THE MEANS OF UNIVERSAL EDUCATION.
I would recommend that each state should raise a school fund
sufficient for the entire support of the schools; that a suitable
school-house and apparatus, with a convenient dwelling-house for the
teacher, be furnished by the state for each district; and that every
school-house be supplied with a well-qualified teacher, who shall
receive from the state a suitable compensation.--JOHN DUER.
Let there be an educational department of the government, and let
its details be managed by proper officers, accountable to the
representatives of the people.--DR. HAWKS.
We have already considered the nature of education, which has reference
to the whole man and to the whole duration of his being. We have seen
its importance to individuals and families, to neighborhoods and
communities, to states and nations, and that in proportion as it
receives attention in any community, will that community become
prosperous and happy. We may then very properly inquire after the means
to be put in requisition in order to render the blessings of education
universal among us. To the consideration of this subject we shall devote
the remainder of this work. My first remark is, that
_A correct public opinion should be formed._ In the language of Bishop
Potter, "Our people have absolutely the control over the whole subject
of education, not only as it respects their own families, but, to a
great extent, in schools and seminaries of learning. If, then, the
people were fully awake to its importance and true nature, we should
soon have a perfect system, and we should witness results from it for
which we now look in vain."
The formation of a correct public opinion is of the utmost importance,
for the primary cause of all the defects complained of in education, and
the source of all the evils that afflict the community in consequence of
its neglect, is _popular indifference_. From this we have more to fear
than from all other causes combined. Opposition elicits discussion; and
discussion, judiciously conducted, evolves truth; and educational truths
brought clearly before the mind of any community will ultimately induce
right action. Men may at first be influenced by a comparatively low
class of motives, but one which they can appreciate. As they witness the
beneficial effects of reform, their motives will gradually become more
elevated, and their efforts at improvement more constant; but no
important advance can be made without popular enlightenment.
When the majority of the individuals that compose any community come to
value education as they ought; when they duly estimate its importance in
the various points of view already considered, then will their public
servants take more pains to co-operate with them in rendering its
blessings universal. Good laws are important as a means of improving our
systems of public instruction; but good laws, unsustained by a correct
public opinion, will be of no avail. Before any considerable advance can
be made either in improving our schools or in causing the attendance
upon them to become more general, a good common education--one that
shall give us sound minds in sound bodies; one that bestows much
attention upon intellectual culture, but more upon the culture of the
heart--must come to be ranked among the _necessaries of life_.
_Conventions of the friends of education_ have already done much to
correct popular errors in relation to this subject, and have contributed
largely to the formation of sound and rational views in relation to its
importance in the communities where they have been held. In many
instances, however, they have been composed too exclusively of teachers.
These should, indeed, be in attendance; but to increase the usefulness
of such conventions, and heighten the effect they may be made to produce
upon the popular mind, there should also be in attendance members of the
several learned professions, statesmen, capitalists, and all the leading
minds of the communities in which they are held. In some portions of the
country this is now the case, but such instances, I regret to say, are
not yet very common among us.
_Fourth of July common school celebrations_ have, within the past few
years, become quite common in several states of the Union. This seems
peculiarly appropriate, being a practical recognition of the importance
of primary schools and universal education in a civil and political
point of view. One of the most befitting celebrations of this day which
I have ever known was held in Boston eight years ago, when an oration
was delivered before the authorities of that city by the Secretary of
the Massachusetts Board of Education. The theme of the orator was the
importance of national or universal education in a free government as
the interest which underlies all others, and as constituting the only
means of perfecting and perpetuating to the latest generations the
institutions we have received from our fathers, and "a demonstration
that our existing means for the promotion of intelligence and virtue are
wholly inadequate to the support of a republican government." Such
celebrations should be held in every state of this Union, at every
recurring anniversary of our national independence, until there can not
be found a single individual in all our borders who does not know both
his duties and his privileges as a freeman, and who has not virtue
enough faithfully to perform the one and temperately to enjoy the other.
This, indeed, seems to be in keeping with that most impressive passage
of the celebrated Ordinance of the American Congress, adopted July 13th,
1787, which says, "RELIGION, MORALITY, AND KNOWLEDGE BEING NECESSARY TO
GOOD GOVERNMENT AND THE HAPPINESS OF MANKIND, SCHOOLS AND THE MEANS OF
EDUCATION SHALL FOREVER BE ENCOURAGED."
_The twenty-second of February_ has also been observed, to some extent,
in several of the states, by holding such celebrations. Nothing can be
more appropriate than these efforts to arouse the popular mind to
renewed efforts to improve the common schools of the land, when we
consider the import of that portion of the Farewell Address of him, the
anniversary of whose birth we celebrate, which relates to popular
education. "Promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions
for the general diffusion of knowledge." There can be no doubt that
WASHINGTON here refers to the maintenance and improvement of common
schools as the means of universal education.
The necessity of improving our common schools and of opening wide their
doors to all our youth should not only be the theme at school
celebrations, at educational conventions, and on the occasion of our
national anniversaries, but it should be frequently presented by the
civilian and the divine, as well as by the legislator and the
journalist, until men generally well understand the importance of
education, and are willing to make any sacrifices that may be necessary
to secure its advantages to their own children not only, but to all our
youth.
PROVISIONS FOR THE SUPPORT OF SCHOOLS.--The provisions which have been
made for the support of schools may be reduced to three kinds: first, by
means of funds; second, by taxation; third, by a combination of both of
these methods.
Connecticut, which has a school fund of more than two millions of
dollars, long ago adopted the first plan named. But the inefficiency of
her system of public instruction, until within a few years, is
proverbial, and affords conclusive evidence that a large school fund is
of little or no avail in the absence of a correct public opinion and a
due appreciation of the importance of education. The improvements in the
schools of that state during the last few years are not in consequence
of any increase in her school fund, but because the importance of the
subject has been so frequently and impressively presented before the
public mind, by means of lectures, public discussions, educational
tracts, school journals, and in various other ways, as to overcome that
popular indifference which had well-nigh precluded all advance. The late
improvements in that state have taken place in spite of the school fund
rather than because of any aid derived from it. Dr. Wayland has
expressed the opinion that school "funds are valuable as a _condiment_,
not as an _aliment_; and that they should never be so large as to render
any considerable degree of personal effort on the part of the parent
unnecessary." This is true only when a fund is so far relied upon as to
slacken personal effort for the improvement of the schools, and to
induce parental and popular indifference in relation to them.
The second plan is by taxation, and Massachusetts furnishes an example
of it. In most of the counties of this state there are small local
funds, the avails of which are added to the amount raised by tax for the
support of schools. There are also still less amounts appropriated from
the income of the surplus revenue for the purpose of increasing the
educational advantages of the children; not to be subtracted from, but
to be added to, what the towns would otherwise grant. We may, then,
consider the school fund of this state as embracing the entire taxable
property of the state, from which such a sum is annually raised by tax
as is necessary for the support of the schools. In Vermont, New
Hampshire, and Maine, the schools are supported essentially as in
Massachusetts, the difference being chiefly in the mode of taxation.
Dr. Wayland, in a letter written some years ago, makes the following
remark in relation to the support of schools: "The best legislative
provision with which I am acquainted is that of Maine. They have no fund
whatever, but oblige every district to raise for education a sum
proportioned to the number of its inhabitants or its property. If a town
or a district neglects to do this, it is liable to a fine."
In those states whose systems of public instruction are best
administered--which have the best schools, and the greatest proportion
of the population in attendance upon them--the schools are generally
supported almost entirely by a direct tax, the great principle that THE
PROPERTY OF THE STATE SHOULD EDUCATE THE CHILDREN OF THE STATE being
practically recognized. It not only appears, then, that large funds are
not required for the successful administration of systems of public
instruction, but that actually the best schools, and those which are
doing most for the correct education of the rising generation, may be
found in those states that are destitute of funds, and whose public
schools are supported by a direct tax upon the property of the state.
The third plan of supporting schools is a combination of both of the
others. New York until within the last year,[67] Rhode Island, and
Michigan may be cited as examples of this plan. Where this plan has been
adopted, the districts or townships have generally been required to
raise by tax an amount equal to or greater than what has been received
from the school fund. Where the expense of supporting the schools has
exceeded the whole fund derived from both sources, the balance of the
expense has generally been made up by a rate-bill, parents who are able
being required to pay in proportion to the number of days their children
have attended school. This feature is objectionable even where provision
is made for the children of poor parents to attend without charge, for
it offers a pecuniary inducement, although the schools be nearly free,
to withdraw scholars from attendance upon them for the slightest causes.
This plan has obtained very generally in the states northwest of the
Ohio River, which have received from the General Confederacy a grant of
one section, or six hundred and forty acres of land in each township
for the support of schools. In some of these states the additional tax
is already sufficient, when joined with the avails of the school fund,
to render the schools entirely free. If one plan is superior to both of
the others, this is, perhaps, entitled to the pre-eminence. The school
fund lessens the amount which it is necessary to raise by a direct tax;
and still the sum which is levied in this way has a tendency to beget
and maintain a lively interest on the part of capitalists in the
administration of the educational department, and in the maintenance and
improvement of the public schools.
[67] A year ago the schools of New York were made entirely free by law.
See the foot-note on the 267th page of this work.
Without a correct public opinion and a due appreciation of the
importance of education, either of the three systems named, or any other
which may be adopted for the support of schools, will, and, from the
very nature of the case, must, be inadequate to meet the necessities of
a free people. But let the public be alive to the advantages of
education, and rank it first among the necessaries of life, and almost
any system will be attended with eminent success. If, then, one system
is superior to all others, it is that which is best calculated to beget
in the popular mind a realizing sense of the necessity of educating all
our youth in good schools. If this can be done in a state which has a
large school fund, without diminishing the interest of the people in
education, or relaxing their efforts to maintain improved schools, then
may such a fund prove serviceable, as it will lessen the general tax.
But if the citizens of any state can not be brought to realize the
importance of maintaining an elevated standard of common school
education, and of rendering its blessings universal, without defraying
the whole expense by a direct tax, then will a school fund prove to them
a curse, and not a blessing.
Where there is a will there is a way, says the adage. Mr. Duer, as
quoted at the head of this chapter, says, "I would recommend that each
state should raise a fund sufficient for the entire support of the
schools; that a suitable school-house and apparatus, with a convenient
dwelling-house for the teacher, be furnished by the state for each
district; and that every school-house be supplied with a well-qualified
teacher, who shall receive from the state a suitable compensation." In
this recommendation I fully concur. But with me it is immaterial whether
the state raises a separate fund, set apart exclusively for the purposes
of education, or regards the entire taxable property of the
commonwealth, personal and real, as a general fund from which there
shall be drawn annually a sufficient per centage to provide for
universal education in free schools. This only do I insist upon, that
the people be brought so fully to realize the advantages of a good
common education as to place it high on the list of indispensables; then
will they provide for rendering its blessings universal. The mode of
doing this in any one state may, in view of the peculiar circumstances
of a people, be different from that which it would be most advantageous
ordinarily to adopt. If there is no other sure way of meeting the
expense of common schools, and of begetting and maintaining a deep and
abiding interest in popular education, then let the property of the
state be regarded as a common fund from which there shall be annually
drawn a sum sufficient for the maintenance of improved free schools, in
which every child may receive a generous education, as this is the
interest first in importance to individuals and families, to
neighborhoods and communities, to states and nations.
