ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, BY HENRY BARNARD, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. 1. NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING........ An Address before the National Convention of Teachers in 1857. By Wm. Russell, II. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF TEACHERS IN PHILADELPHIA, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE FIRST PRESIDENT-Z. RICHARDS,............ III. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION,.......... SECOND SESSION, OR FIRST Annual Meeting at Cincinnati, OHIO, in 1858,.. 21 Officers-Lectures-Discussions-Resolutions,.... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE SECOND PRESIDENT-A. J. RICKOFF,.... THIRD SESSION, OR SECOND ANnual Meeting at Washington, D. C........ 25 Officers-Lectures-Discussions-Resolutions,.... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE FOURTH PRESIDENT-J. D. PHILBRICK,..... 32 FIFTH SESSION, OR FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING AT CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,....... 33 Constitution of the National Teachers' Association,...... VIII. OBJECT LESSONS, OR THe Method of NATURE IN EARLY TEACHING. By E. A. Sheldon, Superintendent of Public Schools in Oswego, N. Y.,................................ IX. CONDITIONS OF ADMISSION TO THE United States MILITARY ACADEMY AT WEST WHILE the Committee appointed by the Board of Directors of the NATIONAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, were considering the most economical and efficient way of publishing the Proceedings and Lectures of the Annual Meeting, for 1863, a communication was received from Dr. BARNARD, Editor and Publisher of the "American Journal of Education," from which the following is an extract: "I shall devote as large a portion of my Journal for 1864, and 1865, as shall be found necessary, to accurate but condensed historical sketches of the efforts which have been made by National and State Associations, to advance the cause of education and the profession of teaching in this country. In this connection, I shall be happy to publish the Proceedings and Lectures of the National Teachers' Association at Chicago, together with an abstract of the proceedings of all former meetings-including those of the National Convention of Teachers at Philadelphia, in 1857, in which the National Association originated-prefacing the whole with the Address, prepared by Prof. WILLIAM RUSSELL, for that occasion, in which the nature and objects of such an organization of the profession, are admirably set forth. To give personal interest to these sketches, I shall, as far as practicable, introduce biographical memoranda of the individuals whom their associates have selected as standard-bearers in these National and State movements. Should this medium and mode of publication answer your purpose, I will devote the March number of my Journal to the National Teachers' Association, provided such copy as you propose to furnish can be in hand by the first day of February. The Committee, or Association, will be in no way responsible for the publication, beyond the correctness of such copy as you may furnish, and such orders as you may give for copies in pamphlet form." The offer thus made was gladly accepted, on the ground of economy, as well as for the present dissemination and the permanent utility of the publication in this form. The Journal of the Proceedings as kept by the Secretary, and the Lectures, so far as they shall be furnished by their authors, prior to the 1st of February, 1864, will, therefore, be published in the "American Journal of Education," for March, 1864, which number will be forwarded to members ordering the same, and inclosing (fifty cents,) half the ordinary rate. It is the intention of the Editor to include in the same volume, (for 1864,) the Lecture delivered by the late HORACE MANN, before the Association at Cincinnati, in 1858, on "The Teachers' Motives," and another, by ELBRIDGE SMITH, Principal of the Free Academy, Norwich, Connecticut-on "Christianity in American Schools," before the Association at Washington, D. C., in 1859. Neither of these admirable lectures is included in the published Proceedings of the Association. JAMES CRUIKSHANK, Į Committee on Printing Proceedings .INTRODUCTION. WE shall devote the whole of the first number of this volume, (for 1864,) and a portion of each succeeding number, until we have finished the subject, to a condensed summary of the proceedings of the various Associations, which have been organized in this country on a National or State basis, to advance the cause of education generally, and particularly to give increased efficiency to the profession of teaching. We begin with the NATIONAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, the latest formed, and which promises to enlist a large number of American teachers in a work which is peculiarly their own. The nature and objects of such an organization are admirably set forth in the Address prepared by Professor Russell, for the Convention in which the Association originated, and with which we shall introduce the subject-after devoting a few words to its author. WILLIAM RUSSELL, the early, constant, and able advocate of the professional organization and action of teachers, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1798. Educated in the Latin School and University of his native city, and thoroughly imbued with the spirit and philosophical views of Prof. George Jardine, (author of "Philosophical Education,") he came to this country in 1817, and commenced his life-long work of teacher and educator, in Georgia. In every place and state where he has since lived, he has labored with pen, voice, and personal influence to bring teachers together for consultation and united action. By his "Suggestions on Education," published in New Haven, in 1823, while he was Principal of the New Township Academy, and the Hopkins Grammar School; by his "Manual of Mutual Instruction," in 1826; by the "American Journal of Education," Boston, 1826-9, his advocacy of "Teachers' Associations," before a county convention of teachers at Dorchester, (Mass.,) in 1830, and of "Infant and Primary Schools," in Boston, in the same year; by his "Journal of Instruction," in 1831, the organ of the Philadelphia Association of Teachers, which he projected during his connection with a School for Young Ladies' in Germantown, and afterward in Philadelphia; by his "Lectures on Normal Training," in his Normal School at Reed's Ferry, in New Hampshire, and at Lancaster, Mass., since published in Barnard's "American Journal of Education;" by his "Address on the Education of Females," at Andover, Mass., in 1843; by his "Suggestions on Teachers' Institutes," first issued in 1846, and his annual labors and instructions in those eminently professional schools for twenty years past; by his published lectures on "Duties of Teachers," in 1850, on the "Encouragements of Teachers," in 1853, and on the "Organization of Teachers as a Profession," before the New Hampshire State Teachers' Association, in 1849, and the Massachusetts State Teachers' Association, in 1856, and the National Teachers' Convention, in 1857, Professor Russell has done noble service to the cause of American education, and earned the profound respect and gratitude of every American teacher. How touchingly does he allude to himself and his compeers, in the closing paragraph of his address at Philadelphia, in 1857. "To have dwelt so long on a single point, amid the many to be carried by the establishment of a national association of teachers, may be pardoned to one who, when he looks round such meetings as the present, in search of those with whom he may most intimately sympathize, finds them few and far between, and all among fellow laborers of forty years' service in the occupation. To himself and his "co-mates" any personal considerations of honor to be derived from the business of teaching becoming an acknowledged profession, can be but small inducement to move in this proposal. To him and to them the lease of active life is drawing to a close. But the sight of so many young and earnest faces, on occasions like the present, with all the bright associations which they suggest in reference to coming years, seems to make it worth while to put forth the hand with what energy is left it, toward the accomplishment of an object in which the prosperity of the future is so largely involved, for the capable and the faithful teachers who are now commencing their professional career." |