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WISCONSIN STATE TEACHERS' ASSO- tion of the time. The Principal of the High

CIATION.

School Department is placed at the head of the teaching forces, and co-operates with the Superintendent in supervising all the departments.

In the last Journal, we gave notice of the Our teachers are employed five days in each Fourth Annual meeting of the Wis. State Teach-week for forty weeks of the year, in their several rooms in teaching, and on every Saturday ers' Association, to be held at Beloit on Wed-forenoon of term time, they are required to nesday, the 20th inst. Arrangements, we un-meet in a teacher's meeting and spend two derstand, are made with the different Railroad hours in mutual improvement, and in devising Companies of the State to carry those attend- interests of their pupils. The Principal has ways and means by which to promote the best ing the Convention for half-fare. We are in-charge of these meetings, and the absence of a formed that the people of Beloit will welcome teacher from them, unless previously excused, all who may attend. We would again urge up-cating his position. without unavoidable cause, is regarded as va

on all Teachers and other friends of Education, in the State, the necessity of a full and prompt attendance.

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The several departments are so graded that we take the child lisping his a be, and advance him by successive steps until he is qualified for college or for entrance upon the business of life. Both sexes are allowed to pursue the same course, and are associated together in the same room and class.

The Session will commence at 10 o'clock A. M., Aug. 20th. J. L. Pickard, President of the Convention, will deliver the opening Address. D. Y. Kilgore, of Madison, will read a paper on During the past year there have been connected with the several departments, one thouThe Nature of a Good Education." W. Van-sand eight hundred and ninety-four different Ness will read a paper on The disconnection | pupils. In attainments, these have ranged of the Superintendency and Politics." N. G. Har-from the place where mental development begins. up to the advanced scholar pursuing the vey will address the Association on " The pres-classics and the higher branches of English ent state of Education in Wisconsin.” A. C. science. Those sufficiently advanced are thorSpicer will read a paper. Dr. Adams, of Illi-oughly drilled in declamation and composition. nois College, will address the Association in the evening. Besides the regular Addresses, there will be reports and discussions of importance.

The meeting promises to be the most interesting ever held by the Association, and we hope to see a large attendance from our own and other States.

For the Journal of Education. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF RACINE.

Indeed, throughout the whole course, great attention is given to develop the power of expression, that pupils may be able to enunciate audibly and intelligently what they may have acquired, and thereby be enabled to hold agree- | able and profitable intercourse with men.- ! Already, though our present system has been in operation less than three years, many of our pupils have made pleasing advancement and disclose many traits of the true scholar.

The citizens of Racine have, from the first, manifested commendable zeal and liberality in behalf of our schools. They have invested over $30,000 in permanent school buildings and their fixtures, having during the past year erected three new and commodious brick build

It may not be entirely amiss to say something of the Public Schools of our city in the Jourings which, together with the one previously nal. If by so doing, other schools in the State shall be benefited, the end for which it was established will be subserved.

built, are ornaments to our city and will be sources of untold good to our children. Some $12,000 are annually expended to keep the car The entire city is embraced in one school ar- which we have freighted in motion, which sum, rangement upon the consolidated and graded excepting our apportionment from the State, is system. The officers having the educational most cheerfully placed at the disposal of the interests in charge are, a City Superintendent Board by those who hold the property of our and ten Commissioners, two from each ward, city. Scarcely a day passes when some of them who, together, constitute a Board of Education are not seen within our school rooms, listening for the city. The Superintendent is the execu- with delight to the recitations of their children. tive officer of the Board and has more immedi- And "our Public Schools" has become to them ate care of the schools. as a watch-word to which a cordial response is

Thus far we have had in operation ten de-always given. partments-one High School, two Intermediate If the past is any criterion by which to judge and seven Primary Departments. In these of the future, we may predict for our city great there were employed, during the past year, fif- prosperity in its educational interests. teen teachers, all of the time, and three a por-i

Kacine, July, 1856.

M. P. K.

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SPECIAL NOTICE.

12.-MUSIC.

The Executive Committee of the Wisconsin 13.-"Hidden Uses."-T. HARROLD EDTeachers' Association are requested to meet at DOWES, Galena, Ill.-Senior Class. the Bushnell House, Beloit, on Tuesday, Au14.-Composition. "The Press,"-MARTHA gust 19th, at 7 P. M. Other active friends of A. BROOKS, Platteville-Junior Class. education are invited to be present. The fol15.-"Yankee Characteristics,"-GEORGE lowing are the names of the Executive Com-H. ROUNTREE, Platteville,-Junior Class. mittee:-A. J. Craig, A. C. Spicer, E. B. Good- 17.-Composition, " Claims of Art upon Woman,"-FANNY GREENE, Platteville-Drawing

rich, M. P. Kinney, J. L. Pickard, D. Y. Kil-
gore, Jno. G. McMynn.

