relative standing and cost of public and private schools in a part of
the principal towns. It appears that the towns named in the table were
educating rather more than two-thirds of their children in the public
schools, at an expense of $2.88 each, and nearly one-third in private
schools, at a cost of $12.70 each, and that the total expenditure for
public instruction was about thirty-six per cent. of the outlay for
educational purposes.
Column Headings:
A - Amount paid for public instruction during the year.
B - Whole No. of Pupils in the Public Schools in the course of the yr.
C - Number of Academies and Private Schools.
D - Number of Pupils in Academies and Private Schools and not attending
Public Schools.
E -Estimated amount of compensation of Instructors of Academies and
Private Schools.
==============+============+========+=====+=======+============
TOWNS. | A | B | C | D | E
--------------+------------+--------+-----+-------+------------
Beverly, | $1,800 00 | 580 | 28 | 490 | $2,365 33
Bradford, | 750 00 | 600 | 9 | 177 | 1,725 00
Danvers, | 2,000 00 | 873 | 6 | 150 | 1,500 00
Marblehead, | 2,200 00 | 650 | 31 | 650 | 3,800 00
Cambridge, | 8,600 00 | 970 | 16 | 441 | 5,782 00
Medford, | 1,200 00 | 284 | 6 | 151 | 2,372 00
Newton, | 1,600 00 | 542 | 3 | 100 | 2,975 00
Amherst, | 850 00 | 556 | 2 | 270 | 4,600 00
Springfield, | 3,600 00 | 1,957 | 4 | 800 | 2,500 00
Greenfield, | 633 75 | 216 | 2 | 65 | 1,400 00
Dorchester, | 2,599 00 | 613 | 15 | 124 | 1,800 00
Quincy, | 1,800 00 | 465 | 7 | 106 | 2,741 50
Roxbury, | 4,450 00 | 836 | 12 | 313 | 8,218 00
New Bedford, | 4,000 00 | 1,268 | 15 | 537 | 6,300 00
Hingham, | 2,144 00 | 703 | 8 | 180 | 2,625 00
Provincetown, | 584 32 | 450 | 4 | 140 | 800 00
Edgartown, | 450 00 | 350 | 10 | 100 | 2,700 00
Nantucket, | 2,633,40 | 882 | 50 | 1,084 | 10,795 00
|------------|--------|-----|-------+------------
18 Towns, | $36,894 47 | 12,795 | 228 | 5,378 | $64,948 83
==============+============+========+=====+=======+============
The evidence is sufficient that the public schools were in a deplorable
and apparently hopeless condition.
The change that has been effected in the eighteen towns named may be
seen by comparing the following table with the one already given. In
1832, 64 per cent. of the amount paid for education was expended in
academies and private schools, while in 1858 only 24 per cent. was so
expended. In the same period the amount raised for public schools
increased from less than thirty-seven thousand dollars to more than two
hundred and fifty-nine thousand dollars. At the first period, the
attendance of pupils upon academies and private schools was nearly 30
per cent. of the whole number, while in 1858 it was only 8 per cent. The
private schools of some of these towns were established recently, and
are sustained in a degree by pupils who are not inhabitants of the
state, but who have come among us for the purpose of enjoying the
culture which our teachers and schools, private as well as public, are
able to furnish. If, as seems probable, the number of foreign pupils was
less in 1832 than in 1858, the decrease of pupils in private schools
would be greater than is indicated by the tables. The cost of education,
as it appears by this table, is rather more than thirty dollars per
pupil in the private schools, and only eight dollars and forty-nine
cents in the public schools. In the following table, Bradford includes
Groveland, Danvers includes South Danvers, Springfield includes
Chicopee, and Roxbury includes West Roxbury. This is rendered necessary
for the purposes of comparison, as Groveland, South Danvers, Chicopee,
and West Roxbury, have been incorporated since 1832.
Column Headings:
A - Amount paid for Public Schools in 1857-8, including tax, income of
Surplus Revenue, and of State School Fund, when such income is
appropriated for such schools, and exclusive of sums paid for
school-houses.
