which it is but justice to say we have, had each successive generation been left, without this care, to waste the precious hours of childhood in the streets, or, if they escaped idleness and vice, to feel the privations and mor sumed by the United States, as other states success and growth of this town (and I speak did with theirs, - limited in territory, and, of them not for any purpose of pride, but for until a new spring was given to our resources, improvement)-do you believe that among the limited in means, our citizens for a long peri- causes of its prosperity we may not place this od had a hard struggle to maintain against early care to rescue the infant mind and give disadvantages for which they were not in it the means of usefulness and honorable infault, and found it difficult to meet the neces-dustry? Do you believe that we should now sary and ordinary expenses of government. have possessed the same orderly, industrious, But from the printed summary which we enterprising, intelligent, thriving population have seen at this session, exhibiting the number and state of the school houses and schools in our several towns, we cannot but derive gratifying evidence that this great object has by no means been left without attention. In various towns, especially in latter years, indi-tifications of ignorance during life? viduals have associated themselves and devoted a zeal and bounty worthy of all praise, to the providing of schools for their respective districts and families. But this mode operates hardly and unequally upon a few, whose spirit leads them to adopt it and its benefits do not flow over the whole community, nor always reach those who most emphatically need them. Sir, among the brightest minds that have adorned their native town and carried their enterprize with its visible and salutary effects into all portions of the state, are some of those who received their first lessons in education at these primary schools. Girls' Schools.---No. 3. "Ye mak' it not what is she?' but what has she!"-SCOTCH PROVERB. GRANTED that the object of school educa Twenty-eight years have now nearly clapsed since this General Assembly passed an act establishing free schools. That act was repealed before it had gone completely into option is not to cram weak heads with knowleration. It contained some provisions, not contained in the bill now reported, which proved to be unacceptable to the people of most of the towns. But, sir, with no other obligation or guaranty than that act, the town edge, but to make strong ones, to train the faculties into full development and vigor, to give them the groove of good habit to run in, -how can these objects be compassed? By adopting means to that end alone, and which I have the honor to represent (Provi- by making mere acquisition of geography, dence,) proceeded to establish free schools, and by what may perhaps be called a voluntary and unanimous constitution from its citizens, has continued to maintain and augment them to this day. What is the practical lesson of experience which has thus been furnished us? We live with the daily exhibition of that lesson before our eyes, and can judge. Do you believe that among the sources of the history, etc., a secondary consideration to the great attainment a good mind. The effort of the teacher should be directed not to the thing learned, but to the manner of learning it, or to speak more distinctly, he is not to teach grammar, history, philosophy, etc., but application, connection of ideas, and retention. The former are but the means the oil to the lamp, which the teacher kindles, and must feed cherishingly, until its light is strong, rank by attainment in knowledge, and by age, and can defy the gusts of life, and until it whereas power should be the condition of adknows how to obtain oil for itself. vancement. Some girls of seven are quite equal to others of fourteen, though they may not know so much of the usual school books. Such young minds, however, should bear the He would be a silly trainer of dogs, who should try to make good pointers and setters by shutting up pups and feeding them upon game, forcing them to swallow it, too, wheth-stress of study not one-fourth part of the er they liked it or not. But do not teachers pursue that plan when they confine children in schools and stuff them with knowledge? Precisely. Children should be taught to hunt their own game, and, like dogs, to be keen on the scent, untiring in pursuit, and brave in attack. And let them be hungry before they are fed, or their appetites are cloyed forever. time which those double their age could support beneficially. Having thus began to command attention, the teacher should, with every week, lengthen the task without giving more time to accomplish it in. Should any scholar be refractory, and determinedly inattentive, she might be detained after study hours until she should have written out the lesson, which would thus not be utterly lost to her. This method was successfully tried in Philadelphia by, a true master of the art of teaching, whose system suggested this article. Between each stretch of this compelled attention there should be a time of utter relaxation, and then Such discipline, repeated frequently in the course of the morning, and recurring every day, could not fail to strengthen the power of concentration. The first power to be strengthened, is Attention, or Concentration. It is obviously no way to cultivate this faculty, to put a book into the hand of an idle, indifferent scholar, and bid her study, allowing her unlimited time to make up her careless mind to it. A short task should be given, and a short time" to it again." to do it in. The teacher should confront his pupils with all his terrors, and also all his force of encouragement. If, in the given time, under the power of his personal influence, the task is unaccomplished by some, it is probably because they have feeble or slow minds, and it has been impossible to them. Such should be put into a class by themselves, and a longer indulgence allowed them; but this class should be the teacher's special care, and lively. A good clear idea is hard to disand they should always be kept under his ut-lodge, while one half-seized and mingled with most urgency to haste, not of course brutally, or violently, or impatiently demonstrated. Such a course would scare timid, weak souls out of all their powers, but promptness must be animatedly and encouragingly insisted upon, with a firm, untiring patience. I would remark, in passing, that the usual mode of classifying pupils is as wrong as all the rest of the common system. They take The next faculty to be cultivated is the memory. In order to hold on to a thing, we must first get a good grip of it. A vivid first impression is of the utmost importance to the memory. Hence the use of attention - keen others of more attractive quality, (such as beaux, dress, etc., which in lessons learned at home, are apt to intrude,) soon slips aside, and is nowhere to be found. That the pupil may understand that she does not learn for mere recitation, but for all futurity, the classes should be subjected to unexpected reviews at odd times, and a high * The late Mr. Charles Picot. degree of merit attached to the best answers. ing to the system of Linnæus, of course, but Learning by rote is useful both as a memory- by one of her own devising. She will be strengthener