THE

Ohio Journal of Education.

COLUMBUS, JANUARY, 1854.

Introductory.

NOTHER eventful year in the history of our Association and of the schools of the State has closed. One of the great objects at which we aimed when the Journal was commenced, and to which one year since we looked forward with such intense solicitude, has been accomplished. A School Law, almost unparalleled, in the liberality of its provisions, has been enacted. A party largely in the majority, and claiming this as one of its measures, is fully committed to the maintenance of the great, leading features of the law, and, having elected to the office of Commissioner the man of its choice, is bound to sustain him, in carrying the system which it introduces into efficient operation.

Our Association is thus relieved from a portion of the labor which it has for some years past seemed called to perform. But there is yet much to be done: much which a voluntary agency like ours can, better than any other, accomplish. As an Association it is ours to see to it, that such a public sentiment is created as will fully sustain every wise measure which judicious legislation has introduced, or may yet propose, for the improvement of the schools of our state; and as individual Teachers, it is the privilege of those employed in public schools, to make the schools with which they are connected such models of efficiency and usefulness, that our present excellent system of Free Classified Public Schools shall continue to rise higher in the estimation of the people, and extend its influence till it shall reach and bless every hamlet in the State.

We trust it is not necessary to assure its patrons that the Journal will continue to be faithfully devoted to the great objects for which it was established; and we confidently expect that those who called it into existence, will continue to it a generous patronage, will labor to enlarge the sphere of its influence, and freely contribute to its pages.

Answers to Questions on the School Law.

BY THE COMMISSIONER OF COMMON SCHOOLS ELECT.

DR. LORD:-Upon several questions of construction arising under the provisions of the new School Law, my opinion has been requested and given. The subjoined are, in substance, the questions proposed, and the answers returned :

1. Are the members of township boards entitled by law to receive compensation for their services?

This question is unhesitatingly answered in the negative.

2. How is the township clerk to be paid for making an abstract of the enumeration returned to him?

By the township: as for other services of like nature rendered as township clerk.

3. When the directors neglect to take the enumeration, and the township clerk employs and pays a person to do it, how is the clerk to reimburse himself?

Charge the amount so paid in account with the township; and then proceed to collect it of the delinquent directors, and credit the amount so collected to the school fund of the township.

4. Are township boards authorized by law to determine what text books shall be used in the several common schools in their township; and have they a right to confine their selections to one author on each subject?

These questions are both answered in the affirmative without any hesitation.

5. What shall be done with those directors who will not abide by the decision of the township boards in regard to text books?

Endeavor to conciliate, if possible, their coöperation, by showing them the importance of leaving this delicate matter to the judgment of the township board, and not to the caprice or preference of every itinerant teacher that may chance to be employed. Failing in this, the township board could proceed against them by quo warranto, which would raise the question of authority, and the decision being against the reluctant directors, a writ of mandamus would bring them to a sense of duty.

6. Is a teacher, who enters into a contract to teach a Union or other

common school for a stipulated sum, and to furnish his own assistants, legally entitled to the said sum, viz: the school money, if he employs uncertificated teachers or assistants?

He is not for there is implied in such a contract, the obligation to employ only those whom the law recognizes as duly qualified to teach, in respect to moral character, learning and ability.

7. May persons be transferred for educational purposes from one township to another, when the county line divides the townships?

This question is also answered in the affirmative, without any hesitation.

8. Does section fifteenth of the new school law relate at all to common subdistrict schools or only to such as the township board may establish apart from these?

To both for the terms "primary schools," "primary common school," and "subdistrict school," are all used in the school law with the same import.

9. When a township board appoint one of their number to perform the duties incident to their office and allow him a compensation, from what source, or in what way, is he to be compensated?

His compensation is a township expense: for in all cases, where the school law charges persons with the performance of certain duties, and allows them a compensation, it is a county or township expense, and not a charge upon the school fund, unless the law expressly so declares.

10. Is a teacher's certificate valid, when the examination does not take place on a day regularly appointed by the board, and in accordance with the forty-fifth section of the school law?

Yes, so far as to protect the rights of the teacher, if he has acted in good faith in procuring such certificate; but the case would be otherwise, if he were guilty of collusion with the examiners.

