"This is one of the oldest and most important districts in town. The

school is taught by an experienced and highly-reputable teacher. The

first class in the English Reader read the section entitled '_The

Journey of a Day; a Picture of Human Life_.' Obidah had been

contemplating the beauties of nature, visiting cascades, viewing

prospects, etc., and in these amusements the hours passed away

uncounted, till 'day vanished from before him, and a sudden tempest

gathered around his head;' when, it is said, 'he beheld through the

brambles the _glimmer of a taper_.' I inquired of the class, 'What is a

taper?' No one replied. I added, 'It is either the sun, a light, a

house, or a man,' whereupon one replied, 'the sun;' another, 'a house;'

another still, 'a house;' and still another, 'a man.' I next inquired,

'What does glimmer mean?' No reply being given, I added, 'It either

means a light, the shadow, the top, or the bottom.' They then replied

successively as follows: 'Top, shadow, bottom,' which would give their

several ideas of the phrase, 'the glimmer of a taper,' as follows: The

shadow of a house. The top of a man. The bottom of the sun, etc. It

should be borne in mind, the class had just read that this 'taper' was

discovered after 'day had vanished from sight.'"

This example is selected from among more than a hundred, scores of which

are more striking illustrations than the one introduced, which is

selected because it occurred in the first class of an important school,

taught by an experienced and highly-reputable teacher.

The habit of reading without understanding originates mainly in the

circumstance that the books put into the hands of children are to them

uninteresting. The style and matter are often above their comprehension.

It is impossible, for example, for children at an early age to

understand the English Reader, a work which frequently constitutes their

only reading-book (at least in school) when but seven years of age. The

English Reader is an _excellent book_, and would grace the library of

any gentleman. But it requires a better knowledge of language, and more

maturity of mind than is often possessed by children ten years old, to

understand it, and to be interested in its perusal. Hence its use

induces the habit of "pronouncing the words and minding the stops," with

hardly a single successful effort to arrive at the idea of the author.

To this early-formed habit may be traced the prevailing indifference,

and, in some instances, _aversion_ to reading, manifested not only in

childhood, but in after life.

The matter and style of the reading-book should be adapted to the

capacity and taste of the learner. The teacher should see that it is

well understood, and then it can hardly prove uninteresting, or be

otherwise than well read. Children should read less in school than they

ordinarily do, and greater pains should be taken to have them understand

every sentence, and word even, of what they do read. They will thus

become more interested in their reading, and read much more extensively,

not only while young, but in after life, and with incomparably more

profit.

_Fourth._ I have heard several classes in geography bound states and

counties with a considerable degree of accuracy, when none of them could

point to the north, south, east, or west. Indeed, a portion of them were

not aware that these terms relate to the four cardinal points of the

compass. Still more: some of them say that "geography is a description

of the earth," but they do not know as they ever _saw_ the earth. They

have no idea that _they live upon it_. Scholars in grammar frequently

think that the only object of the study is to enable them to recite the

definitions and rules, and to _parse_. They do not look for any

assistance in thinking, speaking, or writing correctly, neither do they

expect any aid therefrom in understanding what they read.

Classes in arithmetic not unfrequently think the principal object in

pursuing that science is to be able to _do the sums_ according to the

rule, and perhaps to _prove_ them. Propose to them a practical question

for solution, and their reply is, "That isn't in the arithmetic." Some

one more courageous may say, "If you'll tell me what rule it is in, I'll

try it!" Practical questions should be added by the teacher, till the

class can readily apply the principles of each rule to the ordinary

transactions of business in which they are requisite. Generally, in

grammar, arithmetic, and elsewhere, there is too much inquiry,

_comparatively_, after the _how_, and too little after the _why_.]

Now if these paragraphs, descriptive of the condition of common schools

and the qualifications of teachers at the commencement of the

educational reform in New York, are applicable to those states of the

Union whose provisions for general education are not equal to what hers

then were, nothing can be plainer than that there exists an imperative

demand for the establishment of normal schools in every part of the

Union. Massachusetts has three; but her provisions in this respect are

not adequate to her necessities.

Union schools, and systems of graded schools in cities and villages,

should possess a normal characteristic; that is, young men and women who

have the requisite natural and acquired ability should be employed as

assistants in the lower departments, and should sustain essentially the

relation of _apprenticed teachers_, to be promoted or discontinued

according as they shall prove themselves worthy or otherwise. In the

public schools of the city of New York there are about two hundred

teachers of this description. These and all the less experienced

teachers meet at a stated time every week for the purpose of receiving

normal instruction from a committee of teachers whose instructions are

adapted to their wants. A similar feature has been adopted in other

cities, and in many villages, and should become universal among us.

In connection with the suggestions I have just introduced from a former

report, I wish to say, I know of no reform which is more needed in our

schools than that of rendering instruction at once _thorough_ and

_practical_. The suggestion in the note on the 428th page, in relation

to teaching the alphabet, will admit of general application. As fast as

principles are learned, they should be applied. Practical questions for

the exercise of the student should be interspersed with the lessons in

all our text-books, when the nature of the subject will admit of it.

When these are not given by the author, they should be supplied by the

teacher.

I will illustrate by an example. Several years ago a teacher had the

charge of a class in natural philosophy. There were no questions in the

text-book used for the exercise of the student, as here recommended. In

treating upon the hydraulic press, the author said, in relation to the

force to be obtained by its use, "If a pressure of two tons be given to

a piston, the diameter of which is only a quarter of an inch, the force

transmitted to the other piston, if three feet in diameter, would be

upward of forty thousand tons." The teacher inquired of the class, How

much upward of forty thousand tons would the pressure be? Not one in a

large class was prepared to answer the question. Some of the scholars

laughed outright at the idea of asking such a question. After a few

familiar remarks by the teacher, the class was dismissed. This question,

however, constituted a part of their review lesson. The next day found

it solved by every member of the class. Several of the scholars said to

the teacher that they had derived more practical information in relation

to natural philosophy from the solution of this one question, than they

had previously acquired in studying it several quarters.

In treating upon the velocity of falling bodies, such questions as the

following might be asked: Suppose a body in a vacuum falls sixteen feet

the first second, how far will it fall the first three seconds? How far

will it fall the next three seconds? How much further will it fall

during the ninth second than in the fifth? If this paragraph should be

read by any teacher or student of natural philosophy who has not been

accustomed thus to apply principles, the author would suggest that it

may be found pleasant and perhaps profitable to pause and solve these

questions before reading further.

The importance of reducing immediately to practice every thing that is

learned, is no less essential in moral and religious education than in

physical or intellectual. Indeed, any thing short of this is jeoparding

one's dearest interests; for "to him that knoweth to do good and doeth

it not, to him it is sin." The practical educator should bear in mind

that man is susceptible of progression in his moral and religious nature

as well as in his physical and intellectual. "Cease to do evil; learn to

do well," is the Divine command. He who does only the former has but a

negative goodness. The practice of the latter is essential to the

healthful condition of the soul. It is important that we seek earnestly

to be "cleansed from secret faults." Without this, our progress in

excellence will at best be slow. While "the way of the wicked is as

darkness, and they stumble at they know not what," it is nevertheless

true that "the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth

more and more unto the perfect day."

