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V" > > > >::> ► >> ^ 53 33 * '3''-'J> I; :> 3 3 ^'^^ ► 3^ 33*3 3r^ " 5> : 33 33 g= ► 3> 3 3;. > «3^ ^X^3>3: >3 3 3 >3 O" 3^ >:>£ 3>3~" >r3- > "§ >33 ^ Z> 3>;> 3 ~"^ ^, -> 3 >I3 -iv-:) 7 3 "^ 3 ^>^3 33-^^T^- |ur j|ommon-^cr>ool ||bueaKoii. PUBLISHED BY '^RDKR OF THE NORTHEASTERN OHIO TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. {{^■Oym^'Urj^is-yH.^ '^/-^^ 9$. ^/(^^.../. OUR CoMMOiN-SciIOOL EdUTATION; )irTRESSI0N ON THE COLLEGE COURSi: I'reKident of ffiram QoUcgi'. HUSHED HY OliDKi: OF -WW, NOUTH-EASTliKN OHIO TKACHKKS' ASSOCIATION. CLEVELAND, O.: ROBISON, SAVAGE & CO., PKINTEitS AND STATIONi 1877. v^;. PREFATORY NOTE. This Paper was read before the North-Eastern Ohio Teachers' Association, at a meeting held in Cleveland, December 9, 1870. The Association unanimously requested its publication, and voted to make it the basis of future discussion. So much for its external history. The Author disclaims having attempted, as his title may perhaps implj-, a complete sm-vey of our Common-School Education. He appears as a critic, and therefore omits manj' points that a complete view would include. He well knows that some of the features complained of, have their compensations. Nor does he claim that what he has said, is the last word. He hasstudied the subject with much care; he has spoken his strong convictions, and submits what he has wTitteu as an humble contribution to the discus.sion of important themes. Since the Paper was read to the As.sociation, it has been revised throughout. The Author has ventured to add, what only the great length of the Paper pre- vented him from reading at the Cleveland meeting, a few paragraphs on the woman question in the schools. No one knows better than the Author that there are excellent rhetorical i-ea- sons for not admitting the long digression on the College Com-se. But as this topic runs parallel with his own proper one— more, as his own work lies rather in that field — he hopes the rhetorical reasons may be waived. OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. The Common Scliool is i\ modern thout;;!!!. Antiqnitv gave si certain amount and kind of education to a few ; the Middk^ Ages did the same for a still smaller number: Init it was left for modern times to conceive the thought of ])opular education, and to provide the machinery for carr\'ing it out. From Avhat source or sources this thdught sprung, by what spirit it was animated, Avhen and by whom it was first conceived, by Avliat stages and under what influences it has grown, how far and by Avhat means it has been realized in different countries, — all these are imjiort- ant and deeply interesting questions. Init they lie outside Ihe field of tlie present dii^cussion. In no country has the Common School taken deeper root than in our own. We may not equal the foremost nations of the Old WorJd in our liberal, technical, and art cultui-e; but we yield to none of them in our devotion to popular elementary education . It has been well said : "Unquestionably the most distinctive char- acteristic of iVmerican education is the prevalence of popular pri- mary schools throughout the vast territory of the United States ' President Oilman, from whom the sentence is quoted, thus con- tinues : " The systt'ui upon which thej' are organized is a growth and not a creation. It was not imported from any European counti-y. Its germ was planted by the earliest colonists, — but the tree which has sprung from the germ would amaze the original planters. Its development is not due to the arguments of any philoso- pher or the wisdom of anj- legislator. It has been gradually influenced Ijy th<^ ecclesiastical, political, and social requirements of the country. Theoretically, it has man J- defects; practically, it is adapted to the circumstances of the land. No Em-opean country is likely to adopt it ; the Americans will not abandon it. It is the pride of the ijeople ; the satisfaction of the poor man ; and the i)rotection of the rich man. Its influence in the promotion of intelligence and jirosiierity in the Northern and Eastern States has been rated so liigh, that every new State adopts it without question. "* * "Education in America, 1770 — 1876," the Nbrfh American Ra'ien', Jan'y, 187C' 6 OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. In how many of the original States our system of common schools sprang np indigenously, at what time and under what conditions, I am not here concerned to inquire. Its first appear- ance is nowhere else so plainly marked as in Massachusetts ; nor did it in any other State appear at so early a date. The original order of the General Court, long since become classic, bears date November 11, 1647, and reads thus : "It is, therefore, ordered, that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord has increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to read and write, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in gene'ral, by way of supply, as the major part of those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint; provided, those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more thanrthey can have them taught for in other towns. And it is further ordered, that when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may befitted for the university; provided, that if any town neglect the performance hereof above one year, tliat every such town shall pay five pounds to the next school till they shall perform this order." Without stopi^ing to look into the early history of popular education in the old Middle States, much less in the Southern States, I may fairly call .this classic statute the germ of the American school system. It contains in embryo all its essential features. They are thus described by President Oilman : "Lo- cal responsibility, state oversight, moderate charges or gratuitous instruction, provision for all and not for the poor alone; and a recognition of three harmonious grades, — the primary school, the grammar school, and the university." The common-school idea may have worked independently from other centers, and- proba- bly did ; all the other States have not borrowed it from Massa- chusetts ; but if Virginia be the mother of States and of states- men, Massachusetts is the mother of schools. This Massachusetts tree first overspread New England. In those States it became well rooted more than a century ago. While Connecticut was still a colony of Great Britain, her gov- ernor, in answer to the home government, said: ''One-fourth the annual revenue of the colony is laid out in maintaining free schools for the education of our children .'"' lience, we should rather speak of the New England than the Massachusetts school system. Wlien emigration to the West set in, the tide bore the school system alona:. Cuttino;s from the New England tree OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 7 were thickly planted in the region of the Great Lakes and in the valley of the Mississippi, as far south as the mouths of the Ohio and Missouri ; they have been carried over the Rocky Mountains and planted on the Pacific Slope. President Dwight's descrip- tion of the New England schools in 1803 is just as true at suc- ceeding periods of the new communities of the West, — of Ohio and Michigan, of Illinois and Wisconsin, of Iowa and Minnesota, and onward as far as civilization has gone : " A stranger traveling through New England marks with not a little surprise the nniltitude of school houses appearing everywhere at little distances. Fa- miliarized as I am to the sight, they have excited no small interest in my mind; particularly as I was travelling through the settlements recently begun. Here, while the inhabitants were still living in log huts, they had not only erected school houses for their children, but had built them in a neat style, so as to throw an additional appearance of deformity over their own clumsy habitations. This attachment to education in New England is universal ; and the situation of that hamlet must be bad indeed which, if it contain a sufficient number of children for a school, does not provide the neces.sary accommodations. In 1803 I found neat school houses in Colebrook and Stewart, bordering on the Canadian line."* More recently the New England idea has been making consid- erable headway in quarters where New England ideas were not once welcome — tiie old Slave States. A Governor of Virginia <»nce wrote : '' I thank God there are no free schools and print- ing presses, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years." But that feeling is now rapidly yielding to the American spirit. The sentiment first formulated in Connecticut, '' Our public schools must be cheap enough for the poorest, and good enough for the best," has become the distinct aim and purpose of three- fourths of the States and of the people of our Union. In our Centennial year, our common schools constitute a highly complex and differentiated, a vast and powerful system. The machinery of this system is tens of thousands of school houses, thousands of libraries, vast illustrative apparatus, boards of directors and boards of examiners. Normal Schools and Insti- tutes, reports and bureaus, commissioners and superintendents, and more than a quarter of a million of teachers. In the towns and cities, the system has taken on a form especially complex and costly. There are the primary, grammar, and high schools, with their grades, A, B, C, and D, not to mention the minor divi- sions which a layman can hardly keep in bis head while hearing * Quoted by President Gilman in K A. Review, Jan., 187(). 