Page images
PDF
EPUB

In the general commotion, our educational interests have not suffered as seriously as some others. Those counties which have been most forward in furnishing volunteers for our country's defense, have generally increased their special school tax, thus showing that there is a vital connection between intelligence and true patriotism. There appears to be an instinctive coming forward of the people to meet the demands of our country for brain and heart, as well as for muscle and money.

INCREASE OF SCHOOL FUND.

Our school fund ought to be greatly increased each year by the amounts received from forfeited recognizances. We believe that your Excellency will exercise great prudence in remitting such recognizances, and that those who have made fortunes by becoming surety for scoundrels whom they have persuaded to run away, will find that your Excellency is not engaged in the business of "compounding felonies."

TOWNSHIP TRUSTEES.

The new law requires the township trustee to employ the teacher, he himself determining the price to be paid, and the length of the school. The school meeting designate the teacher whom they desire employed, and when the school shall begin. When a township trustee is elected, the sufferages of the people are given to one whom they believe to have the ability to exercise wisely the functions of his office. Yet it is lamentable that in so many instances. school meetings attempt to dictate as to what price shall be paid teachers, and how long the schools shall be taught. They would override all law and cling to the employment of an indifferent teacher, that they may have school double the length of time. But we are glad to know that our trustees, as a general thing, are men of nerve, and have firmly said to the school meetings: "As far as the law allows you to come you may come, but no further." They are having the schools taught an equal length of time, and paying a uniform price for the same grade of educated labor, whether performed by males or females.

COUNTY EXAMINER.

The office of County Examiner, which is virtually that of a County Superintendent, has proved a most beneficial provision in

our school system. Under the old law there were three examiners to each county. In such a case there could not possibly be any uniform standard in the examinations. The examiners themselves were generally persons of different degrees of attainment and experience. He who was most lenient and superficial, was most patronized. A teacher failing to pass with one examiner, frequently applied to another and received a license. This officer should be selected with great care. He should be recognized by his fellowcitizens as a public spirited, well educated and experienced man, and one deeply interested in educational affairs. He should reside permanently in or near the county seat, as his examinations will generally be held there. If possible, a practical teacher should be appointed.

*

But few lawyers, doctors, or preachers, keep up with the times in educational matters, and their examinations have, as a general thing, in our State, been mere farces. Above all, the Commissioners should never be influenced by political considerations in making appointments.

The change from three examiners to one has certainly resulted in elevating the standard of scholarship upon the part of the teachers of the State at least fifty per cent. Yet this higher standard, cutting off as it has many sons, daughters and friends, has not been secured without considerable feeling and opposition. While the people have been complaining of poor teachers, they seemed to forget that the entire trouble was the result of their own acts. Let the citizens of Indiana but once rise to a just appreciation of edu cated labor in the school room, and we will soon find the present generation of teachers actively employed in the cultivation of their minds, or they will quickly vanish, giving place to immigrations already prepared for the work. Whenever there is a demand for a certain kind of labor, the force required will immediately flow in to supply that demand. The moment Indiana calls for a higher grade of scholarship on the part of her teachers, that moment such a grade will promptly answer the summons.

INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY.

A high degree of prosperity has attended the State University during the past year, notwithstanding the troublous condition of the country. The last commencement witnessed the graduation of the largest class which has gone forth from the halls of the University.

The present year opened with a much larger attendance of students than was anticipated during the present financial and political crisis which has caused little or no diminution of their number.

Tuition in the State University, by the action of the Trustees, is now FREE for all who desire to attend. Under this benevolent provision the greatest facilities are afforded to poor young men wishing to obtain a thorough classical or scientific education.

The Law Department is in successful operation, under the charge of Hon. Judge G. A. Bicknell, one of the most accomplished jurists in the State.

The entire faculty are men of ceaseless energy and generous culture. We have high hopes for the University, and shall be pleased in our report to the Legislature to suggest some changes that may be beneficial.

INSTITUTIONS FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB AND BLIND.

These Institutions are essentially a part of the Common School System of the State, furnishing the means of culture to a most interesting portion of the rising generations.

We have been pleased, in our visits to these Institutions, to find that those having them in charge are laboring successfully, not as “time servers,” but as benefactors and philanthropists.

