£l)c .farmer's itlcmtl)lij iJisitor. 



107 



EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OF THE N. II. COMMIS- 

 SION f.|{ of common schools. 



The Commissioner of Common Schools, in accordance with the Act 

 requiring him " la make to the General Court u report upon the Common 

 Schools of the Stale, which shall romhine the Biibstance of the returns 

 from the several towns, anil such information and suggestions as seem to 

 him useful," respectfully submits his second annual Report, it being the 

 third from this Department: — 



As regards the interests of our Common Schools, the past year has been 

 prosperous. The nolile enterprise of appropriately educating the rising 

 generation has heeu winning its way to the understandings and affections 

 of ihe people. Although the efforts of the friends of popular education 

 have, heeu vastly disproportionate to the value of the contemplated heue- 

 fns, still they have exerted a powerful influence in awakening a deeper 

 interest, and urging to more vigorous exertions; The condition nf our 

 schools, though confessedly inadequate to the constantly increasing de- 

 mands of the age, furnishes occasion for much satisfaction in the present, 

 ami high anticipations for the future; ami our hearts should kindle with 

 profound gratitude to Cod for past attainments, and present success ; 

 white we still toil on, in hope ol additional triumph. The opinion is en- 

 tertained by a large number of our citizens, that the thorough education 

 nf our youth is a subject of greater magnitude, and Challenges public at- 

 tention and co-operation with a more authoritative voice, than tiny other. 

 The schools occupy a more prominent place in our affections ; and this 

 interest is not confined, as in former time, to particular sections, but is 

 generally diffused through the State. 



In my official tour, 1 have been every where welrnmed by the friends 

 of education, and furnished With every facility requisite for obtaining a 

 correct knowledge of the character and condition of the schools. Com- 

 mittees have usually accompanied me to the various districts, and by their 

 kindness and attention given no doubtful evidence of attachment to that 

 noble enterprise of which i was the bumble advocate. Not infrequently 

 were we greeted in our visits by individual citizens, while large audiences 

 have attended the public lectures, anil united in the exhibition of strong 

 regard for the cause of popular education. In the discharge of my offi- 

 cial duties, I have delivered more than fifty public addresses, travelled 

 above two thousand miles, visited three hundred schools, and aided in 

 conducting several Institutes. I have also examined with great care the 

 reports prepared by the Superintending School Committees of the vari- 

 ous towns, and hud frequent interviews with the most devoted friends of 

 this cause in different parts of the State. As the result of my inves'iga- 

 tions, it affords me pleasure to be able to report to the General Court, that 

 it is my deliberate opinion, founded upon evideuc e the authority of which 

 it is impossible to resist, that the late educational movement, though tardy 

 in its inception, is now progressing with a healthy and vigorous activity, 

 and abounds with indications of an ultimate su ccess, which nothing can 

 defeat but infatuation and impatience among those who should be the 

 guardians and conservators, as well as pioneers and directors of reform. 



Allow me, as a source of encouragement, to invite your attention to a 

 few of these indications of progress. 



1. .1 majority of the towns hare, duririsethe. current year, voluntarily raised, by 

 a tax on property, a sum nearly one third larger than is required by law. The 

 amount of money voluntarily raised and appropriated to the improvement 

 of the schools, has for several years been gradually increasing, hut in no 

 previous year has the increase been so great as during the present. This 

 is not only a clear evidence of increased interest on the part ofthe towns, 

 hut it is a weighty and deliberate decision of the men, by whom taxes as- 

 sessed for this, as well ns other purposes must be paid, against the ade- 

 quacy of the present amount of money required by law, for the purposes 

 of education. It is cheering to witness with what earnest and unusual 

 liberality a mind mice aroused treats this subject, and with what demon- 

 strable certainty increased appropriations follow in the wake of increased 

 attention. When correct views aie embraced in regard to the iniilhnera- 

 ble benefits resulting from general intelligence, and w. en the admirable 

 adaptation of the Common School to accomplish an object so essential to 

 the best interests of man is Inly recognized, the amount of appropriation 

 hitherto raised seems so trilling for so laudable a purpose, that the people 



freely vote to raise an ai ml of scho I money Which formerly would 



have appeared to them only the imposition of additional burdens. 