B - Whole No. of pupils attending Public Schools in 1857-8--the largest
No. returned as in attendance during any one term.
C - Number of incorporated and unincorporated Academies and Private
Schools returned in 1858.
D - Estimated attendance in Academies and Private Schools in 1857-8.
E - Estimated amount of tuition paid in Academies and Priv. Schools in
1857-8.
=============+=============+========+=====+=======+============
TOWNS. | A | B | C | D | E
-------------+-------------+--------+-----+-------+------------
Beverly, | $5,748 20 | 1,114 | 1 | 10 | $100 00
Bradford, | 2,416 47 | 513 | 2 | 84 | 1,720 00
Danvers, | 14,829 52 | 2,066 | 1 | 40 | 360 00
Marblehead, | 7,311 10 | 1,188 | 6 | 160 | 1,390 00
Cambridge, | 37,420 86 | 4,710 | 14 | 400 | 15,000 00
Medford, | 7,794 44 | 837 | 5 | 130 | 3,800 00
Newton, | 12,263 50 | 1,138 | 8 | 308 | 22,800 00
Amherst, | 2,142 80 | 536 | 5 | 121 | 3,934 00
Springfield, | 27,324 84 | 3,864 | 6 | -- | --
Greenfield, | 2,627 50 | 589 | 2 | 25 | 1,800 00
Dorchester, | 22,338 51 | 1,795 | 1 | 31 | 600 00
Quincy, | 8,861 46 | 1,260 | 2 | 20 | 225 00
Roxbury, | 50,000 00 | 4,400 | 25 | 561 | 10,600 00
New Bedford, | 36,074 25 | 3,548 | 20 | 434 | 15,074 00
Hingham, | 4,904 13 | 728 | 2 | 71 | 1,717 56
Provincetown,| 3,147 26 | 689 | -- | -- | --
Edgartown, | 2,578 63 | 380 | 8 | 96 | 200 00
Nantucket, | 11,596 27 | 1,198 | 13 | 259 | 3,466 23
-------------+-------------+--------+-----+-------+------------
Totals, | $259,379 74 | 30,553 | 121 | 2,750 | $82,786 79
=============+=============+========+=====+=======+============
The Legislature of 1834 acted with wisdom and energy. The school fund
having been established, the towns were next required to furnish answers
to certain questions that were substituted for the requisition of the
statute of 1826, and any town whose committee failed to make the return
was to be deprived of its share of the income of the school fund,
whenever it should be first distributed. (Res. 1834, chap. 78.)
Those measures were in the highest degree salutary. There were 305 towns
in the state, and returns were received from 261. There was still a want
of accuracy and completeness; but from this time forth the state secured
what had never before been attained,--intelligent legislation by the
government, and intelligent coöperation and support by the people.
In December, 1834, the Secretary of the Commonwealth prepared an
aggregate of the returns received, of which the following is a copy:
Number of towns from which returns have been received, 261
Number of school districts, 2,251
Number of male children attending school from
four to sixteen years of age, 67,499
Number of female children attending school from
four to sixteen years of age, 63,728
Number over sixteen and under twenty-one unable
to read and write, 158
Number of male instructors, 1,967
Number of female instructors, 2,388
Amount raised by tax to support schools, $810,178 87
Amount raised by contribution to support schools, 15,141 25
Average number of scholars attending academies
and private schools, 24,749
Estimated amount paid for tuition in academies and private
schools, $276,575 75
Local funds--Yes, 71
Local funds--No, 181
Thus, by the institution of the school fund, provision was made for a
system of annual returns, from which has been drawn a series of
statistical tables, that have not only exhibited the school system as a
whole and in its parts, but have also contributed essentially to its
improvement.
