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The vast extent and inexhaustible resources of this country every day adding to the facilities for acquiring material wealth and independence on the part of favored individuals, the means of high culture in colleges and universities is thus put within the reach of their offspring; and such facilities will, doubtless, in numerous instances, be made available to the superior refinement, culture and polish of a certain privileged class; but the children of the great mass of the people-the hoi polloi-of those who, in all countries, give tone and character to society, and whose material and moral well being at all times afford the truest index and best guarantee of national prosperity and social progress-such must ever be dependent on the common school for all the education they receive. The people, therefore, ought ever to be exceedingly jealous of their educational privileges, and to seek to guard, with the most watchful care, against whatever might deprive them of their schools, or impair their efficiency. At the same time, as this is an age of progress, and as nothing is so much affected by its advancing spirit as education, they ought to be ever ready and willing to adopt whatever improvements the experience of the past has recommended. What the great reformer, Martin Luther, said of the doctrine of "justification by faith alone," namely, that it was the mark of a standing or a falling church, is especially true of common schools; for with them, not only according to the opinion of Daniel Webster (a host in himself), but of every one else who has thought deeply upon the subject, the whole social framework, as it is now constituted, is so vitally interwoven that they stand or fall together. And because, in a certain well known portion of the Union, this fundamental principle was wofully and fatally overlooked, the whole of this great and mighty nation, from Aroostook to Puget's Sound, and from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico, is now paying the fearful penalty in the sacrifice of tens of thousands of valuable lives, in the shedding of rivers of sorrowful tears, and in the expenditure of untold treasure. Nor has the full penalty yet been paid down. The lesson has indeed been vividly traced in lines of blood, in characters slowly drawn and deeply shaded, that, as a nation, we may take the more heed for the future to the almost forgotten truth of the moral government of the world by a just and righteous Being, ever jealous of the honor of his laws, and who has made ample provision that where national sin is, there national sorrows shal! answer it. And, moreover, let us remember further, that the old struggle is here also begun, and already going on with increasing vigor, the contest, we mean, between capital and labor, and threatening in the end to issue in a despotism of wealth more grinding far to the poor than any which has existed in the old monarchies and aristocracies of the east, whose condition in this respect we are so much accustomed to decry. The efficiency of common schools can alone save us from these direful consequences : their healthful condition is the main safeguard of the nation against social perils and commotions-the best guarantee of order and progress.

Viewed in this light, therefore, the system of common schools is invaluable

to the whole country, but more especially in such remote localities as that which the present writer happens, for the time, to represent as a teacher, in matters pedagogical. Here, on the frontier, we should otherwise be pretty much in a state of nature, wild and uncultivated as the unbroken forests around us. Here, the hardy woodpecker-"most unmusical, most unmelancholy ". with busy bill sounding in rapid succession every chunk in a pile of recently sawed stove-wood, standing in front of our little log temple devoted to learning, is an emblem at once of the necessity and value of activity and industry to the settler, as well as of the difficulty (especially in the case of frontier teachers, like ourselves,) of obtaining a living by means of our vocation alone, in newly settled districts; while here, also, the brisk squirrel, his "companion meet," perched aloft upon the dizzy height of a limber bough of a leafeless snow clad oak, looks down in wonderment at the new order of things so recently ushered in-wonderment not unmixed with something akin to jealousy, as he beholds his ancient domain invaded, and a group of happy urchins besporting themselves on the very spot, perchance, where of late he himself had frolicked in youthful glee with his compeers of the forest, and with an angry "put-put-go," and a disdainful toss of his tail, he disappears down the opposite side of the stately tree, and dives into his hole, doubtless to indulge in sundry melancholy meditations upon the sad and eventful changes to which the gods have inexorably decreed that men and squirrels shall alike be exposed.

Without such an admirable system, so flexible and accommodating that it can readily adapt itself to the changeful circumstances of a new country, with its ever rolling tide of mixed population, we repeat, the light of scholastic knowledge would be a long while indeed in penetrating to such Cimmerian recesses. Private enterprise would utterly fail to meet the demands of the case-to make the necessary and immediate provision for the proper training of the young in localities where, as can only be expected, the great majority of parents must of necessity be always too much engrossed with the daily duties of life, and the struggles and hardships incident to a new country, to bestow much attention upon such matters. It is here, accordingly, amid the grim array of ghastly stumps-soon to disappear-and the gloom of "forests primeval" soon to follow them, that the peculiar benefit-the sovereign efficacy of the "people's college" is most readily seen: it is here that the system in question obtains its highest triumph, and wins its fairest renown.

FRONTIER.

IT HAS BEEN OBSERVED, with much significance, that every morning we enter upon a new day, carrying still an unknown future in its bosom. How pregnant and stirring the reflection. Thoughts may be born to-day which may never die. Feelings may be awakened to-day which may never be extinguished. Hope may be excited to-day which may never expire.

EDITORIAL MISCELLANY.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

A writer in the Milwaukee Sentinel of March 3 opposes this measure, now before the Legislature. He says, "private enterprise has effected more for the cause of a high standard of education than the State itself was [has been ?] able to do" This is probably a slant at the State University. Admitting that that institution has not flourished remarkably, it is nevertheless a very unphilosophical reason for opposing a State Normal School. The attempt to build up a State University, as a College, was premature. If the Regents had husbanded its resources, and opened first of all a good Normal School as one of its Departments, a solid foundation would have been laid for our whole system of public instruction, culminating in due time in a prosperous State University. That such an institution, properly managed, may nobly succeed, the State of Michigan is witness, which has also an excellent State Normal School. It strikes one as disingenuous, and not very complimentary to the State, to infer that because one State institution, not much needed at present, has not advanced rapidly, another, which is imperatively needed, would fail.