2. The passage of an act at the extra S'ssion ofthe Legislature, increasing Ihe. 

 amount of money to be raised for the support of schools twenty per cent, on Ihe 

 sum previously required. This law will act lavorabh on those towns, it 

 there lie any sncli, winch have not yet been reached by the elevating spirit 

 of this reform, While so much was lost by incompetent teachers, incon- 

 venient school-houses, and uninterested citizens, the General Court judi- 

 ciously refrained from requiring the towns to make additional appropria- 

 tions. But since the era of improvement has commenced; removing so 

 many nf these obstructions, and there now exists the prospect of a tolera- 

 bly judicious expenditure of our school funds, it lias most cheerfully ac- 

 ceded to the wishes of the people — requiring an increased amount to he 

 raised. Nothing short of a deep conviction of the value of elementary 

 iusuuctioii, and the inadequacy nf former appropriations, could have se- 

 cured results so desirable and encouraging. This act has met with uni- 

 versal approbation, and will be productive of greater and more permanent 

 good to tiie Stale than almost any other of the session. Its passage sent 

 a thrill of joy to many aspiring youth, struggling lo obtain an education, 

 but sadly retarded by the numerous and hitherto insurmountable obstruc- 

 tions to he encountered in the smaller and poorer districts, 



3. The increased exertions and solicitude exhibited in securing a corps of well- 

 qualified teachers. The qualifications of teachers have been too much neg- 

 lected, and the sad consequences of this neglect have long been fell and 

 deplpred by those who had not the power to remedy the evil. The dawn 

 is now breaking upon the masses. The truth.-;, which the friends of edu- 

 cation have been for years industriously laboring to inculcate — that the 



teacher exerts a controlling influence over those intrusted lu his care, and 

 that it is ulleil) impossible to have a good School under ihe management 

 of an incuiupenienl teacher, for the reason that his character is a model 

 which are moulded the intellectual and moral characteristics of his 



upon which are moulded the intellectual and moral characteristics of his 

 pupils— have become something more than mere fiction, designed to ul- 

 lure wayward children into obedience, and have assumed ihe tin por lance 

 ol stern philosophical entiries. They cannot be disregarded without in- 

 flicting irreparable calamities, and rendering the community liable to a 

 swarm of evils, more intolerable and lasting than the plagues of Egypt. 

 Tl'e intimate connection existing between the leacher and' the school is 

 so clearly recognized, by persons of intelligence, that the elevation ol the 

 former is deemed the most successful plan lor the improvement of ihe 

 latter. In consequence of mis, Hie demand for good teachers has recent- 

 ly become greater than the supply. To meet this exigency, u Teachers' 

 Department was established in several ofthe besl Academies in the Slate, 

 designed to aid those, purposing to leach, in securing higher qualifications 

 for their responsible dunes. Hundreds bale annually gone forth Irom 

 these seminaries to lake ihe charge of our schools, nitll slicing hope, en- 

 larged views, and valuable atlaiiimeuls. This expedient failing lo meet 

 the increasing demand for thoroughly qualified teachers, a temporary 

 school has been organized in several of ihe counties, called ihe Teachers' 

