THE LIFE OF BERNARD OVERBERG.

(Continued from Vol. V. p. 728.)

CHAPTER VI.

ANTHONY WIGGERMANN.

AFTER the example of the normal school at Münster, similar establishments, under the same title, were formed at Osnabrück, Paderborn, Arnsberg, Düsseldorf, and Recklinghausen. We may perhaps be allowed to give in this place a particular account of Wiggermann, the normal teacher at Recklinghausen. He considered himself as the scholar of Overberg; he was, for many years together, an inmate of his house and his assistant, and he revered him all his life, as his fatherly friend. The circle of his exertions was limited to a small province, now subject to the civil and spiritual jurisdiction of Münster, which numbered only forty-eight schools. He was able, on this account, to exert a greater influence on individual masters and schools, and building on the foundation laid by Overberg, to carry out in detail ideas which he had been able only to suggest.

Wiggermann was born at Münster, in the year 1764. After he had completed, in that place, his philosophical and theological studies, and had, in the year 1788, been ordained priest, he came into the house of the Princess Galitzin, to take a part in the education of her two children. Here he formed an intimate acquaintance with Overberg, Fürstenberg, and the other friends of the princess. An intercourse of seven years' duration with these distinguished persons, who lived entirely for great designs, animated him with persevering zeal for the improvement and ennobling of mankind; he considered these years as the period of his own education; and even to a late old age, he looked back upon them with heartfelt joy and affection. Nothing can equal the veneration, which he entertained till his death, for the princess and these, her friends. The remembrance of these conversations was a consolation to his whole life; it fortified him in difficulties and dangers,— it refreshed him in the days of his last illness. With Overberg, he stood in a nearer relation, as he gave instructions for many years in the normal school as his assistant.

The Prince Elector Maximilian Francis, Archduke of Austria, was, at that time, most zealously attentive to the object of improving the

condition of his country, in what regarded the Church and schools, as well as other branches of the public administration. For the carrying out of his schemes in the county of Recklinghausen, he found a most zealous co-operator in the Count of Nesselrode, at that time, governor of the country, subsequently Grand Duke of Bergen, and minister of the interior. This man, who, to a great variety of acquirements and indefatigable zeal in a good cause, joined the most accurate knowledge of the country and great influence, obtained the same claim to the gratitude of his countrymen in Recklinghausen, as Fürstenberg had done in Münster, and on his proposition, in the year 1795, Wiggermann was called to Recklinghausen, as normal teacher and visitor of schools.

In his normal instructions, Wiggermann took Overberg for his pattern; like him, he sought to instil into the schoolmasters deep religious principles, to fill them with reverence for their holy calling, and with zeal for the fulfilment of its duties, to clear up their understanding, and to produce in their minds solid, original, and well-reflected ideas. He had acquired, in a high degree, the art of catechising; yet he fell short of Overberg in simplicity and in giving a popular character to his discourse; he was inferior to him, also, in the gracefulnessof his delivery. His discourses were consequently more learned, and more agreeable to those masters who came to them with the previous advantage of an education in the gymnasium. Nevertheless, those who were less well prepared were not allowed to remain behind: he was strict in his requirements of them, and unwearied in helping them forward on all occasions; and the doing this was more within his reach on account of the smaller number of his pupils. When he had completed the normal course, and had to send the masters home to their schools, he continued his instructions to them in writing: he wrote for them complete specimens of catechetical instruction made out in question and answer, and other treatises for schools; compendious views of particular subjects of instruction in a tabular form, complete plans of instruction, and directions for the succession of subjects, &c. He had these works circulated among the masters, according to the judgment which he formed of their ability, and their wants. But then he expected them to make compositions of the same kind themselves, and to send them to him for revision. He criticised, improved, and perfected them; and his comments often went to greater length than the essay itself which he was revising. These compositions made him pass many a night in his study, during the first years. Through his whole life, he devoted a great

part of his time to study, and particularly to reading writings on education. He had constantly in view the improvement of the science of education. Whatever new thing appeared on this subject, he made himself master of, and communicated to his schoolmasters in select portions. His library, which was considerable, grew more numerous each year, and all the schoolmasters had the use of it for their use, moreover, the foundation was laid, at the public cost, of a collection of books on education, which Wiggermann had selected with care, and to which he made additions every year. Meanwhile, he spared no pains in putting useful books in circulation among the masters; but he required of them an account of the way in which they had read and profited by them.

As visitor of schools, also, he was strict in his requirements,-never entirely content with what had been accomplished, and he had an exceedingly quick sight to discover many faults and deficiencies even where there was a great deal of good to be seen. The very least thing could not escape his notice; his method of dealing with the schoolmasters was altogether different from that of Overberg: the charity and kindness of Overberg inspired the most faint-hearted with courage; the somewhat too gloomy severity of Wiggermann was, to the best of them, a goad to become yet better. The faint-hearted might indeed lose courage under his management; others might rebel against him; but all who sincerely had at heart the fulfilment of their duties, honoured and loved him as their father, seeing, as they did, that he sacrificed himself for them, and that under his guidance they attained, every day, to more and more perfection.

