commanding all schools, gymnasia and universities in the kingdom to be opened for my inspection, yet I seldom exhibited it, or spoke of it, at least not until I was about departing. I preferred to enter as a private individual, and uncommended visitor. I have said that I saw no teacher sitting in his school. Aged or young, all stood. Nor did they stand apart and aloof in sullen dignity.They mingled with their pupils, passing rapidly from one side of the class to the other, animat. ing, encouraging, sympathizing, breathing life into less active natures, assuring the timid, distributing encouragement and endearment to all. The looks of the Prussian teacher often have the expression and vivacity of an actor in a play. He gesticulates like an orator. His body assumes all the attitudes, and his face puts on all the variety of expression, which a public speaker would do, if haranguing a large assembly on a topic vital to their interests. a chair, read from some old book which scarcely Be These incitements and endearments of the teacher, this personal ubiquity, as it were, among all the pupils in the class, prevailed much more, as the pupils were younger. fore the older classes, the teacher's manner became calm and didactic. The habit of attention being once formed, nothing was left for subsequent years or teachers, but the easy task of maintaining it. Was there ever such a comment as this on the practice of hiring cheap teaachers because the school is young, or incompe tent ones because it is backward! It may seem singular, and perhaps to some almost Indicrous, that a teacher, in expounding the first rudiments of hand-writing, in teaching the difference between a hair-stroke and ground stroke, or how an I may be turned into a b, or a u into a w, should be able to work him- In Prussia and in Saxony, as well as in Scotself up into an oratorical fervor, should attudi-land, the power of commanding and retaining nize, and gesticulate, and stride from one end of the attention of a class is held to be a sine qua the class to the other, and appear in every way non in a teacher's qualifications. If he has not to be as intensely engaged as an advocate when talent, skill, vivacity, or resources of anecdote arguing an important cause to a jury;-but and wit, sufficient to arouse and retain the atstrange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true; tention of his pupils during the accustomed peand before five minutes of such a lesson had riod of recitation, he is deemed to have mista. elapsed. I have seen the children wrought up to ken his calling, and receives a significant hint to an excitement proportionally intense, hanging change his vocation. upon the teacher's lips, catching every word he says, and evincing great elation or depression of spirits, as they had or had not succeeded in follow. ing his instructions. So I have seen the same rhetorical vehemence on the part of the teacher, and the same interest and animation on the part of the pupils, during a lesson on the original sounds of the letters, that is, the difference between the long and the short sound of a vowel, or the different ways of opening the mouth in sounding the consonants b and p. This zeal of the teacher enkindles the scholars. He charges them with his own electricity to the point of explosion. Such a teacher has no idle, mischievous, whispering children around him, nor any occasion for the rod. He does not make desolation of all the active and playful impulses of childhood, and call it peace; nor, to secure stillness among his scholars, does he find it necessary to ride them with the night-mare of fear. I rarely saw a teacher put questions with his lips alone. He seems so much interested in his subject, (though he might have been teaching the same lesson for the hundredth or the five hundredth time,) that his whole body is in motion; -eyes, arms, limbs, all contributing to the im. pression he desires to make; and at the end of an hour, both he and his pupils come from the work all glowing with excitement. Suppose a lawyer in one of our courts were to plead an important cause before a jury, but instead of standing and extemporizing, and showing by his gestures, and by the energy and ardor of his whole manner, that he felt an interest in his theme, instead of rising with his subject and coruscating with flashes of genius and wit, he should plant himself lazily down in Take a group of little children to a toy shop, and witness their out-bursting eagerness and delight. They need no stimulus of badges or prizes to arrest or sustain their attention; they need no quickening of their faculties by rod or ferule. To the exclusion of food and sleep, they will push their inquiries, until shape, color, quality, use, substance, both external and internal, of the objects, are exhausted; and each child will want the showman wholly to himself. But in all the boundless variety and beau ty of nature's works; in that profusion and prodigality of charms with which the Creator has adorned and enriched every part of his creation; in the delights of affection; in the extatic joys of benevolence; in the absorbing in. terest which an unsophisticated conscience instinctively takes in all questions of right and wrong;-in all these, is there not as much to challenge and command the