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SCHOOL GOVERNMENT.

Ir is gratifying to observe even a few of the teachers of our State interesting themselves in the cause of education; and their inquiries and suggestions as to the most successful methods of teaching the various branches of school study, are well calculated to awaken a deeper interest among teachers, and to secure their improvement, and the consequent improvement of their schools. From the pages of the last year's Journal I have derived many valuable suggestions, which, on practical application, I have found beneficial and well founded. But there is one department belonging to the complicated duties of the teacher, which has not, I think, received the attention it deserves; and which appears, to one comparatively inexperienced in the business of teaching, as more perplexing, and attended with greater difficulties-especially to beginners-than any other one thing pertaining to the teacher's profession.

I allude to "School Government;" or the means necessary to preserve order and secure obedience in the school-room.

That "Order is Heaven's first law," is generally admitted; and that it should be the first law of the school-room is evident also; but notwithstanding the assiduous efforts of teachers to secure a recognition of this law on the part of their pupils, there are many who abandon the undertaking in despair, and declare it impossible. Now, the question is, what are the means best adapted to secure this great desideratum? It has been, and still is, a debatable question, whether corporal punishment is a necessary and indispensable branch of an efficient system of school discipline. I feel a moral repugnance to the old proverbial idea, "Spare the rod and spoil the child"-however wise its author-and yet I am not fully prepared to admit the doctrine that "moral suasion" is, in all cases, sufficient to restrain the wayward tendency of human nature.

This point being unsettled in my mind, I have taken, in practice, a middle ground; though ever leaning to, and wishing to be convinced of the potency of moral means.

Education is no longer looked upon as a mere training of the intellect only, but as a harmonious development and discipline of the moral, intellectual, and physical elements that combine to form the perfect model human being; and any system which does not rightly educate all these, must necessarily be deficient.

'Tis on the moral more than any other, that the governmental rules and requirements of a school have their influence; and hence, their choice and application should be made, with reference to these important bearings. We have conflicting theories upon this subject, which must be put to the

test in the school-room, where their merits will be decided; and from the teacher must come the final answer to this all important question.

Many, like myself, are in the maze of doubt and uncertainty, and would be glad to hear the subject discussed by those qualified by experience to throw light upon a matter deeply interesting to teachers, especially to novices in the profession. HORICON, 1859.

L. P.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

We hear much said of the importance of Physical Education. It is generally admitted by educators that without a symmetrical development of the physical, moral, and intellectual powers, education fails to accomplish its true ends. Teachers, and those who have given their attention to the workings and results of the school-room, know that the close confinement, the injurious bodily positions allowed there, and the enervating effects of continued mental, without physical exercise, naturally enfeeble the health of scholars, and often sow the seeds of disease and death. If education looked alone to intellectual advancement, it would then be important to keep the bodily health good, since without good health it is impossible to make much mental progress. But as education is to develop and discipline the whole being according to the laws of nature, it follows that whatever results are contrary to these laws, are the offspring of a wrong education. Now let us ask what are the schools in Wisconsin doing in the way of physical education? Except in a few instances, very little attention is paid in building school houses to proper ventilation. In many, and probably most common school buildings, one hour's time is sufficient for the scholars to consume all the pure atmosphere in the room, and poison what remains. Without any means for the admission of a supply of pure air, and the escape of that which has been poisoned, the scholars are obliged during most of the time spent in the school-room, to breath over and over again poisonous vapors, instead of the pure atmosphere of heaven, which is necessary to the maintenance of health.

Very little attention is paid to proper bodily positions and motions. Scholars are allowed to sit, stand, or walk in the most unhealthy, careless, or ungraceful manner.

Lastly, in how few schools do we find any thing like a regular system of exercises for development of the muscles of the body. We have seen in but one school a proper and thorough system of gymnastic exercises. This was in the Second Ward High School of Milwaukee. The system was in

troduced by Prof. Kursteiner, M.D., formerly of Madison University. These exercises consist of various motions of the limbs and body, bringing into energetic activity all the muscles. Such a system, carried out as it is in this school, can not fail to keep up and improve the health; so that scholars coming from this school, instead of possessing feeble bodies, incapable of manual labor, will come from it sound and vigorous in body, and able to earn their living by physical labor, if they should be called upon to do so.

This article may look too much like complaining. But are we not in fault? The world is filled with the weak, the sick, and dying. Is it necessary that every generation shall grow weaker as well as wiser? How much of the physical suffering now so common can be prevented by proper physical education, is certainly worthy the consideration of teachers. JANESVILLE, 1859. I. J.

READING.

