What is the organization of the school system? What branches of knowledge should be taught in our common schools? What should be the character of our common school books? How may school apparatus and school libraries be made most useful? In what branches should instruction be given orally, and in what degree? What should be the qualifications of teachers? Are normal schools, or seminaries for the preparation of teachers, desirable? On what plan should they be established? Is a central normal school for the Union desirable? Should it be under the direction of Congress or a society of citizens? What connection should the common schools have with academies, colleges, and universities? What models for school-houses are best? Will a Board of Education, established by each State, afford the best supervision, and secure the highest improvement of the schools? How can itinerant teachers and lecturers best supply destitute places? Is a national system of instruction desirable? How should a school fund be applied? In what part of each State has the greatest progress been made in elementary education? How may school statistics, which must be the basis of legislation, be most easily collected?__What features of the system now in operation in Holland, Germany, Prussia, France, and Great Britain may be most usefully adopted in this country? FELLOW CITIZENS:-The discussion of these and kindred topics will probably elicit a mass of information, the importance of which can not be easily overstated We would therefore urge those, who shall attend the Convention, to come prepared for making known the valuable facts they can gather. Believing that all the talent of a country should be so tempted forth, by judicious culture, as to bring it into profitable and harmonious action; that it is important to the public good as well as to private happiness that we should receive the requisite supply of useful information; and that each faculty which the Creator has implanted in childhood should be developed in its natural order, proper time, and due proportion; we invite you to secure the attendance of delegates from your State, prepared to promote the first duty of your republic-the educa tion of our youth. Believing that our country must look to intelligence as its defense and to virtue as its life-blood; and that the plan now proposed, originating in the most enlightened views of freedom and humanity, will be the first in a series of means for securing the greatest good to future generations, not only among us, but to our sister republics, the Lyceum desires to bring into a focus all the light which can be collected in our land. Some of the most distinguished gentlemen in the several States have promised to be present; and we would suggest the expediency of inviting the members of Congress (who will be on their way to Washington about the time of meeting) to join the Con vention. With the most heartfelt good wishes for the success of every effort for the benefit of the young, both in your State and throughout the Union, we are NEW YORK, June, 1839. Your friends and fellow citizens, THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN, of New Jersey. JOHN GRISCOM, of Pennsylvania. HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT, of Michigan. P.S. We respectfully invite each editor of a newspaper in the United States to give his patrons the opportunity of reading the above circular, and to add this postscript as recording our sincerest thanks for his friendly coöperation. NATIONAL CONVENTION. The Convention met on Nov. 22, 1839, at the session room of the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. There were present fifty-five delegates from the States of New York, Maryland, Delaware, and North Carolina, the District of Columbia, the city of Baltimore, and Board of Commissioners of Public Schools of Baltimore, the Select Council and Common Council of Philadelphia, the Directors of the Philadelphia Public Schools, the Pennsylvania Ly ceum, and the Philadelphia Lyceum. Prof. John Griscom, of New York, was called to the chair, and Z. C. Lee, of Baltimore, appointed Secretary, and a committee was appointed to prepare business and nominate officers. Upon report of the committee, the following gentlemen were elected officers of this Convention : President-Prof. John Griscom. Vice-Presidents-W. C. Johnson, of Maryland; J. R. Chandler, of Philadel phia; Willard Hall, of Delaware; Samuel Webb, of Philadelphia. Secretary-Z. C. Lee, of Baltimore. Assistant Secretary-Rev. G. Jenkins, of Philadelphia. The Hon. W. C. Johnson, Chairman of the committee on business, then submitted the following resolutions, which after some debate and amendments, in which Messrs. E. Stanley, of North Carolina, W. C. Johnson, J. Jenkins, Rev. Dr. Geiteau, of Baltimore, J. R. Chandler, J. King, of Baltimore, Z. C. Lee, C. Gilman, of Baltimore, Rev. R. R, Gurley, of Washington, Dr. J. E. Snodgrass and R. M. Laughlin, of Baltimore, W. Wharton and J. J. Barclay, of Philadelphia; Dr. S. Collins and J. P. Kennedy, of Baltimore; Dr. Bache, of Girard College, S. Webb, of Philadelphia, and others participated, were adopted in the following form: Whereas, the cause of popular education is one which should command the energy and zeal of every lover of his country, and which calls for the united action of the citizens of this republic, therefore Resolved, That the National Committee of the