grades of instruction. The Primary Schools present an almost uncultivated field, in this respect.

He believed there was an Art of teaching, and that the art of teaching and governing a Primary School is a very difficult one; perhaps he might say, even in the presence of all the ladies here, few persons understand that art. With all the good qualities which many possess for the work, they, like the young man in the gospel, "lack one thing," the art of teaching. The great difficulty is, that so few advance far enough to see that there is such an art. It is lamentable that those who have the control of Primary schools, committee men and others, have the impression which is common in the community, that anybody can teach a Primary School; that a girl who can read well and spell can teach such a school. He hoped the day would be hastened on, by discussions and lectures here, when it will be felt and believed that we must have our choicest teachers take the lowest classes, and we must pay them accordingly.

ZALMON RICHARDS, Esq., of Washington, D. C., said, there was no subject presented for the consideration of the Institute more important, in his opinion, than this. No one who has been long engaged in the business of teaching, has failed to discover that a large portion of the difficulties he has to meet in training his pupils, comes from the erroneous manner of their early instruction. The greatest difficulties he had met with in an experience of twenty-one years in teaching, originated with his own early training. He was more and more convinced of the importance of primary instruction. Although there is an institution in Boston whose business it is to train teachers for the Primary Schools, there are few who receive that training that are actually employed in teaching in those schools. Most of those who conduct the Primary Schools

have never had any training for their special work. So it is all over the country.

One of the most important defects from poor instruction in Primary Schools, is seen in the fact that there are so few good readers to be found. The reason why there are so few who read well, is not from any natural defect, but because of faulty education in the Primary School. Mr. R. said, he had just returned from a meeting of some of the wise men of the country at Montreal, and in listening to the papers read there, he was obliged to listen, to a painful degree, in order to hear anything. Half the papers I read there had not been heard.

The reason why so few read so that they can be understood, is because they were not taught to articulate all the sounds of the language correctly and distinctly. As in reading, so in behavior and morals, the foundation is laid in the Primary Schools. It is especially true that moral impressions are most easily made, and are most lasting if made early in life. There ought to be a profession of teaching, and none be permitted to enter it except those who are specially trained for it.

CHARLES NORTHEND, Esq., of New Britain, Ct., agreed fully in the views expressed by Mr. Richards. It was in the Primary Schools that the bad pronunciation so prevalent was acquired. The teacher of the Primary School should be of the very highest class, a model of all that the child should become. Children from five to seven years of age, he thought, should spend considerable time on the play-ground with the teacher, who should feel that his duties extend to that.

LEANDER WETHERELL, Esq., of Boston, said, the child is a bundle of capacities, to be developed. If these are rightly developed, he will become well prepared for all

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the duties of life. He agreed that the best teachers were demanded for the Primary Schools. In the race course, it is always considered important to get a good start; so it is in the race of life, and therefore the importance of having proper persons to train the very young. He did not believe it best, however, to spend a great deal of time on the play-ground in teaching children to play. all ready enough to do that without teaching. more needed is, that they should, while at school, be taught habits of application. Good readers were more rare than good singers. The reason is, that it is admitted on all hands that to become an artist in vocal music, there must be long and thorough training and much practice ; whereas the common impression seems to be, that every one can learn to read very easily, and consequently little training is given, and the result is poor readers.

The importance of interesting children in their school by familiar explanations of objects around them, was spoken of and urged. It was far better to have real objects to talk about, than the mere pictures or drawings on a black-board. No teacher has a more pleasant field to cultivate than the Primary School teacher; and if he or she is fitted for the work, the pupil may be started in the right course, with no wrong habits to be corrected in after life, and with a foundation for great attainments.

BENJAMIN GREENLEAF, Esq., of Bradford, said, teachers had too many things to attend to, in the higher schools, to correct the faults of their pupils, acquired in the Primary Schools. He had sent out from his school some five hundred teachers; but perhaps not more than one hundred were really good ones. They went out and taught till they found something else to do; the ladies, till they had another avocation. To do his duty well, a man must love his business. Scholars should be taught to believe they

can do just what they have a mind to do. All that is wanted is love and application. So of teachers, if they love to teach, they will make good teachers.

Dr. W. A. ALCOTT, of Auburndale, Mass., spoke of the means he had been accustomed to employ to interest children in Primary Schools. He thought they should be kept employed in some way,- by using slates and pencils, making their own reading lessons, or drawing pictures or diagrams. He would use no books in a Primary School; but the pupils should make their own exercises.

Mr. J. BATCHELDER followed, and stated some of the processes he would recommend for teaching the alphabet. He would use the black-board a great deal for that purpose, and at the same time, would have the pupils hold cards in their hands with the letters upon them, so that they could compare and select such as were made by the teacher, and point them out, and give their names.

On motion of Dr. Alcott, the subject under discussion was laid on the table.

The question,

"What Assistance should be rendered

to Scholars in their Studies?" was then taken up.

On motion of Prof. Rust, speakers were limited to ten minutes.

Mr. GREENLEAF said he would give none except, Yankee-like, when the pupil asked a question, to reply by asking another which might lead to a solution of the first. He said he had been a great sinner, and an old one, in this particular, but he would require pupils to perform their own problems and answer their own questions. The great reason why pupils ask for assistance is because they have not acquired the first principles, and especially, because they wanted to study so many subjects at once, and to learn B before they have learned A.

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One young lady came to his seminary who had been neglected in her early education; but she wanted to get on with a rapidity to compensate for former delinquencies, and so asked to commence the studies of Philosophy, Chemistry and Algebra, and she would like also to study Bigotry. On inquiry, it was suggested that perhaps she meant Botany, rather than Bigotry, and she did not know but that was it.

Dr. ALCOTT agreed with Mr. Greenleaf, especially in the idea that too many studies were pursued at one time.

Rev. A. B. FULLer, of Boston, very energetically opposed the idea that a teacher should not aid a pupil. Otherwise they might as well not have a teacher. The first assistance should be to inspire an interest in the study pursued, so that it shall be loved. He thought some subjects, as presented by teachers and authors, were so dry that no one could be interested in them, and no one scarcely could have patience to go through with the textbooks used. He referred to a book which was studied while he was at Cambridge as an illustration. On its flyleaf some student had written

"If there should be another flood,
To this book for refuge fly;
For if all else should be o'erwhelmed,
This book would still be dry."

Let there be an interest excited in the study, let the principles be understood, and let the pupil know how to study, and he will need little other assistance, but that assistance he does need, and should have. Unless a teacher gives that, he is false to his position.

The subject was farther discussed by Messrs. ADAMS, of Newark, WETHERELL and RICHARDS, when Mr. GREENLEAF said he agreed with those who had differed from him exactly. The subject was then laid on the table.