory reception among men-necessary to "Abstain from all ap give efficacy to virtue. pearance of evil," even that appearance of it ́ which a reckless, self-engrossed, careless deportment presupposes-the evil of egregious self-consideration, and of consequent disregard and oversight of the convenience and approval of others.

What can education do for a people? This is a question for the profoundest minds to investigate, and reply to. But all of us have a practical answer to give to it, whether we will or not; for we all have responsibilities, of our Maker's appointment. to the rising race and the next age. We do not create the moral laws, they are propounded to us by Him who cannot err; but in our ripeness, we may not discharge

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.

ourselves from our obligations to the young. We may develop in the unformed, the affections, which in their exercise constitute the collective virtue and happiness of the present and Extracts from the last Annual Report of Hon. H. MANN. future generations; we may cultivate in them the principles, and induce the habits, which socialize a people; and may prepare them to become, what the Creator has designed them to be. No part of this preparation is more important, than that which inculcates respect for E. 'R. others, founded on self-respect.

[For the District School Journal.] DISTRICT SCHOOL ASSOCIATION FOR WAWARSING, ULSTER COUNTY.

THE friends of common school education in the town of Wawarsing, Ulster county, impressed with the importance of good schools, and believing, that the low condition of the common schools throughout the state generally, is in consequence of the indifference felt and manifested by the people in regard to these primary institutions; and believing also, that frequent and close examinations, and a thorough supervision by the friends of education, is all that is necessary to make them "the boast and pride of the state;" have recently organized an association, known as the "Common School Association of the town of Wawarsing," adopting a constitution, requiring monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings, at which addresses, discussions, &c., are to be had, all relating to the interests of popular education, by suggesting and discussing new and improved methods of teaching in the schools.

I HAVE uniformly made inquiries respecting the use of corporal punishment as a means of order, and an incitement to progress, in schools. In Holland corporal punishment is obsolete. Several teachers and school officers told me there was a law prohibiting it in all cases. Others thought it was only a universal practice founded on a universal public opinion. The absence of the Minister of Public Instruction, when I was at the Hague, prevented my obtaining exact information on this interesting point. But whatever was the cause, corporal punishment was not used. In cases of incorrigibleness, expulsion from school was the remedy.

One of the school magistrates in Amsterdam told me, that last year, about five thousand children were taught in the free schools of that city. Of this number, from forty to fifty were expelled for bad conduct. This would be about one per cent.

At Haarlem Mr. de Vries told me he had kept the same school for about twenty years, that its average number had been six hundred scholars, that not an instance of the infliction of corporal punishment had occurred during the whole time, and that two only, (boys,) had been expelled from it, as hopelessly incorrigible. He added, that both those boys had been afterwards imprisoned for crime. On seeing the manner of Mr. de Vries, his modes of instruction, and the combined dignity and affection with which he treated his pupils, I could readily believe the statement.

The schools of Holland were remarkable for good order,-among the very best, certainly, which I have any where seen. Nor does this arise from any predominance of phlegm in the constitution, or any tameness of soul; for the Dutch are certainly as high-toned and freespirited a people as any in Europe. This fact may be read in their organization and natural language, as well as learned from their history. In Hamburgh I visited an institution of a novel character. It was a Punishment-School, or

The officers of the association, are a presi. dent, seven vice-presidents, a secretary, and a treasurer. The town is divided into seven districts, over cach of which a vice-president has jurisdiction, assisted by two individuals, who accompany him in his examinations of the schools under his charge, and advise with, and assist him in all his duties. Thus a committee of three is formed in every section of the town, whose special duty it is to visit and examine the schools under its charge, at least once in each quarter, and report the result of such exa-school-prison,-a place of instruction and re. mination at each quarterly meeting, including their statistics, general appearance, condition, improvement, &c.

The association has held two monthly, and two special meetings, and three addresses have been given by its members.

Alvan B. Preston, President; Foster D. Birdsall, Secretary.

straint for those children belonging to the poor. schools of the city, who commit any aggrava ted offence. In Hamburgh many poor people receive assistance from the city. One of the conditions of the succor is, that those who receive it shall send their children to the schools provided for them. If a child in these schools commits any trivial or ordinary offence, he is punished in the school in the usual way. But if the transgression is gross, or if he persists in a course of misconduct, he is sentenced by the competent authorities to a Prison, or Punishment-School, (Strafschule). Here he must go at eight in the morning, and remain until eight in the evening. A part of the day is spent in study, a part in work. I saw the children picking wool. There were twenty-one boys in one room, and eleven girls in another. The school Truth can only be discovered by peaceful was in the third story of a building! and near minds; it is only adopted by kindred spirits. If the schoolrooms were small and wretched bed. it change the opinions of men, it is only by in-rooms, where those whose sentence covered the sensible gradations-a gentle and easy descent night, as it sometimes did, were compelled to conducting to reason. sleep.

