THOUGHTS-LATE SESSION.

We cheerfully give place to the following communication. both because we like it, and as an evidence of the good effect of our annual meeting in promoting thought and awakening interest.

MR. EDITOR-I attended the last session of the Teachers' Association for the sole purpose of gaining that knowledge which is absolutely necessary for Teachers, and especially for Superintendents. My expectations were fully realized, and my mind fully satiated with useful knowledge, with the exception of those questions introduced for discussion; much of which was at random, and beyond what is at present demanded. It was argued that we must have "Colleges for Ladies," and greater means for their general improvement. This I grant. But how many of those lady graduates would be employed in the Common Schools of Vermont? By others it was argued that we ought to have an institution for the express purpose of educating Teachers. This I think practicable, and even demanded.

Now, sir, what sort of an education do the children of wideawake, practical, Green Mountain Boys, demand? The truth is, many of our children are being knocked in the head by the sleepy, prosy, dead method of instructing them. It is demanded, then, that we have some subtractional facilities, to subtract the ignorance, blow away the mist, scour up our Teachers, give them clear heads, teach them to think and reason, break down their dependence upon text-books, "breathe into them a breath of life," and then set them to work. Of course, (like the farmer,) they must have tools to work with. Above all things, they ought to know how to use them-better not have them, if used ignorantly. Teachers should have globes, out-line maps, books of reference, and a large variety of apparatus would greatly facilitate their labor.

It was argued by the President, in the discussion of the second question, that we could have no fixed "standard" of qualification for teachers. but must be ever increasing. I suppose that children will be children always, and that we shall always have

children. If so, they must go through the same process of development that all men have. It will require the same food to develop the physical, the same studies to develop the mental. Teachers of some "standard" have taught and will teach our schools. No one will question but what it should be elevated beyond what the law requires. Superintendents should not be content with Teachers who have only a little smattering-a sort of milk-andwater understanding of the branches taught in our schools, but should require them to give a clear, forcible, and practical demonstration of the principles on which those branches are founded, I wish to bring the following resolution before the Superintendents of the State:

Resolved, That no superintendent correctly discharges the duties required of him, who is confined to text-books in the examination of teachers.

If Superintendents are confined to text-books in their examinations, teachers will be. I have seen teachers who have taught fifteen years, chained to a book to ask the simplest questions. To a thorough, practical scholar, such a puny dependence upon books is truly hateful. C. W. K.

Lunenburgh.

LEARNING V. WISDOM.-It is the vice of the age to substitute learning for wisdom; to educate the head and forget there is a more important education necessary for the heart. The reason is cultivated at an age when nature does not furnish the elements necessary to a successful cultivation of it; and the child is solicited to reflection when it is only capable of sensation and emotion. When the studies of mature years are stuffed into the head of the child, people do not reflect on the anatomical fact, that the brain of an infant is not the brain of a man; and that to expect a child's brain to bear with impunity the exertions of a man's, is as irrational as it would be to hazard the same sort of experiments on its muscles. The first eight or ten years of life should be devoted to the education of the heart-to the formation of principles, rather than to the acquirement of what is usually termed knowledge.-London Quarterly Review.

DUTIES OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS TOWARD

THEIR TEACHERS.-NO. 3.

It is customary with many parents, on their first introduction to the teacher, or soon after, to indicate a certain course which they wish the teacher to pursue with their children, both as to instruction and discipline. One wishes to have his eldest son or daughter commence the study of the more difficult sciences, but the teacher, on examination, finds them very deficient in the ordinary branches of study. Another wishes his children to have a particular seat in the school-room, or read or spell in a particular class. Another sends a note requesting that "James or John be dismissed precisely at three o'clock." A lady ap

