And, if I would not
trust the wise men of Greece and Rome, I do not know why the people, a
hundred years hence, should trust the wise men of our own time.
And then look further, and see how, under a system of public
instruction, you can build up, from year to year, in the growth of the
child, a system according to his wants. Private instruction cannot do
this. What do we do where we have a correct system? A child goes into a
primary school. He is not to go out when he attains a certain age. He
might as well go out when he is of a certain height; there would be as
much merit in one case as in the other. But he is advanced when he has
made adequate attainments. Who does not see that the child is incited
and encouraged and stimulated by every sentiment to which you should
appeal? And, then, when he has gone up to the grammar school, we say to
him, "You are to go into the high school when you have made certain
attainments." And who is to judge of these attainments? A committee
appointed by the people, over whom the people have some ultimate
control. And in that control they have security for two things: first,
that the committee shall not be suspected of partiality; and secondly,
that they shall not be actually guilty of partiality. In the same
manner, there is security for the proper connection between the high
school and the schools below. But in the school at Norwich--of which I
speak because it is now prominent--you have a board of twenty-five men,
irresponsible to the people.
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