[1] It will, I hope, be clear that these remarks apply specifically to
the grammar school teacher who does have to teach everything. The case
is less desperate in the higher reaches of our school system.
[2] Except in _Dutch_ New York, and in Massachusetts.
[3] “The one dominant feature of this labour movement [1824-1836]
was the almost fanatical insistence upon the paramount importance of
education. In political platforms, in resolutions of public meetings,
and in the labour press, the statement is repeated over and over,
that the fundamental demand of labour is for an adequate system of
education....
“To this movement, more than to any other single cause, if not more
than to all other causes combined, is due the common school system
of the United States.... When the movement died out in 1835 to 1837
... Horace Mann was leading the ‘educational revival,’ and the common
school was an established institution in nearly every state.”--A. M.
Simons: “Social Forces in American History.”
[4] In which some of these chapters originally appeared, and to which
my thanks are due for the privilege of republication.