1822

VI

great purposes for which government is instituted, and cap-
able to direct its powers, free from selfish designs, for the
greatest good of the greatest number.

It is wise to investigate the causes of the inefficiency of the
various systems of Public Schools heretofore enforced in our
State. We are now behind the times, and in no grade of
Public Instruction can we compare favorably with many
younger States. Most of our Academies are little better than
Grammar Schools. Our Colleges are provided with a full
corps of Professors, but exhibit small catalogues of students.
The fault has been with the old system of Primary instruc-
tion. Primary instruction has been inefficient because none
of the means of conducting a School successfully have been
supplied, and whenever a parent has had the ability, children,
even of tender years, and young men have been sent away
from home to secure elementary, academic and collegiate edu-
cation. Our School Houses, with few exceptions, are incon-
veniently located, badly built and out of repair. I doubt
whether we have two hundred really comfortable and suita-
ble School houses in the State. The furniture is of the rudest
kind. Books have been procured by the children slowly, and
of various editions. No maps or black boards have been pro-
vided. In these badly furnished and ruilely built, and incon-
veniently located houses, Teachers, with very small salaries,
have been placed to instruct from twenty to fifty children,
some without books, all without the ordinary comforts and
conveniences of a well ordered School.

We need not be surprised at the result. The public money
has been spent and very little good accomplished. It is true
that this is not the case everywhere. There are honora-
ble exceptions. There are Counties which, by liberal local
tax, have been sustaining Schools, building School Houses,
providing furniture and books, and dealing liberally with
Teachers. They have succeeded, but their success is not yet
equal to their expectation or intention. Compare such Coun-
ties with those which have made little progress, and it will
be found that the difference results from the liberal appropri-
ations for Schooi Houses, School furniture and Teachers sala-
ries, and the active and intelligent supervision which controls
the system. The one has provided the means essential to the
most moderate degree of success, the other has neglected to
do likewise.

School work, like all other work, is "matter of fact business."
We may indulge in earnest declamation about the beauty of
virtue, the value of intelligence, the necessity of education.
We may contrast the comforts of civilized life with the dis-
comforts of the uncivilized. We may be enthusiastic about
the spirit of the age and the wonders of the 19th century.
These sentiments are right, but they do nothing for the
cause of progress unless they lead us to build School Houses