Understanding what we do of the nature of man, the subject of education,

and knowing that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and

that the Great Teacher, who "taught as one having authority," hath said,

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," can we regard

it any thing less than consummate folly to enter upon the work of

education in the open neglect of these precepts? Should we not rather

cheerfully comply with them, and do what we can to encourage all

teachers, and all who receive instruction, to regard this law of

progression, so that, while their physical and intellectual natures are

being cultivated and developed, they may not remain "babes" in the

practice of morality and the Christian virtues, but "grow in grace and

in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?"

We can not expect the student will excel his teacher, if indeed he

equals him, in merely intellectual pursuits; much less can we reasonably

look for superior attainments in morals and religion. If, then, the

teacher would secure the most perfect obedience of his scholars from the

highest motives, he must show them that he himself cheerfully and

habitually complies, in heart and in life, with all the precepts of the

Great Teacher, with whom is lodged all authority, and from whom he

derives his. When the members of a school become convinced that their

teacher habitually asks wisdom of the Supreme Educator, whose will he

aims constantly to do, they will feel almost irresistibly urged to yield

obedience to the precepts of Christianity, and, with suitable

encouragement, will take upon themselves the easy yoke of Christ.[75]

[75] In a former chapter, the necessity of moral and religious education

was dwelt upon at length. The importance of the Scriptures as a

text-book, containing as they do the only perfect code of morals known

to man, and the objections sometimes urged against their use, were duly

considered. I wish here simply to add, that their exclusion from our

schools would be even more sectarian than their perverted use; for the

atheistical plan, which forbids the entrance of the Bible into

multitudes of our schools, under the pretense of excluding sectarianism,

shuts out Christianity, and establishes the influence of _a single

sect_, that would dethrone the Creator, and break up every bond of

social order.

Even common arithmetic, when well taught, and illustrated by judiciously

constructed examples, may be made not only more practical than it has

usually been heretofore, but while the student is becoming acquainted

with the science of numbers, it may be rendered an efficient

instrumentality in showing the advantages of knowledge and virtue, and

the expense and burden to the community of ignorance and crime, thus

promoting the great work of moral culture, as is beautifully illustrated

by the following examples, selected from a recent treatise on that

subject:

"In the town of Bury, England, with an estimated population of

twenty-five thousand, the expenditure for beer and spirits, in the year

1836, was estimated at L54,190. If this was 24 per cent. of the entire

loss, resulting from the waste of money, ill health, loss of labor, and

the other evils attendant upon intoxication, what was the average loss

from intemperance, for each man, woman, and child in the place,

estimating the pound sterling at $4.80. Ans. $43,332."

This one example may do more, in many instances, toward establishing

young men who may be engaged in its solution in habits of total

abstinence, than a score of lectures on temperance, or as many lessons

on domestic or political economy. The following, also, may more

effectually check existing abuses of some of the laws of health and

longevity than a month's study of physiology and moral science: "It has

been estimated that a man, in a properly ventilated room, can work

twelve hours a day with no greater inconvenience than would be

occasioned by ten hours' work in a room badly ventilated; and that,

where there is proper ventilation, a man may gain ten years' good labor

on account of unimpaired health. According to this estimate, what is the

loss in thirty years to each individual in a badly-ventilated work-shop,

valuing the labor at ten cents per hour? Ans. $5008." What an

astonishing result! Five thousand and eight dollars moneyed loss to each

individual who respires impure air, estimating labor at but ten cents an

hour.

Now suppose this loss occurs only in the case of the eight hundred

thousand voters in the United States who are unable to read and

write--and it must accrue to a much greater number of persons--and _one

fourth of the annual loss would be sufficient to maintain an efficient

system of common schools in every state of the Union the entire year_.

It has sometimes been said, even by individuals occupying high stations

in society, that persons of the second or third order of intellect make

the best school-teachers. But in the light of what has been said, this

statement needs but be made to prove its fallacy. In order properly to

fill the teachers' office, we need men and women of the first order of

intellect, brought to a high state of cultivation. A well-qualified and

faithful school-teacher earns, and of right ought to receive, a salary

equal to that paid to the clergyman, or received by the members of the

other learned professions. He who can teach a good school can ordinarily

engage with proportionate success in more lucrative pursuits. So true is

this remark, that scarcely a man can be found that has attained to any

considerable eminence as a teacher, who has not been repeatedly

solicited, and perhaps strongly _tempted_, to relinquish teaching and

engage in pursuits less laborious and more profitable. Many yield to

this temptation, and hence much of the best talent has been attracted to

the other professions. School committees, however, can generally secure

the services of teachers of any grade of qualifications they desire,

upon the simple condition of offering an adequate remuneration.

We have said, as is the teacher so will be the school. We might add, as

are the wages, so ordinarily is the teacher. Let it be understood that

in any township, county, or state, a high order of teachers is called

for, and that an adequate remuneration will be given, and the demand

will be supplied. Well-qualified teachers will be called in from abroad

until competent ones can be trained up at home. Here, as in other

departments of labor, as is the demand, so will be the supply.

The best means which citizens can employ to give character and stability

to the vocation of the teacher is to select competent and worthy

individuals to take the charge of their schools, and then pay them so

liberally that they can have no pecuniary inducement to change their

employment. Let this be generally done, and teaching will soon be

raised, in public estimation, to the rank of a learned profession; and

the _fourth learned profession_--the vocation of the practical

educator--will be taken up for life by as great a proportion of men and

women eminent for talent, cultivation, and moral worth, as either of the

other three professions have ever been able to boast.

* * * * *

SCHOOLS SHOULD CONTINUE THROUGH THE YEAR.

Schools should be kept open at least ten full months during the

year; in other words, _the entire year_, with the usual quarterly or

semi-annual vacations.--_Michigan School Report._

It is not enough that good school-houses be provided and well-qualified

teachers be employed. Our schools should be kept open a sufficient

length of time during the year to make their influence strongly and most

favorably felt. The work of instruction, while it is going forward,

should be the business of both teachers and scholars. If children are

habituated to industry, to close application, to hard study, and to good

personal, social, and moral habits during the period of their attendance

upon school, these habits will be favorably felt in after life, in the

development of characters whose possessors will be at once respectable

and useful members of society, and a blessing to the age in which they

live. On the contrary, if children are allowed to attend an indifferent

school three months during the year, to work three months, to play three

months, and are permitted to spend the remaining three months in

idleness, the influence of this course will be felt, and it will be

likely to give character to their future lives.

Under such circumstances, the good, if any, that children will receive

while attending an indifferent school one fourth of the year, will be

more than counterbalanced by the evil influences that surround them

during the half of the year they devote to play and idleness. We can not

reasonably expect that children brought up under such unfavorable and

distracting influences will become even respectable members of society,

much less that they will be a blessing to the generation in which they

live.

In villages and densely-settled neighborhoods schools should be kept

open at least ten full months during the year; in other words, _the

entire year_, with the usual quarterly or semi-annual vacations; and, if

possible, they should not, under any circumstances, be continued less

than eight months. And, I may add, the same teacher should be retained

in the charge of a school, wherever practicable, from year to year. The

teacher occupies, for the time being, the place of the parent. But what

kind of government and discipline should we expect in a family where a

new step-father or step-mother is introduced and invested with parental

authority every six months, and where the children are left in orphanage

half of the year! Much more may we inquire, what kind of instruction and

educational training may we reasonably expect in a large school whose

wants are no better provided for! A school-teacher should be selected

with as great care as the minister of the parish; and when selected, the

services of the one should be continued as uninterruptedly and

permanently as those of the other. Then will be beautifully illustrated

this interesting truth: It is easier, cheaper, and pleasanter

incomparably, and infinitely more effectual, rightly to train the rising

generation, than it is to reform men grown old in sin.