11. Are two members of the board a quorum, when they meet to examine a teacher or teachers on a day not regularly appointed for that purpose?

Yes; if the other member were notified of the meeting, and there existed urgent reasons for such extra meeting; otherwise not.

12. If the board of examiners proceed to examine teachers and confer certificates contrary to said forty-fifth section, are they liable to damages?

Not to penal damages; but the county auditor would be justifiable in not allowing them compensation for such services; and it might be a good reason for removing them from office.

13. Does the subsequent signature of a member of the board, absent at the time of the examination, render the certificate valid?

It does not. In all cases, whether at the regularly announced meetings of the board, or at a special meeting demanded by urgent reasons, where a quorum does not appear, the examination should not proceed. The business of examining teachers and certifying to their moral character, learning and ability, is too delicate and responsible to be performed by a single examiner, and the signature of a second examiner attached to the certificate at some future time. Such has never been the practice of any responsible board of examiners, who made it a uniform practice to discharge their important duty conscientiously.

Examiners should bear in mind that it is not the accommodation of this or that teacher that they were appointed to look after, but the proper intellectual and moral culture of the hundreds of youth whom the teacher is to instruct.

14. If a certificate expires during a school term or session, is it good for the entire term?

Certainly not.

The presentation of such a certificate would not authorize the township clerk to draw an order on the treasurer in favor of the teacher, for his services during the entire term.

The foregoing opinions are not official; but they have been carefully considered, and will probably be adhered to by me when in the official discharge of my duties as Commissioner.

CINCINNATI, December, 1853.

H. H. BARNEY.

Chapter on Education.

BY KATE MONTGOMERIE.

The end of Education is, not merely to amass material, to make the mind the passive recipient of the thoughts of others, gliding like the stream through the aqueduct, easily and unresistingly over the surface, but leaving it cold, hard and unimpressible as before, neither penetrating the substance, nor kindling into life-but liable to congeal, and harden, and destroy the very fibres of which it is composed. No thought is valuable that does not move to thought; words that are not inspiration, are deadening and benumbing; and hence it often occurs that

practical men who have studied the glowing phenomena of life, who have had their minds kindled by contact with other minds, have acquired a power of thought, and originality of conception, that many, poring over books all their days, have never attained.

I knew a lady, who was a most persevering reader, not of novels or light literature—she delighted in heavy, serious reading: essays, works of theology, and the like;-beautiful and inspiring to those who love solid argument and lofty truth, but from which she never seemed to glean an idea, nor did her faculties seem to grow brighter by the exercise. She was a most persevering reader, but not an earnest thinker: much material was amassed, which yet did not constitute knowledge. Her mind was crowded with facts. History, biography, cabinets of minerals, insects, and plants, all interested her, but merely as facts; no general truths were based upon them, no enlarged views grew out of them, her knowledge was of that kind for which some persons seem to have a perfect passion-the collecting of incidents occurring in their neighborhood, of which they will give you a minute account, supplying valuable data for the study of human nature, but from which they seem to gain no knowledge of character, nor to be wiser for the accumulation. I mention this case merely to illustrate: I believe it is by no means a solitary one; and the course of study commonly pursued, in schools, and seminaries of learning, (more especially female seminaries,) has a tendency to foster such habits of mind. Students are not only urged on too fast, but are encouraged to take too many studies at one time, in the hurry to "finish an education," and to be able to name a long array of studies pursued. Many studies are taken up, which it would be better for the pupil never to have touched at school, and which, if a love for knowledge had been excited, would afterwards have been read with delight and profit, while at the time, they served only to divide attention among a great many things, and to prevent its being concentrated on any.

The plan of taking so many studies at one time, is not now so popular as it has been; parents regard it with less favor, yet the evil is not removed, nor will it be, while education is so much a thing of show, and while teachers, to gratify the vanity of parents, lend themselves to a system which they can not but know to be ruinous; and which can only be productive of mental and physical imbecility. At present, the plan is to take up fewer studies: this, the seminaries very emphatically announce, but they do not announce the marvellous rapidity with which the pupil is hurried through a book, nor how a study which should