tion should be given in industrial employments. In the smaller cities the schools would need to differ little from those in the country, but in the larger cities there should be more advanced schools for pupils seeking more advanced instruction, and here tuition fees would serve to exclude the masses, while scholarships might be provided for such of the poor as were capable of benefiting by them.

Upon the basis of these opinions a Board of Educational Reform was created in 1795, with Rottenhann as president, and a membership of great ability, who, however, had generally more respect for the existing system than was shown by him. This Board was continued for several years and made numerous reports, but no decisive action was taken by the Emperor until 1802, when the Educational Sessions were abolished and the action of the Teachers' Associations was made merely advisory. Finally, in August, 1805, was published the "Constitution of the German Common Schools," which has for the most part continued since in force as the school law of Austria.

The principal provisions of this Constitution were the following:-The supervision of the trivial and country high schools rested first with the respective pastors, and secondly, with prominent schoolmen among the ecclesiastics, especially the deans of the district, who reported upon the instruction and discipline of the schools to the episcopal consistory and upon other subjects to the circle magistrate, and these in their turn to the provincial authorities. The district superintendent at the provincial capital was also chief superintendent and general referee for the province. The provincial authorities reported to the State Board of Education. Trivial schools were required in every parish, with a separation of the sexes, at least in the cities. There should be at least one high school in each circle, the higher class of which was open to girls, only where there were no special female schools. The high schools at the provincial capitals must be normal schools, besides which there should be female schools for the better classes, under the charge of female teachers. The trivial course was limited to the reading, writing, and understanding of the native language, with occasional instruction in grammar, the fundamental rules of arithmetic, religious instruction, vocal music, instruction in the duties of the laboring class, and in simple manual occupations. The teaching here was to be primarily directed to the cultivation and exercise of the memory and the teachers were restricted to the explanations given in the text-books. In the trivial schools of the larger towns a third class should be added for more extended instruction in grammar and arithmetic, as well as in the elements of geometry and mechanics. In the high schools, the third class should receive instruction in grammar and written composition in addition to the usual branches in city schools, while for the children of tradesmen and artisans there should be a fourth class, continuing two years, with a yet more extended course including geography and natural history. Trivial schools were required to have but one teacher, with assistants if necessary; high schools should have

as many teachers as classes, and normal or model schools a director in addition. Twenty hours of instruction per week were required, increased in the last half-year of the third class to twenty-five, and in the fourth class to thirty. In half-day schools the larger scholars should receive fifteen, and the younger eight hours. High school teachers must have received at least six months, and trivial school teachers three months, of normal instruction, but teachers' "certificates" were given them only after a year's trial and a subsequent examination. Like certificates of qualification were required of private teachers. The qualifications and duties of teachers were defined with great strictness, and the methods of appointment of teachers and school officers were carefully regulated. High school teachers and their families had the right of pension, and trivial school teachers could claim the aid of an assistant in case of incapacity from age or prolonged sickness. Instruction should be gratuitous to children of the poor and of soldiers in the army, and text-books should be supplied to them at the rate of one book for two scholars. The number of scholars under a single teacher could not exceed 80-100, or twice this number in half-day schools, but no new school could be established unless plainly necessary and when the community could defray most of the expense. Plans to be followed in their erection were provided; the school furniture should be supplied by the patron, but the terms of concurrence between the patron, the territorial lord, and the community remained as before respecting the other expenses. No change was made in the previous regulations respecting the Protestant and Jewish schools, similar qualifications being required of the teachers, and the Jewish schools remaining wholly under Catholic superintendence.

Spendou was appointed School Referee in connection with the newly organized State Board of Education. In 1808 the archbishops and bishops were required to so far watch over the common schools as to secure purity of religious instruction to the Catholic children, but until 1834 no essential modification was made in this school code of 1804. Among the principal changes were a slight improvement in the pensions, salaries, and relations of the teachers, and their recognition as State servants of the class of "honoratiores," for which, however, the carrying on of any trade was forbidden. Increased care and strictness were required in the examination and choice of teachers, and the normal course for teachers of the trivial schools was extended to six months; three years' service was required prior to the permanent settlement of a normal or high school teacher, and no foreigner could be admitted to any position. Competitive examinations were introduced for teacherships of drawing, penmanship, and other branches of the fourth class. The number of schools was also increased by permitting branch (excurrendo) schools, attended as often as necessary by teachers who still retained connection with the regular schools, and the organization of the adult schools was rendered more perfect. Yet more stringent measures were taken to se

OUTLINE

OF AN INSTITUTION FOR THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS.

