Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1843-02-18
FoK rHE ENQUIRER.
LETTERS on EDUCATION IN vlRGlNIA-No. 3.
Feb. Is, 1912.

FoK THE E.rQUIRER
LETTERS ON EDUCATION IN ylRGlNIA-Ho. g.
To Goeernor .ucD0.ocH:
Sir "A very important aid, the great business OF
instruction, is furnished by suitable Text Books 1hey
relieve the Teacher of much aborous expanation ana,
by interesting the Scholar engage that attention, which
the best efforts might otherwise fail TO secure the
third position assumed, in our enquiry into The causes
Of the low state of Education among US is, that
3rd, The School Books are unsuitable. | might have
used with great proprley, as 10 many much stronger
epi;het for some are actually injurious-some incul-
cate principles hostile 10 our Institutions and many
more are defective. But, am content with phrase,
which is adapted to a-and that is, nearly the whole
number which objectionable. Onr politicians are
now and have been, every observation OF Polli
cal niiars commenced, engaged in very earnest dis.
cussons of the Tariff In one State of our Conederacy
we have the porentous clouds of civil war threat
ening peace and prosperity, IN connexon VITA ms
topic |, is the fruitful source OF defamation party
warfare and sectional anmositics. do not design TO
discuss it. am one, perhaps, of very small Glass;
content 10 leave the management of political affairs
To those in whose hands they have been entrusted
But one objection 10 the Tariff, and one contributing as
much as other It's unpopulary Il, the South, has
beeu the subecon Of the South to the North, which
has been asc.bcd to its operation Without pretending
10 dispute the position present an offset to IT. IN u
dc,aking to show how far there may be correspond
mn subsection of the North 10 the South, by the agri
cultural staples of the latter, it is very pertinent 10 en-
aure whether We not tributaries to the North, IN
other aspects than in the support rendered to It's ma
nufacturing interests. Whence our School Books
obtained From Days Algebra to Websers Spelling
Book with scarcely an exception, they are the pro
duce of Northern manufacture. have not at hand,
as | know Of no means for ascerlaning how large
sum of money would balance our trade IN BOOKS Inc
child learns his letters in Northern Primer, or on
Nouhern Ca.d-he spells ia Northern Spelling Book
he reads in u New York Reader Parleys Tales-he
memorises the multiplication Table in Northern Arth
mec lie lenrns more ofLowell and Albany, oil Meri-
mac and Hudson, than Of Richmond and Norfolk, the
Kama wha James, from Biographies printed IN New
York or Boston. The English tongue Is studied through
Northern principles of Orthoepy OrhosraPhy, Ely
moory and SyntaS, presented in some new model
ed Murray, Northern iadgcttrc Grami:ar. In
short Sir, his GFammars of the Dead l.anguases-hIs
Easy Lessous-his Dct'onaries-his Editions OF the
Classics, all Northern. If an English Scnoo
Book is imported, he studies it in another Edition. II
TRANSACTIONS Of Modern Languages made, the work
is Northern II is very obvious, that in this state OF
things, the Northern people are no. only drawing iott
our money, but they moulding our Llteraure-they
are controlling, to mporan. extent, the instruction
Of our Schools, and forming their own impression on
the minds of our youth, at time OF critical interest
in their History. Yet, politicians complain, II our lar
mrrs influenced b. tie operation OF the farm, TO
buy their children clothes OF Northern manufacture
Nor is this all. Northern books need Northern
Teachers If the books are no. d fused among with
sufficient rapldity in Of trade, the teachers aid
They come among Us, reside TILL they have collected
good Of money, and return, enialing on their
patrons loads of books Another, from different sec
lion of the "Unversa Yankee Nation, comes "down
South in search Of school, and with him is another
Importation Of better books. You send your boy TO
one school and he must get Adams Grammar. The
teacher changes and il is Soddards; another change
it is Bullion; and perhapsa fourth sweasb by Ruddman
or a translation of Zunpt. So in other books yom
will fad in family, often many varieties Of Geo
