History of Schools in New York City. ra time the real wants of elemenstruction began to be better appreand the Infant Schools were made n important mission in the progress tary education in this country. Imchanges were introduced from time , until that plan of primary schools veloped which now forms so imporid admirable a feature in the present of education in our city schools. withstanding some of the evil pracf these Infant Schools are still pered in many primary schools, yet the s for elementary instruction are y progressing toward better and natural methods of training the of children, so as to develop more ll their powers. THE FIRST SCHOOL-TAX. first tax in the city of New York e support of schools was raised in by assessing one-eightieth of one per on the valuation of the taxable propof the city. Although the Legislature reviously authorized such a tax, in - of the tax-payers it may be added, his tax was raised in accordance with quest of a memorial to the common il, signed principally by the wealthcitizens. In 1831 this tax was ined to three-eightieths of one per cent. HE PUBLIC SCHOOLS MADE FREE. e plan which was adopted by the c School Society of charging tuition ose pupils whose parents were able y, at rates varying from twenty-five to one dollar per quarter, and of ng on a free-list those whose parents not able to pay tuition, was found to te prejudicially to the success of the ls. The free-list was gradually ined, and the amount of tuition-fees re1 from year to year, until 1832, when arges for tuition were abandoned, and chools of the Public School Society made free to all. ring 1832 important changes were in the management of the primary ols. Simple apparatus was introduced d in illustrations of the lessons; and monitorial system was more generally 145 the number of primary schools during 1832, '33, and '34, it was found necessary in 1834 to open a school for training those who were employed as monitors in these schools. Pupils were selected from the highest classes of the grammar-schools, and while in the training school, were known as cadets. These were subsequently appointed monitors, and received the small salary of fifty dollars a year. After due experience and success as monitors they were promoted, and then called "passed monitors." From this class, the assistant teachers were selected. Additional grammar and primary schools were established from year to year. In 1838 there were sixteen grammar, and thirty-two primary schools, besides two colored grammar, and some three or four colored primary schools. THE FIRST COLORED SCHOOL. In 1787 the first colored school was founded in New York, by the Manumission Society. During the first twenty years its average attendance varied from forty to sixty pupils. In 1809 the monitorial system of instruction was introduced into this school, and the number of pupils increased. In 1834 the Manumission Society transferred colored school No. 1, in Mulberry-street, and the several primary schools which they had organized, to the Public School Society. PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN 1840. The Public School Society had under its care, in 1840, fourteen grammar-schools, each with separate departments for boys and girls, and two schools, with boys and girls in the same department; making sixteen grammar schools, or thirty departments. There were also two colored grammar-schools, each with two departments; and six colored primary schools. In addition to these, there were twelve primary departments in the same buildings with the grammar-schools, and forty-six separate primary schools; making a total of ninety-eight school departments, with an aggregate attendance of about 20,000 children. The total expenditures by the so EDUCATIONAL MONTHLY. lordly warriors too, MAY, 1864. THE WAR AND EDUCATION. WAR, waged against an unholy rebel lion, is a most beneficent power. The sword, exercised upon the errors of ignorance and treason, is a glorious instrument. And yet war and the sword, however vast and beautiful the regions which they may open up to the benign influences of civilization, are at first and directly destructive to the best interests of education. Generally, experience has afforded bitter proof of this remark. We say generally, for when a Cardinal Ximenes of Spain, pausing in the career of foreign conquest, returns home to bestow the vast resources of his wealth upon the erection of the splendid University of Alcalá; and when the citizens of a Leyden, upon the very day of their deliverance from one of the most appalling sieges known in history, and while preparing again to pour out their blood and treasures in fighting the hated Philip, turn from such dismal tragedies to lay the foundations of a great school of learning the cases are felt to be so entirely remarkable, and so exceptional, as to excite the astonishment of mankind. The mailed hand of war, once desperately at the throats of a people, leaves them little leisure to think of, and less superfluous strength to provide for, their intellectual and spiritual wants. The deso buried in ruins the newly discovered Am along with them, thei natural history, thei and scientific pictu other mark of their h The campaigns of not only stripped th and the fields of labo ulated educational in many a lad hardly f from the