THE

Ohio Journal of Education.

COLUMBUS, SEPTEMBER, 1854.

Education in Ohio.

is well for the laborers in any important enterprise, somewhat frequently to call to mind the great objects at which they aim, and the facts by the light of which they should be guided in their efforts to accomplish them. The great object for which this Journal was established, and at which the intelligent friends of education aim, is to secure proper education of all the youth in the State. The following are some of the facts which should ever be borne in mind:

the

Ohio has now a population of more than two millions; more than one-third of this number, or eight hundred and eleven thousand, are children and youth, between the ages of five and twenty-one years. There are in the State some twelve thousand school districts; and well qualified, active, faithful and energetic teachers are needed to instruct schools in each of these districts, the coming winter; and at least six hundred thousand youth should receive instruction in these schools, to say nothing of the numbers who should attend the hundreds of Academies, Female Seminaries, and Colleges in the State.

It is doubtless supposed by most of the good people of Ohio, that nearly all of our youth are actually receiving such an education as they need; and yet it has been estimated, by those well informed on the subject, that there are in the State, one hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand youth, who are entirely illiterate. In 1840, the number of adults who were unable to read and write, was thirty-five thousand. Astounding as was this fact, and gloomy as was the picture it presented, many consoled themselves with the idea that this number was constantly diminishing; but the census of 1850 informs us, that in that

VOL. III, No. 9.

17

year

there were, in Ohio, 61,030 free whites, over twenty years of age, unable to read and write! That is, more than one fifteenth of the adult population are thus illiterate. Of these, 23,994 are males, and 38,036 are females. Now there are abundant reasons for suppos ing that the number of this class of persons is still rapidly increasing; for, to say nothing of the constant influx of foreigners, many of whom are known to be deplorably ignorant, it is unquestionably true that a large portion of our youth are either orphans, or the children of those who have no just views of the importance of education, and who will not accustom them to attend school in their early years; or, if at all, not with sufficient regularity to acquire any degree of mental culture, any correct habits of study, or any abiding love for knowledge or improvement; and who will allow them to leave school whenever they dislike its wholesome restraints, or will remove them entirely as soon as they become able to earn anything by labor. Hence it is, that in almost every district school in our State, during the winter season, there are to be found more or less young men, in size, who, if able to read at all, are not capable of reading a single paragraph in a manner intelligible to others, and who are utterly unable to comprehend its meaning themselves. These are, generally, the scholars who create the disturbances in our schools, who occasion the withdrawal of better and more peaceful scholars from them, who cause the dismission of Teachers, and most of the evils incident to common schools. These are the persons who, having learned at school to injure the feelings and disregard the rights of others, go out into the world with no desire for improvement, no sources of enjoyment within themselves, no love for the companionship of books, no taste for pure and refined pleasures, and no ability to enjoy any but the more gross and sensual amusements. These are the persons who are most likely to frequent the race-course, the circus and the grog-shop; who disturb towns and neighborhoods with their midnight yells; and who subsequently become thieves, pickpockets, incendiaries, or the leaders of mobs, and finally die in the gutter, the almshouse or the prison.

Nearly five hundred of this class of persons are constantly confined in the penitentiary, and a much larger number are yearly to be found for a longer or shorter time in the county jails. It is well known to every intelligent person, that from three-fourths to seven-eighths of all the criminals in our jails and penitentiaries belong to the ignorant class described above. A recent report of the penitentiary in Tennessee states, that of 240 convicts, three had received a classical, and seven a common English education; that is, 10 in 240, or one in twenty-four

was educated; while 63 could neither read nor write, and 62 could barely read.

We believe that the number of ignorant adults is increasing with fearful rapidity, notwithstanding all our efforts to increase the facilities for education and awaken a deeper and more general interest in the cause; and we fear that the prospective recruits for this great army are far greater, in proportion, than the army itself. And has not every good citizen an interest at stake here? Will not every person inquire what he can do to prevent the further increase of the number of the ignorant?'

Do

any

ask what can be done? We reply, let every person do what he can to improve the school teachers, the school houses and the schools of the State; render the Teachers intelligent and efficient by employing none but those who are well qualified and devoted to the employment, and remunerate them well for their services; make the school houses pleasant and attractive, and the schools desirable places of resort, and create such a public sentiment that parents will feel bound to send their children regularly to school; and that no parent or guardian would dare allow a child to grow up in ignorance, any sooner than he would commit some other flagrant violation of the rights of society.

A. D. L.

District School Houses.

