The virtues and vices which exist in the mind and heart of the individual are of course brought into the school room, and are more or less called into exercise every hour of the day. Over these the teacher must exercise a constant supervision. It will be obvious indeed that in order successfully to reprove vice, or to exhibit the loveliness of virtue, his own garments must be unspotted he must avoid the very appear-teth eternity; and when urged, as he will be, to ance of evil, and the teacher who is unwilling to give up any habit which he cannot recommend for the adoption of his pupil under similar circumstances, or who will cling to a principle that he cannot cordially recommend to others, has need himself yet to be a learner.

may slumber in the mind years, and then many in the hour of deep distress, may come up in the memory to enlighten and to bless. One up. on whose sullen and distracted mind the truth broke in, like light upon thick darkness, gives interesting testimony on this point.

In confirmation word on word

Rose sweetly too from memory's store,
Truths which in other days I heard,
But never knew their worth before;
Lodg'd by a pious mother's care

In the young folds of thought and sense,
Like fire in flint, they slumber'd there,
Till anguish struck them bright from thence.
The beacon lights of holy writ,

They one by one upon me stole,
Through winds and waves my pathway lit,
And chas'd the darkness from my soul.

COMMUNICATIONS.

DEFECTS OF THE SCHOOLS.

We hope the patience of our correspondent has not been exhausted. The communications from the Department-the publication of the Laws and their exposition-have hitherto excluded this communication. If we are favored with a second article on the subject proposed, it shall not so long claim admission in vain.

purified, the most liberal endowments, the best outward arrangements, will avail nothing. Let us then endeavor skilfully to fill up and perfect the noble outline that has been provided, recol. lecting that as yet we have only made a begin ning-that we cannot stand still-that not to advance is to retrograde-and, above all, let us be exceedingly careful to take no steps likely to en. danger a reaction in the public mind.

If these views be correct, surely time cannot be more profitably spent than in thoroughly sifting this most important subject-in endeavoring to point out the present deficiencies and defects of the schools, and in inquiring how the one shall be supplied and the other removed. Will you, Mr. Editor, accept of my humbe mite in aid of this great cause? Can you spare me a corner of your useful paper for a series of articles, in which I shall endeavor, with a firm though gentle hand, to probe to the bottom the errors that exist in the schools, and do my best to suggest their appropriate remedies? I propose to arrange my subject in the usual manner, under the heads of physical, intellectual and moral education. But I shall deviate from the customary order, by commencing with moral education. My reason for this course is, that I conceive it to be the In fact it has become a serious doubt with many point on which the schools are most defective. of our most intelligent thinkers, whether we are not pushing purely intellectual education rather too far; whether it is either prudent or safe to Ir is truly exhilarating to see so many intel-devote the whole attention to the improvement ligent minds, at the present day, earnestly di- of the understanding, while the moral senti rected to the advancement and improvement of ments-which were meant to be supreme-which education. And still more cheering is it to ob- were given by the Creator for the regulation of serve, that not a few merely, but the great mass the intellectual powers--are left wholly undeve of the people, are fast becoming aware of the loped. importance, indeed I may say necessity, of a I trust, sir, that none of your readers will ima. sound and thorough education for the whole gine, from what has been said, that I am about community. In proof of this, it is only necessa- to run foul of the vexed question which has ry to refer to the laws of the State on the sub-caused so much excitement in the city of New. ject: for, in a free government like ours, the le. gislature generally follows, seldom leads, public opinion.

NO. 1.

Amid so much cause for rejoicing, however, we must be careful not to relax our vigilance for a moment: for we ought not to shut our eyes to the fact, that our liberal system of pubhic instruction, has still many powerful, influential enemies. There are still too many who are so blind to their own best interests, as to grudge every dollar expended by the public in this most profitable of all investments. And, to say the truth, our whole system, more especially the practical part, is still in an uncertain, unsettled state. Even the most enlightened among us are far from correctness in our views. The whole matter is still but an experiment. There is no precedent that we can safely follow, no model that we can profitably copy. If we advance, and we are bound to do so, we shall fre. quently commit blunders, we shall often have to retrace our steps. And every mistake we commit will be greedily laid hold of by the enemies of universal freedom and intelligence, as an argument against the whole system. Let us not be disheartened, however. These circumstances should only tend to increase our watchfulness and care, to lead more and more to the thorougi investigation. We have done well. Our legis latures have made noble arrangements. But, unless our system of teaching is reformed and