NEARLY all the development of mind is secured through reading. In our early days we learn from the lips of parents and teachers, and as we pass on through life, we acquire ideas by observation and experiment; but too much attention can not be given to that source of information which is found in books and newspapers; it is through these that the world is becoming more enlightened. A person who will intelligently read our best publications and periodicals may become a learned scholar, though he live in obscurity, and has never been at school-and such is the progress of the expanding mind, that many who have never learned to read in childhood commence in manhood, and by their untiring exertions, when the implements of their labor are laid aside, enter upon study by the evening lamp, and thus store away valuable knowledge to be used as necessity or convenience demands.

The importance of reading should be carefully impressed upon the mind of the rising generation. To this effect teachers must wisely select their authors, and be ever well posted in regard to intelligence of every description. They need newspapers and journals of education, and other periodicals, as much as they do food and clothing. When any thing new or interesting comes before the public mind, it should likewise be presented to the school. Science, politics, and religion-inventions, discoveries, and expeditions-all present matter for thought, which even the younger pu pils will generally relish.

By creating a taste among the young for positive learning-for the real and the true, we shall establish a basis for national sentiment-pure and elevated, and destroy that fruitful source of evil which exists in the novels and romances of the present day. H. S. Z.

Superintendent's Department.

NEW SCHOOL
SCHOOL LIBRARY LAW.

[Published April 1st, 1859.]

СНАРTER

CCX.

AN ACT to provide a permanent Township School Library Fund.

The people of the State of Wisconsin, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1, Ten per cent of the School Fund Income, subject to apportionment in the year 1860, and annually thereafter, together with the proceeds of a special State Tax of one-tenth of one mill on the dollar valuation, shall be, and are hereby set apart, for the purpose of establishing and replenishing Town School Libraries—the Books for which to be purchased by public authority, and distributed in some just proportion among the Towns and Cities of the State. SEC. 2. A special annual tax of one-tenth of one mill on the dollar valuation, shall be, and is hereby levied upon the taxable property in the State, to be collected in addition to, and with the State tax levied annually to provide for the current expenditure of the State; and the proceeds of the said special tax are hereby appropriated annually for the purpose expressed in the first Section of this Act;

SEC. 3. After the present year, there shall be, and are hereby directed to be printed, folded and sewed by the State Printer, a sufficient number of extra copies of the Session Laws, Jour nals, Messages, and Documents of each year, to be placed in charge of the State Superintendent, to supply each town and city school library in the State with a set; and these volumes shall be substantially bound, in such manner as the State Superintendent, with the approval of the Governor, shall direct, at a cost not exceeding thirty cents per volume, to be paid out of the fund set apart by this Act for school library purposes.

SEO. 4. Section 76 of chapter 23 of the Revised Statutes is hereby repealed.

SEC. 5. This Act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and publication. WM. P. LYON, Speaker of the Assembly.

Approved March 21st, 1859,

ALEX. W. RANDALL.

E. D. CAMPBELL, Lt. Governor and President of the Senate.

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The Secretary of State of the State of Wisconsin, does hereby certify that the foregoing Act has been compared with the original enrolled Act deposited in this office, and that the same is a true and correct copy thereof, and of the whole of such original.

[L. 8.]

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Great Seal
of the State, at the Capitol in Madison, this twenty-first day of March, A.D.;
1859.
D. W. JONES, Secretary of State.

REMARKS ON THE WISCONSIN TOWN SCHOOL LIBRARY

LAW.

THE new School Library Law, recently enacted by our State Legislature, has four prominent provisions, namely:

1. It provides a permanent Town School Library Fund, by setting apart for this purpose ten per cent. of the School Fund Income, subject to apportionment in 1860, and annually thereafter, together with the proceeds of a special State tax, to be levied each year, of one-tenth of one mill on the dollar valuation of taxable property.

2. It provides that this fund shall be set apart specifically for establishing and replenishing Town School Libraries.

3. It provides that the books for these libraries shall be purchased by public authority, and not by the local School Boards as heretofore.

4. It provides that an extra number of the State Laws, Journals, and Documents, sufficient to supply each town and city school library in the State with a set, shall be printed by the State Printer, and delivered to the State Superintendent; and that these shall be substantially bound, under the direction of the State Superintendent, with the approval of the Governor, at a cost not exceeding thirty cents per volume, to be paid out of the School Library Fund.

The precise manner in which the books shall be purchased and distributed, except that they shall be purchased "by public authority," and "distributed in some just proportion among the towns and cities of the State," is not specified in the Act. As the means for the first purchase can not, from the terms of the law, be collected and ready for use until next spring, it was thought best not to encumber the Act with details, which might have embarrassed and endangered its passage. These details, providing for the selection and purchase of the books, their distribution, and regulations for the management of the libraries, will be carefully con.

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