Lalor, in his prize essay on education, published ten years ago in

London, has recorded a kindred sentiment in this very beautiful and

highly-expressive language: "The schoolmaster alone, going forth with

the power of intelligence and a moral purpose among the infant minds of

the community, can stop the flood of vice and crime at its source, by

repressing in childhood those wild passions which are its springs. Nay,

often will the mature mind, hard as adamant against the terrors of the

law and the contempt of society, be softened to tears of penitence by

the innocence of its educated child speaking unconscious reproof."

* * * * *

EVERY CHILD SHOULD ATTEND SCHOOL.

The plan of this nation was not, and is not, to see how many

_individuals_ we can raise up who shall be distinguished, but to see

how high, by free schools and free institutions, we can raise the

_great mass_ of population.--REV. JOHN TODD.

I promised God that I would look upon every Prussian peasant child

as a being who could complain of me before God if I did not provide

for him the best education, as a man and a Christian, which it was

possible for me to provide.--SCHOOL-COUNSELOR DINTER.

Good school-houses maybe built, well-qualified teachers may be employed,

and schools may be kept open the entire year, but all this will not

secure the correct education of the people, unless those schools are

_patronized_; patronized, not by a few persons, not by one half, or

three fourths even of a community, but by the _whole community_. As was

said in a former chapter, there is no safety but in the education of the

masses. A few vile persons will taint and infect a whole neighborhood.

In the graphic language of the Scriptures, _One sinner destroyeth much

good_.

The better portions of the community every where provide for the

education of their children. If they are not instructed at home, they

are sent to good schools, public or private, where their education is

well looked after. Unfortunately, those children whose education is most

neglected at home are the very ones, usually, that are sent least to

school, and when at all, to the poorest schools.

But how shall the evil in question be remedied? How shall we secure the

attendance of children generally at the schools, provided good ones are

established? In the first place, diligent effort should be made to

arouse the public mind to an appreciation of the importance and

necessity of universal attendance. This will go far toward remedying the

evil. It should be made every where unpopular, and be regarded as

dishonorable in a member of our social compact, and unworthy of a

citizen of a free state, to bring up a child without giving him such an

education as shall fit him for the discharge of the duties of an

American citizen.

But there is a portion of almost every community who feel hardly able to

allow their children the necessary time to pursue an extended course of

common school education, and who are really unable to clothe them

properly, furnish them with useful books, and pay their tuition. This

class, although comparatively small, is not unimportant. The legal

provisions made for such children vary in different states. Wherever the

free school principle is adopted, their tuition is of course provided

for. This provision in some instances extends further. The statutes of

Michigan relating to primary schools make it the duty of the district

board to exempt from the payment of teachers' wages not only, but from

providing fuel for the use of the district, all such persons residing

therein as in their opinion ought to be exempted, and to admit the

children of such persons to the school free of charge not only, but the

district board is authorized to purchase, _at the expense of the

district_, such books as may be necessary for the use of children thus

admitted by them to the district school. The entire expense incurred for

tuition, fuel, and books, in such cases, is assumed by the district, and

paid by a tax levied upon the property thereof.

We have now arrived at an interesting crisis. We have exhausted the

legal provision, generous as it is, and yet the blessing of universal

education is not secured to those who will succeed us. Good schools may

every where be established, in which the wealthy, and those in

comfortable circumstances, may educate their children. Provision--yes,

generous provision, though but just--has been made to meet the expense

of tuition and books for the children of indigent parents. Still, they

may not sufficiently appreciate an education to send their children; or,

if this be not so, they may keep them at home from motives of delicacy,

being unable to clothe them decently. How shall such cases be met? How

shall we actually bring such children into the peaceable possession and

enjoyment of a good common school education, that rich legacy which

noble-minded legislators have bequeathed to them, and which is the

inalienable right of every son and daughter of this republic?

Legislation has already, in many of the states, done much--perhaps all

that can be reasonably expected, at least, until a good common education

shall be better appreciated by the community at large, and be ranked, as

it ought to be, among the _necessaries of life_. The work, then, must be

consummated chiefly by the united and well-directed efforts of

benevolent and philanthropic individuals.

_Benevolent females_--and especially Christian mothers, who have long

been pre-eminently distinguished for their successful efforts in

protecting the innocent, administering to the wants of the necessitous,

and reclaiming the wanderer from the paths of vice--have felt the claims

of this innocent and unoffending portion of the community, and have, in

some instances, organized themselves into associations to meet those

claims.

Benevolent and Christian females can doubtless accomplish more, by

visiting the poor and needy in their respective school districts, and

making known unto them their privileges, and encouraging and assisting

them, if need be, to avail themselves of these privileges, than by the

same expenditure of time and means in any other way. They have long and

very generally been accustomed to clothe the children of the destitute,

and accompany them to the Sunday-school, and there teach them those

things which pertain to their present and everlasting well-being, and

have thus accomplished incalculable good; but by co-operating with the

civil authorities in securing the attendance of every child in their

respective districts at the _improved common school_, they can hardly

fail to accomplish vastly more.

Several associations have been formed for this noble purpose, and many

children who, but for their fostering care, would have remained at their

cheerless homes, have, by this labor of love, been sought out, properly

cared for, and led to the common school, that fountain of intellectual

life, and of social and moral culture, which is alike open to all.

Gentlemen should everywhere encourage the formation of such

associations, and, when formed, should offer every facility in their

power to increase their usefulness. Clergymen might help forward such

benevolent labors, where they are entered upon, by preaching

occasionally from that good text, _Help those women._

But there are two classes of our fellow-citizens--perhaps I should say

fellow-beings--who, notwithstanding the abundant legal provisions to

which I have referred, and the utmost that the benevolent and

philanthropic can accomplish by voluntary effort, will utterly refuse to

give their children such an education as we have been contemplating.

These are, first, men in comfortable circumstances, who have so much

blindness of mind, and such an utter disregard for the welfare of their

offspring, as to deprive them of the advantages of even a common school

education; and, secondly, those who have such an obduracy of heart as

absolutely to refuse to allow their children to attend school, and who,

although the abundant provisions of the law are made known unto them, in

meekness and love, by "man's guardian angel," prove utterly

incorrigible.

Such persons are unworthy to sustain the parental relation, and the

safety of the community requires that the forfeiture be claimed, and

that the right of control be transferred from such unnatural parents to

the civil authorities; for, as Kent says, "A parent who sends his son

into the world uneducated, and without skill in any art or science, does

a great injury to mankind as well as to his own family, for he defrauds

the community of a useful citizen, and bequeaths to it a nuisance." How

true is it that "the mobs, the riots, the burnings, the lynchings

perpetrated by the _men_ of the present day, are perpetrated because of

their vicious or defective education when _children_! We see and feel

the havoc and the ravage of their tiger passions now, when they are full

grown, but it was years ago that they were whelped and suckled."

In the very expressive language of Macaulay, the right to HANG includes

the right to EDUCATE. This is not a strange nor a new idea. It long ago

entered into civil codes in the Old World not only, but in the New. In

Prussia, when a parent refuses, without satisfactory excuse, to send his

child to school the time required by law, he is cited before the court,

tried, and, if he refuses compliance, the child is taken from him and

sent to _school_, and the father to _prison_.