_The state should maintain an Educational Department._ The magnitude of
the interests involved renders this of the utmost importance. At the
head of this department in every state there should be a minister of
public instruction--whether he is called school superintendent, school
commissioner, secretary of the board of education, or superintendent of
public instruction--and he should be allowed time to make himself
familiar with all the leading writers on the subject of education, in
whatever age or language their works may have been written. Such an
officer can not in any other way become qualified for the proper
discharge of the duties which pertain to his profession. He should also
be allowed time to acquaint himself with the current literature
belonging to his department as it emanates from the press; to examine
new school-books, and new kinds of school apparatus which claim to
possess advantages, that he may be prepared to give to school teachers,
school committee-men, and others whose opportunities for examination and
investigation are less extended, and many of whom must be inexperienced,
such advice as shall enable them judiciously to expend their means for
their personal improvement or the improvement of their schools. He
should likewise have time and opportunity to become so conversant with
the practical operations of different school systems as to be qualified
to give such suggestions in official reports as may be of service to the
Legislature in perfecting their own, and to subordinate officers in its
successful administration. All this would be necessary were we only to
consult the pecuniary interests of the state in the judicious
expenditure of the means which are annually devoted to the support of
common schools. Of how much greater importance is it that there should
be such an officer in every state, and that he should enjoy every
possible means for increasing his usefulness, when we consider that the
successful bestowment of his labors will contribute greatly to increase
individual and social happiness, and the general prosperity of the state
in all coming generations.
In the further consideration of the means of rendering the blessings of
education universal, we shall introduce leading topics in the order in
which they naturally suggest themselves.
* * * * *
GOOD SCHOOL HOUSES SHOULD BE PROVIDED.
A school ought to be a noble asylum, to which children will come,
and in which they will remain with pleasure; to which their parents
will send them with good will.--COUSIN.
If there is one house in the district more pleasantly located, more
comfortably constructed, better warmed, more inviting in its general
appearance, and more elevating in its influence than any other, that
house should be the school-house.--_Michigan School Report_, 1847.
In considering the means of improving our schools, the place where our
country's youth receive their first instruction, and where nineteen
twentieths of them complete their scholastic training, claims early
attention. It is, then, proper to consider the condition of this class
of edifices, as they have almost universally been in every part of the
United States until within a few years past, and as they now generally
are out of those states in which public attention has of late been more
especially directed to improvements in education; for, before any people
will attempt a reform in this particular, they must see and feel the
need of it. Even in the more favored states, comparatively few in
number, the improvements in school architecture have been confined
mostly to a few localities, and are far from being adequate to the
necessities of the case. Did space allow, I would present statements
made by school officers in their reports from various states of the
Union: for, however wide the differences may be in common usage, in
other respects there has heretofore been a striking sameness in the
appearance of school-houses in every part of the country.
CONDITION OF SCHOOL-HOUSES.--In remarking upon the condition of this
class of edifices, as they have heretofore been constructed, and as they
are now almost universally found wherever public sentiment has not been
earnestly, perseveringly, and judiciously called to their improvement, I
will present a few extracts from the official reports of Massachusetts
and New York, where greater pains have been taken to ascertain existing
defects in schools, with a view to providing the necessary remedies,
than in any other two states of this Union.
_School-houses in Massachusetts._--The Secretary of the Board of
Education of this state, in his report for 1846, remarks in reference to
the condition of school-houses in the commonwealth as follows: "For
years the condition of this class of edifices throughout the state,
taken as a whole, had been growing worse and worse. Time and decay were
always doing their work, while only here and there, with wide spaces
between, was any notice taken of their silent ravages; and, in still
fewer instances, were these ravages repaired. Hence, notwithstanding the
improved condition of all other classes of buildings, general
dilapidation was the fate of these. Industry, and the increasing
pecuniary ability which it creates, had given comfort, neatness, and
even elegance to private dwellings. Public spirit had erected commodious
and costly churches. Counties, though largely taxed, had yet
uncomplainingly paid for handsome and spacious court-houses and public
offices. Humanity had been at work, and had made generous and noble
provision for the pauper, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the insane.
Even jails and houses of correction--the receptacles of felons and other
offenders against the laws of God and man--had in many instances been
transformed, by the more enlightened spirit of the age, into comfortable
and healthful residences. The Genius of Architecture, as if she had made
provision for all mankind, extended her sheltering care over the brute
creation. Better stables were provided for cattle; better folds for
sheep; and even the unclean beasts felt the improving hand of reform.
But, in the mean while, the school-houses, to which the children should
have been wooed by every attraction, were suffered to go where age and
the elements would carry them.
"In 1837, not one third of the public school-houses in Massachusetts
would have been considered tenantable by any decent family out of the
poor-house or in it. As an inducement to neatness and decency, children
were sent to a house whose walls and floors were indeed painted, but
they were painted all too thickly by smoke and filth; whose benches and
doors were covered with carved work, but they were the gross and obscene
carvings of impure hands; whose vestibule, after the Oriental fashion,
was converted into a veranda, but the metamorphosis which changed its
architectural style consisted in laying it bare of its outer covering.
The modesty and chastity of the sexes, at their tenderest age, were to
be cultivated and cherished in places which oftentimes were as destitute
of all suitable accommodation as a camp or a caravan. The brain was to
be worked amid gases that stupefied it. The virtues of generosity and
forbearance were to be acquired where sharp discomfort and pain tempt
each one to seize more than his own share of relief, and thus to
strengthen every selfish propensity.
"At the time referred to, the school-houses in Massachusetts were an
opprobrium to the state; and if there be any one who thinks this
expression too strong, he may satisfy himself of its correctness by
inspecting some of the few specimens of them which still remain.
"The earliest effort at reform was directed to this class of buildings.
By presenting the idea of taxation, this measure encountered the
opposition of one of the strongest passions of the age. Not only the
sordid and avaricious, but even those whose virtue of frugality, by the
force of habit, had been imperceptibly sliding into the vice of
parsimony, felt the alarm. Men of fortune without children, and men who
had reared a family of children and borne the expenses of their
education, fancied they saw something of injustice in being called to
pay for the education of others, and too often their fancies started
into specters of all imaginable oppression and wrong.
"During the five years immediately succeeding the report made by the
Board of Education to the Legislature on the subject of school-houses,
the sums expended for the erection and repair of this class of buildings
fell but little short of _seven hundred thousand dollars_. Since that
time, from the best information obtained, I suppose the sum expended on
this one item to be about _one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
annually_. Every year adds some new improvement to the construction and
arrangement of these edifices.
"In regard to this great change in school-houses--it would hardly be too
much to call it a _revolution_--the school committees have done an
excellent work, or, rather, they have begun it; it is not yet done.
Their annual reports, read in open town meeting, or printed and
circulated among the inhabitants, afterward embodied in the Abstracts
and distributed to the members of the government, to all town and
school committees, have enlightened and convinced the state."
_School-houses in New York._--About ten years ago, special visitors were
appointed by the superintendent of common schools in each of the
counties of this state, who were requested to visit and inspect the
schools, and to report minutely in regard to their state and prospects.
The most respectable citizens, without distinction of party, were
selected to discharge this duty; and the result of their labors is
contained in two reports, made, the one in April, 1840, the other in
February, 1841. "It may be remarked, generally," say the visitors of one
of the oldest and most affluent towns of the southeastern section of the
state, "that the school-houses are built in the old style, are too small
to be convenient, and, with one exception, too near the public roads,
having generally no other play-ground."--_Report_, 1840, p. 47.
Say the visitors of another large and wealthy town in the central part
of the state, "Out of twenty schools visited, ten of the school-houses
were in bad repair, and many of them not worth repairing. In none were
any means provided for the ventilation of the room. In many of the
districts, the school-rooms are too small for the number of scholars.
The location of the school-houses is generally pleasant. There are,
however, but few instances where play-grounds are attached, and their
condition as to privies is very bad. The arrangement of seats and desks
is generally very bad, and inconvenient to both scholars and teachers;
most of them are without backs."--_Report_, 1840, p. 28.
In another large and populous town in the northwestern part of the
state, it appears from the report of the visitors that only _five_ out
of twenty-two school-houses are respectable or comfortable; none have
any proper means of ventilation; eight of them are built of logs, and
but one of them has a privy.
According to the report from another county, where the evils already
enumerated exist, "There is, in general, too little attention to having
good and dry wood provided, or a _good supply of any_; or to have a
wood-house or shelter to keep it from the storm." This neglect is very
common. Another neglect, noticed by many of the visitors, is "the cold
and comfortless state in which the children find the school-room, owing
to the late hour at which the fire is first made in the morning."
Three years later--and after the appointment of county superintendents
in each of the counties of that state, who collected statistics with
great care--the Hon. Samuel Young, then state superintendent, after
making a minute statement of the number of school-houses constructed of
stone, brick, wood, and logs; of their condition as to repair; of the
destitution of privies, suitable play-grounds, etc., remarked as
follows:
"But 544 out of 9368 houses visited contained more than one room; 7313
were destitute of any suitable play-ground; nearly 6000 were unfurnished
with convenient seats and desks; nearly 8000 destitute of the proper
facilities for ventilation; _and upward of 6000 without a privy of any
sort_; while, of the remainder, but about 1000 were provided with
privies containing different apartments for male and female pupils! And
it is in these miserable abodes of accumulated dirt and filth, deprived
of wholesome air, or exposed, without adequate protection, to the
assaults of the elements; with no facilities for necessary exercise or
relaxation; no convenience for prosecuting their studies; crowded
together on benches not admitting of a moment's rest in any position,
and debarred the possibility of yielding to the ordinary calls of nature
without violent inroads upon modesty and shame, that upward of _two
hundred thousand children_, scattered over various parts of the state,
are compelled to spend an average period of eight months during each
year of their pupilage! Here the first lessons of human life, the
incipient principles of morality, and the rules of social intercourse
are to be impressed upon the plastic mind. The boy is here to receive
the model of his permanent character, and to imbibe the elements of his
future career; and here the instinctive delicacy of the young female,
one of the characteristic ornaments of the sex, is to be expanded into
maturity by precept and example! Is it strange, under such
circumstances, that an early and invincible repugnance to the
acquisition of knowledge is imbibed by the youthful mind? that the
school-house is regarded with unconcealed aversion and disgust, and that
parents who have any desire to preserve the health and the morals of
their children exclude them from the district school, and provide
instruction for them elsewhere?"
A volume might be filled with similar testimony; but one more quotation
from another state must suffice. After noticing the common evils already
referred to, the superintendent remarks as follows:[68] "But this notice
of _ordinary_ deficiencies does not cover the whole ground of error in
regard to the situation of school-houses. In some cases they are brought
into close connection with positive nuisances. In a case which has
fallen under the superintendent's own personal observation, one side of
the school-house forms part of the fence of a hog-yard, into which,
during the summer, the calves of an extensive dairy establishment have
been thrown from time to time (disgusting and revolting spectacle!), to
be rent and devoured before the eyes of teacher and pupils, except such
portions of the mutilated and mangled carcasses as were left by the
animals to go to decay, as they lay exposed to the sun and storm. It is
true, the windows on the side of the building adjoining the yard were
generally observed to be closed, in order to shut out the almost
insupportable stench which arose from the decomposing remains. But this
closure of the windows could, in no great degree, 'abate the nuisance;'
for not a breath of air could enter the house from any direction but it
must come saturated with the disgusting and sickening odor that loaded
the atmosphere around. It needs no professional learning to tell the
deleterious influence upon health which must be exerted by such an
agency, operating for continuous hours."
[68] First Annual Report of the State Superintendent (Hon. Horace Eaton)
of Common Schools, made to the Legislature of Vermont, October, 1846.
If such evils as have been considered have existed so generally, and
still prevail to an alarming extent, even in the states where education
has received the most attention, what need must there be for the
dissemination of information on this vitally important subject,
especially in those states where education has heretofore received less
attention! In remarking further upon this subject, I shall consider
several leading particulars in the order they naturally suggest
themselves. I will, then, commence with the
LOCATION OF SCHOOL-HOUSES.--In comparatively few instances school-houses
are favorably located, being situated on dry, hard ground, in a retired
though central part of the district, in the midst of a natural or
artificial grove. But they are almost universally badly located; exposed
to the noise, dust, and danger of the highway; unattractive, if not
absolutely repulsive in their external appearance, and built at the
least possible expense of material and labor. They are generally on one
corner of public roads, and sometimes adjacent to a cooper's shop, or
between a blacksmith's shop and a saw-mill. They are not unfrequently
placed on an acute angle, where a road forks, and sometimes in turning
that angle, the travel is chiefly behind the school-house, leaving it on
a small triangle bounded on all sides by public roads.
