If any who have sent &c., some of which may have failed to reach us. orders or communications needing to be answered, fail to receive the papers ordered or the replies expected, during the present month, they may conclude that their letters have not been received.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN OHIO.

The following notice of the Union School in Xenia, is extracted from the "Torch Light."

"The first session of the Union School closed on Friday, the 20th of July last, on which day, and the day before, the examination of the pupils took place. The session commenced in April last, amid doubts and fears on thr part of many, as to the practicability of the system, but a few weeks trial has proved them groundless.

The general health of the school has been good, which must be attributed in part, to the fine airy building in which the children assemble.→→ The examination as far as observed, was highly creditable to teachers and pupils. They all exhibited a promptness, that was truly commendable. The exercises were varied and well arranged; welll calculated to keep up the interest, not only in the spectator, but the pupil, conducted simply as the daily routine of recitations. Examinations as generally conducted in our schools, might more properly be called Exhibitions, for the reason that they are mostly arranged for the occasion, without giv> ing a fair specimen of the plan of daily instruction they practice.

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The system of instruction established here, is a decided improvement over the old, as practiced in most of our Common Schools. It has work ed well in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Massillon and other places, and there is every indication the most sanguine could wish, that it will succeed here. Defects may exist, but they will be cured by time and experience. It has been made an object to give instruction on subjects of al kinds, that concern, more or less, our daily and hourly business transactions, in every department of life; subjects that have been and are still neglected entirely in most of our Common Schools. These instructions are communicated in every form and manner, so that no mind will be passed by, or fail to receive some useful knowledge. The pupil is not, as of old, kept sitting in the stocks and poring over his book all day long, but there is a continual change of scene, that keeps the attention arrested. His studies never become irksome. His mind is relieved from the book, by lectures on different topics, as they arise in his recitations, by drawings of different things, illustrative of the subject,-by singing, and the principles of music, and other digressions from the regular routine, to subjects of general utility.

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The exercises in mental Arithmetic are invaluable. They are a relief to the mind after the tedious calculations on the slate or black board; they are more practical. They lead the mind of the pupil on from step

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to step, without the aid of writing, through long processes, and are well calculated to make quick and accurate accountants.

Instruction in Civil Government, heretofore totally neglected, has been incorporated as a part of the system. Many young men have grown up in our midst, without knowing in fact the names of the offices of our State or National Government, much less their most common principles. This evil can and will be corrected by thoroughly training the rising generation in the nature and object of those institutions they will soon be called on to sustain by their votes and money.

The teachers in this institution during the last session, have been efficient, attentive at all times to their duties. It has been their practice to meet once a week for the purpose of consultation, to give each other the benefit of any improvement in the mode of teaching, they may have discovered through the week, and compare views on different subjects pertaining to their several departments.

The following account of the Public Schools of Newark, (to which allusion was made on page 30 of the present volume,) is furnished by A. W. DENNIS, Esq, the Secretary of the Board of Education, and Superintendent of Schools in Licking County.

"The schools of this town are now organized under the Akron school law, and are, every thing considered, in a very flourishing and prosperous condition.

At this time we have ten schools and twelve teachers. The schools are divided and classed as follows: Six Primary Schools for male and female pupils, one male and one female Secondary school, in each of which two teachers are employed, besides the male and female departments of the High School. The Primary Schools are located in different parts of the town, and are taught by Miss Lydia M. Little, Caroline L. Seymour, Elizabeth M. Morgan, Ann Dunham, Eliza Harris and Ann Jane O'Conner. The Secondary Schools are also situated in different parts of the town. The mule is taught by Mr. Charles H. Kibler and Miss Susan H. Bushnell, the female by Misses Caroline and Sophia Carter. Both departments of the High School are in the same building, but in separate The male department is taught by A. Judson Buel, Esq., a graduate of Madison University, New York, who is also Superintendent of all the public schools in town. Miss Sarah Niles, a graduate of the State Normal School, Albany, N. Y., has charge of the female department of the High School.

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There are at this time enrolled in the several schools, near six hundred scholars.

The Board of Education have adopted a uniform set of text-books, and prescribed a systematic course of study for each school. The greatest disadvantage experienced is, the want of good school houses, the Board having to rely almost entirely on rented rooms.

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A lot containing over an acre of ground, and situated in a pleasant part of the town, has been purchased, on which it is intended to build a stone or brick school house, sufficiently large to accommodate five or six hundred scholars. A tax of $4,000 has been levied, the greatest proportion of which will be appropriated to the erection of this building, and it is expected that it will be completed about the 1st of October, 1850. The whole cost of lots and building, will be six or eight thousand dollars.

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LANCASTER UNION SCHOOL.