Similar laws were enacted and _enforced_ by our New England fathers

more than two hundred years ago, which history informs us were attended

with the most beneficial results.[76] Although their descendants of the

present generation should blush for their degeneracy, still we should be

encouraged from an increasing disposition of late to return to these

salutary restraints and needful checks upon ignorance and crime. Said

the Honorable Josiah Quincy, Jr., late mayor of the city of Boston, in

his inaugural address, "I hold that the state has a right to compel

parents to take advantage of the means of educating their children. If

it can punish them for crime, it should surely have the power of

preventing them from committing it, by giving them the habits and the

education that are the surest safeguards." Similar sentiments have been

recently promulgated by the heads of the school departments of several

states in their official reports, and by governors in their annual

messages; and we have much reason for believing that the time is not

distant when an enlightened public sentiment shall demand the

re-enactment of these most salutary laws of our ancestors.

[76] The following paragraph is from the Massachusetts Colony Laws of

1642; "Forasmuch as the good education of children is of singular behoof

and benefit to any commonwealth, and whereas many parents and masters

are too indolent and negligent of their duty in that kind, it is ordered

that the select-men of every town in the several precincts and quarters,

where they dwell, shall have a vigilant eye over their brethren and

neighbors, to see, first, that none of them shall suffer so much

barbarism in any of their families as not to teach, by themselves or

others, their children and apprentices so much learning as may enable

them perfectly to read the English tongue, and knowledge of the capital

laws, upon penalty of _twenty shillings_ for each neglect therein."

COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE UPON SCHOOL.--Since the preceding paragraphs were

prepared for the printer, the author has received the statutes and

resolves of the Massachusetts Legislature of 1850, relating to

education, which recognize the principle here contended for. Each of

the several cities and towns in that commonwealth is "authorized and

empowered to make all needful provisions and arrangements concerning

habitual truants, and children not attending school, without any regular

and lawful occupation, growing up in ignorance, between the ages of six

and fifteen years; and, also, all such ordinances and by-laws respecting

such children as shall be deemed most conducive to their welfare and the

good order of such city or town; and there shall be annexed to such

ordinances suitable penalties, not exceeding, for any one breach, a fine

of twenty dollars."

It is made the duty of the "several cities and towns availing themselves

of the provisions of this act, to appoint, at the annual meetings of

said towns, or annually by the mayor and aldermen of said cities, three

or more persons, who alone shall be authorized to make the complaints,

in every case of violation of said ordinances or by-laws, to the justice

of the peace, or other judicial officer, who, by said ordinances, shall

have jurisdiction in the matter, which persons thus appointed shall

alone have authority to carry into execution the judgments of said

justices of the peace, or other judicial officer."

It is further provided that "the said justices of the peace, or other

judicial officer, shall, in all cases, at their discretion, in place of

the fine aforesaid, be authorized to order children proved before them

to be growing up in truancy, and without the benefit of the education

provided for them by law, to be placed, for such periods of time as they

may judge expedient, in such institution of instruction, or house of

reformation, or other suitable situation, as may be assigned or provided

for the purpose in each city or town availing itself of the powers

herein granted."

This principle has been incorporated into several municipal codes.

Children in the city of Boston, under sixteen years of age, whose

"parents are dead, or, if living, do, from vice, or any other cause,

neglect to provide suitable employment for, or to exercise salutary

control over" them, may be sent by the court to the house of

reformation. By the late act, establishing the State Reform School, male

convicts under sixteen years of age may be sent to this school from any

part of the commonwealth, to be there "instructed in piety and morality,

and in such branches of useful knowledge as shall be adapted to their

age and capacity." The inmates may be bound out; but, in executing this

part of their duty, the trustees "shall have scrupulous regard to the

religious and moral character of those to whom they are bound, to the

end that they may secure to the boys the benefit of a good example, and

wholesome instruction, and the sure means of improvement in virtue and

knowledge, and thus the opportunity of becoming intelligent, moral,

useful, and happy citizens of the commonwealth."

The Massachusetts State Reform School is designed to be a "school for

the instruction, reformation, and employment of juvenile offenders." Any

boy under sixteen years of age, "convicted of any offense punishable by

imprisonment other than for life," may be sentenced to this school. Here

he may be kept during the term of his sentence; or he may be bound out

as an apprentice; or, in case he proves incorrigible, he may be sent to

prison, as he would originally have been but for the existence of this

school.

The buildings erected are sufficiently large for three hundred boys.

Attached to the establishment is a large farm, the cost of all which,

when the buildings are completed and furnished, and the farm stocked and

provided with agricultural implements, it is estimated will be about

one hundred thousand dollars. A citizen of that state has given

twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars to this institution, partly to

defray past expenses and partly to form a fund for its future benefit.

"In visiting this noble institution, one can not but think how closely

it resembles, in spirit and in purpose, the mission of Him who came to

seek and to save that which was lost; and yet, in traversing its

spacious halls and corridors, the echo of each footfall seems to say

that one tenth part of its cost would have done more in the way of

prevention than its whole amount can accomplish in the way of

reclaiming, and would, besides, have saved a thousand pangs that have

torn parental hearts, and a thousand more wounds in the hearts of the

children themselves, which no human power can ever wholly heal. When

will the state learn that it is better to spend its units for prevention

than tens and hundreds for remedy? How long must the state, like those

same unfortunate children, suffer the punishment of THEIR existence

before IT will be reformed?"

Kindred institutions have existed in several of our principal cities for

a quarter of a century, among which are the House of Reformation for

Juvenile Delinquents in New York, the House of Refuge in Philadelphia,

and the House of Reformation in Boston. Considering the degradation of

their parents, the absence of correct early instruction, and the

corrupting influences to which the children sent to these institutions

have been exposed, becoming generally _criminals_ before any effort has

been made by the humane for their correct educational training, one may

well wonder at the success which has crowned the efforts that have been

put forth in their behalf, for the greater part of them _are effectually

and permanently reformed_. This, however, only shows more clearly the

power of education, and the advantages that may be derived from the

establishment and maintenance of improved common schools throughout our

country.

_But how are these reforms effected?_ The means are simple, and are

slightly different from those already described for the correct training

of unoffending children. Take, for instance, the House of Reformation in

the City of New York. In the first place, they have a good school-house,

embracing nearly all the modern improvements. The yard and play-ground

are of ample dimensions, and are inclosed by a substantial fence. This

constitutes a barrier beyond which the children, once within, can not

pass. But the clean gravel-walks, the beautiful shade-trees, the green

grass-plats, the sparkling fountains, the ornamental flower-garden, all

conspire to render the place delightful. It is, indeed, a prison in one

sense, but the children seem hardly to know it. Then, again,

well-qualified teachers and superintendents are employed. The spirit

which actuates them is that of love. By proving themselves the friends

of the children, the children become their friends, and are hence easily

governed, considering their former neglect. Being well instructed, they

love study, and generally make commendable progress. Their habits are

regular, and they are constantly employed. A portion of the day is

devoted to study; another portion to industrial pursuits; and still

another to recreation and amusements. Strict obedience is required. This

may be yielded at first from restraint, but ultimately from love. The

love of kind and faithful teachers, the love of approving consciences,

the love of right, the love of God, separately and conjointly influence

them, until they can say ultimately of a truth, "_The love of Christ

constraineth us._"

Their industrial habits are of incalculable benefit to them. They all

learn some trade, and acquire the habits and the skill requisite to

constitute them producers, and thus practically conform to this

fundamental law, "_that if any man would not work, neither should he

eat_." The other conditions that have been stated as essential to

success are also complied with, the scholars being kept under the

influence of good teachers, and of the same teachers from year to year,

during their continuance in the institution.

