For the most part,
they were well intentioned persons, but not informed, or rather they
were misinformed upon the subject of education. They were unimportant
in numbers, but for a time they strewed the State with handbills,
placards and newspaper articles. They illustrated one half of the
fable of the frog and the ox.
In my five years of service I made more than three hundred addresses
upon educational topics. In that service I visited most of the cities
and towns, met the citizens individually and in masses, visited the
factories and shops, and thus I became well acquainted with the habits
of the people, their industries and modes of life. In each year I
held twelve teachers' institutes and each institute continued five days
in session. A portion of each day was given to criticisms, during
which time the teachers of the institute and the lecturers were freely
criticised by cards sent to the chair without the names of the critics.
Hence there was the greatest freedom, and no one on the platform was
allowed to escape. It is an unusual thing to find a speaker, even of
the highest culture, who can speak an hour without violating the rules
of pronunciation, or showing himself negligent in some important
particular. The teachers of the teachers gained daily by these
critical exercises.
Among the lecturers and teachers were some men of admitted eminence.
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