Occasionally the school-house is situated on a low and worthless piece
of ground, with a sluggish stream of water in its vicinity, which
sometimes even passes under the house. The comfort, and health even, of
children are thus sacrificed to the parsimony of their parents. Scholars
very generally step from the school-house directly into the highway.
Indeed, school-houses are frequently situated one half in the highway
and the other half in the adjacent field, as though they were unfit for
either. This is the case even in some of the principal villages of all
the states I have ever visited, or from which I have read full reports
on the subject.
Strange as it may seem, school-houses are sometimes situated _in the
middle of the highway_, a portion of the travel being on each side of
them. When the scholars are engaged in their recreations, they are
exposed to bleak winds and the inclemency of the weather one portion of
the year, and to the scorching rays of the meridian sun another portion.
Moreover, their recreations must be conducted in the street, or they
trespass upon their neighbors' premises. We pursue a very different
policy in locating a church, a court-house, or a dwelling; and should we
not pursue an equally wise and liberal policy in locating the _district
school-house_?
In the states generally northwest of the River Ohio, six hundred and
forty acres of land in every township are appropriated to the support
of common schools. Suppose there are ten school districts in a township,
this would allow sixty-four acres to every district. It would seem that
when the general government has appropriated _sixty-four acres_ to
create a fund for the encouragement of the schools of a township, that
each district might set apart _one acre_ as a site for a school-house.
Once more: school districts usually contain not less than twenty-five
hundred acres of land. Is it, then, asking too much to set apart _one
acre_ as a site for a school-house, in which the _minds_ of the children
of the district shall be cultivated, when _twenty-four hundred and
ninety-nine_ acres are appropriated to feeding and clothing their
_bodies_?
I would respectfully suggest, and even _urge_ the propriety of locating
the school-house on a piece of firm ground of liberal dimensions, and of
inclosing the same with a suitable fence. The location should be dry,
quiet, and pleasant, and in every respect healthy. The vicinity of
places of idle and dissipated resort should by all means be avoided;
and, if possible, the site of the school-house should overlook a
delightful country, and be surrounded by picturesque scenery. The school
yard, at least, should be inclosed not only, but set out with shade
trees, unless provided with those of Nature's own planting. It should
also be ornamented with beautiful shrubbery, and be made the park of the
neighborhood--the pleasantest place for resort within the boundaries of
the district. This would contribute largely to the formation of a
correct taste on the part of both children and parents. It would also
tend to the formation of virtuous habits and the cultivation of
self-respect; for the scholars would then enjoy their pastime in a
pleasant and healthful yard, where they have a _right_ to be, and need
no longer be hunted as _trespassers_ upon their neighbors' premises, as
they now too frequently are.
SIZE AND CONSTRUCTION.--In treating upon the philosophy of respiration
at the 92d page of this work, it was stated that, exclusive of entry and
closets, where they are furnished with these appendages, school-houses
are not usually larger than twenty by twenty-four feet on the ground,
and seven feet in height. The average attendance in houses of these
dimensions was estimated at forty-five scholars in the winter. It was
also stated that the medium quantity of air that enters the lungs at
each inspiration is thirty-six cubic inches, and that respiration is
repeated once in three seconds, or twenty times a minute. Now, to say
nothing of the inconvenience which so many persons must experience in
occupying a house of so narrow dimensions, and making no allowance for
the space taken up by desks, furniture, and the scholars themselves, a
simple arithmetical computation will show any one that such a room will
not contain a sufficient amount of air for the support of life three
hours. But I will here simply refer the reader to the fourth chapter of
this work, and will not repeat what was there said.
In determining the size of school-houses, due regard should be had to
several particulars. There should be a separate entry or lobby for each
sex, which Mr. Barnard, in his School Architecture,[69] very justly says
should be furnished with a scraper, mat, hooks or shelves--both are
needed--sink, basin, and towels. A separate entry thus furnished will
prevent much confusion, rudeness, and impropriety, and promote the
health, refinement, and orderly habits of the children.
[69] "School Architecture," or Contributions to the Improvement of
School-houses in the United States, by Henry Barnard, Commissioner of
Public Schools in Rhode Island, p. 383. This excellent treatise embodies
a mass of most valuable information in relation to school-houses and
apparatus. It contains the plans of a great number of the best
school-houses in various portions of the United States, and should be
consulted by every committee before determining upon a plan for the
construction of a valuable school-house.
The principal room of the school-house, and each such room where there
are several departments, should be large enough to allow each occupant a
suitable quantity of pure air, which should be at least twice the common
amount, or not less than one hundred and fifty cubic feet. There should
also be one or more rooms for recitation, apparatus, library, etc.,
according to the size of the school and the number of scholars to be
accommodated.
Every school-room should be so constructed that each scholar may pass to
and from his seat without disturbing or in the least incommoding any
other one. A house thus arranged will enable the teacher to pass at all
times to any part of the room, and to approach each scholar in his seat
whenever it may be desirable to do so for purposes of instruction or
otherwise. Such an arrangement is of the utmost importance; and without
the fulfillment of this condition, no teacher can most advantageously
superintend the affairs of a whole school, and especially of a large
one.
In determining the details of construction and arrangement for a
school-house, due regard must be had to the varying circumstances of
country and city, as well as to the number of scholars that may be
expected in attendance, the number of teachers to be employed, and the
different grades of schools that may be established in a community.
COUNTRY DISTRICTS.--In country districts, as they have long been
situated, and still generally are, aside from separate entries and
clothes-rooms for the sexes, there will only be needed one principal
school-room, with a smaller room for recitations, apparatus, and other
purposes. In arranging and fitting up this room, reference must be had
to the requirements of the district; for this one room is to be occupied
by children of all ages, for summer and winter schools, and for the
secular, but more especially for the religious meetings of the
neighborhood. But in its construction primary reference should be had to
the convenience of the scholars in school, for it will be used by them
more, ten to one, than for all other purposes. Every child, then, even
the youngest in school, should be furnished with a seat and desk, at
which he may sit with ease and comfort. The seats should each be
furnished with a back, and their height should be such as to allow the
children to rest their feet comfortably upon the floor. The necessity of
this will be apparent by referring to what has been said on the laws of
health in the third chapter of this work, at the 68th and following
pages.
No one, then, can fail to see the advantages that would result to a
densely-settled community from a union of two or more districts for the
purpose of maintaining in each a school for the younger children, and of
establishing in the central part of the associated districts a school of
a higher grade for the older and more advanced children of all the
districts thus united. If four districts should be united in this way,
they might erect a central house, C, for the larger and more advanced
scholars, and four smaller ones, P P P P, for the younger children. The
central school might be taught by a male teacher, with female
assistants, if needed; but the primary schools, with this arrangement,
could be more economically and successfully instructed by females. In
several of the states legal provisions are already made for such a
consolidation of districts. This would invite a more perfect
classification of scholars, and would allow the central school-house to
be so constructed, and to have the seats and desks of such a height as
to be convenient for the larger grade of scholars, and still be
comfortable for other purposes for which it might occasionally be
necessary to occupy it. Such an arrangement, while it would obviate the
almost insuperable difficulties which stand in the way of proper
classification and the thorough government and instruction of schools,
would at the same time offer greater inducements to the erection of more
comfortable and attractive school-houses.
---------------
| | |
| P | P |
|------C------|
| | |
| P | P |
---------------
CITIES AND VILLAGES.--The plan suggested in the last paragraph may be
perfected in cities and villages. For this purpose, where neither the
distance nor the number of scholars is too great, some prefer to have
all the schools of a district or corporation conducted under the same
roof. However this may be, as there will be other places for public
meetings of various kinds, each room should be appropriated to a
particular department, and be fitted up exclusively for the
accommodation of the grade of scholars that are to occupy it. In cities,
and even in villages with a population of three or four thousand, it is
desirable to establish at least three grades of schools, viz., first,
the primary, for the smallest children; second, the intermediate, for
those more advanced; and, third, a central high school, for scholars
that have passed through the primary and intermediate schools. While
this arrangement is favorable to the better classification of the
scholars of a village or city, and holds out an inducement to those of
the lowest and middle grade of schools to perfect themselves in the
various branches of study that are pursued in them respectively as the
condition upon which they are permitted to enter a higher grade, it
also allows a more perfect adjustment of the seats and desks to the
various requirements of the children in their passage through the grade
of schools.
NEW YORK FREE ACADEMY.--In the public schools of the city of New York,
two hundred in number, six hundred teachers are employed, and one
hundred thousand children annually receive instruction. The Free
Academy, which is a public school of the highest grade, and which is
represented in our frontispiece, was established by the Board of
Education in 1847. The expense of the building, without the furniture,
was $46,000, and the annual expense for the salaries of professors and
teachers is about $10,000. Out of twenty-four thousand votes cast,
twenty thousand were for the establishment of this institution, in which
essentially a complete collegiate education may be obtained. No students
are admitted to it who have not attended the public schools of the city
for at least one full year, nor these until they have undergone a
thorough examination and proved themselves worthy. Its influence is not
confined to the one hundred or one hundred and fifty scholars who may
graduate from it annually, but leaches and stimulates the six hundred
teachers, and the hundred thousand children whom they instruct, and thus
elevates the common schools of the city _in reality_ not only, but
places them much more favorably before the public than they otherwise
could be.
Smaller cities, and especially villages with a population of but a few
thousand, can not, of course, maintain so extended a system of public
schools; but they can accomplish essentially the same thing more
perfectly, though on a smaller scale. For the benefit of districts in
the country and in villages, I will here insert a few plans of
school-houses.
[Illustration: _Plan of a School-house for fifty-six Scholars._
Size, 30 by 40 feet.
Scale, 10 feet to the inch.]
D D, doors. E E, entries lighted over outer doors, one for the boys
and the other for the girls. T, teacher's platform and desk. R L,
room for recitation, library, and apparatus, which may be entered by
a single door, as represented in the plan, or by two, as in the
following plan. S S, stoves with air-tubes beneath. K K, aisles four
feet wide--the remaining aisles are each two feet wide. _c v_,
chimneys and ventilators. I I, recitation seats. B B, black-board,
made by giving the wall a colored hard finish. G H, seats and desks,
four feet in length, constructed as represented on the next page.
The seat and desk may be made together, and instead of being
fastened permanently to the floor, attached in front by a strap
hinge, which will admit of their being turned forward while sweeping
under and behind them.
[Illustration: _Primary and Intermediate Department, on first floor._
Size, 36 by 64 feet.
Scale, 12 feet to the inch.]
A, entrance for boys to the High School. C, entrance for girls to
the High School. P, entrance for boys to the Primary and
Intermediate Departments. Q, entrance for girls to the same. D D,
doors. W W, windows. T, teacher's platform and desk. G H, desk and
seat for two scholars, a section of which is represented at X, in
the Primary Department. I I, recitation seats. B B, black-boards. S
S, stoves, with air-tubes beneath. _c v_, chimney and ventilator. R,
room for recitation library, apparatus, and other purposes.
[Illustration: _High School, or Third Department, on second floor._]
A, entrance for the boys, through the entry below. C, entrance for
the girls. G H, desk and seat: aisles from two to three feet wide. D
D, doors. W W, windows. S S, stoves. _c v_, chimney and ventilator.
T, teacher's platform. R, recitation-room. I I, recitation seats in
principal room. B B, black-board: as a substitute for the common
painted board, a portion of the wall, covered with hard finish, may
be painted black; or, what is better, the hard finish itself may be
colored before it is put on, by mixing with it lamp-black, wet up
with alcohol or sour beer.
VENTILATION OF SCHOOL-HOUSES.--We have already seen that in a
school-room occupied by forty-five persons, thirty-two thousand four
hundred cubic inches of air impart their entire vitality to support
animal life _the first minute_, and, mingling with the atmosphere of the
room, proportionably deteriorate the whole mass; that the air of crowded
school-rooms thus soon becomes entirely unfit for respiration, and that,
as the necessary result, the health of both teacher and scholars is
endangered; that the scholars gradually lose both the desire and the
ability to study, and become more inclined to be disorderly, while the
teacher becomes continually more unfit either to teach or govern. Hence
the necessity of frequent and thorough ventilation.
