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Stouber soon procured a better teacher and caused lesson books in reading and spelling to be printed for the use of the school, and built a log hut for the school-house. The satisfaction and improvement soon exhibited by the pupils lite-children were taught to sew and knit, they were rally turned the parents' hearts to their children; they delighted in what gratified the latter, and desired for themselves the instruction denied to their childhood.

ducted, greatly depended upon habits of the earliest formation. The female teachers, (conductrices,) who had charge of the little children, learned to relieve instruction by amusement. The indulged with pictures to look at, and were instructed in geography from maps, constructed for their especial use. They sung hymns and songs, and the most scrupulous care was taken that they should speak with strict propriety, and

to a purer speech. During the whole course of instruction these children were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, astronomy, natural history, music and drawing, but no grammar at all. Soon the inhabitants of Strasbourg, and the neighboring towns came to look at the wonders which one man had effected, and charmed at his success, the rich and the benevolent offered him the most liberal aid. Subscrip tions of money for his use poured in, and well

In 1767, Stouber was succeeded by John Frederic Oberlin, a native of Strasbourg. Seven-thus the patois (their local dialect) gave place teen years of tolerable culture had advanced his parishioners beyond their primitive barbarism, but they still stood in need of better instruction. Oberlin did not concern himself with children chiefly, he extended his good offices to the wants of the whole people. He taught the men to make roads and bridges, and persuaded them to send their sons to the city of Strasbourg, where they were taught mechanic arts, and then, returning to the valley, became masons, carpenters, glaziers and smiths. Wheel carriages be-did Oberlin appropriate this bounty; such boun came common, wretched cabins were converted into snug dwellings, and the mothers of families having better habitations, became better housewives. The art of reading became general, and Bibles being circulated, the influences of religion became more authoritative, and the rude lan guage of the people was altered by degrees to the purity and propriety taught in the books which they read, not by any grammars, which are. indeed, subsequent to language, and not in advance of it, according to some people.

ty as we have no need of for such purposes. The state is our benefactor and God is our benefactor. What the state gives to every district in our state, and our own means, if we have the heart to use them, will suffice to educate our children, so that they will compare worthily with those of any other people.

The children of Oberlin's schools were espe cially taught sentiments of piety, not of intole rance; brotherly kindness and Christian morality; the utmost civility of manners and the most careful neatness. They were required to be clean when they came to school, and the schoolrooms, and all approaches to them, were also kept exquisitely clean. This is a matter in which children will readily concur and take pride in, if it be insisted upon, and represented to be indispensable, as it is in truth indispensa ble, as eminently conducive to self respect and all decorum.

them. They were encouraged to plant seeds and cultivate their own little gardens, and were instructed in copying flowers and other objects from nature. They were also taught that they lived for society and the public good, and that they must do nothing that might injure the com munity. The notions of citizenship and public spirit were thus early inculcated in them.

The soil of this rocky district was improved by severe but intelligent labor, guided by the good pastor, and planting and grafting were in troduced, so that the waste wilderness was succeeded by the nursery, the orchard and the garden; and thus the agriculture of these poor mountaineers was raised from a toilsome and inefficient practice to a productive science. As the comforts of life increased, so did the population, and in the course of time the little school-house The children in the Ban de la Roche, were of Stouber, was not only too small for the aug taught from things as well as from books; they mented numbers of children, but it fell into de- were sent into the woods and fields to search for cay. The inhabitants of the district were dividindigenous plants and to make collections of ed into four parishes, and each of these parishes stood in need of a school-house. The people at the first proposal would not hear of new schoolhouses, nor were they always ready to follow out Oberlin's suggestions in other matters. They did not always comprehend his plans nor apprehend his motives; they clung to many old customs, and sometimes refused to submit to innovations. Some men, more blinded than the rest, on one occasion agreed to waylay and beat the good Oberlin, and on another to plunge him into a cistern. Learning their design in time to prepare for violence he met his enemies with cour age and calm remonstrance. In time his pru- "Conducted by Providence," says this gen dence, his example and his services, conquered tleman, into this remote valley, I was the all prejudices, and at length, he had the concur- more struck with the sterility of its soil; its rence of all his parishioners to build the new straw thatched cottages, the apparent poverty school-houses and carry out all his plans.. of its inhabitants, and the simplicity of their Oberlin engaged zealously in the preparation fare, from the contrast which these external of masters for the new schools, and he also car-appearances formed, to the cultivated conversa ried the principle of education further than it had ever before gone in any country. He was the founder of infant schools. He saw that almost from the cradle children were capable of instruction; that evil habits began much earlier than is generally believed, and that the facility with which advanced education might be con.