and as forcing the mind to carc-obliged to note distinctive characters, define ful minuteness in attention. Some persons differences, and search for resemblances — think this practice injurious, as tending to re- thereby cultivating attention, memory, judgtard facility in expressing ideas. But readi-ment. Incidentally, she will also gain health ness of speech may be cultivated by methods and cheerfulness. better adapted to that end than the common one of allowing the child to stumble along, murdering grammar, and losing its idea perpetually, in its search after words. Make her read, and relate to you, some entertaining story, and she will gain more facility in an hour, than in a week's stammered history les sons. After Concentration and Retention, come Analyzation and Classification of ideas. These should be cultivated carefully, for upon them depend a sound judgment. How can an adult mind, which, from original feebleness and long indulgence in careless habits, can neither seize a vivid idea nor retain it correctly until examined, nor analyze it, nor see its connection with morals, or its relation to circumstances how can such a mind meet even the common-place demands of everyday life? It must fall into fatal blunders. Think what a pernicious mother such an unformed woman would make, and then look about and see how many such mothers there are. Who can wonder that precocious Young America spurns such authority, and that reverence is becoming an unknown emotion to him! Nothing is more favorable to habits of analyzation than the study of languages and the natural sciences. But it is not necessary to wait until the mind is mature enough for these pursuits. A little girl five years of age can be exercised in both that and combina tion, by sending her out to her garden and bidding her classify its flowers not accord When the powers of her mind have been trained by such means into full activity and development, and she enters into the battle of life-a woman - when mankind is her gar den, where ideas, springs of action, and varieties of deed are her flowers for classifying, she will not be the casy dupe, the thoughtless, shameless flirt, the weak, unreasonable wife, the frivolous, undiscriminating mother. But seeing clearly, judging fairly, and knowing surely, she will have the firmness, confidence, and modesty which strength and wisdom give. She will be a rock of support to those depending upon her. A. L. O., in New York Inde pendent. Valedictory Poem. THE following Valedictory Poem was written and delivered by Henry S. Latham, Jr., on the occasion of the recent High School Exhibition: As one who walks along the wave-washed shore And gathers shells and pebbles in his play, While ocean, with its loud majestic roar, In unknown vastness stretches far away; So on the shores of knowlege did I stray.Thus Newton spoke upon his dying bed; And so, my friends, may we exclaim to-day, As we review the moments that have sped, And bid a last farewell to scenes forever fled. O, mighty ocean of eternal truth That met the vision of the dying sage! We sport upon thy pebbly strand in youth, And through our lives in toiling search engage, Till, bowed with labor and bent o'er with age, We launch upon thy bosom, and are free! To-day we hear thine awful billows rage, And view thy terrible immensity, O'er which the soul shall sail throughout eternity! But ere we would explore The vast unknown, Let us survey the shore With pebbles strown, And beauteous shells, Within whose winding pearly cells A spirit dwells Which murmurs music to the list'ning soul Like echo of the ocean roll. On to eternity with course sublime The history of mighty nations dead, All that the earth has seen or men have known And where Infinity his name has writ, Within, without, in everything-behold But time is passing. We must bid adieu And first, to say farewell, we turn to you, And ye who long have sought To nourish in our minds the plants of thought, No words of ours can tell The feelings, clust'ring round that word-farewell! Within these much loved halls, a school-boy band. To you who leave these halls, I fain The deeds and thoughts of ages long since fled,Would speak of life, its strife and victory; 12 But Death forbids the lively strain, And whispers, "Let it be eternity." Behold! behold this verdant wreath, entwined With emblematic sorrow! Thus has death Our youthful circle entered. While to-day We talk of life and joy, a schoolmate lies Within his fresh-made grave. Oh! shrink not back At sight of immortality, when one Who walked among us, has already left This vestibule of being! As we stray Along the ocean margin, and behold The billows of eternity, which soon any other scholar. We pity him; we pity his parents, his brothers and sisters. What a disgraceful title-"The worst boy in school!" He will no doubt become one of the worst men in the community. Let every boy who reads this resolve to be "the best boy in school." Correct Speaking. We advise all young people to acquire in early life the habit of using good language, both in speaking and writing, and to abandon as early as possible any use of slang words and phrases. The longer they live, the more 'Tis life's great work one priceless pearl to find! difficult the acquisition of such language will The Best Scholar. In every school there is one who is called the best scholar. Teachers and pupils have no difficulty in deciding who is entitled to this honorable distinction; and when we once heard the pupils of a school exclaim, as a bright-eyed boy entered the room, "Here comes Frank; he is the best boy in the school," we thought, "What a good introduction to a new teacher!" After becoming acquainted with the scholars, we found that they had told the truth. Frank was the best boy in school, and will no doubt become one of the best men in the city. Think of it, boys. "The best boy in school." Who would not be proud of such a title? It is worth more than millions of dollars. But perhaps some scholars will say, "We can't all be the best." This is true; but you have a right to try; and the one who will try the hardest will succeed, for there is power in that little word try. Frank could not be the best boy in his school if he did not try. If you cannot be the best, be careful and not be the worst. Every school has one boy who is worse than be; and if the golden age of youth, the prop er season for the acquisition of language, be passed in its abuse, the unfortunate victim of neglected education is very probably doomed to talk slang for life. Money is not necessary to procure this education. Every man has it in his power. He has merely to use the language which he reads, instead of the slang which he hears; to form his taste from the best speakers and poets of the country; to treasure up choice phrases in his memory, and to habituate himself to their use — avoiding at the same time that pedantic precision and bombast, which show rather the weakness of a vain ambition than the polish of an educated mind. A shoolmaster, wishing his pupils to have a clear idea of faith, illustrated it thus: Here is an apple: you see it, and therefore you know it is there; but when I place it under this tea-cup, you have faith that it is there, though you no longer see it." The lads seemed to understand perfectly, and the next time the master asked "What is faith?" they answered, with one accord, "An apple under a tea-cup." |