Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1858-11-19
Teachers Institutes.

think lie has rendered the cause Of common
schools real service; and would that h,
had written more on the same subject. Il
could not fail think to b, int r. sting to all
the friends of common-school education.-
With your permission, | will add few
thoughts of my own.
/ lam greitly in favor of Teachers Insti.
tutes Cor Conventions.) when they are pro-
perly managed by proper Teachers. would
however. that there could be little more
lime than is usually allowed them. that the
exercises might not be quite so hurriedly
passed over, and consequently SO imperfectly
! learned
/ The Convention in your town | attended
myself-and indeed ever have attended them
since their first esta 'lishmeut. when it has
been in my power to do SO. But there is
one thing in relation to our conventions,
which to my mind isa matter of serious re-
gret; and that is. that the State of Maine
furnishes no teachers competent to manage
n teachers eonvcntion;-JW acc must I'M
port them from other States This has al
most always been the custom in our State;
and it certainly forms a most humilating
fact in our Educational history.
But to my own mind there is clearly no
necessity Of this importing our teachers.
verify believe that Maine is abunlintly able
t. furnish her Institutes v it'll teachers every
way competent for the faithful and honora-
bic discharge of all the duties AM trusts de-
rolsing on the teachers of county conven-
tons
Is it at all probable, let me inquire, tina,
that State that considers herself able to send
forth, and which does send forth monthly TO
the world her "Mqnc Teacher has nc
teachers within her wide domain capable OF
managing her own Conventions? If this is
the case, then indeed we need Teachers Con
ycntons amongst us much more than had
supposed.
Let us refer to the teachers Of the Hancock
County. and who were the teachers at sew
eral other Institutes, and in the spirit of
candor inquire if there was any thing very
superior in the qualifications Of these two
mcn-Messrs Northcnd and Brown. Now
what is the iact-the plain unyarnished truth
in relation to these two gentleman as teach
ers? 1t is most clearly this;--Mr. Northend
is very clever, worthy, good kind Of a
mana gentleman and what is much more.
Christian-wth very fair education on
most points; and as a teacher for an ordin-
AIRY school would do very well Yet it is
equally true that he is very slow, dull,
prose kind of a teacher and just such teach
er as by many would be called IAN old fosy"
lie certainly did not breathe into that Con-
renti3n the breath of life--he did not i'm
part to that Convention (for he did not pos
sess it to Impart,) that energy, life and
sprightliness which a more energetic teacher
would have impaired. ard for the want OF
which the Convention failed to exhibit that
deep interest and glowing ardor which, UNI
der a more efficient administration, it GER
iainly would have exhibited. "As is the
teacher, 50 is the school,
Having said thus much in relation TO his
"maHnera or general management Of the
Institute, now propose 10 say a few words
as to his "m0ner'' or his doctrines, whicl,
he cndeavored to establish. Wer, thoso al
ways sound? Inmy own opinion, on two
or three points he erred greatly; but in this
communication will mention but one
One point which he attempted to establish
in morning lecture lie gave us--t though |
do not pretend 10 give the precise words
was, ''.Nerer press a child 100 hard for an
ans~er,' and he made a quotation from the
Poet ordsworth, to illustrate and support
his position Now this ground or principle
as general one-hid down with the uni
versatility it was;-brought TO the common
school te,,chers Of Hancock County, 10 be by
them practiscd in their schools, where the
ages Of their children generally range along
somewhere from eight or ten to sixteen OF
eighteen years-this position repeat, taught
irhen it was. to ,chom it was. and as it was,
is very nearly un2uahfedlya false one 50 false
that the very converse of the proposition
would come much nearer the truth, and con-
scquently be less liable to objection. But as
assertions are sometimes much mere easily
made than suhstantiatcd, propose to exam
inc this point with s1m, little mnuteness
that we may see 1t in Its true c1lJrs 'Ney-
er press Il child too hard for an answer. -
What then is the proper Specification Of the
term? "or in other words, how old is
child? and we might with about equal pro-
Priety inquire, show large is a piece Of
chalk, or a pile of wheat?'' \ child may
be one day a ,ceck month, ycar old, or it may
be quite a number Of years old, and still
be child in the popular acceptance of the
term; and the prccse age at which one ceas-
es to be Il child and becomes an adult, is not
fixed. But rs We have already stated, there
are NJ ages perhaps we could fix on as kind
OF general data TO reckon from, than from s
or 10 to l6 or Is years We think this cal
culation would embrace as large a number
of scholars as usually attend our common
town schools, as any ages we could we'll fix
on. 1t is true few 20 younger and few
older, but not very generally.
1t is then perfectly fair to say that when
he spoke Of children to that body of teachers.
he ment such children as usually attend our
common schools and consequently such chill
dren as they would generallyhave to teach;