There is not a country throughout the earth on which it
would not bring a curse. There is no religion upon earth that it would
not deny; there is no people on earth that it would not put to shame."
This institution, then, in the true relation of things, is not the glory
of the state, but its shame. It speaks of families, of schools, of the
church, of the state, not yet educated to the discharge of their
respective duties in the right way. But it is the glory of the state as
a visible effort to correct evils, atone for neglects, and compensate
for wrongs. It comes to do, in part at least, what the family, the
school, the press, the library, the Sabbath, have nest yet perfectly
accomplished. As these agencies partially failed, so will this; but, as
the law of progress exists for all, because perfection with us is
unattainable, we may reasonably have faith in human improvement, and
trust that the life of each succeeding generation shall unite, in
ever-increasing proportions, the innocence of childhood with the wisdom
of age.
ELEMENTARY TRAINING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
[Extract from the Twenty-Second Annual Report of the Secretary of the
Massachusetts Board of Education.]
We are still sadly defective in methods of education. Until recently
teaching was almost an unknown art; and we are at present struggling
against ignorance without any well-defined plan, and attempting to
develop and build up the immortal character of children, without a
philosophical and generally accepted theory of the nature of the human
mind.
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