These statistics have been so accurate and complete, for many years, as
to furnish a safe basis for legislation; and they have at the same time
been employed by the friends of education as means for awakening local
interest, and stimulating and encouraging the people to assume freely
and bear willingly the burdens of taxation. It is now easy for each
town, or for any inhabitant, to know what has been done in any other
town; and, as a consequence, those that do best are a continual example
to those that, under ordinary circumstances, might be indifferent. The
establishment and efficiency of the school-committee system is due also
to the same agency. There are, I fear, some towns that would now neglect
to choose a school committee, were there not a small annual distribution
of money by the state; but, in 1832, the duty was often either
neglected altogether, or performed in such a manner that no appreciable
benefit was produced. The superintending committee is the most important
agency connected with our system of instruction. In some portions of the
state the committees are wholly, and in others they are partly,
responsible for the qualifications of teachers; they everywhere
superintend and give character to the schools, and by their annual
reports they exert a large influence over public opinion. The people now
usually elect well-qualified men; and it is believed that the extracts
from the local reports, published annually by the Board of Education,
constitute the best series of papers in the language upon the various
topics that have from time to time been considered.[4] By the
publication of these abstracts, the committees, and indeed the people
generally, are made acquainted with everything that has been done, or is
at any time doing, in the commonwealth. Improvements that would
otherwise remain local are made universal; information in regard to
general errors is easily communicated, and the errors themselves are
speedily removed, while the system is, in all respects, rendered
homogeneous and efficient.
Nor does it seem to be any disparagement of Massachusetts to assume
that, in some degree, she is indebted to the school fund for the
consistent and steady policy of the Legislature, pursued for more than
twenty years, and executed by the agency of the Board of Education. In
this period, normal schools have been established, which have educated a
large number of teachers, and exerted a powerful and ever increasing
influence in favor of good learning. Teachers' institutes have been
authorized, and the experiment successfully tested. Agents of the Board
of Education have been appointed, so that it is now possible, by the aid
of both these means, as is shown by accompanying returns and statements,
to afford, each year, to the people of a majority of the towns an
opportunity to confer with those who are specially devoted to the work
of education. In all this period of time, the Legislature has never
been called upon to provide money for the expenses which have thus been
incurred; and, though a rigid scrutiny has been exercised over the
expenditures of the educational department, measures for the promotion
of the common schools have never been considered in relation to the
general finances of the commonwealth. While some states have hesitated,
and others have vacillated, Massachusetts has had a consistent, uniform,
progressive policy, which is due in part to the consideration already
named, and in part, no doubt, to a popular opinion, traditional and
historical in its origin, but sustained and strengthened by the measures
and experience of the last quarter of a century, that a system of public
instruction is so important an element of general prosperity as to
justify all needful appropriations for its support.
It may, then, be claimed for the Massachusetts School Fund, that the
expectations of those by whom it was established have been realized;
that it has given unity and efficiency to the school system; that it has
secured accurate and complete returns from all the towns; that it has,
consequently, promoted a good understanding between the Legislature and
the people; that it has increased local taxation, but has never been a
substitute for it; and that it has enabled the Legislature, at all times
and in every condition of the general finances, to act with freedom in
regard to those agencies which are deemed essential to the prosperity of
the common schools of the state.
Having thus, in the history of the school fund, fully justified its
establishment, so in its history we find sufficient reasons for its
sacred preservation. While other communities, and even other states,
have treated educational funds as ordinary revenue, subject only to an
obligation on the part of the public to bestow an annual income on the
specified object, Massachusetts has ever acted in a fiduciary relation,
and considered herself responsible for the principal as well as the
income of the fund, not only to this generation, but to every generation
that shall occupy the soil, and inherit the name and fame of this
commonwealth.
It only remains for me to present the reasons which render an increase
of the capital of the fund desirable, if not necessary. The annual
income of the existing fund amounts to about ninety-three thousand
dollars, one-half of which is distributed among the towns and cities, in
proportion to the number of persons in each between the ages of five and
fifteen years. The distribution for the year 1857-8 amounted to twenty
cents and eight mills for each child. The following table shows the
annual distribution to the towns from the year 1836; the whole number
of children for each year except 1836 and 1840, when the entire
population was the basis; and the amount paid on account of each child
since the year 1849, when the law establishing the present method of
distribution was enacted:
===================================================
| | | Income
| | | per
Year. | Children. | Income. | pupil.