If the writer means that our "private institutions" have done better work than our public high schools in training "normal classes" for teachers, the records of the examinations of these classes show the reverse to be true. There are reasons for this which leave no reproach upon the private schools. Pupils entering a high school have generally been trained in the departments below.

The writer says, again, that "the best teachers we have in the State, who were educated here, have been graduates of these private institutions." If he means that a graduate of a College is a better scholar than one who has made less advancement in liberal studies, and so far is a better teacher, the remark is no more profound than that a man is older and usually wiser than a boy. If he means that the so-called "graduates" of academies surpass those of high schools as teachers, the assertion is unsupported by facts. And if he simply means that those who have received some especial training as teachers in colleges or academies, have succeeded better in the school room than those who have received an equal amount of instruction and training in high schools, he is still wide of the mark. The high schools, though they may have turned out a smaller number, have furnished at least as good teachers as the other class of schools. If the writer will cite any facts, we will meet him with other facts. He insinuates, further, that these private institutions can afford all the facilities for training teachers, if they are aided sufficiently by the State. We assert on the contrary, and on the strength of the amplest educational authority-using the words of the late report of our present State Superintendent,

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himself a competent witness-that "our experience has not been unlike that of other States, in their efforts to organize normal schools in connection with colleges and academies. The plan is defective." We may say more, and assert that it always has been and always will be a comparative failure.

The bug-bear of great expense, and State indebtedness, is held up. No State is so poor that she cannot afford to encourage Normal Schools. As well say that a laborer cannot afford to buy the food that gives him strength to work. That the wealth of the State increases in proportion to the intelligent industry of her citizens, and that this again will depend largely upon the existence of good schools taught by competent teachers, would seem to be some of the plainest principles of political economy. A legislative body stupid enough not to perceive this is to be looked for in some other State than this we hope. The Bill in question, though not altogether to our individual liking, has passed the Senate with great unanimity in its favor.

Not to follow the writer in his further remarks about the State University, to assert, as he does, in conclusion, that "the existing colleges within the State are competent to educate for teaching all who have an inclination for the profession," is about as absurd as to say that they could educate all who wish it for the medical profession;" while the claim that they would do more for the State for one dollar than a State Normal School would for ten, is, to say the least, a modest assumption. That the colleges themselves do not make any such claims, would seem to be sufficiently evident in the fact that they have pretty much ceased to seek the aid of the Normal Fund. The functions of a legitimate college are quite different from those of a Normal School. The two can never be made successfully compatible with each other.

It is to be regretted that any rivalry or antagonism should be excited between public and private efforts to promote education. Both are needed. Very few private educational institutions, however, have any long lease of life. Public ones, including Normal Schools, are an essential and permanent part of our democratic system. The remarks of the writer in the Sentinel are strongly suggestive that he is either not "posted" himself in the history of Normal Schools, or has an especial interest in some one of those "private in. stitutions" of which he appears as a champion.

If the Trustees of some of our oldest, largest and most favorably situated Academies, like those at Platteville and Milton, would boldly transform them (by Legislative consent if that is necessary) into good Normal Schools without dependence upon the present precarious Normal Fund, they would do a good thing for both themselves and the State. Reasonable appropriations would not long be withheld.

QUERY.-A correspondent asks: "Is there a Phonetic Paper printed at present in the United States? Who will answer.

ADVANTAGES OF THE TOWN SYSTEM.

There is no hope we suppose that this step in advance-the Town Systemwill be taken this year. Without any attempt to say anything that has not often been said, and probably better said, before, a brief statement of the manifest advantages of the plan may not be amiss. We hope its friends will continue to discuss it and press it until it is secured. Continual dropping

wears even a stone:

1. The plan, by repudiating the narrow selfish system of isolated schools, is more philanthropic and christian like.

2. By securing a greater good to a greater number it is more democraticless aristocratic-tends to more equal privileges.

3. Under one Town Board the educational interests of the town become a unit instead of dissevered scattered fractions. Coals apart go out; together, they make a blaze.

4. The schools themselves become more equal; not here a mere fragment of a school, with five scholars, and there one overcrowded enough to breed disease; not one taught in an old log cabin unfit for a stable, by an ignorant miss or boorish boy of 17, and another in a respectable commodious building, by a refined lady, of mature mind and reasonable skill and attainments.

5. The expense is equalized, as it should be-for children are publicly educated for the public good-and with a town organization one mere fragment or abortion of a school is not kept up on a tax of 20 dollars and a like sum from the school fund, and another good school maintained by ten times the amount.

6. The undue multiplication of schools is avoided, and their already excessive number reduced; they are maintained when and where the public good requires. Each neighborhood ceases to expect a nursery where the larger babies may be taken care of, and so the children of suitable school age have a fair chance to learn.

7. Grading of the schools is more generally possible. Four mixed schools in four old shanties are reduced for instance to two, in four rooms and two good buildings; some of the children walk a little farther, but the toddlers mostly stay at home as they should do; there is a division of labor and far better results are attainable. One or more central schools, having a still higher department, admit pupils of a higher grade, and a large town, or two or more towns uniting, maintain a high school proper. The consequence is that Academies, heretofore useful and supplying a want, but savoring of an aristocratic element in society, become high schools, with free tuition, or drop out of existence.

8. Not only does this system of consolidation admit of and lead to a real and systematic gradation of schools, with a uniform well considered course of study, but it implies and admits of a corresponding efficiency of supervision. Local, isolated, voluntary, unpaid, sub-district supervision can never, in the nature of things, as a rule, amount to much. A town supervision, paid for if

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