NEWTON.

(1844-5.) SELECTION FROM REPORT. ** Another difficulty with which most of our schools have had to contend, is, the want of better seats and desks. A remedy, surely, should be applied to this evil. In Newton, we are, in this respect, behind the time. Some of the houses have been in so poor repair, that, in severe weather, it was difficult for the scholars to be made comfortable. This was the case particularly in the Centre district. That schoolhouse is utterly unfit for a winter school. Some of our schoolhouses also have had too little room, as that in the North district.

Most of our schoolhouses are badly ventilated, or not at all. Your committee have often found the atmosphere of the schoolroom exceedingly oppressive. Indeed, after sitting an hour, we have marvelled that the teacher has succeeded so well, both in the instruction and management of his school; for, to say the least, it was utterly impossible for any body either to study or to impart instruction, under such circumstances, vigorously.

Your committee are also impressed with the necessity of better accommodations for furnishing water for the use of the schools. In most cases, it seems to us important, if not in all, that there should be, near the schoolhouse, a well for the use of the school.

*

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-Lyman Gilbert, W. Bushnell, Ebenezer Woodward.

(1845-6.) SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. * * While other schools have had their difficulties with which to contend, this, the East and Centre schools, have had another that is not common to all. It cannot reasonably be doubted, that the presence of the older and more advanced pupils is of great importance to the progress of the younger classes in school. They raise the standard and set high the mark at which their juniors should aim; and it cannot be doubted that the younger are greatly stimulated by the example and progress of the older and more advanced. Hence it always operates unfavorably upon the district school to take out of it the best scholars; for, by such a measure, the imitative principle in the younger is weakened, or has nothing to excite it. Emulation has fewer and weaker inducements, and the consequence almost unavoidably is, that there is less interest and less progress in the school. * *

The select schools in the vicinity take away their most forward scholars, while they leave the a-b-c-darians and other small scholars to constitute the schools. * *

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-W. Bushnell.

PEPPERELL.

(1844-5.) SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. * *In this country, the actual ruler is the public mind. It is opinion,-the will of the people. And this remark holds true, notwithstanding the written constitution and the laws are declared to be the great charter of liberty. These instruments, however perfect, and to whatever extent they may embody the great principles of civil freedom, are, and always will be, subjected to different constructions. They will be made to bear this or that meaning, according to the public sense of right or expediency, for the time being. And whenever the power and the wish to set them aside altogether coëxist, they will be set aside.

This then shows, that the great executive head in all our temporal affairs, is not a written nor an unwritten law; it is not a man nor a body of men. It is the mind, the will, the invisible spirit, the inner man, uniting in sympathy with others of similar impulses. It is the union of many minds, the aggregate of many wills, condensed and embodied, and ruling with a power like that of the Almighty, so far as that it is invisible and irresistible.

This, then, fellow-citizens, is our ruler,-a ruler to whom we must submit.— Right or wrong, public opinion is the law of the land; it is the ruler of the land; and it is omnipotent. Now, this being so, it follows, as a startling consequence,

that American citizens may just as really live under a despotism, as any people on earth. Suppose that you made no provision for the education of the young; suppose that all the youth of this extensive and happy country, were permitted to grow up in ignorance as great as that of the children of Central Africa; would it avail any thing that you had good laws and a glorious constitution? Nothing at all! They would not be appreciated, and could not be enforced. The popular taste, feeling and will, would be fanciful, unsettled and unjust; and the ruling spirit of the people would, of course, be as tyrannical as that of any single man equally ignorant. It is our national boast, that all power is of the people, and in the people, but you perceive that, in order to this being any real ground of boasting, the people must be educated. And where is this education to come from? From our Public Schools. They, as they have been rightly called, are the Colleges of the people. If they fail to furnish this education, then the mass of our youth must grow up ignorant and undisciplined, and no more qualified to assume the responsible duties of American citizens, than were the children of the aborigines who once lived upon our soil.

