Part 6 (1/2)

And Butler, in his satirical description of Sir Hudibras, ascribes to his hero more practical philosophy than he appears to have intended, and more, certainly, than is found in some reater Than Tycho Brahe or Erra Pater; For he, by geometric scale, Could take the size of pots of ale; Resolve by sines and tangents straight, If bread or butter wanted weight; And wisely tell what hour o' th' day The clock does strike, by algebra”

Another prerequisite of wisdom is intellectual humility, Solomon, says, ”Before honor is humility;” and huht not to be ashanorance

Franklin, when asked how he ca ashaine that there is nothing ood evidence of defective education and limited attainments, if not of a defective ht and instruct their pupils and auditors with the wonderful truths folded in the flower, garnered in the plant, or imprisoned in the rock Yet how much more there s created in his i men; and out of these distinctions come the truth and the necessity that each may be both a teacher and a pupil of every other No man, however learned he hbor, though that neighbor be the humblest of shepherds or of fisher The earnest and faithful disciple of wisdoe, and everywhere gathering it up Over the great gateway of life is the inscription, ”None but learners enter here;” and along its paths and in its groves are tablets, on which is written, ”None but learners sojourn here” He is a poor teacher who is not a learner, and he is but little of a learner who is not so of a teacher also The best teachers are they who are pupils, and the best pupils are already teachers Such was the real and avowed character of the great teachers of antiquity; such is the best practice of modern continental Europe, and such is the requirees

He who does not learn cannot teach Socrates professed to know only this, that he knew nothing Plato was a disciple of Socrates and Euclid; a pupil in the school of Pythagoras; and, as a traveller, under the disguise of a ained a knowledge of astrono in other departus, Aristotle, and Deht years Alexander the Great was the pupil of Aristotle, while Demosthenes

”Wielded at will that fierce Democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne”

Thus we trace Dele of Grecian independence against Macedonian supreh teachers and culture up to Socrates, the wanderer in the streets, and the disturber of the peace of Athens

It is stated that a distinguished modern philosopher often says, ”I don't knohen the curiosity or science of his pupils suggests questions that he has not considered If we respect and adht we to be humbled, intellectually, by the reflection that the unknown far exceeds the known, and that all becoes! The ancients prized schools, teachers, and learning, because they were essential to wisdom; and wisdom enabled them to live temperately, justly, and happily, in the present world; while we prize schools, teachers, and learning, because they contribute to e call success in life The population of New England, is coent merchants, shrewd or eloquent lawyers, industrious and intelligent farmers; and to these results our system of education is too exclusively subservient These results are not to be condemned, nor are the processes by which they are secured to be neglected But our schools ought to do so always and for every one, for the full development of a character that is essential to artisans,should not be prized h this it properly is and ever ought to be,--but for its expansive power in the e of things human and divine There are ned them, but who do not always comprehend the processes of life, in its political, social, literary, scientific and industrial relations, by which the affairs of the world are guided

So of Aland, to the universal desire to be engaged in active business Young -house or the store, leave home and school so early that their apprenticeshi+p is ended long before their majority coorously upon the business of life This course has its advantages, and it is also attended by many evils Our youth have but little opportunity for observation, and a great deal of time for experience They fall into mistakes that should have been observed, and consequently shunned Moreover, this custoidly technical and professional; that is, in plain language, speaking relatively, they know tooelse Business life follows so closely upon home life and school life, that the lessons of the latter fail to exert an i influence, and it is often only inare seen The connection is such that the boy or youth becomes a devotee of business before he is developed into coress; activity, but not culture; appropriation and accumulation, but not natural developland, and it is hardly known in the central states of Europe It is to soland characteristic It is aspirit of our people, and it is also at once a promise and the security for the ultimate supremacy of the American race and nation in the affairs of the world In Athens young men attained their majority when they were sixteen; but they usually prosecuted their studies afterwards, and Aristotle thought thee This rule was observed by Aristotle in his own case; but we are unable to say whether the rule was e, which is a fact of much importance e consider the wisdom of the precept, and the real principles and philosophy of its faardless of one-half of creation, he has neither stated the age at which feiven us that of his oife This neglect justly detracts fro men and women vieith distrust an opinion that is so manifestly partial and one-sided If schools make merely learned people, in a narrow and technical sense, they are not doing their whole work Such learning makes an efficient population, which is certainly desirable; but it ought also to be a well-educated population in a broad, comprehensive, philosophic sense By the force of nature and the developing influences of society, including the church, the school, and the hoht first to be educated men and women, and then apply that education to the particular e have in hand By learning, in this connection, I do notof Choate as a lawyer, or the learning of Everett as an orator; but a eneral and less minute culture, by which ment upon subjects that usually attract public attention

