PROSPECTUS OF VOLUME III.

The subscriber will publish a Third Volume of the Rhode-Island Institute of Instruction, under the editorial charge of Henry Barnard, Commissioner of Public Schools.

The first Number will be issued in January, 1848, and will be published on the 1st and 15th of each month, or on such days as may suit the official engagements of the Editor, until the volume is completed.

The several numbers will not contain an equal quantity of matter, but the volume when completed will embrace at least Four Hundred pages.

The price of the volume will be one dollar for a single copy; five dollars for six copies, and ten dollars for thirteen copies.

To every person who will forward ten dollars in subscription to volume III, a bound copy of Volume II, will be given.

All subscriptions must be paid on the reception of the first number.

PROVIDENCE, January 1, 1848.

CHARLES BURNETT, JR.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE RHODEISLAND INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION.

In presenting to the Rhode-Island Institute of Instruction this their third annual report, the Executive Committe do not deem it necessary to furnish a detailed account of the measures that have been discussed or carried into effect by them during the past year. The operations of the Committee, since the last annual meeting of the Institute, have, for various reasons, been less extended than they were during the two preceding years. The publication of the Journal, which, during its first year, was couducted mainly by the State Commissioner, in the name and with the assistance of the Institute, has been continued during the past year by the Commissioner, at his own risk.During the first two years of the Institute, a special agent was employed to co-operate with the State Commissioner in his efforts to awaken interest and disseminate information on the subject of education, throughout the State. It was not thought expedient to undertake the employment of such an agent during the past year, on account of obstacles in the way of collecting funds for that purpose. The doings of this Committee for the past year, then, have been restricted, with slight exceptions, to the meetings of the Institute which have been held under the direction of the Committee, in various parts of the State. In holding these meetings, it has been the aim of the Committee, as in former years, to second the efforts of the State Commissioner to arouse atten

It is due to Mr. Barnard to state, that he has not only continued the publication of the Journal of the Rhode-Island Institute of Instruction at his own risk, and as the event has proved, at no inconsiderable expense, but that he has mainly at his own expense, held three Teachers' Institutes, at which upwards of two hundred teachers were present, besides securing the services, at different times, of experienced teachers and lecturers, in behalf of the public schools of this State.

tion and to enlighten public opinion in reference to that reform in our educational system, to effect which the State Commissioner was appointed, and the Rhode-Island Institute was established. Of the beneficial results of these meetings there can be no doubt. The interest manifested at some of them by the people of the places where they were held, has been intense; and even if it were otherwise, experience would teach us not to despair of a beneficial result: for instances are already known, in which a movement leading to the most liberal and praiseworthy efforts no the part of the people to improve their schools, may be dated back to a comparatively dull and thinly attended meeting of the Institute held among them.

But it does not seem necessary in a report like this, that we should be limited to the doings of the Committee, or, strictly speaking, to those of the Institute itself. The Rhode-Island Institute of Instruction practically includes all who are willing to labor or contribute for the advancement of education in this State. This being the case, the Executive Committee, without claiming for themselves or for the Institute in its strict sense, everything that has been done or is to be done in this cause, but gladly acknowledging the superior efficiency of other agencies at work in the same field, deem themselves at liberty to take a general view of the educational movement now in progress amongst us, and to offer such suggestions as may promise to be useful, to any who may be engaged in carrying this movement forward.

What then is our present position, here in Rhode-Island, in reference to this work? What have we done, and what have we yet to do?

In answer to these inquiries, it may be remarked, that we are now in what may be called a transition state. That state of apathy which prevailed a few years ago, in which our people rested contented with the slender and imperfect means of education already in use, as if any improvement in this department of the business of life were either impossible, or of too little consequence to demand attention, has passed or is passing away; and progress in this, as in everything else, is fast becoming the order of the day. We have already learned to believe, that the methods of imparting knowledge and of training the mind, which had remained for ages with so little change, were, after all, as capable of improvement as the primitive methods of spinning cotton; and that, if school-house architecture had undergone less change during the last forty years than steam-boat architecture, it was not because the models of the art generally followed, had come down from antiquity entirely free from imperfection. We

acknowledge the value of education, and the obligation to place it within the reach of the whole people. We are aiming at a more thorough education than was formerly thought of, except as a special privilege to the few. We are striving to bring the pleasures of intellect home to every fireside and to every individual.

In this state of things we have much to rejoice over, and every encouragement to go forward in the work which has been so auspiciously begun. But it is precisely in this state of things, that we have most need of care, lest in our zeal to go forward we fail to go right, and thus discover when it is too late, that our zeal was "not according to knowledge." The Committee would therefore invite attention to some of the ways in which errors may be committed in our efforts to improve our educational system.

One of the most obvious errors to which a community may be exposed, is that of leaving the work of reform which may have been undertaken, when it has been only begun, instead of carrying it forward to its completion. For instance, the people of one district may content themselves with erecting a commodious school-house, those of another with employing a more efficient teacher, those of another with purchasing apparatus, &c.; forgetting that all these things combined, and many others, must receive attention, before their schools can be on a satisfactory footing. If in any case liberal efforts in behalf of schools have been made, and the people have been disappointed in the result, the failure may very likely be traced to some such defective view of the work in hand, as that now intimated. Most likely the brunt of the battle has already been fought; the heaviest expenditure has already been incurred, while some minor arrangements, none the less important because less expensive, require attention, in order to insure success.

But this simple omission of a part of the work undertaken, though it may often be a cause of failure, is by no means the only one that requires attention. There is danger of making changes, perhaps expensive ones, without making any improvement; or, what is worse, making changes with the view of improvement, which shall prove to be positively injurious. Several errors of this sort will now claim our attention.

1. While the increase of teachers' wages is justly a favorite subject of remark, it should be remembered that, if teachers have been paid little, their services have often, perhaps generally, been worth little. To this there have always been honorable exceptions, and their number is happily fast increasing. These exceptions should be respected and paid as they deserve; and in