Such is the importance of our Free Schools. They are the teachers of our rulers. They are, in a considerable degree, to determine the character of the next, and all coming ages; and when we think of the position which the American people hold among the nations of the earth, of the influence they exert, and are destined to exert, upon the civil and social condition of the world, we can scarcely refrain from extravagance in speaking of the Public Schools.. If we have a patriotic regard for the true interests and glory of our country, for the permanence of popular institutions, for the happy result of the great experiment of self-government now in progress in our land, our schools must be fostered with a jealous care. They are our chief means of promoting the intellectual and moral character of the whole people, and of those especially in whose hands power is hereafter to be entrusted. * *

Why is it, we would ask, that an instructer in the city is sometimes celebrated as being remarkably successful? In many such cases, the effect is put for the cause. He is successful because he is celebrated, and not celebrated because he is successful. That is, his school, by a variety of circumstances, becomes an object of public remark and resort. His scholars feel themselves put not only upon their good behavior, but their good exertions too. They are stimulated, and really accomplish great things. But is there any thing unusual about the teacher? No; our teachers are as able as he. Is there any unusual talent in his scholars? No; our children are as bright as they. How happens it, then, that that school makes so much noise in the world, while, in regard to ours, the noise is generally within its own walls? The reason is just here: there is a correct public sentiment in regard to the city school, while, alas! for ours, they are not sufficiently noticed to be the subject of a sentiment. Yes, fellow-citizens, as lovers of your country, and lovers of our own children, a great deal remains for you to do, to make these schools what they may be, and should be. Your money will not make them so; the law will not make them so; your various school committees will not make them so; your instructers, faithful though they be, cannot make them so. They must have a deep, all-pervading public sentiment,-a sentiment in which patriotism and parental affection are combined,-a sentiment that shall encourage the young in their ascent to the temple of knowledge, a sentiment that shall stimulate and aid the teacher, by an appropriate respect and sympathy. Let your schools be regarded as a great public concern, about which no degree of solicitude can be unnecessarily great. Let them not be associated in your minds with the dulness, idleness and obstinacy of children, and the drudgery and petulance of teachers. Think rather of the great idea embodied in the school system,-the growth of the soul. Think of its great design, the preparation of the young for their future stations in life;-and then remember, that upon you, individually and collectively, it depends whether this idea shall become a reality, and this design a result.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-Charles Babbidge.

(1845-6.) SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. * * Intimately connected with the evil already descanted upon, is, want of punctuality. There is often a want of

punctuality on the part of many pupils, who are somewhat regular in their daily attendance. If the days have no complaint to allege against them, the hours have a serious one. The too common habit, in which many are allowed, of dropping into the school a half an hour or an hour after its commencement, is an evil of scarcely less magnitude than the one already set forth. It is needless to say, that the repeated turning of the door upon its hinges, and the heavy tread of some tardy boy towards his vacant seat, disturbs the whole school, and seriously injures the progress of the punctual. Would it not operate for the advantage of all our schools, to have the rule obtain in them, that, if any pupil cannot be present at the proper time for the opening of the school, he must wait for the next session of the school? The baleful influence of this dilatory habit, is not spent entirely upon that very impressible class there in the school room. It not only annoys the school, and prevents the progress it might otherwise make; but the evil becomes permanent, and affects the transactions of a whole subsequent life. The lad, who is always half an hour too late at school, will always be half an hour too late through life; and should the misfortune occur, that he should become a man of influence among his fellow-citizens, business will always be compelled to wait for his half hour to expire, before it can move on. There are far too many of these easy gentlemen in society already, who are willing to show their consequence by compelling others to wait for them. Our schools should not be allowed to manufacture any more of them. If we could harness some "iron horse" to these tardy gentlemen, and thus bring them up with the world, and then prevent their propagation in our schools, it would be one of the greatest temporal blessings ever conferred upon the world.