 Institute, having in view the same specific object. Experienced educators 

 and the friends of education universally agree in regarding the Institute 

 unrivaled as an instrumentality of immediate and extensive application, 

 as well as the must direct and economical means of improving the char- 

 acter of ihe District School, for it is placed iu more immediate proximity 

 lo the persons upon whom it is designed ultimately to aei, than any other 

 hitherto devised. Entertaining similar views iu regard to the peculiar 

 adaptation and usefulness of Institutes, 1 hail the increasing interest ex- 

 hibited iu their behalf with delight, and record with emotions of giati- 

 tude the encouraging fact, that iu no former year have so many been held 

 in this State, nor have so vigorous exertions ol any kind been employed 

 lo afford teachers facilities necessary lo fit them for their work. These 

 opportunities of improvement have been gratefully enjoyed and diligently 

 improved. Teachers have thronged to the Institute in crowds, and in 

 their subsequent success have furnished abundant evidence of ils efficien- 

 cy and influence. As a happy result of this movement, greater solicitude 

 is cherished by them iu securing adequate attainments and professional 

 skill, and the whole community has felt the far-reaching influence result- 

 ing from its sessions. As a pebble thrown into a lake repeals ils impres- 

 sions upon the entire mass of water, iu constantly enlarging circles, and 

 only terminates its effects on the distant shore, so every jusiiluie that has 

 been held has sent a wave of elevating influence to every retreating cove 

 and every shadowy eddy, where uiiud lay sleeping and stagnant, yet 

 wanting only some foreign impulse to ruffle its surface and originate that 

 series of ebbs and flows from which no sluggish equilibrium shall ever 

 be restored. 



4. The increased attention devoted to School Architecture. The school-houses 

 of former times, too many ol which even now confront our gaze, exhibit 

 a fearful want of adaptation to the grand purposes for which they were 

 constructed; and it is a lamentable fact that so many of them have so 

 lung resisted the improvements of ihe age, and slid remain Ihe humiliat- 

 ing monuments, if not of a spirit of penuriousness in the highest degree 



irehensible, at least, of culpable apathy and neglect, lint ihe work of 

 ineiii in ibis important department of reform is begun, ami a he- 

 ginning of sn much promise, under circumstances so unpropiliuiis, affords 

 the strongest encouragement of general success. Within a few years, a 

 large number of these ill-constructed and dilapidated buildings have been 

 displaced by those that are tasteful, commodious and well ventilated. In 

 connection with their fate, I have the pleasure of knowing thai I have aid- 

 ed lo the fullest exieni of my ability in hastening Ihe downfall of a class 

 of miserable hovels, which ought, in justice, a long lime since, to have 

 been razed to the earth, or consecrated to some more congenial purpose. 

 Several school-houses, jiuiterns ol lasie, beauty and comfort, have been 

 erected during the year — noble monuments, bul standing iu sad contrast 

 with Ihe venerable specimens nf former times which still linger among 

 us! 



Their location has received increased attention. Instead of being 

 crowded into tire unoccupied nook of a dismal swamp, or unhealthy 

 marsh amidst vermin, choke-damps and pestilence, or even profaning ihe 

 sacred retreat of ihe dead, exposing its inmates lo the influence of con- 

 stant miasma, and depressing melancholy, the school-bouse adorns a 

 pleasant and health} eminence, where it can he visited by the (We air of 

 heaven, or with its ample play -grounds is embosomed in the retired grove, 

 where nature's charm's, rather than her more revolting features, are made 

 I In- companions of sludy, and influence and control ihe formation of 

 character; 



The internal arrangements have not been neglected, but have been 

 adapted to preserve the health, and will respectful treatment. In these 

 houses, the children are no longer Compelled to sit in agony upon back- 

 less seals, will! Hair lower extremities dangling iu space, anil they are no 

 longer obliged to hreatl e an atmosphere destitute ofthe elements of vigor 

 and life: hut may freely inhale the pure ail of heaven, so abundantly fur- 

 nished for the happiness of the race. Confusion and disorder have thus 

 been removed, and the way prepared for the introduction of a more re- 

 fined and congenial system of discipline. Every additional appropriately 

 Constructed school-house is a perpetual argument iu favor of progress, 

 and eloquently pleads for universal reform. The blackboard so full of 

 light, in Ihe hands of an int< lligent instructor, ornaments nearly every 

 school-house iu the Slide. Appropriate and inspiring Mollos, Elementary 

 Churls, Outline Maps, and Globes are also found iu a lew, and it is very 

 desirable that more vigorous efforts should be employed lo secure their 

 general adoption. 



5. The extensive introduction of improved text books. Many of our school 



re | 

 improve 