In the gardens of the wealthy, we often see peach-trees and pear-trees trained against brick or stone walls, to which they are attached by substantial thongs These trees are carefully and systematically trained, and they are trained so as to accoe surface, in proportion to the whole, to the sun and air; in addition to the direct rays of the sun, they receive the reflected and accumulated heat of the walls to which they are fastened; and they furnish ripe fruit ardens and fields of the common farer and pruning, have produced very good rown, symmetrically developed tree, or even for the choicest fruit in its season, we must look elsewhere And who does not perceive, if all the trees of the gardens, fields, and forests, were treated in the same way, that the world would be deprived of a part of its beauty and glory, and that many species of trees would soon becoive back the luscious pear and peach to their native acritude, rather than subject the highest foretable life to such irreverence? And, upon reflection, we shall say that such cruelty to inanimate life can be justified only as we justify the naturalist who dexterously and suddenly extracts a vital organ from a reptile, that he may observe the effect upon that form of animal existence

But the tree is not to be left in its native state By culture its growth is so aided, that it is first and always a tree after its own kind, whether it be peach, pear, apple, elraceful, stately orprinciple which diffuses itself through each individual creation ”For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” So in the hueth forth fruit of herself; and it is the work of schools and teachers to aid nature in developing a full and attractive character, that shall yield fruit while all its powers are enlarged and strengthened, as the almond in the peach is not only raceful in its branches Culture, in a broad sense, is the aid rendered to each individual creation in its work of self-ienerous culture which dwarfs the tree that early ripened or peculiarly flavored fruit enerous culture of the child which forces into unnatural activity certain faculties or powers that surprise us by their precocity, or excite wonder by the skill exhibited in their use Rather let the child grow, expand,it only encourageht and air of iven us a philosophical, logical system of development, that relates to the physical, intellectual, and moral character; and to-day I state the educational want in this particular, but I do not attempt to supply it Yet in nature such a system there must be, and only powers of observation are needed that wethis want estion, the opinion, coenerally and with reference to a syste whatever

In the days of our ancestors, one hundred or two hundred years ago, this training, as a part of a system of education, was not needed We had no cities, and but few large towns Agriculture and the ruder forms of mechanical labor were the chief occupations of the people Populous cities, narrow streets, dark lanes, cellar habitations, croorkshops, over-filled and over-heated factories, and the number of sedentary pursuits that tax and wear and destroy the physical powers, and undermine the moral and mental, were unknown These are the attendants of our civilization, and they have brought a melancholy train of evils with them In the seventeenth century, norance of the laws of health, fronant diseases that defied the science of the tith of hureater than it now is At present, there is but little exposure that is followed by fatal results; nant diseases are deprived of , founded upon scientific principles, are accessible to all; and yet we dailymen and women who are manifestly unequal to the lot that is before them In some cases, the sin of the parent is visited upon the children, and the measure of life meted out to them is limited and insufficient In other cases, the individuals, first yielding in their own persons, are the victims of positive vice, or of soood; and we cannot offer to the city or the factory any adequate compensation for the loss of pure water, pure air, and the healthful exercise of body, which ricultural districts of the state

