The district school : or National education

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RECOMMENDATIONS.

Preface

TO THE THIRD EDITION-

In preparing for the press the third edition of the " District School/ 5 I considered its popularity to be such as to make it a duty for me to rewrite the whole work. This I have done, rejecting some parts, condensing others, and adding much that is valuable in the form of notes, taken from several able and recent writers on the subject of education. I have also made an addition of two entire new chapters, — No. VII. advocating seminaries for teachers, and No. XIX. urging the study of natural history in our common schools. I have likewise, from the advice of many intelligent friends, divided the book into paragraphs, that it may be used in schools as a reading class-book. Although three thousand copies of the District School have been sold in four months, it is sincerely hoped that the present improved edition will render the work still more acceptable and useful.

The Author.

New York, Oct. 1st, 1834.

To Johx Duer, Esq..

Sir, Permit me to submit to your consideration the printed sheets of a work, which contains the results of some personal examination into our elementary schools. Should the work meet your approbation, suffer me to request you to confer a favour on the cause of general education, by contributing to the "District School" a short preface. Yours with high regard,

J. Orville Taylor.

Sir, — I have read your book with great pleasure ; if the enclosed remarks will meet your views, they are at your service. Yours with esteem,

TOHN DUER.

PREFACE.

It is to parents, teachers, and legislators, that this work is addressed ; and on the minds of those who will read it with the necessary attention it cannot fail to make a most salutary impression. The title is modest and unpretending ; the style, though eminently clear and forcible, plain and unlaboured ; and the subjects of which it treats, and well and ably treats, are of the very highest importance, — far more important than the topics which are usually discussed in our halls of legislation, and which,

dignified by the eloquence of statesmen, and exaga 2 5 gerated by the arts of popular declaimers, have sometimes fixed the attention, and agitated the passions, of the whole community.

The reflections of the author are evidently the combined result of learning, experience, and extensive and accurate observation ; and he writes with that earnest simplicity which is the never-failing proof of sincerity, and which, it may be hoped, will transfer to the minds of his readers a portion of his own generous and disinterested zeal, — his zeal in the cause of public improvement and general happiness, — the cause to which he has consecrated his talents, his attainments, and his future life.

Entertaining this sense of the value of his work, I have felt it a duty to comply with the request of the author by contributing this brief preface ; nor have I been unwilling, I confess, to connect my name with a publication which, should its circulation be as extensive as it may, and ought to be, will mark an era in the history of public instruction.

To enforce the duty and necessity of extending to all the benefits of education, in the full and true sense of the term, — to expose the defects of the system of primary instruction which now prevails, — and to suggest some of the appropriate remedies, is the design of the work. On some of the subordinate topics of discussion differences of opinion may, and will exist ; but all who are competent to judge, and will give their due attention to the facts which this book discloses, must unite in the conclusion, that our present system of popular education is radically defective.

It is on this point chiefly that the public mind requires to be disabused ; it is in relation to this that there exists — I speak especially of this state — a very general delusion. We are told that under the fostering patronage of the government, more than half a million of children are taught in our common schools, — our pride, as citizens of the Empire State, is gratified, and we content ourselves with the general statement, omitting to inquire into the character and value of the instruction which is thus imparted.

We know not, for we care not to know, that it is in truth so imperfect and scanty as hardly to deserve the name even of elementary, — that it is unconnected with any thing resembling moral discipline or the formation of character, — that the teachers, inexperienced, transitory, snatched up for the occasion, are paid by salaries which hardly exceed the wages of the menial servant or the common labourer, — and that, as a necessary consequence, ignorant and disqualified, they are perhaps even overpaid by the pittance which they receive.

Yet it is in such schools and by such instructers that, thirty-eight out of forty of the children of the nation are, as we phrase it, educated. We have lived in a pleasing delusion ; but it is time we should awake. It is time that we should cease to boast of the superior intelligence of the American people, as compared with that of the population of the Old World ; we must no longer refer to our common schools as furnishing at once the evidence and explanation of the asserted fact It cannot be concealed, and ought not to be denied, that under one

S PREFACE.

of the most arbitrary governments of Europe, (despotic in its form, but in its present administration most enlightened and paternal,) the children of all, even of the meanest peasant in the kingdom, are receiving, in their village and parish schools, more varied and solid, and in every sense, valuable instruction, than any of our schools, I had almost said academies, are accustomed or competent to furnish ! The fact is certain : what reflections must it suggest to the minds of Americans who truly honour and love their country and its institutions !*

It is to parents and teachers, as already stated, that the exhortations of the author are principally directed, and it is from their voluntary exertions that he expects that reform, the necessity of which he has so clearly established. Looking to the models of G ermany and France, no " system of public instruction" has yet been organized in any of the states, and in none has the appropriate work of legislation been more than commenced.

