Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1841-01-05

that the labors Of competen, Supernten.
dent. lecturng upon these topics, ard dis.
cussing them with the teachers, would con.
tribute essentially to that result.
Again, much otthe advantage OF common
schools, IS lost, by the endless variety Of
text books, or a defect in the supply OF
them. The teacher is unable TO classify
his pupils, and his attention is divided be-
tween his individual scholars, giving 10
each one, but few minutes in a day,
in arithmetick for example, one has Smiths,
and another Adams, another Dsboll's ,ano-
Their Emerson's, md another Davis All
that teacher can do in such case, is 10 :
solve the different problems brought up to
him, and neither he or his pupils can know,
whether they have obtained correct know
edge Of the science oil numbers er not.
Again, this variety Of books costs the
pupil, about twice as much, as would be
necessary to furnish him regular system.
One copy of each OF the books required in
reading, spelling, arithmetick, geography.
grammar, and history, costs the pupil IS,
and the expense to the Territory of pro,
| curing such supply, for all tho children
OF suitable age, would be $50.
One half Of this expense may be saved
by carrying into effect measures, contem-
plated in the bill now before TIE Legislature
By a definite estimate Of the expense Of
manufacturing at the usual prices, il may
! be seen that the same series of boo ks can
be furnished for 81, 80 provided, a uniform
system is introduced; snch system can
only be introduced by :hc laborious inves-
| tigation Of a Superintendent, with the adj
vice and counsel of a Board Of Education.
and when adopted the whole amount Of
money now drained from the Territory,
may be kept at home by employing, a Ter
ritorial printer and publisher OF school
books.
1t is said that the Territory is now 100
young 10 sustain such an agent, and be
benefited by his labors but it is important
to remark that this is the only period in
our existence, when this important objec;
can be secured. The history Of Massa-
chuseits, teaches an important lesson upon
this subject. They boosted Of her s, stem
of universal instruction from her earliest
settlement; lavishcd her treasures almost
without limit, and was famed 10 the ends
ofthe earth as the Emporium Of literature
and science in America. Yet so defective
were her schools that multiludeS of FAM
lies, denied themselves of all advantage
from their heavy taxation, and sustained
their own private teachers. So loud was
the complaint that the Legislature withina
few years, have been making vigorous eff.
forts to remedy the evils of their system
AS the want of uniformity in school books,
was one Of the chief sources Of difficulty,
they made two distinct exerions to provide
remedy. The frstauthorzcd the Town
ship Experimenting committee to decide
upon the books that should lie used in the
township, and required the teacher to in
struct in no others; .hey also requircdthc
teacher TO report to said committee all scho-
lars who were destitute OF such books as
they needed, and the committee were en-
powered to supply them, and charge the
expense to their parents if they were able
to defray it, and if not, to the town. The
resnlt OF this experiment was that few
committees acted decisiycly on the subject;
and were sustained by their constituents.
A large number acted and were censurcd
by their towns and removed from office
while the multitude of the committees, re-
fused TO act at all upon the subject for fear
Of being " reformed out"
Concluded in our neat