DEFECTS OF OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM. 289 lic estimation, second to none; and consequently, while incompetent and unqualified persons are debarred from assuming it, merely at the suggestion of their own will or wants, the well-qualified and successful have before them the prospect, not merely of pecuniary reward and independence, but of the highest honors, which it is in the power of the monarch and the ministry to confer! Republican America cannot be expected to adopt the Prussian precedent of be stowing cordons and crosses of honor upon its successful public servants, but she may take a useful and valuable hint from the fact, that the now leading Empire of European civilization has long thus honored her successful Educators on a par with her successful soldiers!—An Educator in Newport Mercury. DEFECTS OF OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM. WHILE the attendance of pupils actually belonging to the schools is good, and truancy in its technical sense is an infrequent offence, we have no right to overlook the fact that there is in our city, as well as in others, a class of children of school age, whose names are upon the roll of no school, public or private, and whose truancy is consequently permanent. The parents of these children, generally very ignorant themselves, and quite indifferent, apparently, to the welfare of their children either give their time for the pittance which they are able to earn, or allow them to roam the streets in idleness. The inquiry as to the means which shall be taken to bring these children under the influence of the school is becoming a very serious one. This element, when a few years have passed, will constitute an ignorant, unprincipled class, similar in kind to that which we have always known to exist in foreign cities, and which we know to be preying upon person and property in the larger cities of our own country. In earlier times, when the foreign element in our communities was smaller, mere public sentiment, which marked the man who neglected his children as below the respect of his fellows, did much to regulate this matter. As our country adds centuries to her history, however, and the character of our population is becoming constantly more complex, a means so simple as this is not sufficient. We need not look far back in the pages of history to convince ourselves that no enemy is to be more greatly feared by any nation than ignorance among her people. When a brutal father physically injures his child, the State does not hesitate to interfere, assuming that guardianship of which the parent has shown himself unworthy. It is very difficult to give any sound reason why the State should not be equally jealous of the intellectual rights of the child, which are of at least equal importance. The class of parents to whom I have referred, are reached neither by educational addresses, nor by printed documents. My perience leads me to believe that something may be accomplished among them by direct personal effect. When this fails, the arm of the law should be felt, compelling a reasonable regard for the intellectual wants of the child, and indirectly, as we have seen, for the welfare of the State. He who would consider this an infringement of personal rights, has yet to learn that nothing can properly be recognized as an individual right, which is in conflict with the public welfare; and that the true interests of the masses can only be secured through the intelligence and ability of their leaders. In so important an interest as that of Popular Education, it is both unnatural and unphilosophical that full power should be left in the hands of those who are unfitted intelligently to assume the responsibility imposed upon them. The support of schools by general taxation implies a moral contract between the State and the tax-payer. A citizen, whose tax for the support of such a system is large, and who receives no direct benefit from the schools, contents himself with the assurance that the tone of the community in which he lives is being elevated; that ignorance and crime are meeting with a vigorous assault; and that he is to enjoy increased security of person and property. He is told, and is happy to believe, that his money, instead of erecting prisons and otherwise providing for the defence of society from a large criminal class, is largely anticipating the existence of such a class by training to habits of intelligent industry those who would otherwise constitute it. DEFECTS OF OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM. 291 the If the State throws her responsibility in this matter upon parent, without asking whether he is conscientious in the discharge of his duties to his child, or whether he in any adequate degree appreciates the magnitude of the interests involved, a portion of the very class from whom the greatest danger to society is to be apprehended, will grow up as little influenced by the school as if it had no existence. If the tax-payer finds that he does not receive the protection which was promised him, he cannot be blamed for feeling that the State has broken a contract to which, morally at least, she has made herself a party. The need of intelligent legislation upon this subject is becoming very urgent. Unless action is speedy and effective, a portion of the present immense generation of children of foreign parentage will be thrown upon us utterly unfit for the proper discharge of the duties of citizenship. A prominent public speaker recently asserted that the want of compulsory attendance is the only defect of our American educational system. This statement will require some modification, I