I do not hesitate to avow the belief, that without regulations far more extensive than have yet been introduced, — a control far more enlightened and constant than has yet been exercised, — and fiscal aid far more ample than has yet been afforded, it is vain

* The admirable report of M. Cousin to the French government, " On the State of Public Instruction in Prussia," the publication of which has excited so lively an interest in Europe as well as in France, has been lately translated by Mrs. Austin, the authoress of the very best translation in the English language, — that of "The Tour of a German Prince." This report, together with the admirable preface of Mrs. Austin, ought without delay to be republished in this country.

to expect that the character of our common schools can be truly and permanently improved. It is conceded by all that nothing can be done without competent teachers, and such teachers, in the number and of the qualifications required, we can never have, unless they are properly trained, and properly examined, and watched, and controlled, and, above all, properly rewarded.

Neither the districts, nor the towns, generally speaking, are willing or even able to select or reward such teachers, and still less to prepare them for their functions, and direct them in their labours. If good is to be done, we must bring our minds as soon as possible to the confession of the truth, that the education of the people, to be effectual, must here as elsewhere, to a great extent, be the work of the state ; and that an expense, of which all should feel the necessity, and all will share the benefit, must, in a just proportion, be borne by all.

It is true that the public mind must be prepared for legislative action, and the belief of the value of that education which alone merits the name, must be far more pervading and serious than it now is, before legislatures will have either the inclination or the courage to act.

The dissemination of this book, and of the truths which it contains, will tend thus to prepare the public mind, to produce the right state of feeling and of thought ; for assuredly it will not be read in vain by parents who are such in heart and in conscience, not in name merely.

There are some truths which it may be painful to confess, yet are most necessary to be known. To the reflecting and the candid it will not seem extravagant to say that the chief source of the evils, the disorders, the crimes which afflict society, is to be found in the heartless indifference of the higher classes, the rich, the educated, the refined, towards the comfort and well-being of those they term or deem their inferiors, and their consequent neglect of the intellectual and moral improvement of those who always have been, and would seem by the order of Providence, always must be, the most numerous class — those who depend on their daily labour for their daily support.

It is this neglect, the alienation it produces, the ignorance it perpetuates, the vices it fosters, which leave marked the broad line of separation, on the one side, of which are the few, indolent, disdainful, proud, on the other the many, restless, envious, discontented. It is this which keeps the minds of a multitude in a constant state of irritation, and which, when the base demagogue seeks to array the poor against the rich, collects the crowd of his willing auditors, and arms him with his dreaded power.

It is this which caused the atrocities of the French Revolution, and which deepens and darkens the cloud that now hangs over England. It is this neglect — the grand crime of civilized and Christian society, which, in every country, sooner or later, and in none more certainly than in our own, if continued, is destined to meet a fearful retribution. Here most emphatically is it true, that the people must be raised to the level of their rights and duties, must be made the safe depositaries of the power which they possess, or in the history of other republics we may read our own fate ; — first, lawless anarchy — next, the calm which fear and the bayonet produce — the calm of military despotism.

How then are these evils to be prevented ? — this fate to be averted ? I answer, all that is odious, all that is dangerous in the distinctions which the free acquisition and the lawful enjoyment of property must always create, will soon vanish, and all classes be united in the enduring bonds of sympathy and gratitude, when the rich (I include all who have the leisure or means to, bestow) shall understand and feel that it is their paramount duty to improve the physical and elevate the moral condition of their fellow-beings, or, to express nearly the whole in one word — to educate the poor.

Let those on whom the burden ought to fall willingly assume — cheerfully sustain it, and there will be no further obstacle to the action of the legislature, no further difficulty in organizing a system effectual, permanent, universal. All that has been done in Prussia, and is about to be done in France, may be done here, and neither the patriot, the philanthropist, nor the Christian can desire more.