8 Ol'R COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. them ; eacli one of which divisions is supposed to represent some definable stage in the training of a mind. There are the teachers of the various grades, from tlie primary teacher up by way of the jmncipal to the Superintendent of Public Instruction aud his staff of assistants. Behind these come trooping in the Kinter-garten teachers, the normal and training teachers, fol- lowed by the music-and drawing-masters — each one having his bundle of rei^orts under his arm and his sheet of percentages in his hand. The whole body of public school teachers consti- tute an intelligent, active, and powerful profession ; presenting in some respects the appearance of an hierarchy of education. The statistics of the system are overwhelming. Here are some of the- more striking, selected from the Report of the National Commissioner of Education, for 1874 :* Estimated value of School Property .$105,753,447 Income of Schools 82,158,905 Paid for School sites, Buildings, and Furniture 15,045,008 Salaries of Teachers aud Superintendents 47,C38,0<)8 Miscellaneous Expenditures 11 ,703,095 Total Expenditures 74,974,338 Permanent School Fund 75,251,008 Pupils enrolled in Schools 8,099,981 Average daily Attendance ' 4,521,564 Number of Teachers 241,300 In 1874 there were eighteen states and territories that ex- pended for free education more than ten dollars per ccqnta for the average attendance in the public schools ; ten that expended more than fifteen dollars ^;pr capita , and four that expended more than twenty dollars yer cainta. What is more, the ex- penditures are increasing with surprising rapidity. f^ays Mr. Francis Adams, Secretary of the National Education League for England : " Throughout the Union the expenditui-e for school purposes was doubled during the ten years" from 1850 to 1800, aud almost trebled between 18G0 and 1870. The amount raised by taxation in 1860 was two and a half times the amomit raised in 1850'; while the amount thus raised in 1870 was more than three times that of 1860. During the twenty years expiring in 1870 the popula- tion had increased about 70 per nnt. , and the aggregate amount expended for education had increased to six times the sum raised in 1850. The school income derived from taxation is more than eight times as large. In 1850 the amount raised by taxation was less than one-half the entire amount, while in 1870 it was nearly two-thirds. "+ * See pp. xiii — xxi. + Free Schools of the Jlnited States. London, 1875, jip. 69, 71). r Ol'R (OMMOX-SCJIOOL EDrc.VTIOX. 9 111 all the schools supported by these fuuds, instruction is absolutely free ; the rate bill is no longer known in the United States. "If there is one question." says the writer just quoted. " upon which the citizens of the United States are practically unanimous, it is in support of free schools." Xor does this widely-expanded system stand on the ground like a bundle of straw, liable to be thrown down by every passing breeze. Beginning with Massachusetts in 1780, it has. firmly rooted itself in State constitutions and laws ; so that, in the majority of States, it is as deeply rooted as the system of penal institutions. It cannot be destroyed without rooting it out of the national heart, and also upheaving some of the foundation stones of our society. Well may thee volution of such a system have required more than two hundred years I AVcll may an in- telligent foreigner studying our life sa\ : "Those who have known America best and longest will agi-ec that, whethei- the attachment of Americans for free schools is foinicled on good and solid reasons or otherwise, there cannot be the slightest doubt that it exists, and that it forms one of the most striking features in the national character."* In view of the foregoing facts, what wonder that we should contemplate this great' school system with a good deal of com- placency ! What wonder that we should conclude that, in tiie best sense of the word, we are making "rapid educational prog- ress ! With few exceptions, the teachers and other school func- tionaries say we are ; and the great public acquiesces with the schoolmasters. With the ^exception of a few scarcely audible voices to the contrary, there is a want of either the inclination or the courage to say nay. The arguments urged to prove real progress, in great degree are set forth in the sketch already drawn : the great increase in the number, and improvement in the kind, of school houses ; more and better school apparatus and furniture ; more teachers and higher wages. Did these premises legitimate the conclusions drawn from them, there would be no room for controversy ; for no one would dream of denying the facts. Probably it is true, though it has not been statistically proved, that the phy- sical apparatus of education has kept pace with our material pro- gress. But it Avill be noticed that the argument thus far rests on the mere husk of education and does not touch its kernel. - Mr. Adams: Free Srhooh of the J 'idled Stutes, p. S4. 10 OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION^. No educator will think it conclusive, since there is no necessary, though there may be a probable, connection between the skeleton of a school system and its soul. Here we are liable to fall into a dangerous fallacy. One school system is not better than another simply because it covers more ground and costs more money. The worth of a college or university is not measured by the number of square yards of plastering on its Avails ; if it were, then many an American college would surpass the most famous universities of Germany. In the case of a college the essential questions are, " What are its traditions ?" and " What is the quality of its instruction ?" Nor do statistics of buildings, grounds, furniture, apparatus, libraries, and salaries necessarily reveal the real state of education in a country. Statistics of literacy and illiteracy go a good deal farther ; but there is a good deal pertaining to education — some will say the largest and best part of it — that cannot be exhibited in columns of statistics and in graphic illustrations. This is no disparagement of edu- cational statistics ; they have their value ; but, really, the differ- ence between culture and the want of culture cannot be very well shown by the statistician and the map-drawer. It is ditfi- cult to weigh and measure spiritual qualities. To illustrate the argument, I cannot help quoting from the Report of the School Committee of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the year 1875 : " As regards the material apparatus of education, all except the rudest shelter has been erected within and far within the century. There now stands on Brighton Street the one-story wooden building which in 177(5 was the prin- cipal schoolhouse in Cambridge. Its former position was not far from the Washington Elm. In 1831 it was sold for eighty dollars, removed to its present site, and converted into a dwelling house. In that building, which can never have had an interior as attractive as that of a decent stable, flourished a succes- sion of teachers, many of whom rose to the highest places in Church and State, while among their pupils were not a few whose reputation has been national oi- world-wide." No, the most important conditions of education arc not an ex- cellent })hysical apparatus ; tliey are competent and devoted teachers and eager pupils. A great teacher will make a. great school almost anywhere, as Pestalozzi did in the old convent at Stanz, where, in the words of Quick, "his whole school appara- tus consisted of .himself and his pupils." But the eulogists of the popular system do not rest the argu- ment on its physical apparatus. They claim a great improve- ment in teachers, in books, and in methods.' Generally they pass OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 11 lightly over the qualities of the teacher— fullness of knowledge, power to think, ability to stimulate thought, experience, weight of character, devotion to the work ; but they make up for their reticence on this point by the stress they place on books and methods. Here is part of the Hun. George S. Hillard's com- mendatory notice of a popular school geography : " I envy the boys and girls who are to study Geography in this excellent compendium, and I look back with a sigh of regret upon the dry husks and in- nutritious chaff on which it was my lot to feed when I was a boy. The latest product of the Ames Plow Company is not more superior to tho rude instru- ments described by Virgil in the Georgics, than is this treatise to that which I studied." One who reads this glowing eulogy cannot help wondering whether Mr. Hillard's grandson really does make more progress with the new book than his grandfather did with the old one ! Nor can he help reflecting that, some way, Mr. Hillard and oth- ers of his generation, despite the "dry husks" and " innutri- tious chaff" found in the old text-books, managed to prepare themselves very well for the work of the world. The part that the " new methods " play in the current theories of education is sometliing wonderful. Whatever else he may or may not have, each teacher has his kit of "methods." Sometimes, when he sees the emphasis placed on mere machinery, one is tempted to ask whether school houses, furniture, apparatus, books, and processes will not be so perfected by and by as to make education wholly mechanical, and to dispense with the wise teacli- er and eager pupil altogether. How we commiserate our fathers and mothers, as well as remoter ancestors, who lived and died before the " improvements " in education were made ! If their training was as inferior to ours as their " opportunities " are as- sumed to fall below our oj)portunities, then we can allow them no more than a very rudimentary education ; they were stam- mering readers and poor spellers, save perhaps in monosyllables, while in arithmetic they could make only simple calculations, and these mostly "in their heads"! Whether we f^ read and spell better than they did, whether we do calculate and reason better, whether we are better disciplined and make more out of life, — are questions rarely discussed on grounds of fact, but con- stantly assumed on grounds of theory. Let us, then, boldly ask. Is the quality of our common- school education improving ? Be it noted, the question 12 OUK COMMO^T-SCHOOL EDITCATIOIS'. is not whether our school system has been greatly extended, whether more children enjoy its benefits, whether it costs more money, whether there are more and more learned teachers, or whether the physical apparatus has been greatly improved ; no one thinks of denying these propositions. Nor is it whether the com- mon-school pupil of to-day is taught more things than the com- mon-school pupil of fifty or a hundred years ago; for that ques- tion is as undeniable as the others. But the question is this : Whether we read and write, spell and cipher, better than our an- cestors one, two, or three generations ago. At the outset we encounter this difl&cultv — to find a common standard of measure. There are but two methods of proced- ure. One is, by means of historical testimony, written or tradi- tional, to determine the attainments of former generations of pupils, and then to compare them with the attainments of this generation. Such testimony, especially in a written form, is meagre, not to speak of its vagueness and uncertainty. The other method is to take the opinions of those yet living who had, either by experience or tradition, immediate knowledge of the instruction formerly given in the schools. But here we meet that habit of mind which leads us, after we pass a given year-line, to disparage the present and to exalt the past. As a man grows older, provided he grows in culture, his standard of judgment grows with him. In the present case, he measures two genera- tions of children, and does not notice that while he is doing so his meter changes in his hands. Perhaps a third method may be suggested, — to observe the training of those persons still living who were trained under the former order of things. But'because the inquiry is difficult we should not shrink from it ; rather, using such methods as we have, let us essay the task. In the first place, there is a considerable number of people who do not see that what the schoolmasters tell them is true. But the other day a lady forming one of a company where this question was raised — a lady of much more than ordinary intel- ligence and character — said : '" All I can say about it is, my chil- dren are not as far along with their studies as I was with mine at their ages." A man has only to keep his ears open, at most, to provoke frequent conversations on this subject, to learn that the class wh© will give similar testimony is a large and respecta- })le one. In fact, while it is the understanding that we have been OIR (()M.M()X-S( IIOOI. EIUC.VTIOX. 13 making great advances in tlie (luality of our common education, and while it takes some courage to say nay, there is, unex- jiressed, a hirge amount of incredulity on this point, and a wide- spread dissatisfaction with the results of the popular system. Reference is here made chiefly to intelligent persons outside the teaching profession who do not make especial in-etentions to culture. These persons may be wrong, luit they are entitled to lie heard. In the second place, there is a class of highly cultured men, .some of them educators, who do not join in the iDwans to the l)revalent system. On the contrary, they say the present results are inferior to the best results of a century ago. For example, the Report of the School Committee of Cambridge, Massachu- setts, for 1875, in a comparison of these results, says : '• There is reason to believe that more and better work was done by om- sfhools in the early days of the Republic than is accomplished now." This Report was written by Dr. A. P. Pea body, of Harvard College. In an address delivered before the Massachusetts Con- vention of Teachers,* in January, 1876, Dr. Peabody returns to the subject, thus : . " The schools of former generations in New England (hi most other parts of the coimtry the common school is a very modern institution), though by any now recogiiized staudai-d of comparison very far inferior to the present, did nmch more for their pupils tnan is done now." He says tiie former condition of things, its merits as well as its demerits, has become obsolete ; still he " believes it accom- plished more for the fit education of the citizen than is effected under the ])resent re(/ime." This testimony, given under the shadow of our oldest college, may be mistaken; but it cannot be whistled out of the way. The difficulty of finding a common standard of measurement iuis already been remarked upon. Perhaps the best standard that occurs is the West Point examinations, particularly the ex- aminations of candidates for admission to the Academy. Here is a large number of candidates each year ; they come from all parts of the Union ; they are of about the same age, one year Avith another ; they are examined by experienced teachers, generally holding their places during good behavior. Fortunately, a rec- - "The Relation of Public Scliools to the Civil Government. "— TAe VnUarian Jferic", July, 1876. 14 OUK COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. ord of these examinations has been kept for nearly forty years. The results have been tabulated and published. All educators, and especially common-school teachers, should be interested in the verdict that West Point has given on our common schools. The Board of Visitors of the Academy for the year 1875, com- posed of army and navy officers, members of Congress, and citi- zens from private life, some of them well known educators, in their Keport make these remarks : " It is a very suggestive fact that in the last five years the average number of rejected candidates has been 6 per cent, for physical deficiency, and 40 per cent, for deficiency in the scholastic requirements. In the six New England States, where educational facilities are open to .all, the rejections have been 35 per cent, of the number examined from that section. From these statistics it is clearly evident that in the schools of the country there is need of more thorough methods of instruction in the elementary branches." The Keport also contains the following memorandum from Professor Church, an experienced West Point teacher, and the author of well-known mathematical works : "United States Military Academy, "June 12, 1875. ' ' Referring to our conversation this morning, I have to say that from my experience in the examination of candidates for admission to the Military Academy, I am satisfied that there is somewhere a serious defect in the system of instruction, or in its application, in the schools of our country for education in the elementary branches, particularly in arithmetic, reading, and spelling. I think our candidates are not as thoroughl}^ prepared as they were twenty years ago. " Very respectfully yom-s, "A. E. Church, Prof." Now, what have our public-school teachers to say to this ? What do they propose to do with an old West Point examiner who charges a " serious defect " in their methods of teaching the elementary branches, " particularly arithmetic, reading, and spelling"? Evidently, Prof. Church should have his attention called to the educational statistics printed in the Census Reports and in the Reports of Commissioner Eaton. He ought, at least, to be compelled to attend an Institute, and to listen to some lec- tures on the "new methods." But ihe West Point authorities fnrnish the evidence on which they base their indictment of the public schools. Part of it is found in the following * * The columns headed "Appointment Cancelled," "Declined Appoint- ment," and "Failed to Report," as not bearing on the present question, are omitted. OUR (;OMMOX-SCHOOL EDUOATION, lo STATEMENT, Showing the Number of Vaiulidatcs for Cadetshlps appointed to the United States Military Academy, the Number Rejected, and the Number Admitted, From 1838 to 1874, inclusive. n I g For Want of QuaVflcation in-\ 1 1 bi >UI i 6 ■^ i — Of whom there Gkadtjated W fk .5 B S < s a R < p. four j-cars thereafter— >* % 1 O s 1 1 11 o 1838 133 2 1 1 1 1 ~v 1 111 54, or 48.6 per cent. 1839 91 2 1 3 1 76 34, or 44.7 per cent. 1840 106 8 1 1 8 2 84 22, or 26.1 per cent. 1841 131 8 6 4 1 6 114 34, or 29.8 per cent. 1843 144 17 4 5 6 8 9 109 47, or 43. 