friends of education, now in session in Philadelphia, desire that an earnest appeal be made in their behalf to the people of the United States in relation to this interesting cause, embodying the precepts contained in the farewell address of the immortal Washington, and the spirit of his compatriots of the Revolution. Resolved, That a memorial from this Convention to the Congress of the United States be prepared, asking an early appropriation of the Smithsonian legacy to the purposes of education, for which it was designed by the generous philan thropist whose name it bears. Resolved, That a memorial prepared from this Convention to the Congress of the United States, urging upon that body the propriety of appropriating all, or a part of the proceeds of the sales of public lands, for the purposes of educa tion. Resolved, That a memorial be presented in behalf of this Convention to the Legislatures of the several States of the Union, urging the establishment of a system of general education, whereby free and common schools may be made accessible to all, and that knowledge be secured to the people which is the bulwark of social and political happiness and freedom. And whereas, it is most important to rally the friends of education throughout our widely extended country, therefore it is further Resolved, That the Governors of the several States be requested by this Convention to direct in their messages the attention of the Legislatures to the state of popular education in their respective States; and also that they officially promote immediate inquiry how the same can be improved. Resolved, That the National Convention, now in session in Philadelphia, recommend to the friends of education in the several States of the Union, the holding of State Conventions, or the formation of State Educational Societies, for the promotion of the cause of education by such means as may seem to them Imost suitable. Resolved, That a general Convention of the friends of education, to consist of delegates from State Conventions, lyceums, public bodies connected with institutions for education, or from regularly constituted public meetings of the friends of the cause, be held in Washington on the first Wednesday of May next. Resolved, That the officers of this Convention, together with a special committee of nine members to be appointed by the officers, be requested to make all necessary arrangements for securing the attendance of delegates from the various sections of the United States, at the General National Convention to be held at the city of Washington in May next. Resolved, That this Convention recommend to the several State Conventions to appoint delegates to the National Convention to be held in Washington, and a standing committee to correspond with the committee of the National Convention. Resolved, That the President and Vice-Presidents of this Convention be authorized to appoint the requisite number of committees (to consist of five members each) to prepare the address and memorials contemplated in the preceding resolutions. Committees were appointed as follows: To propose an appeal to the people; Messrs. Z. C. Lee, R. R. Gurley, C. C. Burleigh, M. J. Lewis, Dr. Ballinger. To memorialize Congress respecting the Smithsonian legacy; Messrs. J. R. Chandler, J. J. Barclay, G. M. Wharton, W. Wharton, and G. M. Justice. To memorialize Congress respecting the appropriation of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands; Messrs. J. P. Kennedy, C. Gilman, Rev. Dr. Geiteau, Rev. E. W. Gilbert, and G. Emler, Jr. To memorialize the Legislatures of the several States; Messrs. Dr. A. D. Bache, Rev. Dr. Jenkins, Prof. E. C. Wines, Prof. J. Griscom, and W. S. Peet. Special Committee of Arrangements for a general National Convention; Messrs. Judge Hall, T. Earle, E. W. Gilbert, Prof. J. Bryan, W. Biddle, Dr. O. H. Cosbell, Dr. G. H. Burgin, C. Gilpin, J. Weirgand, and D. Parrish. After votes of thanks to the city authorities, citizens, and the officers of the meeting, the Convention adjourned sine die. Thus ended, it is believed, as far as all public action was concerned, the operations of the "American Lyceum." Under the discouragements and difficulties attending an imperfect organization, want of sympathy and hearty coöperation, want of authority, and want of funds, it had done what it could. The defects of the system of which it was a part, and which it advocated, the endeavors to remedy them, and the attendant discussions and experiments, tended strongly to develop and introduce better systems and the use of better means. Out of these early lyceum movements originated many permanent educational, library, and lecture associations, as well as innumerable local improvements in the organization, instruction, and discipline of schools, public, and private. The proceedings of its several meetings, as well as such of the reports, essays, &c., as were published, appeared, with few exceptions, in the Annals of Education. The publications of the first year were also issued in pamphlets form. Several of the essays on the fine arts appeared in the American Monthly Magazine. JOSIAH HOLBROOK. JOSEPH HOLBROOK, the originator of the American Lyceum, and one of the earliest and altogether the most efficient promoter of the American movement in popular education by means of scientific lectures, and classes and associa tions of adults for mutual improvement, was born