Mr. Legrand, a Swiss gentleman, was per suaded at a late period of Oberlin's ministry, to fix his abode in the valley, and to introduce there a ribbon manufactory which employed many hands.

tion which I enjoyed with almost every indivi dual I met, and the frankness and confidence of the little children, who extended their hands to me in the most engaging manner. I have now resided among them for five years, in the midst of a people whose manners are refined and whose minds are enlightened by the instructions re

ceived from the earliest infancy. To be surrounded by such amiable and intelligent beings, reconciles my family to the privations we must necessarily experience in our seclusion."

This improvement which I would propose, and which is louldly called for, is, that it should contain the most correct pronunciation of the geographical names. Few only are acquainted with the proper pronunciation of these names, and scholars as well as teachers, demand something to obviate this difficulty. The object can be attained very easily by arranging the names in the key in a manner somewhat similar to the words in a lexicon; that is, write the name, and to its right, place the pronunciation. I think it would not secure the object desired to have a separate work containing these pronunciations, but that they should be in the key.

It must be obvious that a great increase in the value of property, as well as in the amount of comfort was produced by the increased intelligence of the mountaineers. The transformation thus wrought in an indigent and ignorant people solely by the power of instruction, guided by wisdom and benevolence, was not accomplished in a day, but it was genuine and demonstrable, and intelligence of it spread far and wide. The king of France, Louis XVIII, made Oberlin a member of the Legion of Honor, and the venerable man might be seen with the badge upon his breast after he had reached his eightieth year. His little settlement was visited with admiration by travellers from distant countries. This ex-done, by referring to Worcester's Lexicon, which cellent person died in 1827, full of years and honors.

It is but justice to the female sex to relate, that Oberlin was greatly assisted in his duties, first by his wife and afterwards by a member of his household, Louisa Schepler. This pious and energetic woman received one thousand franks from the bequest of M. Montyou, a French gentleman, who left that sum to be annually bestowed as a reward to obscure virtue.

But if the improvement cannot be made in the key as now arranged, I think either Mr. Mitchell or some one else, should immediately issue a new one. If I mistake not, this can easily be

contains these prounciations, or to some other
work. I have no hesitation in saying, that if
such a work should appear, it would be pur-
chased by the districts which have these maps,
as well as by many of our instructors in com-
mon schools.
AN OLD TEACHER.

For the District School Journal.
MORAL EDUCATION.

MR. DWIGHT-It is with peculiar satisfaction that the friend of educational improvement witnesses the efforts now being made to incorporate moral training, as a fundamental and important part, with a common school education.

Our social circumstances are every where dif ferent from those of the peasantry among the the Vosnes mountains, but there are waste places among us, and in all places the need of similar instruction to that described above is felt, if not in the same measure, certainly for the same What is moral education? It is the developends, to refine the manners, furnish the minds, ment of man's moral nature, as intellectual and exalt the motives and increase the moral and in- physical, are of the intellect and physical frame. tellectual powers of the young. We do not look Education is the harmonious development of the to any single benefactor to aid us in the attain three departments. The modern philosophy as ment of these ends. We must be our own bene- to the nature of the moral faculty, is, I believe, factors, inform ourselves of what is best to be generally established. According to this, there done and feel assured that it can be done, be- is a faculty of the mind, which in its healthy cause it has been done. Apathy and obstinacy state, unerringly points out the moral quality of may defeat what the laws encourage; what so-actions, supported by Abercrombie, Rush, Reid, ciety demands; what enlightened perseverance may accomplish, and in that case, sinning against light how signal will be our calamity and how deplorable our disgrace.

MITCHELL'S OUTLINE MAPS.

Nassau, June 3, 1844.