school-room converted into a rud dier. And how many footprints of war car plains of Italy, in th once glorious archite galleries of art onc triumphs of painting the loss of manuscript and priceless value to as in the impoverishm of the masses-the h weary with telling. Whatever instances may be adduced to sh consequences, that w sometimes to have qu spirit of a people into as was the result of th fact remains unshake injure the cause of e time, and certainly do extent to those directl In regard to our ow struggle is carried on , but by volunteers, among whom are of the highest culture,-how can it be vise? That professors of our colleould be called from the learned inations of the study, and the brilliant veries of the laboratory; that hundreds r gifted and partly developed youth d be drawn from the high mental exes and noble strifes of the class-room he utter idleness of the camp, and the 1 encounters of the field; that many can have their eyes diverted from rize of academic honors to the glitteraubles of fortune, which in these days range transitions weave themselves ly, like Jonah's gourd, over the head ery other adventurer; that the minds ose who do remain at the "seats of Muses," can be hurried away from literary tasks to be filled with the ing accounts of battles, marches, es, and the daily inauguration of some and noisy enterprise; that the invenskill of thousands hitherto engaged in ying the principles of knowledge to production of curious machinery and al arts, can be wasted in bloodshed or ed into other channels,-as is inferred the greatly diminished business of patent-office; that the ambition of a little children as well as of older ones ld be inflamed by almost every public t, and by almost all conversation, with ionate aspirations to mingle in all the ality, pride, pomp, and circumstance lorious war";-that all these influences, many more not to be mentioned, but ving out of military operations the t gigantic ever known, and exerting a hty power, can happen without seriousundermining the present, if not the perment foundations of education, is too ar to admit of denial, and too sad to be templated without fear and trembling. w different all this from that "calm and asing solitariness," in which the mind, ed with cheerful and confident thoughts," mains its ripest development! How difent from "beholding the bright counte 147 delightful studies," in the enjoyment of which the genius of Milton was inspired to the lofty creations of Paradise Lost, and which seems necessary to the student, if his spirit is to glow in the "gentle mastery" of knowledge, and mount up to scale its grandest heights! It is with no desire to present a gloomy picture that we have written this, but simply to put the friends of liberal education on guard; that they, by being forewarned, may be forearmed against all the dangers that threaten. Of course it is to be hoped that our people, having already so largely, we might say, so universally, enjoyed the privileges of the school-house, will never forget nor foreĝo them. But it will not do to rest idly in this hope. Every teacher, every professor, ought to be more intensely alive, more ardent in his calling than ever before. We are glad to see that some of them are so, as is evident from the movements recently inaugurated liberally and permanently to endow certain colleges and other literary institutions. All hail! every such effort to take a wise advantage of the present abundance of greenbacks! every friend of the cause exert his influence to the utmost to fill these institutions with scholars; and at the same time, let him demand that the standard of scholarship be kept up-and if possible, elevated. NATIONAL EDUCATION, Let T has been heretofore shown in the col should be nationalized in the United States. It has been affirmed to be one of those paramount objects of general concern which not only justify but demand the exercise of the national authority in their behalf. It has been proven to be indispensable to national unity and national strength. For unless intelligence is made universal, suffrage cannot safely be made universal. And where suffrage is not universal, freedom cannot be universal. so bes demonstrated that when education is left to the optional action of individual States, it will be but partially provided for in some of them, and entirely neglected or perverted in others. Hence our General Government, representing and conserving the interests of all the States, and of the whole people, should exercise its power and influence to secure the means of education to "every child whom its soil maintains." And it should aim to provide such an education as befits the character and harmonizes with the spirit and destiny of the nation. Our present State systems are too often vague and indefinite in the ends proposed, while in their practical working they are inefficient and unsatisfactory. The character and extent of the course of studies in our common schools, for example, are scarcely yet determined with any precision in a single State. The standard of qualification for teachers is practically no better regulated. The attendance of the children upon the schools provided for their instruction, is left to the caprice or to the supposed convenience of parents and guardians, many times too ignorant or too penurious (or both) to appreciate the necessity of a careful and assiduous cultivation of the youthful faculties. That close and faithful supervision which is indispensable to the efficient progress of any enterprise, and especially of a system of schools, is as yet scarcely known in most of the States, even where education is recognized as both a public and private necessity. In many of the States no adequate pecuniary provision, either through a permanent fund or by taxation, has been made for the support of educational institutions. There is yet a lamentable want of organization in these State systems, and hence a waste of individual and collective effort. There is but little of that cohesion and unity in the various parts of these systems which are indispensable to the highest results in practice. And another defect is found in the fact, that our schools, generally, seem to ignore those studies which tend to train the youth of our country for the high duties of citizen ship. These studies of the peculiar struc ment, of the relation to the whole, and of of the citizen under th prehend the infusion hearts of the young of triotism and of devoti do not succeed, to the sirable and necessary citizen in the spirit of in casting him, as it w the Constitution. Now the question is interfere in behalf of th it should interfere is its first duty is that of self-elevation. The n sublime purpose of e how can it educate its diligent and persisten and forces at its comm rection? It will be ou hereafter some of the which seem adapted to SALEM WE regret to annou his residence in Aurora of the Hon. Salem T third year of his age. for considerably more prominently identified popular education in York, and few men, eit have contributed so lar Through all the yea useful life, he was a clo industrious student, and able to draw from the of his mind treasures the teacher's institute, convention, and in the s equally gifted and happy and doings. He was ev kind, genial, generous knew but to love, whor to praise. Educational Intelligence. -re is one chapter in his life which we heard Mr. Town relate, and which is F interest and instruction, while it at ame time illustrates the energy and verance with which he set out on his ssional career. While in college, he ked that he imbibed the notion, is far too common among students, at his graduation his education would mplete, and that he would know all is worth knowing. But at the close college course, an examination of his al resources satisfied him that as yet new but little, that he was then only y to begin to know. He found that sely what he most needed,—a knowlof men and things,—he was profoundnorant of. He accordingly resolved end six months in a course of general ing and reflection. To this end, he red a quiet room in a retired place, employed a person to supply him with and to build his fires, in order that y moment of his time might be seduly devoted to his work. He first comced a course of history: we believe he an with Plutarch's Lives, and thus spent r by hour, and month by month in peng, analyzing, and digesting the lives actions of men in the ages of the past. plan was to read with great attention ew pages, stopping at some convenient nt to reflect, to weigh, and compare. ring this latter process, he would rise m the table, pace back and forth, in his -m, throwing his hands backwards and wards, and thus secure the needed physexercise, without loss of time from his dies. After he had thoroughly digested haracter or a subject, he would frequentspend a portion of his time in writing 140 commentaries. and strengthening his mental impressions, gave him the "pen of a ready writer," and in a measure fitted him for the preparation of the useful works which have added so much to the educational facilities of the present time. There are other incidents in the life of Salem Town which we should like to relate did space permit. We earnestly hope that some one, who was intimately acquainted with him, and who can gain access to his papers, will prepare, for the benefit of the profession which he so long adorned, a faithful biography of one who, but for his extreme modesty, would have been more widely known while living. If a faithful history of his private and professional life could be prepared and published, it could not fail to be a most instructive and valuable addition to the educational literature of the country. It is impossible that a man like Salem Town should not have left behind him the most This, besides deepening ample materials for such a work. If these few and hasty words, prompted by a deep feeling of affectionate gratitude for the good man, should chance to fall under the observation of his immediate friends and rela tives, we hope they will consider our suggestion. We can truly say of Salem Town, in his honored grave: "Peace to the just man's memory,—let it grow Greener with years, and blossom through the flight Of ages; let the mimic canvas show Of all but heaven; and in the book of fame, EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. ELECTION OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERTY.-The Legislature has filled the vacanes in the Board of Regents of the Univer the place opened by the resignation of John Lorimer Graham, and of Alexander S. Johnson to that of the late Dr. Campbell. |