cause of benevolence and humanity, he had every qualification for the task, but experience. Speaking of his fitness for carrying out the measures of educational reform and improvement in Connecticut, and of the results of his efforts, HORACE MANN said, in the Massachusetts Common School Journal, it is not extravagant to say that, if a better man be required, we must wait, at least, until the next generation, for a better one is not to be found in the present. This agent entered upon his duties with unbounded zeal. He devoted to their discharge his time, talents, and means. The cold torpidity of the State soon felt the sensations of returning vitality. Its half suspended animation began to quicken with a warmer life. Much and most valuable information was diffused. Many parents began to appreciate more adequately what it was to be a parent; teachers were awakened; associations for mutual improvement were formed; systems began to supersede confusion; some salutary laws were enacted; all things gave favorable augury of a prosperous career, and it may be further affirmed that the cause was so administered as to give occasion of offense to none. The whole move ment was kept aloof from political strife. All religious men had reason to rejoice that a higher tone of moral and religious feeling was making its way into schools, without giving occasion of jealousy to the one-sided views of any denomination. But all of these auguries were delusive. In an cv nour the whole faoric was overthrown."" In 1842, by a change of political power, the act establishing a Board of Commissioners was repealed, and the old order of things restored. The ensuing fifteen months were spent in a tour of the United States, collecting materials for an educational work; but before writing which, he was called to take charge of tho public schools of Rhode Island. "Reluctant," says the Massachusetts Teacher, "to accept the invitation, as it would make it necessary to postpone the work in contemplation, Gov. Fenner met his objection with the reply, 'Better make history than write it.' He accepted the task, and soon organized a system of agencies which, in five years, brought about an entire revolution in the condition of the schools in the State. It is not easy to fully appreciate the difficulties and magnitude of the work undertaken in Rhode Island. From the foundation of the colony, the common school had been excluded from the care and patronage of the government, and for more than a century and a half there is not the slightest trace of any legislation whatever for this great interest. "In the matter of school libraries, and all else relating to common school education," remarked President Wayland to me in conversation, "Mr. Barnard did a great work for Rhode Island." "Here," says the New American Cyclopedia, "in the short space of five years, he created and thoroughly established a system of popular education, which, under the wise and careful administration of his successors in office, has become a model for general imitation. His labors during this period were excessive, and but for the extraordinary vigor of his constitution, he must have sunk under them. At length his health began to give way under such severe toil, and he was compelled to resign his office. He returned to Hartford, resolved to rest from his labors; but, to a man of his ardent temperament, rest was impossible. His pen and mind were still busy on his favorite subject. School Architecture, a matter on which he had bestowed great labor and thought, the organization of Teachers' Institutes, which he had originated in 1839, the practical awakening of the minds of the people to the necessity of a higher standard of education, all employed his time. Through his influence, wealthy and intelligent men throughout the State became interested in the cause. Graded schools became popular; high schools were established in several of the cities and larger towns; Teachers' Institutes were organized in every county, and, in 1850, the demand for educated and skillful teachers had become so great, that a Normal School was demanded. It was established, and the part of Principal was conferred on Mr. Barnard. To the duties of this office were added those of State Superintendent. The progress made in the cause of education in Connecticut during the succeeding four years was extraordinary, and testified to the energy and ability of the Superintendent. During this period he revisited Europe, for relaxation from his arduous labors, and for the benefit of his health, which was poor, and added largely to his knowledge of facts and details of the European systems of education. Returning from this voyage, "at length," continues the New American Cyclopedia, "in January, 1855, enfeebled health compelled him again to retire from the work of his choice, not as before to see it overthrown, but to commit it to other hands who would carry out his views. In the summer following, he commenced the publication of the American Journal of Education. To this and to the preparation of some works on education he is now devoting his time. Mr. Barnard deserves the credit, to an uncommon degree, of possessing great practical talent. In his whole career, his aim has been to secure the greatest amount of practical results in a given time, in the promotion of educational measures. Mr. Barnard is well known and highly honored by the friends of education in Europe. In this country he was elected to the Presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Education in 1855, and was offered the Presidency of two State Universities. The degree of LL.D. was conferred on him in 1851, by Yale and Union Colleges, and the year following by Harvard University." Since 1854, Mr. Barnard has devoted himself exclusively to his pen, and has done, and is still doing, a great work in behalf of general education. He has published altogether no less than twenty-eight documents, reports, and treatises on educational topics, for which our whole country is greatly indebted to this public benefactor. And especially will Wisconsin have cause for gratitude to him, for the detailed report he is now preparing, at the request of our Normal Regents, on a suitable plan for conducting our Normal school system. "With Henry Barnard," says Hollister, in the second volume of his valuable History of Connecticut, "whose name is so intimately associated with one of the great reforms of the world, life is valuable only