The views here expressed are supposed to be in perfect accordance with the teachings of the Inspired Volume, and they are known to be strictly in harmony with the laws of all civilized nations and the general experience of mankind. It is cheerfully conceded that well informed and good men hold and express opinions precisely opposite to those here advocated, but it is possible that even such men may entertain and propagate error. Good men not unfrequently, though unconsciously, deceive themselves by supposing that all other persons are like themselves in their motives and actions. Every man measures the character of his fellows by his own. Hence the strictly honest are always slow to believe in the existence of obliquity and fraud, and the knave is equally slow to admit the possibility of honesty and fair dealing. The best of men, however, have just reason to distrust the correctness of their opinions, however ardently and honestly entertained, it on examination they are found to be in opposition to the doctrines of the Bible, and the general experience of mankind COMMUNICATIONS. [For the District School Journal.] GREENE COUNTY. the teacher is to co-operate with the parent, or to use the better and more definite language of the law, if the teacher for certain purposes, is, "in the place of the parent," it necessarily follows that he must, for those purposes, be invested with the authority and power of the parent. If the infliction of corporal punishment upon the child is justifiable on the part of the parent by reason of the child's inability to be influenced and controlled by the principles of reason and morality, will it be for one moment contended that the child's character is so essentially modified and changed, simply by entering a school-room, that a mode of discipline indispensably necessary to order while in the parent's charge, becomes barbarous and absurd when the very same reason requires it for the preservation of order in the school? But teachers cannot know the character of the child as the parent knows it, they do not comprehend its feelings, they lack a parents' patience, sympathy, and judgment. If all this is true, what a farce does it make of the whole school system. If teachers are thus inferior to parents in the necessary qualifications for forming aright the character of the child, why are they employed at all? Suppose the teacher divested of the power to inflict corporal punishment, and suppose instances to occur in which all appeals to the reason and moral feeling of the pupil shall prove wholly ineffectual, how shall order be maintained and the DEAR SIR-Having just closed my official performance of duty enforced? Must the teach- tour through the county, perhaps it will not be er make a written complaint to the parent? improper for me to make known through the There are thousands of cases in which the parent medium of the Journal, the result of my lawould believe the statements of the child in oppo- bors. I have visited one hundred and thirty sition to all that the teacher could speak or district schools; being the whole number in opewrite. Shall the refractory pupil be reported to ration at the time of my visitaiion. Thus far, the town superintendent? Then that officer my visits have been received with the utmost must grant that pupil and his friends a fair hear-cordiality. The opposition to the office of ing before he can decide upon his conduct with County Superintendent, that formerly existed, justice. This mode of preserving order would has nearly subsided; and judging from the pre. be found in practice altogether too dilatory and sent state of feeling that seems to prevail gene. expensive. Shall the idle and disobedient be rally throughout the county in reference to comsummarily dismissed from the school? Hun mon schools, the efforts now making in their dreds and thousands of ignorant children would behalf are, with few exceptions, universally delight above all things in such a mode of dis-approved. I found the majority of the schools cipline. Is it not wiser, rather than encounter in good condition. Some are of the first order; these and other difficulties by no means imagi- not inferior to the private schools and acade. nary, which would be consequent upon abolition mies in their vicinity, either in point of disciof the teacher's power to inflict reasonable cor- pline or instruction. There are ladies and genporal punishment, to continue that mode of dis-tlemen engaged the present season in the busicipline to which we have been so long accus-ness of teaching, whose highest ambition in the tomed? Is it not better to say to the teacher, literary world seems to be, to acquire the repufor certain purposes in relation to the children tation of good school teachers. Wherever I of your school, you are to occupy a parent's found teachers of this description, I saw deplace, and for those purposes you are invested veloped the elements of a good school. The with a parent's authority. The law will sustain you in its proper exercise, but will hold you strictly responsible for its abuse? first law of Heaven was depicted in every countenance, in every movement, and in every action; and a most thorough system of instrucWhen the time arrives in which the child tion carried out