Stewart, Combe, Spurzheim, Wayland. The opposite theory is, to refer the virtue and vice of actions to reason or a process of reasoning, as to the benefit or disadvantage of the act under consideration, supported by Paley, Hume, Hobbes, Locke. The foundation of a system of moral education must be laid upon the first theory, otherwise moral, is mere intellectual culture. Prof. Wayland says, "He that does wrong, not only Geography, is a study not inferior to any oth-acts contrary to his nature, but contrary to the er pursued in our common schools, and I have for a long time felt the necessity of some improvement in the mode of teaching it. As taught heretofore, very many have come short of a thorough knowledge of this branch of study, owing not only to the deficiency in the plan it self, but also to the amount of time required to be devoted to it by the teacher. After a careful examination of these maps, for the purpose of ascertaining whether there have been any improvements made, not found in former works; and, also, whether a saving of time can be secured by their use, I have come to the conclu-ulty, contain moral problems for solution, varision that much benefit may be derived therefrom, not only in these, but in many other respects.

But while I believe the maps are every way well adapted to the use of our public schools, I think a very important and highly useful addition could, and ought to be made to the key.

highest impulse of his nature; that is, he acts as much in opposition to his nature, as it is possible for us to conceive."-Wayland's Moral Science, p. 71. The true system of moral education seems to be, such an one as will exercise, and consequently develop the moral nature. Physical and intellectual education are analogous to moral. It is by the use of the respective faculties that they are developed and strengthened, by disuse that they are weakened or nearly destroyed. A moral text book is needed, which will treat of the nature of the moral fac

ous human characters to analyze, or any other matter which will give a true idea of conscience, or bring into use and exercise the moral faculties.

The cultivation of man's moral nature, is an engine that can revolutionize the world. This noblest part of his nature has been left unculti

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vated, weeds have choked its growth, the wind has perverted its original direction, and even its very existence has been questioned. Man has been taught from his very infancy that the commission of wrong is alluring and pleasurable, the performance of right self-denying and not productive of much happiness in this world. These errors are to be dissipated, and the attractions-without the slightest advance of the operative and allurements of a course of conduct in conformity with conscience, impressed upon the youthful mind. What a contrast between that intellectually educated but fiendish being in yonder prison, and him whom a nation's love delights to call the Father of his country!" I once was a district school master, and I look back upon the efforts then made to teach my pupils virtue, as the most pleasurable reminis cence of that period.

use of his acquisitions just as the ancient Roman artist did, who was taught to copy with life-like precision the Grecian master-pieces-just as does the serf of the Russian noble, at the present day, who is trained to execute at command, dithealt pieces of music, or make facsimiles of paintings of the best modern Italian or Flemish masters

or intellectual stature or without one power of producing an original conception.

How many of our ten thousand teachers have ever known that education, even a common school education, should be directed to the due development, the symmetrical cultivation of the physical, the moral, and the intellectual facul ties of every child? How many have known the constant, careful, practical use to be made of this knowledge, if possessed, in the treatment of Says the philosopher, Dr. Rush, "The ex- every child? That to educate the moral powers tent of the moral powers and habits in man, is to the exclusion or total neglect of the intellecunknown. It is not improbable that the human tual, would be detrimental in the extreme, renmind contains principles of virtue, which have dering their subject the victim of superstition I and the sport of passing delusion. To educate never yet been excited into action. am not so sanguine as to suppose that it is pos- the intellect to the neglect of the moral nature, sible for man to acquire so much perfection from would be to give talent and power without priascience, religion, liberty and good government, ciple-in other words, it would be to educate for as to cease to be mortal; but I am fully persua-the penitentiary, the prison cell, the scaffold of ded, that from the combined action of causes, which operate at once upon the reason, the moral faculty, the passions, the senses, the brain, the nerves, the blood and the heart, it is possible to produce such a change in his moral character as shall raise him to a resemblance with angels."

Is it the dream of an enthusiast that looks for a period in man's progression, when his moral powers will be so highly cultivated that no one will need the protection of law; when in the words of Professor Potter, (at the Rochester convention) no jail, prison or gallows shall be needed, to restrain mankind from the commission of crime?

Baldwinsville, Onon. co.

