Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	france_n	young_a	youth_n	25	3	7.2696	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52756	A discourse concerning schools and school-masters offered to publick consideration / by M.N.	Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678.	1663 (1663)	Wing N387; ESTC R308	12,205	20

sufficient recompence for the toil of teaching In Courts of Law and equity no under-Clerk or inferiour Officers place but may vie for the profits of it with the fairest pension of any publick School Ministers themselves who instruct us to expect future rewards yet without a fair present maintenance would fall into the contempt of the vulgar and their labours prove ineffectual And this is the case of Schools no imployment more publickly useful none more toylsome and painful yet no one more sleighted even to reproach no one less rewarded or regarded 'T is a great scandal to the Nation and certainly as great a grievance if rightly considered that no one sort of men are greater sufferers in this kind then Schoolmasters Yet this must be said in commendation of our Ancestours that their provision was very competent and that the indowment of Schools was in proportion to the estates of those times very fair and honorable When workmen wrought for a penny a day when that Land which is now worth 40. or 50. s. an Acre was then thought a dear bargain at ten groats when every thing was cheap but money forty pound per Annum was a fair livelyhood and better then then 200. l. now perhaps But what do we add to our forefathers stock The Trustees and Governours in the several Corporations share the Improvements amongst themselves take all above the Salary for lawful prize and leave the Master to the bare old allowance notwithstanding the vast increase of the old Rents So that by this means Schools are become Impropriations and lay men ignorant fellows run away with the incouragements of Learning receive the rewards of the Masters industry This abuse would deserve the Parliaments notice and a severe account to be taken of the Revenues of Schools which might be done by requiring all Masters and Governours to give in a perfect Inventory of School-Lands Houses c. with their yearly value and setling accordingly an honourable Salary upon the Master with reasonable abatement for Repairs and the Charges of the Overseers This course would invite men of eminent parts and abilities into School-work whereas now 't is made the Sanctuary of many idle insufficient persons who have no hopes elsewhere or by those which have any merit design'd a step to some Church-preferment It cannot then be expected as things are that the Schools of this Nation excepting some few which are Illustrious and of Royal Foundation should be in any tolerable condition Having taken notice of the mean support and slender maintenance let us next take a view of the Methods of teaching used in Schools and see what disorders may be met with in them I shall not pretend to be able to judge and give definitive Sentence what is the best method though we ought to have that regard to Antiquity and the custom of former times that we are to be very tender how we prefer our own novell conceits to their tried and approved usages and that we do constantly adhere to that method and way which their practice back'd with publick authority hath chalked out to us till authority do recommend another They do almost in all Countries entertain the same Grammar and go by a certain rule of teaching Despauter obtains in France Alvarez in Spain and all England over heretofore Lilly and Camden were in the hands of Youth And indeed there is the same reason for Vniformity in School as in Church the variety of Methods supposing they were all severally in themselves very good doing very much mischief by not only distracting young heads and discouraging them and putting them back upon their removes to new Masters but also making a fundamental difference in their course as they proceed to other studies I have heard that a Bishop at an examination in a publick School receiving an answer out of the common road from a child which had come lately from a private School made this Reply What says he Puritanism in Schools too And so it is with us now since these licentious times have overthrown all order and broken us into so many sects and factions the Schools have been infected with that Fanatick Itch and like Independent Congregations have bin variously administred by new Lights according to the fancy of the several Teachers that I dare say there are as many Grammars taught as there are Grammarians to teach if not more It would be well if these loos brooms were gather'd again if not into the old yet into some one Model 'T is likely enough the old way may have some inconvenience many defects and redundancies why may not the same course be taken by us as by the States of Holland who upon such an occasion imployed Vassius to revise and mend and complete the old Grammars both Greek and Latine which are now accordingly read in the Low-Countrey Schools or for better satisfaction what if the Convocation would please to order some of their number taking to their assistance some of the most able Masters well experienced in teaching either to correct what is amiss in the old Institution or to draw up a new body of Rules and System of that Art with the advantage of later inventions It would be a thing not unworthy the care of Church-men and that for which posterity would pay thanks to their memory Some eminent Divines in former ages have descended to that care Dr. Collet Dean of Pauls Erasmus Card. Woolsey c. In the mean time I shall appeal to any man of sober Judgement whether it be consistent with the Nations good to banish schism out of the Church and countenance it in Schools and whether our English Youth which is thus nursed up in faction is like to be well taught When the Stipends and Methods are thus established I should further propose that there should be no allowance for any one whatsoever to keep a private School upon his own account unless it be the Clerk of the Parish whose office it should be with an allowance for it to teach all the Children of the Parish at certain hours each day to write and reade and that by the direction and under the inspection of the Minister and on Saturdays to prepare thē for their publick answering in the Church to the Catechise-question● and that when children are thus far instructed in their own Parish they should be then sent to some publick School unless the Parent were of an Estate to keep a Tutor to be approved by the Bishop in his house or were of so low a fortune that he could not be at the charge of breeding his Child a Scholar For without question many of those whiffling undertakers that appear not in publick Stations but venture out upon their own private bottom besides that they drain the publick Schools to their great hindrance and discouragement Citizens being easily pleased with any thing that is new-fangled may very well be suspected to have no honest warrantable design if they be well inquired