Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-04-07
OUR COUNTRY SCHOOLS.
.iudf nItcrnnl partenl.


When an american conJrasIs our
system of national education with
what, in England, passes for such, be
has cause indeed, not for proud exuI-
tatiOn, but for deep thankfulness that,
in the ordering of Providence, favor
ing circumstances should have con-
spired with the energy of the people
to build up such a system. To be sure,
like every human work, it bears the
stamp of imperfection it is as yet not
fully developed, but is rich in mag
nificent possibilities for the future
These defects are gradually disappear
ing before the light of experience and
more correct views Of the results to be
secured. Very seldom is a retrograde
step taken; almost every year bears
record to an advance in the right
direction.
In England also, much has been
done Of late years to give the people
ampler educational facilities, in some
proportion TO the growing demand of
the various classes into which Eng
lish society is so curiously parceled
out. In the schools for the poor, that
( is for the lowest substratum of society,
/ the instruction vouchsafed isof high
er grade and is. delivered IN better
style than it was a few years ago. The
private academies for the middle
ranks, whether founded on the princi-
/ pie of commercial competition or by
the voluntary association of the indi-
viduals of the same neighbOrhoOd,
partake largely of the general spirit of
! improvement. The great national
schools, originally founded for the
i poor, but now monopOliZed by the
I gentry, have enlarged and modern
I lied their former narrow and monastic
course of studies; the discipline is
more humane-I might say, more
Z civilized and christian. The universi-
Z ties have, at last, consented to admit
{ dissenters from the established church
( to a participation in university hOnOrs.
/ They have even eondescended to take
some steps towards allowing lCOD1e5l to
| taste of the hitherto forbidden tree of
| knowledge. In towns, courses of lit
erary and scientific lectures for young
ladies whose school education is NOM
/ inally completed, are given in regular
I succession by men eminent in their
/ SPECIAL branches, under the manage
ment of local and general committees,
} the first starting of which was due to
I the energy and perseverance Of some
5 very uninfiuential women.
This tardy but welcome awakening
of great nation TO the necessity of a
( provision for the more liberal educa-
tiOn of her children, is very cheering.
But alasi how little has yet been done
to secure to every child hoy or girl of
every station on the social ladder his
biTth-Fiqkt to a thorough development
of all his faculties! How dry and life
less, how superficial and conventional
is much of what goes under the spe-
cious name of education whether adj
ministered in the poor schools, or in
] the more genteel seminaries set up by
private speculation How frightful
the pictures, drawn by English writers
themselves, of the ignorance and deg
radation-the savagism, almost-of
the mass of common laborers in the
agricultural districts and the crowded
purlieus of large cities in England!
Il It is refreshing to turn from that
dismal contemplation to our own land,
covered with a network of busy and
happy schools, reaching from the
newly opened and, as yet, sparsely
. OulShlItc VI CAN1AiLRAlAOhs
This, to a patriotic American is the
bright side Of the picture but for the
very reason that we love our schools,
we must not shrink from looking into
the darker shades.
Many of those district schools that
greet our eye by the roadside, look
cheerful and neat, with their tidy and
picturesque surroundings. The sub
dued hum from within betokens hap
Ply industry. If we look in, we are
gratified by the lady-like and refined
appearance of the teacher as she
queens it with gentle sway over heI
lively realm. But, when, drawing
: aside the curtain of poetical and senti.
mental association, we look deeper
into the prosaic reality, into the aetu.
al workings of these pretty schools,
We find much TO disappoint and dis.
} tress. The gentle looking teacher is
: isolated, is placed at the mercy Of
careless or incompetent, often sell
opinionated and overbearing school