For augmenting the aggregate amount of intelligence and mental power, in any community, the grandest instrumentality ever yet devised is the institution of Common Schools. The Common School realizes all the facts, or fables, whichever they may be, of the Divining Rod. It tries its experiments over the whole surface of society, and wherever a buried fountain of genius is flowing in the darkness below, it brings it above, and pours out its waters to fertilize the earth. Among mankind, hitherto, hardly one person in a million has had any chance for the development of his higher faculties. Hence, whatever poets, orators, philosophers, divines, inventors or philanthropists, may have risen up to bless the world, they have all risen from not more than one millionth part of the race. The minds of the rest, though equally endowed with talent, genius and benevolence, have lain outside the scope of availibility for good. These millions, with the exception of the units, have been drudges, slaves, cattle; their bodies used, their souls unrecognized. Ah, nowhere else have there been such waste and loss of treasure, as in the waste and loss of the Human Faculties. All spendthrift profusions, all royal prodigalities, are parsimony and niggardliness, compared with the ungathered, abandoned treasures of the human soul. As civilization has advanced, perhaps one child in a hundred thousand, and, in more favored nations, one child in ten thousand, has been admitted to the opportunities of knowledge. Forthwith, the men capable of constructing the institutions or the engines of human improvement and adornment appeared; and in numbers, too, far beyond the proportionate share of the constituencies from which they sprang. But if, instead of striking the fetters of prohibition from one in a hundred thousand, or from one in ten thousand, those fetters are stricken from all, and incitements to exertion and aids to self-development are supplied to all; then, immediately, quick as water gushes from unsealed fountains, Shermans rise up from the shoemaker's bench, Beechers come from the blacksmith's anvil, and Bowditches and Franklins from the ship-chandler's and the tallow-chandler's shop, and a new galaxy shines forth over all the firmament of genius. These are truths which the uneducated nations do not understand;-truths too, which the caste-men, whether of birth or of wealth, do not wish to understand. HORACE MANN. Inaugural at Antioch College. The theory of our government is,—not that all men, however unfit, shall be voters, but that every man, by the power of reason and the sense of duty, shall become fit to be a voter. Education must bring the practice as near as possible to the theory. As the children now are, so will the sovereigns soon be. How can we expect the fabric of the government to stand, if vicious materials are daily wrought into its framework? Education must prepare our citizens to become municipal officers, intelligent jurors, honest witnesses, legislators, or competent judges of legislation,-in fine, to fill all the manifold relations of life. For this end, it must be universal. The whole land must be watered with the streams of knowledge. HORACE MANN. HISTORY OF COMMON SCHOOLS IN CONNECTICUT. BEFORE proceeding to the Fourth Period, from 1800 to 1838, we add a few facts, which may serve as notes to the preceding. JOHN HIGGINSON the first teacher in Hartford of whom we have any information, was born in England, August 6th, 1616, and came to America with his father, Rev. Francis Higginson, first minister of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1629. He removed to Hartford early after the first settlement, and was a possessor of land there in 1639. After leaving Hartford, he became a preacher, and was chaplain at Saybrook fort; was afterward assistant to Mr. Whitfield, at Guilford, and subsequently his father's successor at Salem, where he remained until his death, in 1708, at the age of 92, having been a minister 72 years. His colleague, Rev. N. Noyes, in an elegy upon him, says :-he "For rich array cared not a fig, And wore Elisha's periwig; His childrens' children children had." He was succeeded at Hartford, probably immediately, by a Mr. COLLINS, whom Winthrop calls "a young scholar, full of zeal, &c." He had been preaching at St. Christopher's or Barbadoes, with considerable effect, and brought some of his converts with him. Hearing of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson's opinions while at Hartford, he warned a friend against them, but upon himself meeting her, at once became her disciple, and afterward her son-in-law. He was murdered by the Indians, together with her and her family, in 1643. WILLIAM ANDREWS, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the next teacher of whom any thing is known. He is the first mentioned in Hartford town records; where, date, 1643, it is ordered that he shall be paid sixteen pounds a year as salary. The site of his residence is now within the area of the Central Park, being the north corner of Elm Street and Trinity Place. After Andrews, the next known teacher was CALEB WATSON, a graduate of Harvard College, 1661. He taught for many years; from shortly after 1670 to (probably) near his death, in 1725. It should not be forgotten, however, that, during a portion of this early period, "Goody Betts" kept a dame school in the city. She was cotemporary with Higginson. PERIOD V. FROM 1842 TO 1845. Governor Cleveland, in his annual Message to the Legislature in 1843, refers in terms of congratulation and commendation to the increased revenue of the School Fund, which, under the present and skillful administration of the Commissioner, "has reached the aggregate of $124,890.50, or one dollar and fifty cents for each person between the ages of four and sixteen." The Legislature passed an act relating to the division