J. D.

Section I. Duties Of Parents In Educating Their Children

These duties have been treated in too general a manner — The peculiar duties of those who educate their children in the district school have not been sufficiently enforced — These considered — The parent's first duty is self-examination — The parent is the natural instructer and guardian of the child — Parents neglect their children during the susceptible years of infancy — Children begin to act and learn from the first moment of their existence — Parents do not notice the effect of their own example before infants — The mother may shape the character — Parents leave the education of their children too much w T ith the schoolmaster — They frequently have a bad government over their children at home — Difficult to govern such children — Parents should co-operate with the teacher — Supply his defects — Parents should continue their children's education after the school days are ended — This by giving them the means of knowledge — By example— By showing the pleasures and advantages of knowledge — The parent's happiness depends upon the education of his children — The child's happiness depends upon its education — The difference of early training makes the great difference among men — It is the parent's duty to his country to educate his children — It is his duty to society — If the parent does not educate his children the world will — Virtue and knowledge -need a teacher — If children are useful in after-life, it will be because they obtained the power to be so while young, . . . . p. 25

Section II. Qualifications Of Teachers

The want of well qualified teachers in the United States — The number of common school teachers employed — Some of the deficiencies described — Ignorant of the studies which they teach — Ignorant of the nature and operations of the youthful mind — No preparation made for teaching — The profession made a temporary thing — In the first place, teachers should well consider the nature of their employment — Teachers should examine their acquirements — They should be good readers — The poor reading in our schools noticed — Instruc- B 13 tions in this art to teachers — The example of good reading in the teacher — Teachers should be good penmen — They should be ready and accurate in the science of Arithmetic— With Geography — Teachers should have a thorough knowledge of the Grammar and Philosophy of the English Language — They should be well versed in History — They should be able to impart knowledge to others — The inability of teachers, and all students, to tell what they know, or what they think they know — Our system of education deficient, in making men communicate, or make a practical use of what they learn — The great necessity of the teacher's having this ability of imparting to others, . . . . . . p. 36

Section III. Qualifications Of Teachers, Continued

A teacher should have a good moral character — He should govern himself — He should have a good judgment — A teacher should have an even, uniform temper — He should have decision and firmness — He should be able to sympathize with his pupils — He should be able to discriminate character — He should be able to illustrate and simplify — He should teach as Nature teaches, 49

Section IV. Qualification Of Teachers, Concluded

A teacher should love his business — He should make his business his study and his profession — He should be patient and persevering — He should be able and disposed to overcome the various difficulties of his arduous profession — Several difficulties described — A teacher should always appear pleasant and affectionate — He should be qualified to show his pupils the importance of knowledge, 60

Section V

THE ADAPTATION AND IMPORTANCE OF COMMON SCHOOLS, AND THE DUTIES OF THOSE WHO HAVE A GENERAL SUPERINTEN- DENCE OVER THEM.

The school system, adopted by the state of New York, recommended — The wisdom of this system — The importance of good common or district schools — The neglect which learned and leading men have given them — The claims of these schools upon the wise and wealthy — The good effects of general intelligence — The duties of inspectors — The lax manner in which they fulfil their duties — They should be more rigid — The duties of the trustees of common schools — The manner they have performed their duties — The duties of commissioners — The duties which ministers owe to common schools — The duties of every inhabitant of the district, p. 68

Section VI. Teaching Should Be Made A Profession

The teacher's profession should be made as distinct as the lawyer's or the divine's — We should require professional knowledge in the teacher as well as in the preacher — Teaching is not made honourable because teachers have not prepared themselves for their business — Teachers should avail themselves of all the help they can obtain — It must be their highest ambition to be good schoolmasters — In a profession there is a constant accumulation of experimental knowledge — In the art of teaching there is no instruction in the past — Teachers have not communicated with each other — If teaching was made a profession, teachers would sympathize with each other — They would feel that they had the honour of the profession to support — That the eyes of the world were on them — That they might be known and honoured — He could then compare himself with other teachers — Each teacher would receive a part of the respect which would be paid to the profession, . 80

Section VII. Seminaries For Teachers

The necessity of securing a constant supply of well-trained schoolmasters — As is the master so is the school — The want of normal schools in the United States — "The state does nothing for education unless it educates the teachers" — The necessary qualities of a schoolmaster — Training schoolmasters — The manner of supporting normal schools in Prussia — The object of teachers' seminaries — The studies pursued — The plan proposed by the state of New York for educating teachers — How to secure the services of teachers — The Prussian mode — The qualifications necessary to enter a normal school — Duties of the guardians of normal schools — An elementary department should be attached to even normal schools, . 85