A committee has also been appointed, consisting of the president of the Association and the town superintendent, for the purpose of communicating with the county, and the several town superintendents in the county, in order to take measures for the formation of a County Association, having the same objects in view. GEO. A. DUDLEY, Town Sup't Wawarsing.

In some of the proprietary and endowed schools of England, the practice of solitary confinement still prevails. In large establishments at Birmingham, Liverpool, &c., I saw cells, or solitary chambers, four or five feet square, for the imprisonment of offenders. These were not for mere children, but for young men. I have

The children were usually sentenced to so many stripes, as well as to so many days' confinement; and the teacher kept a book, as a jailer keeps a record of his prisoners, in which the case of each child was recorded. At the expiration of the sentence, the children return to the school whence they came. Instances of a second, and even of a third commitment some-seen a lad fifteen or sixteen years of age, dresstimes occur.

While I was stopping at the punishment school, the hour of dinner arrived. All the boys left their schoolroom for one of the adjacent rooms, and all the girls for another. They arranged themselves in groups of four each, on the opposite sides of a long table. A bowl of bean-porridge was set in the centre of each group, and to each child was given a large, round, coarse wooden spoon. The teacher entered a sort of pulpit and said grace, after which the children ate their homely meal. There was very little of indecorous behaviour, such as winking or laughing in a clandestine manner, but the sobriety appeared to me to come more from fear than from repentance. One of the rules was, that during the twelve hours of daily confinement the children should have no communication with each other; but it happened here, as it has in many other cases where all communication is interdicted, that it is carried on clandestinely, or by stealth,—an evil much greater than any which can result from allowed intercourse.

ed in a cap and gown,-the scholastic uniform of England, a prisoner in one of these apartments:

In some of the private establishments at Paris, an extent of surveillance over the conduct of students prevails, of which we have no idea. This is intended to supersede the necessity of punishment, by taking away all opportunity for transgression. Some of the private schools are subsidiary to the colleges,-that is, the master of the private school has the general charge and superintendence of the students, maintains them at his own house, instructs them himself or by his assistants, at home, but takes them daily to the college, where their lessons are finally heard by professors. I attended, one morning, the opening of the College Bourbon, in Paris. At eight o'clock the private teachers came, followed by their pupils marching in procession. All entered a large square or court, enclosed on all sides, except the gate-way, by the college buildings. Soon after, the roll of a drum was heard, at which all the students ar ranged themselves in classes. At a second drum-beat they marched to their recitation rooms. The teachers then returned home, but at the end of the college exercises they were to be in attendance again, to take back their charge in the same way as they had conducted them thither. To us this would seem singular, because many of the students had already passed the age which we call the age of discretion. By the invitation of one of the teachers, I accompanied him home. The collegians were only the older pupils in his school, and I wished to see the rest of his establishment. It was laid out on a most liberal scale as to playgrounds, schoolrooms, dormitories, kitchen, &c., and was in an excellent condition of order and neatness. The arrangement was such that he could inspect all the play-grounds while sitting in his study,-in this particular resembling those prisons where all the wards can be inspected from a central point. But this was not all. As I passed round to see the several schoolrooms, I observed that a single pane of In England, as there is no National system, glass had been set into the wall of each room, nor any authoritative or prevalent public opinion so that the principal, or any one deputed by towards which individual practice naturally gra- him, could inspect both the class and its teachvitates, a great diversity prevails on this head.er without a moment's warning. This was In some schools talent and accomplishment have pointed out as one of the distinguishing excelwholly superseded corporal punishment; in oth-lences in the construction of the rooms. It was ers, it is the all-in-all of the teacher's power, stated also, that, in order to save the younger whether for order or for study. I was standing from contamination by associating with the oldone day, in conversation with an assistant teacher, there was not only an entire separation of er in a school consisting of many hundred children, when, observing that he held in his hand a lash or cord of Indian rubber, knotted towards the end, I asked him its use. Instead of answering my question in words, he turned round to a little girl,-sitting near by, perfectly quiet, with her arms, which were bare, folded before her and lying upon her desk,-and struck such a blow upon one of them as raised a great red wale or stripe almost from elbow to wrist!

The highest tension of authority which I any where witnessed, was in the Scotch schools. There, as a general rule, the criminal code seemed to include mistakes in recitation as well as delinquencies in conduct; and, where these were committed, nothing of the "law's delay" intervened between offence and punishment. If a spectator were not vigilant, there might be an erroneous answer by a pupil, and a retributive blow on his head by the teacher's fist, so instantaneous and so nearly simultaneous, as to elude observation. Still the bond of attachment between teacher and pupils seemed very strong. It was, however, a bond founded quite as much on awe as on simple affection. The general character of the nation was distinctly visible in the schools. Could the Scotch teacher add something more of gentleness to his prodigious energy and vivacity, and were the general influences which he imparts to his pupils modified in one or two particulars, be would become a model teacher for the world.

them in the schoolrooms, but also in the play. grounds and sleeping apartments; and it was added further, that if two brothers of different ages and belonging to different classes, should attend the school at the same time, they would not be allowed to see each other. I afterwards saw the same contrivances for inspection, not only in other schools, but in the Royal College of Versailles, a very distinguished institution.