in every departmeut of the shall competently understand and obey the prin- school. They have a time and place for every ciples of reason and morality, and shall be guid- thing, and do every thing at its proper and ap ed simply by those principles into the punctual pointed time. One subject only is suffered to performance of his whole duty, then may the engross their attention at a time, and that is power of corporal punishment be abolished with thoroughly investigated and gone through with, safety and for the general good. But until that before another is introduced. Could instruction time does arrive, it is confidently believed that in all our schools thus be reduced to a system, the best good of the child, and the preservation of order in the family, in the school, and in society at large, imperatively demand the continuance and proper exercise of this power on the part of parents and teachers. the difficult and laborious task of teaching a school properly, would be greatly facilitated, and the most signal success would crown the efforts of those whose business is, to mould and discipline the minds of the rising generation. guage. If this course is adopted, the exercise cannot fail of eliciting thought and interest. Of this class of teachers, there are comparatively few to be found in the county. Many of the schools I visited, scarcely deserved the Another obstacle in the way of improvement name of schools and the time of many teachers in our schools is, there is a want of interest on who had been permitted to enter the school-room the part of the patrons of common schools. in that capacity, might be profitably employed This indifference is manifested in various ways: in improving their education in a common school in employing cheap and incompetent teachers; for some time to come. There are others whose in permitting their children to be irregular in literary acquirements may be considered respec- their attendance; in neglecting to repair their table, but who have not an aptness to teach. school-honses; in not visiting their schools. Or, in other words, they lack in judgment in One or more of these practices prevail to a greatadapting their instructions to the capacities and er or less extent in every school district I have understandings of children. They are incapa- visited. They are among the most formidable ble of analyzing a subject and exhibiting its evils we have to contend with; and so long as parts separately. The minds of their pupils they are suffered to obstruct the progress of inare not trained to habits of thought and reflec-struction in our common schools, the incalculation. Mere isolated facts are substituted for ideas. In short, the whole course of instruction is devoid of interest to the scholars, and ill adapted to develop and strengthen the intellectual powers. Another fault in teachers is, they are not thorough in imparting instruction. Children are advanced too fast in their studies. Long and hurried recitations are encouraged. Lessons are usually recited from the book, without any explanations from the teacher to the scholars, or any illustration given of the exercise; and the scholar leaves the teacher without receiving any real benefit from the recitation. There may be a great deal of labor performed in schools where this course of instruction is pursued, yet there is no progress. No permanent impressions are made upon the minds of pupils; and their understandings remain unimproved. Often children are put into studies that are beyond their capacities; and not being able to comprehend the subject of their lessons, they become discouraged, and their relish for learning is turned into utter dislike. I have found scholars the past winter, who were pursuing philosophy, chemistry, and the higher branches of mathematics, who could not bound their own state, or even their own town, read intelligibly, or spell correctly. In those schools, orthography was almost wholly neglected; the scholars were permitted to pass over the syllables of words when spelling, without pronouncing them separately, or even pronouncing the word after they had spelled it. As a matter of course, I found the same schools backward in reading. This exercise is too much neglected in nearly all our schools. Its importance is not properly appreciated by most teachers. A dull, monotonous manner of reading, is tolerated in their schools. If their pupils read rapidly, and speak their words distinctly, they are pronounced good readers. No attention is paid to emphasis, accent or inflections. The ideas the author intends to convey are wholly disregarded, and little or no interest is taken in the exercise. To read, is the most disagreeable task the pupil has to perform. He looks upon it, as being almost insupportable; and when he has performed it, a heavy sigh indicates that a burden almost intolerable is removed. Inquire of the pupil what subject he has read about? and he cannot give a single idea. Not the least possible benefit is derived from the exercise. Scholars should be taught to read their lessons understandingly. If time is wanting, they should read less, and read it thoroughly, and then give the author's meaning in their own lan ble blessings they are designed to secure to the County Supt. of