Our children are sent to school as much to contract, or to confirm, good habits, as to learn the multiplication table. Among the most important habits, is that of punctuality. No where can this be more firmly incorporated into the characters of youth than at school. Every schoolroom should be furnished with an accurate clock, which should keep the true time, and not the time of those five hundred miles west of us, as some teachers regulate their time to accommodate the tardy ones. The teacher should be one who is accustomed to have a time for every thing, and to do every thing in its time. The school should be opened when the index of the clock points to the time assigned. That minute should find every pupil in his place, and the rap of the teacher, or the sound of his bell, should at once reduce all to order. All the exercises of the school should then go forward by the clock, each pupil knowing precisely at what time he will be called upon for each exercise. This may appear to some like extreme exactness and precision. But is not all nature precise and exact in her operations, and should not we be taught by her wisdom and symmetry? Are not all our golden moments, which bring with them, and carry from us, our invaluable privileges, exact and precise in their succession? Does not each bring with it a required duty? And should not we be as exact and precise in performing these duties? Moreover, the spirit of the age requires these habits. It is often remarked, that "this is an age of steam." Men must be awake and ready at the moment, or the world is away from them before they are aware of it. It will not now wait for their consequential motions, nor after naps; and it indeed is sufficiently ludicrous to be seen, in our days, running after the cars.

* *

We will venture to close our Report, by gently hinting to the town, that, in the "Graduated Table," published by the State, showing the comparative amount of money appropriated by the different towns in the State, for the education of each child in town between the ages of four and sixteen years, the rank of our town is considerably lower down in the scale than we would like to see it. Our number is not 1, nor 2, nor 20, but 147! We are behind most of the towns around us. Dunstable, Ashby, Groton, Shirley, Tyngsboro', Littleton and Acton, are all before us,-some of the last much before us. We grant only $2 17 for each child in town between the ages of four and sixteen years, while Somerville, which stands No. 1, grants $7 62. Might it not be well, then, for the town to show its liberality, and to add a new grace to its name, by making for its children a more generous grant? This suggestion, with the foregoing, is respectfully submitted. SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-D. Andrews.

READING.

(1844-5.) SELECTION FROM REPORT. The reputation and progress of schools depend essentially upon the conduct of the larger pupils. They can do much to promote harmony and order, or they can sow the seeds of disaffection, disorder and discord. Let all indications of impropriety in the deportment of those who, by their age and attainments, exert a controlling influence over their associates, and who ought to exhibit a worthy example to their younger schoolmates, receive the timely reproof of an indignant community. Let them be warned of their disgraceful and ruinous course, and let none complain of the process by which they are taught obedience and subordination.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-John Batchelder, Jr., Aaron Pickett, E. W. Allen.

(1845-6.) SELECTIONS FROM [PRINted] Report. * * The law of the Commonwealth requires all instructers of youth, to impress upon the minds of their pupils, the principles of patriotism, virtue and piety; but public opinion and public utility preclude them from intruding into the schools, under their care, the peculiar sentiments of any political party or religious sect. Diversity of sentiments should not be suffered to disturb the harmony, or interrupt the friendship of those who enter the temples of science in search of truth. In a community of various opinions, persons cannot expect always to have instructers of their own particular sect or party. To oppose them, if meritorious, merely for entertaining different opinions, upon subjects disconnected with the duties of their profession, will produce a partial or total failure, and be disastrous, if not fatal, to mental and moral improvement. * *

The teacher being selected, four parties have important duties to perform. The school committee, the teachers, the scholars, and the parents. If either fails, there will be a deficiency. The superintending committee must act wisely, and direct discreetly. The teachers must devote all their attention to advance the interests of their schools. They must conduct impartially, instruct with fidelity, and govern with ability. The scholars must be docile, studious and attentive, or all will be lost. Parents must encourage and sustain the teachers, exert a restraining and salutary influence over the scholars, and show themselves in earnest for the improvement and best interests of their children.

Society have an interest in the education of youth, and have a right to require it.

No man has a right to let loose a ferocious beast, to endanger the lives of children and men. No man has a right to create a nuisance in the vicinity of his neighbors, to disseminate the elements of disease and death among them.