NORMAL SCHOOLS.

W. B.

Extracts from the Report of the committee of the Assembly of this State, on colleges, academies and common schools, of which the Hon. Mr. HULBURD was chairman, in regard to the dis tribution of the Literature Fund, and the establishment of a Normal School.

It is a teacher's high prerogative to develop the faculties of human beings. If he mistake his calling-if he mistake the true principles of his art, to educate, to develop—and aim merely to instruct, to instil-not only the child, but the man, will carry to the grave the sad effects of this ignorance and incompetency. Such a course stunts and dwarfs the whole mental and moral nature; it renders the intellect a mere passive recipient of words and signs, and words and signs only, instead of ideas, it will evolve-it will be clothed "with a vesture of apparent informa. tion"-but the power-the originality-the expansion of mini-are enfeebled, constrained and circumscribed. It creates the form-it constructs the mechanism of education-withont breathing into it a living soul. It prepares the child to make

E-duco, lead from, draw out, &c.
In-struo, build on or over, &c.

the gallows, the grave of the suicide!

Again, how many are ignorant of the distine tion between intellect and feeling, between ideas and emotions-know not that these two classes of mental operations are called into activity by very different objects, cultivated by different processes-and that as one or the other predominates in the mental constitution, produce very different results both in conduct and character?

Oh, woe for those who trample on the mind, That deathles thing! They know not what they do, Nor what they deal with! Man, perchance, may bind The flower his foot hath bruised; or light anew The torch he quenched; or to music wind Again the lyre string from his touch that flew, But for the soul! Oh! tremble and beware To lay rude hands upon God's mysteries there! In addition to the true discernment of his duty as an educator, there are other requisites, without which, perhaps, no one should be permitted to have the care of the young. Time will not permit us to dwell here upon the importance of a teacher's social and moral qualifications-his mildness, his generosity, his patience, his sense of decorum, his kindness, his cheerfulness, his love of virtue, his reverence for his Maker. These constitute the most precious traits, the richest ornaments of childhood; and there is no parent so debased as not to desire even in the depth of his debasement, that his child should grow up the possessor of all these qualities? Yet how often have the very means that should have implanted and cherished all these graces, been neglected in the unsuitable selection of a teacher, the constituted delegate of the parent? How can the teacher cause his pupil to feel the truth and beauty of what has never touched or entered his own soul?

We are sometimes almost tempted to believe that much of what has been written and sung about our earliest moments, is but the dreamings of a beautiful fancy; and yet who that pauses amid "being's busy bustle" and thinks upon childhood-all its joys and its brief tears-its soft purity and its brave gentleness-its charity that thinketh no evil-its hope that believeth aŭ things-does not fed as well as know that it is

the one green spot to which manhood often looks back, and sighs that but once only through it runs the thoroughfare of individual existence. How rarely too is the evening of any life so dark that the dimmed eye of age, sightless though it be to all things present, does not fix and fasten upon that far off Auroral brightness? How easily are we thus by observ ion and experience brought to believe that

"Heaven lies about us in our infancy."

If thus pure and precious and permanent are the impressions of childhood, how inappreciably important the character of the agents that produce them. The parent, the mother, is the first natural observant of these glimpses of a higher nature; how easily we can excuse that beautiful superstition which teaches her that the smiles of her sleeping infant are "gleams of fairy visit ings or angel ministrations."

If the mind were as Locke and others of that school supposed, like a sheet of paper on which might be inscribed whatever characters we pleased, how immeasurably important that an intelligent artist should be selected who had studied long and well, not only the mysteries of his art, but the precepts of its great masters! But far different is the mind from being a passive recipient of ideas, it is rather "a germ with distinct tendencies folded up within it." The earliest unfolding of this germ, the virtuous and intelligent mother, watches and fosters-

"Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air,

The soul of its beauty and love lays bare." Too soon by the force of circumstances, the child is removed from maternal guidance and faithfulness, and placed under the care of the schoolmaster. Shall that most "sensitive plant" blossom with culture or droop by neglect-shall it expand in part and be blighted in part-shall it grow up with noxious excrescences, unsightly distortions, or exhibit the graceful proportions of symmetrical beauty? Under God, these are questions that for answer depend almost wholly upon the character, the qualifications of the teacher.

public school will be patronized; if only at the high or select school, then such school will be patronized at the expense of the common school. As stated in another part of this report, the normal teacher in Massachusetts is found on trial to be able to put a school forward much more rapidly than teachers who have not had equal advantages. And must there not be something in having trained teachers in schools to accomplish such results? How else is it that at 14 years of age the Prussian scholar is discharged from school with attainments far superior to those our youth of 16 years possess?