BY JAMES G. CARTER.

THE following outline constitutes Essay VI. of Essays on Popular Education, published by Mr. Carter in the Boston Patriot, with the signature of Franklin, in the winter of 1824-25. The series was commenced on the 17th of December, 1824; and the essay containing the outline was published on the 10th and 15th of February, 1825.

It will do but little good for the Legislature of the State to make large appropriations directly for the support of schools, till a judicious expenditure of them can be insured. And in order to this, we must have skillful teachers at hand. It will do but little good to class the children till we have instructors properly prepared to take charge of the classes. It will do absolutely no good to constitute an independent tribunal to decide on the qualifications of teachers, while they have not had the opportunities necessary for coming up to the proper standard. And it will do no good to overlook and report upon their success, when we know beforehand that they have not the means of success. It would be beginning wrong, too, to build houses and to tell your young and inexperienced instructors to teach this or to teach that subject, however desirable a knowledge of such subjects might be, while it is obvious that they cannot know how, properly, to teach any subject. The science of teaching-for it must be made a science-is first, in the order of nature, to be inculcated. And it is to this point that the public attention must first be turned, to effect any essential improvement.

And here let me remark upon a distinction in the qualifications of teachers, which has never been practically made; though it seems astonishing that it has so long escaped notice. I allude to the distinction between the possession of knowledge, and the ability to communicate it to other minds. When we are looking for a teacher, we inquire how much he knows, not how much he can communicate; as if the latter qualification were of no consequence to us. Now it seems to me that parents and children, to say the least, are as much interested in the latter qualification of their instructor as in the former.

Though a teacher cannot communicate more knowledge than he possesses, yet he may possess much, and still be able to impart but little. And the knowledge of Sir Isaac Newton could be of but trifling use to a school, while it was locked up safely in the head of a country schoolmaster. So far as the object of a school or of instruction, therefore, is the acquisition of knowledge, novel as the opinion may seem, it does appear to me that both parents and pupils are even more interested in the part of their teacher's knowledge which they will be likely to get, than in the part which they certainly cannot get.

One great object in the education of teachers which it is so desirable on every account to attain, is to establish an intelligible language of communication be tween the instructor and his pupil, and enable the former to open his head and his heart, and infuse into the other some of the thoughts and feelings which lie hid there. Instructors and pupils do not understand each other. They do not speak the same language. They may use the same words; but this can hardly be called the same language, while they attach to them such very different meanings. We must either, by some magic or supernatural power, bring children at once to comprehend all our abstract and difficult terms, or our teachers must unlearn themselves, and come down to the comprehension of children. One of these alternatives is only difficult, while the other is impossible.

The direct, careful preparation of instructors for the profession of teaching, must surmount this difficulty; and I doubt if there be any other way in which

it can be surmounted. When instructors understand their profession, that is, in a word, when they understand the philosophy of the infant mind, what powers are earliest developed, and what studies are best adapted to their development, then it will be time to lay out and subdivide their work into an energetic system of public instruction. Till this step toward a reform, which is preliminary in its very nature, be taken, every other measure must be adopted in the dark; and, therefore, be liable to fail utterly of its intended result. Houses, and funds, and books are all, indeed, important; but they are only the means of enabling the minds of the teachers to act upon the minds of the pupils. And they must, inevitably, fail of their happiest effects, till the minds of the teachers have been prepared to act upon those of their pupils to the greatest advantage.

If, then, the first step toward a reform in our system of popular education be the scientific preparation of teachers for the free schools, our next inquiry becomes, How can we soonest and most perfectly achieve an object on every account so desirable? __ The ready and obvious answer is, establish an institution for the very purpose. To my mind, this seems to be the only measure which will insure to the public the attainment of the object. It will be called a new project. Be it so. The concession does not prove that the project is a bad one, or a visionary, or an impracticable one. Our ancestors ventured to do what the world had never done before, in so perfect a manner, when they established the free schools. Let us also do what they have never so well done yet, and establish an institution for the exclusive purpose of preparing instructors for them. This is only a second part, a development or consummation of the plan of our fathers. They foresaw the effect of universal intelligence upon national virtue and happiness; and they projected the means of securing to themselves and to us universal education. They wisely did a new thing under the sun. It has proved to be a good thing. We now enjoy the results of their labors, and we are sensible of the enjoyment. Their posterity have praised them, loudly praised them, for the wisdom of their efforts. Let us, then, with hints from them, project and accomplish another new thing, and confer as great a blessing on those who may come after us. Let us finish the work of our fathers, in regard to popular education, and give to it its full effect. Let us double, for we easily may, the happy influences of an institution which has already attracted so much notice from every part of our country, and drawn after it so many imitations, and send it, thus improved, down to posterity for their admiration.

