and parent required. All this difficulty, in a public school, faithfully overlooked, would be removed, and the teacher, responsible only to the board from whom he received his appointment, would be left to the discharge of his duty, without danger of censure, so long as justice was done. But this supposes the officers to discharge their duty faithfully; and no man, much less a patriot or christian, ought to consent to hold an appointment in such a board, and excuse himself on account of either business or pleasure from all or any of its duties. These officers should be men alive to the subject in all its bearings, with feelings of the deepest interest in its behalf, willing to devote as much time as may be required to do ample justice; they will then learn, from observation, the state of the schools and the conduct and qualification of the teachers, and their influence will be felt in every department of the institution. This point cannot be too much pressed; for, make what provision you please, still, if you have not an industrious and efficient board of school-directors, the work will be but half done. Your committee cannot close this report without adverting to one other point, which, though last named, is certainly not the least important, in preparing the man and woman for future usefulness. Experience has proved, in all countries, that where the pure and simple doctrines of Christianity were the most adhered to, in principle and practice, there was found the happiest and most orderly people. And as all our laws and institutions are based on that code of morals, that is found in the bible; your committee believe that the well-being of our civil and religious institutions, depend, under Providence, chiefly on the early knowledge of the scriptures by the whole population. There may be objections to the course we have presented. We have aimed to exhibit what we believe to be deficiencies in the present practice, and thereby show the necessity for changes, which we consider the best interest of the country demands. From the day this college was formed, a responsibility devolved on you of no unimportant magnitude; and the literary and moral character of this vast valley are now 160 more dependent on you than on any other institutions organized by man. The great body of our citizens are full of enterprise; each pushing forward his own profession or department. This subject is left for you, and your recommendation, if it points to decided action, will be adopted with enthusiasm. As the limits of a report will not suffice to state and answer objections, your committee would suggest a free discussion when an opportunity will be offered, of examining the facts stated and plan proposed; and if, on full discussion, the foregoing propositions, with such amendments as may be ordered by your body, should be approved, we hope it will lead, in favor of general education, to decided action-actionaction. SAMUEL LEWIS, October, 1835. DISCUSSION ON THE PRECEDING REPORT. The reading of the preceding report was followed by a desultory discussion. Many facts were stated in confirmation of the doctrines of the report. There were many good teachers engaged at the present inadequate salaries; for there were many persons whose love of communicating knowledge, especially to the young and unprovided, was such, that they were ready almost to encounter martyrdom in the experiment. But however noble this might be in them, it was most ungenerous on the part of the community; for what could be more unjust than to pay so miserably for services that were confessedly so important, and that enhanced the value of all other services;-for well educated laborers were a real bona fide gain to the whole community. A boy who attended a good school several years before he was apprenticed to his trade, was certain to learn his trade faster and more radically;-he had been taught to reflect, and that was more than half the acquisition of any thing. It is an absolute saving of money to a community, (for since this is made the standard of men's ordinary opinions, let us be willing to reckon on it,) it is an absolute pecuniary saving, to educate, particularly the laboring part, the manualists of the community. The hand obeys the mind, and when the mind has been taught to move rapidly, the hand receives the impulse. That this was a fact, every master mechanic, who employs apprentices can testify. He prefers to take an educated to an uneduca ted boy, other circumstances being the same. The vis mertiae, of the one has already been overcome, the machine is in motion, and all he has to do is to turn its working power on a new object; but in the other case, he has to set the machine agoing, to adjust the wheels and try them, and then, ten to one, he will find them useless, at last, from having been so lorg rusting in inaction. Schoolmasters then prove a real saving to the community, in rendering the rude materials of the human mind more available to the general purposes of society. This is the popular, utilitarian argument for common schools; and it must strike every one as solid, that is pecuniary, for in the modern vocabulary that is tantamount to solid. But to prepare human minds, to give them motion and energy, is work of some labor; and moreover cannot be done by the wholesale, so that one man's power is not infinite, in this line of business, as seems very generally to be supposed; a good mechanic who cleans and repairs watches, can do only a certain number in a day; the teacher who has to order and adjust minds, to go well, to work well, can attend