to any pursuit, even if it be a merely temporary one, he is cultivating habits and acquiring a force of character which will not only contribute to his happiness but to his success in all future pursuits. And by going through the routine of a school drowsily, and as if it was a mere task that he wishes to get rid of as speedily as possible, he is acquiring habits which will surely prevent success in future undertakings.

A teacher should devote himself to his work heartily and with enthusiasm and energy, if he were to consider only his chances for pecuniary success in life. The greater part of our teachers are looking to some other employment a few years hence for a livelihood. They follow teaching a few years and then take up some other business or profession. For opportunities of getting into business they have to depend mostly on their previous reputation. And if a young man has

been a teacher and has shown a listlessness and carelessness about his business, no desire to improve himself and no capacity to benefit his scholars, if he has been a poor teacher, it will be a very poor recommendation to those who might be willing to employ him in other business. He who from the causes I have mentioned, is unsuccessful as a teacher, will probably prove unsuccessful from the same causes in every thing else.

One of the most distinguished men of Rhode Island in a discourse a few years ago observed, that "no teacher is fit to have a scholar unless he is able to make his mark upon him.”* There is so much meaning condensed into this short sentence that it might serve as a text for a long discourse.

A temptation which especially besets a good teacher-one who is desirous of improving, is the tendency to adopt some particular theory or mode of teaching, to the exclusion of all others--in other words, to have a hobby. Some degree of energy and enthusiasm is absolutely necessary to constitute a good teacher, but the very possession of this enthusiasm without considerable discretion and judgment, will sometimes prove a stumbling block in the way of a teacher's usefulness. They have seen that there is a defect in some old mode of teaching-they have perhaps been in some school where some particular mode of teaching was practiced with good effect. It becomes a favorite with them, and without allowing for difference of circumstances, they adopt it at all times and places; they make a hobby of it.

This is particularly to be guarded against, and especially at the present day, when the public attention has been aroused to the subject of education and the community in consequence

*Dr. Wayland.

swarms with theorists and book makers, who take advantage of the excitement for their own interest, and whose interest it is in too many cases, to run down old modes and usages, substituting newer, but not better ones.

A good teacher when he goes into a district which has been blessed with a good school, and where the people understand and appreciate its advantages, may find perhaps for awhile, little more to do than to continue on in the course already marked out. But even here, constant exertion is necessary. In the best districts, zeal for the interests of education will occasionally decline. Human nature is so constituted, that we seldom properly appreciate those advantages which we constantly enjoy. We must be occasionally deprived of them, or we must see the condition of others who do not enjoy them and be able to compare it with our own, in order to realize their value.

In a large portion of our districts, the good teacher finds that there is so much to be done, that it requires a great deal of discretion to know how to commence his work. By undertaking too much, he often defeats his purpose. But if he has the proper degree of zeal tempered with judgment, he can do a great deal. For those who desire to be useful in their day and generation, and who do not make the profession a mere matter of money, the opportunities of doing good will be constantly occurring. The field of labor is vast, and it will always remain open. For each new generation the same work is to be done.

Perhaps in a great many districts which have not been highly favored, the good teacher can best commence the work of reform by letting the people see the difference between a good teacher and a poor one. There are too many of our districts where the people have no knowledge of what a good teacher can do. They have got the notion that almost any body can teach small children, and that any blockhead is fit to teach A, B, C. Among all the errors on the subject of education, there is none more fatal. Now, here let the good teacher show his capacity. He may have a poor house and but few scholars and many other discouragements to contend with. But let him show the people what a good teacher can do, and he will find them gradually beginning to sympathise with him. Our people are a shrewd, sensible people, and they only want to be convinced that there is a real improvoment, that there is something in it, (to use the common phrase,) and they will join in the movement and aid it along. Let a teacher once establish his influence in this way, by showing them that he is a good teacher, that he deserves their confidence, and every thing else is easy of accomplishment.

But the teacher can do very little without the co-operation of the parents in his district. If from any cause they are opposed to the school, he can do nothing; if they are merely indifferent or careless, he can do but little, compared with what he can effect if he has their hearty co-operation and support.And this certainly is an object worth some pains and labor on his part.

When there was no school system, the whole responsibility of supporting a school was thrown upon the parents in a neighborhood. At the proper season they were obliged to consult, and meet, and negotiate about the teacher and the school, and the means of supporting them. True, the duty was often neglected. But parents in such cases felt that the responsibility was on them.

Now we have a system established by law. The State comes in by its officers and provides a teacher and a school, and supplies in some cases a part, in some, all of the funds for its support. And a large portion of the people, finding a school provided without any trouble or effort of their own, contract the habit of looking upon it with indifference, as if it was something with which they had nothing to do, or rather, as if it were something they felt safe and justified in shifting the responsibility of on to other people's shoulders, the trustees, committees, &c.