Section VIII. The Government And Discipline Of A School

The government of a school should be a constant moral discipline — The end and object of all government should be, to make men govern themselves — The teacher should labour to to make his pupils understand what is right and what is wrong, or the foundation of law — A teacher should govern his scholars as rational, moral beings — The superiority of a government of reason — Punishment should always answer its end — Punishments should not be inflicted before the school — Crimes which are common should be brought before the school — The teacher should show his scholars that he is acting under moral obligations — A teacher should have the same government over himself out of school, that he has in school — The government of a school should be regular and systematic — A teacher should not threaten or fret — A government should not be severe at one time and lax at another — The manners of children in school — The manners of the American people — The language of scholars, p. 94

Section IX. The Responsibility Of Teachers

The teacher is placed with the young and ignorant mind, which is to be instructed — Teachers do not feel the responsibility of their office — Their responsibility is increased by an original principle in children to imitate — The principle of imitation may be turned to a good account — Teachers are under a high responsibility, since to them parents have committed the education of their children — Society expects that teachers will make the children and youth social, honourable, and benevolent members — Teachers are responsible to their country for the manner in which they educate her youth — The responsibility of teachers is great, from the consideration that they will give character to future communities — The responsibility of teachers is seen, by reflecting, that the happiness of each scholar is, in a great measure, in the hands of the instructer — And lastly, how responsible are teachers, since their influence will reach into the world " that is to come," . 104

Section X. The Teacher's Compensation

The labours of a teacher are arduous and responsible — They are not well rewarded— There is no labour for which the American people do not pay more than they do for Elementary Teaching — A young man cannot afford to expend one cent in preparing himself to teach a common school — The unwillingness of parents to pay an adequate compensation to qualified teachers — Parents do not perceive the bad effects of giving low wages to teachers — If parents would give higher wages, it would induce young men to qualify themselves for instructing — It would be for the parent's interest to pay higher wages, and employ qualified teachers — In the first place, because it would save tuition money — In the second place, because it would save their children's time — And in the third place, because it would save parents much expense in Books, Paper, Maps, Slates, &c. — By employing a proper teacher parents would know that their children would be well educated — Children would then love the school — If parents would increase the teacher's wages, they would raise the character of the teacher's profession — Parents cannot receive the advantages of the School System unless they employ qualified teachers — And finally, to pay well qualified teachers is the only way for parents to increase the usefulness, and raise the character of district schools, ....... p. 114

Section XI. A Teacher Should Make His School Pleasant

Children and youth are governed almost entirely by their feelings — A teacher must control and take advantage of this government — The influence of first impressions with those who are governed by feeling — The teacher must love his school if he would make it pleasant — He must create friendship and good-will among his scholars — The teacher can make his school pleasant by making the acquisition of knowledge the means of happiness — By giving his pupils timely and agreeable recreations — He may make his school pleasant by simplifying the studies, and by presenting his instructions in an attractive form — The teacher may make his school pleasant by getting the love and confidence of his scholars, . . 124

Section XII. The Best Method Of Teaching Spelling And Reading

The early age when children begin to learn — They may learn the names of the letters as they learn the names of their playthings or associates — The early instructions of parents — The usual method of teaching the letters described — A better method suggested — Directions in teaching children the powers of letters — Its difficulty — The bad habit of not separating and pronouncing the syllables when the word is spelt — The error (in learning to spell) of correcting with the ear what belongs to the eye — A better method of teaching spelling — The evil of confining the children's attention for so long a time to mere words — The pupil should connect a meaning with words as soon as possible — The unsuitableness of the books which children use while learning to read — The bad effect of pronouncing words without affixing any meaning, and of reading what we do not understand — At present, the pupil reads to b 2 master the words, not to get knowledge — The reason of so much poor reading and speaking shown — Proper reading books recommended — Children should not read what they do not understand — The inability of the unlearned and learned to give a correct definition to the words in common use — The evil of this — The bad practice of reading with unnatural tones of voice — Teachers do not attend to articulation — Rules to pupils in a common school that they may learn to read well, p. 132

