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THE BRIGHAM YOUNG ACADEMY.

of the influx of emigrants en route to the gold mines; a first rate wagon, that had cost in the States one hundred dollars, would sell for twenty; a carriage that had cost one hundred and fifty, would sell for thirty; other things in the same ratio. The public market house, which stood for many years in First South

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Street, was commenced; the Bath House had become a place of resort for the benefit of invalids, who drank as well as bathed in its medicinal waters. The Utah County and other Southern settlements were flourishing, and the general prosperity of Utah was assured to the community. Beta.

THE BRIGHAM YOUNG ACADEMY.

II.

THE plan of the present organization of the Brigham Young Academy is the subject now before us.

The general management of the institution is under the supervision of the Board of Trustees, the members of which assemble in annual sessions according to the bye-laws, and by the call of the President whenever occasion requires. A committee of three has been formed from among the members of the Board, which is known as the Executive Committee, and takes special charge of the financial management. In point of finances the Academy is poorly provided for, to say the least, as compared with other educational institutions. No source of income falls to it other than the tuition fees. And yet, in spite of this drawback, which has ever cast a gloomy foreshadowing along the path of the institution's career, prosperity has attended it. The paying attendance is increasing, constantly, both in grades and numbers, resulting, of course, in a corresponding increase of revenue. Even as yet besides attending to the regular remuneration of the instructors, the Executive Committee finds it possible to slowly but continually improve the facilities, by supplying furniture and implements, for the convenience and comfort of both teachers and students. During the fourth Academic year, the Musical Department was especially favored with the supply. of a piano, which item, judging by the keen interest manifested among the students in this branch of the Fine Arts, and demonstrated by the continual increase in the attendance of the Musical De

partment, has been highly appreciated.

The Scientific Department also, which has fallen somewhat behind in the notice of the Committee, has, of late, been especially favored. A small room has been fitted up as a laboratory, and but recently, a handsome consignment of physical and chemical apparatus and material has been ordered. A good foundation for a cabinet, especially mineralogical, has been laid, besides which preparations for an herbarium are being made.

Such has been the financial progress, which, all circumstances considered, is favorable, though yet some departments are lacking in implements necessary for their fuller prosperity and success. With the commencement of the second academic year J. E. Booth was engaged in the Mathematical Department, and Miss Teenie Smoot in the Intermediate Department. With the third academic year two additions to the number of teachers followed; J. M. Tanner being engaged as an assistant teacher and Miss Susa Young as the teacher of the Musical Department. The commencement of the fourth academic year chronicles still other changes, Jas. E. Talmage and Mrs. Z. Y. Williams accepting engagements as assistant teachers, the latter as department teacher of the Primary Department, in place of Miss Teenie Smoot, resigned, and Miss Nettie Southworth as Musical Department teacher, in place of Miss Susa Young, resigned. corps of teachers is thus being, constantly strengthened as occasion is demanding.

The

At the head of the internal organiza

tion stands the Faculty, presided over by the Principal, and composed of the teach

ers.

The members of this organization assemble weekly, at which meetings all current items of discipline and organization are disposed of, and instructions received from the Principal for the further and fuller carrying out of the plan of the institution. In addition to the regular teachers mentioned as members of the Faculty, classes in the lower departments are conducted by the most advanced of the Normal students under the special direction of the department teacher. In order that absolute control of the whole may be held and the Faculty have a constant insight into the whole organization, which without further demonstration is perceived to be somewhat complicated, a daily programme is arranged at the beginning of every term, according to which each department teacher labors. At the beginning of each school year the precise amount of work to be accomplished in each class during any term is mapped out and recorded in the "Register of Studies." In this record also the teachers register weekly the work performed in any respective class, and by this a constant oversight is obtained of the progress of any and all classes. The labors are distributed among the Faculty as follows: Principal Karl G. Maeser, conducts classes in Theology, Normal, Rhetoric, Latin, Greek, German, Logic and Drawing; M. H. Hardy, Intermediate Department teacher and instructor in Penmanship and Phonography; John E. Booth, teacher of the Mathematical Division; Jas. E. Talmage, teacher of Natural Sciences, and Academic Department teacher (Section A); J. M. Tanner, teacher of Elocution and Academic Department teacher (Section B); Nettie Southworth, Musical Department teacher; Mrs. Z. Y. Williams, teacher of Primary and Ladies' Work Department.

Among the students are representatives from nearly all counties in the Territory, besides a number from Idaho, Arizona and Nevada. In fact the number from distant counties almost always exceeds

that from adjacent parts. It has been the aim of the Faculty to control the associations of these students, and for this purpose all who come from any place outside of Provo are organized into what is termed the Domestic Organization. They are regularly visited at their places of residence by senior students appointed by the Principal, and reports are received from the corps of visitors in regular meetings of the organization. To assist in providing beneficial and entertaining occupation outside of school hours the Polysophical Society is organized during the second and third terms of each year. The society is divided into four sections treating respectively on "Science," "Literature," "Fine Arts," and "Civil Government and Politics," and each meeting, on a specified evening of every week. The statistics for the fifth academic year's session, just closed, show a hearty interest in the organization and a keen appreciation of its labors.

