ect.

A portion of our teachers, it gives me pleasure to add, are not only
superior scholars in the common English branches, but they have made
respectable attainments in philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, algebra,
Latin, etc. All of these branches are successfully taught in a few of
our schools.

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT.--There is, perhaps, as wide a difference in the
administration of government in our common schools as in any other
particular connected with them. Good government requires the healthful
exercise of a rare combination of good qualities. But this can not
reasonably be expected in inexperienced youth, who, instead of being
guided by enlightened moral sentiment, have not only never subjected
_themselves_ to government, but are totally unacquainted with the
principles upon which it should be administered. About one third of our
schools are tolerably well governed. A portion of them are under a wise
and parental supervision, the government being uniformly mild, and at
the same time efficient. But indecision, rashness, and inefficiency are
far more common. Sometimes teachers resolve to have no whispering,
leaving seats, asking questions, etc., among any of the scholars, and
severely punish every detected offender. Soon a portion of the patrons
justly manifest dissatisfaction. Then all attempts to govern the school
are unwisely given up. Many teachers thus rashly fly from one extreme of
government to the other, without stopping to test the "golden mean," or
even appearing to bestow a single thought upon the subject.

Again: the feelings of the teacher have been outraged by having
frequently witnessed severity, and even cruelty, in government; and, in
studiously avoiding them, he has inadvertently adopted a lax government,
if government it may be called. The latter may be the more amiable
extreme, but it is hardly the less fatal. I have heard scholars say in
the presence of such a teacher, "We have a good teacher, who gives us
all the good advice we need, and then lets us do as we please;" and then
I have witnessed whispering, talking, chewing gum and throwing it about
the house, passing from seat to seat, playing with tops and whirls,
tossing wads of wet paper about the house and to the ceiling, cutting
images upon the desks, imitating the practice of botanic physicians,
exhibiting and passing from one to another roots and herbs, and
discoursing upon their properties, chasing mice about the house, and in
some inst