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COMMUNICATION FROM THE SCHOOL COMMISSIONER.

EDITOR JOURNAL OF EDUCATION:

MASSILLON, O., June 13, 1857.

Dear Sir:-For the last two months, I have been engaged in performing official duties, which are enjoined in Sec. 50, of our School Law. I have found it hard work, but it has been attended with very much that was pleasant and encouraging. I have had an opportunity of seeing various portions of our great and noble State. The iron, coal and salt regions of Jackson, Lawrence, and Meigs; the dairy counties of the Reserve; the wheat growing lands of Richland, Wayne and Stark, and other parts of our great Commonwealth, possess points of interest to him who visits them. I have received new and enlarged ideas in regard to the abundant and varied elements of material wealth which our State embraces.

But my chief attention has been directed to the educational interests of the State. I have visited twenty-five counties, have given thirty-five public lectures, averaging an hour in length, and about sixty public addresses, to schools, Teachers, and other bodies. I have visited hundreds of schools, and held with thousands of people, communications and consultations on educational subjects. That I have accomplished any good, I shall not affirm; that I have been very busy, none can dispute.

My ordinary course of effort on visiting a place is as follows, though modified by circumstances to some extent: I spend an hour with the county Auditor, who is the chief school officer of the county. Inquire of him concerning the operations of our school system; what objections are urged against it; what changes, in his opinion, would add to its efficiency and popularity. He gene. rally asks my spinion concerning the proper interpretation of various provisions of our School Law, states cases which have arisen under his observation, particularly in regard to taxation and the distribution of funds. Together we consult and plan in regard to securing prompt and full statistical returns from the Boards of Education. This interview and acquaintance prepares us for future correspondence and action.

Wherever I find a majority of the Board of School Examiners, I spend with them an hour, more or less, in inquiries and consultations in regard to the important trusts with which they are charged. I make known to them my purpose of calling for full returns of their transactions during the year, that they may be published with other statistics, in the annual report.

School Directors call on me for consultation and advice.

Whenever time permits, I visit the several schools, whether public or private. Some of them I address for a few minutes.

In some cases, though not generally, the Teachers of the several schools are called together by their Superintendent or Principal at a late hour in the afternoon, and I address them in regard to their duties. These I have found to be to me occasions of much interest.

In the evening, I give a public lecture to all who may choose to be present. I have been greatly encouraged from what I have observed of the workings of our school system. Wherever it is efficiently and wisely administered, it is bearing fruit to its own praise, and to the unspeakable profit of the people. With but few exceptions, I have found the schools which I have visited in better condition, and achieving higher success than I had expected. And I am

erly transferred to the preparatory schools. Pen-talk is a necessity of the age. Indeed the handmaid of civilization is "the pen of a ready writer."

The importance of the manuscript part of composition is now evident. Whether a person's thoughts are profound, brilliant or simple, the ability to pen them correctly is in each case equally important. A manuscript of any kind abounding in those errors peculiar to written language, is an "abiding witness" against the elementary education of its author. The most arrogant pretensions to scholarship are frequently dissipated by a few traces of the pen! On the con⚫ trary, a note of but three lines, written with correctness, is strong evidence that "the schoolmaster has not been abroad." The great use of the pen in practical life is in letter, note and business writing, in which style, logic and other qualities of higher composition are of minor importance. A large majority too, of the scholars who leave our schools for the active duties of life, will have no other use for it. Clearly, then, our schools should aim to impart to each schol. ar, as early as possible, the ability to act as amanuensis for his own thoughts. Such training is also an excellent basis for composition proper, into which mat ter and arrangement largely enter. It is true, also, that every written exercise, however simple, involves mental effort. The training best adapted to impart the ability to produce a good manuscript, lays the foundation for higher forms of writing. In such training, however, a correct manuscript stands prominently before the mind as the end most desired. The young tyro of the pen is not expected to indite Homilies upon "Faith," "Hope" and "Charity," every line of which calls for a large share of the latter grace in the reader!

Are our schools meeting reasonable expectations in this matter? How many of the scholars, who annually go out of them, can creditably pen a simple note or letter. How many can correctly write their own address? The time and ef fort given to this subject, even in our best schools, are meagre. Daily exercises in oral spelling and imitative penmanship prove inadequate. There must be an early and constant application of this knowledge and skill, as they are acquired. The utility of correct spelling and good penmanship should be a matter of every day experience. The fact, that one important object of attending school, is, to learn to talk on paper, should be to the scholar an ever present reality.

