The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-02-26
Lord Dufferin on American Schools

The governor general of Canada was
present at the Christmas distribution of
prizes to the public schools of Ottawa,
which took place in the rink music hall.
An address to Lady Oufferin was pre-
sented by the pupils, and in the course
of a reply to it Lord Dufferin said 1t
may, perhaps, interest you to hear that
during my recent visit to New York, l
had an opportunity of observing the
application of the best principles of ed
ucRtion under the most favorable cir
cumstances that can be conceived. In
saying this, however, do not mean to
imply that what is there exhibited sur
passes in its essentials what | have seen
in Canada. On the contrary, [ believe
that the system Of education established
in Ontario, under the auspices of the
Rev. DR.. Ryarsop, and those who have
acted with him, and which is now sd-
rninistered by noble, competent, and
self devoted staff of teachers, combines
all the excelIences of any system of edu-
cation that can be found in any country.
But, of course, in an important city like
New York, which is the home of SO
education can be based on a larger scale
GLdu - NOb pOColD1C LII bLIlO COUNTY
spent two entire days in inspecting the
normal schools in New York. We ar
rived early in the morning for the pur-
pose of seeing the scholars assemble for
the days work. We were shown to
large hall four or five times the size of
this one. A bell rang, a piano struck
up, and in three and a half minutes
eleven hundred young women had taken
L L, ~4o,,L ,LoI,, i
by most beautiful singing in alternate
chorus, and that part of the perform
ance concluded with several of these
young ladies rising in turn and repeat
ing some apOthegm Or other quotation
which had struck them on the previous
days reading. This system had been
adopted for the purpose of giving them
confidence as teachers in addressing
large audiences. We then proceeded
to the hall, where two hundred of them
went through their gymnastic exercises,
ard lovelier or more interesting sight
no person could wish to behold than was
presented to our view. From this we
proceeded to the various class-rOoms,
and was certainly struck beyond the
power of expression by observing how
thorough and how complete was the
system of instruction there admins
tered. I went into one class room where
ladies were receiving instruction in
geology, and the first thing that caught
my eye was q spirited and accurate
drawing, the size of life-if that is not
an Irsh bull-of a human skeleton. [
said, the surgeon who drew that ana
tomical figure must have been as great
an artist as man of science, so COM
plete and 50 mastery were the outlines
and shading but the teacher replied,
8 one of our young ladies did that.
Then [ heard them examined In various
subjects. For instance, they were asked
if they could give any account of Shaks-
peare. A young lady got up, and in ten
she told me a great deal more
about Shakespeare than [ ever knew
and imagine that a great many about
me knew-in my life. And so we went
on to astronomy, mathematics, botany,
mythology. In every class was the
same system and the same thorough
ness. I mention this circumstance in
order that those who are interested in
the bringing up of these younger chill
dren, sitting upon my right hand, may
be able to comprehend what enormous
are open to those who IN
the carrier portion OF their lives, and
while they are still school children, fit |
as it were, for passing on
to that higher education which 1 have
ventured to describe to you. There |
can be no doubt that every year the
secret of successfully administering
youthful education is better under TODD |
and more successfully applied.