Com. Schools. COMMON SCHOOL CELEBRATION. HON. SAMUEL YOUNG, Sir-I take the liberty to forward you herewith, two Cortland papers, giving accounts of the convocations or celebrations which I have called together, since my return from Albany. You have received, through Mr. Randall, the accounts of the preceding ones. There is but one yet unpublished, that of Cortlandville, which in point of numbers far exceeded all the rest. I will forward that as soon as possible. Strange as it may seem to you, sir, these meetings have encountered bitter opposition. In several of the towns, the town superintendents thought it best not to make the attempt-were quite certain they would fail! I expressed to them all my determination to hold such a meeting in each town at all hazards. You will see the result. As the first trial of an experiment, utterly new in this county, and regarded with dread and distrust by many of the teachers and schools, I think you will be disposed to regard it as a not unsuccessful one. These meetings have aroused a singular degree of spirit and excitement in the schools; and the same feeling has spread among parents. The dissenters and opposers have been swept away and overwhelmed by a perfect torrent of popular enthusiasm. I wish, sir, you could have witnessed the spectacle at Homer and Cortlandville; the whole streets filled with processions, banners, huge and beautifully decorated vehicles. Some schools preceded by bands of music-others, singing hymns and odes-bells pealing-and, occasionally, a deep and heart-felt shout burst. ing from the congregated multitude! The spec. tacle in the churches was gay and animating beyond description. Until the exercises commenced, each was like a dense forest of banners almost hiding the sparkling faces underneath. The churches, where not occupied by schools, were crowded with the parents and friends of the scholars, some smiling-not a few weeping outright for joy! The enthusiasm of both old and young knew no bounds. Perhaps, sir, it would have been more delicate in me, to have suppressed the incident in relation to the pre sentation of the banner, at Homer. But I did not well see how I could, without exhibiting a false modesty, so long as the incident was so notorious, and was made to constitute so marked T. Or by way of abbreviation? P. Transcript. a feature in the ceremonies of the occasion. The same is done when a derivative of the When the church shook under the deep cheers Latin word 'pes' occurs, as in the words, impewhich burst forth as the banner was unfurled,diment, pedestal, pediment, impede, expedite; or of I could not but think, sir, of the suggestion the word 'duco,' in induce, produce, traduce, rewhich I presumed to hazard in my last report duce,adduce, conduce,inducement,induction,deducto the Department, in relation to a personal visition, reduction, production; and then the names of tation to county conventions of schools, by the the agents or persons performing these several State Superintendent. If we may estimate the acts are given. feeling and enthusiasm which it would call forth among our schools and people, by that produced by it in a minor sphere, by a minor official, it would be difficult to say where it would endto what extent it would not reach. I propose to hold similar meetings the ensuing summer, and had we a building large enough in the county to hold five or six thousand children, I should take the liberty to write you to be present. I have the honor to remain, sir, Your obedient servant, HENRY S. RANDALL EDUCATION IN EUROPE. [Extract from the last Report of Hon. HORACE MANN.] SCOTCH SCHOOLS. So of the words in which the Greek 'grapho' is an element, as geography, chirography, graphic, paragraph, telegraph, graphite, (a mineral,) &c. The same exercises take place in regard to hundreds of other words. The Scotch teachers, the great body of whom are graduates of colleges, or have attended the university before beginning to keep school, are perfectly competent to instruct in this thorough manner. I think it obvious, however, that this mode of teaching may be carried too far, as many of our words, though wholly or in part of Latin or Greek derivation, have lost their etymological signification, and assumed a conven. tional one. But all this,-admirable in its way, was hardly worthy to be mentioned in comparison with another characteristic of the Scottish THERE are some points in which the schools of schools, viz, the mental activity with which the exercises were conducted, both on the part of Scotland are very remarkable. In the thorough- teacher and pupils. I entirely despair of exciness with which they teach the intellectual part ting in any other person, by a description, the of reading, they furnish a model worthy of be- vivid impressions of mental activity or celerity, ing copied by the world. Not only is the mean. which the daily operations of these schools proing of all the important words in the lesson clear- duced in my own mind. Actual observation ly brought out, but the whole class or family of alone can give any thing approaching to the true words, to which the principal word belongs, are idea. I do not exaggerate when I say that teh introduced, and their signification given. The most active and lively schools I have