fruits of their experience, and also show that the life of a teacher, instead of being, as some suppose, a mere hum-drum, monotonous course, is diversified by incidents as varied as those which occur in any other profession.

DISRESPECT TO TEACHER.

CASE 1st. We will close this article with the following report of a case, every particular of which we know to be true.

The school was composed entirely of boys, and numbered about fifty scholars, ranging from eight to sixteen years of age. It was situated four or five miles from a large city, in a village which was then, and is now, a noted resort for "fast" young men. As a consequence, the boys became acquainted with all the profane, vulgar, and slang expressions of the day, and were much inclined to be rude and pert, both in and out of school.

One day, a slight disturbance having occurred in one of the classes, the teacher asked a scholar concerning it, and received a very disrespectful and insulting reply. After a moment's silence, he went on with the recitation, apparently intending to take no notice of the offence. The scholars were much surprised at this seeming indifference, and commented on it freely among themselves at the close of school.

The next morning the teacher called the attention of the school, saying pleasantly that he wished to ask a few questions. "If," said he," you were at play here in the yard, and a gentleman riding by in a chaise, should stop and inquire the way to Brighton, would you tell him?" "Yes," promptly answered the boys. "But how would you tell him? In pleasant, gentle-. manly tones, or gruffly, as though he had no right to trouble you and disturb your plays?" "I would tell him as well as I could," said one of the boys, and all raised their hands to indicate their approval of the answer. "But suppose that a common laborer should ask you the same question, would you tell him?" "Yes," was again the reply. "And would you tell him in as polite and gentlemanly a manner as you told the other?" "Yes," said all the boys. "But suppose that instead of one of these, a strolling beggar, clothed in filthy garments, and having every appearance of a man who had debased himself by his vices, should ask of you the same information, would you tell him?" A hearty "Yes," was as before the response. "But would you be as particular to tell him kindly and pleasantly as you would be to tell the others?" "Most certainly we should," said the boys, some even adding that they ought to be more particular to speak kindly to such a person.

The teacher had now gained his point. The scholars had established for themselves a principle which each felt was just

and true, and it only remained for the teacher to make the application.

66

Yesterday," said he slowly and impressively, "I asked George Jones a question, which I not only had a right to ask, but which it was my duty to ask, and he gave me a disrespectful answer. Is it possible that there is a boy in this school, who will treat his teacher worse than he would the merest vagabond that walks the streets?"

It was enough. Nothing more was said, yet every scholar felt the reproof; and the teacher did not, during the remainder of the term, have occasion to complain of the slightest want of respect on the part of any of his pupils.

CASE 2d. Samuel dropped a pencil upon the floor, and in recovering it jostled William, his right-hand neighbor, with his elbow; he was detected, and to some questioning as to motive answered impertinently, and when reproved for this, added stubbornness to his first trivial breach of order. What course ought a judicious teacher to pursue to bring him to an acknowledgment of his wrong-doing, and to induce him to forsake all attempts at similar annoyances in future?

In a case like this, where a grave offence grows out of a comparatively insignificant one, much, in fact nearly all, depends upon the teacher's bearing and manner. If he be kind and firm, rarely indeed will small affairs grow to any importance. And one good rule will be, never, or very seldom, to ask a scholar's motive for any small breach of order. The stern demand, "What did you do that for, sir?" may frighten a child into a falsehood. At any rate it will suggest to him the propriety of seeking an excuse, or will prompt him to concealment, and all these are bad enough, but not so injurious as when the frowning question merely arouses opposition and wilfulness. Ask not often for a child's motive when he does wrong: he is not always half conscious what his motive was, and then he feels too much ashamed of it to be willing to tell it.

A little judicious waiting, if the pupils and the offender know that their teacher is fully aware of the offence,—will in no case do harm. The only difficulty is, that they are left to suppose that the schoolmaster did not comprehend the mischief. When they understand that he knows it all, and that a day of reckoning will come after he has had time to reflect and deliberate, the delay will work good rather than injury. And in case of impertinent words or stubbornness, nothing, in our humble opinion, will avail as much as judicious delays. By such delays Fabius conquered Hannibal, and by them a teacher may conquer the disposition to mischief in almost any boy. C.

MR. EDITOR:

[From the R. I. Schoolmaster.]

PROVINCETOWN, March 1, 1855.

The Prospectus announcing the forthcoming of your R. I. Schoolmaster, found its way by steam and horse locomotion to this isolated, but honest, independent, and cheerful community, blessed with good teachers, and, as a legitimate result, good schools. The discussion and history of education in this enterprising place, we leave for a future letter, and confine ourself to another interest. When this announcement of an educational journal, to be issued in Rhode Island, was read, it was as quickly determined to secure its periodical visits, for reasons it seemed to us very rational, and such as every teacher would do well to consider. First, that all proper efforts, judiciously carried into operation to facilitate the labor of teaching, by developing the best methods of imparting instruction, and disciplining the youth, elevating the character of the teacher in the estimation of many who never visit the school or the teacher, but would read a journal, and thereby become acquainted with some of the trials and difficulties incident to the school-room; by elevating the standard of teaching and advocating the claims of the instructor to a fair compensation for services in the work of educating the young-ought to be encouraged by subscribing for the journal themselves, inducing their neighbors or parents in the district to do so, and by paying over the cash to the publisher, to enable him to carry on the work unembarrassed by debts, which are like a mill-stone about his neck.

