PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF ARTS, LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY hannah b; Clark CHICAGO ©tie &ntbet0tt£ of Cfctcaflo $ug0 1897 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF ARTS, LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY HANNAH Bf CLARK *»»*##««** CHICAGO €i\t aanibusitg of (Efjtcago Icess 1897 TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page. Preface. --------- 5 PART I. HISTORY. Chapter I. Formal - - - 9 Period of Ungraded Schools - - 9 Period of Unification and Grading - - - - 18 Chapter II. Legal -------36 Chapter III. Financial ------ 50 Chapter IV. Pedagogical ------ 65 PART II. STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. Chapter I. Structure. ------ 85 Organs - - - - - - - - 85 Property and Financial Support 88 Persons -------- 93 Regulation of the System - - - - - 100 Associations of Teachers and Pupils - 105 Chapter II. Functions - - - - - - 108 Conclusion - - - - - - - - 116 P. Publ. PREFACE. The data for this study of the Chicago public schools have been chiefly derived from the " Proceedings of the Board " and the annual reports of the school inspectors and Board of Educa- tion. The latter form an unbroken series from 1854 to 1895-6 Information concerning the earlier period is found in a few scattered reports by inspectors, in a history of the schools pub- lished in 1857 and afterwards continued and enlarged by the clerk of the board, Shepherd Johnson, and in a "Report on Common Schools" presented to the council in 1838. The state constitutions and statutes and the city charters and ordinances of different dates contain the school laws. Other material has been taken from the following sources : "A Brief History of Education in Illinois," by Samuel Willard published in the Illinois School Reports for 1883-4; "Early Education in Illinois," by W. L. Pillsbury ; " City School Systems of the United States," by John S. Philbrick, published by the Bureau of Education as a Circular of Information ; " Education in the United States," by Boone ; the Eighth Annual Report of the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics for 1894. To these have been added interviews and correspondence with the superintendent of schools, former members of the board, teachers and business men, and personal observation and investigation. 5 PART I. HISTORY CHAPTER I. FORMAL. PERIOD OF UNGRADED SCHOOLS. As colonists carry to a new country the roots and seeds of plants which centuries of culture from the wild species have made ready for extraordinary development in a fresh soil, so they also bear with them the knowledge and need of institutions which their fathers have painfully nourished through the slow growth of generations, but which, transplanted into new condi- tions, are capable of maturing with a hitherto unknown rapidity. An exotic institution may indeed, like the human embryo, trav- erse in its development the whole life history of its race, yet the different stages of growth are then so shortened in time and so narrowed in extent to essentials that the substantial identity of the two processes is often unrecognized. Without venturing to claim that the history of Chicago schools is an exact epitome of the history of education in the United States, it may still be asserted that it represents the more marked stages of that progress, especially in this century. And yet at the outset we are met by a difference which requires us to confine exact parallelism to the western states. The colonial schools were formed upon English models, but the English govern- ment did not concern itself about them. For the great territory of the Northwest, however, the Federal Congress, and later the United States government, made careful provision by securing the support for public education. Thus long before Illinois possessed either name or autonomy, social generalizations reached by experience in New England and Europe were imposed upon the region by outside authority, The new community found itself the half-involuntary recipient of certain social standards and institutions whose need it had not yet felt. As far back as 1785 certain sections in the newly 9 io THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO surveyed territory north of the Ohio River were designated by the government as " school sections" and the famous " Ordi- nance of '87" announced the principle under which this action was taken : " Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." Two implications of this formula, often referred to as "the American idea," are equally patent: that government is an end, citizens the means ; and that religious and moral instruction is a necessary part of public education. The degree to which these ideas have been modified will be noticed as the history of the management of the schools is reviewed. The action of the government had no real effect until twenty-one years later when the Enabling Act for Illinois gave the people of the new state an opportunity to sanction it. When this was done, at the convention held in Kaskaskia, August 26, 1 8 18, the foundation was firmly laid for the maintenance of public schools throughout the state. The first constitution of the state made no mention of edu- cation, and it was 1825 when the legislature passed a law "for the establishment of free schools," which provided for the election of school trustees, the laying off of school districts by county commissioners and the levy of a 2 per cent. tax. This last clause was so unpopular that it was never enforced and was repealed in 1828. In his history of "Early Education in Illinois," Mr. W. L. Pillsbury calls attention to the fact that this law was notably radical. Only the five New England states had similar enact- ments, embodying the three features, a school system based on law, tuition-free schools, and taxes to supplement school funds. Each one of these features was, in the older states, the fruit of slow evolution. There the law did not take account of schools until they were well established, "free" meant unsec- tarian, and the altruistic idea of general school taxes was but slowly adopted. Even in Illinois, it must be admitted, the legis- lation was so far in advance of public opinion that few schools THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 1 1 were established for many years. The law remained simply a memorial to the advanced, and impracticable, views of the legis- lators, until the growth of community spirit made the people ready to cooperate. Meantime a little settlement on Lake Michigan was laying the foundation of a school system quite independently of any legal impulsion. The early settlers of Chicago came chiefly from the eastern states, bringing with them the customs and standards of an older civilization. This led them to desire for their children and to reproduce, as far as the conditions of a new community permitted, the forms of culture with which they had been familiar. The date of the first school is the same as the date of the first settlement after the Indian massacre, 1816, the year in which Fort Dearborn was rebuilt. Seven or eight children were taught at that time by a teacher whom Mr. Kinzie, the agent of the fur company, employed. The record is incomplete for several years after this, but it is certain that the officers of the fort had a school for their children in 1820 and that in 1829 the Beaubien families were employing a teacher. In 1830 a Mr. Forbes organ- ized what was, perhaps, 'the first school not originating with the parents of the scholars. It numbered about twenty-five children and occupied a building at what is now the corner of Michigan avenue and Randolph street. In 1832 Colonel R. G. Hamilton, commissioner of school lands, and Colonel Owen employed a Mr. Watkins to teach a school on the north side of the river. Miss Eliza Chappel opened a school for girls the next year in a log house, but proving successful soon obtained the use of the first Presbyterian Church building. In the same year Mr. Grenville Sproat opened an " English and Classical School for Boys" in the Baptist Church, corner of South Water and Franklin streets. Other private schools became more or less prominent about the same period, but the three last mentioned are of interest because they became the first public schools. All were of the same type — schools supported by small tuition fees subscribed by the parents. 12 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO The year 1 83 1 was marked by the organization of Cook county and the appointment of a commissioner of school lands. In 1833 Chicago became a town and, influenced either by the spirit of speculation or a more praiseworthy desire to promote public welfare, the voters, numbering less than one hundred, petitioned forthe sale of the school lands. Since they conformed to the provisions of a law passed a few months before to regulate the sale of school lands, the commissioner could do nothing but carry out their request. All but four blocks of the school section was sold at auction for what seemed at the time the munificent sum of $38,619.47. With the interest on this it became possible for the first time to establish a public school, but it was not necessary to organize a new school. Miss Chappel's was granted a share of the money in 1834 and thus had the honor to be the first free school in Chicago and probably in the state. Mr. Sproat's school was adopted later in the same year and Mr. Watkins' soon after. The condition on which a school became a public school was simply that it keep a certified record of attendance in a prescribed way. This entitled it to a share of the public fund proportional to the number of its scholars. This policy of adopting private schools was more economical for the town than it would have been to establish new ones and it involved no radical change in the school itself, except a more certain financial support. Neither trustees nor commissioner exercised any real supervision over the management of the schools. School districts were set off in 1835, but they remained for some time mere map boundaries, the community not feeling the necessity for many schools. In February 1835 the legislature passed a special school law for Chicago which is of interest because of the modifications it presents of the district system so long established in New England. The voters of the town were to elect inspectors who should examine teachers, select books, and visit schools, but each district was to elect trustees who should employ teachers, keep the schools free, see that all white children could attend, and — most significant of all — levy taxes for all expenses except THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 13 teachers' salaries, which the voters were to fix and provide for by special taxes. In form this was less decentralized than the New England system, but the inspectors had little power except as advisers, the control of the money and the management of the schools being in the hands of the local body. The legislators had but partially freed themselves from the crude democracy which so narrowed the idea of local self-government that the efficiency and economy of centralization when applied to an institution of common interest was quite unrecognized. The enactment of this particular law was followed so quickly by the incorporation of the city that its details were never car- ried out, but some features of the district organization were included in the new system. Happily, however, the evils of divided authority were seen before the system had become dear to the people, as it did in New England, so that a change was effected with more ease than in the older states. The charter of Chicago, granted in 1837, tne >* ear that Hor- ace Mann became secretary ;>f the Massachusetts School Board and the era of the "New Education" began for the United States, gave the city council entire control of the schools with the important exception that the school lands and fund remained in the hands of the commissioner. The immediate management was vested in inspectors appointed by the council, having powers similar to those granted under the law of 1835, while the district elected trustees to levy taxes, provide buildings, and employ teachers. At the time of its incorporation Chicago had about 3000 inhabitants. Five school districts and about 400 scholars appear in the enumeration, but in two or three districts there were no schools and the attendance of pupils fell considerably below the enrollment. It was the year of the great panic following the period of speculation, and, although the city continued to grow and was in many ways unaffected by financial disturbances, the school revenues suffered severely. In a letter dated January 17, 1838, one of the private-school teachers of the city wrote: "The hard times affect all the 14 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO schools. The great school fund of $36,000, for which Chicago has been so celebrated, is all loaned out and cannot now com- mand sufficient interest to support even one district school. All have been stopped by order of the trustees, I am informed." This closing of schools was probably not so general as is here implied, and it was certainly only temporary, yet an official review of the situation shows sufficient grounds for discourage- ment. A Report on the Common Schools made to the council in 1838 by a special committee begins : "It is well known to all that, from the period of the first settlement of this place, the cause of education has received very little attention. This important interest which lies at the foundation of our social and political institutions, with the successful advance of which our destinies as a community are closely interwoven, has hitherto been left, like an exotic, to struggle for a precarious existence under the blighting chill of public apathy and neglect." The census of 1837, the report says, shows 838 children between the ages of five and twenty-one, but not more than 300 to 325 are in the schools at any time, nor is the average period of attendance more than a quarter of a year. Compulsory education is opposed by the prejudice which regards it as an interference with family rights and duties, and yet it seems almost a necessity. There are many reasons to be given for the non-attendance of the children, foremost among; which is the condition of the schoolhouses. They are greatly overcrowded and are bare, unattractive, as well as poorly lighted and ventilated. The schools are very defective in their lack of uniformity in text- books and methods of instruction, and all the work is handi- capped by lack of money. The committee recommends that a general tax be levied, that school buildings be made more health- ful and attractive, that vacancies be immediately filled by the appointment of new teachers, and, reflecting a feeling common in the East, that the two sexes be separated in school. It is evident from this report that school taxes were no more popular in Chicago than in the rest of the state. The fund derived from land sales was the main dependence for the sup- THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 15 port of the schools, and if it failed the schools were likely to fail also. Intense individualism was the ruling philosophy ; common interests and common sympathies were but feebly felt. The awkwardness of divided financial interests in the manage- ment of the schools was soon felt so keenly that, through the efforts of Mr. J. Y. Scammon, an amendment to the city char- ter was secured in 1839 by which the control of the school lands and fund was transferred to the council, a school agent being appointed manager. The district control of the collection of taxes remained as before. The earliest available report of the school inspectors is that of 1 84 1. Like most of the subsequent ones it contains a flourish of rhetoric to impress the unofficial reader, yet a certain interest attaches to this picture of desirable inspectors. "We should select good men from all parts of the city, men who shall as far as possible represent the various feelings and opinions of our diverse population, men who take a deep interest in the subject of education and devote a portion of their leisure time to inves- tigating the subject. It is worth while to note that this ideal was carried out dur- ing the early years of the city's history to a much greater degree than has been the case in recent years. Prominent citizens were willing to serve as inspectors, and many of them gave both time and thought to the study of educational problems, with the result that they were able wisely to influence school legislation for the state at several critical periods. The " Regulations for Schools," published in this report of 1 84 1, contains the first list of authorized text-books, and repre- sents the first attempt to unify the schools. The subjects included reading, grammar, composition, geography, arithmetic, algebra, and history. The Bible was to be read every day without comment, the advanced pupils reading each a verse in turn. The overcrowding of these ungraded schools and the presence of pupils old enough to do more advanced work- prompted the suggestion, made in this same year, that a high 1 6 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO school be established. Low as the implied standard of this school was, the inspectors had a conception of higher education which was by no means common at the time. Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore were the only cities which had anything higher than grammar schools in their public-school systems. The lack of means made it impossible for the inspectors to carry out their plan, but the suggestion bore fruit in later years. Even the opening of a district school was undertaken only after petitions from the residents of the locality indicated a demand so strong that the collection of the necessary taxes was rendered reasonably certain. The buildings used were seldom built for that purpose ; rooms of any kind were difficult to secure and convenience received little consideration. The only build- ing owned by the city up to 1845 was so ^ m tnat y ear f° r $45- The first permanent schoolhouse was erected in the same year on Madison Street opposite the present site of McVicker's thea- ter. It cost $7500, and was popularly known as Miltimore's Folly, in derision of the inspector most interested in it. Skeptics declared that it could never be filled, and the mayor suggested that it might be utilized as a factory or an insane asylum. Two districts were at first accommodated in it, but before two years had passed one of them was crowded out. The enrollment of scholars in the city was at this time about 1300, the teachers numbered eighteen. The population of the city had quadrupled in ten years, while the school enrollment had increased four and one-half times. During all the early years the principals of the schools were men. Women were only gradually introduced as assistants, and the differences in salaries were marked, though all salaries bore testimony to the poverty of the board and the low grade of the schools. In 1839 m ale teachers received $400 a year; female from $200 to $250. In 185 1 an ordinance provided that the former should be paid, "according to their success and the num- ber of scholars," from $300 to $800 ; the latter were graded in three classes. The maximum for the first was $400, for the second $200, and primary teachers received $150! At such val- THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO I 7 uation of their services the standard for teachers could hardly have been high, but no complaints are recorded. It was in the decade between 1840 and 1850 that a desire for mutual helpfulness through association led to general meetings of teachers and those interested in education throughout the state. In 1844 a school convention was held to elect delegates to a convention in Springfield, where plans were formed for teachers' institutes. During the next year a state society of teachers was formed with Chicago men as leaders. Mr. Wright, whose father had built the first building in the city designed for a school, drafted a new school law for the state, which was unfor- tunately defeated by the opposition of the people in the central and southern part of the state. The agitation did, however, lead to improvements in the law finally passed which made easier the levying and collection of school taxes. In 1846 a state conven- tion met in Chicago. All of these gatherings were "campaigns of education" for the public, rousing more intelligent interest in education, while at the same time they cultivated an esprit de corps among teachers that added to the dignity of their profes- sion and broadened their views. It was probably the influence of these new ideas of organiza- tion that led the city council in 1850 to rule that the teachers should form an institute under the direction of the inspectors for weekly instruction and discussion. It was to serve as a sort of contracted normal-school course, to supplement the defective preparation of the teachers. It has continued, with many addi- tions and changes, down to the present time. The population of the city in 1853, when the first period of the school history ended, was 59,130; the school enrollment 3086, with 34 teachers. The schools were ungraded and prac- tically independent in methods, despite feeble efforts to pre- scribe uniform text - books. The local district organization hampered development, small economies prevented large plans. The growth of the schools had been one of size only, not of organization. But the city was entering upon a new era at this time. Business had received a great impetus through the open- 1 8 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO ing of the Illinois canal and the building of railroads, and as the population became more settled a new civic pride was born that stimulated the citizens to improve their institutions as well as to build factories. The growth of the schools made it evident that the old disorder could not continue if progress was desired. System must be introduced in some way. PERIOD OF UNIFICATION AND GRADING. Providence in 1840, Boston a decade later, had been con- fronted by this same problem and had each solved it in the same way, by the appointment of a superintendent of schools. Fol- lowing their example, whether avowedly or not is immaterial, the council of Chicago in 1853 created the office of Superintend- ent, making it his first duty to introduce order and unity into the school organization and methods. The first to fill this posi- tion was Mr. John C. Dore, from the Boylston Street Grammar School, Boston. His report for 1854 reveals in detail the needs of the school system. He found that no classification of pupils was attempted and no registration of attendance kept. Many scholars attended one department in the morning and another in the afternoon. The principals were obliged to spend most of their time directing the filing in and out of classes, so that they could do little teaching or supervising. To add to the confusion there was little or no uniformity in the books used by different schools. It was nothing less than a revolution when the super- intendent began to examine classes, organize departments, and insist on the use of uniform text-books. It was new discipline for teachers and pupils, but the reforms seem to have been intro- duced with comparative ease, probably because the schools were still so young. There were in all but seven schools, and these were so over- crowded that 1000 applicants had to be refused seats. Two years later, when Mr. William H. Wells succeeded Mr. Dore, he reported that at least 3000 children were out of school and the buildings were very much overcrowded. It was but the begin- ning of a difficulty that grew greater with the years. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO i 9 One method of obtaining relief, which had been suggested as early as 1841, was the formation of a high school. This proposal had been repeated at intervals with the additional arguments that such a school would stimulate the lower departments and serve as a preparatory school both for college and for teaching. The plan as at first presented was evidently shaped on New England models, a school in two divisions, one for boys and one for girls, but the school which was finally opened in 1856, like Chicago schools in general, was coeducational. The opening of this school with its normal department is significant, not only as an advance in organization, but also as illustrating the forced growth of transplanted institutions. Boston had a Latin school for boys in 1632 and an English high school in 1821, but there was no girls' high school till 1826, when the commonwealth was nearly 200 years old. Chicago was but twenty years old when she took this forward step. Philadelphia's Central High School dated only from 1838, New York's from 1849. Normal schools were also new even in the East. Horace Mann organized state schools, but it was 1848 when Philadelphia opened the first city normal school. In these developments, as in others to be noted, Chicago felt the spirit of the times as soon as the older commu- nities did, and was often better prepared to adopt new ideas and methods because its system was still flexible. In 1857 the legislature granted to Chicago a new charter which contained a most important section on the public schools. The district organization was done away with, the division of territory being kept only for convenience in assigning pupils to a school, and a centralized system substituted by retaining the inspectors, increasing their number, and giving them as "the Board of Education" new powers. The council elected the board and controlled the school property, but school manage- ment rested entirely with the board. Subsequent changes in organization have only increased the power of the board. A new type of school was introduced about this time, a night school, designed to help those who were obliged to work during the day or who were too old to attend the regular schools. It 20 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO was a private undertaking, a teacher volunteering his services and the board only giving the use of a room, but it proved so successful that the board was soon asked to make it part of the common-school system. Either through indifference or lack of means, it took no action in the matter, however, and it was seven years before the school was adopted by the city. Meantime the superintendent's reports were emphasizing the same point over and over — the overcrowding of the school- houses. At its worst the evil was so great that some grammar- school teachers had over ioo pupils each and there were primary teachers who were confronted by from 200 to 300 in a room. The new buildings, erected in haste to meet the extraordinary demand, failed to provide heat or air or light in sufficient quan- tities for the 1200 scholars who were crowded into them. The ensuing discomfort was one cause of the irregular attendance against which the superintendent struggled for years. It is interesting to find in one of his reports an appeal to parents for heartier cooperation in the work the children were doing, for more frequent visits to the schoolrooms, and to read the next year that there had been 452 such visits. Evidently annual reports were not relegated to the wastebasket in those days. The opening of the high school having failed to relieve the overcrowding, a new means was tried in 1858. The minimum school age was raised to six years and by this means and the erection of new buildings the average number of pupils per teacher was lowered to seventy-seven. The subject of physical training was mentioned for the first time, as far as records show, in 1859 by Mr. Luther Haven, president of the board. He called attention to the "curved spines, depressed chests, and worn forms" that were common among the scholars, and reminded his colleagues and the public that a sound mind requires a sound body. Throughout his administration he continued to urge the city to provide ample playgrounds and simple gymnastic apparatus for the schools. Unfortunately land was considered too valuable even then for mere pleasure uses, and free-hand gymnastics were slow in win- THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 21 ning their way, though attended by little or no expense, such as the use of apparatus would have entailed. The year 1861 witnessed an important change in the organ- ization of the schools — the introduction of a graded system, the first in Illinois. The work of both grammar and primary schools was divided into five grades. Mr. Wells prepared the outline of the course of study, which with explanatory notes made a monograph of several pages. Its most distinctive feature was the oral lessons on "manners and morals" and nat- ural science. The influence of the new education is unmistak- able throughout the paper and the work of Pestalozzi is defi- nitely cited. It is a fact not without significance that the first two superintendents of schools were chosen from New England at a time when the spirit of Horace Mann was potent in the schools of Massachusetts. Mr. Wells had been connected with one of the oldest of the normal schools founded by Mr. Mann. The vigor with which Mr. Wells presented his plan and the progressive character of his views brought him many disciples in other cities and enabled him to leave a mark upon Chicago schools deeper than that of any other man in their history. In a very true sense it may be said that all later changes have been but the evolution of his plan. There has been no revolution. Undoubtedly the stormy days of the Civil War affected the atmosphere of the schools. The superintendent solemnly warns against any display of partisanship by teachers or pupils, while he declares that "patriotism and love of country, loyalty to the Constitution and government should be thoroughly inculcated." And yet the only recorded effect of the war was the financial depression which seriously diminished the revenues and so retarded the building of needed schoolhouses. A curious trace of race prejudice asserted itself during this time of intense feeling. It will be remembered that the special law of 1835 declared it to be the duty of school trustees to see that "all white children could attend school." This may have been intended as an invidious distinction, but in practice the question of color was never raised until 1863, when the city 2 2 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO established a separate school for colored children. It was in existence but two years and then the feeling which occasioned it seems to have died out. The third superintendent of schools, Mr. J. L. Packard, was appointed in 1864. In the same year the old question of the public support of a night school was raised again, and this time the result of the discussion was favorable to the school. The board paid the salary of the teacher and incorporated the school into the public-school system. The next year the council made its first appropriation for the school, $5000. Evening high- school classes were formed in 1868. This action on the part of the board was, like the opening of a high school, dated by the general movement in educational circles rather than by the age of the city. Cincinnati, St. Louis, and New York opened simi- lar schools between 1865 and 1866. Boston delayed even longer. A much needed addition to the normal department was made in 1866 by establishing a practice school. The graduates of the department were employed in the city schools, the demand always exceeding the supply. During the decade between i860 and 1870 the number of pupils in the schools increased from 14,149 to 38,939 and the teachers from 123 to 557. Year after year the superintendent reported unsanitary conditions due to overcrowding and esti- mated the number of children out of school at 2000 in 1863, 5000 in 1864,8000 in 1867, 12000 in 1868. These figures did not represent the actual applicants for seats, but rather the children of school age who were growing up without school privileges. The policy of the board at this time was to build great central grammar schools for 1000 pupils and cluster about each of them a number of primary schools. The thought that this arrange- ment would make it easier to meet the demand for seats effec- tually estopped all pedagogical considerations, though the super- intendent repeatedly presented them in most forcible terms. An incident somewhat curious in retrospect occurred in T867; the board petitioned the legislature to locate the poly- THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 23 technic school of the State Agricultural College in Chicago. The request did not meet with a favorable response and then the board urged the city to found a technical school in connection with the high school. This project also failed, to be revived in a new form when the manual training school was established almost a generation later. Another phase of education was occupying the attention of teachers throughout the country at this time — the question of discipline. The novel idea that the rod could be dispensed with in the schoolroom gave rise to much argument. The president of the Chicago School Board discussed it at length in his report for 1869 with considerable vehemence, upholding corporal pun- ishment by statistics to show that it was self-restrictive, the knowledge that it might be used diminishing the occasions for it. The next year he tried to support his position by quoting authorities in other places, and though he could cite only two or three in its favor and Boston, Brooklyn, California, Cam- bridge, Providence, and Springfield, Mass., were on the opposite side, he would not yield. The superintendent did not refer to the matter publicly at that time, but he evidently sided with the majority and quietly inculcated the new doctrine, for in 1873 he was able to report, somewhat triumphantly, that cor- poral punishment had been abandoned "by request." The board afterwards formally forbade its use. The school year was only fairly begun in 1871 when the great fire wrought its destructive work. Fifteen schoolhouses, one-quarter of the whole number, ten of them owned by the city, were destroyed and 135 teachers thrown out of work. The most irreparable loss, however, was in the board offices where the school library, city and state reports, and MS. records of the board from its origin were burned. The direct pecuniary loss was estimated at $249,780. On the terrible Monday after the fire schoolhouses were thrown open to homeless people and many found shelter in them. Two weeks later the board had obtained new quarters, formed plans for the future, reopened the schools and com- 24 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO menced the work of restoration. The teachers from the burned schools were divided into four classes in the order in which they would receive positions again — those who were homeless, those with dependent relatives, those wholly dependent upon their own efforts, and those who had friends able to help them. With all the efforts that could be put forth it was three years before the lost buildings could be replaced, and the losses on school- fund property were felt for many years. The decade between 1870 and 1880 witnessed several changes in the structure of the school system. The normal department of the high school was made an independent school in 1 871, but after a brief four years it was given up altogether for the some- what superficial reason that positions could not be found for all its graduates. In 1870 a private class for the education of deaf mutes was formed in a room given by the board. In 1875 the board in response to requests assumed control of the school, and in 1879 the legislature made an appropriation of $15,000, which enabled the school to enlarge its work. The evening schools, suspended after the fire, were soon resumed; the grammar schools in 1873, the high-school classes in 1874. Since then they have been discontinued only one year, in 1877, when there was no money for their support. Other changes were the reduction of the number of grades in the elementary schools to eight, and the opening of "division high schools " with a two years' course for those who did not wish the four years' course. These grew in six years into regular high schools, located in the different divisions of the city. A change of superintendents was made in this period, Mr. Packard being succeeded by Mr. Duane Doty, and an assistant superintendent was found to be necessary on account of the increasing number of schools. It was during this period that for the first time the board was visibly swayed by public opinion. Whether the discussion began in the board or among its constituency cannot be determined, but unquestionably it was the influence of foreign citizens, partic- THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 25 ularly the Irish and German Catholics, that led to the move- ment to do away with reading of the Bible in the schools. The president of the board in 1869, himself a foreigner, recom- mended that the Bible be dropped from the list of books read in school on the ground that the schools ought to be non-secta- rian. Much pressure on both sides was brought to bear upon the board as soon as the proposed action became generally known. Petitions from individuals and societies, newspaper discussions and public speeches were many and feeling ran high, as it did in other parts of the country where the same question was being debated. It is difficult to tell from the records the position taken by different members of the board, but in 1874 a vote was secured by which Scripture reading was given up. A subsequent effort to have the action reconsidered was defeated by a vote of three to ten, two members of the board being absent. The result here, as in other cities where the same struggle went on, was gen- erally considered a victory for the Catholics. A reorganization of the board by act of the legislature took place in 1872. It was now to be appointed by the mayor with the consent of the council, and it had power to build, buy sites, make loans, etc., with the consent of the council, thus gaining greater responsibility and power. But added powers did not overcome the difficulties in meeting the demands of the growing population. The average enrollment was about 50,000, but the report for 1875 said that the board was farther behind the demand in providing seats than at any time for twelve years. Ten thou- sand scholars were in double divisions, i. e., having but half-day sessions. Many of the old buildings were in poor condition and the delay of the council in acting upon recommendations for building sites caused a vexatious loss of time in providing new schoolhouses. The friction between the board and the council led the former to make heated accusations against the latter, especially the members of the School Committee. They were charged with acting in collusion with property owners to prevent the board from acquiring needed sites, and, at the best, with fail- ure to appreciate and care for the needs of the people. The 26 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO board tried at different times to secure a law giving it power to condemn property for school uses, urging that it was always at a disadvantage when it tried to buy land because of the general disposition to gain at the expense of the city, but the legislature took no action upon the matter. In its extremity the board was forced to use most unsuitable rented rooms, even basements in some instances, and even with these added accommodations it was acknowledged that the attempt to provide educational privileges for all the children of the city was a hopeless failure. In 1878 it was estimated that 33,000 children were out of school. In 1879 only 37.7 per cent, of the school population could be accommodated. Those in half-day divisions numbered, in 1880, 6668; in 1881, 9244; in 1882, 12,919; in 1884, 11,336, and in 1885, when the situation was considered better than usual, 6202. The sanitary condition of even buildings erected by the board was repeatedly criticised, and a committee on sanitation was finally found necessary. After 1881 a better system of lighting and ventilating was introduced in new buildings, and some minor reforms were attempted in the old ones. Stoves were still in use and steam was a novelty whose practicability was much debated. According to the records, before 1 876 the lighting space of school- rooms equaled only from 7.95 to 9.96 per cent, of the floor space, while the improved new buildings showed a percentage of only 13.13. Comparing this with the present standard, 25 per cent., the progress appears slight. One does not wonder that eyes suffered from these conditions. A careful examination of the eyes of children in a grammar school and the neighboring high school, made voluntarily by a physician at this time, showed a steady increase in myopia from the lower to the higher grades. An imperceptible change which had been going on for nearly a quarter of a century was brought to notice by the tribute paid to women teachers by Mr. George Howland, the superintendent who succeeded Mr. Doty in 1881. The majority of the teaching force had come to be women. As has been noted, the schools were at first almost wholly in charge of men, but as the number THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 27 of scholars increased women were selected as assistants, then as principals of primary departments, and finally they were given the charge of nearly all the grammar schools. In the high schools all the principals were men, the assistants' positions were divided almost equally between the two sexes. In this unconscious movement Chicago had the same experience as the country at large, of which it was said early in the sixties : "The majority of the teachers in the United States are women." Now and again a protest was made against the growing disproportion between men and women, and the president of the board several times urged the appointment of men as vice principals to have charge of the older boys, but the economic and social forces directing the movement were too powerful to be resisted by any such feeble, individual efforts. One of the most vital ideas in the minds of American edu- cators during the years that followed the Paris Exposition of 1867 was that of manual training. The display of technical work which the European schools made at that time opened the eyes of teachers to new possibilities in the education of the nation's children. The first experiment in introducing manual training into grammar schools seems to have been that tried in Gloucester, Mass., in 1878. Boston followed in 1882, and Peru and Moline, 111., and New Haven, a little later. Chicago made a preliminary venture in 1876 by opening three ungraded rooms, for truants, in which sloyd was taught, but as late as 1885 when the Chicago Woman's Club presented an earnest request that the work might be extended, the board was unprepared to go further. The pres- ident was not in favor of such instruction in grammar schools, and the superintendent had little or no power. In 1886, however, a years' course in woodworking and the use of tools was given at the North Division High School. The course was lengthened to two years in 1887, and in 1890 the separate English High and Manual Training School was organized with a three years' course. Similar schools had been opened in Baltimore in 1883 and St. Louis in 1884. Work in the manual training was commenced in the gram- 28 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO mar schools in 1891 through the generosity of Mr. Crane who fitted up a room and supplied a teacher for the Tilden School. This became the center for classes of boys from the eighth grades of neighboring schools. The next year the Chicago Herald fitted up a room in the Jones School as a similar center. The board assisted in the work, after some delay, and has now established ten other centers, but it is noteworthy that the initi- ative came from outside individuals. The kindergartens had a like history. Private kindergartens were firmly established when in 1888 the Froebel Association asked for the use of a room in one of the public schools. This granted, others were desired by both the Froebel and the Free Kindergarten associations, until in 1892 the board was requested to take charge of ten schools which had been thus quietly organ- ized. The kindergartens were adopted into the common-school system, and the board found means to extend the work, once it was undertaken. Other examples of the gradual way in which innovations have been introduced are not wanting. Among them are, the holding of exercises appropriate for Decoration Day, a custom begun in 1887 at the request of the ladies of the G. A. R., the closing of schools on Labor Day, in response to the desire of the Trade and Labor Assembly ; and the celebration of Washing- ton's Birthday under the auspices of the Union League Club. Outside suggestions have often proved necessary to move the board out of its routine course. So it was in 1888 when "The Patriotic Order of the Sons of America" asked permission to present the principal schools with the national flag. The peti- tion seemed to arouse patriotic feeling so that the board decided to provide every schoolhouse with a flag and flagstaff. Suggestions have not, however, always been acted on so speedily. In 1888 the board was requested to furnish teachers for a school at the Waifs' Mission and for one at the Bridewell, but it was three years before the first request was granted and the latter waited action for six years. These are the only insti- tution schools which the city supports. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 2 9 In addition to these formal contacts of the public with school managers there have been other less significant relations of a more or less permanent character established between individ- uals or companies and the school children. Thus for a number of years the Chicago Daily News has offered prizes for the best Christ- mas stories written by the children, and in 1894-5 the Chicago Tribune rewarded those who sent in the best reports of news. The former offer has affected the routine of the schools, inas- much as the stories have been made part of the regular work in composition. During the decade between 1850 to i860 a num- ber of gifts was made to particular schools or grades in the shape of funds to be used to supply poor children with text- books or as rewards. A few similar gifts have been received in more recent years. The two most important annual awards are of the Victor Lawson medal, given for the best essay on Ameri- can patriotism, and of the Foster medal, given for scholarship and deportment. The latter has been given since 1867. In 1 88 7 the legislature passed a compulsory-education law which served as a pioneer measure, though comparatively ineffective. The Chicago School Board appointed a committee in 1888 to draft a new bill that could be substituted for the first with some hope of fulfilling its purpose. When the bill was drawn up, a public meeting was held to discuss its measures and considerable general interest was aroused. The Woman's Club and the Trade and Labor Assembly were especially active in furthering the bill. Unfortunately the Chicago suggestions were not accepted by the legislature, yet the law passed in 1889 was superior to the old one and truant officers appointed according to its provisions were able to draw some vagrant children into the schools by persuasion. Poverty was found to be one cause of truancy and the Truant Aid Committee, later organized as the School Chil- dren's Aid Committee, of the Woman's Club was formed to assist in clothing children. Another compulsory-education law was passed in 1893 whose defects in regard to affixing penalties and obtaining convictions of violation are so patent that the board has never been willing to prosecute under it, and truant officers 3° THE TUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO can still do little but investigate and report cases of nonattend- ance. The year 1889 brought a number of changes, prominent among which was an innovation upon the previous tacit policy of the mayor, the appointment of a woman upon the board. This action was secured, we are told by an ex-member of the board, "by circulating petitions among the business men, getting committees of men and women to interview the mayor and by using all the personal influence possible. This was done for two or three years before anyone was appointed. The first appointment was made of Mrs. Ellen Mitchell, who was nomi- nated by the [Woman's] club." Later appointments have been secured in much the same way, save that political feeling has been more active than at first and politicians have exerted a stronger influence to secure certain nominations in order, as a member of the board once said, "to exchange the courtesy of votes." The same year was remarkable for the great increase in the number of schools and scholars brought about by the annexa- tion of the town of Hyde Park and adjacent towns. The city had enlarged its boundaries in a similar way many times before this, but never to such an extent. The annexed territory included thirty-three school districts with portions of eighteen others, over 30,000 pupils and 700 teachers. This meant for the board not only added burdens in the way of assumed indebted- ness, but also increased responsibilities of management. The force of assistant superintendents was necessarily enlarged and a new division of territory made between them, while the read- justment of courses demanded time as well as careful considera- tion. The appointment of Mr. Albert G. Lane, former county superintendent of schools, to the position left vacant by the death of Mr. Howland, marked the year 1890. His reports voice anew the old cry of overcrowding. In 1891 there were l S>773 m half-day divisions; in 1892, 14,375; m : 893, 14,086. In 1895-6 were 13,507 in rented rooms, that is in rooms not THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 3 1 built for schools and too often in an unsanitary condition. At least twenty new buildings a year would have been necessary to meet the demand, against eleven or twelve that were built. For nearly twenty years after the normal school was closed Chicago made no effort to give those who intended to teach a special preparation. Again and again superintendents urged the need of such preparation and deprecated the fact that they were forced to take young girls directly from the high schools. The "cadet system" was developed after a time by which the new teachers were given a kind of probation as assistants and substitutes before they obtained permanent positions, but this could not be considered satisfactory training. Finally the insistence with which the point was pressed led to the organiza- tion of a training class for cadets, an afternoon class with a six months' course. Very soon after its opening, in May 1892, it was seen that a course of at least a year was imperative, yet even in its incomplete form the benefit of the class has been a positive one. The necessity for its continuance has however ceased because of a new addition to the schools. In the winter of 1895-6 the Cook County Commissioners offered to turn over to the city the Cook County Normal School with all its property, if the board would assume its management and support. The question of the expediency of accepting this offer was can- vassed with care by the board, and unofficially by the press, and after considerable delay the school became part of the city sys- tem, the beginning it may be of a new era for the teaching force of Chicago. The year 1893 was rendered memorable by the so-called "war on fads," or special studies, which was waged in and out of the board. The campaign was formally opened in January by a motion to discontinue clay modeling. This was followed by more sweeping proposals until it seemed as if drawing, music, physical culture, and German would all be removed from the curriculum. Much feeling was evoked by the discussion. The general public was roused to more active thought on the subject than it had ever given to any question concerning the schools. 