Above we present our readers a neatly engraved view of the Union School House, recently erected for the north part of the town of Lancaster, Fairfield Co. The building is 80 by 56 feet; each story is divided into four apartments, and the house will accommodate about 400 schol In front of the main entrance is a spacious hall, in which are ante rooms for each of the separate school rooms, The whole cost of the build ng and grounds was about $6000.

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When will the Boards of Education in Dayton, Xenia, Perrysburg and other places where good school houses have been erected, present the public with similar engravings? Nothing, perhaps, is needed to stimulate the people in a large number of towns in the State to act in this matter, but to inform them what has been done in other places.

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT.

In visiting the numerous schools of New York, one has an opportunity to see the various kinds of government in use in different places. In most of the schools good order is maintained without severity, but in some with much less trouble and fuss than in others. In some of the female schools the changes of exercise, and the necessary and calisthenic evolutions are performed without a word being said by either teacher or scholar. The order is given in pantomime, and there seems absolutely to be better attention from the scholars, than if the order had been given in loud tones and with great authority. The ear, being constantly used, becomes dull and heavy; but language addressed to the sharp, quick eye, secures the attention.

We may go into the large boys' school, and we shall perhaps see the teacher take up a tremendous bell, large enough for a hotel dinner bell,' and jingle it with great fury; but this not, at first, effecting his object, itis jingled a second time, and the teacher informs the boys that he must and he will have order. This ominous communication produces a full-all is hushed or nearly so, and he must be a Sadducee that could not see and believe that the spirit of mischief had been exercised, and that the school was in excellent order!

We pass to another school, and we find all the scholars and all the teachers industriously engaged. Every thing is proceeding in order, and there is no trouble, no fuss, and nothing is said about order. When it becomes necessary that any general order should be given for any change of exercise, or for dismission, the teacher steps to the desk and just touches a small bell, and the business is suspended, and the atten tion is all given to the expected order or direction. This last teacher is a man who uses no redundant words of authority. His expletives, if he ever uses such, are for the enforcement of instruction, and not for order. He says pleasantly and quietly to one, do this, and he doeth it, knowing that it would not be well for him to disobey. He never threatens, but he sometimes promises, and always fulfils his promise to the letter. He has but few rules, and those are easily understood and remembered. He does not make long or prosy homilies to the boys about their conduct, but, occasionally, at the opening or closing of the school a few pertinent remarks as a direction for the governing of their conduct.— They all understand that he means what he says, and they govern themselves accordingly.

The examples which we have cited, by way of illustration, are not mere abstractions, but are cases taken from real life, and the teachers, both of them, men of real merit-the one with the big bell working much harder than the one with the small bell, but with less pleasure and smaller success. The teacher's manners, it should be remembered, are generally implanted in the children of his charge. Children are emphatically creatures of imitation, and none but persons of education and refinement of manners should be teachers. A pleasing address is as necessary as learning, in order to produce the best results.—Teachers' Advocate.

[From the Mass. Teacher.] WHAT A TEACHER SHOULD BE.

A TEACHER of youth should be familiar with the branches he is called to teach; but this is not alone sufficient; it is something; united with a happy faculty of instruction and government, it is much. But it is not all there is to be desired in the Guide of the young intellect, the master and companion of the future man. What the teacher is in his general character, his principles of life, his personal habits, his individual objects, his tastes and amusements, his whole bearing and demeanor, has as much to do in forming the spirit and shaping the destiny of his pupils, as his more direct instructions. There is a certain air about a man, or rather a certain spirit in him, which determines, to a great degree, the influence of his whole life. It is not exactly what he knows, or what he says, or what he does; but a peculiar style of character in all these respects— that which makes him one and the same man, everywhere and upon all occasions. If of the right sort, bright, earnest, open, kindly, full of cheerful hopes, and ennobled by reverence for truth and love of goodness, this general character is itself a school-a model for young ambition—a fountain of good thoughts, a silent, insinuating, living stream, nourishnig the roots and opening the buds of the spring.

In this character we find the elements of that ENTHUSIASM, without which great things are never done, by any body, in any sphere of lifeenthusiasm (God in us,) a heavenly, divine spirit, moving us to attempt good ends by manly efforts, and, with an eye fixed on high objects, to labor earnestly and long, with a sturdy heart and a cheerful face.

It is said of Socrates, the greatest master of Ancient Greece, that he saw in a dream, a beautiful white swan flying towards him from the altar of Venus and lighting in his lap. In a little time the bird spread its wings again, and rising into the air, went up, up, till it disappeared in the clear sky. The next day, while he was relating the dream to his pupils, Aristo, came leading to him his son Plato. Socrates fixed his eyes upon the lad, surveyed his broad, high forehead, and looked into his deep, clear eye, and exclaimed, "Behold the swan of my school."— He nursed the boy with parental pride and parental hopes; and the