OUR SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES.

Every where over the State are springing up numerous Seminaries and Academies. They are of a high standard, and are doing a good work, and will furnish to our Colleges a class of students rendering unnecessary, ere long, preparatory departments.

We have some half dozen Colleges in the State. Most of these have suffered but little from the loss of students during the past. year. The Professors seem alive to the work they have in hand. By their assiduous efforts they have raised the standard of scholarship till we can claim that the opportunities we offer for a Collegiate education can not be surpassed in the older States. In our next report we shall speak of these institutions individually.

MILITARY TRAINING IN OUR INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING.

The communications received by your Excellency, in regard to military training in schools and colleges, and referred to this department, have been considered. So far as the introduction of this kind of gymnastics is concerned, we approve of the suggestions. But we do not indorse them because there is any peculiar necessity in the present demanding any such thing. Military organizations, in boys' schools, have long since become popular, not only in the Eastern States, but in many other parts of the country. It has been proved by experiment, in some of our best model schools, that the advantages arising from its adoption are many and real. The mind, the heart, the body, are all from God. It is a blessed trinity in a unity. The development of one is absolutely essential to the development of the others. Hence educators, long since, set to work to find out that system of gymnastics that should be most successful in physical culture, and at the same time have the best effect upon the mind. They found that the discipline laid down in the tactics was the most engaging; the best adapted to bring every muscle into play, and producing a uniformity in action and grace in movement, that brought order in the school room, and gave symmetry to thought, through that mysterious sympathy which exists between mind and body. For these reasons we shall rejoice to see every teacher in the land turning his attention to this subject. But we can not agree, as suggested in the communications, that this exercise should be introduced for the purpose of rearing a race of soldiers. We are aware that we have heard so often that "in time of peace we should prepare for war," we have come to the conclusion that this should be an object in peace. But Peace, and its legitimate pursuits, are the great objects of every civilized nation. By these pursuits we become strong, and if the emergency arises, we are powerful in war; yet this was not the object to which we looked in our years of quiet and prosperity. We claim to be an enlightened government. Now the life of a commonwealth, like that of an individual, has two parts; it is partly external, and partly internal. The external life of a State is seen in little else than its wars. A State acting out of itself ís, mostly, either repelling violence, or exercising it upon others; the friendly intercourse between nation and nation is, for the most

not so.

part, negative. But a nation has its inward life, and from this its outward life is characterized. For what does a nation effect by war, but either securing the principles at the foundation of its existence, or the increasing of its power?

We honor the heroism and patriotism of our fathers and brothers in the present struggle; but power, even existence, are not ultimate ends; the question may be asked of every created being why he should live at all, and no satisfactory answer can be given, if his life does not, by doing God's will consciously or unconsciously, tend to God's glory and the good of his brethren. And if a nation's annals contain the records of deeds ever so heroic, done in defence of the national freedom or existence, still we may require that the freedom or the life so bravely maintained, should be also employed for worthy purposes; or else "even the names of Thermopyle and of Morgarten become in after years a reproach, rather than a glory.” The external life of a nation is subordinate to the internal. When we are in the midst of war, a civilized people feel that their object is peace. When we are in the midst of peace, we look to a more perfect fruition of the results of peace. The internal life of a nation is manifest by its institutions and its laws. Of these prominently are all such institutions or laws as relate to public instruction in its widest sense; such, namely, as bear more or less immediately upon intellectual and moral culture. Let us ever, in time of war, prepare for peace; but never, in time of peace, make it an object to prepare for war. Let us rather prevent war, by the elevation of all that makes up the internal life of the State. Let there every where be the best gymnastic exercise, that the more perfect physical development may secure the more perfect mental development; and the best gymnastic exercise is military gymnastics. But we most decidedly protest against introducing this exercise into our public or private institutions of learning, having as an object the making of soldiers, or of acquiring the ability to be good soldiers. The best guarantee against war is the education of the masses. The educator of the youth is, then, equally patriotic with that one who dies upon the field of battle.

THE COMING YEAR.

Though we are now in the midst of that tension of suspense that looks momentarily for great battles, and a change in the status of the country, we yet hope that peace will soon come, and our

« PreviousContinue »