The Daily Nashville true Whig. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1851-1855, 1855-11-06
TUESDAY MORNING. NOV. @.
State Normal School,


promised that we would, on some future occa.
sion, comment more at length on the subject
The bill, as we regard it, is of such high impor.
lance to the educational interests of Tennessee
and so opportune at the present stage of our ad.
vancement, that we cannot forbear offering q
few ideas for rejecting men, hoping thereby to
lend some support to the great cause of human
Improvement. We speak on this subject as a
friend TO Educa,ion-to Humanity-to Chris
tisnity-for education tends to "humanise
mankind" and to open the avenues to the hu-
man soul, for the reception Of the great and
vital truths of Religion.
To such as are ignorant of its design, we
would say, that Normal School is an institu-
ton for training up persons to teach Common
Schools. 1t is needless, we trust, in this day,
TO argyle the Importance of education. No one
will deny that the Sun enlightens the globe,
aud enhances physical comfort. No one will
be longer skeptioal when he remembers that
according to the q. S. Census for 1850, the
State of Tennessee, with white population Of
756, 1886, contained 1882 white adults who
could neither read nor Urite! How many
could only read and write, we are left to con-
lecture. The importance of education then,
being admitted, the question arises How shall
the end be best accomplished Not by the
endowment of great Colleges and Universities
These are indispensable, it is true, in their
place, but the mass Of youth cannot reach
them, either from their locality or expense, or
the tender years of the student. Common
Schools are needed. This is the great deside-
ratum. Schools brought to every mans vici-
mage, wherein his rising offspring may learn
the fundamental parts of our language with
thoroughness. But the whole weight of this
momentous scheme turns upon the Teachers of
these Common Schools. Daniel Webster once
remarked in substance, that h0rOugh teacher
of a Common School was one of the most eff
cient guards of American liberty. Many read
ers will doubtless remember the great stress he
laid upon thorough elementary instruction. Look
at many of our teachers-weak and unworthy
profoundly ignorant of what they
propose to instruct others in-resorting TO it
as temporary shift to sustain life, and hold
ing on merely to fulfill their contract. How
can such elevate, train and dignity the human
mind7 We repeat-the great want is teach
ers-thorough, critical, professional teachers.
Whence is the vacuum to be supplied As
1t is, the Normal Schools of the North are the
great emporiums of teachers. We look thither
to them as we look to Java for coffee, or to
China for tea. This is irrational, since every
State can, and have its own Normal School
because, l. 1t would develop her OWE talent.
We are now developing the talent of Ohio, |
New York and New England. Our own we
cover up, and so far as mental utility is con-
cerned, utterly extinguish. 2. Our State, in |
education, would be self-sustaniDg. The pride |
and industry of Tennessee would repudiste
yearly dependence on the North for corn, pork |
and wheat; and yet, in the weightier matter
Of the mind, she does not scruple to pay unne-
cessary court TO Northern dispensaries of learn
ing. 8. Money paid by the State, or her citi-
zens, TO foreign teachers, would support the
Normal School, its buildings, apparatus, &c.
The above arguments apply to even q sister
Southern State; they apply with still stronger
force to the Northern States; for, with all de-
ference to, and praise of many of the Northern
instructors, male and female, yet, l. Their
and dialect are not the best adapted
to the instruction of Southern children. Ev-
cry one knows of the Northern conventional
i,ms and modulations. Some of them it is
difficult for an adult to understand, much less !
a Child. .. They are more or less uncertain
in their stay South. Their home is North
Various motives induce them TO come South,
and, being here, many teach for employment,
10 be relinquished at their caprice. Besides, a
supply from hence cannot be secured for the
rh0le State, and il is thus lef, 10 its own feeble
resources. g. Many Northern teachers are
TO our insttutions-especially TO
slavery. II is reasonable they should be. No
firm mind, trained up from infancy to reject
,ften 20 hate slavery, can, at will, or in any
hort period, merely from locality or interest,
,et aside it's whole moral training on this sub
ect and enter, with full sympathy, into our
institutions. No one but a shallow and I'M
worthy turn-coat, utterly unfit 10 teach at all.
This being true, their sentiments, though never
sxpressed, will be known, and the vast weight
,f influence which their opinions, combined
with character otherwise lovely, must exert
IN tender minds, it is idle to deny. They are
.hus silently, and, many of them undesign'
Ddly, laying a fatal mne under our cherished
which some day we may in sorrow
understand. 4. While foreign teachers are
employed, no Southern youth will be encour-
aged 10 prepare himself
Again, note the great advantages of these
Normal schools to other States. New York,
Ohio, and the New England States have had
them long in successful operation. The result
IS the universal diffusion of knowledge, the
MULTIPLICATION Of science and invention, and
the establishment OF the human character on
D great and intelligent scale. The knowledge
Of reading in one of these States, (Connecti-
cui,) has recently been made an Electoral test.
We sbould however by no means disregard /