Part 6 (2/2)

The election of representatives, in the state or national legislature, for life, would be esteeerous innovation

It maybe said that boards of trustees are usually better qualified to e a school than the coed as individuals, this is probably true; though upon this point I prefer to admit a claim rather than to express an opinion But positively incompetent school committees are the exception in Massachusetts; usually the people make the selection froet the immediate, direct supervision of the public Not merely in the election of coilance whose results are freely disclosed to the superintending committee, as every inhabitant feels that his contribution, as a tax-payer, gives hie the character of the school, and ed with its h school, will be first discovered by pupils; and they are likely to report these defects to their parents In the case of the endowed private school, the parent feels that he buys whatever the trustees have to sell, or takes as a gift whatever they have to offer free; and he does not, logically nor as a ht to participate in the government of the school In one case you have the observation, the judgment, the supervision, of the whole coment of five, seven, ten, or twelve men

2dly The faithfulness of the teacher is very much dependent upon the supervision to which he is subject This is only saying that the teacher is human In the public school there is no motive which can influence a reasonable man that would lead him to swerve in the least from his fidelity to the interest of the school as a whole No partiality to a particular individual, no desire to proate a special idea, can ever stand in the place of that public support which is best secured by a just performance of his duties In the private school, with a self-perpetuating board of trustees, the teanization subservient to soion, or social life This may not always be done; but in many cases it has been done, and there is no reason to expect different things in the future I concur, then, unreservedly in the judgment which has placed this institution, in all its interests and in all its duties, under the control of the inhabitants of Bernardston When they who live in its light and enjoy its benefits cease to respect it, when they to whom it is specially dedicated cease to love and cherish it, it will no longer be entitled to the favorable consideration of a more extended public sentiment As all trustworthy national patriotism must be built on love for state, town, and hoht to esteehborhood its chief ood

It will naturally be inferred, froleness of purpose and fidelity of the public school to the cause of education, that the instruction given in it is iven in the private school But, in exa yet further the claihness, I es of comfortable rooms, adequate apparatus and coht to be supported by the facts There is no good reason why any town in Massachusetts should be negligent or parsimonious in these particulars True economy requires liberal appropriations With these appropriations, the best teachers, even from private schools and acadeements to liberal culture can be provided Is it possible that any of the means of a common-school education are necessarily denied to a million and a quarter of industrious people, who already possess an aggregate capital of seven or eight hundred h schoolof the pupils, and the qualifications required for adh school is a public school, the studies of the priard to the system as a system There is no inducement to admit a pupil for the sake of the tuition fees, or for the purpose of adding to the nued by his merits as a scholar; and where there is a wise public sentiment, the committee will be sustained in the execution of just rules

In the public high school we avoid a difficulty that is almost universal in academies and private schools--the presence of pupils whose attainments are so various that by a proper classification they would be assigned to two, if not to three grades, where the graded systeilance, industry and fidelity of teachers, cannot overcoiven is inevitably less systeh school, whether public or private, presents, is not its own character merely; it reflects the qualities and peculiarities of the schools below It follows, then, that the attention of the public should be as rah school itself Of course, it ought not to be assuh school arrant any abaterades; indeed, the interest and resources of these schools ought continually to increase

Nor can it be assumed that your contributions to the cause of education will be dienerous testator He did not seek to lessen your burdens, but to add to theyou

There is also an inherent power of discipline in the public schools, where they are graded and a system of examinations exists, that is not found elsewhere Neither the pupil nor the parent is viewed by the teacher in the light of a patron; hence, he seeks only to so conduct his school as to h school can be secured bymust have been such as to create a reasonable presumption in favor of the applicant, mentally and morally Hence, the public schools are filled by youth who are there as the reward of individual, personal merit Practically, the motive by which the pupils are animated has much to do with their success If they are , they attain the object of their desires even without the aid of teachers; but where they are aided and encouraged by faithful teachers, the school is soon under the control of a public sentiment which secures the end in view

This public sentiment is not as easily built up in a private school; for, in the nature of things, some pupils will find their way there who are not true disciples of learning; and such persons are obstacles to general progress, while they advance but little theentlemen trustees and citizens of Bernardston, may I not personally and especially invite you to consider the importance of a fixed standard of admission and a careful examination of candidates?

