"SEND ME A STRONG RECOMMEND." [The editor of the Vermont School Journal, in copying the annexed correspondence from the Ohio Educational Monthly, remarks that "it applies to the latitude of Vermont as well as that of Ohio." Wisconsin embraces the whole width of Vermont latitude, and a little more besides.-EDR.] HON. ANSON SMYTH, State School Commissioner: September 16, 1862. longer. On account of the high taxes caused by the war, our Board of Education has concluded to reduce the salaries of teachers, and to cut mine down to five hundred dollars. I cannot support my family on less than my old salary -six hundred. I must find another school as soon as possible, as I cannot afford to be idle. Can you speak a good word for me in some place where they want a principal of a High School, or any other similar position, where the salary would be at least seven hundred dollars? I do not like to trouble you, for I know you have your hands full; but if you know of any vacancy, please inform me of it. As I met you at two Institutes in this county, and as you once made a short visit at my school, you must know something of my qualifications. I have taught for five years, and, though I say it myself, I have always had good success. If you do not know of a place where you can get me in, please send me as strong a recommend as you think I am worthy of, as it will be of use to me in getting a school. To Respectfully, your obedient servant, OFFICE OF STATE SCHOOL COMMISSIONER, } Esq.-Dear Sir:-Yours of the 16th instant is before me. During the six years in which I have held the office of Commissioner, many hundreds of letters have been received, requesting my assistance in securing positions in the schools of our State. In a good number of instances it has been in my power to render the help requested. But in a very large majority of cases it has been my unpleasant duty to reply to applicants that I knew of no vacancies such as they would be pleased to fill. Whenever a desirable situation in our schools becomes vacant, it is at once applied for by teachers in the vicinity; and some one secures the place. A thousand teachers have sought schools through me, while not more than fifty schools have requested me to furnish them teachers. But to be entirely honest and frank with you, sir, I am obliged to say that I could not aid in securing you a position, were it in my power; nor can I send you the "recommend" (recommendation) which you solicit. This may surprise you; and though it is not a pleasant task for me to perform, I will briefly state my reasons: You mention that I "once made a short visit at my (your) school." I have a distinct remembrance of that visit; and though it did not exceed an hour, it made impressions which forbid that I should recommend you, as you desire. I was led to the following conclusions: You are not a good Teacher. I do not doubt that you are as good as one half of the teachers of Ohio, or of any other state. Indeed, I judge that you are the superior of many of our teachers. Still, I could not recommend you as qualified for so responsible a position as you seek. I trust that in our High and Intermediate Schools there are not very many teachers whose qualifications are not superior to yours. When I entered your school, you were hearing a recitation in the History of England, Pinnock's Goldsmith being the text-book. You made constant use of the book, seeming to be entirely dependent on it for ability to ask questions. You did not seem to understand the business you had in hand, and were ignorant of what your pupils were expected to know. A subsequent recitation in Geography was conducted in much the same way. You asked questions from the book, reading those found at the bottom of the page. In neither recitation did you make use of the excellent maps with which your room was furnished. Now, my dear sir, you may reply that you have known other teachers do the same thing. So have I, thousands of them. But I have always looked upon the practice as a sure exponent of the ignorance or laziness of those teachers. I do most sincerely judge that conducting recitations in this manner, in Geography, History, and some (not all) other branches of study, is proof of unfitness for teaching. I have not time to state fully my reasons for this opinion, but they are so patent that a very little reflection will reveal to you their nature and propriety. What would you think of a general attempting to direct the movements of his army, in time of battle, by a constant reference to the volume of Tactics which should stand braced aslant on the pommel of his saddle? I was not at all pleased with your government, or discipline. Your school was obstreperous, as the result of your own rough and vociferous manner. I never knew a noisy teacher who had a quiet and orderly school. You were all the while enunciating "general orders," which your boys, the legitimate little "sons of thunder," treated with uproarious indifference. Long experience had taught them that sin and suffering do not, in your school, sustain the relation of cause and effect. It is true that you did whip two boys while I was there, but you threatened the same punishment in twenty other cases, in which the infliction did not follow. A teacher who is profuse in commands and threatenings will always and utterly fail of securing the respect and obedience of his pupils. Think not that I disapproved of your whipping but two of the twenty whom you threatened with that penalty. Far from it. The whippings I thought two too many. I am not prepared to say that the rod should never be used in school; but I will say that the teacher who finds it necessary to use it daily, or even weekly, demonstrates his unfitness for school government. I would not say that no boy should, under any circumstances, be flogged in school. There may be rare and extreme cases in which the rod may work the cure which other means have failed to accomplish. But I have observed that the worst-governed schools are those in which the most whipping is done. Its frequent repetition tends to brutalize and deprave, rather than subdue and reform. The wise, thoughtful and self-governed teacher will devise and adopt measures for securing obedience which are a thousand times more effectual than all the rods and rawhides, clubs and cudgels, ever wielded since Cain killed Abel. One teacher governs by brute force, and his school is a model of disorder; another rules by the force of his own superior wisdom, tact, self-control and moral power, and his pupils every day learn to govern themselves. But should the dire necessity of whipping