1 per cent. 1843 77 6 5 5 4 8 60 29, or 48.3 per cent. 1844 96 14 4 7 1 13 1 75 34, or 45.3 per cent. 1845 98 9 3 1 , 1 7 1 81 40, or 49.3 per cent. 1846 131 5 2 3 4 1 103 41, or 39.8 per cent. 1847 84 1 1 1 3 74 35, or 47.2 per cent. 1848 84 2 1 1 2 2 81 38, or 46.9 per cent. 1849 95 2 88 42, or 47.7 per cent. 1850 98 3 1 2 2 3 2 90 40, or 44.4 per cent. m5i 81 3 1 3 3 3 71 31, or 43.5 per cent. 1852 102 7 4 5 5 4 3 90 44, or 48.8 per cent. 1853 97 6 2 2 2 5 1 83 36, or 39.7 per cent. 1854 120 4 2 2 3 £(1^ S 20,4yrs.,or43.5p.ct. ■( 22,5yrs.,or39.3p.ct. 1855 99 7 4 6 6 2 t' 80 37,5yrs.,or40.3p.ct. 1856 101 17 2 5 12 6 4 72 44,5yrs.,or61.1p. ct. 1857 132 26 8 19 18 13 9 82 32, or 39 per cent. 1858 108 19 6 11 13 4 75 24, or 33 per cent. 1859 91 26 8 24 24 8 60 30, or 33.3 per cent. 1860 84 12 4 7 7 73 37, or 37.5 per cent. 1861 148 13 3 4 4 10 2 107 63, or 58 8 per cent. 1862 96 11 1 8 7 4 81 38, or 46.9 per cent. 1863 126 9 4 6 6 3 99 58, or 58.5 per cent. 1864 101 15 4 11 11 9 73 46, or 63 per cent. 18&5 101 16 8 13 12 12 4 74 36, or 48.6 per cent. 1866 95 17 7 9 9 13 1 70 45, or 64.3 per cent. 1867 84 19 2 15 10 8 8 7 9 1 55 33, or 60 per cent. 53, or 73.5 per cent. 1868 127 34 8 12 13 16 15 19 3 76 1869 112 24 5 13- 13 9 17 13 13 7 70 40, or 59.1 per cent. 1870 163 73 15 30 30 28 54 42 40 4 65 37, or 56.9 per cent. 1871 131 32 3 10 10 15 24 15 22 11 76 43, or 56.57 per cent. 1872 165 35 19 19 11 17 18 15 20 95 1873 230 74 5 28 28 30 50 49 29 13 118 1874 175 66 4 25 25 30 46 r 19 4 89 The following summary makes a striking impression : In 1840, out of 106 candidates, 8 failed in examination. "1850, " 98 " 3 " 1860, " 84 " 13 " 1870, " 163 " 73 " 1874, " 175 " 66 16 OUR rOMMON'-SCnOOL edication, It slioiild be noted, that, prior to 186G, the candidates were ex- amined in reading, writing, orthography, and arithmetic, only ; and that in 1866 grammar, geography, and history were added lis additional reqnirements. This should be borne in mind in comparing the ratios of those rejected Avith those appointed, at different periods But, making due allowance for this element, the ratio is still alarming ; eight to one hundred and six in 1840, and sixty-six to one hundred and seventy-five in 1874 ! But the proper way is, to compare those deficient in the sanie branches, as orthography and arithmetic, at different periods. When these statistics were first brought to my attention, [ wrote to Prof. Church, asking, especially, wliether the examiners liad not, perhaps unconsciously, raised the standard in the same branches, and whether the candidates were equal in other re- spects to those of twenty years ago. I thought it possible that the army had fewer attractions now than then for intelligent and enterprising boys, hi a long letter, that he has kindly given me permission to use at my discretion, he says the subject has been one of serious thought to him for a long time ; that for thirty-five years he has borne an active part in examining the West Point candidates, studying with interest and care their character and attainments ; and that he can hardly be mistaken •*' with reference to the facts, though he may be with regard to the inferences." In reply to my two most pointed questions, he writes : " I do not think we have raised our standard of requirement in any one branch. As far as possible, we have eudeavoi'ed to keep this the same from year to j^ear, though we have lately been more sti'iet in our ijreliminary exam- inations, and thus perhaps discover more deficiencies than we would under a less vigoi-ous system. I should say that the opinion I have so emphatically ex- pressed [as to the deterioration of the school training of candidates], is npt founded alone upon the knowledge exhibited in these ijreliminary examin.ttions, nor upon the increased number of failures, but as well upon the knowledge exhibited by those who have, after admission, come at once under my personal instruction. '' Again : " I cannot say that I observe anj- difference in the class of candidates. The number of aiDplications for the position increases, I am mformed, fi-om year to year ; and appointmeiats are made annually to fill nearly every vacancy in the different congressional districts and at large. They come, as ever heretofore, from every class of society in our land, from the rich and the poor, high and low." OUB COMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 17 He says further, " the thorough preparation of those who were about to enter upon our rather severe course, in the simple branches of arithmetic, reading, and writing, including orthog- raphy," 'Mias with our Board been a matter of deep concern'*; but that, notwithstanding all the attempts to improve such pre- paration by circulars calling the attention of candidates to existing defects, the tendency has been steadily downward. At- tainments in the studies added in 1866 to the preliminary requirements, are below those in the old studies, but there is no tendency towards improvement. Even "the greater frequency of competitive examinations for the place" has not been followed by any marked change. At this stage of the discussion I quote only one further paragraph : " I may instance the facts that the number rejected as poor readers, is now and always has been small ; yet it is observable that the proportion of intelli- gent readers is ranch smaller than formerly. In spelling, the examination has always been strict, and, as near as we can make it, our standard the same; yet more are rejected and more ordinary spellers are found among those admitted. In arithmetic likewise, with the same standard of attainment, as far as my long experience can make it, while the proportion rejected has increased, I find as well in those admitted less accuracy in definitions and rules, less ability to give clear reasons, and less facility in the application of the principles whenever required in other branches of their mathematical course." It may be objected to any conclusions based upon the West Point statistics, that there have been great social and political changes in the Southern States which naturally throw tlie ap- pointments into inferior hands, and that the great increase in the number rejected at the Academy is thus to be explained. Prof. Church himself finds in this a partial explanation, for in his letter he mentions the "unorganized condition of the schools in some of the Southern States." But that this explanation is wholly inadequate, is clear from his statements given above. Such an explanation is also precluded by the fact stated by the Visitors, viz: "In the six New England States, where educational facilities are open to all, the rejection has been 35 per cent, of the number examined from that section." But most of all is it negatived by another table, " showing States from which were ap- pointed candidates rejected by the Academic Board from 1838 to 1874, inclusive." In such States as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Mas- sachusetts, Illinois, and New York the ratio of the admitted to the rejected has been rapidly increasing. What is more, General W. T. Sherman, in an Address deliv- 2 18 OFE COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATIOS^. ered early in the current year before the .Washington University, St. Louis, gives the West Point view of the public schools his emphatic endorsement, in the following words : "In these days when common schools have a strong hold on iDopular sym- pathy, it requires some courage to speak the truth ; but I hold that all who are interested in this great subject of education are indebted to Prof. Church and to the Board of Visitors for this note of warning. " The evidence now presented is as much as can be digested at one sitting. Perhaps it is not sufficient to prove a deterioration in the common-school education of the country. Perhaps evi- dence to justify that assertion has not been accumulated or does not exist, but that presented is certainly deserving of grave con- sideration. . It shows, at least, a considerable amount of dissat- isfaction- with the schools, and that this dissatisfaction is felt by persons of exceptional abilities and culture, as well as exceptional opportunities to get at the facts bearing on the present inquiry. Besides, it proves that our common-school education is not what it ought to be, and that our school system needs much criticism and revision. While I waive the further discussion of the ques- tion, whether we do read and spell better than our fathers and grandfathers, I avow the opinion that many of the tendencies of the prevalent system are wrong and need correction. What some of these tendencies are, will appear as I point out causes of the inferiority of our elementary instruction. In this task I shall draw freely from what Dr. Peabody* has written, and make a further very striking quotation from the letter of Prof. Church. Dr. Peabody alleges a deterioration of the material upon which the schools have to work. *' Almost all the scholars" [in 1776], he says, " came from families, if not cul- tivated, yet intelligent, in which knowledge was respected, learning honored, and in which the reading of such books as were attainable was in all cases the Sunday habit, in many cases the daily habit, of the household. . . . There was hardly a house in which the Bible was not more or less read, on Sundays if at no other time; and apart from the religious uses of the Bible, it is impossible to over-estimate its educational worth in the vast spaces which its history covers, in the broad scope and the unequaled loftiness and grandeur of its literature and poetry, and in the numerous directions in which its very silence awakens cnriosity, stimulates the imagination, quickens and energizes thought. Such study of the Bible as was simply normal in a New England farm-house of the last century was of itself sufficient to make a man, when he became of age, safe, sober, and trustworthy as a citizen. " * I quote from both the Cambridge Report and the Addi-ess. OUR CO.MMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 19 Describing the present state of things, the Doctor says : " A very large proportion of the pupils in our cities and populous towns come from homes utterly destitute of culture, and of the means and the spirit of culture, where a book is never seen, and reading is with the adult members a lost art, or one never acquired. There are schools in which fom"-fifths, or more, of the pupils are of this class." Dr. Peabody is certainly a competent witness to what has been going on in New Enghmd within the last half century. Tliere can be no doubt that the material upon which her public schools work, is far inferior to what it was fifty or a hundred years ago ; nor can there be any doubt that the same process of deterioration, on the average, has been going on all over the country. It is per- fectly idle to hold that the 38,110,641 citizens of the United States in ! 