, 1865-11-21
5 Z. 6 G * A $.

'COr Clrd, proceeding from the leacner 5 own
knowledge, of course brought on me the bitter
est hatred Of those, who,e capacity as teachers
or appreciation of such teachers worth was
thereby denounced too, and they were, unfor-
t~unately, "Legion" against me. 1t is natural,
that, under such circumstances, |, when dis
missed, embraced, and contented myself with, a
private teachers unasSuming and peaceable sit
uation, nor have | often since been a very
eager petitioner for another situation as a pub
lie teacher but with all my resignation |
never could help thinking, that, when a worthy
public teacher is, through bias superseded by a
less worthy or less qualified person, such an
act is plain injustice to both, which is bad
enough, and a dishonest waste of public money,
which is worse, and even an unCOnScientiOuS
play with the highest spiritual and secular in
tereSts of the rising generation, which is plainly
criminal. | have many times been encouraged
to establish a private school, which, by a pri-
vilege granted to me by Governor 2. Hansen,
| have a right to do but the overwhelming
odds, | would have against me an excellent
large sch0olbuilding free of expense, against a
little schoolr0om, which | would have to pay
rent for myself, a handsome regular income,
with a corresponding position and authority,
against a perfectly precarious existence, and
then the right of having The S~chOolmoney en-
forced by levy, against a dependence for pay
ment on persons, whose poverty or dishonesty
has no law, the consequence of which has been,
that, for years, l have had and have yet money
due me for private tuition, all this has hitherto
deferred me but having had lately q repetl-
ton of that t~1attering request from various per-
sons, | shall no longer decline making an eX-
pertinent. If even some high folks should look
down upon it with c%Ontemptuous pity, it shall
be my consolation, that "'That, which is highly
esteemed among men, is an abomination in the
sight Of God"
Here I may consider that task finished,
which | had proposed to myself; l shall, how
ever, also in a few words, express my humble
opinion about the country-schoOlS. / have,
during my whole stay in this island, only been
present at one examination in a country-school,
viz. that held on Friday the goth of September
this year at the school Of Mt. Victory, and |
actually left the examination with much higher
notions about the merits of the school than |
had had before, and with that impression, that
Mr.. Browne is an able and efficient teacher, who
is trying to do justice, after the best of his
ability, to his widely scattered flock of pupils,
many of whom could read and write quite well
but, on the other hand, [ must confess, that my
acquaintance with the capacity of many of our
rural population, who have frequented the
country schools, has led me to that very same
COHNlCtIOH DIS HdS DcGH 6ApIoSScu ny III AtNu'
Mr.. Dubois, that the fruit generally obtained
by them is equal to nothing, and that, after hav-
ing gone to school for many successive years,
they cannot even read. What may be the
cause of this, | am not able to say but it is
clear, that, where no fruit springs from exer-
tons made, tits labor lost, andhere money lostto
IfIShould venture to give a general hint, it would
be, with regard both to townschools, and country
schools, that less time should be spent on COM
hitting mechanically to memory words and
their explanations from the d%efners, verses and
hymns, and even passages from the Scripture,
and more time be devoted to the acquisition OF
positive knowledge, especially of rational read
ing and understanding of the text,-in other
words there should be more spirit and less
form. AS to the application of the phonetic
system in learning to spell and read, it is GER
tainly more inapplicable on English than on
any other language, that [ know for it is i'm
possible for a learner to form, with any degree
of certainty, the compound sounds, or s~yllables,
from vowels, the three first of which have two
distinct sounds, that can only be known when
the meaning of the word itself is known, on
which its proper pronunciation depends. An
example is the noun "wind" and the verb
''wind.' That "one eace' is to be pronounced
''aOun y@" is also an example, among many,