32 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO Letters and editorials in the daily papers, resolutions by societies, petitions from prominent individuals and organizations, and even public meetings were the means employed to persuade the board to one decision or the other. An interesting feature of the "war" was the warm interest shown by members of the Trade and Labor Assembly, who were keenly alive to the needs of their children and anxious that their rights should be as care- fully conserved as those of the rich. For five months the fight went on, now centering about the argument that elementary instruction should be provided for the many rather than extra studies for the few, and now debating with more or less intelli- gence the pedagogical problems involved. The decision finally reached was a compromise. The significance of the contest to be noted here is the awakening of public consciousness which it occasioned ; the effect upon the school curriculum will be con- sidered in another connection. The discussion certainly served not only as a means of discovering public opinion about the conduct of the schools, but also as an education for that portion of the public which had previously had no opinion. A somewhat similar awakening of thought was threatened in 1894-5, when a few men ventured to criticise the board for the terms on which the leases of school-fund property had been granted, but the newspapers so generally refused to publish any communications upon the subject — several of them were lease holders — that the dissatisfied could not secure the ear of the public and the faint interest died out. More widespread attention was shown in 1895-6 to the pro- posal of the board to reduce the salaries of all special teachers and of those receiving over $1200 a year, and to so change the classification of all teachers that promotion with increased salarv would be very difficult to obtain. The cut was not only a serious one in itself, but it was to be made in the middle of the year in violation of the implicit contracts under which the teachers supposed themselves to be working. The special teachers and those of the high schools, who were most affected by this ruling, organized to oppose this action by petitions and THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 33 arguments and personal appeals to members of the board. Prominent citizens and clubs assisted them by petitions and published letters, the press supported them, and the board at length found itself forced to reconsider its action. As in former instances, after the period of unusual activity the public resumed its unconscious condition, leaving it to individuals to again arouse it. In reviewing the history of Chicago schools two features stand out as most distinctive, the impersonal and the uncon- scious character of the development. With the exception of one or two of the early citizens who secured some advantage for the schools, such as the passage of a desired law, Mr. Wells' name is the only one that can be written large in the record. Individual influence has been merged in the stream of associated forces, individual responsibility has been so little recognized that it is lost sight of in the combined action of the council and the board. The other element of unconsciousness is even more marked. In Ward's phraseology, the progress of the schools has been natural rather than artificial or rationally directed. At no time has a far-reaching policy been annunciated for future action. Circumstances have made the board opportunists. The extraor- dinary increase in the number of pupils has given the question of accommodations such prominence that the need of immediate decision has prevented the exercise of reasoned foresight. Increased complexity of structure has come through sheer pres- sure of circumstances making progress inevitable, or more often through private initiative. Thus the high schools and the train- ing class owe their existence to the increase of scholars and the necessity of having better prepared teachers, while night schools, deaf-mute schools, kindergartens, and manual training were all started as private enterprises. Unconsciousness has also been shown in regard to movements started by the board and then forgotten so far as their significance was concerned. Each of the special studies was introduced by the board and money was constantly appropriated for their maintenance, but 34 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHLCAGO there was for years no recognition of their growing importance and of their relation to other studies in the course. Two other particulars regarding the schools have already been referred to, their rapid growth in size, keeping pace with the city's remarkable increase in population, and like the latter due to additions both from within and without, and the growth in structure that has placed them in sixty years where the schools of eastern cities stand after two hundred years. The statistics of the former growth are given in the accompanying table and the changes in structure are presented in graphic form. TABLE I. SHOWING THE NUMERICAL GROWTH OF THE SCHOOLS. Date Population Population of School Age Enrollment Average Daily Attendance Teachers Total Cost 1837 4,170 838 300-325 1840 4,479 2,109 317 1845 12,088 1,051 9 #3,413-45 1850 29,963 1,919 1,224 21 6,037.97 1855 80,000 3L235 6,826 42 16,546.13 i860 109,206 52,861 14,199 123 69,630.53 1865 178,492 82,996 29,080 240 176,003.12 1870 306,605 136,333 38,939 557 527,741.60 1875 395,4o8 174,549 49,121 34,983 696 662,093.47 1880 503,298 1 1 37,035 59,562 45,075 895 691,536.07 1885 629,985 169,384 79,276 1296 1,884,570.58 1890 *i, 205, 669 289,433 *i35,54i *300i 3,583,481.93 1895 1,568,727 403,066 201,380 154,216 4326 6,334,328.10 1896 1,619,226 448,597 213,825 165,569 4668 7,328,531.68 * After annexation. j" Minimum age changed to 6. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 35 STRUCTURAL GROWTH OF THE CHICAGO SCHOOL SYSTEM. 1896 Cook County Normal School. 1894 Bridewell School. 1892 Kindergartens. Training class. ( Waifs' Mission School. 1891 « Manual training in grammar / schools. Superintendent, Mr. Lane. 1890 English High and Manual Training School. 1886 Manual training in high school. Superintendent, Mr. Howland. 1881 Superintendent, Mr. Doty. 1877 \ Deaf-mute schools. Regrading. Eight grades. 1S75 ) Division high schools (1881). School Board reorganized. 1872 1871 Normal School independent (1876). 1868 Evening high-school classes. 1866 Practice school. Superintendent, Mr. Packard. 1864 Night school. 1863 School for colored children (to 1865). Graded system introduced. Ten 1861 grades. District system abolished. 1857 Superintendent, Mr. Wells. 1856 High School and Normal De- partment. Superintendent of Schools, Mr. 1854 Dore. Incorporation of the City. Dis- 1837 First public school. trict system in part. 1834 ^ 1816 \ Private schools. CHAPTER II. LEGAL. School law, whether of the nation, state or city, has per- formed two functions for the Chicago public schools ; that of suggesting or modifying the scheme of organization and support, and that of sanctioning action already taken. In the history of these laws one may read the outline history of the schools them- selves, though a parallel column of events should accompany it to mark off the proposed from the realized. It is more worthy of attention as revealing the ebb and flow of legislative thought and the gradual way in which administrative means have been fitted to slowly perceived ends. Two preliminary regulations affecting the school lands of the Northwest Territory, those of 1785 and 1787, have already been quoted in the general account of the schools. The government of the United States made the same provisions for education and stated its provisions in the " Enabling Act for Illinois," dated April 18, 1 8 1 8. This reads, in part, as follows : "Section 6. And be it further enacted, that the following propositions be and the same are hereby offered to the convention of the said Territory of Illinois when formed, for their free acceptance or rejection, which if accepted by the convention shall be obligatory upon the United States and the said state: First, that section num- bered sixteen, in every township, and when such section has been sold or otherwise disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto and as contiguous as may be, shall be granted to the state for the use of the inhabitants of such township, for the use of schools Third, that 5 per cent, of the net proceeds of lands lying within said state and which shall be sold by Con- gress from and after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and nineteen, after deducting the expenses incident to the same, 36 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHLCAGO 37 shall be reserved for the purposes following, viz.: two-fifths to be disbursed under the direction of Congress in making roads lead- ing to the state, the residue to be appropriated by the legisla- ture for the encouragement of learning, of which one-sixth part shall be exclusively bestowed on a college or university." These propositions were accepted by the convention at Kaskaskia, August 26, 1 8 18. No positive action was taken by the legislature until 1825 when the first school law was passed, entitled "An Act for the establishment of free schools." Its provisions may be referred to again for the sake of putting them in their right relation to other laws. County commissioners were authorized to lay off school districts, while the electors chose trustees upon whose order the district treasurer was to disburse school funds. The peculiar feature of the law was the 2 per cent, tax which it authorized as a means of supplementing the school funds. This clause was amended in 1827 by making the levying of the tax voluntary, and in 1828 it was repealed. During the latter year the conditions under which school lands might be sold, by a petition from the voters of the town- ship, were defined by law. A further differentiation of officials was affected by a law of 1833 according to which trustees were required to pay over their funds to school commissioners, appointed by the county commissioners, who should apportion the funds according to the number of children in the districts. These laws had all applied to Chicago as to other towns, but its superior size soon made it the subject of special legislation. February 6, 1835, a ^ aw was passed for "Township 39, Range 14, East, principal meridian," i. e., Chicago. Legal voters were required to elect annually on the first Monday in June five or seven inspectors to examine teachers, select books, visit schools and recommend school sites. Each district was to elect three trustees who should employ teachers, keep the schools free and see that all white children could attend them, and manage the finances of the district, levying taxes for all expenses except 38 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO teachers' salaries, if the tax were never more than one-half of I per cent, on taxable property. The electors elected the teachers, fixed their salaries, and if necessary levied special taxes to pay them. Thus representative officials were checked one by another and all by the voters, according to an ingenious but clumsy modification of the New England district system. Before the details of this act could be carried out the city was incorporated and with the charter a new governmental arrangement was introduced. By this the general control of the schools was placed in the hands of the council who appointed inspectors. The district elected trustees whose duties like those of the inspectors were similar to those assigned them under the law of 1835, an d the commissioner continued until 1839 to have charge of the school fund. In the latter year an amendment to the charter was secured, giving the school property over to the council. In 1845 tn e legislature again attempted to cope with the difficulties in the way of taxation which had defeated earlier efforts to obtain money. The levy of a school tax was now made to depend upon a two-thirds vote of the taxpayers. It was a politic appeal to the sentiment favoring self-government, but even this failed to arouse disinterested public spirit. The state revenue remained a name. Chicago was again the subject of a special act in 1851 (February 14), which relieved the council by placing the busi- ness connected with the care of school lands in charge of a school agent appointed and directed by the council. The duties of inspectors and trustees remained much the same, except that the former were given authority to hire as well as examine teachers, a slight advance in centralization. The council itself took important action as a law-making body when, two years later, it passed an ordinance creating the office of superintendent of schools. Again in 1856, acting under the general school law of the state it authorized by an ordinance the establishment of a high school. Ten years had now passed since the general school law of the THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 39 state was enacted. The state had grown rapidly in population and more complex conditions resulted in new needs. These in turn demanded a new formulation of methods and added agents. By the "Act to establish and maintain a system of free schools," dated February 15, 1855, the office of state superintendent was created, the school age defined as from five to twenty-one, and the minimum school term made six months. In the schools "the various branches of an English education" were to be taught and foreign languages might be added. The salaries of teachers were to be paid out of the state tax fund or by special township taxes. The state rate was two mills on a dollar. Two-thirds of the tax was to be divided among the counties in proportion to the number of white children, the rest was to go to the townships. "Persons of color" were to receive school money in proportion to the amount of taxes they paid. This latter provision was one of which Chicago did not avail herself. An important change in the city system was introduced by the amended charter of February 16, 1857. The district sys- tem was entirely abolished and for it was substituted a central- ized system. The inspectors increased to fifteen became the "Board of Education." The council retained entire contrDl of the financial interests of the schools, but the board was respon- sible for the general management. During the next year the council also delegated to the board the power of forming school districts, no longer political divisions, and of choosing building sites, thus increasing its freedom of action to a considerable degree. The revised charter of February 13, 1863, contained still more detailed sections regarding the common schools. The mem- bers of the board received no salary. Teachers, agents, and employes of the board were forbidden to have any pecuniary interest in any article purchased or work done for the schools, or in any contract or loan or other profits from the fund. Likewise members of the board and the superintendent were for- bidden to be interested in the sale of books or to receive a 4° THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO reward from any book concern on penalty of loss of office. The powers of the council in respect to the school lands and the school funds were recapitulated with some added details: (i) It could sell and lease property, adding to the fund ; (2) The prin- cipal of the fund must never be impaired; (3) The council could erect, hire, or purchase schoolhouses, buy or lease sites, furnish schools and maintain them, supplying the lacking funds by tax- ation. The school agent had the custody and management of the school fund under the direction of the council. He was to be paid out of the fund and make quarterly reports to the council. The fund was to be loaned at 12 percent, interest, payable one half year in advance, with security of real estate of double value. No loan could be made for more than ten years. The council could reduce the interest by a two-thirds vote and could invest the fund in city bonds. All securities and notes were to be in the name of the city. Debts due to the school fund were prefer- able to all but funeral expenses. In default of interest 15 per cent, was to be charged from the time of default. Judgments paid 12 per cent. Insecure debtors must be warned to give further security or have a suit for judgment. The school-tax fund was to be paid over to the city treasurer, kept for building schoolhouses and maintaining schools, and drawn upon only for bills approved by the board on the warrant of the comptroller, signed by the president and the mayor. It is evident from this act that financial questions were becoming more engrossing. Larger sums of money were involved, and, as we know from the current history, the effect of the war was to seriously cripple the school resources. Not even war-time rates of interest could supply all deficiencies. An act passed February 16, 1865, required that the school agent report monthly to the board in regard to the school fund. His appointment now came from the board, with the consent of the council. He gave bonds, however, to the latter body and continued to defer to it. The board was instructed to provide at least one school in each district, free to those between six and twenty-one years of age. By this act the school fund came indi- THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 41 rectly into the hands of the board, though its power was still very limited. Two years later, March 9, 1867, another school law was passed for Chicago which dealt with a variety of subjects. The board was given the power to confer collegiate degrees, a still unexercised privilege. The council was authorized to establish evening schools and make a special appropriation for them, actions which it had taken four years before without other sanc- tion than the general school law. The council was also author- ized to levy a school tax, including the sinking fund, not exceeding five mills on the dollar of all real and personal property in the city, and to issue bonds, through the comptroller, to be paid the next year in case of a deficit during any one year. A more novel subject than finances was also approached in this act in giving the council power to insist that schools be provided with safe and speedy egress. It is the first hint of a sanitary regula- tion and it remained a mere form for seven years. A more positive step in this direction was taken by the coun- cil in 1867, when it passed an ordinance requiring that school children be vaccinated. Other important measures, headed "ordinance 1866 amended act of March 9, 1867," pertained first to the length of the school terms, fixing the openings on the first Monday of September, January second, and the Monday after the first Friday in May. The full control of the high school was given to the board, with the condition that it should be free to all of school age and have a four years' course. Pupils must be thirteen years of age ; for the normal department sixteen, and have passed an examination. A normal department for the training of teachers, with a two years' course, was sanctioned. Its graduates were to be given the preference as teachers. This was the legislative recognition given to a school that had been established since 1856! One curious clause in the ordinance directs that the labor for clean- ing schoolhouses be supplied from the House of Correction when- ever possible ; a possible explanation of the frequent complaints made about the sanitary condition of the buildings at that time. 42 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO Between 1867 and 1870 the permission accorded the council in 1866 to issue bonds was several times taken advantage of, and numerous acts and ordinances, covering temporary difficulties, were enacted and became part of the financial history of the schools. I The year 1870 was marked for the state by the adoption of a new constitution, which contains a chapter on education. Articles VIII and IX of this are of general application. Section 1 declares that the general assembly shall provide a thorough and efficient system of free school whereby all the children of the state may receive a good common-school education. Section 2. All lands, moneys, etc., received for school pur- poses shall be faithfully applied. Section 3. No grants of public money shall be made to any public body for sectarian institutions. Section 4. No teacher or school officer shall be interested in the sale or profits of school books or furniture. Article IX Section 12. The school debt cannot exceed 3 per cent, on all the taxable property. The principle formulated in the ordinance of 1787 had attained remarkable definiteness before it was again incorpo- rated in an organic law. Instead of the abstract, " Education shall be forever encouraged," it has become a demand that "all the children of the state " be educated. The constitution also reveals something of the religious differences that had been at work when it opposes sectarianism with its suggestion of prose- lytism, and there is a hint of unwritten history behind the formal prohibition of collusion between school officials and interested business firms. During this same year the council provided for the appoint- ment of appraisers for the school property. They were to hold a public meeting, of which at least one week's notice had been given, and make a detailed report to the council through the clerk. No one interested in the lease of school or city property could serve as appraiser. Under the new constitution a school law was passed April 1, THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 43 1872, which reorganized the board and carefully defined its powers. In cities with a population over 100,000, the law says, the board shall have power, with the consent of the council, to build and buy buildings and sites and to issue bonds for furnishing, repairing, and building schoolhouses, and buying sites. The board shall also have power to furnish and maintain schools, supplying any lack of funds from the school taxes, to hire build- ings, employ teachers, select books, lay off districts, maintain discipline, visit schools, examine and expel scholars, and fix sal- aries. The board shall appoint a president, one of its own number, and a secretary, and shall keep the records and pre- pare an annual report. It may lease property and make loans, but conveyances of real estate must be made to the city for the use of schools. No sale can be made but by the council on the written request of the board. "All moneys raised by taxation for school purposes shall be held by the city treasurer as a spe- cial fund for school purposes, subject to the order of the board, upon warrants to be countersigned by the mayor and city clerk." The board shall consist of fifteen members, appointed by the mayor, with the advice and consent of the council, divided into three classes, each holding office for three years. All citizens are eligible as members of the board after five years' residence in the city. No appropriation shall be made for any sectarian school, no teacher shall be interested in the sale of books, appa- ratus, or furniture for school use on penalty of a fine from $25 to $500 and twelve months' imprisonment. The importance of this law lay in its transference of all school property from the management of the council to that of the board. The immediate reason for this was probably the exces- sive labor it entailed upon the legislative body of a great city, but it was a logical outgrowth of the movement toward centrali- zation which began with the amended charter of 1839. Further progress in this direction can hardly be expected since school taxes are necessarily collected with other taxes by the council, and the latter must remain the highest municipal authority. In May, 1874, the legislature acted positively upon the sug- 44 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO gestion which the council had failed to carry out, and passed an act requiring that doors in public buildings, opening from the main hall or the building itself, shall open outwards. The legislation which next touched the schools had financial matters under consideration. An act of the year 1878-9 author- ized a school tax in Chicago of 5 per cent., two-fifths to be used for salaries and three-fifths for buildings and sites. July 1, 1879, permission was granted to the board to issue warrants payable on demand by the city treasurer in anticipation of 75 per cent, of the tax levy. The fact that the taxes were not available for nearly a year after the appropriations based upon them were mnde, often embarrassed the board sadly and this form of credit was intended as a relief measure. Questions of sanitation again came to the front in 1883, and March 5th the ordinance of 1867 was revised with more detail. Vaccination was required of all children whether in pub- lic or private schools once in seven years, and a certificate from a physician or the health commissioner was necessary to attest to the fact. July 21, 1884, a second ordinance was adopted, this time against neglect of "reasonable care and precaution respect- ing the safety and health " of scholars and attendants and respecting "ventilation or cleanliness or strength of buildings so that by reason of such neglect or omission the health of any person shall suffer or incur any avoidable peril or detriment." The sweeping nature of this ordinance and the impossibility of enforcing such an indefinite standard relegates this ordinance to the position of a rhetorical aside in the serious business of city government, yet this and the preceding law with the state statute regarding egress from buildings are the only permanent sanitary regulations which apply to Chicago schools. The rules which the board adopts from time to time have neither the dignity nor permanence of city or state laws. Reference has already been made to the first compulsory edu- cational law of June 23, 1883. It was entitled "An Act to pro- mote Elementary Education." Every child, it said, between the ages of eight and fourteen must attend school at least three THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 45 months a year, unless the board or school directors excuse him on the ground that he is being taught elsewhere, that the state of his health forbids, or that there is no school within two miles. Parents or guardians who violated the law were liable to a fine of from five to twenty dollars before a justice of the peace. The penalty for the nonenforcement of the act by the board or directors was ten dollars, to be sued for by the taxpayers. The tentative and feeble action here attempted could only be consid- ered a step toward something more positive. This improvement was aimed at in the law of May 24, 1889. The age limits were fixed between seven and fourteen years, the length of school attendance sixteen weeks, eight of them to be consecutive. The excuses accepted were attendance elsewhere, home teaching or a physician's certificate that the condition of health forbade attend- ance. The schools must teach English, reading, writing, arith- metic, geography, and United States history. The penalty for the negligent parent or guardian was fixed from one to twenty dollars. Truant officers were to be appointed who could arrest any loafing child. False statements rendered parent or guardian liable to a fine of from three to twenty dollars. The board was to prosecute in police or municipal courts, before police justices or county judges. Supplementing this act came the "Child Labor Law" of June 17, 1 89 1, which forbade the employment of any child under thir- teen years of age by any person, firm or corporation without the consent of the school board, and then eight weeks of school a year were required ; and a section of the act "to regulate the manufacture of clothing," dated June 17, 1893, which provides that "no child under fourteen years shall be employed in any manufacturing establishment, factory or workshop within the state," that a register giving birthplace, age and residence of every child under sixteen years who is employed must be kept, and that factory inspectors shall have power to demand a physi- cian's certificate of