The R. J. Schoolmaster. 13. VOL. IV. JULY, 1858. For the Schoolmaster. BY A TEACHER Ir we do not mistake the signs of the times, there is a strong tendency in many of the larger towns of the northern states to inquire with unwonted carefulness whether the mon NO.5. fully dispensed with; but, in the true old New England spirit, education and religion have been regarded as indispensible necessities, which neither states, nor towns, nor families could afford to sacrifice. Even when the parent has been compelled by the straitened condition of his purse to withdraw his elder son from college, and his daughter from the fashionable boarding school, he has willingly paid his taxes for the support of the public educational institutions in his town. He has felt that the training of the younger children could not be postponed, that the common schools must be sustained at all hazards. Nay, the very misfortunes of the public have been changed into blessings in many of our villages. The poor operatives, whose unceasing round of daily toil had never left them time for intellectual culture, have availed themselves of the leisure, which has been forced upon them, and have devoted the hours of the past winter to earnest and useful study. They will long remember the season, which opened upon them so full of forebodings and darkness, as the brightest and most fruitful, which they have ever enjoyed. It has been a ey, appropriated to the support of public schools, is judiciously and economically expended. Not that the duty or the expedieney of furnishing the means of education by the state and the town is doubted at all. But many seem disposed to question whether the best results, which are attained, or which we may fairly hope to reach, can not be secured at less expense. The financial distresses of the past winter have directed general attention to this subject, though many of the best friends of education had, before this crisis, given it their earnest consideration. We are glad to perceive that, even under the overwhelming disasters of this year, scarcely a single town in New England has voted to lower the grade of its schools. Everywhere it has been felt that the school and the church must be the last to suffer from those pecuniary embarrass-beautiful spectacle to see manufacturers, merments, which have forced almost every family chants, and men in every avocation and conin the land to curtail their current expenses. dition, contributing liberally of their diminAmusements and luxuries have been cheer-ished wealth to furnish opportunities for the unemployed laborers to secure their mutual in the higher schools may tempt them to dis improvement. burse more freely in that single department than they ought; or an unworthy desire to outstrip a neighboring and rival town in vain decorations of school houses may lead ther to make the same mistake. We in this state have been peculiarly fortunate in the choice of the men, who have directed the expenditure of money for our schools, and we have heard no men speak more strongly than some of them of the perils to which we allude. All these facts indicate how deep-seated is the conviction in the American mind that the education of the young must be secured. It would cheer the gloomy heart of a misanthrope, it would stop the mouth of a European declaimer against our absorbing utilitarianism, to observe how large a proportion of the public funds is devoted to the maintenance of schools. We rejoice in a public sentiment, which responds so promptly to all reasonable demands, that the friends of edu-in many parts of New England by changing cation feel constrained to make. And now that towns with exhausted treasuries are considering whether they may not be compelled to retrench their ordinary expenses, we think it is proper for us teachers, committee-men, and directors of education to practice the most rigid economy, which is consistent with wisdom, in the management of our schools. A great deal of expense has been incurred text-books with needless frequency. This has been a subject of so general complaint, that it is hardly necessary to enlarge upon it here. It is well known that persistent agents shower their new books "Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks of Vallambrosa," Mak We teachers are not exempt from weakness, down upon teachers and committees. which leads a man sometimes to underrate ing school books has become a regular trade the true value of other pursuits and interests like shoemaking or blacksmithing, and the in comparison with his own. We must not peddlers of the freshly manufactured didaeforget that a town is as much bound to feed tic wares can every day in the year furnish its paupers as to teach its children, to take you a new article, which will surpass all its care of its roads as to adorn its school houses, predecessors in variety, simplicity, and sterlto compensate its civil officers as to pay using worth. Now, to resist this army of voluour salaries. We must see that our zeal for our noble profession does not make us unjust to these, who are not so enthusiastic as we are, does not make us clamorous for a larger share of the public income in our field of labor, than a just regard for the diverse inter. ests of a mixed community would allow us to claim. ble persuaders, whose ears seem not to be af- Men, who have the charge of public funds to be devoted to education or to any object, should also remember the peculiar dangers to which they are exposed. They are likely to be less careful in its disposal than they are in the management of their private business. A worthy desire to furnish