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cessful teachers of the county have come forward generously and cheerfully to to help along with the work. * On the whole, I believe our meetings have been as interesting, and I may say as profitable to the applicants generally, as they would have been, if conducted by celebrated teachers from abroad, who possibly, might have frightened us all into silence, by their flourishes of analysis, with chalk and rhetoric. * For my own part, I am satisfied that an important step in advance has been taken, and I believe our best educators agree with me in this opinion. Yet, it is hoped, that conventions of County Superintendents will be held before the next general examinations, where notes of experiences may be compared, one with the other, and where new instructions may be received from our able State Superintendent, as guides to a further advance in the right direction."

ALONZO WING, Co. Supt.

WAUKESHA Co.-The Freeman we notice publishes some extracts made by the Editor from the Journal of the County Supt., Mr. ENOS. In this case, the Towns and Districts and Teachers are mentioned by name and number-a somewhat delicate proceeding. But so long as only those thought worthy of commenda. tion are thus presented, no harm may ensue. On a former page is given an extract from the Mass. Teacher on the "Public Criticism of Teachers," which is not without force.

COLUMBIA Co.-Under the head of "Field Notes of a School Visitor," Mr. ROSENKRANS is publishing his observations on the schools visited, in the Columbus Journal, but without mentioning names. The descriptions are such however, that the teachers and schools intended will readily see how the coat fits, and silently appropriate the praise or blame as the case may require.

SHEBOYGAN CO.-The following gives the result of our spring examinations: Whole No. examined,

66 "licensed,

.131

.80, or 61-00

Of the 80, 79 were of 3d grade and 1 of the 2d grade. Of those who made 50-00 correct answers, 16 have been licensed for the summer term, and more will be.

I am now engaged in my summer tour among the schools, I find more thoroughness of instruction than last winter. Thus far I find fewer poor teachers, besides a marked improvement in the energy of some the teachers I visited last term. I know of over 20 copies of Orcutt's Hints, that have gone into the hands of teachers since April 25th. In three schools a regular system of "Object Teaching" has been introduced. This we count as seed sown. Almost every teacher I visit is desirous of having any faults I may have seen in their mode of instruction pointed out, and the right way designated. This shows an honest desire for improvement. Further than this, our teachers are studying, this sumA. W. WHITCOM, Co. Supt.

mer.

FOND DU LAC Co.-We have made several extracts from a Report of some

length to the State Supt., by Mr. Roor, the Co. Supt. He was our first State Supt., and his suggestions evince much thought upon the subject of education; but we find our matter already in type does not leave room for us to do him justice this month. Mr. Root well observes that the great object of the new law is to elevate the schools and the standard of education, and that this depends mainly upon the teachers of the schools.

ADAMS Co.-The following is from the Independent: "I wish to call the attention of the district boards to the item in the law creating the office of County Superintendent, that the school district boards of each district shall visit and inspect schools under their charge as town superintendents used to do; and not only should boards, but parents and friends visit the schools. Do not shun the school house as though it was a den of vipers; frequent visits will do teacher and pupil good. See that your house is good, your stove good, wood plenty, the seats and desks properly arranged for ease and convenience, see that all are supplied with books, and above all, see that you secure the services of good, well qualified and faithful teachers. Then, teachers, school officers, parents and friends of education, unite your forces with me and let us enter the battle with a full determination, to fight on and fight ever for this blessed boon, education.

A free and unrestrained correspondence is invited. Frequent commuications from you all will help me much. Give particulars on every subject that will be of use to me. I shall visit your district as soon as possible."

R. K. FAY, Co. Supt.

JUNEAU CO. We have no news in particular from this county. We learn however that an Institute was held the first week in April, at New Lisbon, under the direction of the Co. Supt., Rev. H. C. WOOD, assisted by J. M. Breckenridge, Esq., formerly teacher at Sparta. Lectures were delivered by Messrs. Craig, Asst. State Supt, the Co. Supt., and Mr. G. D. Hunt. Mr. Wood is well spoken of in his new capacity.

PORTAGE CO.-The educational interests of this county do not appear to have made much advancement under the old system of Town Superintendents. It remains to be seen whether the County Superintendency will be any improvement. I find a unananimous demand for a uniformity of text-books. All the intelligent teachers in the county state that their best efforts are paralyzed for want of such uniformity, and some of the more intelligent inhabitants see the evil. There is however, another cause that makes against much advancement in education at present. I mean the war. Men cannot be brought to look upon education, but as a secondary consideration when their country is struggling for national existence, and the whole continent is shaken to its profoundest depths by civil commotion. We shall do well if we do not retrogade under its blighting influence. I have not found many Teachers qualified even for a Second Grade Certificate-still less for a First. The standard given by our State Superintendent is decidedly too high for the abilities of the Teachers generally in our county.

But now that they see the desideratum, I think the next examinations will reveal a better state of things. GEO. W. HULCE, Co. Supt. REMARKS-We slightly abbreviate the foregoing letter. I is natural that in a new county, so far upon the frontier, the standard, even for the lowest grade of certificate, should seem high. In other quarters it has been consided too low. On the whole we presume it is about right. Mr. Hulce is quite right in expecting evidences of advancement at his next examinations. The Co. Superintend ency is everywhere working well in stimulating Teachers to improvement.