only to a certain number. A republican teacher is not set over a school to drill minds but to teach them, and every mind has a certain manner of going of its own; a peculiar mechanism, which requires a specific application of skill. For who that loves his country and cherishes republican principles in his heart, could bear to see the individual characters of our native youths all turned into a certain mechanical monotony? Is that the way to make republicans? is this the way to discharge the sacred trusts that have been reposed in us? O no! let us then remember that every youth in these schools is born to be a citizen, is marked out to be sovereign; let us not then neglect even one of them, the least of these little ones, over whom hover, as very angels, the GUARDIAN HOPES of this Republic. Every American child is an individual invested with a sacred birthright, and let him feel from the first, a certain portion of even personal attention; let him not be overlooked, let him not think that he is overlooked; but he will think that he is overlooked and feel it too, and droop under the feeling, where he is but one of some seventy or eighty or a hundred under the tuition of one man. O fie on the niggardliness of public bounty, on the miserable miscalculation and shortsightedness of the guardians and governors of their country, not to perceive that it is in vain that they cut canals, lay rail-roads, and provide so strenuously for the physical prosperity of their country, while they neglect to raise the young individuals of the nation in moral and intellectual greatness; since it is this, and this alone, that can perpetuate our dear, our cherished institutions, and render them a blessing to ourselves and after generations. You never can elevate a whole people, but as you elevate individuals; and the loss or depression of a single individual mind in the republic is an essential loss and injury to the whole. And how trifling too the first expense, and how easy to provide an able and good teacher for every thirty children: and the revenue arising from improved intellect in absolute bona fide cash, (remember this is a solid argument,) would more than ten times cover and re-cover the whole expense and outlay in five years. So much then for the pecuniary argument, which is irrefragable; for no one can show a flaw in it, and surely it is not necessary to say more to those who consider available capital the summum bonum of the community. But there is still another view of the subject; for what if it be true, Mr. President, observed one speaker, that the very end and design for which we were ushered into this breathing world be that we may be educated; be educated ourselves, and educate our children. Does not the curious and natural adjustment of the three score and ten years, indicate something like that; an individual is educated at twenty-one; he marries a worthy wife, of near his own age (for that is nature's law); they live then, he and she, until their youngest son or daughter be twenty-one; their duty done, then drops their clay; they are then immortal beings; about three score and ten years shuts up the drama; and it is a beautiful one, if the main design of it be, as thus it seems likely,--EDUCATION. And Christianity, and the Preachers, tell us the same thing, when they say this life is the preparation for another; but they have told us this so often, the things fall upon our ears as idle tales, and yet these things are truths. We were not sent into this world then to dig canals, and construct rail-roads, but to educate and to be educated; and, consequently, education is not for the sake of these, but these are for the sake of education; and here, as in a great many things besides, we have put the cart before the horse, but now we must reverse it, and put the horse before the cart. We must, in a word, put education foremost, and let other things come, dragging, and rolling, and jogging behind this is wisdom. And what if it also be the best policy? What if the horse will draw more and to better purpose when rightfully and naturally yoked to his task? To speak without a metaphor, it will not only be best, as a duty of Christianity, which is paramount, to attend first to that which is first, the moral and intellectual training of our young citizens, but it will also be best as a matter of policy and interest to strengthen and temper well in the beginning, that which is the main instrument in every thing, in occupations the most manual,-the MIND. This is the first fountain under Providence, not only of moral good and worth, but also of all physical and external prosperity. The most essential workmen then, in a republican community, are school-masters; and the most necessary work is that which is done by them; and it is important not only that they should be good and able, but that there should be enough of them; and that their pains should not be wasted on too extensive a field, but be prudently and individually bestowed. For republican citizens are not a mass, a mob, but they are individuals, and are to be counted not by the dozen, or the score, but one, two, three, four, five, etc.: it is thus that they are counted at the ballot box, and thus they should be counted in the school-room-beginning at one and ending at thirty or thirty-five, and then appointing your fatherly and conscientious school-master, saying, educate me these children, and lose not one of them, for there is joy and good to this republic, that even one should be rendered available, and sorrow and disappointment, if one becomes an outcast. |