The well-qualified and eminently successful teacher who has long been

connected with the Refuge in New York, in a late report says, "The

habits of industry which the children here acquire will be of

incalculable benefit to them through life. Yet we look upon the School

Department as the greatest of all the means employed to save our

youthful charge from ignorance and vice. As it is the mind and the heart

that are mostly depraved, so we must act mostly upon the mind and the

heart to eradicate this depravity.

"The education here is a _moral_ education. We do endeavor, it is true,

by all the powers we possess, to impress upon the mind the great

importance of a good education; and not only to _impress_ it upon the

mind, but to assist the mind to act, that it may obtain it. But our

principal aim is to fan into life the almost dying spark of virtue, and

kindle anew the moral feelings, that they may glow with fresh ardor, and

shine forth again in the beauty of innocence. Our object is not to store

the memory with facts, but to elevate the soul; not to think for the

children, but to teach them to think for themselves; to describe the

road, and put them in the way; never to hint what they have been, nor

what they are, but to point them continually to what they may be.

"_We feel assured that our labor will not be lost._ Judging the future

from the past, we are sanguine in our belief that our toils have left an

impress upon the mind which time can not efface. Scarcely a week passes

but our hearts are cheered and animated, and our eyes are gladdened at

the sight of those whom we taught in by-gone years, who bid no fairer

then to cheer us than those with whom we labor now. Yet they are

saved--saved to themselves; saved to society; saved to their

friends--who, but for this Refuge, would have poisoned the moral

atmosphere of our land, and breathed around them more deadly effluvia

than that of the fabled Upas."

The success which has attended well-directed efforts for the reformation

of juvenile delinquents, and _evening free schools_ for the education of

adults of all ages whose early education has been neglected, ought to

inspire the friends of human improvement with increased confidence in

the redeeming power of a correct early education, such as every state in

this Union may provide for all her children. When this confidence is

begotten, and when a good common education comes to be generally

regarded as the birth-right of every child in the community, then may

the friends of free institutions and of indefinite human advancement

look for the more speedy realization of their long-cherished hopes. For

one generation the community must be doubly taxed--once in the

reformation of juvenile delinquents, and in the education of ignorant

adults in evening schools, and again in the correct training of all our

children in improved schools. This done, each succeeding generation will

come upon the stage under more favorable circumstances than the

preceding, and each present generation will be better prepared to

educate that which is to follow, to the end of time.

THE REDEEMING POWER OF COMMON SCHOOLS.

If all our schools were under the charge of teachers possessing what

I regard as the right intellectual and moral qualifications, and if

all the children of the community were brought under the influence

of these schools for ten months in the year, I think that the work

of training up THE WHOLE COMMUNITY to intelligence and virtue would

soon be accomplished, as completely as any human end can be obtained

by human means.--REV. JACOB ABBOTT.

I might here introduce a vast amount of incontrovertible evidence to

show that, if the attendance of all the children in any commonwealth

could be secured at such improved common schools as we have been

contemplating for ten months during the year, from the age of four to

that of sixteen years, they would prove competent to the removal of

ninety-nine one hundredths of the evils with which society is now

infested in one generation, and that they would ultimately redeem the

state from social vices and crimes.

The Hon. Horace Mann, late Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of

Education, issued a circular in 1847, in which he raised the question

now under consideration. This circular was sent out to a large number of

the most experienced and reputable teachers in the Northern and Middle

States, all of whom were pleased to reply to it. Each reply corroborates

the position here stated; and, taken together _as a whole_, they are

entitled to implicit credence. The whole correspondence is too

voluminous to be here exhibited; I can not, however, forbear introducing

a few illustrative passages.

Says Mr. Page, the late lamented principal of the New York State Normal

School, "Could I be connected with a school furnished with all the

appliances you name; where all the children should be constant

attendants upon my instruction for a succession of years; where all my

fellow-teachers should be such as you suppose; and where all the

favorable influences described in your circular should surround me and

cheer me, even with my moderate abilities as a teacher, I should

scarcely expect, after the first generation submitted to the experiment,

to fail _in a single case_ to secure the results you have named."

Mr. Solomon Adams, of Boston, who has been engaged in the profession of

teaching twenty-four years, remarks as follows: "Permit me to say that,

in very many cases, after laboring long with individuals almost against

hope, and sometimes in a manner, too, which I can now see was not always

wise, I have never had a case which has not resulted in some good degree

according to my wishes. The many kind and voluntary testimonials given

years afterward by persons who remembered that they were once my

way-ward pupils, are among the pleasantest and most cheering incidents

of my life. So uniform have been the results, when I have had a fair

trial and time enough, that I have unhesitatingly adopted the motto,

_Never despair._ Parents and teachers are apt to look for too speedy

results from the labors of the latter. The moral nature, like the

intellectual and physical, is long and slow in reaching the full

maturity of its strength. I was told a few years since by a person who

knew the history of nearly all my pupils for the first five years of my

labor, that not one of them had ever brought reproach upon himself or

mortification upon friends by a bad life. I can not now look over the

whole of my pupils, and find one who had been with me long enough to

receive a decided impression, whose life is not honorable and useful. I

find them in all the learned professions and in the various mechanical

arts. I find my female pupils scattered as teachers through half the

states of the Union, and as the wives and assistants of Christian

missionaries in every quarter of the globe.

"So far, therefore, as my own experience goes, so far as my knowledge of

the experience of others extends, so far as the statistics of crime

throw any light upon the subject, I confidently expect that ninety-nine

in a hundred, and I think even more, with such means of education as you

have supposed, and with such Divine favor as we are authorized to

expect, would become good members of society, the supporters of order,

and law, and truth, and justice, and all righteousness."

The Rev. Jacob Abbott, who has been engaged in the practical duties of

teaching for about ten years in the cities of Boston and New York, and

who has had under his care about eight hundred pupils of both sexes, and

of all ages from four to twenty-five, has expressed in a long letter the

sentiment placed at the head of this section. "If all our schools were

under the charge of teachers possessing what I regard as the right

intellectual and moral qualifications, and if all the children of the

community were brought under the influence of these schools for ten

months in the year, I think the work of training up THE WHOLE COMMUNITY

to intelligence and virtue would soon be accomplished as completely as

any human end can be obtained by human means."

Mr. Roger S. Howard, of Vermont, who has been engaged in teaching about

twenty years, remarks, among other things, as follows: "Judging from

what I have seen and do know, if the conditions you have mentioned were

strictly complied with; if the attendance of the scholars could be as

universal, constant, and long-continued as you have stated; if the

teachers were men and women of those high intellectual and moral

qualities--apt to teach, and devoted to their work, and favored with

that blessing which the word and providence of God teach us always to

expect upon our honest, earnest, and well-directed efforts in so good a

cause--on these conditions and under these circumstances, I do not

hesitate to express the opinion that the failures need not be--would not

be one per cent."