870 jiresented as high an average of intelligence, of moral sobriety, of self control, as the 9,633,823 citizens of 1820. The dangerous social elements now are ten to one what they were then. A principal cause of this deterioration in the intel- lectual and moral character of our population, is, of course, the vast foi-eign emigration to our shores. Now, when one reflects how much the pupil's progress depends on his family and his home — on blood, on family traditions, on inherited culture — how much on the spirit and aspirations and habits of those imme- diately surrounding him, whether they are day by day wrestling with the problems of physical existence, or enjoying a compe- tence, not to say wealth ; whether their minds run wholly in the channels of business and politics, or partly in the channels of books and culture ; whether, in a word, the home-life is one of grovelling, money-getting, social gaieties, and political excite- ment, or of study, reflection, and spiritual seriousness, — when one reflects how much the pupil's progress depends on these con- siderations, he cannot help agreeing with Dr. Peabody that, in the character of our school population, we have the principal cause of the inferiority of our common education. In connection with the quality of the school material, in fact as a part of it, may be mentioned another of Dr. Peabody's points: " While a great deal more is said and written about edu- cation than formerly, the amount of time and energy devoted to it by those under instruction is very much less than it used to be." He makes two counts. Fii'st, the vacations — once hardly a week in the year, noAV three months at the least. But, second, he lays especial stress on the occuiutions of children out of school. 20 OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION. Once study at home was the constant rule; now, the infrequent exception. Once the school divided general attention only with the Church ; now it receives small attention save from its official guardians. More than all, children are now, in a measure, ab- sorbed in the distractions of business, of politics, and of social life. How little, relatively, can the teacher do for a pupil wlien the pupil eagerly reads the daily paper for exciting news, or when his mind is filled with the various forms of social dissipa- tion ! The thick geological strata were laid down in still waters : and the whirl and bustle and excitement incident to American life, and to which children are introduced all too soon, arc not favorable to deep and rich accumulations of learning. Leaving the material and approaching the school, Dr. Peabody complains of the rigid and tyrannous system of the graded schools. He says the former "inartificial method, or rather the absence of method,'' was well adapted to the social condition of New England a century or half a century ago. "There was no arbitrary or fixed arrangement of classes or plan of classification : but each scholar was vii-tually a class by himself, in some studies perhaps reciting alone, often out of school hours, in others associated with different companions according to his or her pro- ficiency." Now all this is changed. In place of an inartificial method or no-method, we have an educational liturgy, each gos- pel, collect, psalm, and prayer attended by its appropriate rubric. Against the current formalism of teachers, he directs some of his hardest blows. He says he has ''heard every member of a class of twenty obliged to repeat separately, ' one bean and two beans are three beans.'" Also, that he had listened to an object- lesson in which the teacher " spent several minutes in demon- strating, with a wonderful affluence of illustration, to children six or seven years old, that a horse had four legs and a child bur two''! A friend of mine- was once looking through the schools of a city very proud of its schools. In pointing out some note- worthy features of one of them, the Supervising Principal called attention to the fact that it required but three minutes after the bell struck to empty the building of its hundreds of occupants. As though the time consumed by a child in walking down stairs were an important feature of a school ! Here we are dealing with every-day criticisms on the common schools, and it is proper to in- quire how far they are just, and how far the features complained of can be removed. OUR COM>rON-SCHOOL EDUCATION'. 21 First of all, we may as well understand that the prevalent sys- tem of schools, in its essential features, if we are to have com- mon schools at all, is inevitable. The argument for the graded system is, in tiie main, the advantages offered by the principle of the divi.sion of labor, and it is irrefutable. "We must accept the system as a man accepts his wife, "for better or worse." In the broadest sense President Oilman's words are true : "Theo- retically, it has many defects ; practically, it is adapted to the circumstances of the land." Dr. Peabody admits that, for the towns and cities, the graded system is a necessity. We may go farther and say, it is. taking everytiiing into account, a deside- ratum. If the educational labor of two centuries had been abortive, or if it had resulted in a monstrous progeny, we might well desi)air. Hut this is not saying that the system is as good as it can be made,, or that the graded school is the best place for a man to put his bright boy or girl, if he happens to have a bright one. This latter (juestion I do not discuss. But I do affirm that, if we are going to educate the vast armies of chil- dren found in tiie towns and cities especially, we must have a physical apparatus, a Jegal mechanism, and an organized force of teachers that are adeipiate to do the work. Sporadic and spontaneous movements are inadecjuate. Whatever the relative merits of the no-system method of tifty years ago and the all- system method of to-day, the former could no more do the work that now needs to be done than our military system in the war of 181^ would have answered the purposes of the nation in the late rebellion. But that this system has defects that are inherent and that can never be wholly eradicated, no thoughtful student of its theory and working, will dream of denying. Nor will such person think of affirming that, for the brightest and most promising children, whatever it may be for the dullard and the mediocre, tliQ public school is an ideal place of education. It cannot be denied, for example, that the graded-school sys- tem is exceedingly rigid and inelastic. Its tendency is to stretch all the pupils on the same bedstead. The public schools are common schools; they are for the common mind as well as for all the people. Children of all kinds and conditions are brought together in them ; those from homes where books are read and discussed and mental activity stimulated, and those from homes where books are never seen, and where all the surroundings are 22 OUR roMMoy-srnooL educatiox^. stifling to intellectual life. Blood and training go for something in the exchange life ; and it is absurd to suppose that the chil- dren of ignorant parents, foreign or domestic, are on a par with those of good families having generations of intelligence or cul- ture behind them. Dr. Peabody speaks of a school once under his own supervision, where 99 jper cent, of the children were of the former class, and of another school in the same city wholly made np of children of intelligent parents. And yet it is diffi- cult, or rather, impossible, so to organize a system of public schools that these different kinds of children shall not be thrown together in the same schools and in the same classes. There are weighty objections to separating these children, that is, putting them in different schools ; and if it could be done the tendency would be- to equalize school and school,, as it now is to equalize pupil and pupil. Then, the tendency of the graded schools is to sacrifice the brightest children to the dullards or to the medio- cres. The dullest cannot be made to keep up with the brightest, when the latter are going at their normal pace ; but the best can be made to go as slowly as the dullest. Or, if the ability of the dullard be not the standard of achievement, then it is the ability of the mediocre. In no case do or can the brightest minds have a fair chance. There has been much discussion of the subject of promotions, and no wonder, since the grievances of his best pu- pils must continually disturb the conscience of the intelligent teacher ; but thus far there is no consensus of opinion, and there seems to be no possible method by which the best pupils can have all their rights. The graded-school system is thus an attempt to make equal the legs of the lame, — a thing that can never «be done, since both Nature and Revelation declare them unequal. Then there is the teacher's tendency to formalism and routine. Severa years ago I discovered that an elaborate school ritual had been evolved, and I am therefore gratified to find Dr. Pea- body speaking of a school " ritual and rubric." He says he has seen a '' fourth part of the time given to a reading or spelling- lesson occupied in meaningless evolutions and gestures pei-- formed by the scholars in the interval between leaving their seats and their resting in their final positions in front of the desk," — as who has not ? He also justly says the " school ritual and rubric " are ." very serviceable as a directory for new and feeble teachers, but embarrassing to those who are amply quali- Ol R COM A[()N- -SCHOOL EDt'CATIOX. 