theory during the century. There has been a perfect flood of
educational books, pamphlets, and periodicals, whose merit is so great
as to extort even reluctant admiration from foreign critics. While
there has been much unevenness in quality, yet Americans have no reason
to feel ashamed of their contribution to pedagogical literature. The
best work has been done in the discussion of specific questions, rather
than in an elaboration of general ideals. Administration, with its
manifold problems, has appealed strongly to the American genius; and
consequently the greatest names of the century are those of men who
have devoted themselves to some practical work, the ideals and details
of which they have thoroughly mastered, and so have left enduring
monuments of their lives’ work.
[Illustration: DR. THOMAS ARNOLD, OF RUGBY, ENGLAND.
(Courtesy of The School Journal, New York.)]
The great achievement of the century in the United States has been the
establishment of a system of free and public schools. Like most of the
nation’s intellectual impulses, this spirit seems to have come from New
England. There, the democratic ideals of the people led to an early
appreciation of the necessity for universal education. There can be
little doubt that it was from the Puritan settlements in Massachusetts
that the original impulse toward universal education came. Thus, in
1647, the Colonial Assembly required that each town containing one
hundred families should establish a grammar school to prepare youths
for the university. During colonial times more and more schools were
steadily established. But the movement, which was zealously supported
in New England and encouraged in the Middle States, especially by
the Friends, met with opposition in the South, where education was
considered a family duty, and not within the province of the State.
Whatever, therefore, was accomplished in an educational line prior to
the Revolution depended upon the spirit of the individual colonies;
consequently, there was the widest possible divergence in the policies
and methods of different localities.
[Illustration: AN OLD LOG SCHOOLHOUSE.]
But as soon as the Revolution had been accomplished, and independence
had become a fact, a renewed interest in general education was evident.
It is exceedingly interesting to watch the development of the point
of view that free schools were a necessity for the existence of the
republic, and hence must be established by the State. The early
fathers of the nation were not slow to recognize this. In the words of
Franklin, “A Bible and newspaper in every house, a good school in every
district—all studied and appreciated as they merit—are the principal
support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty.” “In proportion
as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion,”
said Washington, “it is necessary that public opinion should be
enlightened.” And Jefferson, with his broad philosophical appreciation
of democracy, started the battle against the ideas of Governor
Berkeley, of Virginia, when, in 1779, he introduced into the General
Assembly of Virginia a bill providing for the establishment of schools
“for the free training of all free children, male and female.”
The half century from 1790 to 1840 is the period of the battle for
free public schools. It was a hard fight, complicated in many States
by local questions and conditions that rendered success almost
hopeless. Some opposed from the old point of view that education was
an individual matter,—each should get for himself just so much as
was possible. Others raised the objection of cost,—if taxation was
proposed, was it right to take money from one group to educate the
children of another? Religious disputes hindered progress,—many of
the denominations had founded sectarian schools, and were unwilling to
see them replaced by public schools, where no creed would be taught.
Especially, in some States, as in Pennsylvania, where Swede, German,
Scotch, Irish, and English lived side by side, did the race problem
enter as a perplexing element. Should any language other than English
be taught? What respect should be given to the traditions and customs
of each race-group? Moreover, when the conservatism began to yield to
progress, it compromised with great reluctance. At first, provision was
made whereby the children of the poor should have their school fees
paid by the State. Then public schools were started exclusively for the
poor, which were branded with the stigma of “pauper schools.” But these
difficulties only served to increase the ardor of the public-school
advocates, and at length their success was complete.
Some episodes of the struggle deserve special mention. Horace Mann
(1796–1859) has been called the St. Paul of education in America.
In 1837, the State Board of Education was created in Massachusetts,
and Horace Mann was appointed its first secretary. For twelve years
he labored with unflagging energy to build up the public interest
in education. By speech and by pen, he awakened in his State an
appreciation of the value of the public school system that has never
since decayed. He established on an enduring basis the business side
of education in the State, by systematizing the school funds. The
personal sacrifice was enormous. He addressed public meetings all
over the country. When he found that no arrangements had been made at
Pittsfield to prepare the schoolhouse for his meeting, Horace Mann and
Governor Briggs themselves swept out the building and set it in order.