But a teacher can do a great deal himself towards awakening a proper spirit in the parents in his district. He should try to cultivate the acquaintance of all of them, consult with them about the studies, the characters, and interests of their children.

The old system of boarding around had at least this advantage, that it of necessity as it were, brought about an acquaintance between the teachers and parents. And to some teachers, who are modest and reserved, and unused to society, and have not the faculty of making acquaintances, this might be a real good. At all events, the teacher should avoid confining his intimacy to a few, whoever they may be, for every district has its family jealousies, its political quarrels, its religious or irreligious variances, jealousies of trade and jealousies arising from difference in property; and it will be most unfortunate for the school, if the teacher by favoring any one set incurs the displeasure of another.

Sometimes, if one set of men get the power and hire a teacher, it is a sufficient reason for the other party to find fault with him. The teacher cannot be too careful in such a case. It will require some knowledge of the world, of human passions, and weaknesses; and if he has it not, he must learn it, however hard and disagreeable the acquisition of it may be.

The teacher may then, by proper means, secure the influence of the parents in his favor; and if he does, he will find his task comparatively easy and his burden light. The discipline of the school, which to a young and inexperienced teacher, is always the most trying part of his labors, depends greatly upon the parents. If the parents listen to and encourage the complaints of the children, it makes hard work for the teacher; and the parents, or rather the children, are themselves the losers. For if a large portion of the teacher's time is taken up in keeping in order a set of unruly boys, that time is taken from their instruction, and the teacher's mind is wearied and fretted, and unfitted for the proper discharge of his duties. If, on the other hand, after taking pains to get a good teacher, instead of looking out for faults, they would let the children know that if they received one whipping at school they should receive another at home, the discipline of the school would be made easy.

Upon this subject of co-operation of parents in supporting the school, too much cannot be said. It is a serious, solemn duty. We have been so much accustomed in arguing in favor of a system of public instruction, to address ourselves to mere motives of interest, by holding out to parents that a good education would tend to the worldly advancement of their children, and that it would save the pockets of the people so many dollars and cents now paid for the conviction and punishment of crime, that we have overlooked the question of duty.

So much has been done within a few years past towards establishing systems of education in all the States, and such is the disposition every where manifested to look to the State for the education of the child, that some of the best friends of education in the Union have considered the tendency a dangerous one. God has established the parental relation; he has placed upon the parent the responsibility for the bringing up of the child in the way it should go: but they too easily fall in with the fashion of the day, which is to throw upon the State all care, all responsibility, not only for the secular education, but for the moral training of the child. But granting that there is this tendency and this danger, it is one from which the old system or no-system was not free; and we should meet and counteract it by the most strenuous and ever continuing efforts; the teacher in the school and the teacher in the pulpit, and the friends of education everywhere, should constantly inculcate the duty of the parent to educate the

STUDIES AND OBJECT OF EDUCATION.

A teacher can do a great deal with his scholars to make the school pleasant as well as profitable to them, and to excite in them a love for study and for acquiring information. Besides attending to the ordinary studies which are pursued in our schools, and which are absolutely necessary in any system of education, he can from time to time, and without interfering with regular studies, communicate to them much information which will be useful to them in after life. He may make them acquainted with the modes of carrying on the business of the world, the different trades, the various modes of making notes, receipts, accounts, &c. &c., so much of physiology as to enable them to guard against sudden wounds and accidents.

Again, the children in our schools are educating not for themselves or for their parents only, but they are to sustain relations to society at large. They are, perhaps, some, or all of them, to be in the course of their lives, town officers, magistrates, jurors, judges, ministerial officers of the law and perhaps, law makers. Yet no knowledge of this sort is conveyed to the children in most of our schools, although the existence and good government of our republic depends upon it. But they are left to pick it up little by little as they go through life. Now, a teacher in a few occsional lessons may convey a great deal of informaation which will be of use to them afterwards. He might also inform them of the different classes of crimes and the punishments provided for them by law, and of the various legal rights pertaining to the various relations of life. In all this sort of knowledge so necessary in a free government, children generally get no instruction in the schools. Yet how much better fitted to discharge their duties as citizens, and how many troubles and misfortunes might be avoided, were they better and earlier taught. Men may acquire a great deal of this knowledge as they rub along through life, at meetings, at courts, &c. But females are shut out from these opportunities. They are generally completely ignorant of their legal rights: and the consequences are often serious to their interest and happiness.

I am no advocate for crowding a great variety of studies into a school, or attempting to teach too much But while in some schools, perhaps enough of this collateral information, as it may be called, is already given, there are others, as we all know, where nothing at all is done but to hear lessons recited by rote from the spelling book, the geography and gram

mar.