think, before it can be accepted by our most intelligent educators. The essentials of an ideal school system are three in number. First, the attendance of all children, whose education is not otherwise provided for; second, the best instruction; third, special schools for those who cannot be properly controlled under such regulations as are most wholesome for the great majority of children, or whose moral influence is baneful. The first of these essentials can be met, certainly by compulsory attendance. The second implies the general adoption of a high standard of qualifications, and the founding of such normal and training establishments as shall enable those who desire to teach to conform to such a standard. The passage of the bill recently before our Legislature, authorizing the establishment of a Normal School is an important step in the right direction. The benefit which the State will derive from the school will depend very largely upon the firmness with which school officers, throughout the State, insist that those who expect to become teachers, shall avail themselves of the advantages which such a school is designed to afford. The third essential, which I have named, suggests an allusion to the recent gift to the city of a very fine farm in Portsmouth on condition of its being made the location of an Industrial School. I cannot but regard this event with great interest, as likely to afford our city peculiar facilities for meeting a want which is deeply felt in every community.-Report of F. W. Tilton, Newport, R. I. HINTS TO YOUNG TEACHERS. ONCE upon a time a young girl, fresh from her books and schoollife, received an appointment to teach a district school. Brought up to consider labor both honorable and desirable, from her earliest recollections this had been her ambition. For this she had studied, and for this she had hoped. The most pleasing dream of fancy to her was a model school over which she presided. In accordance with these ideas she, of course, was interested in everything pertaining to education, and had, moreover, a few original ideas of her own on the subject, which at that time she considered of unequalled importance and excellency, and neyer for once doubted her ability to carry them into effect. Borrowing many fine-spun theories from persons fond of theorizing, fully convinced of their superiority as compared with the ordinary humdrum methods which prevailed at that time, and confident what great benefits might be derived from their adoption, her imaginary pupils were the beautiful possibilities which in the future were to become surprising realities. Of course, she reasoned within herself, in the present state of society home advantages had so greatly increased, books and papers were so widely read, and refinement and culture so generally prevalent that school-teaching now-a-days was quite a different thing from school-teaching fifty years ago. Then, no doubt, it was a difficult task to control a school of rough, coarse boys, and wild, rude girls; but now it was positively a pleasure to enter a school-room and simply instruct a few intelligent, well-bred lads and quiet little misses, who surely were taught how to behave at home. She forgot that human nature is always human nature, or that HINTS TO YOUNG TEACHERS. 293 there was such a thing as original sin, and scorned the very mention of the rod. Corporal punishment she discarded entirely, and was a firm believer in the force of moral suasion. Having been for years the pupil of one of the most successful educators in the State, with whom government seemed to be secondary, and whose scholars were kept so busy with their books that they somehow grew to consider him more in the light of a faithful instructor rather than a master, she, as well as most of her schoolmates, believed that she conducted herself properly in the school-room from choice rather than compulsion, and often failed to appreciate that skill and tact of the teacher who governed so completely and so well as to give the impression that the school governed itself. With such ideas and such fancies she entered upon her labors; not, however, without realizing the great responsibilities resting upon her. She was thoroughly in love with her profession, and firmly believed that she had not only chosen one to which she was suited, but also the only one which suited her. So she began her work as a teacher, and through the long summer days found many opportunities for carrying out her favorite theories. Is it necessary to state that she learned many never-to-be-forgotten lessons during those five months? At the close of that summer's task she found herself wiser and better than when she began. A comparison of ideas which she now held with those of the early spring, showed a decided change of opinion. She had found, instead of model boys and girls for pupils, little parcels of human nature, running over with fun and activity, and more or less characterized by a natural propensity to follow after that which is evil. Her fine theories concerning the importance and efficacy of moral suasion had vanished entirely. Her experience had taught her that while in many instances she had successfully influenced her pupils by that alone, still she had occasionally found it necessary to resort to somewhat harsher means, and always with considerable success. She had found that schools as a class were subject to periodical "spells," when the right punishment inflicted upon the right person had a salutary effect on every scholar; that scholars possessed oftentimes a wonderfully correct ideal of what a teacher should be, and were by nature remarkably severe and at the same time remark |