I feel unable to decide whether, in such a

state of society and with such children, this piercing surveillance is not the wisest thing that can be done; but with us the question certainly arises, whether the cause of school morals would gain more in the end by a closeness of inspection, designed to prevent the outflow of all natural action; or by allowing more freedom of will, with a careful training of the conscience beforehand, and a strict accountability for conduct afterwards.

At all times, and in all countries, the rule is the same-the punishment of scholars is the complement of the proper treatment of children by parents at home, and the competency of the teacher in school. Where there is less on one side of the equation, there must be more on the other.

with the masters of the Pensions. For this purpose careful inquiries are made; and, sometimes, agents are employed to search out lads of promise, and bring them to the school. In some instances, not only tuition, but the whole expense of board, lodging, &c., is gratuitously furnished; and, in extraordinary cases, a pecuniary bounty beyond the whole expenses of the pupil, has been given. It may be said that this has a good effect, because it searches out the latent talent of the country, and suffers no genius to be lost through neglect. But here, as every where else, the great question is, whether the principle is right, for no craft of man can circumvent the laws of nature, or make a bad motive supply the place or produce the results of a good one. The teachers do not supply these facilities, or encourage this talent, from In the Prussian and Saxon schools, emulation benevolence. It is speculation. It is pecuniary is still used as one of the motive-powers to stu- speculation; and if they did not anticipate a dy; but I nowhere saw the passion inflamed to richer return for their outlay, when invested in an insupportable temperature. I was uniformly this manner than when used in a legitimate told that its employment was becoming less and way, they would not incur such extraordinary less, and that the best authorities throughout trouble and risk. Hence they devote themthe country were now discountenancing, rather selves in an especial manner to the training of than encouraging it. Just in proportion as the these prize-fighters, while other pupils suffer a qualifications of teachers had improved, it had proportional neglect. The very children, therebeen found less necessary to enlist this passion fore, who are attracted to the school in consein their service; and as the great idea of edu-quence of its celebrity, are defrauded of their cation, that of the formation of Christian character and habits,-had been more and more developed, emulation had been found an adverse and not a favoring influence.

EMULATION.

France and Scotland are the two countries in Europe, where emulation between pupils, as one of the motive-powers to study, is most vigorously plied. In France the love of approbation, of conspicuousness, of éclat, of whatever ministers to the national passion of vanity, holds pre-eminence. In Scotland rivalry is more frequently stimulated by the hope of reward.

In one of the Pensions, or Boarding Schools, of Paris, I was struck by the sight of a large number of portraits of young men. These were hung around the walls of the Principal's room, which was a large apartment, three of whose sides were nearly covered by them. They were the portraits of those pupils of the school who had afterwards won prizes at a college examination. The name of the pupil, the year, and the subject-matter on which he had surpassed his competitors, were inscribed respectively beneath the portraits. In the room of the Head of the Royal College at Versailles, I also saw the portraits of those students of the College who had won prizes at the University. This display and the facts connected with it, speak volumes in regard to the French character, and the motive powers under which not only the scholars, but the nation works. A brief account of a single phasis of this system,-for it is reduced to a system,-if not particularly in. teresting, may be instructive.

The Pensions, or Boarding Schools, are equivalent to our Select or Private Schools. Their patronage depends upon their reputation; and that reputation is mainly graduated by the number of distinguished scholars they send out. Hence to send pupils to the college who gain prizes for scholarship, brings celebrity to the school and emolument to the master. To obtain talented boys, therefore, becomes a grand object

share of attention, in order that the reputation of the school, for which they have been made victims, may induce others to join it, to be made victims in their turn. Thus the system prospers by the evil it works. There is the same ambition among the colleges to win the prizes of the university. The day of examination, when these prizes are awarded, is one of great pomp and ceremony. The Minister of Public Instruction, and other high official dignitaries, usually attend; the king himself has sometimes been present in person; and it is a standing rule, that the successful competitors are invited to dine at the royal table.

Who that is conversant with the history of France does not see how much of her poverty, her degradation and her suffering, even in the proudest periods of her annals, is directly attri butable to this inordinate love of praise; and especially, how much of the humiliation of later times,-when the charm of her invincibility was broken, and she was obliged to ransom herself from the grasp of her conquerors, by gold wrung from her toiling millions,-is directly traceable to the predominance in her character of this love of applause. It was this blind passion for glory which created Bonaparte, and which sustained him not less faithfully in all his vast schemes of wickedndss than in his plans for improvement. "Had the Romans not been sheep, Cæsar had not been a wolf!"

Among all the nations of Christendom, our own is perhaps second only to France, in the love of appróbation as a prompter and guide to action. Ought we then to cultivate this pas sion, already of inordinate growth, by the use of emulation in our schools?

LOGARITHMS.-Logarithms in calculation are like the steam-engine in mechanics. They enaBle the calculator to overcome every obstacle, and render the most intricate combinations of numbers comparatively easy.