It is a matter of humiliation that we have not in this country an institution with ample facilities for giving instruction of an exclusively professional character in teaching; an institution wherein those who are to give instruction in the colleges and professional schools, shall be specially prepared for imparting knowledge. There do not at present seem to be any marked indications of its speedy establishment. But the requirements are so reasonable, and the demands so strong, that they can not very long be resisted.

The field is ample, and promises rich and abundant fruits. Neither Kant nor Herbert Spencer, in their distributions of mental phenomena, has viewed the subject of mental development from the true educational standpoint, nor has either fairly interpreted nature. It remains for the last half of the nineteenth century to read well a science of Education, and to train a truly liberal Profession of Teaching.

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XIII. REMARKS ON THE STUDY OF DIDACTICS IN COLLEGES.*

BY THOMAS HILL, D. D.,

President of Harvard College.

EDUCATION is of two kinds, general or liberal, and special or professional.

General or liberal education consists in that discipline and instruction which may conduce to the general perfection and improvement of the pupil, or, in the language of Bacon, may be for the glory of God and for the benefit of mankind. It may likewise be defined as that education which becomes the children of freemen or which fits the child to become a freeman.

This general education may vary according to the capacity of the pupil, and according to the amount of time which his circumstances allow him to take. In my judgment it should vary also according to the sex of the pupil. Women are evidently designed by their Creator for a different work from that of man. This design is manifested in the whole structure of their bodies, and in the whole temper of their minds. Up to the age of ten years the difference between girls and boys is not sufficiently marked to make much difference in their schooling necessary; but at the age of fifteen, differences begin to show themselves very decidedly, and the girl, maturing more quickly, should then give herself more to the higher branches, which the man postpones to later life, or even omits altogether.

Special or professional education is that culture and instruction which fits the child for some chosen walk in life, some particular pursuit in art or science. All general education is to some extent also special, and all special culture has also a general effect. Such is the unity of the human soul that its culture in any single particular improves the whole; and on the other hand, the general cultivation of its powers increases its force in each-as is shown in a marked degree by the well-known fact that the ability of American workmen in special branches (such as cotton-spinning, watch

Abstract of a paper read before the National Teachers' Association at Ogdensburg, New York, Aug. 10th, 1864.

making, machine-making, &c.) has been proved statistically to be in proportion to their general schooling.

Yet the distinction between general and special, or liberal and professional education, as given above, is real and important, and often neglected to the injury of the scholar.

The common school and the college are institutions for general education. The topics introduced in them ought therefore to be such, and such only, as are of general utility to the majority of men, or such as throw light on the whole course of subsequent study. Take, for example, Arithmetic as the subject of inquiryshould it be taught in schools and colleges, and if so, to what extent? To the first question there can be but one answer. Arithmetic is necessary to the understanding of every other subject; there is no object of thought to which considerations of number do not apply, explicitly or implicitly; Arithmetic must be taught therefore in liberal education. But to what extent? I answer in all its fundamental processes and principles, and in enough of its applications to practical matters to make those processes and principles familiar-no more.

The University differs from the College in adding professional schools where men pursue special branches, of value specially to men of special pursuits-Law Schools, Divinity Schools, Scientific Schools, Medical Schools. Sometimes young men enter these professional schools with a very imperfect general or liberal culture, sometimes, on the other band, they make, first, the most extensive preparation possible, taking the whole course of studies in a college of high standard and then adding the professional course at the end. Undoubtedly these men make, other things being equal, the most useful men. It is not in the power of schools and teachers, by any amount of teaching, to turn a blockhead into a man of talent; but neither is it in the power of genius to be independent of all education. Given, however, two men of equal original power and temperament, and he will make the most useful and most truly successful man who prepares himself for his profession by the most extensive and thorough course of liberal and professional study.

Now the Normal School is a professional school. It teaches to teach. That pupil in the Normal School will make the best teacher who comes to the school most thoroughly prepared by a previous course of education.

I say the Normal School is a professional school. There is however a sense in which the study of didactics may be called a liberal study; it is, that every child may be considered prospectively as

the head of a family, and that the art of teaching is therefore of universal utility. On the other hand, the art of teaching and the science of teaching are not connected directly with the principal sciences in the hierarchy; and errors or ignorance in regard to teaching will not directly and seriously affect the pupils' views either of Mathematics, Physics, History, Metaphysics or Theology. And the universal utility of the art is somewhat confined to woman alone. She has the little children committed principally to her. In the course of God's holy Providence he puts woman in charge of little children; she stands as Jesus stands, and as he assures us his Father stands, ever waiting to be teacher and guide to the little ones and to minister to their happiness and progress.

If didactics belong then to general or liberal education, they belong to that division of it which attends to the culture of young women. They should be taught in those colleges which admit young women to their course; and in those which are designed only for young women.

Normal Schools should also be attached to our universities, and bachelors of arts who intend to teach should be urged first to take one or two years' special instruction in the art of teaching. The Normal Schools which are established independent of colleges, should have a course of instruction specially adapted for those who have previously taken a high collegiate course of instruction.

The mere appointment of a Professor of Didactics in each college would not, in my judgment, be wise. The undergraduate course is crowded with studies, and there would be no time to do justice to Didactics. But the establishment of a Normal School in a University, and of a special course for Bachelors of Arts in a Normal School, would be steps calculated to raise the standard of excellence required of teachers, and would lift towards its proper dignity the high profession of teaching.

Until these steps are taken it would undoubtedly be of advantage, as a temporary substitute, if the Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy, or other appropriate Professor, should incorporate into his course judicious remarks on the general principles of education, as his topics afford opportunity.

XIV. A NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION.

THE history of education in different parts of the United States, especially in those which have given character to the movement, has been at first one of individual effort or of separate organizations. These powers have afterward been united to secure a common object, namely, the adoption of a complete system in each of the several States. In the States more recently admitted, a system of public instruction has been adopted with the organic law, but its practical working and adaptation to popular wants have resulted from a coöperation of separate agencies. In every case, whether the system has been the result of trial and experience, or has been transplanted, ready formed, to a new State, the plan has been one of a union of power and influence in a common head. Smaller organizations of teachers are represented in State Associations and these, again, culminate in the National Association. A Department of Public Instruction has official charge of the general educational interests of the State. To this department all educational officers are responsible and their course is guided by its direction. The general tendency to organized action in this form may be considered evidence that it is desirable, and that this system is the most efficient yet devised. From a similarity in the plan and operation of the State and general governments, we may infer the incompleteness of our national system of education and, at the same time, the manner of supplying the defect.

The following thoughts are presented in favor of establishing a national agency corresponding to Boards of Education and Departments of Public Instruction in the several States.

I. The adoption of such an agency would more fully insure the existence, prosperity and perpetuity of our institutions.

The primary idea of a republican form of government is that of a people governing themselves, of their yielding up, of their own accord and for the public good, such of their individual rights as would conflict with the rights of others. It is a concession by the