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On the morning of the4th of July, the people of Kenosha celebrated the laying of the corner stone of a new school edifice. At 8 o'clock, the School Officers, Teachers and Scholars, assembled at the High School building, and moved in procession to the site of the new school building.

Addresses were made by Rev. J. Gridley, City Supt.; Judge Jilsun, President of the Board of Education; Gen. M. Frank, and Rev. Mr. Matoon. We hear the speeches spoken of in high terms, as being pertinent, brilliant and

CHARLES PROCTOR, Scales' Mound, Ill.-Mid- eloquent.

dle Class.

7.-MUSIC.

8.-Composition, "History of a School Desk" -ISABELLA F. HILL, Boston, Mass.-Junior

Class.

In the corner stone was deposited a leaden box containing an account of the Free School system of Wisconsin, copies of several newspapers and the Wisconsin Journal of Education. Interest was added to the occasion by fine

9.-"The occasion makes the Orator.”—J.
HARRIE METEER, Moorfield, Ky.-Philozatean vocal music, under the direction of Mr. Stone.
Society.
The house will stand on the north end of the

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10.-Composition, Life is Action,"-MARY lot at present occupied by the High School GREENE, Platteville,-Junior Class.

11.-Composition, "Suspicious Man a Sen-building, and is designed to accommodate the tinel,”—P. IRENE VIRGIN, Platteville,-Junior Primary and Intermediate Departments of the

Class.

Union School.

WAUWATOSA EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY.-We

are gratified to learn from C. W. Damon, Secretary of the Society, that the meetings are well attended, and that the interest is increasing.The teachers of Wauwatosa deserve much credit for the effort they are making to awaken an interest in education, and we wish them prosperity in their undertaking. Their example is worthy of imitation by the teachers of every town in our State.

BOOK TABLE.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY,-By D. M. WARREN.-This treatise, just published, we regard as eminently worthy the attention of Teachers. The necessity of studying this subject is quite generally felt, and from a somewhat careful examination of this work, we feel sure it will commend itself to those who will judge for themselves.

The arrangement, which is a matter of great importance, is admirable, while the maps we think are unsurpassed.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION. The 37th Annual Meeting will be held in Springfield, commencing on Tuesday, August 10th, at 2 o'clock, P. M. Among the lecturers A class in Physical Geography should be are, Rev. Dr. Walker, President of Harvard formed in every school. Were a small part of University, Cambridge; Professor Havens, of the time annually wasted in studying the dry Amherst College; John Kneeland, Esq., Roxdetails of descriptive geography, devoted to the bury, Mass.; Hon. George S. Boutwell, Secre-natural features of the earth, an interest would tary of Board of Education, Mass; Hon. S. S. be awakened, which would strongly contrast Randall, Superintendent of Schools, New York with the indifference so generally noticeable in City. Papers will be read by Professor William Russell, of Lancaster, Mass.; Thomas Sherwin, of Boston; and Professor J. J. Lincoln, of Brown University.

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connection with recitations in Geography. Let us first teach the child what the Earth is, as God made it, and then teach him what man has done upon it. By the way, it has occurred to us that a book prepared for our Country Schools, embracing a portion of Physical. Descriptive and Commercial Geography, would supply a want felt by many teachers. The ability which the author of the above work has exhibited, shows him to possess the necessary qualifications for such a task. Will he think of this matter?-Published by H. Cowperthwaite & Co., Philadelphia.

THE "Rhode Island Schoolmaster" for July, is as full as usual of interesting educational matter. It is one of the best Educational

REV. A. G. Hibbard, is about to take charge Journals we receive, and we wish it just what of Salem Academy, Kenosha County.

THE late Hon. Ben. C. Eastman, bequeathed his Library, containing over 700 volumes, to Platteville Academy.

By the Fourteenth Annual Report of the City of New York, it appears there are in the city, 271 schools, in which are taught 137,874 pupils, at a cost of about 918,000.

We are informed that the people of Horicon are about building a new School House.

it deserves-unexampled success.

BARNARD'S "American Journal of Education."-This is the great educational publication of this country. In it we have contributions from the best educational writers of the land, and the results of the experience of the best educators in the world. We can only say that it is all and more than it professes to be.Terms-$300 a year-2 vols. of 600 pages each. Address "American Journal of Education," Hartford, Conn.

WISCONSIN

JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

VOLUME I-SEPTEMBER, 1856.-NUMBER VII.

