This register, which no child should be suffered to read, is sent to the school-visitor before his annual inspection, and inspected by the minister during his weekly visits that he may know the delinquent children, and exhort them to greater diligence, and speak with their parents in this regard.

12. Requisities for a teacher. Since the chief requisite in a good school is a competent and faithful teacher, it is our gracious and earnest will, that one and all, who have the right of appointment, shall take heed to bring only well-qualified persons into office as teachers and sacristans. A schoolmaster should not only possess the necessary attainments and skill in instruction, but should be an example to the

children, and not tear down by his daily life what he builds up by his teaching. He should therefore strive after godliness, and guard against everything which might give offence or temptation to parents or children. Above all things, he should endeavor to obtain a correct knowledge of God and of Christ, thereby laying a foundation to honest life and true Christianity, and feeling that they are entrusted with their office from God, as followers of the Saviour, and in it have an opportunity, by diligence and good example, not only to render the children happy in the present life, but also to prepare them for eternal blessedness.

13. Teacher's habits. Though we intend to leave undiminished the privileges of the nobility and other patrons to select and appoint their sacristans and teachers, yet our superintendents, inspectors, and the clergy must see that no incompetent, unsuitable, nor reckless and wicked person is employed or continued in office. . . . All teachers are forbidden to keep tavern, to sell beer or wine, to engage in any other occupation by which their labor may be hindered or the children lured by their example into habits of idleness and dissipation, such as the hanging around taverns or making music at dinners and balls, which is prohibited under high fine and punishment.

14. Examination of teachers. No sacristan or teacher can be installed into office before his qualifications, ascertained by actual examination, are certified to by the Inspector. No clergyman can admit any person to such position in church or school who does not produce said certificate of a successful examination. . . .

15. License to teach. No person shall assume to teach in any school of the country, village, or town, who has not regularly obtained a license to teach; and all schools, whether kept by man or woman, not duly authorized, are entirely prohibited. But parents of wealth may, as heretofore, engage private teachers for their children, provided that the children of others who cannot yet be taught the higher branches, are not induced to withdraw from the regular school in order to share the private elementary instruction.

16. Attendance to duty. As a schoolmaster is not permitted to employ his pupils for his own work during school hours, neither shall he attend to his trade or other business during such hours, or entrust his wife with the duties of the school-room; though he may employ her or another person to assist when the school is too large for his personal instruction. If for any cause he neglects to teach the prescribed hours, the clergyman shall remind him of his duty; and, in case of persistent neglect, notice must be sent to the inspector that such irregularities may be corrected or punished.

17. [School to open with prayer. Nature of.]

18. [School hours. Eight to eleven, and one to four, unless ordered otherwise.]

19. [Course of study. Rather detailed provision made as to each hour of instruction.

Summarized, it is as follows:

Singing of a hymn, a different hymn to be learned each month. This followed by a prayer, and this in turn by instruction in the Catechism. Luther's "Smaller Catechism" for younger children; the larger for the older. Saturday lesson to be preparatory for Sunday, the Epistle for that day being read and written.

2d Hour - A B C class; reading from Old and New Testament; spelling; finding passages in the Scriptures; and

memorizing verses from the Bible and learning Biblical names.

3d Hour Reading, writing, spelling; writing in copybooks; rules of reading. School closes with prayer, and reading of psalm. On Saturday children exhorted to behave well on Sunday; to be quiet in church; and to treasure up the word of God for their salvation.

Afternoon.

4th Hour-Pupils sing verses, read a psalm, and are taught Biblical history from Rochow's "Manual for the Instruction of Children in Country Schools."

5th Hour Catechism, after method given in the "Berlin Reader." Pupils commit to memory, reading it with the teacher. Interpretations for the larger children. Children to learn a Bible verse weekly. During second half of hour, larger children to learn to read;

middle class to spell; and lower class to learn their letters, as in second hour.

6th Hour - Upper class write and cipher; middle class spell; and lower class study their A B C.

In cities, where schools had more than one class, the local consistory could regulate the order of the lessons, and the method of instruction.]

20. Uniform textbooks. As the country has hitherto been deluged with all sorts of school-books, especially with interpretations of the Catechism, and so-called "orders of salvation," because every preacher selects the books after his own pleasure, or writes some himself and has them printed, by which children, especially if parents change their residence, are much confused, it is our will, that henceforth no other books, than such as have been approved by our consistory, shall be used in any country-schools over which we have the right of patron. These books include, according to the wants of the country, the New Testament, the book called "Exercise in Prayer," in which not only are the contents of each book in the Bible, but the main subject of each chapter is framed into a prayer, to assist the young in expressing their invocations in the words of divine truths. Also the Halle or Berlin Bible, both of which agree in their divisions into paragraphs and pages; next the small and large Catechism of Luther; the Index of the books of the Bible; the Christian Doctrines in their connection; the Berlin Spellingbook and Reader; the General Attributes of God, of the world and man; and the Little Book for children in the country, on all sorts of necessary and useful things.