In the second place, through the medium of a school journal we often get the experience of those long in the field; and as successes and failures are the common lot of all in some degree, a knowledge of the means of success, and the manner of correcting evils is often of immense value to the young teacher, and aids very much those of longer experience. This mode of communication, or rather simply journalizing each day's history is easily understood and more readily appreciated by the co-worker in the same calling.

One word to the teachers in Rhode Island. This enterprise is put in operation mainly for you. Through this channel you can become acquainted with each other, with the methods of teaching and disciplining the schools, and the management of peculiar and difficult cases by successful teachers. Its pages will be open to any or all teachers in the State to give their views upon questions and topics in which the writer is interested and has found a practical knowledge to be successful in the improvement of the school under his or her charge.

Questions may be asked, such as have perplexed the teacher

and often retarded the progress of the school intellectually and morally, and introduced confusion in every department of the school. This journal will be efficient in aiding the teachers, in proportion as the members of the fraternity aid in sustaining the paper. This must be done by circulating the subscription list in the district or town in which you are engaged, and adding your own names to the list.

X.

Local Editors' Table.

LITERARY NOTICES.

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION, together with the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board.

THERE are few documents whose annual return we more heartily welcome, than the Report of the Secretary of the Board of Education. The present is perhaps of more than common interest. The Secretary has given a brief view of the progress of the cause of education in the State during the last six years. As this document is very extensively circulated through the State, and is brought within the reach of every teacher, we deem it unnecessary to make any extracts from it for our own pages. We would, however, direct especial attention to the extracts from Mr. Twisleton's pamphlet on the "Religious Working of the Common Schools in the State of Massachusetts, which Dr. Sears has appended to his report. This document ought to be republished, and placed in every family in the State. It ought especially to be placed in the hands of those gentlemen who are sometimes met with, who are so fond of decrying our school system, and at all times ready to complain of the burdens of taxation. They can here learn the opinion of an intelligent Englishman, respecting the effects of American schools, and of Massachusetts schools in particular upon American commerce. Such gentlemen will please observe that this pamphlet is not the production of Dr. Sears, nor of some school committee man, who is desirous, as is sometimes affirmed, of wresting from them a few dollars for the support of schools by what they are pleased to term "infernal taxation." This class is, we are happy to say, so much in the minority, that they may seem to some, scarcely worthy of notice. They are, however, sufficiently numerous to raise a kind of fiendish howl in every village and hamlet, whenever an additional dollar is required for the sup

port of our public schools. They are sufficiently numerous to be constantly lurking in secret places of political influence at the time of town and city elections, and are abundantly fruitful in expedients for restricting the powers of school committees within. "constitutional limits," and for " preserving unimpaired the liberties which we have received from our fathers." We ask the attention of these gentlemen, to the following extract from Mr. Twisleton's report.

"In regard to the United States, it is plain, that every advance in the education of their people, unaccompanied by a similar advance amongst ourselves, distinctly adds to their relative power. For this reason, when it is known that in the year 1852, an overwhelming* majority of the citizens of New York decided in favor of a system of free schools in that city, the merchants, shopkeepers, and artisans of Liverpool and London, if they consulted their own interests, would never rest, until they had induced the Legislature to let them introduce a similar system amongst themselves. And in like manner, when an English statesman who looks far into the future, is told that this very system has within the few years been adopted, or is likely soon to be adopted, by all other free states of the Union, such a fact, combined with the continuance of our own imperfect educational arrangements, ought to suggest to him matter for reflection, less pressing, but not less profoundly important, than if he heard that Congress had passed resolutions for trebling the American Army, or for increasing their Navy by twenty large Screw Steamers of the line.

These principles, when fully stated, are so self-evident, that a prudent statesman would act on them with perfect confidence, although he did not distinctly discern the precise mode in which, at any given time, they were operating to the disadvantage of his own country. But even amongst Legislators there are some who view with distaste all general reasonings, and who, in matters of this kind, require something more specific to convince their understandings or stimulate them into action. And unfortunately, there is ample evidence, in this case, of the specific manner in which the English people, in a point intimately connected with their national power, are exposed to detriment, in consequence of defective education. I do not allude to the great progress made by New Englanders in mechanical and manufacturing skill, manifestly as this has been promoted by their generally cultivated intelligence, and valuable as that skill must be in adding to the resources of the Union. Important information on this head is contained in the Special Reports of Mr. Wallis and Mr. Whitworth, two of the Commissioners appointed to attend the Exhibition of Industry in the City of New York; which were printed amongst the Parliamentary Papers of last Session, and which, at the time of their publication, attracted much attention and occasioned some uneasiness. There is, however, such a vast fund of inventive ingenuity in the manufacturing districts of Great Britain, that there does not seem to be any real danger to the empire on this side, and every new development of constructive powers in New England or any other country, should rather be cor* The vote was carried by 39,075, to 1011 — a majority of nearly 39 to 1.