The institution has been growing from the first. For the first term an attendance of sixty-three is recorded and these were nearly all of the Primary or Intermediate Grades. Students had to be educated for the Academic studies before such could be pursued, and this process has indeed been tedious and difficult, owing to the irregularity of attendance. Even during the fourth year, which is looked upon as one of the most prosperous, in no term was the attendance of the Academic Department (Section A) more than six, while the present term shows a total of forty-two registered in that department. This fact demonstrates better than words could that Education is rising in the estimation of the present generation, and our young people are beginning to take deeper interest in mental culture and in the educational institutions of Zion. We will treat subsequently more on the mode of pursuing the labors, the organization and distribution of which we have hastily sketched in this article.

Jas. E. Talmage.

Whoever envies another confesses his superiority.—Addison.

THE SCHOOL QUESTION.

THE SCHOOL QUESTION.

I THINK that I dare claim, that of all the agencies which conspire in the production of good citizenship, the purest, the best and most efficient in its sphere, next to the church, is the school. But the improvement of the school is a matter of the greatest importance. Society in general, is in a deplorable condition, and how can it be improved? I am not of those who think our school system a failure. I cannot allow the justice of the method which inventories all the ills from which the body politic suffers, and then charges them over to the common schools. The family, the associations, the church, the press, the court, the legislature, the stand, have each and all their share in the responsibility of developing good citizenship, the school coming in simply as one of many factors, in producing the result. Nor is the schoolroom more the ⚫parent than the child of the results deplored.

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body, and corruption in one, speedily infects the whole.

If one of the most efficient agents for the production of good citizenship is the school, and society is not what it should be, then we must conclude that the

school needs reform. I do not believe that the end desired can be attained without radical changes. The people

must be aroused from their self-com

placent lethargy. They have come to think that our system has reached perfection, and to rest satisfied in what we have attained. They must be jostled out of these ruts even if the road be

found less comfortable both for team and passengers.

Such being the attitude of the question it is fortunate that the germinal ideas, having in them "the promise and potency" of the new life, have already been discovered; although as yet they have lain like many another most useful

engine for a long time in the philosopher's laboratory awaiting the favorable concurrence of events to bring them into

practical operation. I will call your attention to four of these ideas:

(1.) Hereafter let the elective franchise be granted to our youth upon com

It is a fallacy to suppose that radical reform can be gotten in the school and from hence revolutionize the whole. The reform sought must be developed all along the line, in order that it be possible anywhere. With society superficial and false, the government corrupt, it is simply impossible that the school ing to age only on condition of their should be in wholesome condition. Let us understand, that, especially with our social and civil constitution, all departments sink or rise together. We cannot pure legislature, and a corrupt we cannot have piety in

have a judiciary;

pulpits and pews, and peculation and fraud in politics; we cannot have false

passing a satisfactory examination be

fore a properly constituted Board. Let

this examination cover Reading, Writing,

Arithmetic, Geography, the Constitution of our Government, and American History. Having passed such an examination and given evidence of good moral character, let the name be registered among

ideas, and vicious practices characteriz- the voters of the land. Such a requisition

ing society, and pure and lofty aims with wise and efficient methods in our schools.

upon the principle of guild and caste.

as this will at once give the school a new function, and so deepen the interest

in it, that all needed improvements will

be readily effected. We may not deprive

The legislator of to-day may be the any who have exercised the franchise

judge or

The man who is on the political rostrum the preacher of to-morrow. to-day may be at the jeachers desk to

All grades, all classes, all

morrow. Occupations,

are so intimately related,

and so habitually interwoven, that virtue in one member is quickly felt in all the

from continuing to do so, but the imperative necessity of guarding this sacred trust in some such way, in the future, is too apparent to need argument; and well would it have been for some portions of our land if we had years ago entered upon the measure. The circum.

stances making this a necessity to our political well-being, I do not propose to discuss at length, yet we shall do well to remember that already the great mass of illiterate, uncultured, un-Americanized voters are controlling the destinies of great cities in New England, of whole States in the South, and threatening other sections of the Union. This is preeminently the educators work. Politicians will never do it. What if this idea should emanate from a territory or ward of the government! So much to our credit. The movement must begin and be carried forward by the educators of the land. When we come to understand that our work in the school has such im. mediate and essential connection as this with the nation's political life, and begin to assert it in the ears of the people, we shall not lack for an audience, and people will not slumber under our preaching. Of course, we shall be stigmatized as meddling with politics; but who has a better right-who a more sacred obligation to meddle with politics than we? If now, the mere generally acknowledged connection which schools sustain to good order in society, to efficiency in business life, and position in social life, if these vaguely defined, and imperfectly apprehended functions of our schools give them the life and dignity they have, let them be put thus in immediate, organic connection with the very foundations of our political fabric-let them be acknowledged as the ligitimate and indispensable trainers of our citizen sovereignty, and what may we not hope for them? Parents will foster them as the only means of fitting their children for citizenship, pupils will seek and reverence them as the foundation of their correct political life, politicians will court them and be wonderfully complacent toward all measures which look to their development.

