From the Hon. Thomas Burrowes, late Secretary of State in Pennsylvania.

by Catharine Esther Beecher October 6th, 2023

Too Long; Didn't Read

I have long been of opinion that the great deficiency[132] of our age and country, in reference to the sound instruction of the coming generation, is the want of teachers. I am now fully convinced that this want must be supplied before any other step can be safely or usefully taken. Nay, I believe that, until this indispensable preliminary measure is accomplished, money, and effort, and legislation will be, as they have been, money, and effort, and legislation nearly thrown away. Since 1834, this state has expended more than five millions for the support of her common schools, and, at the end of ten years, I see but little improvement. In this immense expenditure, not a dollar has been spent to secure this great prerequisite—good teachers; and hence the system has not only failed to obtain general favour, but is in danger of becoming more and more unacceptable the longer it is tried. It is sad to think that we have thus wasted five millions of dollars, and ten years of time, to say nothing of the labour expended and obloquy encountered, and must now re-commence from the foundation; but so it is. I know of no cause which so much needs a general movement as this. Let not its friends shrink from the undertaking because they may not be able to operate in all, or even in many of the states. Let it be remembered that if a commencement is made in one state, and a report of results sent forth, it will serve to start the good work in all the rest. [133] The necessities, the crying necessities of this cause, are far and away before those of the Temperance Reform, or of Colleges, or of Foreign Missions. He who, being fit, should devote himself to this cause, would confer a greater benefit on his fellow-man than he could possibly do by any other use of his time and talents. The missionary to a heathen land opens the Book of Life to his fellow-man; the missionary in this cause opens the mind of his fellow-citizens, not only to the Book of Life, but to a knowledge of all those rights and duties, without which our free institutions cannot stand to encourage and reform the world. If my gifts and domestic relations permitted, I should devote myself to a mission in this and other states for the purpose of impressing on Legislatures, philanthropists, and teachers, the necessity of Teachers’ Seminaries.

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FROM THE HON. THOMAS BURROWES, LATE SECRETARY OF STATE IN PENNSYLVANIA.

I have long been of opinion that the great deficiency of our age and country, in reference to the sound instruction of the coming generation, is the want of teachers.

I am now fully convinced that this want must be supplied before any other step can be safely or usefully taken. Nay, I believe that, until this indispensable preliminary measure is accomplished, money, and effort, and legislation will be, as they have been, money, and effort, and legislation nearly thrown away. Since 1834, this state has expended more than five millions for the support of her common schools, and, at the end of ten years, I see but little improvement.

In this immense expenditure, not a dollar has been spent to secure this great prerequisite—good teachers; and hence the system has not only failed to obtain general favour, but is in danger of becoming more and more unacceptable the longer it is tried. It is sad to think that we have thus wasted five millions of dollars, and ten years of time, to say nothing of the labour expended and obloquy encountered, and must now re-commence from the foundation; but so it is.

I know of no cause which so much needs a general movement as this. Let not its friends shrink from the undertaking because they may not be able to operate in all, or even in many of the states. Let it be remembered that if a commencement is made in one state, and a report of results sent forth, it will serve to start the good work in all the rest.

The necessities, the crying necessities of this cause, are far and away before those of the Temperance Reform, or of Colleges, or of Foreign Missions. He who, being fit, should devote himself to this cause, would confer a greater benefit on his fellow-man than he could possibly do by any other use of his time and talents.

The missionary to a heathen land opens the Book of Life to his fellow-man; the missionary in this cause opens the mind of his fellow-citizens, not only to the Book of Life, but to a knowledge of all those rights and duties, without which our free institutions cannot stand to encourage and reform the world.

If my gifts and domestic relations permitted, I should devote myself to a mission in this and other states for the purpose of impressing on Legislatures, philanthropists, and teachers, the necessity of Teachers’ Seminaries.

A gentleman, supported to operate in this cause, might be employed in this way. He could visit different states one after another, and address the citizens of each county in the county town, after long and full notice. Besides addressing the people publicly, he could appeal to leading individuals privately, and engage them to act with him for this object. Meantime, he could be obtaining educational statistics for future use, and ere long he could make such a report as would set the people to work in earnest, and for their own sakes.

While thus proceeding, he could also obtain the promise of one or more intelligent persons in each county, to write on the subject every week in each of the county newspapers. Articles thus addressed to the reason, the patriotism, and the economy of the people, would have a powerful effect, and cost nothing.

If funds could be provided from private benevolence to establish proper Teachers’ Institutions in two or three states, they would set the matter far ahead in a few years. They would serve as models and inducements to the public, and would not long continue to need the support of private philanthropy. They would really be normal, or pattern establishments.

Beyond a doubt, the plan ought to embrace institutions for the preparation of female teachers. The gentleness, self-devotion, and untiring humanity of women eminently qualify them to be the instructers of the more youthful pupils of both sexes, and of their own of all ages. There is not a show of any reason why male teachers only should be provided for at the public charge, when female teachers are as necessary, as useful, and as much confided in by the public.

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