of enjoyment as well as of improvement, another object of no mean importance is attained. That this object is too generally overlooked, appears to be not the fault of the pupils, but of the cold and irksome system usually pursued in the developement of young minds :—a system in itself sufficiently odious, even in the earlier stages of our country's progress, when little was required of scholars beyond an imperfect knowledge of the elementary branches; but now become oppressive and injurious, from the increased field of knowledge, which is presented to the learner, by the discoveries and acquisitions of the last half century.-We find, accordingly, that children who are taught on the old plan, are kept constantly on the stretch to obtain that degree of information which the state of society demands. They are pressed, when in school, and when out of it, with lessons which they do not understand, and of course cannot relish. Learning accordingly becomes a toil, and the spring of life, which should be gay and active, is clouded by unnecessary hardship, and worn by worse than fruitless cares; and, after all this waste of comfort, the progress of the pupil, in a vast majority of instances, is slow and superficial. It is one of the worst faults of this system that children, particularly boys, are treated more like felons, than like beings who err from immaturity of judgement; and, one leading object of our establishment being to render our pupils happy, as well as intelligent, we abolish all rewards and punishments, which tend to excite bad passions, and we appeal only to reason and the kinder affections. Corporeal punishment we deem fit only for the savage, whose dread of present pain, is generally his strongest motive; or for the slave, whose soul is debased by bondage:-it should be banished from every family; and our experience justifies our assertion, that it is totally unnecessary in school. The common system throws the burden of teaching the simplest subjects, as well as the most intricate, solely upon the instructer: In a large school, he must possess ubiquity; otherwise a considerable number of his classes must be idle, or worse than idle, most of their time; his attention must be frequently distracted from the class in exercise; and he must use great personal exertions to produce a small effect. The monitorial system, on the other hand, while it gives the school the same portion of time and attention from the instructer, by furnishing him with numerous assistants, enables him to exercise a more close inspection over the whole, and to explain and enforce his lessons, with perspicuity and method. On the plan pursued in other schools, every pupil must have much time unoccupied, and of course prove a hindrance to others. By the monitorial arrangement every moment is so fully and pleasantly employed, that even the mischief of a bad scholar is confined to the little class of four or five about him. All skill, manual and mental, depends on practice, and this the monitorial system gives to the greatest possible extent. It affords to each pupil in a school of one hundred, more actual practice than he would obtain on the common plan in a school of ten. Hence the superiority of the former. By systematic movements it fills up every moment, and thus avoids that ennui, which always attends children, when idle. It gives a succession of studies which prevents satiety and disgust. Its minute classification affords each scholar the chance of advancement; and, if there be superior intellect, it must develope itself in such a seminary, and take its appropriate rank, unannoyed by envy, and unshackled by pride. The common practice is, to load the memory of pupils with a mass of undigested knowledge; and, provided they can recite a certain number of pages, they are esteemed well taught: but this system is very laborious to the learner, and tends to surcharge and weaken the mind. To avoid these bad effects, the lessons given in the monitorial school are fully explained. The scholars are pushed on no faster than they comprehend their subject; and sensible objects are employed for the purposes of illustration, as on the plan of Pestalozzi. To give correct ideas, these objects are varied according to the age and standing of the pupil, from the Guinea bean, used in teaching the youngest to count, add, and subtract, to the most finished philosophical apparatus, which the elder pupils use in making experiments, and obtaining actual demonstrations in those higher sciences, which even mature minds can but faintly comprehend from verbal description. More than two years have elapsed since the establishment of this school; and its success has equalled the most sanguiue expectations. Much is due to the able and indefatigable labors of Mr. W. B. Fowle the instructer, who has been obliged not only to pursue an untried path, but to do so with little aid from the experience or labors of others. The result of the experiment is a full conviction that the system is perfectly adapted to general use; and the hope is entertained that it will soon be extensively adopted. To furnish the parents who are interested, with more means of judging on this subject, the annexed report of the instructer, with explanatory notes, is submitted by J. SAVAGE, Trustees. BOSTON, Jan. 1st., 1826. INSTRUCTER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES. GENTLEMEN, In compliance with your request, I shall endeavor to present a detailed account of the mode of instruction which has been pursued in our school. But while I feel the difficulty of doing this satisfactorily, I am encouraged to make the attempt from a conviction that many, even of our proprietors, have very indistinct ideas of the course of instruction pursued, and therefore cannot effectually co-operate with me in the important work of educating their children. It was a general opinion, when this school was established, that every thing was prepared, the system perfected, and the instructer only required to teach by the rules prescribed. You are aware that nothing was prepared, that no system was formed, and that the mere act of teaching was the least part of the labor required of the instructer. It had only been determined that the school should be conducted on the united plans of Lancaster and Pestalozzi; that is, on the Monitorial and Inductive systems. But the former had never been applied to the higher branches, in this country; and we knew little or nothing of the other. (Note 1.) I mention this fact, because, in an estimate of our success, it should be considered, that, besides teaching all the branches usually taught in our best private seminaries to about three times their average number of pupils, we have actually been compelled to make books, (2.) prepare lessons in manuscript, and create our system. This will account to some parents for any delay or indecision which they may have noticed in our movements, and