St. Croix and the Colorado. It is even rare to meet one who has decidedly reached the years of middle life; while nothing is more common than to see very young persons in this post of authority. In most situations, a young countenance is a pleasant sight; but perhaps there is scarcely another position in which it appears to so little advantage, as sole ruler in the school-house. Young people make excellent assistants, very good subordinates in a large establishment, but it is to be regretted that our common schools should so often be under their government, subject only to a supervision, which is frequently quite nominal. They may know as much of books as their elders, but it is impossible they should know as much of themselves and of the children; where other points are equal, they cannot have the same experience, the same practical wisdom. Hitherto, among us, teaching in the public schools has not been looked upon as a vocation for life; it has been almost always taken up as a job for a year or two, or even for a single season; the aim and ambition of those who resort to it, too often lie beyond the school-house walls. The young man of eighteen or twenty means to go into business, or to buy a farm, or to acquire a profession; he means anything, in short, but to remain a diligent, faithful, persevering schoolmaster for any length of time. The young girl of seventeen or eighteen intends, perhaps, to learn a trade next year, or to go into a factory, or to procure an outfit for her wedding; never, indeed, does the possibility of teaching after she shall have reached the years of caps and gray hairs occur to her even in a nightmare. And yet nothing can be more certain than that those young people have undertaken duties the most important man or woman can discharge; and if they persevere in the occupation, with a conscientious regard to
