XVIII.-EDUCATION.

REPORT ON THE QUESTION, "WHAT IS THE BEST METHOD OF REACHING AND ANIMATING THE COMMUNITY ON

THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION? "

BY O. L. LEONARD.

FACTS are stubborn things, and if we wish to arouse the community to the importance of moral and intellectual discipline, we must array facts before the public in such å månner as not to be misunderstood; exhibiting the advantages of a rational course of education in a light so clear, as to convince the most sceptical and arouse to action the most lethargic. This can never be done under our present degraded systems, if they can be called systems, of education. The restrained and confined condition of children crowded into small rooms, fixed-upon their seats for hours at a time, conning over words as arranged in the columns of a spelling book or dictionary, until they become mere physical shadows, prepared to endure years of pain, misery and distress, or hasten to an early grave. And, as the reward of a course so repugnant to the feelings of benevolence, philanthropy, and common sense, they have acquired hardly a solitary idea to compensate them for all their sacrifices in the acquisition of mere sound. At a more advanced stage, we frequently hear children repeat the analysis and synthesis of language, while they are as ignorant of what they are doing as a parrot that reverberates the sound which she hears; and to repeat demonstrations of theorems in geometry without knowing the meaning or feeling the force of the language which they utter; and to solve questions in arithmetic, while the process of reasoning which is necessary for their performance is as unintelligible to them as the colors and beauties of a rain-bow to one who has never enjoyed the sense of vision. The discriminating powers of the child, so far as the elements of thought and the philosophy and reason of things are concerned, are left entirely to chance. These are considered natural endowments, and therefore not within the province of a teacher. It is true the

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teacher cannot endow the pupil with any new faculties more than he can create a world; but he may devolope those possessed. He may call into action those latent energies of the mind which would astonish. and benefit mankind, which would otherwise remain dormantunknown to himself and lost to the world. How many a Newtonian head is buried in ignorance? How many a valuable mind has wasted its energies in acquiring technicalities and forms, the mere husks and shadows of knowledge, while the real substance, the true fire of genius, is never discovered? Thus nature is charged with making many a dunce; because teachers have not the skill, the patience, and the perseverance, which are necessary to arouse those hidden springs of action, which are calculated to adorn and dignify human nature. The highest intellectual effort elicited in many of our best schools, is to ascertain, if possible, the sentiments of a favorite author or teacher, The sentiments being and servilely adopt and maintain them.

ascertained and adopted (or, to take the usual course, adopted first and then ascertained,) all that is now left is. to find the best possible garb for the communication of those ideas. No originality of thought is expected at this late period of the world. Observation and experiment, induction and analysis, have been so carefully and extensively made, and the results so minutely and accurately noticed, and so clearly and fully expressed, that any thing but absolute devotion to authority with originality of expression, would be considered by many as the height of presumption. No pleasure of original discovery from the great sources of observation and experiment is permitted to cheer and animate the mind in its pursuit after truth. The physical restraint and the mental torture of learning mere sound without corresponding ideas, render the school-room a prison, the teacher a keeper, and the lessons an unnecessary and unfeeling exaction. Hence the school, the teacher, and the books are alike the objects of the child's hatred. He He then sees and feels flies from the school and engages in business.

his ignorance.

The love of gain takes possession of his soul, and he applies himself with all the ardor of his mind, thus commencing a rational, though sordid and partial, education. Or should he by some fortuitous circumstance overcome his repugnance to books; acquire a taste for reading, and engage in the pursuit of one of the learned professions, he soon looks back with contempt upon his school and his teacher. Should he, however, be a father, he feels the necessity of a school; though he still views it as a kind of necessary evil. He again looks back and compares his present attainments with those he acquired at school; and the contrast is so great that he considers himself amply qualified, by his present elevated stand, to give the teacher all necessary directions in regard to the education of his child. Hence the teacher would have

as many different courses to pursue, to please all, as he has employers. But the teacher, destitute perhaps of every necessary qualification for training the youthful intellect, save that of self-importance, feels the conscious dignity of wielding the ferule, and soon convinces the little culprit that his laws and authority are not to be violated with impunity. The child looks upon the teacher as a tyrant and an object of revenge. Although the child of fine sensibility will, should the teacher act uniformly, generally avoid the lash; yet the more mischief he can do, and the more tricks he can perform upon his companions and the teacher, and the more he can neglect his studies and escape punishment, the more credit he feels that he deserves. Hence our common schools, in which should be laid the basis of a thorough, practical, systematic and enlightened education, instead of imparting those habits of observation and experiment, application and attention, which are necessary to future eminence and greatness, and eliciting those youthful aspirations to investigate the laws of the universe, and to acquire those intellectual and moral excellencies which would command the esteem of the wise, and the admiration of the good, are, alas, too often the seats of idleness, the mansions of ignorance, and the nurseries of vice;: a reflection no less degrading and humiliating than it is true. The child dislikes the school, the parent sympathizes with him and keeps him at home, and not unfrequently he makes much greater advances in practical and useful knowledge while running at large, observing men and things in real life, than he would have done had he remained at school, with the advantage of a much more vigorous and healthful physical constitution. Hence we hear one called a man of genius, possessing great natural talents, highly gifted by nature above his associates, though destitute of an education; another, a mere creature of education, a learned fool, etc. etc. It is true the latter long enjoyed the torturing, stupifying and irrational course of education, as pursued in a large majority of our schools. The former, though unconscious of the superior source of his knowledge, and unaided by the advantages of a skilful guide and systematic course, pursues a practical and rational one, rising far superior to his scholastic competitor, except in the acquisition of learned titles to his name,