If a seminary for the purpose of educating teachers scientifically be essential in order to give the greatest efficacy to our system of popular education, then, in the progress of the discussion, the three following questions arise in the order in which they are stated. By whom should the proposed institution be established? What would be its leading features? And what would be some of the peculiar advantages to the public which would result from it! To answer these several questions at length would require a book; while I have, at present, only leisure to prepare one or two newspaper essays. A few hints, therefore, upon the above three topics are all that I dare profess to give, and more than I fear I can give, either to my own satisfaction or that of those readers who may have become interested in the subject.

The institution, from its peculiar purpose, must necessarily be both literary and scientific in its character. And although, with its design constantly in view, we could not reasonably expect it to add, directly, much to the stock of what is now called literature, or to enlarge much the boundaries of what is now called science, yet, from the very nature of the subject to which it would be devoted, and upon which it would be employed, it must in its progress create a kind of literature of its own, and open a new science somewhat peculiar to itself-the science of the development of the infant mind, and the science of communicating knowledge from one mind to another while in a different stage of maturity. The tendency of the inquiries which must be carried on, and the discoveries which would be constantly made, in a seminary for this new purpose, would be to give efficacy to the pursuits of other literary and scientific institutions. Its influence, therefore, though indirect, would be not the less powerful upon the cause of literature and the sciences generally. These remarks may seem to anticipate another part of my subject; but they are introduced here to show that a seminary for the education of teachers would stand, at least, on as favorable a footing in

be too great to secure to all that degree of education without which the general right of suffrage would be an absurdity, the following measures were proposed for the increase and improvement of schools, their more judicious and careful supervision, and the higher training and more favorable position of teachers. It was proposed that the support of the common schools should rest upon the communities, all contributions that still remained obligatory upon other parties being paid into the treasury of the community, and the province and State rendering assistance where necessary. No tuition fees should be exacted in the country schools, and all instruction should be exclusively in the native language. Instruction should be given in the knowledge of natural objects, of man, and especially of their native land; also in singing and in physical exercises. Every trivial school should include a third class, with the necessary teachers, and the pastor should be permitted to teach other branches besides religion. In every province there should be a normal school for teachers, with a two or three years' course, to be gradually organized into a Teachers' Seminary. There should also be in each province a cheap school-journal, and the teachers of every city and school-district should, with the pastors, hold a convention at least semi-annually. Every school should be provided with a small library and the necessary apparatus for instruction. The salaries should be fixed and sufficient to enable the teacher to give all his attention to his duties as teacher and chorister, and the communities should make provision for pensions, to which the teachers should contribute. The schools should be superintended by a school committee composed of the pastor and teachers and an equal number from the community, over whom should be the circle or capital school inspector, with three colleagues, also subordinate to the provincial School Council, with which should rest the location of the teachers.

To carry these measures to some extent into immediate execution, regulations were made in September, 1848, that the native languages only should be used in instruction, that the admission and promotion of scholars should occur but at one fixed period annually, that the teachers should select their own methods, that the pastor should provide for the Sunday instruction of adults in religion, and that in the country instruction should be given in orcharding. The conditions of admission to the normal schools were fixed and the course limited temporarily to one year, and numerous conferences were at once organized among the teachers.

In November, 1848, Feuchtersleben was removed and Baron von Hel- fert received the Secretaryship, who for eleven years had charge of the administration of educational affairs, under the new Minister of Instruc tion, Count Thun. Many reforms were introduced during this period which will be more fully detailed in the following section. Among them was, in 1849, the reëstablishment provisionally of the terms of the previous concurrence," which was made necessary by the disturbed relations of the parties and their unwillingness in many cases to bear

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