One of his first interests was the provision of good teachers. In
order to spur the Assembly to its duty, he begged from his friends the
sum of $10,000, which, with an equal sum appropriated from the state
treasury, was used in the establishment of the Massachusetts normal
schools at Lexington and Barre (1839). Outside of his administrative
work, his fame must rest upon his stanch advocacy of the principle of
“the obligation of a State, on the great principles of natural law and
natural equity, to maintain free schools for the universal education of
its people.”
In Pennsylvania, the hero of the battle for free schools was Thaddeus
Stevens. In 1834, a law was passed by the legislature establishing a
state system, and abolishing the distinction between rich and poor
which had been noticed in the old pauper schools. Two years later,
a determined effort was made by the combined forces of ignorance,
prejudice, and caste, to repeal the act of 1834. Nothing but the
stanchness of Governor Wolf and the power exerted by the eloquence of
the “Old Commoner” saved free schools for the Keystone State, and so
established the system which to-day receives more direct aid from the
state treasury than in any other State of the Union.
West of the Alleghanies, the interest in popular education has always
been deep and thorough. Settled in large measure by the steady sons of
New England, education found there a most fertile soil. Moreover, by
the wise foresight of Congress, provision was made for school funds
in a most satisfactory way. The Ordinance of 1787, which organized
the territory north of the Ohio River, contained a provision that
one section of land in each township should be devoted to public
education. If this grant, which was originally suggested by Jefferson,
had been carefully watched, it would have been sufficient to endow
the public schools of many Western States. The national government
gave to education in the first hundred years of its history nearly
eighty million acres of public lands, but these grants were not always
conserved with sufficient care. In 1896–97 the total revenue of the
school systems in the United States was $188,641,243, of which less
than five per cent was from state school funds or rent of school
lands, while over eighty-six per cent was derived from state and local
taxation.
Some little conception of the immensity of the common-school system in
the United States may be obtained from the following statistics, taken
from the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1896–97.
COMMON-SCHOOL STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES (NOT INCLUDING PRIVATE
SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, OR UNIVERSITIES).
1870–71 1896–97
I.—General Statistics. Approximate
Total population 39,500,500 71,374,142
Number of persons 5 to 18 years of age 12,305,600 21,082,472
Number of different pupils enrolled
on the school registers 7,561,582 14,652,492
Per cent of total population enrolled 19.14 20.53
Average daily attendance 4,545,317 10,089,620
Average length of school term (days) 132.1 140.4
Male teachers 90,293 131,386
Female teachers 129,932 271,947
------------ ------------
Whole number of teachers 220,225 403,333
Per cent of male teachers 41.0 32.6
Average monthly wages of teachers:
Males (averaged from the
statistics of 43 States) $44.62
Females (averaged from the
statistics of 43 States) $38.38
Number of schoolhouses 132,119 246,828
Value of school property $143,818,703 $469,069,086
II.—Financial Statistics.
Receipts:
Income from permanent funds $7,846,648
From state taxes 35,062,533
From local taxes 127,960,761
From all other sources 17,771,301
------------
Total receipts 188,641,243
Expenditures:
For sites, buildings, furniture,
libraries, and apparatus $31,903,245
For salaries of teachers and
superintendents $42,580,853 119,303,542
For all other purposes 36,113,815
------------
Total expenditures $69,107,612 $187,320,602
Expenditure per capita of population. 1.75 2.62
Total expenditure per pupil 15.20 18.57
To these grand totals must be added the million and more in attendance
at private schools throughout the country, and the rapidly increasing
number (now 217,763) of those who receive higher instruction, in
universities and professional and normal schools. This makes for
the United States a grand total of 16,255,093 pupils and students
of all grades in public and private schools. The growth during the
last generation has been most marked. The statistical table gives an
opportunity for comparison with the year 1870–71,—the span of a
generation,—and it has been estimated that within this period the
average total amount of schooling has increased from 2.91 years to 4.28
years. In other words, the amount of education which each one felt able
to afford has increased almost one half. Such is the magnificent result
which has grown out of the isolated village schools of our New England
ancestors, fostered by the democratic desire for intelligence found all
over the country.