The question is, also, seriously asked: Whether our best Graded Schools present as satisfactory progress in composition, as they do in other branches of study? While the principle of a division of labor has been carried out in other studies each department having its specific work-this has been left to chance or caprice. To many, if not all of our High Schools, it has not been deemed a requisite for admission. Below the Grammar School, it has not "a local habitation or a name." In many of the schools, where the exercise has a place, it receives very meagre attention. Anything like systematic instruction is rarely attempted. A "composition" is the standing lesson, or more properly task! We need not add that composition writing is very generally unpopular with scholars. Its utility is to them a matter of faith-blind at that! They look upon the exercise, as one of the numerous ills school children "are heir to;" often entering very fully into the spirit of the line:

"Tis distance lends enchantment to the view."

Are these difficulties and results inherent in the subject? Has it not natural steps, or gradations, corresponding to the several departments of our Graded Schools? Cannot a definite result be expected in each grade? In the next number of the Journal, we propose to present the outlines of a course of compo

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sition, which in our judgment is adapted to classified schools. We believe that the principle of a divison of labor may be applied as perfectly in composition as in any other branch of study, and that the progress made at any given time may be as certainly tested. E. E. WHITE.

PORTSMOUTH, June, 1857.

Editorial Department.

TEACHERS OF OHIO IN COUNCIL.-The Executive Committee have deferred the meeting of the Ohio State Teachers' Association one week. It will be held at Steubenville, Jefferson county Ohio, on Wednesday and Thursday, the 8th and 9th of July,

The "Journal" congratulates the trainers of the minds of the youth of Ohio that their arduous labors of the session just closing, will soon be succeeded by social delights-rich mental and moral delights-among old friends and kindred. May your vacation so renew your wasted energies and refreshen and relax your mental powers, that when the schools again open, you may return re-christened to the care of God's "little children," who are "of the kingdom of heaven." Teacher, love thy profession! You aid in preparing men and women to be great and good here, and to enjoy endless happiness hereafter. It will always be a labor of love to interest ourselves in each and every case, in the welfare of the faithful Teacher.

Teacher, keep ever in mind the sublimity of your mission. Rest not content, until singly and by associated effort, the highest level of success may be attain. ed in your day, in securing the blessings of a Common School education to every boy and girl in Ohio. Come together face to face, then, ye bold soldiers of the school militant, missionaries in the field of education, and as "iron sharpens iron," so may the countenance of each other be brightened by the communion of kindred souls.

Let Ohio Teachers be earnest in the work; let us come together and have a profitable season during the approaching vacation. For this monthly, on your part, the editor makes this last and most urgent appeal to the leading Teachers of the State to proceed at once to obtain subscriptions, and the cash for the Journal; for, unless they take the matter in hand, other Teachers will be indifferent. The Journal can not exist without a more active support. Teachers, it is your own work. Come up with the money already due, and new subscribers enough to carry the enterprise through without fail.

Boards of Education and Examiners, prize your Teachers; and let us all enter anew upon the duties committed to our charge, in a more determined and hopeful spirit.

ONWARD! HIGHER-FOREVER HIGHER!-He that resolves upon any great end, by that very resolution has scaled the great barriers to it; and he who seizes the grand idea of self-cultivation, and solemnly resolves upon it, will find that idea, that resolution, burning like fire within him, and ever putting him upon his own improvement. He will find it removing difficulties, searching out, or making means, giving courage for despondency, and strength for weakness.

worlds. For ourself, we hope to be more "familiar" with the great work of nature and with this interpreter.

Peterson's Familiar Science. Mr. Peterson has been successful in this publication of a "Scientific Explanation of Common Things." There had been 67,000 copies issued in 1856. A copy before us is in larger type than the editions we have seen as text books in schools. Why should not Teachers instruct familiarly their pupils in common, every-day useful science?

Hows' Practical Elocutionist. The author of the "Shakspearian Readers" has prepared this work for the elocutionary practice of advanced students. The present edition has been carefully revised. The selections of prose and poetry are eminently judicious.

Sheppard's Constitutional Text Book. The scope of this work is such as is commended to the more general attention of our schools. The tendency of present courses of study is, in many schools, to teach more of other institutions than those of the United States. American youth should be trained by study of just such a text book.

