merit of a teacher by the number of tasks imposed on his pupils; some unreasonably demand a general exemption from punishment for their children, and others are so unmercifully cruel, that we have known boys to be removed from school for not being, as the parents thought, sufficiently flogged. Thus are educators selected or discarded on the most frivolous and unwarrantable grounds.

There are some parents also who, always ready to make the teacher an object of terror to the young, carry inconsistency so far as to complain to him of their idleness at home, or to insist on his punishing them for faults committed out of school and under the paternal roof. Unable to maintain their own authority, they give their children habits of indolence and insubordination, and, afterwards, thoughtlessly call upon the schoolmaster to remedy the evils of their own mismanagement; but, in most cases, his efforts must be vain; and he is blamed for a failure which ought to be attributed solely to themselves. These and innumerable other evils in ordinary education will continue to exercise the most baneful influence on society as long as youth is abandoned by the state to the ignorance of parents, and to the pretensions of every adventurer who speculates on that ignorance. The unlimited and unprotected liberty of education is the plague of Great Britain.

SECT. V.-INCOMPETENCY OF TEACHERS ATTRIBUTABLE TO

PARENTS.

The office of instructor ought, perhaps, to rank with the magistracy; and yet it is the last that any one will choose. It is, with few exceptions, embraced by persons of inferior merit. It is taken up as a last resource by those who have failed in every other calling. But if so many incompetent persons crowd the avenues of tuition, the blame lies on society. Education is not generally appreciated, although its eulogy is in everybody's mouth; hence the business of teaching does not secure a respectable social position; nor does it offer a fair chance of realising an independence—two powerful motives by which men of capacity and information are guided in the choice of a profession. The art of educating has, consistently with the mercantile habits of the people, been made a trade, and that trade, from the ignorance and indifference of society in educational

matters, has become discreditable, laborious, thankless, and unprofitable.

Many parents, being unacquainted with the principles and the essentials of education, are unable to judge of the competency, or estimate the merit of an instructor, and are often influenced in their selection of one by mere pecuniary considerations. They absurdly imagine that any teacher is good enough for a very young child; to a paltry economy they sacrifice his future prospects they run the risk of his imbibing errors and evil habits which no expense or labour can afterwards effectually remove. The fallacies of such notions is sufficiently proved by what precedes, and will be rendered more obvious still throughout this work.

All the anxiety, the trouble, the sacrifices of the instructor, without mentioning his actual services, are above what gold can repay; and yet how many wealthy mothers are there who, while they are extravagantly expensive in their dress, their household, their table, their equipages, and all other personal expenditure, aim at sordid economy in everything regarding the education of their children. They never purchase any but a high-priced article of jewellery, dress, or furniture, aware that it is always the most serviceable; yet, forgetting that none but incompetent teachers are willing to accept low terms, they do not hesitate to offer to any person who would undertake the education of their children what an upper-servant would scorn to accept! Those who make cheapness the highest recommendation of instruction, lay the foundation of their children's misery. They must take the blame on themselves if those children do not turn out as well as they expected.

What Plutarch said on this subject is applicable at the present day :-"There are parents who carry so far the love of money, and indifference for the good of their children, that, from a sordid economy, they select for them tutors without any merit, and whose ignorance is always cheap. Aristippus made one day a pertinent answer to one of these despicable men. As he asked the latter fifty drachms for educating his son, 'How!' exclaimed the father, 'with that sum I would purchase a slave !' 'Do so,' said Aristippus, ' and then you will have two.'"*

The preposterously humble position assigned to the teacher in society, the denial of sympathy for his exertions, and the little value set on his services, are fraught with evil. Slighted and

*Of the Education of Children.

discouraged as he is, he naturally retaliates on society, by a reciprocation of disregard for the parents and indifference for their children; aware, besides, that an increase of ability will not meet with its due reward, or extra solicitude for his pupils with grateful acknowledgment, he feels no desire for self-improvement, or exertion beyond the strict boundaries of his duty. He is, perhaps, of all professional men the most indifferent about acquiring information concerning his profession. Physicians, chemists, or engineers, read with eagerness everything which relates to their pursuits, and investigate every new discovery which proposes to improve their respective arts; but the greater number of instructors, female teachers especially, although generally unacquainted with the art of teaching, to which they have served no apprenticeship, seldom open a book on education, or inquire into the various methods of instruction which daily appear. It must be said also, in justice to the profession, that in many instances, the scantiness of their earnings does not permit them to purchase the books which they ought to study; and, in the case of resident instructors, time is rarely allowed them for selfimprovement.

