For The Term Commencing August 25, 1845 and ending December 30, 1845
This school has just completed its second Term, since the opening of the new house. Its success thus far has surpassed the highest anticipations of its most sanguine friends. Previously to the adoption of the present system, the only permanent means of instruction which the village of Lyons afforded, was two common District Schools. The establishment of an Academy had been attempted without success. Numerous Select Schools had been opened and discontinued, subject to all the embarrassments and vicissitudes common to such schools. Many sent their children abroad to avail themselves of the facilities of instruction which they could not find at home. The conviction finally became general, that something ought to be done to elevate the character of the schools, and to furnish more ample means of education. The Union plan was brought to the notice of the people, and fully discussed in numerous and well attended public meetings. The result of these deliberations was the decision to consolidate the two Districts then comprising the village, unite the avails of the State funds with those derived from the liberality of the citizens, and concentrate the efforts of all in the establishment of one school for all the people, and make this an institution worthy of popular favor. To carry into effect this noble design, the citizens of Lyons have labored and contributed of their mans, with a unanimity and zeal not commonly exhibited under like circumstances - with a steadfastness and liberality which may safely be regarded as a guarantee of their permanent success. The two Districts were consolidated in October, 1843. The new building was so far completed as to admit of opening the school in it May 5th, 1845. The new house is a spacious brick edifice, measuring 56 feet by 66 on the ground, of good proportions and handsome architecture, having a basement of 9 feet in height and two upper stores each 14 feet in height.
The school-rooms are even in number besides a large library room, two recitation rooms and a lecture room in the basement. The whole upper part of the building is warmed by heated air, carried from a furnace in the basement.
The expense to the District for the school-house, lot, seats, furniture, blinds, well, bell, and fencing, has been about seven thousand dollars.
The population of the village of Lyons is about 2000, and the number of children over 5 and under 16 years of age in the new District, which is a very little larger than the corporation, was in January last, 457. The average daily attendance at present, is not far from four hundred. The school receives a liberal patronage from abroad. A few more can yet be received. Those who apply first and pay their tuition will be entitled to the first claim to admission.
PLAN OF ORGANIZATION
The Pupils are arranged according to their advancement in the prescribed course of study, into four different Grades, denominated the First, Second, Third, and Fourth; those lease advanced constituting the First Grade. Each Grade, except the First, is divided into two Departments, Male and Female, and is under the special direction and instruction of a separate Teacher. In the two upper Grades the scholars from both Departments unite in the same classes, especially those who recite to the principal, in the study of the Ancient Languages, Rhetoric, History, Elocution, and Intellectual and Moral Philosophy.
The teacher of Penmanship and Book Keeping occupies the Lecture Room and gives daily instruction to all the scholars of a suitable age, in classes so arranged as not to interfere with the other exercises of the school.
For instruction in the Elements of Music and the practice of Vocal Music, the whole school is divided into three classes, and each class receives the personal attention of the Teacher of this branch, twice each week. It is made the duty of the Principal to exercise a general supervision over all the Departments, to attend to the proper arrangement and classification of the scholars, while the other Teachers are expected to cooperate cordially with the Principal in carrying out a uniform system of discipline and instruction. Great care is taken at the commencement of each Term, to arrange and classify scholars according to their previous attainments. It is therefore important that they should be present at the beginning of the Term, and that they pursue a connected course of study, uninterrupted by absence from school, or recitation, or even by disproportionate fondness for one study to the neglect of another.
There are Public Exercises weekly, in Composition, Declamation and Reading, and a public Examination of the School at the close of each Term.
STUDIES AND TEXT BOOKS
FIRST GRADE
Alphabet - Cards
Reading and Spelling - Cards; Bentley ' Pictorial Primer, and Saunders First Reader
Arithmetic - Emerson's First Part
Philosophy - Miss Swift's First Part
SECOND GRADE
Reading and Spelling - Saunders' Spelling Book, and Second and Third Readers
Arithmetic - Emerson's First Part, and Colburn's Mental
Geography - Parley's for beginners, Globes, Mitchell's Outline Maps
Philosophy - Miss Swift's Second Part
Writing - Black Board
Music - The Melodist
THIRD GRADE
Reading and Orthography - Saunders' Spelling Book, and Fourth Reader; Sweet's Phonological Chart
Arithmetic - Colburn's Mental, and Perkins' Elementary
Geography - Morse's; Globes; Mitchell's Outline Maps
History - Wilson's United States
Revised Statutes - Wedgwood's
Grammar - Brown's
Analysis - Town's
Philosophy - Mrs. Phelps' for beginners
Chemistry - Johnston's Agricultural, and Mrs. Phelps' for beginners
Physiology - Mrs. Jane Taylor's for children
Penmanship - Fulton's
Drawing - Abbott's Cards
Book-Keeping - Harris's
Music - The Melodist
FOURTH GRADE
Orthography - Wright's, with charts; Chapin's Classical Spelling Book; Reid's and Webster's DictionariesBR>
Elocution - Sweet's, and Caldwell's Manual
Arithmetic - Colburn's Mental, Adams', and Perkins' Higher
Penmanshiip, Practical and Ornamental - Fulton's
Book-Keeping - Harris's
Geography, Ancient - Mitchell's
Geography, Modern - Morse's; Heith on the Globe; Mitchell's Outline Maps
History, Ancient - Bloss', with Charts