health for such children. Thus the truant officers and the factory inspectors have a common interest and should work together in enforcing the laws. The Compulsory 46 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO Education Law was amended June 19, 1893, making changes in the jurisdiction within which cases are to be tried. It may now be any court of record or before a justice of the peace. Twelve consecutive weeks in school are now demanded instead of eight. Unfortunately the difficulties of conviction remain as great as ever, so that the law has had only the force of persuasion, the board being unwilling to bring a test case under it and so prove its inefficiency and prepare the way for amendment. Returning to legislation on other subjects during this period, we find that the general school law of the state was amended May 21, 1889, in a few unessential particulars. The board was made liable for a fine of from five to one hundred dollars for excluding a child from school on account of its color; the mem- bers of the board were exempted from road duty and military service ; and no teacher was to be employed who was not of good moral character and eighteen years old if a man, seventeen if a woman. A little later in the same year, June 1st, the efforts of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union were successful in obtaining the passage of a law requiring that all pupils of suitable age be taught physiology and hygiene with special reference to the effects of alcoholic beverages, stimulants and narcotics, and that teachers be examined on these subjects. This effort was part of the gen- eral movement which has secured similar laws in nearly every state in the Union. It is the only instance in which an organi- zation has attempted to secure national agreement in the subject matter of instruction and, by the education of the children, form common opinion among citizens. By the act of June 22, 1891 the general law of 1872 was repealed, but the only change in the new law was that the board was increased to twenty-one members, divided as before into three classes. April 17, 1895, the board received authority to support kinder- gartens, using for the purpose school taxes. Like the law per- mitting evening schools this sanctioned an action already taken by the board. It had assumed control of the kindergartens in THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 47 1892. The law, however, prevents any dispute which might arise over the use of public money for a purpose not before specified. The most recent important law referring to school matters was passed May 31, 1895. ^ 1S entitled "A public school teachers' and employes' pension and retirement fund in certain cities." It applies only to cities having a population of over 100,000. The board creates the fund by setting apart not more than I per cent, of the salaries, and money given for the fund. No taxes can be levied or public money appropri- ated for this fund. The Board of Education, superintendent, and two of the teachers or employes constitute the trustees of the fund who decide on the amount to be deducted from salaries and administer the fund. The board can retire any female teacher or employe who has been employed in the public schools for twenty years, and any male teacher or employe who has been employed twenty-five years, provided three-fifths of the time of service has been in Chicago. Such beneficiaries are entitled to one-half the amount of salary received at the time of retirement if this half does not exceed $600. The city treasurer is the cus- todian of this fund. "No teacher or other school employe who has been or shall have been elected by said Board of Education shall be removed or discharged except for cause upon written charges, which shall be investigated and determined by said Board of Education, whose action and decision in the matter shall be final." If teacher or employe be discharged, when willing to remain, the money which he has contributed to the fund shall be repaid with interest. This bill was suggested, drafted and lobbied by teachers, the only one on the statute books directly due to the people most closely identified with education. The civil-service clause was not an innovation, only a formal expression of the principle which had been acted upon for years. A single reading of this legal chronicle leaves the impression of a series of disconnected enactments, born of occasions, and 48 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO each independent of the preceding one. Closer scrutiny shows, however, a gradual progression in at least three directions. First, and comprehensively, there has been growth in definiteness. The early laws were general, applying to simple conditions and a single type of school ; the later laws have become detailed, specific, to correspond with complex, heterogeneous conditions and many types of schools. The first laws authorized, without defining, "common schools;" the later laws have sanctioned special schools like the high schools, evening schools, and kin- dergartens, and have prescribed the outline of the course of study guaranteed to every child. Again, the history of school legislation reveals the growth of the conception of organization. Beginning with a form bor- rowed, with slight changes, from another community, the lack of adaptation to actual conditions and to the spirit of the people, soon became evident. Experience and the popular will led more and more towards centralization. Certain officials, like school commissioners, proved to be unnecessary in a city ; cer- tain others, like the superintendent of schools, were created in answer to an evident demand originating in the continued increase in the size of the schools. Not logic but circumstances developed the conception ; the law gave it form as it changed and grew. In like manner the questions of business and finance were met. The first laws were in anticipation of needs, in advance of public thought, and they could not be enforced. Gradually a need for revenue compelled a scheme of taxation, and the pos- session of larger sums of money necessitated regulations for its management, and the law responded to the need and crystallized the thoughts already being acted out. The legislation on compulsory education was a logical out- growth of the doctrine announced in the ordinance of 1787, but its efficient cause was rather the example and arguments pre- sented in other states. The different acts have followed naturally as amendments, one of another. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 49 With the exception, therefore, of the sanitary laws, that requiring temperance instruction, and the pension bill, there are no isolated acts among the school statutes, though the progress toward increased complexity, definiteness and efficiency has, like the growth of the school system, been unconscious. The legis- lation has as a whole been alive; "dead-letter" laws are chiefly represented by the partially effective compulsory-education laws. CHAPTER III. FINANCIAL. Of all the tests to which democratic institutions are subjected, that which estimates their value in terms of economics is perhaps the most easy of application. The general question is, How far do the people conserve their own interests when they control their property? Do they make careful investments? Are they honest with themselves, or are they more sensitive to the influ- ence of individuals than to their collective needs? Conventionally the answer has been taken for granted in the United States, but if one ventures to question the popular opti- mism that says, " Whatever the people do is right in the long run," the history of western public schools affords some thought-pro- voking data, and Chicago contributes its not unimportant quota to this. As reference to the history of the state has already shown, Section 16 in each township of Illinois, as of the other states formed out of the Northwest Territory, was given by the general government for the support of common schools. This section in the township of Chicago was bounded by State and Halsted, Madison and Twelfth streets, a square mile, whose value today is almost incalculable. In 1833, however, when the Town of Chicago was first organized, there was no seer among the towns- folk to show them the value of their common holding ; no one sanguine enough to prophesy that the straggling hamlet at the sand-choked mouth of a little river would ever become a great city, and the square mile of low prairie be valued at tens or hun- dreds of millions of dollars. It is easy today to see the folly of the settlers in counting a small, immediate gain better than a problematic future advantage, but it is doubtful if any individual was wiser at that time. A recognized duty rested upon the 50 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 51 town — to educate the children ; taxes would have been insuffi- cient, even if their unpopularity had not put them among the unavailable resources ; and there only remained the public lands, for which there was a slight but calculable demand. The opinion in favor of selling the school section appears to have been unani- mous, and the petition for the sale was signed by the voters of the town. The section was divided into 142 blocks, 138 of which were sold for $38,619.47. The sale was made on terms of one, two and three years, at 10 per cent, interest. This consti- tuted the school fund for several years, until the reserved blocks became productive by adding rentals. The property retained included block I, bounded by Madison, Halsted, Monroe and So. Union streets; blocks 87 and 88, between Fifth Avenue and the river, Harrison and Polk streets; and block 142, bounded by Madison, Monroe, State and Dearborn streets. The fund obtained from the sale was loaned out, and public schools opened, but it was but a meager revenue at best. The small amounts which were reckoned with in the early years are illustrated by the difficulties encountered by the trustees of Dis- trict No. 4. They borrowed $200 from the school fund in 1836 to build a schoolhouse, but were unable to obtain money to repay the debt, and in 1840 they were sued by the school agent. They pleaded for a stay in the proceedings, believing that the emergency would sufficiently impress the taxpayers to make the collection of local taxes possible. The control of the fund and school lands was vested in the school commissioner from 1831 to 1839, when it was transferred to the city council. The latter body retained the direct charge until 185 1, when a school agent, acting under the council's direc- tion, was made the manager of the fund, not of the property. In 1865 the appointment of the officer was given to the board, and in 1872 the entire control of both lands and fund was given to the board, subject only to the advice of the council. Criti- cism of school business methods down to 1872 is therefore criti- cism of the municipal government, except in so far as it refers to salaries or the maintenance of the schools. 52 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO A very slight addition to the school funds was obtained in 1836, when the United States divided the surplus revenue among the states, and Illinois devoted her portion to school uses. The panic of 1837, however, so reduced the chief source of revenue, the interest on the fund, that an entire closure of the schools was reported, and the Committee on Public Schools appointed by the council during the next year regarded it as bad policy to loan to individuals, the collection of interest was so difficult. In June 1839 the inspectors recommended that blocks I, 87 and 88 be leased for agricultural purposes and that block 142 be divided into 16 lots, 49x150 feet, and be rented for not less than $30 a year. The latter recommendation does not seem to have been carried out at the time, but in 1842 block 142 was subdivided and leased for ten years to the highest bidder. Three years later the city was able for the first time to erect a permanent schoolhouse at a cost of $7500. A legal contest which arose in 1875 between the city and certain claimants of " wharfmg-lot privileges " resulted in a further increase of the school fund. The suit was decided by the claimants paying a fixed amount for the lots with interest at 6 per cent, until the principal was paid. All over $30,000 was to go to the school fund. This surplus proved to be $68,061.94, almost twice as much as the original fund, and a very acceptable addition to school revenues. In 1855 block 1 was subdivided for renting purposes, and in 1858 block 87 was leased to the city for $800 a year. The president of the board called attention to the fact that a block next to the latter was rented for $5667, and he suggested with some asperity that public interests were insufficiently guarded. The school-fund property was at this time valued at $990,000, an evidence of the marvelous growth of the city in twenty years. Taxes, however, remained insufficient, and the board urged the city to issue bonds in order to meet the growing demands of the schools. Complaint was also made that state taxes were not equitably divided. Chicago was receiving about $ 1 9,000 in 1 860. In 1870 this had increased to $35,000. HIE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 53 Before the war the city erected on an average one school- house a year for six or seven years, but during the war the income from loans and rentals was so seriously diminished that building stopped and a debt of $30,000 was reported. The tax rate, three mills on the dollar, was felt to be so inadequate that a law was secured raising it to five mills. Two-fifths of this was for salaries, the remainder for buildings and sites. The income from the fund was legally devoted to salaries. The difficulty of obtaining funds led to the issuance of bonds under special laws. Between May 3, 1867, and June 20, 1870, the issues amounted to $1,200,000. That of May 3, 1867, was $200,000 for two years at 7 per cent.; that of December 9, 1867, $150,000; that of June 8, 1868, $1 50,000 ; that of September 27, 1869, $200,000 for thirty years ; that of May 30, 1870, $200,000 ; and that of June 20, 1870, $200,000. With this help building was renewed. Ten new school- houses in four years brought upon the council the charge of extravagance, but the steady demand for more accommodations was a justification of the policy. In 1870 the council provided for the appointment of appraisers to value the school-fund property. They returned a valuation of $2,612,612, but the council reduced this to $1,852,424, at the instigation of the tenants, being unable, as they said, to obtain juster terms. The rentals were calculated at 6 per cent, upon this valuation. One of the most serious effects of the fire of 187 1 upon the schools was the disputes which resulted between the city and the lessees regarding this appraisal and the consideration demanded by those of the latter who had been burned out. The latter objected to the appraisal and refused to pay full rent. The controversy continued until May 13, 1872, and was settled then only by a compromise. The city agreed to accept 60 per cent, of the rent, in the burned district, for two years before May I, 1872, under the appraisal of 1870, but a revaluation was to be made May 1, 1872. All over payments were to be applied to rents after the latter date. The completion of this settlement became the duty of the board 54 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO to whom the control of school lands was given by the law of 1872. The suits which had been begun against the city were not all settled for three years. Upon assuming control, the board, not unnaturally and prob- ably with justice, took occasion to criticise the council's admin- istration of the property. Instead of 6 per cent, the leases were only about 3 per cent, on the valuation. Lessees were growing rich at the expense of the public. In despair at their conscience- less actions the president of the board advised that all the real estate be sold and the proceeds be invested in some safer secur- ities at 7 per cent. — a suggestion prudently ignored by the council and board. The first independent action of the board indicated a desire to obtain a larger income from the school lands. On Sep- tember 1, 1872, it leased to the city lots 14, 17, 20 and 23 in block 1 13 for 99 years, at 6 per cent, on a valuation double that of 1870, until 1875, a ft er which there should be a reappraisal every five years. Lots 16, 21 and 22 in block 113 were leased for twenty-two years from May 1, 1873 at 6 per cent., on a valuation of $600 a front foot for lot 16 and $800 for lot 22 until 1880. After that there should be a revaluation every five years. The old Post Office site was leased in 1875 for three years for $22,500 and the erection of improvements costing $15,000. As it became familiar with details, the board made still further complaints regarding the council's administration. Por- tions of the school property had for years been leased for disrep- utable purposes and troublesome litigation resulted from the efforts required to remove the objectionable tenants. Delin- quent rents, due in some cases to contests over disputed titles, amounted in 1875 to over $200,000. Eighty acres of land in Palos had been lost to the city through illegal titles held by unscrupulous persons who had proved keener than the council in advancing their interests. Mr. I. R. Hitt was openly charged with having secured deeds to school-fund property amounting to $200,000. The council was not accused of fraud in these THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 55 transactions, but of inefficiency that had resulted in fatal blunders. Whether it were dishonesty or incapacity, public interests suf- fered seriously. A new source of difficulty for the board in 1873-6 was the failure of the city to collect taxes. Building had to be stopped because the appropriations were only on paper. In 1878, after the collections had been partially made, the defalcation of the city treasurer caused fresh losses so that $425,500 of the appro- priation remained unpaid. The mayor ordered that none of the city departments should spend more than 80 per cent, of their appropriations, and it was found necessary to pay the teachers in city script that entailed upon them a loss of 18 per cent. Most of the old leases expired in the spring of 1880 and there were found to be troublesome questions to be solved regarding the disposition of the improvements which lessees had made. The leases had provided for the purchase of the improve- ments or the sale of the land, but there was no legal authority for the latter procedure and the board had no money with which to effect purchases. At this juncture Mr. Elbridge Keith undertook the business and he was able after considerable delay to obtain money settlements with some advantage to the board. The appraisal of 1880, the second made under the direction of the board, valued the school real estate at $2,572,316, not as high as the first valuation of 1870 but considerably higher than the one allowed by the council at that time. Most of the new leases were for 50 years with revaluation every five years. The old Post Office site was re-leased for fifty years to the First National Bank at a rental for the first five years of $21,636. During the five years that followed the exertions of the board were put forth to meet the demand for accommodations, an effort so often thwarted by the delay or refusal of the council to sanction the purchase of desired sites that the school com- mittee was severely blamed for lack of public spirit, and unpleas- ant friction was roused between the two bodies. The next appraisal, that of 1885, made according to the leases of 1880, fixed the value of school lands at $3,975,746. This was 56 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO received by the tenants in a spirit of active opposition. They claimed that the appraisers had admitted improper evidence, had slighted the statements of the lessees and — the special griev- ance — had sought to obtain information regarding the rental value of the buildings on the land and the profits which the ten- ants received. Twenty-two of the tenants filed bills in chancery to set aside the appraisal and secure concessions from the board. The litigation lasted for three years and during this time the rents were deposited with the First National Bank pending the settlement, so that the board was deprived of a considerable part of its income. An arrangement was finally made by which supplementary leases were granted, June 15, 1888. The most important of the new provisions in this agreement were that future appraisements should be for ten instead of five years : that the appraisers should be appointed by the board, a judge of the Circuit Court and a judge of the Probate Court, each naming one appraiser ; that the time for termination of the leases be extended from 1930 to 1985 ; that no appraisal should be binding that fixed a value less than 80 per cent, of the value found in 1880; and that lessees should on demand furnish a statement of the rental receipts and dis- bursements for the buildings on the land in question. Before this compromise was effected another became inevi- table. The Chicago and Great Western Railroad which had occupied a portion of the school land near the river contrived in some way, not creditable to the board's business sagacity, to secure the leasehold interests of all the tenants of block 88 and the north half of block 87. It then commenced condemnation proceedings against the board to obtain the property and proved to be legally in a position to dictate the terms of the purchase. The sale was finally made in February 1886 for $650,000 secured by a mortgage on the property for 50 years at 5 per cent, interest payable semi-annually. Failure to pay the interest involved the right of the board to charge 8 per cent. The company was to erect a depot at a cost of $250,000 within a year. The school property was increased at various times by the THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 57 addition of real estate acquired by the foreclosures of mortgages, and by the annexation of neighboring towns. Thus Cicero and Jefferson were annexed in 1888, Hyde Park in 1889, Rogers Park in 1893 and Norwood Park in 1894. The addition of Hyde Park and the smaller districts that were taken into the city about the same time, brought to the board financial anxieties. The local boards had provided for their schools only till June 30, 1890, while the city financial year extended from January first to December thirty-first. Six months support of the new schools was unprovided for by appropriations. A loss of $500,000, was the result. The city appropriation for the year was but $2,- 000,000. This was increased to $5,000,000, for 1891, but as the taxes were not available for a year after the levy was made, it was necessary to borrow to meet the emergency. In addition to its own debt, the board also assumed the debt of the annexed districts amounting to $953,300. The lack of harmony between the board and the city govern- ment found renewed expression in 1894-5 when the city comp- troller refused to set aside the school taxes as a separate fund as the school law prescribes, and even refused to honor warrants drawn upon the school money. The fact that the comptroller is not even recognized by the school law, which gives the city treasurer control of the funds, added sharpness to the report in which the finance committee of the board pointed out the evils that might come upon schools if the law was violated and the city tempted to misappropriate the school taxes. The school attorney was at once instructed to take legal measures to compel compliance with the law in this first conspicuous instance of its violation. As the time approached for the appraisal of 1895 a number of the tenants indicated a desire to obtain a modification of their leases whereby the clause providing for revaluation every ten years should be set aside and either a fixed or graduated rental for the balance of the term be substituted. Two settlements of this kind were effected, with Mr. John M. Smyth, lessee of lot I, block 1 of the school section, and with the Chicago Daily News 58 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO Company occupying lot 6, block 55, Original Town of Chicago. The former was paying under the appraisement of 1885 a yearly rental of $6,139.50. He offered to pay $1 1,000 a year until the expiration of his term and his offer was accepted. The Daily News Company was paying an annual rental of $8400. It proposed to pay $13,200 a year for the next five years and $14,400 for the remainder of the time to 1985. To this propo- sition the board agreed, waiving as in the first case, the right of reappraisal. In both settlements the board claimed great credit for secur- ing peculiarly advantageous terms. Yet it is of interest to com- pare the second of these leases with certain others in the same vicinity. The terms are taken from the Eighth Report of the State Bureau of Labor for 1894. The Daily News Company occupies a building numbered 1 75-1 81 Madison Street. The lot is 80 X 179.9 feet. On La Salle Street, 80 feet south of Wash- ington Street the Exchange Building Company occupies 80 X 120 feet on a 99-year lease dated 1893. The provisions of the lease are, the erection within two years of a building to cost not less than $400,000, to go to lessor at the conclusion of the lease for one-half its appraised value, or the lease may be extended 99 years at $30,000 a year, buildings to go to lessor at the end of that time. Rent for the first year $10,000 ; for the remaining 98 years, $30,000 a year. Again on Washington Street, west of La Salle Street, 40 X 102 feet is leased to F. C. Giddings for 99 years at $ 1 1 ,400 a year, the improvements to be purchased at one-half their value by the lessor. The southeast corner of Madison Street and Fifth Avenue, 46 X 100 feet, is leased for 99 years to C. H. Marshall ; lessee to erect within a year an eight-story building costing not less than $100,000 to be purchased by the lessor at the end of the time at appraised value. Annual rent for five years is $12,500; for 94 years, $15,000. The northwest corner of the same streets, 10 X 60 feet, is leased to Edward Baggott for 99 years for $22,100 a year and improve- ments. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 59 The board's reason for considering their terms just was that the Daily News Company already possessed an adequate building and so would not increase its revenue in future by erecting a lar- ger structure, an explanation that seems scarcely adequate. Being unable to come to any agreement with other tenants, the board appointed appraisers for 1895 according to the agree- ment of 1888. Messrs. Gwynn Garnett, David G. Hamilton and Hon. Eugene Cary served in this capacity. Their valuation of school property was $7, 288, 233. 