LECTURE II.

THE DUTIES

OF

EXAMINING COMMITTEES.

BY PROF. E. D. SANBORN.

In the mind of every enlightened patriot, the elevation of our Common Schools is, intimately, associated with the progress of society and the perpetuity of our cherished institutions. It is now an admitted fact the voice of history proclaims it that NewEngland owes her unparalleled prosperity to the early establishment of free schools and churches in the British colonies. For this labor of love and patriotism we venerate the memory of our fathers. We look upon the Common School System, which they established, as among the richest legacies they have left us. We are now convinced that our success, nay more, our very existence as a free people, depends

upon the preservation and improvement of this priceless inheritance. The highest degree of civilization results from the union of piety and intelligence. Learning has ever been, and must ever continue to be, the handmaid of religion. Wherever they are divorced, the common mind becomes degraded, and religion degenerates into bigotry or superstition. Wherever free schools and free churches have been established among the nations of Europe, their influence is exhibited in the superior intelligence and thrift of the people. Catholic and Protestant countries, lying side by side, resemble the divisions of Egypt occupied by the Egyptians and Israelites of old. In the Goshen of Protestant Europe there is light; in Catholic Egypt, darkness, gross darkness, darkness that may be felt, covers the people. The great principles which Luther advocated, liberty to think and liberty to read, are felt in every department of business and of state; in the public marts and in the family circle; in the consecrated church and at the domestic altar. The intelligent traveller reads the history of educated, enfranchised mind in the culture of the very soil on which he treads, in the structure of the houses and the costume of the inhabitants. In every country, the school-house and church edifice are the true indices of national prosperity. Where these buildings are suffered to decay and to become untenantable, no enlightened adventurer will seek a settlement. It is becoming the popular sentiment of New-England, that it is better economy to build commodious school-houses and

churches than spacious poor-houses and penitentiaries; better to pay teachers and school-superintendants, than judges and executioners. If we neglect our schools, we must enlarge our prisons; if we refuse to pay teachers we must pay officers of justice. Crime and ignorance are ever associated. Education, while it elevates and refines man's inferior nature, at the same time guides and restrains it. It is not pretended that education possesses any regenerating power. Its influence is chiefly preventive. It makes men prudent, not holy. It checks the natural propensities to evil, and fosters the amiable virtues. It begets a fear of legal penalties, and strengthens respect for law. It teaches the duties and responsibilities of a citizen. It reveals to him the inestimable value of a spotless reputation, and begets an abhorrence of perfidy and meanness. In a word, it is the voice of one crying in the wilderness of human passions, ፡፡ prepare ye the way of the Lord." It is the herald of the religion of Christ; and, like that same heavenborn religion, is designed for the poor. The free schools of New-England are, to her, a crown of glory. The domestic circle and the common-school are the chief agents of New-England education. Under such influences are reared those men whose industry every where gives variety and beauty to the NewEngland landscape, and whose enterprise is limited only by burning sands and polar snows. In the same hallowed circles are trained those minds whose wisdom guides the councils of this great and growing people. The regulation and management of this.

system of instruction, so wide, so expansive in its fluence, embracing the best interests of our citiz for time and eternity, are, in a great measure, trusted by law to the discretion of the superinte ing committees of the several towns. In most stances they examine and approbate teachers, p scribe books, supervise the schools, and report th doings to their constituents at the close of their offic year. Of the duties and responsibilities of such co mittees, I propose to speak. The office is an i portant one, and requires qualifications of a hi order. Every man who is called to examine teache ought, in the first place, to be thoroughly acquaint with the most approved methods of teaching t several branches of an elementary education. T say the least, he should carefully inform himself r specting the improvements introduced by experience teachers, since the completion of his own scholast studies. Within the last twenty years, the who process of organizing, disciplining and instructing th District School, has been essentially modified, as w trust, for the better. The character of common schools has been elevated. Higher branches of study are now pursued. Economy of time and labor ha been sought by the introduction of new processes of teaching and classification. Many simple and convenient articles of apparatus have been employed for illustrating the branches taught. The committee should be familiar with these facts. Such knowledge is essential to a correct judgment of the qualifications of the teacher and the progress of the school.

Examining committees should also have an extensive acquaintance with text-books. The law in many States requires them to prescribe the text-books for all the districts of the town in which they reside. How can this be done judiciously without an examination of the books to be used? It will not answer to trust to the recommendation of distinguished men. It is an easy matter to secure numerous testimonials to the value of almost any school-book that may be published. Indeed, every new book, of whatever character, has about the same number of commendatory lines, either prefixed or annexed to the body of the work. It is generally pronounced to be superior to any other work in the same department, to satisfy a deep-felt public want, and to be admirably adapted to produce the greatest possible results in the least conceivable time. The last new book,

“Like the Turk, allows no brother near the throne."

Its predecessors, in the same line of descent, must be strangled. A new text-book, like a newly-invented nostrum in medicine, hath a two-fold office. It comes to bury the dead, and to herald a new race. Many wise men regard the multiplication of schoolbooks as a national calamity. A change of authors, like a change of teachers, always delays, for a time, the progress of thought. It is a very common occurrence for a new teacher to bring with him a new set of books. Many young men do this, either because they are importuned to do so, by the publishers, or because they have learned their own lessons from the