(2.) Having thus put the common school into its proper place in our political organism, we shall next need to provide the means by which to insure the performance of its functions. Here we are met at once by the axiom, "As is the teacher, so is the school." But, having recognized the responsibility of the

school in preparing for citizenship and thus laying the foundation of the State, the reciprocal obligation of the State to provide the school with competent teachers, follows as a necessary corollary; and further, if the State is bound to afford the means for fitting teachers for their work, it has the unquestionable right to require them to use the means provided. Hence our second suggestion is that, allowing all who may fairly be said to have entered upon the business of teaching to continue to exercise their calling under proper restrictions and supervi sion, no new candidates be admitted to the ranks of the profession, who have not availed themselves of the means supplied by the State for qualifying themselves, and succeeded in attaining the necessary qualifications. By this I mean that our system of normal training be so modified or extended as to bring within reasonable reach of every common school teacher the means of adding to a good English education such a knowledge of the principles and methods of teaching as is requisite to good work in the school

room.

(3.) But there still remains a most important consideration in the solution of our problem. We cannot hope to build up an important branch of the public service, and supply it with competent workmen, without providing adequate means for their support. At the wages which have hitherto been paid common school teachers in our country, a person can do nothing more than perpetuate existence during the time of service. This makes it absolutely impossible that any one should choose common school teaching as a life-work, unless he is willing to accept a home in the poorhouse in which to die. There are but two possible ways in which this evil can be remedied; one is to raise the wages of teachers until they shall bear some just ratio to the character of the service required, and afford an income from which it shall be possible to secure a home and support for declining years. While these low wages are paid, and no other mode of relief is found, it is inevitable that our rural schools, and in large part the lower

THE SCHOOL QUESTION.

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It is inevitable that by our present system, our youth will come to maturity half educated, half trained, and quite unfitted for the duties of life. With our common schools in the hands of the uneducated and immature, whose characters are but half formed, what can we expect but that our youth will leave these schools in the same state. When the people see so much of incompetence in their public servants, and such frequent giving way of character under strain, let them be taught to find one of the producing causes in this system which commits the training of our youth so largely to untrained and undeveloped teachers, who cannot beget in others that which is not formed in themselves. Let it be

departments of our graded schools, will be in the hands of young women who teach simply because they must, until some more eligible or congenial method of subsistance presents itself; or by young men who make it a convenient stepping-stone to some more honorable or lucrative calling. But there is a most just and sensible method of relief; I mean the method of retiring on part pay, faithful teachers who have been a reasonable length of time in honorable service. That this is eminently just, and exactly in accordance with the practice of our government in reference to its military and naval officers, is apparent upon the mere statement. But we may not hope that because of its justice it will be readily acknowledged. The clearly seen that the remedy lies only in old ideas are too deeply rooted in the minds of the people to be easily eradi

cated.

We shall need to be able to justify the claim by the soundest arguments, and urge it upon the people with the utmost persistence; and then, if in a score of years, we shall begin to see the method incorporated into our educational service system, we may count it a speedy triumph. We must show the utter impossibility of securing a corps of trained professional teachers, without such a scheme. We must show the fearful waste of money, time, character, and all that is valuable, which is entailed by a system

in which

securing for our common school teachers, men and women fitted, by knowledge acquired, by training received, by experience gained, by character established, who shall be able to impress the stamp of their own well developed, and symmetrical man and womanhood upon the youth they train. Let it be understood that such a body of teachers can never be secured until it is made practicable for our best men and women to make this their life work; that in order to do this they must be adequately paid during the time of service, or honorably pensioned when no longer capable of ef

our schools are simply the- fective service. The value of the service

atres for successive companies of crude, uneducated, untrained young men and women to experiment in, while they earn a few dollars to carry them over from the

which would be rendered the State by

such a body of professional trainers of our youth, would be infinitely greater than all the military training and service

period of childhood to that of intelligent secured by our war establishment, how

and effective maturity. Far wiser would it be to entrust our sick to the care of a succession of uneducated boys

similar

and girls who want some employment by which to feed and clothe themselves till they attain sufficient knowledge, training, and maturity to be capable of useful service in society; with the assurance that whatever of experience and wisdom in the

ing this period of adolescence, would never be used to heal our sick when they might reasonably be supposed to have attained some fitness for the work.

ever great that may be; and those who rendered the service would be in every way as worthy of honorable retirement, as are the officers of our army and navy.

(4.) The fourth idea is, the importance of unification, and proper organic relation in our system of schools. Our Public School system should be an or

The

whole, from the lowest Primary, through the University course. schools should be so organized, their curriculum so defined, the teachers so trained and certified to by proper au

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