This large saving of time, of clothes, of books, of school money, will not, does not, es. cape the observant eye.

Motives of public economy, besides the imperative necessity and obligation of doing some thing to bring the public schools up to the select and high schools, require that we should in earnest set about taking the incipient steps to obtain a permanent supply of competent teach

ers.

The committee do not indulge an expectation that an adequate supply of well-trained teachers for our schools can be furnished in a very brief period;, this, whenever undertaken, and under the most favorable auspices, must be the slow work of years.

As already seen in a former part of this report, the state long ago set apart a specific fund for educating the teachers of its common schools. The plan adopted to ensure such education had so failed of the object, that the Regents of the University last year suspended all appropriations in aid of it. There now remains in the treasury, unexpended last year, the sum of $4,800; at the end of the current year, unless otherwise ap propriated, there will be an equal additional sum. The wisdom and forecast of former legialation, having made an appropriation, the rev enue, of which this annual sum of $4,800 constitutes a part, to educate common school teachers -no one, it is presumed, will have the hardihood to seek to resume for the state the use of it for general purposes, or to divert it to any other ob ject, however meritorious, than that of educating teachers, nor can it reasonably be expected that the Regents will restore it to the teachers' departments.

Taking such a child, from such a mother, an intelligent teacher would aim by suggestive education to carry the mental and moral powers from one process of development to another. The vicious child of a neglectful or immoral Having then in the treasury available means mother, would require an opposite training; con- that in good faith can be appropriated in furtherscience would need first to be awakened, enlight-ance of but one object, the committee believe ened and invigorated-first to cultivate the intellect of such a child, would produce a knave, if not a worse offender.

The day is fast approaching when the intelligent, thoughtful parent will no loger entrust his child with a teacher who is incapable or incompetent of making these discriminations. The importance of having these germs of immortal existence nurtured and matured by safe and skilful hands, is beginning to be realized. If such are not found in the common school, resort will be had to the high school, the select school or the academy.

Aside from any moral or intellectual considerations in behalf of his child, the parent will be governed he is-by economical considerations. The teacher that can in four months or a year, advance a school as another teacher will be able to in eight or twenty-four months, will be sought after; if he is found in the public school, the

they do no wrong to other institutions, and least of all to the "specific fund" itself, but rather best subserve the first great object of that fund, in recommending that the aggregate of these sums, $9,600, be appropriated to establish a Normal school for the education and training of teach ers for the common schools. After the present year the annual sum of $10,000 is recommended to be appropriated from the literature fund in support of this institution. This amount will not be regarded as too large, when it is borne in mind that it is desirable that accommodations should be made for from 150 to 200 pupils; that if suitable buildings are furnished, there will be serious items for furniture, blackboards, apparatus, textbooks: salaries of three or four assistant-teachers and one principal will require a very considerable amount. But after meeting all such expenses and charges, the committee indulge the hope that the appropriation will not be so far

214

exhausted that those charged with the general superintendence of the school will have no means left to make a weekly allowance towards the maintenance of one class of pupils.

entrusted with the power of recommending pu-
pils; it being understood that no one would be
received until examined, or continued after being
admitted unless commendable proficiency was
made in the science and in the practice of teach-
ing.