33, almost double the preceding estimate. The tenants very soon expressed again their desire to have their leases modified so that there should be no reappraisals in future, and this met with the approval of the board since they believed it would conform to the growing custom in down-town districts. Five settlements of this kind were concluded before the close of the school year 1895-6. Messrs. Hannah and Hogg, lessees of lot 6, block 58, Original Town of Chicago, or 81-87 Madison Street, 80X 160.28 feet, agreed to pay $24,000 annual rent for ten years and for the balance of the term the same rental plus 5 per cent, of said rental and to erect a modern building within the next five years, costing not less than $250,000. Compared with leases for adjacent property this appears to be a fair average rental. The second tenant was the Tribune Company occupying lots 12, 13 and 14 of block 142, school section : i. e. 72 X 120 feet on the corner of Madison and Dearborn streets. The company, having already a satisfactory building, agreed to pay $30,000 for ten years and an addition of 5 per cent, for the balance of the term. On the opposite, southwest, corner from the Tribune Companv the Hartford Deposit Company hold a 99-year lease for 92^ X 50 feet. The conditions of this lease dated May 1, 1892, are $60,000 to be paid lessor May 1, 1892; lessees to erect within two years a fire-proof building costing not less than $175,000; lessor to have the privilege of purchase at the end of the time at appraised value, or lessee may renew the lease for 99 years at 5 per cent, on appraised value, or building be removed. The 60 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO rent for the first year is $23,000 ; for the second $24,000 ; for the third $25,000; for the fourth $26,000; for 95 years $27,000. On the northwest corner of Madison and Dearborn streets Marshall Field leases 20X40 feet to the Inter Ocean Company for $10,000 a year. Evidently the Tribune Company did not allow its civic pride to interfere with business in this transaction. Such comparative showings as the above lend color to the charges freely made on the street that Mr. Trude, president of the board and member of the committee on school-fund property, was also the attorney of the Tribune Company. Attempts to discuss the subject publicly were certainly discouraged by the newspapers, which neglected to publish any criticism on the action of the board. The third settlement was with Mrs. Caroline F. Wilson, lessee of 40 X 120 feet on Dearborn Street between Madison and Monroe streets. As in the case of the Tribune Company the building on the property was considered satisfactory and the same arrangement was made, a rent of 6 per cent, on the appraised value for the first ten years and an addition of 5 per cent, on the rental for the remainder of the term. The rent for the ten years is $7980 annually. Here again comparison with certain other leases indicates that the school fund did not receive all that might have been secured for it. W. S. Boyce holds a lease for 99 years of 40.8^ 100.4 f ee t on Dearborn Street south of Washington Street. He was to erect, before 1896 — the lease was dated May 1, 1891 — a building to cost not less than $100,000, the lessor to purchase improvements at appraised value. The annual rental for the first five years was $ 1 1 ,000 ; for 94 years, $ 1 1 ,500. A similar piece of property on Clark Street south of Madison Street, 43X125 feet with an |_ on Arcade Court 22^X80 feet, was leased for 99 years in 1893 at an annual rental of $12,000; 20 feet north of Madison Street on Clark Street, 21^ X 80 feet is held by F. M. Atwood on a 90-year lease for $6080 a year. Two other settlements were made by the board with Mr. E. H. Van Ingen, lessee of lot 2, block 52, school section and Mr. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 6 1 Harry Brown, lessee of the east 66 feet of lot 9, block 50, Original Town of Chicago. The former had paid an annual rental of $960 under the appraisal of 1885: under that of 1895 h e would have paid #2400. By the new terms he pays $3000 and erects within five years a building costing not less than $50,000. Mr. Brown's rental according to the revised lease is a graduated one. From 1895 to l 9°S tne rent * s $2400 a year; from 1905 to 191 5, $2520; from 191 5 to 1925, $2640; from 1925 to 1985 $2760. In both cases the revaluation clause was omitted. As a final comparison, not of rents but of values, we may con- sider different estimates placed upon what all judges agree is the most valuable property in Chicago, the southwest corner of State and Madison streets. Mr. F. R. Chandler prepared for the Real Estate Board a table showing the economic history of one- quarter of an acre, or 100X 109 feet, at this corner. Condensing the table as quoted in the State Bureau of Labor Report for 1894 it reads : 1830.. $ 20 1855. .$ 40,000 1880. ..$ 130,000 1835.. 5,000 i860. 28,000 1885.. 275,000 1840.. 1,500 1865. 45,000 1890.. 900,000 1845.. 5,000 1870. . 120,000 1894.. . 1,250,000 1850.. 17,500 1875. 92,000 The appraised value for 8640 square feet at this corner was $725,000. The board admitted that the appraised valuation might fall below what the property would bring in the open market were it free from all incumbrances ; the appraisers were inclined to be conservative. Yet whatever criticism of the board or appraisers has been made by outsiders is spoken vaguely. No one claiming to have proof of unfair dealings is willing to allow his name to appear under any incriminating statement, but even an untechnical examination of the leases is sufficient to show that the Finance Committee feels very tenderly toward the ten- ants and is strongly inclined to guard them from the exactions of the public whom the committee is ostensibly serving. The board's difficulties resulting from the appraisal of 1895 were not all ended by the settlements just quoted. Six suits 62 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO were brought against it by tenants for the purpose of annulling the appraisement and enjoining the board from collecting rents due under it. The judgment rendered by the Appellate Court entirely upheld the board and four of the suits were at once withdrawn. The two remaining will undoubtedly be decided in the same way. A less creditable case is that of James Goggin, lessee of lots on the corner of Clark and Harrison streets. His leases expired May 8, 1895, ^ ut m tne annual report for 1895-6 the Finance Committee says that he refuses to leave or pay rent under the new appraisal, claiming that "he is entitled to an extension of the term of his leases, under an oral agreement made with the Board of Education in 1888." The committee admits that it knows Mr. Goggin has no legal claim but its instinctive desire for a compromise prevented it from bringing suit against him for a year, and for still another year the schools are likely to be without these rents. In view of the diffused responsibility for financial manage- ment under the board's regime and of the often dubious reputa- tion of the councils that controlled the property before 1872, it is remarkable that the schools have suffered so little from poor administration. The only ground for surprise is that more land was not stolen by sharpers with illegal titles and more advan- tages given away as leases. On the whole popular optimism has been justified to some degree ; matters have not been as bad as they might have been ! A lack of sensitive social conscience and consciousness has prevented the board from serving its vaguely conceived employer, the people, as zealously as it would have done a definitely organized company that could hold it to strict accountability, while unbusinesslike methods, an illogical division of labor between several committees and officers without a head, have rendered economical administration still more difficult. The appended tables give somewhat fragmentary data regarding the sex of teachers, their salaries, and general finan- cial statements taken from the annual reports of the board. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 63 TABLE II — SEX OF TEACHERS. M. F. M. F. M. F. 1846 1851 ' 3 4 6 20 1880 ( 22 Prins. ( 15 Assts. \ 4I ^820 1895 ( III P. 1 188 A. \ 102 ( 3925 1858 1863 1865 17 23 24 62 189 241 1885 1 32 P. 1 19 A. I 1207 1896 \ "5 P. ) 241 A. ( 105 (4207 1870 31 506 1890 (99 P. (80 A. C 81 1875 34 666 1 1433 TABLE III — TEACHERS' SALARIES. 1838 184S 1850 1851 1854 1856 Male teachers, #400 ; female, $200. Male teachers, $500 ; female, $250. Music teachers, $250. Music teachers, #200. Male teachers, $300-$8oo. Female teachers, $150-^400. Male principals, $900-$iOOO. Primary principals, $350. Male assistants, $300. Female assistants, $250. Male principals, $8oo-$i50o. Primary principals, $325-^400. Male assistants, $1000. Female assistants, $250-5500. 1868 Drawing teachers, $1000. Music teachers, $1000. 1883 Special teachers, $500-^1700. H. S. principals, $2400. H. S. assistants, $400-^2175. G. & P. principals, $iioo-$2I75. G. & P. assistants, $470-^950. 1890 Special teachers, $450-^2400. 1895 Principals, $2500 (maximum). Head assistants, $1000. G. assistants, $450-^850. P. assistants, $450-^775. Special teachers, $1000-^1500 (av. Supervisors, $2200-$3000. 6 4 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CLILCAGO W 1 I % § S3 I o nc c? rr «" t? to co t? co ■ (N o N H to co n oq_ « « cj c- CO « o CN| to CO « r^ 99 99= 99= 99- CO o P) O 00 on M O to M On ^r t^ 00 CO oo O0 ii P) PI Cn| to CO to O to o CN) •i CO 1^ r^ TfO H tV n On O i to t~» ^ CO oo g o r^ tt s O e? rCod co "i" of ^f o coo" c> o" ■M H O- CO « CO tc 99 to CO o" M 95: 99: 99 99= O to 00 TT CO O O •- n- to o Tt u- 00 CO CO (N to tOOO to to CO Tl" O T]- o CO to CO Tl" t£ Os o to tj- o co to r^ co cr; o^ o CO toco" CO to M i O co o" o" t-^ r-^ o" (N CO t-» o O tt tOOO O to to CO M On CM t? 99, 99= P| H to (S of rr 99: 99. 00 f 99 cc CO 99= O to TT M *PI h M O On O COCO O 0) CO O oo r^ to l"» On lO 00 ""f T Tt r-- P) N O « oo 00 to t^ CO « Co" LO o) o n r-- t^ On 1' CO 00 r-~ r-- coco o n On t^ oo r^ CO T? 99= 0) 5ft 99b 99 On lO 99, 00_ 99 o O >0 CO O 1^. « o r^ oi co co i-i 00 CO O O O co r^. to O On TT O co ti- Tt- O CO O O o r^ N o to m OO o 0-i (N 0) i- n t^ nJ CO CO o* o CO r^.00 o 04 O O0 tr oo oo ■* r^ to 04 99, ►H M 00 0) 99 99 to m 99 99= Tl- tO N tt ti-oo t> f~ 1- On CN) o oo ^i-%o o- fvONfl o 0) tO o o^ O \D O O O CO to t^ to to o o co" r^ n O toO 0) lO On r^ p< o On O O O to to N TT oo n t^ O oo CO ^ 99: 99 99 99 99 «9= tt o- o •* rr o to t^ o M • co o to ci rr o to Tt- On 00 n+N O On M oo o c~ 0) oo" cooo to co On On to to 04 ro co M On Tl- OO M CO w Tf ^J" «i 99= 93 99 99t 93= o o o CO O « o o o o rr On O m rr o oo O M °. °. q oo^ q_ cc vO O; N ►H On NO CO O to N TT to CN t-i o* On O N to CO ts 00 o r— CO o 99: 99= 99= 99 99= 99 o o o 00 On 0) O 0) Tl- o o o cni r^ tj- n CO o °-. °- o oo to- (N o CO NO CO o" to PI 1^ to On C ) On co O M to 1-h rr ) Tf oo o 99 99 99 99 99= 99, o O O to o o O o o Cn| vO o_ C2 o^ CO q CO o" oT o" co o" o TT 7 the high school. These were held in large halls and became occasions of great social interest and influence. The honors won meant much in the little city. The contest had something of the dignity of provincial Olympic games, serving the threefold purpose of stimulating the younger students, rewarding faithful work and, perhaps most important of all, rousing parents to a loyal and intelligent interest in the schools. The custom pre- vailed for a number of years and was only dropped when the great increase in pupils made it impossible to continue it. A new idea destined to fructify later was repeatedly expressed by the president of the board in 1858, '59, and '60 : the idea that bodies as well as brains should be cultivated in school. Six hours of work a day without physical exercise and often under improper conditions could not develop healthy bodies. To such warnings as this was probably due the introduction of free-hand gymnastics in 1861. In the same suggestion the boys of the high school found encouragement to build a gymnasium for the school at a cost of $100. In 1 86 1 also an important forward step was taken in the adoption of a graded course of study, the first in Illinois. Its author was Mr. William H. Wells, superintendent of schools. He embodied in it his favorite idea of object lessons, an idea borrowed from German educators and through his work intro- duced into several other American cities. The course of study as a whole furnished the model and outline which all subsequent courses have followed. For this reason it is worth while to reproduce its main features. There were five grades in both primary and grammar schools. They were numbered from 10 to 1, commencing with the lowest. TENTH GRADE. 1. Oral instruction: common objects of daily life, form and color, familiar domestic animals, manners and morals. 2. Recitation of verses and maxims. Reading from charts. 3. Counting from 1 to 10. Examples in addition. 4. Drawing from tablets. Printing. 68 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 5. Physical exercises as often as every half hour, 3 to 5 minutes. NINTH GRADE. I and 2. As above. Primer added. 3. As above, with Arabic numerals from 1 to 100, Roman I to IX. 4. As above. 5. Five times daily. 1. Added the meaning of dozen, score, right, the days of the week, articles of furniture, fruits. EIGHTH GRADE. 1. Size and qualities of objects, trades and professions, name of the state, county and city with their chief officers, divisions of time, moral lessons. 2. Portion of first reader, spelling, definitions. 3. Text-book to subtraction. 4 and 5. As above. SEVENTH GRADE. 1. Form, size, weight of objects; animals; the five senses; manners and morals; common objects as watch, rope, nails, etc. 2. First reader finished. Spelling. 3. Text-book continued. Exercises in addition and subtrac- tion. 4 and 5. As above. SIXTH GRADE. 1. The circle, ellipse ; classes of animals, their habits, the wisdom of God shown in their adaptations ; shells, foreign prod- ucts, manners and morals. 2. Half of second reader with spelling. Abbreviations. 3. First arithmetic finished. 4. Script and drawing from tablets. 5. Four times daily. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 69 FIFTH GRADE. 1. Regular solids ; parts, structure, growth and uses of plants ; geography of the city, bridges, streets, railways, public build- ings, schools, commerce, history, population ; Cook county, Illinois, United States, using globe; manners and morals. 2. Second reader finished, spelling, abbreviations, declama- tions. 3. Colburn's First Lessons, multiplication to 12 X 12 ; division to 144-^12. 4 and 5. As above. FOURTH GRADE. i. Production and velocity of sound, voice, musical instru- ments ; velocity of light, reflection, refraction, the microscope and telescope, eyes, rainbow, etc.; composition of air and water, wind, fog, dew, etc.; printing, copyright; Chicago's commerce; reform schools and prisons of Illinois, manners and morals. 2. Portion of third reader. Declamations. 3. Colburn's First Lessons. Exercises to long division. 4. As above. 5. Three times daily. 6. Construction of sentences. 7. Geography. THIRD GRADE. i. Historical characters; magnetism and electricity; com- mon minerals ; parts of speech ; manners and morals. 2. Third reader finished. Portion of fourth reader. 3. Colburn's Arithmetic. Exercises to denominate fractions. 4 and 5. As above. 6. Text-book in grammar, to the verb. 7. To the commerce of the United States. Map drawing. SECOND GRADE. 1. Properties of matter, laws of motion, specific gravity, water wheels, pendulum, suction, etc.; physiology and hygiene of eating, bathing, exercise; manners and morals. 70 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 2. Fourth reader finished. 3. Colburn's Arithmetic finished. Exercises to analysis. 4 and 5. As above. 6. To classification of sentences. Composition, abstracts, etc. 7. To Asia. Map drawing from memory. 8. History of the United States to the Revolutionary War. FIRST GRADE. 1. Motions of the earth, seasons, tides, solar system, moon, eclipses, planets, comets, constellations; elements of bookkeep- ing; general structure of national, state, city, and town govern- ment and comparison with the government of Great Britain, Russia, and Switzerland ; origin and nature of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and trial by jury ; heat; geology of the United States ; manners and morals. 2. First-reader class. Declamations. Analysis of words. 3. Review of arithmetic. 4 and 5. As above. 6. Grammar finished. Parsing. Composition. 7. Geography finished. 8. History of the United States finished. Outline of Eng- lish history. Music once a week, thirty minutes in primary forty in grammar grades. The high school offered three courses. GENERAL OR ENGLISH COURSE. 1st year. Arithmetic, algebra, descriptive geography, gram- mar, and analysis, physical geography, reading, German or Latin. 2d year. Algebra, geometry, United States history, botany, reading, German or Latin. 3d year. Geometry, trigonometry, mensuration, navigation, surveying, physiology, natural philosophy, rhetoric, English literature, German, Latin or French. 4th year. Astronomy, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, logic, THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 7 I intellectual science, moral science, political economy, Constitu- tion of the United States, bookkeeping, German, Latin or French. Composition for four years ; drawing for three. CLASSICAL COURSE. ist year. Same as general course with the addition of Latin. 2d year. Same as general course with the addition of Latin ; classic antiquities. 3d year. Greek, Latin, physiology, natural philosophy, civics. 4th year. Greek, Latin, mythology, Declamation and composition for three years. NORMAL COURSE. rst year. Same as general course with the omission of Latin and German and the addition of United States and general his- tory. 2d year. Natural philosophy, physiology, chemistry, astron- omy, arithmetic, grammar, rhetoric, bookkeeping, Constitution of the United States, English literature, mental philosophy. Reading, composition, theory of teaching throughout the course ; drawing four terms. Vocal music forty-five minutes once a week for all members of the high school. The most novel and characteristic feature of these courses was the oral instruction given in the primary and grammar grades. Its origin was a dim perception that the child must be made acquainted with his environment, but the author was unconscious of such a perception ; his conscious aim was a dis- ciplinary one. According to his own statement the object of the course was "to cultivate observation and secure accurate use of language." The modern teacher sees in it a foreshadowing of the idea of correlation and the sociological belief that a knowledge of the immediate social environment is essential for 72 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO future citizens. In the elaborate construction of the scheme, with its lack of coherence and continuity, there is yet an attempt to proceed from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the complex ; and while in the hands of poor teachers the course may have been but a catalogue of unrelated facts, it nevertheless offered the children more opportunities for coming in contact with reality than they had later when in the high school they brushed the fringes of all the sciences by a term's course in each without laboratories. Mr. Wells' thought, how- ever crudely expressed, was a remarkable apprehension of a principle which the body of educators have but recently begun to adopt. That it was prematurely presented explains why it was gradually disregarded when Mr. Wells' personal influence was withdrawn. Another idea of the course which has always remained a dominant one was the importance placed upon the study of United States history and the Constitution. The attention given to local governments and institutions was unfortunately consid- ered less essential in later years. The high -school courses were weaker than those of the lower schools inasmuch as they were overcrowded and poorly arranged. It is of interest to observe how the practical ends of life were supposably served by the introduction of mensura- tion, navigation, surveying, and bookkeeping: a side light upon the desirable occupations of the time. As for the standard of scholarship implied, the encylopedic nature of the course must have involved superficiality, even if certain of the text-books used had not been too advanced. Of these we may instance Whately's Logic and Wayland's Political Economy, Mental Philosophy and Moral Science. The work in English literature also differed widely from present methods, being simply a study of the history of literature without any reference to the classics them- selves. Four years after the graded course was adopted one of the schools tried the experiment of introducing the study of Ger- man into the six upper grades. Nearly all the non-English- THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 73 speaking foreigners in the city were Germans and the board argued that if their language were taught in the public schools, they would be less likely to send their children to private or parochial schools, where the Americanizing process would be very slow. In 1866 the course of study was revised, the most important changes being in lower grades. The study of geography was introduced a grade earlier and the study of English history was omitted from the first grade. The oral instruction dropped the subject of state and city governments and institutions and more stories from ancient and modern history were introduced. These were chiefly biographical tales, a most heterogeneous col- lection, intended to present ideals rather than convey any idea of historical continuity. The revision of the high-school course was designed to lessen the amount of work required. This was accomplished in the general course by dropping arithmetic, grammar, geography, mensuration and surveying, and by rearranging the studies of the different years In the classical course arithmetic, grammar and geography were dropped. The normal course omitted his- tory and literature and to the study of pedagogy added practice in a school organized for the purpose. The study of German was definitely encouraged at this time by the adoption of the rule that the study could be introduced into at least one school in each district upon the petition of 150 parents. Drawing was also favored by the appointment of a special teacher for the high school in 1868, and by attaching greater importance to the work in lower schools. The method followed was the copying of drawings in a graded series of drawing books. In 1869 a special teacher of voice culture was employed and a graded course in music was adopted. A second revision of the course of study made in 1872 reveals at least one important change, the introduction of script writing in the tenth or lowest grade. In the oral lessons hygiene, cleanli- 74 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO ness, the care of clothing, etc., was somewhat more emphasized than before. A new departure was the formation of " high-school classes," intended as a substitute for the last year of the grammar school and the first year of the high school, for those desiring to shorten their course. The work included reading, spelling, composition, philosophy of arithmetic, algebra to quadratics, physical geography, outline of general history, national and state governments, the elements of physics and geology, music, drawing- and writing-. In the high school the general and classical courses were united, Greek being made an optional study. The classical students could finish in three years by omitting English litera- ture. An addition to the course was made by putting civil government into the last year. The normal course remained the same, except that literature was reintroduced with a direct study of Addison, Macaulay, Scott, Irving, Longfellow, Milton, and Shakespeare. 1874 marks the date of the first school laboratory. It was a very simple one, located in the basement of the high school, but it meant the beginning of better science teaching. Scientific collections were being gradually accumulated and apparatus increased. There is a tradition, however, that "hands off" was the rule for the scholars ! In the grammar schools science was not faring so well, for the oral lessons had grown fewer and fewer without any substitute being found. A system of free-hand drawing was introduced at this time with great success. It was an advance on earlier methods, though still far below the standard reached in later years. The board was very anxious that the study should have a practical tend- ency and form to some degree a preparation for mechanical trades. The lower schools were regraded in 1875 m eight grades, numbered one to eight from the lowest. At the same time the Scripture reading, with which the schools had been opened every morning since 1841, was forbidden ( by the board at the instance of the Catholic clientage of the schools. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHLCAGO 75 During the same year the high-school course was again revised or rearranged and the "high-school classes" became " division high schools," with a two years' course. Some effort was made to introduce studies that would fit pupils for business life. 1st year. Algebra, commercial arithmetic, physical geog- raphy, natural philosophy, general history, civil government. 