The ordinary facilities for ventilating school-rooms consist in opening
a door and raising the lower sash of the windows. The only ventilation
which has been practiced in the great majority of schools has been
entirely accidental, and has consisted in opening and closing the outer
door as the scholars enter and pass out of the school-house, before
school, during the recesses, and at noon. Ventilation, as such, I may
safely say, has not, until within a few years, been practiced in one
school in fifty; nor is it at the present time in many parts of the
country. It is true, the door has at times been set open a few minutes,
and the windows have been occasionally raised, but the object has been
either to let the smoke pass out of the room, or to cool it when it has
become too warm, not to ventilate it.
Ventilation by opening a door or raising the windows is imperfect, and
frequently injurious. A more effectual and safer method of ventilation
consists in lowering the upper sash of the window. In very cold or
stormy weather, a ventilator in the ceiling may be opened, so as to
allow the vitiated air to escape into the attic, in which case there
should be a free communication between the attic and the outer air by
means of a lattice in the gable, or otherwise. A ventilator may also be
constructed in connection with the chimney, by carrying up a partition
in the middle, one half of the chimney being used for a smoke flue, and
the other half for a ventilator.
But it is often asked, Why is it not just as well to raise the lower
sash of the windows as to lower the upper one? In reply I would say,
first, lowering the upper sash is _a more effectual method of
ventilation_. In a room which is warmed and occupied in cold weather,
the warmer and more vitiated portions of the air rise to the upper part
of the room, while that which is colder and purer descends. The reason
for this may not be readily conceived, especially when we consider that
carbonic acid, the vitiating product of respiration, is specifically
heavier than common air. Three considerations, however, will make it
apparent. 1. Gases of different specific gravity mix uniformly, under
favorable circumstances. 2. The carbonic acid which is exhaled from the
lungs at about blood heat is hence rarefied, and specifically lighter
than the air in the room, which inclines it to ascend. 3. The ingress of
cold and heavier air from without is chiefly through apertures near the
base of the room. Raising the lower sash of the windows allows a portion
of the purer air of the room to pass off, while the more vitiated air
above is retained. Lowering the upper sash allows the impure air above
to escape, while the purer air below remains unchanged.
Lowering the upper sash is also the _safer method of ventilation_. It
not only allows the impure air more readily to escape, but provides also
for the more uniform diffusion of the pure air from without, which
takes its place through the upper part of the room. The renovated air
will gradually settle upon the heads of the scholars, giving them a
purer air to breathe, while the comfort of the body and lower
extremities will remain undisturbed. This is as it should be; for warm
feet and cool heads contribute alike to physical comfort and clearness
of mind. Raising the lower sash of the windows endangers the health of
scholars, exposing those who sit near them to colds, catarrhs, etc.
Indeed, when it is very cold or stormy, it is unsafe to ventilate by
lowering the upper sash of the windows. At such times, provision should
be made for the escape of impure air at the upper part of the room, and
for the introduction of pure air at the lower part, as will be shown
while treating upon the means of warming.
MEANS OF WARMING.--Next in importance to pure air in a school-room is
the maintenance of an even temperature. This is an indispensable
condition of health, comfort, and successful labor. It is one, however,
that is very generally disregarded; or, perhaps I should say, one that
is not often enjoyed. School-houses are generally warmed by means of
stoves, some of which are in a good condition, and supplied with dry,
seasoned wood. The instances, however, in which such facilities for
warming exist, are comparatively few. It is much more common to see
cracked and broken stoves, the doors without either hinges or latch,
with rusty pipe of various sizes. Green wood, also, and that which is
old and partially decayed, either drenched with rain or covered with
snow during inclement weather, is much more frequently used for fuel
than sound, seasoned wood, protected from the weather by a suitable
wood-house. With this state of things, it is exceedingly difficult to
kindle a fire, which burns poorly, at best, when built. Fires, moreover,
are frequently built so late, that the house does not become
comfortably warm at the time appointed for commencing school. These
neglects are the fruitful source of much discomfort and disorder. The
temperature is fluctuating; the room is filled with smoke a considerable
part of the time, especially in stormy weather; and the school is liable
to frequent interruptions, in fastening together and tying up
stove-pipe, etc., etc.
This may seem a little like exaggeration. I know full well there are
many noble exceptions. But in a large majority of instances some of
these inconveniences exist; and the most of them coexist much more
frequently than persons generally are aware of. I speak from the
personal observation of several thousand schools in different states,
and from reliable information in relation to the subject from various
portions of the country. I have myself many times heard trustees and
patrons, who have visited their school with me for the first time in
several years, say, "We ought to have some dry wood to kindle with; I
didn't know as it was so smoky: we must get some new pipe; really, our
stove is getting dangerous," etc. And some of the boys have relieved the
embarrassment of their parents by saying, "It don't smoke near so bad
to-day as it does sometimes!"
The principal reason why the stoves in our school-houses are so cracked
and broken, and why the pipes are so rusty and open, lies in the
circumstance that green wood, or that which is partially decayed and
saturated with moisture, is used for fuel, instead of good seasoned
wood, protected from the inclemency of the weather by a suitable
wood-house. There are at least three reasons why this is poor policy.
1. It takes double the amount of wood. A considerable portion of the
otherwise sensible heat becomes latent, in the conversion of ice, snow,
and moisture into steam. 2. The steam thus generated cracks the stove
and rusts the pipe, so that they will not last one half as long as
though dry wood from a wood-house were used. 3. It is impossible to
preserve an even temperature. Sometimes it is too cold, and at other
times it is too warm; and this, with such means of warming, is
unavoidable. Scores of teachers have informed me that, in order to keep
their fires from going out, it was necessary to have their stoves
constantly full of wood, and even to lay wood upon the stove, that a
portion of it might be seasoning while the rest was burning. Aside from
the inconvenience of a fluctuating temperature, this is an unseemly and
filthy practice, and one that generates very offensive and injurious
gases.
Again: I have frequently heard the following and similar remarks: "The
use of stoves in our school-houses is a great evil;" "Stoves are
unhealthy in our school-houses, or in any other houses," etc. This idea
being somewhat prevalent, and stoves being generally used in our
school-houses, their influence upon health becomes a proper subject for
consideration.
Combustion, whether in a stove or fire-place, consists in a chemical
union of the _oxygen gas_ of the atmosphere with _carbon_, the
combustible part of the wood or coal used for fuel. Carbonic acid, the
vitiating product of combustion, does not, however, ordinarily
deteriorate the atmosphere of the room, but, mingling with the smoke,
escapes through the stove-pipe or chimney.
The stove, in point of economy, is far superior to the open fire-place
as ordinarily constructed. When the latter is used, it has been
estimated that nine tenths of the heat evolved ascends the chimney, and
only one tenth, or, according to Rumford and Franklin, only one
fifteenth, is radiated from the front of the fire into the room.
Four-fold more fuel is required to warm a room by a fire-place than when
a stove is used. Oxygen is, of course, consumed in a like proportion,
and hence, when the open fire-place is used, there is necessarily a
four-fold greater ingress of cold air to supply combustion than where a
stove is employed.
And, what is of still greater importance, when a fire-place is used, it
is impossible to preserve so uniform a temperature throughout the room
as when a stove is employed. When a fire-place is used, the cold air is
constantly rushing through every crevice at one end of the room to
supply combustion at the other end. Hence the scholars in one part of
the room suffer from cold, while those in the opposite part are
oppressed with heat. The stove may be set in a central part of the room,
whence the heat will radiate, not in one direction merely, but in all
directions. In addition to this, as we have already seen, only one
fourth as much air is required to sustain combustion, on both of which
accounts a much more even and uniform temperature can be maintained
throughout a room where a stove is used than where a fire-place is
employed.
But whence, then, has arisen the prevailing opinion that stoves are
unhealthy? There are two sources of mischief, either of which furnishes
a sufficient foundation for this popular fallacy. The first has already
been referred to, and consists simply in the almost total neglect of
proper ventilation. The other lies in the circumstance that school-rooms
are generally kept too warm. In addition to the inconvenience of too
high a temperature, the aqueous vapor existing in the atmosphere in its
natural and healthful state is dispersed, and the air of the room
becomes too dry. The evil being seen, the remedy is apparent. Reduce the
temperature of the room to its proper point, and supply the deficiency
of aqueous vapor by an evaporating dish partially filled with pure
water. If this is not done, the dry and over-heated air, which is highly
absorbent of moisture in every thing with which it comes in contact, not
only creates a disagreeable sensation of dryness on the surface of the
body, but in passing over the delicate membrane of the throat, creates a
tickling, induces a cough, and lays the foundation for pulmonary
disease, especially when ventilation is neglected. The water in the
evaporating dish should be frequently changed, and kept free from dirt
and other impurities. Care also should be taken not to create more
moisture than the air naturally contains, otherwise the effect will be
positively injurious.
The evil complained of is attributable mainly to the maintenance of a
too high temperature. Were a thermometer placed in many of our
school-rooms--and a school-house should never be without one in every
occupied apartment--instead of indicating a suitable temperature, say
sixty-two or sixty-five degrees, or even a summer temperature, it would
not unfrequently rise above blood heat. The system is thus not only
enfeebled and deranged by breathing an infectious atmosphere, but the
debility thence arising is considerably increased in consequence of too
high a temperature. The two causes combined eminently predispose the
system to disease. The change from inhaling a fluid poison at blood
heat, to inhaling the purer air without at the freezing point or below,
is greater than the system can bear with impunity.
A uniform temperature, which is highly important, can be more easily and
more effectually maintained where a stove is employed, furnished with a
damper, and supplied with dry, hard wood, than where a fire-place is
used. In the former case the draft may be regulated, in the latter it
can not be. A great amount of air enters into combustion even where a
stove is used. A greater quantity enters into the combustion where a
fire-place is used, in proportion to the increased amount of wood
consumed. Much of the heated air, also, where an open fire-place is
used, mingling with the smoke, passes off through the chimney, and its
place is supplied by an ingress of cold air at the more distant portions
of the room. There is hence not only a great waste of fuel, but a
sacrifice of comfort, health, and life.
But even where a stove is used there is a constant ingress of cold air
through cracks and defects in the floor, doors, windows, and walls,
which causes it to be colder in the outer portions of the room than in
the central portions and about the stove. The evil is the same in kind
as that already referred to in speaking of fire-places, but less in
degree. This evil, however, may be almost entirely obviated by a very
simple arrangement, which will also do much to render ventilation at
once more effectual and safe, especially in very cold and inclement
weather. The arrangement is as follows:
Immediately beneath the floor--and in case the school-house is two
stories high, between the ceiling and the floor above--insert a tube
from four to six inches in diameter, according to the size of the rooms,
the outer end communicating with the external air by means of an orifice
in the under-pinning or wall of the house, and the other, by means of an
angle, passing upward through the floor beneath the stove. This part of
the tube should be furnished with a register, so as to admit much or
little air, as may be desirable. This simple arrangement will reverse
the ordinary currents of air in a school-room. The cold air, instead of
entering at the crevices in the outer part of the room, where it is
coldest, enters directly beneath the stove, where it is warmest. It thus
moderates the heat immediately about the stove, and being warmed as it
enters, and mingling with the heated air, establishes currents toward
the walls, and gradually finds its way out at the numerous crevices
through which the cold air previously entered. If these are not
sufficient for the purpose, several ventilators should be provided in
distant parts of the room, as already suggested. This simple
arrangement, then, provides for the more even dissemination of heat
through all parts of the room, and thus secures a more uniform
temperature, and, at the same time, provides a purer air for
respiration, contributes greatly to the comfort and health of the
scholars, and fulfills several important conditions which are essential
to the most successful prosecution of their studies, and to the
maintenance and improvement of social and moral, as well as intellectual
and physical health.
