Youth and Education. 21 



at work in summer, attending the district school in 

 winter, where he learned quite as much from inter- 

 course with his fellow-scholars as from either teacher 

 or book. Fifty years ago such schools enjoyed more 

 of the interest and attention of parents than now. 

 Each voter's school tax was larger, proportionately 

 to his means. Keen interest was taken in the autumn 

 election of school trustees, whose selection of teachers 

 was justly regarded as a matter of weight, worthy 

 of careful discussion. Sometimes the majority of 

 trustees and voters, for that matter would be con- 

 tent to take a mediocre teacher at a small salary. 

 Under such circumstances it was not uncommon for 

 a few dissatisfied heads of families to secure better 

 talent by supplementing the voted salary from their 

 own pockets. 



These engagements of teachers were usually short; 

 men taught in winter, women in summer. A teacher 

 who found favour in the sight of trustees and pupils 

 was sometimes engaged for a second season. If the 

 pupils failed to get excellence of tuition, they did not 

 lack variety of it, and were not permitted to subside 

 into any sluggish habit of respect for those set in tem- 

 porary authority over them. Rarely did one teacher 

 succeed another without fully and freely criticising 

 the predecessor's methods; and such criticisms, heard 

 on the benches, were sure to be carried home and to 

 keep alive the parental interest in school matters. No 

 uniformity of text-books was required ; all sorts of 

 grammars, geographies, and arithmetics, new and old, 

 met together on friendly terms. Not seldom one book 

 economically served two pupils. At the advent of a 

 new teacher proficiency was measured and position in 

 the classes defined. A free-and-easy mutual criticism 



