Countries. SCHOOLS FOR ELEMENTARY EDUCATION, IN AUSTRIA, IN 1838. Total.... 23,652,000 2,886,441 | 19,536 1,674,788 10,784 664,197 1,314,460 1,024,525 2,338,985 13,183 26,842 40,025 2,795,791 2 at Presburg; 2 Raab; 1 Agram, Debreczin, Eperies, Erlau, Grosswardein, Käsmark, Cashau, Oedenburg, Popa, Saros-Patak. + At Kerestur and Torda. At Krems, Kremsmunster, G`rz, Trent, Budweis, Leitomischl, Pilsen, Brünn, Nikolsburg, Przemysl, Tarnopol, Czernowitz, Zara, Milan, Brescia, Cremona, Mantua, Bergamo, Como, Lodi, Venice, Verona, Udine, Vicenza. In Hungary, at Stein am Auger and Szeyechin, 2. Hungary has 67 Catholic and 13 Protestant Gymnasia. The Mining Academy at Schemnitz has 7 Professors, 233 Students: it costs 11,500 florins, and has 55 Bursarships endowed with 11,000 florins annually. 31 195 29 3,508 29.097 2,026 116 899 25,458 89 1 2,451 20.515 72 198 1,378 35,038 IX. SCHOOLS AS THEY WERE IN THE UNITED STATES SIXTY AND SEVENTY YEARS AGO. Fifth Article. VISIT TO DR. DWIGHT'S SCHOOL AT GREENFIELD HILL, FAIRFIELD, CT.* The six boys BOSTON, July 13th, 1790. On my way to this place I stopped at the house of the Rev. Mr. + in Connecticut. My acquaintance with him began at Cambridge during the late war, and I was very happy to renew it. He now teaches an academy consisting of sixteen boys, most of whom board in his family. He prevailed upon me to rest at his house two days, both of which I spent in the most agreeable manner. I was pleased with the order of his family. His wife is a pleasant, sensible woman, and he has three promising children. But I was principally struck with his manner of teaching, and his behavior to his scholars. By particular invitation I went into his school, where I met only six of his boys. The rest were getting their lessons under trees on different parts of his farm. just mentioned composed a class. They were learning geography. Never did I hear this science taught in such an agreeable manner. The whole class sat down before him, and the lecture was after the manner of a conversation. The teacher entertained them with anecdotes of places, picked up from modern travels, all of which were new to me, and extremely interesting to young people. The class asked him questions, which he answered with ease and politeness. In short, I began to think I saw the father of a family talking to his children, rather than a schoolmaster instructing his boys. After this class was dismissed a second was called, who said a lesson in the same easy manner upon the history of England. A third class concluded the exercises of the forenoon by exhibiting specimens of their skill in a very common and useful species of composition. They had been made to correspond with each other, and their letters were examined with the most scrupulous exactness by their master in grammar, punctuation, the proper place for capitals, and in perspicuity of expression. I recollect he found fault with only one of this class, and that was for not placing dots over the i and strokes across the t as often as those letters occurred in his performance. Such omissions, he said, betray haste and carelessness, and lead gradually to the writing of a slovenly and unintelligible hand. On the afternoon of the second day I spent with this excellent man his whole school accompanied him into his meadow, where they assisted him in hauling home his hay, and securing it in his barnyard. In our walk home, after the • Extract from a letter written "to a friend in Wilmington, Delaware," and published in the Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine, (Phil.,) for Sept., 1790, under the title of "Improved Mode of Education." †The blank in this letter can probably be filled with the name of Rev. Timothy Dwight, who had the most remarkable private academy in New England, at Greenfield Hill in the town of Fairfield, on the post-road between New York and Boston, between the years 1783 and 1795. work of the day was over, he gave his boys a lecture upon the different kinds of grasses; he mentioned the time of the first use of each of them in agriculture, the best methods of cultivating them, and the different kinds that were most proper for different animals. The conversation at meals was truly delightful and instructing. It would fill a small volume to mention all the new and useful observations which fell from him at his table, all of which were calculated to improve the understandings, or better the hearts of his pupils. I shall only mention one thing which struck me very agreeably. He read a chapter in the New Testament every morning, and one in the Old Testament every evening, as part of family worship. After reading a chapter in the evening, he explained the meaning of many of the ceremonies of the Jewish church, and showed their fulfillment in the history of our Saviour, or in some of the doctrines of Christianity. The next evening he examined his scholars upon the subject of the preceding lecture. Their answers were extremely pertinent and satisfactory. A better mode could not be devised to instruct young people in the Christian religion, or to furnish them with arguments against the deists. Before I parted with my kind host, I asked him whether he had adopted the idea of Dr. Franklin, Dr. Rush, and others, respecting the inutility of the dead languages. He told me that he had adopted it in part, but that the prejudices of his countrymen forbade his banishing those languages entirely from his school. He said that he had discovered a new way of teaching them, and that none of his boys ever spent more than two years, in learning them. He added, that he thought the time was coming when it would be as absurd to teach the Latin and Greek languages indiscriminately in our schools, as it would now be to navigate a vessel by coasting instead of a magnet. * "BOARDING ROUND" IN VERMONT. * We make the following extract from a little pamphlet, illustrative of the life of a country schoolmaster in Vermont, when "boarding round" was practiced. Monday-Went to board at Mr. B—'s; had a baked gander for dinner;. suppose from its size, the thickness of the skin and other venerable appearances, to have been one of the first settlers of Vermont; made a slight impression on the patriarch's breast. Supper-cold gander and potatoes; family consisting of the man, good wife, daughter Peggy, four boys, Pompey the dog, and a brace of cats; fire built in the square room about nine o'clock, and a pile of wood lay by the fireplace; saw Peggy scratch her fingers, and couldn't take the hint; felt squeamish about the stomach, and talked of going to bed; Peggy looked sullen, and put out the fire in the square room; went to bed, and dreamed of having eaten a quantity of stone wall. Tuesday.—Cold gander for breakfast, swamp tea and some nut cake-the latter some consolation. Dinner-the legs, &c., of the gander, done up warm-one nearly dispatched. Supper-the other leg, &c., cold; went to bed as Peggy was carrying in the fire to the square room; dreamed I was a mud turtle, and got on my back and could not get over again. Wednesday.-Cold gander for breakfast; complained of sickness, and could eat nothing. Dinner-wings, &c., of the gander warmed up; did my best to destroy them, for fear they should be left for supper; did not succeed; dreaded supper all the afternoon. Supper-hot Johnny cakes; felt greatly revived; thought I had got clear of the gander, and went to bed for a good night's rest; disappointed; very cool night, and couldn't keep warm in bed; got up and stopped the broken window with my coat and vest; no use; froze the tip of my nose and one ear before morning. Thursday.-Cold gander again; felt much discouraged to see the gander not half gone; went visiting for dinner and supper; slept abroad, and had pleasant dreams. |