LITERARY REGISTER:

OR

ANNUAL VIEW

OF THE

STATE AND PROGRESS OF EDUCATION, AND OF LITERARY INSTITUTIONS, THROUGHOUT THE WORld.

1831.

INTRODUCTORY.

"THE Science of education," says the late Dr. Brown, "implies a skilful observation of the past, and that long foresight of the future, which experience and judgment united afford. It is the art of seeing, not the immediate effect only, but the series of effects, which may follow any particular thought or feeling, in the infinite variety of possible combinations,-the art often of drawing virtue from apparent evil, and of averting evil that may arise from apparent good. It is, in short, the philosophy of the human mind,-applied practically to the human mind, enriching it, indeed, with all that is useful, or ornamental, in knowledge, but at the same time, giving its chief regard to objects of yet greater moment,-averting evil, which all the sciences together could not compensate, or producing good, compared with which all the sciences together are as nothing. It is that noble art, which has the charge of training the ignorance and imbecility of infancy, into all the virtue, and power, and wisdom of maturer manhood,—of forming, of a creature, the frailest, and feeblest perhaps which heaven has made, the intelligent and fearless sovereign of the whole animated creation, the interpreter, and adorer, and almost the representative of the Divinity."

To accomplish these great results, and attain the full ends of this sublime science, as described by this eloquent writer, education should be placed on its proper basis. It should be regarded as the most important of all the sciences. It should have a distinct and well-ascertained department—a specific, and appropriate province. It has been, for the most part, left out of view in systems of instruction. The most practical of all the sciences, and that from which all the others derive their value, has been wholly excluded, or nearly overlooked. A change in this respect, is among the great desiderata. The instructers of the young ought to be looked upon, not simply as the dispensers of knowledge, but as set apart to watch and train the human understanding, to guard the public morals, and to sustain all which is precious in our interests for time and eternity.

We need, pre-eminently, some books on the philosophy of education. We have philosophies of the human mind in its mature state-of minds like those of Reid and Brown. We need to have the infant soul developed, and its hidden and mysterious phenomena observed and arranged. The intelligent mother could furnish facts and observations which would be of far greater importance, in the advancement of knowledge, than the minute analyses of many philosophers.

Education will never reach the perfection, of which it is susceptible, till the instruction of a class can be combined with individual instruction, or in other words, till the personal defects and excellencies of every mind shall be known

and attended to. The individuality of the scholar is frequently and mournfully lost sight of. Perhaps, in the existing arrangements of most institutions, the evil is irremediable.

The want of well-qualified teachers is, doubtless, the fundamental difficulty. This, unquestionably, impedes the advance of education, more than any other three causes, which could be named. A college cannot flourish without gifted and able professors. No more can a common school, if left to the irregular and irresponsible, if not totally defective services of a casual teacher. The most valuable of all sciences, the most difficult of all arts-that of education, cannot safely be trusted to any but to those, who have elevated conceptions of its importance, and who are ready to make any sacrifices for the attainment of the objects, which all have, professedly, in view. The subject of the establishment of seminaries, for the education of school teachers, has awakened considerable interest in the United States; but it seems that the time has not yet come to carry the measure into full effect. The public are not prepared to appreciate and reward good schoolmasters. A more enlightened sentiment must pervade the great mass of the community. In the mean time some partial efforts may be made in existing institutions to remedy the difficulty.

Another most obvious deficiency is the want of proper books for children and youth, arising, indeed, from the fact that but few men have that union of practical and theoretical knowledge, which will enable them to present facts and truths in an interesting manner to children. There is a great variety of books, which are written in the language of infancy and childhood, but the ideas, the sentiments, are those of mature age.

Men are ever separating what the God of truth and of nature has joined together. It is, perhaps, the error of this age, to bring every thing down to the level of practical utility, to discard theory altogether, and in the rage for producing present effect, to overlook permanent and enduring principles. The demand, in this country, for mental labor of all kinds, is very great, and will be greater. Such being the fact, merely popular talent, or the power of communicating knowledge, will be the test of the value of a system of education. But wo to him who goes upon the ocean of public life, in its present agitated state, without the anchor of fixed principles. Radically defective is that system of collegiate or professional instruction, which does not lay the foundation of knowledge, below the waves of excitement, on the Rock of eternal truth, on the basis of certain and fixed principle. While the youthful mind is preparing for the expected exigencies of the sphere in which it is going to move, its growth and expansion, or the implantation of such principles as are contained in the treatises of Locke and Milton, should be the main object.

Unwillingness to adopt manifest improvements, and eagerness for innovation, are alike to be avoided. Doubtless, those who banish the classics from our schools, and those who would give them undue prominence, are equally in fault. If the classics have not been taught in our schools so as to produce the results which might be desired, the difficulty is unquestionably in the manner of teaching, and not in the nature of the study. If they have encroached on other more important studies, let the evil be remedied, not by a war of extermination against them, but by making the best use of them, and in the proper proportion. An object of great importance is to render our popular plans of education as permanent as possible. They need some connecting links, some principle of vitality. The Lyceum may be made of great and essential utility, if it can be made to exist long enough.