Miss Catharine E. Beecher, of Brattleboro, Vermont, who has been engaged

directly and personally as a teacher about fifteen years, in Hartford,

Connecticut, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and who has had the charge of not

less than a thousand pupils from every state in the Union, after stating

these and other considerations, remarks as follows: "I will now suppose

that it could be so arranged that, in a given place, containing from ten

to fifteen thousand inhabitants, in any part of the country where I ever

resided, _all_ the children at the age of four shall be placed six hours

a day, for twelve years, under the care of teachers having the same

views that I have, and having received that course of training for their

office that any state in this Union can secure to the teachers of its

children. Let it be so arranged that all these children shall remain

till sixteen under these teachers, and also that they shall spend their

lives in this city, and I have no hesitation in saying I do not believe

that _one_, no, NOT A SINGLE ONE, would fail of proving a respectable

and prosperous member of society; nay, more, I believe every one would,

at the close of life, find admission into the world of endless peace and

love. I say this solemnly, deliberately, and with the full belief that I

am upheld by such imperfect experimental trials as I have made, or seen

made by others; but, more than this, that I am sustained by the

authority of Heaven, which sets forth this grand palladium of

education, '_Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is

old he will not depart from it._

"This sacred maxim surely sets the Divine _imprimatur_ to the doctrine

that _all_ children _can_ be trained up in the way they should go, and

that, when so trained, they will not depart from it. Nor does it imply

that education _alone_ will secure eternal life without supernatural

assistance; but it points to the true method of securing this

indispensable aid.

"In this view of the case, I can command no language strong enough to

express my infinite longings that my countrymen, who, as legislators,

have the control of the institutions, the laws, and the wealth of our

_physically_ prosperous nation, should be brought to see that they now

have in their hands the power of securing to _every_ child in the coming

generation a life of virtue and usefulness here, and an eternity of

perfected bliss hereafter. How, then, can I express, or imagine, the

awful responsibility which rests upon them, and which hereafter they

must bear before the great Judge of nations, if they suffer the present

state of things to go on, bearing, as it does, thousands and hundreds of

thousands of helpless children in our country to hopeless and

irretrievable ruin!"

Testimony similar to the preceding might be multiplied to almost any

extent. Enough, however, I trust, has been said to remove any doubts in

relation to the redeeming power of education which the reader may have

previously entertained. Universal education, we have seen, constitutes

the most effectual and the only sure means of securing to individuals

and communities, to states and nations, exemption from all avoidable

evils of whatever kind, and the possession of a competency of this

world's goods, with the ability and disposition so to enjoy them as most

to augment human happiness. Yes, education, and nothing short of it,

will dissipate the evils of ignorance; it will greatly increase the

productiveness of labor, and make men more moral, industrious, and

skillful, and thus diminish pauperism and crime, while at the same time

it will indefinitely augment the sum total of human happiness. By

diminishing the number of fatal accidents that are constantly occurring

in every community, and securing to the rising generation such judicious

physical and moral treatment as shall give them sound minds in sound

bodies, it will lay an unfailing foundation for general prosperity, will

greatly promote longevity, and will thus, in both of these and in many

other ways, do more to increase the population, wealth, and universal

well-being of the thirty states of this Union than all other means of

state policy combined.

At the late Peace Convention at Paris to consider the practicability and

necessity of a Congress of Nations to adjust national differences,

composed of about fifteen hundred members, picked men from every

Christian nation, VICTOR HUGO, the President of the Convention, on

taking the chair, made an address that was received with great applause,

in which the following passages occur:

"A day will come when men will no longer bear arms one against the

other; when appeals will no longer be made to war, but to civilization!

The time will come when the cannon will be exhibited as an old

instrument of torture, and wonder expressed how such a thing could have

been used. A day, I say, will come when the United States of America and

the United States of Europe will be seen extending to each other the

hand of fellowship across the ocean, and when we shall have the

happiness of seeing every where the majestic radiation of universal

concord."

That such a time will come, every heart that glows with Christian

benevolence must earnestly desire and fervently pray. But we can not

hope to attain the end without the use of the necessary means. So

glorious a result as this, that has become an object of universal desire

throughout Christendom, must follow when the conditions upon which it

depends are complied with. What these are there can be little room for

doubt. Let, then, every friend of Universal Peace seek it in the use of

the appropriate means--_Universal Education_.

The same remark will apply to every form of Christian benevolence and

universal philanthropy; for, as has been well remarked, in universal

education, every "follower of God and friend of human kind" will find

the only sure means of carrying forward that particular reform to which

he is devoted. In whatever department of philanthropy he may be engaged,

he will find that department to be only a segment of the great circle of

beneficence of which _Universal Education_ is the center and

circumference; and that he can most successfully promote the permanent

advancement of his most cherished interest in securing the establishment

of, and attendance upon, IMPROVED SCHOOLS FREE TO ALL.

INDEX.

Abbott, Rev. J., on the redeeming power of common schools, page 456.

Abdominal Supporters, their use considered, 109.

Academy, New York Free, 386.

Accidents, cause and prevention of, 298.

Adams, John Q., accustomed to the daily reading of the Scriptures, 222.

Adams, Solomon, on the redeeming power of common schools, 455.

Agriculture requires education for its successful prosecution, 269.

Air, want of, causes death, 85.

Necessary to purify the blood, 89.

What composed of, 89.

Quantity respired, 91, 93.

How changed in respiration, 86, 89.

Once respired will not sustain life, 91.

Importance of to health, 98.

Abundance of for man's use, 99.

How freed from impurities, 100.

Estimated loss of money and life from breathing impure, 299, 438.

An excellent medicine, 108.

Alcott, Dr., on breathing bad air, 103.

Alphabet, how taught, 426.

A better method, 426-427.

Anecdote of the Indian, 203, 225.

Of Laura Bridgman, 157-159.

Of Dr. Franklin, 103.

Of a practical teacher, 256.

Of a German schoolmaster, 416.

Of a farmer plowing with three horses, 254.

Apoplexy, how caused, 90, 92.

Death by, 90, 93.

Apparatus and Library, 398.

May be useful to adults, 399, 400.

Appurtenances to school-houses, 401.

Arithmetic, often poorly taught, 433.

Its morals, 437.

Arts, the useful, require education, 272.

Improvements made in the, 280, 282.

How improvements are to be made in the, 285.

Astrology believed in, to what extent, 234.

Atmospheric impurities, 100, 101.

May be detected, 104.

Barnard, Hon. Henry, School Architecture by, 380.

Testimony of, in relation to school libraries, 400.

In relation to the external arrangements of school-houses, 402.

Bartlett, H., testimony of in relation to the productiveness of labor,

264.

Bathing, the importance of, 59.

The luxury of, 59.

The benefits of, 60, 62.

The time for, 61, 62.

A preservative of health, 63.

A good exercise, 80.

Beecher, Miss Catharine E., quoted, 457.

Benevolent females, means of usefulness of, 444.

Bible, its use in schools, 209.

Vote on, in the New York Legislature, 219.

What it has done for mankind, 222.

Black Hole in Calcutta referred to, 96, 97.

Blindness, hereditary, 36.

How caused in schools, 182.

Blind persons inferior, 124.

Injured by inaction, 127.

How taught, 150.

Blood, circulation of the, 82.

Bones, how injured, 68.

Lengthened by habit, 72.

Books furnished at the expense of the district, 443.

Boxing the ears injurious, 171.