attention of a little child as in the curiosities of a toy shop? When as much of human art and ingenuity has been expended upon Teaching as upon Toys, there will be less difference betwen the cases. The third circumstance I mentioned above was the beautiful relation of harmony and affection which subsisted between teacher and pupils. I cannot say that the extraordinary fact I have mentioned was not the result of chance or accident. Of the probability of that, others must judge. I can only say that, during all the time mentioned, I never saw a blow struck, I never heard a sharp rebuke given, I never saw a child in tears, nor arraigned at the teacher's bar for any alleged misconduct. On the contrary, the relation seemed to be one of duty first, and then affection, on the part of the teacher,—of alert, for each one knows that he is liable to be called upon for the reply. On the contrary, if the scholar who is expected to answer is first named, and especially if the scholars are taken in succession, according to local position,—that is, in the order of their seats or stations,-then the attention of all the rest has a reprieve, until their turns shall come. In practice, this designation of the answerer before the question is propounded, operates as a temporary leave of absence, or furlough, to all the other members of the class. affection first, and then duty on the part of the scholar. The teacher's manner was better than parental, for it had a parent's tenderness and vigilance, without the foolish doatings or indulgencies to which parental affection is prone. I heard no child ridiculed, sneered at, or scolded, for making a mistake. On the contrary, whenever a mistake was made, or there was a want of promptness in giving a reply, the expression of the teacher was that of grief and disappointment, as though there had been a failure, not merely to answer the question of a master, but to comply with the expectations of The other point referred to, is that of adjusta freind. No child was disconcerted, disabled, ing the ease or difficulty of the questions to the or bereft of his senses, through fear. Nay, gen-capacity of the pupil. A child should never erally, at the ends of the answers, the teacher's have any excuse or occasion for making a mispractice is to encourage him, with the exclama. take; nay, at first he should be most carefully tion' good, right,' wholly right,' &c., or to guarded from the fact, and especially from the check him with his slowly and painfully articu. consciousness of making a mistake. The queslated 'no;' and this is done with a tone of voice tions should be ever so childishly simple, rather that marks every degree of plus and minus in than that the answers should be erroneous. No the scale of approbation or regret. When a expense of time can be too great, if it secures difficult question has been put to a young child, the habit and the desire of accuracy. Hence a which tasks all his energies,. the teacher ap. false answer should be an event of the rarest ocproaches him with a look of mingled concern currence, one to be deprecated, to be looked and encouragement; he stands before him, the upon with surprise and regret, and almost as an light and shade of hope and fear alternately offence. Few things can have a worse effect upcrossing his countenance; he lifts his arms and on a child's character than to set down a row of turns his body, -as a bowler who has given a black marks against him, at the end of every wrong direction to his bowl will writhe his per- lesson. son to bring the ball back upon its track ;-and finally, if the little wrestler with difficulty triumphs, the teacher felicitates him upon his success, perhaps seizes and shakes him by the hand, in token of congratulation; and, when the difficulty has been really formidable, and the effort triumphant, I have seen the teacher catch up the child in his arms and embrace him, as though he were not able to contain his joy. At another time, I have seen a teacher actually clap his hands with delight at a bright reply: and all this has been done so naturally and so unaf. fectedly as to excite no other feeling in the residue of the children than a desire, by the same means, to win the same caresses. What person worthy of being called by the name, or of sus- The first of the above-named practices can be taining the sacred relation of a parent, would adopted by every teacher, immediately, and not give any thing, bear any thing, sacrifice any whatever his degree of competency in other rething, to have his children, during eight or ten spects may be. The last improvement can onyears of the period of their childhood, surround-ly be fully effected when the teacher can dis ed by circumstances, and breathed upon by sweet pense with all text-books, and can teach and and humanizing influences, like these! question from a full mind only. The case is hopeless, where a conspiracy against the spread of knowiedge has been entered into between an author who compiles, and a teacher who uses, a text-book, in which the questions to be put are all prepared and printed. I mean no disparagement of our own teachers by the remark I am about to make. As a general fact, these teachers are as good as public opinion has demanded; as good as the public sentiment has been disposed