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SIGNS OF THE TIMES-FEMALE TEACHERS-TEACHERS' WAGES, ETO.

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Ir is vain to cling to, and try to carry with us into the "living present,' any portion of the "dead past." We may sigh for the "good old times," and deprecate the changes which steamships, railroads, telegraphs, and divers inventions besides, have wrought in the social, industrial, and moral relations of life and conditions of being; but we can not stay the force that hurries us along. The part of wisdom is to note carefully what these changes are what new features they present-what new conditions they create-what new obligations they impose-what new efforts they necessitate in our several spheres of action-lest by neglect of this observance, we too late discover all our careful plans of action ending in naught, because not adapted to the new conditions, with which, to ensure success, they must harmonize. Education, whether comprehensively considered as a system or scheme of means for the promotion of intelligence and virtue throughout the commonwealth, or simply as a single practical effort to instruct a youthful community called a school, or contemplated as a subject of philosophic investigation, is not an exception to the conditions of change impressed upon other forms of being, and other subjects of thought. And yet, in education, more than in most other things, save perhaps, theology, is there the tendency in the popular mind to cast upon it the light of the past-to surround it with the same conditions-to regard it from the same point of view-as composed of the same elementscontrolled by the same forces-promoted by the same means-producing the same results-exhibiting the same phenomena now as formerly. But

this idea is all wrong, and wrought into practical schemes must produce disastrous results. Let us look at one simple condition of change in educational affairs which may not be regarded by all as very important, but of which we may as well be cognizant—and it shall be my present theme_

There was a time-and those of us whose heads are not very silvery can remember it too-when for the young man who aspired to a position outside the path of common drudgery and slavish toil, the teacher's vocation was the readiest introduction thereto. This was so, chiefly for the reason that "in that elder day" the pursuits exempt from the condition of manual labor were few, and to gain access to these demanded a discipline or preparation which the business of teaching was well calculated to impart-to say nothing of sundry and divers expenses which the attainment of that position involved, and which a season of teaching was found to be the readiest means to discharge. I shall not be disputed if I remark that it is measurably otherwise now. The employments more congenial than grinding toil have multiplied in a ratio far exceeding the increase of our population. Not to incumber this article with statistics, it will suffice to suggest how the wonderful increase of trade has created a demand for clerks, book keepers, and salesmen; railroads have given employment to engineers, superintendents, agents, and conductors; the telegraph has enlisted a standing or sitting army of operators; and journalism has called to its aid a host of reporters and other subordinates. These illustrations must serve to impress our minds with the effect which this growing condition of things must have upon that vocation, into which, in the past, nearly all the higher and worthier intelligence of the land found its way. Apprehensions will naturally arise, that the inducements held out in other pursuits must draw off so many of that better class, as to compel the acceptance of an inferior class to supply their place. Nor are these apprehensions groundless. I am persuaded, that taking the body of teachers throughout the State to-day, and comparing it with that of fifteen years ago, we shall find less of that earnest purpose, that rigid discipline, that stirring enthusiasm, that conscientious heroism and consecrated devotion that characterized teaching when that profession was chiefly filled by those who were striving for higher intellectual culture, and regarded a successful experience in teaching as a means to its attainment. I doubt whether, on the whole, we have to-day, as good schools throughout the State as fif. teen years ago. For to be as good, they must be better; they must have advanced as fast as the world has advanced; more is demanded of them now-(I do not mean more things are to be taught, for this neglecting the simpler yet weightier matters in order to grasp after the varied and superficial, is the bane of true progress and improvement)-but more system, more thoroughness, more rigid discipline is demanded now than heretofore, and I greatly fear we have less; but if we simply have no more, then our schools are worse than formerly, because less adapted to the require

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