No man has a moral right to train up his children in ignorance and vice, to prey, like tigers, upon the property, character, and lives of their fellow-men.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-John Batchelder, Jr., Aaron Pickett, Ephraim W. Allen.

SHERBURNE.

(1844-5.) SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. ** The school in ward 6 has been kept, both in summer and winter, by a female teacher; and it is the opinion of your committee, that the scholars have made as much progress as they would have done under a male teacher for the same time. The wages and board of the teacher were $13 per month. The wages and board of a male teacher in the same school, the preceding winter, were $25 per month. The last winter the school was kept four and a half months, at an expense of $58; had a male teacher been employed, at an expense of $25 per month, the school would have been kept but two and a half months. Here the advantage of employing a female teacher is very apparent, inasmuch as there was a gain of two months schooling in one winter.

At the present day, it will not be difficult to procure female teachers fully

competent to teach any of the branches taught in our winter schools; and the committee believe it would be advisable for the small districts to employ female teachers in the winter.

*

Districts 1 and 2 formerly composed one district. The committee would suggest a plan of making three schools out of these two districts, in the winter,-one to be composed of scholars, nine or ten years of age and upwards, to be kept in the town-hall, by a male teacher.,-the younger children to be under the care and instruction of female teachers, in the schoolhouses. By this plan, the elder scholars would enjoy all the advantages of a high school; and the younger scholars, the number in each school being considerably diminished, would have greater advantages than they could have without this arrangement. Upon this plan each of the three schools may be kept as long as each of the two have been, without any additional cost. The aggregate time the schools were kept in these two districts, the last winter, was seven months; cost of wages and board, $29 per month,-amount, $203. The whole number of scholars in the two districts was 109. If 45 were put under the care of a male teacher, then 64 would be left to be divided between two females. If the male teacher should keep three and a half months, which is about as long as the winter school has been kept in either district, at $30 per month for wages and board,—which is the largest sum paid in either of these districts, the last winter,-the amount would be $105. And if each of the other schools should be kept three and a half months, at $14 per month for wages and board, which is the highest sum paid in either district for wages and board, the last summer, the amount would be $98, which being added to $105, makes $203,-precisely the amount of wages and board for the two schools, the last winter. But it is probable that good female teachers could be obtained for a less cost than $14 per month. This was the highest sum paid in any district for female services the last summer; and this, in only one district. The average of the wages and board of female teachers, the last year, was $12 25 per month. If the plan here suggested should be adopted, the number of scholars in the females schools would probably not exceed three fourths the number that have attended the summer schools in these districts. The aggregate of both, the last summer, was 84.

We believe the adoption of this plan would be attended with many and great advantages to all the children, which will readily occur to every one who attentively considers the subject. If the education of the young is important, and that it is of the highest importance, both to the individual and the community, none will deny,—then it is important to make the best use of the means we have, for the attainment of this object, and to adopt and pursue such plans, as will give us the greatest amount of instruction for the expense we incur.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-Edmund Dowse, Amos Clarke.

(1845-6.) SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. * * Rarely has an individual, who has been placed under the influence of our Common Schools, and felt their power, paid the forfeit of his life or liberty to the violated laws of his country. The moral power of intelligence was distinctly seen, in the vista of forthcoming ages, by those hardy sons of religious freedom who first raised the voice of prayer and thanksgiving on these our own New England shores. They established the basis on which rests the general diffusion of knowledge in this Commonwealth. They tried the experiment of popular education, connected with civil and religious liberty; and the success of the experiment has been as complete as the scale, on which it has been tried, permits.

Your committee can but congratulate you on the high stand you have taken in the cause of education, standing, as you did in 1845, as the 28th town in the State, i. e. 27 towns raising more money in proportion to the scholar, and about 280 towns less. The sum raised, however, is not too large. The desire to give your children a thorough and a practical knowledge of useful science, should lead you to increase the yearly appropriation, rather than diminish it.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-Richard C. Stone, Edmund Dowse.

* *