to appreciate; as good as public liberality has been ready to reward; as good as the preliminary measures taken to qualify them would authorize us to expect. But it was impossible to put down the questionings of my own mind,-whether a visitor could spend six weeks in our own schools without ever hearing an angry word spoken, or seeing a blow struck, or witnessing the flow of tears. In the Prussian schools, I observed the fair operation and full result of two practices which I have dwelt upon with great repetition and urgency at home. One is, when hearing a class recite, always to ask the question before naming the scholar who is to give the answer. The question being first asked, all the children are The value of this practice of adjusting questions to the capacities and previous attainments of the pupils, cannot be over-estimated. The opposite course necessitates mistakes, habituates and hardens the pupils to blundering and uncertainty, disparages the value of correctness in their eyes; and,-what is a consequence as much to be lamented as any,-gives plausibility to the argument in favor of emulation as a means of bringing children back to the habit of accuracy from which they have been driven. Would the trainer of horses deserve any compensation, or have any custom, if the first draughts which he should impose upon the young animals were beyond their ability to move? EDUCATION IN GERMANY. [Extract from the Letter of LEMUEL STEPHENS, Esq. to the Superintendent of Penn., dated Berlin, April 10, 1843.] NORMAL SCHOOLS. Ir may be doubted whether the education of young men in the seminaries is a sufficient security that they will afterwards continue to teach. The seminaries should receive only those who, in good faith, intend to do so; and I will add, that their thorough and peculiar quali fication will do more than any thing else to bind them to the employment. In Prussia, Hanover, Hesse, and probably in the other German states, those who avail themselves of the benefits of the seminaries are required to teach during the .first three years, in any situation to which the government may appoint them; and in case of refusal, they must refund to the seminary an equivalent for their expenses to the institution, which, in Prussia, is fixed at twenty thalers, or about fourteen dollars per year, for the length of time they have studied there, together with the amount of such special beneficia as they may have enjoyed. Then further, as teachers, educated in the seminaries, are exempted from the military, except for the short term of six weeks, it is required that a teacher who is discharged from his office for misconduct, before his thirty-second year, or who, from choice, passes before this time to some other occupa tion, shall then be held to the discharge of the full term of military service. In Massachusetts, the young teacher obligates himself to teach a school three years after leaving the seminary. These constraints are just and good; but, as I said, the wisest constraint of all will be contained in the thorough and appropriate education afforded by the seminaries. This leads me to remark, finally, that in the establishment of teachers' seminaries, their utility and success will depend entirely upon their appropriate and perfect organization. False economy has often attempted to provide for the education of primary teachers, by making the seminary an appendage to a high school, or an academy. Thirty years ago this arrangement was not uncommon in Germany; and later the experiment has been tried in the state of New-York. But, as might be seen, by this system the end desired is not attained. Sup. posing the teachers of such academies qualified to discharge the double duties of their station, they lack both the time and strength. There is a constant tendency to melt both departments into one, whereby either the seminary or the academy is extinguished. The elements of the two institutions are of too different a nature to admit of a union. A common discipline for both is seldom suitable-a common instruction, never. In those branches of instruction suita. ble to both, the teacher will find a thousand occasions to illustrate and explain the principles of method, and for remarks valuable to the pupils of the seminary, but which are entirely out of place to the pupils of the academy. Besides, if the union of teachers' seminaries with academies has any object, the pupils of the seminary are received as beneficiaries, which is very apt to give rise to an odious distinction between them and the pupils of the academy. If this last may seem to be an evil which wisdom could avoid, experience has proved it powerful enough to introduce dissatisfaction and strife into such institutions, and put an end to the spirit of improvement. If it were needed, to strengthen the evidence of the inefficiency of this system, I might easily quote the testimony of the most able teachers of Germany to this effect. Perhaps no department of education requires a more peculiar treatment, and more calls for the undivided zeal and energy of those who have the conduct of it, than the preparation of teachers. According to the plan of educating teachers, prevalent, with some modifications, in Austria and Holland, the young candidates are placed under the care of experienced