1853-1854 School Committee Report

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REPORT. �3Y IF there was wisdom in the charge which an illustrious and successful general enjoined upon his servant to remind him every day that he was mortal, the School Committee may be pardoned, perhaps, for again urging upon the citizens of this town the relinquishment of the present custom of autho- rizing the Prudential Committees to employ the teachers. This duty should be performed by the Superintending Committee. Our own experience in the instruction and superintendence of schools has fully and long since con- vinced us, that teachers can be more advantageously hired and judiciously selected by the general than by the local Committee. This view also is the one taken by the Secre- tary of the State Board of Education, the adoption of which he so eloquently, earnestly, and irresistibly urges in his Thirteenth and Fourteenth Reports, portions of which were republished in a pamphlet -form, and distributed to every family in the State, to which we beg leave to refer our read- ers, as it is not our intention to discuss this point at length. All would see at once, and acknowledge the folly of choosing a commander-in-chief to direct a military campaign, and yet of marching in small divisions, contrary to general orders, under the profound guidance of a corporal. But still many towns have not yet cast off the shackles of habit, nor fol- lowed the educational leader whom the State has honored with its confidence. Is it asked why the past and present members of the general Committee have not more zealously advocated, in