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how to express his ideas, and elocution to inform him how to utter his sentences. But when either his rhetoric or his elocution is such as to attract attention to itself the oration is a failure just in proportion to the prominence of these. To use an old illustration, elocution, and rhetoric too, may be compared to a window which is excellent just in proportion as the glass by its very purity hides itself from sight. And as windows are made to look through rather than to look at, so elocution is the medium through which ideas are to be seen, and it answers its end just in inverse ratio to the degree of attention it draws to itself.

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We have spoken strongly because we feel strongly the evil that must result from the education of children into such false views of reading and speaking. The majority of the pupils in our schools will never need to read to a larger audience than the family circle, and there any of these tricks of voice or manner would be abominable. As for the others, the worst thing we can do with them is to make them declaimers. The country is already overrun with men who delight in the sound of their own voices. The thing to be done is to give to the young thoughts, ideas, and to make them in earnest about these. Then if they have a little simple training in the management of the voice, we need not fear that they will fail in the expression of their ideas. Men who are endowed by nature with a good voice, and who really have some thoughts which ought to be uttered, will find a way to make them heard, and they will not need an elocutionist to secure attention to what they have to say. Earnestness gives us action, and is a vital power. Declamation is mere acting, and is weak, and worse than useless.

"I slept, and dreamed that Life was Beauty;

I woke and found that Life was Duty:
Was then thy dream a shadowy lie?
Strive on, sad heart, courageously,
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A noonday light and truth to thee."

Editor's Department.

THE MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION.

Want of space compelled us to omit many things from the report of this meeting in our last number. We here print the remarks with which Alderman Gaffield, as the representative of the City Government, welcomed the Convention to the hospitalities of Boston.

Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen:

I deeply regret the absence of His Honor the Mayor, which makes it devolve upon me, as Chairman of the Committee on Public Instruction, to welcome you on this most interesting occasion. Himself a graduate of our Boston Public Schools, His Honor, by virtue of his position as Mayor, which he has filled with such ability and popularity for nearly seven years, is Chairman of the School Board, and has most faithfully and devotedly guarded the welfare and fostered the best interests of our schools.

He has always greeted with a warm hand and a cheering word such assemblies as these. And I am happy to inform you to-day that he has seconded most cordially the action of the Board of Aldermen and the Common Council, which, without a dissenting voice in either branch, passed a vote authorizing him to extend the courtesies of the city to your Association. In accordance with this vote, and in behalf of the Mayor and the City Council, I extend to you a most cordial welcome to our city, to its Schools, and its Public Institutions.

I know, Mr. President, how earnestly you have labored to prepare the intellectual feast which awaits all the members who will attend your meetings. You will have the pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, of listening to the teachings of .matured minds on the best methods of instruction, and the means of improving them. You will witness the results of some of these methods in the exercises of the pupils of our Boston schools in reading, in gymnastics and military drill. You will also see what has been done for a quarter of a century, and what is now being done, for music in our Public Schools; and we have arranged for your special entertainment a Social Gathering and Promenade Concert at Music Hall for this evening, where you may listen to the singing of the pupils of the Girls' High and Normal School, the performances of a choice orchestra, and the voice of the great organ.

Mr. President, this is emphatically an age, and ours is a country of great Conventions; and there is an inspiration going forth always from gatherings of large numbers, assembled together for one common object, and for the promotion of

the common weal. We have seen conventions of soldiers, of merchants, of manufacturers, of mechanics, of the loyal men of the South, and of the lovers of liberty and country from all parts of the land; and we have rejoiced in all of good which they have accomplished. But side by side with the noble soldiers and the lovers of liberty in our land stand these annual Conventions of County, State, and National Associations of humble, but noble, Teachers, who are laboring so modestly, but so efficiently, in instilling knowledge into the minds of the children of the rising generation, and in filling their hearts with those eternal principles of liberty, righteousness, and truth, by which alone our Constitution can be preserved and amended, our institutions of government can endure, and on which alone every man in our land, whether rich or poor, high or low, President or humble and honest laborer at his toil, can stand.

Go on, Mr. President and ladies and gentlemen, in your noble labors. The eyes of the Commonwealth and of all good men and good angels are upon you. God's blessing will go with you, and the generations that are, and the generations to come, will rise up and call you blessed.

We thank you for honoring our city with a visit, and we trust that your stay will be pleasant and profitable to you all. And when, in any future years, you shall find it your duty or your pleasure to visit us again, come, and we will always meet you and greet you with warm hands and warm hearts.

MEETING AT THE EDUCATIONAL ROOM.

Mr. HUTCHINS of Boston in the Chair.

SEPTEMBER 15.

Mr. LELAND of Newton was chosen chairman of the next meeting.

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Miscellaneous information

The following was the subject for discussion:its importance when and how to impart it. The discussion was opened by the Chairman. He thought there was too strong a tendency at the present time to devote all our energies to the special object of -fitting scholars for examination. Much that is really useful, and that the scholars should know, was therefore necessarily left out. The theory is that they will get it afterwards in the High School or College. The truth is, however, that but a small proportion of them ever attend the High School. The information is therefore lost to them. He thought that in country schools, where more branches are taught, and the course of study is less definitely marked out, the pupils receive more general information, and are thus on the whole better developed than in the city, where a teacher must spend all his time in drilling them within the required limits. The country scholars are thus able to read more intelligently and to view more understandingly the course of current events.