that it may be spent in improving the condition of mankind, not only in the present generation, but in all ages. To this noble work he has consecrated talents and acquirements of the highest order. Descending from one of the emigrants who settled the colony, with strong local attachments to Hartford, his native city, and to the old mansion whare he was born, with academical acquirements among the best that Yale College can bestow upon her sons, with intellectual endowments, and a gift of eloquence, which might have done honor to the Senate, with a mind trained by the best models of Greek and Latin letters, and enriched by the poetry, the philosophy and science of England's best minds,-a thorough lawyer, with a lucrative and honorable practice opening before him, at the age of twenty-seven years, he abandoned all attractions of political and professional life, and the pleasures of literary and social relations; and went forth, like a crusader of the middle ages, to wage war with the bigotry, the parsimony, and the old habits of thinking, which encrusted the minds of a large proportion of the parents of Connecticut, in relation to that most vital subject, the education of their children. They frowned upon him as an intermeddler; and intimated, if they did not tell him in so many words, that he had better mind his own affairs, and they would take care of theirs. He expostulated with them. They told him that their school-books and school-houses had been good enough for themselves, and that their children were no better than they. He reasoned with them, stated facts to show them that the common school system had degenerated from its old estate, and begged them to remember that the times were changing, and that, especially in such a government as this, every generation ought to improve upon its predecessors. They told him that he demanded of them to open their purses and contribute to him; he replied, that he only wished them to make an investment for themselves, which should add to their wealth and happiness an hundred-fold. Gradually their views began to relax, and after years of obstinate resistance, they have yielded, and commenced in earnest the reformation so ardently desired and advocated by him. "We cannot here review his labors. After encountering the honest prejudices of many, and the active opposition of not a few, who seem to have misunderstood his motives and his aims -he has succeeded in collecting and disseminating a vast amount of information, as to the actual condition of the schools; in making provision through a State Normal School, County Teachers' Institutes, a State Teachers' Association, and a monthly educational periodical, for the professional training and improvement of teachers; in establishing a gradation of schools in the large villages and cities; in working not a change, but a revolution in the construction and furniture of school-houses; in restoring the old Connecticut principle of property taxation, for the support, in part, at least, of the common school; in securing the more permanent employment and better compensation of well qualified teachers; in drawing back again to the improved common schools the children of the educated and the wealthy; in subjecting the district schools to some general society regulations as to attendance, studies, books, and vacations; and as the source and pledge of still greater improvements, in interesting the public mind in the discussion of questions touching the organization, administration, instruction, and discipline of common. schools." "Dr. Barnard," said the late eminent educator, Dr. VOGEL, of Leipsic, "by his writing on school architecture, has created a new department in educational literature." "I cannot omit," says Bishop POTTER, in his work on the School and School Masters, "this opportunity of recommending the reports which have emanated from this source, as rich in important suggestions, and full of the most sound and practical views in regard to the whole subject of school education." The learned Chancellor KENT, in his Commentaries on American Law, characterizes Mr. Barnard's first report as "a bold and startling document, founded on the most pains-taking and critical inquiry, and containing a minute, accurate, comprehensive and instructive exhibition of the practical condition and operation of the common school system of education;" and in referring to his subsequent reports, the distinguished jurist speaks of him as "the most able, efficient, and best informed officer that could, perhaps, be engaged in the service," and of his publications as containing "a digest of the fullest and most valuable importance 15a that is readily to be obtained on the subject of common schools, "The career of Henry Barnard," says the Massachusetts Teacher, "as a promoter of the cause of education, has no precedent, and is without a parallel. We think of Page as a great practical teacher, or Gallaudet as the founder of a new institution, of Pestalozzi as the originator of a new method of instruction, of Spurzheim as the expounder of the philosophy of education, and of Horace Mann as its most eloquent advocate; but Mr. Barnard stands before the world as the national educator. We know, indeed, that he has held office, and achieved great success in the administration and improvement of systems of public instruction in particular States. But these labors, however important, constitute only a segment, so to speak, in the larger sphere of his efforts. Declining numerous calls to high and lucrative posts of local importance and influence, he has accepted the whole country as the theatre of his operations, without regard to State lines, and by the extent, variety, and comprehensiveness of his efforts, has earned the title of the American Educator. It is in this view, that his course has been patterned after no example, and admits of no comparison. But if in his plan, equally beneficent and original, he had no example to copy, he has furnished one, worthy alike of admiration and imitation." Such is Henry Barnard. The great educational reforms he has elsewhere achieved, should incline us to look hopefully for improvement in our own State, under the moulding influence of his practical mind, indomitable energy, and extensive experience. We have reason, as a State, to felicitate ourselves on the acquisition of such a man. It ought to form a new era in our State history; and it will, if we are true to ourselves and to him. |