23 fied to phiu and muiicige their own work." Many minds arc in- capable of using forms witliout becoming their shives. Perhaps it is not too much to say this is a tendency of our nature. Ke- ligious history is fruitful in illustrations. He is not an* irrev- erent in;in who sings : " AV'here others worship I but look and long; For, though not recreant to m3^ fathers' faith, Its forms to me ai-e weariness, and most That drony vacuum of compulsorj' prayer. Still pumping phrases for the Ineffable, Tliough all the valves of memory gasp and wheeze. Words that have drawn transcendent meanings up From the best passion of all bygone time, Steeped through with tears of triumph and remorse. Sweet %\ith all sainthood, cleansed in martyr-fires. Can they, so consecrate and so inspired. By repetition wane to vexing wind^" ''A great deal df the fresh life which Horace Mann inlused into our schools is life no longer/' says Dr. Peabody, '-yet lin- gers on in a fossil state, petrifying, too, no less than petrilied." I, for one, find it impossible to believe, for example, that Teachers" Institutes are as stimulating and inspiring to teachers as they were twenty years ago. ' Again, under the present recjime the teacher does not and cannot stand in the same relation to the individual pupil that he did under the old. Now he handles classes; then he handled pupils. The graded-school system is a system of platoons, com- panies, regiments, briuades, and the like, and thus far no means have been devised for removing its platoon features. As a re- sult, the personal force of the teacher goes for less than it did before the platoon system. He is more of a schoolmaste-r. and less of an educator. Consequently, while the puj[)il gets more than he did formerly from the physical apptiratus of educiition, he gets less from the inspiration of the living teacher. There can be no doubt, I think, that the old no-system ])lan was more favorable to the progress of the active pupil than the present all-system plan is ; nor can it be doubted that it was much better adapted to developing individuality of character. The pupil's movements were unimpeded by arbitrary an-ange- ments and by dull companions. He worked more alone, and he was compelled to lean much less on the teacher and the class and to rely more on himself. But, at the same time, there can 24 OUE COMMOK--SCHOOL EDUCATIOi?^. be DO doubt that, for the whole army, the all-system is better. The old-fashioned partizan Avarfare of the French Wars and of the Revolution, or even of the Border to-day, developed in the soldier a personal intrepidity and a fertility of resource that regular warfare does not; but partizan warfare never creates an army, and hence is not adapted to great military operations. The schools of New England a century or half century ago, with their irregular organization and want of method, un- doubtedly presented a higher average of achievement for the time and money spent than our graded schools of to-day can show ; but as a whole, they were much less imposing. What the partizan soldiers of the last century were to the Union army of this, that the old schools are to the new schools. The law of compensations holds here, as everywhere. You cannot have the greatest personal intrepidity and the best organization — the most individuality of character and the most imposing array of school children and schoolmasters. Tlie question is, How shall we combine elements most wisely ? I have spoken of certain defects of the graded system as in- herent, and as incapable of elimination. So they seem to me. But these defects exist in different degrees ; in a maximum or in a minimimi. The problem is to reduce them to a minimum— to make a system that must always be rigid and unyielding to a degree as elastic and pliable as possible. One of the great diffi- culties in the way of breaking up the platoon system is, want of teachers. When the public becomes willing to pay a teacher for taking charge of twenty-five children, the difficulties of the situation will become very considerably less. The troubles Miat partial differentiation has brought, fuller differentiation must cure. An incisive journalist, in commenting on President Eliot's paper, " W^ise and Unwise Economy in Schools,"* speaks of the averaging process carried on in the graded schools thus : " Now, it is obvious that forcing all this heterogeneous mass into one vast school-house to be educated can only mean one thing — a dull uniformity of training and discipline, which will tend for the time being as much as possible to wipe out all individual differences, to destroy individual ambition, and to produce in the end, as Mr. Eliot says, an 'average product,' a sort of mental, moral, and physical mean standard, which has been obtained quite as much by * The Atlantic Monthly, June, 1875. OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 25 stunting what is good in the children educated as by forcing work out of the dull. In fact, the general result is a good deal like the result in an army of a uniform drill. You can obtain out of very indifferent material a good average soldier, who will stand fire, fight with coolness, and obey orders ; and so you can in a gigantic school turn out a well-drilled scholar, who will pass an exam- ination creditably, and who will be able to show a good record for industry ; but this is not education. What we want in education is the development, not the repression, of individuality at all points. * Auother criticism sometimes heard is. that thg scliool.s share the hurry and bustle of the age. General Sherman in "his ad- dress puts it thus : " Nearly all our common schools anil other preparatory schools have of late years been tempted to hm-ry their pupils forward too fast ; have led them to natural philosophy and the higher mathematics before they were well grounded in the rudiments— reading, writing, arithmetic, and geogi-aphy." Prof. Church lays great stress on the same point : '' It is particularly noticeable that as a class they [the West Point candidates] have studied many more branches than formerly. We have ever required each candidate to name on some one of his examination papeis every branch of study he has pursued, and the number thus received is far greater than form- erly, many lists including a large portion of the branches of a coUegiate coui-se— the higher branches of mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry ; and it is not unusual to find many of the names of these branches misspelled, and the candidate gro.ssly' deficient in the elements of arithmetic and gram- mar. * * * Though my opportimities of personally examining either the sj'stems or practical teaching in om- conuuon schools are very slight ; from careful inquiries of my own pupils and of others with whom I have been brought in contact, I must conclude that, in a very great degree, the fault lies in a want of thorough and long continued instruction in these very elementary branches. " It cannot be doubted, I think, that the teachers in the schools, as a class, are much more learned than formerly. Our Normal Schools and the greater atten- tion given to special preparation for teaching, as a profession, must have se- cured this desirable end, and we should natiu-allj- expect better results. But may it not be that, ambitious to lead their young pupils into the more interest- ing fields of knowledge which they themselves have acquired, and encouraged by parents who in this go-ahead age desire to see their children swiftly ad- vanced to higher classes, they [teachers] soon tire of the hard labor and close attention absolutely necessary to ti-ain the minds of beginners in the logical reasoning requii-ed in arithmetic and grammar, and of the continued repetition and painstaking necessarj- to form a fine reader and speller ? " In the days when I was familiar with the common schools of New England, our schoolmasters were required to teach a few elementary branches only. With these they were thoroughly familiar, as much so perhaps as the teachers of the present day v^ith their many. They had more time to devote to each branch, and were only ambitious to turn out thorough scholars in a few things rather than smatterers in many. I fear we have not improved on this good old system." * The Nation, No. 517. 2i] OUR CO.MMOX-SCllOOL EDUdATIOX. These panigraphs touch the very core of a great difficulty in common-school education — I mean its undue expansion. The causes of this I shall soon state, but here the j)oint is this — when only elementary branches were taught in the schools — when the world moved slowly and the minds of children were not occu- jjied with a thousand other things — when the school divided with the Church the extra-home life of the child, and both were supported by the home, — then there was time to ground children in the rudiments of learning. Now the public-school course contains more of the higher studies than the college course did then ; the child is hurried from book to book and from class to class ; the day is divided into minute portions, and frittered away in driblets ; the child's mind is crowded with subjects our grandfathers reserved for maturer people ; and who can wonder that the common-school pupil, if very broad, is very shallow ? The tendencies of the teacher bear him in the same direction. He is anxious to get his scholars out of the one-bean-and-two- beans-make-three-beans period, into the more inviting fields beyond. Thus, he who ought to be a brakeman turns stoker. Parents, gratified with what is called "the progress" of their children, hurry the chase after many studies and sui-jerficialty in all of them. One of the causes of the undue expansion of the public-school studies has not yet been mentioned. Hoav enormously knowl- edge has increased within fifty years I New studies of the high- est interest and value have sprung into existence with a leap. In one point of view, these studies aid the teacher ; in another, they embarrass iiim. They constantly press for admission i(). Ol'R COMMON'-ScHOor. KDICATION*. 