By inclosing the stove on three sides in a case of sheet iron, leaving a
space of two or three inches between the case and the stove for an air
chamber, the air will become more perfectly warmed before entering the
room at the top of the case. The best mode, however, of warming and
ventilating large school-houses is by pure air heated in a furnace
placed in the basement. The whole house can in this way be warmed
without any inconvenience to the school from maintaining the fires, on
account of either noise, dust, or smoke. But as this mode of warming can
not be advantageously adopted except in very large schools, it will not
often be found desirable out of cities and large villages.
LIBRARY AND APPARATUS.--I have already said that every school-house
should have a room for recitations, library, and apparatus. In country
districts where but one teacher is employed in a school, it will perhaps
generally be found convenient to conduct the majority of the recitations
in the principal school-room. But even where this practice obtains,
there is still urgent necessity for a room for a library, apparatus, and
other purposes.
Several of the states have carried into successful operation the noble
system of District Libraries. These, in the single state of New York,
already contain nearly two millions of volumes. In some of the new
states the system of Township Libraries has been adopted, which, on some
accounts, is better adapted to a sparse population with limited means.
These, in the State of Michigan, already contain one hundred thousand
volumes. The director of each school district draws from the township
library every three months the number of books his district is entitled
to. These, for the time being, constitute the district library, and each
citizen in the township is thus allowed the use of all the books in the
township library.
Now, whichever of these systems is adopted, the school-house is the
appropriate depository of the library. There are many reasons for this.
It is central. It is the property of the district. During term-time it
is visited daily by members from perhaps every family in the district.
There may, and should be, a time fixed, at least once a week, when the
library will be open, the librarian or his assistant being in
attendance, at which time books may be returned and drawn anew. For this
purpose, and on all accounts, no place can be so appropriate and free
from objection as the school-house. The library may also be opened one
or more evenings in the week, and especially during the winter, when
evenings are long, as a district reading-room. Moreover, should a
District Lyceum be established, the use of a well-selected library,
which will always be at hand, and of appropriate apparatus for the
illustration of scientific lectures, will contribute greatly to increase
both the popularity and the usefulness of the institution.
With such an arrangement, the children of the district would most
assuredly be much more benefited by the instructions they would receive.
The school would also possess many attractions for adults of both sexes,
and by the co-operation of the wise and the good, its refining,
purifying, and regenerating influences may be brought effectually to
bear upon every family and every individual within the boundaries of the
district. Then will the idea of Cousin be realized, who says, "A school
ought to be a noble asylum, to which children will come, and in which
they will remain with pleasure; to which their parents will send them
with good will;" and, I will add, one whose uplifting influence both
children and parents will constantly feel.
Such a room as I have described will also be found important for various
other purposes, as a commodious place for retirement in case of sudden
indisposition, a place where a teacher may see a patron or a friend in
private, should it be at any time desirable, or a parent his child. It
would also be of great service in giving the teacher an opportunity to
see scholars in private, for various purposes, as well as in affording a
convenient room for scholars to retire to, with the permission of the
teacher, for mutual instruction.
That able and judicious advocate of popular enlightenment, and eminently
successful school officer, the Honorable Henry Barnard, does not
over-estimate the importance of district libraries. In speaking of the
benefits they confer upon a community, he says, "Wherever such libraries
have existed, especially in connection with the advantages of superior
schools and an educated ministry, they have called forth talent and
virtue, which would otherwise have been buried in poverty and ignorance,
to elevate, bless, and purify society. The establishment of a library in
every school-house will bring the mighty instrument of good books to act
more directly and more broadly on the entire population of a state than
it has ever yet done; for it will open the fountains of knowledge,
without money and without price, to the humble and the elevated, the
poor and the rich."
APPURTENANCES TO SCHOOL-HOUSES.--There are, perhaps, in the majority of
school-houses, a pail for water, a cup, a broom, and a chair for the
teacher. Some one or more of these are frequently wanting. I need hardly
say, every school-house should be supplied with them all. In addition to
these, every school-house should be furnished with the following
articles: 1. An evaporating dish for the stove, which should be supplied
with clean pure water. 2. A thermometer, by which the temperature of the
room may be regulated. 3. A clock, by which the time of beginning and
closing school, and conducting all its exercises, may be governed. 4. A
shovel and tongs. 5. An ash-pail and an ash-house. For want of these,
much filth is frequently suffered to accumulate in and about the
school-house, and not unfrequently the house itself takes fire and burns
down. 6. A wood-house, well supplied with seasoned wood. 7. A well, with
provisions not only for drinking, but for the cleanliness of pupils. 8.
And last, though not least, in this connection, two privies, in the rear
of the school-house, separated by a high close fence, one for the boys
and the other for the girls. For want of these indispensable appendages
of civilization, the delicacy of children is frequently offended, and
their morals corrupted. Nay, more, the unnatural detention of the
_faeces_, when nature calls for an evacuation, is frequently the
foundation for chronic diseases, and the principal cause of permanent
ill health, resulting not unfrequently in premature death. The
accommodations in this respect provided by a district in a country
village of the Northwest, whose schools have become celebrated, are none
too ample. Two octagonal privies are provided--one for each sex--each of
which has seven apartments. These are cleansed every two weeks,
regularly, and oftener, if necessary.
Mr. Barnard, in treating upon the external arrangements of
school-houses, has the following sensible remarks: "The building should
not only be located on a dry, healthy, and pleasant site, but be
surrounded by a yard, of never less than half an acre, protected by a
neat and substantial inclosure. This yard should be large enough in
front for all to occupy in common for recreation and sport, and planted
with oaks, elms, maples, and other shady trees, tastefully arranged in
groups and around the sides. In the rear of the building, it should be
divided by a high and close fence, and one portion, appropriately fitted
up, should be assigned exclusively for the use of boys, and the other
for girls. Over this entire arrangement the most perfect neatness,
seclusion, order, and propriety should be enforced, and every thing
calculated to defile the mind, or wound the delicacy or the modesty of
the most sensitive, should receive attention in private, and be made a
matter of parental advice and co-operation.
"In cities and populous districts, particular attention should be paid
to the play-ground, as connected with the physical education of
children. In the best-conducted schools, the play-ground is now regarded
as the _uncovered_ school-room, where the real dispositions and habits
of the pupils are more palpably developed, and can be more wisely
trained, than under the restraint of an ordinary school-room. These
grounds are provided with circular swings, and are large enough for
various athletic games. To protect the children in their sports in
inclement weather, in some places, the school-house is built on piers;
in others, the basement story is properly fitted up, and thrown open as
a play-ground."
A good and substantial room, well fitted up, and properly warmed in cold
weather, in which children may conduct their sports, under the
supervision of a teacher or monitor, is of the utmost importance; and
especially is this true of all schools for small children. Such a room
is, indeed, for these, hardly less important than the school-room. Among
other things, it should be supplied with dumb-bells,[70] see-saws,
weights and measures of various kinds, etc., etc. These are important
for both boys and girls; but, as they are uncommon, it may be well to
suggest the proper mode of using them, and the advantages they confer.
[70] Dumb-bells are usually made of cast iron, and sometimes of
bell-metal, of the shape indicated by the figure, and should weigh from
two to ten pounds each, according to the strength of the person using
them. [Illustration]
_Dumb-bells_ may be used, in connection with the sports enumerated in
the third chapter, for developing and strengthening the chest and
improving the health. I would refer any who question the fitness of such
exercises to what has been said on the subject at the 77th and following
pages, and especially to the testimony of Dr. Caldwell there introduced.
_See-saws_, in addition to the benefits that result from the exercise,
are attractive, and may be rendered highly instructive. For this
purpose, the plank or board used should be well hung and properly
balanced. The distance from the fulcrum or point of support should be
accurately graduated, and marked in feet and inches. Then, knowing the
weight of one scholar, the weights of all the others may be ascertained
by their relative distances from the fulcrum when they exactly balance.
These interesting experiments may be tried by any child as soon as he
understands the ground rules of arithmetic, and the simple fact that,
for two children to balance, the product of the weight of one multiplied
into his distance from the fulcrum will exactly equal the product of the
weight of the other into his distance from the fulcrum. Such simple
experiments, when thus mingled with sports, and made interesting to
young children, serve the double purpose of attaching them to the
school, and of fixing in their minds the habit of observation and
experiment, and of understanding the why and wherefore, which will be of
incalculable service to them all the way through life.
_Weights and measures_ serve the same general purpose, and may be
rendered well-nigh as useful as slates and black-boards. Thousands of
children recite every year the table, "four gills make a pint, two pints
make a quart, four quarts make a gallon," etc., month in and month out,
without any distinct idea of what constitutes a gill or a quart, or even
knowing which of the two is the greater. But let these measures be once
introduced into the experimental play-room, and let the child, under the
supervision of the teacher or monitor, actually _see_ that four gills
make a pint, etc., and he will learn the table with ten-fold greater
pleasure than he otherwise would, and in one tenth the time.
The same general remark will apply to the other tables of weight and
measure, to experimental philosophy, and to nearly every branch of study
pursued in the common schools of our country. I have but one other
general remark to make on this subject, and that is in relation to the
INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL-HOUSES.--Cicero observes that the face of a man will
be tinged by the sun, for whatever purpose he walks abroad; so, by daily
associations, the minds of all persons are influenced, and their
characters permanently affected, by scenes with which they are familiar;
and especially is this true during the impressive periods of childhood
and youth. Many persons seem to think that schoolmasters and
school-mistresses do all the teaching in our schools. But it is not so.
Fellow-students, neighbors, and citizens teach by precept and by
example; and especially do _school-houses teach_. And oh! what lessons
of degradation, pollution, and ruin they sometimes impart! as he can not
fail to be convinced who remembers the testimony already introduced in
relation to their condition.
I have seen the fond parent accompany his lovely child of four summers
to the school the first day of its attendance. The child had seen
pictures of school-houses in books. Pictures, if not always pretty,
usually please children. It was so in this case. The child, anxious to
go to school, talked of the school-house on the way. There arrived, the
parent passed his innocent little one into the care of the teacher, with
a few remarks, and was about to retire, when the child, clinging to him,
said, pathetically and energetically, "Pa! pa!! I don't want to stay in
this ugly old house; I am afraid it will fall down on me: I want to go
home to our own pretty parlor." But the parent, breaking away from his
child, leaves it in tears, with a sad heart. How cruel to do such
violence to the tender feelings of innocent children! And how baneful
the influence! The school, instead of being a comfortable, pleasant,
and delightful place, as it should be, is to the child positively
offensive, and the school-house a dreary prison. "Just as the twig is
bent, the tree's inclined." The child learns to hate school, to hate
instruction, and all that is good. He soon becomes the practiced truant.
In a few years he arrives at manhood; but, instead of being a blessing
to his family and a useful member of society, he too frequently drags
out a wretched life, in ignorance and penury, dividing it between the
poor-house and jail, and terminating it, peradventure, upon the gallows.
It needs the pen of a ready writer duly to portray the influence of
neglected school-houses. Parents seem to have forgotten that, _while men
sleep, the enemy comes and sows tares_; that if good school-houses do
not _elevate_, neglected ones will _pollute_ their children. I have
already alluded, in the language of others, to the representations of
vulgarity and obscenity that meet the eye in every direction. But I am
constrained to add, that, during the intermissions, and before school,
"certain lewd fellows of the baser sort" sometimes lecture in the
hearing of the school generally, boys and girls, large and small,
illustrating their subject by these vulgar delineations.
But why are these things so? And how may they be remedied? Different
persons will answer these questions variously. But when we bear in mind
that, in architectural appearance, school-houses have very generally
more resembled barns, sheds for cattle, or mechanic shops, than Temples
of Science; that windows are broken; that benches are mutilated; that
desks are cut up; that wood is unprovided; that out-buildings are
neglected; that obscene images and vulgar delineations meet the eye
within and without; that, in fine, their very appearance is so
contemptible, that scholars feel themselves degraded in being obliged
to occupy them; when we bear in mind all these things, and then consider
that the impressive minds of children are necessarily and permanently
affected by scenes with which they become familiar, we can not wonder
that they yield themselves to such influences, and consent to increase
their degradation by multiplying the abominations with which they are
surrounded. And especially shall we cease to wonder at the existence of
these things, when we consider that scholars are very often unfurnished
with suitable employment; that the younger scholars are frequently urged
on by the example and influence of the older ones; and that teachers are
sometimes employed who are so far lost to shame as to countenance these
disgusting and corrupting practices by engaging in them themselves!