[Illustration: SCHOOLHOUSE, SLEEPY HOLLOW, N. Y.
(Courtesy of The School Journal, New York.)]
Equally great has been the change in the spirit of the school. In the
early days the schools were very crude. Population was scattered, and
since the children could not go as far to school as their elders did to
church, the number of schoolhouses was very great. They were usually
put up by the people of the neighborhood with little pretense at
adornment. The average schoolhouse was located either at a fork in the
roads or on an elevation, where it shared, with the church, the honor
of conspicuousness. We give a picture of Old Sleepy Hollow Schoolhouse,
made famous by Washington Irving’s elaborate description of Ichabod
Crane, its ruler in the colonial days. But a structure of this kind is
luxurious compared with the hardships of more sparsely settled regions.
From Wickersham’s “History of Education in Pennsylvania” the following
description is culled: “The pioneer schoolhouse was built of logs,
sixteen by twenty feet, seven feet to the ceiling, daubed with mud
inside and out, a mud and stick chimney in the north end, and in the
west a log was left out, and the opening covered with oiled paper to
admit light; holes were bored in the logs and pins driven in, on which
to nail a long board for a writing-table, and slabs with legs answered
for seats. The early schoolhouses were generally situated near the
roadside or cross-roads, being without playground, shade-trees, or
apparatus.”
Here the master kept his country school for a term of from six to
twelve weeks. In the winter time the pupils were almost frozen, and
there were other dangers which the hardy lad of those days had to
encounter. Nevertheless, rude, uncomfortable, and inadequate as they
were, it was here that our forefathers obtained their scanty schooling.
The three R’s, Readin’, Ritin’, and ‘Rithmetic, formed the basis of
the course of study. Methods were very simple. Much of the early
instruction was religious in its trend, and the child was expected to
use books which would teach moral lessons. Church books, containing
creeds and hymns and catechisms, might be used in the school for
study. Then there were the primers or books to teach the A B C. The
famous “New England Primer” was published in the latter part of the
seventeenth century. Later editions contained rhyming couplets upon
each letter of the alphabet, illustrated with such imagery as the art
would allow. A page from the “Child’s Guide,” published in London in
1762, is shown on page 527. Its verses were easily memorized, and
sometimes gave a basis for a spelling lesson. There were no graded
readers until this century.
Writing in some neighborhoods was taught only to boys, on the general
ground that it was an unnecessary accomplishment for the sex which
never engaged in business. Ink was home-made from bruised nutgalls
placed in a bottle with water and rusty nails. The writing was done
with a quill pen, and one of the foremost duties of the old-fashioned
pedagogue was to make and mend pens.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF SCHOOLROOM, SLEEPY HOLLOW, N. Y.
(Courtesy of The School Journal, New York.)]
The master set the copies by writing a lesson which was to be imitated
by the pupils. There was no set style, but usually the teacher wrote
a bold, legible hand which in time was acquired with a fair degree of
success. Arithmetic was taught without text-books. Sums were given
out by the master and worked out on paper on the desk. Nothing but the
more rudimentary principles was taught, and the higher branches of
algebra and geometry were unknown in the public schools of this time.
Spelling was one of the favorite studies. It gave free scope for the
memory, and provided an opportunity for one of those public exhibitions
in which Americans have always delighted. “Spelling on the book,” says
Wickersham, “was taught by attempting to lead the pupil to give the
names of syllables and words by naming the letters of which they are
composed. The first lesson consisted of combinations of a word with
one or more consonants, arranged so that a kind of rhyme aided the
pronunciation, as _ab_, _eb_, _ib_, etc.” ... “Spelling off the book”
consisted in naming the letters of words pronounced for that purpose.