for our non-compliance in some respects with their wishes-wishes, however, which were relinquished with a cheerfulness and courtesy for which I am truly grateful. To make a fair experiment of the new system, it should be tried upon children who have never been instructed upon any other; children, in fact, only three or four years old. But as this could not be, the doors were thrown open to all ages, and the school was composed of pupils from four to eighteen years of age. It was impossible, therefore, to prepare lessons for only one branch first, and then for the next, as the children advanced; for every pupil expected to advance from the point she was supposed to have reached at other schools, and this expectation was in most cases gratified. The united system, then, was to be applied to writing, reading, spelling, grammar, geography, arithmetic, astronomy, French, Latin, and natural philosophy, to say nothing of subsidiary exercises. That this could not be done perfectly must be presumed; and the instructer is not ashamed to confess, that experience has often obliged him to alter or reject what he had temporarily adopted. I have said that children four years old are received into our school. For the sake of perspicuity and order, I will begin with such a child, and conduct her through all the branches yet taught in the school. Every child in school is furnished with a slate and pencil, which are considered part of the furniture of the school The first object is to teach the alphabet. An A is made on the child's slate by another competent child, called a monitor. The child is told the name of the letter, and asked to imitate it. Few do so without some persuasion; but after the monitor has held her hand, and made a few letters for her, the child will never need such assistance again. Her first rude attempts are praised, she feels proud of her work, and ambitious to go on. After making perhaps fifty As, she is shown a B, told its name, and encouraged to imitate it. In this way, she will learn to make and name three or four letters in two hours; but, lest she should be tired of this exercise, she is shown a book, and asked to pick out As and Bs, or such letters as she has been writing. In this way, the alphabet is easily taught in one month; whereas, on the old plan, from four to six months are consumed in learning the names of the letters, to say nothing of being able to write them. The child then takes the spelling-book, and writes words of two letters; pronouncing them frequently after her monitor. In this way she soon becomes acquainted with the four pages of her spelling-book, which succeed the alphabet, and which, in the book we use, contain all the combinations of letters, and all the sounds which can properly be called English. After she has written her few words a sufficient time, she is required to pronounce and spell them to her monitor. But this is not her only exercise; for, young as she is, she is capable of doing something in arithmetic. "Fancy" beans are placed before her; and she is taught to count them, then to add, subtract, and divide them. When tired of this, she is taught to make the figures on her slate, as she had done the letters before, and then, perhaps, to draw houses and other objects, by way of reward. The child is never idle, and never wishes to be so. This is one She is now required to write words from dictation. method of studying the spelling lesson, and is performed as follows. Each row of desks, (and there are eight or ten,) is called a class; and each of these classes writes a different word, because each studies a different spelling lesson. Each class has had a spelling lesson previously assigned; and all sit watching a monitor, called the monitor of dictation, who selects a word from the lesson of the eighth, or highest class, and spells it very distinctly. The eighth class immediately commence writing it on their slates. The moni tor then proceeds to the seventh class, and gives them á word from their lesson in the same manner, which they write. She then goes to the sixth, fifth, and so down to the first class, giving each a word from their lesson. By this time the eighth class have written their word, perhaps twice, she gives them another, and then does the same to the seventh, and others, as before. While the slates are filling in this way, a class of children, who are good spellers and good writers, are stationed, one or two in each class, to inspect the slates, and correct errors and badly formed letters. When the slates are filled, they are all cleaned at once; and the dictation again commences. In this way, the difficult words of the lesson, are all written, and exhibited to the eye; and it is impossible for any child to avoid going over her lesson at least once. The despatch with which words are thus written, may be calculated from the fact that the monitor of dictation never stops, but goes to each class, in constant rotation, until the slates are filled. After the words have been written in this manner, the children leave their seats at a given signal, and form classes of from four to six, around scholars called spelling monitors. These are the best spellers in the school, and are selected as follows. At the end of each fortnight, all the spelling classes are formed in one line, and reviewed by the master. They are required to spell every word in the lessons of the preceding fortnight, and to take precedence as they spell well or ill. After this exercise is ended, the highest in the line are taken for monitors, the ensuing fortnight: the four or six next to them form the highest class; the four next, the next in rank; and so on, to the lowest. When the classes have formed around their spelling monitors, the lesson is spelled in the following manner. The monitor pronounces a word distinctly, the highest in the class pronounces it after her, to show that she knows what it is, and then spells it. If she mistakes, the next points out her error, then spells the whole word and "goes up." Then the child who first missed is obliged to spell the word as corrected, that she may be profited by losing her place. As the number of children in a class is very small, each is obliged to spell a great many words, and must necessarily pay close attention to the words spelled by her classmates. As soon as the child can write words of four or five letters, she is required to read. The best readers are selected for monitors, by an examination similar to that for spelling monitors; and these reading monitors are taught by the master. The rest of the scholars are divided into small classes of five or six; and, leaving their seats, form a semi-circle around the monitor. The children are allowed to correct the reader, and "go above her" for so doing; and the monitor is required to read often to her class. The small number in a class affords each child an opportunity of practising much; and |