State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1831-1836, 1836-10-04
For the state journal
REMARKS ON THE STATE or A.
MEXICAN EDUCATION. No. q.

Next in importance to that Of providing
teachers with adequate qualifications, IS the
subject of school houses, which, thus far,
has received a degree of consideration, al
together, inadequate to its importance
. Economy, in this, as well rs in the employ
ment Of teachers, has, hitherto, been most
ruinorsi, misopplcd. Houses have been
constructed on the do-lor-,1'-prosent sys-
TEN, which is inevitably fatal to the success
+ of all important enterprises and, especially,
that of education. Contracted in dimcn-
sions incommodiously planned and ineli-
gibly situated; and being generally CON
signed TO the superintendent of the lowest
bidder, most iujudcious and childish
method of transacling public affairs, they
may be, particularly referred to as the
shame Of architecture and a burlcsquc up
on common senss. The size Of school
houses should unqueslionahy be proper
toned to the number of scholars they are
designed TO accommodate; and yet u sur
plus of room is greatly preferable to the
smallest deficiency In addition to a con
genient quantity of space, enabling each
individual to prosecute his studies unmo-
tested 10y the too intimate contiguity Of
his neighbor, ease of body and limb should
be, particularly, considered in the arrange
ment of the interior. In addition to rooms
appropriated to the common use of study,
(of which there should be two in ncst
houses) there should he library and appa-
ratus room, aud, what is but little less
essential, one, also, forlyceum and rccita.
lion: And whenever our children shall
have become imbued with ideas and senti-
ments rather than with mere mimicry of
sound, convenient place for their mutual
interchange will become All object of no
inferior consideration. All our IDEAS being
imbibed, exclusively, through the medium
of our sentent physical organs, indefinitely
modified and complicated by comparison
and reflection, und being also definite and
permanent In proportion to the attention
and number of those organs concerned in
their acquisition, hence the almost univer-
sally acknowledged utility ordemonstration
MI the prosecution OF all departments of
amiural science. 1t is undeniable that the
greater the number Of organs concerned in
the examination Of a subject, tie greater
the probability of accuracy and permanent
cy of effect. How much more distinct, must
be the idea of plough, to the lad who has
been often annoyed 10y the hazard of riding
on its beam, than to him to whom Il mere,
though ever so accurate, verbal description
has been given, and who so weak as to at
tempt the instruction of an apprentice in
the manufacture of watch by the most
glowing verbal description of its constitu-
ents?
The infant mind, / have already said,
and again repeat it, cannot comprehend
the terms of abstract science, nor can youth
nor even manhood itself without the benefit
of much intellectual discipline. Demand
of a child or ali uneducated adult the def
milton of idea, with which, however insig-
nficant, he must have been almost pcrpcri.
ally assailcd, and what will be lis prob ,oIe
answer Undoubtedly, that t is :, subiec
about which lac has no i'4o, 81, should h,
he able to repeat one Of ~, thousand leHi
geographic uhsurdili.e s) that it is drought
no'lon' or op'...on, which terms, with al
'',' SJiop .yms, While underlined, only ad
"a'''"' IS to obscurily. Why does he nc
tell, you that it is Il consciousness of til
minds operation, or IL display Of the fame
iionaliry Of the brain; Simply, becaus
ne has never successfully reflected upon III
abstract science ofmetaphysicaI philosoph!
and therefore remains ignorant of lhos
circumstances which enter into lis dein
ilun. As it is, unqucslonably, the mo
ef1ectual method of teaching the sensib
properties Of things, is to present the thinl
themselves to the inspection Of the sense
soit is, equally, undeniable HAT moral pril
ciples, as also those of all abstract scienc
can be successfully cultivated among CHI
dren and uneducated adults, in no 9th,
manner than by that Of apologize or labl
And that this mode is consonant with Il
iucipient state OF human knowledge is oy
dent from its having been adopted |
teachers or prophets among all primiti,
nations-an entire eXempllication of willie
being presented throughout the wrilin
of the old, and most Of the new, teslamel
School houses should, therefore, he ljlruis