While these things.exist, can we ever expect to reach and animate the community on the subject of scholastic education?

Surely not. Let teachers go back to nature and study her as she exists around them; and instead of adhering strictly to the opinions, sentiments and views of others, at best but a reflection of nature, for a standard of perfection, blindly following their steps and their authority in the acquisition of knowledge, take the great volume of nature, as presented by God himself for a standard, and observation and experiment, guided by reason and reflection, for an unerring and never

failing guide to the loftiest and best directed efforts of the human mind.

The teacher should know something of the anatomy and physiology of the human system, and study the reciprocal action between its intellectual and physical energies. He should also be a man of general information, of unspotted moral character, and should have such a devotion and ardor of soul for the moral and intellectual advancement of man, as to concentrate all his energies in devising, executing and consummating that system which shall be best calculated to unfold, strengthen and elevate the physical, moral and intellectual man to the highest state of human perfection. In a word, he should be the physician of the mind, and be able to discover all the latent springs of action, and to direct and control them with as much skill and certainty as the medical man in the treatment of disease. Our schools would then no longer be the torment of the young and the vexation of the old. Joy and gladness would fill the heart and beam from the countenance of the child, while conscious of the expanding energies of his own mind in the attainment of practical, useful and scientific knowledge. The parent would gaze with wonder and astonishment, admiration and delight, at the exhibition of the superior intellectual powers of his own child over those who had not been educated at all, or who had been under the control of the ignorant and unskilful. The community would then be alive to the importance of a regular, thorough, systematic and rational course of education, and see and feel the necessity of selecting persons capable of laying a foundation, based upon nature and philosophy, adequate to the growing importance and future usefulness of the rising generation.

Preceptorial quackery, with all its baneful and withering effects, would be banished from our land; and the light of science and of letters would burst in upon it in such a manner as to enlighten and animate every corner of a country so blest by nature with all the luxuries of a soil and climate, and variety of scenery, extending from the frozen lakes of the north to the orange groves of the south. We should then be the most happy, the most intelligent and the most exalted people the world has ever seen.

A mental illumination would radiate from this delightful spot, and roll on the tide of moral and intellectual improvement, extending and increasing, until it should illuminate every region of the habitable globe. Neighboring nations would view us as the great centre of science and of letters, with wonder and astonishment. Posterity would bless us while enjoying the fruit of our toil and our labor. Heaven would reward us as the benefactors of the human race, in preparing man to admire and enjoy the goodness, mercy and benevolence of God, in all the works and dispensations of his providence.

XIX. NATURAL SCIENCE.

REPORT ON THE UTILITY OF CABINETS OF NATURAL SCIENCE AS A MEANS OF EDUCATION,

BY JOSEPH RAY, M. D.

THE importance of cabinets of natural science is so great in certain branches of education, that to attempt to prove their utility, seems almost a work of supererogation. We shall, therefore, attempt to recommend them, rather than argue the question of their utility. I would as soon think of putting into the hands of a pupil a work on the elements of geometry which did not contain a single diagram and require him to study it, as to require a pupil to study almost any branch of natural science, without the aid of specimens. The descriptions and reasoning in books, or the oral communications of the instructor, necessarily refer to substantial forms; and the mind,. if it has not the reality before it, must form a picture in the imagination; this, without the aid of the reality, is generally defective. Diagrams or drawings may indeed very much assist the pupil to obtain some idea, but all who have experienced it, will confess that the ideas obtained from the best diagram or description is often at variance with truth, and always falls far short, in clearness and correctness, with those obtained from the reality itself.

Suppose that we desire to communicate to two pupils a knowledge of the geography of the heavens; that is, to make them acquainted with the names of the stars, their apparent magnitudes and situation in the heavens relative to each other, with their grouping into constellations, etc., and in order to do this, we put into the hands of the one, a map of the stars or a celestial globe, accompanied by one of the usual text books in this branch of science- the other we take abroad in the evenings when the sky is clear, and point out the stars and describe the constellations as they exist in nature before him,by which of these methods is an accurate knowledge most likely to be obtained? Reason and the experience of every teacher who has made trial of both methods, furnish an obvious and decisive answer to the question; the pupil who had the real objects before his eyes while