praa.ies A7i,hmctics, Graminars &c, as there are
children and sometimes more. DeIcacy Of feeling IS
sin 10 which there is less repugnance among some
Northern me than with few years since, MI |
j. o. T., writer on education, and author Of school
books Of celebrity good or bad, matters noO vi
sited Metropolis, and whether sgnedly not,
his various school books noticed t5nut The same
lime that the public fully advertised Of his
decension TO Richmond, and his impressive Lectures
Blu. it requires little fort TO fill vacuum, and having
few if any books of own the demand must be |
supplied. But with this variety Of books and this RI
valship for custom by book makers and their aid
ers and abelors obviously subjected 10 greater
evils than the p1ymoat of our pccunary tribute |
to Northern enterprise or aFfce, whichever it may be,
and Northern intelligence nonsense, the books
may determine. The people of This renowned Stale /
laugh at the wooden clock and nutmeg makers, tin
pedars and schoomasteTs, and yet arc imposed on -
We nfte think of the old adage, "Let him laugh that
loses &c. NC imposed on, in The charac of
the b1aks With some Improvements, freely admitted,
such English note0, the Northern editions of the
classics are, in cases, decidedly nfcria. TO the
Delphin. have obseryad cases OF alteration in tie
text, for which substantial offered; and
none, satisfactory, appeared as the difficulty of rem
dering the old reading ltehnements OH the principle
of simplifying the elementary Sciences have produced
some most amentahle departures from that mode of
instruction. which appears best ada pied to secure the
moSt Geld attainments. Let me be understood.
make no ndiscriEinate art sweeping charges Muir
rays Grammar, Pixies Arithmetic and aIcrse's Geo
rraphv seem compiled rather for adults than children
They needed adaptation to beginners. but the oppo
site extreme is equally detrimental, and it has become
.,, f-b, oh nd h.
eriaiiy injured by too slight tax lis energy by
such mposons AMOUNT 10 impossi5es. School
books designed for children from - to l3 years of
age Or such ages will not be insued by my old fash
toned phrase of ehttdren,) are IN simplicity, rather
adapted to those Of or TO- radical defect too ap-
pears in the of questions. For purposes,
such those OF synthetical or catechca instruction,
this mode is obviously proper. But it has been intro
duced into processes in which anal ysis has been push
ed 10 its extreme. II would occupy too much space
for The beet accomplished to furnish illustrations
refer you TO such works as Smiths induc,ive Gram
mar, Smiths Arithmetic and Geography. Colburn,
Emerson and others, have mace get serious in
roads on our established opinions. Let The book he
complied in the simplest phraseology of which the
subject ahi.s, whether it be presented in rules d
dactc form, and leave 10 teachers lie business of ana
lytical explanation.
Nor is this all. This question system has been in
toduced into 1reatses Rhetoric mental moral and
natural Philosophy, and Chemistry The result has
you have only TO examine the school books of children
TO discover By the pencil marked answers, of how little
avail treutlses on these subjects Space time and
money had been saved, by reducing the science
10 form Of question and answer. This may do for
wha, termed the grammars of these sciences,
unfolding general principles without Details but for
ircstiscs of even of the most compendous nature
need to subject the poDll 10 The useful labor OF
lyzng.
/ have nsensiby been led further than intended on
lls likely 10 foof MI n
cussion OF the mode oil preparing school bonks. Let
this suffice. Row II is easy 10 see the influence OF
these facts, whose existence We have touch
ed TIE continual change of even good books involve
great injury 10 the pupil tut when, instead of really
useful aud proper school books those of malconstruc
ton and defective principles flooded upon from
the North, the evil is aggravated. That little to which
other restrict but too many of Children as
the total school instruction derived, is rendered vel less
by these means; and after parent has expended his
money ard The child the time lie hitter returns home