But the chief enjoyment of spelling came from the old-fashioned
contests, or “spelling-bees.” Sometimes it was to discover the best
speller of the district; again, one district might be pitted against
another. The spellers would be arranged in two rows. The first word
would be given to the first speller on one side, the next to his rival,
the third to his comrade, and so on. If one missed a word, he at once
took his seat; presently the contest would narrow down to a few, until
at last all would have missed save one, and he or she became the
champion speller.
The teachers of the time formed a group of varied attainments, and
oftentimes with little professional enthusiasm. Teaching has always
suffered from the fact that a great number of young men enter upon
its practice, who use it merely as a stepping-stone to some other and
more attractive pursuit. The number of those who have taught a few
terms, in order to save money for a college, law, or medical course
is legion; and this fact has laid the profession open to the reproach
that only the unambitious and the unalert follow it permanently. In
the early days of our country’s history, this stigma was intensified
by the number of “itinerant schoolmasters,” men who wandered from
place to place, teaching a term in one village and then moving to
the next,—“odd in dress, eccentric in manners, and oftentimes
intemperate.” Their work was simple in its nature; they were to
keep order and to teach the rudiments. Their methods in the latter
have already been referred to; for the former, they relied, almost
universally, upon the unsparing use of the rod.
The wisdom of the practice of flogging has only been questioned in
the latter part of this century. In the early days it was the one
recognized punishment, even for students whose maturity and attainments
would suggest an appeal to reason. With this mode of punishment was
associated a more or less ingenious series of devices, such as the
dunce-block, the fools’ cap, etc., all calculated to bring the offender
into ridicule, but utterly destructive of that good feeling between
teacher and pupil, upon which so much stress is laid to-day.
In the course of the century the old-fashioned school has either passed
away or else has been modified materially. To-day it is to be found in
only sparsely settled districts, while in the cities and in the more
cultured neighborhoods one finds carefully planned systems of education
that show the fruits of the study and direction of some of the keenest
minds that our country has produced. While it is impossible in the
space of a single chapter to refer to _all_ the changes, yet some of
the most important will be considered.
[Illustration:
A.
In _Adam’s_ Fall,
We sinned all.
B.
This _Book_ attend,
Thy Life to mend.
C.
The _Cat_ doth play,
And after slay.
D.
The _Dog_ doth bite
A Thief at Night.
E.
An _Eagle’s_ flight
Is out of sight.
F.
The Idle _Fool_,
Is whipt at School.
G.
As runs the _Glass_,
Man’s Life doth pass.
H.
My Book and _Heart_
Shall never part.
I.
_Jesus_ did dye,
For thee and I.
K.
_King Charles_ the Good,
No man of Blood.
L.
The _Lyon_ bold,
The _Lamb_ doth hold.
M.
The _Moon_ gives Light,
In time of Night.
N.
_Nightingales_ sing,
In time of Spring.
O.
The Royal _Oak_ our King did save,
From fatal stroke of Rebel Slave.
P.
_Peter_ denies
His Lord, and cries.
Q.
_Queen Esther_ came in Royal State,
To save the Jews from dismal fate.
R.
_Rachel_ doth mourn
For her first-born.
S.
_Samuel_ anoints
Whom God appoints.
T.
_Time_ cuts down all,
Both great and small.
U.
_Uriah’s_ beauteous Wife,
Made David seek his Life.
W.
_Whales_ in the Sea
God’s voice obey.
X.
_Xerxes_ the Great did die,
And so must you and I.
Y.
_Youth’s_ forward slips
Death soonest nips.
Z.
_Zaccheus_, he
Did climb the Tree,
His Lord to see.
CHILD’S GUIDE.
(_Courtesy of J. Harold Wickersham._)]
Foremost in real importance come the changes in the course of study—in
the list of subjects which the well-educated young man may be expected
to have mastered. One hundred years ago the average child would have
gone to the village school for the three “R’s” with, maybe, a little
training in geography and parsing. If a college career was open to
him, he would then go to an academy, usually a private institution,
for his introduction to the classics, Latin and Greek, and to algebra.
