PREFACE. THE Discourse, which forms a principal part of the following pages, was furnished to the INSTITUTE by particular desire. The writer of this abstract, having been long convinced that the institutions of New England, for popular education fulfilled the design of such education, but very imperfectly, desirous also, to "exclude boasting," and to substitute, if possible, some actual improvements in practice, such as might accomplish the true design of popular instruction, took occasion, in the summer of 1835, to publish in a weekly paper, a series of articles, very imperfectly illustrative of the actual state, and possible amendment of the common schools of the country. Those anonymous speculations, not ascribed to any female, suggesting some applications of the Prussian system of education to the Ameri 628 can people, were so far acceptable to some of the most intelligent members of the Institute, that they applied to the writer for more detailed illustrations of that system. These were readily furnished, and, in the form of the annexed discourse, were read, as a favour to the writer, by George S. Hillard Esq., in August, 1835. This Discourse was detached from the annually printed discourses of the Institute, and is now printed in a convenient and cheap form, to furnish, for wide circulation, it is hoped, some practical views of education, which may be extensively beneficial. Other documents and observations, in relation to this great public interest, are subjoined for further illustration of it. The whole claims no other merit than the desire to diffuse sound and practical ideas, among all who take any part in meliorating and exalting general society, by means of a rational, and truly moral education of all classes of the people. ELIZA ROBBINS. PHILADELPHIA, March 20th, 1836. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN PRUSSIA. THE writer has been requested to furnish to the Institute some particulars of the system of national education in present use in the kingdom of Prussia. The spirit, rather than the details, of this great institution is applicable in the United States, and its whole economy and general character are now offered to the American public in Mrs. Austin's translation of Cousin's Report. In the preface to that work the author asserts that, "There is such a coherency, both in the fabric it describes, and in the description, that no one will fully understand the system, who cannot bear the toil of following the author step by step. Portions may be selected which show the beautiful spirit pervading the whole, and which must, I should think, touch any human heart; but its merit as a piece of legislation as a system living and workingcan only be appreciated when studied connectedly and in detail."-These remarks of Mrs. Austin suggest the character of this institution, and it is hoped, will commend it to persons interested in public education, and in its practical improvement in the United States. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, in relation to this system, signifies, "instruction provided for the whole public by the state."* The territory of the kingdom of Prussia is divided into ten provinces, the provinces into departments, the departments into circles, and the circles into parishes. The whole of the public establishments of education, throughout these subdivisions of territory, comprehend elementary or pri * Cousin. |