21. Each pupil to have a book. Each class must not only have the same books, but the clergyman and teacher must see that every child has his own book, so that two pupils need not look over the same book. Children, whose books are furnished from the funds of the church or the commune, are not allowed to take them home, but will deliver them to the master, at the close of the lessons, who will take charge of them as the property of the school.

22. [Discipline. Lays down rules for.]

23. [Church attendance. Parents on Sunday to send children to schoolmaster, who shall escort them to church and note conduct and absences, and on Monday question them on the sermon.]

24. Relations of schoolmaster and clergyman. In all other affairs of the school, the teacher must avail himself of the advice and suggestions of the clergyman, as his superior officer, and by his school-regulation the teachers are so directed. Of all that regards their office they must, on demand, give an account, and accept directions in reference to the prescribed method and discipline, because we have confidence in cur ministers and bind it upon their consciences that in their towns they will earnestly endeavor to abolish all abuses and defects, and improve the condition of the schools. In case however one or the other of the schoolmasters should neglect the duties of his office, after he is engaged, and be found unreliable, the pastor's duty will be, earnestly to remind him of his duty, with kindness once or twice, and if he still continues in his negligence, to apply for a remedy to the nearest justice; at the same time to inform the Superintendent or Inspector, and if their warning is not heeded, make a report to the consistory, that, according to the circumstances, they may decree a suspension or removal.

25. Clerical supervision. Especially is it our pleasure, that clergymen in villages and towns shall visit the schools of their place, generally twice a week, sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon, and shall not only take the information of the sacristans or schoolmaster, but themselves examine the children in the Catechism and question them after other schoolbooks. They shall hold a monthly conference with the schoolteachers in matre, and designate to them the portion of the Catechism, the hymn, the psalm and Bible-verses which the children shall learn during the next month. Then he instructs them how to observe the principal divisions of the sermon and how to examine the children; he also points out the defects of their instruction in school, their method, discipline, and gives them other information, that the schoolteachers may fulfil their duties. If a clergyman, against our expectation, should be careless in his visits to the schools, or in the performance of other duties enjoined upon him in these regulations, and not labor earnestly to effect an exact observance of this law on the part of custos and teachers, he shall if convicted of the non-fulfilment of these instructions, be suspended cum effectu, for a time, or, as the case

may be, removed from office: because the care for the instruction of the young and the supervision thereof, belong to the most important duties of the ministry, as we always desire them to be considered.

26. Annual inspection. The Superintendents and Inspectors of every district are hereby commanded, in the most expressive manner, annually to inspect every country-school in their jurisdiction, and with due attention to inquire into the condition of the schools, and examine whether parents and school authorities have held their children to regular attendance at school or have been negligent; whether the clergymen have done their duty in the observance of these regulations, by visiting the schools and superintending the teacher; especially whether the schoolmaster has the ability required or is not competent, and whatever else is in need of improvement. About all this the said Superintendents and Inspectors shall remit a dutiful report, every year, to our High Consistory in this city, for further examination and disposition. . . . Conclusion. In general we here confirm and renew all wholesome laws, published in former times, especially, that no clergyman shall admit to confirmation and the sacrament, any children not of his commune, nor those unable to read, or who are ignorant of the fundamental principles of evangelical religion.

275. The Silesian School Code of 1765

(Translation in Barnard's American Journal of Education, vol. xxII, pp. 869–77) In 1748, as a result of an eight-year war known as the War of the Austrian Succession, Frederick the Great of Prussia succeeded in wresting by force from Maria Theresa of Austria the Province of Silesia. It was an arbitrary act of spoliation, similar to the "divisions" of Poland which soon followed. Silesia was a Catholic province, and in 1765 the King issued a long General Regulations (Code) for the Schools of Silesia, much like the previous (1763) Code for Prussia. In three particulars — (a) training of teachers, (b) regulation of conditions under which teachers lived and worked, and (e) the supervision of instruction by clergymen and inspectors - the Code embodied new directions, and these are reproduced below. The nature of the instruction required (c) and the regulations dealing with compulsory attendance (d) are also reproduced for comparison with similar regulations of the earlier Prussian Code. (R. 274, §§ 19, 20; 10, 11.) While still working through the Church authorities, the strong arm of the State is becoming increasingly evident.