A knowledge of the cause suggests the remedy. Let, then, the
school-house be commodious and cleanly; inviting in its appearance, and
elevating in its influence. Let every member of the school, at all
times, be furnished with entertaining and profitable employment. Let the
corrupting influence of bad example be at once and forever removed. And,
finally, let the services of a well-qualified teacher, of good morals,
correct example, and who is scrupulously watchful, be invariably
secured.
But if the mean appearance of our school-houses is one reason why they
are so defaced, it may be asked, why do not our _churches_, which are
frequently among the most elegant specimens of architecture, escape the
pollution? The reason is evident. The foul _habit_ is contracted in the
unseemly school-house, and it becomes so established that it is very
difficult to suspend its exercise even in the Temple of God. Were our
school-houses, in point of neatness and architecture, equal to our
churches, the evil in question would soon become less prevalent, and,
with judicious supervision, we might safely predict its early
extinction.
I would not suggest that too much pains are taken to make our churches
pleasant and comfortable, but I do protest that there is a great and
unwise disproportion in the appearance of our churches and
school-houses. It is frequently the case in villages and country
neighborhoods, that the expense of the former is from fifty to eighty
times the value of the latter. The _appearance_ of our school-houses is
an important consideration. If we would cultivate the _beastly_
propensities of our youth, we have but to provide them places of
instruction resembling the _hovels_ which our cattle occupy, and the
work is well begun. On the contrary, if we would take into the account
the whole duration of our being, and the cultivation and right
development of the nobler faculties of our nature, while the animal
propensities are allowed to remain in a quiescent state, and _adapt
means to ends_, our school-houses should be pleasant and tasteful. Every
thing offensive should be separated from them, and no pains should be
spared to give them an inviting aspect and an elevating influence.
It is easier to make children good than to reform wicked men. It is
cheaper to construct commodious school-houses, with pleasant yards and
suitable appurtenances, than to erect numerous jails and extensive
prisons. George B. Emerson, in a lecture on moral education, speaks to
the point. "In regard to the lower animal propensities," says he, "the
only safe principle is, that nothing should be allowed which has a
tendency, directly or indirectly, to excite them. In many places there
prevails an alarming and criminal indifference upon this point. It is
one toward which the attention of the teacher should be carefully
directed. No sound should be suffered from the lips; no word, or
figure, or mark should be allowed to reach the eyes, to deface the wall
of the house or out-house, which could give offense to the most
sensitive delicacy. This is the teacher's business. He must not be
indifferent to it. He has no right to neglect it. He can not transfer it
to another. He, and he only, is responsible.[71] It is impossible to be
over-scrupulous in this matter. And the committee should see that the
teacher does his duty; otherwise all his lessons in duty are of no
avail, and the school, instead of being a source of purity, delicacy,
and refinement, becomes a fountain of corruption, throwing out
poisonous waters, and rendering the moral influence more pestiferous
than that fabled fountain of old, over which no creature of heaven could
fly and escape death."
[71] I would by no means free parents from responsibility in this
matter. They, if any class, may be said to be "alone responsible;" but,
in fact, all who are intrusted with the care of children share in the
responsibility. _Secret vice_, in the opinion of those who have had
occasion to remark the extent to which it is practiced, from colleges
and the higher seminaries of learning down to the common school, and
even in the nursery before the child is sent to school, prevails to an
alarming extent. It is often the principal, and, in many instances, the
sole cause of a host of evils that are commonly attributed to hard
study, among which are impaired nutrition, and general lassitude and
weakness, especially of the loins and back; loss of memory, dullness of
apprehension, and both indisposition and incapacity for study;
dizziness, affections of the eyes, headaches, etc., etc. Secret vice in
childhood and youth is also a fruitful source of _social vice_ later in
life, and of excesses even within the pale of wedlock, ruinous alike to
the parties themselves and to their offspring. Licentiousness in some of
its forms, as we have frequently had occasion to see, from the highest
testimony introduced into the text in various passages, in addition to
the evils here referred to, sometimes leads to the most driveling
idiocy, and to insanity in its worst forms. All, then, who have the
charge of children, and especially parents and teachers, should exercise
a rational familiarity with them on this delicate but important subject.
They should give them timely counsel in relation to the temptations to
which they may be exposed, apprise them of the evils that follow in the
train of disobedience, and endeavor, by kindly advice and friendly
admonition, to infix in their minds a delicate sense of honor, an
abhorrence for this whole class of vice, and a determination never to
entertain a thought of indulging the appetite for sex except within the
pale of wedlock, and in accordance with God's own appointment.
In conclusion, on this subject, I would say, if there is one house in
the district more pleasantly located, more comfortably constructed,
better warmed, and more inviting in its general appearance, and more
elevating in its influence than any other, that house should be the
school-house.
* * * * *
WELL-QUALIFIED TEACHERS SHOULD BE EMPLOYED.
All the provisions heretofore described would be of none effect if
we took no pains to procure for the public school thus constituted
an able master, and worthy of the high vocation of instructing the
people. It can not be too often repeated, that it is the master that
makes the school.--GUIZOT.
Society can never feel the power of education until it calls into
exercise a class of effective educators.--LALOR.
One of the surest signs of the regeneration of society will be the
elevation of the art of teaching to the highest rank in the
community.--CHANNING.
We come next to the consideration of _school teachers_; for, in order to
have good schools, we want not merely good school-houses. These, as
already seen, are of the utmost importance; but, to insure success, _we
must have good teachers in those houses_. And here, were I addressing
myself exclusively to the members of this profession, it would be
appropriate to dwell in detail upon the requisite qualifications of
teachers. But this would be foreign from my present design.[72]
[72] Among the many excellent works already before the public, I would
name the following, which the practical teacher may profitably consult:
THE SCHOOL AND THE SCHOOLMASTER, by Dr. Potter and G. B. Emerson; THEORY
AND PRACTICE OF TEACHING, by D. P. Page; THE SCHOOL TEACHER'S MANUAL,
by Henry Dunn; THE TEACHER, by Jacob Abbott; THE TEACHER'S MANUAL, by
Thomas H. Palmer; THE TEACHER TAUGHT, by Emerson Davis; SLATE AND
BLACK-BOARD EXERCISES, by Wm. A. Alcott; LECTURES ON EDUCATION, by
Horace Mann; CORPORAL PUNISHMENT, by Lyman Cobb; CONFESSIONS OF A
SCHOOLMASTER, by Wm. A. Alcott; THE TEACHER'S INSTITUTE, by Wm. B.
Fowle; THE TRUE RELATION OF THE SEXES, by John Ware. These are also
useful to parents. A more extended list, with tables of contents, may be
found in Barnard's School Architecture, p. 279 to 288.
It has not been my intention in any thing I have yet said, nor will it
be in any thing I may hereafter urge, to overlook the importance of
domestic education. Napoleon once said to an accomplished French lady
that the old systems of education were good for nothing, and inquired
what was wanting for the proper training of young persons in France.
With keen discernment and great truth, she replied, in one
word--Mothers. This reply forcibly impressed the emperor, and he
exclaimed, "Behold an entire system of education! You must make
_mothers_ that know how to train their children." I may add, we want
mothers not only, but _fathers_ too, qualified for the great work of
training their offspring aright; for parents are readily admitted to be
the natural educators of their children. But the literary training of
children has always been accomplished chiefly by delegation; and not
only the literary, but, to a great extent, the moral and religious.
This course has been adopted on account of the situation of families;
many parents being unable to teach their children themselves, and others
lacking the necessary leisure to carry forward a systematic and thorough
course of instruction. This course is dictated by policy; for the
children of a whole neighborhood may be better taught, and at less
expense, in good schools, than in their respective families. This course
has also been adopted as a matter of necessity; for the greatness of
the work of education requires, in order to carry it forward
successfully, that it should be studied as a profession. The teacher
then engages jointly with the parent in the work of education, and with
him shares its toils, its responsibilities, and its delights.
From the greatness of the teacher's work, as we have already considered
it--training, as he should, his youthful charge for respectability,
usefulness, and happiness in this life, and for everlasting felicity in
that which is to come--we may infer what should be his qualifications.
And we remark, in the general, that the business of
_School teaching should rank among the learned professions._ The teacher
should well understand the nature of the subjects of education, as
physical, intellectual, and moral beings. The education of children can
not safely be intrusted to persons who are not practically acquainted
with human physiology, and with mental science as based thereon. The
most serious physical evils frequently result from allowing incompetent
persons to exercise the functions of this high and responsible vocation.
In addition to a thorough knowledge of all the branches in which a
teacher is expected to give instruction, and an acquaintance with those
collateral branches that have a bearing upon them, the instructor of
youth should possess the rare attainment of _aptness to teach_. It will
be of little avail if the teacher has become familiar with all wisdom,
unless he can readily communicate instruction to others. Paul, in
speaking of the qualifications of bishops, says, among other things,
they should be "apt to teach." This attainment is no less important for
schoolmasters than for bishops. It is especially important that the
teacher should be well acquainted with intellectual philosophy and moral
science. This is necessary, in order to enable him to judge correctly
of character, and to teach, and govern, and train his charge aright. But
these attainments can never be made until teaching is elevated to the
rank of a profession.
The lawyer is required to devote a series of years to a regular course
of classical study and professional reading before he can find
employment in a case in which a few dollars only are pending. With this
we find no fault. But it should not be forgotten that the teacher's
calling is as much more important than the ordinary exercise of the
legal profession, as the imperishable riches of mind are more valuable
than the corruptible treasures of earth.
We seek out from among us men of sound discretion and good report to
enact laws for the government of the state and nation. And with this,
too, we find no fault. It is right and proper that we should do so. But
it should be borne in mind that it is the teacher's high prerogative not
only so to instruct and train the rising generation that they shall
rightly understand law, but to infix in their minds the principles of
justice and equity, the attainment of which is the high aim of
legislation. While our legislators enact laws for the government of the
people, the well-qualified and faithful schoolmaster prepares those
under his charge to govern themselves. Without the teacher's
conservative influence, under the best legislation, the great mass of
the people will be lawless; while the tendency of his labors is to
qualify the rising generation, who constitute our future freemen and our
country's hope, to render an enlightened, a cheerful, and a ready
obedience to the high claims of civil law. The well-qualified, faithful
teacher, then, becomes the right arm of the legislator.
The physician is required to become thoroughly acquainted with the
anatomy and physiology of the human body; in a word, to become
acquainted with "the house I live in;" to understand the diseases to
which we are subject, and their proper treatment, before he is allowed
to extract a tooth, to open a vein, or administer the simplest medicine.
Nor with this do we find fault, for we justly prize the body. It is the
habitation of the immortal mind. When in health, it is the mind's
servant, and ready to do its biddings; but darken its windows by
disease, and it becomes the mind's prison-house. But while the
physician, whom we honor and love, is required to make these attainments
before he is permitted _even to repair_ "the house I live in," should
not he who teaches the MASTER of the house be entitled to a respectable
rank in society?
