The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1850-02-08

1
Schools:
Having thus in prosecution Of his duty made
such statements and suggested such views as the
law requires OF him, the Superintendent Of Public
Education regrets that the former should not be as
cheering, and the latter useful as he might de-
sire. But the difficulties to be borne none but he
who has undergone the burthen, perchance not
escaped the obloquy, fully and painfully rea-
lize. But the greatest, the only difficulty of
serious nature, lies in inefficient resources and
the dIsnclinaton to provide them. If there be any
one, who for any purpose, sinister charitable,
will refer to the main, the cause Of dscon-
tent the Superintendent not conceal the truth TO
himself. The people want the schools; they have |
shown hatthey want them by sending their children
to them-and by sending their children, they have
helped to prove that the schools may be established
and maintained. But there are powerful inter
ests, there influential voices raised against the
means of establishing and supporting" those |
schools. The Superintendent Of public education |
has always deplored, and bitterly does he still de-
plore for the sake OF the dignity, for the sake Of the
prosperity, for the sake of the safety OF State
that the most important interest OF free people
should have been made to rest the more odious
feature of our system Of Government-the princi-
pie of direct and discriminating taxation for the
support Of free public schools This all are aware
is the form prescribed by the Constitution. The
alternative between taxation property other
wise" having been shown to be worse than use
less-the Legislative power was compelled to have
taxpayer, who groans under the additional load.
This state Of things readily foreseen by many,
and the records OF the General Assembly will show
that some, in providence of these discontents,
placed the testimony OF their dissent the jour
nails Of the house. Sent forth to the people with
the reprovng brand of men of high intelligence and
unimpeachable patriotism, stamped upon its face,
| the law was received with suspicion as the hand
maid of its birth. But for all this the Superinten-
dent OF public education has never despaired Of the
.k,.l1o IL 4
unreasonable assault. Every State in the Union,
whose schools now bless the efforts made has had
| its childhood before it reached the vigor Of its
prime. Should we then give way to despair be-
cause totterng throug their scarcely supported in
| fancy, our schools have failed to realize what was
| perhaps, unregulated hope? Ii others have ad-
| vanced, and advanced slowly, shall we not, through
| the same process, move onward to better days and
better things! Look at Massachusetts. As early
as the middle Of the 18th century, before the
| tement OF Louisiana proper, she commenced with
sort OF weak, puny free schools, a system which
| has grown justly to be her glory and her pride
Look at New York. Through half century she
| has been going on with series of experiments
she has been maturing trial after tral-untl it has
| resulted in her present magnificent educational
| scheme Why! the schools of New York are
older than the State OF Louisiana. Clinton, with
| his gigantic mind was devsing to furnish
them with teachers whilst Louisiana figured
the map OF the Union, as a waste estate of un-
difficulties that belong peculiarly to State
difficulties with which they had not to contend.
We have vast extent Of unnhabited acres-im-
mense plantatons-and sparse populations. But
these have not altogether forbidden the district sys-
tenn OF public schools With patient fortitude to
bear the trial-with intelligent agents to carry the
schools through their probaton-and means
surably adequate to sustain them in their gro With
there is no mistaking the result. The experiment
is one of barely nine months Shall we not hold
| O which, decTV he SchO we ma has
gone beyond what the most knowing and the most
sapguine had hoped? They have not done all that
we might desire, but more than we could expect,
they have done. Is there any one who will over
look all the sounder teachings of nature herself and
look for the harvest in seed-tme, or seek for the
fruits OF autumn while it is barely spring? This
were madness indeed. Many a day will the friends
Of education have to struggle, before they get
the people to realize the idea that the first Of rights
IS right to mind, and that all others are derivatives
OF this. They cannot consent to despair so long as
they hold faith in the great Providence that over
; rules the courses of mankind. 1t may be long
struggle struggle OF ycissitudes Of success and
defeat; but often as the giant people may be
, stricken to the ground often will they borrow
nSw strength for renewed contest. 1t is ques-
tlon between money and mind money, one OF the
accidents OF social life and mind, the gift of God
to creatures fashioned after his own image, for i'm
: perishable destnes
The doctrine, embodied in the Constitution is
the doctrine of all social economists. The property
OF the State IN some form, must educate the chill
dren of the State 1t is not so much the law of la
ture as the law OF society, that imposes this duty
upon us. And if the laws of society can, and do,
regulate the relations of parent and child in the do
mesuc order, they may certainly direct the desti-
MES OF that child, in the social scheme. The Su-
Perlntendent of public education, whilst admitting
the freedom OF Instruction, in all its bearings, hopes
that he Is not advancing principle of unsound
morality, when he suggests that parent has the
right to allow his child to grow up as a useless, if
e not mschievous member Of society and ignorance,
IN Republic, is mischief in its most insidious
e iorm-the mischief that grows out of the unques-
r tonable night to participate in the action OF Gov
/ ernment without the information that should con-
troll that action to salutary ends. But should the
r absence OF means forbid to educate the "young
masters" who, in the of fifteen years, will
be the soveregns OF the land, controlling its well
: fare In every bearing, social and POLITICAL still
= can find saving application for our inadequate re-
i sources. When great mind of the sixteenth CEN
tury looking about for the OF the prosperity
e and downfall OF States, ascrbed the former, and
attributed the latter, TO the relative wisdom oil
princes, and the relative abors of the schoolmaster
he overlooked great element of influence-the in
huenee oil woman on the workings Of society II
any OF our children, then to be ousted from the
II patrimony of intelligence, which the common-
t. wealth, by every sacred obligation, owes to them
II any are to be trained-systematlcally trained--to
i the baleul rites Of ignorance the hopes and ex-
v pectatons of the State TO be halved away, lei
!; the doomed portion oil our offspring sent on the
!, weary ways Of life to companion with ignorance
d be those who destined to be the men of the
a State. Let US concentrate our means--educate
our daughters, at least-edueate them to be the
= wives and mothers of American freemen. In the
g course OF few years will have commor
/ school, round every hearth of the land-the very
o best OF common Schools the home school, whers
o lessons of virtue and patriotism will be learned
S. the mothers knee. The deep truth of philo
J. sophcal mind shall then have been truly realized
e the child will indeed, be +" the father of the man I
and, in the language Of the prophet instinct witt
the voice of the divinity should the whitening ques
,r ton be asked; What hast thou done, with tn
4 sons and daughters, which | had begotten unit
thee :" Louisiana will have acquired the privileg
of pointing to one half of her young generation
It snatched away from the grippe of sordidness and re
u deemed from the blotches OF Ignorance.
r. HANaING.-The Quarterly Review says "a
N immense number of persons, recovered from inser
e slbillty, have recorded their sensations and agre
| that an easier end could not be desired An az
!: qpaintance OF Lord Baeons, who meant to han
himself, was cut down in the last extremity an
e, declared that he felt no pain his only sensato
Is being that of fire before his eyes, which change
T, first to black, and then sky blue, aifording