IT

For the Journal of Education.
GOVERNMENT IN SCHOOLS.

BY REV. 0. 0. STEARNS, OF RACINE.

in its progress, and mark accurately every shade and indentation of character as it left its impress upon the soul, until it has been shaped and moulded to its permanent form, rigid and unimpressible;having taken upon itself the type which Tis often said, that the powers and ca- it shall bear throughout its unendling expacities of the human mind are won- istence-nothing, I apprehend, would so derful. The truth of this remark no one astonish and amaze us. No demonstraprobably will doubt,—while it remains a tions of science-no discovery of natural fact, that very few have any just or ade- laws, however latent and mysterious in quate conceptions, either of the marvel- their operations they might be,—no spelous powers of the human intellect, or of cimen of the arts, however ingeniously the means by which they are developed and perfectly modeled-would so excite and directed. In the beginning it is lit-our admiration, or arouse our wonder and tle, if any thing, besides a store-house of astonishment. One such investigation, susceptibilities and emotions. Of actual thoroughly prosecuted, and its results power, it seems entirely destitute. It can published to the world, would entirely neither devise nor exccute. It has not revolutionize our views and feelings on power even to control and guide the mus- the subject of education;-would invest cles and limbs of the body in which it it with a dignity and importance which resides. Still, it is even then the most has not yet been conceded to it, and mark wonderful object which we can contem- a new era, not only in intellectual philosplate. There is a delicateness about it-ophy, but in the modes and systems of an impressibleness which is perfectly as- mental training. It would reveal to us tonishing. If we were able to trace ac- an extreme delicateness in mental suscepcurately the history of any one human tibilities-a capability of being moulded mind from its beginning, through its va- and shaded by external influences, and a rious stages of development-if begin-power of retaining and working up into ning with that pure and polished surface the character all those impressions which which first came from the hands of the it receives from without, which would at Creator, we could follow it, step by step, once startle and alarm us, and cause us

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to exclaim with the inspired writer, "I lute. The authority of the parent over am fearfully and wonderfully made."his child must be of this nature, or there There would be seen to be such a close can be no well-regulated domestic disciconnexion between the circumstances and pline, and consequently no certain home influences which have been brought to and fire-side joys. If the management bear upon the mind in its early training, and discipline of a family may be broken and its mature developments of character up and interfered with by the caprice of in after life, that no man would venture the meddlesome and croaking in the comto touch it without the profoundest sense munity,-if every family discord and doof responsibility, and the most scrupu- mestic difference must be adjusted by a lous care. reference to outside and uninterested parAnd, perhaps, in no one particular is ties, there is an end to all domestic peace an impress left upon the mind for good and neighborhood quiet. And yet, it is or for evil, in the process of training, fit that there should be a limit fixed-an more permanently than in those influences authority above the authority of the huswhich are brought to bear upon it in gov-band and father, to which he should be erning and directing it. It is to this top- held responsible for the exercise of the ic that we wish now particularly to direct power entrusted to his hands. Otherattention. wise he might abuse his power, and those Government always implies the right placed under him might be subjected to of authority on the one hand, and the a tyranny and oppression wicked and unduty of obedience on the other. We endurable. So the authority of a teachpropose to inquire into the nature of the er over his pupils must be absolute and authority which a teacher has over his irresponsible, within certain limits. He pupil, and the manner of its exercise, to- must be presumed to understand what gether with the end it is designed to se-regulations are needful and best, not only for the whole of his pupils, taken as a All human authority is delegated.— body, but for each individual of them.— God only possesses in himself, and, by It is for the teacher, and not for the pu necessity, the right of absolute control pils, or their parents, to say what rules over his creatures. This statement is are to be observed, in order that the disfundamental in any discussion involving cipline of the school may be best mainthe right of any human being to control tained, and its studies most successfully and direct another in any way. There is prosecuted. Within certain and specino irresponsible power but that which is fied limits, the teacher, and the teacher found in the Creator himself. The right alone, is qualified to make rules and reguof the parent to govern his own child, lations for his school. And, it is just as comes from him. The authority of the absurd and irrational to suppose that pacivil magistrate is delegated from him, rents have a right to interfere and deand to him, therefore, he is held respon-mand that those rules should be changed sible. Among human beings there is no or relaxed in their application to their absolute or irresponsible authority. All children, as it is to imagine that each are subjects, if not to their fellow men, neighbor has a right to interfere with the really and certainly to their Maker. And domestic discipline of every other family yet, all authority within the limits of its in his neighborhood. There is, and should legitimate exercise is necessarily abso

cure.

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