HICKLING, SWAN & BREWER, Boston.

Outlines of English History, by Amelia B. Edwards. A small but useful text book for schools.

We have recently received the following:

-Pamphlet of Premiums and Regulations for the Ohio State Fair, to be held in Cincinnati, on the 15th-18th days of September 1857.

Fowler & Wells, N. Y. "Demands of the age on Colleges." Speech of Horace Mann before the Christian Convention, Cincinnati, Oct. 5, 1854.

- Circular and Catalogue of the Ohio Wesleyan University. Delaware, Ohio, 1856-7.

- Catalogue of the Theological Seminary, and of Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, 1856-7.

- First Annual Report of Board of Education, Dubuque, Iowa, 1857. - Report of Sup't Common Schools of Conn., David N. Camp, Sup't, 1857. - Annual Report of the School Committee of the city of Salem, 1857.

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OHIO STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

POSTPONEMENT.-In consequence of representations from some of the most active members of the Association residing in different parts of the State, that the schools in their respective sections would not be dismissed at the time mentioned in the call published in the June number, it has been deemed best to postpone the time of the semi-annual meeting to the 8th and 9th days of July, 1857. A full attendance of members at the meeting is again most respectfully and urgently solicited, as business matters of the most urgent moment to the welfare of the Association must necessarily be acted upon.

JOHN HANCOCK,

Ch'n Ex. Com., O. S. T. A.

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-Walter Scott says

Thy honied nectar has a power

Beyond what human tongue can tell.

"To make boys learn to read, and then place no good books within their reach, is to give man an appetite and leave nothing in the pantry save unwholesome and poisonous food; which, depend upon it, they will eat rather than starve."

-Cato said "He had rather people should inquire why he had not a statue erected to his memory, than why he had."

The honest, earnest man must stand and work ;

The woman also; otherwise she drops

At once below the dignity of man,

Accepting serfdom. Free men freely work;
Whoever fears God, fears to sit at ease.

Massachusetts has recently changed her constitution and made it one of the qualifications to exercise the elective franchise, that the voter can read and write.

-The following touching incident will remind parents and Teachers of the power that may be exercised over youth by affectionate words of caution. Speak the right word at the right time:

It is the story of a mother, on the green hills of Vermont, holding by the right hand a son, sixteen years old, mad with love of the sea. And, as she stood by the garden gate on a sunny morning, she said: "Edward, they tell me-for I have never seen the ocean-that the great temptation of the seaman's life is drink. Promise me, before you quit your mother's hand, that you will never drink." And, said he, (for he told me the story,) I gave her the promise, and I went the broad globe over-Calcutta, the Mediterranean, San Francisco, the Cape of Good Hope, the North Pole and the South-I saw them all in forty years, and I never saw a glass filled with sparkling liquor that my mother's form by the garden gate, on the green hillside of Vermont, did not rise before me; and to-day, at sixty, my lips are innocent of the taste of liquor.

-A National Teacher's Association is proposed to be organized at a Convention of the friends of popular Education in the United States, to be held at Philadelphia 26th of August next. The Ohio State Teacher's Association should be ably represented.

- The twelfth annual meeting of the New York State Teacher's Association will be held at Binghamton, on the 4th, 5th and 6th days of August, 1857, instead of July.

-The Young People's Literary Association, Ravenna, O., have sent us the first printed No. June 2d, '57, of a little paper called the Investigator; whose motto is, "Not how much, but how well."

- Physiologists have urged the superiority, as exercises of the young, of social and inspiriting games, which, by their joyous and boisterous mirth, called forth the requisite nervous stimulus to put the muscles into vigorous varied action, which become easy under the influence of mental excitement. We have rejoiced to see Teachers refresh and invigorate themselves by such exercises, and the "Journal" has sympathized with, and participated with such in certain games of ball, of Saturday afternoons, on the green sward, a mile out of the Queen City, during the month of May, and agrees with Andrew Combe on the subject. The exultation of our spirit may have been enhanced by being always on the winning side. We witness with pleasure the triangular ball playing in the evening hours by the noiseless pupils of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum of this city.

- We have received, from Supt. W. C. Catlin, Mansfield, O., a specimen blank for a School Register, which has been copyrighted and published by Brinkerhoff & Day, of that place, which embodies the experience of many years in planning and trial, and has found favor. It is so

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