of property belonging to a district, which should be divided into two or more districts. Twelve resolutions remitting forfeiture of school moneys were passed. Governor Baldwin in his annual Message in 1844, at the opening. of the Legislature, introduces the subject of education as follows:Our institutions of learning, from the primary schools to those of the highest order for mental culture and discipline, have, in common with the institutions of religion, been objects of solicitude to the people of Connecticut from the earliest period of our history. And it is doubtless to the benign influence they have exerted, from generation to generation, over the minds and habits of our youth, that we are chiefly indebted for all that gives value to our social system, or safety in its administration. In a government like ours, where suffrage is nearly universal; where privileged classes among the electors are unknown; and where all the avenues to distinction are open alike to the children of the poor as of the rich;an intelligent and virtuous population is equally essential to the correct administration of the laws, as to the wisdom of their enactment. For however well devised may be the laws of a state to secure the rights of persons or property from invasion, it is obvious that in a community where every elector may be called to apply them in the capacity of a juror, unless the tone of public sentiment is in harmony with the laws, they will afford but a feeble protection from injustice and crime. It is in the schools of New England that those habits of subordination and of reverence for the laws have been formed in the minds of her youth, by which they have generally been characterized and distinguished wherover the tide of emigration has borne them. The school fund of this state, for which we are indebted to the provident foresight and wisdom of our statesmen of a former generation, reserving, while yet in their power, a portion of our western lands, for this noble object, now amounts $2,051,423.77. The dividend distributed to the schools during the past year has been $1.40 for each scholar between the ages of four and sixteen years, amounting to $117,717.60, in addition to the income of the deposit fund appropriated to this object in the several towns. Notwithstanding this munificent provision for the education of our youth, it appears by the returns of the last census, that there were in the State of Connecticut in the year 1840, five hundred and twenty-six persons of mature age who were unable to read and write. What proportion of this number, if any, were natives of the state, the census affords us no means of determining. It is much to be desired that our system of common schools should be improved and perfected, until by a regular gradation from the primary school to the highest seminary, the means of education which they afford shall be such, that not only the rudiments of learning may be imparted to all of our youth, but that the higher attainments in literature and science shall be within the reach of those whose talents and inclination may fit them for such pursuits. Then will our children, as they grow up together in every community, and form their characters in the same institutions, be practically taught that great lesson of republican equality, which, while it holds every citizen in strict subordination to the laws, recognizes no other distinctions than such as superior intelligence and virtue confer. It gives me pleasure to be able to state that the salutary influence exerted upon our public schools by the late Board of Education and by the indefatigable efforts of their Secretary, still continues to be felt, and has given a new impulse to the cause of education, by bringing to the knowledge of all our districts the results of the experience of other enlightened states and countries. Believing as I do that the prosperity of public schools, and seminaries of every grade, is identified with the best interests of our constituents, as well as with the glory and honor of the state, I shall cordially coöperate in any measures which your wisdom may devise for its promotion. In pursuance of these suggestions, the Joint Standing Committee on Education reported the following Resolutions, which were passed: Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor of this State be, and he hereby is authorized and empowered to nominate a committee of nine persons in this state, to be and to constitute a committee to report on the subject of education to the next General Assembly. Resolved, That the person first named on this committee shall be chairman thereof and that this committee, when constituted, shall take into consideration the state of common schools in Connecticut, and of the public mind respecting them, together with such plans and suggestions for their improvement as to them may seem calculated substantially to promote the usefulness of schools and the interests of education generally in the state, and shall report their doings herein to the next General Assembly. Resolved, That the School Visitors in the several school societies shall lodge with the clerks of their respective societies such returns of the condition of each common school within their limits, in such particulars and at such times as the committee, mentioned in the foregoing resolution, shall specify and direct, together with a written report of their own doings, with such observations as their experience and reflection may suggest; and said clerks shall, at the expense of the several school societies, transmit the same, when required, to the chairman of the committee above named. Resolved, That the Controller of Public Accounts be directed to draw an order on the treasurer for the sum of fifty dollars, in favor of the chairman of said committee, to be by him applied for time and expenses of said