It is not the result of gallantry or of that complaisant homage which in every refined and The terms of admission, the course and dura. christian nation is the accorded due of the female sex, that has given to the sex an unequivocal tion of study, the testimonis to be given on preference in teaching and controlling the young. the completion of the course, and finally all the It is not superior science, but superior skill in detail of regulations to organize and govern such the use of that science, it is the manner and the an institution, may better be left to the deliberavery weakness of the teacher that constitutes tion and sound judgment of those under whose For that supervision and control the whole subject matter her strength, that ensures her success. occupation she is endowed with peculiar facul- is placed, than an attempt be made to particuties; while man's nature is rough, stern, impa-arize them in a report, or digest them into a tient, ambitious-hers is gentle, tender, endur-legislative enactment. ing, unaspiring. One always wins, the other sometimes repels; the one is loved, the other sometimes feared. Kindness and quickness of apprehension, frank sympathy with the young, endear and attach, and when the scholar's confidence and attachment are once gained, he is henceforth easily taught and governed.

In childhood the intellectual faculties are but partially developed, the affections are much more full; at that early age the affections are the key of the whole being; it must be possessed before the understanding can be opened to the easy ingress of knowledge. The female teacher readily possesses herself of that key, and thus having access to the heart, the mind is soon reached and operated upon; while the male teacher seeks, in direct approaches to the understanding, to implant scientific truth. Here we have the solution of the problem-of the superior success of female teachers with small scholars; although thus resolved the cause will remain while the different natures and temperaments of the two sexes remain. One of the distinctive characteristics above hinted, deserves a further remark; that while the habits of female teachers are bet ter, their morals purer, they are much more apt to be content with, and continue in the occupation of teaching. It is an employment to which, as already said, they are peculiarly adapted, and wherever they have attempted they have succeeded. In Massachusetts, where females have been most employed, they have been most appreciated. In the winter and summer schools, 6,715 teachers were last year employed, 4,301 of whom were females; in 1841, of 6,503 teachers, 4,112 were females; showing a gradual increase. As already seen at the Barre and Bridgewater institutions, where both sexes were received, and where only such were admitted as signified that it was their intention to teach, the number of females over males preponderated more than three to one.

As they will be more apt to teach when edu eated, more likely to continue in the employment, ask and receive less wages than males, the committee believe the state should hold out some inducement to females, perhaps to the number of two-thirds of all the pupils admitted who have attained the age of 16 years complete, and who are physically and morally and intellectually properly constituted to become teachers, and who shall signify it to be their intention so to do -to spend a year or more at the normal school.

The different counties should be entitled to send pupils to the school in the same proportion they are represented in the Assembly; the county superintendents associating with the first judge of the county) might, perhaps, safely be

It will be noticed that the committee speak of the establishment of one normal school; did our present means seem to warrant it, the committee would with confidence recommend the im mediate establishment of at least one in each of the eight senatorial districts; if one is now established, and that is properly endowed and organized, there cannot be a doubt that not only one will be called for in each of the Senate districts, but in a brief period very many of the large counties will insist upon having one estab lished within their limits. The establishment of one is but an experiment-if that can be called an experiment which for more than a century has been in operation without a known failurewhich, if successful, will lead the way for seve ral others. It is believed that several of the academies now in operation can and will be speedily converted into normal seminaries, when the period arrives for the rapid improvement of education; in this way there will be no loss of academic investment, and the great interests of the public will be as well or better subserved than they are at present.

The committee believe the "experiment" should be tried at the capitol; if it cannot be tested in the presence of all the people, it should be before all the representatives of the people. As a government measure it is untried in this state; the result therefore will be of deep interHere at each annual session of the legis est.* lature, can be seen for what and how the public money is expended; here can be seen the exhi bitions of the pupils of the seminary and of the model school; here, if unsuccessful, no report of interested officials can cover up its failure, or prevent the abandonment of the experiment; here citizens from all parts of the state, who resort to the capital during the session of the le gislature, the terms of the courts, &c., can have an opportunity of examining the working of the normal school system, of learning the best methods of teaching, and all the improvements in the science and practice of the art; those who in the spring and autumn pass through the city and from the great metropolis, those who from all parts of the Union make their annual pilgrimage to the fountains of health, will pause here to see what the Empire State is doing to promote and improve the education of her people.

* The committee are aware that the public schools in New-York owe much of their success and celebrity to teachers trained in normal schools in that city; that a school for educating teachers for some few weeks in each of the last two years, has been kept up in the county of Fulton. As private enterprises such efforts possess the influence or produce the effect of a centrat are praiseworthy, but they cannot supply the place government institution.

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