JACKSON CO.-I had two meetings during last month, of three days each; they partook of the nature of Teachers' Institutes. The attendance was small, but all that were present expressed themselves well pleased with the new system. About all of the best teachers in the county were on hand, and ready and willing to do all in their power to advocate the cause of education in this county, and if possible to drive the drones from the field. I will do all in my power for the "Journal" and send you the names of subscribers as often as possible.

A

The new system is working admirably in this county. It is doing a general pruning business, cutting off all the useless branches, which will soon place the teachers' profession in a healthy, prosperous condition. By some means, teachers are as I have been informed by a District Clerk-"monstrous scarce." great change is quietly taking place here. Many young ladies and gentlemen, qualified teachers, who had quit the profession, are daily enquiring "when will the Teacher's Association be organized?—at what time will you hold the Institute?" They are all anxious to be useful, and feel encouraged to know that they will not have to contend with that most useless class, who are too nice to work and too ignorant to teach school. J. K. HOFFMAN, Co. Supt.

POLK Co.-We extract from the Press, as follows: "While the People and School officers should and will insist upon the faithful discharge of the duties of County Superintendent, I must call their attention to the following section of an act creating the office of County Superintendent, and respectfully ask District Boards to comply with this provision and thus help me in my part of the educational work before us:

"Section 10. The School District Board of each School District shall visit and inspect schools under their charge, as Town Superintendents are now required to do." H. D. BARRON, Co. Supt.

THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION meets this year August 19, in Hartford, Conn.

SITUATION WANTED.

A LADY who is a graduate of the State Normal School at Westfield, Mass., and who has had considerable experience in Teaching, desires a situation as Assistant in a High School or Normal School, or as English Teacher in an Academy. Inquire personally or by letter, of the EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL.

THE

Wisconsin Journal of Education.

VOL. VII.

AUGUST, 1862.

NO. 2.

DOES IT PAY TO EDUCATE ?-I.

The question is often asked with apparent sincerity, in seasons of adversity, when taxes are high and the future has nothing but the foreboding of evil, whether it will pay to continue our schools; to educate the children who are soon to enter the broad arena of life to transact business for themselves, or whether it will not be better to stop the schools for a year or two, till the war is over and times improved.

The cost of supporting schools is assigned as the reason for their discontinuance. Those who thus reason, and by their influence seek to close the schools, and who also embarrass the prosperity of our higher institutions of learning, are not, they think the avowed enemies of education, and would indignantly spurn such a charge. They are often men who have received a liberal education themselves, and who pay much for the support of schools. They love education in theory; they feel its influence, see its effects, admit its achievements, and would theoretically defend it with the zeal of an enthusiast; but practically they would take the very course to paralyze its power.

It will be our endeavor in the present article, to point out some of the blessings that have descended to us as individuals, and as a nation, through education; and the calamities which often befall those deprived of it, and contrast the influence and usefulness of those individuals who are well educated with those who are not.

History tells us that the early nations, long since inurned in the tomb of night, gave proof of mental vigor sufficient, to bless the race and transmit a rich legacy of moral and intellectual worth to descending times, had their education been rightly directed. The monumental ruins of Egypt; the muscular power of Roman conquest; the vigorous and acute

intellect of ancient Greece, as it arose and shone upon the surrounding darkness, all afford evidence that if their education had been as productive of moral worth as it was of mental diseipline and the development of muscle, the sun of their prosperity would not have blazed so comet like for a time, only to set in the night of ages.

What but education has made Great Britain to differ from China, Germany from the South Sea Islands, or the American people from those of South Africa? "If," says Sidney Smith, "we measure the influence and usefulness of one man with another, or one community or State with another, we shall find that it is proportioned to their education." How great the dissimilarity between the mind of an untutored savage and that of Sir Isaac Newton. Education alone made this difference, and it was this that raised Webster, the day laborer, to Webster, the statesman ; Burrirtt the blacksmith, to Burritt, the linguist; Gifford, the orphan of charity, to Gifford the critic; Milton the dull boy, to Milton the prince of epic poets; Van Buren the cabbage pedlar, to Van Buren the president; and Franklin the barefoot boy, to Franklin the pride of both continents.

If we would have an intelligent community, we must educate them. If we would maintain our republican form of government, and transmit it to posterity unsullied, we must educate the people. If the world is ever renovated and governments disenthralled of tyrants, it must be done by education. That which has brought so great a calamity upon our country, has been the want of a correct education, and wherever disunion and its attendant crimes have been most rampant, there has education been most neglected. We must pay for school-houses or prisons; education or crime. This has been the experience of every age and nation; an exception to the rule is nowhere found. To educate the few, and neglect the mass, would be like the sun shining only on favored spots of our earth.

History will ever point with pride to the Puritan Fathers, who valued education more than all else except their religion; who, because they could not conform to the State Church, were driven into exile, and there, more than three thousand miles away from their native home, on New England's rocky shore, they established what the world had long needed. After acknowledging the equal rights of men to the soil, and the free exercise of conscience, their first work was to provide for schools and institutions of learning; and every family and every district school was required to possess a Bible, and the law punished those who refused to educate their children or provide for the education of others. With sleepless viligance did they watch over their educational interests, for upon them mainly depended their prosperity; and with a united public senti