established teachers, whom they assist in the management of their schools, beginning with the simplest duties, till they are qualified by observation and experience to take upon themselves the most difficult; and thus familiarize themselves completely with the me thods and management of their masters. But this is the favorable side of the system-and Cousin in his report on the schools of Holland, passes no doubt a very just judgment, when he says: "by this system all faults once existing in the schools become firmly rooted, since the candidate blindly adopts the methods and peculiar notions of his teacher, to whom he trusts for every thing." A liberal and scientific edu. cation in his profession, and the habit of judg. ing independently respecting principles, is not attained thereby. Every thing depends on making the seminaries for teachers separate and independent establishments, with a careful provision for a thorough, theoretical and practical preparation for all the duties of the common school. In the experiment of introducing teachers' seminaries into our country, there is a special danger from which much is to fear. It is the danger that we shall be too sparing in the number of teachers employed in conducting them. The teachers of our academies and high schools, too generally, are compelled to take upon them. selves more labors than any man, whatever his education may have been, is able to perform well. The custom, probably, comes from the fact, that so many of our higher schools are private undertakings, where naturally strong reasons exist against multiplying the teachers. If an instructor hears, in one day, recitations of classes in every stage of advancement in the languages, in mathematics, in the natural sciences, and in philosophy, there can, of course, be no thought of previous preparation and actual teaching on his part. That the pupils properly repeat the language of the text-books can be his only care. To expect him to animate his instructions with a living spirit, and to awaken in his pupils the love and power of independent thought, the great true end of education, were most unreasonable; it is requiring him to impart to others what he cannot possess himself. The constant dissipation of his attention over the whole circle of sciences, not only makes his instructions in each, lifeless and fruitless; it also gradually, but fatally, destroys his own mind, by forbidding him ever to concentrate his men. tal energy upon any one subject of thought. If a teacher, from a higher sense of duty to his pupils, or a desire to save himself from intel lectual bluntness, actually pursues, with heart and soul, the studies he professes to teach, the almost certain loss of health puts an untimely end to his usefulness. A prominent writer on education in America, recommends therefore, that when the teacher leaves the school-room, he leaves behind him all thought and care for the direct duties of his school, as the only way to preserve his health and spirits. This is too true, but it is a sad alternative of evils between which he has to choose, and an alternative which must be removed before our higher schools can answer the end desired, and which in other countries they have already attained. These remarks apply with peculiar force to six. In the private schools of this Municipality there are about four hundred! teachers' seminaries. There a double vigilance four hundred and forty-three. The whole attendand zeal is necessary. The instruction and de-ance now, is one thousand one hundred and fiftyportment of the teacher have a two-fold importance. His teaching is at the same time a pattern to his pupils, and dare not be left to the chance expedients and shifts of the moment. A school for practice is also to be carried on. Very much is to be accomplished in the shortest time. To quote an emphatical remark of Dr. Harnisch : Bad seminaries are very dangerous institutions." PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NEW.ORLEANS. [Bxtracts from the Report of J. BALDWIN, President of the Council of the Second Municipality, for the year 1844.] When the last census was taken in 1840, there were 1,914 white persons between the ages of five and fifteen years, reported within the limits of this Municipality; add to which the probable increase of ten per cent per annum since, makes 2,487 as the probable number now; of which 1156 belong to the public, and about 400 to the private schools, leaving 931 not in attendance in any school. This accession to the public, and diminution from the private schools, is believed the most conclusive evidence of the former's superiority; and moreover, further evidences with what facility prejudices, even the most deeply rooted, are dissipated by the force of truth and wisdom. We have watched with deep interest, the enlightened and zealous efforts made by the Hon. these schools, during the fiscal year terminating The ordinary expenses required to support J. Baldwin and a few kindred spirits, to diffuse with the month of May, is about $18,000, viz : the blessings of general education in this great Principal superintendent's salary, $2,500; 1 ascommercial capital of the south. The extracts sistant, do. $960; 1 do. $840; 2 do. each $800, $1,600; 1 do. $780; 1 do. $720; 1 do. $600; 1 we have