As the time for opening fall and winter schools approaches, it becomes directors, and those who have the interest of schools at heart, to look to the condition of the school house; to see that the plastering is repaired, if necessary, the walls whitewashed, the windows glazed, and the means for warming and ventilating secured, and a good supply of fuel on hand in season; in short, that every thing be done, which can be effected, to render the school room pleasant and convenient, or, at least, comfortable and healthy. We are aware that much has been said on this subject, every argument has been employed to show its importance, and to induce all concerned to feel a proper interest in the subject, and still a very large number of school houses in the State present a most cheerless aspect to the beholder, and are still more uncomfortable for those who Occupy them.

and

In hardly any thing else pertaining to the improvement of society or the conveniences of life do the people manifest a wish to stand still or

even to go backwards. Do any now think of moving to Iowa, Wisconsin, or Minnesota, with an ox-team, and occupying from four to six or eight weeks in the journey, because, forsooth, their fathers did so in removing to Ohio? Do any parch corn and pound it in a mortar for food, because, before the erection of mills, the early settlers were compelled so to do? Do any pick, card, and spin all their own wool and dress all their cloth by hand, for a similar reason? Do our farmers and mechanics erect houses of logs, with a single room for all the family, with an opening through the roof for the escape of the smoke, and use stools for seats, the floor for a bedstead, a chest for a table, trenchers for plates, and fingers for knives and forks, because in the history of the human race there may have been a time when their ancestors did thus, and, therefore, they and their children must needs do so?

And yet this is the logic not unfrequently used in regard to the school house, and by men reputedly possessed of good judgment, men who reflect upon other subjects and become intelligent and enterprising; who not only seize upon valuable improvements when proposed to them, but who study to devise them, and are ready to laud in unmeasured terms those who have introduced important improvements in agriculture and other useful arts. But talk to them about improving the school house, making it larger and more commodious, furnishing it with better seats and desks, with suitable apparatus, blackboards, maps, charts, etc., and we are immediately and very decidedly told that "the house is now better than any in which they ever attended school, that in their youth they had nothing but slab-benches without backs, and as for blackboards and apparatus, no such thing was ever heard of then, and they think their children can do without them as well as they did.”

the

Now is it not evident, from the strain of these replies, that those who make them are acting upon the assumption that no important improvement in the means or methods of education can be made; or upon equally absurd assumption that in this department alone no such improvement is needed? We might have less fault to find with the reasoning of these persons, if they would be consistent and apply the same to other subjects of similar, or even of less importance. If they will reject or throw aside all the improvements of the age-if farmers will throw aside the plows they now use and adopt those used fifty years since; if they will use oxen instead of horses, and sleds instead of wagons; they will thresh and winnow their grain by hand, wash it at the spring if foul, and carry it to mill a bushel at a time, on horseback, with a stone in one end of the bag; if they will use chimneys with a

reap,

if

wide back, burn their firewood of sled length, and draw in the logs with a horse; if they will wear no clothes except those manufactured entirely in their own houses; and if mechanics of every class will use no tools and adopt no methods in their respective employments, which have been invented or introduced within the last forty or fifty years, -we may then cease to urge the necessity of improvements in school houses, furniture and apparatus.

Here let us not be misunderstood; when the country was new and the people comparatively poor, or at best, supplied with little more than the necessaries of life; when the single room of the log cabin, with its chinks well closed with clay, with its floor of earth or split timber, its wide fire-place, its rude stools and other furniture, and its bark torches instead of lamps, was considered a palace; then there was no incongruity between it and the school house of similar architecture and furniture, and no injurious effect was produced upon the minds of children by resorting to such a place for study and instruction. But, when these cabins have given place to the spacious and commodious farm house, or the stately mansion, well furnished and decorated with maps and paintings upon its walls, and elegant volumes and costly engravings upon its tables; and when even the barn and its neighboring buildings have assumed an air of comfort, if not of taste, and are constructed, lighted and ventilated with due reference to the health and comfort of their inmatescan it be expected that children will resort to the unseemly school house, poorly lighted, ill-warmed, unventilated, with its floor undulating like the surface of the sea, and covered perhaps with filth; with its walls blackened by the smoke of years, and variegated only by grotesque or obscene inscriptions and delineations, and the whole presenting the most comfortless aspect imaginable,—can it be expected, we say, that children and youth will go from their homes to such places without feelings of repugnance, or without connecting most unpleasant associations with every thing that pertains to school and the acquisition of knowledge? And can the teacher be blamed if they do not love the school and take delight in study?

A. D. L.

The progress of knowledge is slow. Like the sun, we cannot see it moving; but after a while we perceive that it has moved, nay, that it has moved onward.