ever seen pupil not only gains a knowledge of the mean- in the United States, must be regarded almost ing of all the leading words contained in his exas dormitories, if compared with the fervid life ercise, but also of their roots, derivatives, and of the Scotch schools; and, by the side of theirs, compounds; and thus is prepared to make the our pupils would seem to be hybernating aniproper discriminations between analagous words whenever he may hear or read them on future mals just emerging from their torpid state, and occasions. For instance, suppose the word 'cir- life and faculties. It is certainly within bounds as yet but half conscious of the possession of cumscribe' occurs in the lesson; the teacher asks to say, that there are six times as many quesfrom what Latin words it is derived, and being tions put and answers given, in the same space answered, he then asks what other English of time, as I ever heard put and given in any words are formed by the help of the Latin pre-school in our own country. position 'circum.' This leads to an explanation But a few preliminary observations are necesof such words as circumspect, circumvent, cir. cumjacent, circumambient, circumference, cir- sary to make any description of a Scotch school intelligible. cumflex, circumfusion, circumnavigate, circum- In the numerous Scotch schools which I saw, stance, circumlocution, &c. &c. The same thing the custom of place-taking prevailed, not merewould then be done in reference to the other ety-ly in spelling, but in geography, arithmetic, reamological component of circumscribe,' vizding, defining, &c. Nor did this consist solely 'scribo'; and here the specific meaning of the in the passing up of the one giving a right anwords describe, inscribe, transcribe, ascribe, pre-swer above the one giving a wrong. But if a scribe, superscribe, subscribe, &c., &c,, would be scholar made a very bright answer, he was progiven. After this might come the nouns, adjec-moted at once to the top of the class; if he made a tives, and adverbs, into which this word enters as one of the elements, such as scripture, manuscript, &c. The teacher says, Give me a word, which signifies to copy. Pupils: Transcribe. T. To write in a book, or on a tablet. P. Inscribe. T. To write upon, or on the outside of, as on a letter. P. Superscribe. T. To write beneath, or under. P. Subscribe. T. A man goes around to obtain names for a book or news paper; or to get promises of money for stocks or for charity. What does he want? P. Subscriptions. T. And what are those called who give him their names? P. Subscribers. T. And what is a copy called? P. Transcription. very stupid one, he was sentenced no less summarily to the bottom. Periodically prizes are given, and the fact of having been 'Dur,' (that is, at the head of the class,) the greatest number of times, is the principal ground on which the prizes are awarded. In some schools an auxiliary stimulus is applied. The fact of having passed the pupil to a ticket; and a given number of up so many places, (say ten or twelve,) entitles these tickets is equivalent to being 'dur' once. When this sharper goad to emulation is to be ap plied, the spectator will see the teacher fill bis hand with small bits of pasteboard, and, as the recitation goes on and competition becomes Nor can the faintest picture of these exciting scenes be given, without introducing something of the technical phraseology used in the school. If the pupil is not prompt at the moment, and if the teacher means to insist upon an answer from him, (for it will not do to pass by a schol. keen, and places are rapidly lost and won, the teacher is seen occasionally to give one of these tickets to a pupil as a counter, or token, that he has passed up above so many of his fellows; -that is, he may have passed up above four at one time, six at another, and two at another, and if twelve is the number which entitles to aar always, however dull,) he exclaims in no ticket, one will be given without any stopping or speaking, for the teacher and pupil appear to have kept a silent reckoning, and when the latter extends his hand, the former gives a ticket without any suspension of the lesson. This gives the greatest intensity to competition; and at such times. the children have a look of almost maniacal eagerness and anxiety. very moderate or gentle voice,' come away,' or 'Come away, now ;'-and if the first does not answer and the next does, he directs the latter to pass above the former by the conventional phrase, Take him down.' If a whole section stands at fault, for a moment, and then one leaps up and shouts out the reply, the teacher exclaims, Dux boy,' which means that the one who answered shall take the head of the class. Suppose the teacher to be hearing his class in a reading lesson, and that the word 'impediment' occurs, something like the following scene may take place. Teacher. 