Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1851-08-23
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER:
GL1npsEs OF MEN, THINGS, AND PLAcEs-No. 10,

GLIMPsEs OF MEN, THINGS, AND PLACEs-NO. 10,
BurYALo, (NKw YoRK,) Aususr 2, 1851.
oThe New York State Teachers Association has been
holding its sixth annual convention in this city yesterday and
today have been in several times to witness their pro-
csedog which Of considerable interest and mach pub
Lie Importance, every thing must be acknowledged to be
which helps mould and influence systems Of education
This the first State teachers association formed IN the
country Massachusetts followed the example the same year.
ls4 and since then similar associations have been formed
in several other States They hold annual conventions for
the discussion subjects connected with their profession az
teachers and to devise and adopt for the general ad
vancement Of the interests of education There were perhaps
some two hundred members present. male and female, in
eudpp delegates from other States who allowed to vote
and take part in all the transactions of the society except
choice Of officers and other local matters There dele
u.es believe from all the New England States, between
twenty and thirty from Ohio, some from Indiana Michigan
Canads, and even from Wisconsin
Besides members and delegates, the audience very
small probably amounting to hundred; and that
too n the heart of city containing intelligent population
Of nearly fifty thousand But this must not be taken as EVIL
dence that the public do not feel interest In the object and
proceedings Of educational associations Every body ca
knowledges the importance of education and almost every
man will freely and literally part with bis almighty dollar"
for the education Of his children But in this country almost
every deeply absorbed in the general race after
the almighty dollar pause and look into the details OF
those objects which be freely dsvotes the dollar when OBJ
tanned He every thing to bis agents. from the Con-
gresham who makes his laws and the President who exc
h0 uasAs- his coat and the
cook who gets his dinner.
The President Of the Association (Mr BULKLxr, of AL
oany opened the proceedings with an elaborate address,
tracing the general progress Of Improvement in arts sciences
and education during the last half century, together with the
circumstances Of the growth OF the country from thirteen Co
ionies to hiryone Independent and united States Fiy
years ago there such thing as steamboat IN the
world FULroSs first rude boat asceHded the Hudson in
1907 making the passage from New York to Albany in
thytwo hours. Now the Hudson 10 covered with floating
palaces of them making the same passage in less
than eight hours Twenty years ago steam-yesse had
crossed the Atlantic, and Of learning and bad
pronounced such navigation utterly imPraccable. Now
steamships large seventy -four man-ofwar are cross
ing the Atlantic every week, and others have made their
around Cape Horn lined the Pacific coast and poughed
their way to China and the "Isles Of the Sea"
Twenty years ago there no land locomotive in the
country and twenty-five years ago none in the world Now
there thousands in country daily travelling
thousands Of miles of road and transporting people enough
in a single day almost to people State.
1t but years since the first magnetic telegraph in
the world first put in operation between Washington
and Baltimore Now their network the land and
" Since the telegraphic wonder
Has annihilated space,
People, thousand miles asunder
Talk like people face to face"
Canals ALSO in this country have been the product of this
fruitful half century. Now their number is LEGION and the
business done upon them is beyond calculation and in
der keep pace with increasing business the largest Of
them is obliged to be enlarged.
With regard to schools and education in the country New
England has been the land "o grow schoolmasers since
the first landing of the Pilgrims. But the school systems
which long prevailed in New England have been much
ded, changed and improved in the last quarter of
tuIy In 1926 the Governor of Massachusetts first
ton Of teachers Soon afterward educational journals were
established, lyceums instituted school apparatus devised
and popular lectures brought into In 1929 the
IS American Institute of Instruction held its FIRST
ing. In $780, at Lexington, Massachusetts, esta-
bshed the first Normal School" in the United States
though teachers semnares had before been established in
several other places The Lancasean monoral school
quarter Of century ago, became very popular for time
But the system declined again ia few years, and is
tirely out Of use
sInan schools about the same time, became the popu-
lar rage. The idea brought from Europe in 1927 1t
had received the sanction Of many of the of the Old
World Early in that year meeting held in Hartford,
Connecticut consider the subject OF establishing infant
school, The Governor Of the State who had just returned
from Europe, present. and warmly recommended the
Soon after public meetings held and these
infant seminaries established in New York. Boston, Phia
dephia and other places In 1929 these schools in Boston
exhibited in Of the churches before the Legislature
great cry raised about the exhibition, and infant
schools were pronounced TO be Sin the full tide Of
experiment"
II long, however, before the real value Of these in
teectua infant hot beds began be called in question. 1t
was found that this forced growth of the intellect Of
real advantage education, while its tendency TO endan
ger the health and proper development Of the physical sys
tenn. The thing gradually abandoned. The infants
back their mothers and to the household
nursery and now g infant schools" are unknown.
The higher institutions of learning in country-the
colleges and law medical and theological schools-have
made great progress in numbers and Influence in the last half
century. The school system is advancing in the coun-
try 1t has been violently opposed in the State OF New York.
but is likely to carry the day.
At the last annual meeting Of this association committee
was appointed to consider and report at this meeting upon the
comparative advantages the analytic and synthetic methods
of teaching Yesterday afternoon learned report was read
on the subject by Mr. KELLoes of New York, which was
followed by an animated and exciting discussion The bat
te however spent itself mostly in disputes and arguments
about words and definitions without coming to any practical
result They could not sgree as to the proper distinction be-
tween analysis ami synhess and therefore were not IN
condition 10 dec which the valuable instrument In
the hands If the teacher BlRDS-EYE.
GLIMPsEs OF MEN, THINGS, AND PLACEs-No. 20.
BurrALo, (NEw YoRK,) AUeUsr 8. 1851
said in nv last sketch that must call Buffalo
the city of canals. Nature has given her position
requiring extensive harbor accommodations but,
Nature having failed to supply those accommoda-
TONS they are supplied and to be supplied by the
skill and labor of man. The site Of the city is