31 to me throw a more curious light on the conditions of culture in the United States in the first quarter of this century ! One of the most interesting educational documents puhlished Avithin the year is the " Historical Sketch of Union College," prepared in compliance with an invitation from the Commission- ers of the Bureau of Education, rojiresenting the Department of the Interior, in matters relating to the National Centennial of 1876, printed at the Government Printing House, Washington. One of the most interesting parts of this sketch is the view of the '*' Classical Course of Study in Union College at Different Periods." The i)eriods are nearly decennial, reaching from 1802 to 1875. The following exhibit brings the two extremes together: Fl^KSII.MAN YEAR. "The Freshman Class shall studj- the Latin. Greek and English Lan- guages, Arithmetic, Sheridan's Lec- tures on Elocution, and shall wi-ite such Latin Exerc-ises as the Faculty may api)i)int." First Term. — Livy. Xenophon : Homer. Algebra (continued) to "Se- ries." Greek Prose Composition. Latin Prose Composition. Second Term. — Horace. Xeno- phon ; Homer : Herodotus. Algebra comjjleted. Greek Pi-ose Composi- tion. Latin Pjose Composition. Third Term.— Cicero de Senectute and de Amicitia. Xenophon ; Hero- dotus ; Euripides. Geometry — Books VI to IX. Trigonometry. Rhetoric, with Compo.sition and Declamation. Greek Prose Composition. Latin Pro.se Composition. SOPHOMORE YEAR. 1S02. "The Sophomore Class shall study Geography, Algebra, Vulgar and Decimal Fractions, the Extraction of Roots, Conic Sections, Euclid's Ele- ments, Trigonometry, Surveying, Mensuration of Heights and Distan- ces, Navigation, Logic, Blair's Lec- tures, and such parts of eminent authors in the learned Languages as the Officers in College shall pre- .scribe. " 1875. First Term.— Tacitus. Euripides : JEschylus. History of the United States. Rhetoric — Art of Discourse. Review of Freshman Mathematics. Secoxd Term. — Juvenal and Tei- rence. Eui'ipides ; -iEschylus. Conic Sections. Logic. Third Term— Horace— Satires and Epistles. Euripides ; Sophocles ; Plato. Statics and Dynamics. Study of Man. Botany (voluntary). History. 32 OUR COMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATION. JUNIOR YEAR. isoa. "The Junior Class shall stiidj' the Elements of Criticism, Astronomy, Natural and Moral Philosophy, and shall perform such exercises in the higher branches of the Mathematics s the Faculty shall prescribe.*' Ib7.5. First Term. — Cicero — Tusculan Disputations. Sophocles ; ^schylus Thucydides. Mechanical Work— Hj-- drostatics, Hydrodynamics, Pneu- matics. Elocution. Political Econ- omy. Second Term. — Lucretius or Quin- tilian. Plato ; Demosthenes. Elocu- tion. Heat ; Steam-Engine ; Elec- tricity; Meteorology. Physiology. Ethics. Third Term.— Acoustics ; Magnet- ism ; Galvanism ; Electro-Magnetism. Chemistry. History of Civilization. Zoologj-. Botany. SENIOR YEAR. I S75. " The Senior Class shall study select portions of Ancient and Modern His- tory, such parts of Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding as the President shall direct, Stewart's Ele- ments of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, and shall review the principal studies of the preceding j'ears, and also such portions of Virgil, Cicero and Horace as the President shall direct, and shall be accustomed to apply the principles of criticism." First Term.— Optics: Wave Theory of Light and Radiant Heat. Mental Philosophy. Lectures on Greek Phi- losophy. Geology. Plato contra Athens (voluntary). Applied Chemis- try. Chemical Laboratory Exercises. Second Term.— Astronomy. Eth- ics. Christian Evidences. Lectui'es on Greek Philosophy and Poetiy. Aristophanes — Birds or Clouds (volun- tai'y). Hebrew (voluntary). English Literatm-e. Lectures on the Bible. Comparative Philology. •■ Third Term. — Christian Ethics. International Law and Constitution of the United States. Lectures on English Poetry. Lectures on English Literature. Lectm-es on Biblical Lit- eratiu-e. Lectures on Greek Poetiy. Lectm-es on Art. Lectm-es on His- tory. Mineralogy (voluntary). It will be seen that the second column is more crowded than the JBrst, partly because the analysis is more minute, but prin- cipally because new studies have been introduced. Nothing will more clearly show the increasing demands made by the length- ened curriculum on hoth college students and college instructors. OUK COMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATION, 33 No doubt tlie instruction given at Union has considerably im- proved since 1802, but we cannot suppose that it has improved in depth as much as in breadtli. Now the college boy of 1802, with his Latin and Greek and matliematics, if he had a competent instructor, had an oppor- tunity to learn a few things well.* Whether he did, I do not inquire. But it is certain that much of the college work now done is exceedingly superficial. Glancing at the time given to such studies as psychology, logic, English literature, not to men- tion many others, it is clear that it must be so. It is true, the time of })reparation has been lengthened ; that students on the average are older than they were in the college days of George Ticknor and Edward Everett, and therefore able to do more work ; but the time is still too short. It is hardly an exaggera- tion to say, that the^ studies now crowded into a single term re- quire two. As a result, the hurry and rush of college life now contrast strangely with the leisure and composure of the olden time. What, then, do the interests of the higher education require ? Plainly that fewer studies shall be attempted. This seems the only i)ractical alternative to increasing shallowness. College educators must not be tyrannized over by the idea of "a course." In its old sense, that became impracticable when knowledge l)asscd fco far beyond its old bounds. A '* course," in the sense that the "three" and the '-seven" were a course, would now re([uire the days of Methuselah. There may be a list of studies more or less judiciously selected ; this may be made nearly uni- form in different colleges, so far as the amount and quality of the work is concerned ; the Bachelor's degree may be sacredly kept to mark the completion of these studies ; but this list is something different from the old curriculum, Nor has the word "university" preserved its former meaning. In * A writer in the New York Evenivg Pout, the last summer, took pains to poin out in an interesting article that " There were in the Continental Congress dur- ing its existence -SoO members. Of those, 118, or about one-third of the whole, were graduates from colleges. * * * Fifty-six delegates signed the Declara- tion of Independence. Of these, 28, or just one-half, were college graduates." A look at the courses of study in which these men graduated would be interest- ing. But there can be no doubt that the Continental Congress represented the highest culture of that day much better than the present Congress represents the cult\n-e of to-day. 34 OUR COMMON-SCHOOL EDUCATION". the classical sense, the word carries the idea of completeness. It was given to a school when it embraced, according to the preva- lent ideas, all liberal studies, — now a plain impossibility. When Mr. Erza Cornell wrote, " I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study," he expressed a very exalted but wholly impracticable ideal. In adopting the words as a legend, the authorities of the university that Mr. Cornell founded cannot look forward to their realization. Perhaps it is not going too far to say that, in the future, the men of broadest culture must be specialists. Says Mr. F. B. Perkins : " Four centuries ago, in the early days of printing," a. popular encyclopaedia, or the book that then stood for such, instead of being twenty -one quarto vol- umes, like the Eticyclopcedia Britannira, or even ten large octavos, like Cham- bers's Cyoropndia, was one small quarto volume, with not so great an extent of reading in it as the Old Testament. And there was then really nothing so very absurd in a man's professing all that was known. There is a well known Latin phrase of the period that describes such a man : qui tria, qui seiitem, qui omue scibile novif, i. e., ' who knows the three, the seven, in short all that there is know.'" But now, to quote Prof. Wm. Matthews : " The day of encyclops^dic scholarship has gone by. Even that ill-defined creature, 'a well informed man,' is becoming every year more and more rare; but the Huets, and the Scaligers, the Bacons, ' who take all knowledge to be their province,' and the Liebnitzes, 'who presimie to drive all the sciences abreast, " must soon become as extinct as the megatherium or the ichthyosaurus. " * Some studies are indispensable to culture, but too many wholly prevent it. In the Avords of the last writer, "A mill will not go if there is too little water, but it will jje as effectually stopped if there be too much." The argument for limiting, and even reducing, the number of studies in the college course is just as strong, and even stronger, when applied to the common schools. The proposition to skim a considerable part of the field of knowledge in these schools must be dismissed as at war with their genius, and as fatal to thorough instruction. ' It maybe wise or foolish to go on calling them " the people's colleges," but it will certainly be foolish if the name fosters the opinion that they are or can be made col- leges in reality. By limiting the field of teaching, the present minute division of time can be prevented ; and there will then '^ Public Libraries of the United Mates, published by the National Bureau of Education, articles, " Professorships of Books and Reading," pp. ^33, '^44. OUR ro:\[MON-sf;HOOL EOiTATrox. 