---------+--------------+---------------+----------
1836. | 473,684 |$16,230 57[5] | --
1837. | 160,676 | 19,002 74[6] | --
1838. | 174,984 | 19,970 47 | --
1839. | 180,070 | 21,358 81 | --
1840. | 701,331 | 21,202 64[7] | --
1841. | 179,967 | 32,109 32[8] | --
1842. | 179,917 | 24,006 89 | --
1843. | 173,416 | 24,094 87 | --
1844. | 158,193 | 22,932 71 | --
1845. | 170,823 | 28,248 35 | --
1846. | 195,032 | 30,150 27 | --
1847. | 197,475 | 34,511 89 | --
===================================================
===================================================
| | | Per Pupil
| | | in Cents
Year. | Children. | Income. | & Mills.
---------+--------------+---------------+----------
1848. | 210,403 |$33,874 87 | --
1849. | 210,770 | 33,723 20 | --
1850. | 182,003 | 37,370 51[9] | .205
1851. | 192,849 | 41,462 54 | .215
1852. | 198,050 | 44,066 12 | .222
1853. | 199,292 | 46,908 10 | .235
1854. | 202,102 | 48,504 48 | .240
1855. | 210,761 | 46,788 94 | .222
1856. | 221,902 | 44,842 75 | .202
1857. | 220,336 | 46,783 64 | .212
1858. | 222,860 | 46,496 19 | .208
===================================================
It was contemplated by the founders of the school fund that an amount
might safely be distributed among the towns equal to one-third of the
sums raised by taxation, but the state is really furnishing only
one-thirtieth of the annual expenditure. A distribution corresponding to
the original expectation is neither desirable nor possible; but a
substantial addition might be made without in any degree diminishing the
interest of the people, or relieving them from taxation. The income of
the school fund has been three times used as a means of increasing the
appropriations in the towns. It is doubtful whether, without an addition
to the fund, this power can be again applied; and yet there are,
according to the last returns, twenty-two towns that do not raise a sum
for schools equal to $2.50 for each child between the ages of five and
fifteen years; and there are fifty-two towns whose appropriations are
less than three dollars. When the average annual expenditure is over six
dollars, the minimum ought not to be less than three.
It is to be considered that, as population increases, the annual
personal distribution will diminish, and consequently that the bond now
existing between the Legislature and people will be weakened. Moreover,
any definite sum of money is worth less than it was twenty years ago;
and it is reasonably certain that the same sum will be less valuable in
1860, and yet less valuable in 1870, than it is now. Hence, if the fund
remain nominally the same, it yet suffers a practical annual decrease.
It is further to be presumed that the Legislature will find it expedient
to advance in its legislation from year to year. A small number of
towns, few or many, may not always approve of what is done, and it is
quite important that the influence of the fund should be sufficient to
enable the state to execute its policy with uniformity and precision.
As is well known, the expenses of the educational department are
defrayed from the other half of the income of the fund. From this income
the forty-eight scholarships in the colleges, the Normal Schools, the
Teachers' Institutes, the Agents of the Board of Education, are
supported, and the salaries of the Secretary and the Assistant-Secretary
are paid. As has been stated, the surplus carried to the capital of the
fund in June last was only $1,843.68. The objects of expenditure,
already named, may be abolished, but no reasonable plan of economy can
effect much saving while they exist. It is also reasonably certain that
the expenses of the department must be increased. The law now provides
for twelve Teachers' Institutes, annually, and there were opportunities
during the present year for holding them; but, in order that one agent
might be constantly employed, and a second employed for the term of six
months, I limited the number of sessions to ten.
The salaries of the teachers in the Normal Schools are low, and the
number of persons employed barely adequate to the work to be done. Some
change, involving additional expense, is likely to be called for in the
course of a few years.
In view of the eminent aid which the school fund has rendered to the
cause of education, with due deference to the wisdom and opinions of its
founders, and with just regard to the existing and probable necessities
of the state in connection with the cause of education, I earnestly
favor the increase of the school fund by the addition of a million and a
half of dollars.
Nor does the proposition for the state to appropriate annually $180,000
in aid of the common schools seem unreasonable, when it is considered
that the military expenses are $65,000, the reformatory and correctional
about $200,000, the charitable about $45,000, and the pauper expenses
nearly $250,000 more, all of which will diminish as our schools are year
by year better qualified to give thorough and careful intellectual,
moral, and religious culture.
