A letter to the citizens of Aberdeen, on the improvement of their academical institutions / [John Stuart Blackie].

  • Blackie, John Stuart, 1809-1895
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the citizens of Aberdeen, on the improvement of their academical institutions / [John Stuart Blackie]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    are very often under, and seldom much above £60 a-year, and where the Act of Parliament ordains that his house shall consist of not more than two apartments. With such acquire¬ ments as such a knowledge generally presupposes, he would look to higher objects. It is a common enough opinion, that it is of advantage to have a young man as parish schoolmas¬ ter who has a view to the ministry, because it secures a higher class of individuals; but that, as a general principle, has always appeared to me to be a capital mistake. A man who has views to a higher ulterior object, never does the duties of the inferior station well, when it happens, as in this instance, that the conscientious and able performance of those duties has no effect in promoting his views in the higher sta¬ tion he aspires to. I have known many instances of young men who had gone through a pretty complete course of acade¬ mical education, and yet made very indifferent parish school¬ masters for that reason. As soon as they were licensed to be preachers, their chief ambition was, not to teach the school well, but to preach up and down the country. The most de¬ sirable thing for Scotland would be, to raise the emoluments of schoolmasters in such proportion as to tempt a man of re¬ spectable talents and acquirements to devote himself to that profession for life.” I call upon the citizens of Aberdeen, therefore, if they are really in earnest about elevating their Universities, to use all their influence in and out of Parliament, for the purpose of elevating the status of that most laborious and ill-requited public servant, the Parochial Schoolmaster. But it will not be sufficient to rest contented with improving the Parochial Schools. In all countries (such as Germany and Holland) where a well-organized educational machinery exists, the custom (so common in meagre Scotland) of stepping directly from the Parochial School into the First Humanity Class, does not exist; there is an intermediate class of schools—the Gymnasia or Gelehrte Schulen—through which all young men destined for an Academical education must pass. In order,, therefore, to enable the Professors in the Universities to start! fair and on a sound foundation, our higher schools must be more fully equipped than they now are in many places; and' in some places, like the new Colleges in Ireland, they will require to be added altogether. Hear, on this point, the evidence of a very distinguished scholar, and a highly success¬ ful teacher, the Reverend Archdeacon Williams of the Edin burgh Academy. “ In my opinion there is, in Scotland, s great want of intermediate schools between the Parochia. se] 4; ot Win