There are many facts not found in the school books which it is highly important that all should know, in order to be fitted to act well their part in life, or even to read the newspapers intelligently. We should be astonished, for instance, to find how few of our scholars knew how members of Congress are

elected, or the different constitution and functions of the United States, and State courts. There were also certain facts in Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and Physiology which all should know, but which must be imparted by the teacher as general information. Such, for instance, as why a pail of water, carried into a cellar in a cold night, will prevent the articles there from freezing, and why, on the same principle, our part of the country is only rendered habitable by the ocean which surrounds it; why we have no frost in a cloudy night; why we put yeast into bread; the cause of the tides, and facts in relation to the telegraph, fire-alarm, &c. He thought that in city schools especially, if more information of this kind were given, the scholars would be, on the whole, better educated.

Mr. PAYSON of Chelsea said that the importance of such information, no one can doubt. Scholars who learn nothing outside of the text-book will be sure to come out what are sometimes called "wooden scholars." His own custom was to spend regularly, every Wednesday and Saturday, from twenty to thirty minutes in giving miscellaneous information. The scholars were notified beforehand what the subject was to be, and were encouraged to ask as many questions as they chose. The results of such a course were very happy. Another way which he adopted was, to require every boy to bring a list of the books that he had read. He then questioned the boys about them. It often happened that several boys had read the same book, but had got different ideas from it. These he drew from them, and then compared them. Boys will, if encouraged to do so, ask a great many questions, especially upon History and Geography.

Mr. WHEELOCK of Boston (Boylston School) said that he had no stated time for imparting general knowledge, but did it whenever he could. He doubted the expediency of assigning regular seasons for it.

Mr. JAMESON of Boston (Boylston School) said that in his youth he had attended a country school, and recollected that he learned a great deal by listening to the older classes. He thought that the scholars of such schools were, in general, possessed of more miscellaneous knowledge than those in city schools. In his own school, he had no stated time, but took a good deal for this purpose. He then gave some instances showing the subjects that boys were likely to be ignorant upon. On the day after it was reported that President Johnson was assassinated, he asked his boys who, in case the rumor had been true, would have succeeded to the office. He found only one boy who knew. He then asked them who would become President if the President should die when there was neither President of the Senate or Speaker of the House? No one knew, nor did he believe any one present could tell. In fact it was, he supposed, an omission in the Constitution. On another occasion he had asked them if Capt. John Smith was right in killing his master. All said yes. He then asked them if it was not equally right for any other slave to do so. To this question, though obliged by their previous admission to say yes, they did it with considerable hesitation. They were thus led to reflect upon a somewhat nice point in morals.

Mr. PAYSON said that unless a stated time were assigned for the exercise, it would be very likely to be neglected, especially in schools having many assist

ants. He had established the custom originally, in his own school, as a means of giving vent to the furor for object-teaching which at one time siezed the community of teachers, and which he considered very pernicious. He thought, however, that much benefit resulted from the exercise, and had therefore continued it.

Mr. SMITH of Dorchester said that he had often noticed with pain how little scholars seemed to reflect upon what they studied. He thought, with other speakers, that scholars in the country were better informed upon matters of gen. eral interest than those in the city.

Mr. PHILBRICK of Boston related an anecdote to show the ignorance some. times displayed by scholars of subjects upon which they should be informed. He was once visiting one of the schools of Boston, in which many of the scholars are foreigners. He asked them where the State House was. They answered, "up by the Common." "Very well, now can you tell me what they do there ?" "Oh, yes,” said one, "there is where they put bad people." He thought the teacher should not be confined to stated times, but should bring in illustrations at every opportunity. There is, however, great danger, especially if the teacher is naturally fluent, of talking too much. The main object should be to cause the scholars to think for themselves. We should take especial care not to tell too many things at a time, as we shall thus only confuse them. We should carefully fix our points before commencing. He thought it a good thing to introduce objects in teaching. He recollected exciting an intense interest in one of the primary schools of the city by bringing in a stalk of sorghum ten feet long, which he found while riding in the country. Teachers should take care to have a regular system in their miscellaneous teaching, otherwise much of their labor will be lost. There are many facts in the chemistry of common life which may be profitably taught to scholars, and many of the facts of Natural History. He knew a lady who went to the Normal School and began to teach when more than forty years of age. She lived in a district where the school was almost entirely neglected, and where there was no interest whatever in education, either on the part of the parents or children. After fitting herself, she came home and announced her intention of teaching in her own town. The people would pay her nothing, but she determined to work without pay. She began by explaining some of the facts of Geology, and encouraging the scholars to collect specimens. Gradually they became deeply interested in it, and busily engaged in collecting minerals. The result was, that the school became entirely renovated, and the Committee were forced, for very shame, to pay the teacher.

Mr. WILLIS, of Weymouth, stated that he took a portion of every Wednesday afternoon for miscellaneous exercises. He gave the scholars a subject upon which they wrote compositions, which he corrected. They were encouraged to ask as many questions upon the subject as they pleased. He thought there was great danger in all exercises of this kind that the teacher would do too much of the talking, and related an instance in which the scholars used purposely to induce the teacher to talk, knowing that they should escape their recitation.

Mr. CHASE, of Watertown, thought that children in the country were better informed upon subjects of general interest than those in the city. It seemed to

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