This increase seems to be necessary in order that the Massachusetts
School Fund may furnish aid to the common schools during the next
quarter of a century proportionate to the relative influence exerted by
the same agency during the last twenty-five years. Nor will such an
addition give occasion for any apprehension that the zeal of the people
will be diminished in the least. Were there to be no increase of
population in the state, the distribution for each pupil would never
exceed forty cents, or about one-fifteenth of the amount now raised by
taxation.
So convinced are the people of Massachusetts of the importance of common
schools, and so much are they accustomed to taxation for their support,
that there is no occasion to hesitate, lest we should follow the example
of those communities where large funds, operating upon an uneducated and
inexperienced popular opinion, have injured rather than benefited the
public schools. The ancient policy of the commonwealth will be
continued; but, whenever the people see the government, by solemn act,
manifesting its confidence in schools and learning, they will be
encouraged to guard and sustain the institutions of the fathers.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] An eminent friend of education, and an Englishman, speaking of the
reports for the year 1866-7, says: "The views enunciated by your local
committees, while they have the sobriety indicative of practical
knowledge, are at the same time enlightened and expansive. The writers
of such reports must be of inestimable aid to your schoolmasters,
standing as they do between the teacher and the parent, and exercising
the most wholesome influence on both. Let me remark, in passing, that I
am struck with the power of composition evinced in these provincial
papers. Clear exposition, great command of the best English, correctness
and even elegance of style, are their characteristics."
[5] Distributed among the cities and towns, according to an Act of 1835.
(Stat. 138, § 2.)
[6] Distributed among the cities and towns, according to the number of
persons in each between the ages of four and sixteen years. (Rev. Stat.,
chap. 23, § 67.)
[7] Income distributed among the cities and towns, according to
population, under an Act passed Feb. 22, 1840. (Stat. 1840, Chap. 7.)
This act was repealed by an act passed Feb. 8, 1841. (Stat. 1841, chap.
17, § 2.)
[8] Distributed among the cities and towns, according to the number of
persons in each between the ages of four and sixteen years. (Stat. 1841,
chap. 17, § 2.)
[9] Distributed among the cities and towns, according to the number of
persons in each between the ages of five and fifteen years. (Stat. 1849,
chap. 117, § 2.)
A SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.
[An Address before the Barnstable Agricultural Society, Oct. 8, 1857.]
In the month of February, 1855, a distinguished American, who has read
much, and acquired, by conversation, observation, and travels in this
country and Europe, the highest culture of American society, wrote these
noticeable sentences: "The farmers have not kept pace, in intelligence,
with the rest of the community. They do not put brain-manure enough into
their acres. Our style of farming is slovenly, dawdling, and stupid, and
the waste, especially in manure, is immense. I suppose we are about, in
farming, where the Lowlands of Scotland were fifty years ago; and what
immense strides agriculture has made in Great Britain since the battle
of Waterloo, and how impossible it would have been for the farmers to
have held their own without!"[10]
It would not be civil for me to endorse these statements as introductory
to a brief address upon Agricultural Education; but I should not accept
them at all did they not contain truth enough to furnish a text for a
layman's discourse before an assembly of farmers.
Competent American travellers concur in the opinion that the Europeans
generally, and especially our brethren of England, Ireland, and
Scotland, are far in advance of us in scientific and practical
agriculture. This has been stated or admitted by Mr. Colman, President
Hitchcock, and last by Mr. French, who has recently visited Europe under
the auspices of the National Agricultural Society.
There are good reasons for the past and for the existing superiority of
the Old World; and there are good reasons, also, why this superiority
should not much longer continue. Europe is old,--America is young. Land
has been cultivated for centuries in Europe, and often by the same
family; its capacity tested, its fitness or unfitness for particular
crops proved, the local and special effects of different fertilizers
well known, and the experience of many generations has been preserved,
so as to be equivalent to a like experience, in time and extent, by the
present occupants of the soil.