proaches, with a gentle hint that "her children are never whipped at home," (a fact which the teacher has satisfactorily ascertained by their conduct at school,) "that she and her husband do not believe in such modes of discipline," and concludes by expressing the hope that, if the teacher is obliged to resort to such means, he will be as gentle as possible: or, what is of frequent occurrence, the teacher will be plainly told by parents that, if certain modes of discipline are adopted with their children, they will be taken from the school. The consequence of such a course on the part of parents, and its effect upon the school, must be apparent to every reflecting mind. It tends to embarrass and confuse the teacher, who is naturally anxious to please every one, as far as possible, but who knows perfectly well that, if he listens to such advice and complies with such requests, it must be to the detriment of the highest interests of the school. He must lower the stan lard of discipline and order. By dealing differently with different pupils for a breach of the same rule, one must adopt a lax and inefficient course of discipline for the whole school. He must introduce confusion and disorder by permitting frequent dismissions, and excusing frequent absences or tardiness, in obedience to the requisition of parents, and often for the most trivial causes.

Such tenderness and indulgence on the part of parents, besides

being destructive to the highest interests of the school, are potent agencies in vitiating moral character. The parent may thus, in one hour, destroy in the child those germs of perseverance, punctuality, decision, and self-reliance, which the teacher has been laboring for months to foster and develop. The high resolve is abandoned, the noble purpose thwarted. He loses his place in his class, and with it his pride of class and energy of character. The incentives which prompted him to earnest effort have been removed, and he plods along through the monotonous round of school duties, happy only when the vacation affords him a temporary relief from bondage. Happy indeed, is that pupil whose parents wisely resolve, by every means in their power, to co-operate with the teacher in awakening and directing in the pursuit of knowledge, the latent energies of his pupils; and thrice happy that school whose teacher, faithful in the discharge of his duties, finds himself sustained by the confidence, and cheered by the cordial co-operation, of the entire community for which he labors.

The teacher is entitled to the warmest sympathies of the parent. It is true that none but a teacher can fully know a teacher's heart, yet a patient survey of the teacher's field of labor, in all its departments, can hardly fail to awaken the lively sympathies of the parent. The great question with every true teacher is, "How can I best accomplish the momentous task I have undertaken?" and anxious days and sleepless nights are passed in the solution of the difficult problem. He must diligently study the character and disposition of every pupil under his care; he must ascertain their intellectual capacity, and the progress already made in their studies; he must carefully guard against the external, as well as internal, influence that might militate against the welfare of the school, and having surveyed the whole ground, he must classify his school with reference to the length of the term, the number, age, and attainments of his pupils, the diversity and deficiency of text-books, the studies to be pursued: and many other contingencies which it is needless to specify. care is to be exercised in the management of a

The same

school as in its instruction, and the same ready ability to seize upon every favorable circumstance, and to neutralize or avoid every unfavorable one, so that the position in which the teacher is placed, demands all the essential qualities of the wise statesman, the skiliful general, and the faithful and exemplary parent -in a word, all those elements of character which constitute the truly great man, or truly noble woman. There is not an experienced teacher who labors, or has labored, in the common school, but has, at times, found in the faithful discharge of duty, a rough and thorny path. Not one but knows full well the cares and anxieties of which I have been speaking; not one but knows what it is to shed the silent tear alone, with none but the Omniscient to behold him. How vividly pictured in the mind of every teacher is the recollection of the first day in school, of the hours of anxious solicitude which preceded it, as the thought of trials to be endured, of labors to be accomplished, of difficulties to be met, and obstacles to be surmounted, came crowding upon the mind! And as the teacher enters for the first time the scene of future labors, a stranger, perhaps, to the children and their parents, not recognizing among them all a familiar face, as he nerves himself for the opening exercises of the school, the anxious countenance alone betraying the suppressed emotions of the soul, as he proceeds to the organization of the school, and the arrangement of scholastic exercises, his mind alternating between hope and fear, how deeply does he then feel the need of kindly sympathy, and how like the bursting of a sunbeam through the clouds, is the first word of encouragement and sympathy which he receives. If such are the emotions of the young man who leaves the parental roof to engage for the first time in the difficult and laborious duties of an instructor, how much more deeply are they realized by the young woman who, in the pursuit of the means of support, goes forth upon the same difficult mission. How few female teachers are to be found, who have reached the age of thirty years. Nay, how few, who make teaching a profession, reach the age of twenty-five. This significant fact