Brain, the seat of the mind, 113.

Its functions the highest in the animal economy, 113.

Conditions of its healthy action, 114, 118, 121.

How affected by bad air, 118.

Requires exercise, 121.

Seclusion injurious to, 122.

Want of exercise of the, a cause of disease, 127.

Effects of excessive activity of the, 128, 129.

In childhood, 130-135.

Rules for the exercise of the, 135, 137, 140, 143.

Breath known to take fire, 86.

Bull Fights an amusement in Spain, 228.

California, state of agriculture and the arts in, 270.

Capital punishment and compulsory attendance upon school, 446, 449.

Carriage of the body important, 71.

Celebrations, common school, recommended, 364.

Character, how affected by associations, 142, 143, 405.

Chest, how developed, 69, 79, 105, 106.

Should not be compressed, 88.

Children, seats for, 69.

How deformed, 69.

Should not be confined too long, 77.

Rational treatment of, 77.

Chylification, the process and necessity of, 50.

Chymification, the second important step in digestion, 49.

Circulation of the blood, 81.

Two circulations, 83.

Clark, John, testimony of, in relation to education and labor, 267.

Cleanliness a virtue, 60.

Clergymen, their relation to the primary schools, 414, 442.

A text for, 445.

Clothing, office of, 64.

Necessity of airing and changing, 65.

Cold, how to prevent taking, 108.

Combe, Dr., on bathing, 63.

Confinement injurious to children, 77.

Conflagration, general, how it may be produced, 320, 321.

Consumption, hereditary, 87.

How death caused by, 84.

How prevented, 80, 106.

Common among the deaf and dumb, 126.

Conventions, educational, recommended, 364.

Costiveness, effects of, 53.

How prevented, 54.

Crime diminished by education, 286.

Statistics of, 295.

Expense of, 358.

Deaf and dumb, why inferior to other persons, 125.

Deafness, cause and cure of, 172.

Digestion, process of, 48.

Diseases, hereditary, 41, 114, 126.

Caused by mental inactivity, 127.

District libraries, 399, 400.

District lyceum, how rendered useful, 400.

Drawing an exercise in schools, 191.

Drunkenness becomes constitutional, 41, 42.

Dumb-bells, their use recommended, 105, 403.

Ears, how injured, 171.

Eclipses, a source of alarm to the ignorant and superstitious, 233.

Education, in what it consists, 13.

Not finished in schools, 18.

Should have reference to man's future existence, 19.

Not limited to man's physical powers, 24.

Not limited to his intellectual powers, 25.

Not limited to his moral powers, 26.

Physically considered, 28.

Intellectual and moral, 111.

Of the five senses, 146.

Necessity of moral and religious, 193.

The importance of, 225.

It dissipates the evils of ignorance, 226, 242.

It increases the productiveness of labor, 253.

Necessary for females, 268, 279.

It diminishes pauperism and crime, 286.

It improves the moral habits, 287, 288.

It increases human happiness, 311, 315.

Degree of, in the United States, 337.

Existing provisions for, 343.

The means of rendering its blessings universal, 362.

Educational department, the state should maintain an, 370.

Emerson, George B., quoted, 408.

Epidemics arrested by ventilation, 101.

Evacuation, importance of, to the preservation of health, 53.

Evening schools for adults, 453.

Exercise, effects of, 74.

When not to be taken, 75.

Other laws of, 77.

Should be taken regularly, 78.

Experiment on breathing air, 91.

In visiting a school, 96.

In plowing with three horses, 254.

Eye, description of the, 175.

Its sympathy with the other bodily organs, 184.

Rational care of the, 180-192.

See _Sight_.

Factories, labor in, requires education to render it productive, 261-269.

School teachers employed in, 268.

Failures in business accounted for in certain cases, 140, 141.

Farming requires knowledge, 269.

Illustrative anecdote, 254.

In California, 270.

Females, benevolent and Christian, their relation to the primary school,

442, 444, 445.

Fortune-telling practiced in Great Britain and in the United States, 234.

Fracture of the skull, cases of, referred to, 129.

France infidel--the United States Christian, 204.

Franklin's Methusalem, 103.

Free Academy, New York, 386.

Freezing of water, law of, illustrates the beneficence of God, 221-223.

French ladies, posture of, 71.

Friday and other _unlucky_ days, 236-238.

Funds for the support of schools, 366.

When useful, 369.

General conflagration may be produced by the decomposition of air or

water, 321.

Geography, how taught in many schools, 432.

Gestation, state of the mother during, affects the health and happiness

of the offspring, 116, 117.

Grain, influence of the moon on the growth of, 250.

Greeley, Horace, extract from Address of, on free schools, 267.

Habits, mental and physical, how formed, 140.

Happiness increased by education, 311.

Health, laws of, 44-81.

Hearing, the sense of, 169.

How improved, 171.

How injured, 171.

Cultivation of, 172-174.

Hereditary diseases, 41, 115.

Hot-bed system of education, 130-135.

House of Refuge for juvenile delinquents, 450-458.

Howard, Roger S., on the redeeming power of common schools, 456.

Howe, Dr. Samuel G., on the importance of physical education, 36.

Humphrey, Dr., on moral and religious training, 194.

Hypocrisy, why unsuccessful, 142.

Idiocy, extent of, 301. Causes of, 302, 303, 409.

Idiots, who are, in law, 151.

Condition of, 304.

May be educated, 300, 307.

Ignorance, its effects considered, 230.

Of the correct treatment of children, 133.

Man in a state of, 311.

Indians never have consumption, 109.

Anecdote of an, 203, 225.

Indigestion caused by mental anxiety, 137.

Inhaling tubes, their use considered, 109, 110.

Insanity, how caused, 126, 138, 308, 409.

Instruction, modes of, extensively practiced, 425.

Insurance of property, the best modes of, 266, 267.

Intellectual education, its nature, 111.

Intemperance, hereditary, 41, 42.

A cause of idiocy, 302.

Expense of, in this country, 358, 360.

See _Breath_.

Intermarriages, influence of, on posterity, 115.

Irritability of teachers accounted for, 120.

Juvenile delinquents, provisions for, 449, 450.

Knowledge essential to prosperity in agriculture, 269.

Required in the useful arts, 272.

See _Education_.

Labor, education increases the productiveness of, 253.

During rapid growth often injurious, 68.

Of females in factories and in the domestic employments of the sex,

268, 279.

Ladies in France, consequences of their erect posture, 71.

Lardner, Dr., on popular fallacies, 246, 248.

Laura Bridgman, the deaf, dumb, and blind girl, 148.

Library and apparatus, 398. Township and district libraries, 399.

Life, extensive loss of, how caused, 298.

Lunacy, origin and signification of, 251, 252.

Lunar influences considered, 250.

Lungs strengthened by reading aloud and singing, 79, 80.

Blood changed in the, 85.

Exhalations from the, 86.

Absorption in the, 87.

Diseases of the, hereditary, 87.

Exercise of the, a means of preventing disease, 105.

When they should not be exercised, 107.

Lyceums in districts, how rendered popular and useful, 400.

Mann, Hon. Horace, referred to and quoted, 257, 328.

Manufactories, to be productive, require educated workmen, 261-269.

Education of children employed in, 278.

Marriage of relatives a cause of consumption, 126.

A cause of idiocy, 303, 304.

Mastication, importance of, to digestion, 48.

Masturbation, 409.