superior facilities render himself every week a new and improv ed edition of what he was at the beginning of sympathy with the parents, whose generosity the term. IIe will thus be more to his school is so largely taxed in this age of manifold than all the books which they can buy of traveling agents. But while we strive to conduct the schools on the principles of strict economy, we beg our patrons,—and by them we mean all the wants and manifold charities, and by showing in every way that the educational institutions, which are confided to our care, are worthy of all the encouragement and support, which they can receive. The citizens too, must remember that while the cost of everything else has been increasing so rapidly for the past ten years, they must not expect to provide for the education of children as cheaply as formerly. The salaries of teachers must be greater now than they were then, and a proper allowance must also be made for larger incidental expenses. Let us all, parents and teachers, consider the difficulties, with which we have to contend, in a kind and fraternal spirit. In actual practice we have many delicate questions to settle. Our mutual relations are pleasant and profitable, but in order to maintain them we need forbearance, patience, and charity. May we never peril the interests of education and the welfare of our nation through our want of those graces of character. citizens,-to bear in mind that true and wise economy often requires an expenditure rather than a hoarding of money. A given sum may enable us to elevate the schools to a certain standard, where they will be of service, while half that sum would not enable us to render them half as good. It is not economical to dispense with anything essential to respectable success. It is not economical to have poor school houses, poor apparatus. poor books, or poor teachers. Our very existence as a nation depends in a great measure upon the diffusion of education, and therefore it is no better economy to stifle our schools than it is to starve a man, whom you wish to employ as a laborer. Whatever is really necessary to render the schools good should not be esteemed dear. The people should and will furnish it cheerfully and promptly. We have no fear that they will take a retrograde step. While they ought to insist that the contribuSOME people require more sleep than others. tions which they so readily make to sustain To say that a pig sleeps ten or twelve hours, our excellent system of public instruction, that a goose sleeps less than half that time, shall not be expended carelessly or unwisely. or that Wellington "turned out" when he we feel sure that they never will withhold turned over on his iron bedstead, is no argutheir money, when our schools have a reas-ment to prove either the period or the length onable claim upon their sympathies and their of sleep which is necessary to any man. The purses. For the Schoolmaster. order of Nature must be followed. This can be determined best by the observation by each man of himself. So with the amount and quality of food, drink and clothing. Whatever is generally hurtful must be shunned. Man would do well to apply literally the command, Know thyself. We and they must heartily coöperate. Our aims are the same. Sad would be the day, when through an ill-judged parsimony on their part, or an ill-judged extravagance on ours, jealousy and antagonism should arise. Let us strive to avert it by discretion and wisdom, by the most effective use of the means at our disposal, by the manifestation of our We were not made for ourselves only. "Forsan et Haec Olim Meminisse Juvabit." Listen to familiar voices, THE following beautiful poem was read by Miss Mary C. Peck, of the graduating class in the Girls' High School, at the recent anniversary of the Providence High School Association, composed of the graduates of the school. The authoress has consented to its publication in the columns of THE SCHOOLMASTER at the earnest solicitation of her friends.-ED. As to the ancestral homestead Comes the wanderer faint and weary, Soft and dewy as the evening, And the wanderer lifts his trembling hand, In a prayer for his native clime, For a blessing on the father-land, A blessing on the Rhine. So with us as backward turning, 'Till the very air seems vocal, A spark, the essence of Divinity, And each impression on it made shall last fraught, Require some weighty theme, some noble thought, 'T were well awhile to commune with the Past, To lose the purity its air had given, Had learned that evil lurked in all mankind, Ere sin and doubt had dimmed our clearer sense, Vanity; be strong, be wary, When our hand plucked the rose and found no With the colors of the morn. thorn, And all life wore the colors of its morn, When life's gray horologe was hid with flowers, tears, And hope, light-footed, chased the fleeting years. Among the pleasant, childish scenes of mine, Blest with its humble church and district school. Oh ! more than marble wall or pillared dome Yet vain the thought; for memory's distant fields In the old haunts so dearly loved of yore, Only regret for wasted pleasures yield, Not twice the golden sunset gilds the eve, Though the rose-flush of the dawning And oh! friends, when ye shall mingle Take your childish prayers for safe-guards, Dash aside the poisoned chalice What is life that we should love it And wake the summer echoes with my play, Wade through the brook, or climb the garden wall To catch the golden russet in its fall. Hard by a brook, beneath its roof trees low, I seem to see e'en now my old pine seat, All truth from "ABC" to "hic, haec, hoc." |