committee, and in remuneration thereof, after the purposes for which said committee has been raised, shall have been accomplished. The Committee appointed under these Resolutions consisted of John T. Norton, Seth P. Beers, C. W. Rockwell, Isaac W. Stuart, John Johnston, Samuel Nichols, William T. Russell, and Edward Eldridge. This Committee attended to its duties, as will be seen below. Governor Baldwin, in his annual Message in 1845, remarks :— The subject of popular education, always of vital interest in a republican government, will never cease, I trust, to occupy a prominent place in the deliberations of the General Assembly of Connecticut. Blessed with a munificent fund, amounting $2,051,423.77, which distributed during the past year $117,730.20 among the 1,658 school districts into which our territory is divided, the people of this favored state have a solemn trust to perform, involving deep responsibility to future generations, as well as to the present, for its faithful execution. It will never be fulfilled in its spirit, until the standard of education in our common schools is elevated to the highest degree of excellence, which the ample means at our command will enable us to attain. A committee appointed under the resolution of the last session, to take into consideration the state of common schools and the interests of education generally in Connecticut, will submit to you the result of their investigations. The intelligence of the committee, no less than the importance of the subject, will commend their report to your attentive consideration. The Committee, appointed by the governor, under the Resolution of 1844, submitted a Report of 64 pages, from which the following extracts are taken : Your committee hoped to have met with a ready coöperation on the part of the visitors and clerks of the school societies. They regret to say, however, that, of 214 circulars issued, only fifty-nine have been replied to. The cause of this neglect to comply with the wishes of the General Assembly, in a reasonable effort to promote the cause of education, can only be ascribed to indifference to the subject, and an unwillingness to do any thing more than the law imperatively requires, without compensation. This fact, alone, affords a forcible reason why some measures should be adopted to revive the spirit of our ancestors, and awaken a proper interest in a subject of such vital importance. On comparing the returns now received with those made by the same societies in 1839, 40, and 41, your committee are forced to the conclusion that the cause of common school education is advancing so slowly in this state, that its progress is scarcely perceptible. Not to improve at all, whilst every thing is progressing around us, is in effect to go back. In 1839-40, and 41, a spirit was aroused, and improvements were begun, which promised to carry our state forward in the career of popular education. The effects of these efforts are still visible in many places. Whilst in others, disappointment has succeeded to defeat, and many who were willing to devote talent, time, and money, in order to give the poorest child in the state a thorough, common school education, have been ready to give up in despair. Besides the evidence of these facts, afforded by the returns, your committee are confirmed in their opinion by extensive personal observation and inquiry. The supervision of schools by committees, is not nearly as thorough now as it was in former years, nor as it had become more recently under the system in operation in 1839-10, and 41. DEFECTS IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 1. Want of well-qualified Teachers. This is one of the most common complaints, and must continue to be an evil, greatly hindering the progress of education, until teaching, by the encouragement it receives in the community, becomes a profession. 2. Frequent change of Teachers.-Most of the schools suffer from this cause. In consequence of the almost constant changes, common school education is not progressive. Year after year, as new teachers take charge of schools, the same ground is gone over as was traveled over the year previous; and parents wonder that their children make no greater improvement: or, which is not uncommon, conclude that they have learned all that they can, and detain them from school. 3, Want of compensation to School Visitors.-The frequent mention of this in the reports, is an indication that the need of more thorough supervision of the schools is very generally felt amongst those who are interested in the subject. 4. Too great a variety of Books.-This is a crying evil; subjecting the community to more unnecessary expense, annually, than it would cost to support a school for educating teachers, or a complete superintendence and supervision of schools, by means of state and town superintendents; besides greatly hindering the onward progress of the children in knowledge. It is very plain that the fewer classes there are in a school, the more time the teacher can devote to each. 5. Want of Libraries, Globes, and Philosophical Apparatus, &c.-Notwithstanding the cheapness and abundance of books, in consequence of the wonderful improvements in the art of printing, within a few years, and notwithstanding that science and art have furnished maps, globes, and philosophical apparatus, at such prices, as that every district in the state might procure them without inconvenience; yet these admirable auxiliaries to learning are found, (out of the cities,) so far as returns are received, only in ten school societies. 6. Poor School-houses, &c.-The reports, with few exceptions, speak of "poor houses,"" inconveniently furnished,”"" without the means of ventilation,”– “in bad repair,”—“ badly located,”—and “without out-houses." These are all matters of importance, and entitled to serious attention. |