York. No, sir. If we wish to have good schools, we must keep them free from even the slightest approach to sectarianism, taken in its most ex. tended sense. Religious doctrines must find no entrance there, because they cannot be touched without offence to some religious denomination. No, sir. The sort of culture which I advocate has no relation to this exciting question. It refers to subjects on which all mankind are agreed. It furnishes a common ground on which sects the most conflicting can harmonize. For where is the parent who does not desire his child to be trained to truth and virtue? Who is it that would object to the exercise of the conscience of youth on simple questions of right and wrong? Who would be offended by the inculcation of obedi ence and honor to parents, of affection to brothers and sisters, of kindness and generosity to playmates, of piety, reverence, and gratitude to God? No one, surely; unless these topics were blended (as they never ought to be in the public school) with others with which they have no ne. cessary connexion. No, sir. However low the parent may have sunk in vice, gladly would he see his child free from its vile thraldom. Let us then, carefully exclude every invidious reflection on any religious persuasion whatever, both from our oral instruction and our reading school books, and let those and those only be used whose mo cality is founded on proper motives, and which are otherwise wholly unexceptionable. Let the

teaching of religious tenets be left altogether to parental instruction, to the Sunday schools and to the pulpit. And let the moral teaching of the public school be wholly confined to the awakening and enkindling of the moral nature; to the development of the sense of right and wrong; to leading the child in the paths of virtue; to rectifying the false notion that happiness depends on external circumstances, and convincing him that it rests almost exclusively on faithfulness to duty, on virtue, purity and love.

I have said enough, I believe, to show the course I mean to pursue on the subject of moral training. When I come to speak of physical education, I shall point out the common mistake in the construction and management of school houses, particularly as to light, heat, and ventilation. I shall treat, also, of injurious postures, improper confinement, and defective discipline. With respect to intellectual education, it will be my aim to show, that we dissipate our strength on acts of trifling importance, while essentials are utterly neglected; and that, by mismanagement in the very first steps, our children acquire habits beyond our power to remove, habits which in a great degree nullify all our future efforts, and almost place a veto on self-culture.

Well, said I, "Should not you like to learn to make pictures with a pencil?" "O, I should like that very much," answered three or four at the same time. Can we learn?" earnestly inquired another. After a little explanation, I told them that the drawings and pictures in their geographies and picture-books were first drawn on plates or types by men, and then transferred to the paper. "I guess we can learn, then," said another, in his ecstacy; for the song says, "What other folks have done, why with patience may not you."

I de

On taking up a geography, a token card fell from it, on which was a small plain tree. termined instantly to make this my first lesson; and you would have been astonished to have seen the proficiency made by these little adventurers. After this, they were permitted to choose their own pieces to copy, in order to remove from the exercise every feature of a task. Except when too hard pieces were chosen, when the more difficult parts were explained and they were readily abandoned. I would sometimes say that I thought some piece named was a good one, always recommending at first pieces marked by boldness of outline and simplicity, pointing out the particular beauties of each performance, and keeping improvement constantly in view.

These lessons usually occupied from fifteen to thirty minutes each half day, at the expiration of which, on being asked if they were not near

I shall patiently wait your decision, Mr. Ediitor, on the suitableness of this plan for your periodical. If it is approved of, I may probably furnish a short paper monthly. I have only to add, that it shall be my aim to make these articles as definite, as perspicuous, and as practically rested, they again took to their books with a

as I can.

Meanwhile,

I am yours respectfully,

DRAWING IN SCHOOLS.

P.

WE have to-day received from Public School No. 12, New-York, some admirable specimens of bold, life-like drawing, which we shall take pleasure in exhibiting to all who may be interest ed in this fascinating and useful study.

