University of Virginia Library

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THE
NATIONAL SCHOOL MANUAL:

A
REGULAR AND CONNECTED COURSE OF ELEMENTARY STUDIES,
EMBRACING
THE NECESSARY AND USEFUL BRANCHES OF A COMMON EDUCATION.

IN FOUR PARTS, WITH A QUARTO ATLAS.

COMPILED FROM THE LATEST AND MOST APPROVED AUTHORS,
BY M. R. BARTLETT.

The plan of this work was the suggestion of the late Governor Clinton, whose
zeal and efforts in the cause of our Public Schools, will be cherished with grateful
remembrance to the latest posterity; and this work, so far as it had advanced, up
to the time of his lamented death, received his favorable regard and patronage.

The object of the National School Manual, is to furnish a System of instruction,
for a thorough English education, in a plain, practical, and progressive
Series of Lessons, collaterally arranged.

It is believed that the plan of this work is sufficiently wide and comprehensive
for all the purposes of a good English Education, and that it is capable of advancing
the pupil much faster in his studies, and to much higher attainments in
the useful sciences, than is possible in the present mode, with the help of the
best teachers.

The practical results of a general adoption of the National School Manual
will be:

1st. To introduce system, uniformity and order into our Schools. 2d. To define
and regulate the duties of teachers, and give them the means of being more
thorough, precise, and useful. 3d. To present to the opening minds of pupils, the
various subjects of human science, in a clear and lucid manner, and with all
the advantages of natural order, and philosophical arrangement, adapted to the
progress of knowledge: and, 4th. To Parents and Guardians, exemption from
the vexation and expense of changing the whole catalogue of School Books, and
the whole course of studies, with every change of School or Teacher—a thing
of very frequent occurrence in our Country Schools. As to the saving of expense
in the article of School Books, the entire cost of the Common School Manual,
embracing the Primer and the Four Parts, of upwards of 1500 pages, for the
whole course of a good English education, and an Atlas of 20 maps, is between
three and four dollars.

From the Teachers of Public Schools in the city of New-York.

We have examined the National School Manual, and are pleased with the
plan. From our knowledge of the various systems pursued in the country schools,
many of which, upon the change of teachers, serve rather to retard, than advance,
the pupil, we do not hesitate to recommend the Manual, as having not
only a tendency to uniformity and order, but also to save expense, the complaint
of which is without parallel.

From the Rev. James Carnahan, President of Princeton College.

Having examined the general plan of the 1st, 2d, and 3d parts of the “National
School Manual,” and having also taken a cursory view of some of the details,
I am satisfied that it is a work of no common merit.

The evils which this work proposes to remedy are great and generally felt
by parents and instructors. The expense of books, according to the course heretofore
pursued, is a very serious inconvenience; and the loss of time and labor
arising from the want of a connected series of instruction adapted to the capacities
of children and youth, is a consideration of vast moment.

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Comparatively few instructors are competent to select, from the great number
of books now used in common schools, those adapted to the improving capacities
of their pupils. If a book, which he cannot understand, be put into the
hands of a pupil, he will lose his time, and what is worse, he will probably contract
a disgust for learning. The great art of teaching consists in beginning
with the simplest elements, and advancing gradually to things more difficult as
the capacity of acquiring knowledge expands, presenting something new to
arrest the attention and to exercise the ingenuity of the pupil. To answer
these ends, the work of Mr. Bartlett seems to me well suited. If these small
volumes be thoroughly studied, I am persuaded that the pupil will be better
prepared to transact the business of life, and by his own exertions to improve
himself after he leaves school, than if he had spent twice the time under an
ill-arranged system of instruction.

It will, doubtless, be difficult to introduce a uniform system of instruction into
our common schools; yet the object is so desirable, that it deserves a vigorous
and persevering effort; and I indulge the hope that the day is not far distant,
when the “National School Manual,” improved and enlarged by its able and
experienced author, will be very generally adopted.

From the Rev. Charles S. Stewart, Chaplain in the United States Navy—Author of
a Journal of Voyages to the Pacific, &c. &c.

I have examined with much care, and great satisfaction, the “National
School Manual,” compiled by M. R. Bartlett. The opinion I have formed of its
merits, is of little importance, after the numerous and highly respectable testimonials
to its value already in your possession.

A work of this kind has long been a desideratum in the economy of our public
schools, and I am persuaded that the advantages which this compilation is calculated
to secure to pupils, teachers, and parents, need only to be appreciated to
secure its introduction throughout our country. It will be found on trial, I think,
greatly to aid the instructor in his arduous service, while the pupil cannot fail,
in the use of it, if I am not mistaken, to make a more rapid and understanding
progress than by the method now generally pursued. To teacher and scholar the
importance and value of the system, I doubt not, would be fully shown after a
very brief trial, while the parent and guardian would soon learn its advantage
in an exemption from the heavy tax now imposed on them by a constant change
of books.

I should be happy to see the Manual in every common school in the Union, from
the conviction that the best interests of education would be promoted by it.

I have examined with care and a high degree of interest the work called the
“National School Manual,” by Mr. M. R. Bartlett, and am so well satisfied
with its merits, and that it will eventually be adopted in all our common schools,
to the exclusion of every other work of the kind now in use, that I feel anthorized
to exert my influence to have the work introduced forthwith into my
school.

The Publishers have similar letters from fifty or sixty Teachers of the
highest respectability.