2d year. Geometry, trigonometry, chemistry, physiology, botany, rhetoric, English literature, bookkeeping. German, drawing, and music throughout the course, optional. In 1878 still another revision of the general course of study was adopted. For the primary and grammar grades this con- sisted chiefly in changes in method or in the amount of work done in a grade. Thus more attention was given to phonic analysis, punctuation, definitions, and to arithmetic and mathe- matical geography. The oral course was very much reduced. Most of the "conversations" were devoted to hygiene, physiol- ogy, and conduct, the latter including some references to city and national patriotism. In the high school two departments were again formed, the classical and general. The course in the former embraced only Latin, Greek, and mathematics, composition and declamation, with the option of music and drawing. The latter course laid more emphasis upon the study of English literature, and intro- duced laboratory work in chemistry. For several years there had been some question in the minds of the authorities regarding the high school and the position of special studies. A motion was made in 1876 to drop Greek from the course ; that is, to cease preparing students for college and devote the money to more general needs. At the same time a financial stress led to the reduction of salaries of special teachers and to discussion in regard to retaining special studies. In 1878 it was decided to place the first year of Ger- man in the fifth grade and to discontinue music and drawing in any room where less than twenty pupils desired them. Four years later a complete change of view led to a new ruling by which the study of music and drawing was made obligatory 76 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO throughout the primary and grammar grades, but the opponents of Greek gained their point in 1883 an< ^ voted that the study be discontinued. Those already studying it were forced to attend the West Division High School in order to finish their work. (The division high schools enlarged their course to four years in 1 88 1.) The tendency of the board toward the "practical" in education was further expressed by the introduction of a simple form of manual training, for which a room was fitted up in the basement of the North Division High School. The high-school course was again revised in 1884-5 an d a four years' study of English authors made an integral part of it. Three languages were offered, Latin, German, and French; bookkeeping was made optional. For six years Greek was not taught ; then it was introduced again as an optional study. Three courses were offered in 1891, a college preparatory, teachers', and general course. The former added phvsiology, botany, history, and English literature to the regular work in Latin, Greek, and mathematics, and offered optional studies in German, French, or Spanish. The teachers' course corresponded to the general course with the addition of United States history, grammar, arithmetic, book- keeping, and the theory of teaching. From 1885 till 1893 special studies grew into ever greater prominence. The number of teachers increased considerably and the supervisors of each subject naturally strove to develop their departments to the extreme limit, while the board seemed unconscious of the changes. Clay modeling was introduced in 1885; color work began to receive attention in the drawing classes ; Mr. Tomlins taught the Tonic-sol-fa system of reading music in the high school ; more time was given to physical cul- ture; and instruction in sewing was given in four grades. The work in manual training became so popular and success- ful that a second year's course in woodworking, modeling, etc., was added in 1887 and in 1890 the English High and Manual Training School was organized with a three years' course. In 1 89 1 three ungraded rooms for truants were opened and instruc- THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 7 7 tion given in sloyd. At the same time Mr. Crane fitted up a room and provided a teacher for classes in manual training at the Tilden School. Other classes were afterwards formed by the board. Kindergartens were adopted in 1892. In 1890 laboratories were fitted up in the South and West Division high schools and a year later in the Jefferson, Lake View and Northwest Division high schools. Marine specimens were also secured for the department of biology. After all this progress a reaction suddenly began, quite with- out warning so far as the records show. January 18, 1893, the Committee on School Management recommended that clay modeling be discontinued. The question of all special studies was then brought up for discussion and Mr. Badenoch made the sweeping motion that German, physical culture, sewing and drawing, and music in the primary grades, be discontinued. At the next meeting Mr. Revell moved as a substitute that paper cutting, pasting and color work be given up except in the kindergartens ; that sewing be dropped, and the study of tech- nical music except in the seventh and eighth grades, and that physical culture be taught by the regular teachers acting under four special teachers. Mrs. Flower moved that the number of special teachers be reduced. Upon these and similar motions an eager, often bitter discussion went on for weeks, participated in to an unusual extent by the public through petitions and the press. In a measure the board was influenced by economic considerations ; special studies were absorbing too large a pro- portion of the funds while primary education for the masses was still impossible, but in the main the question turned upon the intrinsic value of the studies. In many minds they were con- demned without a hearing by the name " fad," and then no argument from pedagogy or psychology could be received. From the debates it was evident that some of the board were unable to distinguish between the pedagogical principles for which these studies stood and excessive attention to unessential application of these principles. For a time it looked as if the course would be limited to the bare fundamentals, but slowly 78 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO compromises were agreed upon. The first was expressed in the vote of April 26, when German was removed from the primary grades. The conclusion was reached May 10. Clay modeling was dropped from all but the kindergartens and deaf-mute schools ; physical culture was to be taught by the regular teachers with one special teacher for each district and a super- visor. Drawing was not introduced till the second grade, color till the fourth. Pasting and folding was dropped, and the time devoted to drawing ift the second and third grades reduced. One supervisor for each district and a superintendent were to constitute the special teachers. A uniform graded course in singing was decided upon with no technical work in the first two grades. The teaching force was to include a supervisor, and special teacher for each district, for the five lower grades, a supervisor and four special teachers for the upper grades. Sew- ing was discontinued. These changes rendered necessary a revision of the course of study which was adopted in 1894. A comparison of this with the first course introduced by Mr. Wells in 1861 reveals the extent of educational conservatism at the same time that it jus- tifies the claim of Mr. Wells as an advanced educator. In gen- eral there is a remarkable agreement between the two courses in the arrangement of studies and the amount of work assigned to different grades. Grammar and history text-books are intro- duced at the same point, geography one grade earlier in the last course ; English history is restored to the highest grammar grade after having been omitted for many years. The old course in "oral instruction" is revived in spirit in the "nature study," whose avowed object, to "assist in breaking down the unnatural barriers which the artificial environments of city life have built up between the child and nature, and to recognize the originality and individuality so valuable to the citizen," indicates the deeper insight which teachers have gained regarding the meaning of such work. The real difference between the two courses lies in the greater richness of the latter. Thus the work in mathematics now introduces the principles of geometry and THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 79 algebra to make clearer the principles of arithmetic ; reading is connected with history and geography by the use of supplemen- tary readers ; and drawing aims to lead to manual training, appreciation of the beautiful and illustration of history and lit- erature. The study of civic life is not more emphasized now than then, though a text-book is used instead of oral instruction. The study of history, chiefly of the United States, is given larger place through the entire course by the aid of stories and supple- mentary readers employed from the first to the eighth grade. One idea, however, cannot be found in the original course, that of teaching literature and myths. This is now the subject of conscious thought and includes the repetition of myths and folk stories, memorizing selections from American authors, and read- ing classic literature. A new course of college-preparatory work requiring six years for its completion was arranged in 1894. This places the first study of Latin in the seventh grade, algebra and geometry in the eighth grade, but corresponds otherwise to the regular course. The high-school courses number three, the general and col- lege preparatory, covering four years, and that of the English high and manual training school, covering three years. The first two have not been materially changed by successive revisions, except in the added emphasis placed upon the study of English and in the reduction in the number of required studies so as to make greater thoroughness possible. The manual train- ing school course offers no foreign language except French, but includes algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry, biology, history, civil government, political economy, bookkeeping, shorthand, type writing and English, in addition to the work in wood turn- ing, blacksmithing and the machine shop. It is evident that the nominal progress of Chicago school programs throughout the thirty years was but slight. Indeed at certain periods there was decided retrogression, as when Greek was dropped from the curriculum in 1884, and during the twenty years when science teaching was almost unknown in the primary So THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO and grammar grades. The true progress has been in connection with the content of the courses and methods of instruction. The "American idea" that education is designed to train up citizens, has been repeated over and over without much definiteness of meaning. It has been fixed only in form, the content has varied. A knowledge of United States history and the English language has always been implied, with, of late years, a slight concession to the value of patriotic sentiment as awakened by the national flag and by the celebration of historic anniversaries. The relation of the child to the social environment in which he will live as a citizen, the forms of industrial organization, the significance of local political divisions and activities, the resources and needs of the municipality — such facts have at no time entered positively into the conception of "training for citizen- ship." Along with the conventional belief has gone a more or less vague idea that education has some reference to the child him- self. From the view that he needed to be given a certain num- ber of facts in order to discipline his mind, gradually arose the thought of attractiveness, interest, as an element of class-room work, and of the correlation of studies to correspond to the syn- thesis of nature. The child's individuality became a recognized factor as psychology was better understood. In this phase of its history the Chicago school system has not pursued an isolated course ; it has responded to the influ- ences that have been dominant throughout the country, the degree to which it yielded being determined at each stage by the intelligence of its directors or the degree of influence pos- sessed by heads of departments. The general attitude of the board has always been the conservative one natural to a com- pany of men not specially trained for their duties and lacking a broad outlook upon the field in which they are engaged. For the most part the superintendents have failed to carry out any pronounced or radical views in the management of the schools, either because they lacked the power, or because they were con- tent to follow the lines already marked out. The supervisors of THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 81 departments, being specialists, have been more apt to introduce innovations and assume advanced positions. This has been noticeably true in the department of drawing. In the course of study adopted in 1894 the influence of the reports of both the "Committee of Ten" and the "Committee of Fifteen" was acknowledged. PART II. STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM 8^ CHAPTER I. STRUCTURE. ORGANS. Even a cursory survey of the public-school system shows that it is composed of parts, each more or less highly organ- ized and sustaining relations of interdependence. A closer analy- sis enables us to group these organs according as their functions are administrative or purely educational. On the one side are city council and the Board of Education ; on the other, the schools of different types. The council with the mayor occupy chronologically the first place in the system. The mayor appoints the board, with the consent of the council, and thus indirectly determines the status of the schools. The council makes the appropriations of taxes which form the main support of the schools, reserving the school money as a special fund in the hands of the city treasurer, and acts upon the board's recom- mendations for the erection of buildings and the purchase of sites. It is thus possible for the council to favor or retard the growth of the system according as its policy is generous or nig- gardly, honest or dishonest, and its sympathy with the board strong or weak. The board-is the chief executive organ of the educational sys- tem. It consists of twenty-one members, one of whom is chosen president, with, however, no authority other than that of a presid- ing officer. The work of the board, the management of the school property and the organization and care of the schools is chiefly performed through committees, of which there are fifteen. These are the committees on Finance, School Fund Property, Special Funds, Buildings and Grounds, Janitors and Supplies, Judiciary, having special reference to the board's first function ; and those on School Management, High Schools, College Pre- 85 86 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO paratory Schools, English High and Manual Training School, Drawing, Music, German, Physical Culture, and Compulsory Education, having reference to the second function. The divi- sion of labor between these committees is not defined with exactness and the value of such minute division without any real center of control is open to grave criticism. This great fault in the organization of the board stands out with especial promi- nence in the administration of financial interests. Committees are very useful for deliberation, but they are very ineffective for execution, and to divide the business among six different com- mittees each without a responsible head is to sacrifice economy of effort and, undoubtedly, of money. The proposal to organ- ize the business as a mercantile company would do, and employ a responsible manager has been repeatedly urged without effect. Committees are still at work. Theoretically the action of the entire board is necessary to authorize the procedure of a com- mittee, but practically the assent of the board is a matter of course and the committees act independently. Within the past few months, 1895-6, the demand of a new member of the board that all committee reports be read in full before the board voted upon them, revealed the fact that the board had been content to hear only the title of a report, a policy certainly foreign to intel- ligent and business-like management. The committee system is weak enough at best without adding secrecy and its suggestions of crooked dealings to its faults. The office employes form an unofficial extension of the board, exercising often considerable influence. They include the secretary of the board, attorney, auditor, architect, school agent, business manager (a subordinate officer), chief engineer, superintendent of supplies, and three assistants. The schools organized and managed by the board may be considered in three classes. In the first group are the three regular forms, the primary, grammar, and high schools. These number 223 ; fourteen are high schools. They form a connected, graded series. The primary and grammar schools have each four grades. The high schools are, with one exception, coeduca- THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 87 tional schools of the mixed type, offering both a general and a college preparatory course. The exception is the English high and manual training school, whose name indicates its char- acter. In the second group are the special schools, the thirty-seven kindergartens, four schools for deaf mutes, fifty-one evening schools, and the schools at the Bridewell and the Waifs' Mis- sion. Logically the kindergartens form part of the regular series, preceding the primary school, but their number is still so limited that they must be considered exceptional. The schools for the deaf are at present day schools, but the board is strongly urged to establish a central school with dormitories where the pupils can be kept from Monday until Friday. Many of the children who should be reached live at such a distance from the schools that the item of car fare becomes a considerable one with the poor parents, and the attendance is much smaller than it should be. There are also many Chicago children in the Jacksonville School whose parents would be glad to have them at home part of the time if they could be satisfactorily taught in the city. An increased attendance would also sensibly dimin- ish the cost of the schools. The evening schools are designed to reach children who work during the day and youths who desire to continue their training for a business life. The pupils are chiefly foreigners anxious to learn English and working boys and girls who left school early and come back for stenography, bookkeeping, mechanical draw- ing, etc. High-school classes meet the needs of the latter class, and are more successful than the lower schools because the attendance is more regular. The two institutional schools are ungraded as the shifting attendance demands. No peculiar adaptation is made to the character of the pupils, but manual training is to be given at the Bridewell, where the school will serve some of the purposes of a truant school. The third group of schools includes the training class # and the normal school. The former, having been organized in lieu 88 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO of a normal school, seems to have no raison d'etre now that the county school with its fine record has been incorporated into the city system. PROPERTY AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT. In a fundamental analysis the school system, like all other societary institutions, is seen to be composed of two elements, an impersonal and a personal, or property and persons. The property of the Chicago schools may be put under two heads, the land, buildings, and furniture used for the schools, and the so-called "school-fund property," real estate, and securities, from which a portion of the school revenue is derived. The value of the former is estimated (1896) at $18,163,- 979.50. Of this $4,530,647.50 is the value of lots and $13,633,- 332 that of buildings and furniture. The number of school buildings is 295. In addition 296 rooms are rented. The aver- age value of buildings and furniture is $46,214.68. The total number of sittings furnished is 202,231. This is more than the average daily attendance, 165,569, but less than the total enrollment, 213,825. Moreover the relations of demand and supply are not accurately expressed by the mere statistics, since many buildings in closely built wards like the nineteenth are seri- ously overcrowded while others in outlying districts have unoccu- pied seats. Add to this the fact that 13,507 children are in rented rooms, seldom if ever designed for school uses, and that 15,036 can attend but half a day, and it becomes evident that accommodations are by no means adequate. If it is further considered that the compulsory-education law is not yet enforced, and that when it is the school population will make still greater demands, the need of generous provision for the future is unmistakable. Next in importance to the number of accommodations is their quality, and here the data given must be fragmentary, results obtained from a partial examination made by educational committees of the Civic Federation, personal observations, and facts drawn from the board's annual reports. The oldest school THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 89 building was erected in 1846; five were built between 1856 and i860; six between 1865 and 1870 ; forty-eight between 1870 and 1880. Or, expressed differently, fifty are over 20 years old, and these include such schools as the Jones, Skinner, and Newberry, with over 1000 pupils each. It is of course true that repairs and improvements have been made upon these old buildings, but it is impossible to secure the conditions considered necessary by pres- ent standards of sanitary construction without a practical rebuild- ing. The investigations referred to showed that defects of light- ing, ventilation, and plumbing were only too frequent. The low standard for lighting at the time the building was erected often explained the first defect. In other buildings, as at the Farren, the attempt to prevent crosslights had led to covering windows on one side of the room, thus reducing what was even at first an inadequate amount of light. In still other cases buildings have been erected so close to the school as to effectively screen many of the rooms. Faulty systems of ventilation, or entire lack of system, was found to be a common complaint. Criticism of the plumbing often resolved itself into criticism of the janitor service instead, for in justice to the board it should be said that it has made a special effort to secure good plumbing. A fourth defect in many of the older schools is lack of fire protection. Too narrow stairways, not fireproof, and lack or inefficiency of fire escapes constitute a menace whose execution only singularly good fortune has prevented. All of these criticisms apply only to the older buildings, those erected before 1886, and not of course to all of them. Buildings of recent construction conform to much higher standards. Those built since 1890 embody the best sanitary knowledge of the time. In one particular, however, the great majority of schools, both new and old, fail to realize the ideal : they have no adequate provision for playgrounds or gymna- siums. It is still an open question whether these should be pro- vided by the board in connection with schoolhouses, or by the city in the form of small parks, but there is no question that the 9° THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO children ought not to be driven onto the streets to find room for games and romps. The schoolhouses are as a rule brick buildings of the factory style of architecture, averaging three stories in height. In the common type there is a hall running through the center, with four or six rooms opening from it, and a stairway at one or both ends. A very few of the most recent buildings have varied the type, and shown the possibility of combining beauty and utility. With inconsiderable exceptions the buildings are heated by steam or furnaces. The rooms are of the prescribed rectangular shape, with tinted walls and blackboards around at least two sides. In most of the rooms the number of seats is fifty-four; a very few new schools have but forty-eight, and a few old buildings have sixty-three. The seats in a room are of uniform size, the economic argument of increased cost opposing all hygenic arguments in favor of graded or adaptable seats fitted to the individual pupil. Nearly all schools have something in the way of cabinets, collections made by the scholars or given by friends. A smaller number possess libraries. A room without plants is the excep- tion, and at least one large school has outdoor garden plots for the children. Aside from the presence of plants the aesthetic element is slightly regarded in school furnishings. Much of the smaller decorative staff work from the World's Fair was dis- tributed among' the schools, but it was intended to serve rather as drawing models than as decorations of the rooms. Indeed, the only common form of art that the rooms possess is the photograph. Portraits of Washington, Lincoln, Longfellow, and Whittier seem to be the favorites. During the last year a " Public School Art Society " has been formed, by the efforts of Miss Starr, of Hull House, which proposes to give every school copies of fine pictures, following the example of the similar society in Man- chester, England. If the society is supported as earnestly as its prototype, a few years may see a great change in the appear- ance of the schools. At present cleanliness is the only claim to beauty in most of them. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 91 The possession of scientific apparatus is naturally confined to the high schools, unless we include under that head the tools and benches for manual training of a simple sort owned by twelve grammar schools. The high -school laboratories are well equipped for physical, chemical, and biological study. The high schools also own libraries of considerable value. Turning now to the other form of school property, that from which revenue is derived, it is found to consist of the "school fund" derived from the sale of school lands, the "wharfing lot fund," and the rentals of real estate, and of real estate which includes the residue of the original school section and lands acquired by annexation and by the foreclosure of mortgages. The principal of the school fund amounted, June 30, 1896, to S979.789.19. Interest on investments was $51,465.80. The school-fund property was appraised at $7,285,233. The rentals were $524,037. The support of the schools is derived from the interest on the fund and the rentals, supplemented by state and city taxes. The former revenue is devoted wholly to the pay- ment of salaries, the latter is divided between salaries and build- ings, sites, etc., in the proportion of 2 to 3. The state dividend for 1895-6 amounted to $334,849.10. The total expenditures for the year was $7,328,531.68. Of this $5,145,671.78 came from city taxes. The city is allowed to levy a school tax of 5 per cent., but this maximum has never been reached. Among the principal items of expenditure for 1895-6 were: Teachers' salaries, primary and grammar schools, - §3,203,925.03 Teachers' salaries, high schools and special studies, 639,579.66 New school buildings, ------ 1,144,994.97 New school sites, - - 183,987.50 Repairs, -------- 277,125.20 Evening schools, ----- 111,909.29 Drawing teachers' salaries, - - - - 16,978.50 Music teachers' salaries, ----- 22,642.50 German teachers' salaries, ----- 132,330.42 Kindergarten teachers' salaries, - - - 24,270.50 Compulsory education, ------ 15,606.20 Janitors and engineers, ----- 373,221.85 92 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO The board also controls some fifteen special funds, gifts to different schools or grades, most of them to provide text-books for poor children, a few for prizes or apparatus. These funds amount to $54,150, of the interest on which there was expended in 1895-6 $3,33 2 -93- As the list shows nearly half of the total expenditure is for salaries, a little further analysis of these is therefore of interest. The lowest paid position in the schools is that of assistant in the primary schools, $450 a year. This salary is gradually increased until after five years it reaches $775. In the grammar school the new teacher begins with $450 and receives a gradual increase up to $800 after five years. Head assistants receive $850. Principals, whose salaries are graded by the size of the school, and high-school teachers, receive from $1000 to $2500; assist- ant superintendents, $4000. The first impression is that large salaries are paid, but the fatal average proves that the officers are very few in comparison with the rank and file. Including the superintendents the average is $821.62. The great majority of the teachers are in the grammar and primary grades, 4257 out of 4668. Their average salary is $750.27. In this connec- tion it is instructive to observe that the average cost of engineer and janitor's service for the 295 buildings is $1265.83 ; an inter- esting showing of the relative value of the professions in terms of money. It is true that if the comparison of salaries be made with those of stenographers, clerks, bookkeepers and skilled mechanics, as the Committee on Finance makes it, on the basis of hours of class-room work a year, the result is not unfavorable for the schools. The committee considers the case of a girl just graduated from the high school, who, after six months in the training class, obtains a position in school at $450 a year. "Where," they ask, " can a young girl earn so much the first year and only work five hours a day for 200 days?" The com- mittee, however, fails to ask whether it is possible to secure high- grade service for such salaries. If the growing conviction among educators be true, that the primary teacher has the most influ- ential and responsible position, when will it be possible to secure THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 93 professional service of the required standard if the economic rewards remain at such a low figure? Only those who have had little training can afford to do the work at present. There is practically no competition between men and women except as principals of grammar schools and high-school assist- ants. In the former group there is no discrimination in salaries on the ground of sex. Among the latter it is understood that the highest paid positions are given only to men. One liberal- minded member of the board frankly said, "It is out of the question at present to expect anything different." The final item to be given is the total cost of the schools per pupil. Calculated upon the total enrollment this was, in 1895-6, $20.68 ; upon the average daily membership, $25.12; upon the average daily attendance, $26.95. For the high schools the average cost per pupil was $58.68. PERSONS. The second fundamental element in the school system is that of persons. These may be divided into officers, teachers and pupils, though this classification does not correspond to their relations in the different organs. Passing by the members of the council, the first group consists of the mayor and the members of the Board of Education, twenty-one in number. The latter are appointed by the mayor for a term of three years, one-third every year. The consent of the council is merely formal, so that the responsibility rests with the mayor. The members of the board are unpaid, but as the managers of over $7,000,000 and the appointers of over 4000 teachers they wield great influ- ence, and positions upon the board are not infrequently the objects of much political wire-pulling. The mayor's selection is usually of average citizens from divers parts of the city, repre- senting different classes of the population. The endeavor seems to be to represent as many social elements as possible, rather than to secure persons whose business ability or experience in educational work qualify them to discharge the duties of the office. It is one of the fallacies of democracy to expect that 94 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO the sum of many mediocre opinions and plans will equal the wisdom of the best minds. The board directs the general policy of the schools, their discipline and course of study, and appoints all of the teachers. This latter office might well be left with the superintendent, who is held largely responsible for the efficiency of the schools, and yet is unable to select the working force. The board receives suggestions from the superintendent for a few appointments, but in too many instances it is not free from the suspicion of favoritism. Among the employes of the board that have been named before, two deserve special mention, because of the power they possess to decide under what physical conditions the school work shall be performed. It rests with the architect and chief engineer to definitely fix the standard of healthfulness for the buildings in which 200,000 children spend the greater part of the day for ten months of the year. The Committee on Build- ings only pass upon the plans presented to them, and can lay no claim to expert knowledge. Besides the teachers there are other appointees of the board. In 1895-6 these were a superintendent of schools, an assistant superintendent of high schools, eight general assistants, each in charge of a district or group of schools, and eight special super- intendents or supervisors — one of evening schools, one of com- pulsory education, two of singing, two of drawing, one of modern languages, and one of physical culture. The superin- tendent has the supervision of all the schools, including both the work done and the equipment of apparatus and libraries. He has power to grant temporary leave of absence to teachers, assign them to schools, and suspend pupils with the consent of the board. The examination and promotion of teachers, the plan of discipline, and the examination of candidates for posi- tions as teachers also rests with him. In actual practice the duties are shared by the assistant superintendents, who also con- duct institutes for teachers. The tone of education depends upon the character of the superintendent in large measure. He THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 95 can introduce his teachers to new methods and broader views and encourage them to express their individuality in their work, or can develop the school system into a machine where all the work is a routine without spontaneity, one school the exact copy of another. In Chicago a middle course has been followed. The superintendent has neither made the schools noted for peculiar methods, like those of Ouincy, or freedom of development, like those of Minneapolis, nor has he clung to inflexible regulations. "Progressive conservatism" has been the aim. The official life of the superintendents has been unfortunately brief. Seven years and a half was the average term of those who preceded Mr. Lane. He was appointed in 1890. Such terms are too short for the most efficient service. Scarcely has an officer obtained a thorough knowledge of the conditions under which the work is to be done, the personnel of the teaching force, the peculiar problems afforded by special classes of schol- ars, the material resources at command, and commenced to work out his own ideas, when he is removed from office, or some counter attraction leads him to resign. Were he given more freedom of action, the selection of his colaborers, and greater influence in the determination of courses of study, the office would become more attractive to educators of strong characters and independent views, who would be ready to give their life effort to it. The position should draw large men as powerfully as any college presidency. Certainly its possible range of influ- ence is quite as great. It is conceivable that the future char- acter of the city itself, its ideals, opinions, motives, could be largely shaped by the policy outlined by the superintendent of schools. In actual fact, however, the position is only a restricted one, with conventional duties. The second group of persons in the school system is com- posed of the teachers. These numbered in 1895-6 4668, divided thus in positions and sex : 96 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO Principals Assistants High Schools Gr. and Primary High Schools Grammar & Primary Manual Deaf- Train'g Mute Kinder- garten Normal Special Male Female M 101 105 114 130 79 3958 13 I 2 8 72 8 15 25 23 Total, M., 115 ; F., 105. M., 241 ; F., 4207. Grand Total, M., 356; F., 4312. As the rules of the board show, teachers of experience or college graduates may receive teachers' certificates without examination, but the general method of selecting teachers is by examinations, which are usually held by the superintendents twice a year. Candidates for membership in the training class, who must be residents of the city and have completed a course of study equal to that of the high school, are examined in arith- metic, algebra to quadratics, general geography with physical geography, United States and modern European history, ele- mentary botany, zoology, astronomy, physiology, natural phi- losophy, English language and literature, drawing, and vocal music. But a large loophole for escape from this ordeal of catechism has been opened for two or three years by the provi- sion that students who have stood 90 per cent, or over during their entire high-school course can enter the class without fur- ther tests. This provision is said by some high-school teachers to lead to cheating rather than to extraordinary efforts. Applicants for assistants' positions in primary and grammar grades must be graduates of the training class, college gradu- ates, or teachers of four years' experience. The two latter classes are examined in the same subjects as those entering the training class, with the addition of the theory of teaching. Candidates for high-school positions are all examined in English, composition, and psychology, but they may select one of two groups of subjects for the main portion of the examina- tion. From the first group they may select a major subject, equivalent to a college course in that subject, and two minors. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 97 If Latin is a major, Greek must be one of the minors. If any other subject is a major, Latin must be a minor. The group includes Latin, Greek, English literature, history, civics, and political economy. If selection is made from the second group, one major, not German or French, and three minors must be chosen. If mathematics is a major, physics must be a minor, or vice versa. The subjects of the second group are mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geology and astronomy, French, German. Laboratory examinations are required in physics, chemistry, and biology when they are majors. Candidates desiring to teach German or French are examined in composition and psychology in addition to an oral and writ- ten examination in the language chosen. These specialized examinations for high-school teachers have only been given for two or three years. Previous to their intro- duction the unhappy candidates were subjected to a heavy but scattering fire of questions on every subject in the curriculum ; questions requiring a fortunate trick of memory rather than the possession of genuine knowledge or grasp of a subject. It was not at all uncommon for a specialist of experience in the classics to be rejected because he knew little of astronomy or chemistry, or for a mathematician to fail in history, and yet the school work was almost wholly specialized and no teacher was in prac- tice required to be an encyclopedia. The high-school teachers are with few exceptions college graduates ; the grammar and primary school teachers with equally few exceptions have had only a high-school course. Most of them are graduates of the city schools. From 1876 to 1896 there was no normal school, and the training class was not organized until 1892. Excluding the high school and special teachers and those who, having taught over twenty years, may have attended the old normal school, there remains over 3000 who have gone directly from the high school to the teacher's desk, with perhaps a short probation as "cadets" or assistants. It is true that the more ambitious receive valuable help from the institutes held by superintendents and supervisors of special 9 8 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO studies and may train themselves into most capable teachers, but they work at a great disadvantage ; while the unambitious improve only in superficial methods sufficiently to enable them to retain their positions. Faithful and conscientious the great body of teachers may be, but they lack the breadth of culture and power born of wide professional training which must be secured if the common schools are to realize their ideal of efficiency. The best of the high schools cannot give either the maturity of mind, the social wisdom, or the knowledge of child nature which society must soon demand of its teachers. At present there are not lacking teachers whose inability to speak good English and behave with courtesy arouses instant crit- icism. Why are they, or others who do not always deem it neces- sary to speak the truth to their pupils, retained in their positions ? Such failings are condemned even by present standards, but it is agreed that the tenure of office in Chicago schools is peculiarly secure. A teacher is almost never removed save on a well- proved charge of a grave moral character. The civil-service clause in the recent pension bill simply embodies what has been the principle of action for many years. Two hundred and twenty-five teachers have served over twenty years in Chicago ; twenty-six have taught over thirty years. Security of position is of course a most desirable thing if the work of teaching is to be made something more than a stepping- stone to other avocations, but if civil-service rules do not pro- vide, in practice, for the dismissal of the inefficient their value is reduced by half. A different norm of judgment by which to estimate a teacher's success than the possession of certain items of information or even the ability to pass a class from one grade to another would cause more changes in the ranks of teachers than are at all frequent now. The third and largest group of persons in the school system is that of pupils. The total enrollment for 1895-6 was 213,825 ; the average daily enrollment, 177,710; the average daily attend- ance, 165,569. The total enrollment in the primary department was 149,642; in the grammar department, 55,482; in the high THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CLJICAGO 99 schools, 8609. There were also 3221 in kindergartens and 15,- 793 in evening schools. The city census for 1896 shows the population of school age as 451,597. Parochial and private schools received 68,883 or - these. Over 12,000 under sixteen years of age were at work. Between the ages of seven and fourteen it is calculated that nearly 7000 are out of school, despite the labor law which forbids the employment of children under fourteen in factories and shops, and the compulsory- education law which requires four months' attendance at school during the year. Unfortunately the former law does not apply to mercantile establishments or to the occupations of bootblacks, newsboys, messengers, peddlers, etc., and the enforcement of the latter is discretionary with the board. Factory inspectors and truant officers accomplish something, but the latter can only use persuasion and so their power to accomplish the desired result is very limited. Both laws should be amended and special truant schools should be provided for such children as cannot now be kept in regular graded schools. Increased accommoda- tions of some sort are necessary in any case, since the total enrollment exceeds the seating capacity by 16,594. Of equal importance with the question of attendance is that of the length of time the pupils remain in school. It has been repeatedly said by officials and by the public that at least 70 per cent, of the children never enter the fifth grade and that the average length of their school life is three years. In his last two reports Superintendent Lane takes occasion to dispute these statements by a study of the statistics for each grade since 1889-90, when there was an abnormal increase of scholars on account of annexation. Assuming an annual promotion for all and that no additions by increase of population were made except in the first grade, he compares the numbers in each grade with the number in the first grade in 1889-90 and reaches the conclusion that 89 per cent, remained in school two years, 80 per cent, three years, 65 per cent, four years, 61 per cent, five years, 48 per cent, six years, and 37.1 percent, seven years. Beginning with the first grade of 1 890-1, 92.3 per cent, remained ioo THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO two years, 85 per cent, three years, 76.9 per cent, four years, 70.7 per cent, five years, 52 per cent, six years. That is, between 60 per cent, and 70 per cent, enter the fifth grade and about one-half remain in school six years. Mr. Lane's initial assumptions are open to such grave criti- cism as invalidates his whole proof, but, granting for argument's sake that his conclusions are substantially correct and that the term of school life is longer than is generally supposed, even then according to his own figures from 25 to 35 per cent, of the scholars fall out at the end of the third grade. About 9000 children who were in the first grade in 1895-6 will drop out before 1898 and 18,000 before 1901. Under such circumstances there are but two conceivable methods of reform, either to improve the course of study or to lengthen the school life. Whether the first is desirable or not need not be discussed at this point, for however perfect the curriculum and instruction may be, children at the age of nine or even twelve are not yet mature enough to have completed the training which the state should give its citizens. This is true of even the children of native-born Americans, but it becomes doubly true when we remember that over 80,000 of the children are foreign born. Many of them speak little or no English and understand nothing of our institutions or ideas. To assimilate such alien elements eight years of school life is surely none too long. A radical com- pulsory-education law which can be enforced, a broader labor law applying to all classes of labor, some form of ungraded rooms or truant schools, with possibly some state aid for the support of children whose parents cannot afford to lose their wages — these are insistent needs. REGULATION OF THE SYSTEM. As governors and governed the members of the school sys- tem are arranged in a hierarchical series. At the top stands the state legislature which sanctions the system, defines its general form of organization, and describes the duties of the Board of Education. The citv council occupies an intermediate position THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 101 of authority through its appointment of the board, its control of taxes, and its veto power in the purchase of land and the erection of buildings. The board is the direct source of school government, but it delegates the formulation and execution of the details to the superintendents, who regulate the school rou- tine carried out by principals and teachers. The teachers are the schoolroom authorities, with principals and district superin- tendents as courts of appeal. The basis on which the schools legally rest is the state con- stitution of 1870. This declares that "its General Assembly shall provide a thorough and efficient system of free schools whereby all children of the state may receive a good common- school education." The constitution specifies further that the trust of school property shall be faithfully kept, that public money shall not be given to sectarian schools, and that no teacher or school officers shall be interested in the sale of school books or furniture. The details of organization are found in the law which went into force July 1, 1891. According to this the Board of Educa- tion consists of twenty-one members appointed by the mayor, by and with the consent of the council. The term of office is three years. Five years' residence in the city qualifies a person for membership. The board appoints its own president, from its members, a secretary, and office employes. It must keep records and prepare an annual report. It has power, with the consent of the council, to erect, purchase, and repair buildings, to buy or lease sites, to issue bonds for these purposes and pro- vide for their payment, and to borrow money for school pur- poses on the credit of the city. It has power to furnish, support, and establish schools, to hire buildings or rooms for itself and schools, to employ teachers and fix salaries, to prescribe books, to form school districts, to expel pupils, to dismiss or remove teachers, to apportion teachers to schools, to lease school property and to loan the school fund. Its duties are to superintend the schools, to examine candi- dates for teachers, and grant certificates, to establish by-laws for 102 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO the government and discipline of the schools, to determine the number and classification of teachers and fix salaries, to take charge of the buildings and grounds and keep them in good condition, to provide fuel and other necessaries, to prescribe courses and methods of instruction and discipline and see that they are enforced, to prescribe studies, books, and apparatus, to report to the council regarding the schools and the school fund and recommend new buildings and districts, to prepare an annual report giving receipts and expenditures, and to communicate information to the council as requested. The board can exercise no power except at regular meetings. All conveyances of real estate must be made to the city in trust for the use of schools, and no sale of real estate or inter- est therein used for school purposes, or held in trust for schools can be made except by the city council upon the written request of the board. All moneys raised by taxation for school purposes or received from the state common-school fund, or from any other sources for school purposes, shall be held by the city treasurer as a special fund for school purposes sub- ject to the order of the Board of Education upon warrants to be counter- signed by the mayor and city clerk. The board cannot increase expenditures above the state fund, the rent of school land, and taxes. The city can exercise no powers given to the board. The city may levy a school tax of not more than 2 per cent, for educational, 3 per cent, for building purposes, on property according to the last assessment for state and county taxes. The common-school fund of the state includes a tax of two mills on each dollar's valuation of property in the state annually ; the interest less one-sixth on the school fund proper, i. c, 3 per cent, on the sale of the state public lands ; and interest on the surplus revenue distributed by act of Congress and made part of the common-school fund by act of the legislature, March 4, 1837. The common-school fund is to be divided according to the number of children in each county. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 103 In addition to this general law there are other special acts of different dates which are still in force. These include the law of March 28, 1874, requiring that the doors of public buildings shall open outward ; that of July 1, 1889, requiring temperance instruc- tion in the schools ; that of June 17, 1893, on compulsory educa- tion ; that of April 17, 1895, authorizing the support of kinder- gartens; and the pension bill of May 31, 1895. The city ordinances relating to the schools which are still in force are but two. The first requires that all children whether in public or private schools have a certificate of vaccination ; the second vaguely demands of school authorities that they do not neglect any proper care of the health of teachers and pupils. The regulations of the board, aside from the rules of order for business meetings, cover a variety of subjects. The school year shall consist of ten months of four weeks each, divided into three terms. There shall be exercises on the day before February 22 and May 30. The superintendent, assistant superintendents, principals, and teachers shall be chosen by ballot. The superintendent has the supervision of all schools, their equipment, apparatus, libraries, and of teachers and pupils. He has power to grant teachers temporary leave of absence, to suspend pupils subject to the advice of the Committee on School Management, and to make assignments of teachers. The foreign languages taught in the high schools shall be Latin, Greek, German, French or Spanish. There may be a scientific course in the high schools. There shall be a recess of fifteen minutes a day in the gram- mar schools. Six and one-half days' absence unexplained shall be reason for suspension of a pupil. Teachers of wide experience and college graduates of experi- ence maybe accepted as teachers without examination on recom- mendation of the superintendent, four assistant superintendents, and a majority of the board. 