He laboured for thirty years, with unwearied zeal; he had found the schools in a miserable condition; difficulties were, at first, put in the way of his exertions, by prejudice, indolence, and ill-will; but he overcame all obstacles by his persevering zeal. He attended to the building of new school-houses, and the increase of the masters' stipends; and provided that, in the places where the number of the children was too great for one school, they should be divided into two classes (not as was done in Münsterland,-separated according to sex, but according to age and proficiency), and two masters appointed. He also exerted himself for the advantage of the establishments for higher studies, in Recklinghausen and Dorsten. To the first he devoted, in his later years, his most particular attention, as a prospect was opened of raising it to the character of a gymnasium of the first order. He co-operated with zeal in effecting this object. Old and infirmities did not preage

vent his taking a part in the instruction, since there were not as yet means for having a sufficient number of teachers. Besides this, he gave the religious instruction in the girls' school of the town. He prepared himself for every lesson in the most careful manner,

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The last thing which Wiggermann effected for the improvement of the country schools, was the collecting together the masters for regular conferences, and the direction of these conferences. Since these meetings have operated remarkably for the improvement of the state of the schools, we may here be allowed to give an account of the manner in which they were conducted, according to rules laid down by Wiggermann; particularly as they differ from other similar meetings, inasmuch as their object is not so much the advancement of the masters in the theoretical knowledge of their art, as the immediate practical improvement of the schools.

The meeting is composed of about twelve schoolmasters, who assemble once a month, at the residences of the different members, in rotation. The forenoon is spent in the school. The master of the place where they meet lays before them a list of the subjects of instruction which he has treated on in the school, with an account of the progress made in each department. After this, he himself conducts an examination of his scholars, in the presence of the rest. The others are at liberty to ask further questions after him, on each particular branch of instruction, in order to see whether the instruction is thoroughly understood, and is well connected in the scholars' minds, and whether the exercises are carried on so as to bring them to a proper degree of readiness in what they know. There is then given by one or another of the masters a lecture for trial, or perhaps a piece of catechism, or an examination, for which he has before prepared himself. Wiggermann himself often gave lectures of this kind. His knowledge, experience, and cleverness, made these lectures of his real models. The examination of the school commenced and concluded with singing. The master entertains his brother teachers at dinner, but in this all superfluity is carefully avoided. The next thing to be done, in the afternoon, is the passing a judgment on the school. Each one offers the remarks which he has made in the school, on its exterior and interior arrangement, on the plan of the lessons, on the state of the discipline, on the method of instruction, on the proficiency of the children in particular branches, on their general deportment, and on the conduct of the master towards them. These remarks, as, on the one hand, they

are offered with good-will and charity, so, on the other, they are received agreeably and with confidence, and give frequent occasion for them to come to an understanding on the proper mode of acting, for the communicating one to the other the fruit of their experience in education, the result of actual experiments, successful expedients, wellapproved auxiliary means. As their interchange of thoughts is occasioned by the observations made in the school, in the morning, so they are applied again directly to the school, and indeed quite specially to this very school. In this manner everything which is not practically useful, is naturally kept at a distance. In the school of the more expert masters, one less expert has an opportunity to learn by observation what is for the best; he is convinced by ocular proof, that more may be effected in a school than is done in his own, and he is spurred on to active emulation. His brother masters make him sensible of what there is faulty and wanting in his school; they show him wherein he may improve; and he is aware, that the following year they will return, and see what advantage he has gained by their admonitions. In order that a point may be fixed from whence the comparison may be made with greater certainty, and that the master may, during the entire year, have before his eyes the judgment passed on his school, one of the members has to commit it to writing, and to lay it before the next conference. The rest of the afternoon is devoted to a repetition of some part of the normal instruction, and to giving instruction and performing exercises in particular branches of knowledge, appointed before-hand, and in explaining the proper method of teaching them.

The direction of these meetings of schoolmasters cost Wiggermann a great deal of pains, even to the last years of his life, when his health had already been a long time impaired, and he was becoming daily more infirm; but, at the same time, it afforded him a great deal of pleasure. As long as ever his strength would permit it, he regularly went to the places of meeting; to be in the midst of the masters was his greatest delight, to them he sacrificed the last of his strength. He was heart and soul a schoolmaster. Love for this pursuit impelled him to learn everything which had any relation to it, and unremittingly to labour at making himself perfect in it. The extensive knowledge which he had acquired, and his dexterity in using what he knew, increased his attachment to the business of education; love for the pursuit was the spring of all his exertions; the true intellectual and moral education of mankind was the object which most engrossingly possessed his heart. The principles of his operations, as well as of his entire life,