for the time they are kept open is sixty-two per cent. of
the number between the ages of four and sixteen years; but in some
instances only twenty-six per cent. of the children in a town--about one
fourth of the number within the school ages--attend school.

President Caldwell, of the University of North Carolina, in a series of
letters on popular education, addressed to the people of that state a
few years ago, proposes a plan for the improvement of common education.
The first and greatest existing evil which he specifies is the want of
qualified teachers. Any one who "knows how to read, and write, and
cipher," it is said, is regarded as fit to be a "schoolmaster."

"Is a man," remarks President Caldwell, "constitutionally and habitually
indolent, a burden upon all from whom he can extract a support? Then
there is one way of shaking him off; let us make him a schoolmaster! To
teach a school is, in the opinion of many, little else than sitting
still and doing nothing. Has any man wasted all his property, or ended
in debt by indiscretion and misconduct? The business of school-keeping
stands wide open for his reception; and here he sinks to the bottom, for
want of capacity to support himself. Has any one ruined himself, and
done all he could to corrupt others by dissipation, drinking, seduction,
and a course of irregularities? Nay, has he returned from a prison,
after an ignominious atonement for some violation of the laws? He is
destitute of character, and can not be _trusted_; but presently he opens
a school, and the children are seen flocking to it; for, if he is
_willing_ to act in that capacity--we shall all admit that he can read,
write, and cipher to the square root--he will make an excellent
schoolmaster. In short, it is no matter what the man is, or what his
manners or principles; if he has escaped with his life from the penal
code, we have the satisfaction to think that he can still have credit as
a schoolmaster."

The Georgia convention of teachers, in a published address, after
speaking of the importance of giving a more extended education to our
youth _as citizens_, and giving an outline of a liberal system of
popular education, go on to remark as follows: "Alas! how far should we
be elevated above our present level if all of them were thus
enlightened! But how many sons and daughters of free-born Americans are
unable to read their native language! How many go to the polls who are
unable to read th