104 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO School rooms shall be kept at a temperature of from 65 ° to 70 F. No sectarian or partisan question shall be discussed in the schools. No teacher shall advise the purchase of any book not on the list of school books. Principals must see that the buildings are properly heated, ventilated, and cleaned. They shall not read to the school any advertisement or notice of any entertainment. They shall report to the assistant superintendent of their district. They shall meet the first Saturday of each month with the superintendent and assistant superintendents. They shall have charge of the drawing of books from the Public Library. Teachers shall watch the conduct and habits of pupils during recesses. There shall be no corporal punishment. Pupils must present certificates of vaccination, be cleanly, and free from contagious diseases. They may be excused from drawing, music, physical culture and German on the request of fifty parents. Books connected with studies can be drawn from the Public Library. Janitors shall keep the buildings clean. They shall "wash and scrub the floors, seats, etc., during vacations." The disconnected, fragmentary and negative character of these rules renders it difficult to gain any impression of the spirit which is actually manifested in the management of the schools. The prohibition of corporal punishment shows that discipline must be of the nature of appeals to reason, honor, shame or affection, but only a knowledge of individual teachers and principals could enable one to say what degree of self- government is sought or which form of appeal is most com- monly used. Attention should be given to the slight reference made to protection against disease and to the care of schoolhouses. It is fortunately the case that practice in both these matters far exceeds the precepts, but since there are rules it would be well THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 105 to have them express a standard higher than the practice, rather than lower. Again, the regulations do not show to what extent the mech- anism of the system is considered important. It gives no evi- dence of the elaborate bookkeeping that each teacher finds necessary in making out the prescribed records. They do not indicate the minute rules that govern the order of class rooms, entrance to the buildings, etc. All of these things are forms made necessary by the size and number of the schools, the una- voidable means of securing an orderly procedure, yet in so large a system there is always danger that they may become too dominant, absorbing energy that might better be devoted to developing and increasing the school's spiritual forces. ASSOCIATIONS OF TEACHERS AND PUPILS. Aside from the groupings of persons into the fundamental organs of the school system there are other voluntary or semi- official associations of teachers and pupils which are more or less effective agencies for improving the system. The citations of the board's rules have shown that principals are required to meet monthly with the superintendents. These meetings con- sider subjects bearing upon every phase of school management, the help of prominent educators often being called for to stimu- late the discussion. The teachers of primary and grammar schools, too many to be gathered in one institute as formerly, are divided by grades or the locality of schools for instruction in one department of the work at a time, or for general talks by superintendents. Such institutes enable the teachers to learn the plans and methods of the supervisors and to come into closer touch with the school authorities, as well as to gain broader ideas of education and greater sympathy with one another. It is expected that teachers will always attend when summoned to these institutes, though the printed rules do not demand this. High-school teachers have an association which holds general meetings usually addressed by prominent teachers from colleges or universities, and monthly meetings for the instructors in 106 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO similar studies. By these conferences of specialists greater uni- formity of method and an ever higher standard is being secured in the different departments. All of the teachers' meetings are, indeed, to be reckoned among the dynamic forces at work in the school system. Through them the highest thought on education may be brought as an inspiration and guide to teachers, who, as has been shown, have so largely missed opportunities for generous culture. The associations of pupils are chiefly confined to the high schools and are of two kinds, athletic and literary. The former can scarcely be said to command more than the negative approval of the school faculties, though they often quicken the spirit of school loyalty, but the latter are positively encouraged and their work is often recognized among the school exercises. Of the nine high schools which responded to questions upon this subject, the Calumet has one societv; the Englewood, two; the Manual Training School, none; the Hyde Park, one; the Lake, two; the Lake View, four; the North Division, one; the South Division, one; the West Division, one. Total, thirteen. Two of these are athletic, the others literary. The latter are gen- erally devoted to literary exercises and debates. Elaborate constitutions encourage parliamentary drill, and public oratorical contests are held between the different societies. The prin- cipals and many of the teachers attend the meetings, consid- ering them valuable adjuncts of the regular work. Only one organization is known to exist in the grammar schools, but that is most interesting in character. It is known as "The Home Improvement Club," and was founded by Miss Mary Jameson, one of the assistant supervisors of drawing, in 1894, when the Civic Federation Council of the Thirty-Second Ward was making a special effort to secure cleanliness in that part of the city. Some of the older children in one of the schools became so much interested in the matter that they desired to join the federation. To meet this desire Miss Jame- son formed the club as a sort of junior federation, with a limited scope. The members take this formal pledge: "I promies THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHLCAGO 107 faithfully to throw nothing into street or alley which may be burned, and to allow no one else to do the same if it can be pre- vented. I will try to improve my own home by burning all waste paper and rubbish, and for my own pleasure will add something to make my own dooryard look better, by planting flowers and taking good care of them." Occasionally meetings are held to discuss progress or consult about difficult questions, and short talks on suggested topics are given by a teacher. Fifteen chapters of the club had been formed before March 1896, with 571 members from six schools. The Doolittle, Springer, Haven, Webster, Forrestville, and Avondale draw most of their children from the homes of working people — the cottage on a small lot, so characteristic of Chicago. To stimulate the interest of the children, they were promised seeds for flower beds ; but even without this spur they were readily enlisted, and teachers reported visible results of their efforts in many neighborhoods. It is an experiment in practical good citizenship that deserves great encouragement. There is no reason why the club should not have members in every school, interposing a slight check to the prevalent Amer- ican tendency of outdoor untidiness. CHAPTER II. FUNCTIONS. Hitherto we have considered the structure of the school sys- tem, its parts, and their relations to one another. The functions of individuals have also been defined, but the activities of the system as a whole have only been referred to incidentally. What is the raison d'etre of this great organization of $25,000,000 and 200,000 people ? What end does it serve ? Why does the city sustain it ? To narrow the inquiry we may first question the directors of the institution before considering its implied func- tions as it stands related to other departments of municipal life. In the annual report for 1894-5 the president of the Board of Education wrote as follows: "Schools are established and maintained primarily that each ward of the commonwealth may become an integral and efficient member of the body politic, whereby he may contribute the best product of his thought and power to the enlightenment and prosperity of the state. The obligation of the state to the child lies in the reciprocal obliga- tion of the individual to the state. What the state does for the individual in his education finds its compensation in what the individual does for the state in its preservation The man is born with certain inalienable rights, with certain natural physical, mental, and moral powers, which in the child he may demand that the state shall foster, for the higher his endowment the greater his development, and the richer his equipment the safer is the state." This presentation of the object of the public schools and jus- tification of their existence is irreproachable, if we may use our own interpretation of some of the terms ; but when it is found again and again in but slightly changed phrases in the reports for sixty years, the suspicion is aroused that the idea is 108 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO J 09 conventionally accepted, with little thought of its real content. It comes to sound like a meaningless echo. Is not the child who is spoken of a mere abstraction in the writer's mind, a type, rather than one of a crowd of Italians, or Bohemians, or Rus- sians, or Germans, to say nothing of the unsocialized Americans, with whom the real problem is concerned ? Just what is it that the city must do to fit these incongruous elements for an intelli- gent life in American society ? A double task is involved : to train children whose home environment is too often one of pov- erty and ignorance, if not of vice, to be honest and industrious and intelligent, and to adapt aliens to become active citizens of a country whose institutions, ideals, and customs are in many cases radically different from those whose traditions they learn from their fathers. The children of American-born parents do not present so many peculiar problems, but they form by no means the whole number of pupils. Chicago's great foreign population is to be most easily assimilated through the children ; the burden rests upon the schools. Are they realizing their responsibility ? One may search the records in vain to find any explicit ref- erence to these conditions ; any recognition of the need for special adaptation of the system to the foreign clientage. Two potent means of effecting the desired fusion of divergent people have, however, always been employed. English is the language of the schools and United States history now has some place, how- ever small, in the program of every grade. No question as to the expediency of using English has ever arisen in Chicago. The policy of teaching German in some of the grades may have pre- vented any feeling of opposition on the part of a large body of foreigners. Whether consciously designed for that end or not, the instruction in a common language fashions for the children the strongest of bonds with the society in which they live. Through it they become the inheritors of national beliefs and sentiments that react upon them to form a common opinion and a common feeling. In a more positive way the study of the history of the country — familiarity with its great men, its I 10 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHLCAGO epoch-making events, knowledge of the principles on which the national life is based — is calculated to form common standards and sentiments. There is a conscious effort made to cultivate patriotism by the celebration of historic anniversaries, by asso- ciating the national flag with schoolhouses, by recounting sto- ries of heroism. In a vague way, too, the desirability of acquainting the pupils with the principles of local as well as national government is admitted, but the effectiveness of the methods used is doubtful. Aside from the employment of these basic means of assimi- lating unlike elements of the population, there is no special adaptation of the work of the schools to foreigners. There is but one course and one standard of promotion for all scholars, though the teacher may recognize individual needs to a slight degree. And what does the child receive from this uniform course ? To what extent is its nature, physical, mental and moral, devel- oped by school life ? Let us look first at the 25 or 30 per cent, who leave school at the end of the third grade. They have been taught something of the relations of numbers within the limits of 144, including the fundamental processes, addition, sub- traction, multiplication, division ; also the common measures, the different denominations of United States money, and the simple reduction of compound numbers. They can usually read, with some hesitation, easy text-books, spell common words and write a fair hand. They have had three years of well-planned nature study on the phenomena of the different seasons ; they have written simple compositions ; they have had instruction in simple songs and musical intervals, and have learned in drawing the principal geometric forms, with some free expression of ideas through color and paper-cutting. At the discretion of the teacher they have also been told stories from history and literature, and have committed to memory selections of poetry. As reading receives most of the attention throughout these grades, an average of three-quarters of an hour a day, it is THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO i 1 1 important to consider the matter upon which their thought is centered during this time. The regular class books for this work are Appleton's First, Second, and Third Readers. The first contains but one selection that can be called literature, a folk story. For the rest mechanical combinations of sentences arranged to introduce words in narrative form seem to have been the desideratum. No information of any sort is given and no thoughts conveyed, unless it be a faint suggestion of kind- ness to animals. The second reader contains four fables, twenty-eight stories of children, pointless and without style, and thirty narrative sketches of birds, flowers, the wind, etc., with- out either literary or scientific merit. Single selections from some seven accredited authors are also given. The third reader has a similar table of contents, about the same number of good authors represented to the same extent, one storv from history, and the body of the book made up of hack work com- posed to teach words. Like the other two books it has no artistic form, and contains no information or ideas worth remembering. The best that can be said of the series is that print, paper, and illustrations are good. In addition to these prescribed books the course of study includes a list of supplementary readers, all of which are seldom found in any one school, though each school has some of them. Their use depends upon the taste of the teacher. First on the list stand Harper's First, Second, and Third Readers. The first reader is like the Appleton's, mere empty hack work ; the second and third are equally poor as literature, but they contain con- siderable information about life in foreign countries, animals, and industrial processes, such as mining and cotton raising. A few distinctly didactic tales are introduced, too crude in com- position to be effective. Boyden's Reader has excellent pictures with a primer-like text. Stickney's First Reader is poor; the second is fairly well written, and contains a few good fables. Barnes' National Second Reader is like the Appleton's. It contains one historical story. 1 1 2 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO The Seaside and Wayside books attempt successfully to give pleasant science talks about animal life. The Normal Course in Reading also teaches facts of natural history as well as of botany and physiology, and in addition contains a number of good poems. Selections from /Esop's Fables are supplied to some of the second grades, and like the Riverside Book of Fables pre- sent delightful literature attractive to children. The Riverside Primer and Reader also merits the highest praise for its selec- tions, which include classics from Mother Goose, folk songs and stories, Poor Richard's proverbs, and a few passages from the Bible. The primer introduces a larger vocabulary than any of the other elementary books. Unfortunately both books of the series lack illustrations, and the print is too fine and the lines too crowded to be easy reading for beginners. The 9000 children who leave the schools in 1898, after passing through three grades, will have received through books no ideas of geography, or history, or the world of people in which they live, or any sense of the beautiful in literature, unless they have had truly wise teachers who selected the meager list of valuable poems and stories from the mediocre mass. From these teachers they may also have become acquainted with a few historic characters and some thought- provoking legends or folk stories, and have gained by the inci- dental suggestion and discipline of the schoolroom some ideas of their right relations to one another. But these things can neither be exactly formulated in a course, nor guaranteed in every class room until every teacher measures up to an ideal standard. Meantime it is difficult to understand why the course in reading may not be made a means of teaching some- thing more than the pronunciation of sentences far beneath the child's ability to appreciate. Forty-eight per cent, of all children who enter the primarv department leave at the end of the sixth grade at the average age of twelve. They have studied fractions, simple interest, and the general properties of geometric figures. Geography has THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO i i 3 been studied for one year through supplementary readers and maps, and for two years with a text-book and map drawing. They have been taught one-third of a text-book on physiology, and the history of the United States through the War of Inde- pendence, by the aid of supplementary readers and maps. They have also had lessons on the county and city government, using a text-book. Reading, composition, language work, sing- ing, and drawing, have continued throughout the three years. For two years they may have studied German. Those whose school life closes at this point have usually gained a creditable command of the three essential tools,— reading, writing, and arithmetic. They have at least a general conception of the earth and its physical and political divisions, with considerable knowledge of its different peoples. Of their own immediate surroundings, geographical and political, they have read some facts, but the method of presenting these depends so entirely upon the teacher's breadth of view that nothing can be asserted about the result of the study. The text-book employed, Crawford's, is a fair reference book, some- what lacking in clearness in its treatment of the relations between Chicago and Cook County, but on the whole a useful catalogue of facts. In the hands of a teacher not trained to employ inductive methods in the study of social phenomena, it must be to the pupils only a collection of disjecta membra, a test for memory as foreign to daily life as a list of Asiatic seas or the series of English kings. The readers for the three grades are a marked improvement upon those for the lower grades in that they contain more genu- ine literature. Appleton's Fifth Reader is especially noteworthy, with its orations and selections from a wide range of good authors. It may perhaps be open to criticism for the tone of solemnity, even sadness, which characterizes it, but it at least contains noble thoughts in fine forms. The supplementary readers include a geographical series ; stories from American history, chiefly biographical ; Fisk's War of Independence, and several of the Riverside series, including Hawthorne's True 114 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO Stories from American History, Little Daffydowndilly and Tanglewood Tales, some of Hans Andersen's Stories, and selec- tions from Longfellow's shorter poems. With the work of the seventh and eighth grades the school life of all but 4 per cent, of the pupils ends. The two upper grades aim to complete the work in arithmetic, with the addi- tion of the first principles of algebra. The study of a text-book carries the history of the United States down to the present time. English history is also taken up for six months of the last year. The text-book in physiology is completed, as well as one in grammar. The government of the state and nation is studied in connection with history. The readings for these years are entirely in American history and literature. For the former work Steele's, Scudder's, Montgomery's, and Eggleston's school histories are provided. They cover so nearly the same ground that one adds little to another's presentation, except as one is more detailed, or more biographical or anecdotal than another. The text-book in civil government is the same one used in the fifth grade. It is supplemented in some schools by Dole's American Citizen, which contains admirable sociological mate- rial, a study in social ethics as well as political phenomena, but errs in diffuseness and a somewhat incoherent arrangement. Skillfully used, however, it may be very valuable. The most extraordinary choice of a text-book is that made for the work in English history — Green's Shorter History of the English People- — a most admirable book for college students, but absurdly unsuited to the needs and capacity of children only thirteen or fourteen years old. The contrast between the text- books in the two departments of history studied, United States and English, is not unlike that between the primer and the fifth reader, a gap not to be leaped in a week's vacation. Criticism of the work of the primary and grammar grades, rom the sociological point of view, does not attach itself to the outline of the course of studv. The object of attack, as has been shown, is the text-books, particularly the readers of the first three grades, the civil government and English history. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO 1 1 5 The criticism is twofold : the pupils are not introduced to the treasures of literature, the best thought of the world expressed in art form, and they gain little or no insight into the workings of the society in which they live, the dependence of every man upon every other man, the relations of groups of men to each other. They do not learn how Chicago is fed and clothed and taught, and not clearly how it is governed. In the probably rare instances where the teacher has learned to look upon society as a living whole, and appreciates the nature of the child and the manifold duties his citizenship will entail upon him, there will be a different spirit in the class room, the barren text-books will become instinct with life, but remembering the preparation which the majority of teachers have had, there is not much ground for hope that this is often true. For moral culture reliance is placed upon the discipline of the school, and here again the character of the teacher is the determining factor. In too many instances there is a lack of oversight of pupils during recesses that is responsible for much evil, and this not always in schools whose scholars come from unpromising homes. The experience of vacation schools and kindergartens where the teachers direct and share in the games of the playground might be taken as an example for other schools. In spite of Froebel, educators have not yet learned the moral significance of recreation in a child's life. Ten minutes a day are given to the cultivation of the bodies of Chicago children. Free-hand gymnastics, wand exercises, and a limited use of dumb bells and Indian clubs are the means employed, but what physical development can be gained in such fragments of time ? Five hours a day in a seat unfitted to the body is sufficient to undo the little that is accomplished by the exercise. The child must be placed under perfect hygienic con- ditions before any system of physical culture can be effective. Perhaps the most valuable gift that could be made to the schools would be open-air gymnasiums or plavgrounds where exercise could be taken in fresh air and sunlight. Of the work of the high schools little need be said beyond 1 1 6 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO calling attention to the emphasis placed upon English literature both in the general and the college preparatory courses. Civics and political economy have a place in the general course and that of the Manual Training School. The text-book used for the former is Young's Government Class Book, which has little to recommend it. Its English is often faulty and its arrange- ment illogical and confusing. Principles do not stand out clearly from the mass of exceptions. At best it is but an inven- tory of facts and most of the progressive teachers use it only as a point of departure. In political economy Laughlin's Elements of Political Econ- omy is the prescribed book. This is a clear, simple, and attrac- tive presentation of the principles of orthodox political economy, treated deductively. In the discussion of certain topics of prac- tical interest, the author exposes himself to criticism by letting his personal bias appear so strongly as to color the argument a little too much for perfect fairness. Gymnastics in the high schools are even less satisfactory than in the lower grades, since the exercise is less frequent. A few of the schools have gymnasiums and in these, the supervisor says, "one hour weekly is spent in physical exercises and volun- tary classes of boys and girls practice heavy gymnastics twice weekly after school." In two directions there is logical promise of extension in the scope of the schools, through the kindergartens and the study of manual training in the grammar and high schools. The impor- tance of each of these is very great. The first have a peculiar value among the foreign population and the poor, the latter is helping to solve the problem of how to lengthen the school life of boys, while both form essential parts of that ideal education which develops and informs the whole nature of the child. CONCLUSION. Excepting for the management of business, the mechanism of the Chicago public schools is well developed. The dangerous tendency, indeed, is that the whole system will be looked upon as a great machine intended to take ignorant children in at one end and, passing them along by means of one wheel and another, turn them out at the other end educated young citizens. In other words there is danger that the school life will be regarded as apart from the life of the world around, the world which the pupil will sometime enter but which he now views from afar. The watchwords for reform are, a better board, better teachers and better text-books! A board wholly out of politics, whose members shall be trained for their duties ; teach- ers of wide culture and noble character ; books that shall con- tain, not mere forms, but life. The public schools form a most important part of the great communicating system to which pulpit and press also belong On the schools devolves the task not only of distributing infor- mation but of developing character as well. Upon them also rests the duty of securing for the children physical training. As a possible dynamic force in the city's life the school can- not be over estimated. It is democratic in form, unbiased in its teachings, and it reaches persons of an age to be most easily influenced, when they are most open minded and without expe- rience. Under the direction of those who saw clearly the lines of true progress for the city, the school system could be made the strongest of all agencies for accomplishing the desired end. As it is, the general public is unconscious of its activities and their direction, and its leaders regard it only under its con- ventional aspect, as an institution to furnish children with the necessary knowledge for an average life. 117 i9m LIBRARY OF CONGRESS III 019 877 740 7 #