See _Secret Vice_.

Meals, proper time for partaking of, 55.

Measures, a system of, for schools, 188, 404.

Mills, James K., testimony of, in relation to education and labor, 261.

Mind, laws of, 111, 112.

See _Brain_.

Moral education, its nature, 111.

Necessity of, 193.

Want of, a cause of insanity, 309.

Should be pursued practically, 435.

Moon, its influence on the weather, 248.

Mortality, cause and extent of, among infants, 298-300.

Muscles, how they act, 72.

Of the eye, 179.

See _Exercise_.

Music, vocal, a branch of education in Germany, 80.

National education, political necessity of, 325.

Degree of, in this country, 337.

Provisions for, 343.

Practicability of, 353.

The means of, 362-460.

Natural philosophy, the mode of teaching, 434.

Navigation among the ignorant and educated, 250.

Nerves, sensibility of the, 161, 162.

See _Brain_.

New York, Free Academy, 386.

Public Schools in, 386, 434.

Normal Schools, necessity for, 421-440.

Oliver Caswell, the deaf, dumb, and blind boy, 159.

Onanism, 409.

See _Secret Vice_.

Page, D. P., on the redeeming power of common schools, 454.

Parents, the natural educators of their children, 411.

Vicious, sometimes reformed by school children, 441.

Pauperism, diminished by education, 286.

Extent of, in New York, 358.

Expense of maintaining, 358.

Peace convention at Paris referred to, 459.

Petulancy in teachers and others accounted for, 94, 120.

Physical education, importance of, 28.

A preventive of disease, 34.

The only correct basis for intellectual and moral, 32, 111.

Physician, his office and that of the clergyman compared, 34.

How he may be most useful in his profession, 34, 35.

Physiology, made by law a study in common schools, 61.

Lectures upon, by school teachers, 61.

Play-rooms, important for small children, 403.

Politics, definition of, 335.

Should be a school study, 335.

Politeness should be habitual, 142.

Popular intelligence, degree of, in the United States, 337.

Existing provisions for, 343.

Poverty, extent of in Spain, 294.

How diminished, 253, 286.

Precocity of scrofulous and rickety children, 130.

How they should be treated, 131, 132, 133.

Pregnancy, the state of the mother during, influences the character of

the child, 116, 117.

Punishments, certain kinds injurious, 77, 171.

See _Capital Punishment_.

Purblind students, suggestions for, 185.

Quincy, Hon. Josiah, Jr., on compulsory attendance upon school, 447.

Reading aloud a healthful exercise, 79.

How reading is frequently taught, 429.

A better way, 430.

Reading-room in connection with the school-house, 399.

Recesses in schools should be frequent, 77.

Reform school.

See _State Reform School_.

Regularity, in bodily exercise, 78.

In mental exercise, 139.

Relatives, consequences of the marriage of, 126, 303.

Religion defined, 207.

Of some kind unavoidable, 207.

Religious education, the necessity for, 193.

Should be reduced to practice, 435.

Respiration, philosophy of, 81.

Rickety children injured by study, 130.

Riots, expense of, in Philadelphia, 357.

Roman notation table, how taught, 428.

A better way, 429.

Rush, Dr., on the use of tobacco, 67.

School funds, their utility considered, 366-369.

School-houses, their common size, 92.

Good ones should be provided, 372.

The condition of, 373.

The location of, 379.

Size and construction of, 382.

For country districts, 383.

For cities and villages, 385.

Plans for, 387-389.

Ventilation of, 390.

Means of warming, 392.

Appurtenances to, 401.

Influence of, 405.

Schools, the support of, 366.

The redeeming power of, 454.

Should continue through the year, 440.

Every child should attend, 442.

Compulsory attendance upon, 447.

Scrofulous children injured by study, 130.

Proper treatment of, 131, 132.

Seclusion from society injurious to both body and mind, 122.

Secret vice, how increased, 405.

How remedied, 407.

Causes idiocy, insanity, and other evils, 409.

See-saws, how rendered interesting and useful, 403.

Senses, education of the, 146.

Loss of the, impairs the health, 124, 125.

Loss of the, causes insanity, 126.

General law concerning the, 162.

Their cultivation increases human happiness, 191.

Shooting stars a source of terror to the ignorant, 234.

Shoulder braces, their use considered, 109, 110.

Sickness in school accounted for, 94, 95, 96, 119.

Sight, the sense of, 175.

Influence of tobacco and spectacles on the, 186.

How injured, and how preserved and improved, 180-186.

How persons become near or long sighted, 183, 184.

How the sight may be disciplined, 188.

Skin, functions of the, 55.

Cleanliness of, important, 59.

Skull, cases of fracture of the, 129.

Smell, the sense of, 165.

Its uses, 167.

How injured, 168.

Snuff, its influence upon the sense of smell, 169.

Spectacles, the use of, often injurious, 186.

Sports, what kinds most advantageous, 79.

State Reform School in Massachusetts, 449.

Statistics of education in the United States, 337-351.

Stooping, how induced, 70.

Habitual, to be avoided, 70.

Study, best time for, 138.

See _Brain_.

Sulphureted hydrogen gas poisonous, 102.

Summary of important principles, 145, 286, 323, 361.

Of improvements in the arts, 282.

Taste, the sense of, its uses and abuses, 163-165.

Teachers, why their health fails, 94-96.

Employed in factories, 268.

Their relation to the school, 410-440.

Books for, 410.

Tobacco used by, 417.

Indulge in other evil practices, 417-420.

Who make the best, 438.

Qualifications of, 340, 350, 417, 420, 422.

Institutes for, 420.

Teaching, should be ranked among the learned professions, 412, 439.

Compared with the practice of law, 413.

With the business of legislation, 413.

With the practice of medicine, 414.

With the clerical profession, 414.

Teeth, their relation to health, 65.

How to preserve them, 65.

Acids injurious to them, 66.

Tobacco not a preservative of, 66.

Timber, time for felling, 248.

Tobacco, its use tends to drunkenness, 67.

It impairs the sight, 186.

Used by teachers, 417.

Used by ministers, 417, 418.

A lady's inquiry concerning the use of, 419.

The use of, expensive, 420.

Touch, sense of, 160.

How improved, 161.

Township libraries instead of district libraries, 399.

Truancy, legal provisions concerning, 447-450.

Union or graded schools, 384.

They should possess a normal characteristic, 433.

United States, the, a Christian nation, 204. See _France_.

Universal education. See _Education_, _National Education_, and _Free

Schools_.

Unlucky days in Scotland, 236.

In the United States, 237.

Vaccination, how effected, 59.

Ventilation, necessity of, 91-99.

Of clothing, 57, 64.

Means of, 390, 397.

Vocal gymnastics, influence of, 107.

Vocal music useful as an exercise, 80.

Dr. Rush's testimony quoted, 80.

Should be introduced into all our schools, 107.

Walking, not the best exercise, 78.

How rendered most beneficial, 78.

Washington, quotation from Farewell Address of, 221.

Waste, the cause of, 44.

The repair of, 47.

Water, the freezing of, illustrates the beneficence of God, 321-323.

Watson, Rev. James V., on the providence of God, 62.

Weather, does the moon influence the, 248.

Weights and measures for school apparatus, 404. See _Measures_.

Witchcraft in England and New England, 240.

Young, the Hon. Samuel, on the use of the Bible in schools, 220.

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