For the Register.
"HILLSBOROUGH ACADEMY."
This Institution has, for years, been growing on the public confidence. Its able and indefatigable Principal, Mr. BINGHAM, has preferred that it should win its way to fame, rather by the proficiency of the pupils, than by the adventitious aids so often resorted to, by the friends of other Academies. Though urged by Parents & Guardians to give to the public his system of School government and studies, he has hitherto declined to go beyond the ordinary advertisement, of the time at which the school exercises commence. Very recently, however, the Trustees of the Academy have issued a small Pamphlet, containing some outlines of the system of discipline adopted by Mr. B., together with a list of the Students and calculated, we trust, to place the claims of this School on such ground as fully to justify its extensive patronage. By that publication it will appear that both the Classical and English Departments are filled; that the location of the School is in a healthful region and in a community unsurpassed for morality, but what is of infinitely more importance even than these advantages, is, that the discipline combines energy with mildness and that it is not confined to the Academic hours, but extends to those of relaxation. The pupil is thus led to acquire consistency of character and insensibly to cultivate proper self-respect. It is common to hear American scholarship depreciated, and perhaps when contrasted with European, it may not be without truth, but there is abundant reason to account for it. The time directed to Classical studies and the thorough elementary instruction in Europe, has long been regarded as among the prominent causes of this superiority; Experience has taught that there is no sound learning in the higher branches, without a perfect mastery of the primary studies. More good minds have been wrecked, by attempting a north-west passage to learning, than ever failed to arrive at it by the old route. The impatience of this age, and particularly of this country, have become proverbial, and in nothing is this more seen than in the discoveries of short systems of Education; a species of quackery, which panders to the public appetite.
Without recurring particularly to the many errors in the organization of Grammar Schools, the writer thinks there is one common defect in the mode of getting up such Schools. If a young gentleman is liberally educated, as it is called, and should be seized with the mania for professional fame, without the means of pursuing his studies, he forthwith "urged by poverty and requests of friends" issues proposals for opening "a Classical Seminary" not to build up an honest name as an Instructor, not to extend the blessings of sound learning to others, but to sustain himself while preparing for the practice of a far different profession, that of Divinity, Law, or Medicine. Now, we do not censure many of these good men, for if they faithfully discharge their duty to their pupils they deserve applause. All we mean to say is, that it is not probable we should find them as devoted to this temporary calling, as if it were to be the business of their lives—that men do not usually take as much pains with the scaffolding, as with the building for which it is used.
So well has Mr. B. been aware of this, that he has refused to receive any Assistant who has not, like himself, devoted his life to the business of Instruction: and the consequences are already manifest in the increased and increasing reputation of the School. He has retained Assistants at very high salaries, in the hope of elevating the character of the Academy and enlarging the sphere of its usefulness, and we are well assured that any increase of expense incurred for this purpose, will be amply repaid by increased patronage.
The writer is not in any manner connected either with the Academy or the Instructors, and hopes that his motives will not suffer from misconstruction. As a Father and a friend of learning, he offers his humble tribute of applause to an Institution, which has been furnished to our University the first Classical Scholars, and in which we see a pledge of future and continued usefulness. Atticus.
—Raleigh Register, August 10, 1839.
(Source: North Carolina Schools and Academies 1790-1840, by Charles L. Coon, 1915)