Could we send them out with this interesting communication, there would be little farther need of argument to recommend drawing to the teachers of our district schools.

cheerfulness and zest which would do any one's soul good. Yet a time should be allotted to this exercise, as every successful teacher will have for every thing, and be attended to in its time.

The class, after a little practice, will be able to master more difficult pieces, and should, as soon as practicable, be directed to sketch and de-. lineate from nature. How the eye of a little girl will light up with the eloquent glow of real pleasure and satisfaction, as she presents you with the likeness of a favorite shrub, or rose, or pink, of her own workmanship. I would say to the impatient and fretful teacher, that one such scene is enough to pay you for a thousand little. troubles. Try it, my brother or sister teacher, and if you never felt a sympathizing emotion in the happiness of another, you will then have DEAR SIR-Having frequently seen drawing the portal of one of the ingredients of your betrecommended as an amusement for small scho- ter nature opened to your real enjoyment. This lars during recesses from study, I determined to exercise, if resorted to as an amusement, should make the experiment, and am now prepared never be mentioned as a task; but let diversion from experience to vouch for its utility, if judi- be the theme, and in a great majority of instances, ciously conducted. Not being an adept in it if not always, it will be embraced with plea myself, I labored under the same embarrassment sure. To prevent it from appearing like a task, that many of my fellow-teachers would be oblig. I never urge it upon any, which I think will not ed to, were they to adopt the plan; yet I found it very often be necessary; for who does not dean obstacle not sufficient to prevent its successful light to imitate the great Creator, in imitating adoption, much less an excuse for not making an his handiwork, especially a child, before its effort. Having the charge of a select school, mind becomes vitiated. The utility of the prac (which I am happy to say is soon to give place tice has been ably developed by your more expe. to a district school,) I determined, as I said be- rienced and talented correspondents; therefore I fore, to make the trial. Accordingly, one day, need not descant largely upon that. No intelli after a class of little girls and boys from eight to gent parent can object to it since it occupies time thirteen years old had been engaged some time that is in many instances consumed in play, servin study, and began to show symptoms of weari- ing only to confuse the school and perplex the ness, accompanied of course by mischief, I teacher. It will also place the children of all called their attention, and asked them if they classes in possession of an accomplishment atwould not like to understand drawing. One lit-tained heretofore by the children of the more tle girl said, after a moment's hesitation, "I don't know what you mean."

able, at an extra charge in some higher institution, or at a private school: hence will strike a

deadly blow at one of the aristocratic notions of
the age. Common unruled writing paper will
do very well to commence upon, where proper
drawing paper is not readily obtained. Each scho.
larshould be provided with a soft and hard wood-
covered pencil, which may be got at a trifling
expense by the parent, or should be furnished
by the liberally endowed teacher, gratis.
Yours truly,

A TOWN SUP. AND TEACHER.
Westchester, Oct. 16, 1843.

EUROPEAN EDUCATION.

[Extract from the last report of Hon. HORACE MANN.]

ARITHMETIC AND MATHEMATICS.

They then counted up to a hundred on the blocks. Towards the close of the lesson, such questions as these were put, and readily answered: Of what is thirty-eight composed? A. Thirtyeight is composed of thirty and eight ones; of seven fives and three ones;-or sometimes thus ;-of thirty-seven and one; of thirty-six and two ones; of thirty-five and three ones, &c. Q. Of what is ninety composed? A. Ninety is composed of nine tens,-of fifty and forty, &c., &c.

Thus, with a frequent reference to the blocks to keep up attention by presenting an object to the eye, the simple numbers were handled and transposed in a great variety of ways. In this lesson, it is obvious that counting, numeration, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division were all included, yet there was no abstract rule, or unintelligible form of words given out to be committed to memory. Nay, these little children took the first steps in the mensuration of superficies and solids, by comparing the length and contents of one block with those of others.