space to give, show some of the grati-do. $540; 3 do. each $500, $1,500; 4 do. each fying results of these labors, and the friends of this great cause will see with surprise that the Second Municipality of New Orleans now enjoys a system of public instruction, that approaches and even rivals some of the best municipal school organizations of the Union. $420, $1,680; 7 do. each $360, $2,520; house rent, $1,800; books and stationery, $1,500; contingencies, $460. Total, $18,000. Methods of education the most approved by enlightened experience have been resorted to, and sedulously employed to render the school-room pleasant, the scholars' task easy, their attendance more regular and punctual, and the acquisition of knowledge interesting and delightful. means. THE Council of Municipality No. 2, of the city of New-Orleans, in obedience to the require- Teachers and scholars are thus rendered attenments of an act entitled "An act to authorize the tive to their duties, and thereby ensures the greatMunicipalities of the city of New-Orleans to es-est good to the greatest number, with the smallest tablish public schools therein," approved 14th of February, 1841, has the honor to submit its Second Annual Report of the condition of the funds entrusted to its care, accompanied by such remarks and observations as are deemed pertinent to public education. Our schools cannot be expected to lay any claim to a high grade of excellence; for institutions less than two years old cannot have the maturity and strength of age. We only ask credit for what we have done, and what we have attempt ed. We shall feel encouraged to persevere if it can be perceived that we have entered the right course and steadily pursued it. The lapse of another year, (even with a full and complete realization of every hope of the most zealous advocate and sanguine friend of the noble enterprise,) could not evidence any very striking success. The structure of education is reared gradually; like the riparian rights, its accretions are imperceptible; yet the results are obvious and gratifying, and fully equal to the expectations of the Council. The interest manifested towards these public schools last year, still continues; the confidence of the community remains undiminished, and the friends and advocates of the great and laudable enterprise are still confident in their convictions, and zealous in their efforts to render them every thing hoped for. In several of the largest cities of our country, no better schools can be found than the public schools; and so they ever can and ought to be, if those who are capable of watching over and guarding their interests, will give them their aid. It has, moreover, been a great benefit to the public schools, that our pupils are from families of every order and every occupation in the community; that they contain within their walls, the children of the richest as well as of the poorest. The surest way to destroy their usefulness, would be to countenance the idea that they are a public charity, designed only for the poor, and that the rich have no right to their privileges. They are to be regarded as a public charity, just as much as the institutions of government; just as much, for instance, as the courts of law, and no more. There is no truth more obvious, than that a republican government, which from its very theory presupposes every man competent to take a part in carrying it on, should provide the means that he be competent. In these public schools is carried out the beautiful idea of our republican institutions, that all are equal, and entitled to equal privileges. Our government is eminently a popular one. The people are practically and theoretically sovereign. To their judgment is submitted for final arbitrament, every important question, and most complicated problem in political science-hence the necessity of thoroughly instructing them. More than one thousand additional names have been registered on the books of these useful seminaries of learning, during the year, making in the The system which obtained last year, of awardaggregate, since their first opening, two thousanding books or medals for exemplary behavior and proficiency in learning, has been discontinued after mature and deliberate consideration. The distribution of rewards, wherever prevalent, is generally regarded as a means to excite the slothful and idle; to arouse the sleeping affections but experience hath plainly indicated that the natural desire not to be outdone, excites a sufficiently keen and wholesome emulation. The scholars are now induced to learn by other and more elevated and lasting incentives-the love of knowledge and the pleasure and advantages consequent upon its acquisition. Their minds are like clay in the hands of the pot. ter, easily moulded and fashioned after external objects. It is of great importance to keep this susceptibility within the parellels of good motives and proper principles. The object of pursuit ought to bear a just analogy with the struggle; but what is the value of a handsome book or more costly medal, compared with knowledge? Substitute knowledge, then, as the object of hope or inducement, and you create a prize every way worthy the most intense intellectual effort. The condition and character of these public schools, in which