'Impediment,' from what Latin words! T. What does it mean? P. To oppose something against the feet,to keep them back. T. How is the word 'pes' used in statuary? P. In pedestal,-the block on which a stat I have said that questions were put by the teacher with a rapidity almost incredible. When once put, however, if not answered, they are not again stated in words. If the first pupil cannot answer, the teacher rarely stops to say Next,' but, every pupil having his eye on the teacher, and being alive in every sense and faculty, and the teacher walking up and down before the class, and gesticulating vehemently,―with his arm extended, and accompanying each motion with his eye, he points to the next, and the next, until perhaps, if the question is difficult, he may have indicated each one in a section, but obtain-ue is raised. ed an answer from none; then he throws his T. arm and eye around towards one side of the room, inviting a reply from any one, and, if still unsuccessful, he sweeps them across the other side, and all this will take but half a minute. Words being too slow and cumbrous, the language of signs prevails; and the parties, being all eye and ear, the interchange of ideas has an electric rapidity. While the teacher turns his face and points his finger towards a dozen pupils consecutively, inviting a reply, perhaps a dozen arms will be extended towards him from other sections of the class, giving notice that they are ready to respond; and in this way a question will be put to a class of fifty, sixty, or eighty pupils, in half a minute of time. Nor is this all. The teacher does not stand immovably fixed to one spot, (I never saw a teacher in Scotland sitting in a school-room,, nor are the bodies of the pupils mere blocks, resting motionless in their seats, or lolling from side to side as though life were deserting them. The custom is for each pupil to rise when giving an answer. This is ordinarily done so quick, that the body of the pupil, darting from the sitting into the standing posture, and then falling back into the first position, seems more like an instrument sent suddenly forwards by a mechanical force and then rapidly withdrawn, than like the rising and sitting of a person in the ordinary way. But it is obvious that the scene becomes full of animation when,-leave being given to a whole division of a class to answer,-a dozen or twenty at once spring to their feet, and ejaculate at the top of their voices. The moment it is seen that the question has been rightly answered, and this is instantaneously shown by the manner of the teacher, all fall back, and another question is put. If this is not answered, almost before an attentive spectator can understand it, the teacher extends his arm and flashes his eye to the next, and the next, and so on, and when a rapid signal is given to another side of the room, a dozen pupils leap to the floor and vociferate a reply. feet. In architecture? P. Pediment. T. In music? P. Pedal, a part of an organ moved by the T. In botany? P. Pedicle, or footstalk of a flower. T. Give me a verb. P. Impede. T. A noun. An adjective, which imports despatch in the absence of obstacles. P. Expeditious. T. An adjective, meaning desirable or con ducive. P. (Hesitates.) T. Come away. (To the next.) Come away. (He now points to half a dozen in succession, giving to each not more than a twinkling of time.) Ninth pupil. Expedient. T. Take 'em down. (This pupil then goes above eight.) All this does not occupy half the time in the class that it takes to read an account of it. In a school where a recitation in Latin was going on, I witnessed a scene of this kind; the room, unlike the rooms where the children of the common people are taught, was large. Seventy or eighty boys sat on deskless, back. less benches, arranged on three sides of a square or parallelogram. A boy is now called upon to recite,-to parse a Latin noun for instance. But he does not respond quite so quickly as the report of a gun follows the flash. The teacher cries out Come away.' The boy errs, giving perhaps a wrong gender, or saying that it is derived from a Greek verb, when, in fact, it is derived from a Greek noun of the same family. Twenty boys leap forward into the area, as though the house were on fire, or a mine or an ambush had been sprung upon them, and shout out the true answer in a voice that could be heard forty rods. And so the recitation proceeds for an hour. To an unaccustomed spectator, on entering one of these rooms, all seems uproar, turbu. lence, and the contention of angry voices,-the teacher traversing the space before his class, in a state of high excitement, the pupils springing from their seats, darting to the middle of the floor, and sometimes, with extended arms, forming a circle around him, two, three, or four deep, every finger quivering from the intensity of their emotions, until some more saga cious mind, outstripping its rivals, solves the difficulty,-when all are in their seats again, as though by magic, and ready for another encounter of wits. SCHOOLS OF PRUSSIA AND SAXONY. On reviewing a period of six weeks, the greater part of which I spent in visiting schools in the north and middle of Prussia and in Saxony, (excepting, of course, the time occupied in going from place to place,) entering the schools to hear the first recitation in the morning, and remaining until the last was completed at night, I call to mind three things about which I cannot be mistaken. In some of my opinions and inferences, I may have erred, but of the following facts, there can be no doubt : 1. During all this time, I never saw a teacher hearing a lesson of