The school and the schoolmaster; A manual for the use of teachers, employers, trustees, inspectors, &c., &c., of common schools Volume 2 - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1843 edition. Excerpt: ... Webster's. In such cases, an exchange of the differing books between the two would obviously be mutually beneficial. The superintendents might assist in the execution of such an arrangement, by noting the proportions of the various books in the different schools." SECTION VI. IMPROVEMENT OF COMMON SCHOOLS. "All the provisions hitherto described would be of none effect, if we took no pains to procure for the public school thus constituted an able master, and worthy of the high vocation of instructing the people. It cannot be too often repeated, that it is the master that makes the school."--Gdizot. VI. Incompetency Of Teachers.--That a large proportion of common school teachers are not well qualified for their duties, is so generally admitted, that proof of it would be superfluous. I proceed, therefore, to inquire how the evil can be corrected. It is quite evident, that such an evil can be thoroughly cured only by removing its cause. What, then, is the cause of this prevailing incompetency of teachers? v>..! be found, if I mistake not, in the single fact, that the public, including more especially parents and employers, have had no proper notion of the nature, difficulty, and importance of the office which the teacher discharges. The state of public opinion on this subject, in our country, has not been greatly in advance of that which prevailed in Prussia sixty years since. "Public instruction," says a late Prussian writer (Wittich*), * See a paper on the Former and Present Condition of Elementary Schools in Prussia, by N. Wittich, native of Tilsit, Prussia, in the first volume of the publications of the Central Education Society. referring to the state of common schools in his country at that period, " public instruction was then a...