Every attempt which has been made in this country to diffuse among teachers the information they so much need has proved unsuccessful. In other departments of knowledge, journals, magazines, and reviews, whether literary or scientific, medical, mechanical, or even phrenological, prosper under the auspices of a large community of readers; but the various periodicals which, for the last twenty years, have appeared in succession on matters relative to education, have not been able to prolong their existence beyond four or five years; and, at this moment, the two small periodicals on education, which are published monthly in England, meet with very inadequate support.

In this anomalous state of things, with an ignorance of the requisites of education on the part of both parents and teachers, we cannot be surprised to see so many of the latter promise more than they can accomplish, unqualified, as they are, to fulfil the important duties of their office. How frequently do we hear of governesses who undertake to teach everything-fancy-work and history, penmanship and geography, arithmetic and composition, dancing and astronomy, French, music, painting, and we know not what else. Jennies of all trades, who give their pupils a very liberal education for a very trifling remuneration.

A respectable professor of mathematics would not venture on

teaching the fine arts, nor a professor of music the sciences; no man, in fact, but a quack, would lay claim to the mastery of two opposite branches of instruction; and females, mere girls, even, who have received but a very ordinary education, will often undertake to teach the most heterogeneous medley, enough to engross the attention of a dozen men of the most comprehensive minds. But so great is the blindness of some parents, that they confide the education of their young families to inexperienced women, who can know nothing of the art of teaching, and very little of the things which they profess to teach; for, in most cases, their limited means have not permitted them to obtain a liberal education; in fact, owing to the unjust depreciation in which the ministers of education are held, none but persons in the inferior walks of life adopt teaching as a profession, with the exception, perhaps, of a few who are driven into it by misfortune.

SECT. VI.-MEANS OF RAISING THE PROFESSION IN PUBLIC
ESTIMATION.

The career of instruction will continue to be pursued by persons of inferior merit, so long as it does not offer to its candidates the consideration bestowed on the learned professions, and which is claimed by those who, in the consciousness of selfdignity, feel their own superiority. It is the business of a government truly anxious for the good of the people to employ every means to raise in public estimation the educational office. Parents have it not in their power to effect any change in this respect: they are, in general, incompetent to decide what is to be taught, and how it is to be taught; nor have they any means of judging of the competency of teachers; the government alone can ascertain their qualifications, elevate their general standard of attainments, prescribe the most useful course of instruction for the different callings of society, propagate the best methods of teaching, and institute normal schools as a first element of national education.

Whilst the liberty of studies should be unrestrained, the liberty of teaching should be subjected to the restrictions demanded by common prudence, by the well-being of society, and the respect due to the profession. Instructors should be required to prepare seriously for their office; they should pass examinations, take degrees, and obtain diplomas. The art of educating and instructing should, in fact, be made a fourth learned profession.

Upon these grounds a recompense worthy of the service would be offered to the teacher, who would thereby rise in public estimation; for, in this country, more than in any other, wealth is the test of respectability. Superior minds would then be found to devote their time and abilities to tuition; so that the average of capacity, information, and independence becoming high among the members of the educational profession, their social position would be proportionably elevated.

In the mean time, teachers ought to unite their efforts to redress the grievances under which they have too long suffered. By holding conferences and forming associations among themselves, they could compare each other's views, and, hence, improve their methods of instruction, raise their qualifications, and elevate their professional character. By these means, also, they would render more efficient services to the community; and, finally, influence as well as enlighten public opinion.*

However, none of these means, indispensable as they are for elevating the profession and, consequently, the standard of morality and intellectuality among the people, would be so effective as the interference of the State in organising for all classes a liberal system of National Education, in rescuing teachers from the control of parents, and in creating among them a gradation of rank and emolument, analogous to that which exists in the church and the army. A prospect of advancement is indispensable, to attach superior minds to any career or profession. The government should confer honorary distinctions, or pensions, on the teachers who, by the length of their services, the success of their methods, the improvement of some branch of instruction, or by any other means, have effectually promoted the objects of education and thus advanced the great cause of humanity and civilisation.

"If this were the country it boasts itself to be," says Mr. Wyse ; "if it were a country in which the public really aspired to elevate the human mind, to assign to intellectual superiority its proper station, long since its laws would have regarded the profession of teacher as one, in a great degree, invested with paternal and · religious rights.† This eminent educationist, not satisfied with

*The Royal College of Preceptors, lately instituted with a view to advance education by the improvement of educators and schools, has already effected considerable good towards this desirable object. If the generous efforts of its enlightened members are responded to by the public, a boon of inestimable value will be conferred on this country.

† Speech in the House of Commons.

VOL. I.