The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-03-30

good citisens you all know hat law is law untn
repsa1sA, - hsW vtAsge , . rensay fo9 pgavaae
rishu and public injustice Jon know that 70 Aght
is unmanly; that mob 10 anarchy, and that every
right can be protected by law; you know bow TO
pexke corrupt Legislatures, or even sometimes to In.
diet your ruersLy0u are fcemen. But marx you, and
50 about our streets and hnd the truth OF wnat say
Are there men among rs who cannot understand it!
Thers are precociOus boys, all but manly in their
knowledge and virtue. who cannot learn by reading
for they cannot read, and who cannot learn by
thinking, for they never think, but feel. To them
justice and revenge are synonymous terms, judges
tyrants, and legislators oligarchs. With them
blow is the only Conceivable remedy for vieence-a
rebellion, national revolution All government
seems to themsoutward compulsion: They cringe 70
constable, while they curse him. These fellow-citi
xens are voters Is there not such thing as an
instructive American educati0n3 / fancy there il.
A citizen should read the constitution, and laws,
and political arguments, the daily press, and other
instructive matter It is the boast Of our nation that
the American press will save the democracy but it
never win unless the democracy can read it. BE
should have habits Of reflection, and foresight
and experience for every question has two siass
can think a. well Is feel Look at the crude notions
of freedom entertained by nine out Of every ten men
You meet man may jump into the river, that 10
freedom with the multitude. But man should
and horrors Of anarchy and despotism. The
common school, then, must prepare the future
citizen As to the question how far this school ed
ucation should be carried, 1t may Sunco 20 answer
that it IL easy to stop when we find ourselves teach
ing too much-very easy. But now the question
arises in your minds, do four common schools funl
these functions in the training Of chldrenf Frank
~, no. Common schools as they are, do not hold
these labsrs to be the most important ones, and
often times the school teaches Q lesson which the
citizen actually has need to unlearn: and yet not
outstanding these nfelicties, our common schools
are incidentally doing great work for the democra-
cy Of this country. ! am not now using the word
democracy in any local sense, but it is that any
school Is better than no school. Il II my purpose
now to speak afrmatvely as to some points Of com.
mon school Improvement. A school is supposed to
be q place Of intellectual culture; and what peculi
arties Of intellectual culture ought q common
school, an American school, to illustrate? 1t is ev
dent that no amount Of memoried knowledge will
be of any avail to make good citizens. Five years
is q very large average TO give for the
usual time spent by our embryo citizen in
schools. Should those five years be given to
memory only Should those five years be
given to the same studies which the corresponding
Ave years would be given to- If it were intended to
protract the course twenty years. Shall he live for
years and come out of school bloaed with facts which
he will never think of again. The lecturer went on
to contend that common schools should be established
in the poverty stricken neighborhoods Of the city.
would YIELD said he the high schools and all the col
leges the country is blessed with, but will not yield
the common schools. He concluded his remarks,
amidst much applause by pointing out the defective
system of discipline in the common schools his opin-
ion being that instructive discipline should be intro
duced