more than three-fourths of all the children of this Municipality are educated, is regarded by the Council as a matter of deep concernment to every good citizen. merit, being composed of selections from the ablest authors, and replete with solid and useful instruction. But the subjects upon which they treated were too abstruse, and the language of too high an order, to be comprehended by over one-tenth of the whole number of scholars at tending our schools; and hence the public mind became awakened and convinced of the necessity of laying them aside, and substituting others, better adapted to the tastes and capacities of young minds. Accordingly, we have now thrown before us, a lengthy catalogue of juvenile reading books, many of which are well calculated to please and entertain children, and greatly to facilitate the acquisition of the art of reading. But the idea has often suggested itself to my mind, that the authors of these works, or at least of a great portion of them, while they have unweariedly put forth their best efforts to remove many of the obstacles from the path of childhood, and to alleviate the hitherto tedious and irksome process of learning to read, have committed still another error, more deleterious, I fear, in its tendency, than most of us would at first imagine; and that is, the great amount of fictitious matter which is thrown before the children for their daily reading tasks. I must confess that my mind was never fully awakened to this subject, until suggested by an experienced Parents and guardians shall all feel there is no teacher, Mr. Cyrus Graves, of the town of Pa boon which they can bestow on their children so lermo, about one year and a half since; since valuable as intelligence and virtue. These are which time it has been the subject of much rethe great pillars upon which not only the free-flection, until I have found myself a decided dom and happiness of the coming generation convert to his sentiment, "that nothing but rest, but upon which the patriot and statesman truth-solid and substantial truth, should ever chiefly founds his hopes of the stability and per- be laid before the mind of a child." petuity of our free and glorious institutions, and although the Council rejoices at the manifesta-go into detail, and definitely point out the partions of an increased interest in them, by a more ticular chapters in these several works which frequent and general visitation than formerly, are objectionable, but I will name a few. For still these visits have neither been as frequent or instance, in Sanders' Second Book, page 12, we general as desired. find the story of the "Crow and the Dove." This The beneficial influence of our public schools lesson has a good moral attached to it, and the on the value of property within this Municipali-instruction which it is intended to convey, is of ty is already apparent. Numerous families have, within the last year, located themselves here, solely with a view to educate their children in them. The great saving in the expense of education, enables them to pay a higher rent, and thus property-holders, who so largely contribute to their support, are indirectly benefited by them to an extent perhaps equal to their contributions. This consideration, although secondary to the more important one of the general diffusion of knowledge, is nevertheless well worthy of notice. as indicating that the success of our system of public schools, is identified with the pecuniary prosperity of the Municipality. [For the Journal.] READING BOOKS. THAT a great and valuable improvement has been effected within a few years, in the reading books for juvenile classes, will be readily ac. knowledged by every individual who is at all conversant with the condition of our common schools. The books which were formerly in general use, and which are still used to some extent, were the English Reader, American Manual, American Preceptor, and Columbian Reader. Some of these are works of superior I have not room in a short communication to a salutary nature. But when the child reads this, is he not instinctively led to inquire, "is this true?" "Do the birds talk?" "Did the Crow and Dove actually meet and hold the conversation here related? But in reply we are told that the caption introduces it as a fable. True-but the word "fable" is not defined; and if it were, most children will become sufficiently advanced to read the story, before they can comprehend the policy of conveying a moral, by relating things that never happened. Other lessons occur in the same book of a kin to the one mentioned, such as "The Bee and Wasp;" "The Spider and Silk-Worm;" "The Two Books." In the third book we find "The Swallow and Red-Breast; "Story of a Robin, related by herself;" "The Groom and the Horse;"The Squirrel and Weasel," and many others which might be mentioned; all of which are purely fictitious, and they are known to be so by the adult: but does the child know it? He interrogates his teacher or his parents, to know if they are true. They tell him " they are not intended to be believed." His next interrogation is, "Why do men print false sto ries for children to read 1" How shall we answer these interrogatories, and satisfy the inquiring mind of the child? no; Again, we will take such lessons as "Ruth |