CHILDREN are taught to cipher, or, if need be, to count, soon after entering school. I will at tempt to describe a lesson which I saw given to a very young class. Blocks of one cube, two cubes, three cubes, &c., up to a block of ten cubes, lay upon the teacher's desk. The cubes When the pupils were a little further adon each block were distinctly marked off, and vanced, I usually heard lessons recited in this differently colored, that is, if the first inch or way: Suppose 4,321 are to be multiplied by cube was white, the next would be black. The 25. The pupil says, five times one are five teacher stood by his desk, and in front of the five ones, and he sets down 5 in the units place; class. He set up a block of one cube, and the five times two tens-or twenty ones, are a class simultaneously said one. A block of two hundred, and sets down a cipher in the ten's cubes was then placed by the side of the first, place; five times three hundred are one thou and the class said two. This was done until the sand and five hundred, and one hundred to be ten blocks stood by the side of each other in a carried make one thousand six hundred, and sets row. They were then counted backwards, the down a 6 in the hundred's place; five times four teacher placing his finger upon them, as a signal thousand are twenty thousand, and one thousand that their respective numbers were to be called. to be carried make twenty-one thousand. The The next exercise was, two comes after one, next figure in the multiplier is then taken, three comes after two," and so on to ten; and twenty times one are twenty, and a 2 is set then backwards, "nine comes before ten, eight down in the ten's place; twenty times two tens comes before nine," and so of the rest. The are four hundred, and a 4 is set down in the teacher then asked, 'What is three composed hundred's place; twenty times three hundred of?" A.Three is composed of one and two.' are six thousand, and a 6 is set down in the Q. Of what else is three composed?' A thousand's place; twenty times four thousand Three is composed of three ones." Q. What is four composed of? A. 'Four is composed ten thousand's place. Then come the additions are eighty thousand, and an 8 is set down in the of four ones, of two and two, of three and to get the product. Five ones are five, two tens one.' Q. What is five composed of? A. are twenty, and these figures are respectively Five is composed of five ones, of two and three, set down; four hundred and six hundred make of two twos and one, of four and one. Qa thousand, and a cipher is set down in the hunWhat numbers compose six? seven? eight? dred's place; one thousand to be carried to six nine? To the latter the pupil would answer, thousand makes seven thousand, and one thou "Three threes make nine; two, three and four sand more makes eight thousand, and an 8 is set make nine; two, two and five make nine; three, down in the thousand's place; eighty thousand four and two make nine; three, five and one and twenty thousand make one hundred thou make nine,' &c., &c. The teacher then placed sand, and a cipher is set down in the ten thou similar blocks side by side, while the children sand's place, and a 1 in the hundred thousand's added their respective numbers together, two place. It is easy to see that where the multitwos make four three twos make six,' &c. plier and multiplicand are large, this process The blocks were then turned down horizontally soon passes beyond mere child's play. to show that three blocks of two cubes each So in division. If 32,756 are to be divided by were equal to one of six cubes. Such questions were then asked as, how many are six less than 75, the pupil says, how many hundred times are eight? five less than seven? &c. Then, how seventy-five,-or seventy-five ones,-contained many are seven and eight? The answer was in thirty-two thousand at seven hundred, or given thus; eight is one more than seven, seven in thirty-two thousand and seven hundrel ones; and seven make fourteen, and one added makes four hundred times, and he sets down fifteen; therefore eight and seven make fifteen. the hundred's place in the quotient; Q. How many are six and eight? A. Eight are two more than six, six and six make twelve, and two added make fourteen. Or it might be thus; six are two less than eight, eight and eight are sixteen, two taken from sixteen leave fourteen, therefore eight and six are fourteen.

25

* Thus, 4,321

21,605
8,642

108,025

4 in

then the

GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION.

divisor seventy-five is multiplied (as before,) byty, should the place be lost, of being obliged to the four hundred, and the product is set down recommence the solution. under the first three figures of the dividend, and there are two thousand and seven hundred remaining. This remainder is set down in the next line, because seventy-five is not contained in two thousand seven hundred any number of hundred times. And so of the residue of the

process.

When there is danger that an advanced class will forget the value of the denominations they are handling, they are required to express the value of each figure in full, throughout the whole process, in the manner above described. I shall never forget the impression which a recitation by a higher class of girls produced upon my mind. It lasted an hour. Neither teacher nor pupil had book or slate. Questions and answers were extemporaneous. They con. sisted of problems in Vulgar Fractions, simple and compound; in the Rule of Three, Practice, Interest; Discount, &c., &c. A few of the first were simple, but they soon increased in compli. cation and difficulty, and in the amount of the sums managed, until I could hardly credit the report of my own senses,--so difficult were the questions, and so prompt and accurate the replies.

tended to.