any kind, (excepting a reading or spelling lesson,) with a book in his hand. 2. I never saw a teacher sitting, while hear 3. Though I saw hundreds of schools, and thousands,-I think I may say, within bounds, tens of thousands of pupils,—I never saw one child undergoing punishment, or arraigned for misconduct. I never saw one child in tears from having been punished, or from fear of being pun I have seen a school kept for two hours in succession, in this state of intense mental acti. vity, with nothing more than an alternation of subjects during the time, or perhaps the relaxing a recitation. ation of singing. At the end of the recitation, both teacher and pupils would glow with heat, and be covered with perspiration, as though they had been contending in the race or the ring. It would be utterly impossible for the children to bear such fiery excitement, if the physical exercise were not as violent as the mental is in-ished. tense. But children who actually leap into the air from the energy of their impulses, and repeat this as often as once in two minutes on an average, will not suffer from suppressed activity of the muscular system. : During the above period, I witnessed exercises in geography, ancient and modern; in the German language; from the explanation of the simplest words up to belles-lettres, disquisitions, with rules for speaking and writing; in arithThe mental labor performed in a given period metic, algebra, geometry, surveying and trigoin these schools, by children under the age of nometry; in book-keeping; in civil history, antwelve or fourteen years, is certainly many cient and modern in natural philosophy; in times more than any I have ever seen in any botany and zoology; in mineralogy, where there schools of our own, composed of children as were hundreds of specimens; in the endless vayoung. With us, the lower classes do not ordi- riety of the exercises in thinking; knowledge narily work more than half the time while they of nature, of the world, and of society; in Bible are in the school room. Even many members history and in Bible knowledge; and, as I beof the reciting classes are drowsy and listless, fore said, in no one of these cases did I see a and evidently following some train of thought, teacher with a book in his hand. His book, -if they are thinking at all,-whose scene lies his books,-his library, was in his head. beyond the walls of the school-house, rather Promptly, without pause, without hesitation, than applying their minds to the subject-matter from the rich resources of his own mind, he of the lesson, or listening to those who are re- brought forth whatever the occasion demanded. citing, or feigning to recite it. But in the mode I remember calling one morning at a country above described, there is no sleepyness, no dro- school in Saxony, where every thing about the ning, no inattention. The moment an eye wan-premises, and the appearance both of teacher ders, or a countenance becomes listless, it is roused by a special appeal; and the contagion of the excitement is so great as to operate upon every mind and frame that is not an absolute non-conductor to life. One sees at a glance, how familiar the teacher, who teaches in this way, must be with the whole subject, in order to command the attention of a class at all. I was told by the Queen's Inspector of the schools in Scotland, that the first test of a teach er's qualification is. his power to excite and sustain the attention of his class. If a teacher cannot do this, he is pronounced, without further inquiry, incompetent to teach. There are some good schools in England, such as the Normal School at Battersea, those of the Home and Colonial Infant School Society, and the Borough Road School, in London, and some others; but, as I saw nothing in these superior to what may be seen in good schools at home, I omit all remarks upon them.* and children, indicated very narrow pecuniary circumstances. As I entered, the teacher was just ready to commence a lesson or lecture on French history. He gave not only the events of a particular period in the history of France, but mentioned as he proceeded all the contempora. ry sovereigns of neighboring nations. The ordinary time for a lesson, here as elsewhere, was an hour. This was somewhat longer, for towards the close, the teacher entered upon a train of thought from which it was difficult to break off, and rose to a strain of eloquence which it was delightful to hear. The scholars were all absorbed in attention. They had paper, pen and ink before them, and took brief notes of what was said. When the lesson touched upon contemporary events in other nations,-which, as I suppose, had been the subject of previous lessons,-the pupils were questioned concerning them. A small text-book of history was used by the pupils, which they studied at home. I ought to say further, that I generally visited The famous school at Norwood,-eight or ten miles schools without guide, or letter of introduction, from London,-where more than a thousand of the pau-presenting myself at the door, and asking the per children of London are collected is an extraordinary sight, without being an extraordinary school. favor of admission. Though I had a general order from the Minister of Public Instruction, |