Section XIII. The Best Method Of Teaching Writing

The universality of bad penmanship — The time and money wasted in learning to write — The usual but defective method of teaching writing described — The position of the pupil at the writing desk — The way in which the pen is held — Bad ink — Improper desks — The teacher attending to something else while the scholars are writing — The teacher's criticisms too general — The unfitness of the copies set — The advantages of writing a good hand — The child should commence writing at an early age — In their first lessons scholars should use the slate and pencil — The advantages of using the slate and pencil — Directions to the pupil when it begins to use the pen and writing book — The cause of bad ink — The natural position of the pupil, and the proper manner of holding the pen described — Pupils should make their pens — The hands should be kept pliable — Scholars should read writing more — They should practise writing without a copy-plate, .... 144

Section XIV. The Best Method Of Teaching Geography

The study of Geography is very general, but not of much benefit, in the way it is now taught — Some of the defects in the present system of teaching Geography mentioned ; and first, scholars do not easily perceive, and in many cases never, the true figure and motions of the earth from its representation on the plain surfaces of Maps — There is a want of Globes — Secondly, the weak and limited minds of pupils are required to look over too much space, and at too many objects at once — Thirdly, scholars learn the definitions of the names of places, but do not form any idea of their situation and appearance — Fourthly, the representation of places and objects on the map, by marks, lines, and spaces, do not cause the child to conceive their true position, appearance, and location — Fifthly, there is too much said of dress, and fashions, and manners, and people ; the pupils think of persons rather than places — These evils may receive a remedy — The child may commence the study of Geography when five or six years old — The inductive method of teaching Geography explained, and strongly recommended — The several steps in the study mentioned — The symmetry which the study of Geography gives the mind — Instructions to teachers and learners of Geography, . p. 153

Section XV. The Best Method Of Teaching Arithmetic

Scholars obtain but little from arithmetic which is of any practical use — The reasons for this suggested — The first steps are not mastered — The examples in the book not practical — The rules are committed but not understood— The tables but partly learned — The disgust for the science — The«ums worked out by the teacher not understood by the scholars — The books deficient — Teachers do not bring enough of the business of the world into the school-room — Almost the first thing which the child notices is number — The arithmetical operations of the infant mind — The encouragement and direction which teachers should give to these operations — The assistance of visible, tangible signs — Prudence in the use of signs which represent abstract numbers — Directions in learning the tables — The necessity of practical business sums from the teacher — The teacher should aim at rapidity of operation, and discipline of mind, .......... 165

Section XVI. The Best Method Of Teaching Grammar^

The nature and use of grammar — The facts and phenomena upon which the grammar of a language is founded — The distinctions between the several classes of words or parts of speech are clear and immutable — All have the opportunity of observing these facts and phenomena — The reasons for grammar being an important study to all — Grammar has been considered difficult — Difficulties have arisen from the manner in which it is taught, not from the nature of the science — But few scholars are benefited by the study of grammar — The study has consisted in committing to memory and in guessing — A practical knowledge of the science is level with the capacities of all — The deficiency of books — The rules and definitions not understood — Teachers are seldom good grammarians — A system of teaching grammar recommended which has been thoroughly tested — The importance of giving correct definitions to this science has never been sufficiently considered— The reason given for so much guessing in the parsing exercises—

The several parts of speech considered separately — Their various modifications — The ability which the pupil now has — Further directions in finishing the study of grammar, p. 175

Section XVII. History Should Be Made A Study In District Schools

American youth neglect the history of their country — We know more of the history of other nations — Children and youth should study their country's history, and prize it as the 'great register of civil rights and noble deeds — It would prepare them to act for the present and the future — Our history should be taught at home, and at school, and by the way-side — Some of the great events of our history alluded to — Who does not wish to acquaint himself with these 1 — The aid which history would give, 186

Section XVIII. Composition Should Be Practised In District Schools

There is but little attention to composition in our common schools — To compose well is not made a necessary qualification in the teacher — Scholars dislike composition, and consider the art a mystery — Scholars make an improper choice of subjects for composition — They suppose that something entirely original must be written — In composition, scholars practise the harder to learn the easier — The bad influence of ill-directed efforts and wrong instruction — The preventive of these evils — Directions to young writers — Composition should have a prominent place in our primary schools — The good effects of exercises in composition — The scholar's inability to communicate his ideas — Composition not difficult — Directions to the teacher, ... 189