The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-10-06


On Monday evening our city evening schools
opened auspiciousy. The happy effects of The
registration and classification of applications
for admission during the past fortnight were
manifest in the very large attendance of pupils,
particularly at the evening high school for
males in West Thirteenth street At this high
school the course of study embraces English
grammar and composition, reading and decla-
nation, penmanship, bookkeeping and arith-
metic; algebra, geometry and astronomy;
American history and political science, the
latter including knowledge of the constitu-
ton Of the United States, the State constltu-
ton, with The outlines of municipal and inter-
national law; architectural and mechanical
drawing, practical mechanics, navigation,
and, under certain conditions, the French,
Spanish and German languages. Of
the evening schools of more ele-
mentary class there are fifteen for males,
eleven for females and three for colored pupils.
All are well attended by scholars whose ages
or avocations prevent their going to day
schools. The adult classes have proved very
attractive to that large class of persons whose
hours of labor are such as to enable them by
these means to supply the defects of their early
education. Mr.. Thomas Boese, clerk of the
Board of Education, in his official report for
1867, bore convincing testimony to the benefl-
cent influence of the evening school system.
Ho is right in saying that it constitutes an i'm
portant part of the educational institutions of
the city. ''The tendency in our day to dimn-
ish the number of hours given TO physical labor
is giving time and opportunity for mental
improvement to thousands who have hitherto
been cut Off from such advantages. The
advanced age of the pupils, as compared with
those Of the day schools, brings with it greater
maturity of judgment and a more just estimate
Of the value of the opportunities which the
school offers. After making all allowances for
the exhausting effects of previous physical
labor upon the nervous system there still
remains capacity for Improvement which,
whenever the will of the pupil is fully aroused,
leads, under judicious training, to the most
valuable results" Mr.. Boese mentions the fact
that in several localities large numbers of for
eigners attend for the purpose Of learning what
the late Mr.. Secretary Marcy insisted on call
ing ''the American language" In one school,
on the east side OF the city, no less than four
hundred Germans attended in 1867, with this
praiseworthy object. This is vastly more
sensible than the recent attempts of few of
their compatriots to force into our public
schools the obligatory study of the German
language.
fiuous to expatiate on the recognized indis-
pensable advantages of the diffusion of useful
knowledge among the citizens of free repub-
lie. But we cannot refrain from paying a well
merited tribute to our city evening schools for
contributing largely toward multiplying and
extending those advantages. A similar tribute
is due to the Free School of Science, which,
with one thousand pupils on the register, also
opened on Monday evening. The course of
study in this school at the Cooper Institute is
somewhat like that in the Evening High School,
including pure and mixed mathematics, natural
philosophy, chemistry, geology, mineralogy,
drawing and other branches of thorough sci
entific education. Mr.. Peter Cooper has gem
erously donated the sum OF twenty thousand
dollars toward enlarging, during the present
term, the stock of instruments for facilitating
the studies of the mechanical arts. All must
rejoice in believing that the Free School of
Science and the evening school will powerfully
counteract the pernicious influences of the
resorts Of vice and frivolous amusement which
disgrace our metropolis.