35 lie an opportunity for the faithful public-school teacher to ground Jiis pupils in the elementary branches of learning. Here it is pertinent to inquire whether the graded schools are not in some degree missing the real point. Some statistics well known to Cleveland teachers will illustrate my question. In the year 18?5, according to Superintendent Rickoff's Report for that year, there Avere enrolled in the Cleveland schools 19,705 ]nipils. Of these 15,333 were in the primary grades : 4,372 in the grammar grades; and 615 in the higher grades. More minutelv. these students were distributed as follows : Eighth Year 444 Ninth '• :i7a Tenth " 1(50 Eleventh '• ... !t:j Twelfth " 40 Normal School 50 First Year 6,;«C Second " 3,o88 Third " :!,109 Fourth '• -ZMl'i Fifth " 1,658 Sixth " 1,007 Seventh " ' ()48 i Iiejecting the Normal School pupils, only one pupil in thirty- five is in the High School. In other cities the figures run much the same way, though in the East, especially in Boston, the pujiils in the higher grades are relatively consideral)Iy more. Now, it would be interesting to know two things : Fird, what proportion of pupils in towns and cities enter the high school ? mcond, how lOng the average })upil attends school ? Superintendent Rickoff's tables do not answer either question for Cleveland, though they warrant approximations. It seems clear that the average attendance of the Cleveland pupil does not reach much beyond five years. My question, then, is this : What influence this fact should have, if any, on the organization of the City schools, especially on the course of study ? One thing the above figures certainly do— they demonstrate that the great work of the public schools is, and must be, to teach the ele- mentary branches. If they turn out poor readers and spellers, poor grammarians and arithmeticians, by the thousand, it is small consolation to know that they send a few boys to college well prepared. City boards and teachers must all the while have their eyes on the pupil who attends the averatje time I strike no blow at the higher grades. All I say is, the studies of the lower grades must not be chosen from a high-school point of view. If the two points of view are only one, very well. It is 36 OUR COMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. vain to reply that all the pupils have access to the higher grades. In a city or town of given elements, intellectual, industrial, social, and moral, the average pupil will go to school about so long. It is the especial mission of the public schools to give that pupil the best training he can have in the given time. Thus far nothing has been said of the qualifications of teachers as a part of the common-school problem, except in the single feature of the enslavement of many of them to routine. Nor shall I here touch this question, save in a single feature. No change in our public-school economy is more striking tluin the general, in fact almost universal, substitution of women for men as teachers. It is admitted that, as an element in the woman question, the change is to be welcomed; but how it is as a part of jthe school question can hardly be said to have caused discussion. Female teachers are commended to boards of edu- cation and to tax-payers by their cheapness ; they are sometimes commended to SujDerintendents by the fact that they are more pliable and manageable than men. It is admitted, too, that women make excellent teachers — for some kinds of work, better than men. In fact, the ability of the American woman as a teacher, has attracted the attention of intelligent foreigners who come here to study our system. Bishop Fraser says Americans generally have ''a much greater natural aptitude for the work of a teacher," than Englishmen, '^and particularly the Ameri- can women." These also are the Bishop's words : "They certainly have the gift of turning what they do know to the best accoiint ; they are self-possessed, energetic, fearless ; they are admirable disciplinaries, firm without severity, patient without weakness : their manner of teaching is lively and fertile in illustrations ; classes are not likely to i^ll asleep in their hands." The Bishop recognizes some defects, but says ''they are proud of their position," "fired with a laudable ambition to maintain the credit of their school," '/a very fine and capable body of Avorkers in a noble cause."* All of this is worthily said, and is well deserved. But President Eliot has pointed out that women are not so likely to succeed in the higher walks of teaching as men, from two facts : that marriage generally puts an end to their period of service, and that they have not the physical endurance of men. Hence he argues that the general employment of * Quoted by Mr. Adams, Free Schools of the United States, p. 194. OUR COMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATION. 37 women as teachers leads to frequent changes in the schools. This is his languaofe : " The employment of women in the schools in the enormous proportion in which they are now employed in many towns and cities, is an unwise economy, because it inevitablj- tends, first, to make the body of teachers a changing, fluctuating body, fast thinned and fast recruited ; and secondly, to make teach- ing not a life work, as it ought to be, but a temporary resort on the way to an- other mode of life." * Mr. Francis Adams confirms this view with some statistics drawn from English experience : " In England scarcely one in twenty of the female teachers reaches her tenth year of service. Of the feniale teachers traiiied at Bishop's Stortford, it has been ascertained that the average school life was under five years. " + Both the premises and the inference drawn from them seem undeniable.^ Mr. Adams uses the language of moderation when he say.^ : " Female teachers may have other advantages over males, and in the United States are generally considered to have, but the length of the school life is not one of them." I would respectfully urge the following considerations. A woman is not a man. The question of her inferiority or superior- ity to man, is not hero in controversy. Superior or inferior, she is a woman. To raise here the question of the relative standing of the sexes in the scale of being, is an impertinence. "Who asks whether a painting is a finer work of art than a statue or a temple? Who asks even whether Angelo or Raphael is the greater artist ? The two cannot, on the whole, be compared. They are different. Now, men make excellent teachers, and so do women ; but the one is not the other. The ideal male teacher has some qualities that the ideal female teacher has not ; and vice versa. What these qualities are, need not at the close of this long paper be * Wise and Unwise Economy in Schools. + Pp. 177-8. X Mr. T. W. Higginson, in The Journal of Education, attempts to turn this position: •' I have had no leisure," he says, "though I have tried to find it, to carrj' this investigation further than my own residence, but of the permanent teachers employed by the Citj^ of Newport for 187.5-6, the 3.5 women have had a collective term of service in this city of 382 years — giving an average of 8.0G years ; and the men, now six in number, show a collective service of 25 years, and an average of 4.2.3 years." Hence he suspects that President Eliot's argu- ment rests on mere guess-work. But an inductive inquiry must have a broader basis than this, and must include cities where marriageable women do not so abound as they do in New England. 38 OITR OOMMOX-SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. specified. The fact is admitted. The inference is just this : in education, the young mind should be brought into contact with both masculine and feminine qualities. I do not say the places should be equally distributed between the sexes ; bo far from that, I am Avilling that the women shall be in a decided majority, and do not think the schools would suffer in consequence ; but I do say the masculine aud feminine forces should be represented in their full power. Now, it is well known that often in a group of schools containing from one to three thousand children, you will find only one man employed, and he the Superintendent who does little or no teaching. Even in Cleveland, with an average monthly enrolment of 16,079 pupils,- and 351 teachers on the roll, only 27 are males, including Superintendents and special teachers. Now, if there be any force in the position that the peculiar qualities of both men and women should be blended in education, must it not be confessed that the substitu- tion of women for men in the public schools has gone too far ? Sentiment to the contrary, I must avow that as my own opinion. i Ell; CCCC CL^C^ C^ ' i^ _ ^z_C::c_: ^^ ^[[J' ^r§c* CZ! ^^crc^ Cj ' CS ■^c cr^ <^ ^c: cr < <^ ■ ,^^ cs:. cs: ^C cc^: cs ^^ ar^<^ -<^- : < dc: ^C_Cc ^ Kl CC cr crcL 'dec E^ c CLC <■