The due cultivation of the physical, and mental, and moral powers, will be deemed of importance in proportion as a man can look over the whole face of society, and over the whole existence of man. The great object of education is "to discover, and apply or obey, the laws under which God has placed the universe. To accomplish this sublime purpose, the physical energies are to be trained, the intellect is to be developed to its fullest extent, and the passions are to be inured to discipline; the WHOLE MAN is to be the object of vigilant and unceasing care.

* President Wayland.

The benefits of education must be made to extend to the extremities of society. No class is to be shut out from the blessing. Very great efforts are needed to educate all the community. Ignorance will be associated with poverty, and crime will follow in the footsteps of ignorance, unless the most intense watchfulness be exercised.

It is also worthy of serious inquiry, In what way can government most effectually patronize education? If a universal system of elementary instruction ought to be established, by public authority, it is a matter of high importance to ascertain in what way the government and individuals can co-operate so as to extend the blessings of knowledge as extensively as possible.

The ends to be attained are to communicate the advantages of education to all classes, to preserve society in as compact a state as possible, by preventing all unnatural distinctions between the rich and the poor, and to awaken individual interest and responsibility, while the Legislature holds out its fostering hand. Voluntary associations of all the friends of education in this country and in Europe, would doubtless be a most advantageous measure. Friendly and free discussion is the spring of generous and praiseworthy effort. In this way real improvements will be far more rapidly and kindly communicated and adopted, while useless innovations would be discountenanced and abandoned. We should rejoice to see all the States of our Republic sending their deputies, every fifth year, at least, not to an Olympic, but to a literary festival.

Another most desirable event is the incorporation of the Hebrew and Greek languages, of the original Scriptures, into all our courses of collegiate instruction. We cannot but hope that the time is near, when this Day-spring from on High shall visit our seminaries, when the Sun of Righteousness shall break forth with healing in his wings, when the strains of the Hebrew poets shall be the theme of delighted contemplation and study to all our young men of taste and genius.

VIEW OF ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION.

UNITED STATES.

In many of the States, schools are supported by an annual tax levied by the order of government. The principles and results of the legislative provisions made in many of the States for common schools, are very forcibly expressed by Mr. Webster. "For the purpose of public instruction we hold every man subject to taxation in proportion to his property, and we look not to the question whether he himself have or have not children to be benefited by the education for which he pays; we regard it as a wise and liberal system of police, by which property, life, and the peace of society are secured. We seek to prevent, in some measure, the extension of the penal code, by inspiring a salutary and conservative principle of virtue and of knowledge in an early age. We hope to excite a feeling of respectability and a sense of character, by enlarging the capacities and increasing the sphere of intellectual enjoyment. By general instruction we seek, so far as possible, to purify the moral atmosphere; to keep good sentiments uppermost, and to turn the strong current of feeling and opinion, as well as the censures of the law, and the denunciations of religion, against immorality and crime. We rejoice that every man in this community may call all property his own, so far as he has occasion for it to furnish for himself and his children, the blessings of religious instruction, and the elements of knowledge. This celestial and this earthly light he is entitled to by the fundamental laws."

MAINE.

Every town is required by law to raise, annually, for the support of common schools, a sum equal at least to 40 cents for each person in the town, and to distribute this sum among the several school districts. According to the reports made in 1826, there were in the State, 2,499 school districts; 137,931 children between the ages of four and twenty one; of which 101,325 usually attended school; the sum required by law to be annually raised, $119,334; annual expenditure, $137,878 57.

* Speeches and Forensic Arguments, pp. 210, 211.

Gov. Smith, in his late message says, that the literary institutions of the State are in a prosperous condition, and under the fostering care of the government, are spreading the influence of mental light and good morals among the people.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Common schools are established throughout the State, and for their support a sum, amounting each year since 1818, to $90,000, is annually raised by a separate tax. The State has a literary fund amounting to $64,000, formed by a tax of one half per cent on the capital of the banks. The proceeds of this fund, and also an annual income of $9,000 derived from a tax on banks, are appropriated to aid the support of schools.

VERMONT.

The money raised by the general law for the support of schools, at three per cent on the grand list, (the valuation of taxes,) would be about $51,119 42; and about as much more is supposed to be raised by school district taxes. The State has a literary fund derived principally from a tax of six per cent on the annual profits of the banks; the amount on loan in September, 1829, was $23,763 32.

MASSACHUSETTS.

The laws require that every town or district, containing fifty families, shall be provided with a school, or schools, equivalent in time to six months for one school in a year; containing 100 families, twelve months; 150 families, 18 months; and the several towns in the State are authorized and directed to raise such sums of money as are necessary for the support of the schools, and to assess and collect the money in the same manner as other town taxes. Each town is also required to choose annually a school committee of three, five, or seven persons, to take the general charge of the schools, examine teachers, &c. &c. This last arrangement is but partially carried into effect. A very imperfect return of the state of the schools was made in 1827, in which there were reported 972 public school districts; 708 private schools and academies; 18,143 pupils in private schools, and $158,809, paid for instruction; 71,000 pupils in public schools, and $163,929 76 paid for instruction. In all the schools in Boston, there are about 12,000 pupils, at an expense for tuition, fuel, books, &c. of about $200,000.

