CHAPTER II.

COMMON SCHOOLS.

SECTION I.

RELATION OF COMMON SCHOOLS TO OTHER MEANS OF EDUCATION.

"Mothers and schoolmasters plant the seeds of nearly all the good and evil which exist in our world. Its reformation must therefore be begun in nurseries and in schools."-DR. RUSH.

"At home, a boy can learn only what is taught him; but in school he can learn what is taught to others."-QUINTILIAN.

"That education which will secure to the future, the civilization of the past and present, is what the country really requires."WHEWELL.

I HAVE hitherto spoken of the education of the people, without referring to the sources, from which they derive it. I now come to consider Common Schools, as forming one of the most important of these sources, and the one with which we are especially called to deal, in this work. In order to understand, more clearly, the precise agency which these schools exert, it will be proper, however, to notice some of the other causes, which contribute to form the mind of a people, and the relations, which these sustain to Common Schools.

Among these causes, some are physical, such as climate, soil, and geographical position; and these, while they exert great power over the character and history of nations, are not liable to be modified materially by education. On the other hand, moral causes, such as those of a political, religious, and literary nature, are subject to human control; and there is, between them and prevailing systems of education, action and reaction, of the most intimate and powerful kind.

The agencies, however, which share most immediately with Common Schools, in the office of moulding a nation's spirit and character are, 1. the family; 2. higher seminaries of learning; 3. the means of self-culture, provided in books, lyceums, &c. I propose, in this section, to confine my inquiries to the precise place which the Common School occupies in respect to each of these; and I shall endeavour to show that, while all of them are necessary in a complete system of national education, each one derives from the Common School essential aid and support, and, in its turn, affords corresponding aid and support to it.

I. What relation, then, in the first place, does the Common School bear to the family, as an instrument of education? It is, evidently, the intention of the Creator, that the first years of a child's life should be passed under the immediate eye of its parents, and especially under that of an affectionate and judicious mother. It needs, then, a tenderness and watchful care, which can be expected from no other source, and in the retirement of home it drinks in, from the lips and deportment of those so much loved and revered, the most precious lessons of wisdom and virtue. There are cases, however, in which parents are so occupied that they are obliged to neglect their children, even during their infant years; and other cases, in which they are disqualified, by their character and habits, from applying any salutary influence. In these cases, it may be necessary to place even very young children in infant schools, where they can be treated with proper tenderness, and can have the benefit of good moral, and intellectual training. At a later period, when a child attains, for example, the age of seven or eight, and requires more formal and thorough instruction; it is expedient, in most instances, that he should be separated, for a part of each day, from his parents (whatever may be their character and circumstances), and enjoy the peculiar advantages of a good school. In thus prefer

ring a mixed education-partly scholastic and partly domestic-to one purely domestic, I am influenced by the following considerations:

1. If a child, at this period, is educated entirely at home, and by his own parents, he will, in many cases, have ignorant or vicious instructers, who have no proper sense of the value, of knowledge or of virtue. In such cases, of course, he can never advance beyond them in intelligence or character, and the effect of making home-education universal, would be, to fix society in a stagnant condition, without progress or change.

2. If, on the other hand, parents are qualified, by knowledge and disposition, to give a good education to their children, they rarely have sufficient leisure for the purpose, in this country; and when they have, they rarely employ it, in such a manner, as to give the child the full benefit of a systematic and thorough training.

3. Even allowing to parents the highest qualifications and the utmost fidelity and perseverance, they are still, in most instances, too blind to their children's character and capacity, or too impatient for their improvement, to make wise and judicious teachers. "The intense interest," says Godwin, "which a parent feels in the improvement of his offspring, frequently renders him totally unfit for the office of a teacher." Add to this, that a parent who spends some hours each day amid the vexations of the schoolroom, is not likely to carry the requisite equanimity to other household cares, and rarely exercises authority, in other matters, with the same comfort or effect, as if the children were separated from home, for a part of the time.

If, instead of superintending the education of our children personally, we employ a private or family instructer, we subject our children, by such an arrangement, to the following disadvantages, even though our instructer be, in the highest degree, capable and faithful:

1. It is physically impossible that a teacher can throw as much spirit and energy into his instructions, when they are given in the presence of but one, or of a very small number, as when they are communicated before a large school. The efficacy of teaching, depends, very much, on its vivacity.

2. The pupil of a private instructer depends too much on him, and too little on himself.

3. Such a pupil is deprived of a great amount of oblique or indirect instruction, both mental and moral, which a scholar at a public school derives from what he hears addressed to others, and from what he sees of the discipline of the school, and of the results which follow different courses of conduct.

4. The pupil of a private instructer is too constantly an object of attention, the effect of which is, first, that he is very apt to overrate his own consequence, and, secondly, he is liable to be too much hurried in his studies, and too frequently interrupted, by unnecessary aid and interference.

5. Such a student needs the inspiring influence of others who are engaged in the same pursuits, and who, while they quickened his efforts, would also teach him the true measure of his own abilities, and the proper standard by which to estimate his personal importance.

6. He is deprived of the advantage of living under a government of fixed rules, which are framed for the common benefit and government of several persons of different conditions and character in life, and of thus being gradually prepared to become the subject of civil government. The regulations of a family are less like those of civil society, than the regulations of a school.

7. As a child must ultimately separate from his family, and adapt himself to the ever-varying emergencies of life, and struggle with its difficulties and temptations, he should be early prepared for all this by a training which he can

hardly get, in the sheltered and uniform experience of domestic life.

But if children ought to be sent to school, the question may arise, Why not prefer a select school, where they will mingle only with those of the more respectable and opulent class, and enjoy more thorough instruction and discipline? I answer,

1. That, in most cases, a select school can be made superior to the common school, only, by absorbing the patronage of those who are best able to support education, and who appreciate most deeply its importance; and that, in absorbing that patronage, it condemns the common school to inefficiency, and thus deprives the bulk of the community of the advantages of thorough instruction.

2. Select schools serve to create and perpetuate prejudices against the common school system, as though it were necessarily inferior or unimportant, when the general welfare requires, that it should be an object of universal regard and solicitude.

3. Such schools encourage invidious distinctions between the rich and poor, which are misplaced everywhere, and especially in our country; and they also separate those who, in after life, will have to meet, on the broad ground of free and equal competition.

4. They have also the effect, of making the position of a common school teacher less pleasant and respectable, thereby repelling, from the pursuit, those who are best qualified for it.

In cities, and wherever population is dense and property abundant, it may be well to have some select schools of the highest excellence, in order to stimulate the teachers and patrons of common schools. But in the present condition of our country, and especially of the agricultural districts, it is a matter of the last importance that all efforts for the sup