duced.

The teacher knows that his or her merits will be appreciated by a competent authority; an unprejudiced individual bears with the teacher the responsibility of discipline, while through the same medium, any improvement in the methods of one school is easily introduced into all the others. A school committee is thus enabled to know the condition and wants of every school; and, on the other hand, the teachers are ably and faithfully represented in every deliberation which affects their interests or their happiness. Wherever this office has been created and properly filled, it has been acknowledged in these respects, greatly to have advanced the progress of education.

The modes of teaching have, within the period which we are considering, greatly improved. There was formerly a tendency (with, I know, many honorable exceptions) to consider teaching the mere repetition of lessons, or the simple putting and answering of formal questions. The instructor did not much trouble himself to ascertain whether the pupil knew what he recited, but was contented if he merely said it. The duty might have been full well discharged by both parties without any real knowledge of the subject. Sometimes this process was rendered still easier by a series of questions corresponding to every paragraph, and almost every sentence of the text book, so that the teacher was saved the trouble of even making out the questions for himself. The sad effect of such a system upon the mind of both parties is easily understood. It was merely a lip service, with which

the intellect had very little to do. No means of illustration were furnished by the public. I have no doubt that thousands of the pupils of our somewhat advanced schools have, for instance, gone through a system of chemistry, supposing that they had studied that science, without ever having witnessed a single experimental illustration, and whose whole knowledge consisted in the recollection, for a few weeks, of some of the terms of the chemical nomenclature.

In this direction a great improvement is clearly observable. At the present day, we may generally affirm that a teacher would rarely attempt to teach what he did not himself understand. He is expected not merely to hear a lesson recited from the book, but to be able to illustrate and explain it, and thus awaken in his pupils an interest in the subject. Our books are far better adapted to the purposes of instruction than formerly, and presuppose a higher grade of knowledge in the teacher. Our academies are better furnished with the means of illustration in all the departments of science, than most of our colleges were twenty-five years since. Maps are abundant, and especially skeleton maps, which, more than any thing else, tend to fix in the mind of the pupil the natural features of a country. In many of our higher schools, cabinets of natural history have been collected. A black-board is considered indispensable, not only for instruction in arithmetic, but also to enable a teacher to represent, by a visible figure, any conception which is capable of such illustration. Teaching has ceased to be

a mere matter of rote, exercising the very lowest form of memory, the mere recollection of what we do not understand, but an active exercise of the thinking faculties both of the instructor and the pupil. The demand for school apparatus has, within a few years, greatly increased. Formerly, all our philosophical and chemical apparatus was imported from abroad, at enormous prices, and it was of the most antique and inconvenient construction. Now, we make it vastly better at home, at less than half the former cost, and this branch of manufactures is one of the most flourishing among us.*

* On this subject I am enabled to present some interesting facts, communicated, at my request, by the intelligent and enterprising gentlemen in Boston, Messrs. Chamberlain & Co., and Wightman & Co., who have so successfully carried on the manufacture of Philosophical Instruments.

The manufacture of philosophical instruments, and illustrative apparatus in physical science, commenced in 1830. For some time, the sales did not exceed in each establishment some five hundred dollars. Instruments were only imported for colleges, and the business was done principally by the late Rev. Dr. Prince, of Salem. The annual amount now sold in Boston, is from 60,000 to 75,000 dollars. Twenty-five years since, and not more than three to four men were employed in the construction of apparatus in New England. There are now probably one hundred in Boston alone, more than three times as many in that city as were formerly employed in the whole United States, twenty-five years since.

In 1837, one hundred and twenty-five dollars were appropriated in Boston for apparatus for each of the seven girls' schools. Now, the Boston Public Schools own not less than ten thousand dollars' worth of maps and apparatus introduced since 1842, and this is exclusive of the English High School.

In the demand for apparatus for schools, New England is falling behind the Western States. Ohio, at this moment, is setting us an example which it would be well for us all to imitate.

Another fact deserves here to be mentioned, and I refer to it with peculiar pleasure. The character of our school-houses has also been greatly improved. Not long since, they were a reproach to our community, and a striking illustration of the forgetfulness of even parental affection. Children whose homes were in every respect comfortable, were huddled together in small school-rooms, horribly cold in winter, and almost suffocating in summer, provided with seats and desks apparently constructed for the purpose of creating intense weariness, and inflicting no contemptible amount of pain. Our stables indicated more attention to the wants of our cattle, than our school-houses to the comfort of our children. Who of us, in middle life, can remember without a shudder the sufferings of a school-room in winter. A delightful change has come over us in this respect. Architectural talent is now employed in the erection of school-houses, which are ornaments to their vicinity, whether in town or country; and a knowledge of the laws of health has rendered them commodious, well ventilated, and healthful. The foul, prison-like smell which once distinguished the school-room has disappeared, and our children, in airy rooms, with convenient seats, and in a well-tempered atmosphere, find interest and enjoyment where they formerly experienced nothing but nervous prostration, weariness, and intense discomfort. This change, it is proper to remark, is to be ascribed more to the labors of Henry Barnard, late Superintendent of Common Schools in Connecticut,

than to any other cause. This gentleman has devoted his remarkable abilities, for many years, to the improvement of Common School Education, and the results of his labors may be discovered in almost every town in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

I might easily pursue this subject to a much greater extent, but I must proceed to consider briefly the improvement to be observed in the attainments of our teachers.

The opportunities afforded to the teacher for acquiring a knowledge of his profession have, within a few years, been greatly increased. The establishment of Normal Schools deserves here to be mentioned in the first place. It is obvious that the acquisition and the communication of knowledge, call into exercise very different elements of intellect and of character. The possession of knowledge does not, by any means, necessarily involve the power of communicating it. A course of practice under an experienced instructor, is frequently required to impart to the young teacher's mind a bias in the right direction. He thus perceives the obstacles in his way, and learns to overcome them; he acquires power of illustration, and facility in practice; his defects are pointed out and corrected, and he is thus enabled to commence his work with a degree of skill which must otherwise have been obtained by years of comparative failure and discouragement. Nor should it be forgotten that he acquires this skill by the instructions of another, and not by trying his unpractised hand upon pupils, who suffer the consequences of