RHODE ISLAND.

In 1828, the Legislature appropriated $10,000 annually for the support of public schools, with authority to each town to raise by tax double the amount of its proportion of the $10,000. All the towns have availed themselves of its provisions. The whole number of schools, probably exceeds 700. Till within a short period, education has been very much neglected in this State.

CONNECTICUT.

The Connecticut school fund, on the first of April, 1829, was $1,882,261 68. The income of this fund is appropriated to the support of common schools. In the year ending March 31, 1830, the sum of $72,933 was divided among the different free schools throughout the State. The number of children between the ages of four and sixteen, was 85,482, and the dividends amounted to a little more than 85 cents for each child. This fund has been wisely managed, and faithfully applied, but it has not answered all the purposes which are desirable. It has diminished very much that feeling of personal interest and responsibility in the minds of the people generally, which is indispensable in sustaining popular systems of education.

NEW YORK.

Gov. Throop, in his message of January 4, 1831, says, "there are 9,062 school districts in this State, and 8,630 have made returns according to the statute. One hundred and ninety new districts have been formed during the year, and the number which have made returns has increased 338 in the same period. There are in the districts from which reports have been received, 497,503 children between five and sixteen years of age, and 499,424 scholars have been taught, during the year, in the common schools of the State; the general average of instruction having been about eight months. The returns show an increase of children between five and sixteen, compared with the preceding year, of 24,194; and an increase of the number instructed of 19,383 scholars.

The public money apportioned among the several school districts during the past year, amounts to $239,713. Of this sum $100,000 was paid from the State treasury, and the residue was derived from a tax upon the several towns, and from local funds possessed by

some of them. In addition to the public money, there has been paid to teachers by the inhabitants of the districts $346,807, making a total of $586,520, paid for teachers' wages alone, in the common schools of the State."

The productive capital of the school fund now amounts to $1,696,743 66. The revenue actually received into the treasury in 1830, was $100,078 60. This is the first year in which the revenue of the fund has produced the sum required for the annual distribution. The system of the common school instruction in this State, is founded on the principle, that the State, or the revenue of the school fund, will pay only a share of the expense; and that at least an equal share, as the condition of receiving the State fund, shall be assessed upon the property of the town. In addition to all this, and as a necessary prerequisite to a participation in the public money, the inhabitants of each district are required to tax themselves for building a school house, and furnishing it with necessary fuel and appendages.

About $1,928,236 are supposed to be vested in school houses in this

State, which at an interest of six per cent would amount to Annual expense for books for 449,434 scholars, at 50 cts. each,

Fuel for 8,846 schools at $10 each,

Amount of public money for teachers' wages,

$115,694 00

249,717 00

88,460 00

239,713 00

Amount paid in the districts for teachers' wages besides the public money, 346,807 00 Estimating for 43 towns not returned,

Total for support of common schools of the State,

21,308 00

$1,061,699 00

A complete census of the scholars in the colleges, academies, private and common schools, would present a total of at least 550,000 scholars receiving instruction annually in the whole State, which is equal to one person attending school to three and a half of the whole population.

The whole number of schools in the city of New York, of all kinds, (besides
Sunday schools,) is

463

Number of teachers 484, assistants 311,

795

Pupils,

24,952

Estimated number of children between five and fifteen who attend no school

whatever.

20,000

NEW JERSEY.

This State has a school fund, which amounted in October, 1829, to $245,404 47, which is all in productive stocks, yielding an interest, on an average, of about five per cent. A tax of half of one per cent on the amount of the capital stock of the several banks subscribed and paid in, is also appropriated to this fund; and the whole annual income is about $22,000. By a law passed in 1829, $20,000 were annually appropriated to the support of the common schools out of the income of the fund.

PENNSYLVANIA.

The constitution declares that the "Legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, provide by law for the establishment of schools in such manner that the poor may be taught gratis." In conformity with this provision, means of instruction have been provided in nearly all the counties of the State, for the children of indigent parents. They are sent to the most convenient schools of the neighborhoods in which they respectively reside, and the expense is paid by the county commissioners. It seems, however, that far more decided and thorough measures need to be taken in this State. An unhappy result of the plan adopted is to separate, in a considerable measure, the children of the poor from those of the rich. In our primary schools, the children of all classes in the community should mingle together so far as practicable. Gov. Wolfe, in his message of December last, observes, that "out of four hundred thousand children in the State, between the age of five and fifteen, more than two hundred and fifty thousand, capable of receiving instruction, were not within a school, during the last year. What an incalculable loss has this Commonwealth sustained in the talents that might have been elicited, in the ingenuity and skill which might have been imparted to labor and science, and in the moral and intellectual endowments that might have been engrafted and matured."

DELAWARE.

This State has a school fund, amounting to $170,000, the interest of which, together with a small tax levied on each school district of four miles square, at the will of a majority of the taxable inhabitants, is appropriated to the support of free schools. No district is entitled to any share of the school fund, that will not raise, by taxation, a sum equal to its share of the income of the fund. The Governor of Delaware, in his late message, urges, in the strongest terms, the importance of universal primary education.