192 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



DEC. 4, 18311. 



most grateful artic'e in the consumption of every 

 family, tliat they will jrive when fed simply on the 

 best English liny. With the general cultivation of 

 roots, my present conviction is that the quantity of 

 beef and pork and butter and cheese produced in 

 New England, may be increased one-half, and 

 might be very easily doubled. — IbiJ. 



From the New York Obierver. 



DR. HUMPHREY'S THOUGHTS ON EDUCA- 

 TION. 



Qimlificalions of Teachers. 

 I have already said that a school-master ought 

 to be a man of icood common sense. 



My second remark is, that he ought to be ivdl 

 educated. How can he instruct others in what he 

 has never thoroughly learned himself.' All the 

 good sense in the world, essential as this qualifica- 

 tion is, would not fit him for the teacher's chair 

 without a familiar acquaintance with the studies of 

 the schoo!. I say a Jami'iar acquaintance, because 

 if he cannot hear a class 'read without looking over 

 every moment, oi- correct bad spelling in a compo- 

 sition without fumbling in the dictionary, or write a 

 letter himself without making a dozen mistakes in 

 orthography and the placing of capitals ; if he 

 knows so little of figures, as to be hindered and 

 puzzled every time a slate is handed to him by a 

 bewildered novice, and has so little knowledge of 

 grammar as to boggle and blunder in the easiest 

 lessons, he is not fit for a school-master, whatever 

 else he might do. If he would keep the school 

 "for nothing and find himself," no district could af- 

 ford to employ him. Children's time is infinitely 

 too precious to be wasted under the care of a mas- 

 ter who is not half educated himself iu the very 

 branches he is required to teach. And besides the 

 loss of the winter, bad habits of spelling, reading, 

 writing, and the like, are inevitably contracted, un- 

 der an incompetent master, which it will take anoth- 

 er winter to correct. To manage and instruct a 

 school well, a teacher must see things at a glance, 

 and must be able to correct mistakes at the instant 

 He has no time to study the lessons in school, and 

 very little out of school. He must come with a 

 well furnished mind, or else with all possible efforts 

 to make up the deficiency as he goes along, he 

 cannot meet the reasonable expectations of his em- 

 ployers. And it makes but little difference how 

 much he knows in the higher branches of educa- 

 tion, if he is ignorant of the elementary principles, 

 or if they are not quite familiar to his mind. He 

 may even be able to construe Greek and Latin with 

 considerable accuracy, and yet be miserably defi- 

 cient in some of the commonest branches of an 

 English education. In such cases a parent may 

 be assured for his comfort, when he complains of 

 his children's not being taught correctly in the 

 common school, that the master has been half 

 through college ; but the evil is none the less for 

 that. A child may just as well be badly taught by 

 an ignoramus as by a graduate. 



Have you then taken time and pains to qualify 

 yourself for the highly responsible duties of a teacli- 

 er? Can you read — can you spell — do you under- 

 stand the powers of the letters — what do you know 

 about accent, emphasis and cadence ? Can you 

 write — and do you know how to make and hold a 

 pen — are you quick in figures and prompt in gram- 

 mar, geography ? &c. &c. In one word, are all 

 these qualifications at "your fingers' ends".' If 



nnt, let me advise you as a friend — I mean a friend 

 nut only to yourself, but to every body who wants a 



good school-teaclier, not to undertake at present 



Perhaps you can earn as much some other way. 

 But if you think you should be fond of teaching, 

 first prepare for it. Apply yourself diligently to 

 study ; and as soon as you can get ready, present 

 yourself to the examining committee, but not before. 



A third essential qualification in a school-master 

 is aptness to teach. However well he may under- 

 stand the theory, and however afHuent he may be 

 in all needful attainments, if he lacks the gift of 

 communication, he can never be a useful teacher. 

 Hie knowledge is hid treasure, a sealed fountain, 

 which may be a source of high enjoyment to the 

 possessor, but can be of no advantage to the pupils. 

 No one, I am aware, can certainly tell whether he 

 possesses the faculty of teaching. Or if he does, 

 with what success he can cultivate it, till he bas a 

 fair opportunity to make the trial. It would be un- 

 candid and extremely unfair, therefore, to say to a 

 young teacher, you never ougnt to have entered a 

 school, for it is as clear the sun, that you have no 

 talent for the business. And so it-may be now; 

 but how could lie know whether he had a tact or 

 not, till he tried ? If having signally failed, he 

 persists iti offering himself as a teacher, rebuke 

 liim, or what is still belter, protect yourselves and 

 your children by declining to employ him. 



