1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEJUER. 



91 



-WnSTTER SCHOOLS. 



A R M E R s ! read 

 and ponder. — 

 - Analyze your 

 systems of edu- 

 cation, the qual- 

 ificatfions of 

 your teachers, 

 the condition of 

 your school 

 houses, and es- 

 pecially the 

 modes of teacJi- 

 ing, and learn 

 whether your 

 children are 

 getting a fair 

 return for tlie 

 large suras of 

 ^^)) I money which you annu- 



'^ ' ally appropriate for the sup- 

 port of your schools. 

 A true education is learning how to live 

 out of an aboriginal condition, — that is, as 

 savages live, — to lessen human toil, to sur- 

 round ourselves with the comforts and even 

 luxuries of life, and at the same time to learn 

 more and more of Him in whom we live, 

 and move, and have our being. A true edu- 

 cation will help you to elevate the condition of 

 man everywhere — to study the wonderfiU works 

 always before us, and, through them, lift the 

 soul in sincere devotion to the Source of all 

 things. If education, as it is called, does not 

 do this, it is as sounding brass or a tinkling 

 cymbal ; false, hollow, mere tinsel, and often 

 worse than gross ignorance. It is said that at 

 one period, the people of France were more 

 "highly educated" than those of any other 

 nation on earth ; that is, they had a better 

 knowledge of books, wrote more themselves, 

 explored the Sciences and Arts, and surrounded 

 themselves with more of the comforts and ele- 

 gancies of life than had been known by any 

 people before ; and yet at no former period had 

 they been so corrupt. Vice in almost every form 

 prevailed ; the whole nation seemed debauched ; 

 crime abounded, and man seemed to have lost 

 all faith in his fellow man. Such were the 

 fruits of one kind of education ; but it was not 

 true education, for that brings love, harmony, 

 good will to men, and a real growth in purity. 

 These remarks have been suggested upon 

 reading an address by Mr. George B. Emer- 



son, at the opening meeting of the Social Sci- 

 ence Association, in Boston, on Thursday even- 

 ing, Dec. 13. 



He said, "the common schools are, as they 

 are continually declared to be, the dearest and 

 most precious interests of the people." In the 

 spring of 1821, school houses were nearly all 

 poorly furnished, dirty, badly warmed, and not 

 ventilated at all ; ventilation for school rooms 

 was not then discovered. 



He then says, '^As is the teacher, so is the 

 school. Is each teacher, in his own depart- 

 ment, allowed to teach and to govern accord- 

 ing to his own convictions by his own methods 

 and in his own way ? For every teacher fit for 

 his place, can thus teach and govern incompar- 

 ably better than he could under the dictation 

 of the wisest committee m4,n that ever entered 

 a school. Do the teachers avail themselves of 

 the opportunities presented by the improved 

 grading, to teach, to give real instruction ? Not 

 to hear lessons, but to give lessons ; to open and 

 enlarge the mind of his pupil and pour in 

 knowledge, not from the pages of a text book, 

 but from the fresh fountain of his own knowl- 

 edge and thought?" 



This is a point too often overlooked in the 

 selection of teachers. Almost any person may 

 listen to a recitation, and decide whether it was 

 well committed to the memory or not. But 

 this is not enough. He should be able to elu- 

 cidate and illustrate it ; to make it as clear to 

 the child's mind as is the noonday sun. His 

 course of study, reading, thought and obser- 

 vation should be such that, upon hearing a reci- 

 tation, his mind should be filled with appropri- 

 ate images and facts sufficient to enable him to 

 pour a flood of light into the mind of the child 

 in regard to the subject which he is trying to 

 master. Then he can address the pupil through 

 the eye as well as the ear. He can absorb his 

 attention and inspire him with the inspirations 

 that fill his own mind. Such teaching has life 

 and energy in it. It does not merely skim the 

 siirface of things, but goes down deep into the 

 understanding and makes indelible impressions 

 there. All this may be applied to a class as 

 well as to an individual. 



Mr. Emerson inquires: "Are the studies 

 pursued in the grammar schools what they 

 should be ? Is the great fact that for nearly 

 all children, the grammar schools furnish all 

 the school education they can ever get, suffi- 

 ciently regarded ? 



"Almost every girl is by nature destined to 



