1866

I

do they consider it important that teachers should form a high
ideal of their position and duties, that it should be well un-
derstood that the days of mere school-keeping and lesson-
hearing are numbered; that oral instruction must to a cer-
tain extent take the place of memoriter recitations; that the
teacher is no longer to confine himself to the text-book as the
beginning and the end of all that is to be taught and learned ;
that the teacher as a moral and intellectual agent must come
sometimes into direct contact with his scholars as moral and
intellectual subjects, and not always through the medium of a
book; and that want of success in the government or instruc-
tion of a school is an indication of incompetency on the part
of the teacher.

They seek also to combat the old and dangerous heresy,
that the communication of knowledge is the sole or even the
main object of the educator. They sincerely believe and ear-
nestly teach that the amount of book-learning usually ob-
tained at school is but of small importance compared with the
moral and intellectual habits which are there acquired. They
would make the direct acquisition of knowledge in school sub-
ordinate to the development of the power and desire to use
that knowledge and to add to it after leaving school—regard-
ing the one as money locked up in a strong box, of which the
key may happen to be lost, the other as money invested in
good securities at compound interest.

They earnestly endeavor to impress upon their students,
that the cultivation of the intellectual powers is only part of
a teacher's Work. The physical well-being of the scholar is
entrusted to the teacher during school hours, and, as far as he
can control it, after school hours; and the laws of health are
as necessary to be taught as the laws of grammar. The con-
science needs the guiding hand of the teacher as well as the
reason; the duties of the child to society, to his country and
his God, need to be explained and enforced as well as his
duties to teachers and parents.

LIBRARY, APPARATUS, ETC.

A beginning of a library has been made; and additions
are expected every year.

A considerable amount of chemical and philosophical ap-
paratus has already been procured; and funds are in hand to
purchase, at an early date, whatever is necessary to place this
department in a state of complete efficiency.

It is the intention of the board to form, in connection with
the normal school, an educational museum, where every val-
uable novelty or improvement in educational apparatus will
be collected.