It is common, in the various branches of the Church universal, for men
who feel themselves called of God to preach the Gospel to obtain a
collegiate education, and then devote several years to professional
study, before exercising the functions of the sacred office; and this
has been required by popular opinion. And heretofore, I may add, the
efforts of the minister have been directed chiefly to the _reformation
of adults_ whose early training has been imperfectly attended to, and to
the building up of a religious character where no correct early
foundation has been laid, when the time and energies of a people upon
whom labor is bestowed are devoted chiefly to absorbing secular
pursuits. The competent and faithful teacher, on the contrary, enters
upon the discharge of his duties under circumstances widely different,
and with infinitely better prospects of success. Jesus said, _Suffer the
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the
kingdom of God_. These are they upon whom the teacher is called to
bestow labor. He remembers that Solomon the wise has said, _Train up a
child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart
from it_; and he confidently expects that, with proper parental
co-operation, if he faithfully discharges his duty, and directs his
efforts in accordance with the will of the Great Teacher, his youthful
charge, when arrived at the years of accountability, and in all future
life, will be like "the child Samuel, who grew on, and was in favor both
with the Lord and also with men." No wonder, then, that Channing should
say, "One of the surest signs of the regeneration of society will be
_the elevation of teaching to the highest rank in the community_."
The clerical profession can never equal that of the teacher in moral
sublimity and prospective usefulness until religious teachers come to
direct their attention chiefly to the correct early education of the
young in the Sabbath-schools, but more especially in the common schools
of our country. Then, and not till then, will it be entitled to the
pre-eminence.
Should any teacher, in view of the immense responsibilities of his
calling, be disposed to inquire, as all well may, _Who is sufficient for
these things?_ we would say to him, in the language of Wirt, "Let your
motto be _Perseverando vinces_--by perseverance thou wilt overcome.
Practice upon it, and you will be convinced of its value by the
distinguished pre-eminence to which it will lead you." Especially will
this be true in case the anxious teacher faithfully complies with the
Divine direction, _If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that
giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given
him_.
Parents and citizens generally should be impressed with the truth of the
maxim, "As is the teacher, so will be the school." They should desire
for their own children, and for all others, teachers whose
intellectual, social, and moral habits are, in all respects, what they
are willing their children should form. They should, at least, be well
apprised of this fact: If the teacher is not, in these respects, what
they would have their children become, their children will be likely to
become _what the teacher is_.
There is a story of a German schoolmaster, which shows the low notions
that may be entertained of education. Stouber, the predecessor of
Oberlin, the pastor of Waldbach, on his arrival at the place, desired to
be shown to the principal school-house. He was conducted into a
miserable cottage, where a number of children were crowded together,
without any occupation. He inquired for the master. "There he is," said
one, as soon as silence could be obtained, pointing to a withered old
man, who lay on a little bed in one corner. "Are you the master, my
friend?" asked Stouber. "Yes, sir." "And what do you teach the
children?" "Nothing, sir." "Nothing! how is that?" "Because," replied
the old man, "I know nothing myself." "Why, then, were you appointed the
schoolmaster?" "Why, sir, I had been taking care of the Waldbach pigs a
number of years, and when I got too old and infirm for that employment,
they sent me here to take care of the children."
This anecdote may evince a degree of stupidity not to be met with in
this country. We are, however, very far from being as careful in the
selection of teachers as we ought to be. Unworthy teachers frequently
find employment. I refer not to teachers whose literary qualifications
are insufficient, although, as we have already seen, there are quite too
many such. I refer now more particularly to those who are disqualified
for the office because of moral obliquity.
Teachers are sometimes employed who are habitual Sabbath breakers; who
are accustomed to the use of vulgar and profane language; who frequent
the gambling table; who habitually use tobacco, in several of its forms,
and that in the school-house! nay, more, who even teach the despicable
habit to their children during school hours! Several emperors have
prohibited the use of this filthy weed in their respective kingdoms,
under the severest penalties. The pope has made a bull to excommunicate
all those who use tobacco in the churches. One of the most numerous of
the Protestant sects once prohibited the use of tobacco in their
society; but so strong is this filthy habit, especially when formed in
early life, that this society has backslidden and given up this
excellent rule.
Since writing the above, I have noticed an article headed "Tobacco-using
Ministers," which has appeared in several highly-reputable and
widely-circulating periodicals, from which it appears that a large
annual conference of divines of the same order, among other resolutions,
have adopted one recommending "that the ministers refrain from the use
of tobacco in all its forms, especially in the house of worship."
In commenting upon this action, a religious paper observes, that "by
'tobacco in all its forms' we suppose is meant chewing, smoking, and
snuffing. But can it be possible that a minister, whose duty it is to
recommend purity, and whose example should be cleanliness, can need
conference resolutions to dissuade him from a practice so filthy and
disgusting? And do they even carry this inconsistency into the 'house of
worship?' So it seems!" But such is the severity of the strictures in
the article referred to, that, although just, I forbear inserting them.
It has been suggested that, while Robinson Crusoe was alone on his
island, he may have had a right to smoke, snuff, or chew; but that, when
his man Friday came, "a decent regard for the opinions of mankind"--as
the Declaration of Independence has it--should have debarred him at once
from further indulgence.
One who has enjoyed large opportunities of observing, and who is
scrupulous to a proverb, has remarked, that "the ministerial profession
is probably the most offending in this particular. The Scriptures have
much to say about keeping the _body_ pure. Had tobacco been known to the
Hebrews, who can doubt that it would have been among the articles
prohibited by the Levitical law? St. Paul beseeches the Romans, by the
mercies of God, to present their _bodies_ 'a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable.' To the Corinthians he says, 'Know ye not that ye are the
temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man
defile the temple of God, him will God destroy; for the temple of God is
holy, _which temple ye are_.' He commands them to glorify God in their
_body_ as well as in their spirit; for 'know ye not,' says he, 'that
your _body_ is the temple of the Holy Ghost? What sort of a 'temple of
the Holy Ghost' is he, every atom and molecule of whose physical system
is saturated and stenched with the vile fetor of tobacco; whose every
vesicle is distended by its foul gases; whose brain and marrow are
begrimed and blackened with its sooty vapors and effluxions; all whose
pores jet forth its malignant stream like so many hydrants; whose
prayers are breathed out, not with a _sweet_, but with a _foul_-smelling
savor; who baptizes infants with a hand which itself needs literal
baptism and purification as by fire; and who carries to the bed-side of
the dying an odor which, if the 'immaterial essence' could be infected
by any earthly virus, would subject the departed soul to quarantine
before it could enter the gates of heaven?"[73]
[73] A female teacher in the Bay State, in 1847, addressed the following
inquiry through the columns of the Massachusetts Common School Journal:
"I have been laboring for the last year in a large school, and have
endeavored, according to the best of my ability, to inculcate habits of
neatness among the pupils, especially to break them of the filthy habit
of spitting upon the floor. I have often told them _gentlemen_ never do
it. But at a recent visit of the committee, an individual, who has been
elected by the town to superintend the educational interests of the
rising generation, _spit_ the dirty juice of his _tobacco_ quid upon the
floor of my school-room with apparent self-complacency.
"Shall I say to the children that this person is _not_ a _gentleman_,
and thus destroy his influence? or shall I pass it over in silence, and
thus leave them to draw the natural inference that all I have said on
the subject is only a woman's whim?"
Mr. Mann, the editor, gave a full reply through the Journal, from which
I have here quoted part of a paragraph. He closes by offering a prize of
the "eternal gratitude of all decent men" to the discoverer of a remedy
or antidote for the evil.
"Touch not, taste not, handle not," is the only safe rule in relation to
all vicious practices; and especially is it true of this habit, which we
can not call _beastly_, for there is not a _natural_ beast in creation
that indulges in it. I therefore congratulate my countrymen in view of
the prospect before us of ultimately being freed from this disgusting
and filthy habit, for the Board of Education in some of our cities have
already wisely adopted the rule of employing no teachers who use tobacco
in any form. Let this rule become universal among us, and the next
generation will be comparatively free from the use of that repulsive
weed, which only one of all created beings takes to naturally. Wherever
else the filthy practice may be allowed, it ought never to be permitted
in a house consecrated to the sacred work of educating the rising
generation. And just look at the immense expenditure in this country
for the support of this pernicious habit. It is said, on good authority,
that for _smoking_ merely we pay annually a tax of ten millions of
dollars, which is a much greater sum than is paid to the teachers of all
the public schools in the United States.
But to return: teachers are sometimes employed who are addicted to
inebriety; who are notorious libertines, and unblushingly boast of the
number of their victims. But I will not extend this dark catalogue.
Comment is unnecessary. My fellow-countrymen, who have carefully perused
and properly weighed the preceding considerations, I doubt not, will
concur with me in the opinion that there is no station in life--no, not
excepting even the clerical office, that, in order to be well filled, so
much demands purity of heart, simplicity of life, Christian courtesy,
and every thing that will ennoble man, and beautify and give dignity to
the human character, as that of the primary school-teacher. He
influences his pupils in the formation of habits and character, by
precept, it is true, but chiefly by example. His example, then, should
be such, that, if strictly followed by his pupils, it will lead them
aright in all things, astray in nothing. It should be his chief concern
to allure to brighter worlds on high, and himself lead the way. Then,
and not till then, will he be prepared to magnify and fill his office.
But, it may be said, we have not a sufficiency of well-qualified
teachers, according to this standard, to take the charge of all, or of
any considerable part of our schools. This is very readily admitted.
Some such, however, there are. These should be employed. Their influence
will be felt by others. The present generation of teachers may be much
improved by means of teachers' associations and teachers' institutes. By
the establishment of normal schools, or teachers' seminaries, a higher
grade of teachers may be trained up and qualified to take the charge of
the next generation of scholars. These institutions have been
established in several of the European states, in New England and New
York, and more recently in Michigan, by the several State Legislatures,
and to some extent in other states. "Those seminaries for training
masters," says Lord Brougham, "are an invaluable gift to mankind, and
lead to the indefinite improvement of education." In remarking upon
their advantages, the same high authority says, "These training
seminaries would not only teach the masters the branches of learning and
science they are now deficient in, but would teach them what they know
far less--the didactic art--the mode of imparting the knowledge which
they have or may acquire; the best mode of training and dealing with
children in all that regards both temper, capacity, and habits, and the
means of stirring them to exertion, and controlling their aberrations."
_Normal schools are essential_ to the complete success of any system of
popular education. The necessity for their establishment can not fail to
be apparent to any one at all competent to judge, when he considers the
early age at which young persons of both sexes generally enter upon the
business of school-teaching--or, perhaps I may more appropriately say,
of "keeping" school; for the majority of them can hardly be regarded as
competent to _teach_.
For the purpose of being more specific, and of impressing, if possible,
upon the mind of the reader, the necessity of professional instruction,
the author trusts he will be pardoned for introducing a few paragraphs
from a report made nine years ago as county superintendent of common
schools in the State of New York and which was printed at that time in
the Assembly documents of that state. The author, at the time referred
to, exercised a general supervision over more than twenty thousand
children, aided in the examination of the teachers of twenty large
townships, and visited and inspected their schools. Nine years'
additional experience--four of which have been devoted to the
supervision of the schools of a large state, and a considerable portion
of the remaining time to the visitation of schools in different
states--has convinced him that the condition of common schools, and the
qualifications of teachers in those states of the Union where increased
attention has not been bestowed upon the subject within a few years
past, are not in advance of what they were at that time in the county
referred to. The paragraphs introduced are included within brackets.
[LITERARY QUALIFICATIONS.--Some of the teachers possess a very limited
knowledge of the branches usually taught in our common schools. This is
true even of a portion of those who have bestowed considerable attention
upon some of the higher branches of study. There is in our common
schools, and indeed in our higher schools, an undue anxiety to advance
rapidly. A score of persons may be heard speaking of the number of their
recitations, of their rapid progress, and perhaps of skipping
difficulties, while hardly _one_ will speak of progressing
_understandingly_, and comprehending _every principle_ as he proceeds.
When students speak of their progress in study, their first qualifying
word should be _thorough_, after which, if they please, they may add
_rapid_.
The following circumstances, that have occurred in classes of both
ladies and gentlemen who have presented themselves for examination as
candidates for teaching, illustrate the nature and extent of the evil. I
have more than once received, in answer to the question "What is
language?" the following reply: "Language is an _unlimited sense_." I
have met with some experienced teachers, holding two or three town
certificates, who did not know one half of the marks and pauses used in
writing. They could, indeed, generally recite the answers in the
spelling-book with some degree of accuracy; but when the marks have been
pointed out, and their names and use have been asked, teachers _in
service_ have sometimes mistaken the note of _interrogation_ for a
_parenthesis_, and made other as gross errors. In answer to the question
"What is arithmetic?" I have several times received the following reply:
"It is the _art of science_," etc. Sometimes this constitutes the entire
reply. In one instance _four fifths_ of the class united in this answer.
