The poem is a dialogue, in which Philopas asks questions and Chrysippus answers them. Here only the substance of the answers is given in the passages quoted. A child should not have many teachers. The country Caria was destroyed a So many men, so many wits. Young infants are dismayed The first condition of learning. The first degree to learning is That little child which loved first For as those gifts are loved most, Which come from those we love. That he doth learn most, That hath the most desire to learn, So love to maister is the cause, To break them all by fear and force Unqualified schoolmasters and cureless parents. How ill therefore do they foresee, The safety of their child, The beautifying of his brains With skill and manners mild That turn him in his tender age, To ghastly mazing school Where throned sits a maister strange Blunt, rude, and half a fool Oft-times infected with disease, Which makes the wayward testy fool With little lambs to scold. And surely, we do see there can Be none so abject fools So base and void of sense, but now, A man would say it were no school a Multitudo imperatorum Cariam perdidit. What the teacher should do. Let's watchful be t'instruct them well, To teach and train them up to good, Sometimes to read, and of things read A just account: lo, these be thumps What the teacher should say. This man (say thou) through learning skill This man to wealth by learning, this But this again, through ill-desert What is to be done with the obstinate? But some perhaps will say to me, To asses or to oxen, if They come the school into? What? would you not soon drive them forth Into the country soil, The one to the mill, the other with The Plough and Cart to toil? And certainly, no less are men Unto the Plough staff born Than is the ox: no less to the mill Than the ass with labour worn. Philopas says, "Yes, then the schoolmaster loses his scholars and his fees." Chrysippus says the worthy schoolmaster will let them go. If the schoolmaster is good, then the civil and ecclesiastical magistrates should look after him. But how rare to find the "right wise man indeed" as a teacher. The training of the schoolmaster. The Magistrates should see: As singing men are taught to tune The counterverse they yield: So much more should they see that man Be taught, much more be trained That to the worthy teaching trade Hath any way attained. The writer then cites the instances of Vespasian, Plinius, and Nepos, as aiding learned men, and urges that teaching must be kept up by the "public care.” The schoolmaster's method. The schoolmaster you see To win the child, should seem a child And child again should be. To teach to speak and eat and walk, imitation is brought into play. T Children must not be taught the "wantonnesses" of the poets, but be given "good stories" from the Bible and Quintus Curtius, and led on to write accounts of them by rewards. Remember of children: What they cannot learn at first, That learn they at length: Though strength they have not as an ox Yet as an ant they have. Hence people are wrong who say, Don't teach a child before 5 years old; there is no profit in it. But the writer says, Shall we delay Whenas there's nothing half so rich Examples of great men: Ovid, Lucan, Ursinus, Alexander the Great, all were taught with the highest profit when young. Teach early, but teach well. (The Epilogue.) Consider well, what portion and What quickness doth abound. If children are only sent to learned men And unto such as gentle are, Which teach them all by play: The remarkable metrical composition is in substance translated (see Mr. A. H. Bullen's account of Hake in the Dictionary of National Biography) from a Latin tract, "De pueris statim ac liberaliter instituendis." Warton, in his History of English Poetry (ed. Hazlitt, vol. iv, p. 204), says: In the dedication to Maister John Harlowe his approved friend, he [Hake] calls himself an "Attorney in the Common Pleas," observing at the same time, that the name of an Attorney in the Common Pleas is nowadays grown into contempt. He adds another circumstance of his life, that he was educated under John Hopkins, whom I suppose to be the translator of the Psalms, “You being trained up together with me your poor schoolfellow with the instructions of that learned and exquisite teacher, Maister John Hopkins, that worthy schoolmaister, nay rather that most worthy parent unto all children committed to his charge of education. Of whose memory, if I should in such an opportunity as this, be forgetful, etc. I regret that I can not give the passage in full, but Warton stops short at this point, and the dedication and early pages of the tract are missing from the British Museum copy. The reading of the passages quoted carries with it the confirmation that the John Hopkins referred to is the translator of the Psalms. CHAPTER VII. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMS OF THE UNITED STATES. By AARON GOVE. Superintendent of Schools, Denver, Colo. The public school systems of the United States present a scheme of education not national, but, by an interesting history and experience, so nearly unified as to be not improperly designated a "national school system." The sovereignty of each State of the United States and its relation to the National Government virtually prohibit the interference in or direction of such conduct of public schools as may be prescribed and executed by each individual State. One finds, whether he look to Massachusetts or Missouri or California, State public school plans modified one from the other by changes of environment, by geographical and industrial conditions, and more especially by circumstances attending the admission of the State into the National Federation. Throughout the entire Union, in the fortyfive States is found provision for the education of the children at the expense of the public purse. The property of the State is taxed for the education of the children of the State. Whether this school attendance is compulsory or voluntary, and to what extent free text-books and other instruments are provided, depend upon the legislation of the State. However, certain general methods of management obtain in all, modified only by the above-named conditions. The conduct of city schools of municipalities of 10,000 people or more is quite similar, whether East or West, North or South. The controlling power of the schools consists of a public corporation, its composition varied in size and sex, though not many women in the country have been placed upon school boards. The members of this corporation board are variously determined, sometimes by election by the people; sometimes by appointment of a court of justice; sometimes by appointment by the mayor or other officer. Usually the board is scarcely limited in power except by the statute under which it exists. In a few cities the municipal government controls the expenditure of money-that is, the appropriation of money to the school board must have the approval of the municipal government. Usually, especially in the newer parts of the country, the school board is absolute, not only in the expenditure, but also in the power to levy a tax on the property of the city, limited only by the constitution of the State. This board organizes the schools of the city, usually by the selection of one executive officer, commonly termed the superintendent of schools, and by the erection and conduct of as many schools as are necessary for the accommodation of the children of the city between the ages of 6 and 14; in some cities 6 and 21. In a few States provision is made for the kindergarten system, providing for the education at public expense of children under 6. The school buildings in the large cities are of various sizes, sometimes accommodating 2.000 and even 3,000 pupils; in the smaller cities, one or two room houses are found. The medium-sized city of the country has for its typical schoolhouse a building of 12 or 15 rooms, which means schoolrooms from about 28 to 32 feet square, each seating 50 pupils, with 1 teacher, and a principal or master of the building, who has charge of the whole school. |