Great attention is paid to grammar, or, as it is usually called in the Plan of Studies,'-the German language. But I heard very little of the ding-dong and recitative of gender, number make up so great a portion of the grammatical and case, of government and agreement, which exercises in our schools, and which the pupils lose all sense of the original meaning of the are often required to repeat until they really terms they use. Of what service is it for chil dren to reiterate and reassert, fifty times in a single recitation, the gender and number of nouns, about which they never made a mistake even before a grammar book was put into their hands? If the object of grammar is to teach children to speak and write their native language with propriety, then they should be practised upon expressing their own ideas with elegance, distinctness and force. For this purpose, their common every-day phraseology is first to be atAs their speech becomes more copious, they should be led to recognize those slight shades of distinction which exist between words almost synonymous; to discriminate beframe sentences in which the main idea shall tween the literal and the figurative; and to be brought out conspicuously and prominently, while all subordinate ones,-mere matters of circumstance or qualification,-shall occupy humbler or more retired positions. The sen tences of some public speakers are so arranged, that what is collateral or incidental, stands out boldly in the foreground, while the principal thought is almost lost in the shade-an arrangement as preposterous as if, in the Senate chamber, the forum or the parade-ground, the president, the judge, or the commanding officer, were thrust into the rear, while a nameless throng of non-officials and incognitos should occupy the places of dignity and authority. Grammar should be taught in such a way as to lead out into rhetoric as it regards the form of the expression, and into logic as it regards the sequence and coherency of the thoughts. If this is so, then no person is competent to teach grammar who is not familiar, at least, with all the leading principles of rhetoric and logic.

A great many of the exercises in arithmetic consisted in reducing the coins of one state to those of another. In Germany there are almost as many different currencies as there are states; and the expression of the value of one coin in other denominations is a very common exercise. It struck me that the main differences between their mode of teaching arithmetic and ours, consist in their beginning earlier, continuing the practice in the elements much longer, requiring a more thorough analysis of all questions, and in not separating the processes, or rules, so much as we do from each other. The pupils proceed less by rule, more by an understanding of the subject. It often happens to our children that while engaged in one rule, they forget a preceding. Hence many of our best teachers have frequent reviews. But there, as I stated above, the youngest classes of children were taught addition, subtraction, multiplication and division promiscuously. And so it was in the later stages. The mind was constantly carried along, and the practice enlarged in more than one direction. It is a difference which results from teaching, in the one case, from a book; The Prussian teachers, by their constant habit and in the other, from the head. In the latter of conversing with the pupils; by requiring a case the teacher sees what each pupil most complete answer to be given to every question; needs, and if he finds any one halting or failing by never allowing a mistake in termination, or on a particular class of questions, plies him with in the collocation of words or clauses to pass questions of that kind until his deficiencies are uncorrected, nor the sentence as corrected to supplied. pass unrepeated; by requiring the poetry of the In algebra, trigonometry, surveying, geome-reading lessons to be changed into oral, or writ try, &c., I invariably saw the teacher standing ten prose, and the prose to be paraphrased, or before the black board, drawing the diagrams expressed in different words; and by exacting and explaining all the relations between their a general account or summary of the reading several parts, while the pupils, in their seats, lessons, are,-as we may almost literally say,having a pen and a small manuscript book, co-constantly teaching grammar; or, as they more pied the figures, and took down brief heads of comprehensively call it,—the German language. the solution; and at the next recitation theyIt is easy to see that Composition is included were required to go to the blackboard, draw the figures and solve the problems themselves. How different this mode of hearing a lessson from that of holding the text-book in the left hand, while the fore-finger of the right carefully follows the printed demonstration, under penal-4

under this head,-the writing of regular "essays" or "themes" being only a later exercise.

Professor Stowe gives the following account of the manner of teaching and explaining the different parts of speech.

"Grammar is taught directly and scientifi