The terms sum, remainder, product, and quotient are frequently applied
indiscriminately in the four ground rules of arithmetic. There are,
hence, three chances for them to be used erroneously where there is one
chance for them to be correctly applied. The following expressions are
common: _Add_ up and set down the _remainder_; _subtract_ and set down
the _quotient_; _multiply_ and write down the _sum_; _divide_ and write
down the _product_, etc.: never so much as thinking that sum belongs to
addition; remainder, to subtraction; product, to multiplication; and
quotient, to division. In attending the examination of such teachers,
any person of discernment will soon become satisfied that with them
"language is an unlimited sense;" that "arithmetic is the art _of_
science;" and that grammar, too, is "the art of science;" for the same
answer has been given to the question, "What is grammar?" I introduce
these things, not for the purpose of ridiculing any portion of our
teachers, but to exemplify the extent of the evil under consideration.
The majority of teachers manifest a tolerable familiarity with the
branches usually taught in our common schools. They have not, however,
generally studied more than one author on the same subject.
A portion of our teachers, it gives me pleasure to add, are not only
superior scholars in the common English branches, but they have made
respectable attainments in philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, algebra,
Latin, etc. All of these branches are successfully taught in a few of
our schools.
SCHOOL GOVERNMENT.--There is, perhaps, as wide a difference in the
administration of government in our common schools as in any other
particular connected with them. Good government requires the healthful
exercise of a rare combination of good qualities. But this can not
reasonably be expected in inexperienced youth, who, instead of being
guided by enlightened moral sentiment, have not only never subjected
_themselves_ to government, but are totally unacquainted with the
principles upon which it should be administered. About one third of our
schools are tolerably well governed. A portion of them are under a wise
and parental supervision, the government being uniformly mild, and at
the same time efficient. But indecision, rashness, and inefficiency are
far more common. Sometimes teachers resolve to have no whispering,
leaving seats, asking questions, etc., among any of the scholars, and
severely punish every detected offender. Soon a portion of the patrons
justly manifest dissatisfaction. Then all attempts to govern the school
are unwisely given up. Many teachers thus rashly fly from one extreme of
government to the other, without stopping to test the "golden mean," or
even appearing to bestow a single thought upon the subject.
Again: the feelings of the teacher have been outraged by having
frequently witnessed severity, and even cruelty, in government; and, in
studiously avoiding them, he has inadvertently adopted a lax government,
if government it may be called. The latter may be the more amiable
extreme, but it is hardly the less fatal. I have heard scholars say in
the presence of such a teacher, "We have a good teacher, who gives us
all the good advice we need, and then lets us do as we please;" and then
I have witnessed whispering, talking, chewing gum and throwing it about
the house, passing from seat to seat, playing with tops and whirls,
tossing wads of wet paper about the house and to the ceiling, cutting
images upon the desks, imitating the practice of botanic physicians,
exhibiting and passing from one to another roots and herbs, and
discoursing upon their properties, chasing mice about the house, and in
some instances slaying them, and practicing sundry other antics too
numerous to be mentioned. Good advice was freely given, but it was
disregarded with impunity.
Government in school, as elsewhere, should be mild but efficient. The
teacher should speak kindly, but with authority. Every request should
meet with a ready compliance. The scholars will not only fear to disobey
such a teacher, but will, at the same time, respect, and even love him.
This is not only good theory, but is susceptible of being reduced to
practice. It is, indeed, exemplified in many of our schools, as a visit
to them will clearly manifest. I know of no one thing in school
government more mischievous in its tendency than the habit of speaking
several times without being obeyed.
MODE OF INSTRUCTION.--In some schools the instruction is thorough and
systematic. In them the scholars generally learn _principles_, and
understand, and are able to explain, all that they pass over. But this
is the case in comparatively few schools. Scholars generally are poorly
instructed, and understand very imperfectly what they profess to have
learned. I will give a few illustrations:
_First._ Scholars are frequently introduced to the twenty-six letters of
the alphabet four times a day for several weeks in succession, without
making a single acquaintance. They occasionally become so familiar with
their names and order as to repeat them down and back, as well without
the book as with it, before learning a single letter.
This method of instruction is as unphilosophical as it is unsuccessful.
Were I to be introduced to twenty-six strangers, and were my introducer
to pronounce their names in rapid succession down and back, giving me
merely an opportunity of pronouncing them after him, I should hardly
expect to form a _single acquaintance with twenty-six introductions_.
But were he to introduce me to one, and give me an opportunity of
shaking hands with him, of conversing with him, of observing his
features, etc.; and were he then to introduce me to another, in like
manner, with the privilege of shaking hands again with the first, before
my introduction to the third; and were he thus to introduce me to them
all successively, I might form _twenty-six acquaintances with one
introduction_.
The application is readily made. Introduce the abecedarian to but _one_
letter at first. Describe it to him familiarly. Fix its contour
distinctly in his mind. Compare it with things with which he is
acquainted, if it will admit of such comparison. It might be well to
make the letter upon a slate or black-board. When he shall have become
acquainted with _one_ letter so as to know it any where, introduce him
to another. After he becomes acquainted with the second, let him again
point out the first. As he learns new letters, he will thus retain a
knowledge of those he has previously learned. It is immaterial where we
commence, provided two conditions are fulfilled. It would be well to
have the first letters as simple in their construction, and as easily
described, as possible. It would be well, also, to have them so selected
as to combine and form simple words, with which the child is familiar.
He will thus become encouraged in his first efforts.
Suppose we commence with O, and tell the child that it is _round_; that
it is shaped like the _button_ on his coat, or like a _penny_, which
might be shown to him. After the child has become somewhat familiar with
its _shape_ and _name_, suppose we inquire what there was on the
breakfast table shaped like O. It may be necessary to name a few
articles, as knives, forks, spoons, plates. Before there is time to
proceed further, the child, in nine cases out of ten, will say, "The
_plates_ look like O." Suppose we next take X, which may be represented
by crossing the fore-fingers, or two little sticks. We can now teach the
child that these two letters, combined, spell _ox_. We might then tell
him a familiar story about _oxen_; that we put a _yoke_ on them; that
they draw the cart, etc.; and that _cart-wheels_ are _great_ O's.
Suppose we take B next. We might tell the child that it is a straight
line with two bows on the right side of it, and that it is shaped some
like the _ox-yoke_. We might then instruct him that these three letters,
B, O, and X, combined, spell _box_; that its top and sides are
rectangles, and that its ends are squares, if they are so. The child has
now learned three letters, two words, and a score of ideas. He,
moreover, likes to go to school. Any other method in which children
would be equally interested might be pursued instead of this, which is
only introduced as a _specimen_ of the manner in which the alphabet has
been successfully taught.[74] Better methods may be devised.
[74] Since these suggestions were first given to the public, several
excellent books for children have been published, constructed on a
similar plan to that here recommended. It will generally be found
advantageous to teach the vowels first, and then to teach such
consonants as combine with the _long sound_ of the vowel; as, for
example, first o; then g, h, l, n, and s, when the child can read go,
ho, lo, no, and so. After this, e may be learned, and then b, m, and s,
when the child can read be, bee, me, and see. Then these may be combined
as see me; lo, see me; see me ho; lo, see me ho, etc. The idea is, that
every letter and combination of letters be used as fast they are
learned.
_Second._ The Roman notation table is sometimes taught after the same
manner. After spelling, I have heard the teacher say to the class, One
I.? to which the scholar at the head would reply, one; and the exercise
would continue through the class, as follows: two I.'s? two; three I.'s?
three; IV.? four; and so on, to two X.'s? twenty; three X.'s?
twenty-one. No, says the teacher, _thirty_. Thus corrected, the class
went through the entire table, without making another mistake. The
thought occurred to me that they did not _know_ their lesson, though
they had _recited_ it, making but _one_ mistake. With the permission of
the teacher, I inquired of the class, "What does IV. stand for?" None of
them could tell. I then inquired, "What do VII. stand for?" They all
shook their heads. I next inquired, "What does IX. stand for?" and the
teacher remarked, "_They have just got it learnt the other way; they
ha'n't learnt it that way yet._" They had all learned to _count_; they
hence recited correctly to twenty; and when told that three X.'s stand
for _thirty_ instead of _twenty-one_, they passed on readily to forty,
fifty, sixty, etc., without making another mistake. And this, too, is
but a _specimen_ of the evil.
In teaching this table, the child should be instructed, in the
beginning, that there are but seven letters used, by which all numbers
may be represented; that when standing alone, I. represents _one_; V.,
_five_; X., _ten_; L., _fifty_; C, _one hundred_; D., _five hundred_;
and M., _one thousand_. The child should next be taught that, as often
as a letter is repeated, so many times its _value_ is repeated; thus, X.
represents _ten_; two X.'s, _twenty_; three X.'s, _thirty_, etc.; that
when a letter representing a _less_ number is placed _after_ one
representing a _greater_, its value is to be _added_; thus, VII.
represent _seven_; LX., _sixty_, etc.; that when a letter representing a
_less_ number is placed _before_ one representing a _greater_, its value
is to be _subtracted_; thus, IV. represents _four_; IX., _nine_; XL.,
_forty_, etc. When the child understands what is here presented, he has
the key to the whole matter. He is acquainted with the principle upon
which the tables are constructed, and a little practice will enable him
to apply it, as well to what is _not_ in the table as to what _is_ in
it. I have known scholars study that table faithfully _four months_, and
then have but an imperfect knowledge of what was _in the book_. I have
known others who, with _one hour's_ study, after _five minutes'_
instruction in the principles here laid down, understood the table
perfectly, and could recite it, without making a single mistake, even
before they had studied the whole of it _once over_.
_Third._ The manner in which _reading_ is generally taught is hardly
superior to the modes of instruction already considered. In many
instances, commendable effort is made to secure correct pronunciation,
and a proper observance of the inflections and pauses. But there is a
great lack in _understanding_ what is read. When visiting schools, with
the permission of the teacher, I usually interrogate reading classes
with reference to the meaning of what they have read. Occasionally I
receive answers that give satisfactory evidences of correct instruction.
Generally, however, the scholars have no distinct idea concerning the
author's meaning. They, astonished, sometimes say, "I didn't know as the
_meaning_ has any thing to do with reading; I try to pronounce the words
right, and mind the stops." Teachers sometimes say their scholars are
poor readers, and it takes all their attention to pronounce their words
correctly. They therefore do not wish to have them _try_ to _understand_
what they read, thinking it would be a hinderance to them. They
occasionally justify themselves in the course they pursue, saying, "I
don't have time to question my classes on their reading, nor hardly time
to look over and correct mistakes." At the same time they will read
three or four times around, twice a day or oftener. The idea prevails
extensively, judging from the practice of teachers, that the value of
their services depends upon the extent of the various exercises of the
school. If the classes can read several times around, twice a day, and
spell two or three pages, teachers frequently think they have done well,
even though one half of the mistakes in reading are uncorrected, and one
fourth or more of the words in the spelling lessons are misspelled, to
say nothing of understanding what is read. The majority of schools might
be very much improved by conducting them upon the principle that "what
is worth doing at all is worth doing well." I am fully satisfied that it
is incomparably better for classes to read _once_ around, _once_ a day,
and _understand_ what they read, than to read _four_ times around,
_four_ times a day, _without understanding_ their lessons. Scholars
should, indeed, never be allowed to read what is beyond their
comprehension; and great pains should be taken to see that they actually
understand every lesson, and every book read. The early formation of
such a habit will be of incalculable value in after life.
I will introduce one extract from my note-book by way of illustration.
The reader will please observe that it relates to neither a back
district nor an inexperienced teacher.