The teachers' institute

Front matter

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Preface

Since the revival of education in Massachusetts, and, I may justly say, in the United States, in consequence of the establishment of our Board of Education, several valuable treatises on the important subject of Public Instruction have been published, and each in its way has done good service to the great cause ; but still, it seems to me, there is room for the little volume which, perhaps, with more zeal than discretion, I am about to " cast upon the waters."

When I was invited by the Secretary of the Board of Education to take part in the instruction to be given at the Teachers' Institutes, which he proposed to hold in different parts of the State, I was not aware that my notions of the matter and manner of teaching were eo different from those which prevailed. When, however, at the Institutes, some of the lessons which I had given at leaet a quarter of a century ago were viewed as novelties, and listened to with attention as unexpected as it was gratifying, I readily yielded to the repeated suggestion that it might aid the cause of education to publish such of my hints as could be written out, however inferior they must necessarily be to the living lessons that I had given in person.

Those lessons were all given without any book, and usually without any notes ; but this volume contains, I believe, a faithful sketch of them, with three of the many lectures that I delivered, and such additional remarks as occurred to me while the work was in progress. It makes no claim to be a complete treatise on education, for I had neither time nor inclination to attempt so high a task. It is no compilation, however, but a familiar record of my own experience, written in the midst of business, and with the printer at my heels, — two disadvantages which those only can fully appreciate who have been so incautious as to try a similar experiment.

Teachers' Institutes are assemblies of teachers, convened for the purpose of receiving and imparting instruction in regard to the art of teaching. They are, in fact, temporary Normal Schools, although, of course, conducted with less eystem and less preparation. The duty of calling them devolved upon the Secretary of the Board of Education, and he was present several days at each of the ten that were held in the autumns of 1845 and 1846, of which duty an interesting report is given in his Ninth Annual Report to the Board. The exercises consisted mainly of lessons given by some experienced teacher ; of mutual instruction by the members of the Institute ; of free discussions, in which the citizens, especially school-committee-men, often took part ; and of lectures by gentlemen who had paid attention to the progress of public education in the State. Of course,

IV PREFACE.

as far as possible, teachers and lecturers on all systems, and on all educational subjects, were invited to teach and lecture, that the young teachers might see and hear all that was abroad, and be able to carry home many inventions that they would never, perhaps, have wrought out in their almost isolated districts. I spent a longer time than any other teacher at these Institutes, and probably said and did more than any other. I must, of course, have said many things about which there is a difference of opinion in this community, for I am accustomed to speak what I think, without asking whether the thought is popular or not. It is my duty, therefore, to declare, that neither the Board of Education, who honored me by the invitation, nor their Secretary, is accountable for any sentiments I uttered at the Institutes, and much less for any thing I have written in this volume. The truth of the matter is, that, until it was published, neither the Board nor its Secretary had any knowledge of the contents of this book, nor even of my intention to publish it.

Contents

Page

Mental Arithmetic, .... . 68

Drawing, 82