Yet even in cities and large towns the culture of home and school should diminish these evils; and it is a pleasure to believe that our syste at the present lected body; but nowhere, either in city or country, do we observe the evidences of juvenile health and strength that a friend of the race would desire to see And it is, I fear, specially true of schools, and to some extent it is true of teachers, as a class, that too little attention is given to those exercises and habits which secure good health There are th of our people 1st The practice of sending children to school at the tender age of five, four, or even three years Every school necessarily imposes some restraint upon the pupils; and I assue should be subject to such restraints But the education of the child is not, therefore, to be neglected Parents, brothers and sisters,inquirer; but he should never have lessons imposed, nor be subject to the rules of a school of any description The moment of his admission must be determined by circued of by parents If a child is blessed with kind, considerate, intelligent parents, the first eight years of his life can be spent nowhere else as profitably as at home

The true mother is the model teacher No other person can ever acquire the control over her off-spring that is her own rightful possession

When she neglects the trust confided to her, she is guilty of a serious wrong; and when she transfers it to another, she takes upon herself a greater responsibility than she yields up The instinctive judgreat extent, been made responsible for the child; and the honor of his virtues or the disgrace of his crih him to her

2dly Some portion of every school-day should be systematically and strictly devoted to recreation, physical exercise and ht to be defined and limited Some persons say, ”Let a child study as enerally true, but it is not universally so I cannot but think that the practice of assigning lessons and giving the pupil the free use of the four-and-twenty hours is a bad practice Would it not be better to give to each pupil certain hours for study?--assign him lessons, by topics if possible, allow him to do what he can in the allotted time, and then prohibit the appropriation of an additional minute? Why should a dull scholar, or one who has but little taste or talent for a given study, be required to plod twelve, sixteen, or eighteen hours at unwelcome tasks, while another more favored disposes of his work in six? Why should a pupil, who is laboring under some mental or physical debility, be required to apply his ly when he es of a spelling-book, graraphy, or arithmetic, be the ned, not necessarily to be h they should have just reference to his capacity, but as the subject of his studies for a given period of ti but the proper use of that tiht result from this practice First, the pupil would acquire the habit of perforiven time; and, secondly, he would naturally throw off all care for books and school when the hour for relaxation arrived If particular studies are assigned to specified hours, the pupil ive thereat achievement I put it, in practical value, before any of the studies that are taught and learned in the schools The danger to which pupils are often exposed, in this connection, is quite apparent A lesson is assigned for a succeeding day The attention is not immediately fixed upon it One hour passes, and then another Nothing is accomplished, yet the pupil is continually oppressed by the consciousness of duty unperforht to do, nor does anything else Would it not be better to n his tiht of the ive our people the faculty and the habit of throwing off cares and occupations, when they leave the scenes of them It is a just criticism upon American character, that our business o I should put high up aive assiduously, studiously and devotedly, the necessary tiht of it There can be no peace of mind for the business man who does not possess this quality; and I think it will contribute essentially to a long life and a quiet old age No wiseat a ti at a ti well The stateraphy and history, that Napoleon was accustos at once, rest upon a misconception of the operations of the human mind His facility for the direction and transaction of business depended upon the quality I a his attention, undivided and strongly fixed, to a subject for an hour, half-hour,the hts, without loss of ti at a time is a lahich no finite power can violate; and ability in execution depends upon the ability to concentrate all the powers of the ned topic, and then to change, without friction or loss of tih school, and the question is now agitated, especially in the State of Connecticut, ”How can the advantages of a high school education be best secured?” This question I propose to consider And, first, the high school must be a public school A _public school_ I understand to be a school established by the public,--supported chiefly or entirely by the public, controlled by the public, and accessible to the public upon tere for tuition

Private schools may be established and controlled by an individual, or by an association of individuals, who have no corporate rights under the governreed upon, subject to the ordinary laws of the land

