A high standard.-Excelsior!

cannot find time to study, I always infer that there a want of order in his arrangements, or a want of punctuality in the observance of that order. Human life indeed is short; but most men still further abridge the period allotted to them, by a disregard of system.

What has now been said, upon the teacher's spirit, the teacher's responsibility, and the teacher's personal habits, will embody perhaps my views upon the character of the individual, who may be encouraged to engage in the work of teaching. Nor do I think the requirements in this department have been overstated. I know, indeed, that too many exercise the teacher's functions without the teacher's spirit as here described, and without the sense of responsibility here insisted on, and with habits entirely inconsistent with those here required. But this does not prove that such teachers have chosen the right calling, or that the children under their care are under safe and proper guidance. It proves rather that parents and school officers have too often neglected to be vigilant, or that suitable teachers could not be had.

Let none think of lowering the standard to what has been, or what may even now be that of a majority of those who are engaged in this profession. Every young teacher's eye should be directed to the very best model in this work; and he should never be satisfied with bare mediocrity. EXCELSIOR, the motto of the Empire State, may well be the motto of the young teacher.

Profession advancing, so is the pay.

CHAPTER IV.

LITERARY QUALIFICATIONS OF THE TEACHER.

I AM now about to enter an extensive field. Since the teacher is to be the life of the school, it is c1 great consequence that he have within him the means of sustaining life.

As the statutes in many of the states prescribe the minimum of attainment for the teacher, I might per haps spare myself the labor of writing on this point. Yet in a thorough work on the Theory and Practice of Teaching, this very properly comes under consideration.

The

The profession of teaching is advancing. present standard of acquirement demanded of the teacher, excludes many who were considered quite respectable in their vocation, ten years ago. This may well be so; for within that time, quite an advance has been made in the compensation offered to teachers. It is but reasonable that acquirement should keep pace with the reward of it. Indeed, the talent and attainment brought into the field, must always be in advance of the rate of compensation. The people must be first convinced that teachers are better than they were years ago, and then they will be ready to reward them. In Massachusetts, according to statistics in the possession

What a teacher ought to know.-Orthography.

of the Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary of the Board of Education, the compensation of teachers within ten years has advanced thirty-three per cent.; nor is it reasonable to suppose that this advance has been made, independent of any improvement among the teachers. Their system of supervision has increased in strictness, during this time, in an equal ratio; and many teachers, who were entirely incompetent for their places, have thus been driven to other employments. The cause is still onward; and the time is not far distant when the people will demand still more thorough teachers for the common schools, and they will find it for their interest to pay for them.

Under these circumstances, it will not be my design to give the very lowest qualifications for a teacher at present. I shall aim to describe those which a teacher ought to possess, in order to command, for some time to come, the respect of the enlightened part of the community. I will not say that a man, with less attainment than I shall describe, may not keep a good school; I have no doubt that many do. Yet if our profession is to be really respectable, and truly deserving of the regard of an enlightened people, we must have a still higher standard of qualification than I shall now insist on. The following is a list of the studies of which every teacher should have a competent knowledge. I add also to each, such word of comment as appears to be

necessary.

1. ORTHOGRAPHY. This implies something more than mere spelling. Spelling is certainly indispen

Our alphabet.- Elementary sounds.-Normal chart.

sable. No person should ever think of teaching, who is not an accurate speller. But the nature and powers of letters should also be mastered. We have in our language about forty elementary sounds; yet we have but twenty-six characters to represent them. Our alphabet is therefore imperfect. This imperfection is augmented by the fact that several of the letters are employed each to represent several different sounds. In other cases, two letters combined represent the element. There are also letters, as c, q, and x, which have no sound that is not fully represented by other letters. Then a very large number of our letters are silent in certain positions, while they are fully sounded in others. It were much to be desired that we might have a perfect alphabet, that is, as many characters as we have elementary sounds, and that each letter should have but one sound. For the present this can not be; and the present generation of teachers, at least, will have to teach our present orthography. Those systems of orthography are much to be preferred which begin with the elementary sounds, and then present the letters as their representatives, together with the prac analyzing words into their elements, thus showing at once the silent letters and the equivalents. These systems may be taught in half the time that the old systems can be; and when acquired, they are of much greater practical utility to the learner. As my views have been more fully presented in the "NORMAI CHART OF ELEMENTARY SOUNDS," prepared for the use of schools, I will only refer the reader to that work

of

Few good readers.-Mr. Mann's statement.

2. READING. Every teacher should be a good reader. Not more than one in every hundred among teachers can now be called a good reader. To be able to read well, implies a quick perception of the meaning as well as a proper enunciation of the words. It is a branch but poorly taught in most of our schools. Many of the older pupils get above reading before they have learned to read well; and, unfortunately, many of our teachers cannot awaken an interest in the subject, because very likely they cannot read any better than their scholars.

It would be interesting to ascertain how large a proportion of our youth leave the schools without acquiring the power readily to take the sense of any common paragraph which they may attempt to read. I am inclined to think the number is not small.* In

*Since writing the above, my eye has fallen upon the following, from the second Annual Report of the Secretary of the Mass. Board of Education. "I have devoted," says Mr. Mann, "especial pains to learn, with some degree of numerical accuracy, how far the reading in our schools is an exercise of the mind in thinking and feeling, and how far it is a barren action of the organs of speech upon the atmosphere. My information is derived principally from the written statements of the school committees of the different towns,-gentlemen, who are certainly exempt from all temptation to disparage the schools they superintend. The result is that more than eleven twelfths of all the children in the reading classes in our schools, do not understand the meaning of the words they read; that they do not master the sense of their reading lessons; and that the ideas and feelings intended by the author to be conveyed to and excited in the reader's mind, still rest in the author's intention, never having vet reached the place of their destination. It would hardly seem that the combined efforts of all persons engaged, could have accomplished more, in defeating the true objects of reading. How the cause of this deficiency is to b apportioned among the .egal supervisors of the schools, parents teachers