A fourth qualification, of great importance in a 

 school-master, is entire self control. The tempera- 

 ment of some persons is altogether too mercurial 

 for the school-room. They do well in smooth wa- 

 ter, but make miserable steerage in rough weather. 

 Every cross wind makes them lose their reckoning. 

 Every little annoyance, every little jostling, disturbs 

 and excites them. They begin to chafe and storm 

 ere the first ounce of patience should be exhausted. 

 So ticklish are their nerves, that they cannot bear 

 one atom of friction. They want to hnve every 

 boy sit up as straight as a candle, and be as still 

 as a mile-stone and as mute as a pickerel. When 

 every thing does not go exactly right, in a cold 

 morning, it frets them exceedingly ; and it requires 

 but little provocation to throw them quite off" their 

 guard. And then they are sure to say or do some- 

 thing which they will be sorry for the next mo- 

 ment ; and which hardly ever fails to lower them 

 in the estimation of their scholars. In short, they 

 have no self-control, which is too nearly synony- 

 mous with having no proper self-respect. 



Now whatever else such a man may undertake, 

 he ought never to think of keeping school. JVerve, 

 in this case, is a very different thing from nerves. — 

 The former he inust have, or he will not succeed ; 

 but the fewer of the latter he carries about him the 

 better for himself and for all concerned. I will 

 not say, that it requires the patience of Job to teach 

 and manage a large school, because his trials were 

 of a very different kind ; but it certainly does re- 

 quire a great deal of patience. A teacher has so 

 many different tempers, intellects and habits to deal 

 with ; so many questions to answer at the same 

 moment ; so many pens to make and mend ; so 

 many classes to hear ; so many sums to look over 

 and correct ; and so many rogues to watch, that he 

 must have a good deal of self-discipline to keep 

 perfectly cool and steady through it all, when he 

 has sixty, or ssiventy, or even thirty scholars ; and 

 is shut up with them six or seven hours a day, with 

 the thermometer sometimes at blood-heat, and 

 sometimes nearly down to zero. But I repeat the 



remark already made, that no one can be duly an 

 properly qualified to keep school, without patienc 

 and self control. I know not how many candidate 

 may be set aside by the application of this rule 

 nor do I feel answerable for it, however much th 

 numberbf teachers may be reduced. It is wron 

 that our schools should sufi"er for the sake of givin 

 employment to persons of such irritable tempei 

 and habits, as must inevitably neutralize all the: 

 good qualities, and greatly injure the tempers ofot 

 children. And who, allow me to ask, has not know 

 some individuals of good abilities in the chair c 

 instruction, as well as elsewhere, answering to th 

 description which I have now given. 

 To be continued. 



"THE DEBT-PAYING NATION." 



This is the name which the United States hav 

 acquired abroad, and never was an appellation be 

 ter deserved. We, as a nation, run in debt more I 

 others, than perhaps all other nations out togethe 

 What would be said if Great Britain snouia run i 

 debt two hundred millions to France, or Prussia fi 

 ty millions to Austria ? We, on the contrary, thii 

 nothing of selling our credit to the amount of 

 hundred or two of millions, in the shape of stock- 

 and then purchase goods annually to the amoui 

 of some twenty millions more than we can pay ; 

 the time, trusting to luck, and tempting Providenc 

 It requires no prophetic sagacity to foretell th 

 matters cannot always go on at this rate. Oi 

 credit must be over-taxed in time, and though oi 

 resources are immense, a sudden invitation to ' hai 

 over,' would produce a convulsion, of which we wl 

 remember 1837, may form a faint conception ; 

 convulsion in which the credit and the floating ca 

 ital of the country would alike go to ruin. Tl 

 individual is on the high road to bankruptcy, whoi 

 average expense exceeds his annual income, ai 

 the same is equally true of nations. How stani 

 the matter with us in this respect? 

 In 1837 we imported in flour 



and wheat $4,276,776 



In the same time we export- 

 ed of the same 3,075,475 



Leaving a balance against 



us of 



$1,201,201 for bread. 



In 1837 we imported of su- 

 gar 

 And we exported 



§7,205,904 

 76,181 



Leaving against us a bal- 

 ance of .§7,129,723 for sugar. 



In 1837 the whole of our 



imports was $140,989,217 



And the sum total of our 



exports was 117,419,276 



Leaving against us a bal- 

 ance of $23,569,941 

 But it will be said, this balance is paid, and th 

 debt caijcelled. So it is — but how ? By trans 

 ferring the account from the individuals who con 

 tracted it, to the country itself. In other word.' 

 this twentythree millions and many more simila 

 balances of trade against us, have been paid i: 

 stocks, or the credit of the States has been loane- 

 to secure the foreign dealer. These balances c 

 trade against us are not paid, and when they wi; 