Private schools may be founded also by one or more persons, and by them endoith funds, for their partial or entire support In such cases, the founder, through the ht to prescribe the rules by which the school shall be controlled, and also to provide for the appointh all tiranted by the governhts of such an institution are derived from the founder, and the facilities for their easy exercise and quiet enjoyment are derived from the state

Such schools are sometimes, upon a superficial view, supposed to be public, because they receive pupils upon terms of equality, and no rule of exclusion exists which does not apply to all And especially has it been assumed that a free school thus founded, as the Norwich Free Acadees for tuition, and is open to all the inhabitants of the city, is therefore a public school These institutions are public in their use, but not in their foundation or control, and are therefore not public schools The character of a school, as of any eleemosynary institution, is derived from the will of the founder; and when the beneficial founder is an individual, or a nuanization of which the individuals are a part, the institution is private, whatever the rules for its enjoyment may be To say that a school is a public school because it receives pupils free of charge for tuition, or because it receives them upon conditions that are applied alike to all, is to deny that there are any private schools, for all come within the definition thus laid down

Nor is there any good reasoning in the statement that a school is public because it receives pupils froe is a private school, though its pupils come from all the land or all the world; while the Boston Latin School is a public school; though it receives those pupils only whose homes are within the limits of the city The first is a private school, because it was founded by President Wheelock, and has been controlled by hi through him, from the first until nohile the Boston Latin School is a public school, because it was established by the city of Boston, through the votes of its inhabitants, under the laws of the state, and is at all tiovernment and existence, to the popular hich created it When we speak of the public we do not necessarily mean the world, nor the nation, nor even the state; but the word _public_, in a legal sense, anization, territorially defined, and intrusted in any degree with the administration of its own affairs And the public character of a particular school, as the Boston Latin School, for exa quite independent of that already presented The State of Massachusetts, a conty in itself, has provided by her constitution and lahich are the expressed judgment of her people, for the establishency and action of the respective cities and towns of the commonwealth These towns and cities, under the laws, set up the schools; and of course each school partakes of the public character which the action of the state, followed by the corporate public action of the city or town, has given to it Thus it is seen that our public schools answer to the requirement already stated

They are established by the public, supported chiefly or entirely by the public, controlled by the public, and accessible to the public upon tere for tuition Nor is the public character of a school changed by the fact that private citizens may have contributed to its maintenance, if such contributors do not assume to stand in the relation of founders It is well understood that the beneficial founder of a school is he who al founder is the governrants a charter, or in any way confers upon it a corporate existence If a town establish a high school, as in Bernardston to-day, and accept a gift or bequest, the character of the school is not changed thereby Mr Powers did not atteave the income of ten thousand dollars for the aid of schools then existing, and for the aid of a school whose existence was already conteht in your institutions; they are still public,--your generous testator has only contributed to their support

And, in considering yet further the question, ”How can the advantages of a high-school education be best secured?” I shall proceed to coh school with the free high school or acadeeneral, and the argument does not apply to all the circumstances of society It is not everywhere possible to establish a public high school In some cases the population may not be sufficient, in others there may not be adequate wealth, and in others there ency In such circumstances, those who desire education must obtain it in the best manner possible; and academies, whether free or not, and private schools, whether endowed or not, should be thankfully accepted and encouraged Nor will high schools meet all the wants of society There must always be a place for classical schools, scientific schools, professional schools, which, in their respective courses of study, either anticipate or follow, in the career of the student, his four years of college life With these conditions and limitations stated, the point I seek to establish is that a public high school can do the work usually done in such institutions hly, and economically, than it can be done anywhere else

1st The supervision of the public school is more responsible, and consequently h schools which are endowed, there is a board of trustees, who perpetuate, as a corporation, their own existence Each member is elected for life, and he is not only not responsible to the public, but he is not even responsible, except in extraordinary cases, to his associates

Responsibility is, in all governments, the security taken for fidelity