While instruction was given in other branches, yet these formed the
backbone of the course. The average age of admission to college was
considerably less than it is at present. In the ordinary college there
was a required course of study, in which Latin, Greek, and higher
mathematics played the most conspicuous part. The scientific studies
were counted less educative, and were usually rather poorly taught.
Literature, history, and philosophy were sometimes included in the
college curriculum, and in many ways the course of study was modeled to
suit the preferences and abilities of the different teachers. Nowadays
this is all changed. In the United States a graded school system has
been created, that is, a complete course of study has been worked
out, whereby certain studies are specified as suited for each year of
the school life. This is not the same for all parts of the country,
for the American school system, unlike that in Germany and France, is
not national in its organization. The authority over the schools is
vested in the individual States, and as a consequence each State shows
peculiarities in course of study, in laws, and in methods that make
the whole seem chaotic. There is, however, more similarity than would
appear at first sight, and while what is asserted in general may not be
true of each particular locality, yet certain lines of development may
be clearly seen.
The schools of the country may be divided into three
groups,—elementary, secondary, and higher. The elementary schools
are built in some places upon the kindergarten; they are ordinarily
supposed to occupy the first eight or nine years of the child’s
school-life, and are classified as primary and grammar schools. During
that period the pupil studies a great variety of branches,—language
studies, reading, writing, spelling, and grammar; arithmetic,
geography, United States history, civil government, nature study,
physiology and hygiene, physical culture, vocal music, drawing and
manual training in boys’ schools, or sewing and cooking in girls’
schools. Several of these subjects have been introduced only within the
last few years. The tendency toward enriching the curriculum is quite
manifest to-day; it is based upon the fact that by far the larger part
of the pupils never enter the higher schools, since their education is
ended with the elementary schools, therefore it is thought desirable to
bring some of the higher subjects into the grammar school.
With the completion of this elementary course the pupil passes into the
secondary school. Earlier in the century this was ordinarily a private
academy, either conducted for profit or by a religious society. In
exceptional cases these schools were public; but as the benefits of
higher education were recognized more completely, the popularity of
these schools increased enormously. Public high schools were opened,
and success led to their rapid multiplication, until to-day they form
one of the most useful elements in our system, sending forth year by
year leaders of thought and moulders of opinion. Their course of study
has been the subject of much controversy. The old academy prepared
for the college; the new high school prepares for life; consequently
there ensued a breach between the high school and the college which
only now is being closed. The ordinary high-school course is four
years, and includes languages, Latin, French, German, and sometimes
Greek and Spanish; mathematics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and
sometimes analytical geometry and even astronomy; history, literature,
physical geography, physics, chemistry, biology, geology, drawing, and
occasionally political economy, ethics, and civics. It will be noticed
that subjects formerly taught only in the colleges have been brought
into the high-school curriculum. This again is due to the “enriching
process,” and is illustrative of the fact that for so many of its
students the high school is the crown of their education. The stress
laid upon nature study and the physical sciences, and the introduction
of modern languages, are among the most significant changes of the
century, as indicative of the desire to bring the schools in touch with
the conditions of practical life.
From the high school or academy, the student passes to the college or
university. Within the last decade an attempt has been made to give a
definite pedagogical content to each of these terms. A _college_ is an
institution where the liberal arts are studied for purposes of general
culture. A _university_, on the other hand, prepares a man for one
definite line of work, either professional or technical. Both confer
degrees upon those who have successfully completed their courses, but
those of the university (Ph. D., A. M., M. D., etc.) are of a higher
type than those of the college (A. B., Ph. B.). There were twenty-four
colleges in the United States in 1800. The six oldest were: Harvard,
established in 1687; William and Mary, 1693; Yale, 1701; Princeton,
1746; University of Pennsylvania, 1749; Columbia, 1754.