This course is essential to the ie schools It is essential to the true prosperity of this seminary, and it is also essential to the intellectual advancement of the people within your influence You expect pupils fro towns Your object is not pecuniary profit, but the education of the people If your requireh it , every town that depends upon this institution for better learning than it can furnish at hoh order On the other hand, negligence in this particular will not only degrade the school under your care here, but the schools in this town and the cause of education in the vicinity will be unfavorably affected Nor let the objection that a rigid standard of qualifications will exclude many pupils, and diht; for you perforood education for your own students

You are also, through the power inherent in this authority, to do so in other schools, and in the country around What harm if this school be small, while by its influence other schools are irl in the vicinity has richer means of education than could otherwise have been secured? Thus will tens, and hundreds, and thousands, of successive generations, have cause to bless this school, though they may never have sat under its teachers, or been within its walls

In a syste may be had at its prime cost

There need be no waste of money, or of the time or power of teachers As the public syste all the children under its influence The private system never can educate all; therefore the public systeive up a part of the population to ignorance It may, then, be said that the private schools, essential in ive henever the public schools are prepared to do the work; and when the public schools are so prepared, the existence of private schools adds their own cost to the necessary cost of popular education

But we are not to encourage parsimony in education; for parsimony in this department is not true economy It is true econoood schools as cheaply as they can be had, yet at any necessary cost, so only that they be good

Massachusetts is prosperous and wealthy to-day, respected in evil report as well as in good, because, faithful to principle and persistent in courage, she has for more than two hundred years provided for the education of her children; and now the re-flowing tide of her wealth from seaboard and cities will bear on its wave to these quiet valleys and pleasant hill-sides the lovers of agriculture, friends of art, students of science, and such as worshi+p rural scenes and indulge in rural sports; but the favored and first-sought spots will be those where learning has already chosen her seat, and offers toonly can give, and to childhood and youth, over and above the training of the best schools, healthful or, which ever distinguish life in the country and a the mountains from life in the city or on the plain And over a broader field and upon a larger sphere shall the benignant influence of this systereat republic, the power of a state is not to be ress Public opinion is ress; and they ield or control that do, in reality, bear rule Power in the world, upon a large view, and in the light of history, has not been confided to the majorities of men

Greece, unio in the sea, led the way in the civilization of the west, and, through her eloquence, poetry, history and art, becale city in Italy, that stretches itself into the sea as though it would gaze upon three continents, subjugated to her sway the savage and civilized world, and i tiuarded inviolate the treasure of her sovereignty for thirteen hundred years against the arland, unimportant in the extent of her insular territory, has been able, by the intelligence and enterprise of her people, to make herself mistress of the seas, arbiter of the fortunes of Europe, and the ruler of a hundred s have happened in obedience to a lahich knows no change

Power in Areatest intellectual and iven point And Massachusetts, limited in the extent of her territory, without salubrity of climate, fertility of soil, or wealth of h her people at home and her people abroad, proportionate to her fidelity to the cause of universal public education

NORMAL SCHOOL TRAINING

[An Address delivered at the Dedication of the State Normal School, at Salem]

The human race may be divided into two classes One has no ideal of a future different from the present; or, if it is not always satisfied with this view, it has yet had no clear conception of a higher existence

The other class is conscious of the power of progress, iscontinual advances, and has an ideal of a future such as, in its judght to be Both of these classes have institutions; for institutions are not the product of civilization, as they exist wherever our social nature is developed Man is also a dependent being, and he therefore seeks the coht of nureement, or at least so much concurrence in what is to be done as to secure the object sought The will of nuencies; and these, however simple, are indeed institutions--the evidence of civilization, rather than its product

They are always the sign, sy man expresses the purpose of his life Therefore, institutions differ, as the purposes of e and the man of culture do not seek the same end; hence they will not ee are those of the fas There the child is instructed in the art of dress, in riculture, the chase, and war This with hieneration is often the history of enerations Their ideal corresponds with their actual life; and, as a necessary result, there is little or no progress

But the other class establishes institutions which indicate the existence of new relations, and exact the perfor, he necessarily creates institutions of govern to the sphere in which he is to act If a nation desires to educate only a part of its people, its institutions are naturally exclusive; but wherever the idea of universal education has been received, the institutions of the country look to that end