History, Modern - Keightley's History of England; Alison's Europe, abridged by Gould; Wilson's United States
History, Natural - Smellie's
Grammar - Brown's
Analysis - Town's
Philosophy - Olmsted's School
Chemistry - Gray's
Astronomy - Olmsted's and Kendall's Uranography
Botany - Wood's
Geology - Hitchcock's
Mineralogy - Comstock's
Physiology - Coate's and Lectures
Rhetoric - Boyd's, and Newman's
Logic - Whateley's
Critism - Kame's Elements
Philosophy, Intellectual - Watts on the Mind, and Upham's
Philosophy, Moral - Wayland's
Science of Government - Young's
Political Economy - Wayland's
Drawing - Oxford Drawing Book
Algebra - Perkin's Elementary, and higher Treatise
Geometry - Davis' Legendre
Mensuration and Mechanics - Scribner's
Surveying - Davis' Elements
French - Grammar, Bolmar's Levizac; Dictionary, Meadow's or Bolmar's; Telemague, Le Brun's ; La Henriade, Paris Edition
Latin - Lessons, Andrews; Grammar, Andrews and Stoddard's; Reader, Andrews'; Exercises, do.; Caesar, Anthon's; Sallust, Andrews'; Virgil, Cooper's; Cicero's Orations, Folsom's: Livy, do.; Horace. Anthon's; Cicero De Senectute et Amicitia, Dillway's; Lexicon, Leverett's
Greek - Kendrick's Introduction; Grammar, Sophocles; Testaament, Robinson's, Hahn: Xenophen's Anabasis, Owen's; Sophocle's Exercises; Xenophen's Memoprabilia, Packard's; Homer's Iliad and Odyssey; Lexicon, Donnegan's
Music - The Melodist
Books of Reference in the Study of the Ancient Classics - Sophocles' Greek Verbs; Kuhner's Grammar; Eschenburg's Manual of Classical Literature; Stewart on Greek Accent; Crusius' Homeric Lexicon; Anthon's Classical Dictionary; Kreb's Guide for writing Latin
TEACHERS' CLASS
Special attention is paid to those wishing to qualify themselves for teaching. Frequent and familiar lectures upon the best methods of government, and of presenting the various branches which they may expect to teach are given. The Teacher's Class during the Term has averaged forty; and about twenty who have been members of the Class are now engaged in teaching.
The number of Classical scholars during the Term has been upwards of seventy.
DISCIPLINE
The discipline is intended to be kind, affectionate and reasonable, but impartial and decided. It is designed to be so administered, as to induce the Pupil to practice self-government - not so much from the hope of prizes, rewards and honors, except the high honor of doing right, as from an intelligent and fixed moral principle. And when it is found impossible to influence any Pupil by an appeal to the better feelings of the heart, and no reasonable motive to study and good conduct can be presented with effect the parent or guardian will be immediately consulted, and will be expected to direct.
SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION
The System of Instruction is intended to be such as to give discipline and expansion to all the faculties of the mind by severe and independent application. The advantages of a regular gradation of studies and of bringing large classes of scholars of equal attainments under the charge of the respective Teachers, are obvious. It is not the object of the system to hurry the scholar through a superficial course of study, nor even to crowd the mind with facts, so much as to teach him how to employ his own powers by confining his attention to elementary principles which admit of immediate application, and by allowing him to pass over nothing which he does not fully understand.
In the upper Grades the Pupil is expected , especially in his reviews, to give extemporaneous illustrations of every important principle under consideration, and also to give a general as well as a particular analysis of the author.
MANNERS AND MORALS
The Teachers feel it their duty to watch with parental solicitude and vigilance over the morals and deportment of their Pupils, and to recommend to them both by precept and example a virtuous and blameless life. To convince them if possible, that the highest excellence can be attained only by an intelligent and conscientious obedience to the laws, physical, intellectual, and moral, under which an all-wise Creator has been pleased to place us.
The School is opened each day with devotional exercises, consisting of sacred music, reading a select portion of scripture, and prayer. White the school is thus assembled, familiar lectures are given almost daily on subjects connected with manners and morals, habits of study, &c.
The several Teachers keep a strict and acurate account of all recitations, absences, and the general deportment of the scholars belonging to their respective classes or under their particular charge. A daily report is made out each week and sent to parents and guardians for their inspection.
TERM TIME AND VACATIONS
The year is divided into Three Terms. The First commences with the fist Monday of January and continues fifteen weeks, followed by a vacation of two weeks. The Second Term commences with the first Monday in May and continues thirteen weeks followed by a vacation of three weeks. The Third Term commences 24th of August, continues seventeen weeks, followed by a vacation of two weeks.
EXPENSE OF TUITION
Tuition for Scholars within the District per Quarter of twelve weeks, from $1,25 to $1,32. For Scholars without the District, $3,50. This charge, to secure admission, is in all cases to be paid in advance, either to the Principal or to one of his Trustees.
The Trustees are well assured that the corps of Teachers are unsurpassed in any similar establishment; and whilst they look for a steady improvement of the School as time shall give opportunity for the further development of the system; they believe it already combines all the advantages of a thorough Common School education, as it regards the discipline, modes of teaching or moral training, whilst it also furnishes the usual academical advantages. They are satisfied that it must depend mainly for its continued prosperity upon the unabated and fostering care of the citizens themselves. That interest and care it has hitherto enjoyed in no stinted measure, and whilst it continues we may reasonably flatter ourselves that our Union School will remain to us an abiding source of blessings, as it is now, of honest pride.
J. M. HOLLEY
E. JOHNSON
A. L. BEAUMONT
Lyons, December, 1845
Typed by Co-coordinator Allyn Hess Perry