arise, it is better that the execution should be had without much previous threatening. The pupil should be fully informed that intentional and persistent disobedience will receive its due punishment; but its kind and manner he should be left to learn from experience. If its form is what he did not anticipate, it will be all the more effective. And besides, the teacher can thus act in individual cases according to the individualities of each. "I must do so because I said I would," is expressive of weakness, or wickedness, or both. But what I most disliked in your school was the store of whips with which you had supplied it, in the expectation of having use for them. This practice is abominable! It is equivalent to a declared expectation that the pupils will deserve terrible punishment; that the teacher has no confidence in them. It is also an acknowledgment on the part of the teacher, that he has no ability for governing his school, except in the of brute force. way The sheriff who, upon his election, should erect a gallows at the county seat, in the expectation that the people would deserve hanging, would be esteemed, by an insulted and indignant public, fit only for the death which he had provided for his neighbors. I noticed other things in your school which I did not approve, but which I have no time at present to specify. I am, however, constrained to say, that should your boys become close imitators of all the habits and practices of their teacher, their society will not be much sought for by people who are at all particular in regard to tidiness or good manners. To mention but one thing in this direction: the floor in front of your seat was bespattered with saliva, which bore sickening testimony to your use of a certain disgusting narcotic. Now, sir, you may think me severe and unkind. But I am sure that I am not. I would most willingly do you any favor which would not be doing the public an injury. Yours, truly, ANSON SMYTH. INSTITUTES. Many of the Institutes held in the State during the past year were conducted by "home talent." This feature in Institutes may not have received that attention from the Secretary of the Board, and from teachers generally, that the subject merits. The object of Institutes can never be attained unless they are conducted by those who have given the subject attention, and who have made special preparation to meet the real wants of such educational organizations. If everybody is competent to instruct and to lecture in an Institute, then everybody is eminently competent to impart instruction in the school-room. This groveling idea of the profession of teaching is noticeable in almost every department of popular education. It never will be removed until teachers arise and qualify themselves, requiring school officers and the people to give deference to an avocation which possesses such ennobling and life-giving power. If teachers, assembled in Institutes, will permit themselves to be influenced short of any principle that will exalt and render more efficient their calling, by only selecting men from professions to lecture and to conduct their exercises, and by assembling for a display of mere "buncombe," they deserve no respect, nor can they hope to exert a salutary influence by any such association. Let the teachers of the State who compose these Institutes see to it that men in every way competent in the work of teaching-men of experience, and men of culture-are selected to lecture and to conduct these exercises, and they may be assured that their labors will not remain long unappreciated. If the fund which the State has so honorably devoted to this good work is to be expended without any reference to the immediate object for which it was granted, it had better be recalled. The Representatives of the State, the Secretary of the Board [State Supt.], and all friends whose influence has been exerted in securing this fund, demand of us, as teachers, that Institutes become one of the most efficient agencies in elevating our system of public instruction. The responsibility rests with us, fellowteachers, to encourage the State by our decided and systematic efforts, and thus evince our appreciation of her noble benefactions, and the exalted estimation in which she holds our profession, In no way can this be better accomplished than by the Secretary of the Board of Education [State Supt and this Association co-operating-recommending some competent man or men, whose business it shall be to conduct Institutes, and who shall be thoroughly prepared with these means to elevate the qualifications of teachers. Let the too prevalent idea, that Institutes are schools for instruction in the lower branches of the Common Schools, be exploded, and let the subject of methodology and the general topics of pedagogics be introduced, and a brighter day will dawn on the profession of teaching; and the reforms thus introduced into society by Institutes, will place them among the very first benefactions of the age. - Report, in Iowa Instructor and Journal. [What is true of Institutes in our sister State is substantially true here, except that this State has made no appropriation and provided no "fund" for the support of the Institutes. We think that Superintendents and Teachers, who have the interests of the schools at heart, cannot do better than to make an earnest application to the Legislature for aid in this direction. Then let the best possible talent and experience be secured for this peculiar and important work.-EDR.] TOWN AND COUNTY SCHOOL EXHIBITIONS. [The following proposed plan, or something similar, may be interesting and useful in other counties:] TO THE TEACHERS OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY. The law of the State makes it the duty of the County Superintendent to encourage the formation of Teachers' Associations. On the 18th of October, 1862, a Teachers' Association for the county of Fond du Lac was formed, the object of which is the elevation of the character and condition of the Public Schools of the County. This is to be done by improving the qualifications of teachers and by introducing into the schools the most approved methods of instruction and discipline. All the teachers of a county are expected to become active members of the Association. To carry out the objects of the law in the formation of such Associations, it is recommended to the teachers in each town to form themselves into Town Associations, to be convened at some convenient place in each town, at least once in two weeks, during the time that winter and summer schools shall be in session. At these meetings |