in Derby, Conn., in 1788, and graduated at Yale College in 1810. Inspired by Prof. Silliman with a love of Chemistry and Geology, he cultivated these studies after his graduation, while in charge of the paternal farm in 1819; and following the example of Fellenberg, whose enterprise at Hofwyl had become known in this country, commenced an Agricultural Seminary at Derby in connection with Rev. Truman Coe, in 1824. About this time he began to lecture on his favorite sciences to miscellaneous audiences in the villages of the western part of Connecticut and Massachusetts; and in 1826 he published his plan of " Association of Adults for the purpose of Mutual Education," which he had the satisfaction to help to embody in an or ganization at Millbury, Mass., called the "Millbury Lyceum, No. 1 branch of the American Lyceum," in 1826; in the Worcester County Lyceum in 1827; in the Boston Mechanics' Lyceum in 1830; in the Massachusetts State Lyceum in 1831; and in the American Lyceum in 1831; besides hundreds of similar associations in different parts of the country. In 1825 Mr. Holbrook began to manufacture cheap apparatus for illustrating Geography, Geometry, and Natural Philosophy, which he greatly extended in 1829, in connection with Timothy Claxton, in Boston, and which is still known in the schools of the country as the Holbrook School Apparatus. In 1830 he issued the first of a series of Scientific Tracts, and in 1832 published the first number of the "Family Lyceum." In 1837 he entered on the enterprise of building up a community at Berea, Ohio, called the Lyceum Village, and in 1842 became central agent of a plan of School Exchanges, having its office in the building of the Trustees of the Public School Society of New York. This last plan contemplated the spread of his method of school instruction, as set forth by S. W. Seton, in the Fortieth Report of the Trustees in 1846. Mr. Holbrook died in May, 1854, near Lynchburg, Va. For an extended memoir, with a portrait; See Barnard's American Educators, Vol. II. THEODORE DWIGHT. THEODORE DWIGHT, JR., an efficient laborer in the field of popular enlightenment by his pen, as author, and editor and correspondent of educational magazines and newspapers, and an active participator in the Lyceum movement inaugurated by Josiah Holbrook, was born in Hartford, Conn., in 1796, and graduated at Yale College, in 1814. Among Mr. Dwight's publications are "A Tour in Italy, 1821." "The Scooolmaster's Friend and the Committee-man's Guide, 1835." "Dictionary of Roots and Derivatives, 1837." "The Father's Book, 1837." "History of Connecticut, 1841." "The American Magazine, 1845-1852." "Lecture on Management of Common Schools, 1835." XII. THE RHODE ISLAND INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION. PRELIMINARY MEASURES. THE RHODE ISLAnd Institute of INSTRUCTION had its origin in the comprehensive plans instituted by the Commissioner of Public Schools (Henry Barnard) in 1843, to disseminate as widely as possible, by all the agencies within his reach, a knowledge of existing defects and practical remedies, and to awake in parents, teachers, school committees, and the public generally, an inquiring, intelligent and active interest in all that relates to the advancement of public schools and popular education in Rhode Island. Among these agencies and means are enumerated by him, in his report to the Legislature in 1845, the following:-(1.) The Public Lecture and Conference, not only in every county, but in every town, and every large neighborhood in every town. (2.) The conversation of an itinerating agent in towns and districts where a school-house was to be built, and the schools graded. (3.) The cheap, or gratuitous circulation of educational tracts, documents and periodicals. (4.) The establishment of a library of books on education, agriculture, the mechanic arts, &c., in every town. (5.) The formation and coöperation of associations of teachers, school-officers, and friends of education in towns, counties, and the State, for the advancement of the common object. (6.) The holding of Teachers' Institutes for the more prolonged and systematic discussion of methods of instruction and the whole subject of school management. (7.) The establishment of at least one Normal School. On the subject of educational associations, in the Report in 1845, above referred to, the Commissioner remarks: Teachers in every town have been urged to hold occasional meetings, or even a single meeting, for the purpose of listening to practical lectures and discussions, or what would in most cases be better, of holding familiar conversation together, on topics connected with the arrangement of schools, on methods of instruction now practiced or recommended in the various periodicals or books which they have consulted, and on the condition of their own schools. But something more permanent and valuable than these occasional meetings has been aimed at by an organization of the teachers of the State, or at least of a single county, into a Teachers' Institute, with a systematic plan of operations from year to year, which shall afford to young and inexperienced teachers an opportunity to review the studies they are to teach, and so witness, and to some extent practice, the best methods of arranging and conducting the classes of a school, as well as of obtaining the matured views of the best teachers and educators on all the great |