Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1858-06-05
The County SUPPLEMENTARY.

ming to be seen. Its first effect will be to
bring a higher standard of qualifications to
the Office of teaching We suppose that the
late examinations were the first thorough
and faithful inspection of the qualifications
of applicants for the post of teacher which
has been witnessed in our county. The
result is already felt throughout the county.
Teachers are beginning to apply themselves
to the work of fitting themselves for that
responsible and honorable calling The
result will be the ultimate exclusion Of all
incapable persons, and q full supply of
highly educated, well.trained scholars, to
control the education of our children. This
one effect of the Office should commend it to
the warmest regard and support of our citi-
zens. But this is only one of its fruits. In
all other States where it has been properly
tried and filled with competent officers, it
has worked an entire revolution in the Com
mon Schools Massachusetts is bright
example of its results. Her Free Schools
IRE the pride of all her citizens. The most
finished and thorough scholars preside over
them, and her children and youth are taught
there rs thoroughly and as extensively as in
any academies or colleges, and far better
than in many Of the latter institutions.
Pennsylvania is later example. A few
years ago her Common Schools were the
most wretched and inefficient apologies for
schools that were eyer known. Ignorant
teachers taught unruly children, in wretched
pens, most miserable trash. Every sensible
man sent his children to aprivate school, or
if there was none, kept them at home. The
County SUPPLEMENTARY was established,
and one year witnessed a magical change
A new spirit sprang up as if by some fairy
mandate through every county where faith
full Superintendent was elected and com
potent salary paid him. "A feeling of emu
lation and desire for improvement awoke
among the teachers Teachers Institutes,
. Schools for Teachers and Teachers Associ-
atoms were formed in every county, and the
Teachers became so interested in the work
that they have been known to walk ten and
twenty miles over these mountainous dis
9 tricts, and spend half their scanty salary in
+ their sagerness to gain knowledge from these
different sources. The schools and scholars
!. of course felt the change. A more intelli-
: gent, more inviting, more thorough method
of instruction was adopted, and soon in
some of the lowly log cabin school houses,
that dotted the sides of these mountains.
we're found schools, which put to shame, by
. their classification, by their progress, by the
branches taught, by their order, and by the
mutual enthusiasm of the teacher and the
scholars, the academies and classical schools
Of the town. Now, the life, the vital breath
Of all this improvement was the County
SUPPLEMENTARY.
Mr.. Brannan, our County Superintendent,
Isl man most admirably fitted for his post.
Energetic, progressive, finished scholar, an
experienced and very able teacher, an excel
lent disciplinarian, good speaker and of
popular manner and address, he is we'll
qualified for the post. If he is warmly sus-
tanned BY the people and the District Boards,
Ke predict that such change for the better
WI Be seen in all the schools of the county
.sasnet even the most sanguine Of their friends
nav anticipate.
z~t - The Now York Ezpress says that
some adventurous spirits in that CITY con,